"Well?" Charlie said.

"Do you really have to ask if I can be trusted?"

Charlie winced at the deadness in her tone and she had a feeling her cousin hadn't forgotten the whole Brax fiasco at all. "I do trust you Georgie," she said, though her cousin didn't look that convinced by her words. "But when it comes to this matter, can you really blame me for asking?" Watson just shrugged in reply. "After what Angelo has done, you have every right to be angry and upset by all of this and no one, least of all me, will fault you on that, but you are a police officer and I need to know that I can trust you to behave as one."

"I know how to do my job."

"I'm not saying you don't," Charlie said, somewhat frustrated. Her cousin either hadn't heard a single thing she'd just said about her being a damn good cop or she hadn't really believed her. Considering their complicated and fragile relationship and history, either was a possibility and the way they kept ending up going around and around in circles was growing incredibly tiresome. "Georgie, all I'm saying, is that I need for you to be the bigger person here and to not let Angelo provoke you, because he'd love nothing better than getting you thrown out of here."

Watson sighed heavily. "I want to reassure you Charlie, I honestly do, but I just don't know if I can, not when he's strutting that smug face of his around here and acting as if he's done nothing wrong."

"I could cheerfully throttle him as well," Charlie told her, "But the best thing we all can do, is go about our job and let Angelo make a fool of himself trying to stir up trouble if that's the way he wants to go. And if he does, then the only one who will be paying, is him."

"It's just not right that he's here," Watson grumbled.

"No it's not right and hopefully his stay here will be short." Charlie sat on the edge of her desk. "There is not one officer here who will be going out of their way to make him feel at all welcome and with Joyce looking for a way to transfer him elsewhere and Robertson still on his trail, then we shouldn't have to put up with him for long," she explained. "But while we do, let me deal with him. I am the Sergeant of this Station and the welfare of my officers and the harmony of the workplace is my priority and I'm going to take my responsibilities extremely seriously."

Watson nodded. "I'll do my best to keep my distance, but it's a two way street Charlie and so if he comes near me or deliberately makes a pain of himself, I may not be able to hold back." She smiled a little, "However, I will try to keep it to a verbal thrashing only."

Charlie rubbed her hands over her face. "If I'm still sane after all of this it will be a miracle."

"Aren't you glad now that you have that nice new promotion?"

Charlie glared through her fingers at her grinning cousin. "Ha, ha."

"Seriously though, your promotion should have been cause for celebration, not dealing with all this shit."

"It goes with the job."

"Well, better you than me."

"Getting your own station isn't beyond your reach, Georgie."

"Sure it is," she replied and held up her hand to stop Charlie arguing with her. "I'm sure you'll say that if I applied myself and kept my head down, then I'd surprise myself and rise up the ranks, but the higher you go, the more paperwork and arse kissing is involved," she said. "And let's face it, those are the two areas where I'm lacking the most."

"Georgie."

"I'm just being honest Charlie. I have a hard enough time with the daily paperwork as it is, without adding even more to it, not to mention what the stress of the extra responsibility would likely do to me." She shrugged. "Promotion isn't for everybody and for me, being a Constable means less hours than you, which gives me more time with my family. I just don't want to risk missing out on too much of Jay growing up, because I end up working too much and right now, Martha needs me around more than ever. My family is my priority and I'd choose them over rising up the ranks in a heartbeat."

"I guess I can see where you're coming from." And she did. Her own father was absent a lot of the time and while she knew he loved his family, there were plenty of occasions where she wished he'd spent more time with them.

Angelo was shamelessly listening in to the raised voices that were occasionally coming from his office. He caught himself. Her office, he reminded himself unhappily. She'd taken it all from him and he'd barely put up a fight, but not anymore. He'd kept a low profile recently so he could get his act together and now he was ready to take back what was his and going by the sounds coming from that office, the new Sergeant was going to be sadly out of her depth. "She's going to make it so much easier for me," he snickered.

"You find something amusing, Constable?"

With a strangled yelp, Angelo jumped at the voice behind him. Ignoring the sniggering of the other officers to his reaction, Angelo turned to face Robertson. "That's Snr Constable," Angelo told him.

"You're right, my apologies," Robertson said and with a deferential bow, he greeted Angelo once more. "You find something amusing, former Sgt, newly demoted to Snr Constable, Rosetta." Even with his sickly sweet tone, he managed to emphasise the words he knew would sting Angelo the most. The tightening of his mouth as the sniggering around them intensified, told Robertson he'd hit his mark.

