Chapter Five Hundred and Twenty Five

Charlie, Joey, Ruby, Morag and Ross had settled into a rather nice routine. Ross enjoyed having a variety of people around him, all of whom he felt safe with and all of whom seemed to want his company. Friends such as Leah and Angelo popped in often and Claire was offering up a lot of her time to be there to support her friends, especially Ruby.

This morning, Ruby and Claire were taking Ross to the beach while Joey and Charlie went to work and Morag allowed herself some time to work some more on Alf's case. Out in the sunshine, Ross and the girls were enjoying the warmth. Every morning since his arrival in Summer Bay, Ross had insisted on at least one walk along the sand. It had become a ritual that he very much enjoyed and everyone was very happy to oblige.

"Hey, Romeo!" Ruby called out to her friend as she spotted him coming in from surfing.

He nodded and approached them, dumping his board on the sand.

"How are you?" she asked. "Indi and Nicole told us about your exam result."

He shrugged.

"Can you resit?"

"The whole year," he said. "Not sure I'll bother."

"Oh, come on," Ruby said. "You did all that work. This year will be easy for you now. All you've got to do is pass the exams."

"Which I clearly found so easy this time!" he remarked.

"But you know where you went wrong this time," Ruby said. "Hey, it's my HSC year next year. We could help each other. Buddy up. You already know what's to come. You can help me. And I want to give my final year everything I have, make my parents proud and go to Uni. What do you think?"

He chewed his lip. It was the most helpful thing anyone had actually said to him since his humiliating failure.

"I'll think about it," he said.

"Don't think too long," Ruby teased. "I might find someone else!"

He laughed and jogged up the beach, grabbing his board on the way.


Joey was at work but she was finding it hard to concentrate. She had been finding it hard to concentrate there ever since Alf had been arrested. She had been finding it hard to sleep and think. Her mind was consumed by visions of Alf struggling behind bars when he didn't belong there. It hurt her. He hadn't been in touch with her. She had asked Morag if she could visit him but he had sent a message through her that he didn't want Joey to see him in there. She understood but it made her worry even more.

She was angry with Roo for not bothering to come back from the States to support her father. It only led her to believe that her return to the Bay had been selfish or even inspired by a desire to line Hugo and Martha's pockets. There had been a lot of meetings between her and Gina and John. The whole thing just didn't sit right somehow.

She had avoided Will so far since the argument they'd had but she felt embarrassed in front of people now, like he had somehow unmasked her. Over the last year or so, since she and Charlie had been together, Charlie had changed her whole world and helped her become the person she had always dreamed of being. She had helped her become someone she never imagined she ever could be. She had qualifications. She had her own home and her own business. She was in a long term relationship and had a step-daughter. She even had friends. People genuinely liked her. But now she felt like that one argument with Will, a shadow of her past had infected the success she had made of herself and she felt very angry about it. She didn't even know what he was hanging around the Bay for. What was he even achieving?

"Jo, are you okay?"

Her thoughts were interrupted by Angelo. He sounded concerned.

"Huh?" she managed.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah… yeah… just thinking," she said.

"I miss him too," Angelo said. "I can't stop worrying about him."

Joey nodded and sighed.

"But he'll be okay," Angelo tried to reassure her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "He's Alf. He can get through anything."

Joey gave him a brief hug. Then took a deep breath and forced herself to face the world again.


It was lunch time and Charlie was on her way home for lunch so that she could see her father. She was nearly home when she saw Will walking along the side of the road, his head down, headphones in. Impulsively, she pulled over.

"Hey!" she called loudly enough that he heard her and took out his headphones.

"What?" he snapped back hesitantly. "I wasn't doing anything."

"Forget the uniform," she said, taking off her badge. "I'm not talking to you as a cop. I'm talking to you as myself."

He nodded, eyes narrowed.

"Joey told me what happened the other day," Charlie informed him.

He shrugged. He figured she would have.

"I'm not even going to ask how you could shove her kindness back in her face like that."

"She fired me!"

"You screwed Alf over! You know you lied to us about Penn!"

"I didn't lie!"

"Whatever," Charlie snapped. "This isn't about that."

"Then what are you hassling me about?"

"I'm not hassling you," Charlie told him. "I'm politely asking you to stay away from Joey."

"I have no intention of going anywhere near her," Will said. "I had no interest in her when we were kids and I have no interest in her now. Just because she's slept her way into money and success or whatever and made a bit of a name for herself…"

Charlie stepped closer, feeling herself losing her temper.

