I will be updating again tomorrow and then I won't be back until Sunday so I hope you enjoy the chapter. Love, IJKS xxx
Chapter Two Hundred and Forty Seven
Things were a little awkward the next morning when Tony showed up for his first shift at the bait shop. Alf had left Joey in charge of showing his new employee the ropes.
"Listen," Tony said. "Before we start I just wanted to apologise so much for last night."
"It's fine," Joey said dismissively, although her feelings had most definitely been hurt. "It wasn't your fault."
"Rachel's really sorry too," Tony said. "She didn't mean it the way it sounded."
"Don't worry," Joey said a little bitterly. "Not everyone can be a high flying Doctor. Some of us have to lower ourselves to enable old men to fish."
"Seriously, Joey," Tony said desperately. "She didn't mean it like that. That's not who she is. She doesn't look down on you for working here."
"No, because that's all I'm capable of, hey?" Joey said. "It's not good enough for people like you."
"It is!" Tony said. "I'm really looking forward to working here! She really didn't mean to offend you."
"Look, let's just get on with it, okay?" Joey suggested. "I bear no ill will towards you or Rachel or anyone. We'll just draw a line under it."
"I just can't believe she'd be so damn rude!" Charlie ranted.
Having been sent out on the coffee run by both Watson and Angelo, probably because she was driving them nuts with her complaints, Charlie had run into Miles and sat down with him.
"It is weird," Miles agreed.
"I really have half a mind to charge over there and tell Rachel exactly what I think of her," Charlie continued.
When Joey had told her what had happened, it had taken a lot of persuasion on Joey's part for her not to do exactly that last night. Charlie had been furious. Joey had just been wounded.
"I wouldn't," Miles said. "Unless Joey wants you to."
"She doesn't," Charlie sighed. "But I should. You know what she's like. She always wants to keep the peace and think the best of everyone. But it's just pissed me off so much!"
"Can I piss you off even more?" Miles asked a little nervously.
Charlie looked confused.
"I kind of accidentally told Elijah that Leah likes him," her friend blurted out.
"Miles!" Charlie screeched. "What on earth did you do that for?"
"It was an accident! I didn't mean to! It slipped out!"
"How in the world could something like that just slip out?" Charlie wanted to know.
Miles sighed and explained that he'd got the wrong end of the stick and thought Leah had taken their advice and confessed herself. But she hadn't. And by the time Miles tried to backtrack, it was too late.
"What do you think I should do?" he asked. "Should I tell Leah?"
"You don't want me to investigate your murder, do you?" Charlie remarked with a hint of a smirk.
Miles blanched.
"I think you need to speak to Elijah first," Charlie said reasonably. "If he doesn't feel the same way then hopefully he won't say anything to embarrass her. And if he does then, well then you might have done a good thing."
Miles looked mildly relieved.
"I said might!" Charlie reminded him.
Joey and Tony headed to the Diner for their lunch break. Charlie had called to say she had to work through lunch and Tony had arranged to meet Rachel.
"See you back at the bait shop," Joey said, turning away and heading towards the counter to order her food, and hopefully persuade Aden to take his break with her.
"Joey?" Rachel called.
Joey hesitantly turned back, shoving her hands in her pockets.
"I am so sorry about what I said last night," the Doctor ventured.
"It's fine," Joey said dismissively, turning away again.
Rachel hurried up to her.
"It's not," she said. "It was unforgivably rude and I truly am sorry. All I meant was that Tony has a lot of experience and if he's not running the gym anymore then I think he should be using the qualifications he has, like teaching or something like that. It's not that I think working in the bait shop is a bad job. It's not. I mean, come on, the whole town survives on the fishing industry. And I gather from Alf that nobody knows how to run the place better than you!"
She smiled. Joey managed to smile back.
"I really didn't mean to be rude," Rachel continued. "I just said what I meant in the wrong way. I'm sorry."
"It's honestly fine," Joey said, extending her hand to confirm that they had cleared the air.
Rachel shook her hand and thanked her.
"And to be honest, as much as I love working there, I am training to be a chef on the side so while I think running a bait shop is a fantastic job, I do have aspirations to do other things too."
