An Unlikely Couple

[dolly-999]

Story Title: An Unlikely Couple

Type of story: long fic

Main Characters: Jack, Martha, Hayley, Scott and others

BTTB rating: G

Genre: Romance/Drama

Does story include spoilers: No

Any warnings: V/D SC L

Summary: AU fic. Can Scott ignore his love for Martha when she loves Jack? Will Martha open up to Jack so he can help save someone she loves the most?

Hey everyone, this is something I started on another site a while ago, it's pretty long so far (27 chapters and still going) so take your time. It starts off as Martha and Scott, but it will be Jack and Martha later on.

Chapter number 1. too confusing for me.

"Oh no I’m gonna be late again, Grand dad’s gonna kill me!" Martha said to herself as she looked at her watch and ran to the door grabbing her handbag on the way. Once again she had gone off into her own little world. It had been a whole month since Jack had gone to the city on undercover work, and when he left he had broken up with her, yes they had their problems, but every relationship did didn’t it? A tear began to run down her face, she was so lonely. ‘No Martha, pull yourself together’ she said very sternly to herself as she got to Noah’s bar where she worked.

"Well you’re here early," Beth Hunter said sarcastically as Martha rushed through the door of the surf club and put one of the work shirts over top of what she was wearing.

"Sorry, I dosed off again," Martha said very apologetically, still catching her breath.

"That’s like the third time this week, just be glad your grandfather doesn’t work here on a Friday, anyway I’ve got to take these boxes over to the dinner, will you be right here?" Beth asked as she lifted a box and turned towards the door.

"Yeap" Martha said as she turned around to serve some customers, only to see Scott standing there, Martha froze, things had been a bit weird between both of them lately, it was almost like they had a connection, ‘could he feel it to?’ She thought to herself ‘or was it just because they were both lonely?’ Scott and Hayley had broken up a few weeks after they got to Paris the reason being that Scott had found out that Noah wasn’t his baby, it wasn’t Kim’s either, the father was some guy called Steve that Hayley had met at the pub one night. After Scott found out he had come straight back from Paris leaving Hayley and Noah there.

"Are you awake?" Martha’s thoughts were interrupted by Scott’s voice.

"Oh, yeah, I just had a late night last night, that’s all." Martha explained, looking down at her feet to avoid making eye contact.

"Anyway" Scott continued, trying to get out of yet another weird moment between the two of them "could I please get an orange juice?" He had that friendly smile on his face that she had seen so many times before but this time it made her feel warm inside and she smiled back at him.

"Yeah, sure."

As Martha handed Scott his glass Scott’s hand brushed up against Martha’s and she could feel an electric current pass between them this made the whole situation even more confusing.

Little did Martha know that at the same moment Scott was equally confused, he was in agony, ‘could she feel it to?’ he thought to himself, why was he feeling this way?

"Thanks" Scott said as he took the glass of orange juice and took a sip.

"Your welcome" Martha replied still trying to avoid eye contact with him. At that same moment Beth came through the door.

"I won’t be a minute, I just forgot my keys" Beth said grabbing her keys from the counter and headed back out the door but before she got to far she turned around "ah, Scott do you think you could help me move some boxes into the car?"

"Yeah sure" Scott replied finishing the last mouthful of his drink.

"Ok there sitting next to my car, I just need some help putting them into the boot." Beth told him as they walked out the door.

Martha gave a sigh of relief, ‘thank you Beth’ she mumbled to herself. She had to figure out why she was feeling so weird around Scott and him being there was only going to make the whole situation even worse.

"Hey, Mac" Tash greeted her.

"Oh, hi. I didn’t expect to see you here" Martha said sounding slightly surprised to see her best friend Tash standing at the counter.

"What can’t I come and visit my best friend at work?" Tash questioned playfully.

"Of cause you can, but your supposed to be at school missy" Martha said with a concerned look on her face.

"You’re starting to sound like Irene" Tash said rolling her eyes "anyway all the teachers are on strike so we all got to come home."

"Yay, now you can spend the day with me!" Martha exclaimed sounding excited.

"Well most of it anyway, I told Robbie I’d come and help him finish repainting our room after I came and said hi to you"

"Well I get off at twelve so do you want to go to the diner for lunch."

"Yeah that sounds great, I’ll meet you there" Tash answered "I’d better go."

"Ok I’ll see you later then."

"Bye." Tash said as she headed for the door.

Chapter number 2. Love or Loneliness

“Ok, that’s the last one” Scott said closing the boot of his mum’s car.

“Thanks Scottie” Beth replied, pausing for a moment “so are you going to tell me what’s going on between you and Martha?” Beth asked.

“Why has Martha said something to you?” Scott questioned. As he got into the front passengers seat of his mum’s car.

“No, just the way you two have been acting over the last few days is a bit odd. Anyone would think you were avoiding each other” Beth commented.

Scott sighed, she was absolutely right there was something going on between him and Martha, but he wasn’t about to tell his mum either. “Um I u-….”

Beth cut Scott off “I know something’s going on so don’t play games with me Scott”.

“I’m not playing games cause there’s nothing going on” Scott lied raising, his tone of voice.

“Ok I was just asking” Beth said also raising her tone. At that moment they arrived at the dinner and Scott got straight out of the car, opened the boot and took a pile of boxes into the dinner trying to avoid more questions from his Mum. He couldn’t tell her what was going on, especially considering he didn’t really know what was going on either.

An hour Later Martha was sitting in the dinner across the table from Tash telling her what had happened that morning.

“Are you going to say something to him?” Tash asked

“No, all I’d be doing is making an idiot of myself”.

“Not necessarily, for all you know he could be thinking exactly the same thing” Tash said trying to convince Martha.

“Yeah and what if he’s not Tash?”

“Well you won’t know till you say something, will you?”

“Oh, why do you have to always be right?” Martha groaned “Anyway why can’t he make the first move?”

“Because that’s so fashioned” Tash said guessing slowly “I don’t know! But I do know that the longer you leave it the more difficult it’s going to get”.

“Yeah maybe, look I’m shore that if it’s meant to be then when the time is right it’ll happen,” Martha said with a straight look on her face.

Almost exactly after Martha had said this her Grand dad Alf Stuart walked through the door “Hey, Martha I’ve been looking for you everywhere, are you ready to go?” He asked her.

“Go where?” she asked.

“Oh don’t tell me you’ve forgotten about the favor I asked you”.

“Oh – um, th-that um, I-I’ll be there in a minute Grand dad, ok” Martha answered.

“What was that all about?” Tash asked.

“Um, last week I told Grand dad I’d go with Scott to get the new boat from some town a few hours away” Martha answered with a disappointed look on her face.

“I’m guessing this was before things got weird between you and Scott”.

“Yeah, it was” Martha replied “and now I’ve got to spend the afternoon in a car with him”.

“Martha are you coming or not?” Alf said poking his head back in the door.

“Yeah, Bye Tash I’ll call you later, ok”

“Ok, but make shore you tell Scott how you feel”. Tash told her.

“Maybe” Martha replied, heading for the door.

Five minutes later Martha and Scott were on their way to pick up the boat. There was a deadly silence in the car, and the only thing the two of them could hear was their own thoughts. Scott looked over at Martha sitting in the passenger’s seat of the car, he smiled, she was so beautiful. ‘Come on Scott focus on the road’ he thought to himself. But he couldn’t help but kept looking at her, Martha then looked over at him and saw the smile on his face, they both quickly looked away, they’d only been driving for five minutes and already things were getting confusing again.

“So how has your day been so far?” Martha finally broke the deadly silence.

“Ok, I guess” Scott answered “just helping mum with basically anything she had to do. Did you do anything interesting so far today?”

“No, not really” she answered, “Did you here about all the teachers going on strike today?”

“Yeah, Robbie told me” Scott answered. Scott was so busy talking that he wasn’t concentrating on the corner in the road ahead.

“Woah, Scott watch out,” Martha yelled in shock if the tree they were heading into, but before Scott could do anything they crashed headfirst straight into the large tree.

Chapter number 3. I'm falling in love with you

The next morning when Scott woke up in a hospital bed, ‘what happened’ he thought to himself.

FLASH BACK

MARTHA WAS ASKING HIM IF HE HAD HERED ABOUT ALL THE TEACHERS GOING ON STRIKE. HE TOLD HER THAT HE HAD ALREADY HERED ABOUT IT FROM ROBBIE THEN MARTHA SCREAMED FOR HIM TO WATCH WERE HE WAS GOING AND THEN THEY CRASHED INTO A TREE.

‘What have I done, is she alright?’ Scott mind questioned. The doctor came into the room and started asking him what his name was and some other things that he should know if his memory hadn’t been damaged. Then a nurse brought his mum in to see him.

“Scott are you ok,” Beth asked sounding worried.

“Yeah I’m fine. Is Martha alright?” He asked.

“We don’t know yet” Beth answered.

An hour later Scott had been given the all clear to go home, but instead of going home, he went straight to the room Martha was in and sat next to her bed. The nurse was in there doing some tests to see if she was all right.

“Is she ok?” Scott asked the nurse.

“She should be” the nurse said sounding unsure “but there is still the risk that she might not wake up, I’m just going to go and see some other patients, do you think you could call me if she wakes up?”

“Yeah sure” Scott answered as the nurse left the room closing the door behind her.

Scott sat there looking at her for a while, on one side of her face she had some small yet painful looking cuts and bruises, just the sight of this made him upset. “I’m so sorry Martha” Scott said as his eyes started to water “I’m so sorry, they say when people are unconscious they can here what’s going on around them, I just hope you can hear me now. I can understand if you hate me, I should have been watching where I was going” Scott continued trying to hold back the tears in his eyes. “I know things have been really weird between us over the last few days, I should of said something to you but I was just so confused, I didn’t know how to tell you that I was falling in love with you”.

“Scott” Martha said as she tossed her head and rolled over.

“Martha, are you awake” Scott said sounding surprised yet in some ways desperate.

“Scott, where am I?” Martha said sounding like she was still half-asleep while she was trying to sit up.

“You’re in the hospital” Scott replied “should probably go call the nurse, I told her I’d tell her if you woke up”.

“Ok” Martha replied.

Scott then disappeared for a minute then came back with the nurse right behind him. When the nurse came in she repeated the same process of asking questions that the Doctor had asked Scott when he had woken up.

“Well I think your going to be alright” the nurse told them after she had done some more tests. “I’ll leave you to here while I go and talk to the doctor” she said walking to the door.

When she had left and closed the door behind her Martha turned to face Scott where he was still sitting beside her bed “Scott I need to ask you something”. Martha said slowly pausing for a minute trying to pick the right words to use “um, Scott before I, um woke up, were you talking to me?”

“Um, u, yeah I, u-“. Scott tried to explain but Martha cut him off.

“No need to explain, I could hear you” Martha told him.

“And?” Scott asked hoping to get the right answer from her.

“And,” Martha started “I think I’m falling in love with you to” she whispered. A smile came across Scott’s face, she did love him, and Scott couldn’t be happier. He lent forward and planted a kiss on her forehead, then on her lips soon she was kissing him back. This didn’t go for to long when they were interrupted by a knock at the door.

“Come in” Martha said. The door opened and Martha was shocked at who she saw “Jack, what are you doing here!”

Chapter number 4. Why are you here?

Martha’s face was still in shock at the sight of Jack sanding in her hospital room.

“Um, u, Martha do you think we could talk” Jack said “Alone” he continued putting an emphasis on the word alone and giving Scott a glare as if to say, what the hell are you doing with my girl.

“Can it wait?” Martha asked, still partly in shock.

“Don’t worry I’ll leave” Scott said getting up to go to the door.

“You sure?” Martha asked him.

“Yeah I’m sure, I’ll see you later” Scott answered giving her a wink before he closed the door behind him.

“So what did you want to ask me?” Martha said turning around to look at Jack, not sounding so happy.

“Look um, Martha I’ve been an idiot” he sighed as he sat in the chair beside her bed “I loved you right from the moment I met you, and I still love you now.”

“Jack-“ Martha started but Jack cut her off.

“Martha I know I’ve asked you this before, but can you give me another chance?”

