Thank you so so so much for reading, subscribing, reviewing and adding this story to your favourites. I appreciate them heaps and it really helps me write because I know what you guys are thinking. It would be awesome if you could all keep reviewing, and perhaps start reviewing this story if you don't already. Thank you to those who tweet (xLincolnYFanx) me their feedback too. Just to clarify any confusion before you read this chapter, the whole storyline where Angelo told Charlie that the River Boys were getting crop from the National Park on the actual show never happened in this story. Hope you enjoy this chapter and I promise there is a lot more Chax to come. xxx
Chapter Twenty Five
-Two weeks later-
Even after hearing about what Casey and Ruby had to say, Brax didn't get back with Charlie. He would see her here and there, but a nod to greet each other was as far as they would go. It didn't make things easier as Casey and Ruby started to see each other even more. Due to their injuries, they relied on either Charlie or Brax to take them to and from places. Looking after the two teenagers had taken up most of their time until now. Casey and Ruby were recovering fast and no longer needed so much help from Charlie and Brax. They had a lot more time on their hands. Instead of sneaking around with Brax like she usually did, Charlie would stop by the diner to eat her lunch. Brax, on the other hand, would just remain at Angelo's. To take her mind off things, Charlie would join Bianca, Leah, Roo, Irene and Marilyn at their girl's night. It wasn't the same as having Brax around, but it was better than sitting on the couch alone at home. Brax returned to spending most of his time with the River Boys when he wasn't working. Obviously the boys and girls wondered why the sudden turnaround of Brax and Charlie hanging out with them, but they both mumbled something about needing more of a social life.
Without Charlie by his side; literally watching his every move and keeping him in line, Brax spent most of his days out late. There were mostly times when Casey was the only one in the Braxton household. He usually kept to himself, meaning he had nothing to do with what his brothers got up to and would mainly hang out with Ruby, Xavier, Dex and April. Brax and Heath kept their distance from the rest of the Summer Bay residents. Unlike how he use to, Brax didn't check up on Casey so often. He just assumed that his youngest brother was getting on with his school work and if he had a problem, Casey would come to him about it if none of his friends were the right people to talk to. Although Brax didn't say so himself, but it was obvious to everyone that he had returned to being the leader of the River Boys.
Like the old days, Brax and Heath would spend their nights out partying around the campfire on the beach. They usually didn't return home until the next morning to grab their surfboards to go out in the waves. Fortunately for Brax; being the owner of Angelo's, he could take drinks out of the restaurant whenever he wanted. This led to the restaurant losing stock, but it hadn't affected it too much yet. If the boys weren't drinking or surfing, they would usually be fighting in a playful manner or having a quick game of footy. Sometimes they would take their trail bikes up to the National Park and would ride around the area or race against each other.
Brodie, Pee Wee and Rick had just returned from a bike ride and were awfully eager to talk to Heath. They pulled him away while the other boys were about to go in for a surf. Brax looked at them curiously. He told the other boys to go into the water and remained standing on the sand. Heath didn't know what was going on. He just stood opposite Brodie, Pee Wee and Rick who hadn't talked or moved since. The three boys didn't want to say anything to Heath in front of Brax because they didn't know what the oldest Braxton would do. Brax had been out of action with the boys for a few months and Heath had been the one whom the other boys consulted everything with. "What do you boys want?" Brax asked. Brodie, Pee Wee and Rick avoided Brax's gaze and started kicking the sand in front of them. Brax spoke up again. "Boys?"
Brodie decided to take control of the conversation. "I know we haven't done this in ages, but while we were riding around the park, we noticed there were quite a lot of crops waiting to be harvested. We noticed this awhile ago, and we thought someone would have taken it by now, but obviously not. We were wondering... Ya know... If um..." His voice drifted off. Fortunately, Brax knew where he was going with this. Brax also understood why the boys wanted to speak to Heath instead because he had been the leader while Brax was with Charlie; not that any of the boys knew he had been sleeping with a cop.
"Do you want us to deal with it?" Heath asked bluntly. None of the four boys were surprised to hear this. It was something typical for Heath to say. He asked questions with the most obvious answer.
"Yeah, what do you think?" replied Brodie.
"I don't see why not," Brax answered without any hesitation. If he was still with Charlie, he wouldn't have agreed. In fact, if the boys wanted to, he would talk them out of it. He knew how much Charlie was against this, especially seeing as she's a cop. It didn't matter now because Brax was being his old self again. This was the easiest way for the River Boys to make money. If they got all the money, a lot of it could go for more stock at Angelo's. Everyone in the town already had bad impressions on the boys so they wouldn't exactly ask where the sudden money came from. They had been doing this for quite awhile and it wouldn't hurt to do it again. There was a small difference this time from every other time. Casey was old enough and had hung out with the boys more often. Brax didn't want his youngest brother to know anything about this. Firstly, Casey would probably go ballistic, and would then tell Ruby who would tell Charlie. Brax told the other boys to keep this quiet, and could only talk about this among each other. They settled on going in two days time. That way it gave them enough time to gather all the equipment they needed, and the day was fairly close so that hopefully nobody would have harvested the crop before they did.