"How you doing Georgie?" asks Aden the moment he arrives at the station.

"I'm fine."

"Georgie."

"I'm fine," she snaps. Taking a breath, she apologises. "I just want to get on with the job."

"Fair enough."

"What about you?"

Aden looks at her in confusion.

"You know, the call about a prowler at Irene's place this morning." Aden blushes bright red. "You make a habit of stealing out of young women's bedroom windows?" she says with a smirk. "And please, don't tell me it's not what I think."

"No, it's exactly what you think."

"How long have you and Belle been sneaking around?"

"Only a few days."

"And you managed to keep it secret for that long?"

"It hasn't been long at all."

"In Summer Bay, that's like an eternity."

"I'm guessing it will be all over town by now."

"Detective seen exiting the bedroom window of local reporter, yeah, that's going to spread all right."

"I hate small towns," he mutters.

Georgie folds her arms and leans back against the reception counter, smirking at him. "I can't believe you went ahead with this after all the warnings."

Aden holds his hands up. "I promise, I'd never intentionally hurt her." He'd been surprised by how much he'd come to care for Belle after such a short time.

"Just so you know, if you do hurt her, me liking you will only save you a little."

"Fair enough."

"Do you trust me Aden?" she asks suddenly.

"When it comes to work, yes, when it comes to not crushing me like a bug if I hurt Belle, then not so much. You know Charlie really does feel bad about this."

"Good."

"So, what are your thoughts on Braxton?" he asks, changing direction at her abrupt reply.

"Aside from him being a wanker?"

Aden's lips twitch. "Yeah, aside from that."

"There's always been something about him I never trusted and though he puts on a good act, he hasn't changed a bit from the old days."

"Did you ever hear anything about what he was up to?"

Georgie shakes her head. "I knew they weren't exactly angels, but Heath kept me out of it so I wouldn't know what they were up to."

"Would you have told someone if you knew?"

"Back then, I'm not entirely sure but I think I would have the moment I decided to become a cop."

"If you talked to Heath, would he tell you anything about his brother we could use?"

"Nope and even if you did a deal to get him a shorter sentence, he wouldn't speak out against Brax."

"I figured as much, but we'll get him in the end."

Charlie's mood darkened the moment she entered the station and caught the eyes of her cousin, who turned her back on her and walked away. Sighing, she made her way over to Aden.

"Give her a bit of time to cool down Charlie."

"That might not be so easy at work."

"I'm sure Georgie will be making herself scarce by being on patrol."

"I don't want her to feel she has to avoid me, especially at work."

"You're both professionals, so you'll find a way to work together, but I think Georgie will need the space, for the moment at least."

"You're probably right," she says with a heavy sigh. "God I wish I'd kept my mouth shut."

"This could be a good thing, you know."

"What, that my cousin hates me?"

"She doesn't hate you. She's incredibly hurt and you can't blame her for that, but she doesn't hate you and with the way you two have been dancing around each other for years, now you're finally going to have to confront this."

"I guess so and Joey sort of said something similar." She shrugs. "I'd have rather started it off on a slightly better footing though."

"I'm sure after enough grovelling, she'll take pity on you," he says lightly.

"You sound like Ruby."

"A rather intuitive young woman there."

Charlie nods in agreement as she glances around the room. None of the other officers were paying them any attention.

"I wouldn't worry about them," Aden says, reading her mind. "Everyone here is aware of how volatile your relationship with Georgie is at times and they respect you, so they'll do their jobs and steer clear of any issues between the two of you."

"I hope so. It's bad enough our girlfriends are caught in this mess without dragging others into it."

"How is Joey?"

"Climbing the walls at the restrictions Rachel has placed on her but she's been wonderful and so supportive throughout this. I don't want her taking on too much though, because the last thing Joey needs is stress, especially with her father stirring up trouble."

Aden knew about the blackmail attempt and while he was disgusted by it, he'd kind of expected something like that from Joey's dad. "She's a lot stronger than that and she'll want to be there for you."

"She is rather stubborn at times."

Aden snorts. "That's a good one coming from you."

"Well at least we're stubborn in a way that seems compatible. Joey said her father probably won't give up on trying to get her to recommit to her marriage to Angelo, so any advice on how to deal with him?"

"Don't trust him, never back down and always be completely upfront with Joey about any dealings you have with him or he'll work it to his advantage."

"Why can't he just be happy that his daughter is happy?"

"Money and a son-in-law he likes are a great motivator to a man like him. Charlie, you and Joey belong together and now that Joey's eyes are open to Angelo, there is no way she'd go back to him, so just don't let her father get to you and he will eventually realise it's a lost cause."

"Any idea on how long that will take?" She really wasn't looking forward to dealing with both him and her cousin for too long.

"No idea. In his own way, he does love Joey, but he was raised to believe family obligations extend to making sacrifices for the betterment of the family and that includes arranged marriages."

"It's the twenty-first century, maybe it's time he caught up."

"It's hard to change a long held belief. Look, he can't really do anything to you unless you let him, so just try to steer clear of him."

"I just hate that being with me may cost Joey a relationship with her father."

"That has nothing to do with you Charlie. He's the one who started all of this off with his lies, so he's the only one to blame if he loses Joey." He smiles at her. "And Joey has you, so I think she's come out of this pretty well."

"So have I." Charlie gives him a sly look. "I heard you've found someone too."

"God, I really hate small towns."

"Just wait for the wedding planning to start."

"What!"

"I'm assuming you're past the second date, which means going by the gossip scale, you're now engaged." She grins at his look of horror. "I'd avoid letting Belle order dessert two nights in a row or there will be talk of an impending little Jeffries."

"You're kidding, right?"

"Maybe slightly exaggerating, but sometimes, people have nothing better to do other than speculate and jump to conclusions." She sighs. "People like me."

"Under the circumstances, it was kind of a reasonable conclusion to jump to."

"I just should have given Georgie a chance to explain before I made it worse."

"Exactly." Aden looks at his watch. "I'm expecting a fax shortly, so I should be getting into my office."

"How's the case going?"

"We're finally getting somewhere. Look, I know you stepped aside because you didn't want to be a part of invading your friend's privacy, but that part is over now, so when Robertson gets here, why don't you join us?"

Charlie takes a moment to consider it. He was right, she'd already arrested Brax and the warrants had already been executed, so there was little point in staying out of it any longer and as much as she valued her friendship with Leah, she still wanted to catch those responsible, whether it's a friend's husband or not.

"I'll be there." It also gave her a small sense of satisfaction that Robertson might not be too happy to have her back onboard.

Next Chapter, Joey runs into Leah.