2 Months Later

"Alright Ruby, are you ready", the physio asked as he stood behind Ruby.

Ruby inhaled a large breath of air and then let it out slowly, the sweat dripping from her brow. When she had calmed herself she looked over her shoulder and nodded at him.

"Ok, 1,2,3...."


"Wow, Charlz you look amazing", Leah said as she saw Charlie walk into the room.

Charlie did a twirl in front of Leah, showing off her knee length, black flowing dress that seemed to line her body, perfectly displaying her model like figure, her lucious locks falling beautifully . She looked at the clock and noticed that it was 7:30. Turning to Leah she smiled.

"Hey, where's Ruby?", she asked, a little disappointed her daughter was not there waiting for her.

"Oh Aden picked her up about fifteen minutes ago, she said she wanted to prepare your surprise for tonight", Leah said smiling.

Charlie nodded at her and then turned around to pick up her matching black purse off of the coffee table. She knew if she was late Ruby would never let her hear the end of it. Much like everything else Charlie did that annoyed her. Including scaring off boys with her 'I'm her mother and a police officer statement she would make when they would hit on Ruby. After checking her phone for any missed calls she put it in her purse and turned back to Leah.

"Okay, I'm ready. Let's go", she said as they moved briskly over to the door and exited the house.

As they drove up towards the surf club, Charlie looked on in awe at the hundreds of sparkling fairylights that adorned the outside of the building. It was like looking at a magical kingdom. She had never seen the surf club look so pretty. Stepping out of the car she made her to the entrance with Leah in toe. She stopped for a moment, took a deep breath, exhaled and then proceeded to enter into her own party.

As she made her way into the main area of the surf club, all her guest broke into a round of applause. She looked around at everyone. Alf, Morag, Ross, Martha, Liam, Miles, Irene, Annie, Xavier, Gina, Tony, Rachel, Romeo, Nicole, Colleen and all her fellow collegues, filled the room and welcomed the guest of honor. A huge banner hung from the rafters that read 'Happy Birthday Detective'.

Charlie smiled at everyone and thanked them for coming. Then Alf spoke up.

"Alright, alright. Enough of the flemmin' clappin' somebody get this woman a drink before she dehydrates", he said chuckling at everyone elses amusement.

Everybody made their way into the bar area and Martha helped the bar staff hand out glasess of champagne. Charlie stood listening to Leah and Rachel as the babbled on about gossip they had heard at work. As they continued Charlie scanned the room for some sign of her daughter, but couldn't spot her anywhere. She turned back around to find Leah and Rachel looking at her as well as Martha who had just joined her.

"Is everything alright?", Rachel asked her taking a sip of champagne.

"Um, no. Has anybody seen Ruby? Charlie asked anxiously as she tried to discover the whereabouts of her daughter.

"She said she would be here by the time you arrived. I'm sure she's fine. She's with Aden he would have called if anything was wrong", Leah reassured her.

A few minutes later Charlie was sitting on the couch with her her three girl friends sifting through presents. The other women peered at her gifts, gobsmacked by the beautiful diamante bracelet Ross and Morag had given to her. But Charlie seemed uninteressted in it all. Just then Aden walked into the room and was greeted by Nicole who kissed him. Charlie looked up at him and smiled.

"Hey, I thought Ruby was with you?", she asked when she noticed he came in alone.

"She did, she'll be in in a sec. She wanted me to give you this", Aden said smiling at Charlie and handing her a card.

She took the card from him and looked at the front which had 'mum' written across the front. Flipping it over she opend it up and removed the card. She looked at the front which read "To a wonderful mother on her birthday'. Opening it up she began to read the message inside.

Mum,

Congratulations and Happy Birthday. I'm so proud of you and I'm truly blessed to have you in my life. It's an honour to be able to call some with your strength, courage and grace, my mother. I love you I can't wait to see what the next chapter in our lives brings.

Love, Ruby

x x

P.S. I hope you like the suprise. It's been two months in the making.

Charlie felt warm tears beginning to well up in her eyes as she closed over the card and hugged it close to her chest. Just as she was about to walk back over to the couch and sit down she got distracted by the stunned looks on peoples faces as she glanced around at them. She looked at everyone. Nicole, Annie, Irene, Leah, Rachel, Martha and Colleen had all begun to cry. Charlie looked at Leah.

"Charlie, turn around", she said as she wiped the tears from her cheeks.

Doing as she was told she turned around. And at the sight before her she felt her heart soar and the tears in her eyes fall without any chance of stopping. Her pulse started racing. Finally she said what she was trying so hard to say through her tears.

"Rubes....", she managed before trailing off.

Before her in a green knee length ruffled dress was her daughter. Ruby was standing, with the support of underarm crutches, at the opposite side of the room to where Charlie was rooted. Just as her mother was about to walk over to her Ruby spoke.

"No, don't", said and watched as her mother stepped back in her original postion.

Ruby steadied herself on her crutches and then moved one forward. Then with all the strength she had, she moved one foot forward, and then shakily, took the same movement again, and again, and again. One foot then the other until finally she was standing right in front of her mother. Ruby felt her legs getting weak and with all the energy she had running out, she fell into her mothers arms as her knees buckled from under her.

Charlie grabbed a hold of her daughter and kept a firm grip around her waist and back, using her strength to hold her off the floor. Aden came bounding over pushing Ruby's wheelchair infront of him and stopped it right behind where Charlie was holding her and help her place the younger Buckton back in her chair. When Ruby was settled Aden picked the crutches off the ground and leaned them against the wall. Charlie kneeled down before her daughter and cupped her face in her hands.

"So, did you like your surprise?", Ruby asked out of breath.

"Are you kidding me? Rubes, that....that's the best present anyone has ever given me", Charlie replied through her tears. And with that she kissed Ruby on the cheek and pulled her into a hug.