Driftwood

[Red Ranger 1]

7 hours ago, Ludub said:

What age is Matt right now (in the show)? I think I may have accidentally made him younger than he should be?

Matt would seem to be around 19/20 at the moment, he turned 19 around this time last year although we weren't given the exact date.(He was 18 the first time he slept with Charlotte but 19 by the time it became public knowledge, so somewhere in between.)

[Ludub]

Thanks again to everybody for taking the time to comment  As always, much appreciated. Apologies for the big delays between chapters, I've been very busy  Hope you like this chapter.

 

Chapter 6

 

 

“Oh my God! Oscar?!” exclaimed Evie, glancing at Brody in shock when she saw Oscar walk in the door of Angelo’s with a bruised and bloodied face.

Oscar and Callie had agreed to meet them there for lunch, even though Brody and Kyle had an ongoing joke about being each other’s competition. There had certainly been some teething problems when Brody had first opened Salt a few years ago, and a certain amount of animosity between him and Kyle, especially when it had become clear that they were going after the same night time trade. Having two restaurants in the area had been a big change for the community, but with the growing population in the area, and the upswing in the economy over the last couple of years, they both seemed to be doing a pretty good trade. It also had to be said though, that Salt and Angelo’s didn’t exactly have the same kind of clientele, certainly not for the same kind of occasions. Salt was much more fine dining, with the kind of food that came in dainty portions and was painted prettily on the plate. It also didn’t open at lunchtime. Gradually they’d come to realise that there was room for both businesses in the town, and he and Kyle had actually become quite good friends.

Evie slid out of the booth and ran across the restaurant floor to meet her brother at the door. “What happened?!” she asked, putting her hand up to softly touch the side of his cheek.

“It’s… It’s okay” tutted Oscar, flinching away from the light contact of her fingertips. His cheek was very bruised and had begun to swell quite badly, and he had a nasty split lip. “Can we just sit down and have lunch?” he said, pushing past her and making his way to the booth table where Brody was sitting.

Brody’s eyes widened as he saw Oscar take a seat opposite him and lift a menu as though everything was completely normal. “Hi Brodes” said Oscar, running his eye over the menu even though he’d eaten there so many times at this stage that he could easily have recited it from memory. “Know what you’re getting?” he asked, glancing up at him for just a moment.

“Uh…” stammered Brody, taking in the fresh injuries on Oscar’s face with a look of consternation, “Uhh… mate… what… what happened?!”

Oscar shook his head at Brody, and looked up to see Kyle and Callie talking near the bar. Callie was clearly pointing in his direction. They stopped talking when they saw him looking and he watched on a little perplexed as Kyle brought her over to the bar and went behind the counter to get something for her. He wondered what was going on.

“Oscar?!” pleaded Evie, taking the seat opposite him with a furrowed brow, “Who did that to you?!”

Oscar rolled his eyes in an exasperated way and let out a big sigh. “It was Roo” he said, blushing a little red and glancing at Brody with a look of embarrassment. He didn’t particularly want every Tom, Dick, and Harry to know that he’d been beaten up by a rather petite woman who was nearing middle age. “She was sleepwalking.” he added, glancing at the bar to see where Callie had got to.

“Roo?!” exclaimed Brody, letting out a little snort of disbelief, “Roo did that?! …We are talking about the same person, aren’t we?! That lovely woman that floats about in Birkenstock sandals…”

Kyle and Callie arrived at the table and she slipped into the booth beside Oscar and gave him a little smile.

“Yeah, like I said, it was Roo.” answered Oscar quietly, before turning to look at Kyle with a little nod. He knew that Callie must have told him from the way that he was looking at him.

“Ah mate, that looks nasty.” said Kyle, grimacing a little at the sight of Oscar’s bruises, not that he hadn’t had a lot worse himself in the past. A lot worse! “I’d get some ice on that” he said, nodding at the bundle of linen in Callie’s hands, “It’ll take some of the bruising down, trust me.”

