Chapter 13:

Hey guys,

Here is the next chapter for you! Thank you for the beautiful reviews, I really appreciate them! Just a quick note on this chapter, some things are swapped a little to. In the story I've said that Charlie was the first girl that Brax ever took to meet his mum for lunch. Teagan and all the other girls still exist; Cheryl's just never met them. And the other thing, the River Boy's do exist, but there nowhere near as bad as they are in the show. Hope you guys enjoy this one!

One last thing, PLEASE, PLEASE KEEP VOTING FOR ESTHER! Every vote counts and there is not long left, to get the votes in. Call 1900 552 904 or SMS Esther to 19952900 I really want her to win!

CHARLIE'S P.O.V

For 5 days now, ever since breaking up with Brax, I have had Ruby in my ear trying to get me to talk to Brax. I am bombarded, with "but he loves you" and "He's really sweet, and a good guy." As much as I agree and can't stop thinking about him, I just cannot get over the events that led me to breaking up with him.

I was on my way to work. It was 4:30 in the afternoon, I had just grabbed a juice from the surf club and sat down on the beach, to relax a little for the 10 minutes, before I had go to the station. The waves were beautiful, crashing against the sand. Beaches were the perfect thinking place, where your mind could wander and be able to think rationally and clearly. I turned my head to the left, and noticed one of Brax's mates, Sam coming towards me.

"Charlie? Great to see you again- feels likes it been ages since the BBQ!"

"Yeah it does feel like that a bit! How's everything with you?" I asked trying to sound as excited as he was to chat. He smiled as he sat down next to me after stuffing his surf board into the sand. He was only wearing a pair of board shorts, he was obviously about to go into the water.

"Not too bad! I heard about Brax and you, separating. He's really cut up about it ey? He won't show it, but I can tell. He's not his usual chirpy self."

"That's no good. I miss him, I do. I've had everyone in my ear, telling me I'm making the wrong choice." I told him honestly. I had only met Sam the once at the BBQ, we have the same sense of humour and I can tell, he is a good guy.

"How do you know you're making the right decision? You never know, until you take a chance. You're the first girl, he's ever taken over to meet his mum. Maybe that's why; Cheryl went hard out at you, criticising everything about you. That was a big deal for him, taking you over there. He'd never admit it, but he was really nervous."

"Really? Well he definitely didn't show it!" I laughed at the memory. He was the one calming me down at his mum's front door, not the other way round...

"I'm not trying to defend him to you Charlie, but seriously, he's done nothing but work, drink and mope around his place since you to broke up."

"I wish for his sake the last 2 weeks didn't happen, I really do. I promise when I say this, im not just making it up.. I I've got to go and get back to work, I'm starting in 5 minutes. Thanks for the chat Sam, I really do appreciate it."

"Okay cool. Charlie please just think about what I said yeah? Everyone deserves a second chance." I nodded, smiling awkwardly and started walking off. I strolled slowly down the beach, towards the patrol car.

Just when, I was starting to think about what Sam had said to me, I watched as Brax stood with some girl and was chatting to her. Even though I was 50 metres or so away, I could tell they were flirting with each other. She was smiling and laughing at everything he was saying. He'd obviously moved on, quicker then everyone knew. I rolled my eyes and moved quicker to my patrol car, heading back to work.

7 hours later:

I had just finished my shift; it was 12:30 in the morning. I yawned as I got into my car, and started driving towards home. I was exhausted, luckily I had arranged for Georgia Watson to drive me home. I had taken on an extra shift, covering for another officer that called in sick. I needed the distraction, to keep myself occupied and to help my head attempt to move on. We drove past the surf club and Angelo's, but quickly slowed when a saw a man, dressed in black and a balaclava heading back from the entrance of the club. Our police instincts kicked in, and quickly got out and rushed to inside quietly. The surf club was empty, being 12:30 in the morning.

I slowly moved up the stairs first, and opened the door into Angelo's carrying my flash light torch. My heart starting beating, enormously fast when I realised lying on the floor, with quite a bit of blood around him, was Brax.

