"I feel a bit bad about leaving Georgie at Angie's mercy," Aden says when they were some distance from the station.
"I'm sure Georgie can cope."
"You don't sound too sure of that."
"They've butted heads once or twice and Georgie's not the most level headed person at times, so I guess it depends on how she handles things."
"Well at times, Angie's not the most fair-minded of people and when he gets an opinion about someone, he very rarely changes it."
"Wonderful," Charlie mutters.
Angelo dumps a stack of files on the counter in front of Georgie. "I want these reports done, ASAP," he orders, before spinning on his heels and going back to his office.
Hogan leans over. "I thought your moods were bad."
"I guess he really hates having Aden around."
"No shit. Can't say I blame him though, if my wife's best friend was some good looking guy who everyone seems to like, I'd be jealous too."
"Looks like I'm the one who gets to cop it though."
"Want a hand with those?"
Georgie considers his offer for a moment, before shaking her head. "It might put you in his bad books as well."
"Georgie and I cleared the air a little earlier," Joey tells Martha as they get ready for the lunchtime meals. "I even earned a name from Jay."
Martha smiles, "He's been doing that a lot lately and considering some of the names he's come up with, I'm kind of thankful that Georgie and I have stayed mama and mummy."
"Well, I'm Jo Jo."
"That's not bad at all."
"Are you ok Martha, you don't seem your usual upbeat self."
Martha stops what she was doing and leans against the bar. "Ever since Georgie was hurt yesterday, all my old worries have come back." She sighs. "It's stupid really, because it was an accident and all she got was a bruise, but all I can think about is, what if next time it's worse."
"You can't think like that."
"The problem is, I have firsthand experience of dealing with the aftermath of the dangers cops face."
"Your husband?"
Martha nods. "And Georgie."
"I know Joey and Angelo have known each other a long time, but how long have they been together as a couple?"
Aden studies Charlie's profile before answering, his instincts telling him there was more to her question than just idle curiosity. "If Angie had his way, he would have been with Joey when she was still a teen, but they didn't actually hook up until about two months before the wedding."
"I suppose when you've known each other for so long, you don't need a long courtship."
"Right," Aden murmurs.
Charlie takes her eyes off the road to look at him. "You have a problem with their marriage?"
"I just never saw Joey as the marrying kind."
"People change."
"Yeah, they do and I suppose Joey could do a lot worse than that arrogant jerk. At least he will treat her right." He smirks at the way Charlie was gripping the steering wheel tighter. So there was more to the subtle enquiries Charlie and her cousin had been making, he thought to himself; the Snr Constable had a bit of a thing for his friend.
"One night, Jack and Georgie were called to investigate a prowler on a development site," Martha says in a quiet voice. "Georgie said things hadn't felt right as they looked around for the prowler, so Jack sent her back to the car to call for backup. She'd just called it in when there was a shot." She pauses at the difficult memories. "Jack was killed instantly but that didn't stop Georgie from running to help him. She had an idea where the shot had come from, so stuck to as much cover as she could. What she didn't know, was that there was a second person who had remained hidden and was much closer. Georgie had just reached Jack's side when the bullet tore through her leg," she pauses again. "While she was lying on the ground in pain, this bastard casually walked up to her and shot her again. I guess he thought she was dead as he left her and ran off."
Joey puts her hand on Martha's arm. "You don't have to do this."
"You'll hear about it anyway and I'd rather you heard it from me without all the embellishments that tend to come with other versions. Anyway, Charlie was the first to arrive and she found Georgie barely clinging to life. The second bullet had missed her heart by a fraction of an inch, but the first one had nicked an artery in her thigh and if Charlie hadn't gotten there when she did, Georgie would have bled out. As it was, it was touch and go for over a week if Georgie would live and we nearly lost her more than once, but she's so stubborn, she kept hanging on. It was so hard though, to see her lying there, so motionless." She shakes her head sadly. "I was expecting my first baby, it should have been a joyous time, yet I was burying my husband and sitting vigil at our friend's beside while she fought for life, then I had to watch her struggle to deal with her injuries and her guilt."
"Guilt?"
