Chapter One - The Blokes Weekend

"I think a holiday would be a wonderful idea", Susie smiled as the words tricked out of her mouth like light bubbles.

"Hang on Suze, we were talking about a blokes weekend, no chicks aloud", PJ pointed out firmly. His words seemed to be lost on Susie as she began to plea, not with PJ but with Jonesy. PJ knew perfectly well that she could wind Jonesy round her little finger when she desired to and he realised that he was fighting a losing battle.

"Fine, you can come, but don't get in my way!" PJ said with more than a little venom in his voice.

"Are you kidding, did grumpy old Patrick just say I could go", Susie exclaimed in disbelief.

"Less of this old business, and its PJ, thankyou Susie", PJ laughed, returning to his happy mood.

"So guys where are we going?" Susie asked with an enormous grin on her face, "let me guess...Fiji? No wait, Hawaii...is it Hawaii?" By now Susie was practically bouncing around the Imperial with excitement at the prospect of bathing in the warm sun in Hawaii.

"Try Brisbane", PJ replied dryly as he took a sip of the beer that seemed to have magically appeared in front of him, waiting for Susie to lose interest in the idea. Susie however, did not lost interest; in fact she seemed even more excited by the prospect.

"This is going to be so much fun", she gushed her eyes falling on Jonesy, meeting his glance. If he was thinking what she was thinking then this was going to be a very interesting holiday indeed.

"Don't forget PJ, Susie and myself need next weekend off Boss", Jonesy said with a grin and was met with a look of disdain from his Senior Sergeant.

"How could I possibly forget, Jones, when you've been reminding me once every day for the past two weeks." Toms look was not missed by Jonesy, in fact he took it as his cue to get out of the office before he found himself buried in paperwork up until he left for Brisbane with his workmates. Outside the office Kelly and Joss sat looking very unimpressed.

"So, explain to me again how you three get to swan off to the beach and Joss and I have to pick up the slack", Kelly grumbled at the grin that had found its way onto Jonesy's face.

"Aw come up Kelly, its time to take one for the team", he laughed,

"But you told me it was a 'blokes only' weekend" she said her voice reaching a pitch that made Jonesy cringe slightly "well how come Susie suddenly gets to go because last time I checked Susie was a woman not a 'bloke'", by this time Jonesy was starting to feel a bit embarrassed, it wasn't exactly a secret that he had a soft spot for his attractive female co-worker. Then he remembered a vital piece of information.

"Well actually Kelly, PJ was the one who said she could go, the decision had nothing at all to do with me", Jonesy knew very well that had PJ not said yes he would have crumbled to Susie's big blue eyes in a flash, but Kelly needn't know that. The look on Kelly's face told him she wasn't at all amused so he quickly made his way to PJ's office and found Susie sitting on his desk, swinging her legs back and forth.

"Where's PJ" Jonesy said trying to keep his mind on task as the overwhelming urge came over him, and urge that had been with him for a long time. Susie glanced up and beamed at Jonesy

"I have no idea, but I wouldn't want him to catch me sitting on his desk" she laughed and jumped off the desk replacing a couple of papers that had become dislodged from their original spot as she sat. At that moment the door swung open and PJ marched in. Susie flashed Jonesy an amused look and she saw PJ raise his eyebrow at the dishevelled stack of papers on his desk. Jonesy decided he had better distract PJ before he started asking what was going on.

"We're all set for babe fest 2004" Jonesy said grinning at the desired dirty look he got from Susie at that moment. PJ began to rub his hands together.

"Sounds good Evan, sounds good" PJ said just as Susie, looking rather disgruntled stalked out of the room slamming the door behind her. "What's gotten into her?" he asked placed his hands behind his head and leaning back. Jonesy shrugged and decided he would like to know that himself.

"What's going on Suze" his concern mounting when he saw the tears trickling out of her eyes, as she sat in the locker room trying to hide her face from view. Big sobs escaped her mouth as she tried to reply.

"PJ" she trembled "he just acts like nothing happened to Jo. Its like he's forgotten she even existed". Jonesy sank down next to her, his heart quietly going out to her. Again, he had the sudden urge to kiss all of her pain away. Fighting his thoughts, he rested one arm on her shoulder and tried to wipe away the tears with the other. Her pained expression caught Jonesy's

"I miss Jo," she wailed bursting into tears again. Feeling a little awkward, he sat quietly listening to the sound of her sobbing before finally opening his mouth.

"You know I think Jo wouldn't want to see you like this Susie. She would want you to go on this holiday and be your wonderful happy-go-lucky self" a smile cracked over his face. Susie weakly smiled back, nodding softly.

"Ah, would you take a look at this bed" Susie squealed as she bounced excitedly on the enormous bed nearest to the door. No sooner had they arrived at their apartment than Susie was bouncing around like an excitable child.

"I can't wait to get down to the beach" her voice breaking slightly as she squealed "come on Evan, let's go for a walk". PJ flashed his colleague a look of amusement as he was being literally dragged through the door. PJ slumped down on his bed and sighed before noticing the television remote was in arms length. He lunged for it, nearly off balancing himself for a brief moment. With the remote securely in his grasp he began channel surfing.

"Chick flick, soap, boring, crap, crap..." with a grunt he turned the television of and threw the remote on the bed behind him. He never would have guessed that being on holiday would be so boring and he'd only just arrived. At that moment he decided he would take a walk and try to find Jonesy and Susie. PJ stood up, donned his thongs and left the room.

After about half an hour of aimless walking in the heat, it finally dawned on PJ that he wasn't going to find Susie and Jonesy. He wasn't entirely sure where he was to start with; all he knew was that the heat was really getting to him. Looking for somewhere to dehydrate himself, he realised his eyes were beginning to go blurry. He rubbed them with his fingers and smiled to himself as the vision restored itself. A little way down the beach was a boardwalk, which looked as if it opened into a shopping centre so he decided to head for that. All thoughts of water disappeared from his mind when he saw something that completely floored him. About 100 metres ahead of him stood a woman, she was blessed with a golden tan and had golden curls cascading down her back. PJ's mouth fell open as he softly mouthed her name

"Jo"...