Breaking Point

[I love music]

WARNING: This chapter contains references to suicide.

*****CHAPTER 11*****

Kane watched as the ambos carried the still figure of Rose Phillips out on a stretcher. For a moment, he thought he saw Rhys Sutherland pull up briefly in his car, but he was so tired that that had to be in his imagination.

Scott hadn't been any help, staggering around, cursing when he spilt his coffee, shrugging when Kane asked if he was coming with him in the ambulance. "She either carks it or she don't, mate. Me, I'm having brekkie."

At the hospital the doctor explained Rose had suffered a massive stroke and that the next forty-eight hours, when she was most susceptible to another stroke, were crucial. If she woke she'd need therapy and may never fully recover. Another stroke could kill her.

He dozed on a chair in the waiting room of the emergency department until a medic shook him awake, telling him he'd be far more use to his aunt if he got home and had a proper sleep, they'd phone him if there was any change. Maybe the medic was right. He'd never been so tired in his life before. Scott was out so he crashed and dreamt a thousand dreams.

*****

Scott had rattled round the empty house looking for loose cash. Rose didn't fail him. He found a stash, freshly drawn out of the bank and earmarked for some bills. And the chick he met in the bar was heaps impressed with the amount of money he had to blow.

*****

"Kirsty, he looked rough, he reeked of alcohol..."

"So you make it up as you go along as usual!"

"You have no idea what you're talking about."

"Neither do you, Dad..."

"You explain it to me then." Rhys said sarcastically.

Shelley had been adamant they at least clear the air with Mrs Phillips and Rhys had gone along with that. He had no ill feeling towards the old lady. She had done nothing wrong. An apology to Kane Phillips would have stuck in his throat. But when he'd got to the Phillips' house Rose was being taken away in an ambulance, Kane looked like he'd gone ten rounds in a boxing ring, and Scott was leaning drunkenly against the front door. It was obvious to him that the Phillips brothers had been in a bar brawl and at some stage when they got home Rose Phillips had got in the way.

"I don't know...I don’t know, Dad. But it doesn't have to be the way you say."

"Have it your way." Rhys couldn't be bothered arguing any more

He just needed his daughter to know what Kane Phillips was really like. Kirsty may have kept her promise not to see Kane, but he hated the way she kept taking his side, kept insisting the family should sit down and talk with him. No chance! Clara Denton repeatedly suggested the same thing and he and Shelley repeatedly told her there was no way they were putting Dani through the hell of seeing her rapist again. Things had already spiralled enough out of control as it was.

*****

Dave Walsh, wealthy property owner, sat in his Yabbie Creek office, fuming. He hadn't forgotten the punch Kane Phillips had swung at him that day outside Summer Bay Hospital or the taste of the blood running down his face. He had wanted justice. Someone still had to pay. And the price would be high.

*****

"'Cos she carked it, ya bloody drongo!" Scott said, finally losing patience.

Rose's credit card had been burning a hole in his pocket ever since he'd found her pin number carelessly scribbled down on the back of an envelope. Zoe, the chick he'd met last night, had hinted she'd like to meet up again, but she didn't like to leave her friend, if only Scott had a mate...but, Jeez, all Kane was interested in was this Kirsty Sutho, who was way, way out of his league.

"Look, we could hire a car, drive up the coast..."

"When?"

"Well, like now of course. When d'you think?"

"No, I mean Auntie Rose. Ma. Whatever. When'd it happen? Why didn't you wake me?"

Scott shrugged vaguely. "The doc rang coupla hours ago. About these chicks..."

"I already told you. I'm not going."

Scott argued a while longer. He knew he could make Kane go, but Zoe mightn't want to know if Scott turned up looking like he'd been in a fight.

"You'll keep," he promised as he left.

The world was slipping away, leaving nothing but a dark shadow that threatened to overwhelm him. After all he'd discovered in the past couple of days, about Richie, about Rose, and now she was dead, and Scott carrying on as though nothing had happened. Things might have been okay if he was with Kirsty, but he couldn't be with Kirsty because of what he'd done to Dani and because of Richie. Kirsty deserved far, far more than someone who had all this evil from Richie inside him. More than all the sadness that falling in love with a Phillips would bring her.

He was crying as he tapped into the mobile.

*****

Dani smiled. The smile was fake but nobody saw through it. Not even Mum.

