Thanks to everyone who is still reading the stories. I hope you enjoy the chapter. Love, IJKS xxx

Chapter Four Hundred and Thirty Six

"She sounds so much stronger every day, doesn't she?" Charlie said, when she hung up the phone to Ruby.

It had become a morning ritual for them to speak to their daughter over breakfast and it was something they looked forward to each day. They could now hardly wait to have her home again where they could look after her properly.

"She does," Joey agreed. "I know this was really hard but I think it was absolutely the best decision we could have made as a family."

Charlie reached across the table and held her hand.

"Agreed," she said.


Across town, Gina studied the interaction between John and Xavier. She had been concerned for a few days that the bond they had recently built up was starting to break down. Now, all she could detect was tension. She was concerned. But every time she asked about it, they dismissed her as if she was imagining things.

"If you say so," she sighed, getting up and announcing that she was going to get dressed.

Alone, John turned to Xavier.

"You'd better come up with a plan to sort out my business," he warned his step-son. "You got us into this mess and you need to get us out of it."

Xavier sighed, wondering when John was going to forgive him and April for getting his bus budget cut.


Dex was despondent. He couldn't get what had happened yesterday with Mitzy out of his head and he didn't know what to do about it. He missed Ruby and he felt terrible for the way he had let her down. They had become such good friends and then she had hit a brick wall with her feelings and ended up in a terrible state. He hadn't been there. He hadn't helped. He'd been too caught up in his own issues, his own stupid feelings about Marilyn.

Sighing heavily, he found himself wandering into Bucktons' and approaching the bar, where Joey was setting out clean glasses from the dishwasher.

"Hi, Dex," she greeted warmly and with some surprise.

He supposed he wasn't her usual customer.

"I was just wondering how Ruby was doing," he said. "I've been thinking about her a lot."

Joey leant on the bar and offered him her full attention.

"She's doing really well," she said. "We're hoping that she'll be back home with us soon."

"That's good," he said honestly. "I miss her. And I worry that I let her down when she needed me. I got caught up in my own stupid stuff and I didn't notice that she was suffering. I guess I always thought that she was so much more sorted than me."

Joey sighed.

"We're all guilty of missing stuff," she said. "Charlie and I beat ourselves up about it all the time. But that doesn't help. We just have to work with the situation we've got and take care of her as best we can in the present."

Dex nodded.

"So, what about your own stuff?" she asked. "You look like you've got the weight of the world on your shoulders."

Suddenly he realised why the whole town treated this woman as their own personal agony aunt.


Charlie and Watson had drawn the short straw and were reluctantly on foot patrol in Mangrove River.

"I actually hate this place even more than I used to," Watson complained, looking anxiously around her. "I didn't even think that was possible."

"Well, just think," Charlie said. "When you go home from here, you get to go and spend the evening with your beautiful girlfriend because she chose you over one of the disgusting yobs that live here."

Watson matched her grin and walked with a little more pride.

"Walking through here feels a little better when you put it this way," she said.


"Sorry, what?" Joey balked. "Mitzy kissed you? Mitzy, as in Marilyn's friend?"

Dex nodded, still feeling stressed about it all.

"How old are you?"

"Sixteen."

Joey frowned.

"And you didn't want her to?"

Dex shook his head.

"That really isn't good," Joey said. "She shouldn't have done that."

"She said she was trying to teach me a lesson over the whole Marilyn thing," he explained. "That I shouldn't be trying to make my feelings so clear when she's said she isn't interested."

"Well… no, you shouldn't," Joey agreed. "But that was not an okay way to do it."

"What am I supposed to do now?" Dex asked.

"I think we should call your Dad," Joey decided.


"Uh oh," Watson remarked. "How very much the last person I wanted to see."

Charlie looked up from where she had been about to order coffee in the café they had stopped at. Brax, Heath and a couple of the guy in their surfing gang waltzed in for lunch.

"Just ignore them," she said.

It proved impossible. The boys spotted them and Brax immediately marched up to them. Police uniforms were like a moth to a flame when it came to the River Boys.

"How's darling Kerri?" Brax asked, approaching Watson immediately.

"She's perfect, thank you very much," Watson replied flatly.

Charlie focussed on ordering their drinks. She was determined to stay out of it.

"Doesn't it make you feel a bit sick that I had her first?"

Watson turned to face him properly.

"Doesn't it make you feel a bit sick that I get to keep her forever because she had you and didn't want you anymore but she wants me?"

