Sorry I'm a day late. I ended up having to go to the hospital yesterday instead of the day I planned. I hope you enjoy the chapter and that you all had a good week. Love, IJKS xxx

Chapter Four Hundred and Forty One

"I just think this proves once and for all that Mitzy is a negative influence in your life," Sid said over breakfast the morning. "I mean, who on earth goes on a night out and then announces that you're going to die? Even if she believes it, she shouldn't say something like that in that way. That's like me breaking bad news meant for a hospital consultation over lunch at the Diner. It's not right. It's not fair. And it's not okay."

He shook his head, still in disbelief. His girlfriend had shown up at his house in tears late last night over what had happened with her friend on their girls' night. This morning, she was quiet and subdued while he was angry and frustrated. The kids were also quiet and bemused.

"I should probably talk to her, I guess," Marilyn said sadly. "And apologise to the rest of the girls. I just ran out of there. I didn't even say goodbye."

"I'm sure they'll understand. They're good people."

Marilyn nodded but she still felt stressed and a little embarrassed over the whole thing. And she still felt like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. Two months left and then everything was over.


"I have a feeling it's going to be a long day," Joey sighed before she climbed out of Charlie's car.

It was Sunday and she really, really didn't want to go to work. However, duty called and she knew she had to.

"We'll make sure we have a nice evening," Charlie said, leaning in for a kiss.

Joey smiled and stole one more kiss before forcing herself out of the car.


Battling a hangover, Bianca decided to be proactive and headed out of the house for a run along the beach. She paused when she spotted one of the reasons for her night out the previous evening sitting on the sand ahead of her, strumming his guitar. He spotted her at the same moment, making backing away from him impossible without looking rude.

"Hi," she said, approaching.

"Hi," Liam replied, sitting his guitar down. "How are you?"

"I'm okay," she said. "A bit worse for wear after a pretty big night out last night."

"Oh yeah," Liam recalled. "I heard you had a girls' night last night. Did you have fun?"

"Yeah, it was good," Bianca said. "How have you been?"

"So, so," he replied with a shrug.

They then both started talking at the same time. Things were more than awkward.


At work, Charlie was distracted, thinking about Joey.

"Are you okay?" Watson wondered. "You seem to have a lot on your mind."

"Oh, yeah," Charlie said, snapping back to reality. "I was just trying to think of something nice I could do for Joey. She seemed a bit… off this morning."

"Any idea why?" Watson asked.

"No," Charlie said. "She just said she felt like it was going to be a long day. Maybe she was just feeling a bit rough after a late night but… I don't know. I thought maybe I could take her out somewhere or get a nice meal in. I'd cook but I don't want to burn the apartment down."

Watson grinned.

"We could double date," she offered. "Kerri and I could cook."

"Really?" Charlie asked, her eyes lighting up.

"If we wouldn't be intruding."

"No, no," Charlie said. "That would be great."


"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Alf snapped loudly.

He sucked his finger, having just cut himself on a glass he'd dropped while trying to put it away. Miles looked up abruptly from his lunch, where he had been eating alone and marking books, and Joey rushed over to check that her Bar Manager was okay.

"I'm fine," Alf snapped. "It's just a cut."

"Let me clean it for you," Joey said.

"I'm fine, Joey," Alf said. "Stop fussing."

"Alf…"

"I'm fine!" he snapped again, pushing her away.

She stumbled, with him being rather rougher than he'd intended. Miles hurried over, with both staff members stunned.

"I'm sorry, Joey," Alf said quietly.

"It's fine," Joey said. "I know you're under a lot of stress."

"It's no excuse," Alf said, genuinely fighting tears.

She was the last person in the world that he ever wanted to hurt.

"Alf, if you'd just talk to us…" Joey tried.

She offered him a bar towel for his hand. He wrapped it up and sighed heavily.

"I used to be in a relationship with Penn's mother," he admitted. "And after it ended, she committed suicide."


Somehow or another, Bianca had ended up inviting Liam to lunch with her. Now that they were exes, they had decided to try and be friends. But now, sitting in the Diner together, they didn't quite know how to act or what to talk about. It hard with all their unresolved feelings for each other and now, they were starting to think perhaps this was a bad idea after all. Why did everything have to be so complicated?


"It was after my first wife, Martha died," Alf explained to Joey and Miles, who hung on his every word. "I was completely lost and Tulip was also in a bad place, as her daughter had also died not too long before. She was married but her husband was away on business a lot so she was lonely too, grieving for her daughter and trying to bring up her son – Penn."

Joey frowned, trying to take it all in.

"I never had anything to do with him really," Alf said. "I didn't even recognise him when he showed up here after so long but he was gunning for me from the start. He's been tormenting me and threatening me. And everything he's done, all that with Nicole. It's all been this twisted form of revenge. He blames me for his mother dying. She killed herself because I wouldn't continue our affair."

"You can't be held responsible for what she did," Miles said. "She made her own choices. I mean, it's tragic. It's awful, especially that a boy lost his mother. And his sister. But it's not your fault."

"I should never have got involved with her in the first place," Alf said. "That was my fault."

"That may well be true," Joey said honestly. "But that's not the point. What Penn is doing is wrong. You can't punish someone the way he is, you can't torment someone and torture them for an affair that happened years ago. He must have been to hell and back but you had a relationship with his mother, a relationship that she wanted. And you ended it. Relationships come to an end. It's a fact of life. Her death was tragic and it must have been the end of his world but it's not your fault, Alf."

