Retreat then Restore...Revisiting the Past

She went away, and now she's back...but how does she explain the fact that she wasn't dead, and didn't kill herself?

Well done to Ali Q Mulder-Scully for guessing that the mystery guest was Diane. And to Woody2792 for being there to bounce ideas off.

'Oh my God,' he said, slowly and in shock.

'Hello Ric,' she said awkwardly, not knowing how she was going to explain her presence.

Especially when he thought that she was dead.

'Diane?' he said slowly, not taking his eyes off her.

'In the flesh, so to speak,' she said, attempting to be jubilant and faking a smile when inside she was trembling.

'How?' replied Ric, not being able to say much else.

'Well,' she said, gesturing for Ric to sit down and sitting down next to him. 'Obviously for one, I'm not dead, so that's how I'm here. But, I'm guessing you want more than that.'

Ric nodded his head weakly.

'Okay,' she said, exhaling deeply. 'Before the 'train accident', Elliot had given me the key to a cottage in Wales and Gina's old car. I drove down there, and settled in. I took a walk, and couldn't find my way back. I walked through an alleyway near the park, and I saw...2 men attacking this poor, innocent woman, stabbing at her like she was a piece of meat. They kept saying to her, 'This was from Johnny, he doesn't like it when his toms run away, when they don't live up to their end of the deal.' She was weeping, and whimpering in another language, Romanian I think. I thought I was in the shadows, and I thought that they couldn't see me, but they did...'

Sensing that she was about to tell him something bad, Ric waited out the awkward silence that developed.

'They left her and came for me. They made me tell them my name, and they'd go easy on me. I was punched, kicked until I was begging for my life, then they just took off, leaving me to die. I was barely conscious and every movement I made sent massive waves of pain through me. But I knew what I had to do. I needed to get an ambulance to save the both of us, even if it was too late for her, I had to try. It was in my back pocket, so I had to get hold of it. I turned over and, stage by stage, I managed to get it out. I called 999, and told them everything that happened. Almost instantly, the ambulance was there. I don't remember much after that, but the woman, Petra, was dead. Her injuries were just too severe.' She stopped talking again and began to breathe deeply.

Putting his arm around her, Ric held her close. 'Take your time Diane, I'm not going anywhere.'

Snuggling into his embrace, Diane said, 'Thank you. We got taken to the local hospital, and I gave them a fake name so that they wouldn't find me. They operated on me and I survived, obviously. The police came to talk to me afterwards, and I told them my real name, where I was from and exactly what I had seen. They told me that what I had saw, and what had happened, was the motive of an organised crime circuit that trafficked prostitutes in and around Cardiff. They also told me that my only hope was a Witness Protection Program. They were trialling faking witnesses deaths, and sending them abroad with a new identity. I was told that this was one of the only ways that they wouldn't find me. So they organised for my car to be in an accident, and found a body that looked like mine. It was made to look like suicide so that the people who attacked me would think that I killed myself so they wouldn't be able to hurt me anymore. My face was spread across the news, a memorial service was organised, everything needed to be as legitimate as possible.'

Cassie started to fidget in her buggy, and cried softly.

'What was that?' asked Ric in alarm, looking around.

'Relax Ric it's only Cassie,' she said, standing up and getting her out of the buggy, holding her close.

'Ric, meet Cassidy-Rica Joanne Lloyd, my little girl and the next stage in the story,' she said softly.

'She's beautiful,' he said, stroking the baby's face. 'She's a mini replica of you.'

'When I've told the story of her father, you'll want to kill him, and pray that Cassie is in no way like him,' she said.

'Tell me,' he replied soothingly.

'I was given the new identity of Demi Longman and flew to Australia,' she said quietly. 'The officer in charge of me was a Welsh policeman called Gavin Cunnick, who flew with me to Adelaide. He knew everything about my case, everything that I had seen, who I really was. I thought that I could trust him. Gradually, over the time that we'd spent together, I'd started to fall for him. And, on New Year's Eve 2008/2009, we spent the night together and started a relationship. In May 2009, I found out that I was 8 weeks pregnant with Cassie. I told him, thinking that it would be a new start. That's when he told me...'

'He was one of them,' said Ric quietly and in dismay, finishing her sentence.

'Yeah,' she replied softly. 'He tried to kill me, but I shot at him with the gun he was pointing at me, then I ran away. I spent a week in hiding, and found someone who could get me a British passport under a new name, Danielle Lyons. I took the plane to Sydney, and lived in a hostel there until I gave birth to Cassie. I named her Cassidy to honour my favourite grandmother Cassandra, Rica after you and Joanne after my sister. I had contacted the Police in Wales and told them everything. They had told me that Gavin had died and there would be no charges against me, and that the trafficking ring that were out for me had been liquidated. It was safe for me to come home. So I booked the flight to Bristol as soon as Cassie was old enough, and here I am.'

'Oh Diane,' he said tenderly, pulling her close. 'What you've had to been through, it's awful, no one should have to go through that. But you're here now, you're safe, no one's going to hurt you or Cassie.'

'I'm so glad that I'm back,' she said, squeezing his hand softly. 'I missed you so much. Thinking of you, the times we had together, thinking of coming back to you. That kept me alive, that kept me fighting.'

'I grieved every day for you Diane, I spent every day hoping that something like this was true, that you weren't really gone,' said Ric. 'And here you are, almost 3 years later, right in front of me.'

'Yep,' she replied. 'Here I am, and I'm not going anywhere.'

'You're right,' replied Ric. 'Because I'm not letting you go anywhere. My shift finishes in 5 minutes, how about I drive you and Cassie back to your place?'

'Thanks Ric, that would be lovely,' she said gratefully. 'You really are one of the best friends I'll ever have.'

'I'd like to think I'm more than that,' said Ric. 'Especially after everything that's happened in the past. Everything that we've tried to ignore but failed to do.'

'I know,' replied Diane. 'A lot has happened in the last 5 or 6 years. We'll talk later, I promise. We can't really talk about it here, walls have ears.'

'And so does Michael,' replied Ric with a grin.