Thank you to everyone who left a review (and threatened poor Phillip with bodily harm, you're a violent bunch!), especially Spotty37 who appreciated my attempt at titling and Ellie for her gentle prodding. :D
Also, a word to the wise, those who leave signed in reviews, do occasionally receive little tid bits of story in their inboxes, especially if I haven't updated in a while…which would be totally out of character, right. :/
Tabula Rasa
Chapter 10
"Guess Soph spent a lot of time here." He stared at Brax, the 'with you' clearly implied to be at the end of his sentence hung in the air between them. "Guess it's one of the few night places this town has," Phillip said. "Except for The Sands."
Brax didn't respond. Phillip the Prick continued standing awkwardly in front of the bar. "Well I should get back to Sophie. " A sudden smile graced his features. "I'm sure there's still a few people in here we haven't been introduced to yet."
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"Having fun?'
She snorted, and he couldn't help but smile. She turned to face him and he could see the remnants of tears on her face, her makeup slightly smudged. He could see a light tear track running down her cheek. She reached out to him and he felt her fingers brush over his as she took the drink from his hand. She downed it in one go. She scrunched her face up and let out a small gasp as the liquid burned down her throat.
"That was pretty impressive for someone who doesn't drink," he said, raising his eyebrows.
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They sat silently together, staring out at the ocean. They seemed to be doing that a lot lately. He didn't dare look at her, but he couldn't help the small smile that had crept onto his face. He suddenly felt light and for the first time in the past two years, he felt calm.
"I know who you are," she blurted. Brax's head whipped around to face her. He stared at her mouth agape, searching for something to say.
" Ruby gave me the Reader's Digest version of Charlie and Brax," she explained and he felt his heart drop a fraction further down towards his stomach. " I… I don't know what to say to you."
"Ya don't have to say anything, Charlie," Brax assured her, but he couldn't look at her anymore.
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"Sophie," he called. The laughing instantly ceased as she turned to look at his frantic approach.
"Phillip," she said surprised. She made no move to get up.
"I just went for a walk."
"Guess I'll see you round then," Brax said, giving Charlie a cheeky smile. "Small town and all."
"Guess so," Charlie returned softly. She smiled coyly at him but allowed Phillip to steer her down the dune and back to the cement path. Brax watched them go, hand in hand. Her free hand gripped the railing to assist her up the incline and to Phillip's car.
Phillip looked back at Brax with a blank expression. Brax shook the bottle at him with a grin.
Nah, he thought, taking a swig of the whisky. He turned back to the waves and leant casually back on his elbows in the sand. There was no way this was over.
Game on, Mole.
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Sid Walker was usually an even tempered man. It took a lot to rile him up. It was one of the reasons he had gone into medicine in the first place. He had always been calm in a crisis, always one to take the lead. In a hospital he was never out of his element. He always knew what the next move was, even if that move was to do nothing at all, and it had been in the past. It was what he thought it had been with Charlie. He had done everything he could. He had trusted that those around him were too. But now he wasn't so sure. No, as he looked at a gaping blank space of what should have been Charlie Buckton's medical records, he didn't have a clue what his next move should be.
Really, he should never have been the one to treat Charlie. They were friends. But it was a small town and there were only so many doctors to go around. He had taken on the role of Charlie's caregiver not in spite of his relationship with her but because of it. He thought he could help her and when he was told he couldn't do that, he thought he could help those she loved. It he couldn't carry her through then he would carry them.
And he hadn't.
He looked around the nurses' station with a new found cynicism. He wondered which one of them had done it. Was it a nurse, a doctor, an orderly? Who had stepped in and erased the shooting from Charlie Buckton's medical records? Summer Bay was a small town; the hospital may have been in a central location but it was still a small hospital and there were only so many doctors who walked the halls. He had been forced to treat his friend. He had watched her struggle to survive; wiped her blood from his abdomen when it had soaked through his scrubs; watched as Brax had lost his grip on the world; watched as Ruby cried. He watched as life slipped away from her.
Charlie Buckton had been his friend. So he didn't need his friend's medical records to remember exactly which neurologist had looked him dead in the eye and told him that she was never coming back.
