Just to let you know that I won't be updating tomorrow as I'm at the hospital in the morning up in London and then spending the day there but I will be back with 'What If?' on Friday. I hope you enjoy the chapter. Love, IJKS xxx
Chapter Twelve
June 2012 (Age 30)
Joey lay in her hospital bed, turning Charlie's business card over and over in her hands. She'd read it so many times that she'd already memorised the number. She felt like it was etched onto her heart.
She jumped when the door opened abruptly and shoved the card under her pillow. Her heart only stopped pounding when she realised it wasn't Hayley coming in to see her. Still, she shouldn't have been surprised. For now at least, it seemed her girlfriend had abandoned her, not wanting to get involved in any more mess.
"Aden!" she gasped. "What are you doing here? Where have you been?"
"Hiding!" her best friend hissed.
The pair of them were hardly allowed to see each other. So much so that they often joked that they were having an affair. After a short time into their relationship, Hayley had carefully started to cut Joey off from the outside world. The only tie she had never completely severed was the bond between Joey and Aden. As far as they were concerned, that was unbreakable.
"What the hell happened?" Joey demanded, although mostly, she was just relieved to see him.
"You don't remember?" Aden asked.
Joey shook her head. She had fragments of recollections but most of it was gone. She certainly had no idea how she had ended up in hospital and how Robbo had ended up in the morgue.
"Then I won't tell you," Aden said. "Safer that way."
"Aden…"
"Just trust me," her friend said.
She sighed heavily, collapsing back against the pillow.
"How are you feeling?" he asked, studying her injuries.
This was far from the first time he had come to visit her in a hospital. They had been doing it for years.
"Pretty awful," Joey said. "Not to mention confused."
"Jo, I just can't…"
"It's not even just about that," Joey said. "Guess who the cop investigating is."
Aden looked blanking, evidently running through her old colleagues in his head.
"Charlie," Joey informed him.
Aden looked suitably startled.
"The Charlie?" he asked. "Your Charlie?"
"Well, I think I stopped being allowed to call her mine a long time ago but… yeah, that one."
Aden sat back.
"Wow," he managed.
He had never met the woman before but he felt like he had, having heard so much about her. He sat forward again.
"And how was that?" he finally asked with his usual, cheeky grin.
Joey laughed.
"It was… intense," she admitted. "She… she gave me her card."
She awkwardly pulled it out from beneath her pillow, as if she needed to prove it. Aden took the card and studied it, turning it over in his hands. He looked at her.
"Is she still hot?" he asked.
She laughed, enjoying the fact that he could still play, even in such circumstances.
"She's actually hotter than I ever imagined her turning out to be," she said. "I should have taken a picture."
"Will you see her again?"
"Well, presumably she'll come to arrest me at some point," Joey said sadly.
"Arrest you?" Aden said worriedly, losing his boyish charm and looking panic stricken. "What for?"
"They think I killed that man," Joey explained.
"But you didn't!" Aden said desperately.
"I hope I didn't," Joey said. "But I can't prove that. I don't know what happened."
"I…"
They were interrupted by a nurse coming into do her hourly obs.
"Um, you're not really meant to have visitors at this time of night," the nurse said uncertainly.
Aden stood quickly and apologised, handing Charlie's card back to the patient.
"I'll see you soon, okay?" he said to Joey.
He bent to kiss her cheek and hurried out of the hospital.
"Charlie!" Sophie said, opening her front door to her sister. "This is a nice surprise."
The police officer, still in uniform but off duty, hovered anxiously outside. She'd finished her shift and gone for a wander, not entirely sure what to do with herself. More than ever now, all she could think about was Joey.
"Are you busy?" she asked.
"Never too busy for you," Sophie said, welcoming her in.
Charlie stepped inside, a knot in her tummy. She paused when she saw Blake watching television on the sofa.
"Blake…" Sophie said to her husband.
He looked up, spotted Charlie, waved and smiled.
"Hey," he greeted, returning to his TV show.
He and Charlie had always been close but he wasn't the person she felt able to talk to tonight. Sophie had picked up on that from the start.
"Blake!" she snapped, kicking him.
"Ow!" he complained, clutching his shin. "What did you do that for?"
"We need girl time," Sophie said through clenched teeth.
He turned the TV off and stood up, still scowling.
"You could have just said so," he moaned.
"I tried," she said, kissing him. "You never could take a hint."
