Title: "Someday Is Something"
Rating: T
Summary: What's Joey been up to for the past 3 months? Is there someone new in her life?
Chapter Four
Joey woke with a fright, looking outside the boat's window to see it was raining. Great. The weather was miserable, and today she was heading back to Summer Bay. Welcome home she thought. Rolling over, trying to get more comfortable, Joey was terrified about what her future held back in the Bay. She was getting more and more anxious as the days continued to drag along, knowing it wouldn't be long before she had to go back and face everything she'd been running from: Robbo, the court case, Brett, Hugo...Charlie. There were so many bad memories from one small town, but there were also some great memories she never wanted to forget. Charlie had been pretty much all of her great memories. From simple things like going jogging down at the beach, cooking meals together, making out all day long on Charlie's days off, to their first night in the car when Charlie had admitted her feelings, and every time they had made love since.
But things have changed. Charlie slept with Hugo one night when they were forced apart, and lied about it for over a week. Joey might have been willing to forgive Charlie for her for her mistake, but she had every opportunity to confess her wrongdoing, and refused to. Instead she spent the week making her feel like the most amazing person in the world, dazzling her with attention, and spending every minute alone together locked up in their room. God she was a fool for falling for Charlie, not knowing how badly she was going to get hurt. Well she thought she was going to get hurt when she first began having feelings for Charlie, knowing those feelings would never to returned. She still couldn't believe that the gorgeous, brunette cop had developed feelings for her, and admitted them to her one night, after the danger of losing Joey to a long-haul job. Just like this one. Everything seemed so perfect between them once, and Joey wished they could go back to that place.
Looking around again, she tried to take her mind off her problems, and was glad when they were interrupted. "Hey Jo, quit it," came a voice above her. "Quit what?" she asked quietly. A head popped over the side from the top bunk bed, "Quit thinking. I can hear your mind racing from up here Jo." Joey chuckled, and grabbed the girls' hand. "Thanks. I needed to take my mind off things." They lay like that for a while, Joey holding onto the hand dangling over the edge of the top bunk. Haley Davies. The girl had been like a godsend to Joey, ever since she joined the crew on the trawler. They had bonded pretty quickly the moment they got on board; being the only girls on board, sharing a cabin helped them get closer.
Haley was the same age as Joey, and a thin, light-brunette, blue-eyed, Irish girl. And totally adorable. Joey sure couldn't deny that. She had also been one of her first real friend she had ever had. Joey didn't have any friends in school, and with the exception of Aden, almost all the people she got close to in Summer Bay had all been because of Charlie. Haley slipped her fingers though Joey's, lightly stroking her hand, as she held onto her. "What's on your mind Collins?" "Everything, Davies, everything" came the distant reply. Haley let go of Joey's hand before slipping down from the top bunk, and swiftly slipped next to Joey. Joey snuggled into the girl's embrace. Haley was one of the sweetest girls she had known. She always knew how to make Joey feel just a little bit better. Sometimes just a little bit was all she needed to make it through the day.
They weren't together. Haley was gay sure (there sure was a stereotype for girls working on a prawn trawler and Joey sure knew how to pick 'em) but she could see how much pain Joey was in. How distant she was most of the time. But the two girls had developed a close relationship, and trusted one another completely. They had to, dealing with most of the blokes on board had taught them a lot. Joey was nervous about being around the guys after the events with Robbo. But eventually she relaxed a bit and found out that most of the guys on board were great guys, and got to know a few of them. One of the guys, Coop, had developed a close friendship with the two girls. Joey, in particular. There was no hiding the fact Coop was totally smitten with her, and it took a lot of courage...and quite a few beers and a game of Truth or Dare before she told him that she really is straight – straight as a bended pipe that is.
Ok, told him was a bit of an exaggeration. More like showed him, with a quick pash with Hales, after one of the other guys had told her to prove it in a dare. Safe to say Coop was slightly devastated but he was happy enough that the two of them could at least be good friends. Good enough friends that Joey had ended up telling him that that quick pash with Haley had actually extended to an hour-long make-out session later that night. But thankfully they had stopped before anything got too serious, they weren't ready for anything that came along with a relationship. Either of them. Joey still wasn't over Charlie, and Hales didn't want to hurt the both of them by being the rebound girl. After a few awkward days, Joey and Hales got over their embarrassment and decided they would be no more than friends. Joey felt extra bad because of everything going on with Charlie, and she knew that Charlie wasn't coping. Instead of dealing with her ex, Joey settled for getting in touch with Ruby to find out how everyone was. She knew she was asking a lot of Ruby to lie to Charlie, but she wasn't ready to speak to her yet.
