"Ok, thanks Fitzy," Teri Garner said into her radio, then she turned to Robertson and Graves. "They found a body not far from us. He's been shot three times."

That explained the gunshots earlier, thought Graves.

"He?" said Robertson with some surprise.

"Yeah, he matches Peter Wilson's description."

Robertson whistled softly at that unexpected news.

Joey blinked in the growing darkness of their surroundings as she finally recognised who she'd just run into. She lowered the knife.

"Charlie," she said in amazed shock.

"Joey," Charlie said. "Oh god, I thought I might never see you again," she said, going in for a hug. "I love you," the words just tumbled out of Charlie's mouth. They were words Joey never expected to hear, but now knew she couldn't enjoy for long.

"Charlie," she began to say, but Charlie silenced her with a finger to her lips.

"It's ok, I just needed to say it aloud," Charlie told her. "But I know now is not the time to discuss it," she said.

"I know, we have to get out of here."

"Do we?" said Charlie. "Those gunshots were a calling card to the cops, and they have to be on their way by now."

"I was so scared when I heard them, I thought that something had happened to you."

"It nearly did, but I managed to get away from Watson and Pee Wee."

"Watson?" Joey said in confusion. "How the hell did she end up here?"

"I didn't stop to ask," replied Charlie. "But I'm sort of glad she did, because she stopped Pee Wee from raping me. That's what those gunshots were about, she killed him," she told her. Then she noticed the fresh blood on Joey's top. "You pulled the staples," Charlie said.

"I had a little run in with Tegan," Joey said as she tried to process what Charlie had just told her. Pee Wee had tried to rape her? That bastard was lucky to be dead, because she'd have torn him from limb to limb if she'd gotten her hands on him.

"That explains the marks on your face," Charlie said, gently cupping Joey's chin. "You're going to have some nice bruising there," she noted. "Where is she?"

"Taken care of," Joey said.

Charlie frowned. She didn't like the sound of how Joey had phrased that.

"Come on, we still have to get out of here," Joey told her.

"Joey, the police are on their way, it's safer now to stay, especially now that Pee Wee is dead and you've done whatever you have with Tegan."

Joey knew Charlie wanted to know more about Tegan, but Joey didn't want to waste time explaining it.

"Yeah, but Hayley's still out there somewhere and she'll be even more pissed when she finds out what I did to her girl," said Joey. "And let's not forget about Watson. She's probably not far from us right now."

"I honestly don't think we have to worry about Watson from now on," Charlie said.

"Are you sure?"

"She didn't shoot me when I ran from her, and she had every chance to."

"That woman has been relentless, so I find it hard to believe she's just given up," Joey said. "What if she only allowed you to run, in the hope that you'd lead her straight to me?"

That was something that hadn't even occurred to Charlie in her flight, that Watson had allowed her to escape, so she could follow and catch them together, where she could then kill them both, before getting away herself.

"We can't stay here," Joey said.

"We can hide behind some trees or something until we know it's the cops who are nearby."

Joey shook her head. "I," she said, stressing the I. "Can't stay here, Charlie."

Charlie looked confused. "But I love you."

"And I love you, but let's be honest here. We can never be together," she told her. "If we go back, I go to jail and then it's all over for us," Joey said. "You're a cop Charlie, you can't be with someone who is behind bars."

Charlie knew it was the truth, she'd told herself the same thing, but now faced with the reality of Joey's words, it hit her harder than she ever expected. It felt as if her heart was breaking.

"You were willing to stay and take that risk before," Charlie said in a small voice.

"Because I didn't see any other way out at the time," Joey replied. "Charlie, this may be my last chance to leave this all behind and disappear forever."

"A chance to leave me behind."

Joey reached out and held Charlie's face in her hands, gazing into her eyes. "Don't you think that if there was any way in which we could be together, then I'd stay?" she said. "I love you Charlie, more than I've ever loved anyone, but you're who you are, and I'm who I am and circumstances have made it impossible for me to stay. I have to go."

Charlie nodded, tears streaming down her face without her realising. Joey wiped them away with a gentle finger, then she leant in, pressing her lips softly to Charlie's. "I love you and I'll always miss you."

"I'm coming with you," Charlie suddenly said, surprising both women.

"I can't ask you to give up your whole life for me," Joey said.

"I just meant I'm sticking with you until I know for certain, that you're safely away from here," Charlie hastily added, though she was no longer certain if that was why she'd said those words. Could she really let Joey walk away from her forever, now that she'd told her how she felt? She'd soon find out when the time came. "Please Joey, I need to see you to safety before I can go back."

If she had the time, Joey would argue, but all she did was grab Charlie's hand. "In that case, I'm going this way," she said, with a nod to her right.

"Why that way?"

"It feels the right way."

Charlie wavered. Her head was still telling her to wait for backup while her heart said to follow.