"Joey as done no such thing," she warned him.

"Whatever," Will said. "You didn't know her at school. The Joey Collins from back then is not the Joey Collins we know now. She hooked up with you and you've given her this amazing life. And that's fine. Good for her. But let's not pretend it isn't fake."

"It isn't fake!" Charlie said. "Joey has earned everything she has. She's worked damn hard for everything she has. Don't you dare disregard her just because you've wasted your life. Especially when you had a hell of a lot more chances than she did."

"More chances? Do you even know how I started out?"

"I do. And I do know that you were rescued by Irene Roberts," Charlie said. "Joey was never rescued. She had to save herself. You were rescued and you fucked it all up anyway. Joey built everything up on her own."

"Oh, you never spoon fed her anything?"

"I helped," Charlie accepted. "But every success she made came from herself. That's why people like her so much and that's why people respect her. So I'll ask you again to stay away from her. And maybe have a little think about what you're doing here in Summer Bay and what effect you might be having on people."

She turned and got into her car to go home. Will sighed heavily and watched her drive away.


Morag sat across the table from Alf. He looked pale and tired and… old. She tried not to look upset at the sight of him. She tried to be a professional and a sister all at the same time. It was a hard line to tread.

"I won't ask how you're doing," she said.

"Best not to," he replied.

They both offered small smiles.

"How are you doing?"

He managed a soft chuckle.

"I'm coping," he said. "It's not exactly where I was expecting to spend my twilight years."

"It's temporary," she reminded him.

"I'm not so sure," Alf said unhappily.

"I'm on it, Alf," she said. "The girls are helping me with Ross so I can really concentrate on your case and I know that Charlie and Watson are doing what they can on their end as well."

Alf nodded sadly.

"How is everyone?" he asked. "Ross and the girls?"

"They're okay," she said. "They miss you of course. Joey won't fill your position at work because she wants it to be waiting for you when you come home."

"Oh, please tell her to get someone, Morag," he requested. "Even just a temp if it makes her feel better. They're all going to be run ragged trying to fill in my shifts."

"I know, I know," Morag said. "We've all told her but you know how loyal she is. You know how much she loves you. She feels like you're her Dad."

He sighed but smiled.

"I feel the same."


Ruby flung herself into Charlie's arms as soon as she walked through the door.

"Hey, what's going on?" Charlie asked.

"Sorry," Ruby said, drawing away. "Just… we had a difficult hour."

Ross was sat at the table quietly with Claire who was holding his hand. Charlie gave Ruby another hug and then approached her father.

"Hey, how are you, Dad?"

"I got upset," he said. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Charlie said, sitting beside him.

Claire quietly left them to it.

"We all get upset sometimes."

"I think I upset um… the girl… um…"

"Ruby?"

"Yes," he said. "Ruby."

"It's okay," Charlie said. "She's okay."

"I'm sorry," he said.

She hugged him.


At the restaurant, Hannah excused herself from the table at which she had been waiting for Claire. She had received a very apologetic text explaining that she wasn't able to leave Ruby and Ross as things were a bit difficult. Things always seemed to be a bit difficult lately.

And Hannah wasn't sure why Claire always had to be involved. Ross wasn't her father or grandfather or whatever he was to Ruby in her complicated family. And yet she was always there. She was working extra shifts to help Joey out as much as possible now that Alf was in jail. And when she wasn't doing that, she was taking turns to look after Ross and help Ruby an exorbitant amount. And amongst all of that, she just didn't seem to have enough time for her girlfriend.

Hannah was really starting to feel very shut out. She didn't want to complain because really, Claire was just trying to do a good thing. She wanted to be supportive. She wanted to love that her girlfriend was so kind. But if she was being really honest, she was a little jealous of the way that Claire dropped her constantly for Ruby. She just couldn't help it.


Across the room, Joey served John and Gina their lunch.

"I hope you enjoy it," she said.

"I'm sure we will," Gina said.

Joey smiled and headed back to the bar where a couple of guys were waiting to be served. Without Alf, everyone was rushed off their feet. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Hannah leaving. Claire had obviously cancelled on her. Joey felt bad. She knew that Claire had spent the morning with Ruby and Ross. She just hoped that things had not gone badly. When she had a moment, she would call home and check that everything was alright. She knew at least that Charlie was heading home for lunch as Morag was visiting Alf for the afternoon.

