Part 6

Matt leant back against the wall of his room, his arm draped over Kelly’s shoulders. She seemed almost relieved, yet still worried. He couldn’t blame her, he supposed. She was about to find out the truth one way or the other.

“Another drink?” he offered, lifting the bottle from where it stood beside his bed. Kelly shook her head and began to gaze off into the distance again, as though it held all the answers to the questions that plagued her. Within a week…or maybe even days, if she was lucky, she would know the truth about her father. After all of this, she wasn’t sure who she wanted it to be.

Matt sat the bottle back down again and began to play with Kelly’s hair with his other hand. She was so beautiful…almost like an angel sent down from heaven to light his way. There was such a passion about the way she did everything – so much life, so much love. Not even this whole mess about her father had destroyed that innocent kind of beauty about her.

He meant what he had said in the note earlier that day…he loved her.

“Matt,” Kelly said softly, shaking his shoulder gently. This time it was Matt’s turn to be awoken from a daydream and looked into her beautiful blue eyes.

“Yeah?” Matt asked, still playing with her hair absentmindedly.

“Did you mean it? The note?” Kelly asked quietly. Matt seemed slightly taken aback by her question. After seeing the horrible things love could do to people – drive them to kill, hurt and create heartache – Matt wasn’t sure how to phrase it to her. How could he phrase the way he felt, when words just didn’t seem to be enough? How could he tell her that she had changed the way he saw love? It no longer seemed dangerous and painful, but more like an adventurous excitement that could lift you from a lonely stupor.

“Well…” Matt began, obvious embarrassment creeping into his features. “I…Kel, you mean the world to me. What else can I say? Of course I did. I wouldn’t have written it otherwise.”

Kelly’s face brightened considerably and she leant over to kiss his on the lips gently. Matt accepted it and before long, they were locked in a passionate embrace.

When Kelly returned to the Imperial the next night, the first thing she noticed was the excited expression on Chris Riley’s face. She was bubbling about, humming as she poured a beer for a much less pleasant customer. There was something of a spring in her step as she moved about behind the bar, and she almost hit the roof when she caught sight of Kelly.

“Kelly!” Chris exclaimed in an excited squeal. Kelly winced…what the hell was going on here? “You’re back…early.”

Kelly headed over and took up a stool at the bar. Chris leant across the bar, ignoring the impatient pounding on the counter from a group of customers.

“The Boss let me go early…it was a slow day.” Kelly explained, then added as an afterthought, “Where’s Matt?”

Chris practically split the beer she was pouring Kelly with excitement and she put it down promptly before she made a bigger mess.

“He had to…uh, take care of something.” Chris said unconvincingly. Kelly nodded with uncertainty.

“Right…” Kelly mumbled as she gulped down her beer, or what Chris hadn’t split of it anyway, and stood up. “I’d better be getting upstairs. I might head down later…okay?”

“Hey!” Chris chimed in that squeal of a voice again. The only reason that Kelly could think of to explain her behaviour as she headed up the stairs to her room was that Chris had had far too much to drink.

Kelly changed quickly into an old pair of jeans and a plain white t-shirt and dumped her uniform on her bed. Closing the door of her room behind her, she wondered whether or not she should go check up on Matt. It took her mere seconds to decide that she should…he had been almost avoiding her all day. This worried her, especially after last night…

“Matt?” Kelly asked as she rapped loudly on his door. She could almost feel panic rush through him as he heard the sound of her voice. “Matt…are you in there?”

“Ah…can you hang on a minute?” Matt hollered back, evidently caught out. Kelly leant against the door to his room, humming that same annoying tune that Chris had been humming earlier.

Becoming impatient, Kelly knocked again.

“If you don’t open this door, then I’ll kick it down. What’s going on in there?” Kelly demanded, folding her arms across her chest. Inside, Matt conceded defeat and opened the door. What Kelly saw astonished her.

Candles seemed to be everywhere, creating a scent that reminded Kelly of strawberries. It smelt beautiful. Rose petals had been scattered, and a pale pink light was cast over the room.

Matt was standing before her, wearing a formal black suit. His hair hung messily – Kelly had a sneaking suspicion that she had caught him out before he’d had the chance to finish making these ‘preparations’.

“What the…” Kelly asked, inviting herself in and looking around Matt’s room. Her hands covered her mouth as she began to mumble to herself in complete shock. “Oh God, Matt…what’s this for?”

Matt ran his hand back through his hair, trying to hide the red appearing in his cheeks. He began to fumble around through the pockets of his suit.

“I meant to leave this note for you…I thought Chris would keep you busy long enough…you were meant to get really dressed up and it was going to be picture perfect…”

Kelly turned to him and regarded him with confusion.

“What do you mean?” she asked softly, but she immediately understood when Matt dropped on one knee in front of her. “Oh God…”

Matt drew in a deep breath and took Kelly’s hand. She was kind of frightened of what he would say next, but she saw the honesty and devotion in Matt’s eyes and let the feeling wash away.

