Island Days

Disclaimer: Okay, let’s see if I remember the drill correctly. These characters aren’t mine. I’m not making any money off of them, nor am I using them for any other sort of personal gain. In fact, they’re probably taking up way too much of my time. I’m only borrowing them for a bit in the hopes of scratching that strange writer’s itch I’ve been having recently and to perhaps provide entertainment for my friends for a short while.

By Sonia

Were people actually meant to relax on a tropical island?

There were plenty of sandy beaches, clear waters, peaceful times and cute male bar staff in Hawaiian shirts yet Rachel Goldstein was just about ready to scream.

The last three or four years of her life had brought her to this point. She was sitting on a beach wiggling her toes in the sand, after finally deciding to take stress leave.

Goldie was trying to get her head around everything from David’s kidnapping and Frank’s departure to nearly dying after being stabbed in that power station during an operation to bust a fake passports scam. All things considered she was doing okay, but there were still some nights and times in the office when those moments in the power station came rushing back.

Knowing that her would be killer, Graham Denton, was locked away and facing trial still didn’t make the nights when she woke up in a cold sweat or times she started crying for no reason any easier to bear.

While Jack had been incredibly supportive to her as she recovered, Rachel knew she wasn’t going to be any good to any one until she sorted herself out. Jack had been in the job long enough to understand that Goldie needed time and space to get through this. While he didn’t like her decision, Jack could understand her reasons for making the choice she did.

The scar on her stomach from the surgery was still a really fetching shade of bright pink. It would fade soon, Rachel hoped, as she adjusted the tank top of her two-piece swimsuit to cover the mark.

A couple of things were really bugging her about this island. The first was those Hawaiian shirts, which kept reminding her of the time Frank returned from his Hawaiian holiday. Goldie was convinced he had found the loudest and ugliest shirt on the islands to wear back to work on his first day.

Come to think of it, Frank wore that shirt to work a few times. Probably just to get up Jeff’s nose.

The colours and patterns in that shirt had seared themselves into Rachel’s memory along with the particularly vulnerable look on Frank’s face when he actually presented her with her ‘real’ souvenir from Hawaii – a silk scarf. She still had the snowdome with the hula girls on her desk at the station. It made Goldie smile every time she looked at it.

The other thing that was playing on her mind was that for the last few nights someone had been leaving tropical flowers on her door. The flowers were there waiting to greet her every morning.

Rachel had two theories about this – one was that she was being stalked and the other was did she have a secret admirer?

On a rare flight of whimsy, Rachel hoped her second theory was correct. Who the hell would want to stalk anyone on a tropical island?

There was only one way to find out – put her resort room under surveillance tonight and see who her mystery flower sender was. Yeah, Goldie knew that was a little extreme but her curiousity was getting the better of her.

After dinner, Rachel went back to her room and threw on shorts, tee shirt and her favourite pair of running shoes. Thankfully there were a lot of banana lounges in secluded nooks around the room complexes, so this would definitely be one of the more comfortable surveillances in recent times.

She didn’t have to wait too long.

Rachel could see a man, with flowers in hand, moving towards her room. The soft lighting on the paths in between the room complexes made it hard for her to see his face. From time to time the light caught parts of his shirt. Man, that Hawaiian shirt was ugly and its wearer had no fashion sense whatsoever.

The man put tonight’s floral tribute on her doorstep and started back along the path.

Wait a minute…There was only one shirt that gross on the entire planet. Rachel knew this wasn’t Venezuela or Brisbane - so what was going on here?

Trying hard to suppress a huge grin, Goldie moved to a shadowy garden just on the edge of the path and stepped out in front of her secret admirer.

"It’s usually customary to send a card with flowers, Frank."

"I think I have just been sprung.

The two friends looked at each other for a moment then Goldie couldn’t say who moved first. She and Frank hugged each other, neither wanting to be the first to let go.

Being in Frank’s arms now felt right – a strange sensation began to wash over Goldie. It was that sense of well being that came from being around someone you trusted heart, mind, body and soul.

Rachel knew she had a few explanations to receive from her best friend and former partner. Putting her arm around his waist, she led him back towards her room and the depths of a wicker lounge with oversized cushions. It was as if they were sitting on the lounge at Rachel’s place waiting for the pizza to arrive and bantering over who would get the last beer in the fridge.

"Goldie, what are you doing here? This was truly the last place I expected to see you.

"Aren’t you meant to be in Venezuela trying to crack on to every Miss World in the place? Why the flowers? Why didn’t you just come up and say hi?

The walls that were holding Rachel together collapsed. She could never hide the truth from Frank.

Taking a sip of her beer, Goldie began to relate the last nine months of her life. The terror of David’s kidnapping and the thought she would never see her son again, her stabbing in the power station, the nightmares, cold sweats and crying jags that had haunted her days and nights since.

"What about when I left? What were you feeling then?" Frank couldn’t help himself. He had to know what was on Goldie’s mind and in her heart.

Rachel knew if she and Frank ever had a moment it was now. Where should she start or should she even start at all? Come on Goldstein, she told herself, you can’t be a chicken all your life.

"I should have stayed that last night you were in Sydney instead of going with Mick. My heart was screaming at me to jump on the Footloose but as always my head and that independent streak, the one you tease me about so much, ruled and I stayed.

"Why didn’t I stay and why didn’t I go with you? I guess I was scared. Scared to admit that what was in my heart ran a hell of a lot deeper than I thought, scared to admit that if we had spent the night together in Sydney that time and sailed away it could have been so damn good I would might never have wanted to come back."

For one of the rare moments in their lives, Frank and Rachel couldn’t think of a single thing to say to one another.

"Okay, Holloway – it’s your turn. What are you doing here and why the flowers?

"Well, I certainly made it past Brisbane and kept sailing until I found this place. I liked the life up here so much I decided to stay a while. Let’s face it - it wasn’t as if Venezuela was going to sink and I had to get there before it did.

"When you arrived, you looked as if you needed plenty of space. You looked so down sitting on the beach every day – I just wanted you to know that someone cared and the flowers seemed like a good idea."

Rachel always thought she was one of those people who could keep her emotions under control. Those moments lying in a hospital bed fighting for her life and wondering if she would ever see those she loved most again had taught her that life was too short for regrets and she should have told those she cared for how she felt about them.

"I missed you so bloody much. While I was in the hospital I kept waiting for some word from you telling me to pull my finger out and get well so I could keep you out of trouble again.

"Sitting there on that beach, I kept looking into the distance for that damn boat of yours and trying to make sense out of my life. At the end of it all – do you know what I wanted?

Frank looked as scared and emotional as he did that last night in Sydney when Rachel asked him if he would give his approval, should she happen to meet someone while he was away.

"All I wanted was you."

"Rachel, we’ve got some unfinished business that’s about nine months overdue."

Pulling Rachel up from the lounge with him, Frank took her into his arms and started running his hands up and down her back. Rachel started to run her fingers through his hair. They were both smiling as their lips met.