Chapter Four Hundred and Nine
Joey's heart sank when she arrived at work to find Watson waiting for her in uniform.
"Joey, I'm so sorry," Watson said.
"Don't worry," Joey sighed. "I know what you're here for."
"I have to caution you for selling underage alcohol," Watson said. "Charlie said she'd discussed it with you and that's why she's not here. You'd agreed that she wouldn't come."
Joey nodded. Neither of them had wanted her to be cautioned by her girlfriend. Plus, with the business in her name too, Charlie was in trouble herself.
"You'll receive formal notification," Watson said. "And I'm so sorry. Charlie explained what happened and I really don't want to do this."
"I know," Joey said kindly. "I'm not taking it personally. It's your job."
Watson nodded, grateful that it didn't look likely to affect their friendship.
"Is Indi going to be in trouble?" Joey asked.
"She'll receive a fine," Watson said. "The rest is up to you but… well, I'd advise that the law sees you taking this offence extremely seriously."
Ruby wandered around school alone. Everyone seemed to be avoiding her after yesterday's mayhem. Indi was furious with her and therefore her boyfriend, Romeo and her brother, Dex were as well. And they were all friends with Xavier and April so therefore, once again, Ruby was the outcast. Everything seemed to be going wrong all over again. It wasn't fair.
An hour later, Charlie managed to duck out of work to visit her girlfriend at the restaurant. Alf had come up from the Surf Club to see Joey too. She looked tired and stressed and upset.
"I just don't want this to affect the rest of her life," she was saying when Charlie approached them.
"Affect the rest of whose life?" she asked, leaning against the counter and holding Joey's hand.
"Joey's worried about Indi being in trouble for selling Ruby the alcohol," Alf explained grimly.
Charlie was annoyed.
"Joey for goodness sake," she snapped. "We've just had a caution. This could spell serious trouble for the restaurant. You can't waste your time thinking about some stupid kid. You need to think about your future, not hers!"
"It's not that easy, Charlie!" Joey snapped back.
She looked helplessly at Alf who looked awkward.
"I might not have phrased it quite like that but Charlie's right, love," he said delicately. "This place means the world to you. Indi made a huge mistake by selling that wine to Ruby knowing that she was underage. She needs to take the consequences of her actions and the law needs to see you do that or you could be in a world of trouble."
"I've been saying that all morning," said a snide voice behind Joey.
They turned to see Angelo stride past, stocking up behind the bar.
"Shut up!" Joey snapped at him.
It was suddenly evident that they had been arguing all morning.
"You should have fired her the moment you found out what she did!" Angelo insisted. "She broke the law!"
"You broke the law!" Joey argued, breaking grip from Charlie so that she could face Angelo properly.
"Yeah and look what happened to me!"
"You got off scot free!"
"I ended up and jail!"
"And you should still be there!"
"I lost my job, didn't I? Indi should lose hers!"
"Guys…" Charlie interjected, aware that things were becoming heated.
"She just sold a bottle of wine! You murdered someone!"
"It wasn't fucking murder!" Angelo yelled, deliberately smashing a bottle of beer on the floor.
"That's coming out of your wages!" Joey shouted.
"Guys!" Charlie shouted louder.
Angelo and Joey both ceased.
"This isn't going to solve anything," Charlie said calmly, catching hold of Joey's hand again. "Angelo, this isn't actually any of your business. This restaurant belongs to Joey and any decisions are up to her. You're just an employee so we expect you to come in and do your job. Keep your opinions to yourself and have some respect for your boss. Clean up the mess you just made and then get on with stocking up."
He glared at her and then obeyed, although he was rather loud about it. Joey sighed and turned back to her girlfriend.
"Any chance you can stay here and deal with all this and I can crawl back to bed?"
Charlie walked round behind the bar and hugged her. Alf smiled at the way Joey sank into her arms, relying on her fully for support.
"We'll get through all of this like we've got through everything," Charlie said. "Now, Angelo's being an arse but he is a little bit right."
She felt Joey tense but ploughed on.
"Indi does need to take the consequences for her bad decision making," she said.
