I Knew You Were Trouble When You Walked In

The girls made their way outside to greet Duane Lee, Leland and Dog. Isabelle was being hastily pulled by Zahli, who had a grin plastered on her face.

"Did you have fun today, Zahli?" Dog laughed, noticing the happiness all over his new granddaughter's face.

She nodded cheerfully, before turning to Leiah, "You want to come play in my room?"

Leiah crawled off her dad's lap; the two skipping off hand-in-hand to Zahli's bedroom. Isabelle felt a churning in her stomach, as Zahli moved out of her sight. Her eyes darted to the front door, however Beth's hand gently rested on her shoulder, "I triple-checked it, honey."

A sigh of relief left Isabelle. Leland looked up at her, tangling his fingers with hers before coaxing her to sit on his lap. She relaxed slightly as his fingers trailed up and down her bare arm.

"How're ya feeling?" Dog asked, glancing at Isabelle's bruised face.

"I'm okay. A little sore, but okay," she smiled.

Duane set his glass on the table, before leaning forward to speak, "Do you know how long the injunction will take?"

Shaking her head, Isabelle glanced towards him, "No. I couldn't be bothered asking the officer. All she wanted to do was tell me how lucky I am that Leland wasn't being charged with assault. After the whole debacle, that was exactly what I wanted her to be saying to me."

Leland chuckled slightly from behind her, as Dog spoke, "That's just their job, honey."

"Should've shown a bit more compassion though," Beth asserted. "Anyway, I think when you two," she paused to point at Leland and Isabelle, "decide to shack up together permanently, you'll have some trouble."

"Why's that?" Leland asked, cradling Isabelle's waist as he looked up at Beth, leaning against the door frame.

She thrust a long, pink-nailed thumb towards the direction of Zahli's bedroom, "The shit those two girls have been planning today is ridiculous."

"Oh my god, they want to ask for a princess castle bedroom," Isabelle laughed, turning to face Leland, "and they've decided that want a pony each."

"Looks like I'll need pay rise," Leland smirked, raising his eyebrows at Beth.

"In your dreams, kid."

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After ordering pizza, Dog, Beth and their kids said goodbye to the couple and left. Zahli didn't seem so hesitant to leave this time, cuddling her mom tight and telling her that next time Leland had Leiah, she wanted to come and visit. It hurt Isabelle that Zahli seemed to think that leaving her mom was normal, but she knew it wouldn't be long before the injunction was in place and she could have Zahli home with her. Duane Lee had offered to stay with Isabelle, while Leland took Leiah home. She graciously accepted. The idea of being alone, with Tim out on bail again, still left her terrified.

Duane Lee had made himself comfortable on her lounge, watching the TV playing old reruns of 'Dog the Bounty Hunter'. Isabelle stood to the side of him, holding a hot mug of coffee in her hands, "Is it weird, watching yourself on TV?"

Sitting up, and accepting the coffee from her, Duane answered with a chuckle, "A little bit. It's pretty cool though."

"Bet you all get heaps of attention now. It must be hard to do anything normally," she spoke, curling her legs up from underneath her and taking a sip of her own coffee. "Even getting our nails done today, people were coming up to Beth. She had wet paint on her nails, and had to sign stuff," Isabelle smiled slightly at Beth's kindness.

"Well, I've always gotten attention. Bit of a ladies man," he smirked, wiggling his eyebrows jokingly. "Nah, in all seriousness, we get a bit of attention. Leland cops it pretty bad." A loud laugh escaped his lips, "He used to be pretty shy. It's funny watching him get female attention."

Isabelle raised her eyebrows, "Shy? Leland?" She let out a little giggle, "Although I can see why everyone loves him. He's just so..." She trailed off, causing Duane Lee to gag jokingly.

"Gross."

"Oh please," Isabelle rolled her eyes light-heartedly, "I'm sure you've heard he's hot millions of times!"

"Maybe, just once, I'd like to hear it," Duane pretended to wipe his eyes, causing Isabelle to laugh heartily. "I think you're good for him though. He seems," he trailed off, thinking about the differences in his brother, "different. But good different."

Isabelle smiled, sinking into the recliner like a teenager. Duane couldn't help but snicker at her, "This is just wrong for a brother and his sister-in-law to be discussing."

"Sister-in-law?"

"Well, you guys are pretty serious, aren't you?" Duane asked, taking a sip of his coffee.

There was a pause before Isabelle nodded hesitantly, "I guess so."

"You guess? That's never good," he sat forward, looking at Isabelle intently. She shifted in her seat uncomfortably as Duane began to talk again, "Is there a problem?"

"You know what's funny? What's happening between us isn't normal. It's way too fast, and to be honest, it's scary. But now that he's here, I can't imagine sleeping without him next to me, or seeing him walk through the door after boxing, all sweaty and beat up. I can't imagine waking up in the morning and not seeing his clothes scattered literally everywhere, or hearing his funny little laugh when watching TV. I'm terrified, Duane. Terrified that he's going to leave, because that's what the first few months of a relationship is, figuring out if you really want to be with that person. Normally, if one of you decides you don't want to be in the relationship, life can so easily go back to normal, but in this situation it can't. Zahli is so attached to not just Leland, but your whole family. My house would feel so empty if he wasn't here," Isabelle sighed, standing up and running a hand through her hair. "I'm going for a smoke, you wanna come?"

Duane nodded, and followed Isabelle out the back door. He leaned against the door frame, as she lit up a cigarette, "Have you talked to Leland about this?"

Shaking her head, Isabelle spoke softly, "No."

"Isabelle, look, I can guarantee he isn't going anywhere. I haven't seen Leland like this in years, maybe even ever. Dad and Beth, even Lyssa, have all said the same thing. It's like he's seeing the world in a completely different light, and yeah, you guys have had a struggle so far, with Tim and Zahli, and having to live together virtually straight away, but not many couples could survive that for as long as you guys have already. You really don't need to be scared, but you do need to talk to Leland about it."

Isabelle smiled, moving towards Duane and giving him a quick hug. "Thank you," she stepped away and inhaled from her cigarette once more.

The front door opened and Leland stepped inside the house, glancing around and noticing the absence of Duane and Isabelle, "Hello?"

"We're out here!" Duane called, before turning back to Isabelle and smiling cheekily, "Here comes lover-boy."

"Grow up," Isabelle laughed, smacking his chest playfully.

Leland moved out the back door, wrapping his arms around Isabelle and kissing the back of her head. She smiled, stubbing out her cigarette, and turning to face him, planting a gentle kiss on his lips.

"So gross," Duane gagged, to which Leland flipped him off in reply, "Seriously gross."