Alice sighed as she leant forward onto the veranda. She looked over the beautiful view that lay in front of her, taking in that beautiful South African air. She savoured the peace and tranquillity as she listened to the birds sing, smelt the beautiful aroma of the roses as the sound of nature echoed through her ears. Everything felt so perfect standing on that veranda. It felt like she had no problems, not one worry.

Danny swallowed the pain killers quickly; he was certainly in pain this morning. He wondered where Alice was, how she was. He was up early and she'd been up before him! He decided to walk outside to look for her, it didn't take him long. He smiled slightly as he observed her. She hadn't noticed him yet, she looked so carefree and happy. He knew how it felt standing and looking over the veranda, he'd done it often enough. It always gave you the time to think.

"Morning." Danny whispered as he walked up behind her. His breath was momentarily taken away as she turned to him, her bright blue eyes were soft and gentle.

"Morning." Alice smiled, her voice barely audible. Slowly the two people leant towards each other as they shared a deep kiss under the morning sun. As they pulled away, Alice turned back to look over the veranda. Danny stood behind her, resting his hands on the veranda as he joined her. Alice leant back into him slightly, drawing strength from him as he mind drifted to her upcoming meeting with Rowan.

"You thinking about Rowan?" Danny asked kissing her cheek.

"Yeh." Alice replied. "I'm wondering what's going to happen."

"Who knows." Danny murmured. "Anyway how's your back?"

"Had some painkillers, I'll live." Alice said, "How's your head and chest?"

"Had some pain killers." Danny sighed. Both people laughed for a moment before returning to their comfortable silence.

(x)

Zoe walked into the surgery. It was her turn to do the early morning check, which meant she had pretty much a full day at Mara. Still, at least she got to see her little boy at lunchtime. She had 2 hours and Matt always kept him this afternoon. She smiled at the thought of them before getting to work. She was shocked to hear the door open.

"Zoe?"

Zoe turned and saw Peter stood at the door. He was dressed the most casual she had ever seen him dressed. Just a simple shirt tucked into a pair of black trousers.

"Yeh?" Zoe replied as she put her clip-board down.

"I've come to give you this." He said pulling out his pocket what seemed to be a card with a neck strap branded staff. Zoe frowned.

"Umm, yeh what is it?" Zoe asked staring at the card. She groaned no way did it have her picture on.

"You're identification card, tells us who you are, what your job is. I want it to be worn at all times. It's also an access card." Peter lectured. Zoe was frowning, what the hell?

"It's security Zoe, you will notice that all staff areas and any restricted areas have access scanners, you're card allows you in most places." Peter told her. "The surgery will have one soon."

"No way!" Zoe protested. "No, no way are we having one."

"You'll have what you're given!" Peter raised his voice, Zoe walked forward, she barely came to his nose but nothing fazed her.

"In an emergency me and David need to be able to push those doors open not fiddle about stupid pieces of plastic!" Zoe replied sharply. "Plus these are a danger to us as vets. I'll carry it with me to get into you're restricted areas inside but I am not wearing it and nor will you have a scanner in this practise."

"This isn't your practise anymore Zoe." Peter replied snidely. "Just remember that."

"It's not yours either, it's David's as Head Vet. And he might be gay Peter, but he would never go for someone like you!" Zoe replied turning round.

"You'll regret it if you get on the wrong side of me." Peter warned her, Zoe laughed at his pathetic threat.

"You already have a regret on your hands." Zoe promised. Both people glared for a moment before walking off. Zoe threw her card onto the desk... god, she hadn't had one of them since college!

(x)

"Has everyone gone out?" Danny asked Alice who was just coming from the house.

"Yes." Alice replied, "You going to get Rowan."

Danny nodded. Alice took a deep breath before lowering her eyes. She didn't know if she could trust him.

"Hey." Danny said softly taking her hands. "I promise you, everything will be fine, I won't let him do anything."

Alice nodded and squeezed his hands.

"Well you best go get him then." Alice sighed with a smile. Danny smiled back before taking her face into his hands and kissing her tenderly.