Joey nodded glumly.
"Do I have to fire her?" she asked unhappily.
"That's a decision for you to make," Charlie said.
"Well, this is your business too," Joey pointed out. "Watson told me I wasn't the only one that got cautioned this morning. I'm really sorry, Charlie."
"It's fine," Charlie said gently, although she was anxious about it.
A caution was not a good look for a police Sergeant.
"It's not," Joey frowned.
"Okay, it's not but it wasn't your fault," Charlie said. "It was nothing to do with you. It was Indi's fault for selling the alcohol and it was Ruby's fault for asking her to do it."
Joey nodded. She knew what she needed to do.
Never one to miss an opportunity to stir up trouble, Penn eagerly wrote a letter of complaint regarding Indi's continued employment at the restaurant, following her illegal sale of alcohol to a minor. He threw in as much flowery language and incensed, righteous anger as possible and left it unsigned, ready to deliver it when the venue was closed. He just loved it when the town presented it with extra opportunities to upset its residents.
With permission from Charlie, Joey had opted to leave firing Indi until the following day. She knew it was wrong to procrastinate and that she should just get it done but she just couldn't deal with it now. It was too much. Everything felt too much, including the way Angelo was stomping around the place. At least he had heeded Charlie's warning about not being rude to his boss.
Giving up, Joey pulled out her phone and called her girlfriend.
"Charlie?" she said when she answered.
"Hey, how are you doing?" Charlie replied.
"Yeah, I'm okay," Joey said. "But um… I need to get out of here. I don't suppose you can get out of work before we have to be home for Ruby?"
"I can," Charlie said.
She clocked up overtime by accident all the time. And she very much wanted to be there for the woman she loved.
"I'll come and pick you up," she promised.
Ruby sat in the back of her class, not paying very much attention. The world seemed to be drinking by around her. She just felt too sad, too lost and alone. Just when she thought she had been getting things back on track, she had ruined everything.
Charlie and Joey had gone for a drive. It felt good to get out into the open air and away from the stress of the Bay, even if it was only for half an hour. They needed to keep stricter tabs on their daughter again and so had to be back in time for the end of school. They had agreed to collect her after her last class and bring her back home.
"Thanks for skipping out on work for me," Joey said from the passenger seat. "I really appreciate it. I just needed to get out of there. I think if Angelo had glared at me one more time my skin would have burned off."
"Why's he being such an arse?" Charlie wondered. "I thought things were cool with you two?"
"I thought they were," Joey sighed, slumping in the seat a little. "We were getting on great and then it's just like we hit a brick wall."
Charlie reached out and held her hand.
"Try not to stress about him," she said kindly. "Just because he's got his pants stuck up his bum."
Joey snorted with laughter.
"And I was telling the truth earlier," Charlie added. "This has nothing to do with him. The restaurant is your business, he's just an employee."
"Our business," Joey pointed out, still feeling bad about the joint caution.
"Okay, our business," Charlie agreed. "But he's still just an employee so he can keep his trap shut. He's there to serve customers and clean up after them. No more, no less."
Joey nodded.
"I'm really not looking forward to firing Indi," she admitting.
Charlie squeezed her hand.
"Unfortunately, it's part of the job," she said. "I can be there with you if you need me to. Not that I'd enjoy it but I think I'll find it easier than you. I haven't been working with her on a daily basis. I don't have the same kind of relationship."
Joey sighed and shook her head.
"No," she said. "It's precisely because of the relationship we have that I have to do it. I owe her that much, no matter how stupid her decision making process was yesterday."
It had been a long day for everyone in the Bay and it was made all the longer for Liam and Bianca, who had to do their after school library duty together, their punishment for previous unprofessional behaviour. They had been sniping at each other for days now, although neither of them were quite sure why. Everything now felt a bit awkward.
After their drive, Charlie and Joey had brought Ruby home from school and now the atmosphere in the flat was more than a little tense. The three of them were sat around the table, pretty much having a staring contest.
"I am telling you that I wasn't buying the wine for me," Ruby insisted.