‘Another chance?’ Martha questioned herself. It had only been about fifteen minutes since she had woken up and already two men had told her that they loved her. Half of her wanted to be with Jack but the other half of her wanted to be with Scott. Martha sighed, she didn’t know what to say or do. Why did life have to be so confusing? It was only a few minutes ago when she thought things were all coming into place the way they were supposed to be, but now it had all come crashing down around her. “U, um, Jack I, u,” she paused for a moment. What was she supposed to say? “Jack I only woke up fifteen minutes ago, I really just need some space to think.”

“Ok” Jack answered sounding sadly disappointed. “Can I talk to you later?”

“Jack, I’ll let you know when I’m ready to talk to you” She answered.

“Ok, I hope you get better then” Jack said leaving the room.

As soon as the door closed Martha burst into tears. She could remember the first time Jack had asked her to take him back, she had told him that it was too late and that she was in love with Corrie, she had regretted that a few weeks later, would she regret it this time if she rejected him? “Why did this have to happen to me?” She sobbed, crying herself to sleep.

The next day Irene was working in the dinner. She heard some footsteps coming towards the counter and looked up, “Hayley” Irene squealed in excitement.

“Hey Irene” Hayley greeted her lifting her hands off the handle of Noah’s pram to give her a hug.

“When did you get back, why didn’t you call?” Irene asked.

“I’ll have to tell you all that later, but right now I want you to meet Noah’s dad Steve.” Hayley told her pointing to a man approaching Noah’s pram.

“Hey” Irene said looking over to Steve holding Noah. She studied him carefully he looked like a fairly nice person, he had spiky brown hair and was wearing a casual tea shirt with jeans.

“Hi, you must be Irene” Steve replied, his phone began to ring. He looked to see who it was. “Babe, I better get this one,” he said handing Noah back to Hayley.

“Hi, dad” Steve said as he got out side of the dinner making his way to where no one would here him.

“Hey son. Just wanting to know if you and Hayley are still coming to see me next week?” Steve’s dad Ryan said on the other end of the phone.

“Yeah of course, oh and make sure that everyone knows that Hayley thinks we both went to school together in primary school.”

“Ok” Ryan answered “Anything else I should know?”

“Yeah make shore no one at any time mentions anything about Eve, not even if they think Hayley’s not listening.”

“Ok, make sure you keep Noah safe, If that kid ends up in hospital and the nurse sees his DNA and notices that your not really his dad this whole plan will go down the drain” Ryan ordered him.

“Yeah, we don’t want to have to lose anymore money trying to stop nurses from telling Hayley.”

Chapter number 5. The problem with owning two men's hearts

“So how was Paris love?” Irene asked.

“It was great, but it still wasn’t as good as being home” Hayley started to tell her “There were so many people talking a language I don’t even know, but I learned it a bit.”

In Melbourne where Steve’s parents lived the whole family was in the lounge room planning the next week when Hayley, Steve and little Noah would come to stay with them. In the room were Steve’s mum Katie, his dad Ryan, sister Tessa and her daughter Rose. “Oh and everyone, Steve’s given me strict orders to tell you that no one under any condition it to mention Eve.”

“Who’s Eve?” Rose asked, looking a bit confused.

Ryan took a deep breath in “Well I think your old enough to know now. When Eve was fifteen we took her in from the streets, she had been orphaned when her parents were killed in a fire. After a wile she became another member of the family, we were always proud of her achievements and supported her every way we could. When she left school she became a nurse and went to work in a psychiatric ward.” Ryan continued to tell Rose about Eve’s involvement with Sarah and Summer bay.

Back at the dinner Haley had just finished telling Irene about Paris when Steve came back from talking on the phone.

“Who was that?” Haley asked him.

“Oh, It was just Dad” he told her “anyway are you ready to go?”

“Yeap, bye Irene, I’ll see you later.”

“Ok love, bye” Irene called out from the kitchen.

On the way out Hayley and Steve came across a very lost Jack. “Jack, are you feeling alright?” Hayley asked looking concerned, but Jack kept walking and sat down at one of the tables, he hadn’t heard Hayley. The only thing he could think about was Martha.

“That’s weird, he doesn’t usually walk around with his head in the clouds” Hayley commented.

“Well everyone has their bad days, maybe we should let him have some time to think” Steve said grabbing Hayley’s arm to stop her from walking over to Jack.

“Yeah, maybe your right.

At the hospital Tash was in Martha’s Hospital room talking to her. “So are you saying Jack just came in here told you he still loved you, asked you to take him back and then just took off?”

“Well not exactly, he left when I told him I just needed some space to think” Martha told her.

“Have you told Scott?” Tash asked her

“Yeah He came and saw me earlier today”

“What did he say?”

“He said I need to make up my mind and decide who I want to be with” Martha replied.

“Have you made up your mind yet?”

“No. I don’t know who to choose, I love them both.”

Back in Melbourne Ryan had explained everything about Eve to Rose. “So why are we going to met one of the people that caused her death grandpa?” Rose asked.

“Because it wasn’t fair what they did to Eve and now were going to get rid of all of them one by one.”

Scott sat himself down in Martha’s Room and sat in silence waiting for Jack to arrive. It felt like an hour since he got a call from the hospital saying that Martha wanted to see both him and Jack as soon as possible, but really it was only five minutes ago.

Jack entered the room. “You wanted to see me?”

“Yeah, please sit down I’ve made up my mind” Martha told them.

Chapter number 6. Under his Spell.

Scott and Jack sat in suspense, waiting to know what Martha had decided.

Martha also had a moment of silence, she didn’t know how to tell Jack she had decided to stay with Scott. Then she decided it would be over and done with quicker if she just blurted it out the way it was. She looked across the room and started to talk, “I-“ she paused for a moment when her eyes me Jacks, it was almost like she could see right through them and see what he was thinking ‘Why am I leaving him?’ she thought.

“I, u, I” she tried to get the words out, but she couldn’t she loved them both.

The door opened and a team of nurses came in with a doctor right behind them. “Martha we need to get you down to surgery immediately” the doctor explained.

“Why, what’s wrong?” Martha asked with a concerned look on her face.

“We just found from one of the tests we did that one the major nerve cells in your neck has been damaged, if that cell stays damaged then you could die” the doctor told her.

Jack and Scott hurried to the side of Martha’s bed before they took her away.

“I love you Martha” Jack said as tears began to come to his eyes “and I always will till the day I die.”

“Me too” Martha whispered.

Jack lent over and kissed her on the lips and she kissed him back like she had never kissed him before. Scott was standing on the other side of the bed and hated the sight of Jack kissing the woman he loved, but there was nothing he could do, she loved Jack not him.

“Ok, we need to get moving now” the doctor said in a hurry.

“Martha I love you” Scott said. But instead of getting the answer he wanted she just nodded at him as the nurses took her bed away and out the door, leaving Scott standing there heartbroken.

Back at the surf club everyone was getting excited because there was going to be a luxury cruise in the bay the next week.

“It’s a shame, we won’t be able to go” Hayley said when she finished reading the poster on the wall and turned around to Steve.

“Yeah, never mind, maybe some other time babe. Anyway everyone back home it really looking forward to finally meeting you.” Steve reassured her kissing her lightly on the forehead. He smiled knowing that he had her under his spell.

A bit later while Hayley was to busy talking to notice if he disappeared Steve snuck outside and dialled a number on his phone.

“Yeah hey it’s me,” Steve said trying to keep his voice down “Look mate I’ve found the perfect opportunity to finish them all off. I won’t be able to be there though cos it’s while Hayley and I will be in Melbourne, so I need you to get all the guys together, ok. I’ll talk to you later. Bye.“

Chapter number 7. An aching hearts wishes

Five minutes had passed since the nurses had taken Martha’s hospital bed away to the surgery room. Jack had gone into the waiting room anxiously sitting on one of the hard blue plastic chairs leaning forward and starring at his hands. Scott was still standing in the middle of the room where Martha had been, no words could describe how heart broken he was, she had chosen Jack and there was nothing he could do about it.

“Excuse me but you’ll need to go and wait in the waiting room” one of the nurses said as she entered the room, bring another patient in.

“Yeah ok” Scott said still partly of in his own little world of thoughts, he wasn’t going to sit around waiting for Martha though, he needed to get away. All he wanted to do was kill Jack, but there was no use in doing that, all that would do was make Martha hate him. Right now his life felt worthless without her.

“Whaaa, whaaa” Scott could here a baby crying in the waiting room. It reminded him of what else he had lost in the last month, his son, well who he thought had been his son, everything had been perfect for him before Steve had come along. Little did Scott know of the evil that was really inside Steve; he wasn’t really the genuine person he came across as. If only he knew what Steve was hiding, then things would have been different for Scott.

“So how are we gonna finish them all off?” One of Steve’s mates asked. There were about eight of them in the fairly dark room they were planning there revenge in, the only light was the light that came through the edge of the curtain that covered the window.

“Mate keep it down, you never know who might be around” Steve whispered “we’ll use a bomb, that way we don’t have to be on the boat when it explodes. I want you to sneak onto the boat a few hours before people start getting on, ok”

“Yeap shore mate, We won’t let you down” one of them replied.

“Ok so I’ve given you all the details about the cruise, so I’ll leave the rest to you guys. I’d better go, Hayley will get a bit suss if I take any longer to pick Noah up from Irene’s.”

Back in the surgery room of the hospital things weren’t going quite as planned. “Um doctor I think you’d better take a look at this” one of the nurses said.

“What is it?” The doctor asked.

“She’s stopped breathing and I can’t find her pulse” the nurse replied.

“Ok put her on life support immediately” the doctor yelled.

Back in the waiting room Jack was getting worried, she should have been out of surgery ages ago. He looked up at one of the nurse and asked what was taking so long.

“Um, u, Mr Holden, you see, um, somethings, u somethings gone wrong. The doctors are doing their best though.”

Chapter number 8. Don't leave me now

Jack’s heart began beating at a gazillion kilometer's per hour, he couldn’t lose her right when he had just got her back, even the thought of that was enough to make his heart shatter.

“What went wrong?” Jack finally asked.

“The operator’s haven’t told us yet, all we know is that they had to put her on life support” the nurse replied. “I’ll tell you when we know more.”

Jack sat back down in his chair even more worried for Martha’s life than he had been before. ‘Martha, please don’t leave me now’ Jack whispered to himself, hopping that she would pull through ‘please not now’.

Back in the dark room where Steve’s mates were planning their revenge the leader of the gang, whose name was Jay was instructing them on how they would plant the bomb in the boat and where. “This is a map of the boat. You see this storage room at the bottom of the boat has a large ventilation system near the top of the wall, so if we plant it far enough in there then they won’t suspect anything because the bomb won’t be blocking the ventilation enough to affect anything.” Jay explained to the men. “Now all we have to do is get our hands on some security passes and a small enough bomb to put in the ventilation system and then it’s show time boys!”

“Um boss how are we going to get the bomb in the boat without being caught?” one of the men asked. He wasn’t the brightest in the gang, he usually thought of the obvious things without thinking about the important part’s that seemed to always change the whole situation.

“That’s what the security passes are for you idiot, they’ll think were just doing a normal procedure check” Jay told him.

“Boss, I hate to break it to you” one of the other gang member’s started “But their going to get a bit suss if there’s twice as many security guards as normal.”

“Well then well just have to a bit more work then won’t we” Jay said returning to the front of the room where the planning board was.

“What do you mean boss?”

“I mean, well have to steal the identities of the security guards that have been hired already,” Jay said.

“You mean we kill them?”

“I think you know where I’m coming from now,” Jay said with an evil smile plastered all over his face.

“ Hey babe” Steve said as he entered the caravan he and Hayley had hired, carrying Noah in with him.

“Hey, what took you so long?” Hayley asked.

“Oh on the way Dad called and-“ Hayley cut him off.

“Why do you guys talk to each other so much, I thought you told me that you and your dad can’t get along for at least five minutes at a time.”

“Oh, that was a while ago, recently we’ve been getting along a lot better, so whenever he calls I take the time to talk to him and get to know him better. I never really got to know him properly when I was a kid, he was just never around and when he was around we would always fighting” Steve lied. She had been right, it was true that him and his dad couldn’t get along for five minutes at a time, the only reason that they were working together now was because they both cared about Eve (Zoe). But by the look on Hayley’s face, he knew that she had believed his lies once again.

