Chapter Sixty-Three

Sitting at the Diner, having skipped out on breakfast in order to meet Xavier before school, Ruby was still pondering the recent revelations about Charlie. Her older sister had always been so maternal, at least with her. She'd always looked out for her and protected her, was far too good when it came to discipline and sniffing out a lie and Ruby had always thought she would one day make an excellent mother. So now, knowing that she already had a son out there that she had no intention of getting to know, she was confused. It just didn't make any kind of sense. How could she not love him? How could she not want to be his mother? How could she have given him away to a couple of strangers?

***

At lunch time, Charlie headed down to the docks to see Joey and abduct her for lunch. It had been a long and tedious morning and she was desperate for her shift to be over so that she and Joey could go to rehearsals, lose themselves in Romeo and Juliet and forget about the world for a little while. Waiting patiently on the wharf, she looked at the trawler, hoping for a glimpse of her girlfriend. Sure enough, Joey appeared, waved at her colleagues and hopped over the side.

"Charlie!" she said, seemingly delighted. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought I'd treat you to lunch," Charlie explained.

Joey beamed and rewarded her with a kiss. Together, they headed off to the Diner.

***

Angelo had been busy for several days trying to find out what was going on with Charlie. He knew he should leave it; if she wanted her to know then she'd just tell him. But she hadn't. And he doubted that she ever would. They hadn't been a couple for long, back before his life had turned to sheer hell, but Charlie had never struck him as being the most open of people. She'd always kept her emotions under control, never been too forthcoming with words and generally kept her cards close to her chest. Perhaps that was why her relationship with Joey bothered him so much. He was certain that Joey heard all of Charlie's secrets, that she opened up to her, shared her life completely with her. He was sure they did everything together that he had always longed to do with Charlie but would now never get the chance. His phone rang. It was May. Ignoring it, he continued his quest on the computer, researching Charlotte Buckton's past.

***

Charlie and Joey sat down in a corner booth together waiting for their food. Charlie smiled as Joey chattered about her day. Even working on a fishing trawler five days a week, Joey still got overexcited at the prospect of being out at sea. Charlie thought perhaps they could go out on Alf's boat sometime soon and spend some time together. That was what they had been trying to do when Brett had run Charlie over with his car. Joey plan had been to take a trip down memory lane. Their first kiss had been out on the water in that boat. Charlie had been so startled, she'd considered swimming back to shore. Joey had beaten herself up, feeling like she had done something terrible but Charlie hadn't been able to stop herself from offering comfort. And they'd begun their tentative efforts at a relationship from there.

"I'm rambling and boring, aren't I?" Joey frowned, noting the far away expression on her girlfriend's face.

"No," Charlie replied quickly. "Not at all. I like it when you get caught up talking about boats. It makes me happy."

"It makes me geeky."

Charlie laughed softly and reached for Joey's hand across the table.

"It makes you adorable," she corrected. "And you got me thinking about our first kiss."

Joey grinned, immediately thinking about it too. It had been the best moment of her life, or at least the first of many.

"That was a very good kiss," she said quietly.

Instinctively, Charlie leant across the table and captured Joey's lips with her own. Drawing away, they smiled at each other.

"And so was that."

***

Ruby, Xavier, Nicole, Geoff, Jai and Annie entered the restaurant deep in conversation. Nicole had broken up with Trey when he'd released a tape of them having sex to the school and her friends were rallying round to cheer her up. Spotting Charlie and Joey in the corner, Ruby excused herself to go and say hello.

"Hey, Rubes," Joey said cheerfully.

"Hey," Ruby replied. "Do you mind if I go over to Nicole and Jai's tonight?"

Charlie nodded.

"That's fine. We're going to be at rehearsals anyway."

"When's the big performance, by the way? You keep avoiding the question."

"Because I have no intention of you coming to see it," Charlie said quickly.

Ruby looked aghast.

"How could I miss out on my sister's debut?" she asked. "Both my sister's debuts?"

Joey grinned, thrilled to be included.

"It's in a couple of weeks," Joey told her.

"Joey!" Charlie complained.

"Great!" Ruby beamed, putting an arm briefly around Joey's shoulders.

"How's Nic?" Joey asked.

After the night Joey had been forced to crash on the couch at Roman's, the two had bonded. Nicole was a nice girl with a good heart and Joey hated to think of everything she had lost. Just as she thought she was happy again, she'd been let down. She couldn't help but feel sorry for her. And she was taking Belle's illness very hard.

"She's coping," Ruby said. "We're cheering her up as best we can but what with this Trey thing and with Belle..."

"I'm sure you're helping," Charlie said softly.

Moving away from them, Ruby headed back to her friends to enjoy her lunch. Charlie exhaled loudly.

"That was okay, right?" Joey said.

