Driftwood

[pembie]

Oh heck so Roo had to give birth to Alfie by herself..... Thanks I learn't a few things with this chapter I never realised women forgot about the pain of childbirth because of chemicals in the brain

Oh  I loved Irene's line to Alf  Don’t take this the wrong way… but I think you’re a flippin’ idiot and her mention of blind freddie

[Ludub]

23 hours ago, Suzza101 said:

Great chapter 

happy that there was some info into what is happening with Roo.

am really enjoying this fanfic

Update again soon!!!! ?

Thanks Suzza, glad you're enjoying it. Think you might particularly like the next chapter 

15 hours ago, pembie said:

Oh heck so Roo had to give birth to Alfie by herself..... Thanks I learn't a few things with this chapter I never realised women forgot about the pain of childbirth because of chemicals in the brain

Oh  I loved Irene's line to Alf  Don’t take this the wrong way… but I think you’re a flippin’ idiot and her mention of blind freddie

Haha! The human body is weird and wonderful sometimes! Pretty amazing that it does that, but it certainly explains why women are willing to do it more than once! Glad you liked the Irene and Alf scene too, lol! Thought I'd maybe over-egged it a bit, but who doesn't appreciate a 'blind Freddie' reference when there's a chance to throw one in?!  (and Alf is a flippin' idiot!)

[Ludub]

Thanks again everyone for all the encouragement. Much appreciated!  Hope you like this chapter, it's a bit longer than I wanted it to be (sorry!)

 

Chapter 8

 

 

Matt climbed out of the shower and threw a towel around his waist. He needed to be at work in about an hour but he was already so tired that he could barely stand up. He’d had to lean against the wall in the shower just to wash himself. He hadn’t really slept properly in a few weeks with the constant fear of Roo going missing again and that was definitely beginning to take its toll. The sleepwalking wasn’t getting any better either and they hadn’t been called back to see the sleep specialists yet for the results of the tests. Everything just felt like it was in limbo. At least they had a fair idea now of what might be triggering Roo’s episodes of sleepwalking. She was clearly terrified of being left alone and any hint or suggestion of being on her own for any length of time was enough to feed into that anxiety. It was an understandable fear given what she’d been through. For the moment they’d decided to make sure that she had company at all times and that she always knew where he was when he wasn’t there. He had to check in with her every hour. Maddy, Irene, Leah, and Alf were all taking turns when Matt couldn’t be around, so she was never on her own. It wasn’t really a long term solution though and they both knew that.  He didn’t know how much longer they could all keep this up.

He listened for the sounds of the people downstairs and breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Roo and Leah laughing in the living-room. Maisy and Alfie were having a little play-date and the two ladies had settled in with a huge slice of mud-cake each and a big mug of coffee. He’d left them to it so he could get ready for work, but he was going to go and say thank you to Leah at the diner tomorrow. She was a godsend right now. They really had some good friends and he was very grateful for their help and support.

He stood for a moment in front of the mirror in their bedroom and looked at his body. It was covered in scars. He had scars on his arms, scars on his legs, a particularly large and ugly scar on his abdomen, and a few on his chest. He had others on his head and on his chin that you couldn’t see because of his hair and beard. Each one told a tale of the hardships that they’d endured on that island. He knew that he was looking back at their time there with rose tinted glasses because he was finding things so hard here, and that life on the island had been incredibly hard and dangerous. If he was honest with himself, there hadn’t really been a day that he hadn’t been frightened or worried about something. He’d tortured himself with endless questions: Would they have enough food? Was the rain coming soon so they’d have enough water to drink? When it came, would there be a storm, and would it destroy their shelter? Was Alfie getting enough to eat? Was he eating the right stuff and enough of it to keep him healthy? Would he develop normally in a place like this? What if they got ill? What would they do if one of them got hurt? So many worries spinning around his mind all the time. Life had not been easy and he certainly had the scars to show for it. He was a little self-conscious about them sometimes, when people asked about them mainly, but he didn’t really mind them most of the time. Roo said they showed that he’d lived an interesting life. ‘Interesting’ was certainly one word for it.

