Sorry for the delay in updating. I was away for the weekend, celebrating my friend turning 29 years and 365 days (very different to 30 apparently!) I hope you enjoy the chapter. Love, IJKS xxx

Chapter Four Hundred and Twenty Seven

"What's wrong with you?" Brax asked Kerri as he and the boys finally left the man they'd been hassling alone and continued down the street towards the bar they'd been heading towards.

"I want to go home," Kerri said, turning her chair away from the group and towards the taxi rank.

All she wanted to do was get away from them. She had also wanted to check the man was alright but he'd scarpered.

"What?" Brax asked, genuinely shocked.

He sent the River Boys on and followed her down the road.

"I want to go home," she said.

"Why?" the gang leader asked.

"Because you are exactly the person they all warned me you are, only I took a while to see it," Kerri snapped, gratefully arriving at the taxi rank.

She just hoped that a car would show up soon. She couldn't bear to be near him.

"What are you talking about?" Brax demanded.

"How could you attack that guy?" Kerri finally yelled.

"He shoved into you!"

"By accident! And he apologised!"

Brax laughed and crouched down in front of her chair, looking into her eyes.

"We didn't hurt him," he assured her. "We were just mucking around."

"You scared him," Kerri said. "You're a bully. And I don't want anything to do with you ever again."

"You're dumping me?" Brax asked in disbelief.

"Yes," Kerri said.

"Fine," Brax said, standing up. "Fuck right off. I was only testing out equal opportunities anyway."

He stormed off.


Xavier went round to visit Romeo at home. After his conversation with Angelo, he felt like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. He had extracted himself from April's company, not wanting to bring his innocent girlfriend into his brother's murky past. It was a past that he had tried so hard to leave behind. But Romeo was the one that had stood by him through all of this. He was the only one he felt could advise him now.


Ruby was sat at one end of the sofa while Charlie and Joey were snuggled up at the other end. They had settled on Miss Congeniality, with them all agreeing, for slightly varied reasons that nobody could go wrong with a Sandra Bullock film. Especially when she was playing a cop. Plus, everyone needed cheering up, with Ross's fall still on their mind.

"Sounds like Kerri's home," Joey noted, hearing the lift in the hallway outside.

"I thought she was on a date with Brax," Charlie said.

"Maybe it went wrong and she ended it with him!" Joey said, her eyes lighting up with glee.

Charlie giggled and kissed her girlfriend's cheek.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you too," she replied.


Romeo and Xavier sat in Romeo's bedroom pondering what to do about Angelo's proposition.

"Well, you have wanted to get rid of the money for ages," Romeo conceded. "Maybe this is the way to just finish this whole thing and draw a line under everything?"

Xavier nodded and took a breath.

"I just never saw myself giving Hugo's money to Angelo of all people," he said. "I mean, he shot Jack. He hunted my brother down like a dog."

"But he also set him free," Romeo pointed out. "Hugo would be in jail now if it wasn't for him. Instead he's…"

"Thousands of miles away from me and I'll never see him again?" Xavier said glumly.

"Living happily with Martha," Romeo said.


Kerri stopped abruptly when she found Watson sitting on her doorstep. The police officer stood up quickly and brushed her trousers, trying to smarten herself up. She picked up the flowers she'd brought her and was relieved when Brax didn't appear. Charlie's constant nagging and the memory of the kiss she and Kerri had shared had been echoing in her head for days now and she knew she had to take the risk and tell her once and for all how she felt.

"Watson…" Kerri said.

"These are for you," Watson said, holding out the flowers.

Kerri accepted them, still staring at her. Watson knelt down and took her hands.

"Kerri, I know you're with Brax and I accept that you must see something good in him," Watson said. "But I need to tell you how I feel."

"I…"

"Please?" Watson said. "I've been rehearsing this all day. Let me get it out?"

Kerri nodded mutely, swooning just a little at how cute she looked.

"From the first moment I met you, I thought you were the most beautiful woman I had ever met," Watson told her. "And since I've got to know you, I've fallen for you more and more. You're the kindest, sweetest, funniest, most amazing person. I can't stand that I missed my chance with you and made you think that I wasn't interested. I was interested from the start. From the first second. I hate that you're with Brax and I missed my shot. I do reluctantly accept it. I don't understand what you see in him but I do accept your choice. But I'm here now, laying my heart open to say that I… well, if you ever change your mind… I'm here. I'll be right here waiting."

She moved back just a little.

"I just broke up with him," Kerri told her.


Unknown to the fledgling couple, Charlie and Joey were peeking out at them from their front door, trying to stay hidden but desperate to know what was going on.

"You two are terrible!" Ruby chortled from the couch.

They hissed at their daughter to be quiet and not ruin the moment so they could continue to watch.


Watson's eyes widened in surprise as she tried not to hope too much.

"You broke up with Brax?" she asked. "When?"

"Just now," Kerri said. "I literally just came home from ending it with him."

"Why?" Watson wondered.

"Because he's not the person I thought he was," Kerri said. "And if I'm being honest, he was never the person I was supposed to be with. I just didn't think the person I wanted, wanted me."

Watson felt her heart begin to hammer in her chest. She gazed longingly at her.

"I've always wanted you," Watson assured her.

"Kiss me again then," Kerri requested. "Because I haven't been able to get that first one out of my head."

Watson moved closer, more than happy to oblige.


Behind their door, Charlie and Joey were thrilled.

"I'm so happy!" Joey whispered.

"Me too!" Charlie whispered back.

They watched as Kerri and Watson got more passionate.

"Okay, we don't need to watch that," they both decided, closing the door as quietly as possible and returning to Ruby on the couch.

"Did they finally get their act together?" the teenager asked.

"Yep!" Joey said triumphantly.