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Brax had stayed on the beach for a while before hauling himself off home. He left his car in the Surf Club car park. He was pretty sure that he was still drunk from the night before, not to mention that his breakfast today had consisted of a swig of whisky and a mouthful of sand.
He sighed when he reached his front door. He could hear Heath, Bianca and Ruby had overtaken his lounge room. He couldn't decide if he was too drunk or not drunk enough for this impromptu meeting. He hung his head and gave it a light shake as he wrapped his hand around the handle. Once more unto the breach.
"Brax," Natalie cried as he entered the room. She was the first to see him from her spot at the back of the room, pushed up tightly against the brick. The other three, sitting tightly on the couch, fell silent at her greeting. Natalie was on her feet and looked like she longed to cross the room and fling herself at him, but she stood perfectly still beside the kitchen table instead, waiting for him to make the first move.
Yep, he was definitely too sober for this impromptu meeting.
He nodded at Natalie.
"Good night, mate?" Heath asked, waggling his eyebrows. Brax smacked him on the back of the head as he moved past Heath, tickled Rocco's stomach, and settled himself on the single armchair, propping his feet up on the coffee table.
"Where is your shoe?" Ruby asked, pointing at his sock clad foot accusingly.
Brax shrugged. "So what's with this little mothers' meeting?"
"Nothing," Heath, Bianca and Ruby said in unison, all shrugging their shoulders unconvincingly and refusing to meet his eye.
"Spill," Brax demanded, eying off his younger brother.
"You left the party early, that's all," Heath offered, bouncing Rocco on his knee. "They were in a flap about it," he said, rocking his head towards Bianca and Ruby.
"We were not in a flap!" Bianca said indignantly. "We were not in a flap," she repeated calmly, "We were worried about him especially when he didn't come home last night? What is wrong with you?" she asked, rounding on Heath.
"Nothins wrong with me!" Heath defended himself. "I said he was probably just sleeping it off somewhere and would be back in the morning and hey, look, I was right. You two were the ones banging on about how he was lying dead somewhere."
"It's two o'clock in the afternoon!" Bianca exploded, refusing to admit Heath had been anything close to right.
"Maybe we should all just calm down," Ruby interrupted. "The important thing is that Brax is back in one piece," her gaze flicked to shoeless foot and glared slightly at his black sock.
"Yep," Brax agreed. "And I am also hungry so..."
"Oh no you don't," Ruby said fiercely. "You will sit right there and listen to us."
Brax flopped back into the chair and looked at her expectantly. He crossed his arms over his chest. He could feel Natalie staring silently at him from across the room. He couldn't remember the last time he had talked to her. Sure, she has stayed over the other night but they had watched TV and gone to bed, he had been too distracted to be of much use to her.
"So did you talk to Charlie last night?" Ruby probed.
Brax met Natalie's eyes for a second. She was staring at him. She didn't look angry or hurt, she just looked at him with a small smile. He wondered what that meant. "For about a minute," Brax lied. "Honestly I've talked more with Phillip the Prick than Charlie."
Heath let out a snort. "Phillip the Prick," he repeated with a grin. "I like that. Uses personification. Nice."
"Alliteration, sweetie," Bianca corrected.
"Whatever. It's funny."
Bianca rolled her eyes and Brax fought the small smile that was on his lips. He glanced at Nat out of habit and found her eyes stuck to the floor. He cocked his head curiously for a second but was drawn back in to his own family as Ruby muttered away.
"Well, that's where Charlie gets all her opinions from."
"Yeah, what's with that?" Heath asked, putting a squirming Rocco on the floor. The young boy wobbled slightly and gripped the coffee table, shuffling around to his Uncle's legs and grabbed hold of the fabric. He bounced up and down happily, using Brax's legs for support. Brax smiled broadly at the boy as he listened to Heath. "I mean suddenly Buckton is a tea toddling vego? The woman used to scoff a meat lovers."
"Yeah," Ruby chimed in heartily, jumping right on board the bash Phillip the Prick train. "And he never lets her go anywhere by herself and she runs everything by him!"
"It gives me the creeps," Heath added, shuddering dramatically as if to prove his point. "Since when does Buckton go along with anything anyone says. She never listened to Brax!"