“Ok, that’s good. I was expecting that I was going to have to be the one to stop fights when we went down there next week.”

“No not at all babe” he said holding her in his arms as she drifted off to sleep. It had been a long day for Hayley and she really needed the sleep.

“Mr Holden” one of the nurses said approaching a very worried Jack.

“Yeah, is she ok” Jack replied.

“Yeah, well she’s breathing by herself again. She’s just come out of surgery, but we won’t know if the operation has worked until she wakes up.”

“Can I see her?” Jack asked.

“Yes, but she won’t be awake for a while yet” the nurse replied “She’s in room thirty two.”

Scott sighed as he sat on the beach as the sun set. ‘Martha will probably be out of surgery by now’ he thought to himself, he wasn’t going to go and see her though, he just knew that he wouldn’t be able to handle that right now.

“Hey Scott, Haven’t seen you for a long time” A familiar voice from behind said kindly as she sat down beside him and kissed him on the cheek.

Chapter number 9. I don't need this now

Scott looked around to make sure it really was the person he thought it was that had just sat down.

“Lisa, What are you doing here?”

“I came back for you, I’ve left my husband for good this time.”

“Lisa that’s not the point, the point it that just about everything I thought you were was all a lie” Scott said angrily.

“The fact that I loved you wasn’t” Lisa said starting to get upset.

“Lisa, I don’t need this now, ok” and leaving it at that Scott got up and walked away.

Back at the hospital Martha was beginning to wake up. She could hear the heart monitor beeping in the background, then she opened her eyes and saw Jack sitting there beside her bed.

“Hey beautiful” He whispered softly in her ear as he lent over to kiss her lightly on the forehead.

“Hey” Martha said yarning, “So have they told you if I’m going to be alright?”

“No they said that they weren’t going to know if the operation was successful until you woke up” Jack told her.

“Well I’m awake now”

“Yeah I’m sure that the doctors will get here soon. Just promise me you won’t scare me like that again”

“How did I scare you?” Martha asked.

“When you were in surgery you stopped breathing and they had to put you on life support” Jack explained.

“Really.”

“Yeah, I thought I was going to lose you.”

“Well, that’s not going to happen anytime soon. I love you Jack” Martha said looking deep onto Jacks eyes.

“I love you too” Jack returned the words to her as he leaned forward and began to kiss her passionately.

A week later Jack and Martha were getting ready to go on the luxury cruise that was being held in the bay. Her operation had been successful and she had been discharged from hospital two days later.

“Babe do you think you could help me with my suitcase” Martha asked Jack who was finished packing and had come over to get Martha.

“Oh, don’t tell me you packed your whole wardrobe” Jack said rolling his eyes.

“I need it” Martha said still tugging on the zipper.

“Very well then” Jack said as he came over to the over packed suitcase. “You’ll never fit all that in there, how about you put some of it in mine.”

“Ok” Martha Replied.

“Boss we’ve put the bomb where you told us to” one of the gang members reported back to Jay.

“Ok good work boys, Steve will be thrilled when he finds out.”

Chapter number 10. Someone's out to get us

“Aren’t we going to tell the boss what went wrong?” One of the gang members called Dave said when Jay had left the room.

“No way if he finds out that the ventilation system wasn’t as big as we thought it was then he’ll kill us.”

“Well he’s going to find out sooner or later, and if he hears it from someone else then were going to be in even more trouble” Dave replied.

“Well technically we didn’t do anything wrong, we did exactly as he told us, we just didn’t tell him that it will never kill them cause they’ll find it when they find out that the ventilation is completely blocked.”

“Yeah but the boss isn’t going to see it like that.”

“Look mate it’s our little secret, deal?”

“Ok, deal” Dave replied, still not convinced that their plan would succeed.

In the captain’s office of the boat the Captain had already found the blockage and sent someone down to see what it was.

“Captain, your not going to like this.”

“What was it?” the captain asked.

“It was a bomb, and we can’t get it out cause it had been screwed to the inside of the pipe.”

“Ok, call the police immediately” the captain commanded.

“Yes sir.”

Martha and Jack were putting their suitcases in the boot of Jacks car when Jack’s phone began to ring. “Hello, Jack Holden. You’re kidding me, Yeap, Yeap, ok I’ll get their as soon as I can.” Jack hung up the phone with a look of disappointment on his face.

“What’s wrong?” Martha asked sounding concerned.

“Babe, they’ve just found a bomb on the boat that we’re supposed to be going on.”

“Oh my goodness, please don’t tell me that someone’s out to get us!” Martha exclaimed.

“I hope not, but I’ve got to go and disarm it right now before it’s too late” Jack told her as he got into the car and Martha followed.

Over at Noah’s bar Scott was getting a drink when Lisa walked over to him. “Scott-“ she started but Scott cut her off.

“Oh Lisa what do you want now?” Scott asked her not sounding happy at all.

“Look Scott all that stuff I said the other day about Me still loving you-“

“Yeah what about it?”

“I meant it Scott, and I still do now. Why can’t you see that I’m telling the truth this time?”

Scott sighed, she had that look of honesty that she had only ever shown him when she was telling him the truth before they were about to go back to the city.

“Please Scott I’m begging you, give me another chance” Lisa said sitting down next to him.

“Ok, but promise me, no more lies.”

“Ok, I promise” Lisa said leaning in for a kiss, seeing this Scott put his arms around her and held her close pashing her like he used to before he found out the truth all that time ago.

Hayley and Steve were about halfway to Melbourne when all of a sudden Steve pulled the car over to the side of a deserted old road. “Why are we stopping?” Hayley asked, who was sitting in the passenger’s seat of Steve’s silver convertible.

“I just need a break, I’m getting really tired.”

“Well do you want me to drive for a little while then?” Hayley asked.

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea” Steve answered. Hayley got out of the car and started walking around the front to get to the drivers seat. Steve thought for a moment, this would be the perfect opportunity for him to kill Hayley and he wouldn’t even have to pretend to get along with his dad in front of her. He quickly turned on the car and ran over Hayley as she came around the front of the car, pushing her to the ground with force.

Chapter number 11. The real evil that's inside

Hayley lay on the ground unconscious unaware of what was going on around her. Steve got out of the car to check that she was dead but just as he opened the door an off duty nurse drove around the corner and pulled over.

“What happened?” The nurse asked as she got out of the car.

“She just collapsed in front of the car” Steve told her.

“It looks more like she got hit.”

“She was running really fast and hit a tree branch then got all dizzy and like I said she collapsed in front of the car.”

“I’m on my way to work at the hospital so how about I take her with me to the hospital.“

Steve couldn’t really say no to that without her getting suspicious, so he agreed.

After the nurse took Hayley away down the road Steve got back in the car and wondered what he was going to do now. He looked over the back seat and saw Noah asleep in the baby seat. “Well aren’t you going to make a good hostage, you probably won’t even suspect a thing if you have some good quality farther and son time” He said letting out a loud evil laugh.

Back at the boat where Jack had managed to disarm the bomb successfully there were police cars everywhere.

“Well done Holden, I knew I could rely on you” Jacks boss said patting him on the back.

“Thanks, have they found out who put it there yet?” Jack asked.

“No not yet, they’ve just gathered DNA from the fingerprints left on the bomb and there trying to track down it’s owner.”

“Do they need any help?” Jack asked.

“Yeah, that would be good if you could run over there and give them a hand.”

“Ok” Jack said making his way past all the detectives and police investigating the crime scene. He got to his car to find Martha sitting in the passenger’s seat shaking. “What’s wrong babe?” he asked as he sat in the driver’s seat and closed the door behind him.

“Jack, what if someone’s really out to get us," Martha said trying to hold back her tears, but she couldn’t hold them back anymore.

“There were tones of people that were going on that boat, they could have been after anyone” Jack told her, whipping away a tear that was running down her cheek, then he wrapped his arms around her holding her close.

“Jack, just because there were tones of people doesn’t mean they can’t be after us” Martha sobbed into Jacks shoulder.

“Martha I love you and even if there was someone after us, I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you, ok”

“Ok” Martha replied, sitting back upright in her seat as Jack started the car to take her home.

“Constable” one of the Sargent's said approaching Jack as he entered the office.

“Yes” Jack replied.

“We’ve just managed to track down the people that’s DNA was on the bomb.”

“Who was it?” Jack asked looking concerned.

“There were a few different people’s fingerprints on there but all the names have a connection through a local gang” He replied.

Chapter number 12. The truth comes out

“Here’s the list of names,” the Sargent said handing Jack a list of about six or seven people.

“Do we know anything about any connection they have with anyone that was going to be on that boat?” Jack asked.

“Not yet, but were working on it.”

At the hospital Hayley had been taken to Irene had just arrived to see her. “So what happened to her?” Irene asked.

“Well they guy that was there who I expect was her husband cause there was a baby in the car said that she ran into a tree branch and collapsed in front of the car.”

“That would have been her boyfriend Steve, but what I don’t get is why she was in front of the car” Irene replied.

“Do you know much about Steve?” the nurse asked.

“Well not really, I haven’t known him for very long, why do you ask?”

“Well when I got there it looked more like he had run over her” The nurse told her.

In the gangs planning room Steve had just arrived and told them what had happened. “So where’s the kid?” Jay asked.

“He’s still in the car” Steve explained. “So how did the attack on the boat go?”

“Unsuccessful thanks to these two morons.”

“Great” Steve said sarcastically, “now the cops will be onto us, and if Hayley wakes up and remembers what happened then were in even more trouble.”

“Ok boys, we’ll make a run for it. We’ll take the kid with us too” Jay ordered.

“But boss, if we take him then we’ll have a screaming baby to look after.”

“Oh, we won’t have him for long, were going to have a bit of fun with him” Jay replied laughing evilly.

Back at the police station Jack was looking down the list of names when he came across a name he had heard before, Steve Jacobson.

FLASH BACK

HAYLEY IS INTRODUCING HIM TO STEVE, NOAH’S DAD. THEN STEVE REACHES HIS ARM OUT TO SHAKE HIS HAND AND SAYS, “HI NICE TO MET YOU.”

As soon as it sunk into Jacks mind he raced to the computer in his office and did a background check on Steve. The computer came up with a family. Jack looked at the names and came across Eve Jacobson’s name. He could remember Martha telling him about everything she had done to summer bay, and how she died. Jack then did a background check on Eve Jacobson just to be sure that it was the same person, and to his horror it was.

Chapter number 13. When you least expect it things always get worse

Martha sat in the apartment that she shared with her grand farther Alf Stuart. She was shaking in the cold dark room, all she could think about was how close she had been to getting killed that day, then her thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. “Martha are you there?” she could hear Jack calling from the door. Martha walked to the door and slowly opened it.

“Hey, I just came by to tell you that-“ Jack pursed when he saw how scared Martha looked. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing, It’s just-“

“Your still scared about what happened today” Jack finished her sentence for her. Martha just nodded as a tear began to run down her face.

“Babe everything will be ok, I promise” Jack said comforting her as he held he close, close like he did when Corrie had hurt her, and close like he would do till the day he died. He would never let anything bad happen to her, not while he had a say in it anyway.

“So what did you come to tell me?” Martha asked lifting her head up from where it had been resting on Jacks chest.

“It’ll take a while. Can I come in?”

“Yeah sure, can I get you anything?” Martha asked, heading in the door.

“No thanks” he replied following her.

At the hospital Irene and the nurse were in Hayley’s room when she began to wake up “Where am I?” Hayley asked.

“You’re in the hospital love” Irene told her.

“Hayley what month is it?” the nursed asked.

“June” Hayley answered quite confidently, but she was wrong it was September.

Back at the gang’s planning room the gang had brought Noah in from the car and was deciding what they would do to him. “Maybe we could hang him” one of the men suggested.

“Or maybe we could shot him” another added.

“Yeah there all good ideas, but I’ve got a better one” Jay told them.

“What is it boss?”

“Well, Steve didn’t you say that you’ve met Noah’s Grand Mother?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you know where she lives?”

“Yeah, Me and Hales went ad visited her. Why?” Steve asked.