That became glaringly obvious after a quick phone call to Ruby, had turned out with Charlie answering, and Joey hanging up on her. And then a few hours later, with the help of some alcohol, and a simple dare, her pash with Haley had occurred. Joey didn't want to admit to Haley that hearing Charlie's voice had driven her into her arms, but it didn't take Hales too long to figure it out. Hales liked Joey a lot, but respected her enough not to push anything she wasn't ready for. Besides they got along fantastically well and after a few nights opening up to one another about everything that had happened in their lives, they were comfortable enough to talk about anything, and snuggle up to each other. Joey needed that some nights. She was still having nightmares every so often about Robbo's attacks. Hales couldn't believe how strong Joey was, thinking that if she had gone through half of what Joey had, she'd be a complete wreck.
And that didn't include the stuff Joey had gone through with Charlie. Hales didn't think much of the unfaithful cop, but could see how much Joey still loved her when her eyes brightened every time she talked about her, or stared at a photo of Charlie and herself. It hurt her that a girl like Joey could still be in love with a girl that could hurt her like hell. These girls always get away with it she thought, but if that picture of Charlie and Joey was anything to go by, Hales could see they really did love each other. But was that love enough for Joey to breeze back into her ex's arms the moment she got back? Haley sighed, knowing that while she had no intentions to make a move on Joey while she was still in love with Charlie, she hoped one day in the future when Joey had clearly realized that Charlie wasn't good enough for her, that the two of them could get closer. Being with Joey was important enough for her to wait and see how things went with Charlie before making any moves.
Hales had decided to follow Joey to Summer Bay and stay with her and Coop for a while. Coop like Joey, had lived in Summer Bay, and had a spare room for her or the two of them to use. Hales wasn't sure exactly what Joey's plans were in regards to if she moved in with her and Coop or if she had planned to move straight back in with Charlie. She was kind of afraid to ask. Regardless she knew that Joey would need her support during the court case and would help anyway she could. The girls were just about drifting off to sleep, in their comfy embrace, when their cabin door slammed open.
"Hey yo, Collins, Davies, you girls ready to get off this damn boat or what?" Coop yelled out as he barged into their cabin. He stopped short when he noticed the girls embraced, cocked an eyebrow, and cheekily added, "Ok I'm just gonna go and I'll be back in five minutes to watch the make out session." The girls looked at each other, "Get him?" Hales asked. "Get him," Joey agreed. The two girls launched off the bed, throwing themselves at Coop, tackling him to the ground. The girls began to playfully beat him up, until they started laughing when he begged them to stop. "Ok, ok I'm sorry I'll you two alone in peace so you can make out if you want." Joey swatted him across the head, complaining, "Don't be such a guy, Coop." Hales giggled when Coop looked so hurt after that. The three of the untangled themselves and got up.
"So, Joey have you decided what you're going to do when we dock at Summer Bay? You gonna hang round us for a little bit longer or head over to that fine ex-girlfriend of yours?" Joey looked pained at the question, so did Hales. Coop caught on to that. Joey wasn't sure if she should go see Charlie first thing to see if they had any chance of working things out. She had a meeting with Morag that afternoon, so maybe the Charlie thing should wait until that was all over. "I'm just going to see how things go, but I'll probably stay with you guys at least for the first few nights." Haley was relieved, but didn't let Joey catch on. "Well then you girls better grab your bags and get up on deck, we'll be there soon," Coop told them.
Shortly, the three friends were standing up on the deck with all the bags, looking out to sea, and then Joey saw the land in front of them. Shivering from the cold, she stopped when Hales embraced her into a hug. "You ready for all this?" "Yeah, I'll cope, besides I've got you two knuckleheads to stop me from running away from Summer Bay again." "Don't you forget it," Hales whispered, "you know we're both here for you." "Thanks, I don't know how things will turn out, but at least I have two people I trust completely," Joey replied. "Yeah...wait you are talking about Coop and I right?" "No, Coop and that tattooed man that creeped us out up in Sydney. Yes you silly." Hales smiled, "Good 'cause I didn't decide to get off this boat and move to a brand new town for just anyone. Well here we are, you going to take me on the tour of your gorgeous town?" "For you? Anything." The three friends picked up their bags and dragged themselves onto the pier. Joey looked up, hoping, praying that maybe Charlie was still waiting for her.