Callie handed him a linen napkin filled with ice that she’d asked Kyle to get for her from the bar, and she made him hold it gently to the swelling on his cheekbone. He let out a hiss when it made contact, wincing a little with the pain.

“I just don’t get it!” said Evie, shaking her head at him, “Why on earth would Roo attack you like that?!”

“She was sleepwalking, down on the beach…” said Callie, shrugging her shoulders at Brody and Evie, “Oscar startled her… I guess… Woke her up…” She gazed at Oscar for a moment with a sympathetic little head tilt before turning back to Evie.  “She went completely loolah!” she said, spinning her finger beside her left temple to indicate that Roo was crazy, “She just lost it… Started going mad… and I mean like, totally nutso crazy…  She hit Oscar when all he was trying to do was help her!”

“It wasn’t her fault” muttered Oscar, glancing around at all the worried faces, “She was sleepwalking… she didn’t know what she was doing… It was like she was there, but she wasn’t ‘there’… Not really.”

“Yeah, like the lights were on but no-one was home” agreed Callie, nodding and staring off wide-eyed into the distance as though she was picturing it all again, “It was so creepy.”

“Sleepwalking though?!” exclaimed Evie, looking back and forth between them in an incredulous way, “Like, really sleepwalking?! …Like you see in movies?”

“Um hmm” nodded Oscar, giving a sarcastic little smile, “Like in the movies, except she wasn’t walking around with her arms out in front of her like some kind of zombie… She just looked scared and a bit lost…”

“Yeah… and she kinda forgot to get dressed!” added Callie, biting her bottom lip as she giggled a little. She knew that she shouldn’t find it funny but she couldn’t help it. On the few occasions that she’d met Roo, she’d wondered at her strange choice of clothing. Not that she could really talk. Everyone always thought that Callie’s clothes were weird, but she just liked what she liked, so she was all for people wearing whatever they chose, and whatever they felt comfortable in. It was just that Roo’s clothes were so frumpy and shapeless, and for such an attractive woman with such a young boyfriend, it just seemed a little strange. If anything, the T-shirt that she’d been wearing to wander about the beach in had been a significant improvement, and she’d been surprised at how good a figure Roo had been hiding under those tent-like smocks.  

“She was naked?!” asked Brody, sounding a little too excited by the prospect. Evie turned and gave him a very disapproving look, but he grinned a little mischievously and said, “What?! I’m just asking!”

“Oh my God, Poor Roo!” said Evie, in a sympathetic tone of voice, “She was out there walking about with no clothes on?!”

“She was wearing a t-shirt” sighed Oscar, as he rolled his eyes at Callie. He didn’t really think it was fair to be gossiping about Roo like this, and he didn’t like her sleepwalking being treated like a joke, even if it was a little amusing. Then again, he knew that people were going to find out anyway whether he told them or not. Word travelled pretty fast in Summer Bay, and he knew that the news would spread like wildfire once people heard that Roo had been arrested for beating the bejesus out of someone. That kind of thing was pretty unexpected and was sure to get tongues wagging. Maybe it was up to him to do some damage control? But then what could he really do?

He looked at the worried expression on Evie’s face, as she gazed across the table at him with her head cocked to one side in that ‘Oh poor Oscar!’ sisterly kind of way, and suddenly he began to laugh. This whole thing was so ridiculous! He’d tried to help, and look where it had gotten him! It was kind of hilarious when he thought about it. He’d taken off down that beach with the intention of helping Roo, a damsel in distress, and instead he’d ended up on the receiving end of a total thrashing. She’d been distressed alright, but she’d been less than thrilled to have him ride to the rescue, and he certainly hadn’t gotten a hero’s welcome! The fury on her face, as she’d landed blow after blow, had been astonishing, and it had made her look like something possessed. He hadn’t fought back as such, but she’d been pretty tough to subdue! He’d tried to get hold of her wrists but she’d wriggled and twisted and kneed him in the groin. Luckily the police had arrived a few moments later, but she’d hit one of them too, which was why she’d been arrested. At the time, he had actually found it a little frightening, but when he thought back to it now, it just struck him as incredibly funny. Kind and gentle, hippy dippy Roo, who normally wouldn’t hurt a fly, had been roaring like a crazy woman and trying to knock seven bells out of him! Knowing now that she’d been sleepwalking certainly explained things a little better but her behaviour still seemed so bizarre. He couldn’t help giggling, even though it hurt his lip to smile.

