This is definitely the last update of A Different Way before Christmas. So to whoever is still reading this one, I hope you have a lovely Christmas, whatever you are doing and whoever you are spending it with. Much love, IJKS xxx

Chapter Five Hundred and Thirty Three

The following evening, a small gathering of people joined together for a private function at Bucktons' Restaurant, organised for Alf by Joey. Nicole forced herself to attend for the sake of a man she adored and who had stood by her no matter what but after the rather emotional day she had had, she really just wanted to curl up at home and eat chocolate. She regretted the effort she'd made as soon as she arrived when she was immediately targeted by Morag who demanded to know exactly what her plans were for the baby.

"To be honest, Morag, it's not really any of your business," she said, trying to get away from her.

"It is when the existence of that child could put my brother behind bars!"

"My baby has nothing to do with any of that," Nicole insisted.

"Everyone knows that Alf thinks of you as family and everyone knows what Penn Graham did to you, how he treated you," Morag persisted. "The prosecution could easily argue that your pregnancy could be a motive for murder. Although… not just for him."

"What do you mean?" Nicole asked worriedly.

"Well, perhaps Alf wasn't the only one angry enough with Penn," Morag suggested. "Maybe the police missed an obvious suspect."

"You're not suggesting…?"


Oblivious to what his sister and legal representative was up to, Alf was reluctantly enjoying his party. Not usually one to enjoy a fuss, Alf was genuinely touched that Joey, the woman he thought of as a daughter had gone to so much effort just to show him how happy she was that he was home and that she and the rest of the Bay loved him. He just wished Roo was still here and that Irene hadn't chosen Will's side in all of this so that they could be there at the party with them too.


"Are you okay, Marilyn?" Sid asked.

His girlfriend did not look comfortable. In fact, she looked positively anxious.

"Oh yes, I'm fine," the blonde replied, not looking at him.

She was too preoccupied with watching Nicole talking to Morag.

"Marilyn, she's an adult," Sid said, catching on. "I know you're concerned and you've been supporting her but she can and should look after herself."

"I know," Marilyn said, finally turning to face him. "I'm just worried about her. She's so vulnerable at the moment."

She sighed and then caught sight of Colleen glaring at her. The older woman hadn't forgiven her since the DVD incident. Marilyn had tried on several occasions to make things up with her but Colleen had been unforgiving.


"Are you having a nice time, Alf?" Joey asked hopefully.

"Yes, love," Alf said, giving her a hug. "Thank you for caring so much."

"Well… you know."

She hugged him back. Charlie watched their affection from a short distance away, smiling to herself. She missed her Dad for a moment. But she felt happy that Joey had someone like Alf in her life, having never had a solid father figure before. Her Dad had been around but he hadn't been someone she could depend on. Joey had worked hard to get where she was in her life right now.


Unable to stop herself, Marilyn interrupted Morag's conversation with Nicole, asking Nicole how she was feeling.

"I'm okay," Nicole said, grateful that her friend had cut in. "A bit tired."

"Perhaps you should sit down," Marilyn suggested, pulling up a chair. "Morag, it's nice to see you. I haven't really had a chance to speak to you properly since you came back to the Bay."

"No," Morag said. "I haven't had much time to socialise."

"I'm sorry things have been so difficult for you," Marilyn sympathised.

Morag nodded her thanks. She wasn't one for an emotional conversation. She had already locked her pain regarding Ross away in a box.

"Why does Colleen look like she's chewing a wasp?" she asked suddenly.

"Oh!" Marilyn said, looking over at her.

Colleen did indeed look enraged.

"We had a falling out," Marilyn explained. "I imagine she doesn't like the idea of me talking to you."

"Right," Morag said evenly. "What did you fall out over?"

"Something silly really," Marilyn told her. "I admitted to something that Lance and I did when we were teenagers and she won't forgive me."

"Teenagers? Oh, that's ridiculous."

She marched over and all but dragged Colleen over to Marilyn.

"Colleen, you're a grown woman," Morag told her. "Stop glaring and being spiteful over something long since over for goodness sake. Life's too short for something so stupid."

Colleen opened and closed her mouth a couple of times. She looked at Morag's stern face and finally sighed.

"Fine," she said. "I forgive you."

"And I am sorry," Marilyn said. "Genuinely."

