Disclaimer: I don't own McLeod's Daughters, or any of their cast.

Summary: A botched wedding, a pregnancy (or two), a happy couple, a little girl, a working farm (or two), someone leaves, people cry, hearts are broken.

A/N

Woo! I'm good; I don't usually do this updating thing so quickly. I love holidays with no homework!

MdLove: Is this soon enough for you? You'll just have to wait to see what happens with Nick and Tess and Sally and Claire... etc.

Sarie-belle: I love reading your reviews. They are so entertaining! This Sally thing is going to get complecated isn't it? Nothing ever goes right...

xdopex

Fools Like Me

Chapter Four

"You Have a Girlfriend"

Tess woke one morning, a week since she had been in Adelaide, and nearly tripped over in her attempt to get to the toilet before throwing up everything in her stomach, which was nearly nothing since she hadn't eaten anything yet. Tess put her head on the wall beside her and flushed the toilet.

She missed Drover's, she missed Claire and the girls and Alex and Terry and she missed Nick. She didn't understand why Claire let her go so easily. Usually Claire would put up a fight and make it so that she stayed, but then again Claire knew what was going on in Tess' life and must've let her go so she could get away.

Shakily Tess lifted herself off the bathroom floor, pale as a ghost, and went into her room. Sitting on her bed, she dialled Simon's number.

"Simon, hey… yeah not so good actually… no I feel sick… yes I have thrown up… I don't know if I can make it… oh right it's the opening isn't it? … Ok I will try… I'll be there in the afternoon and I'll let myself rest… thanks Simon. Bye."

Tess climbed back into her bed and, after setting her alarm for the afternoon, she fell asleep again.

-Break line-

Claire woke up to a warm body next to her.

"Morning beautiful," he said as he kissed the top of her head.

"Morning to you too. What's that time?" She asked.

"Just past 7 30, why? Don't you want to be with me here, in this warm bed?" he asked, his grin turning into a cheeky frown.

"Oh Alex Ryan… I would prefer to be with my fiancée than cleaning out the stables any day BUT I actually need to work to keep the farm afloat you know?"

"Yeah I know, well I'm going to take a shower. I'll see you at breakfast." Alex turned to kiss Claire on the head until he saw the expression on her face and got back into bed and pulled her to him. "Hey, what's the matter?"

"It's been a week. I miss her so much already. How am I going to do this without her?" Claire broke down and cried in Alex's arms.

"Shhh, shhh. We'll get through this together alright?"

"I know we will get through this, I'm just not entirely sure how Tess is going to get through this. There are things that I can't tell you that she is dealing with on her own and I just want to be with her so much that it hurts." Claire sighed.

"Maybe you should call her," he suggested.

"Maybe later. She has her opening for her restaurant tonight and I don't want to mess anything up for her. I'll call her tomorrow. Right now I need to blow my nose and then muck out the stables." Alex laughed at Claire's response and went and had his shower, leaving Claire thinking about Tess.

"Tess, what have you gotten yourself into that you had to run?"

-Break line-

Tess entered the Café/restaurant at exactly 2 30pm by her watch. She was dressed in a red dress with complemented her skin nicely. It was strapless with a tight corset top and a skirt with flowed to her knees. It was made of Saturn at the top and a tulle type of material at the bottom.

"Wow Tess, for a sick person you sure do scrub up well." Simon said as he came out of the kitchen.

"Thanks Simon, that makes me feel so good," she laughed and playfully punched Simon on the arm. "Where's Bridie today?"

"She is collected my suit and her dress from the dry cleaners at the moment. But I do have a surprise for you." He said to her. "You can come out now."

Tess' other best friend from the city came out from the kitchen in an elegant halter neck cocktail dress.

"Briony!" Tess ran up to her and hugged her.

The chef came out with a dish of food and called to Simon. Tess scrunched up her nose at the smell.

"That smells disgusting, what the hell is it?" Tess asked.

"Umm, Tess its Meg's famous Apricot Chicken." Briony said, staring at Tess like she had grown two heads.

