Liam had had a brief phone conversation with Heath last night, just to make sure he hadn't hit anyone or been disowned by his brothers, and finding that all was well they'd agreed to meet at the beach this morning. Heath was already out in the surf when Liam arrived so Liam had sat down to watch. He envied Heath the opportunity to be out there, of course he had his music, but now that he didn't play shows anymore it didn't provide quite the abandon he imagined surfing did.

Heath finished up his session and headed into shore. Murphy was waiting for him, sitting on the sand decked out in his usual get up. The sun was shining and the surf was great, and with the weight of telling Brax and Casey about himself and Murphy off his shoulders, Heath felt good.

"How can you sit there on a day like today?" It was beyond Heath how anyone could go to the beach and not get in the water.

"I like to watch," Liam said, trying and failing to keep a straight face.

"No seriously Murphy," Heath said, sitting down next to the other man, "don't ya like surfing?"

"I've never tried it." The thought barely computed with Heath, so much of his life was about surfing. He loved it and didn't know how Murphy could live without it.

"I could teach you," Heath offered, realising as he said it that it was something he'd like to do, it would be something he could share with Murphy.

"Thanks, but maybe you better teach me to swim first."

"You're fucking kidding aren't ya? What kind of a freak can't swim!"

"Lovely," Liam said dryly, "I open up to you, tell you my shameful secret and you call me a freak..."

"Sorry. It's just hard to imagine, we grew up in the water."

"Not all of us were so lucky," Liam said. Heath was thrown for a moment, he'd never considered his upbringing as overly lucky. It was better than most of the other River Boys but that wasn't saying much. It made him wonder about how Murphy had grown up. With Heath's silence this conversation was straying towards awkward so Liam asked a question to change the subject. "So how were things with Brax after I left?"

"He laughed at me," Heath said with dismay.

"Well that's better than disowning you," Liam said jokingly, but judging by the horror stuck look on his face, Heath didn't find it funny. Liam knew he shouldn't be stirring Heath up at a time like this, and he wouldn't have been if he'd had any doubt about Brax's acceptance of their situation. "I'm only joking," Liam said, bumping his shoulder against Heath's, "Brax would never do that to you." Heath still looked worried so Liam changed the subject again to get Heath's mind off it.

"You wanna meet me for lunch?" he asked, there was no need for them to hide now.

"Alright," Heath agreed, somewhat reluctantly, "we may as well get it out there..."

"That's the spirit," Liam said sarcastically.

"What?"

"Nothing," Liam replied. "Anyway...this could be fun you know. There's one very important person we need to reveal this to..."

"Bianca," they said in unison, as they exchanged matching evil grins. Fuck yeah, this was gonna be awesome…

xxx

Once Bianca had had a chance to cool down and look at the last dinner she'd had with Heath objectively, she realised she may have been a little hasty. She knew how much Liam and Heath hated each other and the thought occurred to her that maybe Liam had made it up, and if that was the case, she owed Heath an apology. She headed off in search of Heath, not sure where she'd find him, and come to think of it she hadn't even seen Heath around in the past few days. It was outside the Surf Club that she found him, looking positively gorgeous with that whole bad boy thing goin' on. Yeah, he was definitely worth an apology, she decided as she approached him.

"Heath, how have you been?"

"Great," Heath replied happily. God, would it kill him to be a little more upset over their disastrous dinner? "I've been up the coast for a break. We had an awesome time." We?

"Oh yeah, who'd you go with?" It better not be that-

"Speak of the devil," Heath said with a smile, but it wasn't his usual grin and she turned to see Liam heading towards them.

"Hey Bianca," Liam called cheerfully enough, but his expression changed completely when he turned his gaze on Heath. What was going on here?

"Hi Liam," she returned uncertainly, finding the comfortable way he approached herself and Heath strange.

"I was just telling Bianca about our time away," Heath told Liam. What the hell?

"I hope you didn't give her too many details darling," Liam said.

"You know I don't kiss and tell babe," Heath replied. Darling? Babe? Kiss? Was she hearing this right? Well if her ears were deceiving her, her eyes must be too, because Heath had just reached down and firmly planted his hand on Liam's arse. Holy muthafucking muthafuckers! They'd had a dirty weekend away...

"He...you...him?" Bianca stuttered, looking back and forward between them. "What about me?"

"Looks like you missed out," Heath grinned at her with satisfaction.

"C'mon Heath," Liam said, his tone implying sympathy, but the look in his eyes was far from sympathetic. "Don't be like that, really we should be thanking her." And then he leaned in and kissed Heath. Kissed him on the mouth. Wah, they were her mouths to kiss! They shouldn't be kissing each other! When they'd finished with that display, which was either the hottest or worst thing Bianca had ever seen, Liam looked at her again. "Thanks Bianca. We may never have found each other without you." And then Liam looked back at Heath. Bianca knew that look, Liam had looked at her in a similar way not that long ago, but with nowhere near the intensity he gave Heath. They weren't messing around, unbelievably they were in love, she wondered if they were aware of how far they'd fallen. And it was in that moment that Bianca grasped how monumentally she'd fucked up. Not only had she failed to snag either of the hottest guys in the Bay, but she may have had a hand in helping them get together, effectively taking both of them off the market in one fell swoop. This was a fucking disaster!

"Don't feel bad Bianca, I'm happy now," Heath said, "Murphy's far better for me than you ever were." Ouch.

"Aw Heath," Liam crooned, taking Heath's face in his hands and kissing him lovingly. Ok, now they were just rubbing her face in it, horrible bastards.

"Well," she said confidently, determined not to let them see how badly this was getting to her, "I have to go, I'm meeting..." Shit she should've thought this lie out a little better, she scanned the people sitting at the tables outside the Surf Club, looking for anyone she knew. She spotted Dr Walker. "...Sid for lunch."