He grinned and kissed her again, patting Charlie on the way out and announcing he was going to see if Shane fancied a beer. He bumped into Shannon on the doorstep.
"Was this pre-arranged or something?" he wondered.
"Am I interrupting?" Shannon asked, genuinely prepared to leave again if necessary.
Blake left the house. Sophie looked to Charlie who invited Shannon in. If anyone would understand her feelings for Joey then it would be her. And she trusted her two sisters more than anyone.
April 1998 (Age 16)
"About time!" Shane remarked as an ambulance hurtled towards them.
It was late. With Charlie acting as a midwife and Shane and Blake flapping around in a panic, Sophie had given birth to a baby girl.
"Over here!" Blake yelled, waving his arms as the vehicle approached.
The paramedics leapt out, as did Damian who had managed to flag them down. They hurried over to the car where Sophie was pale, exhausted and emotional, clutching her little girl in the one blanket Damian had managed to find in the back of the car. Charlie was beside her, holding her hand and weeping quietly over mother and daughter.
"Thank you, Charlie," Sophie said. "Thank you."
Charlie rested her head against Sophie's shoulder, awash with memories of the day that she had given birth to her own little girl.
"It was my pleasure," she said. "I'm just glad you're both okay."
"Me too," Sophie said tearfully. "Me too."
December 2000 (Age 18)
"It's been a pleasure, Mrs John," Joey said insincerely, extending her hand.
She had turned eighteen in the January and finished school the previous week, meaning that she had no more reason to stay in the care system. The state was temporarily setting her up in supported accommodation until the following month when she would become a rookie at police training and she was thrilled to have an actual direction in her life now.
"Indeed," Mrs John replied.
She ignored Joey's hand and walked away.
"Good luck, Ms Collins," she called over her shoulder. "You'll need it if you're not going to end up in jail or on the streets."
Joey laughed bitterly and shook her head. She turned to Aden, who was moving out to the same place she was.
"Ready, set?" she asked.
"Let's go," he replied eagerly.
June 2012 (Age 30)
Charlie sat on the sofa with two of her sisters, Sophie on one side and Shannon on the other.
"Okay, so I don't really know where to start," she ventured. "But um… before I moved here, I met the love of my life."
"Wait, didn't you move here when you were like, eight?" Shannon asked.
"Fifteen," Charlie corrected. "And we met when we were nine. We both lived at the children's home before I was fostered by Pippa and Michael."
Shannon and Sophie both nodded, waiting for her to continue.
"We've missed each other all this time but thought we'd forgotten each other," Charlie said. "It turns out that my letters were never received thanks to Mrs Bitch at the home."
"I'm guessing that wasn't her real name," Shannon joked. "Because that would be unfortunate."
"A deserved nickname," Charlie assured her. "You know, if you went and did a story on how terribly she treated her kids, it wouldn't be a bad thing."
"Noted," Shannon said.
"But the love of your life?" Sophie prompted.
She for one had always been curious about Charlie's romantic life, or lack thereof. She had been waiting for this moment for a long time.
"We met again today," Charlie revealed. "And it's kind of thrown me through a loop."
"So, who is he?" Shannon asked.
"She…" Charlie ventured.
"Knew it!" Shannon said, startling Charlie out of her own fear. "You owe me twenty bucks, Soph."
"That bet was made about a hundred years ago!" Sophie complained.
Charlie stared open mouthed between the two of them.
"You made bets on my sexuality?" she demanded.
"Yeah," Shannon and Sophie both mumbled.
"And you never thought to actually ask me?"
"You didn't seem to want to talk about it," Sophie pointed out.
"And you kept sleeping with just enough random guys to seem to want to put us off the scent," Shannon chimed in.
Charlie sighed heavily and sank back against the couch cushions.
"So, she's back in your life…" Shannon nudged eagerly.
She too had been waiting for the chance to learn about Charlie's secret love life. She knew there had to be something to talk about.
"What's she like?" Sophie asked.
"What's her name?" Shannon wanted to know.
"Her name's Joey and she's a suspect in a murder investigation," Charlie informed them. "I know she didn't do it. I know she's not capable of anything like that. Guys, she's the most wonderful person on the planet. I know she didn't do this. But… I don't know how to help her. I don't know what to do."
Next time… we learn more of Charlie and Joey's lives together and apart and the police investigation continues…