“Well, I say lets leave little Noah dead on her door step, that would give her a scare now wouldn’t it.” At that moment a police car pulled up in front of the old shed like room where the gang was hiding. As soon as all the men notice this they rushed for the back door and escaped before the police even got out of their car.

Chapter number 14. the past always comes back to haunt you

Martha’s face gradually became fearful again after Jack had told her about Steve’s part in Eve’s life and how he had been one of the people that put the bomb on the boat. She had been right the bomb was to kill her, well it was probably been to kill some other people as well, but she was one of them, one of the people that someone without a heart wanted dead no matter what the cost. Jack held her close knowing the fear that was inside her, all he wanted to do now was tell her that everything would be ok, but he couldn’t, not know that she knew the truth.

“What if Steve tries to do something to Hayley?” Martha asked with her head still closely rested on Jacks chest.

“He already has, I rang Irene just before I came here to warn her and she told me that Hayley is in hospital-“

“She’s in hospital, what did he do to her?” Martha cut Jack off.

“Well it really depends on if you believe his story or not. When the nurse pulled over on her way to work he told her that Hayley had been running fast and then ran into a tree and collapsed in front of the car, but the nurse said that it looked more like he had run over her.”

“Well did Hayley tell them what really happened?”

“No, after she woke up she thought it was still June. But they think Steve was lying cause he never showed up at the hospital” Jack explained.

“What about Noah, Is he ok?” Martha said still sounding fearful.

“We don’t know, he was still with Steve when the nurse took Hayley away.”

“So do you know where they all are?”

“We think we know where their hide out is, some of the other officers have gone there to try and arrest them.”

Back at the hide out the police had just started to get out of the car when one of the men in the gang members realized that they had forgot to bring Noah out with them. “Um, boss.”

“Shh, keep your voice down or they’ll find us” Jay whispered angrily.

“Boss we left the baby in there” he whispered back.

“Oh no, I’ll go back and get him. If the cops catch me then make sure you don’t come after me or they’ll catch you to” Jay commanded them before sneaking back through the back door to get Noah. Just as Jay was about to pick Noah up Noah began to cry really loud, as soon as the police hear this they rushed inside and found Jay there.

“Don’t move” one of the officer’s told him, holding up his gun “you’re under arrest.”

A few minutes passed and the rest of the gang outside was starting to get worried, but none of them dared to say a word in case the cops heard them. Then Steve looked around the edge of the building and saw the police putting Jay in the car with handcuffs on him.

“They’ve got him he whispered to the rest of the men that were still sitting in silence behind the building.”

No one said anything until they heard the car drive away. “What are we going to do now?” one of the men asked Steve.

“I’ve got an idea. Do you all remember Lisa?” Steve asked.

“Yes” they all replied in unison.

“Well I saw her around town a few days ago and I was thinking maybe she could help us finish them all off, and we all know how good she is at that” Steve commented.

“I thought she said that she was finished doing all that stuff, so why would she help us?”

“Because I’m sure that she would do anything to stop her new boyfriend from finding out that she used to be a murder” Steve told them.

A few hours later Scott and Lisa were at the Surf club when her phone rang and she went outside to answer it because of all the noise. The call turned out to be someone who had the wrong number so she headed back inside, but before she could open the door Steve grabbed her and pulled her to the side of the surf club where no one was looking. “Steve I thought I told you that I never wanted to see you again.”

“I know but we need your help” Steve said sternly trying to keep his voice down.

“I told you I’d finished with that kind of thing.”

“If you don’t help us then I’ll just have to have a little chat with your new boyfriend, and I’m sure that he would be very interested to find out what you used to get up to” Steve threatened.

“Oh ok, but you better not say a thing to him about that, Deal?”

“Ok, deal”

Chapter number 15. Trust is a very dangerous thing

It had been a long fifteen minutes later when Lisa finally came back inside. “What took you so long?” Scott asked her as she sat down next to him.

“Oh just a phone call” she told him uncomfortably.

“Are you ok?” Scott asked her when he noticed how uncomfortable she seemed.

“Oh, it’s, um, I-I had another fight with Mum on the phone again” She sobbed, tears began to gush down her face and smudge her make up.

“Oh, Lisa” Scott comforted her, putting his arm around her and pulled a tissue out of his pocket to wipe her tears away “You know that if she can’t except that you left Alan for me then she doesn’t deserve to have you as a daughter.”

“Thanks, I don’t know what I’d do without you. I love you Scott,” she said smiling slightly. The only thing that was stopping her from smiling completely was what she was going to have to do to him eventually. Steve had told her a number of things she had to do and the last on the list was to finish off Scott, she didn’t know how she was going to be able to bring herself to do that, but she knew she had to. She would rather him die not knowing about her past.

“I love you too,” Scott said looking into her eyes, deep down into her sadness, he wasn’t going to let anyone hurt his girl. But Scott’s opinion would have probably been different if he had known the truth about her past, and he would be even more unhappy if he knew that she was working for Steve. “Well we should probably get going.”

Back at the hospital Irene and the nurse were coming up with a plan to get Hayley’s memory back “I managed to find some pictures of the car that Steve was driving off the Internet. Do you have any pictures of Steve?” The nurse asked her.

“No, but I’m sure that they’ll have some somewhere in the caravan they were staying in” Irene told her. “I’ll go and see.”

“I just need to go to the bathroom, I’ll be right back” Scott said when they had arrived back at Scott’s house.

“Yeah, ok” Lisa answered as she sat down on the couch in the middle of the room. After Scott had gone she pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket that Steve had given her, it was a list of all the people she had to kill in order. She started reading the list of names:

- Jack Holden & Martha McKenzie

- Sally, Flynn & Pippa Saunders

- Kim Hyde

- Hayley Smith

- Irene Roberts

- Barry Hide

- Ric Dalby & Cassie Turner

- Tash & Robbie Hunter

- Leah & Dan Baker

- Beth & Matilda Hunter

- Scott Hunter

P.S. You can kill them anyway you like.

Lisa sighed as she folded the piece of paper and put it back in her pocket. There were a lot of innocent people on that list.

At the caravan that Hayley and Steve had been staying in Irene had just arrived to find some photos. She walked into the caravan and spotted a photo frame on the bedside table, in it was a picture of Hayley, Steve and Noah. Irene walked over to the picture but before she could pick it up Steve grabbed her from behind and tied her up.

Back in the hospital Hayley was sleeping peacefully, unaware of all the drama that had been unfolding around her.

FLASH BACK

STEVE WAS TIRED OF DRIVING AND HAYLEY WAS WALKING AROUND THE FROUNT OF THE TO GET TO THE DRIVERS SEAT WHEN STEVE STARTED THE CAR AND RAN OVER HER.

Hayley woke up in a shock trying to catch her breath.

Out in the middle of the bush the gang was setting up there new hide out, waiting for Steve to return. Little did they know that they were being watched.

“Steve’s taking his time, he said he’d be back fifteen minutes ago” one of the gang members said breaking the silence.

‘Bang’ an explosion went off and a gang member was lying on the ground with a bullet through his chest. All of the gang members quickly rushed over to him “It came from over there, I’ll go and see what it was” one of the men said, rushing over to where he had heard the explosion come from. A minute later he came back holding a gun, on one side of it was an engraved sentence, 'I can be anywhere anytime.'

“This is all I found” He told them.

Chapter number 16. I can be anywhere anytime

When Steve arrived back to the new hide out with Irene tied up in the back of his car.

“Ok boys I need you to come and help me” he said loudly so that they could all hear him. He hadn't noticed that they were all circled around a dead body and a gun. “Come on don't make me beg, I need someone to help me.”

“I think you should take a look at this” one of the men told him, slowly standing up with the gun in one of his hands.

Steve took the gun out of his hands and carefully read the writing on the side. He was shocked at what he read though, he could remember all the phrases Eve had told him that Sarah had used and that was one of them. 'I can be anywhere anytime, I can be anywhere anytime, I can be anywhere anytime' he could hear the words ringing in his head, blocking out everything that what was going on around him. All the men were to busy to notice that Irene had untied herself and ever so quietly snuck out of the car.

“Boss, earth to boss” the gang member that was standing in front of him said waving his hands in front of Steve's face.

“Oh, yeah. What?”

“I was saying what do you want us to do with the dead body?”

“Oh, um, berry it somewhere so the cops can't find it” Steve said still concentrating on the phrase written on the side of the gun, It couldn't be Sarah that had done this, could it?

At the Surf club Martha was doing her shift when Jack came through the door in his uniform. “Have you found anything yet?” Martha asked as soon as she spotted him at the counter.

“We've found one of them, but he keeps telling us that he was the only one that was in on this” Jack told her.

“Do you believe him?” Martha asked while she was squeezing some fresh orange juice.

“To be honest, no, it would take a lot of work to set all that up by himself”

“Sarah did a lot of work by herself, and so did Eve” Martha commented.

“Yes, were aware of that, but we've just heard from the hospital that Hayley got her memory back and Steve did purposely run her over.” Just as Jack had finished saying that his phone ran.

“Hello” Jack said as he answered the call, “your kidding me, yeap I'll be down there as soon as possible.”

“What was that all about” Martha asked him when he had hung up.

“Steve tried to kidnap Irene” Jack replied “I've gotta go, I'll see you later.”

“Ok” Martha said sounding concerned “Bye.”

Back at the hide out the mystery person that had shot one of the gang members had snuck around to the back of the small wooden shed and gone quietly through the back door. By her figure it was obvious that it was a female, she was wearing black clothes that covered most of he body and in her hand she had a note, she walked over to the planning board and stuck the note on it with a thumb tack and then quietly snuck back out before she could be caught.

At the local hospital Hayley had just come to pick up Noah after been let out of the hospital that she had been in for the last few days.

“He's just through here, but we'll have to do some blood tests before you can take him home” the nurse told her.

“Why is something wrong?”

“No, we just realized that he was due for a check up, that's all.”

Chapter number 17. Tick, tock, tick, tock.

About half an hour had passed at the hide out since Irene has escaped and they still had no idea. “Boss is this a good place to berry him?” one of the gang members asked Steve, they were about five or six hundred meters down a bush track that as next to the hide out.

“Um, yeah I guess so, but you should probably start digging a bit more off the track then that so that it's less noticeable” Steve told him.

“Boss, who do you think did this?”

“I don't know, but who ever it was is going to pay when we find them.”

Back at the police station Irene was sitting in one of the interview rooms. “Here you go” Jack said placing a coffee cup in front of her.

“Thanks love.”

“So how did it all happen?” Jack asked sitting on the other side of the desk.

“Well I just went to go and find a photo of Steve from Hayley's caravan to help her get her memory back and then Steve grabbed me from behind” Irene explained.

“Do you know where he took you?”

“Well I don't know what the place is called, but I know how to get there” she told him.

“Right well I'll get some of the other officers to take you there then, Holden I want you to go and have a break” Jacks boss ordered.

“Ok” Jack said leaving the office.

On the trail the gang had just finished berrying the dead body and were heading back to the hideout.

“So boss, when you first got back here, you said you needed help with something, just wondering what did you need help with?”

“Oh, I completely forgot, when I went back to the caravan Irene was there so I had to tie her up and put her in the back of my car” Steve told them. “Come on lets go and get her inside so we can decide what to do with her” He ordered as they raced over to Steve's car.

“Um, Boss are you sure you put her in the car?” One of the gang members who had got to the car first asked a bit concerned.

“Yeah of course I-“ Steve paused when he saw all the ropes across the back seat of his car “Oh no, she's probably half way to the police by now. Come on we're going to have to find a new hide out” He said as they all headed into the planning board to decide what to do next. When they go there Steve notice the note that had been left there.

“What's that boss?”

“I think you should all take a look at this” Steve said turning the piece of paper around so that they could all read it. They all knew exactly what that one meant, it was another one of Sarah's creepy phrases she used to use, but this was her most common one 'tick, tock, tick, tock'. About a second later the old wooden shed they were in blew up and sent pieces of timber and steel flying everywhere. From the bushes about a hundred meter's away was the girl who had left the note, she stuck her head out to make sure that they were all dead then when she saw the mess that had been created she smiled satisfied and left.

Back at the Hospital Hayley was waiting in the waiting room for the test results, a few minutes pasted then the nurse asked her to come into her office.