Behind him, Heath laughed. Brax shot him a glare and he shut up.

"You think you're so smug, don't you?"

"Nope," Watson said. "I am smug. You lost. I won. It's pretty simple."

He shoved her.


Gina, John, Xavier and April had met up for lunch at the restaurant.

"Honestly, John, this idea has been successful in other places," April said. "I think it could really work here and it's something we could really get excited about and get our teeth into."

Having been fretted to earlier by Xavier about John's warning, she had come up with a public transport plot to replace the one that the Council had cut in favour of the bottle ban campaign. She just hoped that it would work. And that her slight exaggeration of the truth wouldn't be too much of a problem.


On the other side of the venue, Joey had sad Dex down with Sid and Marilyn and helped him explain what had happened with Mitzy. They were both upset and it had taken a lot of persuading to stop Sid from charging down to the caravan park to give Mitzy what for. For her part, Marilyn looked utterly mortified.

"But maybe while you're all sitting down, this is a good time to…?" Joey nudged Dex.

He looked helplessly between all three adults.

"I'm really sorry for my behaviour and I'll never ever approach you about anything inappropriate ever again," he told the woman that could one day be his step-mum.

"Thank you, Dex," Marilyn said.

For the first time, she believed that he meant it.


Charlie stepped in between Brax and Watson immediately, spreading her arms and taking on her cop stance. She looked Brax in the eye.

"Do you really think pushing and shoving a cop around is a good idea?" she asked. "I mean, I know you and your gang only share a couple of brain cells between you but can you at least try and figure out that you're going to be escorted to a cell if you keep up?"

"She started it," Heath said in the background.

Brax turned and glared at his brother. He turned back to Charlie and held his hands up in surrender, backing off.

"Good choice," she said. "Unless Watson here wants to press charges?"

She turned to her friend.

"I don't want to spend any more time with him than I have to," she said. "Let's get our coffees and go so I can finish my shift and get back to my girlfriend."

Charlie supressed and smile and returned to the counter. Irritated, Brax headed back out of the venue with his boys.


That evening, Irene came round to have dinner with Leah, who was trying to put everything in place, the closer she came to leaving for Africa with VJ.

"I just wanted to ask you about… well… if I end up having to go away to see Elijah regularly or something… would you be willing to take more control of the Diner?"

Irene paused thoughtfully.

"Well, yes, of course I will," she said. "But um… Leah…?"

Her friend looked anxious.

"Look, I'm just putting this out there and ignore me if you want but… can I just ask you to make sure that you're not the one making all the sacrifices?"


Having gladly finished her shift, Charlie headed over to the restaurant to collect Joey.

"Hey, sweetheart," she greeted, leaning over the counter and kissing her. "How was your day?"

"It was… interesting," she said.

She looked over at Sid, Marilyn and Dex, who were just getting up to leave.

"Bye, Joey," Sid said. "Thank you for everything."

Marilyn and Dex reiterated his words.

"No problem," Joey said. "Take care."

Charlie watched them leave and then turned back to her girlfriend, looking confused.

"What have you been up to?"

"Things sort of came to a head with the whole Dex crushing on Marilyn today," Joey explained. "And Mitzy was really inappropriate with Dex and it all got really complicated. So I interfered. As usual."

She grinned.

"But it paid off, so that's good."

Charlie kissed her again.

"That's my girl," she said. "Always helping."

"Anyway, how was your day?" Joey asked.

"It was also interesting," she said. "Watson and that Brax guy nearly came to blows over Kerri."

"Really?" Joey asked, alarmed.

"Yeah," Charlie sighed. "He's such a thug. I am so relieved that Kerri came to her senses when she did."

"Me too," Joey said.


That night, Dex lay in bed, unable to sleep. He was glad that he had spoken to Joey. She had helped him sort a lot of things out. He had finally put to bed his feelings for Marilyn and he had meant it when he'd apologised and he hoped that he would leave it all there.

And he felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from him when he'd opened up about what had happened with Mitzy. On the way home from the restaurant, his father and Marilyn had left him in the car and spoken to Mitzy. They had berated her for kissing him and put her in her place. He hadn't heard what they'd said but it had looked stern. And he had been told to stay away from her, which he would certainly do now.

The only problem now was that he was starting to see Joey Collins in a rather different light…


Next time… the situation intensifies between Alf and Penn, Ruby wants help in settling Claire into the Bay and Xavier catches April out…