Waking early the next morning, Charlie felt something warm and firm against her and it took her a moment to remember where she was. Then another moment to realise that warm firmness was Watson. Sometime during the night, Watson had turned onto her back and Charlie had gravitated toward her. Then she noticed something else.

"Oh shit," she muttered and quickly took her hand from where it had been resting on Watson's breast. The younger woman murmured in her sleep and Charlie held her breath, afraid she'd wake and find her almost lying half on top of her. When Watson's eyes remained closed, Charlie carefully rolled away and let her breath out.

As Charlie crept from the bed, she didn't see the little smile on Watson's face.

"Ok Nick, I'll be there in 30," Charlie said and she disconnected the call.

"News?" asked Watson.

"Nothing he'd say over the phone," she replied as she glanced at her watch. It was nearing 5pm. "It's most likely an update about the safe house." She grabbed her car keys. "Make sure you keep an eye on her," Charlie said with a nod toward Joey. "With me gone, I don't want her getting any ideas that she can try something on with only you here."

"She won't get one over on me."

"I know that," Charlie said. "But she may think that with your relative inexperience, she might stand a better chance with you than she would with me."

"You honestly think she will try something?"

Charlie glanced over at Joey. She was sitting at the table playing solitaire with a deck of cards, appearing much more relaxed now than she had been throughout most of the day, when she'd fidgeted in her seat or paced restlessly and on more than one occasion, Charlie had even caught her eyeing off the door. Probably imagining there was freedom on the other side. It was a common response to situations like this. Being cooped up was never fun and in a way, it was easy for witnesses to feel like they were the prisoners, no matter how accommodating she tried to be toward them. Sometimes that feeling of perceived captivity would fade as they accepted their lot and other times, it could intensify and they'd grow even more restless. Those were the trickiest times, and when she and her partner would need to be the most alert to any attempt their protectee might make toward contacting someone on the outside or trying to make a run for it. Charlie frowned and pondered the current status of her protectee. Joey really had settled down in the last hour or so, but was that because she'd finally accepted her fate or was she playing possum with the intention of throwing them off balance when the right time arose, she had no idea. The woman was just so damn hard to read at times.

"Charlie?" Watson said.

"Sorry, my mind wondered," she murmured. She stared at Joey a moment longer, before turning back to her colleague. "Look, she'll probably be fine, but just play it safe and don't let your guard down around her."

"Will do."

"I shouldn't be gone too long," Charlie told her. "And I'll grab us some tea on the way back. Chinese or fish n chips?"

"Burger with the lot from that fish n chip place down the road," replied Watson. "Make sure they don't forget the beetroot."

Charlie nodded and then called out to their witness. "Joey, what do you want for tea?" she asked. "I'm going to the fish n chip shop after my meeting."

"Chicken souvlaki with garlic sauce and extra onions," Joey said without looking up from her cards.

"Garlic sauce and extra onions," Watson murmured to Charlie. "With that combo, you can sleep on the side of the bed closest to her tonight."

"Gee, thanks."

"Any word yet?" Watson asked Charlie when she returned from her meeting with Nick Parish.

"The safe house will be ready day after tomorrow," she replied.

"They're taking their sweet time getting it ready," murmured Watson.

"Just being ultra cautious," said Charlie. "Few want to admit it out loud, but I think there is a genuine concern about corruption in the Force with links to the Braxtons, which makes what we're doing doubly dangerous."

Before the conversation could go any further, a woman's screams interrupted them.

"Joey!" they said in unison and bolted for the bathroom, guns drawn at the ready as they burst through the door.

"Clear," Watson said after a quick scan of the room. Of course it was clear, thought Charlie. There had been no way for anyone to have gotten into the bathroom to get to Joey without passing them first, but they'd reacted instinctively to Joey's screams and despite the lack of danger, Charlie was pleased to have seen the way in which Watson had responded to a potential emergency situation.

The police officers holstered their weapons and stared at the scene before them. Their witness was standing on top of the toilet seat cover, completely naked. Her body was glistening wet, so she'd obviously just stepped out of the bath.

"What's wrong?" Charlie finally managed to ask through her amusement.

"That!" Joey said, pointing to the floor.