“Is everything ok?” Hayley asked.

“Well Noah's ok, but there's something you should know”

“What is it?”

“Noah's DNA doesn't say that he's Steve's son” the nurse told her. Hayley sat there frustrated, this had happened way to many times before, why couldn't she just know who his farther was?

At the apartment that Martha shared with her grandfather Martha was going through some old photo albums when Jack knocked on the door.

“Hey, come in” She greeted him. They headed to the couch were Martha had been sitting before Jack came. “So how's Irene?” Martha asked.

“She's alright, some of the other officers have taken her so that she can show them the hide out.”

“That's good now they can finally put an end to this” Martha said sounding relieved.

“See I told you everything was going to be alright, didn't I?”

“Yes you did” Martha said hugging him and berrying her head in his chest, little did she realize that she had left the photo album open on the coffee table.

“Who's that?” Jack asked, pointing to one of the photo's on the table.

Martha looked up to see what he was pointing to, “Um, u, Jack, um, there's something that you should know.”

Chapter number 18. A past you don't know.

“What is it?” Jack asked her. He looked back at the photo, it was a picture of Martha with a little girl who didn't look any older than about three or four years old and she resembled Martha in too many ways to name.

“Look Jack I'm going to tell you a part of my life that you know nothing about, and I want you to promise that you won't start freaking out until I tell you I'm finished.”

“Ok” Jack answered.

Martha sighed and began to start “When I was fourteen I met a guy at school called Alex, and things were going alright between us, um, until, I, u, I got pregnant-“

“You what?” Jack said getting up to leave.

“Wait” Martha said grabbing Jacks arm to stop him “you said you wouldn't start freaking out until I'd finished talking.”

Jack took a deep breath in and sat back down “So where is she now?” He asked.

“That's the part of the story I was about to get up to. After Alex found out he stated to freak out and that led to him getting aggressive. By the time I gave birth he'd gotten so bad that we had to take out an AVO” Martha told him beginning to cry. “I named her Amy. Then a few years later I came home to find a note on the table, it was from Alex, he'd taken Amy away and we haven't seen ether of them since. There was a police investigation, but they gave up an assumed that she was dead.” Martha burst into tears, she couldn't hold them back anymore.

Jack didn't say anything, he just ran, he didn't know what else to do. He wanted to stay there and comfort Martha but he couldn't, he just needed some space to think.

Martha sat on the couch knowing that she had probably lost Jack forever, but she knew she had done the right thing by telling him, he deserved to know the truth, she owed it to him.

Over at the destroyed hide out the police had just arrived and discovered the mess that had been made “Take Miss Roberts home” The head officer ordered.

“Hey where did you disappear to?” Scott asked Lisa as she walked through the door of the Hunters house.

[dolly-999]

“Oh nowhere important, just for a walk” Lisa lied.

“Ok” Scott said convinced, she wasn't exactly looking like herself, she was wearing black long pants and a black tank top and her hair was a bit messier than usual, almost like she had had a disagreement with some bushes.

“I'm just going to have a shower, ok?”

“Ok”.

“Oh and after do you think you could come down to the hospital with me?”

“Yeah, sure. Why do you need to go to the hospital?”Lisa asked.

“I'm not sure, I got a phone call from them saying that something about Noah's parentage results. I don't get why there bringing that up now but anyway I'm sure it's just a mistake”.

Chapter number 19. I need to know the truth.

A whole hour had passed in Summer bay and the police had retrieved all the bodies from under the timber and steel that covered the ground. Only one of them was still alive, the rest were all well and truly dead. In the small clearing of land that surrounded the rubble there were ambulances and police cars everywhere.

“Have you been able to identify the bodies?” the officer that had been put in charge of the investigation asked.

“Yes, they're the ones we were after from the gang that tried to bomb the cruise ship” another officer told him handing him a piece of paper that had a list of the dead bodies and then the name of the body that had survived.

“But if they're the ones we want then who did this?”

“I don't know sir were still trying to figure that out”.

Jack sat on the beach lost in his thoughts, what Martha had told him an bit over an hour ago still hadn't quite sunk in. It wasn't the fact that she had a daughter that hadn't sunk in yet , it was the fact that someone a heartless a Alex could take Amy away from Martha without even letting her say good bye. He had to find out what really happened to Amy, he wasn't going to let Martha go on without knowing the truth any longer, he couldn't stand her being in tears like she had been before he had run out the door to think. So he went straight to the police station to reopen the case of Amy's kidnap and get some answers.

On the way he ran into Martha, she looked really upset, it wasn't very often that she looked that upset, “Martha I'm sorry, I shouldn't have run off like that”.

“It's ok, I understand” Martha said with a slight smile appearing on her face “Are you still cranky at me?”

“How could I be cranky with this beautiful girl” Jack smiled putting his arms around her.

“Well I don't know” Martha exclaimed sarcastically.

“Well anyway, I'd better get back to work”.

“Ok, I'll see you later then”.

When Jack walked through the door of the Station the place was so busy that know one had noticed that he had returned, there were people answering twice as many phones as usual and files everywhere. Jack sunk quietly into his office, it wasn't that he didn't want to help with the over flooding investigation that seemed to get more and more complicated by the minute, he just had higher priorities at the moment.

At the same Moment Scott was sitting in a chair at the hospital waiting to find out what all the fuss was about will Noah's parentage results.

“Mr Hunter” a nurse standing at the edge of the desk in the waiting room called.

“Yes” Scott said standing up with Lisa close behind.

“Straight through here” she said opening the door of a hospital room where Hayley and little Noah were waiting “please sit down, I'll be back in a moment”.

“So what's all this about?” Scott asked Hayley when the nurse had closed the door.

“It's complicated, the nurse will tell you when she gets back” Hayley said staring out the window in front of her, she couldn't look at him, not after everything that had happened in the last couple of months, and Lisa being there to wasn't helping ether.

“Sorry about that” the nurse said as she came back into the room “Now , Scott the reason why we asked you to come down here was that we need to re do the parentage results”.

“But didn't we already re do them”.

“Yes but Noah's DNA doesn't show that he's Steve's son” The nurse told him as she sat down in her office chair “Do you think you could go and wait in the waiting room?” She asked looking directly at Lisa.

“Um, yeah, sure” Lisa replied getting up and leaving the room, she couldn't lose Scott now not after all she had done to avoid having to kill him and now she would probably lose him to Hayley. 'They all better be dead' she thought , it had been a lot of work trying to blow that shed up by herself. At that moment a doctor was wheeling a hospital bed down the corridor with Steve in it 'Oh no, how am I going to get rid of him now. If a bomb can't kill him then what can?' Lisa sighed.

Chapter number 20. The plot thickens

Jack sat in his office reading every bit of information he could find about Amy's kidnap, even the little details that might lead him to the truth. He had already tried doing a search on Alex Ryan's name but the only record of his existence that he could find was on his parents files and all that said was that he was their son.

Back in one of the hospital rooms Steve lay unconscious in one of the hospital beds with too many tubes coming out of him to count. Lisa snuck into the room ans walked over to the bed. “You didn't honestly think I was actually going to do what you wanted me to did you?” Lisa said in a low key voice before reaching over and pulling out some of the tubes that were wired up to the machines that were keeping Steve alive.

A loud alarm signal filled the corridors of the hospital and many nurses and doctors rushed to see what had happened, but by the time they got there Lisa had already escaped and sat herself back in her chair in the waiting room before anyone could suspect a thing.

“Who do you think did this?” The doctor asked, ten minutes had passed and they still had no idea why it had happened.

“We don't know, but we suspect it was the same person who killed the rest of them” the police officer told him when he arrived after hearing about the incident at the hospital. “Do you mind if we asses the tubes for DNA?”

“No, we don't mind, just make sure you be careful” The doctor replied.

Further down the corridor Scott and Hayley were waiting for the nurse to come back with the results, the room was in silence and it was killing both of them.

“So, did you really go off with Steve at the pub?” Scott finally asked.

“Not that I remember, but the nurses all said that he was the father so I just assumed that I'd been to drunk to notice”. Then the nurse come back into the room.

“I've got the results” She told them sitting back down in her chair. “And it shows that, Scott you are the father”.

Jack sat at his desk frustrated, there had to be something here, some clue or maybe even death records if the police's guess was right and Amy was dead it had to be here somewhere. Then Jack remembered something that one of his instructors back in the city had thought him when he was still training to become a cop, when criminals run away they often change there identity and hack into documents and change information about them.

As soon as Jack remembered that he made a list of the last names of anyone close to Alex such as family, his mothers maiden name and anyone else that Jack could track down through the documents of Alex's parents, if Alex had infarct changed his identity it was possible he had only changed his last name.

Then Jack typed in Alex Murry (Murry was Alex's Mother Jackie's maiden name), and a file came up with a picture and some information.

Chapter number 21. More clues.

Jack studied the file that had just come up on his screen.

Name: Alex Murry

Location: London, England

Family: Amy Murry; Daughter

age: unknown

Birth date: unknown

Parents: unknown

Job: unknown

Nationality: unknown

Other information: unknown

Jack was shocked when he saw all the unknowns down the page 'he must have a lot to hide' Jack thought to himself 'a lot to hide, like kidnapping his own daughter maybe'. Then Jack did a search on Amy Murry, a screen came up which said there is no information that proves this person exists. Jack was shocked, if this was the guy he was after then he obviously hadn't been smart enough to make a fake file for Amy. Jack took a deep breath in and thought then he came up with an idea. He grabbed the phone and called an old friend of his who was a cop in England and told him the situation.

Back at the rubble of the hide out the detectives were investigating the crime scene when one of them came across a bomb trigger in the bushed where Lisa had been “I've found something” he yelled out to the other detectives.

“What is it?” one of the detectives asked as he approached him.

“This looks like the cause of all this mess” He said putting on a rubber glove and picking up the trigger to be so it could be annalised. Then they took it over to some of the officers.

“We found this”.

“Thanks, well take it straight over to the lab to be searched for DNA” the cop said handing the detective a plastic zip lock bag to put the trigger into.

Scott and Hayley walked out of the hospital room and over to where Lisa was waiting for them “So what happened” Lisa asked standing up in suspense.

“I'll explain on the way home” Scott told her sounding frustrated, he garbed her hand and headed for the door,Scott couldn't stay in there any longer . It wasn't that he didn't like the idea of Noah being his son, it was just that things had gotten to messed up to go back there again.

“Wait” Hayley said, Scott and Lisa both turned their heads to look at Hayley. “Scott could I please talk to you for a minute, alone”.

Scott looked at Lisa like he was asking her to come up with some reason why they really had to go now, but instead she just smiled and said “I'll wait for you at the car, ok”.

“Ok” Scott replied unsuccessfully trying to sound cheerful.

“So what did you want to say?”

“I-I, u, I just,um, hhhum” Hayley paused for a moment and sighed, sitting down on one of the hard blue plastic chairs. “Things are never going to be ok between us are they Scott?” she said sounding disappointed.

“I don't know” Scott replied sitting down next to her just as disappointed as she was.

“Why did things have to go so wrong?” Hayley asked trying to hold back her tears, she looked like she was about to burst.

Scott didn't say anything he just put his arm around Hayley and she berried her head in his shoulder, bursting into tears. Scott sighed, he wasn't in the most comfortable situation, but at least he could kind of talk to Hayley now, 'maybe things will get better' Scott thought to himself.

Over at the lab the results had just been received by the cops “Ok so the ones from the tubes at the hospital is this one and that's the one from the trigger”.

“Ok thanks” One of the officers said taking the envelopes from the counter. He didn't open the envelope until they got back to the station.

“Here you go” he said handing the envelopes to his boss.

“Thanks” The boss said opening them imediently. When he opened them and read the contents he was shocked, he met this girl only a few days ago at the surf club, It was Lisa.

Back in Jacks office he was still busy talking to his friend Harry from England. “Do you thing you could do that for me mate?” Jack asked.

“Well if this girlfriend of yours really means that much to you then absolutely” Harry said from the other end of the phone, “Ok, and Jack could you do me a favor?”

“Yeah, what is it?”.

“Stop calling me mate, I might of lived in Australia while I was training to become a cop, but that doesn't mean I speak your language”.