(x)

Sometime later, Danny returned back with Rowan. Alice was feeding the elephants when they arrived. She waved to Danny and wandered back up towards the house. As she and Danny kissed chastely, Rowan began to walk to the kitchen. Danny nodded to Alice, who followed, she quickly washed her hands before sitting down as far away from Rowan as she could.

"What's happening Rowan?" Danny asked him, his tone was straight.

"It's... Mara was struggling." Rowan said slowly, he was kinda telling the truth.

"And the other bit..." Danny pestered.

"I... Me and Vanessa had been arguing." He sighed. "I didn't know what to do."

Alice was frowning, she'd decided she was going to stay quiet. She couldn't be bothered with Rowan, she'd only really agreed to this because whether she liked it or not he was her family.

"I love the girls, what was I meant do? Now I don't have a clue where to find Vanessa, Georgia, Petal... what am I going to do." Rowan's head fell into his hands. Danny sighed and looked to Alice. She'd finally decided to turn to look at Rowan. She sighed, he looked like he did mean it this time.

"I'll ring her." Alice promised standing up, "I won't be long."

Danny watched as Alice left, well gazed and admired the view. Rowan was too busy trying to hold in his emotion to even notice Danny's eyes avert towards Alice's direction.

(x)

Matt decided he'd go see Zoe. He had a couple of hours before he had to pick Sam up, as he arrived at Mara, he saw Peter walking towards his Jeep. Great, Matt thought as he climbed out his Jeep.

"Can we help you?" Peter asked.

"I'm just here to see Zoe." Matt smiled as he made his way past Peter.

"Access card holders only." Peter replied, no tone or emotion in his voice.

"Right yeh, funny!" Matt laughed as he continued walking. Peter was furious Matt had laughed at him, this was a security breach. He smiled to himself, stuff being part of a community he was a businessman, this community hadn't proved itself last night when he'd been in the bar. He smiled as Matt walked into the surgery before grabbing his radio.

"Security to the Vet Clinic." Pete said.

Matt walked in and saw Zoe winding David up, he shook his head and tutted.

"Hey Miss Point, what you up to, leave the poor man alone!" Matt laughed.

"Matt!" Zoe exclaimed running towards him. He laughed as she ran into his arms, wrapping her arms around his neck. They kissed deeply before pulling away. Zoe remained in Matt's arms as he began to chat to David, he noticed Zoe's access card as he looked around. He picked it up and laughed at it.

"What the hell is this?" Matt chuckled.

"A piece of plastic with my name on with a piece of ribbon round it." Zoe smiled. He put it down and laughed.

"God thought he'd been joking!" Matt sighed shaking his head. "Anyway, I came to tell you to hurry to Leopards Den when you're done."

"Hmm, why's that?" Zoe murmured.

"Well..." Matt was leaning further towards her when he was pulled back by the shoulders. The force threw him onto the floor. Zoe gasped as she saw the two bulky security men, who the hell were these guys. "Get off me." Matt shouted as they kicked him.

Zoe was furious, no one was treating Matt like that what right did they have? She immediately punched the biggest in the nose and kicked the other in his crown jewels. The one with the bust nose tried to grab her but immediately David stood up.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" Zoe spat as she bent down to Matt. David told the security men to leave the surgery as they did so Peter appeared at the door. He pushed the guards back in.

"No access card. No access." Peter told them.

Matt was stood up again by this point. Zoe was tending to a nasty cut to the side of his head where they'd thrown him against the operating table. The security guards grabbed Matt and dragged him outside.

"Right, what is going on?" Zoe exclaimed furiously.

"He's a trespasser." Peter told her.

"He's my fiancée!" Zoe argued in disbelief.

"I don't care." Peter replied.

"Yeh? Well I don't care for your damn job either!" Zoe shouted throwing her access card at him, "I quit!"

She stalked off and immediately was fussing over Matt. David walked up to Peter who was stood at the surgery door.

"I quit too." He told him as he handed his access card back to Peter and walked off, leaving Peter well and truly alone.

A/N – Bit of a filler in some ways. So Peter's lost both his vets, but what's around the corner? And what's gonna happen with Vowan?