Return to the Bay

[tasha7905]

Sounds exciting I cant wait

[I love music]

Shock horror and update is coming...it's with Jess at the moment. I was very unhappy with it so she's helping me make it better. It should be with you soon and I am not giving anything away as to who dies. It could be anyone trapped in the Bank, no-one is safe and the revelation as to who dies will be gradual with characters found one by one and lots of twists and turns so be prepared!

Kat, this is cruel. Don't you realise, there are people trapped in that bank and you're making them hang around...?

[Skykat]

Okay here it is...the next chapter. It's...what did Jess call it...a very character led chapter but I really want to have some sort of reaction to the situation. Hope everyone still thinks its okay though. It's a long chapter and I'm sorry it's been so long coming, the next chapter won't take so long.xx

An even huger than usual thanks to Jess, this chapter wouldn't have happened without her help.

SIXTY FOUR

“Matilda sweets, you need to eat something. Keep your strength up.” Matilda looked at her mother.

“How can you be so calm?” Matilda ran her hands through her hair as she looked at her mother in confusion, desperation.

“Because I know Robbie will be okay.”

“How? How do you know anything? Look at it! You do this all the time! Something happens to someone in our family but you pretend it’s okay. You pretend like nothing’s happened. It’s not natural!”

“Mattie,” Kit warned her, stepping between her younger sister and her mother. Beth walked away silently but looking extremely hurt and Kit sat herself down beside Matilda. “I think you were a bit hard on her there Mattie. Everyone has different ways of coping with situations like this, you have yours and Mum has hers. Doesn’t mean she doesn’t care. The worry’s probably killing her but she’s clinging to her faith, staying strong. That takes guts you know. She didn’t deserve you going off at her.”

“I know.” Matilda was unable to restrain the tears that freely poured down her face and Kit pulled her into a gentle, sisterly hug.

“She’s right you know, all we can do is stay positive. Thinking the worst doesn’t do anyone any good,” Kit explained.

“Nor does burying your head in the sand.”

“I don’t think Mum’s doing that. She’s just coping as best as she knows. We do still have hope you know Mattie. We shouldn’t give up on him yet. Robbie’s strong, a fighter.”

“You really believe that Kit?”

“You know what, I do. He’ll come through this, you’ll see.” Kit gave her sister another hug as the rest of Matilda’s tears fell unchecked. Over her head Kit caught her mother’s eye and the two exchanged a brief smile of understanding.

“Sal! What’s happened? I just got up and Cassie told me about the explosion. I came straight down here, what’s going on?” Martha was breathless from running, her face was white and her eyes sunken.

“We’re not sure except that there was an explosion and people are trapped inside.”

“Who? Not…”

“Jack.” Sally nodded, “Also Peter, Kane and Robbie.”

“Oh my god!” Martha clasped a hand to her mouth.

“Are you okay Martha? You should sit down, have some tea.” Sally guided her to a blanket on the ground and passed her a flask of hot tea. Martha obediently took a sip but her face barely moved, such was her state of shock. “Martha?”

“What’s she doing here?” Sally looked up to see who had spoken and saw a furious Lucas glaring at Martha.

“Lucas sweet, what are you doing here, I thought your Dad asked you to stay home?” Beth put a gentle hand on his arm.

“As if that was going to happen. My brother’s in there, I should be here. Not her.” The fury in Lucas’s voice took Martha completely by surprise.

“Lucas what have I possibly done that was so bad?”

“You don’t know? Don’t you remember last night?”

“Last night?” Martha looked at him in a state of utter confusion. “I know I had a bit too much to drink…”

“A bit too much, you were completely wasted and flirting with every guy in sight, winding Jack up. He jumped in to protect you when he thought someone was hassling you and got a black eye and a mouthful as a result. You behaved like a complete and utter slag!”

“Lucas that is enough!” Beth’s voice was low and even, but her flushed cheeks suggested that she was angry.

“It’s true though. She shouldn’t be here!” Lucas glared in Martha’s direction as Beth shepherded him away from the group to have a quiet word with him.

