Tabula Rasa

"I'm going with you," he said finally.

Sophie's head snapped up. "What?"

"You'll have to change the ticket for a later one because I have the Lawson photo shoot, but I'm coming with you."

"I-"

"No, if she's not there, which I still don't think she is by the way, you're going to need someone and I don't want you to go through that alone," he paused for a moment and took a deep breath. He spoke the next sentence as if the words were being slowly pulled from him one after the other like multi-coloured scarfs from a depressed clown's sleeve. "And if she is there," Sophie inhaled sharply, "Well, if she is there than…I guess… I don't know. I should meet her."

Sophie jumped up and wrapped her arms around Phillip. He reciprocated slowly, nuzzling her neck with his nose. "Thank you," she whispered.

Phillip stood, holding Sophie tightly, staring off vacantly at the beige walls of the kitchen. There was no way this was going to end well for him.

"She'll be there," Sophie said desperately. "You'll see. She'll be there."

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"Will you hurry up!" Sophie yelled to Phillip.

Sophie sat impatiently on Phillip's couch, waiting for him to finish packing his toiletries. She was anxious to get on the road. It had been almost six weeks since Phillip had offered to come with her and finally the day had come. He couldn't put it off with work any longer and Sophie wasn't willing to wait. She checked her watch again. Their plane left in three hours. They needed to be at the airport.

Phillip popped his head out into the lounge room. "The airport is ten minutes away. We have plenty of time."

"I want to get going, that's all," Sophie pouted. She crossed her arms and slumped back into the soft leather lounge.

Phillip laughed lightly. "I know, but its wait here or wait in the airport and trust me, that couch," he said pointing at her, "is way more comfortable than any plastic monstrosity the airport can come up with."

Phillip disappeared back behind the wall. Sophie poked her tongue out at the empty space.

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Natalie set herself up at Angelo's and waited for Brax to head back over to the bar. He was making nice with some difficult suppliers and plying them with free wine. She watched him laugh and lightly slap his supplier on the back, then roll his eyes as he walked away.

"Hey," she said, as he made his way over to her. "Going well?"

He shrugged. "We'll see, I guess." He quickly kissed her on the cheek before heading back behind the bar. He poured her a glass of wine and presented it to her with a smile.

"Thanks," she said, taking a sip. "I wanted to talk to you."

Brax cocked his head to the side. "Something I should be worried about?"

"No, no," Natalie said, waving her arms in front of her. "Least I hope not. It's just that my lease ends in a couple of weeks and-"

"Yeah, Nat," Brax interrupted. "You're still all good to move in with me."

Natalie smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. "Good."

"I told ya," Brax said leaning across the bar, his lips teasingly close to hers. She swore she could feel them brushing hers as he spoke. "I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want you to move in."

Natalie smiled and closed the gap between them. No matter how many times he kissed her, it still sent tingles down her spine.

The sound of someone loudly gagging caused the two lovers to break apart.

"Ruby," Natalie greeted politely.

"God, I hope the novelty of PDAs wears off when you two move in together. It might be safe to order pizza again."

"Rubes," Brax warned, raising his eyebrows at her. Sophie sat quietly. Ruby hadn't been happy with her when Brax announced she was moving in with him. If Natalie was being honest, that comment was one of the nicer ones Ruby had directed towards her in recent weeks.

"Yes, yes, I know," Ruby sighed dramatically and rolled her eyes. "Be nice to Natalie because she is very important to you, blah blah bitty blah." Ruby turned her attention to Natalie and looked her up and down appraisingly. Natalie could feel Ruby's eyes raking over her, taking in every perceived imperfection.

"That shirt really brings out your eyes," Ruby said with a false enthusiasm. She pivoted back to face Brax, her arms spread out, "Happy?"

"Yeah," Brax replied. "That nearly brought a tear to my eye, aye."

Ruby laughed, drawing a small smile from Brax. "Pizza, please."

Brax reached behind the bar and plopped a brown paper bag on the bar in front of Ruby. Her smile dropped.

"That's not my pizza."

"It's a warm chicken salad."

"What? I ordered pizza."

"Like you have for the past four days and ya mum would kill me if I let you eat like that. She'd make ya something good."

"Charlie couldn't cook. Where do you think I learnt these eating habits?"

"Which is why she had me and Leah," Brax argued, "Enjoy your chicken salad."

"But you have the good melty cheese again," Ruby whined.

"And make sure you say that as you go past the supplier at table six." Brax smiled at her.

"I could just go to the Diner, you know. Get a burger and chips."

"Yeah, try it," Brax said with a cocked eye-brow. "See what happens."

Ruby grabbed the bag petulantly.

"Now out," Brax ordered. "And say bye to Natalie."

