Hello everyone. I hope you all had a good weekend. And I hope you enjoy the chapter. Love, IJKS xxx

Chapter Three Hundred and Sixty Six

Too excited about the prospect of her new restaurant, Joey had been completely unable to sleep. She'd lain there watching Charlie for a while, admiring how beautiful she was and hoping she would wake up for something naughty. Alas, she was practically in a coma and there was no way Joey was prepared to disturb her. Therefore, she had slipped silently out of bed, changed into her running gear and left a note to let Charlie know where she was, should she wake up before she returned. It was five in the morning.


Colleen also had not been able to sleep. Someone in the caravan park had been having a party but the more she complained and threatened to call the police the more the partygoers, who included several of those undesirable River Boys, the louder and more obnoxious they got. So she'd grumbled to herself for several hours before getting dressed and going to the beach in order to watch the sunrise. It was there that she came face to face with Angelo. Well, she'd come face to naked body with him. The man was absolutely wasted and didn't have a stitch on. He stood up to talk to her. Colleen screamed in horror.


Joey bolted in the direction she heard the screaming coming from. She halted abruptly when she reached the beach and found Colleen still screaming and Angelo wearing nothing but a frown.

"What on earth are you doing?" Joey demanded.

She pulled her hoodie off from around her waist and thrust it at him, demanding that he cover himself up.

"My life is over!"

"And you thought you'd flash it to the world?" Joey snapped.

She put an arm around Colleen and told her to go home and she would deal with the situation. Just as Colleen wandered off, Joey's phone rang.

"Why did you leave me?" Charlie asked sleepily.

"I couldn't sleep," Joey said. "But if you're up, can you help me?"

She glared at Angelo who didn't even seem to know who he was, let alone where he was or what he was doing.

"Help?"

"There's a flasher on the beach," Joey explained grimly. "And his name is Angelo Rosetta."


By seven o'clock, Jill had given up on sleep. She felt terrible without any alcohol in her system and she was certain that the rest of her life was going to be one, long hangover.

"Remember who you're doing it for," she muttered to herself.

Picturing her son, she tried to forget that he had deliberately sabotaged her relationship with John.


Still in her running gear, Joey was waiting in the reception area of the police station. Drunk and disorderly, not to mention undressed, Angelo had kicked up a big fuss at being brought into custody. Even though he had only been trying to help him, Angelo had punched Avery in the face and hurled some verbal abuse at both Charlie and Joey. Charlie and Avery had then hauled him into custody where he had been dressed in lost property clothes and slung in a cell to cool off. This was definitely not the way Joey had intended to start her day.

"Okay, we can go home for all of an hour and a half before I have to come back and start my shift," Charlie said tiredly.

They walked out of the police station together.

"See what happens when you abandon me in the middle of the night?" she complained.

"I didn't abandon you!" Joey protested, climbing into the passenger seat of the car. "I was restless. And now, thanks to him, I am scarred for life."

Charlie chuckled as she climbed into the driver's side and started the engine.

"I mean seriously, you went near that?" Joey said, exaggerating a shudder.

Charlie snorted with laughter.

"Now do you appreciate how glad I am to have realised I like girls?" she said.

"Girls plural?" Joey asked with mock concern.

"You," Charlie corrected herself. "You're the only one I want to see naked. Ever."

"Ditto," Joey smirked.


As the Bay became more functional, Jill was struggling to eat breakfast with Romeo, Nicole, Marilyn, Miles and Alf. She felt sick and the toast tasted like cardboard.

"I'm just so happy that you're really doing this," Romeo enthused. "If you can kick the alcohol then there's nothing you can't do. Nothing we can't do. We could get Mink back and all of us could start again. Together. As a family."

Jill was lost in thought as her son continued to ramble.


Popping home just to get changed, Charlie and Joey collected Ruby and took her to the Diner for breakfast. The couple had decided that they deserved an extra treat after the trauma of their encounter with Angelo.

"He was actually naked?" the overheard Leah asking Colleen incredulously.

Leaving Ruby at the table, Charlie and Joey approached the counter.