“Is that true? Is what he said true? Sal?” Martha looked to Sally but Sally was unable to meet her eyes. “Sal? It was wasn’t it?”

“It wasn’t quite as bad as Lucas made out,” Sally began.

“It’s still true though! Oh my God! Lucas is right, I shouldn’t be here!” Martha got to her feet.

“Martha…” Sally began but Martha had already taken off, running, tears streaming down her face, away from everything.

“Kirsty have something to drink,” Leah urged holding out a flask of tea but Kirsty did not respond. Kirsty had been sitting, her head in her hands, for over half an hour now.

“Come on Kirst, have a sandwich,” Leah continued persistently.

“I don’t want a bloody sandwich! What’s the point, he’s dead. Nothing matters anymore,” Kirsty whispered.

“You don’t know that,” Leah insisted.

“Don’t I? Look at the place, it’s a mess. A bomb went off in a safety deposit box. A safety deposit box that Kane opened, what do you really think his chances are?” Kirsty snapped, furiously.

“Maybe we should leave the sandwiches for now hey?” Angel suggested.

“What’s it got to do with you, you’re no relation to anybody here! In fact, why are you still even here?” Leah snapped, furiously.

“Do you know what? I don’t know.” Shoulders slumped, Angel ducked under the barrier and walked away.

“What did you say that for? You know she and Peter are friends and besides, I wanted her here!” Kirsty jumped instantly to Angel’s defence angrily.

“She’s been in the Bay five minutes. What right does she have to go ordering us about? She’s no relation to anybody, she and Peter were fighting all of last night! I only told her the truth,” Leah retorted.

“Still you had no right to say any of that Leah. What goes on between her and Peter is nobody’s business but their own,” Irene jumped in. Leah crossed her arms angrily across her chest and opened her mouth to respond but one look at Irene’s face told her not to. Instead she walked off huffing, in the other direction to busy herself with the food. Irene took a seat next to Kirsty and put a gentle arm around her shoulders. Kirsty leaned her head on Irene’s chest, drawing comfort from her.

“I’m so glad you’re here Irene,” Kirsty whispered.

“As if I’d be anywhere else darl. Tash love, why don’t you come and join us?” Irene looked up to see Tasha watching them and beckoned her over. Tasha didn’t need telling twice, she sat on Irene’s other side and accepted the arm around her shoulders.

“Will they be okay?” Tasha asked, tearfully. Kirsty looked at the younger girl. Even though she had grown up so much she still looked so timid and vulnerable and Kirsty’s heart went out to her.

“Of course they will. Can’t you just imagine them in there? Kane will be getting angry at being trapped and desperately fighting to get his way out and Robbie will be keeping everyone calm and saying rescue’s on it’s way. I can just see it happening, they won’t give up on us.” Deep down Kirsty did not believe it, but it didn’t hurt to give Tasha some hope.

“You really think so?”

“Yeah I do.” Kirsty winked at Irene and Irene managed a smile. Despite her own fears, Kirsty was reassuring Tasha, exactly as Kane would have done, or Robbie and Irene felt incredibly proud of the brave young woman Kirsty had become. She was proud of Tasha too. She had come so far from the vulnerable little thing that only communicated in pig latin. She only hoped to God that both their husbands Would survive this terrible tragedy.

They just had to survive.

“Leah, what’s gotten into you? Why did you just say those things to Angel?” Sally cornered Leah, away from everyone else and demanded some answers.

“Because it’s true, she isn’t related to anyone,” Leah replied.

“Nor am I but I’m still here.”

“It’s different, you’ve been in the Bay all your life, you’ve got a right to be here. She’s only been around two minutes.”

“Leah, Angel lived here for years, longer than you have. Why don’t you tell me what’s really going on?” Leah looked at Sally and the tears she had been hiding came to surface. She sat herself down and buried her head in her hands, sobbing. Sally put a reassuring arm around her shoulders.

“I didn’t mean to go off at Angel, I just couldn’t help it,” Leah admitted.

