<em>~ Maddi inviting Elijah and Desmond to dinner and an olive branch ~</em><br/><br/>Maddi sat and ate slowly, letting herself drift off and zone out for a while.  It was as though after all the emotion and stress her mind needed a break and she just let the sounds and sights fill her, breathing it in and letting it calm her.<br/><br/>She started in the end though to think about their situation, and how they might make it work. The emotions had been running so high, and the girls so stressed out from the wreck, it was no wonder things had been so fraught.. Maybe with a little calm-headedness they could make it really work. There would be enough of them to make survival easier and perhaps even become a family, supporting each other through the hardships.  They'd need support, that was for sure.  She knew it was going to be hard, just from the reactions so far.... it was flaming mess, but she had to have hope, she was that kind of person, and she'd face head on the challenges that came with life no matter how bitter they tasted.<br/><br/>When she had finished she stood up, brushing the sand off her legs and then, as she picked up her plate and turned, she realised two men were coming towards her and one was, Elijah from earlier.  She walked towards them slowly, and knowing it was up to her to make the peace, she smiled and said to him, "I'm glad you found me, I was just thinking about the difficulties earlier and I wanted to apologise, we girls have been stressed out and perhaps not behaving too well after the wreck last night, it was quite a shock for us," she paused and then went on, "I hope we can make a fresh start and you can forgive me," she looked across at the other man and smiled at him too, "You look as tired as I feel, I've got some hot fish by the fire would you like some?"<br/><br/>She held out her hand for Elijah to shake if he wanted to accept her apology, "Can we start again?  We could do a whole lot better than before don't you think?  I'm Maddi by the way, perhaps we can get to know each other a little while you eat."  From her experience there was nothing like sharing a meal together to bring people together, this situation was hard enough without any more stress. No matter what she felt about how  Elijah behaved this had nothing to do with the rights and wrongs of things, this was about building bridges and how she felt about what had happened had to put to one side.  The guy had looked as stressed out she had been at the time anyway, and everyone deserved a second chance in her book.