Red Ranger 1

From what I've heard, it sounds as though .I just hope that we get a proper scene dealing with all that's happened instead of her just slotting back into the Bay with it all forgotten about.I think people will feel short-changed if that happens.

I'm not really sure what's going to happen to these two.It seemed as though Geoff and Nicole were going to stay together and he and Melody were just going to be friends.But the way he talked about her and Matthew("He's not right for you")was pretty much the same way she talked about him and Nicole and indeed the way Nicole talked about them, which does suggest he's a bit jealous.Maybe there is unfinished business there.

Really hate what they've done to Donna, they've completely ruined her for me.I used to adore her but for the first time in living memory I'm finding myself not really liking her at all.

^Oh yeah, did anyone see that really weird edit about how Sam and Martha were going to have a fight and get washed out to sea and Jack was going to save Martha and leave Sam to drown?Weird. I liked these two when they first got together.They just seemed completely natural and had great chemistry.Then they got married and seemed to set to live happily ever after.And, er, then they split up straight away over something really petty.(Didn't help that Leah and Dan, who I was never entirely sold on, got back together and they didn't.)If I was Alf, I'd have told Martha to stop being so childish and go back to her husband. Then they had them with other people for a while and they kept flirting with the idea of getting back together and not doing it and I kind of lost interest.When I heard they were going to reunite, I wasn't particularly bothered...until I saw the reunion scene and it just worked.Despite everything, they just looked so right together.And although there's been the odd occasion when they've annoyed me, there've been others when they've been so sweet and they so obviously belong together.If they really have I'll be incredibly cross because it feels like they never gave them two minutes of happiness.

Yay, good ending.Liked Geoff talking Aden out of doing something stupid and finally being there for Nicole.

^Oh yeah.Maybe someone should have noticed that...Ah well.Guess there's only so many names in the world.

Loved it!Brilliant!Really funny! Oh damn, I'm meant to be cooking a meal...Er, loved it!Still.

Oh my god!You actually did it!Very very brave choice.I don't think anyone could have predicted the story would end up here.As someone said, if Aden dies too there's not going to be that many of them left.I am really enjoying this story, I thought I had a handle on where it was going but you just keep surprising me.

I don't know what you were worrying about, I thought that was very good.You're capturing everyone's reactions very well.

Oh gosh.I genuinely don't know what's going to happen to Belle here and I am really looking forward to finding out.Liked the bit where Aden assumed she was pregnant and went and told everyone and nice that the relationship between her and Geoff hasn't been forgotten.

Good idea for a one shot, it's one of those scenarios that we've probably all wondered about from time to time.You wrote it well.

Oh gosh, a lot of updates again.Irene is Aden's grandmother?Leah's dead and someone sabotaged her car?Geoff may or may not be about to propose to Nicole?What the heck's going to happen next?!

Now to the bit where I disagree with you! For me, that scene in the bedroom was Aden trying to straighten out the mess they were in, and figure out Belle's true feelings for him for once and for all. At this point, Belle had told him that she still loved him (after the courtcase). He had heard her teary admission to wishing Aden had told her he wanted her back before she had slept with Angelo. And just before that, she admitted to protecting him from the developers threat. I think it was pretty clear to Aden at this stage that she still had feelings for him, and the scene in the bedroom was just his way of making her confront her true feelings. I think the way in which he went about it was pretty much keeping in character with Aden, in that he fights for what he believes in. Belle did make a few half-hearted attempts at a rebuttal, but I don't think for an instant that Aden forced her hand in any way. I would like to think that had she rebuffed him strongly, he would have accepted her decision, but thats all hearsay I guess! I will try and make this the last time I bang on about this scene because I imagine people are tired of hearing it.Here's my take on what happened.Aden doesn't go to that room to find out how Belle feels. He goes there to tell her how she feels and get her to do something about it.Belle, in my view, is torn between what she wants(Aden)and doing what she thinks is right(not hurting/cheating on Angelo). Maybe it is in character for Aden to act in an aggressive manner but really all he needed her to do was get her to admit what she wanted(confront her true feelings as other people have put it)and then they could sit down and discuss calmly how they were going to proceed.But instead, much like Belle with the development, he seemed to want everything to happen straightaway.He kissed her and she pushed him away because she knew it was the wrong thing to do.Then, after more intense dialogue about how they're meant to be together and how it's right, he kissed her again and she gave in to it and responded.I do think that he pressured her into acting on her feelings against her better judgement.

