Chapter One Hundred and Sixty Six

"If that's Angelo I'm going to fucking kill him," Joey warned grumpily.

It was the middle of the night and she and Charlie were being rudely awakened by a mobile phone ringing. Confused and sleepy, Charlie sat up and fumbled around for her phone.

"Jo, it's you ringing," she mumbled when she realised.

"I'm not ringing you!" Joey protested, still huddled under the duvet. "I'm asleep!"

"No, sweetheart," Charlie said, feeling a little clearer. "Your phone. It's your phone that's ringing."

More confused than ever, Joey managed to sit up. She reached for her phone just as it rang off.

"It was Aden," she said.

Before Charlie could reply, the phone was ringing again.

"This had better be good," Joey squeaked.

She yawned as Aden told her he needed help. Finally, she woke up properly.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "Aden, are you okay?"

"I didn't know who to call," Aden said desperately. "Romeo's sick. I don't know what's wrong with him. And fucking Liam has fucking fucked off!"

"Liam? Romeo?" Joey said. "What are you talking about?"

"Can you come and help me get Romeo to the hospital?" Aden asked, frustrated by his friend's lack of comprehension.

Deciding not to ask any more questions, Joey agreed and hung up.

"What's happened?" Charlie asked worriedly.


An hour later, Charlie, Joey and Aden were waiting in the hospital for news on Romeo. Nobody was quite clear on the details but it looked as if the teenager had taken something at a party he and Xavier had been holding at Liam's house.

"I really need to call this in," Charlie said with her cop hat on.

"Can we wait?" Aden asked.

He didn't care about Liam or if he would get into trouble. Part of him would really quite enjoy it if he was being honest with himself. But he didn't know the role that Romeo had had to play in the evening's events and didn't want to get him into trouble.

"Why?" Charlie asked.

"We need to hear Romeo's side of things," Aden said. "I still have no idea what happened."

Charlie was about to insist but Joey silently begged her not to. Relenting, she decided to get up and get everyone a coffee.


It was late or early, depending on how you looked at it when Charlie and Joey finally dropped Aden back at home.

"No point going back to bed," Joey sighed, immediately beginning to make them both a strong coffee.

They both had to be up in an hour anyway. It turned out that Romeo's drink had been spiked. In a panic, he had called Nicole but due to her Liam related distraction from her exams, Aden had taken it upon himself to confiscate her phone. When he'd answered, Romeo had been in a state and by the time he had charged over, the party had mostly cleared and Liam was frantic. He and Aden had argued about calling an ambulance and when the apparently reformed rock star had realised that Aden was calling Joey, whose girlfriend was a police officer, he'd panicked and run.

"It's going to be a long day," Charlie agreed, sinking down at the kitchen table and rubbing her temples.

"Are you going to investigate officially?" Joey asked, coming to sit beside her with their drinks.

"I have to," Charlie said. "I have an obligation. If there's someone out there spiking people's drinks with illegal substances then we have to find out who they are. It's dangerous. Goodness knows what it could lead to."

She and Joey swallowed uncomfortably. They were both painfully aware of the violence people were capable of inflicting on each other.

"I hope you catch them quickly," she said.

"Me too," Charlie agreed.


Aden showed up to see Nicole before he started work that morning. Urgently, he pulled her to one side in order to tell her what had happened the night before.

"What are you saying?" Nicole asked. "Who do you think is responsible?"

"I think it's kind of obvious, don't you?"

Nicole stared at him and then shook her head, denying that Liam would have anything to do with something like that.

"Yeah, because he'd never touch drugs, would he?" Aden challenged.

"He'd never push them on someone!" Nicole insisted.

"He did with Belle!"

"He offered them to her at that concert and she willingly accepted," Nicole snapped.

They immediately launched into an argument.


Charlie headed to the hospital before she went to the police station. Romeo had been put on a drip overnight and when she entered his hospital room, he looked pale and unwell.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Pretty rough," he admitted. "Am I in trouble?"

"Did you do anything wrong?"

"Xavier and I held a party," Romeo remembered, although not everything was clear. "Liam was out of town so we... We shouldn't have."

Charlie pulled up a chair.

"So, Liam wasn't actually there?" she asked.

Romeo shook his head.

"And you maintain that you didn't take anything yourself? No pills or anything like that?"

"No!" Romeo said quickly. "I'd never do something like that. I don't even drink. I hate being out of control and..."

He started sweating and panicking. Charlie put a gentle hand on his arm to calm him.

"It's okay," she said softly. "You're not in trouble. I believe you."

He nodded uncertainly.

"When can I go home?" he asked.

"I'll go and check," Charlie promised, leaving the room.


"Aden!" Joey snapped when her colleague kicked the side of the trawler so hard that she wasn't sure if he was going to break the boat or his foot. "Calm down, would you?"