Charlie frowned. All she could see was a spider scurrying across the bathroom tiles. "What, the spider?"

"Yes, that ugly, eight legged bug eyed monstrosity."

"It's barely bigger than a 50 cent piece."

"Who cares how big it is!" screeched Joey. "A spider is a still a fucking spider however big it is."

Joey's phobia seemed very real, which was the only thing that stopped Charlie from laughing aloud at her situation.

"Can you please get rid of it," Joey pleaded with them. She hated the whine in her voice and admitting to any weakness, but there was little point in denying she was shit scared of spiders, when she was standing starkers on top of the dunny.

Charlie noticed that Watson was gazing at Joey's nakedness with an appreciative smirk. Even she had to admit that Joey naked was something to behold, but she wouldn't show it as obviously as Watson was. With a bit more experience, she hoped Watson would learn to mask her expressions better. "Georgie, why don't you go and get the table ready for tea."

"Sure," she said, taking one last, lingering look at Joey on the way out.

Reaching for the robe resting on the hook on the back of the door, Charlie handed it to Joey. "Thanks," Joey murmured and quickly covered her nakedness. She hadn't been that bothered by the two women seeing her naked, she'd been more embarrassed by her reaction to the spider. "Now, can you please get rid of that," she said, pointing to the offending creature.

She wasn't exactly a fan of spiders herself, so Charlie approached it with a bit of reluctance.

"Just squish the ugly thing," Joey told her.

"I can't just kill it."

"Why not?"

"Because it's not hurting anyone."

"It's hurting my fucking ego," Charlie heard Joey mumble.

After finding something to put the spider on, Charlie coaxed it onto it and then rushed to the window, opened it and tossed the little beast outside as quickly as she could. She turned back to Joey. "This house is clean," she said in her best Tangina impersonation from the movie they'd watched earlier that day.

"I'd rather deal with poltergeists than spiders," Joey muttered.

"Tea is ready, so I'll leave you to finish up in here," Charlie told her and left the bathroom. It was night two of their vigil and aside from Joey's restlessness, this had been the most excitement they'd had so far and Charlie hoped to keep it like that. The more boring, the better it was in some ways and as long as there were no more spiders, they might just survive their stay at this Motel.

The next day…

"As our adventure now draws to a close on its third night, our intrepid duo continue to sit guard outside the bathroom, while their witness plays with her rubber ducky in the bathtub," Watson said into the end of her pen. "This is Const. Georgie Watson, signing off."

"Is that going to be your official report for the day?" Charlie said, amused by her younger colleague's antics.

"Well, I could have added all the fun we've had since you came back from seeing Sgt Parish yesterday evening," replied Watson. "There was that game of poker or two we had, then there was monopoly and most exciting of all, there was that game of solitaire you played while Joey and I watched Sharknado."

"If I'd had any idea that you enjoyed those god awful movies, I'd have requested a new partner," Charlie told her. "They're just so ridiculous," she carried on. "I mean, how dumb is it to have sharks flying through the air, landing on cars and opening them up like tin cans?" she asked. "For starters, how the hell do the sharks even survive out of the water?"

"Of course they're so ridiculous Charlie, that's the whole point of these movies," Watson pointed out. "They're the sort of movies where you leave your brain at the door, suspend all disbelief and then just let yourself go along for the ride."

"No thanks."

"We're barely at the start of this assignment Charlie, so how exactly do you intend to spend the many, many, many hours we're all going to be stuck together?"

"Once we're in the safe house tomorrow, we'll have a little more freedom to move around and do things," Charlie said. "And I can assure you, that I am well experienced at finding ways to pass the time on these long assignments."

"I know plenty of ways to pass the time as well," Watson said and Charlie tried not to flush at the suggestiveness behind her words and smirk. "In fact, since this is to be our last night in this lovely motel room, how about we make the most of it?"

"And how exactly would we do that?" asked Charlie. She knew damn well what Watson was proposing, but she was trying to buy time to think of a way to say no without offending her too much.

"A little body to body fun," replied Watson.

"That would be such a bad idea," Charlie said and she took an even bigger swig of her drink in a vain attempt to cool down. "Georgie, we could be stuck on this duty together for a long time yet, so lets not fuck it up with a romantic entanglement."

