For Drowningnotwaving. I'm so sorry I was too poorly to meet you today. Here's hoping the next instalment of your favourite IJKS-fic will make up for it! IJKS xx
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Joey was frightened as Angelo's eyes blazed. She felt like they were burning into her soul. Trapped in her hospital bed, Charlie stared at her ex-boyfriend. He waved flowers angrily at her and dumped on the bed.
"I thought I was giving you space!" he said. "I thought we could work it out!"
"I tried to tell you this morning," Charlie said. "But you wouldn't listen."
"I was doing the right thing," he insisted. "Everything I've done... everything, I..."
He ran his hands through his hair. Joey's whole body was rigid. She sat in her chair beside Charlie wondering what ought to be done for the best.
"It's her, isn't it?" Angelo accused. "She's seducing you. She's making you think that you love her but you don't, Charlie."
"I do," Charlie argued.
"You don't!" he yelled. "You love me!"
"Angelo..."
"She's just a phase. Sooner or later you were always going to want a man," he insisted. "Unfortunately for Joey it was pretty damn quickly!"
Charlie felt like she'd been slapped with the reminder of how she had cheated on her. Joey looked equally unhappy.
"You'll always go back to men, Charlie and of all the men in the world, it'll always be me. We had a connection from day one, back in a different life when I was cheeky and annoying and funny and charming. This... her... she's not right for you."
"Angelo, I'm in love with her," Charlie said.
Her heart had been struggling all day and now it was getting worse. Joey glanced at the monitor as Charlie's heart began to race.
"Charlie..." she said worriedly, touching her arm.
"Don't fucking touch her!" Angelo yelled.
Joey jumped back. A surge of pain shot through Charlie's body. The monitors beeped but too much anger and fear was rushing through Angelo's brain for him to comprehend that he was stressing her out too much.
"All of this is your fault!" he told Joey. "You should never have come back. You should have left when I damn well told you to."
"What?" Charlie said, gasping a little for breath. "You..."
Joey hit the emergency button, desperately worried about the state Charlie was in. The nurse appeared in minutes and rushed to Charlie's side.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Nothing," Angelo lied.
"Well one of you is stressing her out so I'd like you both to leave please," the nurse told them.
She turned to Charlie and encouraged her to breathe properly. Joey and Angelo both gave her lingering looks before they left in order to wait outside.
"You have to stay calm at all times, Charlie," Sandy said gently to her patient. "You're not strong enough for any of this yet, okay?"
Charlie nodded.
"Can Joey come back in?" she asked. "It wasn't her. She didn't..."
"Okay," Sandy agreed. "In a little while."
Angelo and Joey stood far apart in the waiting room, both feeling anxious about Charlie.
"Why is it that whenever you're around you stuff things up for Charlie?" Angelo accused.
Joey turned sharply towards him.
"I stuff things up?" she exclaimed. "Are you kidding me?"
"No, I'm not," Angelo snapped. "You should have just left when I told you to."
"Charlie begged me to stay," Joey said, sounding so smug that he was close to losing control.
"You are no good for her," he growled. "She deserves to be with me."
"Oh come on, Angelo," Joey said, feeling bold. "Nobody's so bad that they deserve that."
Enraged, Angelo made a grab for her but she ducked out of the way. Sandy interrupted them upon her exit from Charlie's room.
"What on earth is going on here?" she demanded.
Joey quickly apologised.
"This isn't any way to conduct yourselves in a hospital," Sandy told them.
She stormed back to the nurse's station and looked up at Joey.
"She wants you to go back in," she said.
Joey hurried towards the door. Angelo looked crestfallen.
"What about me?" he asked weakly.
"She didn't mention you," Sandy replied.
Angrily, Angelo stormed out of the unit towards his car. Joey made her way back into Charlie's room.
"What is going on with you and Angelo?" Charlie asked immediately.
"Nothing," Joey lied.
Charlie stared at her in disbelief. Joey came to sit beside her.
"We just don't get on," she said. "And whoever thought we would? We're both in love with the same woman, after all."
Charlie studied her face. She noticed the way her jaw was clenched. That usually meant that she was trying very hard to lie convincingly, something she wasn't very good at. Joey was the kind of girl who wore her heart on her sleeve. It wasn't in her nature to be dishonest.
"Joey, if you don't tell me the truth I will have another heart attack!" Charlie threatened.
They stared each other out for a moment before Joey laughed.
"You can't pull the heart attack trick every time you want something, young lady," she said affectionately.
She sighed and studied the fragile woman in the bed before her. She reached out to hold her hand.
"What happened before?" she asked tenderly. "Are you okay?"
Charlie nodded.
"I just got a bit stressed," she said. "I need to learn to take it easy, I guess."
"You do," Joey agreed.
Angrily, Angelo stormed back into work. All he could picture was the intimacy between Charlie and Joey. It made him sick. Charlie was meant to be with him, not her. How could Joey ever make Charlie happy? And if she loved kissing and sleeping with girls so much, what did that say about how she felt when she was with men? What did she feel about being with him? Did he compare? Did Charlie ever compare the two of them or did she keep them separate in her mind? Why was Joey so special? Why had Charlie chosen her over him? Throwing himself into a chair, he began to read through paperwork but he wasn't really concentrating.
"Angelo?"
He turned to look at Watson.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," he lied.
"I uh... I think I might have found something to help Charlie," she ventured.
"I don't care," he told her, returning to his work.
Joey and Ruby swapped shifts. Ruby was excited to see the way her mother and Joey so affectionately said goodbye. Geoff stood in the door a little embarrassed. He still didn't know Charlie and Joey that well and he worried about intruding on their personal lives. When Joey was gone, Ruby hurried to fill her chair.
"Tell me you and Joey are back on!" she begged.
Geoff came to sit on the other side of the patient. Charlie nodded. Ruby squealed in delight.
"But you have to tell me something before I give you any details," Charlie said more seriously.
"What?"
"Something happened between Joey and Angelo," Charlie said. "I need you to tell me what it is."