Charlie yawned as she sipped her morning coffee, being careful not to spill it as Joey inadvertently drove over a pothole. It was a good thing she'd had plenty of practice in eating and drinking on the road, because Joey had been true to her word about not wanting to stay anywhere for too long, so they'd spent a total of fifteen minutes in the last town, time enough to order a takeaway breakfast and coffee and have a bathroom break. Charlie would have preferred a shower and a bit more time to freshen up, but after yesterday's disaster with Angelo had cost them so much time, she'd agreed with Joey that in and out as quickly as possible was probably the best way to go. She didn't know where or how far behind or even how many people were still after them, but she had no doubt that they were there and so the smart thing to do was to just keep putting as much distance between them as possible and if that meant being a little uncomfortable with her physical appearance, so be it. Staying alive took precedence over how her hair looked.

Leah smiled when she opened her eyes and saw the rose resting on the pillow next to her. She wasn't surprised to find herself alone. After they'd slept in each other's arms for half the night, they'd woken in the early hours of dawn and made love again and again, before she'd fallen into an exhausted, yet blissful sleep.

Leah reached over and brought the rose to her nose, allowing the scent to fill her nostrils. It was nice. She rolled onto her back, still breathing in the scent. Her body felt well used and satiated after the most amazing night of sex she'd ever experienced. She knew she should feel guilty for fucking someone in her marital bed while her husband was away, but she didn't. It wasn't like her at all and she didn't know if it was due to the fright she'd had last night or just her first time with a woman or a combination of things, she just didn't care. The sex had brought her body to life and she'd done things she'd never expected herself to do. Not in her wildest dreams had she ever thought she'd use her hands and mouth on another woman in that way, and to her surprise, she'd even brought her lover to orgasm. Multiple times.

"Oh god," she groaned, her body already in withdrawal for a woman whose name she didn't even know.

Charlie bit into her egg and bacon roll, grimacing when the fatty juices leaked down her chin. It tasted wonderful, so she wasn't too fussed about a little grease. Wiping her chin with the napkin as she chewed, Charlie spared a glance at her driver. Joey hadn't said much since she'd woken this morning and for that, Charlie was grateful, as she hadn't felt like doing a lot of talking either. She was still a bit tired, but at least she'd finally managed to get a few hours of sleep once she had firmly decided that she'd had enough of letting her thoughts get the better of her. All she'd needed to do was to accept a few things and ignore the 'what ifs' and doubts, because they weren't helpful in any way. Things had happened, there was no changing that and now it was about the future and that future, was all about staying alive.

"Prick got his just desserts," Const. Elly Handley said as she looked down at the body of a man. "This piece of trash has been going from town to town raping women," she said.

"He's only a suspected rapist," Snr Const. Frank Melvin calmly reminded her.

"He matches the description all the victims have given, and we found a collection of their underwear that he'd stolen from them after he'd raped them, in his car," she said. "He's guilty alright."

"That maybe so, but he's a victim now," Melvin pointed out.

Handley looked over his shoulder. "He's out of earshot," she said.

"Good," he replied, knowing she was referring to the journo that had been trying to get too close to the action. "So, this piece of shit bit off more than he could chew," he murmured, free now to speak his mind without it ending up all over the news.

"This could just be self defence," Handley said. "He attacked another woman and she defended herself."

"Could be," he murmured. "Though you'd then have to question her as to why she removed his pecker and then shoved it up his own arse. There's also the hood of his car. The car has dirt all over it, yet the hood is completely wiped clean of dirt and presumably, fingerprints, which suggests someone looking to cover their tracks, rather than some frightened woman fighting for her life. No, this seems more calculated."

"Revenge?"

Melvin shrugged.

"You reckon it's a local who did this?" Handley asked.

"I'm not sure," he replied. "People are stopping at this diner all the time on their way somewhere, so could easily just be a passerby who crossed his path."

"I guess we'd better find out then," Handley said in less than convincing fashion. They'd do their job, but none of them would be in any real hurry to bring the killer of a sick rapist to justice.

Her to-ing and fro-ing last night had finally settled it for Charlie. Her best chance of survival really was with Joey. Twice now, Joey had saved her life. That was more than any other partner on the Force had ever done for her. Sure, she'd never really been in a situation where her life had needed saving until this nightmare had begun, but that didn't change the fact that Joey had been there for her when she'd needed it most. It was also hard to ignore that it had been two fellow police officers who had wanted to kill her, yet it had been this woman next to her who had saved her. A woman she'd doubted and continued to doubt, even though she'd had her back in a way no one ever had. It just no longer seemed fair to keep doubting Joey like that, and while there was no denying that Joey's motives differed to hers, the end result was the same. They both wanted to stay alive and had helped the other to achieve that.

Graves eyed her partner suspiciously. He'd been grinning like an idiot all morning and she had a nasty feeling that she did talk in her sleep after all. Given her dreams last night had been rather explicit, he'd have copped an earful. Here's hoping she mentioned no names, because she couldn't bear the thought of being stuck in the car with him knowing that she fancied him.

"You choose baby," Tegan said, as they prepared to set out onto the road for the new day. "Left, right or straight ahead at the intersection."

Hayley closed her eyes, picturing the path ahead of them for a moment, before opening her eyes. She smiled at her lover. "Straight ahead," she said. "That's the direction they took, I can feel it."

"Straight ahead it is."