"Bye Natalie," Ruby parroted and she stalked out of Angelo's, glaring at her warm chicken salad.

Brax watched her go with a smile and turned back to Natalie. "Want her pizza?" he offered, with a grin.

"Yes, please," Natalie laughed.

"I'll go get it for ya." He kissed her lightly and headed out to the kitchen to retrieve the pizza.

Natalie smiled contentedly. Ruby was coming around. Brax was happy. Everything was perfect.

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"Phillip!" Sophie yelled from the footpath.

"Right, right. I'm ready." Phillip walked out the front door, closing it tightly behind him and double checking it was locked.

"Then hurry up!" Sophie commanded. "We are going to miss this flight."

Phillip kissed Sophie's frown. "No we are going to sit bored in an airport for an hour before they open the gates."

He chucked his suitcase in the boot and unlocked the car with a flourish that any Sale of the Century beauty would be proud of. Sophie scowled at him as the car beeped and orange light flickered against her legs. Phillip slipped into the driver's seat and he called out, "Coming?"

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Sophie sat impatiently in the airport lounge, tapping her foot against the seat leg. She checked her watch, huffed and crossed her arms across her chest. Phillip watched her out of the corner of his eye, his iPad resting on his knee.

"It'll be fine, Soph," Phillip ventured. She was so tense and agitated, he just wanted her to calm down.

She turned in her seat to glare at him. "We're going to have to spend a night in Sydney because it'll be too late by the time we get there to get to Summer Bay."

"It's one night. We have a week there."

Sophie snorted and checked her watch again.

"Now boarding Tiger flight A6-34 direct from Queensland to Perth," a muffled female voice announced over the loud speaker. "Would all passengers please make their way to gate 34."

"Unbelievable," Sophie muttered. "Tiger boards and Qantas is delayed."

"We're not heading to Perth."

"That's not the point!" Sophie snapped. "If we'd left when I wanted to, none of this would be happening. I'd be in Summer Bay with Ruby instead of stuck here with you in this bloody airport!"

Phillip slapped the cover of his iPad closed and shoved the tablet into her arms. "Hold this," he growled.

"Wait. What? Where are you going?"

Phillip didn't answer her. He didn't look back as she called his name. He just kept walking.

He stalked into the bathroom and turned on the tap, filling cupped hands with water. He splashed his face, rubbing the water into his skin. He let the water run down the sink as he stared into the mirror. Everything was his fault lately. Sophie had been distant and tense, snapping at him for every little thing he did. Phillip felt like he had been walking on egg shells laced with dynamite for weeks now and the closer they got to Summer Bay, the worse she got.

"Oi, mate," a man said as he walked out of a cubicle and to the sink beside Phillip. "Country's in a fucking drought."

"Oh, right, sorry." Phillip quickly grasped the tap, pulling the handle down hard to stop the flow of water. The man washed his own hands and walked out, shaking his head as he left.

Great, now he was even pissing off strangers.

He stared at his reflection once more. He looked the same. Light brown curly hair in need of a trim (but he was the only one who would really notice that), brown eyes, slightly too big nose, strong chin. He was still the same man. But he didn't feel the same. This trip wasn't going to end well. Regardless of whether Ruby was there or not; a figment of Sophie's imagination, a symptom of her injuries or a fully fleshed person, a daughter or a friend, it didn't matter. Whether Sophie found what she was looking for or not, this trip was not going to end well for Phillip. He could feel it. The most he could do was try and keep hold of her.

Phillip took a deep breath, squared his shoulders and straightened his jacket and belt, and then headed out of the bathroom to where Sophie was sitting. She was exactly how he had left her. Arms crossed, scowl etched on her face, foot tapping and checking her watch every thirty seconds, just in case an hour had passed. Yes, she was just as he had left her. Anxious to leave him in search of something she didn't know, and couldn't remember. Anxious to get away from life they'd built together. Anxious to get away from him.

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A night in Sydney and a free buffet breakfast had done nothing to soothe Sophie's frazzled nerves nor had the mix up with the car rental that delayed their departure for a further three hours. Sophie was seething by the time they hit the road on the way to Summer Bay. The GPS's artificial American voice telling them to turn left in 500 metres, right in 30 and straight for 7.2 kilometres, was the only voice in the car for the first hour of the trip.

Coming up to a rest stop, Phillip decided that he needed to get out of the car, if only for a few minutes, and try and improve Sophie's mood.

"What are you doing?" Sophie asked as Philip slowed down and turned into a café car park.

"Shouting you lunch," Phillip replied with a smile. He turned a deaf ear to her protests and turned off the car. He pulled the keys out of the ignition and awkwardly shoved them deep in his pocket. Sophie glared at him, waiting for the lecture she knew was coming.

