Joey sighed heavily. "I guess I should be heading to work," she murmured and she felt Charlie's arms grip her a little tighter. Peering over her shoulder, she smiled at her girlfriend. "You're going to have to let me go eventually," she said.

"Nope, I don't," Charlie succinctly replied.

"In case you've forgotten," Joey drawled. "This is the Sergeant's office of the local cop shop and not the love shack."

"Yep, I know that," she said. "And I also happen to know the local Sergeant quite well."

"Really?" said Joey. "Same here."

"I think I know her a little better."

"Perhaps." Grinning, Joey spun around in Charlie's arms. "Seriously Charlie, it's not only time for me to go, it's time for you to actually start doing some work yourself."

Charlie rolled her eyes in reply.

"Well, I suppose you do have a certain advantage in being the Sergeant and so you can slack off behind closed doors," Joey said.

"Hey!" Charlie said with a whine. "I haven't been slacking off," she said. "I've merely been spending the last hour sending positive thoughts to my girlfriend while she was being interviewed by Homicide detectives."

"And the last ten minutes holding said girlfriend in your arms."

"I just wanted to make sure my positivity was rubbing off on you."

"Something has rubbed off but I'm not so sure it was positivity," quipped Joey. She put her own arms around Charlie's waist. "In all seriousness, I appreciate the positive thoughts and the bear hug you won't let me out of, but I'm fine," she assured her. "It actually wasn't that bad in there."

"So you said."

"Charlie, you, me and Georgie all seemed to have survived each of our very own inquisitions," said Joey. "And now, I think it's time to get on with our lives while we wait to see what happens next."

"Hopefully, what happens next is that Robertson and Graves finds the killer so that we can put this behind us and look toward our future."

"I hope so too, but for the time being, you're going to have to let me go, so that we can both get some work done."

"Not sure I can let you go," Charlie told her. "You just feel so damn good in my arms right…yow!" yelped Charlie and she jumped away from her girlfriend as if she'd been burnt. "What the hell was that!"

With a cheeky grin, Joey held up her hands. "That interview room was bloody cold and my hands still haven't warmed back up yet," she explained.

"So you thought you'd sneak cold hands under my shirt and put them on my naked back?"

"Call it a release mechanism." Her grin beamed even wider. "A rather effective one, I'd say."

"Very," murmured Charlie.

Chuckling, Joey stepped closer to her girlfriend and brushed her lips over hers. "I promise they'll be much warmer when we're home." She kissed her again, before casually walking from her office, leaving behind a bemused Charlie.

"Thanks Gina," Watson said as she accepted the coffee.

"Those two detectives came by earlier," Gina told her. "Spoke to John and then they asked me about that night, specifically about what time I saw you."

"Not sure why they asked you that when they already knew I didn't really have an alibi for the time Angelo died."

"I'm sorry, I wish I could have been more helpful."

"It's not your fault Gina," she said. "It's mine. I'm the one who was antagonistic toward Angelo from the start and so it was me who put myself into a position where I'd be seen as an obvious suspect the moment that bastard died."

"Georgie, you were hardly alone in that," said Gina. "Angelo treated you appallingly at times."

"I gave him reason too."

"Nonsense. Angelo was the senior officer and it was his duty to treat you in the same capacity he treated everyone else, yet he had questioned your abilities from the start and that was based on your disability," she said. "His initial attitude had nothing to do with anything you had done, it was from his own preconceived perception of you that led him there."

Watson just shrugged in reply and took another sip. "So, what did they want with John?"

"Given Angelo had a restraining order out against John for alleged threats made toward him and the very public confrontations in which your father made it clear he wouldn't stand for Angelo hurting you, then John wasn't exactly surprised when your colleagues asked him for his whereabouts at the time Angelo was murdered."

"And?"

Gina smiled wryly. "Let's just say you and John have more in common than you think."

"No alibi, huh?"

"Right. John had sent Xavier home at close of business and then settled into his office for the night," she said. "With Christmas getting closer, John has been spending more time there lately, ensuring that all his paperwork, rosters and orders are up to date so he would have less to worry about over the holiday period. It's hectic enough during that period without heading into it being behind in some areas," explained Gina. "As it was, he found there were some last minute issues with an order that needed sorting before the weekend." She sighed. "Unfortunately, it meant he was alone until well after midnight, hence the no alibi."

"I'm sorry you've all been dragged into this."

"Why are you apologising?" she said. "It was Angelo who went around causing problems and dragging people into this mess as a result of his behaviour."

"But John was only ever involved because of me."

"He could hardly stand by when you were being targeted by a supposed officer of the law," said Gina. "And again, that is on Angelo. Georgie, you need to understand that we're family and we look out for family, no matter what."

Watson nodded softly. "Charlie told me Shandi had stopped by earlier to see how I was doing," she said. "Tell her I'm fine."

"Perhaps you could tell her that yourself," suggested Gina.

Watson sighed, then nodded again. "Martha's coming home tomorrow," she told Gina as a way to move the topic to something else. "At least, home as in Charlie's place for the time being."

"As long as she gets to be with you, then Martha will be happy anywhere."

Joey winced when Alf's raised voice reached her ears.

"I can see why the press stay outside," murmured Aden. "He's kind of scary."

"I just hope he doesn't say anything that can be used against him."

"You don't think he actually killed Angelo, do you?"

