Chapter 4

After seeing the interaction between Charlie and Joey, Rachel thought it might be more productive if she wasn't in the room. For some reason Charlie seemed to have an understanding with Joey, it was almost like Charlie knew what Joey was going through and Rachel liked seeing Charlie's softer side.

After Rachel had left the room Charlie had moved over to sit in the chair next to the bed. She decided that it would be better to try and reach Joey on a personal level in order to try and get her to press charges. From what Aden had told her Joey was a strong young woman and Charlie realised that if Joey stopped thinking about herself as a victim she would want to get justice for what Robbo had done. Sadly to achieve this Charlie would have to help rebuild a broken and dispirited girl, which she knew was going to take longer than one interview, but she had to start somewhere.

"Joey, I meant what I said earlier, I want to help you. I know at the moment that it seems that you have hit rock bottom but it will get better" said Charlie.

"And what would you know about hitting rock bottom, you think it's a tragedy if you break a nail" replied Joey in a sarcastic tone.

Charlie couldn't believe that after everything Joey had been through she still had a sense of humour and surely that was a positive sign. "Aden said you were a bit of a smart arse, I can see what he means now. I just can't understand why you did what you did, you seem like a strong woman"

"Well maybe it has something to do with the fact that I have been abused since I was three and treated like a door mat and then I finally get a bit of freedom and then I get kicked down again. I just don't seem to be allowed to be happy and I figured that it wasn't worth it anymore. I wanted to be in a place where no one could hurt me, somewhere where I could be happy. You don't know how good it felt to make the cuts in my wrist, I was in control for once," explained Joey, finally calming down.

Charlie was now close to tears and could only mutter under her breath, "yeah I do know how it feels."

"How could you know how it feels" questioned Joey.

Charlie sighed, she thought that her past was now long behind her but she wanted to help Joey and knew she had no choice but to tell the truth.

"I know that when the knife hits your skin the pain washes away, it is kind of a strange feeling, it should be hurting but all you feel is relief. It feels like you are in total control, you determine what happens."

"Did they teach you all this psyche stuff at the police academy or something"

"No this is from personal experience." At this point Charlie had tears streaming down her face and Joey soon realised that Charlie's concern for her was real, she understood why Joey had tried to kill herself because Charlie had been in exactly the same position.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to snap at you, I just struggle to trust anyone, I figured that you just wanted to use me to get an arrest," Joey was now upset that she had given this cop such a hard time, she seemed genuinely concerned and obviously wasn't as tough as she looked.

Charlie couldn't understand why she had let her guard down around this girl, she had told only one person about her struggles and now after only half an hour with this girl she was spilling everything. There was just something about her, Charlie thought that if someone gave her a chance, she would be just fine. Someone had to show her that there is light at the end of the tunnel, that life was worth living.
Charlie's thought process was interrupted when Joey asked the question that Charlie really didn't want to answer.

"Why did you do it?"