“You know when people tell you it can be dangerous to wake people when they’re sleepwalking?” he asked, smirking despite his split lip, “I always thought that was some kind of superstition… or maybe it was because you might give them a terrible fright… Like they’d wake up and not know where they are… or maybe they’d have a heart attack… or something.” He pointed at his face and winced a little as he began to really laugh, “Turns out, it’s because they turn into the Incredible Hulk and want to beat the living daylights out of you!”

 

*****

 

“I’m not talking about this anymore!” snapped Roo, scowling at Matt as she took off her seatbelt and climbed out of the car, “All I want is to see my little boy!” She gave Maddy a very forced smile and mouthed the words ‘thank you’ at her before slamming the car door and stomping off towards the house.

“Wait!” shouted Matt, shaking his head in frustration at a worried looking Maddy as he scrambled to get out of the backseat. He jumped out and ran around the car to try to catch up with her.  Catching hold of her elbow just before she got to the front door and turning her to look at him, he said, “Wait, Roo, please?! …We need to talk about this!”

“No, we really don’t!” stated Roo, shaking her head at him with a strange smile that looked like it had been painted on. “Let go of my arm, Matt!” she said, pulling his hand away from her elbow. “I mean it!” she warned him, with a flash of anger in her eyes that made her smile seem even more unsettling.

“Okay” he sighed, quickly taking his hand away and looking a little hurt, “I’m just worried Roo. You really scared me.”

“Well, I’m fine, so you don’t need to worry, do you?!” she answered a little too quickly, “Just leave me alone… All I want is to see my son!” She could see that he was hurt by her behaviour, and part of her felt bad for that, but for some reason she just couldn’t stop herself. She was seething on the inside, absolutely boiling with anger, but she was doing her best to put on an outward show of calm. It wasn’t working very well. She knew that it was a little ridiculous to be feeling this angry about things, and that her anger was really fuelled by profound shame and embarrassment. She wasn’t sure that she would ever get over the level of humiliation that she’d experienced today. Arrested for two counts of assault! Wandering about in nothing but a t-shirt! She’d even stolen a car from some poor unsuspecting campers! The look on her father’s face down at the police station had said it all really! How was she ever going to live this down?! Matt’s endless nagging and obvious concern for her was just making matters worse. On the one hand, she wanted nothing more than to let him put his arms around her and hold her tight, but on the other, she was just so angry with herself that she didn’t think she deserved that kind of comfort.  Pushing him away, and hurting him, was the only way that she could really punish herself. She gave a heavy sigh and walked through the front door.

Irene looked around when she heard the door open and gave Roo a very relieved smile when she saw her walk in. “Oh love!” she exclaimed in a hushed voice. She was speaking quietly so as not to wake little Alfie. Roo smiled from ear to ear, breathing a sigh of relief, when she saw that Alfie was safe and asleep in Irene’s arms. Part of her had still been afraid that he was gone. All she wanted was to snatch him in her arms and run upstairs away from everyone.

“I’m so glad that you’re okay!” smiled Irene, keeping her voice low. She’d only just managed to get Alfie off to sleep and she really didn’t want to wake him again. ‘Boy, could that little boy cry?!’ she thought to herself. “You had us all so worried!” she said, looking at Roo in concern, and glancing at Matt and Maddy as they joined them in the living-room. No-one looked particularly happy.

“I know” said Roo, cocking her head to one side and giving her a grateful smile. “I didn’t mean to scare anyone.” she said, sounding tired and a little depressed. She sat down on the arm of the couch and leaned over to gently stroke Alfie’s hair.

