To the person that asked recently, yes, I do have new stories in the pipeline. I'm struggling to keep up with the ones I'm posting at the moment so I won't post new ones just yet but I've got quite a few just about ready to go so once I'm a bit more on my game with fanfiction, I will start post new ones so watch this space… For now, I hope you enjoy the chapter. Love, IJKS xxx
Chapter Four Hundred and Thirty Four
"Mmm… I don't want to wake up," Charlie moaned. "I like this little cocoon we're in."
She smiled as Joey kissed her cheek. She turned and kissed her lips. Her tummy growled.
"Although apparently, I do want breakfast so perhaps I do have agree to getting up," she grinned.
"Let's take it step by step and make it as far as the kitchen and see where we go from there," Joey suggested.
Charlie nodded reluctantly and kissed her again.
Angelo exited his bedroom to find Paulie on the sofa with yet another random girl. He was immediately annoyed.
"Get up," he snapped.
His younger brother moaned and the redhead he was with sat up, looking shy and embarrassed. She gathered her clothes together and hurried to get dressed, apologising.
"It's not your fault," Angelo said politely. "Although I do suggest you upgrade your taste in men."
She nodded and hurried out of the apartment. Paulie didn't so much as bother to say goodbye.
"Do you know how disgusting you are?" Angelo snapped.
"Just because I'm capable of getting some?" Paulie mocked. "When was the last time you brought a girl back here?"
"None of you damn business," the ex-police officer replied.
The truth was that the last time he'd had a girlfriend, was when he'd been dating May, right back when he had first returned to the Bay. And the last time he'd got laid, he'd paid for it.
"It must be tough, I guess," Paulie said. "Being in love with a lesbian, and all. You do know that's never going to happen, right?"
"At least I'm not dumb enough to get myself in so much shit that I've ruined my parents' business, I'm in fear of my life and I'm living on my brother's couch," Angelo snapped back.
Charlie and Joey had just about made it to the breakfast table when Joey's mobile phone rang.
"It's VJ," Joey informed her girlfriend, sitting down.
She answered warmly, wondering what he wanted.
"Hi, Joey," the little boy said. "How are you?"
"I'm good, thanks," she replied. "How are you?"
"I'm okay," VJ replied. "I don't have long because Mum will be coming back downstairs to take me to school but I just wanted to ask you a favour."
"What's that then?" Joey asked. "I'm all ears."
He giggled the way he always did when he heard that phrase. She had said it on purpose.
"Mum's anxious about the trip to see Elijah," he told her. "Is there any way you and Charlie could spend time with her to talk to her? She always listens to you."
Joey smiled. She was always rather touched by the way he cared about his mother, the way he looked after her.
"Of course we can," she said.
"Don't tell her I asked," he requested.
"Promise," she replied.
Over at the caravan park, Marilyn was still feeling unsettled over where she stood with Sid. She was hurt at how he had responded to her beliefs, and also that he hadn't bothered to contact her. Was it really that big a deal that they didn't have the same ideologies? Did it matter? Why was he making such a big deal about it all? It didn't seem very fair. And it didn't seem very kind.
Sid arrived at the restaurant at lunch time, glad of a day off and eager for a drink. He had commandeered Miles for his lunch break and free period, to join him and both men were sat at the bar. Joey served the Doctor a beer and the teacher an orange juice.
"Not that I'm one to judge, especially as the money's going into my till but isn't it a little early?" she grinned.
"I'm very stressed and despondent," Sid replied.
"Women trouble," Miles informed him.
"Oh dear," Joey said.
"Hey, you might be the perfect person to talk to, actually," Sid decided.
"Me?" Joey asked nervously.
Sid nodded.
"Well, you're a woman and you date women," he said. "Perfect."
"Sid, did you start drinking before you came here?" Miles wondered.
Sid shrugged.
"What's the problem?" Joey asked curiously.
Miles leaned in. He still didn't actually know himself.
"Marilyn doesn't actually have cancer," he told them.
"I've got it!" Paulie bellowed, bursting out of the bathroom so loudly that he made Angelo jump and drop the plate he had been washing back into the sink.
"What have you got and was it that important that you had to yell?" he complained.
Paulie approached him jubilantly.
"We pool all our money together and go to the races," he said.
Angelo looked at him blankly.
"Come on!" Paulie urged. "It's a great idea!"
Angelo shook his head.
"It's a ridiculous idea," he informed him.
"Have you got a better one?"
"Well, no but…"
"We could get everything we need!"
"We could lose everything we have!"
"I think it's worth the risk."
Angelo sighed. He didn't know what to do.
Miles and Joey stared at Sid for a moment.
"Um… isn't Marilyn not having cancer a good thing?" Joey ventured.
"Of course it is!" Sid said. "But that's not the problem. The problem is that her weird friend Mitzy has told her that she's dying. That's the whole reason she's back here. She's based all of this on some stupid premonition or something. She hasn't had any tests or anything like that. It's feelings and intuition. And now we've fallen out because I think it's a pile of crap."
Miles and Joey exchanged glances.