"At last!" Charlie grinned.


The next morning, Xavier was still distracted as he and John worked on the Mad Max car together.

"What's up, Xavier?" John asked.

Working on the car had brought the pair of them closer. And usually their project meant that the teenager had a real spring in his step but today he seemed to be struggling to concentrate.

"I have a dilemma," Xavier admitted.

He was reluctantly starting to see John as a sort of father figure. And he thought he might be the kind of person that might be able to advise him.


"Joey… no," Charlie warned, as they exited their apartment the next morning.

"What?" Joey asked. "We have time."

The plan was to go to the bank to discuss extending their loan to help Paulie with his debts and therefore help the pressure he had placed on his brother.

"They'll probably still be asleep!" Charlie protested, knowing her girlfriend was planning to knock on Kerri's door.

"It's ten o'clock!" Joey said.

"They probably had a busy night!" Charlie pointed out.

Joey stepped closer to her girlfriend and wrapped her arms around her hips, kissing her.

"So did we," she pointed out.

The romance of the night had very much led them to the bedroom and they'd had a lovely night indeed.

"We managed," she added, raising her eyebrows.

"We're used to it," Charlie said, stealing another kiss. "They just got together."

They looked round when Kerri's front door opened and Watson exited.

"Aha!" Joey said. "They did the work for me!"

Watson and Kerri looked immediately embarrassed.

"Hi guys…" Watson managed.

"Hi," Joey grinned. "How was your night?"


"You need to do the thing you can live with the most," John told Xavier. "I'm afraid that's all I can advise."

The teenager nodded thoughtfully and thanked him.

"I need to make a phone call," he said. "Thanks again, John."


Angelo left his room and was immediately annoyed to find Paulie on the sofa with some girl he must have picked up the night before. He thundered into the kitchen and made as much noise as possible, waking the 'couple' up.

"Angelo!" Paulie complained. "We're sleeping here!"

"Then wake the fuck up!" Angelo snapped.

His rant was interrupted by a phone call.

"Hello?"

"You can have the money," Xavier said. "As long as you take every cent."


In the Diner, Leah took her break to have a coffee with Miles. Her letter to Elijah was still on her mind and she was still fretful over whether she should have sent it or not.

"He'll be thrilled that you wrote to him," her friend said. "Trust me."

"I just…" Leah said. "Are you sure?"

"Why don't you call him to put your mind at rest?" Miles suggested.


Angelo was nervous when he approached the restaurant to meet Charlie and Joey. He'd received at text message asking him to meet them about the loan and to go straight into the office. He was eager to tell them that he didn't need it anymore, although he wasn't sure if the truth was a good option – taking Hugo's money from Xavier might not go down well. But at the same time, he wasn't sure what he could come up with as a plausible explanation.

Entering the office, he was anxious to find Charlie and Joey both sitting there, not looking very happy at all.

"Hi," he managed.

"Sit down," Joey told him.

Memories of his loan application shot through him. He sat down.

"We went to the bank today," Joey said. "Applied to extend our loan to help out you and your brother."

He nodded, thanking them quietly.

"It was all going well until they mentioned a previous application that was made over the weekend while we were away," Joey said. "Care to explain it?"

Angelo swallowed and looked down.

Joey laughed bitterly and shook her head.

"I really, really wanted you to be hideously offended and ask how we could possibly accuse you," she said sadly.

She leant forward and rested her face in her palms. Charlie put her hand on her back.

"How could you, Angelo?" she asked. "You were actually trying to steal from us?"

"No!" Angelo protested. "That's not what it was! I swear. I… I was just trying to…"

"Commit fraud," Charlie said.

"I took it back!" Angelo said. "I changed my mind. And I don't need you to extend the loan now anyway. I've got hold of the money another way. I…"

"Who have you ripped off instead?" Joey asked bitterly, sitting back off.

"Nobody!" Angelo said. "Xavier's given me Hugo's money."

He knew he had made a mistake. Both women were even more livid.

"You're taking all that money from a vulnerable teenager?" Charlie demanded.

"He wants to get rid of it," Angelo said feebly. "It's dirty money and it's just sitting there, Charlie. It's not doing anything. He doesn't want to spend it."

"Look, that's by the by," Joey said, shaking her head.

She was too tired and too stressed to even begin to unpick the morals of that particular situation right now.

"What I'm most angry with at the moment is that you made a loan application in our name," she said. "You were going to mess around with our finances. Take money from us. After everything we've done for you, everything we were going to do for you. All the trust we've put in you, all the friendship we've offered you."

Angelo opened his mouth to speak.

"I'm not done talking!" Joey interrupted.

He fell silent.

"From the moment you left prison, you have given me nothing but shit," she said sadly. "You tried to break Charlie and I up so many times. You tried to take her away from me, you spied on us, you creeped us out. You made so many mistakes. And yet we gave you a chance. When your life went to hell, we gave you a chance. We gave you a job and the chance to rebuild your life. And I thought we were friends, Angelo."

"We are," her employee tried.

"No," she said, genuinely upset about it. "We're not. Nobody would do that to a friend. So that's it, Angelo. I'm done. I'm done giving you chances."

"What…?"

"We're letting you go," she said.

"No, please… This job is all I have!"

"We can't employ someone we don't trust," Charlie told him, aware of how hard it was for Joey.

Neither of them particularly wanted to go through with it but they had agreed.

"And we can't trust someone who would go behind our backs like this," she added.

"I'll make it up to you," Angelo begged. "I'm so sorry. I was desperate. Please? I'm so sorry."

"We're sorry too," Charlie said. "But it's too late. It can't be undone."


Next time… Ross and Morag come for a visit, Watson and Kerri are happy together and Romeo develops an allergy…