Chapter Five Hundred and Eighteen
Marilyn woke up in hospital the next morning feeling a mixture of exhaustion and elation after the events of the previous day. She had worked herself up for so long about the prediction and it had indeed come true. Her heart had stopped on the day her friend had told her she would die. However, thanks to Sid and Joey, she had been brought back to life. She now had a whole new lease of life a chance to start all over again. She couldn't wait to begin.
Across the Bay, Marilyn's friends were opening their mail. And in their mail were DVD's from Marilyn to bid them goodbye. Nobody quite knew what to do or how to feel. Mostly, everyone was just relieved that she was still alive. Back in hospital, Marilyn was suddenly overcome with panic. While the DVDs were predominantly sweet goodbye messages, one of them held a confession. And stuck in hospital, there was no way to stop the recipient from listening to it.
Charlie and Joey sat in front of their TV, each with a cup of coffee. Marilyn was on the screen.
"Hello, girls," the sweet blonde said. "Well, um… if you're watching this either I've died or… or I haven't and we're all having a laugh about my crazy ideas and Sid is saying 'I told you so'. But if… if I have died, I just wanted to say thank you for being my friend. Charlie, you have been so kind to me since I came home. The times we've sat on the beach just talking have helped me so much and I really want you to know what a difference you make to people's lives. What a difference you have made to my life. And you, Joey. You go to your restaurant every day and you're not just serving food and drink, you're serving your community with as much importance as Charlie is as a police officer. I see people go to you for love and kindness, for compassion and understanding. You counsel people, Joey. People know that they can rely on you, no matter what. The two of you as a couple are so important to Summer Bay. You have become pillars of our community and you will be people that this place is known for – like Alf and Ailsa, like Pippa, like Irene, like Donald Fisher, like Shane and Angel Parrish, like Leah, like Sally."
"Like you," Charlie said softly even though Marilyn couldn't hear her.
"Like so many who have lived and loved here."
She took a breath and smiled her Marilyn smile.
"So that's my goodbye message to the two of you," she concluded. "That you are loved and that you are special. That you are important and that you mean so much to this town. Please keep doing what you're doing. And never lose sight of what you mean to each other. Thank you for everything you've done for Summer Bay, including for me. You're wonderful."
She looked emotional.
"Goodbye."
Clumsily, she switched the video off. Joey leant her head on Charlie's shoulder.
"Hey, she's alive," Charlie reminded Joey. "She's alive."
"Are you two okay?" Ruby asked, entering the room and noticing the atmosphere.
"Yeah, we're fine," Charlie said, opening her arms and welcoming her into the hug.
"You're being a little strange," Ruby said, although she happily joined the cuddle.
"It's just been an emotional few days."
It had been quite a day. Marilyn had been inundated with phone calls and visits from people who had received DVDs from her that morning. Most people had been very touched by her messages. Alf, Romeo and Nicole had all come in to see her. Leah and Irene had both phoned her, both in tears. Charlie and Joey had visited also. Sid had brought the kids in.
Unfortunately, Colleen had come in without watching the DVD, overwhelmed that Marilyn had left her a message to say goodbye. The difficulty was that on that particular message, Marilyn had confessed that back in her youth, when she had been dating Colleen's son, Lance, they had accidentally knocked over the urn containing Colleen's mother's ashes. They had replaces them with ashes from a dog's home and never confessed until now. At the time, Marilyn had thought she was laying her sins to rest. But now she wasn't dead. Now she had to live with her confession.
She had taken a deep breath and blurted out the truth, not able to stand Colleen being so nice to her. She had hoped that the older lady would take pity on her, injured in her hospital bed, having faced death the day before. However, she did not take pity on her. She was understandably hurt and absolutely furious. She declared that Marilyn was dead to her and she never wanted to see her face again. Then she stormed out. Marilyn was devastated.
It was a few days later and Charlie, Joey and Ruby headed back to the city to see Ross and Morag for the day. It was sad to see him sat in his chair. They had hoped he would look better. But he looked grey and frail and absent.
"Hey, Dad," Charlie greeted.
He looked blankly at her.