“Why do you dislike her so much? Angel’s lovely.”

“I know she probably is, but I wouldn’t know because I never gave her a chance. I’m so jealous of her!”

“Jealous? Of Angel? Why?” Sally was surprised.

“Well she floats into town all beautiful and rich and Peter’s all over her like a rash.”

“Peter? Why does that bother you though?” The penny was beginning to drop for Sally but she waited patiently for Leah to answer her question.

“There was always something between Pete and I, from when I first met him. Then after the Sarah stuff I got with Dan and we buried it but recently, since he returned those feelings have been coming back. He kissed me,” Leah explained.

“Oh my God!”

“I know, I was surprised as well, but I found myself feeling more for him. Then when Angel came on the scene, I was so jealous of her, and then last night Dan found out and now he hates me. And Peter hates me, it’s all a big mess!” Fresh sobs spilled.

“So, hang on a minute, are you more upset because Dan hates you or Peter?” Sally asked. Leah shrugged.

“I really don’t know. I don’t know who I want. When all this kicked off with Pete it was Dan I wanted but recently it’s been Peter, I just don’t know. It’s such a mess!” Sally was unable to disagree with that so she simply took Leah into her arms and let her cry.

Angel did not know how far she had walked since she had left the bomb site, she only knew her feet were beginning to ache She felt so angry, hurt, frustrated. She wanted to cry but the tears never came.

“Do you know you’ve walked past here twice already?” Angel snapped out of her own thoughts to see Jack’s girlfriend, Martha was she called, sitting on a bench, her knees curled to her chest, her arms wrapped around them.

“Have I? I guess I didn’t really know where I was going,” Angel admitted with a wry smile as she sat herself on the bench beside her.

“I don’t think we’ve really met. I’m Martha, Alf’s granddaughter and you’re Angel?” Martha held out her hand and Angel shook it. “So what’s news from the Bank?”

“Nothing when I left,” Angel replied.

“Why did you leave?”

“Guess my services weren’t required. I didn’t really have any right to be there,” Angel admitted.

“No, me neither.”

“So why were you and Jack fighting?”

“Seriously? I don’t know,” Martha admitted, “I’ve been feeling a bit neglected recently, he kept putting the job first and last night I made such an effort to look beautiful for him and he didn’t even notice. So I got drunk and supposedly made a complete show of myself.”

“I’m sure it wasn’t that bad,” Angel soothed. Memories, triggered by Lucas’s words, were starting to flood back to Martha. Like snapshots the evening’s events were flashing before her eyes and no matter how hard she clasped them shut, she could not escape them. She had really done all those things. Lucas was right, she had acted like a complete slag. And now Jack was trapped in that building. If anything happened to him, the last words she had spoken to him were in anger. She had hurt him, betrayed him, humiliated him and it might be the last memory she had of him. Her chest pounded with pain and she honestly felt that she knew what heart break felt like. The tearing pain in her chest, the terrible sickness in her stomach, the endless snapshots in her mind. This was like hell.

“Didn’t you see? I behaved appalingly.”

“I didn’t see sorry, I was too busy having my own rows.”

“With Peter?” Angel nodded.

“What’s going on there?”

“Who knows. I certainly don’t. We were good friends you know but then we got drunk one night and things happened, you know. We managed to get past it at first but now…”

“You’ve realised you like him?”

“Something like that. It’s complicated.

“I really feel like just getting drunk again you know, blotting everything out.”

“I’d love to join you but I’m telling you now it’s not going to happen. Maybe yesterday I’d have agreed with you but something Dan told me today has changed things. Dan said Peter loves me and that means that I can’t give up on him,” Angel decided.

“Wow, lucky you.” It was hard to tell if Martha’s tone was envious or sad or a completely different emotion altogether. “I’d still rather go to Noah’s and sink a few beers,” Martha suggested.

“I can’t even if I wanted to.” Angel’s hands subconsciously went to her stomach and Martha clicked on pretty quickly.