“The hospital just let you come home?” asked Irene, glancing at the worried expression on Matt and Maddy’s faces. She could sense that there was something wrong from all the wordless glances and the tense way that Matt was carrying himself. You could have cut the atmosphere with a knife.

“No, they didn’t…” said Matt, giving a big sigh and shaking his head despairingly, “Roo just discharged herself… against doctor’s orders”. He went to the kitchen to pour Roo a glass of water and frowned across at Irene as he spoke. “In fact, they wanted her to stay in tonight so they could run some tests and see why she’s been sleepwalking.” he said, opening a paper bag from the pharmacy and pulling out a bottle of pills. “They said it could be a number of things…”

“Stop talking about me as though I’m not here!” growled Roo, turning to glare at him as he walked back towards her from the kitchen. “I can speak for myself!” she added, snatching the bottle from his hand and taking the glass from him in an aggressive way. She fixed him with a steely stare putting the bottle down on the coffee table and taking a gulp of water instead. 

 “I know you can” he sighed, throwing himself down in the armchair beside the couch in a defeated kind of way, “I’m just worried, Roo…” he said, rubbing his tired eyes with both hands and slumping down into the seat in exhaustion, “Sleepwalking like this isn’t normal, y’know?!”

“Oh, and you’re so normal, are you?!” she sneered, rolling her eyes at him and giving a snort of derision, “Mr ‘Can’t Talk to People’… Mr ‘Useless’… Mr ‘I want to go back to the island’?!” As soon as she’d said it, she knew that she’d gone too far. His hurt-filled eyes had flicked up at her only for a moment, and now he was staring off into space, but that one fleeting moment had been enough to see how much she’d wounded him. She felt terrible. She wondered at herself, trying to understand why she was behaving this way. Why was she trying to hurt him?! What kind of person treats their loved ones this way?! How could she have said those things to him when he was just trying to look after her?! What on earth was wrong with her?!

He wasn’t really that surprised by the way that she was acting. This was the way that Roo dealt with things when she was scared. He knew that. He’d had to deal with these temper tantrums a number of times on the island and he’d come to realise that loving Roo also meant putting up with the bad times. The worst time had been when she’d realised that she was pregnant, and that she’d have to give birth on the island without assistance. She’d been absolutely terrified, and the result had been a vicious hissing nightmare for about a week. She’d said the most awful things to him! Incredibly cruel and hurtful things that no-one should ever say to anyone. But he’d forgiven her… he always did. He knew that being on the island, and the things that they’d been through, had changed both of them forever. They both had their scars. This was just another episode and they’d get through this one too.

Maddy glanced at Irene looking decidedly uncomfortable and wondering whether she should make herself scarce. She really didn’t want to be stuck in the middle of a domestic and this looked to be heating up pretty badly. She was shocked at Roo’s behaviour and wondered why Matt was so willing to let her walk all over him. “Roo, we’re all just worried about you!” said Maddy, leaning nervously against the breakfast bar and looking very unsure of where to put herself. “Don’t you think it might have been better to stick around and see what the doctors had to say… Especially with all the stuff with the cops… I mean, what if it wasn’t just sleepwalking? What if there’s something wrong… ‘medically’?”

“Thanks for that, Maddy” said Roo in a sarcastic tone, “Just what I need right now! More things to worry about!”  She got to her feet, moving towards Irene, and started to lift Alfie out of her arms. “Come on, little man!” she coaxed in a soft and gentle voice, “Mummy’s home… and I think it’s time that you and I had a cuddle, don’t you?” Alfie stirred for a moment, looking a little bit startled, but then just slipped his arms around Roo and nestled his head into her neck.

They all turned to look when the front door opened and Alf stormed into the room with his face flushed bright red. “What the flamin’ hell are you playing at, Roo?!” he bellowed, walking over to her and leaning both hands on the back of the couch, “You can’t just discharge yourself because you feel like it! That doctor at the hospital wants you back there first thing tomorrow… and I’ll march you back there myself if I have to!”

