Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty Eight
Charlie woke up with a headache, an aching body and a strong desire to stay in bed.
"Well, why don't you then?" Joey asked.
She was sat on top of the blankets on the bed beside her, having already got up to make coffees for them both. Charlie lay in bed, propped against the pillows and looking very sorry for herself.
"I've got a murderer waiting to be interviewed," she pointed out glumly. "I can't just abandon the case…"
"It's one day, Charlie," Joey said. "He'll still be there and he'll still be a murderer tomorrow. Let me call in sick for you."
Charlie sighed. It was more than a little tempting. And she did feel unwell.
"Angelo will be furious," she pointed.
"All the more reason," Joey smirked.
Charlie laughed. Joey leant in and kissed her.
"Shall I ring the station for you?" she asked.
"Yes, please," Charlie said, sounding rather childlike.
Joey smiled again, kissed the top of her nose and headed out into the lounge to get her the day off work. She had already called Alf and asked for time off to look after Charlie. Knowing exactly what was going on and what everyone had been through the night before with Hugo, Mr Stewart had agreed without hesitation.
Ruby arrived at school and was surprised to see Xavier there. He didn't look very well, or very pleased to see her.
"Hi, Xave," she tried, approaching him at his locker.
"I have no interest in talking to you," he replied curtly, slamming his locker door for effect.
Undeterred, she followed him towards their first class of the day.
"I heard what happened to you," she said. "Are you okay?"
"I'm just peachy," Xavier snapped. "Nearly killed. And now my brother's being hunted even more than before, thanks to you."
He threw himself into a chair and flipped through his textbook. Ruby sat down beside him.
"I didn't have a choice, Xavier," she insisted. "I had to tell them the truth. I'm sorry."
"I'm not interested," Xavier replied. "So why don't you go back to following Liam around instead of me? You've been quite happy to do that for the last forever. Don't stop now."
With gossip about the night before rapidly spreading around the Bay, including that Charlie was exhausted and unwell at home, Leah made a pack up from the Diner and took it round to her friends' apartment.
"Hey, Leah," Joey greeted warmly when she opened the door.
"Hey," the chef replied. "I thought lunch might be helpful."
"You're the best friend ever," Joey decided, welcoming her into the apartment. "Charlie! Lunch is up!"
A few moments later, bundled up in her dressing down and looking very down, Charlie appeared from the bedroom.
"Aw, you poor thing," Leah sympathised. "You look terrible!"
"Thanks," Charlie said sardonically, pulling up a stool at the kitchen counter where Joey was organising the tubs their friend had brought round.
"Sorry," Leah said quickly. "I didn't mean that the way it sounded."
"Don't worry about it," Joey said smoothly. "She's just cranky today."
"It was a rough night then?" Leah asked, also climbing onto a stool.
"Horrible," Charlie confirmed. "But I feel really shitty for feeling ill when the worst bits didn't even happen to me. I bet Xavier and Gina aren't hiding away at home like babies."
She pouted unhappily. Joey reached over and squeezed her hand.
"Everyone feels ill sometimes," she said.
"Yeah," Leah agreed. "Don't be so hard on yourself."
At lunch time, Ruby headed out of school with Nicole. She felt more glum than ever since Xavier had given her the cold shoulder in every class.
"I just don't know how to make things right with him," the younger girl said.
"You need to sit down and talk it through," Nicole said. "But before you do, you need to get everything straight in your head. And you have to be honest with yourself."
Ruby paused mid-step.
"What do you mean?" she asked cautiously.
"Don't yell at me again but you need to deal with this Liam thing," Nicole told her.
"How?" Ruby asked.
"For starters, you need to admit that you have a crush on him."
Angelo returned to his office in a foul mood. He threw himself into his chair and looked at Watson who was diligently working away at her desk.
"I can't believe she didn't bother to come in," he complained.
He'd been livid ever since Watson had informed him that Charlie had called in sick this morning. And his lack of progress with Killer wasn't helping.
"She can't help being sick," Watson replied, not looking up from her laptop.
"It's a shitty time to pull a fast one," Angelo replied.
Watson stopped typing and glared at him.
"Charlie's hardly the type to pull a sickie," she said firmly. "Especially at a time like this."
Angelo merely shrugged.
Charlie, Joey and Leah all sat round the dining table, tucking into the delicious food Leah had brought with her.
"Thanks so much for this," Charlie said gratefully. "It was really kind of you."
"No problem," Leah replied. "It's nice to get the chance to sit down and chat with you. I feel like we hardly see each other now we're not housemates."
"Sorry," Joey replied.
"No, it's my fault too," Leah said. "I guess we've all been caught up with stuff."
Charlie nodded. Joey grinned.
"Like wedding plans with Elijah," she giggled.
Leah blushed and nodded.
"Although, I'm starting to worry that he might be ashamed of me or something," she admitted.
"Ashamed of you?" Joey asked, utterly bewildered. "How could be possibly be ashamed of you?"
"Well, his parents are coming to visit and he's just… horrified," Leah explained. "I'm really excited to meet them but he seems to think it's the worst thing in the world."
"Well, that's probably more about them than you," Charlie said. "He might not get along with them that well or they might be kind of full on or something."
"You think?" Leah fretted.
"Of course," Joey assured her. "Who on earth would ever be ashamed of marrying you? Anyone would be proud to have someone so awesome as part of their family."
Leah couldn't help but blush. Charlie grinned. Joey remained oblivious. To her, it was more of a fact than a compliment. She had no idea how much it meant.
"I don't have feelings for Liam," Ruby lied.