While Charlie still had many questions she wanted answers for in regards to who the hell Joey Collins was, she had finally come to accept that for the time being, Joey would remain an enigma of sorts to her. She would never know the full truth about her, at least not until she was in a position to do the background check herself, and since that wasn't going to be happening anytime soon, it was pointless to keep turning herself inside out about this woman and her secrets. It achieved nothing, except to erode her own confidence and she was done with that.

Watson's ears pricked up when news of the murder came over the radio. Going by that report, it sounded like Leah hadn't gone to the cops about what happened last night, and since she'd wiped down the hood of the car Leah had been pushed across, the only evidence that could lead to Leah, then to her, was gone, unless Leah spoke up of course. She still could, but Watson couldn't worry about that right now, and it's not as if they weren't already after her anyway.

Besides, as far as she was concerned, she'd performed a community service in ridding the world of that scum. Experience told her that there was no way Leah had been his first intended victim, nor would she have been the last, and if she'd had more time, she'd have made that bastard suffer further for it.

Charlie knew she'd had these little pep talks to herself before, only to later succumb to self doubts and trust issues the moment Joey revealed something new. Not this time though. She had a renewed determination to trust in herself and in her instincts. She was after all, a police officer with years of experience and knowledge to draw upon, and while this was a situation beyond her usual permit, her training had prepared her for all eventualities and so she just needed to treat this situation as such. Just trust in your instincts, she told herself, they had served her well in the past and while they may have wavered more than she'd have liked in the past few days, it was time to tune into them again and believe in them. And right now, her instincts were still telling her to trust Joey and to stick with her until this was all over.

Pee Wee fumed as their car limped into the next town. A passing farmer had happened by and given them enough petrol to make it this far, only for the suspension on their car to then desert them before they got here. He'd actually begun to feel carsick with all the rocking and feeling every bump in the road for the past half an hour.

"Fuck it, let's just go home," he muttered. "Brax can suck my fucking cock if he has a problem with it," he snapped. "I'm sick of this shit, I mean, what the hell are we meant to do. Just continue to drive around without having a clue where they are or where they're going?"

"Heath gave us their last known location."

"That's hours away because we've been going in the wrong fucking direction from the beginning," he said. "We've got no hope of closing the distance between us when we don't even know which way they left that town in."

"Well, since this car isn't capable of going any further, anytime soon, I guess we're out of the race," Brodie said and Pee Wee grinned at the perfect excuse they had. Sometimes Brodie really wasn't as dumb as he acted most of the time.

Watson whistled as she drove. A few hours of sleep had done wonders for her, as had the sex. Perhaps it had been the pent up of emotions after the attempted rape that had driven Leah's libido and need for intimacy, she wasn't sure, only that last night had been amazing and had she not had to resume the chase this morning, Watson would have liked to have spent more time teaching Leah the further joys of having sex with a woman. And if last night was anything to go by, she suspected Leah would be more than up to the tutelage. She felt a knowing tingle between her legs at the memory of Leah's mouth there. Yep, the woman was definitely an avid student in the art of lovemaking.

"Shit," she muttered when further images of Leah in the throes of passion invaded her thoughts. The last thing she needed was for her desires to flare up again. She needed her mind on the job at hand, not on what she'd left behind, however enjoyable it had been.

Charlie looked over at Joey again. The woman appeared on high alert today and had a steely determination in her eyes that Charlie found oddly comforting. It was right at that moment when Charlie suddenly realised that if Joey had been a police officer, her partner on the Force, she would have admired her for the way she'd handled this situation, not doubted her. From Joey's fighting skills, to her ability to think on her feet, to the calm, yet determined way in which she had dealt with all of this, those were all admirable qualities in a police officer. Okay, so they're not so admirable qualities for a criminal to have, but they were the qualities she and Joey would need if they were to get out of this alive.

Charlie sat back in her seat, a small smile on her lips. A weight felt like it had lifted from her shoulders, which filled her with confidence that the nagging self doubts were behind her.

Casey stuck out his thumb as another car went by. He'd woken that morning with one goal in mind. To run as far as he could. He was done kidding himself. He couldn't hurt those women, regardless of what Brax thought of them. His heart just wasn't in it and never would be, because no matter how much Brax tried to push him into being like the others, he wasn't one of them and didn't want to be. Brax would never stop trying to corrupt him if he stayed though, so his only option was to get out while he still could. Casey had no idea where he was going or how he'd live, he hadn't really thought that far ahead, but standing out here, with his thumb out, he felt the taste of freedom for the very first time and he liked it. Even the guilt gnawing at him for abandoning his kid wasn't going to hold him back, because for all his faults, Heath was a good dad and he'd see right by his niece or nephew once he or she was born, which made this somewhat easier for Casey.

He smiled when a little blue car pulled up next to him. The driver was a young woman with a mop of curly hair.

"Where are you heading?" she called out.

"Anywhere," Casey said.

"That's a big place," she replied with a grin and Casey found himself grinning back.

"That's ok, I have all the time in the world to see it."

"Well, I'm heading toward the coast, then further down, if you're interested in going that way."

"Sounds great," he said, jumping into the car without further delay. "I'm Casey."

"Ruby."

"Nice to meet you Ruby."

Casey sat back in the seat as Ruby drove off. Stu had probably returned to the room by now and found the note he'd left behind. He could just imagine Brax's rage when Stu informed him of the notes contents, but right now, Casey didn't care. He was free, finally free.