"Jack was her best friend, he had a wife and a child on the way while she had no one, so she felt she should have been the one who died." She looks Joey in the eye. "Not once did I ever wish she had died in Jack's place, it was just the way things happened and once I had convinced her of that and that I didn't blame her in any way, we turned to each other for emotional support and when she was out of hospital, I talked her into moving in with me; I could help her continue with her recovery and she could help me with Jay. Through sheer determination, Georgie got back on her feet and refused to let her limp keep her from work, so she did everything they asked of her to prove she could still perform her duties and the moment she was cleared, she returned to work."
"And with it, your fears returned."
Martha nods. "Georgie and I were still just friends at the time, but we had pretty much been living as a family and those first few days of watching her put her uniform on and go to work were some of the hardest days in my life. Now when I look back, I realise most of my fear and worry was because I had already fallen in love with Georgie and I was terrified of losing her like I did Jack. After Jack, I never thought I'd fall in love again, certainly not with a woman, yet somewhere along the way, that's what happened." She smiles wryly, "It's kind of funny that it was with the woman who was largely responsible for getting me and Jack together in the first place and if not for her friendship with Jack, I doubt Georgie and I would have even become friends, let alone lovers and while it hasn't been easy for us with all the opposition and accusations we faced, mostly about Georgie taking advantage of me, or that I was only with her out of some sense of pity and could do much better than a Watson, we're a family now and as much as I loved Jack, if he walked in that door right at this moment, I really have no idea which of them I would choose." Once again Joey was envious of the love Martha had for both her husband and Georgie. "Every time she's hurt now though, I fear getting that same call I got about Jack. Jay's already lost a father he will never get a chance to know, how would I ever tell him if something happened to Georgie? He absolutely adores his mama."
"You just have to believe that Georgie will stay safe and remind yourself that Police shootings or any death in the line of duty, rarely happens."
"I know that but the people who did this, they're still out there."
"They never caught them?"
Martha shakes her head. "Georgie never saw the face of the person who shot her and it was ruled a random shooting; they just stumbled upon a couple of prowlers." She looks out the window. "Out there somewhere, are the people who killed my husband and very nearly killed my girlfriend."
"Well?" Angelo demands impatiently.
"I'm nearly done," Georgie says through gritted teeth.
"You should have been done well before now."
"Maybe I would have been if you hadn't been hovering over my shoulder the entire time pointing out errors," she thinks to herself. It was like being back in school and she could feel the old anger, frustration and humiliation returning, along with the familiar troubles. She winces as she makes another error and he lets her know she'd spelt her own name wrong. Her concentration was pretty much shot now and the words on the screen in front of her were looking more and more like an indecipherable jumble.
Hogan shoots a furious glare at Angelo's back. Georgie may be a pain in the arse at times, but he liked her and had a lot of respect for her after the things she'd been through. He was also one of the few officers aware of her learning difficulties, which as far as he knew, had never been a problem at work until now. Seeing the telltale signs in Georgie's posture, he grabs his mobile and steps away to make a call.
Going over things in his head, the way Joey had been acting since he'd been here, including the way her eyes had barely left Charlie when they were at the club yesterday, had Aden wondering if the attraction was mutual, when the pieces finally slotted together.
"What's so funny?" Charlie asks, unnerved by Aden's sudden laughter.
"I've finally figured it out."
"Figured what out?" Charlie says a little worriedly.
"You were the woman Joey spent the eve of her wedding with." He grips the dashboard when Charlie temporarily loses control of the car. "Perhaps I should have waited until after we'd stopped before saying that."
"I had no idea who Joey was at the time," Charlie says defensively.
"Relax Charlie, I won't hold your excellent taste in women against you." Charlie finds herself smiling at his response. "I'm sure neither of you could have predicted this outcome though."
"You could say that again. It was such a shock to see her again, let alone find out she was my boss' wife, but we've talked things through and we're friends now."
Aden strongly suspected Charlie wanted to be so much more than friends and it actually made him feel a bit sorry for her, because even if Joey shared her attraction, which he was now sure she did, Joey would honour her wedding vows.
"Shit," Charlie mutters when her phone starts blaring. She slips it from her pocket, putting the speaker phone on. "Snr Const. Buckton."
"It's Hogan. Charlie, you need to get back to the station."
"What's going on?"
"We have a situation with Georgie and Rosetta which is about to get ugly."