"Come on," he said, with a surprisingly jovial tone. Sophie had been expecting a stern talking to, a pep talk even, but what she got was a simple statement of facts and a plea. "It's been a long start to the trip. I'm tired. You're tired. Things have gone wrong, so why don't we stop for an hour, regroup, have something to eat, and then we'll concentrate on getting you to Summer Bay." He looked at her for confirmation, acceptance of his plan.

"Okay," Sophie conceded after a long moment. "But just for one hour!"

That was enough for Phillip, he bounded out of the car and was around the other side to open Sophie's door before she had unbuckled her seat belt. Sophie couldn't help but smile at his exuberance. He was trying. He was trying for her. The least she could do was be good company for lunch.

She twisted herself out of the car and took a deep breath. It smelt different here than in Queensland. She could smell the scrub and the Eucalyptus floating on the light breeze that played in her hair. The sun shone down on them, taking away any bite that the breeze may have brought with it.

She looked around the small rest stop. There were a few cars dotted around the car park. Families piling in and out, stretching their legs and trying to tire out their children for a few hours of peace once they set off again. She saw an older couple sitting at a bench, eating their pies with knives and forks and enjoying the early afternoon sun.

She grasped Phillip's hand as they made their way in to the café, which made him smile and bring their clasped hands to his mouth for a quick kiss to the back of her hand. They stood together for a few minutes in line, waiting for their turn to order. Sophie hadn't let go of Phillip's hand and had leaned into his side, rubbing her free hand over his bicep.

Once they had ordered, Sophie left Phillip to wait for their food, while she found them a table. The older couple had left, so Sophie made her way over to their table. It was in a lovely spot. Back from the road, so the noise of passing traffic was absorbed by the buildings and line of trees. The sun warmed her side, without a causing a glare and she could look out over to the bush, with its high trees and low shrubs, the sound of unseen kookaburras completing the postcard of a scene. She was watching a young family playing frisbee in the car park when Phillip made his way over to her, a tray of food in his hands. She watched her smile reflect back at her in his sunglasses as he sat down.

"One fruit salad, yoghurt and orange juice," he said, placing a fork atop the plastic container he had laid in front of her.

"Yummy, thanks."

"And for the car ride," Phillip continued. He pulled out a block of Cadbury Topdeck Chocolate from below the tray.

Sophie laughed. "Oh, you know me so well."

"It's for both of us though, you do have to share," he warned.

"You're driving!" Sophie exclaimed, "You're going to need both hands on the wheel at all times. These country roads can be winding and dangerous."

Phillip threw a serviette at her.

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They had sat at the rest stop for almost an hour and a half, before Phillip caught Sophie checking her watch, her brows furrowed above her sunglasses.

"Ready to get back on the road?" Phillip asked pre-emptively. He had finally got his Sophie back and he didn't want her to slip back into this morning's mood.

Sophie shot him a relieved smile and he could see her shoulders release their tension as she spoke. "Yes please. We're still a few hours away and besides," she added, "I want to open that chocolate!"

Sophie slid herself out of the picnic bench and pushed herself to her feet. She limped noticeably as she moved away from the table.

"You okay?' Phillip asked, coming to her side, his arm snaking its way around her waist.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she assured him, "Just a little stiff from sitting for too long."

Her limp diminished as she walked through the car park to the silver rental car. Phillip watched her covertly, making sure that it really was just stiffness, before slipping back into the driver's seat.

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Brax had had a busy morning. He hadn't been at Angelo's but he had filled his morning quite thoroughly with an ill fated attempt at carpentry. He hadn't thought it would be that difficult, he was just fixing up an old wardrobe he had bought, but the more he worked on it, the more work he found it needed.

He sighed as he took in the sight of the half assembled and now half sanded wardrobe. It wasn't even his bloody idea. It was Ruby's. She had popped her head in last week, wanting him to have a look at her car, and after a brief jibe at his decorating skills, she had proceeded to scold him for just about every aspect of his apparently very non-female friendly living space. Everything from the colour of his sheets, to his bed frame, to the lack of storage to the feng shui of his room, had been up for discussion.

"Brax," Ruby had cried. "Natalie is going to take one look at this place and go running for The Caravan Park!'

Brax had looked around confused. "What's wrong with it?"

"Oh my god, where do I start?"

Brax just glared at her.

"You have one bedside table," Ruby began her list, checking things off on her fingers as she went, "And a chest of drawers that barely holds your limited wardrobe, where is she supposed to put all her stuff? Your curtains are just ugly, no bed frame, no mirror-"

"Well there's not exactly a lot of room in here, aye," Brax had defended himself, scratching his head.

"Brax, you have three surfboards in here!"