“Uh… love…” stammered Irene, picking up her things and giving Roo a nervous little smile, “I think that might be my cue to go home… and give you all a bit of space.” She nodded at Maddy to come with her and the two of them scurried outside.

As soon as they’d gone, Roo turned to glare at her father, and shouted, “I am a 48-year-old woman, dad!” She got to her feet with Alfie in her arms and began to pace back and forth, “I can do what I want… and if I don’t want to go to the hospital then that’s up to me!” Alfie began to cry quite loudly, obviously frightened by all the shouting.

“This is flamin’ ridiculous!” huffed Alf, as his face became a deeper shade of red. “Don’t you have anything to say about this?!” he shouted, glaring at Matt who was sitting slumped in the armchair.

“I think she should go back to the hospital too” said Matt, nodding at him and keeping his voice deliberately calm and steady, “…but if she doesn’t want to go, then that’s her decision… isn’t it?”

“I’m not a child, dad!” she snarled, rocking Alfie back and forth in her arms and shushing him as he cried. “You need to stop treating me like one!”

“You’re living under my roof for free!” he growled at her, glancing over at Matt with a look of disapproval. “I’m giving you flippin’ pocket money for Christ’s sake! …So in my book, you might as well be ten years old…”

She pursed her lips and stood there for a moment just staring at him with pure hatred. She couldn’t argue with him. They were living under his roof and they were living on handouts… but that didn’t mean that he got to treat them this way.  Things were going to change as soon as she got access to her bank account. They’d move out, and they’d get their own place, and they wouldn’t look back! She shook her head at him a little sadly. He’d been given the chance to have a family around him in his old age. They’d literally come back from the dead, and they’d wanted nothing more than to be a family again and to get to spend time with him, but all he seemed to want to do was push them away. It made her very sad.

“I’m gonna take him upstairs” she spat out bitterly, giving Alf the most withering look as she walked away with Alfie roaring in her arms. She walked to the door to the hallway, feeling her father’s eyes boring holes in the back of her head, and turned to look at Matt. “Are you coming?” she asked, with a little motion of her head for him to come out into the hallway.

 

*****

 

“Pleeease?!” whined Evie, putting her arms around Brody’s waist and giving him her best puppy dog eyes. He’d just come home from work and he looked tired and overworked. “I don’t ask you for anything…” she pleaded in a sickly sweet voice, “I just really need you to do this for me… Pleeeeeeease?!”

“You want me to hire some guy that I barely know… who hasn’t got the slightest bit of experience working in a high end restaurant?” he asked, shaking his head at her. Sometimes Evie could be a bit ridiculous and he really didn’t understand the way that this town operated. Nepotism was an understatement! The idea that people just get to have a job because you like them, or because you like the person who asks you to hire them, was a little alien to him. Did no-one in this town think that they had to do an interview?! Or have the relevant experience for a job that they wanted?! Was it so terrible that he wanted a maître d' with a little bit of experience?! “I can’t just hire some yobbo, Evie! I have to think about my business and the kind of message I’m sending out!”

“Matt does have experience, and he is not just some ‘yobbo’!” she said, looking a little hurt on his behalf. “Matt was one of my closest friends until he… well… until he disappeared… and now he’s back, he really needs someone to just give him a chance.” She’d met Josh for coffee after lunch and he’d told her that Matt was desperate to find work. The fact that Salt’s maître d' had just walked off the job with little warning, and they now needed to find someone, just seemed like perfect timing. She hoped she could convince him.

“Does it have to be me?!” asked Brody, pulling her arms away from around his waist and walking off towards the kitchen. “My restaurant isn’t some half-way house, Evie! I was hoping to maybe bring someone in from the city… someone with experience of… of this type of restaurant.”

