Title: "Someday Is Something"
Rating: T
Summary: The Buckton sisters fight over Ruby's betrayl and will Charlie also fight for Joey?
Chapter Three
Ruby breezed into the lounge room during her lunch break. After a typical morning at school, she headed back to grab some lunch, and do a quick search for her mobile phone, that she was sure she had left behind in her rush to be ontime that morning. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Charlie lying limply on the couch, with several empty bottles of beer on the floor. She rushed over to her big sister to check if she was ok. She was used to being afraid of Charlie going to work with the possibility of never coming back, but seeing her sister collapsed surrounded by alcohol was another thing entirely. Rushing over to her, Ruby breathed a sigh of relief after Charlie rolled over, grabbing her forehead. The first signs of an awful hangover. Charlie looked up, and glared at her sister when she recognised her through the fuzzy images her mind was creating.
Sure enough, Charlie was not impressed with Ruby and things became extremely intense between the two girls over the next few days. Charlie would not accept any of Ruby's excuses for not telling her about her being in contact with Joey, and Ruby continued to defend the fact she was looking out for her sister. Trying to protect her. She could see how torn up her sister was and it hurt her not being able to make things better. Things didn't get much better for quite some time. Ruby tried to get a hold of Joey about a million times but the girl refused to answer any calls or texts. Ruby was afraid that Charlie had scared her off and she was now afraid to answer any of her calls expecting it to be Charlie again.
Charlie continued to drink...often. All she ever did now was cry, work and drink, then start all over again. Her heart was broken all over again, and she refused to let any of her friends help her through her pain. It became a regular occurrence that Leah found her at Noah's or drinking at home. A broken-hearted Charlie Buckton was not the best housemate but Leah kept trying to get her through this, knowing that it wouldn't be much longer until Joey was home again. Charlie hated the fact that Joey had the opportunity to contact her and didn't. She felt that she was back to square one when Joey had taken off. The letter Joey had left her had given her the opportunity to hope for the future. But how could they have a future when Joey couldn't bare to talk to her? Charlie eventually let Ruby off the hook. She knew that her sister meant what was best for her but wished she had of been honest with her.
Charlie kept drowning her sorrows, spending all her time at work, she was so consumed with anger and guilt she barely noticed the days, while achingly slow, were starting to race by. Before she could think she looked up at the calendar above her desk one day at work – one more week. It was only one more week until the three months of hell were over, and the court case was to begin. Although that was going to be a whole new part of hell. Charlie realized that Joey would need to be in town just before the start of the court case and she would probably be back soon. Charlie had organized Morag to assist Joey with her case pro-bono as a favour. She'd been so caught up with her problems, she'd forgotten that Morag would probably know exactly when Joey would be back as she needed to prep her for the case. Morag didn't even know the specific details of the case, and that Charlie wanted to be on the stand and confirm her relationship with Joey to support the case. Morag didn't ask twice about the case when Charlie had asked her to take it on, and she was scared about how her step-mother would react to the relationship between the pair. She knew she wanted to tell her father before his illness stopped him from knowing how happy his daughter is. Was. Will be. Charlie sighed.
She wanted to wait until Joey was by her side again, supporting her before she spoke to them. She hoped her father would be happy for her, but had no idea how the stern-looking Morag would take it. Charlie laughed as she imagined Morag fainting from shock. Charlie looked at her reflection in a small mirror on the wall, she looked terrible, her skin was washed out, her hair was tangled up in a ponytail. But she was laughing. Less than one week for Charlie to get her life back in order, so she can win back the girl of her dreams. She became determined she would do what she should've done three months ago: "Fight for her." Joey could ignore her phone calls, avoid seeing her in public around the Bay. Charlie didn't care. She needed her back and it didn't matter what it took or how long it would take. It didn't matter what it took: confessing all on the court stand, displaying her feelings in public, standing in the middle of Diner on a table informing all patrons of their relationship. The hell with the gossiping-Colleens of the town. She'd do what she had to get her soul mate back. Someday is now.