"Did you see him?" Leah asked, her eyes wide.

"Unfortunately, yes," Joey said. "I won't be eating sausages for a long time."

She shuddered. Charlie and Leah both laughed.

"It's not funny!" Colleen protested. "It was horrible!"

Her comment only served to make them laugh harder.


By lunch time, Angelo was the talk of the whole town. Walking out of school for the break with Ruby, Nicole mused that perhaps Angelo had actually lose his mind.

"Personally, I think he lost it a long time ago," Ruby replied.

She didn't mean to be unkind but she was never going to be on the side of a man who kept trying to break her family apart. Even if he had stopped now, the memory was there. And even if she had been rather surprised the previous year when her formerly heterosexual sister became her bisexual mother, Ruby was happy with her setup. She loved her home and her Charlie and her Joey and she wasn't prepared to tolerate anyone who would dare to mess with that.

"I don't know," Nicole mused. "I mean, he's made a lot of mistakes but I do feel a bit sorry for him. I mean, he came back to the Bay last year, desperate to be a hero. And now… now he's got nothing. He's lost his job, he has very few friends…"

"And not a lot to be proud of by Joey's description this morning," Ruby remarked.

Nicole burst out laughing at the insinuation.

"What's so funny?" Penn asked, appearing as if from nowhere.

Nicole stopped walking and hugged him, kissing his cheek. He smiled and waited expectantly for an answer.

"We were talking about Angelo's penis," Ruby informed him.

Penn raised his eyebrows and Nicole turned rather pink.

"It wasn't how it sounds," she said quickly, shooting a glare at her friend.

Ruby merely smirked and walked on, aware that now Penn had arrived, she had lost her lunch partner.


"Coffee for you," Charlie said, putting the foam cup through the bars of Angelo's cell.

He looked like hell and by the stink in the room, he had thrown up at some point. With grey skin, he approached her and accepted the cup.

"Want me to send Avery in so you can apologise?"

"Apologise?" he asked tiredly.

"You hit him," Charlie revealed. "In some cultures, that's considered to be rude."

He groaned.

"The whole thing is pretty much a blur," he admitted.

"I can promise you that we all wish it was a blur for us too," Charlie said grimly. "I'll send someone to collect your sick bucket."


Nicole was in a good mood as she returned to school. She had had a lovely heart to heart with Penn on the beach and opened up to him about her past with Sid. It was still something she was rather embarrassed about but her new boyfriend had been gentle and reassuring. She felt like he was someone she could really trust.

"Did you have a nice lunch?" Ruby asked a little sourly when she spotted her friend.

"Sorry," Nicole apologised. "I'll make it up to you."

"Weren't you only saying a few months ago that it makes you cranky when friends ditch you because they have a new boyfriend?" Ruby asked.

Nicole apologised again. Ruby flashed a smile.

"I don't mind really," she said. "And I have to admit he's pretty hot. Do you really like him?"

"I am so smitten," Nicole admitted.

Ruby continued to smile but Charlie and Joey's words were worrying her.

"And he's really nice and everything?" she asked. "Nothing… bad has happened?"

"Why would anything bad happen?" Nicole asked, bewildered.

"No reason," Ruby said quickly. "I just wondered, you know, because Miles had that bad feeling and stuff."

"I think Miles was just being overprotective," Nicole said. "Compensating for my Dad not being around, I guess."

Ruby nodded.

"You like him though, right?" Nicole checked a little worriedly.

"Of course," Ruby replied, well aware of how much her friends' opinions of her boyfriend meant to her.


"What on earth is that?" Alf asked, strangely high pitched.

Joey and Marilyn stared at him. He had stopped by to discuss dates for Joey's departure from the bait shop when Marilyn had brought in a ventriloquist dummy.

"It's Mr Oddly," the blonde said. "The new mascot for my business."

"That creepy thing is not staying here," Alf insisted.

Joey and Marilyn exchanged awkward glances.

"What's wrong with him?" Marilyn wondered.

Alf jumped back when she pretended to make him talk.

"Alf, are you… are you scared of dummies?" Joey asked curiously.