"Sorry," Aden mumbled. "I just... I hate that guy! And I hate Nicole for dating him and thinking his can do no wrong!"

Geoff watched uncertainly, opting to hang back as Joey just about managed to calm him down. She gently reminded him of what Charlie had said earlier in the day on the phone. Romeo was shaken but fine and he maintained that Liam wasn't responsible. He hadn't even known that he and Xavier were planning the party.

"He still bailed on us, Jo," Aden said. "He saw the state that Romeo was in and he just left me to handle it. I honestly don't know what would have happened if you hadn't picked up the phone."

"Liam handled it badly," Joey said. "And Charlie will be having words with him, I can assure you."

Aden nodded, apologised and finally began to get on with his work.


Charlie left Romeo at home and unhappily agreed to let him handle Miles and Kirsty and not interfere. Normally, she would have refused but while things so stressful in the house already, she didn't want to make things worse. It appeared that after her chat with Miles the previous day, he had called Kirsty's mother and she had come to stay and help look after her daughter. Everyone was hopeful that things would soon get better and Charlie understood that Romeo didn't want to rock the boat. Getting back into her car, she drove over to the house to see Liam and find out what on earth he thought he was doing by leaving Romeo to suffer the previous night.


At lunch time, Joey was heading to the Diner, eager to meet Charlie. Aden had being doing her head in for most of the morning and Geoff had, as ever, scampered off eagerly to see Ruby. She paused when she saw Romeo talking to John and the conversation didn't look like a pleasant one. She stepped a little bit closer, not sure whether to interfere or not.

"I don't care what kind of excuses you can come up with!" John snapped. "You're fired."

"But I was sick!" Romeo protested, looking heartbroken.

"Well now you've got all the time in the world to be as ill as you like, don't you?"

Joey charged up without thinking.

"You can't just fire him," she said.

John glared at her.

"What the hell has this got to do with you?" he demanded. "Stop interfering!"

"I will not stop interfering when I'm seeing someone being treated so badly!" Joey argued.

"Joey, don't worry..." Romeo tried, seeming utterly deflated.

"No, this isn't fair," Joey said, feeling strangely protective of someone she hardly even knew. "He was in the hospital all of last night. He was..."

"I had a stomach bug," Romeo said quickly.

Joey narrowed her eyes, caught a little off guard.

"A stomach bug that hospitalised you last night and you're okay this morning?" John challenged.

"They treated me for it!" Romeo insisted.

"You don't look sick to me," John insisted. "And I'm not changing my mind about firing you."

He turned to Joey.

"And as for you, I don't need some lower class lesbian trying to tell me what to do!"

Joey glared at him. John leaned in a little closer.

"And don't think I've forgotten about my earlier threat."

He stormed away, unaware the Gina, the woman he had tentatively been dating, had seen him. Romeo sighed heavily. Joey took his arm and led him into the Diner, wanting to sit him down and treat him to lunch in order to make sure that he was okay.


Charlie arrived for lunch five minutes late and full of apologies. She kissed Joey's cheek and sat down, surprised but not unhappy to see Romeo with her.

"How are you doing?" she asked.

"Oh, just great," Romeo sighed. "I just lost my job thanks to last night."

He growled in frustration.

"I never should have had that damn party!"

"Well, no," Joey agreed. "That was a dumb idea. But I'm sure most people would do the same thing at your age."

She grinned. Romeo smiled back.

"Why did you lose your job?" Charlie asked.

"I was late for work," Romeo explained. "I didn't even think about calling in. And I..."

"John Palmer is a very bad man," Joey interrupted.

Charlie found her pout endearing.

"What was he saying you about an earlier threat or something?" Romeo asked.

Immediately he panicked that he was revealing information that Charlie might not know.

"Has he started again?" Charlie asked.

Joey nodded. She dreaded to think how long she, Aden and Geoff might have left on their precious trawler. Charlie reached out and held her hand, lifting it gently to her lips. Romeo tried not to watch. The idea of two attractive women being together was definitely not abhorrent to him. And he definitely thought Charlie and Joey were gorgeous. Suddenly remembering the day he'd first rocked up in town and hit on Joey, he apologised. They both looked confused.

"I didn't behave very well when I first met you guys," he said.

"Oh, don't be silly," Joey said dismissively. "It was funny."

"Charlie wasn't quite as amused!" he remarked with a smirk.

Charlie chuckled.

"Sorry for hitting on your girlfriend," he said sincerely.

"It's perfectly fine," Charlie assured him. "To be honest, I don't know how a single day passes without someone hitting on Joey. She's just that incredible."

Joey blushed and smiled. Charlie kissed her cheek and then picked up her menu so that they could order their food.


Next time... Joey bonds with Romeo while Charlie and Angelo make progress on their case...