He sat down on the bed and lifted his leg out in front of him to look at his ankle. He gave a heavy sigh as he looked at the large and ragged scar that ran from his heel up the side of his foot to about halfway up his calf. Of all the scars on his body he hated this one the most. This one was by far the worst and it told a tale that would haunt him for the rest of his life…

 

*****

 

"It was so nice of Maz and John to offer to keep the kids" said Bianca, giving Kyle and Billie a big smile. She and Heath hadn’t been out for dinner since Bowie had been born over a year ago, so she was a little over-excited about getting dressed up, and especially so because she’d been nagging Heath to try Salt for the last couple of years. All the reviews were singing Brody’s praises and every-time she talked to someone from the Bay they were ranting and raving about it. This was just the first time that they’d managed it on one of their visits from the city. It was always difficult getting out with three kids in tow, especially now with a small baby again. “I hope they’re not causing them too much trouble” she said, grimacing a little at Heath.

"Didn't think John seemed as keen" he said, smirking a little, "Ours are a bit of a handful at the best of times… and Harley's a little monster at the moment. He’ll be running circles round John!"

"Heath!" scolded Bianca, shaking her head at him in disapproval, "You have to stop saying things like that! He's just a bit hyper, that's all!'

"Yeah and you have to stop making excuses for him!" said Heath, leaning back in his chair as he took a sip of wine. "He's a little tearaway just like his dad, a proper little Braxton through and through..." He looked at Kyle and winked at him, "You'll know all about it with Joe soon enough!"

“Lucy’s the one to be worried about!” said Billie, shaking her head at them and laughing. “She’s not exactly an angel either! …She might look like a little sweetheart but she certainly gives Kyle a run for his money…” she said, reaching for his hand and giving him a cheeky little smile, “Knows how to wind her daddy right around her little finger, doesn’t she?!”

“You both do” laughed Kyle, shaking his head in an exasperated way, “I find it hard to say no to either of my girls…” He lifted Billie’s hand and gave it a little kiss, much to Heath’s amusement. Kyle and Billie were still acting like a couple of little lovebirds even after four years together and Kyle really didn’t seem embarrassed at all about showing affection in public. They were sickeningly cute. “Joe is a little angel at the moment though” added Kyle, smiling proudly across at Heath and Bianca, “Hardly ever cries.”

“Give him time” Heath assured him, widening his eyes a little and nodding in an insistent way. “Seriously mate, the Braxton genes’ll come through eventually! Nothing you can do about that!”

"That's what I'm worried about!" teased Billie, leaning over and giving Kyle a little kiss, "I swear, he'll come home from kindergarten one day and I'll discover he has a full sleeve of tatts!"

"Funny you should say that..." said Bianca, nodding at Heath in a knowing sort of way, "Harley keeps drawing tattoos on his arms and sometimes on his friends. We got called in by his principal the other day because he wrote 'Blood and Sand" on his friend's arm!"

"They called you in for that?!" asked Kyle, with an incredulous tone. It seemed like a bit of an overreaction on the school's part. “I mean… seems a bit like overkill, doesn’t it?! Just kids mucking around…”

"Yeah, that’s what I thought…” laughed Heath, shaking his head with a big grin on his face, “…until I found out he’d used permanent marker". In some ways he was a little proud of Harley’s rebellious behaviour, because he didn’t like really ‘sooky’ kids, but it did make him worry a little that he’d turn out like him. He was a funny little kid though and he couldn’t deny that. "They couldn't get it off for weeks!" he giggled, miming the motion of someone scrubbing like mad at his forearm “Just wouldn’t budge… and he was the poshest kid in the class too! Dad’s a judge or something!”

They all laughed and Heath lifted his glass to raise a toast. “To little tattooed bruisers, then” he said, grinning at the others as they clinked their glasses off his, “At least permanent marker comes off eventually.”

“I’ve told Harley I’m gonna sell his bike if he ever draws on his brother” warned Bianca, laughing a little and then making a very serious face, “I do not want a baby with an arm full of tatts!”

“I don’t know…” giggled Billie, “You guys could be trendsetters! …Y’know full set of sleeves on a one year old?”

“I don’t think so” said Bianca, lifting her glass of wine again and taking a sip, “We’ve just spent a small fortune getting Heath’s neck tattoo removed, so I don’t think we’ll be getting our babies tatted up anytime soon.”

“Oh, I didn’t notice!” said Billie, craning her head to one side to look at Heath’s neck a little better. There was still a faint outline of the hand grenade but it was only really visible if you knew what you were looking for. “Wow! They did a good job, didn’t they?!”