Nicole shook her head and continued walking.
"I don't think you're going to be able to fix any of this until you start being honest," she said.
Ruby sighed heavily, irritated and feeling like she had hit a brick wall. If her best friend didn't even believe her then how was she meant to hide it all?
"Fine," she snapped. "I like Liam. But it doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean Xavier's right. Nothing's actually going on between us. We're just friends and we work together. I…"
"But you can understand where Xavier's coming from, right?" Nicole asked. "I mean, especially with everything else that's going on for him right now with Hugo…"
Ruby grabbed her arm in alarm.
"You know about that?" she asked urgently.
"It's all round the Bay," Nicole said. "Everyone knows everything."
Ruby sighed heavily and shook her head.
"But with all that and then knowing that his girlfriend is fantasising about some other guy… I know you can't help it but I feel really sorry for him," Nicole admitted.
With Leah back at the Diner, Charlie and Joey opted to snuggle up on the sofa with blankets and DVD's. Joey lay with her legs stretched out. Charlie lay in her arms. They held hands.
"Thank you for looking after me," Charlie said. "I know I'm being pathetic."
"You're not pathetic," Joey assured her.
"I'm just… so tired," Charlie sighed. "I haven't felt exhaustion like this for a long time."
"Well, it's not surprising," Joey said tenderly. "You've been working all the hours God sends for ages now. You were bound to burn out at some point, Charlie."
The police officer sighed and closed her eyes.
"I just wish we'd solved the case first," she said unhappily. "Right now, I feel like I'm just wasting time."
"My parents are coming to visit in three days," Elijah announced proudly.
Leah paused amid the flurry of the busy Diner.
"Excuse me?" she said.
"I called my parents and they're coming earlier," Elijah said. "If that doesn't prove how eager I am to show you off to them, then I don't know what will."
He smiled. Leah moved out from behind the counter and hugged him. Upon Charlie and Joey's advice, she had confessed her fears to her fiancé. And as usual, he had been utterly perfect in his response.
"And anyway," Joey said affectionately. "You've got to build yourself up again. I believe there's a little role playing game you were interested in acting out."
Charlie blushed, remembering their conversation from the night before. She giggled and squeezed her hand.
"In that case, I aim to get better as soon as humanly possible," she said. "Because I really, really like the idea of you in uniform."
"Should I be disturbed that you find the cop outfit so hot?" Joey asked, mildly concerned. "I mean, you're not about to run off with Watson or something, are you?"
Charlie snorted with laughter.
"I don't think you need to worry about that!" she chuckled. "I love her to bits but not like that!"
Joey grinned and hugged her.
"You'd better not!" she teased.
After school, Ruby finally managed to catch up with Liam who looked a little unnerved to see her. Silently, she fretted that he might have worked out of the truth of her feelings for him.
"How are you?" she asked.
"I'm good," he said, packing up his guitar, eager to get home. "You? I heard about everything that happened with Martha and Xavier and everything."
Ruby nodded. She didn't really want to discuss that particular situation. She'd spent enough time today trying to figure out exactly what people knew.
"I just wanted to apologise again for everything that happened," she said. "Xavier should never have kicked off at you like that."
"I'm sure we'll get it cleared up," Liam said. "But we can't have contact until I've spoken to Gina, okay? The last thing I need is some rumour ruining my life. I've only just put myself back together."
Ruby nodded but looked utterly devastated.
"What's wrong?" Liam asked.
"Well, Gina's not exactly going to want to deal with school stuff any time soon, is she?" Ruby pointed out. "I won't get to work with you for ages."
Liam sighed and sat down in his chair. He hadn't thought of that.
"I'll just pop round and…"
"She won't want to hear it," Ruby said. "She's got too much on her plate already."
Liam nodded.
"So, I guess this is goodbye for now then," Ruby said sadly. "I hate that Xavier's ruined something that's so important to me."
She turned for the door.
"Wait!" Liam said, compassion taking over good sense.
Ruby turned back hopefully.
"Look, I'm sure it'll be okay," he said awkwardly. "As long as we keep things professional and transparent. We can… we can carry on."
The look of sheer elation on her face did nothing to ease his nerves.
"I am going to get such a telling off tomorrow," Charlie sighed.
"Just kick him in the balls," Joey giggled.
Charlie snorted again, very amused by the image.
"I might have to come up with some other response first," she said mildly. "I might be his boss but he could still do me for assault if he wanted."
"Ah, the jury would only have to meet him to empathise with you," Joey said with a smirk.
Charlie chuckled and kissed the top of her girlfriend's head.
"I love you, you know that?" she said.
"I know," Joey said happily. "And it makes me happier than anything in the world ever could."
"Oh, for goodness sake, Colleen!" Irene finally snapped.
All day long, the waitress had been whinging about Marilyn and Alf's apparent wedding.
"All I'm saying is…" Colleen began.
"You're fussing abut nothing!" Irene declared. "It's all a big joke, Colleen! They're not married, they're not engaged. They're not even seeing each other! They just told you they were to try and teach you a lesson for being so bloody nosy!"
Colleen opened her mouth to respond but for the first time in her life, she had no words.
Over in the Surf Club, Alf and Marilyn weren't speaking. He was furious with her for making an already awkward situation worse and she was upset that her potential last weeks on earth might have to be lived without the love of her best friend.
Ruby arrived home in a mix of jubilation over Liam and upset over Xavier. She quickly joined Charlie and Joey on the couch, happy to be home and safe again.
Next time… Charlie returns to work, Jill takes her anger out on Joey and Miles and Colleen confronts Marilyn…