“Oh come on, Brody!” she exclaimed, putting her hands on her hips with a derisive little snort, “This is Summer Bay! It’s not the kind of place that people like that want to come to work… It’s just some little backwater for god’s sake!”

“Yeah, and what if I want to be the one to put it on the map?!” asked Brody, sitting down on one of the chairs at the kitchen table with a glass of water, “Maybe Salt could be really special… Maybe people will come from the city just to eat my food… Ever thought of that?!” He always felt a little sad that Evie didn’t have the kind of ambition that he did. She was always so full of negativity and ‘can’t do’ attitude. In some ways, it was good, because it kept him grounded, but what if he did want to be something special? Was that so bad?!

“Baby, I know you want Salt to be really special” she said, in a simpering sort of voice as she walked over and sat down on his knee. “And it is… It’s the best food that Summer Bay has ever had… by a long shot…”

He smiled up at her as though she’d won him over and slipped his arms around her waist. He knew that she was being incredibly manipulative, and telling him exactly what he wanted to hear, but he also knew that she wasn’t going to get her way. He just thought that it would be funny to string her along for a little while longer.

“I mean… I don’t think anyone here had ever even heard of ‘Velouté’… or… or ‘SousVide’…” she said, gently running her fingers through his hair as she smiled sweetly at him.

He chuckled a little at her attempt to sound like she knew what she was talking about. She knew nothing about his style of cooking and only vaguely listened when he would get excited about some new technique or ingredient. There were a lot of things that he loved about Evie, but her cooking ability and knowledge of food certainly wasn’t one of them. She loved everything that he made for her, and she made all the right ‘yummy’ noises when she tasted things, but a refined palate was something that she definitely didn’t have. It always made him laugh when she tried to sound knowledgeable and ended up using all the wrong words. She was such a little know-it-all in every other way; it was nice to know that she wasn’t perfect.

“…and I don’t think anyone even knew that you could eat flowers!” she continued, doing her best ‘Oh, you’re so talented!’ routine to try to boost his male ego. She could see the growing smile on his face so she was pretty sure that it was working. Maybe now was the time to try again? “I just know that Matt can learn if you give him an opportunity. He’ll pick it up.”

“Is that so?” he asked, shaking his head and smirking at her sarcastically, “So, there’s no need to go to culinary college? Or y’know… spend time learning your trade in kitchens all across the country, working your way up from scrubbing pots and pans… People just learn about fine dining, do they?” He snapped his fingers and said, “Just like that?!”

“I’m not asking you to make him a chef!” she whined, looking at him with big pleading eyes. “You need someone front of house, don’t you?!”

“Yeah, and I need someone with personality, who’s good with the customers…” he said, frowning at her. “From what I can see, this mate of yours can hardly look you in the eye… I don’t think he’s even said two words to me!”

“That’s not the real Matt” sighed Evie, pretty sure now that she was fighting a losing battle, “Matt is really funny… or… well, he used to be… before…” Her voice trailed off as she thought about the change that she’d seen in him. He wasn’t the same guy that she’d been friends with all those years ago and that made her very sad. But maybe a job like this could help him to open up again? Wouldn’t it be lovely to have the old Matt back?!

“Whatever he was like before” said Brody, looking at her a little pityingly because he could see that she was actually upset, “He doesn’t seem to be that guy now.”

“I know” said Evie, starting to cry a little, “I just miss him.”

Brody looked at her tear-filled eyes and began to shake his head at himself. She’d managed to do it again! Right there in front of him! He might have been able to resist her shameless attempts at manipulation through flattery, but he was always such a sucker for a crying woman. He gave a heavy sigh and rolled his eyes. “Okay… okay… I’ll give him a job as a waiter… and if he works out… If he’s this 'life and soul of the party' guy you keep telling me about, and he can get up to speed with the kind of food we serve, then I’ll think about the maître d' position.”

“Oh my God! Thank you, baby!” she squealed, taking his face in her hands and giving him lots of little kisses, “Thank you, thank you, thank you! …You won’t regret this…”

“We’ll see.” he groaned, wondering what he was getting himself into and feeling pretty sure already that he was going to regret it.