“Yeah, it didn’t really give the best impression at work” said Heath, glancing at Kyle with a slightly guilty expression on his face. Bianca had nagged on and on at him about it until he’d finally caved and got it done. He didn’t like showing how under the thumb he was with her, even if everyone knew it already. He knew that he’d given up a large part of who he was so that he could be with Bianca. He just didn’t like it rubbed in his face all the time.

“Not a River Boy anymore then, eh?” teased Kyle, knowing that it was something that was bound to wind Heath up. Heath was always good at handing it out, but never so good at taking it. “What would the boys say about this new improved ‘city boy’ Heath, eh?!” he asked, giving him a sarcastic little wink, “With his nice smart suit and his big city job?”

“I’m still a River Boy” said Heath, suddenly looking a little more serious and puffing his chest out in a defensive way, “That’ll never change… It’s in the blood.” In truth, he really wasn’t sure that that was true anymore. Even Brax wasn’t a River Boy at this stage and his life had nothing to do with any of them anymore. He felt a little silly even saying it.

Bianca raised her eyebrows at the other two and took a sip of her wine. “That’s right” she said, with a wry little smile slowly forming on her lips, “I married a River Boy.” Heath was so far removed at this stage from the guy that she’d met all those years ago that it was a little ridiculous, but if he wanted to keep calling himself that she didn’t really care.

“Yeah, you did” smiled Heath, as he leaned over to give her a kiss. He’d either completely missed the patronising tone to her voice or he’d simply chosen to ignore it. “And don’t you forget it.” he added, throwing her a wink.

Bianca rolled her eyes at Billie and Kyle and turned to look at the door to the kitchen. “I’m really looking forward to this!” she said, looking genuinely excited, “I’ve heard really good things!”

“Yeah, it’s good” agreed Kyle, looking around his mate’s restaurant in an admiring way. Brody had done a good job with the décor and Kyle had to admit that the food was good, if a little pretentious. “Probably not your kind of thing though, Heath”

“What are you trying to say?!” gasped Heath, putting his hand against his chest in a slightly camp way and pretending to take offence, “That I’m not fancy enough for your fancy friend’s fancy restaurant?!”

“Oh no, Heath!” laughed Billie, reaching across and patting him gently on the wrist, “No-one would accuse you of that!”

He laughed and looked towards the door to the kitchen thinking that the food seemed to be taking a long time. The door opened and a waitress walked out with a huge tray, followed by a young waiter.

“Oi, ‘Castaway’!” called Heath, grinning from ear to ear when he recognised Matt as one of the waiters. A young waitress had taken their order, and he hadn’t noticed Matt flitting around the other tables, mainly because he hadn’t recognised him with his beard. Matt and the other waitress approached the table with a tray of amuse bouche. Heath looked up at him and laughed. “He even looks a bit like Tom Hanks, doesn’t he?!” he joked, glancing around at the other faces around the table. He obviously thought that the joke was much funnier than it was.

Kyle shook his head at him and pursed his lips in a way that told him to shut up. He gave Matt an encouraging little smile and said, “Looks like you’re doing well there, Matt… How are you finding it?”

“Yeah, it’s good” said Matt, doing his best to hide his nerves and keep his shaking hands steady as he began to lift the little stone blocks off the tray and position them in front of each diner. “Miss Scott” he said, giving her a nervous little nod and a smile as he set hers down in front of her.

“Oooh! Miss Scott!” teased Heath in a high pitched singing voice. “Look who thinks he’s still at school!”

Bianca fixed him with a steely glare that said to stop acting like some juvenile school bully and be a grown up for once. She looked up at Matt with a kind little smile and said, “It’s Mrs Braxton now actually… but you can call me Bianca. School was a long time ago.”

He nodded and bit his bottom lip as he struggled to maintain eye contact with her. “This is a trio of tasters” he said quietly, motioning to the dish that he’d just set down in front of her, “This first one is Seared Scallop, Mango and Timur Pepper Salsa with… um… with… Macadamia Nut Milk…”

“It’s what?!” said Heath, eyeing it with suspicion and then wrinkling his nose up as he looked up at Matt, “Seriously?! ‘Nut milk…?! Does anyone really want to eat this crap?!”

“Ignore him” said Bianca, rolling her eyes at Heath and then turning to give Matt an apologetic look, “What are the other two?”

“Hey, I’m just saying… I don’t see what’s wrong with a pepperoni pizza… At least you know what you’re eating.”

