Ruby had walked home, her day at work a hectic one. For now she wanted to go home and chill out. It was not to be. Observing the backpack and small suitcase on the porch, she shook her head and stormed into the house. Yelling out Joeys name, and Charlie's to no response she was about to ring them when she came face to face with Joey. Her eyes were all red, her face revealing the turmoil she was enduring inside.
"Joey, why are you leaving? What's Charlie done now?"
Joey searched Ruby's face for something to ease her own pain. Ruby was mad and Joey was breaking on the inside and out. Continuing on outside to her bags on the porch Joey could barely reply in a whisper,
"Charlie's inside, she locked herself in the bathroom, she hasn't come out and she hasn't replied. I can't live like this Rubz. She promised to be open to her feelings, lay them out in good times and bad. Earlier Brax came over, he wanted to apologise. You should have seen her, so angry. I can't forget the look in her eyes. So cold." Joey's body shook as she recalled Charlie's eyes and how they haunted her.
"Joey please don't move out. I'll talk to her, make her realize her mistakes, I'll remind her of everything good she has here."
"I'm sorry Ruby, she pushed me away today, and I can't stay here knowing that despite everything we've been through, she puts our relationship last. She didn't accept my help. All I wanted was to help her up, fight for her and have her lean on me. She stood holding that walking cane like it was the last thing on earth. She forgot everything we stood for in that moment. Brax shouldn't have come over; he pushed her over the edge. But honestly who's to say she won't do that again with someone else?"
"Oh Joey" Ruby sighed and pulled her in for a hug. In that moment, Joey let all her walls down and cried. She cried for what was lost and for the future she thought would now never happen.
"Joey I can't let you go, not like this. Please stay here, let me talk to Charlie first.
Shaking her head Joey refused adamantly "Uh uh, I can't let her see me like this. I'm going to Leah's, it will give both of us a chance to have some space and think things through".
Ruby realized Joey wasn't about to change her mind so she watched as Joey headed to Leah's house. Her frustration with Charlie growing by the minute. Heading inside she wondered how to coax Charlie out.
The tapping of the cane on the wooden floors were like music to Ruby's ears. 'At least I don't have to get her out of the bathroom' she thought to herself.
Staring at her mother as she made a coffee, Ruby wondered if she even knew that Joey was gone. Surely she must have heard part of their conversation.
"You picked a convenient time to come out" Ruby quizzed.
"What do you mean?" Charlie replied, totally oblivious to Joey's departure. Her eyes were puffy; tears still glistened on her cheek.
"Rough afternoon?"
"Yeah, Brax came over, wanted to apologize for what he did; he should be locked up right now. I have to ring the station and see what's happened. Those bloody lawyers of his. Ugh!"
"That's it… Brax come over and you're a mess?" Ruby questioned in disgust.
"Ruby seriously, what kind of question is that? He has destroyed my life. I can't work. I can't have any more kids. Look at me; I'm unable to do anything on my own. No driving, no running".
"Seriously that's the least of your problems!" Ruby replied with a raised voice.
Looking up at her daughter in surprise, "What?! I'm unable to do anything on my own and you don't think that is an issue. There's something more important?"
"Have you talked to Joey since all of this has happened? Did you think what effect seeing Brax had on her today or your reaction to him, what you did to her?"
"Honestly Rubz Joey was there, she was home all afternoon. She did try and talk to me but I needed some time alone and told her so. After that she didn't try and coax me out again."
"Well Charlie, you've really done it this time. Due to your selfish attitude and need to look after number one, Joeys left. I tried to get her to stay at least until I talked to you. You know why she couldn't… you pushed her away. When all she wanted was to be strong for you, to help you, you pushed her away! You should be so ashamed of yourself!"
Charlie was in shock, every part of her trembled with fear as the realization of losing Joey set in.
"She's left… for good? Or just for this afternoon?" the tears set in again.
"She's packed her bags Charlie! She's not coming back!"
In a frantic bid to confirm it Charlie attempted to rush to their bedroom, when she stumbled and fell. Ruby had walked away in anger and haste and ignored the sound of Charlie falling down. Grabbing her mobile phone, Charlie rang Joey, a desperate voicemail left. Cursing every part of her body, Charlie tried to get up on her own to no avail.
Yelling out Ruby's name a number of times Charlie gave up as she heard music blaring from her bedroom. Dialing the taxi service she hoped they would come quickly and help her back up.
….
About 20 minutes later Charlie was en route to Leah's contemplating what she was going to say to Joey to fix this mess. Walking slowly up to the front door, she came face to face with Leah; the disappointment etched on her face told Charlie all she needed to know. "You have a lot of damage control to do Charlie" she whispered.
Charlie couldn't reply, instead nodding in agreement and headed out the back to find Joey. She found her on the rocking chair in the backyard. Seeing Joey, Charlie couldn't help but smile. Slowly walking up towards to the rocking chair, Charlie delicately placed a hand on Joey's shoulder.
Joey woke up out of her slumber, feeling Charlie's hand on her shoulder catching her by surprise.
"Hi" Charlie whispered, afraid that Joey would run away or worse not reply at all.
"Hi" Joey replied, her voice etched with tears and sadness.
"Can I sit down next to you?" Charlie asked, afraid of the imminent rejection that could take place any second.
Joey just nodded, too afraid to look into those blue eyes again. Fearful of the steel cold she saw only a few hours ago.