"Good then," Morag said. "Sorted. Let's move on."

On her chair, Nicole smiled to herself. However, inside, she was scared. If Morag wasn't on her side and she was out to get her then she could really be in trouble.


"Oi! You're supposed to be working!" Angelo scolded, slapping Romeo on the back of the head as he walked past.

Romeo prised himself away from Indi, who had been caught up with kissing.

"Sorry," the blonde surfer said, dragging himself back behind the bar to serve more drinks. "I thought this was supposed to be a party."

"It is," Angelo said. "And party people need drinks."

Romeo sighed dramatically. Indi grinned and pulled up a stool to sit at the bar beside Ruby, not noticing the jealous look on her face. Claire however, did.


The party was already in full swing when John and Gina arrived. They were immediately greeted by Alf, who had personally invited them.

"Listen, Palmer, I wanted to talk to you about something actually," Alf said, sounding a bit awkward.

"What's wrong?" John worried.

"I'm just not happy with all the changes you've made at the Surf Club," he said.

John puffed out his chest ready to argue. Then he glanced at Gina, who silently reminded him that this was Alf's party and he shouldn't ruin it.

"I'm sorry you feel that way, mate," he said politely. "I thought I was doing the right thing."

"Well," Alf said reasonably. "I'm still not in the clear. I've got a long way to go until all of this is over. So just carry on what you're doing, managing the place. But when I'm back, we'll talk."

It was a polite warning. But it was still a warning. John smiled, taking it as a challenge. The two men shook hands. Gina rolled her eyes and ordered a drink from Romeo.


"You're plotting something," Charlie said, sitting down at a table with Morag.

Her step-mother looked up, a little surprised.

"What do you mean?"

"You don't look like a woman in the party spirit," Charlie said. "You look like a shark of a lawyer working a room of potential suspects."

Morag managed a small smile.

"I'm working on Alf's defence."

"Which is?"

"Offering another option."

"Who?"

Morag looked at Nicole.

"No way!"

"I'm not suggesting that she actually did it," Morag said evenly. "But if I can persuade the jury that she could have, it would provide reasonable doubt in their minds that Alf did it."

"Yeah," Charlie sighed. "I understand."

She chewed her lip and sighed again.

"But it doesn't have to be her," she insisted. "Please not Nicole. She's a good kid. And she's pregnant. Can you imagine the stress…?"

"I know," Morag said quickly. "I do know."

"What about Will?"

"What about that cretin?"

"I still think he's guilty."

"Possibly," Morag said. "But we've investigated multiple times Charlie and there is just no evidence. And no strong motive. The only motive we had was his love for Alf and now that's been blown out of the water. If he loved Alf that much then he wouldn't have thrown him under the bus at Bianca's wedding, would he?"

Charlie shook her head. She downed her drink. Every day at work, she was becoming more and more desperate to find something, anything to link Will or any other person to Penn's murder.


"Hannah!" Claire exclaimed excitedly.

Ruby rolled her eyes as her best friend put a set of glasses down and rushed over to greet her girlfriend with a shy but delighted PDA.

"Thank you for coming," Claire said.

"Thank you for inviting me," Hannah said. "Especially as you said it was an exclusive party."

"Well, I asked Alf if I could and he said he'd love you to come," Claire beamed.

They kissed again. Ruby finished her orange juice and looked away, only to spot Romeo and Indi kissing. She caught Angelo's eye. He shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"What is with all these smug couples, eh, Rubes?" he asked.

"They're disgusting," Ruby agreed.

"Who's disgusting?" Nicole asked, plopping onto a stool beside her friend.

"Just look around you," Ruby said sourly. "All these soppy, sloppy couples."

Nicole did indeed look around, wrinkling her nose as she spotted various couples wrapped up in each other.

"Yeah," she said. "Kinda gross."

"Can I get you a drink, Nic?" Angelo asked kindly.

"Just water, please," she said.

He poured.

"I uh… just wanted to congratulate you on the baby," he said a little awkwardly.

"Oh… Thanks," she replied.

Most people, even congratulating her had had some kind of opinion to offer. It felt nice to just be congratulated without any kind of agenda. She smiled. He smiled back.

"Hey, don't you two start making some kind of weird eye contact connection now," Ruby warned. "I cannot deal with that."