"He's not having a great day," Morag said gently.
She crouched down beside her husband and held his hand.
"Ross," she said. "Charlie, Joey and Ruby have come to see you."
He looked confused but nodded.
"How are you feeling, Dad?" Charlie asked.
He nodded slowly and carried on looking out of the window. Hanging back, Ruby held Joey's hand.
Back in Summer Bay, Robertson was sat at his desk, concentrating hard. He knew he had to move fast on the Penn Graham case now. He could hardly believe that he had been willing to walk away. Not only would he have not caught Penn Graham's murderer but he would also have never had the chance to kiss Leah.
He sat back and sighed, smiling to himself as he remembered their kiss. They hadn't seen each other since but they had texted a couple of times. He hoped that that meant progress, that they might even go on a date now.
But no, right this second, he had to focus. Charlie wasn't working today, interfering with the case. That meant that he had a chance of making actual progress. He didn't care what she believed or how much she loved Alf. He firmly believed that he was the killer and he was determined to prove it. And his first port of call was the bait shop. It seemed highly suspicious to him that Alf had shut down the bait shop so suddenly. And that seemed like something worth investigating further.
It had been a nice day so far although Charlie was concerned that her father didn't seem to be recovering from the infection as well as he should be. The five of them had had a nice lunch out in the garden and he had mostly kept up with conversation although nobody had pressed him to remember too many things.
"Is the Doctor still keeping an eye on him, Morag?" Charlie asked politely, as she and her step-mother stacked the dishwasher after lunch.
"Yes, we have an appointment with the Doctor or at least a nurse every couple of days," Morag said. "They're extending his antibiotics. He isn't healing as well as they would have liked."
Charlie nodded, gazing out of the window at her father, laughing at something Ruby was saying.
"He doesn't seem quite right," she said.
"He isn't quite right," Morag said. "He'll never be right again."
Charlie was surprised to see her quickly wipe her eyes.
"Morag, what can we do for you?" she asked seriously. "What support are you getting?"
"I'm just… doing my best for him," she said sadly. "And you… you're doing your best too. But you live a drive away, you have your jobs and Ruby. You can't be here every second."
Charlie sighed heavily.
"We could… we could think about moving…"
"No," Morag interrupted. "You're not disrupting the home you've built."
"What if you came back to the Bay?" Charlie suggested. "Be with us and Alf and those that could love and take care of you?"
"Perhaps," Morag mused.
It wasn't something she had considered before. She had wanted to keep things the same for Ross. But actually, it didn't seem like such a bad idea.
"You could stay with us," Charlie offered. "We have a spare room. We could help you look after him."
Morag rested her hand atop Charlie's, looking at her with the motherly love that Charlie had not experienced for many years. It touched her.
"Thank you," she said sincerely. "I will most definitely think about it."
"Bingo!" Robertson said triumphantly.
He had obtained the search warrant for the bait shop that he had requested. Now he had to decide whether it would be more useful to search the place while Charlie was gone or more fun to search it tomorrow when she was back at work.
"Do you think she'll go for it?" Joey asked on the drive home.
Charlie had broached her idea of Morag and Ross moving in with them to Joey and Ruby.
"I don't know," Charlie said. "But I made the offer for her to think about. You don't mind?"
"Of course not!" Joey said, holding her hand across the seats. "They're your family. They're our family."
"His memory was so bad today," Ruby said worriedly from the backseat. "Do you think it would help to have us around more?"
"I hope it would help," Charlie said. "And I hope it would help Morag a bit more. Right now, she's coping with Dad's care all by herself. If they came to stay with us, we could all play our part."
Ruby continued to look worried.
"You wouldn't have to do anything you didn't want to do, Rubes," Joey reassured her. "We'd make sure of it."
"I hate feeling worried around him," Ruby admitted. "I just… I don't understand how he doesn't recognise me."
"Just remind yourself that it's this wretched illness, not him," Charlie said. "Inside, he's there, Ruby. And he knows you and he loves you. Always."
Next time… Robertson and Charlie clash, the police ransack the bait shop and Robertson and Leah go on a date…
