A/N I sorta think this song really fits this chappie. Jordin Sparks Battlefield
I never meant to start a war
You know, I never wanna hurt you
Don't even know we're fighting for
Lexi was in tears at the kitchen table. "He wants to palm me off on him. I knew he didn't love me anymore!" Lexi wept.
"Aw Lex your dad…"
"Danny! He doesn't wanna be my dad anymore!" she said between sobs.
"Look your DAD loves you unconditionally!"
"He's getting Josh down here hoping I'll like him then I'll never see you or Daniel or Ethan again!"
"Aw Lex how can you think that?"
"Coz it's true mum. I called him dad and he's suddenly demanding I meet this Josh! That's it's not up for discussion! He does hate me mum!" she cried louder.
She ran to her room and slammed the door.
Alice felt her temper rising. Her blood turned hot. Soon it was boiling. She went in search of Danny. Found him on the phone in the living room. He put his hand up when he saw her. Stopped her talking which annoyed the hell out of her!
She crossed her arms as he finished speaking. She was irate by now! He put the phone down.
"What the hell are you playing at?" she yelled.
"Me?" he asked.
"She's breaking her heart over you!"
He closed his eyes. He didn't want Lexi crying. But he couldn't tell her why he had to be here, Alice either!
"What is the matter, she wanted to meet him!"
"Past tense Danny. She made her peace with her parentage. Wants YOU to be her dad from now on! We were against it Danny dead against it." he closed his eyes when she said dead. "Now your all for it? She thinks you don't love her. Dammit Danny she thinks your gonna send her away!" Alice voice raised louder with each word.
"Look Alice." he put his hands on her arms.
She pulled out of his grasp. "Don't dare try to soft soap me Danny and don't make me chose either coz you'll lose. I love you both but she's my baby! I'm gonna do what's best for my daughter!"
Danny was offended and hurt.
"YOUR daughter? And what exactly am I? and have I asked you to chose? Have I mentioned sending her away? There you go again assuming I'm gonna say or do something. God how can you even hint that I'd ask her to leave. I've been her father for the last 10 years!"
"Well act like her father then!" she shouted,
"He's coming and that's final!" Danny hissed. "I've phoned your mum, she's happy for you to go up to Glasgow."
"Go to hell Danny, if he's coming then I'm staying. It's him or me!"
Dammit why was Alice making this so hard? "He's coming!" he said stubbornly. He had no choice.
His phone rang, it was James. Now that IS quick! "Alice just calm down yeah!" he said softly. "Think of little man."
"I'm thinking about him all the time. Now I've gotta think about how to protect my daughter too! Your a bastard Danny!" she looked at him malevolently.
Danny walked away. "James that was quick."
"I rang a couple of our old friends, who knew a guy who knew a guy. You get the picture. Anyway he is still living in Bristol. I can text you his phone number."
"James I need you to do one more favour for me. I need you to ask Shauna to ring Alice. Ask Alice to come to Cambridge. Make up some excuse, I just need her gone for a while!"
"Is everything ok, are you having problems?"
"Like you wouldn't believe Danny admitted."
"I'll try mate!"
"Thanks I owe you one!"
He put the phone down and waited for James text. His phone buzzed and he looked at the phone number. This was the person who wrecked his life so long ago. Nearly destroyed him and Alice in the process, and now it seems Danny was going to be asking him for the biggest favour of his life!
(X)
Alice was talking on the phone with Shauna.
"He put you up to this didn't he?" Alice asked angrily.
"Who?"
"Who else? Danny. Did he tell you WHY he wants rid of me?"
"Alice I Haven't spoke to Danny." But James was so dead he just so happened to mention for Alice to visit when she and Danny were having problems or at least Alice sounded like they were having problems. What was his excuse again? Ah yes, she wants to visit before they won't allow her to fly. The twins will be really big before she next sees them! He's so dead!
"Yeah right Shauna!" Alice said disbelievingly.
"Alice I swear to you! James mentioned for you to come and visit while you were still able to fly."
"So Danny went to James. He's not stupid, I should have known you wouldn't do it if he asked so he went behind your back to James. Sneaky underhand man!"
"Alice calm down think of the baby!"
She took a deep calming breath.
"What's up Alice, I'm worried about you!"
"It's all kicked off royally down here. Lexi found out about Danny not being her dad."
"WHAT THE HELL?"
Alice winced, she forgot she hadn't told Shauna.
"Are you sure, I mean look at her. She like his identical clone. Not just looks but personality, sense of humour."
"We had a DNA test Shauna. He isn't! We didn't tell anyone though. Anyway she found out and it's all kicked off. Danny is trying to get Josh down here. He tried to get me to go to mums but coz I won't he's trying to get you to ask me to come to yours. He's trying to get me out of the way!"