“My very cultured husband, everyone…” sighed Bianca, leaning over and pursing his lips shut with her fingers, “Can you shut up for once and let me enjoy this? I used to live in Italy, Heath! I nearly married a prince! ...I used to eat in places like this all the time… Let me relive some old glory days, just this one evening, please?!”

“Mh’okay” he mumbled, laughing through his gagged lips and shrugging his shoulders at her. He really couldn’t understand why people wanted to eat such pretentious food, but if it made Bianca happy then that was what was important. “Not another word” he said, biting his bottom lip to stifle his laughter when she let go.

She looked up at Matt and gave a big white smile. “Now, go on, Matt… What are these other two?”

Matt gave a little sigh and glanced at Kyle and Billie to see if they were laughing at him too. Heath was known for his insensitivity, but part of him felt like they were all here to ridicule him, and he wanted more than anything to just walk away and leave them to their over-priced tiny portions of food without having to explain it all. Did it really matter if they just shoved it in their smug faces without ever having known what exotic and hard to get ingredient had gone into making it? Would they enjoy it any less? They all seemed to be smirking at him and he felt like they were just waiting for him to make a mistake. He hated this! “This is um… This is…” he stammered, staring at the foamy concoction in one of the black amuse bouche spoons in front of Bianca. He knew this! He knew exactly what that dish was but for some reason he was drawing a blank. He began to sweat and he could feel his heartrate rising. “This is… um…” he said again, as his whole body began to shake, “I uh… It’s…” he continued, feeling their eyes on him as the room began to spin, “Uh…”

“It’s what?” asked Heath, beginning to get a little impatient. Matt’s eyes were darting around the table, and he just seemed a little dazed and confused like a rabbit caught in headlights. It was beginning to be a little creepy.

“Uhhh… It’s…” Matt tried again, starting to hyperventilate and taking a step away from the table, “It’s…”

“This one is Golden Beetroot and Goats Cheese Brulée with Rocket Foam and a Parmesan Crisp, and that’s a Blue Lobster Ravioli with Coconut Scented Lobster Cream and Toasted Almonds” said the young waitress, jumping in on Matt’s behalf.

Heath looked down at the three little spoons on the block in front of him and shook his head in disapproval. “All those ingredients, and it’s not even three mouthfuls” he complained.

“Just eat it” sighed Bianca, shaking her head at Kyle and Billie who were smirking on the other side of the table. Part of her wished that Heath had a little more knowledge of fine food and would take an interest in slightly more cultured things. It didn’t matter most of the time but occasionally it would have been nice to have that in common. Sometimes her ‘River Boy’ could be a little bit embarrassing to take out in public. She turned back around to thank Matt and the waitress, but Matt was already gone.

Matt stood outside the restaurant, at the back where the bins were, and leaned his back against the wall. His whole world felt like it was collapsing in on top of him. Walls seemed closer than they were, sounds seemed to be echoing and deafening at the same time, and he felt like the ground was doing its best to swallow him. Everything felt strange and exaggerated. He couldn’t breathe properly and his heart was pumping so fast now that he actually had a pain in his chest. Why was this happening again? Why now?! Was Heath Braxton being a little rude really enough to set off a panic attack like this?! He’d been doing so well at keeping things together the last few weeks. Dealing with people had been getting a little easier although that was mainly because the people who came to eat there were mostly unknowns. He could deal with people who didn’t know who he was quite easily. The problem was when they wanted to talk to him, and started making chitchat, or asked him how Roo was. He couldn’t deal with it, and he’d come close to a panic attack a couple of times. Hannah and Chris had nearly set him off a few days ago but he’d gotten through it. Now, here he was falling to pieces because the Braxtons had thought it would be funny to tease him a little. Was he really this much of a pathetic loser that he couldn’t take a bit of light ribbing? He did kind of look like Tom Hanks in Castaway, but at least he didn’t look like some wannabe extra from Bikie Wars! Why couldn’t he have said that?! What had happened to the smart mouthed Matt Page that he’d once been? Why couldn’t he just have fired off a couple of wise-cracks and gotten on with things? Had the old Matt died all those years ago in the shipwreck?  He undid the button on the neck of his shirt and put his fingers up to feel his pulse. His heart was going far too fast! How was he going to make this stop?! He hated this feeling…

“Matt?!” shouted Brody, sticking his head out the door of the kitchen with an angry expression on his face, “When I call service, I expect you to be there! Food is getting cold! What are you doing?!”