She took the order from the two and they returned to their table of six. They had made a point of complaining that they had waited for someone to come to their table so they could order more drinks but nobody had come. She had apologised and offered them a free round of drinks to compensate. She knew she needed to hire a temp in Alf's place but it felt like admitting defeat, admitting that he was really in prison, that he was really locked away.

She busied herself with making the six drinks quickly and took them on a tray over to the table with more sincere apologies. The three couples accepted the drinks happily and she headed back to the bar.

"Hey," said a voice she knew well.

She looked and found Romeo sat in front of her. She hadn't seen him since the news had broken that he had failed all his exams.

"Hey," she greeted. "How are you doing?"

"Not great," he said. "I guess you know what happened?"

"Yeah," Joey said. "I'm sorry, Romeo."

"My own fault," he said. "Always my own fault."

"What are you going to do now?"

He shrugged.

"I could repeat the year," he said. "Or I could be a high school drop out for the second time in a row. Either way, I just feel like I'm wasting my whole life. I just feel like a complete and utter loser."

"You're not a loser," Joey said firmly. "Not at all."

"It just took so much for me to try at school again and I screwed it up," he said. "I'm such an idiot."

"You're not an idiot," Joey insisted. "It's just one of those things."

He couldn't bring himself to tell her the whole truth, that he had done it on purpose.

"But what would be wrong would be for you to let it knock you down and keep you down," Joey continued. "You need to stop, take a deep breath and work out which direction you're going in. You could drop out if you really want to. You could get a job and build yourself up and that would fine. It would. But something tells me that you wouldn't have put yourself through the last year if you didn't really want to get your HSC. So perhaps that's something you might want to think about."

"I do want to get my HSC," he said. "But I don't have to resit the exams, Joey. I have to resit the whole damn year."

"So resit the whole damn year, Romeo!" she said teasingly.

He grinned.

"Come on! You've already got a head start."

He nodded thoughtfully.

"Well, Ruby suggested we did it together," he ventured. "She was really nice actually. Supportive."

"Well, there you go then," Joey decided. "That's it settled."

He laughed.

"Okay," he agreed.

"Well, Gina is over there," she nudged. "No time like the present!"


That evening, Joey arrived home feeling rather pleased with how the day had turned out.

"Hey, how are you?" she greeted, kissing Charlie.

"I'm okay," Charlie said. "You look happy."

"Yeah, my day picked up actually," Joey said. "Romeo has agreed to go back to school."

"Oh great!" Charlie said.

"And that's not least because of you, Ruby," Joey told her step-daughter who was watching TV with Claire.

Ruby looked up.

"Me?"

"Apparently you offered to team up with him to get through the year?"

"Oh, yeah," Ruby said. "I thought it might help in case he was feeling alone."

"Well, it did help," Joey said. "He's told Gina that he'll repeat the year. It was really kind of you."

Ruby looked pleased with herself. Claire beamed at Ruby. Joey thought about how upset Hannah had looked at lunch time. She felt sad. She really had wanted things to work out between them.

"Also, I have temporarily filled Alf's position at the restaurant," Joey added. "At least some of his hours anyway."

Morag looked up from her chair. Ross was sleeping in bed.

"Really?" Morag asked.

"Romeo was interested in a summer job," Joey said. "I think he wants a distraction from how he's feeling. So I've given him some hours and I've made it clear that it's just until Alf is released and ready to come back to work."

She turned to Charlie.

"I hope that's okay?"

"Of course that's okay," she said. "I think it's a good idea. You're absolutely rushed off your feet over there right now and Romeo is a really good kid."

"You don't think Alf will be upset?" Joey asked Morag.

"I spoke to him today and he asked me to tell you to hire someone," Morag said. "He said he loves you and doesn't want you to struggle."

Joey looked sad and relieved all at the same time.

"And you, Claire?" Joey asked. "Happy to work with Romeo?"

"Of course!" Claire said. "He's great."

"Aren't you going to ask my opinion?" Ruby ask.

"Well, I mean, it doesn't really affect you…"

"Yeah but you've asked everyone else what they think!"

Joey laughed and asked her opinion.

"I think Romeo is fantastic," Ruby said firmly. "He'll be a great addition to the team."

Charlie snorted and headed into the kitchen to begin making dinner.


Next time… Christmas arrives in Summer Bay, Angelo takes charge of New Year at Bucktons' and Ross begins to feel unwell…