"That bastard. I'm gonna grind him into the dirt when I next see him!" Shauna warned. "Why the hell is he doing that to all of you?"
"That's what I don't understand I mean he would usually be as against it as I was but now he's insisting. Just coz of Lexi being ill…" Alice twigged. Oh no was something wrong with Lexi? "Gotta go Shauna we'll talk later." Danny had spoke to the doctor what the hell had he said. What the hell wasn't Danny telling her?
"Danny!" she yelled through the house. He wasn't there so she went to the hospital. Saw him leant over his desk crying his heart out.
"Danny." she said.
He wiped his eyes and cleared is throat. "Yes." he said neutrally.
"Tell me what's going on and don't lie to me. I'm not stupid I know your keeping something from me!"
"I'm not, Lexi just needs…" he couldn't finish the sentence.
"Danny is she ill?"
He paled.
"Your face says it all Danny. What is it? Is it serious?"
"Alice she's not ill!" he lied.
"Stop lying to me Danny, tell me!"
"I can't!" his voice broke and a lone tear slid down his cheek.
O God this was bad. Alice thought.
Danny was breathing heavily. "Don't ask me to do this Alice. I can't!" he repeated.
He sat back down on his chair. His shoulders shaking. His face in his hands. Lexi walked in. "Dad what's wrong?"
Danny walked over to his daughter. "Lexi baby I love you more than anything in this whole world an I promise you I will NEVER send you away but believe me he NEEDS to be here! I wouldn't do this to you unless it was absolutely necessary."
"But why dad? Isn't it enough that I'm sorry? Do you wanna hurt me this much. If you love me then you wont bring him here and fracture our family!"
"It's because I love you that he HAS to come here!"
Lexi's face crumpled. "Fair enough Danny I understand." she said politely and left.
Alice turned on him. I don't know why your doing thins but it better be worth breaking your daughters heart over!"
Alice followed Lexi. He felt something building in his chest. He didn't know what it was. He suspected it was a number of emotions. Anger, grief resentment. All these powerful emotions coursed through him. He looked at the floor, fists clenched. He pushed the paperwork off the desk onto the floor in anger. He then stood breathing heavily. Outbursts don't help Daniel! He sat on the floor and started sorting the mess. that's how Ethan found him.
He saw Danny's expression. Sat with him and helped with the papers.
"Rough day?" Ethan asked.
Danny nodded.
"Lexi?"
Danny nodded.
"You'll do the right thing Danny. Just keep that bastard of a father away! Do whatever you can to keep him away!"
"I'm getting in touch. He's needed." Danny told him.
Ethan was disgusted. "Are you out of your mind?"
"Eth son not you too, I've already had this from Lex and Alice. I need to do this ok. I'm doing it for her!"
"You what Daniel. I don't know why you feel the need to destroy your family! I seriously misjudged you!" Ethan stalked away.
Danny sat on the floor with his paperwork. Took a couple of deep breaths. He paused as he saw a note with his name on it. He had noticed this the other day but he'd got called away. Then he couldn't find it. He opened it and read Alice's neat handwriting.
Heard this song on the radio. Reminded me so much of the way we felt about each other since the day we met. You're my teenage dream and always have been darling ly x I've added in the parts I think are the most relevant to us but if you wanna hear it it's called Katy Perry teenage dream.
Before you met me
I was a wreck but things
Were kinda heavy
You brought me to life
I'mma get your heart racing
In my skin tights jeans
Be your teenage dream tonight
Let you put your hands on me
In my skin tight jeans
Be your teenage dream tonight
He was intrigued so he loaded the computer and searched for the song. He played it through and were blown away it was seriously like this song had been wrote specifically wrote for them. He smiled a tiny smile. Love you too honey, life had just got too freaking hard at the moment!
(X)
Danny didn't join the family for dinner. Caroline and Dupe were picking up on the tension. Well the heightened tension from yesterday. So Danny sat down in his surgery and was trying to find a way to cope with all the stress he was under. All he knew was that he was struggling. He sat down here until it was really late. He hoped Alice was asleep. It was 2 o'clock in the morning. He crept in his room, saw Alice reading a book sat up in bed. She dropped it to the bed and looked at him. Looks like luck wasn't with him tonight.
"You gonna tell me what's up then? What's up with you?" she asked.
"Nothing is up with me Alice. I think it would be best if she knew where she came from that's all" he said going in the wardrobe. God saying that had damn near choked him. He had practised saying it in the surgery. At first he couldn't force the words past his lips. He looked at Alice, the look on her face killed him. Her yeah right cut the crap look. He wanted to tell her he really did but he had to make sure before he put her through that! I mean he still had hope that the doctor was wrong! It was hard enough him dealing with it, an he wasn't 7 months pregnant!
