Hello, everyone! Well, as I do, I've been watching this whole counselling, commitment phobia storyline on the show and thought 'how can we bring Joey in'? I started it back when Angelo first put forward his theory that Charlie sabotaged all her relationships and was going to hold off on posting until one of my other stories finished but then figured I'd get it in while it was current. So, here goes! I hope you like it. Love, IJKS xxx
Emotional Intelligence
Chapter One
"Why have you asked to start therapy again, Charlie?"
Charlie sighed and looked from her therapist, Patricia, to the floor and back again. She shifted a little uncomfortably and wondered where to start. Patricia waited patiently for her. This was the same therapist she had seen a handful of times when everything with Grant was going on. She seemed like the safest bet if she was going to drag herself through this.
"My boyfriend and I broke up," the police officer finally said.
"And you feel bereaved?" Patricia asked.
"Yes. No. Well, sort of," Charlie said.
Her mind couldn't settle on any one thing. She supposed that was why she was in therapy in the first place. She never thought she'd ever let go enough to try and deal with every issue that had plagued her in her life.
"Which is it?" Patricia asked gently.
"I don't know," Charlie admitted.
She sighed heavily and chewed her lip.
"He told me the other day that he was perfect for me," she said. "And on the surface, he's right. He's..."
She trailed off.
"Is this is the same guy you were dating when we had our sessions before?" Patricia asked, wanting to clarify.
"Angelo," Charlie confirmed, nodding.
"And in what way do you think Angelo's perfect for you?" Patricia asked.
"Well, he's a cop," Charlie said. "We're the same age, we've both seen some pretty dark times. He's handsome and he makes me laugh. When I'm with him... we have a really good time. It was really tricky for a while because the whole town hated him but he managed to redeem himself and people like him again like they did before. It takes a pretty special person to turn that around, doesn't it?"
"It does."
Charlie nodded and ran out of steam.
"So, why did the relationship end?" Patricia probed.
"He said... he said..."
Charlie sighed, wondering if she could backtrack and leave now. She didn't want to deal with any of this.
"He said that I sabotaged all my relationships," she told her. "And he's right."
She sighed again and looked Patricia directly in the eye.
"Why do you think that is?" the therapist asked.
"I don't know. That's why I'm here, I guess."
"Because you want to resolve the issue and get back with Angelo?"
"I want to resolve the issue," Charlie confirmed.
The getting back with Angelo part, she wasn't entirely convinced of. He'd said a lot of hurtful things to her and she still thought he was being unreasonable about them moving in together. He might have been right about a lot of things but their relationship had been so turbulent from day one and she wasn't sure if she had the energy. But similarly, she wasn't sure if that was just a cop out.
"You don't want to reunite with your boyfriend?" Patricia checked.
"I've got no idea what I want," Charlie admitted.
"Why don't you take me back to what Angelo said to you," Patricia said. "Do you sabotage your relationships?"
"Well, they've all gone horribly wrong," Charlie said. "I don't know if that's all my fault or..."
"Tell me about the first relationship that went wrong," Patricia suggested.
Charlie's mind immediately flashed to Grant. No, she couldn't bear to think about him. She skipped to her second and hoped Patricia wouldn't notice.
"I was eighteen," she said. "I'd left school and gone to train. He was training to be a cop too. I was away from home and I got to be a completely new person. I liked that. We stayed together for the rest of that year and then we went off to different stations and didn't keep in touch."
"You didn't try to retain the relationship?" Patricia asked.
"No," Charlie said. "We knew from the start that..."
She sighed heavily as Angelo's words flashed into her mind about her allowing herself to be with him because she'd believed it couldn't last, that either the town or his job would eventually force him to leave Summer Bay.
"I knew it was never going to last," she said honestly. "The longest it would ever survive was the year we were training together and we didn't start dating until seven months in. I didn't love him. I didn't have any illusions that there was more to it than that. I didn't want there to be."
"Do you think that's suggestive of this pattern your ex-boyfriend has suggested?" the therapist asked.
She had immediately noted that Charlie was talking about her second relationship. The whole reason she'd come to her in the first place was because she was trying to heal from her first. She was trying to heal from the boy that had raped her. However, for now, she chose not to comment. She needed Charlie to bring it up in her own time.
"Why didn't you want a lasting relationship at that time?" she asked, wondering if it would lead Charlie to honesty. "Was it because you were young, free and single and didn't want to be tied down? Or was there another reason?"
Charlie looked at her directly, making eye contact.
"Because I was scared," she said. "Because of what happened before."
Patricia nodded.
"Did you... in the time between your first relationship and this second one... did you ever get intimate with a man again?"
Charlie shook her head. She'd felt like a freak at school. While all her friends were falling in love and losing their virginities, she was closed up, hiding away, hardening her exterior and never letting anyone get near to her. And nobody had known why.
"I couldn't," she said. "It was too scary."
"Is that why you were so eager to be away from home?" Patricia asked. "To be this new person you mention?"
Charlie nodded.
"What was it about this second man that was different?"
"He was funny," Charlie explained. "He won me over by making me laugh and allowing me to forget myself for a moment. But part of the attraction was that he was temporary."
Patricia nodded.
"What was your next relationship like?" she asked.