Dani had spent the morning helping her out at the Drop-in Centre, then they'd treated themselves to lunch at the diner and not once did Shelley suspect what was going on inside her daugher’s head. So Dani smiled when Shelley said she seemed more like her old self and Shelley believed the smile.

Last night there'd been another row. Kirsty had been trying to tell Dani about falling in love with Kane, but Shelley overheard and ended the conversation in a screaming match. Like everyone else, she reckoned it was best if Kane was never even mentioned to Dani again. Dani didn't know if it was best or not. Nothing took away the nightmares. But it didn't matter now. Not now she'd decided to end the pain forever. She said she was going to sunbathe on Summer Bay beach.

Then she caught the bus to Yabbie Creek.

*****

Kirsty's mobile bleeped and she glanced at the screen. Her heart froze as she read the message.

I luv u 2 much 2 eva hurt u & becoz I luv u I hv 2 go away 4eva. I am so sorry xxxxxx Kane

She called him back but his mobile was switched off and the phone in the Phillips house rang and rang unanswered. Where was he? Didn't he know, no matter what, she'd always love him? The tears rained down Kirsty's face so fast she could barely see. This time she couldn't let him go, not for anyone. She'd been a fool to think she could. This time she'd give up everything to be with him. If she ever found him again.

*****

So where will you go when love is ice cold and emptiness is all around? When another day fades to black and white and the pain won’t leave your heart? Sometimes you just want to walk forever, past the edge of time, if it will make all the hurt go away, if it will make everything alright, if it will...

Kane looked once towards Summer Bay, then wiped away the tears. It was better for Kirsty this way. He didn't need any luggage, not where he was going.

And he didn't know where that was, only that it was somewhere far past the edge of time.

*****

So where will you go when love is ice cold and emptiness is all around? When another day fades to black and white and the pain won’t leave your heart? Sometimes you just want to walk forever, past the edge of time, if it will make all the hurt go away, if it will make everything alright, if it will...

Dani had noticed it often enough from the bus window on the way to her counselling sessions with Clara Denton.

At a certain point, as the bus turns off the Yabbie Creek Road, passengers can catch a quick, fleeting glimpse of an ancient bridge, rarely used nowadays, that leads out of Yabbie Creek itself. The bridge's view from one side is of red sandstone cliffs towering deep in the distance, from the other, the sea touches the sky like the beginning of time. It’s a beautiful, almost magical place, and steeped in the history of Aboriginal dreamtime. But it has a darker side.

It’s a known suicide spot.

It was where Dani stood now, shivering though the day was hot, looking down to the water at her wavering reflection, wondering how cold, how quick, how silent the moment would be.

[I love music]

***CHAPTER 12***

By mid-afternoon Summer Bay was sweltering in a baking heat and the residents of the little seaside town, although used to glorious soaring temperatures, were finding it impossible to stay cool.

At the diner, Colleen scooped herself an extra large sundae while Alf mopped his brow, half hating the weather, half glad sales of ice cream and cold drinks had gone through the roof. Irene sat outside, fanning herself, smiling as she recalled her earlier phone chat with Gypsy and Will. Seb went for a swim with a few of the guys, trying hard to push thoughts of Kirsty to the back of his mind. Leah took VJ down to the beach where there was a gentle sea breeze and laughed as she watched him and his new friend, the son of a couple on holiday from England, kicking a beach ball around.

Some seemed to feel the oppressive heat more than others.

Dave Walsh, even in his slick new car with the air conditioning giving out icy blasts, cursed the other traffic under his breath as he drove into the Bay.

And Jade gave in to an overwhelming sadness and wept.

*****

For Scott Phillips life had never been sweeter. Money in his pocket, a new chick, his freedom after three years stuck in a hot, sweaty jail. Zoe and her friend Andrea had arranged to meet him in a fashionable new bar just recently opened in Summer Bay. It was expensive, Zoe said, but wasn't she was worth it?

He was still furious with Kane though. The lie about Auntie Rose being dead wasn't planned, but, Jeez, his bro had made him do his block. Just didn't know a good thing when it was hitting him in the face. After all, the longer Rosie stayed in hospital, the better it was for them. Scott would cross the little problem of the credit card withdrawals when he came to it.