“Oh, ok, sorry ma-, I mean Harry”.

“Anyway, you were saying something about there being a photo on his profile?”

“Yeah”.

“Well take it to Martha and ask her if it could be him” Harry told him.

“But then I wouldn't be able to make it a surprise” Jack said disappointedly.

“well find some other way to find out what he looked like, and if that doesn't work then you'll just have to ruin the surprise then”.

“Yeah, will do, thanks mate”.

“Jack for the last time, what did I say about the mate thing” Harry said rolling his eyes.

“Oh sorry, anyway I'd better go, it's past the end of my shift” Jack told him.

“Ok, talk to you later, bye”.

“Yeah, bye” Jack said before hanging up the phone.

Chapter number 22. I have to leave.

Scott sat in the car next to Lisa in silence, he was still trying to get his head around the fact that he was Noah's father.

“Scott baby are you ok?” Lisa asked.

“Yeah sure, why wouldn't I be?” Scott lied.

“Just the face that you've been acting really weird since we left the hospital, anyway what was that whole thing with Noah's parentage?”

“Um, u, they did another test and.........”

“Wait a minute please don't tell me that your Noah's real dad” Lisa cut him of.

Scott took a deep breath in and sighed “Sorry I can't tell you that without lying”.

The rest of the trip home was spent in silence, aside from Lisa's crying in the passengers seat. Scott hated to see her like this, but he didn't know what to say. 'If only Steve never existed, if only I hadn't left Hayley in Paris with Noah, if only..' the list of things continued in his mind, right now he just wanted things to be simpler.

“I'm just going to go for a walk” Scott said when they finally got home. Lisa went inside and grabbed her suitcase she had to leave, she wanted to stay with Scott but if she did she knew she would loose him to Hayley, and the police would probably be on to her soon.

Over in England Harry had just found a document about Alex Murry, it contained statements from neighbours and friends. The reports said that they found it odd that know one was allowed up to the second level of Alex's house except a house keeper who was a professional nanny. “No one is able to see into the windows of the second floor because all the widows are covered” a close friend of Alex commented.

Harry's jaw dropped in shock, the only reason why anyone would never let anyone up there or see into there ment that he had something to hide, 'something like a secret daughter maybe' Harry thought to himself.

Back at the Hunter's house Scott was just walking towards the drive way when he saw Lisa putting a large suitcase into the boot of her car. “Lisa what's going on?” He asked.

“I'm sorry Scott, but I have to go” Lisa told him with buckets of tears rolling down her face.

“Go? Where?”

“I can't tell you that. I love you” she said leaning forward and kissing him lightly on the cheek. Then she got in her car and drove down the drive way.

“Lisa wait” Scott yelled, but it was too late, she was gone.

Jack was driving to Martha's apartment for dinner when his phone rang.

“Hello, Jack Holden”

“Hey Jack, it's Harry”.

“Did you find anything?” Jack asked, pulling his car over so he wouldn't have to concentrate on the road.

“Yeap, I think we've got the right guy, look Jack I need you to get Martha to identify the picture of Alex Murry before I can lead out an investigation, I know you wanted to make it a surprise, but if you want to find Amy then your going to have to tell her”.

“Ok, I'm on my way there now for dinner so I'll tell her then, bye”.

“Yeap, call me later, bye”.

“Scott are you ok” Hayley asked walking over to were Scott was sitting in the surf club. He didn't reply, he just sat there stairing at his untouched cup of coffee that had gone cold about five minutes ago. “Earth to Scott”.

“Hu” Scott said looking up at Hayley.

“Are you ok?” Hayley repeated her question.

Scott sighed “No, Lisa left this afternoon”.

“Oh, Scott I'm sorry”, Hayley said sympathetically, part of her felt sorry for him but the other part of her was glad that Lisa was out of the way, but she didn't dare let Scott see the other part, it would only make things worse between them, for now she was just glad that they could get along.

Chapter number 23. She's a murder!

Jack rushed to his office at the police station, he had to find that picture of Alex Murry. As he was flicking through some files in the filing cabinet a fax started to come through on the fax machine. Jack looked at the address at the top and when he saw it was from Harry he imediently picked it up and read it. (It was a copy of the file with statements from close friends of Alex). After flicking through it he had another quick look for the photo and when he found it he put it with the fax in his bag and hurried to Martha's apartment.

“Hey” Martha greeted him as she opened the door.

“Hey” Jack replied still catching his breath.

“Are you ok Jack you look stressed”. Martha said sounding worried

“Look Martha there's something I need to tell you”.

“Ok, come in” Martha said walking over to the couch were she sat down and patted a spot next to her for Jack to sit “What is it?”

“Ok” Jack took a deep breath in “You know how Amy's kidnapping case got labeled missing and assumed dead”.

“Yeah” Martha replied “how could I forget” she added sarcastically.

“Well when I went back to the office this afternoon I reopened the case and-”.

“You reopened the case?” Martha asked sounding overjoyed.

“Yeah and-”.

Martha cut him off again “you really didn't have to go to all that trouble just for me you know”.

“It's not trouble. Anyway I managed to track down a guy in England named Alex Murry a-”.

“Um, Jack, his last names Ryan not Murry” Martha told him sounding slightly disappointed.

“Yeah I know, but a lot of criminal's change there last name so that people can't find them, that's why the police never found him last time they tried to track him down. Anyway I've got this friend who's a cop over there and he managed to track some more information down on him, but he can't lead out an investigation until you've identified a picture of him” Jack told her.

“Ok. Have you got it here?”

“Yeah, I'll just get it for you” he said reaching over into his bag. He pulled out the picture and showed her.

“That's Alex” she told him.

Over at the Hunter's house Scott was just arriving home from the surf club, he'd actually had a really good time talking to Hayley. Beth was sitting on the couch in silence.

“Hey Mum” Scott said as he walked through the door.

“Scott, can I have a word with you” Beth said not sounding to pleased.

“Yeah sure, what's wrong?”

“Did you know that Lisa used to be a murder?”

“What?” Scott asked sounding confused, that was one of the most random things he'd ever heard his Mum come up with to start a conversation.

“The police came by earlier and they told me that Lisa was responsible for the old shed that blew up s few days ago with about six or seven men inside, they also told me that she has a history of doing this sort of thing to many people” Beth told him.

“Well I guess were just lucky she's gone then” Scott said still shocked.

“Yeah I guess so. Are you ok?”

“Yeah actually I'm feeling really good” Scott said getting up from the couch and heading back to the door.

“Where are you going?” Beth questioned.

“To go see Hayley” Scott replied closing the door behind him. Not long after he arrived at Irene's house were Hayley had moved back into that morning.

“Hey Scott” Hayley smiled when she opened the door and saw Scott there.

“Hey I was wondering if you wanted to come for a walk with me”.

“Yeah sure, I'd love to” Hayley replied jumping up and down inside.

When they had walked for a while they arrived at the beach and sat down on the sand. There was a long silence and then Scott grabbed Hayley in his arms and began to kiss her, and soon she started to kiss him back.

Chapter 24, Who are you?

“Martha there's something else I think you should take a look at” Jack told her opening his black bag again and pulling out the file that Harry had faxed him and handed it to Martha.

“What is it?” Martha asked taking the file in her hands.

“It's some statements from close friends and neighbours of Alex”.

The room was in silence as Martha read through the pages of statements. “So are you suggesting that he's been keeping Amy up in the second floor of his house for the last year and a half of her life?”

“Well that's what it looks like” Jack answered her.

In Steve's hospital room things were not going well at all, his heart had stopped working and there seemed to be a new problem every minute. “he's not breathing” The nurse declared.

“Well why the hell isn't his life support working then” the doctor yelled, he had promised the police that they would make sure that Steve got better so that he could be sent to jail.

“I don't know” the nurse replied. “I can't feel a pulse”.

“Take him into surgery now” The doctor ordered.

More nurses came into the room and took Steve's bed down the hall way to surgery, but by the time they got there Steve was already dead.

Over in England it was about ten in the morning and Harry had just got a call from Jack saying they had the right guy. “Ok, I want a gun squad down there as back up and I want some extra officers there to help surround the house”.

“Um, do you really think all that's necessary sir?” the junior constable named Troy asked.

“Look, the guy's dangerous , why don't you just be quiet and let me make the demands around here ok” Harry told him very sternly.

“I'm sorry boss I was just saying”.

“No you were just saying a load of garbage, now go and get my orders sorted, were leaving as soon as possible” Harry demanded.

Troy did as he was told and informed the other officers. “Is he out of his mind, we don't need the gun squad down there” one of the other officers exclaimed.

“Well just take it from someone who knows, he's in one of his bad moods today” Troy told them.

“Oh, ok. Thanks for warning us” she thanked him very graciously. “Ok guys you heard the boss, get the gun squad over here as soon as possible” she ordered as she turned around to face all the other officers.

About fifteen minutes later the police had surrounded the house of Alex Murry with the gun squad waiting just around the corner in case they were needed. “Ok, Troy, you come with me and search the house, I want the rest of you to say here and stop Alex from escaping” Harry instructed them all. “Is that clear everyone?”

“Yes sir” they all replied in unison.

Harry and Troy approached the front of the house and knocked on the door, Alex opened it and as soon as he saw the cops at the door he tried to slam it closed, but Harry managed to stop him, they put Alex in hand cuffs and escorted him to the car while they searched through the house.

“You search down here and I'll go upstairs” Harry instructed.

Harry made his way up the stairs and looked around at the room that was at the top, he studied it carefully, there were lots of toys that were all arranged nicely on a small child's sized couch, and more toys like Barbie dolls and unicorns that were scattered around on the floor, at the the walls were a pretty shade of pink and there was a rack of dress ups at the side of the room, On the far side of the room was a little girl with long dark brown hair in a light pastel green coloured princess costume with a plastic silver coated tiara on her head, she was looking into a tall skinny mirror that stood up off the floor on wooden legs.

“Who are you?” the little girl asked nervously turning around to face Harry.

Chapter number 25. The nanny

“Hey, you must be Amy” Harry said very warmly, coming down to her level.

Amy was still frightened by the sight of the man in front of her. Her nanny had read her a lot of stories about people who looked a lot like him, she called them police men, in her stories they were horrible people who locked people away, and sometimes they even killed them.

“Please don't hurt me” Amy said very frightened and was beginning to cry.

“Hey, I'm not going to hurt you. There's no need to cry” he said coming closer to her.

As he came closer, Amy began to freak out even more and stepped backwards until she hit the pink wall behind her, her five year old mind hadn't quite realized that stories weren't always correct .

“Amy” a voice called from a room not to far away and a woman who looked like she was in her late forties or early fifties entered the room, she had light brown shoulder length hair that was almost as lifeless as her dull blue eyes that seemed to be full of sadness. She was wearing some casual denim jeans and a pail sleeved shirt.

“Nanna, help me” Amy cried from where she had pushed herself up against the wall right next to her tall mirror that stood up straight on it's two wooden legs.

“What's going on here” the lady asked turning her attention to Harry standing near Amy in his police uniform.

“Mame I have been given permission to search the premises and I'm sorry but the two of you are going to have to come down to the police station with me.

“I'm not going anywhere with him” Amy declared, running over to her nanny and hiding behind her like she was a shield, sticking her head out to make sure that Harry wouldn't come any closer to her.

“At least tell us what's going on” The nanny asked, starting to look slightly frightened as well.

“I'm sorry but I can't give that information out right now. Now if you would like to make this as stress less as possible then I suggest that you come with me now” Harry informed her. She sighed and nodded her head, letting Harry escort her and Amy out of the house and into the car were two other officers escorted them to the station. Amy sat in silence the whole way and sobbed quietly so she couldn't be heard.

In the police car in front of them Harry was talking to some constables back at the station “I want you to do a back ground check on the nanny when we get there, there's something not right about this case and I'm certain that she's got something to do with it.

Chapter number 26. She's in on this too.

“Hey” Maddie greeted her boyfriend Lucas as she walked into the dinner and sat next to him at one of the tables.

“Hey” he replied lightly kissing her on the cheek. “So where have you been?”

“Oh, me and Cassie went shopping. Hey, do you know anything about Jack walking out of Micheal hill jewelers this morning?” Maddie asked curiously.