Ruby offered a few more examples but Brax wasn't listening. He was just watching Rocco play on the floor. He had gotten so big in such a small space of time. He barely remembered him being a baby anymore. Guess, he hadn't really seen him in the hospital all that much. He had been distracted. But now he was so big and bright. The docs may have said he was a little smaller than he should have been but still on the right track. They made Braxtons tough. Sometimes Brax thought you had to be tough in order to make it in this world as a Braxton.
"He does seem a little controlling," he heard Bianca concede.
"A little?" Ruby scoffed.
"Okay, a lot, but we don't know the whole story," she said quickly.
"Bianca's right," Natalie suddenly interrupted. Brax's head shot up and he met her eyes squarely. To be honest he had forgotten she was there, they all had. She just sort of blended into the brickwork.
Ruby glared at her. "It's really none of you business," she sniped.
Natalie ignored Ruby's comment, addressing Brax instead. "Think about," Natalie said. "From what you've said, Charlie and Phillip," she didn't use the lovely moniker Brax had given him, "met shortly after she woke up. Charlie would have woken up with no memory, no idea where she was and no identity. It makes sense that she would form her new identity around him. Taken on aspects of his personality."
"That's crap," Ruby asserted. "No matter what, she's still Charlie. He can't change that."
"You the one with the degree there, Rubes?" Brax cut in quietly. Ruby's mouth dropped, her face stinging with the perceived betrayal. Natalie looked at him gratefully. Brax had dropped his feet to the floor and his elbows rested on his knees. He propped his chin up with his hands, looking pensive.
"I think that if you knew more about their relationship you might not think he was so controlling," Natalie informed the group.
"So you reckon, Sophie," he emphasised the name, "is part Phillip?"
"No," Natalie shook her head. "I'm saying that Charlie was confused and hurt and Phillip was there for her." Brax's face hardened at her words. She cringed slightly at the stony look he gave her. "So as she was forming her new identity, she learnt and she grew from him," Natalie continued, deciding not to dwell on her poorly chosen phrasing. "I'm saying even if she gets every single one of her memories back, she may still have some of the character traits she learnt from him."
"Like Rocco?" Heath asked. "Kinda like how he gives me the same look Bianca does when she's mad and won't eat peas because I won't."
"Well genetics plays a role there too, obviously," Natalie said but was nodding all the same, 'but yes. What you're seeing in Charlie is learnt behaviour, just like a child learns from a parent or siblings."
"So Buckton is sleeping with her dad? Kinky."
Brax smacked Heath in the face with a pillow as Bianca slapped his arm and Ruby let out a disguised, "Gross, Heath."
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Charlie sat outside the Diner, absently stirring the chocolate coated froth of her double shot cappuccino. Her eye lids felt heavy but her mind rejected her body's need to close them. She thought that getting up and going for a walk would clear her head. She had hoped that the sea air would revitalise her, or at least make her feel that she had had more than 4 hours sleep over the past week. The beach was meant to have that power with crisp sea air and all the other crap they sold to tourists. They didn't put in the brochure that all your outdoor furniture was going to rust prematurely and you'd need a constant supply of Gumption to hold off the mould and crusty salt residue build up.
She'd woken up with a head, clear of alcohol, but filled to the brim with sharp, jagged images that cut at her and didn't make sense. So she slid out of the bed and trudged down to the beach; her body falling into a familiar rhythm and following a map that her mind couldn't conjure.
Then there had been the stupid dune and Brax with his blue eyes and dimples. Him with his cheeky smile and alcohol seeping from his pores, strong enough to just about sting her eyes. But while he sat next to her, sprawled in the sand with a bottle of whisky hanging from his hand, her mind had stilled and the images had faded till she could breathe again.
He was gone now (hopefully to shower) and the images were back. Every time she closed her eyes she could see the distinct blur of fear loom over her. Feel the unwanted push of hands digging onto her thighs and hear a boy's laughter, stained by cruelty, wrench tears from within her. She would shudder and her skin would crawl and the image changed to Brax on his knees. A baseball capped head and oversized hoodie, blocked her view, but she was looking up at a thin figure pointing a gun at Brax's head. Her arm hurt.