“I… I…” panted Matt, staring at him wide-eyed and frightened looking, He was sweating profusely and visibly shaking where he stood. “I… I’ll be there…”

Brody walked out towards him, squinting to try to see him better in the dark, and stood for a moment with his hands on his hips. He shook his head slowly and his expression softened a little when he saw what a state Matt was in. “Mate… Do you think maybe… Do you think maybe a place like this is a bit too much for you?”

“I can’t lose this job!” blurted Matt, collapsing down the wall into a hunkered position and gripping the front of his shirt in a panicked way. He stared up at Brody with fear-filled eyes, “Please?! Brody?!”

Brody came over and knelt down beside him, putting his hand on his shoulder, and said, “C’mon, just try to slow your breathing down.”

Matt looked up at him and thought, ‘Now there’s something I never would have thought of! Slow my breathing?! What a novel idea!’ Why did people insist on saying the most stupid and obvious things when you were already stressed enough?! He didn’t say it though, partly because he couldn’t breathe enough to speak, and partly because he didn’t want to get fired for being such a smart-ass.

One of the other chefs stuck his head out the door to check where Brody had gone and held his hands up in a ‘what are you doing?’ kind of way.

“I’m coming” shouted Brody and motioned for him to go back inside. He picked up a crate that was sitting by the wall and overturned it to make Matt a seat. “Now sit here” he said, getting up again and wiping his hands on his apron, “I’ll get someone to bring you out a glass of water… and you can come back in when you’ve calmed yourself down.”

Brody walked back inside and washed his hands before taking out his phone. “Hi, yeah, this is Brody Morgan” he said, holding the phone between his ear and his shoulder as he began plating up an intricate salad of micro-herbs and edible flowers with a pair of tweezers, “I’m going to need someone to come and collect Matt from work. He’s not feeling very well.”

 

*****

 

“Thanks for picking me up” said Matt, sheepishly sliding into the passenger seat of Alf’s ute and looking decidedly embarrassed, “I could have gotten home on my own though.”

“I’m sure you could” said Alf, reversing the ute out of the car park and swinging it back towards home, “But Roo was worried, so I said I’d come and get you.”

“Roo was worried?” he asked, furrowing his brow at him with concern, “Why? What did Brody say to you?”

“Just that you’d had another one of your turns.” said Alf, glancing at him for a moment before returning his eyes to the road. He felt bad for him, remembering how scary a full-on panic attack could be, and he just wished that he could tell him that. They had a lot in common, him and Matt. Anyone could see that Matt was suffering from PTSD and if anyone could understand that then Alf could. They hadn’t been through the same sort of trauma but they both had their scars to bear. He knew that he should be offering him advice and support, and putting a friendly hand on his shoulder to tell him that things would be alright. But he just couldn’t do it. He didn’t really understand why though… Why did he have to be so hard on him all the time, and why couldn’t he bring himself to extend a kind word? He hated himself for it but there was just something inside him that he couldn’t let go of. He was angry with him. Irrational as it was, part of him couldn’t help blaming Matt for what had happened. It was as though it was his fault that the two of them had ended up stranded on that island. He knew that it wasn’t, and that he was being ridiculous, but he just couldn’t let it go. Maybe he just needed someone to blame? Maybe he needed someone to be angry with? He looked at Matt’s sad face, with his teary looking eyes as he stared out the passenger seat window, and he shook his head at himself in a disappointed sort of way. “Brody just said he was giving you the rest of the evening off” he added.

“Who’s with Roo?” asked Matt, turning to look at him with a worried expression, “She’s not on her own, is she?!”

“No, young Maddy’s keeping her company” he answered, wondering what had happened at that sleep study that meant that Roo now needed constant babysitting. “Maddy said she wanted a chat with you two when you get home.” he said.

“What about?” asked Matt, thinking that he really just wanted to go to his room and hide. An evening of chit chat with Maddy was the last thing that he wanted tonight, and he could already feel his chest beginning to tighten again at the thought of it. When would he ever get back to normal?

“You’ll need to ask her” growled Alf, sounding a little impatient, “That’s between you two and Maddy, isn’t it?!” Why could he not just answer Matt in a way that was half-way civil, he wondered.