“Oh my god! You’re pregnant, aren’t you?” Angel looked up at her, surprised, but nodded anyway.

“Complicated huh?”

“Something like that.” Angel grinned, “But that’s why I’m not giving up on him and you shouldn’t either.”

“Easier said than done, they don’t want us there!” Martha punched her fist against the bench in frustration.

“But do they have any right to make us go? I’m carrying Peter’s child and you, no matter what happened last night are still Jack’s girlfriend. Do you really think Jack’ll remember that stupid row when he comes out? I don’t, I think he’ll just be happy to have you there.”

“Do you really think so?” Desperation was turning to hope again for Martha.

“Yes I do.”

“We can’t go back the bomb site though, I don’t want to upset Lucas any more.”

“Well we’ll do the next best thing then,” Angel decided.

“Wait in Noah’s and get hideously drunk? You can watch,” Martha suggested but she was smiling now.

“No, we’ll wait at the hospital. When they’re bought out of the rubble that’s where they’ll be taken and we can wait for them there. The hospital staff will have a good idea of what’s going on, right?”

“Right,” Martha agreed, grinning now. She squeezed Angel’s hand gently. “They can’t get rid of the PGs that easily!”

“The PGs?” Angel asked curiously.

“Yeah, Police Girlfriends. That’s us and we ain’t going nowhere.”

“Good girl. I’m just going to give Dylan a ring and then we’ll go, alright?”

“Right,” Martha agreed.

Tony mopped the sweat from his brow and stepped back to get a breath and a drink of water. His place was immediately taken by another volunteer. The job to remove the rubble and debris was difficult and complicated. Firstly the whole structure was fragile and therefore had to be removed one brick at a time. It was a hard, repetitive and labour intensive job and it seemed like they never actually got any closer to achieving anything. Every now and again there would be a collapse of some sort and all the rescuers would jump backwards out of the way. Add to that the heat. The mid afternoon sun was strong and made the job increasingly more difficult. The dust dried in the throats of the rescuers, got into their chests and no amount of water ever really seemed to clear the taste from their mouths. Leaning over, Tony breathed heavily to get his breath back.

“Okay Tony take a break, go get yourself a sip of tea and a butty,” Sergeant Bellmore instructed.

“I’m alright,” Tony replied.

“Tough luck, it wasn’t a suggestion. Now go on, take ten.” Tony reluctantly did what he was told. In his heart of hearts he knew the Sergeant was right, there was no point pushing himself. He wouldn’t do Jack any good by doing that.

“Hey…” Beth pushed herself to the front of the barrier as he approached and he gave her a brief hug, gratefully accepting the flask of tea and sandwich that she offered.

“Any news Tony?” Matilda asked, desperately from beside her mother.

“Not yet Mattie love but we’re making good progress. You have to be patient sweetie. We’ve nearly cleared the foyer area of the Bank and we’re just reaching the back part of the foyer now so we’ll be at the back offices soon enough. It’s just getting more difficult to work, the closer we get,” Tony explained.

“Dad can I help, please?” Lucas begged.

“Luc, I thought I told you to stay home!”

“As if that was going to happen while Jack’s in there. There must be something I can do?”

“You’re not trained for anything though mate,” Tony explained, “you’re best here looking after our women for us.”

“Don’t treat me like a kid Dad, I’m not!”

“Lucas is right, there must be something we can do. Surely we could do that job, taking the bricks away from the scene and that’d free up another rescuer?”

“Dylan!” Matilda wrapped her arms around his neck and he squeezed her tightly.

“I’m so sorry, I wasn’t here sooner, I just ran into Mum and she told me. Are you okay?” he whispered.

“I am now,” Matilda replied, hugging him tightly, her tears falling on his shirt. He kissed her head gently.

“Dylan’s right Dad, we could do that,” Lucas begged, flashing Dylan a grateful look.

“Look I’ll go see what Alf and Sergeant Bellmore say, no promises though,” Tony replied. Lucas smiled gratefully.

“Thanks for that mate,” he told Dylan as his Dad walked away.