 

*****

 

 “So… uh…” asked Matt, a little hesitantly, as he lay down on the bed beside Roo and looked at her nervously, “Are you… okay?” Just because she’d asked him to come upstairs didn’t mean that she’d calmed down. He knew her enough to know that. Her expression did seem to have softened though and she didn’t seem to be breathing as heavily now. He’d sat in the chair across from her in silence for about the last hour, and watched her feed Alfie until he’d fallen asleep again. He just hoped that she might be more willing to talk reasonably now.

“I’m okay” she sighed, pulling in close beside him and putting her head on his shoulder. Alfie lay nestled between them with his thumb in his mouth and she gently stroked his hair behind his ear. “I’m sorry” she said quietly, glancing up at him for a moment and flushing a little red.

“It’s okay” he sighed, leaning down to kiss her lightly on the forehead, “I get it… I know you’re scared, Roo… but I’m… I’m here…”

“I know” she said, taking hold of his hand and squeezing it tight in hers, “but you weren’t… and that’s the problem.” She ran the fingers of her other hand through her hair and stared up at the ceiling. “I’m scared to go to sleep again… What if it happens again?! What if I wake up again and you’re not here? Do you have any idea how frightened I was?!”

“You scared me too, Roo” he said, rolling onto his side and raising himself on one elbow to look at her, “I was here… Me and Alfie, we were always here… You were the one that left…” He gave a huge sigh and gently tucked her hair behind her ear, “I was so scared… You were just gone.”

“In my dream, I woke up and you weren’t here…” she said, with her eyes filling up with tears. “There was no-one here… It was like every person on earth had disappeared and I was the only one left… Like some kind of Zombie movie… just empty houses, empty cars… everyone was gone…” He wiped gently at the tears running down her cheeks with his thumb and gave her a sympathetic little smile. She’d tried to explain the dream to him earlier but she’d been ranting and raving and he hadn’t really understood what she’d seen. It sounded very scary! She shook her head at him and gave a sad smile. “When I was on that beach” she said, sniffling a little, “I really thought that I’d lost you both and I was never going to see you both again …I couldn’t have lived with that, Matt! …I can’t do this without you, do you understand me?!”

“I know” he said, leaning forward to kiss her, “Neither can I” He couldn’t imagine a life without them and the thought of it scared him too.

“It was like…” she said, gazing down at Alfie as he snoozed in the bed beside them. “It was like that time…” she said, glancing at him with fear-filled eyes before looking away again, “I thought you weren’t coming back this time… I thought you’d left me alone… again.”

“I’m sorry” he sighed, shaking his head at her in sympathy. He knew how much that time had affected her and he could see now that everything that was happening could be linked back to it. It was why she was so frightened to be alone and why she kept having nightmares about being abandoned. He also knew that it was his fault. There just wasn’t anything that he could do about it.

He lay back again and she snuggled in beside him with Alfie in between them like they used to do on the island. They lay in silence together for a while, just enjoying the sense of security that lying together like this always gave them.

“I can’t believe you stole a car!” he said, starting to giggle a little. He glanced down at her and saw a small smile beginning to form as her lips curled up at the edges. It was nice to see her smiling again. “My girlfriend is a badass car thief” he said, grinning at her a little mischievously as he intertwined his hand with hers and began playing with her fingers, “And it turns out she can kick some serious butt too!”

She began laughing, much to her own surprise, and covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh God! Poor Oscar!” she giggled, shaking her head at how ridiculous this whole thing was, “That poor police officer too! I can’t believe I hit them! …I’m not a violent person, Matt! I’m really not!”

“I don’t know about that!” he laughed, biting his bottom lip in amusement, “You’ve got a good right hook, y’know?!” He pretended to massage his jaw and smiled at her, “You got me pretty good one night. Nearly took my head off!”