"I'm not talking about a romance here, Charlie," Watson said as she siddled up to her side. "Just a little bit of strings free fucking between two women who are obviously hot for each other."

"I am not hot for you."

"You should tell your body that," Watson whispered into her ear and Charlie shivered. "I know you Charlie, you're the love 'em and leave 'em type and I'm totally fine with that," she said. "It's just a bit of fun Charlie."

This really was such a bad idea, yet Charlie was surely tempted to take her up on it. In the last couple of days, she'd been right in recognising that Watson had posed the greatest risk to her at this time. Watson had known it as well, had even played it up and while Charlie should have shut her down from the start, part of her was flattered by the attention and so she'd tried to treat it as a game. It had backfired.

"Come on Charlie," Watson said and she took the drink from Charlie's hand and set it aside. "Joey just got in the bath, so I reckon we have a good half hour or more to engage in some good old fashion fucking," Watson said, since both women knew Joey used her bath time to get time away from them and be alone.

"And if we don't have that much time?" Charlie said, still not quite willing to give in.

"Then we go a little quicker."

Watson's lips were now a few inches from hers. "This really is such a bad idea," Charlie said once more, before closing the distance and crushing her lips to the younger woman's. Nick's warning about letting this happen flew completely out the window as their kiss grew stronger, the floodgates of her desire opening as Watson backed her toward the bed, their clothes being shed along the way.

Charlie felt the bed behind her knees, moments before she tumbled backwards. Watson was on top of her in a flash, their breasts pressed together as their lips once more found each other's. This was such a mistake, she needed to stop this, but she was too fucking horny to think clearly and the moment Watson's lips trailed downward and touched her nipples, she didn't want her to stop. "Oh fuck," she moaned as Watson lavished each of her nipples in turn. "We need to be quick," she managed to remind Watson between pants. Charlie felt Watson's mouth smiling around her nipple.

"Yes we do," Watson said. She grabbed Charlie's hands and moved them above Charlie's head.

"What are you doing?" groaned Charlie when she felt something cold on her wrists, moments before she heard the cuffs snap shut.

Joey ran the soap the length of her leg. While the door to the bathroom did offer some soundproofing, Joey was still picking up enough noises to guess what was going on on the other side of that door.

"Oh Georgie, you got your girl," she chuckled. The last couple of days, she'd watched Georgie flirting with Charlie and had been amused by the more stoic officer's reactions to the attention and little by little, she'd suspected that Georgie had been breaking down that barrier. Now it seemed as if she'd blasted right through it. She chuckled again.

"I like to be in total control," Watson whispered in reply and the low growl in her voice made Charlie momentarily forget that she had just been handcuffed to the bed. It was only a fleeting memory lapse, as something else began to feel so very wrong. Charlie's head felt heavy and she was having trouble concentrating.

"Georgie, I'm feeling kinda strange here," Charlie murmured.

"Good," replied Watson. "It means the roofie I slipped into your drink is doing it's last bit."

"What the!" Charlie muttered. Even in her current state of confusion, Watson's words hit her like a brick. "You drugged me?"

"I'd seen you eyeing my body off with interest, but I still wasn't entirely convinced that you'd succumb to my charms without a little pharmaceutical help mixed in," Watson explained with a smirk that made Charlie uncomfortable. "I admit, it's such a shame we can't finish what we started, 'cos I reckon you'd be a fantastic fuck, but business comes first."

The fog lifted briefly from Charlie's mind as her eyes were drawn to what had suddenly appeared in Watson's hand. "Oh shit," she murmured, staring into the barrel of Watson's gun.

"I'm sorry Charlie, but this is the end of the road for us," said Watson. "Or more precisely, the end for you."

The change over her younger partner was amazing. Now, staring into those cold, calculating eyes that had once been filled with youthful enthusiasm and mirth, Charlie realised just how wrong she'd been about Watson. There was no need for her to learn how to better mask her thoughts and feelings, for she'd already mastered that to perfection and now the Georgie she thought she'd known these past days was long gone, and in her place, was someone far more dangerous and predatory.

"Why, Georgie?" the shocked police officer finally managed to ask.