Chapter Three Hundred and Fifty Nine

The following morning, Charlie and Watson watched in some discomfort as Angelo was handcuffed and formally charged with aiding and abetting a fugitive. Having been read his rights, he was taken to a cell, awaiting a bail hearing scheduled for the following morning.

"How does a cop end up in handcuffs as much as he does?" Watson wondered.

Charlie kept her face impassive as she had a brief flash to her naughty spa weekend with Joey.

"I don't know," she sighed, keeping focussed on the discussion in hand.

"Do you think he'll go down for it?" Watson asked. "He seemed pretty sure last night."

"Hopefully not," Charlie said. "I mean, I know he did the wrong thing but…"

She sighed a little helplessly. To be honest, only a few weeks ago, she hadn't expected to ever feel sorry for Angelo again. His troubles were, as usual, of his own making. And yet somehow, it seemed like too high a price to pay.


Xavier walked to school along the beach front. He was hoping to get to spend some time with April today and he was falling for her pretty quickly. She was so interesting with all her political views and confidence and she was a wonderful tonic after everything that had happened with Ruby. He paused, spotting his former 'love rival' on the beach with his guitar. Deciding to do the right thing, he approached and apologised for all the bad blood between them. Life was too short to argue. He just hoped that the time would soon come when he and Ruby could be friends again too.


"I brought you a coffee," Charlie said, appearing in front of Angelo's cell.

In jeans and a t-shirt, her colleague was sat on the uncomfortable bench with his head in his hands.

"Thanks," he said, trying to sound enthusiastic.

Charlie smiled and handed it through the bars. He accepted it gratefully.

"I'm sure you'll get bail," she told him, trying to be as positive as possible.

Angelo sighed.

"I don't know," he said. "This time, I think I might have made one mistake too many. I don't think it'll be possible to put it right without jail. And unfortunately, I know exactly what happens to a cop in prison. It's not pretty."


Joey appeared in the spare room of the bait shop with a big smile on her face. It was Marilyn's last day of setting up before she was due to be officially in business the next morning.

"I don't suppose you want to practice on anyone, do you?" Joey asked.

She knew her friend was feeling down about Colleen's harsh criticism of her and she was eager to give her a boost.

"You want a reading?" Marilyn asked, her face lighting up.

"Yes please!" Joey said, waving her cash.

"Oh, don't be silly," Marilyn said. "I wouldn't charge you."

"And I won't let you do it for free so one of us has to give in," Joey grinned.

Marilyn laughed and nodded, compromising at half pay. Joey sat opposite her at the table, reading to hear her fortune.


"Ruby?" Miles barked.

The teenager continued to ignore him.

"Ruby!" he said, patting her on the arm.

She jumped in fright and then blushed, having been caught in the school corridor, gazing at Liam.

"Where on earth were you?" Miles wondered.

"Nowhere," Ruby said. "Just… daydreaming."

Confused, Miles looked further up the corridor. Spotting Liam, it was very easy to connect the dots.


With her first card dealt, Joey listened with fascination as Marilyn told her about her past.

"There's been a lot of pain," the blonde ventured. "Some… violence?"

Joey nodded a little anxiously, picturing Robbo. Marilyn analysed the next card and smiled.

"But you're in a really strong, confident place now," she beamed.

Joey smiled back at her, more than eager to hear about her wonderful life. She hoped she didn't come across as arrogant but she deeply appreciated the life she led now. It was far from what she had once imagined. It was a million times better than she had ever hoped for.

"You're happy and very much in love," Marilyn said. "Although, we didn't really need tarot cards to discover that, did we?"
Joey chuckled and watched her analyse the third card, representing a future she was most interested in. She was relieved when Marilyn continued to smile.

"You've got a big task ahead of you," she told her. "It's going to be a lot of hard work but you're going to enjoy every minute of it."

"Do you think that's the restaurant?" Joey asked.

"I'd presume so," she said. "And it looks like your relationship is going to go from strength to strength. Even if you face difficulty, you won't be facing it alone."

Joey couldn't stop smiling.


"Sorry!" Ruby said when she bumped into someone on her way out of class.

She frowned when she realised it was Xavier's new girlfriend, April Scott. She was new to the school and talk of town. Ruby couldn't blame anyone. She was beautiful and very intelligent. She gathered that she had a real passion for the environment and had a reputation of being quite the crusader.

"No, it was my fault," the girl said politely.

Ruby smiled until she spotted Xavier approach and put his arm around her.

"You've met," he said, trying not to sound too cold or bitter.

"Not formally," April said. "I'm April."

She and Ruby shook hands. Xavier interrupted Ruby's introduction by announcing that she was his ex-girlfriend. It hurt.


Finishing their shifts, Charlie and Watson both stopped by to say goodbye to Angelo. For all his attitude problems and ridiculous mistakes, they both felt sorry for him, not to mention relieved that neither of them had been put through the torture of the investigation as well.

"Avery's on duty tonight," Charlie said. "I'm sure he'll pop in and see you."

Angelo nodded and thanked them glumly. He wondered how he had ever got to this place.


Walking along the beach together, April was more than a little distracted.

"Is everything okay?" Xavier asked, his arm around her.

"What's the deal with you and Ruby?" she asked.

"Nothing," he replied a little too quickly. "She's just my ex-girlfriend."

"But are there still feelings between you?" April asked.

"Not as far as I know," he said. "Definitely not from my side. Not good feelings anyway."

April looked up and studied his concerned face.

"Why did you split?" she enquired.

"Well, the first time was because she fell in love with another guy," Xavier said a little bitterly. "And the most recent time was because… oh yeah, she fell in love with another guy. To be honest, I think I've just been a stop gap between boyfriends."

"That's a shame," April commented.