"You're a visitor here Detective, how about showing a bit of respect toward a fellow officer."

Graves covered her mouth to hide her amusement. As annoying as he could be, her partner did have his good points and he could make even the best squirm beneath him, so an idiot like Angelo was child's fodder for Robertson and it looked like the fool was too dumb to even realise it.

"Certainly," Robertson replied with a charming smile. "As soon as you earn that respect as a fellow officer, I'll gladly show it." His smile went even broader. "I wouldn't hold my breath on that happening though, if I were you."

Angelo was visibly shaking with anger but Robertson ploughed on. "While we're having this little chat, I'll take this opportunity to remind you of a few things, just in case you failed to understand the basic part of the agreement in letting you return here."

"Perhaps we should go somewhere a little more private," muttered Angelo.

"Not at all," he replied with a louder voice. "Everyone is going to be made aware of these things, just to make sure everyone is on the same page, so I may as well say it here."

Charlie stood in the doorway of her office with her cousin, watching the exchange with interest. She glanced sideways. Her cousin appeared to be finding the whole thing rather amusing and a part of her was too.

Robertson held up his hand and started counting off his fingers. "You will not ask anyone about the state of the investigation, you will not access any of the files or evidence on the investigation, in fact, I'm going to have all relevant computer files passworded and everything else locked up just to ensure you keep your nose out of it."

"You really think I'd interfere?" Angelo said, trying to come across with affronted innocence but failing badly.

"Let's see," Robertson pondered that for a moment to great effect. "What you're really asking me is if I'm questioning your honesty and integrity and my reply to that would be," he paused, tapping his fingertip to his lips as if he was deep in thought. "A big yes. I am questioning those things, just as I'm questioning your presence here."

"I have every right to be here."

"That's bullshit and even you know that."

"I know nothing of the sort."

"Then you're deluded as well as a fool," Robertson said, his tone surprising even Charlie. It was full of authority and basically said, don't piss me off. "You're here because you went crying to daddy and got some people to pull some strings, but you don't deserve to be here, nor do you deserve to sully that uniform more than you already have."

"I've done nothing wrong," snapped Angelo. "Except lost my temper at a colleague I thought was banging my wife and if anyone says any differently to that, I'll sue them for slander."

Robertson's response was a light chuckle which only seemed to infuriate Angelo even more.

"What's so funny?"

"You and the fact you actually believe the bullshit that comes out of that mouth of yours."

"Look, Detective, I am a police officer and I demand you treat me as such."

"And I'm senior to you and I demand you remember that." He smiled once more at Angelo. "Two can play this game, now go and sit in the corner and make yourself useful by not trying to be a police officer."

"You're not my senior officer," Angelo pointed out.

"But I am," Charlie said, stepping forward. "And the Detective gave you an order you'd do well to obey."

Angelo glowered at them. This was one battle it appeared he'd have to concede for the time being. "Fine," he muttered and stormed away from them.

"That was rather enjoyable," crowed Robertson as Charlie joined him. "I hope you don't mind me stepping on your toes there, but Joyce informed me about his imminent return and I just happened upon the perfect opportunity to have a word with Angelo."

"Not at all," replied Charlie. In a way, she was relieved it had come from him and not her, considering her history with Angelo. "You said pretty much what I wanted to say." But probably wouldn't have said.

Robertson glanced Watson's way. "It looks like you survived telling her."

"Barely," murmured Charlie. "And what's worst, I pretty much agree with everything she had to say about him."

"But you have to play boss, right?"

Charlie nodded.

"I'll keep an eye on things when I'm here," he said. "And I'm happy to put Angelo in his place when needed."

"Thanks, any support in this would be greatly appreciated."

"I dare say you have the support of everyone here except for Angelo."

"He just doesn't seem to care about the hurt he's done or the anger he's created."

"That's because it's all about his needs and wants. Anyway, the other reason I dropped in, is to let you know that Graves and I are going to the city to interview Jessie Devereaux's agent."

"You found him then?"

"Yeah and he's quite anxious to talk to us."

"God I hope he has something useful to say."

"We'll let you know if he does."

"Thanks."

"Oh, that's great," sighed Charlie, completely relaxing against her girlfriend's talented hands as she sat between her legs. "If you ever need a career change, you should really consider becoming a masseur."

"You'd be happy for me to have my hands on other people's naked skin?" she queried. "Because usually the client would lie there naked and they'd be all oiled up and."

"On second thoughts," Charlie interrupted her. "Masseurs are so overrated."