"BRAX" I screamed as I ran over to help, planting myself on the ground beside him. "Call an ambulance" I cried to Watson. I looked down at his shirt where all the blood appeared to be coming from. He looked to have been stabbed.

I quickly took my jacket over and used it to apply pressure to his wound and try and stop the blood flow. "Brax baby, it's Charlie, please wake up." I whispered cupping his face and pulling his head into my thighs to rest on. I felt his hands squeeze mine weakly, letting me know he could hear me. Watson tightened the jacket and took over from me, holding the jacket, while balancing the phone, between her head and neck.

"Please Brax, I need you, I can't loose you." I knelt my face closer to his and gently kissed his lips lightly. We sat there for several minutes until the ambulance arrived. Watson kept their pressure on the wound, while I kept talking to Brax and kept checking his consciousness.

I told Watson I wanted to ride to the hospital with Brax. She called for back up and started investigating and trying to establish what happened as well as find the person that attacked Brax. As I sat in the ambulance, I couldn't believe this was happening. I had been stubborn and pushed away the man that I loved so much for the last week, and now I may lose him and never get the chance to tell him how I really felt. The paramedic kept working on Brax, while I sat their crying and refusing to let go of his hand.

Sid was at the hospital for the patient hand over. He took Brax into the room and assessed him with a team of doctors and nurses. I wasn't allowed in, I had to stay outside and wait. I attempted to call Cheryl and his brothers. Cheryl didn't answer, neither did Heath. I wouldn't really expect either of them too at almost 1 in the morning. I called Casey's mobile, he answered groggily, I had obviously woken him up... "Case, it's Charlie. Brax is in hospital, he's been hurt at the restaurant. I needed to let you know."

"What? OMG is he okay?" He responded quickly, very much awake and panicked now."

"I don't know, the doctors are in there with him. I found him quite quickly though, which I guess is a good thing. I tried to get in touch with Cheryl and Heath, they're not answering." I told him.

"Yeah, well Mum's gone up the coast, after Brax had a go at her. And Heath is probably with some girl sleeping over. I'm on my way now, I'll be there in about 15 minutes" He told my saying goodbye and hanging up.

I sat in my chair, for another 10 minutes until Sid came out of the room. "Sid, is he okay?" I asked immediately, standing up at the same time, fearing the worst.

"Well Charlie, he has sustained a fairly deep laceration to the abdomen. He was unconscious at one stage, but we have managed to successfully revive him. This type of inquiry is going to require an exploratory laparotomy operation, to rule out or fix any serious damage or internal bleeding. Other than that though, he's lucky you were able to find him fairly quickly, and were able to prevent further bleeding. He wouldn't have been so lucky otherwise. After the surgery, he won't be awake, for at least 2 hours." I nodded as he went back inside and probably prepped him for surgery. Casey came running through the ward, stopping when he saw me.

"Charlie, talk to me, what have the doctors said?"

"Case, he's going to be okay. He was stabbed in the abdomen and he's going into surgery to make sure there's no internal bleeding or infections. He was unconscious but they brought him back."

"Oh thank god. The whole way here, I couldn't help but think the worst. He can't die, I need him." "Shhhh" I whispered, pulling Casey in for a hug. "I can't lose him either." We sat down together saying nothing, just waiting for Brax to come out of surgery. Casey went and got coffees for us. I fell asleep briefly on his shoulder for about half an hour. "Charlie" Casey whispered to me, shaking me gently. I opened my eyes and noticed Sid in front of me.

"Sorry for waking you Charlie, I just thought I'd let you know, Brax is out of surgery. It went well, there was some internal bleeding, but we were able to get that under control."

"Can we see him?" Casey and I asked at the same time, causing me to smile lightly.

"Like I said earlier, he is asleep and wont wake for a couple of hours. You are more than welcome however, to go and sit with him." "Thanks Sid, we really appreciate it." I told him honestly as Casey and I stood up and walked towards his room. Brax lay on the bed, with a few cords and tubes in and around his face.