He nodded.

"The thing I feel worst about is that I've probably lost her as a friend," he explained. "But there's only so much you can do to a person before you lose them forever. And she's treated me pretty damn badly."

"I think she still has feelings for you," April ventured.

Xavier shook his head.

"No," he said. "She doesn't want me but she's the kind of girl who doesn't want anyone else to have me either. She's selfish."


"So, he could go right back to jail?" Ruby asked.

She was having dinner with her parents who had explained the gossip she had been hearing all around town about Angelo.

"Looks like it," Joey said.

"You must be thrilled!" Ruby remarked. "If he's in jail, he can't hassle you the way he has been for the last year."

Joey sighed.

"You'd think I would be thrilled," she agreed. "But I just feel sorry for him."

"Are you feeling alright?" Ruby joked.

Joey laughed.

"What can I say?" she said. "I'm a bottomless well of compassion."

Charlie grinned.

"I think you are," she said.

Ruby rolled her eyes as the couple looked lovingly at each other and touched hands.

"When am I going to find someone?" she asked wistfully.

"You'll meet the right boy at the right time," Charlie assured her.

"But I don't want to be your age when I find my soul mate!" Ruby complained. "I want to meet him now!"

"Thanks very much," Charlie grumbled. "I'm not exactly drawing my pension, you know!"

"I know!" Ruby assured her. "I didn't mean it quite how it sounded. I just… I've seen you go from one disaster to another, always getting your heart broken and denting your self esteem. I dread to think where you'd have ended up if you hadn't met Joey or if you'd broken up or something. I mean, you'd be a right mess!"

"Charming," Charlie said grumpily.

"I didn't mean it like that!" Ruby protested. "I'm going to stop talking now."

"Maybe you should," Charlie agreed, still pouting.

Joey watched them both in amusement.

"Living with you two is never boring," she decided.


Nicole left Penn at his caravan, having given him a long kiss goodnight. Her head told her not to get too invested. If someone she knew and trusted so much like Aden could hurt her like that then what chance did she stand with some dark, handsome stranger? And yet in her heart, she knew she was totally smitten.


Once their bedroom door was closed, Charlie and Joey fell into each other's arms. Joey reached up and wrapped her arms around her girlfriend's shoulders.

"I believe we had a plan," she murmured, nudging her onto the bed.

"A plan?" Charlie asked.

"A certain toy you wanted to try out when we were away?" Joey prompted.

Charlie blushed and giggled.

"We really don't have to if you don't want…"

Joey interrupted her with a kiss.

"I want to make you happy," she insisted. "And I quite like the idea of trying to get over my… issues."

Charlie kissed her again.

"Are you sure?" she asked worriedly.

"I can't promise it'll be the most romantic thing in the world but yes, I'm sure," Joey said.

They began to fumble with each other's clothes.


Angelo sat in the dark in his cell. He had nothing to do or occupy himself with other than cursing his own mistakes. He swore that if he did get away with this one last judgement error, then he was going to do whatever it took to change his life.


"Are you sure?" Charlie checked.

She had been most amused at the sight of herself displaying a strap-on and it had eased her anxiety. Once she had recovered from her infectious case of giggles, the couple had tried to make things a little sexier.

"Uh huh," Joey replied.

She tried to relax her body but she was still tense, lying on her back with Charlie on top of her. They'd made out a lot, building up their excitement and she was hopeful that things would go okay. It didn't matter to her particularly if she enjoyed it but she really didn't want it to hurt, for Charlie's sake more than hers. She didn't want her to feel like she had done something wrong.

"Please bear in mind that this is my first time on the other end of one of these things!" Charlie said. "I will probably be terrible."

"Please bear in mind that if I don't enjoy it, it's not your fault," Joey replied. "Deal?"

"Deal!" Charlie grinned, sealing it with a kiss.

Their kiss intensified as Charlie gently pushed inside Joey. She stopped when she saw her wince.

"Am I hurting you?" she asked worriedly.

"It's fine," Joey assured her.

"Are you sure?"

"It's just that I'm only used to things the width of these!" Joey grinned, lifting Charlie's fingers to demonstrate.

Charlie laughed and kissed her again.

"You know this has got to be the clumsiest sex in the world?" she remarked.

Joey giggled, running her hands through Charlie's hair.

"You've got that right!" she agreed. "What happened to us being suave, sophisticated and sexy?"

"I like that we can have such variation," Charlie decided. "It's fun."

"It's…"

Joey cut off in surprise.

"Hey!" she grinned. "You were distracting me!"

Charlie smiled back triumphantly. While they had been talking, Joey had relaxed enough that Charlie had been able to slip inside her almost unnoticed.

"Is that okay?" she asked.

Joey kissed her eagerly.

"That's very okay," she confirmed.

She was touched by Charlie's gentleness.

"I don't really know what I'm meant to do next!" Charlie whispered conspiratorially.

Joey giggled, settling herself comfortable back on the bed and holding Charlie's hips, encouraging her to move gently, finding each other's rhythm.


Later that night, Charlie and Joey were snuggled up in each other's embrace. Joey hadn't reached orgasm but she had enjoyed her time with Charlie none the less.

"I definitely didn't do it wrong, did I?" Charlie asked, her voice breaking the gentle darkness.

Joey smiled and stroked her hair.

"You definitely didn't do it wrong," she assured her. "We just need to practice a little more so I can get into it."

Charlie grinned.

"And you want to practice?" she asked.

"Very much so," Joey confirmed. "Every time I'm with you, whether it's clumsy or passionate, funny or deeply serious… it's always perfect."


Next time… Angelo makes bail, Charlie, Joey and Miles are unsure of Penn and Sid, Dex and Indi return to Summer Bay...