Chuckling, Joey brushed her lips on the top of Charlie's head. "You just want to keep my hands to yourself."

"Damn right I do." She took one Joey's hands from her shoulders and pressed it to her lips. "These amazing hands are all mine."

"Especially what they can do to you."

"Especially that." Charlie sighed and leaned back. "I definitely need them after a day like today. The moment Angelo walked through that door, it felt as if the stress level tripled and it was like walking on eggshells all day. I totally get why Georgie reacted as she did, but damn, it seemed like it took forever to get through to her and even now, I'm still worried about her being a loose cannon, let alone what Angelo might get up to. I've done my best to rework the roster to make sure Angelo and Georgie are at the station the same time as little as possible, which is no mean feat, since shifts generally crossover."

"Couldn't you just assign Angelo to all the graveyard shifts?"

"Believe me, if I could, I would, but my hands are tied where the shifts are concerned. It's against policy to assign anyone to the graveyard shift for more than five nights in a row and shifts have to be varied for all officers, even Angelo. Joyce said he'd back my decisions when it came to where to assign Angelo, but I don't really want to push my luck with the shifts. I'd just rather not give Angelo anything to use against me."

"And he'd be the first to complain to someone if he thought you were targeting him unfairly."

"Exactly." Charlie sighed wearily. "I just don't even want to contemplate the fallout, both personally and professionally, if Georgie snaps at work because of him."

"Angelo should just give up and leave," Joey said. "I can't make it any more obvious that our marriage is over and I don't think there is anyone in town who wants him here."

"I don't think Angelo will be happy until he's made everyone miserable."

"Well Aden wasn't exactly chipper when he came to the Club today. He did kind of expect that nothing much would happen with the assault charges, but he was still pissed, especially that Angelo was back on duty and so he came to drown his sorrows with OJ."

"OJ?" Charlie bemusedly said.

"He's on strong pain medication for his hands, so no hard alcohol."

"Poor bastard," muttered Charlie.

"Let's just hope that Robertson will get him and then the only miserable person will be Angelo."

"Too bad the investigation is taking longer than I'd like."

"They're getting somewhere now though, aren't they?"

"Slowly," replied Charlie.

"Won't things move a little faster now that they know the same man who paid off that doctor, also hired that actress?"

"They still need to identify him," Charlie said. Robertson had filled her in on his talk with the agent, who had confirmed from the composite sketch the doctor had provided, that it was indeed the same man they were looking for. "They ran the sketch through the system the moment the doctor gave his description, but that didn't turn up anything, now they're looking at known associates of Angelo and his family, then it's a matter of working outward from there until they find out who he is."

"So Angelo gets to keep playing cop while we wait," murmured Joey.

"Unfortunately."

"I still can't believe that woman was hired to pose as Bianca, under the pretence it was all a big game."

"According to her agent, his people are hired to act out fantasy scenarios for clients and his records and business statement confirm that. In this instance, our mystery man provided the actress, Jessie Devereaux, with all the items and details she'd need to accomplish the tasks he laid out for her," Charlie said. "She was just an actress paid to do her job and considering some of the roles she'd previously acted out, I'm not sure if she had any way of knowing that it wasn't make believe this time and that she was in fact being used to cover up a crime."

"Didn't either she or her agent see the missing person's report Robertson put out for Bianca?" Joey said. "I mean, I know they'd already have completed the job by the time she was reported missing, but surely seeing that the woman she had posed as was a real person who was now missing, shouldn't that have worried her?"

"Not everyone pays attention to those reports and Jessie was killed in an accident not long after. It does just appear that she and her agent were unknowingly duped, though I think from now on, that the agent is going to be a little more careful in checking who hires him for the next job."

"Going by these knots still in your shoulders, I think we need to stop talking about work," Joey said.

"Fine by me."

"I will say though, that those look great on you, by the way," she said, pointing to the new stripes on Charlie's uniform.

"Thanks."

"And I think they deserve to be celebrated."

"That's not necessary."

"Nonsense. You earned them Charlie and the only reason we haven't properly celebrated your promotion until now, was because of Martha's accident, but now that she's out of danger, there's no reason to put this off any longer." Joey jumped to her feet. "Ruby!" she yelled. "We're going out to the Club to celebrate Charlie's promotion, you wanna come?"

"Sure!" Ruby yelled back.

"Hope it's a little quieter there," Charlie murmured, her ears still ringing from all the shouting.

A celebration, a birthday, first dates, watchful eyes and unexpected arrivals create a night of interest.