Life starts now - A Bondi Rescue story

Down and Up Again

A/N: Hello everyone! So sorry for the late update, but you know how it is, real life doesn't wait. Uni is getting busy again (what with about ten different group projects and all...) and my muse was absolutely useless for a few days.

I feel like this story is slowly coming to an end, so feel free to leave me suggestions on what you would like to read or on how to finish this story (or ideas for a potential sequel?) I'll be happy to consider them and you will of course be credited for your ideas :)

As always, thank you very much to all of you who read this story, vote on it, fav it and leave comments on it. You guys are brilliant!

Credit for the idea of the main part of this chapter belongs to Pilot154. Thanks for the suggestion, I had so much fun writing this. I hope you like it :)

"I'm having a deja-vu", Ben declared, looking out over the beach. It was a surprisingly sunny and windy afternoon for mid-winter, so there were quite a number of surfers taking advantage of the clean, smooth waves.

But what had caught his eye were the three silhouettes huddled together by the water front, shoulders drooping with misery under their thick hoodies.

Deano followed his colleague's gaze and nodded. It was extremely reminiscent of how he had first met Melanie. The only difference was the time of day, and the fact that now, all three of the Finnegan sisters were sitting on the sand instead of just one.

"Poor girls", he said, mouth pulled into a sad frown.

They all knew that they were looking for a place of their own. Meanwhile, their young trainee was staying with Yatesy for the time being and the twins were house-sitting for a friend of the family. Some of them knew (and the others easily guessed) the reason behind those living arrangements and they were all trying to think of a way to help and support the three girls.

***

On the third night after what the Finnegan sisters had come to refer to as The Last Straw, Melanie was home alone, Yatesy having gone out with some of his mates after she'd reassured him ten times that it was okay.

"Really, Yatesy", she'd said, giving him a wan smile. "Go have some fun. Just 'cause I'm glum doesn't mean you should feel bad, too."

Eventually, he gave in. "Call if you need anything. And take that panadol." He could see the lines of pain around her eyes, a clear sign of the headache she was pretending not to have.

Her smile deepend a little and she returned his brief hug. "I'll be fine. Have fun, yeah?"

Settling on the couch after obediently swallowing the pain medication, the teen turned on the telly and flicked through the channels until she found something at least remotely interesting. When the pain meds didn't seem to work at all after over an hour, she took another dose, hoping that it would alleviate the throbbing pressure in her skull.

Even against the backdrop of a documentary on volcanoes, she soon found her eyelids getting heavy. She hadn't slept well the last two nights, waking up several times for no reason and lying awake for a long while before finally managing to fall back asleep.

So, it wasn't much of a surprise that the fatigue was now catching up with her. And while there were pictures of boiling lava and mountainous landscapes on the screen, Melanie sank deeper and deeper into the couch cushions, her blinks lasting longer and longer until her eyes stayed shut and her breaths deepened with sleep.

***

Melanie jolted awake hours later, flailing as she lashed out against phantasms that were already fading in her mind. Gasping, the teen looked around, trying to make sense of her surroundings. The sharp shadows were reaching towards her, claws and fangs making her recoil. Her upper body leant further and further back, until the edge disappeared from underneath her.