"My god, what a depressing looking place," Tegan murmured as they drove into Summer Bay. "If those bitches make us stay in this dump for too long, I'll make sure they're deaths are even more painful."

"I don't know, there's a certain charm about this place," said Hayley.

"That's it, I'm not letting you out of the city again," she said, and both women shared a laugh.

"So, do you reckon Brodie and Pee Wee's refusal to answer the phone means they fucked up again?" asked Hayley.

"Yep," said Tegan. "If they'd done the job, we'd all know about it by now."

Hayley flicked through the channels on the radio until she found a local station. "Police are on the lookout for two cars seen fleeing the scene after a shooting incident…"

Hayley and Tegan grinned at each other. "Yep, the stupid wankers fucked up," crowed Tegan. "Quick, call Brax to let him know, and maybe he'll finally let us be rid of those two dicks as well."

"God I hope so," murmured Hayley. Brodie was ok, but Pee Wee always made her skin crawl. He was too like the late and not at all lamented Mick, in that he had an, 'I want to fuck the gay out of you' vibe about him. In fact, Brodie seemed to be the exception to the rule when it came to the men who worked for the Braxtons. The Braxtons themselves had never caused her any issues in that regard, some with her job, but that was to be expected. She was more worried about them finding out about her drug habit, than them hitting on her. Pee Wee on the other hand, only respected power, hence why he picked on those he saw as weaker than him. Lucky for her that Tegan was anything but weak, and that had kept certain hands from her. Pee Wee, like Mick, is one man the world wouldn't miss if something were to befall him.

Joey's eyes swam with pain as Charlie dabbed at the wound with some of the antiseptic Joey had found in the medicine cabinet. She'd tried to treat the wound herself by standing in front of the mirror above the basin, but it'd been too awkward, so Joey had reluctantly agreed to let Charlie treat her wound. After what had just gone down between them with her ill-advised confession, then lame attempt to dismiss it as a joke, the last thing Joey had wanted, was to be sitting on the table with her top off and Charlie's hands on her.

Charlie winced in sympathy each time Joey sucked her breath in at the pain.

"You really should let a doctor see to this," Charlie told her.

"Why, what could they do that you're not already doing?"

"Give you something for the pain for a start."

Joey shook her head. "No way," she said. "I need to keep my wits about me, and I can't do that dosed up on drugs."

"You have a hole in your shoulder Joey."

"It's not that big a deal," Joey tried to assure her.

"I may not be a doctor, but I know enough to be able to tell that without stitches, even the slightest movement will make it bleed profusely again."

Joey went to argue with her again, but she knew Charlie was annoyingly right. There had to be an alternative.

"Find the staple gun," Joey told her.

Charlie paled at the suggestion, because she knew who would be the one having to hold the stapler, and then send those staples into human flesh.

"This is a vet's surgery, there has to be one around here somewhere," Joey said.

"No there doesn't," Charlie said, partly in hope so she wouldn't have to use it on Joey.

"I've seen them on vet shows on TV," Joey said. "They use them just like some doctors do."

"Doesn't mean there is one here."

"Could you at least look?"

She should say no, but Joey's determination to avoid professional medical care at all costs persuaded Charlie to search the surgery for a staple gun, because she'd rather that Joey had her type of limited care, than none at all. Unfortunately for Charlie, she found the staple gun. It felt cold and uncomfortable in her hand as she brought it over to Joey.

"I don't know if I can do this Joey," she murmured.

"Just think of me as paper."

"Paper doesn't talk back," she said. Charlie took a deep breath. "Here goes," she warned her, moments before depressing the stapler.

"Fuck," Joey muttered, and she repeated it as each staple made its way into her body.

"Done," Charlie said in a slightly strangled voice. She had a new appreciation for medical professionals after that. "You won't be able to wear a bikini anytime soon, but it should hold until you get someone to take a proper look at that."

"Thanks," Joey said. The wound pinched as she struggled into her top. Charlie reached out to help her. Once her top was on, the women's eyes caught each others.

Charlie was the first to break contact. Still rattled from earlier, the last thing she wanted was a repeat of earlier, even if Joey had brushed it off as a joke.

"So, how did you get into the business in the first place?" Charlie asked as a distraction.

"Are you asking out of genuine curiosity or as a cop looking for evidence against me?"

"Can it be both?" nearly slipped out, but instead, Charlie just said. "Curiosity."

"Well, I never had much in the way of role models, but there was one who always looked out for me, and was like a mentor to me," she replied, vowing to leave Elijah's name and relationship to her out of it. Even though her original foster time with him had been short, and it had been some years later before they met up again, Joey didn't want to risk implicating him in any way. She knew Elijah had taken steps to delete their past together, and the cops by now had probably discovered the gaps in her official foster history, but that had only dealt with the official records, and not the actual people involved. There was just no guarantee the cops wouldn't find the link between her and Elijah if they found the right case managers to ask. Some of those people had remarkable memories, and she owed it to Elijah to at least try to keep him out of this as much as possible. He'd left that life behind him, and he didn't deserve to be dragged back into it because of her. It was bad enough she'd used him as her messenger, the last thing she wanted, was for the cops to start looking for him as well.

"I really looked up to him," Joey continued. "I followed him around like a puppy, wanted to emulate him, much to his regret. He never wanted me to follow him into the business," she told Charlie. "He even tried to warn me to steer clear, but I was young and stupid, thought it was all so exciting, and so I never really stopped to consider the real consequences of getting involved, until I was already well and truly neck deep in it."

"Is this the same guy you contacted earlier?"

"No, my mentor is dead," Joey lied, really hoping Charlie wouldn't go searching once they parted ways.

"Was this mentor the same foster father who taught you to shoot?"

Damn, trust Charlie to put it together. She really should never have mentioned any of that in the first place.

"Charlie, I get that you have a lot of questions, but we don't have a lot of time," she said, fobbing off the question, which would probably just make Charlie more curious. She really should have just kept her mouth shut, Joey thought to herself, especially around a cop. "First thing we need to do is to ditch the car, and find a replacement," Joey told her as she peered out the window.

"We?"

"Unless you want to stay here?" said Joey.

"I want to call the cops."

"You'd be dead by the time they got here."

"They'll be all over town after that ruckus earlier," Charlie said. "I daresay they could be here in a matter of minutes if I called."

"So could Brodie and Pee Wee," she reminded her. "Look, we get out of here, and when it's safe, I'll drop you off, then you can your cop buddies."

"If you steal a car from anywhere around here, they'll know to just look for that, and we probably wouldn't get far."

Joey sighed. She was right, but they had no other choice. The damage to their car was just too much of a calling card.

"We'll just have to take that chance," she said. "Then we head to that tree line we saw earlier, and take the back roads." An obvious move and it would mean driving and being exposed for a couple of blocks, but their options were too limited, and time was running out.

One good thing about a small town, was that the phone book had shown that there were only a couple of places for Pee Wee and Brodie to check out. After the first location had turned up no sign of the women, Pee Wee had turned the car toward the next.

"Hang on!" Brodie cried out excitedly.

"What now?"

"I just had an idea."

"Always a first time for everything," Pee Wee mumbled under his breath. "What's this idea?" he asked aloud.

"We just passed it."

"Passed what?"

"Somewhere we didn't think of looking before."

Peering into the rear vision mirror, Pee Wee saw what his mate meant, and smiled. It was perfect.