"See ya round Bianca," Heath said cheerfully as Liam threw an arm around him.

"Have a nice lunch with Sid," Liam called after her, unable to contain his laughter as Bianca stalked off. And when she pulled out a chair and actually sat down with Sid, both Liam and Heath lost it altogether, the poor doctor had no clue about what was going on.

"That was brilliant," Liam said once he'd gotten his laughter under control.

"Yeah perfect," Heath agreed when he'd done the same, "did you see her face?"

"Yeah, I thought she was gonna shit a brick and drop a whole litter of kittens at the same time." And that set them off laughing all over again. Once they'd managed to get their second bout of laughter under control, an oddly serious look came onto Heath's face.

"I meant it you know," Heath said.

"Meant what?"

"That you're the best thing that's happened to me."

"Oh Heath..." was all Liam could manage to say. He knew how hard it was for Heath to say something like that. Liam showed his understanding the best way he knew how; with a smouldering kiss. And what they didn't see was the way Bianca scowled at them or the way Sid's eyebrows nearly flew off his face when he followed Bianca's gaze and saw them completely wrapped up in each other.

"Wanna take this elsewhere?" Liam managed to say.

"Do I ever..."

xxx

55 Saxon Avenue was suitably empty when Heath and Liam rocked up looking for some 'alone' time.

"You wear too many clothes," Heath complained against Murphy's mouth as he struggled to rid the other man of them, whilst kissing him and steering them towards his bedroom.

"And you don't wear enough, how am I supposed to think straight when you're around?"

"You're not. Now shut up," Heath said, not giving a damn about anything except revealing some skin. He pulled Murphy's black shirt off before pushing him onto the bed and climbing on top of him.

"See? Look how pasty it makes you," Heath said, not about to admit that he liked Murphy's milky skin or that he was glad he was the only one who got to see so much of it. Heath was already way past his quota of sappiness for the day.

"Shut up," Liam said, echoing Heath's earlier words, he'd had enough of talking. Heath complied by leaning down and kissing Liam fiercely. Liam reached for the bottom of Heath's singlet and slid it up the smooth skin of his back and Heath raised himself up enough to allow Liam to pull it off. Liam had a moment to admire Heath before Heath slammed their mouths together again. And in that moment he thought of how justified Bianca's reaction was, she'd made a huge mistake letting Heath get away and Liam was determined never to take Heath for granted the way she had. But thoughts of Bianca were gone as quickly as they came, chased away as Heath ran his hand down Liam's bare skin, moving it lower until his fingertips slid under the waistband of Liam's jeans, leaving Liam with nothing but thoughts of how good this all felt. Heath's fingers worked their way across Liam's abdomen towards his fly. God, it was such a small gesture but the light contact with his sensitive skin was so intimate and promised so much. Heath pulled his mouth from Liam's and looked down at his rock star, and looking in those blue eyes he saw that Liam wanted him, like no one else ever had, and Heath was ready for more. Maybe loving this man wasn't quite the crisis Heath had first considered it to be. He'd been a little hesitant about certain things but this was Murphy, his Murphy, and the way he was looking up at Heath made Heath's nerves disappear, no one had ever made him feel so right. As Heath pressed his palm against Liam's cock he leaned down and spoke huskily into Liam's ear.

"I wanna use my mouth..."

"So do it..." Liam said through the desire, with what he hoped was enough of the old challenging tone to remind Heath that this was still just them and a natural part of their relationship, but he made sure to soften it too, so that Heath would know he understood this was a big step for him. And Liam must've got it right, because Heath didn't waste any time doing exactly what he said he wanted to.

xxx

Liam was only slightly late, if half an hour is slight, getting back to work from 'lunch'.

"It gives me the heebie-jeebies seeing that cop in here all the time," Heath said and Liam turned to see Charlie had just walked in.

"Why?" Liam smirked, "because you're so badass?"

"Well yeah," Heath agreed matter-of-factly, still eyeing Charlie suspiciously.

"Are they on-again or off-again at the moment?"

"Off...I think," Heath answered, it was so hard to keep up with. Watching Brax and Charlie, Liam thought Heath was right, they didn't look too happy with each other, and this whole thing with the fire had to add tension to their already difficult relationship. The cops suspected the Braxton's had something to do with it, they denied it and Liam believed them, but he was glad Heath had followed him up the coast, it was a solid alibi if the cops did come asking. It appeared Charlie had said what she came to say. She turned and left, and Brax watched her go with a blank face, Liam had no idea what he was thinking. That was until he turned his attention towards the pair of them and scowled, apparently Brax hadn't failed to notice Liam's extended lunch break.

"I'm only so understanding," Brax told them as he came to stand with them at the other end of the bar. "You better not be late for work again," he said severely, directing his words at Liam. "And you," he told Heath, equally as pissed off, "leave my staff alone during work hours." They both managed to hold appropriately serious expressions until Brax turned away.

"He's right you know," Liam said dreamily, "we can't let this happen again."

"You can't," Heath smirked, "I'm not the one that's gonna get fired."

"Well that's nice," Liam said, whipping Heath with a tea towel before he turned back to cleaning the bar.

"Hey!" Heath said, as he attempted to jump back out of range.

"Oi! What did I just tell you two?!" A very unimpressed Brax said.

"Sorry Brax," Liam said genuinely, he hadn't meant to be disrespectful.

"Yeah sorry Darryl," Heath said sarcastically as he headed for the door. The look he threw Liam as he left promised that this wasn't over, and Liam hoped it never would be.

AN: Some of the upcoming events are based on plot points from the show. They are only loosely based on the events and anything that doesn't fit in with cannon is most likely intentional. I may have taken liberties with some of the timelines too. Thanks for reading.