“No problem,” Dylan replied, smiling at Lucas and then focusing his attention back on Matilda. “I really am sorry I wasn’t here sooner.”

“As long as you're here now.” Matilda hugged him tighter, not wanting to let him go. In his arms she felt safe, warm, protected, as if the whole rest of the world did not exist. It was a good feeling.

“Dylan did you say you’ve seen your Mother?” Kirsty asked, from where she still sat beside Irene.

“I spoke to her, she’s a bit upset,” he glared in Leah’s direction but did not tell them where his mother really was.

“Thanks Dylan.” Beth smiled at him and Lucas thought it was possibly the first genuine smile she had ever given him.

“You don’t mind me coming down here do you Mrs Hunter? I mean I’m not related to anyone but I wanted to help, I got pretty close to Peter Baker what with how close him and Mum are and I wanted to be here for Matilda. I’ll go though if you want, I wouldn’t want to overstay my welcome.” Dylan was talking to Beth but shooting very obvious looks in Leah’s direction.

“No it’s okay Dylan, I’m glad you’re here. You have every right to be and Mattie wants you here.” Beth smiled at him and squeezed his shoulders reassuringly.

“Alright Luc, Dylan you’re allowed to come and help. Ric’ll be working with you, Alf’s pulled him out of the Search group because he’s done in,” Tony explained, approaching.

“Yes!” Lucas raced under the barrier, shooting a grateful glance at Dylan. Dylan gave Matilda a long lingering kiss.

“Do you mind?” he asked her.

“No, just having you near is enough,” she replied. He kissed her again and then made his way under the barrier after Lucas. Matilda returned to her mother’s side.

“He’s not a bad kid is he?” Beth commented with a wry smile and Matilda hugged her, silently agreeing that he wasn’t bad at all.

Dan Baker was working like a crazed man. He had barely stopped at all since the search had got underway and was visibly exhausted but refused point blank to take a break.

“Here at least have a drink?” Sutty handed him the plastic bottle of water and Dan reluctantly stopped to take a sip. The minute he stood up another volunteer moved in to take his place.

“Hey!” Dan protested.

“Come on Dan, you know the system, take a breather and when the next guy takes a break you can go back in,” Sutty urged, having pulled out at the same time as Dan.

“My brother’s in there!” Dan protested but argue as he might there was no space left from him to work in so Dan reluctantly stepped back and drank more of the water.

“I can’t believe this still went off, even though we warned them in time!” Sutty kicked the ground in frustration, “Jesse’ll be livid when he hears, I just hope he doesn’t do something stupid.”

“Hang on a minute! I knew there was something about that phone call that was bugging me. How do you know Jesse McGregor?” Dan looked at Sutty suspiciously.

“I don’t. I just meant because he sounded so irate on the phone.” Sutty tried to cover.

“No, I remember now. When you answered the phone and he said it was him you said ‘Jesse it’s Sutty’ and you told him it was a long story. How do you know him?” Sutty looked around him frantically but there was no way out of telling him, Dan had well and truly rumbled him.

“Look can you keep something secret? Something that even Rachel doesn’t know all of?” Sutty’s face was a picture of desperation and Dan felt sorry for pushing things but he wanted to know.

“I promise. Look Sutty we’ve become friends the past twenty four hours, you can tell me, I promise it won’t go any further.”

“Okay. When I first met Rach she was from a rich family and I was a really poor kid. We fell for each other so badly, she was the first girl I ever cared about, but her father hated me. I mean really hated me and I always felt the need to prove myself. I know it was dumb, but at the time all I wanted to do was get Rach something nice. I had no money so I stole some jewellery. Turns out the guy I stole it from was a friend of Rachel’s father’s so he had me arrested. I’d already had warnings for stupid juvenile stuff like nicking cars and vandalism so that was my last chance. I was put inside. I know it was stupid, if I could have taken it back I would have, but I was young and I hated being poor, I hated being looked down on by everyone, especially Rach’s father. I just wanted to get her something nice. That’s why she took her time in forgiving me when I first turned up here,” Sutty explained.

