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?

Just a word of warning to all...My exams start in May and there's going to be a lot of pressure on me work wise until the end of June. So posts may be sparse.

Smiling back, Ric said, 'Firstly, move into my house with Cassie, it kills me to see you both here. And we'll call my lawyer in the morning about Gwendolyn and her pointless custody battle.'

'Thank you,' said Diane quietly. 'You don't have to do all of this for us.'

'I can and I will,' stated Ric. 'I love you.'

'I love you too,' she replied.

Seeing as Diane had only been in her flat for a couple of days with Cassie, it didn't take very long for she and Ric to pack up everything and get it over to Ric's house.

There they unpacked everything and put it all away, before going out and buying some paint and furniture for a nursery for Cassie.

Diane finally felt settled in Holby, and she owed all of that to Ric. He'd been so attentive to her, so caring that she was and would continue to be eternally grateful.

Now that everything had been decorated, Diane felt that she could call this house home. It had pieces of her, Ric and Cassie scattered everywhere, and felt so homely that she knew deep inside that they'd all be comfortable here for life.

It was 9am in the morning, and both Diane and Ric were awake, Ric reading the newspaper at the dining room table, and Diane feeding Cassie. It was a content scene, one of familiarity, one of familial love and surety. It was silent because they didn't need words, their silence wasn't awkward, it was completely and utterly comfortable.

'I spoke to Max,' said Ric. 'He said that he could fit us in for an appointment this afternoon, at 2pm.'

'That's good,' said Diane quietly. 'I want this over as soon as possible.'

'Me too,' replied Ric.

'How are we going to pull off this whole engaged thing?' asked Diane in curiosity.

'Well, we want to get married, and we love each other,' replied Ric. 'We don't need to lie about the way that we feel, just how long we've been together.'

'Well, I guess that we can embellish the story a little,' said Diane with a smile. 'How about we were together before I left, and when I came back, you proposed to me?'

'Sounds like a plan,' said Ric. 'I have something for you.'

He slid a midnight blue velvet box across the table to her, and she opened it slowly.

'Ric,' she said in shock at the beautiful white gold ring, set with a deep blue sapphire stone and small diamonds. 'It's beautiful.'

'Only the best for you,' said Ric, moving around to where she was. 'I guess I should do this the proper way.'

Bending down on one knee and taking her hand, Ric said, 'Diane, you know that I love you with everything that I am, so will you marry me?'

'You don't even have to ask Ric, because you know my answer,' said Diane. 'Although you might have to ask for Cassie's blessing...'

'Ahh, of course,' said Ric, turning towards Cassie. 'Little Cassie, is it okay if I marry your mummy? Would you like that?'

As she gurgled in reply, Diane said, 'Well you have her blessing...and mine.'

Later...Outside Max Youngman's Office.

'Are you okay?' asked Ric, shifting further to Diane, who was sitting beside him, Cassie in a harness strapped to her chest.

'Yeah, I'm good,' replied Diane.

'How come you've put Cassie in the harness?' asked Ric. 'You haven't done that before.'

'I wanted to feel closer to her,' said Diane. 'If Gwendolyn wants Cassie, she'll have to go through me.'

'And me,' replied Ric, squeezing her hand softly.

'Ric Griffin and Diane Lloyd,' said a person from the doorway.

'That's us,' said Ric, helping Diane up and into the office.

As they came in, they were met by Max, an old friend of Ric's who had seen him through all of his divorces.

'Ric, what you told me on the phone barely covered anything, so how about you fill me in properly?' he asked.

'I will leave Diane to fill you in on majority of these circumstances, as it mainly affects her,' replied Ric. 'Is that okay?'

'Yeah,' replied Diane. 'To cut a long story short, I saw something I wasn't meant to see a few years ago, linked to organised crime. As a witness, my death was faked and I went to live in Australia under a new name. The police officer in charge of me, Gavin Cunnick, was the only person who knew my true identity, and what I'd seen. We ended up together for a little while, and conceived Cassie here. I told Gavin that I was pregnant, and he went nuts. He held a gun to my womb, and threatened to kill me. I managed to wrestle the gun from him, and shot him first. I later heard that he'd died as a result of that shot.'

Continuing, Ric said, 'Gavin's mother, Gwendolyn contacted us yesterday. She told us that she'd be filing for sole custody of Cassie, on the basis that Diane was a single mother living in a damp flat and that she had killed Gavin. When, on the other hand, Diane is engaged to me, has moved out of her flat and in with me, and killed Gavin in self defence to save her life and Cassie's.'

'Diane,' said Max. 'What can you tell me about Gwendolyn?'

'I never really met her; we were practically on the other side of the world,' admitted Diane. 'But Gavin did say that she was slightly deranged, and had an unhealthy, beyond motherly attachment to him. He had a son from a previous relationship, and the mother made sure that Gwendolyn couldn't see him because she became obsessed with him, because he was part of Gavin.'

'Well,' said Max. 'From what I have heard, she is definitely not the kind of person you'd want looking after a child. And with what Gavin tried to do to you, they won't hand Cassie to her on the fact that you killed him.'

'You have no idea how happy I am to hear that,' replied Diane with a sigh of relief.