“Well he could have been just looking” Lucas suggested trying to defend his brother.

“No he had one of those gift bags. I didn't think him and Martha were up to that stage yet” Maddie commented. Lucas didn't say anything he just sat there thinking of how he could change the subject. “Lucas do you know something I don't” She asked when she noticed the look on his face.

“Um” Lucas started.

“Lucas” Maddie said frustrated at the way he was keeping things from her.

“Oh alright but you better promise that you'll pretend you didn't hear this, alright?”

“Ok, I promise, just tell me” She told him moving her chair closer, eager to hear what he was about to say.

“He's asking her to marry him” Lucas whispered so she could hear.

“Really, when” she whispered back.

“He's taking her to some fancy restaurant tonight. Know remember you didn't hear that”.

“Yeah ok”.

“What are you two whispering about?” Jack questioned walking up to the table Maddie and Lucas were sitting at.

“Oh, not much” Maddie told him.

“Just saying how much we love each other” Lucas finished her sentence for her, putting his arm around Maddie's shoulder.

“Ok, I'll leave you to it then” he said backing away as his phone began to ring. “Hello, Jack Holden” Jack answered the call, walking out of the dinner.

“Hey, Jack it's Harry”.

“Oh, hey. How did you go?” Jack asked in suspense.

“We found Amy” Harry declared.

“Is she ok?”

“Yeah, a little shaken up, but she'll be alright” he explained.

“That's good. What did Amy say about the kidnap?”

“Nothing yet, she's to scared in those interview rooms, I think they creep her out”.

“You sure it's not you she's scared of, I mean you can be pretty scary” Jack teased.

“Hey, people only run away from me when I'm trying to arrest them” Harry defended himself. “Anyway I was thinking maybe it wouldn't be quite so scary if Martha was there with her”.

“You want her to come to London?” Jack questioned, slightly surprised.

“Yeah, well she's probably desperate to see Amy and we're not allowed to send Amy home until we've solved this case. In fact why don't you come too?” Harry suggested.

“Yeah, sounds like a good idea” Jack told him. “I'll bring it up with Martha and then I'll get back to you later, ok”.

“Ok, bye” Harry said.

When Jack hung up his phone he raced to Noah's bar where Martha worked. “Hey, there's something i need to tell you” Jack said quickly still catching up on his breath.

“What's all the rush about?” Martha said smiling at him while she finished drying the last washed cup that was sitting next to the sink.

“They've found Amy” Jack told her.

Martha's face looked overjoyed. She placed the tea towel in the counter and walked around the bench and placed her arms around Jack, “are you the best boyfriend or what”..

“There's more” Jack told her.

“Really?”

“Yeah, Harry wants us to come to London to be with Amy”.

“Aren't they sending her home?” Martha asked.

“They can't until the case is solved properly, which could take a while”.

“ok” Martha said nodding her head, “so were going to London” Martha added holding back her excitement.

“Yeah I guess so”.

“It'll be our first holiday together” she commented leaning in to kiss him on the lips. He kissed her back and when they broke apart their faces stayed only a few centimeters apart.

“I love you” he whispered, looking deep into her eyes that sparkled with happiness.

“I love you too” she whispered back, then they both went back in for another passionate kiss that seemed to last for ever, but was sadly interrupted by Alf.

“Sorry to ruin the moment but you two are scaring the flopping customers away” Alf told them as he walked into the bar.

“Oh, sorry granddad” Martha said braking away from Jack.

“Yeah well love your shifts over so why don't you take that outside” he suggested.

“Ok” Martha and Jack both replied in unison. Then they both disappeared out the door of the surf club.

Two days later Jack and Martha arrived at the airport in London after getting a last minute flight and rushing to the city. “You excited?” Jack asked Martha when they got off the plane and headed to where their luggage was.

“What do you think, of course I am” she said placing her arm around Jacks waist and he then put his arm around her shoulders.

“I'm surprised you managed to sleep on the plane, cause I certainly couldn't. Not while I was being used as a pillow anyway”.

“Well at least one of us got some sleep” Martha told him.

“Yeah I guess so. But I can defiantly tell you I'll be the first one asleep when we get to the hotel”.

“Yeah, I bet you will be too. You must be really tired babe”.

At about five o'clock that afternoon Jack woke up in the hotel after sleeping for the last ten hours. He walked out to the lounge room where Martha was sitting. “Hey, did you have a good sleep?” Martha asked him.

“Yeah I'm feeling much better. You feel like going out some place special for Tea?” Jack asked hoping she would, he hadn't got to ask her to marry him back in summer bay cos they were catching a plane.

“Yeah that sounds nice” Martha answered kissing him on the cheek before getting up and walking into the kitchen to get a glass of water. “Oh I forgot to tell you, Harry called and said that he wants us to come and get Amy tomorrow morning”.

“Ok, did he say what time?”

“No, he said he'd call in the morning when he wanted us to come. I can't wait to see her again, she's probably grown up a lot in the last year and a half. Um Jack is there supost to be water coming out of the tap when you turn the knob?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Cause there's not” Martha told him.

“Ok I'll go talk to the manager” Jack said getting up from the lounge and walking to the door. When Jack left Martha went to go and sit back down on the couch. And a few minutes later she heard the door opening.

“You back already babe?” Martha called out, but there was no reply. Then Martha turned around to see who opened the door and was shocked who was standing behind her. “Oh my goodness Jackie how did you get here?” Martha asked in shock.

“Sir” one of the constables said as he approached Harry in the corridor of the police station.

“Yeah what did you find?”

“The nanny's name is Jackie Ryan” he replied.

“Yeah so what does that tell us, it's just another name” Harry told him.

“No it's not just any name, Jackie is Alex's mother”.

“Oh, gosh, so she was in on this too” Harry added in dis belief. “She's just through here, I want her arrested now” He orded.

“Yes sir” he replied doing as he was told. “Um, boss are you sure you put her in here”.

“Yeah, I was questioning her and-” Harry stopped when her saw the empty room with the window in the corner wide open.

“You didn't honestly thing I just 'disappeared' at the same time as Amy did you?” Jackie said as she walked around from the back of the couch.

“Oh, my gosh. You didn't” Martha replied shaking her head in dis belief.

“Yes I did. And if you take Amy away from me again then I'll make sure you never get to see her” Jackie threatened her pulling masking tape and rope our from her bag and grabbing Martha before she could escape.

Chapter number 27. I had you all fooled!

“I had you all fooled, you all actually thought kidnapping Amy was Alex's idea” she told Martha while she walked back and forth in front of her. Alex was actually pretty shocked when I came up with that idea, but the eventually saw sense in it. You should of known better than to think that you could just take off with her to New York Martha, you should of known better” she told her giving her an evil yet in some ways cranky.

“Mmmmm, mmm, mmmm” Martha mumbled, struggling to get her sentence out because of the masking tape that was plastered across her mouth.

“What was that, you got something to say for yourself?” Jackie questioned (note, Jackie sounds like Mumma rose with her way of sounding intelligent, yet evil). Jackie then ripped off the masking tape, hopping for an apology from Martha.

“Why would you give a stuff about where I take Amy, you don't even care about her, all you care about is yourself and having an heir to your million dollar, organic farm” Martha yelled.

“That's not true” Jackie defended herself.

“Oh for goodness sake Jackie, save your lies for someone who will believe you. If you call sending Amy Christmas presents and never even bothering to come and see her, not even on her birthday caring about her then your more messed up the I thought”.

Jack made his way back to the room in the hotel after he had gone to see the manager about the problem with the taps, as he walked closer to the door he could here Martha yelling. “Well maybe you should keep your rubbish to yourself” he could here another voice talking what he couldn't see was Jackie putting the masking tape back across Martha's mouth.

“Babe what's going on?” Jack called as he came back in the door, he walked through to the couch and saw Martha tied up on the couch, then he looked across the room and saw Jackie there.

“Martha” Jack said in shock and rushed over to untie her.

“What do you think your doing?” Jackie asked him as he approached the couch.

“I was about to ask you the same thing” Jack answered her before pushing her to the ground and holding her there until he could reach over to the masking tape and rope that was lying on the floor about twenty centimeters away and tied up Jackie.

“Martha are you ok?” Jack asked after he pulled the masking tape off Martha's mouth and began to untie the rope around her hands and feet.

“I am now that your here” she nodded smiling. “Do you even get tired of saving my life?”

“Never” Jack smiled and planted a kiss on Martha's fore head. “I should probably call Harry so he can come and get her” Jack said looking back over to were Jackie was still lying on the floor all tied up. “Do you know who she is?”

“Sadly, yes. She's Alex's mother”.

“Oh” Jack added as he picked up the phone and dialed Harry's number. Fifteen minutes later Harry arrived and arrested Jackie. Martha and Jack followed Harry down to were the police car was and watched Jackie being put into the back of the car.

“Before you two take off, there's someone who wants to see you” Harry said opening the door of another police car that was in front of the one that they had just put Jackie in. They both looked around to see what he ment and saw Amy getting out of the car.

“Mummy” Amy exclaimed in her ever so cute five year old voice, and began to run as fast as her little legs would take her.

“Amy” Martha screeched in surprise and got down on her knee's, stretching her arms out to give her a hug. Everything seemed to go in slow motion for Martha as Amy got closer to her, she couldn't wait to hold her little girl again, but finally the wait was over. Jack just smiled and watched the little reunion, he looked closely at the two of them an how much alike they were, they both had the same long brown slightly wavy hair and sparkling eye's that smiled. He was just so happy that things had finally worked out they way the should of.

After a little while after Martha had thanked Harry for his hard work she took Amy up to the hotel room and left Jack to talk to Harry.

“Thanks for doing that for me mate” Jack said.

“Anytime. And I'm your friend not your mate” Harry replied chuckling slightly.

“Sorry” Jack said chuckling too.

“Anyway, I'd better get back and finish this case of good”.

“Yeah ok, see you later” Jack replied turning to go back up to the hotel room.

“Hey where's Amy” Jack asked as he sat down next to Martha on the couch.

“She's having a nap in the spare room” Martha told him putting the magazine she had been reading back on the coffee table in front her.

“Well looks like we've got this place pretty much to ourselves then” Jack said pulling Martha in close and started kissing her on the neck”.

Character profile

Name: Amy Ryan

Parents: Martha McKenzie, Alex Ryan

Birthday: 12th of January 2001

Age: 5

Hair colour: Brown (like Martha's)

Eye colour: Blue

favorite food: Ice cream, chocolate, lollies.

loves: dressing up, Barbie dolls, birthday parties, stories, being outside, horses, dancing, music (she had a radio in her bedroom that she used to listen to a lot).

hates: being bored with nothing to do.

Fears: heights, spiders, her dad (she was never aware that he lived in the same house as her because he never came upstairs to see her).

Personality: happy, fun to be around, easily frightened, like her mum she can be very stubborn when she doesn't want to admit she's wrong to her rivals.

please tell me what you think.

[dolly-999]

Chapter 28, Marry me?

“I can't believe that after a year and a half I've finally got Amy back” Martha said smiling at Jack who was sitting next to her on the couch.

“Yeah well we've got Harry to thank for that” Jack replied.

“Not just Harry, you too. If you hadn't gone to so much trouble to reopen the case in the first place then Amy would still be in the second floor of Alex's house with Jackie acting like some angel so that Amy would like her” Martha told him planting a kiss on his cheek.

“Yeah I guess so. So what's going to happen when we get back to Australia?”

“What do you mean?” Martha asked.

“I mean, are we going to find a place of our own” Jack asked in a way that hinted something, but Martha couldn't really determine what.

“Well there's not really any rush for that, I'm sure granddad won't mind having Amy stay for a while. Anyway why are you acting suspicious, you only do that when your trying to hint something” Martha told him.

Jack just looked blankly thinking if he should just say it now or wait for the right moment. “Jack” Martha insisted.

“Ok, there's been something I've been meaning to ask you for a while now, but I haven't found the right time yet. Well it's not really how I planned the moment, but Martha will you marry me?” Jack asked getting down on one knee in front of her and taking her left hand in his.

Martha paused for a moment, she wanted more than anything to say yes to that but she had more to think about than herself in this decision. She sighed and then began to talk “Jack, I love you but-”.