Tess looked shocked at Briony and Simon and then turned and ran to the toilets and for the second time that day, emptied everything out of her stomach.

'God, I must be really sick.' Tess thought as she rinsed out her mouth and returned to the front of the café.

"Tess are you alright?" Simon asked curiously.

"Yeah, fine. I think I might have a stomach bug. It's nothing really. I'm good." Tess said reassuring herself, more than her friends. "Alright, we open in three hours. Let's get to work and make this joint a complete success for us all."

-Break line-

Nick plunged the metal rod into the ground and attempted to make an impression into the dirt where he was trying to get a stump out of, it wasn't working too well. A car pulled up next to Nick and an elegant woman got out of the driving seat.

"Nick!" Sally said as she went to the back of the Ute and pulled out a flask and esky.

"Hey Sal." Nick said as he came over and kissed her on the lips.

"I bought you some lunch and juice," she said. "I wasn't sure how long you were going to be out here for so I packed some extra things in case you got hungry a little later."

"You really do think of everything Sal. Thanks for this. I actually won't be too long. Alex is at Drover's all today and tonight so we have the place to ourselves tonight. I'll be back soon."

"Oh and Nick," Sally had one foot in the car, "I need to talk to you about something tonight."

Nick looked confused at Sally and then began packing up the equipment. He decided he needed a ride on his bike before he went back to the cottage.

'A talk?' Nick shook his head and continued on his way.

-Break line-

Nick somehow found his way to Drover's Run instead of heading back to Killarney were he lived with Sally and Alex. It was crowded with three, but Alex nearly lived at Drover's because of Claire so it was usually just him and Sally.

He drove up to the house and got off the bike. Claire and Alex came out and met him. Claire looked apprehensive. It was the first time she had seen Nick in over a week, and that meant he still didn't know about Tess leaving and living in Adelaide.

"Claire, Alex," he gave them a curt nod. "Tess around? I need to talk to her."

Claire looked at Alex for a moment and then back at Nick. She hesitated.

"Claire? Where is Tess?" He asked looking directly at Claire. Alex could hear Charlotte on the veranda with Meg so he squeezed Claire's arm and walked away. This was something he didn't want to get involved with. He didn't know enough details to be talking to Nick.

"Claire?"

Claire could tell that Nick was beginning to get frustrated with her. She really didn't want Nick to get angry but she knew she just had to deal with it. 'Damn you Tess for leaving without telling him, now I have to clean up your mess,' she thought to herself.

"Nick, she doesn't live here anymore."

"What do you mean she doesn't live here? She lived here a week ago."

"She left, she couldn't deal with you and Dave and the wedding disaster. She got a proposition and she left." Nick looked really angry.

"Why the hell didn't you stop her?"

"Nick, you have a girlfriend who loves you, Dave who she dumped and her life is crashing around her. Do you really think she wanted to stay here and watch you with Sally and Dave hanging around?" Claire was getting angry now. "I let her go because if she stayed she would be constantly hurting, and as much as I want her here because she is my sister and I love her, she needs to take a break."

"Claire, where is she? I'm bringing her home."

"Nick… stop! Go home to Sally. Tess is gone, leave her be." Claire walked away from Nick in the direction of her daughter.

-Break line-

"Sally, I'm home."

"Oh, good. When you said you were nearly done I thought you were going to be home quite a while ago. What happened?" Sally asked, coming out of the kitchen.

"Sorry, I had to see Alex about something. It took a while longer than I thought it would. Sorry baby." Nick said, taking his coat and hat off. "I'm going to take a shower. Then we can have dinner and discuss what you wanted too."

"Alright, dinner will be ready in half an hour."

After Nick and Sally had eaten their dinner they were sitting on the couch, in front of the open fire place. It was a warm temperature and both were cosy just leaning against each other.

"Oh, Sal, what did you want to talk to me about?" Nick asked.

Sally sat there fidgeting her hands for a few moments before Nick put his hands on hers to calm her down. Sally looked into Nicks eyes and knew she had to tell him.

"Nick, I'm pregnant."

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