Sorry for the late update, but I've barely been home in the last few weeks and so haven't been able to write much.
It was well after 8 by the time Charlie walked in her backdoor and flopped onto the couch in the lounge room next to her girlfriend.
"You look wasted," Joey said as she started to massage Charlie's shoulders.
"Oh, that's nice," Charlie murmured appreciatively.
After fifteen minutes of gentle massage, Charlie was feeling much better.
"Have you eaten tonight?" Joey asked once her girlfriend was happily snuggled in her arms.
"I grabbed something from the kitchen at the station," she replied.
"Donuts don't count."
"Ha, ha," Charlie said. "Cops do eat more than donuts, you know."
"I've seen what you eat at times, so that's not saying much."
Charlie chuckled. "I admit, I have a sweet tooth at times, but I was a good girl tonight and had one of those frozen health food thingies."
"Sounds appetising."
"The donut afterward made up for the cardboard meal," she cheekily added.
"No chocolate for you tonight then," Joey told her.
"What if I'm a good girl?"
"I hope you're anything but a good girl tonight," Joey huskily whispered in her girlfriend's ear and grinned when Charlie shivered in her arms.
"Suddenly, I'm not so wasted." Quick as a flash, Charlie was pushing Joey onto her back and straddling her hips.
"Ruby's in her room," Joey warned her, moments before Charlie's lips were crushed on hers and all else was forgotten for the next ten minutes as they made out on the couch.
"We should stop," murmured Charlie, her lips still working on Joey's.
"Yeah, we should," Joey murmured in agreement as her arms wrapped around Charlie's neck and held her there.
"Get a room guys," Ruby said moments later when she strode past the couch on her way to the kitchen.
"Good thing we stopped at just kissing," Charlie said and settled next to Joey on the couch.
"You two want a hot drink?" Ruby yelled out from the kitchen.
"Not just yet," Charlie shouted back. "So, what did you get up to for the rest of the day?" she asked as a way to take her mind off what she wanted to do to Joey.
"Ruby and I did some shopping for Martha and we dropped it off at the hospital on the way home," Joey told her. "We had some things for Georgie and Jay as well, but Martha said she'd sent Georgie home to rest, so we left the stuff with Roo and she said she'd take it around to them first thing tomorrow morning."
"That was a wonderful thing for you and Ruby to do," Charlie said.
"Well, as I told Ruby, if you and she are my family, then that makes Georgie, Martha and Jay part of my family as well."
Charlie loved the way Joey spoke about them being family and she practically glowed from the inside to the outside with happiness. "I am so glad you are a part of our family."
"I'm pretty happy about it too," Joey said. "Especially this part," she said, teasingly tweaking one of Charlie's nipples through her shirt.
"Joey!" yelped Charlie. "Ruby will be back any minute."
"Sorry, I couldn't resist."
"Resist what?" Ruby asked as she joined them in the lounge room.
"Your sister," Joey innocently answered.
"I just had to ask, didn't I," muttered Ruby and sipped her ovaltine. Her sister looked so happy and relaxed lying there snuggled up with Joey on the couch and once more, Ruby was grateful that Charlie had finally found the one person who could truly make her happy, but she needed to remind herself that with these two around, she might have to divert her eyes at times or risk seeing a little too much.
"Joey said the two of you did a bit of shopping today," Charlie said.
"Yeah and you should have seen the police bears we got, they were just the cutest things," Ruby replied, "Though I'm sure Martha would still prefer to be home and cuddled up to the real thing."
"She's awake now, so hopefully it won't be long before she can be home with Georgie and Jay," said Charlie.
"I hope so, because as tough as Georgie acts, she's lost without Martha." Ruby sipped her drink. "I still worry about what would have happened if Martha hadn't woken up."
"Let's not even think about that anymore," Charlie said. "And just focus on her recovery now that she has woken up."
"Good idea." Ruby took another sip and got to her feet. "I'm going to watch the movie in my room, so goodnight."
"Night," Joey and Charlie said together.
Rolling her eyes at the lovebirds, Ruby left them to it.
"What a day," Charlie murmured when they were alone once more. "But at least there was a silver lining for our family today."
