The sun started to rise over the manor casting a warm glow over its weathered and beautiful features. The floodlit gardens were in full bloom, and Hillary as attentive to detail as ever was already outside watering his beloved plants before the heat got too much to bear. In stark contrast the once vibrant green grass had long ago been withered by the heat and now sat brown and dry, The ground was cracked and parched and even the fountain that sat proudly in the front courtyard of the manor had been switched off to conserve water and was covered in a layer of green slime.

David sighed to himself as he looked around, on the ground next to him sat four bottles of water and numerous towels. He had trained in some of the worlds most exotic and beautiful places but the manor still took his breath away. To be in a place where on the outside it was gorgeous but what it stood for caused such pain and resentment was hard. He knew that Lara only saw this manor as a form of prison, a place where her every move could be monitored, a place that fitted her status in society, a place where she would never be happy.

He picked up a bottle of water and took a large swig from it, he knew he had to calm himself down before Lara came down for her morning training session. It made him so angry to think that even in this day and age that someone had to be forced into marrying someone they didn't love, even more so that Lara's parents had seen what state she was in after James accused her of having an affair and still sided with him. He knew why it was that she defended her upbringing so much, despite what they had done Lara loved her parents and to do anything that would embarrass them would bring shame and tarnish the Crofts good name. She only wanted what was best for her family and if that meant that she herself would have to give up her own happiness then so be it.

His thoughts were quickly stopped when he saw Lara come out of the kitchen and start walking towards him and this time his breath was taken away for a different reason. Something was wrong and he knew it. Her hair was a mess not it's usual tight braid, she was wearing tracksuit trousers and a matching baggy jacket not the shorts and t-shirts that he had been used to seeing her in. She looked tired and pale.

She walked next to him and as she bent down to pick up a bottle of water David saw she winced. It was as if she couldn't bend down properly and he noticed the same pained look when she stood back up. They said nothing to each other as she walked a few paces away from him and tried to do a few warm up stretches. Wiping her brow with the sleeve on her jacket she tried to push herself into some more positions without showing how much pain she was in.

"If you took the jacket off Lara you would be a bit cooler and wouldn't have to keep wiping your face." David told her gently.

"I'm fine." Lara told him firmly not looking at him.

"It's warm already, I think you would be more comfortable if you took it off." He told her back.

"I told you I'm fine as I am." She immediately snapped back.

"Lara…" David started but was cut short.

"What?" She shouted at him. "What do you want from me? I'm fine so just leave it will you. This is what I'm wearing, if I get too hot that's my problem isn't it!" She was staring at him and although she had shouted at him before it was because she was upset, this time something had really gotten to her.

"I was just trying to do what was best for you." He told her in a calm voice, there was no point in trying to reason with her just be supportive.

"I don't need you looking out for me." She was getting more and more angry.

"I care about your welfare Lara, I'm not trying to tell you what to do." He was finding it hard to keep calm.

"Well it feels like it, I'm so sick of people trying to do what's best for me when they have no idea what I'm going through." She instantly regretted saying those words and it took her by surprise that she just came out with them. She stood there in silence trying to work out what was going on inside her head. David took a few steps towards her.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked her gently, he was now standing in front of her and it was as if she hadn't noticed he was there.

"Huh?" Lara looked up at him.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked her again, she looked at his face and had never realised before that he had really beautiful kind eyes. She longed to tell someone, tell them everything and get it out of her system. Yet in the back of her mind she knew that if she did that Neal would just up his torture. She looked up at David with tears in her eyes and smiled at him.

"I'm sorry, it's just everything with the wedding and stuff, I'm just feeling a bit overwhelmed right now."

Davis held his arms out and she walked into them and he gave her a small but comforting hug.

"It's ok I understand, just promise me something. Say that next time you need to have a freak out that you will warn me first. No more secrets huh?" He asked still holding her. She let the tears fall from her eyes. She didn't want to have any secrets from him. She felt so safe when he was around and standing in his arms felt so right. She felt confused why she was feeling this way about him and didn't dare look into his eyes when he gently released her and held out his hand for her to shake in agreement.

"Ok." She told him as a simple answer and shook his hand. He took her into his arms once again and held her tight. As his arms tightened around her lower back she let out a small cry. He let go instantly as she put her hand to her back.

"What's wrong?" He asked. Lara instantly panicked and removed her hand.

"Nothing." She told him but she wasn't very convincing.

"What have you done to your back?" He asked this time more firmly.

"I told you it's nothing Dave just a twinge."

"Lara I thought we didn't have secrets anymore, tell me what you've done. We can't train this morning if you have injured yourself." He said it in such a caring tone. "Let me see."

Lara turned around and unzipped her jacket taking it off and letting it fall to the floor next to her. David gently lifted her top and his touch was so soft it made Lara's heart race. He audibly gasped as he saw a fist sized bruise near her kidneys, no wonder she was so irritable. He started to feel the anger well up inside him at the thought that somebody had done that to her.

"Oh God, Lara what happened?" he asked still not taking his eyes off of her back. He was horrified. "Did James do this?"

"How could he? James wasn't here yesterday. Remember he's away on business." Lara told him. David still stood behind her. She was right, it couldn't have been James.

"Then what happened?"

"I slipped on the floor after I had been swimming yesterday and fell against one of the wooden lounge chairs." She told him trying to hold back the tears. She held her top down at the front to cover where Neal had cut her and prayed that David wouldn't walk in front of her and notice what she was doing. David lightly ran his fingers over the bruise and noticed it was the same size as his fist, it was no accident and he knew it.