“I did?!” she exclaimed, widening her eyes at him in shock, “Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“Ah, you didn’t hurt me… much” he said, giving her a little wink and leaning in to give her a kiss. “And you didn’t seem to notice the bruise so I figured I’d let it go.”

“What am I gonna do?!” she groaned, lying back and covering her face with her hands. “I can’t trust myself to go to sleep… What if I sleepwalk again? What if I wander off somewhere and start beating people up again… or steal dad’s boat?!”

“I dunno” said Matt, trying not to laugh at the image of Roo going around like some strange version of Popeye, commandeering Alf’s boat and beating circles all around her. He was worried too though and he’d already made up his mind that he was going to stay awake all night and watch her sleep. There was no way that he could take the risk of it happening again. “I guess… we’ll have to figure something out… some way to make sure that you can’t.” he said. He turned to look at her, and grimaced a little, worrying if this was going to set her off again. “Maybe we should ask the doctors for some advice?” he asked in a coaxing sort of voice, “Maybe they could help?”

“Alright!” she groaned, shaking her head and giving an exasperated sigh, “I’ll go back to the hospital in the morning… and I’ll do what I’m told.”

“Let’s not get carried away!” he laughed, “Roo Stewart does not deal well with anyone telling her what to do!”

[pembie]

Roo in her incredible hulk mode sounds very dangerous But I'm kind of hoping that she does steal Alf's boat just because his being very annoying

I'm not so sure its such a good idea for Matt to and work for Brody.... I can't see him having much patience with Matt while his having trouble being around people... Maybe a big food fight will break out

[Ludub]

 

21 minutes ago, pembie said:

Roo in her incredible hulk mode sounds very dangerous But I'm kind of hoping that she does steal Alf's boat just because his being very annoying

I'm not so sure its such a good idea for Matt to and work for Brody.... I can't see him having much patience with Matt while his having trouble being around people... Maybe a big food fight will break out

Thanks Pembie  I reckon Roo could do a bit of damage if she lost her temper. She's got that lean look of someone that might be quite good at sports  Alf does need a serious talking to and it would serve him right if Roo took his boat and sank it on him! Brody's not known for his patience so you might be right there, 

[pembie]

Roo good at sports.. She may be good but then again she might become tangled up in those long bedsheets dresses that she's so fond of wearing

[Ludub]

1 minute ago, pembie said:

Roo good at sports.. She may be good but then again she might become tangled up in those long bedsheets dresses that she's so fond of wearing

That's true  although in this case her choice of attire was a little more appropriate! 

28 minutes ago, pembie said:

Maybe a big food fight will break out

Also, a food fight with tiny Michelin star style portions of food sounds pretty funny!  I'm not sure how you'd even throw a white truffle foam at someone! haha! 

[KittCatt]

Great chapter!

So glad Roo is safe now with Alfie and Matt. Though of course she would be worried about sleepwalking and assaulting more people..  Glad Oscar is alright, he just has some battle wounds to show everyone! Next time he might be more inclined to leave a sleepwalking person alone 

It was quite rude of Alf to insist that because he's looking after Roo and Matt financially that they're essentially children who can be told what to do. I get that he's worried, but getting Roo offside isn't going to help. Nice chat between Roo and Matt at the end, with them each talking honestly about what they're experiencing and where to go from here.

I agree that Brody and Matt working together might not be the best option. I can't see Matt doing a great job considering he can barely talk to people, i think he needs a job where he can work alone. And he can gradually get used to being around people. 

I look forward to more  

[Red Ranger 1]

Roo needs to face up to what's going on...and fortunately she seems to be doing just that, so hopefully it'll turn out okay.Summer Bay having both Angelo's and Salt is interesting.Matt working there could work out: He might have trouble around people but having an income of his own might give him a bit more self-worth and help him adapt.

[Guest]

Great chapter 

Poor Oscar.

Glad Roo is going to get some help

Update again soon

 

[Inactive User]

Great chapter

So glad that Roo is going to get help

Aww poor Oscar!

Update soon please xx