This is a different spin on Charlie, Joey, their relationship with Ruby and the chaos of the River Boys. I won't say more than that but will let you read the chapter and hope you like it! Love, IJKS xxx

Family Values

Chapter One

Joey Collins thundered down the stairs, already late for work and feeling rushed and stressed.

"Do any of you ever eat breakfast at your own place?" she asked when she found her kitchen busy with two half naked men.

"You love us too much to turn us away!" Daryl 'Brax' Braxton, her best friend in all the world teased. "Now, where's our breakfast?"

"I'm not your wife!" Joey protested, although she did turn to busy herself with making food for everyone.

"Not for want of trying," Heath commented.

Brax threw a spoon at him. Joey couldn't help but laugh and comment that unfortunately, he just didn't float her boat.

"Well, it's not your boat that I've been after all these years," Brax pointed out.

Joey snorted. With the bread in the toaster, she moved into the doorway and hollered up the stairs.

"Ruby!" she yelled. "You're going to be late!"

Turning back to the kitchen, she commented that she was in danger of doing the same.

"You look hot in your uniform, by the way," Heath commented.

"You see me in it every day," Joey reminded him.

At twenty three, Joey worked for an animal rescue agency. Having adored all creatures since she was very small, her home had gradually been filled with various pets over the years and she was not averse to bringing the odd stray home. Her work kept her pretty busy and every day was new and interesting, even if it added to the chaos she seemed to surround herself with at all times.

"And you look hot in it every day," he replied.

Turning back to the toast, she tossed a couple of slices in front of her friends and next door neighbours.

"Ruby!" she yelled.

"I'm here!" the teenager said sourly, finally arriving in the kitchen in her school uniform.

Joey buttered a slice of toast quickly and shoved a piece in her sister's mouth.

"We're munching and running," she said.

"That's bad for your health, you know," Brax said, tucking into his own food.

"If you cared that much, you'd have breakfast at your own place and stop cluttering my kitchen!" Joey remarked. "Make yourselves useful and feed the animals while you're here. And lock up when you leave, okay? I presume Brett's already left."

"Yeah, his car's not there," Heath said.

"Be good," Joey said, grabbing the final slice of toast and two on-the-go smoothies from the fridge for herself and Ruby.

"We always are!" Brax insisted, although everybody knew it wasn't true.

"Are we taking Casey to school?" Ruby asked on the way out.

"If he's ready," Joey said. "But we've really got to get a move on, Rubes."

The thirteen year old hurried to bang on the back door of the Braxton house next door, yelling her boyfriend's name while Joey hopped into the car and turned the engine on. It was a familiar routine. Joey had never been a morning person and always overslept. This meant she was running approximately five minutes late for every occasion and it only seemed to get worse with every new responsibility she took on. Still, she didn't mind. It kept life interesting and fun, if a little busy.

"Ruby!" she bellowed out the window when her little sister didn't appear immediately.

This was also part of their routine in Joey's attempts to get the teenager to school each morning.

"We're coming!" Ruby said, strolling towards the car with Casey.

Neither of them looked like they had a care in the world.

"I'm going to be late," Joey said through gritted teeth when the teenagers climbed in – Casey in the back and Ruby in the passenger seat.

"Joey, you're always late," Ruby said as Joey shot out of the drive, barely giving them time to put their seatbelts on. "Everyone's used to it by now. You really should catch up."

It had been a long and busy day and Joey was exhausted. She'd been called out to a house full of abandoned kittens, not all of whom were likely to make it. Having had to break into the property, she and her colleague had had to catch them and bundle them into carriers in order to get them treated at the animal hospital. One of them had particularly caught her attention and she knew it would take everything she had not to adopt it. So far, on a long term basis, she had collected four cats, a rabbit, two guinea pigs, three hamsters, five chickens and a goat. She wasn't entirely sure that the house could take much more. But she loved each of them and so did Ruby. Their older brother, Brett, mostly just put up with them but even when they were busy at work, Joey knew they would always be cared for. Brax had a flexible schedule and Heath was generally unemployed, as were most of their gang so there was always someone to look in on them if Joey had to leave her babies for too long.

Pulling up and into the drive, she cut the engine and sighed, noting the police car parked up outside the Braxton house. Climbing out, she turned away from her own house and towards her friends' to see if things were okay. The police regularly showed up on their door. It was something they were all used to. Generally, Joey liked to thing they were innocent, but it was never a great shock when Heath in particular had caused some kind of trouble.

"Is everything okay?" she asked, appearing in the backyard.

"Who are you?" the police officer demanded in irritation. "Another Braxton?"

"No, I'm a Collins," Joey replied evenly. "And that's really not the most polite way of saying hello."

The police officer, a striking, dark haired woman stared at her for a moment. Joey couldn't quite help checking her out. She was slim and tanned and had a beautiful face, even if she was glaring.

"I'm not here to be polite," the woman said. "I'm here to arrest a thief."

"I told you I didn't do anything!" Heath protested.

"What's going on?" Brax asked, appearing behind Joey.

"Are you Daryl?"

"Brax," he corrected.

"Well, your brother's been named in the theft of several items of jewellery," the woman said. "So we need to search your house."

"Have you got a warrant?" Brax asked casually.

"No," the cop admitted.

"Well, why don't you leave my brother alone and come back when you have one?"

"When you've hidden the stuff?" she asked.

"Maybe," Brax said. "But whether he did it or not you've got no choice so why don't you run along and make someone else's life a misery?"

The woman glanced at her female colleague who nodded. They headed back off the property.

"Bye, Watson!" Joey called to the officer she recognised.

The one who had captured her attention and offered so much attitude was new.

"Bye!" Watson yelled back over her shoulder.

Joey couldn't help but laugh when she overheard the new girl criticising Watson for being friendly with criminals. She resisted protesting that she engaged in illegal activities and turned to glare at Heath instead.

"Tell me you haven't screwed up again?" Brax said, unamused.

"It wasn't like that," Heath protested.

"Okay, I don't want to know," Joey said, hurrying out of the garden and into her own place.

She had made a firm rule a long time ago that she didn't want to know if any of her friends had broken the law. If she knew it to be true, she'd feel obliged to do something about it and she really didn't want to dob any of them in. She loved her boys and she wanted to protect them, even if too many of them did make far too many stupid mistakes. Letting herself into the house, she immediately received fuss from Rumble, a little black cat she had adopted as a baby and who was now a giant.

"Rubes, are you home?" she called out.

"I'm in here," Ruby said from the lounge. "Doing my homework like a good girl."

Joey entered the room and sat beside her.

"At least someone's behaving," she commented.

"Which River Boy is in trouble now?" Ruby asked, putting her pen down.

"Heath," Joey said. "Brax is dealing with it."

Ruby nodded.

"Anyway, dinner will be at six," Joey said, standing back up. "I'm going to shower."

Next time… Joey meets the new cop for a second time and Ruby grills Joey about her relationship with Watson…