“Wow, mate, I had no idea.”

“Why would you? Jesse McGregor was my cellmate. He was a good guy, I was a young naive kid, forever getting picked on. Gus Philips was in prison with us too, Kane’s Dad, and he always had it in for me, Jesse was about the only person who Gus was scared of. I’d have been dead by now if Jesse hadn’t taken me under his wing. I owe him a lot. When I left prison I decided to come and see Summer Bay, the place Jess had mentioned so much. I never for one second expected to find Rach here. Small world huh?”

“Isn’t it just. Did Jesse ever talk about Leah while he was inside?” Dan had to ask.

“A little. I knew she was his ex and that he classed her as one of the best friends he had. He said she was about the only person who had stuck by him and he felt terrible about the way he left things with her but that it was for the best. Because of you,” Sutty explained.

“So he did have feelings for her?” Dan felt angry.

“Not those sort of feelings. He only thought of her as a friend. There was a girl he loved, the girl he killed and I doubt he’ll ever forgive himself for that.”

“Chloe, that was so sad. I remember that night, it was just after Alf’s party, the car crash. There were five of them in that car, Chloe was driving and she died. We were so shocked when we realised Jesse was to blame,” Dan remembered.

“I know for a fact he’d kill himself if it could bring her back, he really did love her.”

“Yeah, I know Jesse and I didn’t always get on but he was a decent guy,” Dan remarked.

“Yeah, like I say, I’d be dead without him. Does it bother you?” Sutty asked suddenly.

“What?”

“That I was inside?”

“No, you made a mistake, I can appreciate that and I promise I won’t say anything. I’m glad you’re here you know mate. Since Flynn died and Scott left, I’ve not really had much in the way of male mates, except Pete.”

“Yeah but brothers are different. He’s a good guy though your Peter. He knew about me as well, I helped him with some information on this Gus Philips case,” Sutty explained vaguely.

“Yet he never said a word. Pete was always full of surprises.” Dan’s face had taken on a pained yet wistful look and Sutty clapped an arm on his shoulder.

“He’ll come through this,” he assured him.

“I hope so.”

“Okay guys gather round!” Alf’s voice cut through their conversation and Sutty and Dan wasted no time in racing over to where Alf was gathering all the rescuers together.

“What is it? Do we have news?” Kim was closest to Alf but Alf was waiting for everyone to gather round.

“Right oh, listen up. I’ve just spoken to the fire chief and they’re confident that all the fires are out so that means a team of us can start trying to make headway through the fire exit door at the back of the building. I warn you now it’ll probably be harder and more dangerous than going in the front but I need five volunteers to work with the Fire Crews. The rest of us will carry on through here.”

“I’ll go!” Tony spoke up.

“I want to stay this end, Peter’s in this part of the building,” Dan told Sutty.

“I’ll stay with you then, I’m sure they’ll get five volunteers.” Sutty was right as Tony was very quickly joined by Barry, Steven, Kim and a refreshed Ric who followed Alf round the back of the building to where the Fire Chief was waiting.

“This means we’ll have to work extra hard though,” Dan remarked.

“Not really, looks like the reserves have arrived from Yabbie Creek.” Sutty pointed to where a new rescue crew were getting geared up.

“Right everybody from here is to take a break. The new crews have arrived and they’re fresher than you lot. I want you all out of there now, go get some food and drink and have a rest in the cordoned area. That’s an order!” Sergeant Bellmore directed his last remark at Dan who had been ready to object but realising that the Sergeant was talking sense, did as he was told.

The rescuers who had been left trudged towards the cordoned area for some refreshment. Dan tied his overalls around his waist and took off his dripping shirt, Sutty and the others did the same. The day had, if possible, become even hotter and the sweat was pouring from all of them. The first bottles of water were handed out and instead of going down throats they went onto heated bodies in an attempt to cool baking skin.

“Hey,” a soft voice came up behind Sutty and sat down next to him. He turned to see Rachel smiling shyly beside him.