“Okay” said Matt in a depressed sounding voice, as he turned and stared out the window again. He was tired of trying to make things right with Alf. It obviously wasn’t going to happen no matter how much he wished it would. He couldn’t go back and ‘un-sleep’ with Roo, or ‘un-fall in love’ with her either. Roo and Alfie were his life now whether Alf liked that or not. It was just a pity that Alf couldn’t get on board with it because he really could have used a father figure right now. He really wished that his dad could have been someone good and that he could have had some family around him to help out. He thought about Ellie, and how much he would have liked to have been around for her when she was a teenager, but he’d missed such a big part of her life. She’d ended up in foster care, after he’d gone missing and their dad had died. She’d been lucky to have a good foster family who’d actually adopted her in the end, despite her age, but they’d all picked up and moved to Paris a couple of years ago. She was nearly nineteen years old now, and living on the other side of the world, and he felt sad when he thought how little he actually knew about her. His own little sister might as well have been a stranger to him at this stage. Her life had just gone on without him, as though he had died, and she didn’t even seem particularly excited to know that he was safe and well. If anything she had seemed angry and resentful, and hadn’t been overly friendly on the few Skype calls that they’d had since he’d been home. She hadn’t even answered him the last few times that he’d tried to call, and she wasn’t answering any of his messages. He’d simply lost her. With her living in France, how would he ever really get to know her properly now? His dad had died while he was gone, and his sister had moved as far away as she could possibly get. He felt sad and lost. Looking at Alf now as he swung the car around the roads in an angry sort of way, he thought that he might actually start to cry. Life was hard when you were on your own like this. He needed Alf more than he would ever know.

Still, he had Roo and Alfie and he was going to make sure that Alfie never found himself so alone in the world like he and Ellie had. He was going to be a good dad if it killed him.

They pulled into the driveway outside the house, and Matt went to open the car door, but Alf suddenly reached out and held Matt’s wrist to pull him back into his seat. He turned to look at him with eyes wide with surprise, “Uh… Mr Stewart?” he asked, looking at Alf’s hand on his wrist and then up at Alf with a confused expression.

Alf continued to stare out through the windscreen and thought back to the day that they’d received word of the search being called off. The search and rescue operation had been going on for weeks but they’d finally reached the cut-off point. There had been no sign of them. Not a trace! ‘Missing at Sea, and presumed dead’. Roo and Matt had simply disappeared off the face of the planet, along with three other passengers on board the sunken cruise-liner. Everyone else had been fished out, some without a scratch, some with minor injuries from the explosion, and they’d managed to recover two bodies in the days that followed. There had been five missing though. Small pieces of clothing from a couple of the others had been recovered, but there hadn’t been the tiniest trace of Roo and Matt. “Eaten by sharks maybe”, the news channels had surmised, or “swept out too far and lost to the deep waters”, but no-one really knew anything for sure. He remembered that call with an icy chill down the middle of his back. In that moment he had lost his daughter that he loved very much, and a young man that he had thought of as a grandson. His world had come crashing down around him and he’d spent a huge amount of his own money conducting private searches of islands in and around the place where the boat went down. He’d looked for nearly a year until people had convinced him to give up. That’s when the grieving had really begun. A dark cloud had descended over him and he’d locked himself away for months on end. He’d closed his bait shop and stopped running his boat charters, and generally just abandoned life. For nearly a year he’d become a recluse, barely eating or washing, and letting things at the caravan park slip into ruin. Then something had changed. He didn’t know what or why, but he’d come to accept that they were gone. That she was gone. Life had slowly become bearable again and he’d started to look into charitable foundations that worked with the families of those that were lost at sea. He’d thrown himself into helping others and he’d slowly become a part of the community again. In the end, he’d accepted the tragedy that life had thrown at him. He’d accepted it. Then suddenly they were back and his whole sense of purpose had been thrown in the air again. How could he resent them for being alive?

Not just alive; they were sitting in his living-room! They were home safe and sound. They hadn’t died like he’d thought and he’d been grieving for them for no reason. It was almost embarrassing! They’d been living on an island, busy baby-making, and they’d turned up again as brazen as could be, flaunting their miss-matched love affair in people’s faces! Those same people that had mourned their passing. It was as though they had no shame! He knew that his feelings were irrational. Not just irrational, but downright twisted. Why should Matt and Roo feel guilty for being alive?! What kind of person would expect them to?!

 They were alive… and they were home! Surely he should have been ****-a-hoop? Why couldn’t he feel happy about it?! He couldn’t understand it. What on earth was wrong with him?!

“Uh… Mr Stewart?” said Matt again, as he looked down at Alf’s hand clamped around his wrist. He wasn’t saying anything and the thought began to cross his mind that he might be having a stroke. “Are you okay?” he asked, looking at him in concern.