Absolutely loved the way Nicole told Geoff.He'd better change his mind and grow up and help her deal with this. Getting a bit worried about Belle.See what happens.

Okay, I would like to point out that, true or not, this is a "real world" explanation for why Belle cheated on Angelo and, in terms of the fiction, doesn't in any way exonerate her and Aden.With that out of the way... So, we're saying that Angelo was brought in purely so that he could and the relationship between him and Belle was just a way of getting him into that place rather than a way of keeping her and Aden apart?Possible.Could they have done it another way? Well, Angelo never liked Aden.And right from the moment he came back to the Bay and started working with Belle at the Diner again, he obviously wasn't happy with the idea of spending time together.So imagine that Aden and Belle had done things the right way round:Belle had broken up with Angelo first and then got back together with Aden.Angelo is unlikely to have shaken their hands and wished them luck.His behaviour would probably have been less extreme but he may well have been angry and upset and given them a hard time and still .Maybe it would have been less believable but they probably could have managed it without making Aden and Belle in the wrong.

Given that I was the one that brought up the phrase "emotional blackmail", I think I should probably give my own perspective on the scene I mentioned.As someone said, we all view these scenes differently depending on how we view the characters.The way I see it, Belle says to Aden "I love you but nothing else can happen between us until I've finished with Angelo."He then reminds her of all that he's been through recently and how much he needs her support and makes her feel bad for pushing him away so she carries on seeing him even though she knows it's the wrong thing to do.I call that emotional blackmail.But that's just the way I viewed the scene and other people evidently saw it differently. Broadly speaking, I don't think Belle did anything she didn't want to.But I do think that the way Aden behaved towards her was, possibly unconsciously, rather manipulative and caused her to do things she knew were wrong, even though they were what she wanted to do.When he came to see her in her bedroom, she said "No" to him at least once and told him she'd chosen Angelo and he basically ignored her.I was accused once of implying that Aden raped Belle which isn't what I believe.But I do wonder sometimes how long it would have taken Aden to get the message if Belle had stuck to her principles and kept saying "No".As with many of Aden's actions during that period, the only reason he got away with it was because he was right and Belle did still have feelings for him.If he'd misread things and she really hadn't wanted to be with him, his behaviour would have been rather unnerving. And just to prove that I can be balanced, I don't think there was anything underhand about the kiss in the car, that was just them reacting to a certain situation.It caused a few problems in retrospect since it left her feeling confused and probably encouraged him to keep pursuing her at a time when he seemed ready to move on.But I don't think it was the same thing. Just as I don't think Belle not breaking up with Angelo because she felt guilty about being in bed with another man while he was being hit over the head really qualifies as emotional blackmail.It just qualifies as...guilt.And given that she came up with a new excuse for not telling Angelo every episode, first saying she'd do it when he was out of hospital, then when he was back on his feet, then when she didn't need a friendly policeman on tap anymore, I do wonder whether she'd actually have been brave enough to be honest with him even if it hadn't happened.

Had an awful lot of updates to catch up on there.Loved Aden casually telling Irene that Geoff had got Nicole pregnant. I've been wondering if the agony aunt is Roman because he seemed to know about Nicole's pregnancy. Or am I remembering that wrong?Probably should have checked...

On a completely different subject, I noticed an earlier post where someone said Ric and Belle were like Geoff and Melody.Which I find interesting because I'd actually been thinking they were like Geoff and Nicole.Belle was someone who seemed to have been a bit rebellious and just hung around with whoever showed an interest, whether she liked them or not.Then she found herself going out with someone who was actually a decent guy and liked her as a person and it seemed to surprise her, as though she wasn't used to being treated with respect.I think it probably helped her grow up a bit.

Ooh, really interesting!I like the way you've played about a bit with the usual pairings.Looking forward to the next chapter.