Anyways, if she died he wouldn't have the problem to cross and Kane would almost certainly inherit the house - and there was no way his bro would see him out on the streets, Scott himself would make sure of that, he thought, whistling cheerfully.

*****

"Hey!"

Leah smiled at Jesse and introduced him to the English couple. Tanned, fit, good-looking, he still made her heart flutter every time she saw him.

"Sorry I'm late," Jesse said, passing her the picnic hamper. "Two kids were outside the gym bashing the hell out of each other. Someone had to separate them."

"Good for you!" Leah said proudly. "Too many people turn away because it's easier."

The words would come back to haunt her.

*****

Shelley swept her hair up from her neck so that she could better feel the coolness of the fan, laughing at the story Flynn was telling her of the Drop-in client, who already had a home and a happy family life, and whose true reason for staying had turned out to be the great selection of movies on offer in the TV room.

They both jumped up startled as Jade burst into the office.

"Mum! Mum! It's Kirsty!" Jade was sobbing and taking whooping gulps of air as she fought for breath. It was rare for the asthma to trouble her these days and she had grown foolishly careless about carrying an inhaler. "She...she..."

"It's alright. Take your time." Inwardly, Shelley was shaking though outwardly she feigned calm. She put one arm reassuringly around her daughter while the other reached for the phone. "Rhys, quick! Jade needs her spare inhaler and from what Jade said I think something's wrong with Kirsty too! It should be by the first aid box. Well, ask Dani, she'll know exactly where to look. But Dani must be there! She promised me she'd be home by three!"

Shelley turned hot and cold by turns, her mind in turmoil. She should never have trusted Dani alone when Dani was still so emotionally fragile...and what had happened to Kirsty?...

The pain in Jade's chest tightened and she wished she could catch her breath, if only once, just to explain to Mum the physical pain was nothing compared to feeling Kirsty's heartache.

*****

"Her daughter's with her?" Clara had gone to see Rose after returning home from the week in Perth and discovered she was in hospital. She repeated the nurse's words in bewilderment, quite certain Rose Phillips didn't have a daughter.

"I'm really sorry. I've been told it's strictly family only at present," the girl said apologetically, mistaking Clara's surprise for annoyance. She knew Clara Denton was a very well respected doctor and she was uneasy at having no clear instructions over whether or not the rule still applied to someone of high rank in the medical profession. "But Dr Abbott is very pleased with Mrs Phillips' progress and I'm allowed to pass on any messages."

"Give her my regards, thank you. I'll speak with her...um...daughter," Clara replied, as Kirsty Sutherland staggered unsteadily from the ward, her face streaked with tears.

Seeing Dani's counsellor, she sank weakly into a chair as if the whole world weighed down on her shoulders. "It's Kane. I came here to look for him and...and...Mrs Phillips told me she's his mother and...something else..."

"I know," Clara said gently, stooping down beside her and squeezing her hands. Kirsty reminded her so much of her youngest daughter as a teenager and her heart went out to her.

"You know?" For a fraction of a second Kirsty's shock checked the flow of tears. "About everything?"

"About his father? Yes, I guessed. It's why I needed to speak with Rose. Keeping secrets bottled up inside does nobody any good."

Kirsty shook her head. "Kane took it bad. He sent me...a message like...I don't know if it means he's going to..." She looked up at Clara in despair. "But I can't live without him. I love Dani so much and we've tried so hard to do the right thing, but I can't live without him. Without him, I'm already dead."

*****

Something breaks the tightness of the air, some imperceptible movement in the quiet loneliness. Someone is watching.

Dani turns slowly and sees him. Kane.

Part of the mystical quality of the old bridge is its suddenness, the surrounding landscape offering only glimpses until you're there and caught in its history. So he sees her only when he reaches the bridge itself and seeing her sweeps him irretrievably into the nightmare.

He knows what must happen. He is too far away to stop her, yet the look of terror on her face makes an unshakeable promise if he comes any closer.

She is going to jump.

WARNING: CHARACTER DEATHS IN NEXT CHAPTER

[I love music]

***WARNING: CHARACTER DEATHS IN THIS CHAPTER***

***CHAPTER 13***

"DON’T!" His voice slices into the silence, the lonely word sounding as though it will echo forever in the solitude of the countryside.

"Don't touch me! Don’t touch me!" Dani twists her ankle as she backs away, but the pain barely registers.