"It is a pile of crap, right?" Sid said. "I'm not the only one who realises this?"
"Well… I mean, obviously she should have proper tests but… if her friend is a valid psychic or something…" Miles ventured.
"Are you kidding me?" Sid exclaimed. "You're an educated man, Miles!"
"And I'm very open to that kind of thing," the teacher replied, thinking fondly of his time with Rabbit.
Sid turned to Joey.
"I agree," she said. "I've not had experiences like that and I genuinely believe that she needs to go to the hospital and get proper medical tests and hopefully treatments that will help her and save her but… Well, even if none of it's true, you care about her, right?"
"Of course I do," Sid said.
"Then… isn't that the point?" Joey asked.
Sid looked blank.
"You just need to be there for her," she told her. "Support her through her beliefs, even if they're not your own."
Charlie and Watson stopped off at the Diner, mid-patrol to grab a coffee each.
"How are things?" Charlie asked Leah, as she served them.
"Yeah, okay," her former landlady said, sounding a little stressed. "Things are pretty hectic. Our leaving date is getting closer and closer."
"Are you looking forward to your trip?" Charlie asked, aware of VJ's phone call earlier.
Really, it had been the point of their stop.
"Sort of," Leah said. "I'm nervous."
"Well, why don't we arrange to have lunch together?" Charlie suggested. "It'd be nice to see you properly before you go and we could thrash out your nerves in the process. Get you to the point of equilibrium before you leave!"
Leah smiled gratefully.
"Thank you," she said. "That would be lovely."
That evening, once he had worked out exactly what to say and how to say it, armed with flowers and a box of her favourite chocolates, Sid went round to see Marilyn.
"I might not always agree with you and I might not subscribe to your ideology but I do adore you," he said. "I want to be with you and I want to support you the whole way through the journey you're taking. You bring a light to my life that I never thought I would find. You make me laugh, you're beautiful and I love all the time we spend together. So if you can forgive me for being so resilient to your beliefs for a moment, I accept that they're a part of you and I love every part of you."
Touched, Marilyn leant in and kissed him.
Charlie and Joey had just arrived home when Charlie's phone rang. Joey could tell immediately that it was Ruby, just from the eagerness with which her partner answered the call, even before she spoke.
"Hi, Rubes!" she greeted warmly. "How are you doing?"
"I'm okay," Ruby replied. "How are you? And Joey?"
"We're fine," Charlie said. "We miss you."
"I miss you too. But you can come and see me tomorrow if you like."
"We can? What time?"
"They said in the afternoon," Ruby said. "I can hand you over to the nurse when we're done and they'll go through everything with you. Will you come?"
"Of course we will," Charlie said. "We wouldn't miss it for the world."
The following afternoon, Charlie and Joey were in the visitors' room at one o'clock on the dot, eager to see their daughter. As soon as she entered the room, they flung their arms around her and held her for a long time.
"I just think it's a ridiculous idea," Angelo insisted.
He was irritated that Paulie had followed him to work, where he was trapped and couldn't get rid of him. But at least Joey was away for the day and there was no extra reminder of what he had done to betray her and way.
"It's the only option we have," Paulie insisted. "We need to get the money from somewhere."
"Sorry, we?" Angelo balked. "This is nothing to do with me."
"Do you want to go to your brother's funeral?" Paulie asked.
Angelo sighed.
"I don't want to lose every cent I have," he said.
"We'll bet wisely," the younger man said. "We'll be careful and build it all up and until we have enough. It's foolproof, I swear."
"Fine," Angelo said. "We'll give it a try. Sensibly."
"They're treating me really well," Ruby said. "And my roommate is so great. I'd really like you to meet her actually."
Charlie smiled and squeezed her daughter's hand.
"We're really glad it's going well," she said. "You think we all made the right decision?"
"Definitely," Ruby said. "I've only been here a couple of days but I can already feel a difference. I'm already working on myself."
"It's so good to hear that, Ruby," Joey said.
"So good," Charlie agreed. "So, you want us to meet your roommate?"
Ruby nodded.
"Her name's Claire and she's nineteen," she said. "She was at University when she ended up here but she doesn't have any family and she's very alone. She's gay and I think she could do with some role models."
She grinned, looking hopefully at her parents.
"I don't know how role-modelly we are!" Joey grinned. "But we can give it a go!"
"You're the best role models in the world," Ruby said seriously. "If I can aim to be anything like you two, I know I'll be doing something right."
Ross and Morag were eager to receive Charlie and Joey for the night. They had both been worried about Ruby since they had received the call the other day to explain everything that had happened.
"How is she?" Ross asked urgently, as soon as they had all sat down in the lounge together.
"She's doing really well," Charlie assured him. "She's settled in fine, she's got a great roommate that we're getting to meet tomorrow before we go back home. She's really engaged with the counselling process and she's working so hard to get better."
Morag and Ross breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
Next time… Charlie and Joey meet Ruby's roommate, Charlie and Joey reassure Leah and VJ and Dex won't let Marilyn go…