He looked a little flushed and nodded shyly.

"There was an incident at my fifth birthday party…"

He shuddered at the memory.

"Please get rid of that thing," he requested.

"No way!" Marilyn protested. "He's lovely! I can't see him homeless!"

Joey just about managed to supress a smile.


Penn carefully orchestrated a meeting between him and Sid at the Diner in the late afternoon. Ever since Nicole had poured her heart out about the womanising Doctor, he had been eager to start putting his plan into action. He was going to destroy the heart of Summer Bay if it was the last thing he did. When he was finished, the residents of this town would be longing for the violence of the riot on Australia Day earlier in the year. He was going to bring as much pain as he could. And Nicole was a great place to start.


Colleen arrived at the bait shop just as Joey and Marilyn were closing up.

"I brought you some cake," Colleen said, offering the food out to Marilyn.

Ever since she had learned that these would be the last months of Marilyn's life, she had been as nice to her as she had formerly been nasty.

"Um… thank you," Marilyn said a little awkwardly.

She was sensitive about her situation and it was unsettling that a woman that hated her was being so kind.

"How are you feeling?" Colleen asked.

Marilyn looked helplessly at Joey who didn't quite know how to help.

"I'm feeling okay, thank you," Marilyn said politely. "But Mr Oddly and I are looking forward to going home."

"Who's Mr…?" Colleen began.

She interrupted herself with a shriek when Marilyn presented the dummy.

"Oh!" she said. "He's um… lovely."

She quickly hurried away.

"I'm so very glad I didn't listen to Mr Stewart," Marilyn remarked.

Joey chuckled and announced she was off to meet Charlie at the police station.

"Do you want a lift?" Marilyn offered. "It's not a short walk."

"That would be great, so long as you don't mind," Joey said politely.

She was determined not to fuss over her the way Colleen was because she knew it wouldn't help, but that didn't mean she wasn't worried about her.

"I don't mind at all," Marilyn said, leading the way to her car. "Let's see if Mr Oddly is as scary to cops as he seems to be to other people!"


Leah, Elijah and VJ waved until Lijuan and Song were out of sight. Having come and caused chaos, everything had finally been resolved and the engaged couple had the full blessing of the groom's parents.

"That was fun," Elijah remarked.

"You think that was fun?" Leah replied. "Just wait until you meet my family!"


"Now, we're not going to find you drunk, disorderly or undressed again, are we?" Charlie checked sternly when she and Joey deposited Angelo back at his apartment.

"The way I feel right now, I am never drinking again," Angelo groaned, landing heavily on the couch.

"Or getting undressed in public," Joey added. "You really mustn't do that again either."

He smirked at her.

"Did I turn you?" he asked.

"You turned nothing but my stomach," she assured him.

Angelo groaned again and flopped back in his chair, closing his eyes and rubbing his temples.

"See you later," Charlie said, guiding Joey to the exit. "Behave yourself."


At the hospital, Sid was struggling to concentrate. In his profession, that was not a good thing. But his conversation with Penn was driving him crazy. He had informed him that not only was his relationship with Nicole casual, but Nicole had confided in him that she still had feelings for Sid. It didn't make sense. He thought they had cleared the air when he and his kids had first returned to the Bay. This really was the last thing he needed.


"So, how was your day?" Charlie asked Joey on the way home.

"Yeah, it was fine," Joey said.

They held hands across the seat.

"Marilyn totally freaked Alf out with that doll thing," she added.

Charlie shuddered.

"Those dummy things are freaky," she said. "I'm totally on Alf's side!"

Joey chuckled.

"So, a big strong cop like you can take down murderers and thieves and a toy scares you?"

"As do clowns and spiders," Charlie agreed. "We have established this!"

Joey giggled. She leant over in her seat and kissed Charlie's cheek.

"Have I mentioned that I love you?" she wondered.

"Maybe once or twice," the police officer replied. "But I'm open to more demonstrations."

"You're on," Joey promised.


Next time… Charlie is summoned to a meeting with Inspector Joyce, Joey misbehaves and Alf plots against Mr Oddly…