"Dani, I..."

"Keep away!"

He winces at the implication. "Jeez, you don't really think...?"

"I don't know. After the mediation I thought for a little while..." She stares at him warily. Half of her believes she can trust him. The other half believes the nightmares. "Okay. Okay, if you're not stalking me, why else are you here? No-one ever uses this bridge now."

"Cos I'm leaving. Go any other way out of Yabbie Creek and I'll only meet someone who hates me or hates someone in my family. After a while you get tired of trying to fight all the hate."

"Leaving? You expect me to buy that? You haven't even got any bags!"

He blinks as if suddenly waking. Like the jagged fragments of a shattered dream, somewhere in the back of his mind is the half formed idea of a high cliff or thundering train or speeding motorbike. Something fast, something furious, something to take him anywhere, anywhere out of the world.

"I don't know where the hell I'm going. I'm too tired to care anymore."

Something in the way he says it strikes a chord within Dani. She stares down at the diamond-coloured patterns of sunlight fluctuating on the blue-green water. It doesn't matter anymore. Not now it will all end in eternal sleep.

"Yeh, well, you and me both, Kane, you and me both."

*****

Dave Walsh knew he would be professional, as always, when he concluded business matters with the man who'd bought the old shop building from him and turned it into Summer Bay's most popular new bar. But in reality he was in no mood for meetings. Today would have been their wedding anniversary. If Sylvia had never fallen in love with Joe Phillips.

The final humiliation. Every time he added to his property empire, Joe and Richie Phillips were there to bleed him dry with demands for protection money. Then Joe, even though he was already married, stole Dave’s fiancee. When he'd told Sylvia of Joe's death in the car crash he hoped she'd cry on his shoulder. Instead she'd gone down to the old bridge in Yabbie Creek and thrown herself into the swirling river.

Dave turned the corner just as a figure stepped unexpectedly into the road. He made to hit the brakes, but then the guy looked towards him.

One of the Phillips boys. Maybe the one who'd punched him. Drunk and grinning like Joe Phillips had been the day he told him he was having an affair with Sylvia. Dave found himself pressing his foot down hard on the accelerator. For Sylvia. For the humiliation. For the years and years of hate that had eaten away inside him. Most of all, for the hate...

After the loud impact there was a silence.

Then came a ball of flame, a cloud of thick black smoke and a terrible smell of burning flesh.

*****

"I know some of what you're going through."

His statement takes her breath away and she swings round to face him but he doesn't meet her gaze. "I can't believe your arrogance! How can...how can you possibly know what it's like to be...to be raped?"

"Doesn't matter how many times someone says they're sorry it's never gonna go away, is it?"

"Oh, that's good, Kane, that's real good. What rape survival book did you get that one out of?"

"You know what I am?" To Dani's bewilderment, he sounds choked. "Someone born out of rape. You wanna know how that makes me feel? Like it happened to me. So I guess now I know, not all but maybe some, of what you're going through."

Only a fluttering of wings and a rippling on the water breaks the long silence before Dani finds her voice, a couple of notches down in its anger. "That's not your fault, I wouldn't wish that on anyone. But...dozens? hundreds?...of people around the world must be born out of rape. You going to stay a victim forever?"

"Are you?"

"What?"

"You dropped all your friends, you don't go out, you're a nervous wreck..."

Rage surges through her. "So who's fault's that?"

"Yeh, mine. And I wish I could go back and change things. But I can't." He looks up at her, his face soaked in tears. "My Auntie Rose is dead and I can't be with Kirsty cos she deserves a whole lot better than what I am so I'm butting out of everyone's lives. Don't stay a victim, Dani. You gotta face your fears one day."

He turns back, lost in thoughts of where you go, without money, without family, without friends, without the only person you've ever truly loved.

"Kane?"

"Yeh?"

"So do you."

*****

Leah was shaking, glad Jesse was beside her. They'd been leaving the beach. The sky had turned an ominous yellow and Jesse said he reckoned there was going to be a storm so they'd cut short their picnic. They'd been saying their farewells to the English family. She'd frowned when she'd noticed Scott Phillips. Remarked to Jesse she thought it was Kane at first, they were so alike. And, as they looked, they saw the car, with sudden deliberation, pick up speed and the driver's face twisted with hate. At least the kids had been lagging behind and hadn't witnessed the murder itself. The fire alone had terrorized them.

