Slowly Sinking -A Bondi Rescue Fanfiction-

Arrival

The plane landed heavily after an extremely long and difficult flight. Rosalie sighed heavily, glancing at the woman next to her whom she had met only two days earlier. She was struggling to figure out what was actually happening to her and her life and the overly cheerful and patronising woman had not helped her remotely. Her stomach lurched more than it had ever done, butterflies seemed to be fighting to escape her body, and she was severely anxious with the situation she found herself in. On the other side of the doors, inside the airport somewhere, was her father. She had met him once in her whole sixteen years, and that was the say after she had been born. Her mother had told her that she decided he was no good for either of them and ran away from him, and he had never tried to chase her or reconnect with his daughter. Now, sixteen years on, she was about to be reunited with him and in the cruelest of circumstances.

Rosalie was being sent to live with her father for two reasons- the main one being that her mother had been killed by her step-father, and the other being that her step-father had abused her for many, many years and tried unsuccessfully to kill her, and he had yet to be caught, so she had to leave her home to avoid him reaching her. So, they put her on a plane with a lady she barely knew and sent her away from her home in London, England, all the way to Bondi, Australia. Understandably, Rosalie was scared at the thought of meeting her dad, especially after she had been told for many, many years that he had never wanted children and most definitely didn't want her to get in touch with him, or so her mother said. But for some reason that she couldn't quite identify, he had agreed to take her in and look after her for as long as she wanted him to. Despite her apprehension about meeting him, she was, admittedly, thankful for that.

She was broken out of her thoughts by the woman, whose name was Lindsay, announcing it was time to find her father. She unbuckled her seatbelt and grabbed her small carry on bag, despite Lindsay insisting she would get it, not wanting Rosalie to rip her stitches whilst she was still in charge of her, but Rosalie was independent and was very difficult and stubborn when it came to admitting she needed help. Upon exiting the plane, she was pleasantly surprised by the heat- she had been so used to the cold in England that constant warmth (even when it was supposedly winter) was just what she had always wanted, only she had always wanted it with her mother. The pair went through customs and collected Rosalie's bags. Lindsay was only staying shortly whilst she met her father then she was leaving swiftly afterwards, so she hadn't felt it necessary to bring anything with her.

Walking through the exit, they saw many people holding names on paper or cardboard, looking eagerly for their loved ones. One man stood out- he was with two other men and they were all wearing the same light blue shirts that said "lifeguard" on them. The one in the middle was holding a sign that said "Rosalie", with a last name that had clearly been scribbled out. Rosalie guessed he had written his own last name only to remember that it was not something they shared. Her heart raced and thumped heavily as Lindsay caught sight of him and dragged her towards the three men. Rosalie now regretted not wearing more makeup- her face was bruised and cut from her step father's attack and she was panicking that she would scare them away. Her palms were sweating now, and she could feel her face go red.

Lindsay cleared her throat obnoxiously loud to interrupt the three men's conversation. Immediately, they all spun around in the direction of Rosalie and Lindsay. A shared frown crossed their faces, presumably at Rosalie's injured face.
"Hello, I am Lindsay Starling. We spoke on the phone I believe." The middle one shook her outstretched hand and grinned widely at her, his excitement quickly overruling his nerves.
"Yeah, that was me. Andrew Reid, and these are two of my colleagues, Matt Dee and Dean Gladstone." He introduced, the pair of men waved happily and glanced at Rosalie every few seconds. Rosalie just stared at them all, clearly overwhelmed and not knowing what to say. Lindsay noticed this and was quick to shoot a glare in her direction.
"Come on now you, don't be so rude. Introduce yourself to your father." Rosalie frowned at this. She found it hard to understand how a man she had only just met could be considered her father, but instead of saying something sarcastic, she sighed instead.
"Sorry, I'm Rosalie. Nice to meet you all." She tried to smile, but she couldn't force herself to. She hadn't smiled since her mother had been killed. In fact, she hadn't smiled long before that. Despite this not pleasing Lindsay at all, this seemed to please the three men, who all smiled widely at the teenager.
"Nice to meet you too, darling." Her father said fondly.

Lindsay quickly announced her departure shortly after Andrew and her had discussed some details and the final paperwork had been signed. In this time, Dean and Matt had bought Rosalie a drink and something to eat. Usually she would have refused the offer as she was never a big eater and she very rarely ate in public, but they had already bought it before asking her and she didn't want to come across as ungrateful. She hadn't said much, but the two made her comfortable by having a conversation between them that was more about their work than her current situation. Lindsay and Andrew returned, and Lindsay left, shooting nothing more than a wave in Rosalie's direction. Andrew waited before she was out of sight before speaking.
"Blimey, that was intense!" He joked, cracking a smile at the three, which all of them, including Rosalie returned.
"I tried to stay formal when she was around, but call me Reidy, everyone else does! Oh, and Dean is Deano, and Matt is whatever you want him to be." He reintroduced, and Rosalie nodded along, smiling softly at them. Although she wouldn't say it out loud, she was thankful he hadn't asked her to call him 'Dad'.

An awkward silence passed, and Reidy seemed to remember where he was.
"I completely forgot- we have work this afternoon. I didn't think you'd particularly want to be home alone in a new country and all, so I've asked the boss and you can come with us. You can either hang around the beach or come up to the tower and sit with us, it's completely your choice. The rest of the boys know you're coming." Reidy said, grabbing one of her bags, with Deano and Matt getting the rest and they all headed out of the airport.
"Yeah, that's because you've not shut up about finally meeting your daughter since you got the call!" Matt joked, winking at Rosalie who blushed but couldn't hide the smile on her face.
"Shush," Reidy said, shoving him slightly, "You got any beach gear with you?" Rosalie shook her head and hesitated before answering.
"Nah, I've never actually been the beach before." The three men seemed to freeze, they were shocked for two reasons- this was the most she had said in the time they had met her, and they couldn't comprehend how someone could not go to the beach.
"Darl, that's gonna change whilst you're with me!" Was all Reidy said as they reached the car and headed to the beach.

-//- Okay, so I was so nervous posting this but it's an idea I've had for a while now and I figured I wanted to upload it before 2016 begins! Please read this and I hope you enjoy it! -//-