“Kelly O’Rourke…you mean the world to me,” Matt began, “when I first met you, I didn’t understand why you had come into my life – or why I had come into your’s, anyway. We grew closer…and I didn’t really know if I deserved it or not. But I can’t really explain the way I feel for you…every time I hear your name, a flutter kind of goes through my heart. There’s this happiness that I’ve finally found someone to love, but this kind of guilt that I don’t really deserve you.”

“Matt…” Kelly whispered, tears filling her eyes in disbelief.

“No, let me finish,” Matt told her, and Kelly closed her mouth automatically. “That’s why…if you say yes to my next question, you will make me the happiest and the luckiest man to have ever lived.”

Matt returned to digging through his suit pockets, until an expression of relief passed across his face. It was a small box, which Matt opened to expose a simple gold ring. Kelly almost jumped back in surprise.

“Oh…Matt…” she managed to gasp.

Matt drew in another breath and managed the next bit all in one breath.

“Kelly-will-you-do-me-the-honour-of-becoming-my-wife?” Matt asked in a flurry. Kelly watched him with uncertainty.

“What?” she asked, and watched as his face fell. “I didn’t catch that.”

“Marry me, Kel.”

Kelly didn’t need to think about her answer. Matt had stood by her during the toughest times of her life, and she loved him. He had stayed beside her when so few guys would. Okay…maybe this was rushing things a bit, but it wasn’t as though she was some little kid. She was 22, and perfectly capable of making her own decisions. Anyway, she got a feeling that it wouldn’t have mattered if it had been one week or one decade she had been going out with Matt. He was The One.

“Yes,” Kelly finally said, causing Matt to jump up in surprise. “Yes…I’ll marry you!”

Matt gathered her in his arms and swung her around in the air. With the whole disaster that was Tom Croydon, Kelly wished that that moment could have lasted forever.

By a week’s time, word of Matt and Kelly’s sudden engagement had rocked Mt. Thomas. Kelly had lost count of the number of times people had asked her if she was sure she wasn’t rushing into things. And she knew that Matt was feeling likewise. So far, the only thing the Boss had had to say to them was to warn them not to let their love lives interfere with their work. So far, Tom hadn’t even brought up the DNA test, so Kelly assumed that he was still as in the dark as she was.

“Hey, Sunshine,” Matt whispered as he came over and kissed her cheek gently. Kelly was sitting at her desk, trying and failing to finish an already overdue report. She was so tense…she knew that the results would be back any day now, and was getting strung out over what the results would be. The only thing that seemed to keep her somewhat sane was her engagement to Matt. They had moved into his room, and Chris had even found them a bigger bed.

Kelly reached back and placed her hand on top of Matt’s, which rested softly on her shoulder. She forced a smile for his sake and he began to kiss her cheek again.

“Lighten up,” he told her.

She forced a smile and let her lips brush against his.

“Kelly?”

Kelly and Matt broke apart at the sound of the Boss’ voice and Matt forced a laugh.

“Tom Croydon…the king of bad timing.”

Kelly gave him a playful slap and stood up, straightening her uniform as she did so. The look in his eyes told her exactly what it was about. The results must be back.

Kelly had never been to the hospital much. As a kid, she had never really been the sickly type, and neither had her mother. In fact, she could pretty much count the number of times she had been in hospital because of herself on one hand, and most of those had occurred since she was stationed in Mount Thomas. And at least two of those times were thanks to Joss Peroni.

She had heard stories from other people about what it was like to sit in a hospital, just waiting. Kelly had never really understood it before, but she did now. The doctor that was meant to be giving them the results had been called away due to an emergency. This left Tom and Kelly sitting in her office, both trying to stop themselves from going insane with the waiting.

Kelly stood up and began to walk around the office, inspecting the pile of magazines on the corner of the doctor’s desk. They were some of the most boring magazines on the planet. Eventually she settled for a 3-year-old issue of Women’s Weekly and began to scan the pages for some bridal gowns.

Tom leant over and inspected the models on the pages, each one wearing a different type of white dress. He made a sound of mock understanding and looked away, momentarily contemplating.

“You love Matt?” he asked, finally breaking the awkward silence. Each word seemed to catch in his throat, as though the idea of love was something he couldn’t grasp. Kelly looked up from her magazine and nodded slowly. “You aren’t…rushing things a bit?”

Kelly realised that she should have seen this coming. She closed the magazine shut in annoyance and looked to her Boss. She opened her mouth to point out that she didn’t need his approval, but then realised that this man could very well be her father. Her mouth closed instantly.

Tom folded his arms across his chest and began to gaze up to the ceiling, a smile – a genuine smile – spreading across his face. Kelly had forgotten how friendly Tom’s smile really was. She hadn’t seen it since she was a kid, after all.