"Charlie, it's ok to stay and wait for your colleagues if that's what you really want," Joey said. "But I have to go right now."

"And I'll be right there with you," Charlie said with much more determination. She just wasn't ready to say goodbye just yet.

Holding up the mobile phone, Joey used the light to guide their way.

"Where did you get that from?" Charlie asked as they moved on.

"Tegan," replied Joey. "I'll ditch it as soon as we're out of the area," she said, since it no doubt had a way for the Braxtons to track Tegan, but right now, they needed the light it offered far more.

Graves circled the body, then squatted down on her haunches to peer more closely at him.

"One of these shots was to the back of the knee, which means the shooter was behind him," Graves noted. "He was either crawling away when it happened, or it was the first shot and it took him down," she said. "If that is the case, then the shot to the groin seems rather unnecessary, especially as an extra shot increased the chances of us pinpointing this location, which meant that this shot was likely more personal than the others."

"Very personal indeed," said Robertson. "I'd say our dear departed Mr Wilson had a little more in mind than simple murder."

"You think he tried to attack Buckton or Collins?"

"Unless Miss Callahan grew sick of him," Robertson said. "He was known to be quite crass toward women, and by all accounts, it was quite a heated discussion between them at the vet surgery," he said. "He may finally have said one wrong thing too many toward her, and she snapped."

"Well, whatever the reason, if they are turning on each other, it could be to our advantage."

"Yes, but it also makes them even more dangerous and unpredictable," he said. He looked over to Dex. "Walker, I want you to go back to the cars, get some proper lighting to set up here, and start processing the scene," Robertson instructed. "I want to know what happened here."

"Yes, sir," Dex said, wasting no time in carrying out his duties.

"Garner, I want you to stay here and help Walker," he said. "Avery, Fitzgerald, which way from here?"

"It looks like someone went this way," Fitzy said. "There's broken shrubs where someone has crashed through."

"Can you follow the trail?" Graves asked.

"If it was during the day, then yeah, I'd have no trouble at all, but we have very little light left, and from here on, the bush gets denser," Fitzy replied. "Even with the torches, it's going to be hard to follow a trail," she said. "And whoever else is in here with us, they'll know where we are by the light from our torches."

"We have to take the chance," said Robertson. "We have someone with a gun running loose in here, along with Buckton and Collins, one of whom appears to have an injury, if the blood found in the car is any indication."

"We don't even know if they're the ones in here," Fitzy pointed out.

"Wilson came in here for a reason," said Graves. "So it's a fair assumption he was following one or both of them in here," she said. "And someone took him out. It could have been Callahan or either of our women turned the tables on him, but whoever it was, went that way and we need to find them."

"Then just watch your step, because it'll be easy to trip over something in here," Fitzy warned.

Robertson nodded. "Lead the way, Constable."

Joey and Charlie went as quickly as they could, the light from the mobile phone now their main source of light. More than once, both women had stumbled over a twig, or caught their clothing on a branch, but nothing stopped their progress completely. Charlie knew this was another wrong decision she'd made, that the smart thing to have done, would have been to use that phone to call her colleagues, and have them meet up with them, yet her only movement was to be in tandem with Joey. Her heart truly was making the rules right now. She wasn't Charlie the cop, who should be taking Joey into custody, instead, she was the woman in love, doing what she could to keep Joey safe.

"Can you hear that?" Joey said, not breaking stride.

"Sounds like running water."

"There must be a river or something."

A couple of minutes later, they burst through the bushes, onto a dirt track. The moonlight offered more light outside of the dense bush, giving a decent view of what lay before them.

"There's a bridge," Joey said, racing toward it.

Charlie followed. She knew the time was coming where she'd have to say goodbye forever to Joey.

Joey stopped at the end of the bridge. There was no sign of any cars or people. This was her chance. She walked to the half way mark of the bridge, then turned to face Charlie, knowing this was goodbye, and that this was going to be the hardest thing she'd ever done. How did one say goodbye to the love of their life?

"I guess this is goodbye," Charlie said rather lamely.

"Yeah," Joey murmured. They stood staring at each, both now at a loss for words. Half a minute went by before Joey found her next words. Before she could say them, the phone went. She automatically looked at it, and frowned at what she saw.

"YOU'RE DEAD!" the message read. They heard the gunshot, moments before Joey was falling backwards, her hand on her chest where blood was now seeping profusely through her fingers. Charlie reached out for her, but Joey's other hand slipped through hers. She tumbled over the railing, falling from the bridge, into the darkened depths of the river.

"NO!" shrieked Charlie, leaning over the rail. Her eyes searched frantically. The moonlight shone in reflection upon the water's surface, but Joey was nowhere to be seen. There were only ripples in the water at where she'd fallen. Joey was gone.