She looked down at her hands, feeling warm, wet blood rolling down her fingers but clinging to her skin at the same time. She looked down expecting to see a pool of blood at her feet. It was never there. She stared at her hands; seethed in blood. It rolled and moved and ran off her hands but went nowhere. She scrubbed and wiped her hands on her shirt, howled and warm salt tears mixed themselves in with the blood, but the blood just receded into her skin, absorbed back into her own body. She dug her fingernails into her hands trying to get it back out again. Her photograph without a face. Scratched out.
"This isn't the first time I've made a girl cry." A grin. Pearly white, not quite straight teeth. Brown curls. " Like a sooky, little kid."
A hand curled around her shoulder making her jump. Her eyelids bolted open and the world rushed back with stark brightness. She blinked as the shadowy figure loomed over her and she felt bile rising in her throat. The harsh glare of the sun dipped behind his head and Phillip appeared, sitting down beside her and placing a comforting hand on her knee.
"You okay?" he asked concerned.
"Just tired." She smiled tightly, fobbing off his concern. He was always so concerned.
Phillip leaned back in his seat in a huff. He shook his head, his lips pursed. "I knew last night would be too much. I should have told Ruby-"
"No, no," Sophie said tiredly, cutting him off. She rubbed her forehead. "My head is just on overdrive, that's all. Nothing to do with Ruby and her stupid party."
Phillip looked at her sceptically. He folded his arms across his chest and studied her. He scowled at the highly caffeinated beverage in front of her but said nothing. He watched with narrowed eyes as Sophie took three long gulps of the liquid, draining half the mug.
"You know there are better alternatives to caffeine that have been proven just as effective-"
"Not now," Sophie begged.
"But they could be better for you. You know that your nerve endings-"
"Phillip! I don't care right now," Sophie snapped. Sophie looked at his taken back expression and sighed. She squeezed her eyes shut briefly. Curly brown, sand filled hair, wet and limp on a cold morning. She shook her head. "I'm sorry. You know what? I just want to go back to the hotel."
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Brax flung himself into the shower, hoping that with his loss, the rest of them would disband and go back to their own damn homes.
He stood under the spray, letting the water wash away the scent of whisky, sweat and salt that clung to him. Warm water thrummed into his back, releasing the tension that had built up there over the past few weeks. He rolled his shoulders, once, twice, before turning his head to the shower head and letting the water batter his face, massaging his tired, bleary eyes through closed lids.
Brushing his hand back over his head, he caught sight of his tattoo. He lowered his hand and started at the stark black ink. He sighed before thrusting the water off and stepping out of the shower. That was a thought for another day.
He walked back in the lounge in a pair of boardies to find the room cleared but for Natalie. She sat at the kitchen table, her back stiff. A plate with two sandwiches, Panadol and a bottle of water in front of her.
She turned her head when she heard his approach and gave him an awkward smile. She stood up passing the plate and bottle then allowed him the peace to slump on the couch and eat.
He slurped water and downed the Panadol.
"I'll leave you to it," Natalie said, bending to peck his cheek
Brax nodded. "Cheers, Nat," he said, raising the empty plate from his lap.
Natalie nodded in return, then left, closing the door slowly behind her. Brax scrubbed his hands over his face.
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Sid raised his hand and rapped on the open office door. "Dr. D'Aiola," Sid said, "Could I have a word?"
"Dr. Walker," the middle aged man replied surprised to see him. D'Aiola dropped his pen to the desk and lazed back in his chair. He waved Sid in. "I have a minute or two spare for a colleague."
D'Aiola was neither fat nor thin, but wore a layer of chub around his middle. His suit was a dark grey, the jacket hung up on a hanger in the corner of the room. His tie was a collection of orange and purple dots, his attempt at lively individualism, and he still wore the crumbs of his lunch on his crisp, white shirt. He still had a full head of hair but it was more salt than pepper, giving him the look of a before photo for a Just for Men commercial.
"I wanted to have a word with you about Charlie Buckton."
The man's gentile smile froze and he laced his hands together on his desk. He gripped his hands so tightly that Sid could see the white stress marks that bellied his attempt at a casual demeanour. His shoulders were tense and his back rod straight as he looked at Sid.