Alf rubbed his eyes. Joey put her arm around him. He breathed a heavy sigh, relieved to have finally got it off his chest.


Penn sat on the beach alone, staring out at the horizon, deep in thought. Things were going too slowly in the Bay and he needed to up his game. His torture of Alf was becoming too long and drawn out and he was getting bored. Playing the long game was one thing but something needed to change. He needed to step things up a gear.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, picturing the worst moment of his life, the day that he had walked into the lounge to find his mother, dead on the sofa, having committed suicide. It was like all the life had drained out of him. He'd been so frightened. He'd thrown up and cried all at the same time. And his whole world had changed that day, worse even than when his sister had died.

His father had had to change jobs in order to look after him. His work had been well paid up till then, taking him away on business all the time, leaving Penn, his mother and his sister happily at home together. Then it had just been him and his mother. Then suddenly, it was him and his Dad and neither of them had known how to communicate with each other.

His Dad had found out about the affair between Tulip and Alf and he had fallen to pieces even more so than when he'd just been grieving for his wife. Then sure enough, at the age of twelve, Penn had come home to find his Dad dead in the same spot his mother had been in. Both his parents had left him.

Everything had got worse and worse in his life from there on out. He had been sent to live with relatives who were kind enough to him but he had been bullied terribly at school. He stuck out like a sore thumb as the kid whose parents were dead by their own choice. He'd suffered in silence until the day he'd snapped and fought back. Violently.

He had ended up in an institution and been forced to stay there until he had succeeded in perfecting the role of the cured patient and learned to stop ranting about Alf Stewart, the man he blamed for everything that had gone wrong in his life. But the truth was, he hated him and he held him responsible for the deaths of both his mother and his father and everything that had happened since he'd lost them. And now that he was free, he was hell bent on revenge.


"So, do you think this Claire girl will make a good lodger for Kerri?" Watson asked, as she and Charlie patrolled together through Yabbie Creek High street.

"I think so," Charlie said. "I mean, Ruby says she wouldn't have got through the last few weeks without her. They've been really good for each other. And I know that Claire doesn't have any family so it'll be good if between us we can give her a base and a sense of family and home. If we can look after her a bit."

Watson nodded thoughtfully.

"Are you not keen?" Charlie asked.

"No, no, I am," Watson said. "I just… I guess I'd been hoping that maybe at some point Kerri and I would end up living together or something so her looking for a lodger means that she's definitely not thinking about that."

"You really are smitten!" Charlie teased.

"How could I not be?" Watson blushed. "She's amazing!"

Charlie chuckled.

"Look, just because she's looking for a lodger now, doesn't mean she wouldn't be up for living together later, Watson," she said. "But does that mean you're ready to parent Danny?"

"I love Danny," Watson said sincerely and without hesitation. "If she wanted me to be a parent to him and he agreed, I'd do it in a heartbeat, like you and Ruby have invited Joey to do."

Charlie smiled. It was nice to see Watson become part of a family, like she had wanted to be for so long.


"So, things are looking good with you and Vittorio?" Liam asked, the atmosphere becoming immediately tense.

Bianca breathed in.

"Oh, come on," the former rock star said. "Someone had to mention him."

"I don't know," she said awkwardly. "I mean, I don't know."

Liam tried to still the hope welling up inside him.


That evening, Joey was subdued but pleased when Charlie told her that they had been invited round to Kerri's for dinner with her and Watson.

"Is everything alright, Jo?" Charlie asked, as they got changed.

She wrapped her arms around her girlfriend's waist and kissed her. Drawing away, she gazed into her eyes, searching her expression.

"Yeah, just… stuff on my mind," Joey said.

"Care to share?" Charlie asked.

"I'm not allowed to," Joey said glumly.

Alf had specifically requested that neither she nor Miles repeated his story to anybody. Joey knew she would find it hard, especially with Charlie but she had to respect her friend's wishes.

"Oh," Charlie said, a little downhearted.

"It's just Alf," Joey explained. "It's difficult."

"Well, I'm here if you need me."

"Thank you," Joey said, kissing her gently.


Liam had been brave and asked Bianca out for dinner. He'd been encouraged by her lacklustre response to his question about Vittorio and hoped that maybe things might work out between them after all.

Bianca still felt completely torn between the two men in her life. She felt utterly conflicted. Vittorio meant so much to her, so much that she was tempted to forgive him for cheating. But she had so much chemistry with Liam and they had so much fun together.

She stood up, ready to go for dinner with him. Reaching for the door handle, she opened it up, only to find Vittorio on her doorstep, looking as dashing and handsome as ever.


"This is delicious," Joey enthused. "Thank you for inviting us round. It's been such a long day. I really needed this."

Charlie and Watson exchanged secret smiles.

"I just love having such good friends to spend time with," Kerri said. "Not to mention my beautiful girlfriend."

"Oh, you can mention me," Watson said.

Kerri grinned at her.

"Well, here's to many more double dates," Charlie said, lifting her glass.

They all toasted together.


That night, Alf tossed and turned in bed. He felt bad for burdening Joey and forbidding her to share the load with her partner. But he really didn't want anyone else to know about his past with Tulip, especially not a police officer. Falling asleep, he was plagued with nightmares.


Next time… Charlie feels left out, Alf opens up to Irene and John has a confession…