Hi everyone. Sorry for the delay in updating. I was having upload problems but normal service can now resume! Thank you, as ever, for the reviews on this and my other stories, including the new four-part story posted earlier today. IJKS xxx

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Chapter Forty-Seven

Arriving at work the following morning after a wonderful evening, Charlie came back to earth with a bump when she came face to face with Angelo Rosetta. Her heart literally stopped for a second as she stared at him standing in front of her. The tension in the room as she and the rest of her colleagues glared at him, could be cut with a knife. What the hell was he doing here? How dare he come back? And how the hell was he in uniform?

"Charlie," he said.

She felt sick at the sound of him saying her name. She never thought she'd see his face again. The last time she'd seen Angelo, he'd been taken into custody for shooting her friend and colleague, Jack Holden. He hadn't meant to do it. It was an accident, a mistake. And if only he had owned up, it could possibly have been forgiven. But he hadn't owned up. He'd lied and cheated. He'd even gone so far as to befriend Martha, Jack's grieving widow who was only just recovering from breast cancer. He'd even participated in Jack's funeral. Charlie had been dating Angelo at the time. She had been the one to realise that he was responsible for Jack's murder. While she hadn't wanted it to be true, the evidence had been too clear and she'd gone behind his back and set him up. Guilt had finally taken over and he'd confessed publically. It had been hell for everyone. Charlie hadn't wanted it to be him. Back before Joey, Charlie had thought that if it was possible for her to fall in love with anybody, it might have been Angelo. He was the sweetest guy and he'd had a thing for her since the first day they'd met, back when she'd been dating Roman. That felt like a lifetime ago now. She'd turned him down so many times and yet he'd been relentless. While she and Roman had been seeing other people, she'd agreed to let Angelo take her out and he'd been so romantic and so sweet, even when he'd realised that she'd really wanted to be with Roman instead. In a way, their story was unfinished. They'd only broken up because of what had happened with Jack, which had been an accident. But it had been too big an accident; too complicated, too painful, too tragic and too unforgiveable. And her heart had drawn a line under it the moment she fell for Joey. Even if he hadn't committed such an evil crime; in fact, even if she and Angelo had been together when she'd met Joey, Charlie wasn't sure she would have been able to stay away from her. Their love was too strong. It was far too powerful.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm heading up the special unit dealing with the shark attack," he explained, sounding as awkward and out of place as he looked.

"No, you're not," she stated, heading straight over to the reception desk to call her boss.

***

Joey worked hard in the sunshine feeling much better than she had in weeks. She felt silly for being so fearful the day before. Her talk with Amber had compounded a lot of fears inside her that she supposed had already been brewing with all the time Charlie was spending away from her, her head buried in work. But with the beautiful gesture her girlfriend had made the previous evening and the effort she was making to leave with her in the morning and come back that little bit earlier and hopefully be home in time for rehearsals on a Monday, Joey was comforted. She smiled, looking forward to Charlie coming home earlier that evening. Perhaps they would even have time for some kissing and cuddling tonight. It had been a welcome surprise to be able to make love the previous evening for the first time in over a week.

***

Charlie was in a foul mood. Angelo was back and she could do nothing about it. Watson was behaving like a child, not a professional police officer and most of the rest of the staff were following suit. The whole town had heard by now and were up in arms and she had found herself in the awful position of having to defend him. It was not a role she wanted to take but if he was going to do his job and get the hell out of town she had to facilitate that. Martha was heartbroken and Belle and Aden were furious. The only bonus was that Irene had already taken off on a long boat trip with Lou so she wasn't around to lay into Charlie too. It was only three in the afternoon and she had already had enough. All she wanted to do was leave early and crawl into Joey's arms but she hadn't even had a chance to return her text message. She'd be working until at least ten. For now at least, the new team weren't making less work for her. This was one messy situation. She had no idea what her superiors had been thinking when they decided it was a good idea to send a killer policeman to town.