"Yeah, I'm hoping that she'll let the whole baby thing go and we can just breeze past it and get back to normal," Charlie replied.

Joey nodded. She still wondered whether keeping secrets was the best thing to do but she respected and understood Charlie's decision.

"Here's hoping," Joey said.

***

At home, Morag and Ross continued their routine. With her husband becoming more forgetful lately, Morag was struggling to cope. She had tried to talk to him about Charlie's secret but after his brief moment of forgetfulness, he had firmly stuck to the story. Charlie had had a baby boy and given him up for adoption because she was too young to be a mother.

***

Angelo sat up a little straighter when Charlie walked back into work. She eyed him curiously. He looked like he'd been caught with his hands in the biscuit tin. Walking over to lean on the desk, she asked him if he was alright.

"Yeah," he said. "I just feel like my mind's about to explode from paperwork."

She smiled, knowing the feeling. Turning, she headed back into her office. Angelo stared after her. Having done several illegal and immoral searches, he'd discovered that Charlie had been raped as a teenager. That's how she'd got pregnant. It was startling. He felt like he was seeing the woman he was in love with in a whole new light.

***

After dropping Amber home, Charlie and Joey headed back to their own house. Rehearsals had been good but long and at the end of it, they had run through almost the entire show. There were still some issues and points of forgetfulness amongst the cast but generally, it was shaping up to be a good show.

"Hey, guys," Leah greeted from where she was watching television.

"Hi," Charlie and Joey said in unison.

"Good night?"

"Yeah, pretty good," Charlie confirmed. "Is Ruby home yet?"

"Yeah, she got in a few minutes ago and headed right to bed," Leah said.

"We're going to hit the hay too," the police officer told her housemate.

Taking Joey by the hand, Charlie led Joey into the bedroom. After changing into their night clothes, the couple tucked themselves under the covers.

"It has been such a long day," Charlie complained.

Joey snuggled into her and kissed her softly.

"I'll just let you sleep then," she said.

As she turned away, Charlie gripped her arm, holding her in place.

"It hasn't been that exhausting."

Wrapping their arms around each other, they kissed, immediately letting it deepen.

***

A week later, Joey was at work when her phone rang. It was Aden. She'd spent a lot of time with him since his and Belle's return from their honeymoon. Belle was becoming weaker and weaker and it was hitting her friend hard. Joey and Charlie had gone round to see both of them a couple of times and Joey had taken Aden off to the beach once every few days just to give him room to breathe, cry and gather his thoughts.

"Aden?" she said when she couldn't hear a voice on the other end of the line.

"She's gone."

***

Days passed in a blur as Joey devoted all her efforts to helping Aden, Irene and Nicole arrange the funeral. The effects of Belle's death had reverberated through the town. Angelo felt sad but lacked permission to grieve and those closest to her were struggling to keep it together. The morning before the funeral, Ross, Morag, Charlie, Joey and Ruby were sitting down to breakfast together.

"Charlie?"

Ruby's tone made Charlie's heart sink. She only said her name like that when she was either after something or broaching a subject she knew Charlie didn't want to talk about. They made eye contact and Charlie waited for whatever was coming next.

"I know you didn't want to talk about it but..."

Joey watched Charlie tense. She could also tense what was coming.

"Don't you ever want to find your son?"

"Ruby, I don't think this is appropriate breakfast conversation," Ross interjected.

"I'm sorry," Ruby said. "I just... I can't get my head around how easily you can forget him."

Charlie swallowed, comforted only by Joey's hand which found its way into hers under the table.

"I don't want to talk about it," she said.

"I've just been thinking, with Belle's death and everything... isn't life too short to waste it?"

Charlie just stared at her.

"If you found him now, you could still build a life with him."

"I don't want to build a life with him," Charlie said shortly.

"But..."

"Ruby, I'm sure Charlie has her reasons and it's not our place to push the issue," Morag said.

Charlie looked up at her sharply. She met Morag's gaze and it said more than a thousand words.

"Let it go."

Ruby hung her head and shrugged.

"I just thought..."

"I'm going to go to work," Charlie said, scraping her chair back and hurrying towards the door.

"I'll see you out," Joey said, chasing after her.

In the safety of the outside, Joey forced Charlie to turn around and look at her.

"Charlie..."

"Joey, she knows!"

"Who? Ruby? Ruby doesn't know anything," Joey said certainly.

"Morag. She knows."

"Charlie, she was just defending you," Joey insisted. "She probably still feels really bad about kicking off this whole thing. It doesn't mean..."

"You didn't see the way she looked at me," Charlie said.

Joey chewed her lip hurriedly.

"She knows," Charlie said unhappily.

Joey held both her hands and Charlie fell against her shoulder. Joey held her tight.

"I have to go to work," Charlie said, drawing reluctantly away.