"It certainly was nice to walk into Martha's hospital room and see her awake and I'm sure Georgie was beyond relieved."
"Relieved but incredibly tired," Charlie said. "I took her home and she barely got Jay to bed before she was passed out asleep on the couch. She'll probably wake up sore and stiff in the morning, but I didn't have the heart to wake her and move her to the bedroom."
"Well, I'm sure she and Martha can each make the other feel better when Georgie goes back to the hospital tomorrow."
"The nurses might get more than they bargained for when they check in on their patient," joked Charlie and Joey chuckled.
"With all the visitors Martha's likely to receive, perhaps we should have gotten her a 'Do Not Disturb' sign for the door instead of a bear," Joey mused. "Though I doubt anything short of a deadbolt would stop Robertson from walking right in as if he owned the place. Roo overheard a couple of the nurses complaining about his attitude when he arrived and demanded to see Martha, though she did admit that he was the perfect gentleman when he did speak to Martha and he didn't seem too put out that she couldn't remember the accident."
"Yeah, I know. I caught up with Robertson just before my shift ended," Charlie said. "Martha does seem to be getting more of that day back with every passing hour, so hopefully the accident will eventually return to her, though there's no guarantee that even if she does remember it, that she'll be able to provide us with anything that could help us get Angelo."
"There's still a chance he'll get away with this, isn't there?" Joey asked with clear disappointment in her voice.
"Robertson and Graves still have leads to follow up on and there has been a new development," Charlie told her. "When Robertson and Graves went to fill April in on our fears that something may have happened to Bianca, she had already started to reach the same conclusion and while she is devastated at the thought she may have lost her sister forever, she did manage to provide Robertson and Graves with some new information. It seems that Bianca was blackmailing Angelo."
"You're kidding!"
"Nope. April claimed to have known nothing of the blackmail until she went digging through Bianca's things today for a clue as to where she might be and found an envelope addressed to her, along with a letter explaining about the photos inside the envelope and what April should do if something were to happen to her," Charlie said. "Robertson told me that April was quite convincing in her innocence, yet despite seeing the letter for himself, he has little doubt that April was as complicit in the blackmail as her sister was and the letter was merely a way to protect April if things went wrong," she explained. "After all, someone other than Bianca, had to have taken some of the photos, but for the moment, Robertson's not going to pursue April's involvement in the blackmail."
"What were the photos of or do I not want to know?"
Charlie had chosen not to take a look at the photos for herself but Robertson's descriptions had been enough to have her flushing as she told Joey the photos were of Angelo and Bianca performing various sexual acts and also showed him taking drugs.
"Drugs?" Joey said in surprise.
"Cocaine, amongst other things," Charlie said. "If those photos had gotten out, they would have ruined his career and at the time they were taken, your marriage."
"The photos and the blackmail," Joey said, "That could be motive enough for him to want to hurt Bianca, couldn't it?"
"Yes, except that even after she started blackmailing him, their affair continued, right on up to the accident, so a defence lawyer could argue they worked things out and therefore he had no motive to want to hurt her." Charlie looked at Joey. "Did you know or ever suspect that Angelo did drugs?"
Joey didn't answer straight away, her mind going over things from the past. Sighing, she finally answered. "I know my brother used, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that his mate Angelo also used, though I never saw it for myself," she said. "And now that I think back, there was a time where Angelo just disappeared all of a sudden, on a holiday his family said, but they were all acting a little strangely and I remember there were a few rumours floating around about why he was gone, not that I paid them much heed, because most of the rumours came from people with their own agenda." She shrugged, "Looks like this is just one more thing that I was in the dark about a man I once thought I knew and understood."
Charlie put her arms around her. "Some people are very good at hiding things from those around them, especially someone who has a lot to lose, like Angelo."
"Well, with everything he has already lost, I certainly hope Angelo's happy with himself."
"Speaking for myself, I'm certainly happy, because his loss," she pointed to Joey, "Has been my gain," Charlie said, her lips now lightly touching Joey's neck.
Joey moaned, her pulsed starting to race, even more so when Charlie sucked on the pulse point. "Bedroom," she murmured and both wasted little time leaping to their feet and heading to the bedroom.