"Joey I'm so sorry for my behavior earlier. I shouldn't have pushed you away. Honestly Brax took me by surprise and I wanted to be strong and instead all I saw when I looked down at my legs was a victim. I had my life taken away from me by someone who claimed to love me, and not be able to live without me. I messed up and I'm so sorry. Tell me what I can do to make this up to you."
Joey looked up finally, Charlie's apology was sincere no doubt about it. It didn't erase the pain and the fear that she still felt. Anger was building up inside her and she was afraid of the possibilities of mistakes if she were to return to the cottage.
"Charlie, I'm the one who loves you. I promised to stand by you; I wanted to shield you from the pain and suffering. You pushed me away. You made me feel like I was nothing, do you have any idea what that feels like. To know I mean nothing to you?!"
Charlie felt sick to the stomach, she wanted to fix everything, make Joey's pain go away but the realization that she was responsible for her partners suffering was too much. Tears began to flow and she couldn't make them stop no matter how hard she tried.
Joey was angry and for a moment, a brief second she considered herself the one in the wrong. Shaking her head she committed herself to making Charlie understand.
"Charlie, you can't fix this, not with an apology. If I return home, you will despise me; you'll hate me for pushing you into a relationship you're not ready for. All your hopes and dreams were shattered in that one afternoon. You can blame Brax but you will blame me eventually as well. You know yourself it would be easier to blame me than to take responsibility and fix things yourself."
"No Jo, you're wrong" she replied as she reached for Joeys hand as Joey moved to sit down next to her on the 2 seat bench. "Brax hurt me, he ruined the dreams I had but none of those things matter if I don't have you. I want a family with you. I want to work with you, together, on the house, on the garden. Taking long walks along the beach or doing exercise runs together, I want to do them together. If I can't, well then…. I'm no use to anyone. I've stuffed things up with you; Ruby and I are on eggshells 99% of the time. Nothing works if I'm not with you. Please come home darling, I love you. I've never stopped loving you."
Joey closed her eyes, for months she wanted to hear those words, those 3 precious words but now they meant more to her than ever before. Tears had started rolling down her face and she didn't care anymore. Her heart felt lighter. Her soul reignited with passion. Looking into Charlie's face there were no doubts, no insecurities, just love for the woman she had almost lost, almost given up on.
A scuffle and Leah yelling in the house broke both girls out of their trance. Looking up they saw Brax running towards them yelling "You gotta tell em Charlie, tell em I did nothin wrong! I didn't hurt you today, I didn't touch you!"
Joey and Charlie looked at each other, the fear on Charlie's face indescribable. Joey stood up and faced Brax head on. There was no way Brax was going to hurt Charlie again. Standing between Charlie and Brax, Joey faced up to Brax with a little bit of fear and a mountain of anger.
"You gotta tell em, I did nothin wrong!"
"Darryl Braxton, you get out of here, no amount of groveling will make either of us help you, and you should be in jail for what you have done!" she said in a calm demanding voice.
Ignoring Joey, Brax continued to plead to Charlie "I'm sorry for hurting you, honestly I wasn't thinking straight. I never meant to hurt you. My lawyers struck a deal, I have to report to the cop shop each day. I can't leave the Bay. I'm not supposed to come within 200m of you but I needed to see you. I couldn't live with myself for what I did!"
Charlie stepped up holding onto Joey as she did so. Another thing she learnt of the mistakes she had made. "Brax get out of here, I told you before not to come near me or my family. I'll tell them what happened when they come asking, but in the meantime you turn around and leave. Apologise to Leah and walk out that door. Joey and I are together and you have to accept that. I want to know that you're not going to go berserk every time either of us is nearby. Let us live our lives. You've destroyed my body and I want to get better. I can't do that if you keep coming at me and I fall down time after time."
Seeing Joey's hand holding Charlie's protectively, Brax conceded defeat for the second time that day. Realizing that despite how much he loved Charlie, he had lost her once and for all. His mistakes had destroyed them. There would be no second chance. Looking at the couple one last time, he shook his head and apologized to them one last time and walked out the house, also apologizing to Leah on the way out.
Joey smiled as she looked at Charlie. Gazing in admiration at Charlie's strength she fell in love with her all over again.
Charlie was aware of the passionate stare she was getting from her girlfriend "So where were we?" she asked as she saw Leah head inside to make tea.
"I believe you were asking me to come home?"
"Ah yes!... Joey my love, would you come home. I want to pleasure you; I want to fix the mistakes I have made. I want to shower you with love and cherishment. I want love you every day. Let me look after you…. Please?" she asked with a cheeky smile.
In the background, P!nks newest release "Just give me a reason" was playing on the hifi, 'give me just a reason, just a litle bits enough, just a second we're not broken just bent, we can learn to love again'... Deep in thought, listening to the song, Joey knew what hidden thoughts lay behind that cheeky smile and was enthusiastic to get home but being at Leah's, she thought it best to stay with her a little longer together as Brax may choose to return.
Charlie was happy; she had done the right thing and learnt from her mistakes and in doing so their relationship had another chance. Babies, exercise, family fun could all wait. Today was a new day. A second chance at love. Reaching in to kiss Joey she realized if nothing else were to come in their lives, as long as they had each other everything would be ok.
No copyright infringment intended- the song i'm referring to is P!nk "Just give me a reason"- thought it was perfect for this chapter.
Please read and review :) All comments appreciated