Red Ranger 1

I agree that .I just wish they'd given them a break first:Since they've been back together, she's been pregnant with another man's child, then they gave her cancer and now this.Would it have hurt to let them be happy for just a little bit?

Off topic, I know, but please no more Aden/Melody scenes.It's even more contrived than Aden/ Belle.Just because they happened to go crazy at the same time, suddenly they're best friends?I understood them spending time together in the clinic, they were both looking for a connection to their normal lives, even if it was someone they'd never spoken to before.But trying to turn him into a cuddly big brother figure is a horrible "pat the dog" idea. Anyway...If they do split them up, then I agree they'll have to be very careful not to make anyone seem unlikeable as a result, which is why I think they're safe for a while and certainly that Geoff shouldn't go straight back to Melody if they do.It's a shame that there seems to be some contractual rule that characters have to appear every week because it often results in them being shoehorned into episodes that don't really need them.If Geoff and Nicole appear, it should be because there's a reason for them to do so, not so they can stand around in the background during someone else's storyline.It doesn't mean they have to have a big storyline or some sort of major drama but the relationship does need to be explored properly.

Can actually see both sides of this argument.If Geoff and Melody do get back together, which seems more possible than it used to, then like I said earlier I wouldn't want it to happen straightaway.They should probably have a go at being friends first and build up to it.Is Melody interested in being friends with Geoff?Perhaps not at the moment, which is unfortunate because before they got together she did seem quite happy with it.And I certainly wouldn't want Geoff to cheat on Nicole with her, that'd pretty much be the end of both of them. Is Geoff considered a "hot, popular guy"?Could go either way.Girls did seem to be interested in him at the start of the year but the fact that his idea of a good time seemed to involve taking them to prayer meetings put them off a bit.Then when he and Melody broke up, he did notice he was receiving more female attention and Nicole told him it was because the word was out he was single again and she ended up pretending to be his girlfriend in order to put off suitors. Even though this isn't her thread, I feel the need to defend Nicole here a bit.Certainly at the start, she didn't seem particularly interested in Geoff(or anyone else)as a person but after it came out about the bet she did actually seem to be genuinely trying to help Geoff and Melody when Christine had banned them from seeing each other(which is a bit surprising given that now she seems determined to keep them apart).And then there was that bonding scene on the beach after she'd been rejected by Aden and he'd been rejected by Melody and they did actually seem to be becoming friends, even though she was still hung up on Aden(even though, at the time, he seemed to treat her as at best a poor substitute for Belle).I remember that scene where they saw Ruby and Pat kissing in the surf club and Geoff told her he saw it as a private expression of affection rather than showing off in public and even though she didn't exactly agree she saw his point of view(although again, they do that sort of thing all the time now).But then there was the incident at the camp where, with the best of intentions, Geoff got her into trouble and she decided that he wasn't her friend(it was interesting that even Ruby, who was hardly Nicole's biggest fan, thought Geoff should have minded his own business), which I think pretty much pushed her into Elliot's arms.When he told her on the beach that he liked her, her reaction was broadly the same as Belle's when Aden told her he still liked her, as if he was the one she really wanted to be with but she(still)thought he wasn't interested.Even when he made a fool of himself blurting out how he felt in the corridor, she seemed more pleased than embarassed.I think it was knowing that Geoff would be there for her that gave her the courage to stand up to Elliot and finish things.

I think Belle is one of those characters whose background I never paid much attention to.I remember we met her adoptive father in one episode but I don't remember that many details.I seem to recall that her adoptive parents had had her handed to them illegally by Kitty(since Amanda thought she was dead)and that they didn't really seem to have much interest in her, her father only turned up because Amanda had come into money and having looked after her for years he thought they were entitled to some of it.They reported her missing to the police but when Peter tracked her down they weren't actually interested in having her back.She had a sister?Don't remember that at all.It's probably one of those details that disappeared into the ether.I think Ric was meant to have a sister too at one point.

^No, you're not missing anything.The Guv is/was/would have been Ric's grandmother.I forget not everyone's a continuity nut like I am. Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I'll try and get a chapter posted over the weekend.

Despite being very much on the opposite side of the fence, I agree with a lot of what's been said.Given the number of loose ends lying around the show, I don't think we'll ever get any proper resolution for the way they treated Geoff and/or Angelo, although if anything happens to Angelo as a result of it'll be nice to see a bit of guilt from Belle(and possibly also Aden, although he doesn't seem to do guilt very well)over what's happened. One of the problems with this couple is that we very rarely get to see them actually be a couple. They just seem to get plunged into crisis after crisis.It would be good if we can have a bit of a quiet period for them, without any major storylines, so we can see what they're like under "normal" conditions. I don't know if it's a recent thing or if I've only just noticed it but it seems like there's this rule that every single character is in two or three episodes a week, no more no less, whether they're in the middle of an important storyline or just popping up to say two lines.Which means that we never see all the characters together and they all seem to end up split into little groups that never interact with anyone else.That's probably a large part of the reason why Aden and Belle hardly ever seem to have scenes with anyone but each other.

I think I could have accepted Geoff and Nicole sleeping together in principle but the problem was it was really badly done.There was no build-up, they shared their first kiss and suddenly they were having sex like Geoff had been doing it all his life.That was even more abrupt and out of character than Aden sleeping with Belle.There is a feeling that having got them together they don't really know what to do with them but we'll see how it pans out next year.

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.