"And I am telling you that I don't believe you," Charlie argued.
Ruby growled in frustration and clenched her fists.
"Why won't you believe me?" she begged.
"Um, let me think," Charlie said. "Drunk and disorderly, throwing yourself at teachers, falling into swimming pools, sneaking about, lying… Do I need to go on?"
"But that's in the past!" Ruby said desperately. "We fixed all of that!"
"Yeah, I thought we had!" Charlie said. "And then you went and convinced your friends to sell you alcohol underage! From Joey's restaurant! Do you know we both got police cautions this morning? Do you know this is a legal matter? The amount of stress you've put Joey under is unreal!"
Ruby looked anxiously at Joey and apologised. Joey frowned sadly at her. She seemed genuine enough. Maybe she was telling the truth.
"Indi is being fined and tomorrow we're going to have to let her go," Charlie said. "And before you rush to apologise to her, don't. The last thing we need is for you to blurt that out before we've had the chance to talk to her about it."
Ruby nodded glumly and looked down at the table top. Tears were stinging her eyes.
"I swear I bought the wine for you, Charlie," she said. "I was trying to thank you both for all your support with everything. I wish I hadn't now."
Sid was nervous as he called a family meeting between himself, Indi and Dex. He felt bad for how hard he had been on Indi when she had already been beating herself up for her mess up at work.
"Indi, I want to apologise for being so harsh with you yesterday," the Doctor said. "And for the record, I do understand that you believed Ruby was buying the wine for Charlie and Joey."
Indi nodded and let out a breath she felt she had been holding in since yesterday. She couldn't believe that one stupid mistake seemed to have cost her so much. And even now, she didn't even know what was to come. She hadn't dared go near the restaurant yet but she was under no illusion that she still had a job. Joey was sure to fire her. She was surprised she hadn't been summoned for more yelling. She hadn't believed her boss even capable of that much shouting before. It had genuinely shocked her.
"But I am still very disappointed in you," Sid admitted. "I'm sorry to have to be blunt about it and I'm sorry if it hurts you but regardless of who you thought the wine was for, you knew Ruby was underage. You should never have let her have it."
"I know that, Dad," Indi said. "I know everything you're going to say."
Sid nodded.
"Well, that's all I'll say then," he told her. "Except that whatever happens from here, you have my full support and understanding."
"Thanks, Dad," Indi said sincerely.
"And mine," Dex said, sensing the meeting was about to close.
Not wanting to be left alone with his Dad after the continuing Marilyn debacle, he leapt up, patted his sister on the shoulder and dived off to his room. He ignored his father calling after him.
"Do you really expect us to believe you were thanking us for our support with your alcohol problems by buying us a bottle of wine?" Charlie asked.
Ruby looked up, struck by the absurdity of what she had actually done. Before she could stop herself, she burst out laughing. Charlie looked set to yell but was interrupted by Joey laughing too. Then the police officer lost control and started laughing also.
"My goodness, you actually did, didn't you?" she realise.
"I'm actually stupid," Ruby admitted.
They laughed until they couldn't breathe. Ruby sighed heavily and apologised sincerely.
"I really messed up, didn't I?" she said sadly. "I didn't mean to. I was honestly trying to do something nice for you. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry to both of you and to Indi. I wasn't thinking. I was just…"
She hung her head and apologised again. Both Charlie and Joey took a hand each.
"Sweetheart, you really need to think before you act," Joey said gently. "We understand that you were trying to be kind but the chaos and trauma that all of this has caused…"
She sighed heavily.
"I know," Ruby said unhappily. "And I'm truly sorry."
Joey squeezed her hand.
"Well, we understand the lesson has been learnt, don't we, Charlie?" Joey said, looking up at her partner.
The police officer nodded grimly.
"But we're still keeping our regime in place," Charlie added. "To protect you as much as anything while you're dealing with all the problems you've been having, okay?"
"Okay," Ruby said. "I understand."
Next time… Joey and Indi respond to Penn's complaint letter, Ruby makes an effort and Kerri has a run in with the River Boys…