"Gotta admit, despite it being a hospital bed, he looks pretty comfortable." Casey and I laughed as we found chairs either side of the bed and sat down. Casey fell asleep after 20 minutes, me drifting off too. I woke up, hearing Casey's voice, obviously talking to Brax.

"Brax? Oh, thank god your awake are you okay? Have you got any pain?" I heard Casey ask.

"I feel a little bit sore, but I'm right. What happened to me?"

"Um, Charlie said you got stabbed at Angelo's."

"Stabbed? Charlie- where is she, is she okay?"

"I'm here" I replied butting in. He turned his head on the pillow slowly, taking off his oxygen mask from around his mouth and looking at me slowly, smiling.

"Um, I'm going to give you guys some time to chat. Might go and find some chocolate and coffees at the canteen, to keep me awake. I'll get you one to Charlie." He smiled as I thanked him as he walked out.

"Charlie, I"

"Shhhh, don't speak. I have to say something first. Today, well actually yesterday when I found you, I thought I was going to lose you. I thought the worst straight away and I realised I was being stupid. More than anything, I realise now, that life is short and I'm so sorry for being a cow to you all week. I want you Brax." I told him honestly, blurting it all out and speaking quickly. I looked at him waiting for him to reply. He took my hand playing with it.

"Charlie, please don't apologise, you have nothing to be sorry for. You took your time figuring it out- a woman of your class deserves the world. You're so gorgeous and beautiful and smart and sexy and funny" He said lingering. "You could do so much better than me Charlie. Just because I'm here, you don't have to be so nice. Please don't think you have to say all this because I was close to dying."

"Brax, are you saying all this to me, because you're with someone else? I saw you at the surf club with that girl yesterday." I said softly, pulling my hand away from his, as I felt myself getting choked up.

"What? No of course not. There's been no one since you. That girl was Pee Wee's girlfriend. She wanted to organise for his birthday to be at Angelo's next week, as a small surprise party."

"Oh. Don't you want me in your life anymore?"

"Of course I do- how can you say that Charlie? I've spent the last week trying to win you back. I'm just trying to say that I'll understand if you don't want me anymore. I couldn't accept it before, but I can now, if that's what you want."

"Brax, shut up. Let's keep this simple… I love you Brax. I realise now more than ever. Life without you in it sucks. I never want to feel like I have this last week again."

"I love you too! Come here you" He told me smiling. He used my hand to pull me into him. I bent down and kissed him passionately and forcibly. We continued kissing, as his tongue made its way into my mouth exploring it. I moved further into him, before he winced and quickly pulled away. "Did I hurt you? I'm so, so sorry. I didn't mean too" I told him honestly, moving away from him and sitting back on the chair I was sitting at, before he woke up.

"What no it didn't hurt."

"Brax, this is me you're talking too. You don't have to play the big strong invincible tough guy. I know that I hurt you, I didn't mean too." He rolled his eyes at me and shuffled over in the hospital bed, very slowly, inch by inch. Once there was enough room, he looked at me, putting on his best sad face and patted the bed, inviting me to go and sit with him.

I smiled and carefully laid down next to him, snuggling into his neck and kissing him once more.

"I'm so glad things are back to normal. " He told me, as one of his arms snaked around my body.

"Me too. Charlie, you don't know how sorry I am for everything that's happened. If I had of known, there would be no way I would have let any of this happen. I was angry at you and Mum, and I reacted in an idiotic way."

"It's okay... Let's agree to pretend this week didn't happen. We'll just pretend it was yesterday, we went to your mums place… It may have not gone well then, but we'll worry about that later... Deal?"

"Deal" He smiled kissing the side of my face."

There we go lovely people! Please review and let me know your thoughts! I'm happy their back together and I hope you guys are too! I have a really busy week coming up, so I don't think I'll have time to write. I'll try my hardest to try and find some though.. If I don't update before Sunday, PLEASE, PLEASE vote for Esther..