Chapter Six - Returning to Normal

The flight back into Melbourne was the most heart-wrenching few hours PJ had dealt with for a long time. It had taken a great deal of time for Susie and Jonesy to convince him to get in the car and the rest of the journey to the airport consisted of PJ insisting that Jo was there and that they should have seen her. The longer he thought about it the more doubts that came into his mind. He was a rational man, he believed in what you could see and touch but all of this didn't make any sense to him. As the flight was nearly over he posed a question that had been bugging him for the entire plane trip.

"Susie, Jonesy, do you believe in ghosts?" he was expecting the look he got back from Jonesy but Susie was nodding.

"Yeah I do PJ, why do you ask? Do you think you saw Jo's ghost" her eyes were wide in a sort of youthful wonder looking at him. PJ shook his head slightly.

"I believe that it was Jo, but I don't understand why you two couldn't see her. And then there's something else that doesn't quite add up for me" Susie urged him to continue.

"Well she was so adamant that I was not to tell you I'd seen you. We all loved her and I'm pretty sure she would want to see you and say goodbye to you as well as me" Susie was nodding.

"If it was Jo's ghost, then maybe her 'unfinished business' was to do with you alone PJ. She probably needed you to stop bottling up your emotions for her and really feel them. As a step to finally saying goodbye" PJ nodded but Jonesy didn't look impressed at all.

"Ghost's, PJ! Come on this isn't like you at all maybe the heat made you hallucinate" PJ met his gaze straight on.

"After this holiday Jonesy, I may never think the same way again. I've had all my beliefs turned on their head."

The plane flew in right on time and by the time they were safely driving back to Mount Thomas PJ had decided that he had seen a ghost. He somehow felt complete again, as though his life suddenly made sense and he thought he could put that down to Jo.

"Hey guys! How was your holiday" Kelly said with a grin.

"Interesting" Jonesy said. Kelly gave him a funny look.

"Interesting? What does that mean?" Susie decided to answer the question looking Kelly straight in the eye.

"PJ saw Jo's ghost" The confused look on Kelly's face depended and by now even Tom who had just joined the group looked at Susie as if she'd suffered an unfortunate injury to the head.

"Its true" PJ piped up "she picked our holiday to give me an important message, to help me move on."

Tom nodded with an 'I don't believe you' look on his face'. But PJ didn't care; to him he had the answers to the questions he had never asked.

A Week Later

The trip had been seemingly forgotten in the minds of the country coppers from the small town of Mount Thomas. PJ was back into his routine but he seemed much happier than he was before. As much as the rest of the station members couldn't explain it, the experience had really changed PJ for the better.

"Hey PJ! You've got mail," Kelly said in a mock voice. The envelope was small and looked very delicate.

"Who is it from?" he asked confused, it didn't look like a bill and hardly anyone ever wrote to him any more.

"Um there's no return address but the postmark says Gold Coast? Did you make a friend up there" she said her eyebrow cocked in the air. PJ frowned and took the letter and very nearly fell off his chair. The writing on the front was totally familiar to him. Was this some kind of joke? He was pretty sure that ghosts didn't send mail, so how on earth did this letter with her writing on it get here from the place he had last seen her. With disbelief he ripped the envelope open and stared at the contents, a short letter which read,

Dear PJ,

I can't begin to explain how wonderful it was to see you again. If I had more time I could have explained everything to you, but time was unkind to us. The truth is I should have died in that blast but through some strange twist of fate I was spared. I left Clancy alone with the bag when I shouldn't have, it only felt like a few moments to me but those moments changed my life forever. We were just about to open the bagwhen I told him I had to go and get something from the cells outside. I don't even remember what it was now, but when I got out there the station exploded. I don't know why but my first instinct was to get out of there, and I skipped town and have been 'on the run' ever since.

I just want you to know that I love you and that I am sorry.

Goodbye,

Jo

THE END

Thankyou all for your support while I was writing this fic, I have really enjoyed reading your reviews because they are so important to me. For those of you who don't know, I haven't seen the episode where the station blew up so I have no idea how it really looked or played out. I have represented these moments and Susie's entire character as best I could. I hope that this fic has been to your liking and I would love to hear from you if you would like to e-mail me!

Laura