Red Ranger 1, your contributions to the threads are not attacks at all in my view! I find you're always stating your view in a very constructive way and that's exactly the kind of healthy debate I was talking about. Thanks for saying so.But I'll freely admit there have been times when I've got annoyed about a post and replied with an ill-considered rant which I'll try and keep to a minimum.

Oh my god!They're dead?!And Geoff and Nicole have slept together and she might be pregnant and they've been stuck there for two months and I probably need to breathe now?!?! And Aden and Belle did something, sorry, zoned out during that part... Joking, okay?Joking.

I agree, Belle wasn't the only one at fault.No-one involved behaved particularly responsibly.Geoff, understandably, was more concerned about Melody.Nicole...is Nicole frankly and, certainly at that point, I didn't expect any better of her.The people I was most disappointed in were Tony and Belle. Tony's response to the situation was to give Aden a lecture that he blatantly ignored but not bother to tell Roman or the police.As someone pointed out on another thread(and as someone else just pointed out), he went to see Melody to try and get her to press charges but didn't seem interested in getting Axel to press charges even though what Aden did was just as bad in my opinion. However, Belle was the only person, except maybe Nicole, who actually "forgave" him for what happened.For those who aren't quite on top of the storyline, Annie tells Geoff what happened to Melody and he goes to the Den and tries to attack Axel in front of Aden and Belle, who break things up.Oddly, even though he sticks up for him when Geoff's there, even at that point Aden seems to assume Axel's in the wrong.Later, Annie arrives and tells Aden and Belle what happened.Belle decides to go and find Geoff to stop him doing something stupid but Aden seems more interested in finding Axel.Belle then finds Axel badly beaten and barely conscious on the beach and takes him to hospital(where he refuses to tell the police what happened).Clearly shaken, Belle goes home and tells Annie what happened and when Geoff arrives he neither confirms nor denies being responsible.Belle then realises there's a more likely candidate and goes to confront Aden, who isn't sorry about what he did but is worried that if Roman finds out he'll throw him out.(Which seems a bit odd, especially in retrospect when Aden did a lot worse and Roman didn't seem to particularly care.)Nicole overhears the conversation and promises to keep quiet.Later, at the Den, Belle tells Aden she won't tell anyone.Tony turns up and tries to impress on Aden that he did the wrong thing(having found out what happened when Geoff admitted he saw Aden attacking Axel and did nothing, which he at least had the decency to feel bad about)but Aden just stood there looking smug and Tony gave up and left.Belle was angry and stormed out.Aden follows her and says "Axel's scum.He deserved it.Trust me, I know."And Belle basically just accepts it. Then he starts flirting with her and, I believe for the first time, she doesn't seem to mind.Which seems like a very strange reaction. Maybe I missed some episode/scene but how/when did Aden emotionally blackmail Belle into keeping their ralationship going alongiside her relationship with Angelo? Sorry, I missed out on this discussion.I was referring to the scene at the end of the "reunion episode" where Aden and Belle are down on the pier.Aden tries to put his arm round her and Belle shakes him off, saying she doesn't feel comfortable getting cosey with him while Angelo's in hospital.Then Aden says(and this probably isn't an exact quote but this is the gist of it)"I'm trying to get better.If I don't have you, I won't be able to manage it."Which is a bit pretty extreme guilt trip and seems to be putting an awful lot of pressure on her on at least two levels.

Yeah, the way it's plotted out it's going to be about the same length.I think that's just the length I write to, I can't seem to do really long or really short. Thanks to everyone who's continuing to comment in here and I promise I'll give you something interesting to read soon.

Oh, tonight's episode(well, the first half anyway)was the funniest thing ever.Liz saying Danielle was cheap and an oblivious Michelle noting that that's Lloyd's type, Dev's ridiculous advice to Tyrone which he then proceeded to ignore himself, the cab office scenes with the boys begging Eileen to work and Lloyd's plaintive message to the drivers...Classic.

I have just found this, I have just read it and as possibly the one remaining Lucas/Belle fan I just want to say that I really, really loved it.It was so lovely and sweet and funny and I like how you brought the rest of the Bay into it as well. Merry Christmas two years on!Or should that be Happy New Year now...Twenty minutes to go where I am.