“Hey, what are you doing here?”

“They needed a team of medics to come down for when they bring the injured out so myself and Doctor Green came, along with Nurse Julie. We’ve tended to the minor wounds, now it’s just a case of waiting for the majors,” she explained.

“Think you might just be needed,” Sutty told her, his eyes portraying the message that his mouth could not say.

“I’m sorry about us fighting,” Rachel whispered.

“Me too. I’m sorry I hit Jack, if anything happens to him I’ll never forgive myself. I spoke to his Dad this morning, I apologised to him. He’s a decent guy.”

“Yeah he is and it’s okay. I’m sorry I went off at you.” Rachel kissed him and Sutty kissed her back, his exhaustion temporarily forgotten.

“Uh hum.” Dan, back from his toilet break coughed as he sat beside them, “Hey Rach.”

“Hi Dan. I forgot to say I stopped by ours on the way down here and picked up a couple of change of clothes for you guys. Thought you might appreciate a change.” She handed them both a carrier bag.

“You’re a legend, cheers Rach.” Dan gratefully changed his top.

“Here you go darls, here’s some soup, it’s veg. Try and have it while it’s hot, keep your strength up.” Irene handed them both a bowl of hot, thick soup and spoons.

“I really don’t feel hungry,” Sutty moaned.

“You will when you start eating,” Rachel urged and obediently he and Dan began to eat. Within minutes the bowls were empty and Irene had come over with seconds. Rachel resisted the urge to say ‘I told you so’.

“Hey Irene, where did Angel go?” Dan asked, suddenly noticing that she was missing.

“She went home,” Irene replied, cautiously.

“What Irene means is that she went home because she was told she had no right to be here,” Dylan spoke up angrily. His eyes shooting glares in Leah’s direction where enough to tell Dan just who had told Angel that.

“Dylan,” Irene hissed at him.

“No, he deserves to know what a poisonous cow he’s married to. Mum’s really upset.” Only Matilda’s hand on his arm made Dylan take a deep breath and calm down, he sank back to the grass but the damage had already been done. A furious Dan was striding in Leah’s direction.

“Is that true? Did you really tell Angel she had no business being here?”

“I just, she just, she made me angry,” Leah’s protests were in vain though because Dan was already angry.

“You had no right saying that! She’s got more right being here than you. Who are you exactly, it’s not like you’re related to anyone? Peter would want Angel here, he’s in love with her, not you. When are you going to get that into your thick head?”

“Dan that’s enough.” Sally stepped between Dan and a now crying Leah. Dan stepped backwards, taking deep breaths, his eyes still flashing angrily.

“Here, we’ve found something!” The cries of the rescuer from the building had everyone staring back towards the scene of the bomb but Dan was already sprinting back towards the building. His heart was thudding inside his chest, all his aches and pains were forgotten as hope was renewed inside him and he raced desperately to see what they had found.

[bay girl]

Noooo, you did not just end it there. I want to know what they found.

Anyhoo, that was an awesome chapter. Definitely worth the wait.

[Chair]

Thanks, Kat. I wonder what or whom they have found. I'm glad that Dylan is getting on better with Matilda's family.

[Gypsy & Will Fan]

Brilliant Kat, I loved it!

[tasha7905]

Definately worth the wait Kat. Fantastic chapter, but now I want to know what or who they have found. i cant believe how Leah is reacting poor Angel, and Im so glad Beth realised that Dylan is a nice guy. Please post more soon I cant wait.

[Skykat]

Thanks guys, nice to know you don't completely hate it like I did when I first wrote it!

I've nearly finished the next chapter but I'm out tonight, away all weekend and monday's my birthday so it'll be a couple of days before I get round to finishing it...not as long as this one took though!

[I love music]

Great script, Kat! Okay, we're going on air at...

I particularly liked the Kirsty/Tasha/Irene scene and the Dan/Sutty/Rachel scene. Very strong characterization.

Let's hope it's good news from inside the bank!

[Skykat]

I@m afraid I can'y promise that ILM!