"Well, I'm sure you'll succeed," Rachel said.
"Thanks."
"Listen, would you and Charlie like to come over for dinner tonight?"
"Oh, you don't have to do that," Joey said, shoving her hands back in her pockets. "Honestly, everything's fine. Consider the air cleared, okay?"
"I know," Rachel replied. "But I'd like to. If you and Tony are going to be working together then I'd love to take some time to get to know you better."
"Well, okay then," Joey said a little anxiously.
All might be forgiven as far as she was concerned but Charlie was likely to take a little more persuading. But then, perhaps spending an evening with Tony and Rachel would be the way to do that.
"Thanks."
"Come to us at seven thirty?"
Joey nodded, thanked her again and then went to find Aden.
Back at the station, Charlie was working through lunch and munching on a sandwich Watson had brought her. There had been a robbery earlier that morning and Charlie had spent the morning investigating. Now there was a lot of paperwork to do. She had a team out patrolling for the culprits but in the meantime, she wanted the whole case to be as up to date as possible.
"Hi," said a voice.
Charlie turned to see Angelo hovering in the doorway to her office. She paused typing and gestured for him to come in.
"What's up?" she asked.
"I just wanted to apologise for the way I've been behaving lately," he said, perching on a chair.
"Okay," Charlie replied evenly. "But care to enlighten me as to why?"
"I think I've been a bit jealous," he lied.
"Jealous?"
"Well, I know you worked really hard on the case," he said. "And you risked your life to save the refugees. But I literally devoted my whole life to it. It meant everything to me. And I guess I expected more from the results, you know?"
"More?" Charlie asked, confused.
"A bigger promotion, maybe or..."
Charlie narrowed her eyes.
"Isn't being free enough for you?" she asked. "I've never believed you to be a murderer, Angelo but you did kill Jack, even if it was an accident. You unlawfully ended his life. You never should have fired into the dark like that. And although I'm happy you were brought back here to save those poor people Hugo was abusing, don't you think it's reward enough to be free? To be allowed to carry on working as a cop? Does it really matter if I got a bigger promotion than you did? I mean, it's not like you didn't get one. You're a Senior Constable now."
"I know," Angelo replied, wondering if he had truly thought his excuses through. "I do know that. But it took me a while to catch on. You know I'm always a bit slow on the uptake!"
He grinned. Charlie couldn't help but laugh.
"So, I just wanted to clear the air with you," he said. "I'm sorry for being an arsehole. I'd really like to be friends – with you and Joey."
Charlie raised her eyebrows. Friendship between Angelo and Joey was unlikely.
"I wondered if maybe you'd like to go out to dinner – the three of us – one night this week?"
"Um... maybe," Charlie said cautiously.
"Please?"
"Uh... well, yeah, I guess so. How about tomorrow?"
He smiled.
"That sounds great."
Standing up, he thanked her and headed back out of the room.
"Joey's going to kill me," Charlie mumbled to herself as she picked up her phone.
"Well, it's nice to see you back," Joey said.
Having poked her head around the Diner kitchen, wondering where everyone was, she'd found Irene, Leah, Colleen and Aden all fussing around a newly returned Annie.
"Thanks," Annie replied.
"Can I steal your boy for lunch?" Joey asked Leah.
"As long as you eat here," Leah replied.
"Of course!" Joey laughed, dragging Aden out of the kitchen.
They immediately ran into Romeo.
"You are going to be one happy bunny, Romeo Smith," Joey commented.
When he looked confused, she was about to explain when her phone rang.
"Hey, Charlie," she said when she answered.
Stepping away from the boys, to take the call, she let Aden explained Annie's return to Romeo.
"Would you mind if we went out for dinner with Angelo tomorrow night?" Charlie asked quickly.
"What?" Joey shrieked a little too loudly. "Yes, I would mind!"
"But..."
"In case you hadn't noticed, I really don't like him."
"I had noticed," Charlie said. "But... he just seems really lonely and pathetic at the moment. And he wants to make some kind of overture of friendship. It seems rude to turn him away."
