Charlie had been surprised by her appetite, making light work of the wonderful food or perhaps it was just the company she had with her while she ate. Joey's presence really did lighten her mood and as much as she wanted to fix things with her cousin, it was nice to be distracted like this and to forget about all the other shit going on past the closed door of her office, even for just a short while.

Licking her fingers clean after polishing off the sticky, cream-filled bun, Charlie smirks at the blush creeping over her girlfriend's face. "Getting ideas?" she teases.

Swallowing hard, Joey nods. Her mind was filled with all sorts of erotic images involving Charlie and licking. "I should be going," she says, wincing at the slightly squeaky pitch of her voice.

Chuckling, Charlie wraps her arms around her girlfriend's waist. "Thank you for today," she says before brushing her lips across Joey's.

"You have a bit of cream there," Joey tells her.

"Where?"

"I'll get it," she says, running her tongue over Charlie's chin.

"You just had to do that, didn't you," Charlie says with a shudder of desire.

"Can't have you going out there with cream on your face," Joey replies with a look of innocence. "It wouldn't be very professional."

"It's not exactly professional of me to be making out with my girlfriend in my office."

"You're on your lunch break," points out Joey.

"God I love you," Charlie blurts out with a voice full of emotion.

"Now I wish I didn't have to leave," whispers Joey.

"Same here." They stand there with their arms around each other before voices in the next room remind them where they are. "I'll try to be home on time," Charlie says, reluctantly stepping away from Joey.

"Well I hope you do get somewhere with this meeting you're having later."

"I want that too and I think we will get more on Brax, but I still feel a bit weird about wanting it so much when he's the husband of my friend and I know you said Leah blames him and not us, but still," she shrugs. "I guess its part of being at a small station, you tend to know everyone you arrest to some degree or they're related to someone you know. Up until now, it hasn't really been much of an issue, but Leah is one of my best friends, which makes it more personal and awkward."

"You could back away again."

Charlie shakes her head. "The last time, I really wasn't up to dealing with serving warrants on Leah's home and business so soon after falling out with Georgie, but if I'm to be Sergeant here, then I need to be able to deal with these situations by setting aside my personal feelings, because it probably won't be the last time I find myself in such a position," Charlie says. "As the Sergeant, I have to be professional at all times, no matter who I'm dealing with."

"Except during your lunch breaks," Joey adds cheekily.

"Yes, except during lunch breaks when my very distracting and cheeky girlfriend is here."

"You are going to make a great Sergeant, Charlie."

Assuming I get the promotion and your father doesn't interfere, Charlie thought to herself. She didn't really think that he could do much to stop her promotion, but she'd rather there was no interference at all, especially after she missed out last time because people wanted Angelo over her.

"You will get the promotion, Charlie."

Smiling wryly at Joey's accurate guess of her thoughts, Charlie asks if she's really that easy to read.

"Like a book," Joey replies with a cheeky grin.

"I may have to work on that, then." She presses her lips to Joey's briefly. "I hope you are going to take it easy for the rest of this afternoon.

Joey puts her hand to her forehead in a mock salute. "Aye, aye, skipper."

Chuckling, Charlie shakes her head in amusement and takes Joey's hand. "Come on, I'll walk you out."

"Ah, so nice of you to finally join us," Robertson says the moment they stepped from Charlie's office. Joey eyes the detective with amused indifference, having heard all about him. Robertson beams at her and strolls over with his hand out to her. "And you must be the lovely Mrs Rosetta." Charlie scowls at him, knowing full well that he only used Joey's married name to irritate her.

Taking the offered hand confidently, Joey smiles disarmingly at him. "Actually, it's Miss Collins," she corrects him and winks at her girlfriend who was staring at her in delighted surprise. "With my marriage over, I see no reason to keep my married name."

"Miss Collins it is," Robertson concedes with good grace. He turns to Charlie. "When you're ready Sergeant, we have a lot to get through."

"I'll be right in," she says, more to his back as he'd already started to walk away. Sighing in annoyance at him, she faces Joey. "Miss Collins?"

"Hearing him call me Mrs Rosetta, just made me realise there was something more I could do to show my father and Angelo that I'm serious about going through with the divorce and that is to take back my maiden name."

"Joey Collins, I like it," and Charlie did because it put more distance between her married past and their future.

"Get used to it, because as soon as I get home, I'm going to call Morag and ask her to send the paperwork I need to legally change my name back."

Charlie loved the way Joey referred to her place as home. She knew it was just a figure of speech, but Charlie hoped that her house would soon be Joey's on a more permanent basis. "Well then Miss Collins, I'll leave you to do that because I'd better get in there before Robertson comes looking. Are you ok to get home?"

Joey nods. "I'll just call a taxi."

"I can give her a lift." Both Joey and Charlie turn in surprise at Watson's voice. "I haven't had my lunch break yet, so I can drop Joey off on my way to lunch."

"If it's not too much trouble, that would be great," Joey says.

"Thanks Georgie." Charlie tries not to look too upset when her cousin completely ignores her.

"I'll see you at home Charlie," Joey says, following after Watson.

It was amazing, Charlie thought, how she could be both happy and sad at the same time; Joey made her so very happy yet the distance with her cousin continued to cut deep. Sighing, she wished she had time to grab some fresh air and clear her thoughts before she had to face Robertson, but she didn't, so she took a deep breath and headed to Aden's office.