Their screams were still ringing in her ears. She clutched VJ's hand tight.

"The cops will be breaking it to him now but he's gonna need a mate," Jesse said. "I'd go myself but Leah, VJ...There's Kirsty Sutherland, but her family..." his voice trailed off. There WAS nobody else. It spoke volumes about how much Summer Bay cared.

Flynn nodded. "I understand. Thanks for telling me. He's probably still at the hospital with his aunt so I'll try there first."

Leah's eyes were brimming with tears. "The worst thing is, that day in the diner. I wanted to yell at everyone to stop all the hatred, but I didn't. I just turned away."

"Hey, you wanted it to stop," Jesse said, picking up VJ and planting a tender, reassuring kiss on Leah's forehead. "There's a lot of people in the Bay need to take a good long look at themselves."

*****

Kirsty still hadn't gotten over the shock of Mum, Dad and Jade turning up out of the blue but she was glad to see them. It had been unnerving earlier to see the two stretchers being carried through, both patients with a blanket covering their bodies. She had clung to Clara in dread of one being Kane.

"I TOLD Mum and Dad you were okay," Jade smiled, able to breathe normally since she'd used her inhaler. "I told them I was only picking up your..." she was suddenly serious. "I don't know what. Like my heart's broken in two."

"Jade, you dag!" Kirsty smiled too. But Jade was right about the heart being broken.

Rhys returned from Reception. "Nobody of Dani's description's been brought in. And the police won't put out a search until twenty-four hours have elapsed. They said from all accounts it didn't sound like Dani was suicidal."

"Dani?" Kirsty went cold.

"Dani's missing." Shelley couldn't believe she was saying it. She felt numb.

"Omigod, supposing she's gone down to the old Yabbie Creek bridge!" Kirsty's hand shot to her mouth as she recollected when they'd travelled on the bus for her appointment at the counselling clinic and following Dani's gaze at the turning point off Yabbie Creek Road. She swung tearfully round to Clara. "But what about Kane? We still don't know where he is! Unless he's gone...?"

Rhys clenched his fists. "If that mongerl's done anything to her..."

"Dad, he wouldn't!"

Only Flynn's arrival prevented another argument.

"The cops...Do you know if they've spoken to Kane yet?" He brushed back his soaking wet hair. The storm that had been threatening all afternoon had finally hit.

"What's he done?"

"It's nothing like that, Rhys. Scott Phillips has been knocked down and killed and it wasn't an accident. The driver died too. It was Dave Walsh, Leah recognised him. I don't think Kane knows about his brother yet."

Rhys drew in a sharp breath. "I should have realised Dave Walsh was a ticking time bomb. But if Kane Phillips has touched my little girl, I swear I'll rip him to shreds with my bare hands."

Kirsty felt a black despair wash over her. Even two deaths, even Summer Bay driving Dani and Kane to the point of suicide, it still wasn't enough to stop the hatred.

[I love music]

***Chapter 14***

Final Chapter

The air breaks suddenly. Lightning streaks across the sky, the thunder follows, and a torrential rain stirs the river, shaking the trees and splashing noisily down against the bridge.

"We oughta find some shelter." Kane looks doubtfully at the land, then at Dani. "You okay?"

She digs her nails into her palms, swallowing over and over. Kane is the last person she wants to confide in but there's no-one else. "I don't like thunder."

"The storm's a way away. Too long a gap between the thunder and lightning. Prob’ly hit Yabbie Creek or the Bay. We're just the tail end."

But she's still shaking so he changes the subject, casting round for inspiration.

He'd been ten years old when Auntie Rose told him the story and it stuck in his mind because it was the first time, apart from in school, anyone had ever told him a story, the first time anyone had ever sat with him because he was crook. "My Auntie Rose told me the Aborigines have a dreamtime story for this place. How the moon came down to sleep on the river and the starlight was created..."

The thunder rolls again and Dani shudders in terror. He hesitates. Then, slowly, unsure if he's doing the right thing, he walks across the bridge to its centre.

They stand facing each other alone for the first time since the day they both long to forget but will remember forever.

*****

Rhys didn't like the person he'd become. He hadn't been proud of himself for a long time now. He stared ahead at the road darkened by the heavy rain. He'd seen Kirsty's face when he'd said he'd kill Kane with his bare hands. Even Shelley and Jade had seemed to back away. But he loved his family so much. He'd do anything for them.