"Of course not," she replied. "But he has been pretty angry at what Angelo has done and those two Detectives in there with him now must think he's a legitimate suspect or they wouldn't be talking to him."

"It doesn't necessarily mean they think he's a serious suspect though," Aden said to her. "Cops will talk to anyone who had close contact or a connection with a victim around the time of their death. Hell, they even asked me a few questions before they spoke to Alf and it's pretty obvious to all." Aden held up his injured hands. "That I couldn't have even picked up a gun, let alone squeezed the trigger, but since I'd had problems with Angelo, they still had to ask those questions."

"Still, I wish Morag was in there with Alf right now."

"If that woman bills by the hour, she's going to be raking the dough in with all her new clients."

"We're certainly keeping her on her toes, that's for sure."

Charlie glanced at her watch. There was still an hour before her shift ended.

"Clock watching never makes the time go any quicker," Watson told her as she casually leant against the doorframe to Charlie's office.

"Tell me about it," muttered Charlie. "I think I've looked at it about a dozen times in the last half hour."

"Never a good sign when the boss wants out of here."

"Ha ha," said Charlie. "Have you seen Robertson lately?"

"No, I think he's too busy roaming around out there and interviewing half the town."

"Well, if they're looking to talk to anyone who had a beef with Angelo, that's a hell of a long line."

"Yeah, they even spoke to Gina and John earlier," Watson quietly said. "Seems like John is in a spot of bother with them as well, because of the way he'd confronted Angelo a few times."

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me." Charlie sat back in her chair and regarded her cousin. "Shandi can be pretty hot tempered at times and she always said she got that from her father," she explained. "She also said her father was fiercely protective of his family."

"And I'm part of that family," Watson mumbled. It was right then, that Watson decided that there was something she needed to do after work.

Alf hadn't looked too pleased once the two Detectives had left and Joey had done her best to stay out of his way for the rest of her shift. She'd also given Romeo a friendly warning about Alf's mood when he'd arrived to take over.

Now that she was done for the day, Joey grabbed her gear. "Bye Romeo," she said. "And good luck," she whispered.

Romeo gave her a wry grin and the thumbs up. He'd only been there for five minutes, yet he'd already seen for himself the dark cloud hanging over Alf.

"Bye Mr Stewart," she said out of courtesy but she wasn't sure if he had even heard her. "Thank god this day is over," she quietly mumbled. Joey paused at the door. Well, nearly over. There was still the gauntlet to be run. "Damn it." The press had just seen her and were now preparing for her exit. "Oh well," she muttered. Sliding her sunnies on and putting her head down, Joey shut out the questions being fired at her and strode purposely through the media throng.

From across the road, a woman stepped forward, but the man next to her stopped her.

"Let's wait for another time," the man said. "When we don't have an audience."

"I don't give a fuck about the press," she replied. "I only care about making those who hurt my boy pay."

"Don't be silly, Carla."

She tried to shake his hand from her arm but it wouldn't budge.

"I'm not letting you anywhere near Joey until you calm down."

"Calm down?" she hissed. "That little bitch cheated on our son and broke his heart and now he's dead," she said. "It's all her fault."

"Think for a moment Carla," he said. "There is no point in confronting her like this, so let's just take a step back."

"I want her to pay," she said. "I want all of them to pay."

"We have other ways of dealing with these people that doesn't involve public confrontations," he assured her. "And I still have good mileage out of my contacts in the Force, so nothing is going to get passed us. Trust me Carla."

"Trust you?" she said. "You wouldn't even help Angelo the last time."

"Let's not talk about that here."

"No you never want to talk, do you," she snapped. Finally, she broke free from his grasp and stormed away. In the opposite direction to where Joey had left.

Charlie opened the backdoor and stared in some surprise at the woman standing there. Considering who her current houseguest was, this was one of the last people she expected to turn up at her door.

"I hope I'm not too early," she said.

"I'm sorry?" said Charlie.

"Georgie invited me over."

"You're kidding," Charlie said, now even more surprised by her words.

"Yeah, I didn't believe it at first myself, but she came by and saw me after work and kind of invited me over for dinner." The woman smiled at Charlie. "Can I come in?"

"What, oh, yeah, sure," stammered the still surprised Charlie. When her cousin has said she'd invited her sister to dinner, she'd expected Belle, so this was certainly a turn up for the books and while this was something she'd hoped for from her cousin, Charlie hadn't really expected it to happen. At least not yet. "Georgie's in the lounge room with Jay," she told Shandi when the other woman looked around the otherwise empty kitchen.

Shandi paused rather nervously at the entrance to the lounge room. She half expected her sister to turn around and tell her that she'd misunderstood the invitation and didn't want her here. Before she could doubt anymore, Jay noticed her presence. She'd never officially met the boy before, but she knew he'd seen her at the hospital on a couple of occasions when she'd checked in on Martha and her sister, so her face would be familiar to him, even if he didn't know who she was.

"Hello," he shyly said.

"Hello Jay," replied Shandi.

Watson stood behind her son and picked him up. "Jay, this is Shandi," she said and after a moment of hesitation, she added, "She's my sister and your aunty."

Shandi's throat wasn't the only one that caught at the introduction. Charlie had watched on quietly from the background and she knew what a huge deal it was for her cousin to have introduced Shandi to her son as family. Finally, it seemed like her cousin was opening herself up to the idea of being part of her other family. Whether that included John or not, Charlie had no idea, but the one thing she did know, was that this was a step in the right direction. A massive step.