Joey sighed and sank into a vacant chair.
"I was going to practice recipes for my course tomorrow night," she said a little sourly.
"Well, okay, why don't we invite him to our place?" Charlie suggested. "You can practice on both of us."
"Can I put arsenic in his paella?" Joey asked.
Charlie snorted and pointed out that that probably wasn't the best idea she'd ever had. Joey sighed and agreed, promising to be good.
"Speaking of," she said, deciding that now was a perfect time to get her girlfriend to do what she wanted. "Rachel and Tony have invited us round for dinner tonight."
"What?" Charlie shrieked. "No way! After what she said to you..."
Joey cleared her throat, a gesture that pointed out the police officer's hypocrisy. Charlie sighed.
"Fine," she muttered. "But don't expect me to be nice."
"If I've got to be nice to Angelo then you have to be nice to Rachel," Joey replied. "Deal?"
"Deal," Charlie agreed a little grumpily.
At ten past seven that evening, Charlie and Joey stopped off at the Diner to get dessert for their dinner with Tony and Rachel. Charlie had been somewhat grumpy about making the gesture but Joey had insisted.
"Hey, Miles," Charlie said, leaving Joey to go up and order. "Did you speak to Elijah?"
"Yeah," Miles replied unhappily.
"And...?"
"He said that he just wanted to pretend nothing happened and that he doesn't know anything," Miles explained.
Charlie couldn't help but be disappointed. She and Miles had hoped that the Reverend might return their friend's feelings and that perhaps she could embark on a happy relationship. She wasn't exactly known for having much luck in that particular area of her life.
"That's a shame," she said. "I'd hoped that he might want to make a go of things or something."
"Me too."
"What's up?" Joey asked, appearing behind Charlie.
"I'll tell you on the way," Charlie said. "We don't want to be late for Her Royal Highness!"
Charlie, Joey, Tony and Rachel sat round the dinner table and despite previous tensions, the evening seemed to be going well. Rachel had apologised again and Joey and a more reluctant Charlie had accepted it. Both women had been invited to hold the baby and both had surprised themselves by getting a little broody.
"So, what's all this about you training to be a chef?" Tony asked, sipping a glass of wine.
"Oh," Joey said with a small blush. "I'm back in college part time, studying – finishing the courses I started when I was a teenager."
"She brings home lots of recipes for us all to try," Charlie enthused. "It's awesome. And she's bought a diabetic cook book so that she can make Ruby friendly dishes."
"How is Ruby?" Rachel asked. "She hasn't shown at the hospital in an emergency lately, which must be a good thing."
Charlie nodded.
"She's doing a lot better," she said. "And she's finally learnt to communicate with us about how she's feeling."
"Good," Rachel said. "That's really important."
"Yeah," Charlie replied. "We're all in a much better place than we were when she was first diagnosed, I think. Communication all round seems to be improving!"
"What kind of chef do you want to be?" Tony asked Joey after a few moments of silence.
"I don't really know," Joey admitted. "I mean, it's probably a pipe dream but..."
"Joey, you're going to be amazing," Charlie said firmly. "I can genuinely see you running your own restaurant before the year's through."
"Maybe," Joey said. "I mean, I'd like to do the cooking part. I love doing that and I've got quite a good recipe repertoire now!"
She grinned.
"But owning a business sounds far too grown up!"
Tony chuckled and told her that he was sure she could do anything she put her mind to.
"Well said," Charlie told him. "You two should come round one evening. Joey can show you how amazing she is in the kitchen."
"They might be disappointed," Joey said shyly.
"That would be lovely," Rachel accepted, glad that both Charlie and Joey seemed to have forgiven her now. "Just name a day."
"Maybe one day next week?" Joey suggested, realising that her girlfriend was utterly determined to show off her skills at every opportunity.
The faith Charlie seemed to have in her was overwhelming sometimes. It was both lovely and frightening. She worried about messing up. But on the other hand, she trusted that no matter what, they would always love each other. And that was the best feeling in the world.
Next time... Tony considers applying for a teaching job, Angelo spends the evening with Charlie and Joey and Ross has an emergency...