Shelley watched the windscreen wipers swaying back and forth. She spoke slowly, as if trying to convince herself. "If Kane's with her, I don't believe he'll hurt her. He did a terrible thing, he knows that now. He'll never hurt anyone like that again."

"But it destroyed Dani." Rhys replied. "And she could have..." He didn't want to think about the consequences.

In the back of the car, Kirsty was sobbing. Jade, who was crying herself, squeezed her twin's arm. She couldn't pretend to understand Kirsty's love for Kane Phillips but, if only they all got through this okay, maybe she could try.

*****

Dani freezes. As she had done on the day that changed their lives forever.

"Okay, I'm here. Nothing happened. That's one fear you nailed." He's garbling. Knowing she’s still close to jumping in the river. So much depends on this moment. So much depends on Dani trusting him. "The thunder's gotta stop some time and it won't have hurt you. That's two. Your call."

Everything about him reminds her of the terror. The blueness of his eyes. The smell of his aftershave. Even the millisecond drawing of breath before he speaks. But on this bridge it’s as though they've broken through some invisible barrier, become almost equal in their despair.

"Kane, did you...did you come down here to...to kill yourself?"

"No. Not here. It was gonna be somewhere a long way away so Kirsty would never know and never have to go through all that stuff."

Dani digs her nails harder into her palms, drawing blood, trying to ignore the thunder crashing through her head. "I thought the Phillips were meant to be tough! And you're running away!"

He shrugs. "Haven't got much choice, Dani. What I did, Auntie Rose telling me I was born out of rape...Kirsty deserves heaps more than that." His face is soaking wet from the rain and his tears. "I know no-one believes it, but what Kirsty and me have, it's real. We fell in love. Wasn't done to hurt you or get back at anyone. It just happened. Since I got back, we wanted so much to be together and 'cos Kirsty loves you she knew we never could be till you were...well, we know you can’t ever be cool with it, but...You can't give up on yourself, Dani. Not when you got family like that."

They can hear her family shouting to her through the storm now, growing closer. There is a lump in Dani's throat.

And a quiver in Kane's voice. "How'd you get to be so scared of thunder anyway?"

"When I was a kid. I saw a tree get struck by lightning. The thunder was so loud." Tears spill quietly down Dani's face. "I thought I grew out of it, but after the shipwreck..." She takes a deep breath. "Kane. The shipwreck. Everything you did...You can't give up on yourself either."

*****

"I hate sitting here when I should be with Jade," Nick told Seb. "I wish they'd let us help look for Dani."

They were in the diner, watching the storm through the windows.

Seb sighed agreement and Jenny Gray, a girl from his grade who was sheltering from the storm with some friends, locked her fingers in his. "It'll be okay, Seb."

He nodded. Having Jenny by his side was the only thing keeping him sane. No-one actually said it out loud but it wasn't just Dani everyone was worried about. Alf was out on the search and Leah was at home with VJ, who was still traumatised over the seeing the burning car. Colleen had been left in charge of the Diner and nobody ever remembered her being so nice before. Irene had come in earlier to give her a hand and she kept dabbing her eyes.

It didn't exactly make anyone feel good, knowing Summer Bay was responsible for two deaths already and, if Dani and Kane weren't found in time, there might be two more.

****

"Hello, Rose." Clara sat down by the hospital bed.

Rose Phillips smiled. The doctors told her she was lucky to be alive but she was still very weak and it was an effort to talk.

"Thank you for the flowers,” she croaked. They're beautiful."

"I'll get a vase from one of the nurses," Clara said.

She'd been asked to break the news about Scott's death, and she had something else to talk to Rose about. It was time Rose dealt with her rape and got the help she needed.

*****

"Dani! Thank God!" Rhys hugs her, throwing his jacket round her shoulders, ruffling her hair like he used to when she was little. Then the anger resurfaces. "Did he touch you?"

"No." The answer is barely audible, Dani is crying so much.

Kane watches as the Sutherlands gather round Dani in a tight little unbreakable family knot.

"We need to get you to the car and warm and dry, sweetheart."

"Don't ever scare me like that again!"

The storm is fading as he begins to edge slowly away. Till footsteps echo behind him.