***

"Hey!" Joey said when she spotted Aden thumping the hell out of punch bag in the Surf Club gym. "Are you okay?"

He turned to look at her, clearly furious. She glanced around anxiously. Everyone she'd encountered today seemed to be stressed, including Tony who managed to gym.

"What's wrong?"

"Why don't you ask your girlfriend?"

"Charlie?" Joey said, utterly bewildered. "Aden, what's happened?"

"Angelo Rosetta is back in town. That's what's happened."

Joey furrowed her brow. The name was familiar but she knew it wasn't someone she'd encountered before. She had lived in Summer Bay for a while but she'd not really got to know anyone until recently.

"Angelo. Police officer. Murderer. And your girlfriend's ex. And she's going round town protecting him."

Without compassion for his friend, Aden stormed away.

***

With a headache and a heavy heart, Charlie was more than ready to leave work at ten that night. Passing Angelo on the way out, he looked up at her.

"Thanks for sticking up for me today," he said from his desk.

"I didn't do it for you," she snapped back. "I did it for the poor bastard that lost his hand. And even though she'll never appreciate it, I did it for Martha."

He looked crestfallen.

"You know I didn't mean to kill Jack," he said softly. "You know how sorry I am."

"Not sorry enough to tell the truth straight off though," Charlie reminded him.

She turned and left.

Joey sat up in bed pretending to read her book but really she was watching the clock. Charlie had never answered the text she'd sent her at lunch time. Joey had checked her phone constantly. She'd even been pathetic enough to turn it off and turn it on again to reset the thing in case a message had had problems coming through but nothing had come. She jumped a little when she heard someone walking through the house. A few seconds later, Charlie appeared in the bedroom looking exhausted. Joey forced a smile.

"Hey," Charlie said unhappily. "I had the worst day ever."

"Yeah? What happened?" Joey asked, lacking emotion.

"Ugh, I don't even want to talk about it," Charlie said.

She began to strip off and then, without even bothering with pyjamas, threw herself backwards onto the bed on top of the duvet. Joey didn't even put her book down.

"Joey?" Charlie said to the silence. "Are you okay?"

She rolled over and peered at her girlfriend.

"I heard your ex is back," Joey said flatly.

"What? Oh, Joey, the fact that he's my ex isn't the issue," Charlie said dismissively. "You know what happened, right? He killed Martha's husband. It was horrible. Jack was my friend. He..."

Charlie surprised them both by bursting into tears. Feeling terribly guilty for her hostility, Joey threw her book down and gathered Charlie into her arms.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

Charlie wiped her eyes.

"It's okay. I've been holding it in all day. I never thought any of us would have to see him again. Why did they send him back here? Didn't they realise it would just cause everyone pain? And I'm the lucky bitch that... that has to... to..."

"To what?"

"To stick up for him because... because otherwise he won't get his job done quickly enough and get the hell out of town."

Joey held her tighter.

"And it means everyone will hate me because they'll think that I've forgiven him and I haven't, Joey. I haven't. It's just that I have to do my job. I have to. It's... Well, it's my job. That's the point."

***

Eventually, Charlie stopped crying. The cold air in the room got to her and she climbed under the duvet, ready for sleep. Snuggling up closer to Joey, she leant in to kiss her before turning the lamp off.

"Joey?" she whispered through the darkness.

"Yes, Charlie?"

"You don't need to be worried about Angelo."

"I know," Joey said. "I was just being silly."

"I've only ever been in love once in my life and that's with you. Nobody else has ever come close, not him, not anybody, ever. Nobody is a threat to you."

"Sorry for panicking. I just heard he was back, he was your ex and you were being protective of him and jumped to the wrong conclusions. I should have trusted you."

"Yes, you should have," Charlie said softly, ensuring Joey knew she wasn't angry.

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

Silence felt between them.

"I do love you, Joey."

"I love you too, Charlie. I guess that's why I get scared sometimes. I love you so much that I worry about what I'd do in case I ever had to live without you."

"You'll never have to find out."

Their lips found each other again in the darkness.