“I reckon I probably owe you an apology” said Alf, continuing to stare out the front window of the car and without making eye contact with him.

“Uhhh…” stammered Matt, unsure of what to say, “Uhhh… Mr Stewart…. It’s… okay…”

“No, it’s not okay” Alf said, shaking his head as he continued to look out the window, “I’ve been behaving like a flamin’ galah since you got home… the two of you… and I reckon it’s time I pulled my horns in.”

Matt wasn’t sure of what to make of this. Alf was rarely one to admit that he was wrong and this half-hearted grumbled apology was the equivalent of anybody else grovelling at your feet. “Uhhh” Matt said again, looking at him with eyebrows raised in surprise.

“I may not agree with the two of you being together but… what’s done is done I suppose… and I’m going to have to try to…” he said, searching for the right word. “I’m going to try to ‘accept’ it”

“Uhhh… thanks Mr Stewart” said Matt, as his chin began to tremble and he suddenly burst into tears. He turned to stare out the passenger seat window because he was too embarrassed to let Alf see him cry. “That means a lot” he said, blinking furiously and wiping at his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt.

“I said I’d try” warned Alf, feeling shocked and a little ashamed of himself when he saw how overcome with emotion Matt was. Being cruel to him really was like kicking a puppy, but he wasn’t all that sure that he’d be able to set his anger and resentment aside. “I’ll try to bite my tongue and let you two get on with things.” he said.

Matt glanced at him for a moment, tempted to throw his arms around him and force him into a hug, but he thought better of it. Instead, he tentatively held out his hand to shake, and nodded at him. After a moment’s hesitation, Alf took hold of his hand, and shook it firmly. “Now go inside and see what those two women want from you.”

[Red Ranger 1]

Great chapter.It was good to see both Matt and Alf examine their recent behaviour and attitudes and try (but largely fail) to move beyond them: Matt can see that he's better off than he was on the island but still has trouble with his new life, Alf can see that he's being unfair but still can't let go of the anger. The stuff with the Braxtons was fun but then Heath took it too far winding up Matt.Nice that Brody was broadly sympathetic.

[Ludub]

24 minutes ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

The stuff with the Braxtons was fun but then Heath took it too far winding up Matt.

Thanks Red, glad you enjoyed it  I thought it'd be fun to have some more characters in the story and you know how much I love Kyle so I thought, why not?!  and I've always loved Heath. The idea of him in a Michelin star type restaurant made me chuckle. Heath Braxton eating amuse bouche, haha! He could always be a bit insensitive too so I thought it'd be interesting to see how he dealt with Matt. Glad you liked it.

[KittCatt]

Great chapter!

Poor Matt  Certainly not a great day at work. Wonder what is going to happen regarding his job now. Enjoyed the inclusion of Health and Bianca too, as well as Billie and Kyle.

I bet Roo feels wonderful being babysat 24/7... those results take time don't they. Glad everyone is supporting her though. 

Matt's scars must tell an interesting story, is the scar on his leg connected to why Roo was alone giving birth??

The ending was quite sweet- as sweet as Alf could be to Matt  I still continue to enjoy the insight into their lives during the time Roo and Matt were gone. Alf thought his daughter had died, and had eventually come to terms with that. Matt's sister had moved continents and now seems like a stranger..  Glad Alf and Matt could make some sort of peace

I look forward to more  

[Guest]

Great chapter 

loved the edition of the Braxton's.

Glad Alf and Matt agreed to try and move forward.

Update again soon

 

[pembie]

Finally Alf sees the errors of his ways But it was very good getting a insight into how he was coping while Matt and Roo were missing.....

I liked Heath he was my favourite Braxton and him calling Matt castaway and calling him Tom Hanks did make me laugh... Did Matt leave his Wilson beach ball back on the Island?

I want to  know what happened to Matt that caused him to get that scar on the side of his foot. The one that will haunt him for the rest of his life... Got a feeling that's the reason he wasn't there when Roo was on her own having Alfie

Nice back story with Ellie

[Inactive User]

Great chapter

Liked how you described Ellie's backstory. And I liked the way how Alf and Matt agreed to try and move forward

Looking forwards to the next chapter Xxx

[Suzza101]

Great chapter. 

Heath took it too far winding up Matt. 

I love your story and can't wait for the next chapter. 

Please update soon.