"Kane." Kirsty is by his side. Bewildered.

His voice is thick with tears. "Babe, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to put you through all this."

"Kane, don't leave me! Your Auntie Rose told me everything. It doesn't matter."

"Auntie Rose told you? When?"

"Today, at the hospital."

He reels in shock. "Scott told me she was dead."

The rain is shining on his face and he's shivering. So much hurt in her eyes and so much love. They reach to comfort each other.

"KIRSTY!" Rhys bellows in pure rage, making them all to stop dead. "Get away from him!"

"Dad, I..."

"You know what he is, you know what he's capable of, GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

She grabs Kane's hand, for the first time in her life afraid of her father as Rhys makes to move towards her.

"Dad, will you stop it? Will you please, please, please just stop it?"

Rhys stares at Dani in confusion. "You're saying you're okay with this?" he asks in astonishment.

"No." Dani gulps back a sob. "But nobody would let us talk. So Kane and me, we had our own mediation out here on the bridge. And I think...I think if we all start talking instead of hating it might be okay one day."

They're only words. No more than raindrops on a river.

Rhys, hurting from the guilt of not being there when Dani needed him most, struggles to understand. Shelley touches a time before rape when she could still think clearly - murder, suicide...where did hatred stop? Jade, just wanting everything to be normal. Dani, wondering over and over if she can do this, when the emotions are still so raw. And then Kirsty. Weeping softly when she hugs Dani tightly to her.

Yet they're only words. And words build bridges and move mountains.

Kirsty turns again to Kane and for a moment his eyes meet Dani's.

"Thanks," he says uncertainly.

She bites her lip and nods and hopes she's strong enough to face tomorrow. Where words would cross the hatred and the healing could begin.

***EPILOGUE***

Rose Phillips gazed out of the window of the nursing home. She was content. The home was near enough for Kane to visit and she stayed with him every other weekend. Regular counselling was helping her come to terms with the rape and she was finally finding a happiness that had eluded her since Richie.

But she dreaded this meeting with Dani Sutherland. Despite what Clara said, the girl must hate her.

Dani's hand shook as she pushed open the door of the dayroom and the sunlight flooded through the windows. She was making good progress at the mediation sessions and had even met a new guy, Scott Hunter, who, unlike her ex, gave her the support she needed.

But Clara's suggestion that talking with Rose could help them both seemed misguided. The woman would surely blame her for everything that happened.

"Mrs Phillips?"

The stroke had left Kane's mother partially deaf and Dani had to touch her shoulder when she didn't hear. Rose turned.

And, both sharing the harrowing memories of rape, they hugged instinctively.

*****

Kane was back at TAFE completing his sea captain course. Clara had helped Rose successfully claim compensation for the road accident that had crippled her and Rose had set up a fund to help him through college. In Summer Bay there was a gradual, uneasy acceptance of Kane and Kirsty together.

So today, down at the wharf, waiting for the girl he loves, everything should be perfect. But it isn't.

Kirsty is late. She's been late a couple of times before and evasive about her reasons, though she's been huddled in secret conversation with Seb a lot lately. Is this then how their beautiful love is destined to end, on this perfect day with the sun sparkling on the blue water?

"Mate, we can't wait any longer!" Alf shouts.

Reluctantly Kane stirs himself. To supplement his income, he's been working on the fishing trips round the Bay, helped - or hindered, as Alf puts it - by Kirsty. The Blaxland has already pushed away from the land when she finally comes running down the wharf.

"Sorry!" she cries breathlessly. "I had to see Seb. Kane, I have to tell you something."

This is it. The day she breaks his heart. To Alf's consternation, Kirsty suddenly takes a gigantic leap into the boat, landing in Kane's arms, laughing at the whistles and clapping and cheering from the passengers.

"Seb wanted my advice on the ring he's buying Jenny for a surprise for her birthday. And, Kane, I have something for you too. To tell you I love you." She places the signet ring, with its two Ks intertwined, on his finger. "I had it specially made. D'you like it?"

"I love it. I love you too."

"I love you more."

"Stone the flamin' crows, we've a fishing boat waiting to sail here!" Alf sighs impatiently, but nobody, not the passengers nor the people on the wharf and especially not Kane or Kirsty takes any notice on this perfect day to be in love.

***THE END***

......and hope you liked it!

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