"I don't have anything to say on the matter of Sergeant Buckton."
"You were the consulting neurologist, a fact that has been conveniently erased from her medical records."
The doctor rose quickly from his chair, his speed causing his plush leather chair to spin around to face the back wall. He shuffled around his desk and strode past Sid to the door. He held the side, ready to close it on Sid's back. "I think you better leave."
"You stood there and told me Charlie was brain-dead," Sid said angrily, refusing to leave the office. "I had to tell Brax she was gone."
"The Inspector gave me a court order. I had no choice," D'Aiola protested hurriedly.
"You had a choice," Sid said quietly, disgust colouring his voice. He shook his head, prepared to leave, but then walked right up to D'Aiola and stopped mere millimetres from him. "You had better hope Darryl Braxton never finds out that you're the one who signed off on this."
"Are you threatening me?" the doctor asked, puffing out his chest in a display of bravado.
"No," Sid assured him, leaving the office slowly. "I'm giving you fair warning."
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Brax received a text from Ruby that evening. She was having dinner with Charlie and Phillip at the Diner and wanted him to join. He begged off and received a none to complimentary reply before he settled into the couch with a can of baked beans and four slices of toast. He finished quickly and was absentmindedly drumming his fingers on the arm on the couch.
God, he was annoying the shit out of himself.
Fuck it, he thought and left the house.
The closer he got to the Diner, the worse idea this seemed but he was committed now. He got out his car slowly and took his time making his way through the car park and to the Diner. He wasn't stalling, he told himself, just hung over,
He was surprised when Charlie came rushing out the front doors, oblivious to him standing not two metres away. She had her phone glued to her ear and plopped herself down at an outside table, talking hurriedly.
She still hadn't seen him and he took the time just to watch her, his breath caught in his throat. She was wearing one of her dresses. Not one of the cute pastel dresses he's seen (or avoided seeing) her walking around town in but a bold orange and yellow dress that Charlie had liked. It was short with a plunging neckline outlined in black. Thin orange straps laced over her shoulders and ended low on her back. He assumed it was Ruby's doing.
With her back to him, he ran his eyes over her back, noting that in the evening glow of a slow dusk, her skin seemed lighter than he had ever seen it. Her tan faded despite living in the Sunshine State. It struck him as odd.
He glanced back at the Diner, briefly debating pretending never to have seen Charlie and to simply walk inside. Disregarding that option, he slipped into the seat beside her, earning himself a quick annoyed glance as she finished her conversation.
"Can't you just hold my job?" she was asking. "I was the one who proved Marcus was up to way more than just his secretary and -" she stopped abruptly, listening with an ever deepening frown. She sighed. "Yeah, okay. I'll let you know. Yeah, bye."
She let the phone clatter the last few centimetres to the table.
"Boss?" he asked.
"Yeah. He wants to know when I'll be back."
"Right," Brax said. He leant forward onto the table, twisting his thumb ring slowly. "What'd you tell him?" he asked, refusing to make eye contact.
"That I don't know." She laughed humourlessly."Guess he has a right to be mad."
"What'd you do?" Brax asked curiously. He had spent so long avoiding her and then focusing on Phillip that he realised he didn't know the first thing about her life.
"Private Detective," she said proudly. Her shoulders came up slightly and a small smile graced her features.
Brax laughed heartily, relaxing back into the hard steel chair. "Guess you can take the girl out of the cop shop but you can't take the cop shop outta the girl."
She laughed with him. "Yeah, I guess a part of me will always be Detective Buckton."
Brax raised his eyebrows, letting out a low whistle. "Detective, huh?"
"Not detective?" she asked him uncertainly.
"Nah," Brax said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Senior Sergeant."
"They gave me a posthumous promotion?" she said aghast. "Bastards."
Brax laughed. She smiled at him, enjoying spending time with him. It was good to see him smile. Every interaction they'd had since she got back had been strained even in their lightest moments but he had relaxed into her presence and Sophie couldn't help the bubble of happiness that welled up inside her. She liked seeing him smile. It made things better.
"So you woke up a detective but become Sophie Maxwell, P.I.," he said dramatically, earning an eye roll from Charlie. "Why didn't you stay on the force. You loved being a cop."