“But it's not the right time” Jack finished her sentence for her.

“Yeah, it's just not the right time. I've got Amy to think about now, I need to make sure she's ok with you before I rush into something like this. You do understand, Jack baby don't you?”

“Yeah, I do” Jack said, but Martha could tell he was slightly disappointed. He lent forward and kissed her on the forehead before walking into the kitchen.

“Mummy” Amy said as she came into the room.

“Yeah, princess” Martha answered her putting on a smile so she wouldn't think something was wrong.

“I can't sleep”.

“Well how about I read you a story, would you like that?” Martha asked.

“Yeap” Amy smiled “Who's that?” she asked pointing into the kitchen.

“Amy this is mummy's new boyfriend Jack”.

Amy paused for a moment and then turned her head around to face her mother, she didn't look to happy, she stormed out of the room and slammed her bedroom door closed.

“So how do you think she took that?” Jack asked standing in the door way.

“I don't know. I'll go talk to her” Martha told him taking a deep breath before walking to Amy's room.

Next time:

Why doesn't Amy like Jack?

Could Amy tear Jack and Martha apart?

Please tell me what you think.

[dolly-999]

Chapter number 29. Mummy's little princess.

“Hey princess, what's that long face for?” Martha asked sitting down on the bed next to Amy. Amy didn't reply, she just kept looking into thin air straight ahead of her. “Sweety I won't know what's wrong if you don't tell me”.

“He's going to be just like daddy, and take me away” Amy sobbed.

“Sweety he's nothing like daddy, ok. Mummy's not going choose anyone like daddy, I promise” Martha comforted her giving her a big hug.

“Really?”

“Really” Martha confirmed. “I'm just going to go and get something and I'll be back in a minute, ok”.

“Ok” Amy answered, starting to cheer up.

Martha disappeared out the door for a minute and came back with something behind her back. “Close your eyes” Martha told her. Amy did as she was told and closed her eyes tightly. “Ok you can open them now. Remember this?” Martha asked holding a heart shaped locket in her hand.

Amy smiled “My locket” she exclaimed “I lost it when Daddy took me away”.

“Yeah, and Mummy kept it safe for you” she told her, undoing it and putting it around Amy's neck. “Now I want you to know that no matter who else comes along, you'll always be Mummy's princess”.

Amy smiled at her Mother, “Really?”

“Yes, really. How about we go and get a drink from the kitchen”.

“Ok” Amy agreed hopping off the bed and following Martha to the kitchen.

“Jack, did they actually fix the water problem” Martha asked standing at the sink fiddling with the knobs on the tap.

“They said they would” Jack told her.

“Well they haven't, I'm going to go and sort that out”

“Ok” Jack answered as Martha left the hotel room.

“Can you read me my story?” Amy asked after the room had been silent for a few minutes.

“Sure” Jack replied in a happy and cheerful voice.

“Ok, I'll go and get my book” Amy said running back to her bedroom and coming back out with her story book of the three little pigs.

About five minutes later Martha came back and walked in quietly and smiled when she saw Jack reading Amy a story.

“Little pig little pig, let me come in” Jack said putting on a deep voice for the wolf. “Not by the hairs of my chinny chin chin” he continued making a high pitched voice for the little pig and Amy giggled. Not wanting to interrupt Martha lent on the edge of the door way and watched while Jack read the rest of the story to Amy.

“Mummy's back” Amy exclaimed happily when Jack finished reading and closed the book.

“Did they fix it?” Jack asked.

“Yeap, I think so” Martha told him, walking over to the tap to check. “Yeap it's working”.

Amy let out a big yarn, “you look like your could to with some sleep princess” Martha said picking her up and taking her back to bed. “So how did you like Jack's story?”

“I like him, he makes funny voices” Amy told her.

“Yeah I hear them. Anyway goodnight sweety” Martha said tucking Amy into bed and leaving the room. She came out into the lounge room and gave Jack a big kiss.

“What was that for” Jack asked.

“Just for being the most amazing guy in the world” Martha told him.

“No your the amazing one”.

“No you are, What did i ever do to deserve someone like you Jack” she sighed placing her head on Jack's chest and wrapping her arms around him. Then she whispered something.

“What?” Jack asked.

“I said I'd love to be your wife” She said a bit louder lifting her head up. Jack smiled and lent forward and kissed her. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a little white leather box and opened it. “Jack it's beautiful” she said studying the gold ring with diamonds inside the box.

Jack took the ring out and slipped it on Martha's finger “Not nearly half as beautiful as you. I love you Martha”.

“I love you too”.

Final chapter:

A wedding?

A baby?

How will it all go?

Will everything end happily?

Next time's the last chapter.

Please tell me what you think.

[dolly-999]

Chapter 30, I love you.

A few months had passed in Summer bay after Martha, Jack and little Amy arrived home and it was finally Jack and Martha's big day.

Back at Martha's apartment wear Martha and Tash were getting ready things weren't going well at all, Martha had been throwing up for the last ten minutes and Tash didn't know what to do.

“I can't get sick on my wedding day” Martha exclaimed before throwing up again.

“Maybe we should call Jack”Tash said picking up the phone.

“No” Martha insisted taking the phone out of Tasha's hands and hanging it back up on it's hook. “Look it's starting to settle down, if it keeps going then we'll call, right now we need to get ready”.

“Ok, but if it gets worse you can't just pretend it's ok. You don't want to end up throwing up at the alter”.

“Alright” Martha agreed.

“Knock, knock” a voice called from the door.

“Come in” Martha called back. “Mum” she exclaimed when she saw Roo enter the room.

“Hey sweety” Roo greeted her and gave her a big hug. “How's the bride doing?”

“Ok, I was throwing up a few minutes ago but it's settled down now, I'm late too” Martha told her.

“How late?”

“About a week or two, kinda weird, it's never been that late before” Martha told her.

“Oh, my, it sounds like your pregnant sweety”.

“Your not serious” Martha said.

“No, sweety I'm serious. You two get ready and I'll go and get a pregnancy test” Ruth said disappearing out the door before Martha could reply.

“I can't be pregnant” Martha turned around and said fairly confidently to Tash. Tash just gave her a look that clearly said 'I don't believe you. “Ok, so I might be pregnant” She added starting to sound unsure, “Oh my goodness, I could be pregnant” Martha panicked.

“It's alright Martha, your Mum will be back soon then we can find that out. Right now you've got a wedding to get ready for” Tasha told her.

“Ok” she answered taking a deep breath before getting up off the couch.

Jack, Lucas and Robbie were already down at the rock cliff were Jack and Martha were getting married (the cliff were Jack and Martha first kissed).

“I never though I'd be this nervous” Jack said sitting the edge of a rock.

“Yeah you look it to” Lucas teased.

“Oh shut up”.

“Don't worry, you look like any man about to get married would” Robbie told him. “As soon as you see Martha everyone else will be blocked out”.

“Yeah I hope so”.

“Beep, beep” the timer on the pregnancy test sounded and Martha went and picked it up.

“I can't look” Martha said handing it to her Mother.

Ruth looked at it for a minute and smiled “Your going to be a Mum”.

“Really?”

“Really”.

“Oh my goodness” Martha said in shock “On My wedding day”.

“Yeah, so when are you going to tell Jack?” Tash asked.

“Oh gosh I haven't even though about that I'll have to tell him before the reception, he'll get suspicious if don't drink any champaign. How on earth am I going to tell him?”

“You don't need to let that worry you know sweety, just enjoy your big day, you'll know when the time is right to tell him” Ruth told her calmly.

“Yeah, your right” Martha said smiling “Wow I'm going to be a Mum”.

“Are we all ready to go?” Sally asked walking in the door with Amy who was Martha's flower girl.

“Yeah” they all said getting up ready to leave.

“Jack if you keep pacing like that your going to wreck your shoes before Martha even gets here, just chill for a minute would you” Lucas told him.

“Ok” Jack took a deep breath in trying to relax. So he turned around and started talking to some of the people gathered around the place.

Martha sighed, felling nervous “Martha relax, you look fine” Tash reassured her.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes I'm sure, stop worrying Mac you'll do fine”.

“Ok” Martha replied getting out of the car and looking around at the 20 or so people that were crowded at the cliff waiting.

“Ok everyone, were going to make a start” Sally told them all and everyone went and sat down in the two rows of chairs that had been put out. Jack took his place next to Robbie and Lucas up the front and the ceremony began. He waited nervously as little Amy and Tash walked down to the front, then he saw Martha and like Robbie had told him everything else was blocked out.

He watched her carefully smiling with joy at the sight of his beautiful wife to be, she was wearing a long white dress (like the one Bec Cartwright had at her wedding) and her hair was pined back loosely at the back of her head, her face glowed and her eyes sparkled with happiness, she made him feel like the luckiest man in the world and he only hoped that she felt the same about him.

After what seemed like forever for Jack Martha finally reached the front and took Jacks hands in hers and the priest began the ceremony. The rest of the ceremony seemed to be a blur for both Martha and Jack and before they knew it the priest pronounced them husband and wife.

“Jack you may now kiss the bride” the priest announced and Martha and jack shared a long meaningful kiss.

After the ceremony Jack and Martha were escorted to the reception in a police car.

“I love you Mrs Holden” Jack whispered in Martha's ear on the way.

“I love you too” Martha replied smiling and looking into his eyes. “There's something I need to tell you before we get to the reception”.

“What is it?” Jack asked trying to read the blank look on her face.

“Jack baby, I'm pregnant” Martha told him waiting nervously for an answer.

Jack paused for a moment over joyed with happiness, he'd always wanted to start a family with Martha. “Wow, I'm going to be a dad. Why didn't you tell me sooner?”

“Because I only found out like literally five minutes before I left to come”.

“Really how did you find out?” Jack asked.

“I'd been vomiting and my Mum ran down to the chemist and got me one cause she thought I might be pregnant, and she was right” Martha explained.

Jack gave Martha a quick peck on the cheek “Well this baby is going to be very lucky having a yummy mummy like you”.

“And it's going to be even more lucky to have a dad like you” Martha told him as they arrived outside the surf club.

“So have you told him yet” Tash asked from across the table when jack had gotten up to talk to his dad.

“Yeap” Martha smiled.

“I'm guessing it all went well then?”

“Oh, you bet it did” Martha told her.

“So first your married and then before you even get to your reception you've got her pregnant, well you've been working hard” Tony teased.

“Ha ha, really funny dad” Jack said sarcastically.

“Excuse me everyone” Tash called out to the room full of people tapping her glass with a spoon “Excuse me, but it's time for the bride and groom to say their thank yous”.

The room went silent and Jack and Martha stood in front of the counter with all eye's on them “Ok, were do I start” Martha started “This man has been one of the most wonderful, amazing, scariest, happiest and most beautiful things that's ever happened to me, and Jack I don't know how to thank you, I don't know how to thank you” She continued with tears of happiness beginning to form in her eye's “for every time you've held me, and loved me, whether I was scared, or frightened, or even when I was having the best day in the world, you were always there for me, and I only hope that this day is a way of saying, that, I want to do the same, I love you Jack, and nothing, nothings ever, ever going to change that, not in a million years.”

“Wow, how do you top that” Jack commented, and everyone in the room couldn't help but chuckle slightly “When I first met this girl, I knew that there was something special about her. I could probably go on for hours about all the times this girl had a go at me or got frustrated at me, but that whole time I kept coming back for more, I didn't know why at the time but, now I'm glad I did, cause if I didn't, for all I know I could still be sitting on the couch watching the footy every Saturday night, instead of being with the most amazing girl I could ever imagine or ever even hope for, and I am so thankful for her and her beautiful daughter Amy, for being one of the biggest parts of my life” Jack paused for a minute, his eye's beginning to water, Martha's eye's were beyond watering and her tears were running down her face “and I don't know, I don't know what I ever did to deserve this girl, but whatever it was, it must have been something great” The room was in silence and almost everyone was in tears. Jack was going to say more but Martha silenced him with a kiss and everyone in the room applauded.

“You've done more than enough to deserve me” Martha whispered in his ear. “I love you”.

“I love you too” Jack told her before going in for another long meaningful kiss.

So that was the end.

Please tell me what you think.

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