Alice continued looking at him intently.
"God Alice don't look at me like that!"
"I'm wondering whether your withholding stuff about Lexi now coz I did when she was born." she said softly.
Danny stared at her for a minute. He could tell by her face that she was serious.
"I can't do this, I can't. I can't deal with this anymore. I gotta get out of here!" her left the room, picked up a set of keys and climbed into a truck. He drove till he found a blank patch of African sky to look at.
"Promise me you'll take care of her mum. Don't you dare let her be taken from us! I'll never forgive you if you do!" he whispered. "Why is it when life seems to be going so great, something comes along and ruins it? I know you gotta take the good with the bad, but it seems with every good me and Alice experience the bad just gets worse and worse. I mean we wait 10 years for Daniel and then we find out Lexi is seriously ill. It's just not fair!" he lashed out and hit the dash board.
"The better life is going the worse our crisis is. But Lexi mum, why our baby? Why not me? Why has she got to suffer? Please watch over her, leave her here with us. I'm scared mum that's she's gonna get taken away! It's killing me. Everyone thinks I'm bringing Josh here to hurt her or to be nasty. To prove a point! I can't tell them the truth though, Alice can do without the stress. Lexi god she's just a child, she doesn't need to know until absolutely necessary, same goes for Ethan. I can't dump my problems on the kids. I wish you were here, you'd know what to say. What to do, coz I have no clue this time. I always acted like I knew what I was doing. Playing father husband peacemaker soother and all the rest of it. But I don't know what to do, I never did. I winged it. I'm just a fraud!"
He sat there for the longest time looking at the almost black sky. It matched his mood. It was quiet out here. Peaceful. His heart ached. Ached with an almost unbearable pain. It was heavy with it. The sadness which surrounded him was a shroud. He finally drove home. Checked on the animals in the surgery and fed Jana.
He walked up to the main house and showered. Walked into his bedroom. Alice had obviously finally crashed. She looked like she physically collapsed. They were so in tune he could even tell how deeply she was asleep and she was out for the count there! He dressed, kissed her and her bump. Dee Jay gave him a little kick.
"Hey lil man let momma sleep huh?" he murmured rubbing her stomach. "Let's my boy."
He left the bedroom. Went back down to the hospital. Checked his diary. No call outs, but people might bring their animals in. So he sat in the hospital. Completed medicine order forms and contacted suppliers. He tried desperately to ignore the family photo on the desk. It was the same one he'd had in his cubby hole at Bristol. He looked at Alice's stomach, was she pregnant there? He could remember the exact date they'd been taken but they had been in the region of about 7 months ago give or take a couple of weeks here or there. If she was it would only be days. Were they all on this picture or was Daniel still a dream? He gazed at the picture imagining Alice pregnant, he told himself she was even if she wasn't coz he wanted them all immortalised in that picture. He couldn't help but love Ethan's cheesy grin and Lexi's knockout smile too. One bad thing. Lexi could be ill here. Oh they wouldn't have known. couldn't have known. This type of disease comes on silently and slowly and by the time symptoms show it's pretty serious. He laid the picture flat.
"Can't bear to look at me huh Danny?" Lexi asked. "I just came to tell you breakfast is served!" she walked away.
God he couldn't do right for doing wrong at the minute. He couldn't stomach breakfast. He felt sick to his stomach. He didn't even feel hungry which was surprising as the last meal he had was breakfast yesterday. So he sat in his office and continued with paperwork. He was so deep in thought catching up on his scribbled notes he didn't notice Alice come in carrying a plate and a cup.
"Danny." she said.
"Hey honey, junior." he said looking at her. He smiled it held no warmth.
"I brought you something to eat."
"You have it honey I'm fine. Thank you though!" he carried on writing.
"Danny please, try it. You haven't eaten anything in ages."
"Alice I'm a adult when I'm hungry I'll eat!"
She slammed the plate down. "Fine! I don't know why I bother! I don't know why I love you!"
Danny looked at her intently. "I've been asking myself that since we were 15 years old!" he replied.
She shook her head at him and walked away. If he wanted to make himself ill not eating then let him. She had her 3 kids to think about. She so didn't need to have to deal with a immature 32 year old man!
A/N did literally just stumble on the Katy Perry song and I was like wow it fits my stories perfectly and the first time I heard it was like a week ago or something. I knew then I had to add it in somewhere x
The Danice is suffering some here. Coz Danny is playing protector and is being stubborn silly man grrr! Hope u enjoyed x