“I really loved Nell,” he began to explain; almost forgetting that she was sitting next to him. Kelly had opened the magazine to try to flip through again, but she paused to hear what he had to say. “I couldn’t quite believe what happened between your mother and I…we were both happily married, I had children of my own. It’s just…we were drunk. If I could see your father today, I would tell him how sorry I am. But he loved you, and your mother. No matter who your father really is…he’ll still be your dad.”

Kelly forced a smile and placed the magazine on the top of the pile, meeting Tom’s eyes, surprised to see the honesty in his eyes. After a year and a half of having to go to work each day and see such a bitter and grumpy Tom Croydon, this new one was a pleasant change. She hoped he didn’t go backward.

“Yeah…I know,” she whispered softly and reached over to place a hand on his knee. Their eyes met fleetingly, and Kelly was suddenly unafraid of what the results might be. Maybe the Boss being her father wasn’t such a bad thing, after all.

“Sorry about that,” Dr. Mason said as she entered, closing the door behind her. “We had a bit of a problem.”

The woman seemed to command Tom and Kelly’s respect as she headed over to her desk and sat down. Kelly withdrew her hand from Tom’s knee promptly. It was the moment of truth after two weeks of emotional torment. She knew that, no matter the result, Tom was there for her and that she still had her engagement to Matt, but there was still that niggling nervousness that refused to let her be.

“Ah, anyway…where were we?” Dr. Mason said as she picked up their file and began to flip through the results of the DNA test. Kelly became so engrossed at staring at the file in her hands, that she failed to notice Tom slipping her hand into his. “Right, well, I’ve gotten the results back, and…”

Kelly closed her eyes tightly and began to mumble to herself. She was praying, although she didn’t really know what for. Maybe it was for the strength to deal with it…no matter what the next words the came out were.

“…there is a possible margin of error, but it’s very unlikely,” Dr. Mason continued, apparently not noticing Kelly’s incomprehensible mumblings. Although Kelly couldn’t see it, Tom was just as uneasy. He held onto her hand to stop himself from simply snatching the file from the doctor’s hands and reading it himself. This was the worst feeling he had ever felt before in his life.

Please, Tom silently begged, let it be alright. Let Kelly be alright.

“Are you ready to hear this?” Dr. Mason said, and was met with the cold glares of the two cops before her. She cleared her throat loudly – she had to get her kicks somehow – and finally decided to put the pair out of their misery. “Tom…if our tests are correct, then you are Kelly’s father.”

The atmosphere in that office could have been cut with a knife. Dr. Mason remained silent for a moment, letting the revelation wash over her clients. Kelly pulled her hand away from Tom and covered her mouth. The chair legs scraped across the tiled floor as Kelly jumped up and raced out, not wanting to be there one second longer.

Outside, Kelly collapsed into one of those horrible plastic chairs and hid her face in her hands. She waited for the tears to start falling, for her body to start to tremble, and the anger at Tom to return…but it didn’t come. She waited there while Dr. Mason continued to speak to Tom, with all that technical doctor-babble that Kelly probably wouldn’t have understood anyway. She waited for the sobbing to start, but even after several minutes, her face remained dry.

She looked up and regarded to corridor around her. People bustled past – patients, concerned relatives, doctors and nurses…not one stopped to ask her if she was okay, or what was going on. Not that Kelly wanted that, of course, but it seemed so strange that all these people were so wrapped up in their own worlds that they didn’t think twice about her. Probably the same reason why she and her father had never stopped to think twice about the nature of Tom’s presence in their lives.

Kelly turned at the sound of a creaking door to see Tom stepping out of Dr. Mason’s office. His face was conspicuously blank, but his eyes told the real story. He seemed secretly pleased. Kelly supposed that he couldn’t blame him; after all, she was really the only family he had left.

Tom seated himself beside her, yet their eyes didn’t meet.

“She did say that there was a possibility of error.” Tom pointed out in a voice that Kelly hadn’t heard in a long time. It seemed so kind…so fatherly. She had to face the facts. Tom Croydon was a born father. He had just lost sight of this somewhere along the way.

Kelly looked to him and their eyes met briefly.

“Nah…she’s not wrong. I can feel it, you know.” Kelly explained and Tom nodded slowly. The young constable had a point…looking at Kelly was enough to make him wonder why he hadn’t seen it before. She was his daughter. His flesh and blood. And he had missed out on too much already.

“Boss?” Kelly asked, meeting his eyes again. This time, she was brave enough to hold the gaze for longer. Tom nodded and pulled her into a hug.

His grip was so warm, and so comforting. He had this kind of look in his eyes, of pride. It struck Kelly. No matter how many mistakes she had ever made on the job or in her life…Tom Croydon had always been proud of her. Like a father. And she had always looked up to him. Like a daughter.

Somewhere along the line, someone had decided to give them a second chance.

THE END