So now, thanks to Ruby's insistence that his room was completely inhabitable to anything resembling a woman, he had a wardrobe that had seemed like a bargain at first glance but needed new hinges, a fresh coat of oil, a new bar across the inside and the drawer at the base seemed like it may have been on its last legs. He had only planned on needing to attach a mirror to the inside door. Truthfully, it wasn't that big a job and he could always rope Heath into helping, but it was just time consuming having to sand everything back to start a fresh. Hell, it had take him half an hour just to move it from his room to the back yard to get a start on the sanding. Time he didn't really have to spare in the next two weeks.

His stomach rumbled loudly, demanding food. He threw down the sander and sat back onto the grass. The wardrobe doors were lying on the ground, the old rusted handles sticking up into the air, dust from his half complete sanding job coated the grass and his shirt in equal measure.

Brax stripped off his shirt and chucked it over the washing line, hoping the breeze would take most of the dust off, before heading inside. He made himself baked beans on toast and plopped down on the couch to eat them. He placed his feet on the coffee table, crossing his legs at the ankles. He ate mechanically, soaking up the last of the baked bean juice with his toast. He rolled his shoulders back, feeling tension pull at his muscles. He need a surf. He hadn't been in days and it had left his body a wreck and his head full.

Brax wasn't sure why he was so nervous. It wasn't like he and Nat didn't get along. They did. Sure, they fought a bit but nothing major. He wanted her to move it. They spent enough time with each other now that it wouldn't be that big an adjustment to have her living with him. There was just something that was making him take a step back. Something that wasn't sitting right with him. There was something he had missed. He just wished he could think what it was. It was probably just Ruby putting doubt in his head, even as she tried to help him. Once he had the wardrobe finished, he was sure the weight would lift.

He sighed and pushed himself off the couch, intent of getting a couple of hours of good surf before he headed into work.

The wardrobe could wait.

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Sophie sat up straighter as they passed through Yabbie Creek, a smile beginning to take hold of her features. A full blown grin over took her as they drove past the 'Welcome to Summer Bay' sign. The bright orange and yellow sign signalling more than just proximity to a small coastal town. It was a vindication of everything she had fought for, confirmation that her memories weren't false. She wasn't crazy. She was going home.

They drove through the sea side town with Sophie hanging out the window like an excited puppy. They parked along the foreshore at Sophie's insistence. She stood at the wooden railing that separated grass from sand and stared out at the ocean. She took a deep breath and turned to look back at Phillip, but as she turned something else caught her eye.

Further up the beach, a surfer was jogging up the pathway towards the showers. He dropped his board on the grass and turned the tap, letting the cold water wash the salt from his back. She watched as the water ran down across his tattoos and she squinted trying to make out what the tattoo on his lower back said. He was broad and muscular, even from this distance she could tell that. He ran his hands through his short brown hair, shaking the water through it. She could just make out a smile on his face as he turned his head towards the late afternoon sun. Her eyes flicked from tattoo to tattoo, back, arm, side, her eyes traced them without truly being able to see their shape. They were black smudges in the distance but her eyes followed them all the same, tracing a familiar path. She took a step towards him when his voice yelling out stopped her. She couldn't make out what he said, she was too far away.

A blonde woman made her way over to him as he finished his shower. She felt tears well behind her eyes as the surfer reached out and grabbed the woman around the waist eliciting a high pitch sequel from the blonde. The blonde beat his hands from her waist, trying to wipe the water from her shirt before it seeped through, but allowed him to lean in and kiss her.

"Soph?" Phillip's voice broke through her haze.

"What?" she asked, distractedly, turning her attention back to Phillip.

"I said are you ready to get going. It's almost five o'clock. By the time we find the hotel and check in, it'll be time for tea."

Sophie looked back over to where the surfer and his girlfriend had just been but another tattoo free surfer had taken his place. She searched the area for him, before he eyes settled on a sign outside of the Surf Club.

"Why don't we pop into Angelo's first?" she suggested, pointing to the sign.

Phillip followed her gaze and shrugged. "It's closed, besides I reckon this The Sands is on the other side of town so we should get going to check in on time."

"I saw a sign for a caravan park," Sophie suggested, "That could be closer."

"We've already booked The Sands," he said confused. "Come on we'll check in, have dinner and tomorrow you can explore." Phillip came forward and took her hand, leading her back to the car.

Sophie looked back at the Surf Club allowing Philip to pull her along. Her eyes travelled up the building and settled on the balcony. She stared at it as Phillip got himself settled in the car and pulled away, hoping that the surfer would make an appearance.

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So Charlie/Sophie has officially make it to summer Bay... with Phillip in tow. Let me know what you thought in a review! Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks in advance!