Charlie contemplated him quietly, searching for an answer to that ever elusive question. She had asked it of herself many times over the past year.
"I don't know," she said finally, her brows knitting together in aggravated concentration. "I just felt like it wasn't me anymore." She glanced behind her, craning her neck slightly to see into the Diner. Ruby was still sitting with Phillip, they hadn't eaten each other yet.
"I got there and it felt wrong, like it was me." She sighed. "Sitting behind that god awful desk. I felt like I was hiding and missing out on something. I don't know," she finished smiling and shrugging her shoulders. She waggled her eyebrows at him and continued ironically. "I felt like I was someone else."
"I don't know, ay," Brax said. "Seems like you had a shitload to get through, saw through all the bullshit they were feeding you and then worked damn hard to find Ruby. Sounds just like you to me."
She blushed and looked at the table. She crossed her arms across her chest and Brax couldn't help but look as the movements pushed her breasts up. He licked his lip lightly before dragging himself away from the tantalizing familiar flesh.
He cleared his throat and Charlie looked up at the sound. "You look nice," he said, gesturing vaguely towards her.
She looked down, suddenly self conscious. She pulled at the neck line ineffectually, trying to cover more flesh. "Thanks. Ruby brought a bunch of stuff over." Her face soured. "There are some jeans in there that will never fit me again. Seriously, I don't know how they ever could have!"
Brax smiled. "S'alright. You look good to me."
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"Hey Leah," Natalie greeted as she walked tiredly up to the Diner's counter. "My lasagne ready?"
"Just give me five minutes," Leah apologised hurriedly. She checked over her shoulder and then continued conspiratorially. "Colleen had a mishap with the orders so we're a bit behind."
"That's no worries, I'll just take a seat." She strolled over to the far table, pausing slightly as she passed Ruby, Charlie and Phillip. She was just closing in on a new high score of Bejewelled Blitz when she saw Charlie rush past her in a flash of orange. Natalie watched her stride out, the fabric swishing around brown legs.
She was about to turn back to her game, unconcerned with Charlie's frantic phone call when she saw Brax moving like a cold turtle towards to Diner. She watched as he spotted Charlie and cringed as his eyes travelled hungrily up and down her body.
Natalie cocked her head as Brax took one step towards the diner, paused, shook his head and turned on his heel, striding determinedly over to Charlie. With the slight distance and noise of the Diner behind her, she couldn't make out what they were saying but she knew they were laughing.
Brax was relaxed, sitting there with Charlie, unabashedly staring at her cleavage. Her boyfriend look more content then he had in months. Her eyes stung as the oblivious pair looked at each other coyly, flirty smiles set on their faces.
Natalie was ripped from her stupor as Leah bustled over, apologising profusely as she set the brown paper bag bearing the Pier Diner logo on the table.
Natalie swiped at her eyes quickly, turning away as she thanked Leah.
"Oh my god, Natalie," Leah said, pulling Natalie around to face her again. "Are you okay? What happened?
"Nothing." Leah just look at her sternly. "No really," Natalie said, trying to convince herself and Leah, "It's nothing. I'm just being silly."
"Can't be too silly if its making you cry," Leah pointed out.
Natalie couldn't help but look behind her, drawing Leah's gaze with her. It was like she couldn't pull away, couldn't stop watching them as they reacquainted themselves. It hurt. She was losing him to a ghost made flesh.
"Oh, Nat," Leah sympathised as she took in the sight of Brax and Charlie sitting and taking at one of her tables. Leah closed her eyes briefly and looked back at Natalie. Her eyes had fogged over again and silent tears rolled down her face. "Maybe it would be better if you stayed with me when your lease runs out," Leah suggested.
Natalie sniffed and nodded. "Thanks, Leah. I might just take you up on that."
"Just until you and Brax work out the details, okay?" Leah smiled brightly and rubbed Natalie's arm.
Yeah, Natalie thought, sneaking one last peek at the star-crossed lovers, just until they worked out the details.
Across the car park a shutter snapped quickly, capturing the moment in a small digital screen.
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Thoughts? Speculations? Ideas? Questions? Complaints? Wild, creatively worded compliments singing my eternal praises? I'll take them all!