"She's a teenager!" Angelo objected, blushing.

"He's old!" Nicole protested.

"And she's pregnant!"

"He dated your mother!"

They both shook their heads, shaking the very idea away.

"Oh, it's very shrieky over here!" Joey said, jokingly putting her hands over her ears. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Angelo and Nicole said in unison.

Ruby just laughed to herself.

"Maybe I'm best off not knowing," Joey decided.

Claire brought Hannah over to the bar, gesturing for her to sit with Nicole and Ruby, who both greeted her warmly, as did Joey and Angelo.

"How are you doing, Nic?" Joey asked more privately.

"Yeah, I'm okay…"

"Except?"

"How do you…?"

"You have that voice."

Nicole sighed.

"I'm scared of Morag," she admitted.

"Oh, well, we're all scared of Morag!" Joey laughed, making Nicole laugh too.

"I mean, I'm scared she's going to try and shift the blame onto me," the teenager explained. "You know, for Penn. To secure Alf's freedom."

"What?" came a deep, angry voice behind her, making her jump.

She spun around in her seat to find Alf standing behind her, looking furious.

"Um…" she managed.

"What did you say?" he demanded.

She just about managed to repeat her conversation with Morag. He marched off to confront his sister. Nicole turned back to Joey.

"Did I just do something bad?" she asked worriedly.

Joey put her arm around her.

"Not at all," she said. "Lack of transparency is partly what caused this whole mess. It's good that Alf knows what's going on. He needs to be in charge of his own defence. You know he won't let anything happen to anyone he loves and that includes you."

"But what would that mean for him?" Nicole fretted.

"Honestly, I don't know but… but he won't go to jail for a crime he didn't commit. I know he won't."

She hoped she sounded more confident than she felt.


That night, things were a little tense. Alf had demanded that Morag lay off Nicole and if she was determined to follow that line of defence then she had to find someone else. He was not prepared to sacrifice an innocent, pregnant, teenage girl for his sake.

His sister hadn't been very happy with his response. He was her project to distract herself from her grief, he knew. She was acting on his behalf because she loved him and wanted to help him but she also needed to focus on, something other than the deep, aching pain in her soul.


Meanwhile, over at the farm, Sid had finally confronted Marilyn over how strangely she had been behaving. She had been aloof and secretive and he was finding it very frustrating, to the point that he knew he had been mean to her and both his children had told him off at the point that he's said that she 'had to be behaving strangely if it was noticeable to other people'.

He felt guilty about it but she wasn't communicating with him and he felt like they had only just recovered from the months when she had had her 'death date' looming over her. He just wanted a normal relationship with the woman he loved.

"Would you just tell me what is going on?"

"Okay," Marilyn said, sitting down heavily in a chair. "Look, I do need to tell you something."

Indi and Dex scattered into their rooms.

"Well?" Sid demanded, deliberately not sitting down.

"Can we talk about it in the morning?" Marilyn asked. "I just… I need some time…"

"No," Sid snapped. "I need to talk about it now!"

"It's just…"

He stared at her, frustrated and upset.

"Okay…" Marilyn sighed. "Nicole and I… we've been making plans…"

"Nicole?" Sid said, confused. "What's any of this got to do with Nicole?"

"Her baby," Marilyn ventured. "I want to adopt her baby. I want… I want us to adopt her baby."


Hannah lay in bed beside Claire who was asleep. She felt touched to have been invited to the party and at least for the beginning part of it, Claire had taken her round and made a real fuss of her. But Hannah couldn't shake the constant presence of Ruby. She had sat by the bar for most of the night. She had been friendly but there was definitely something false about her. Hannah was convinced that Ruby didn't like her. And that was definitely a problem. She knew that if it came down to it and Claire was faced with a choice between her or Ruby, she would lose without hesitation.


In their own home, tucked up in bed, Charlie and Joey worried about Morag and what her next move would be. They also worried about how Alf would respond and what negative effect Morag may have on Nicole and her well being. They understood where Morag was coming from but it seemed cruel to go for Nicole.

"There's nothing we can do about it for now," Joey said. "Worrying isn't going to help."

"Yeah," Charlie sighed.

She pulled Joey in closer and kissed her.


Next time… Leah tasks Dex with showing VJ the high school ropes, Sid is alarmed by Marilyn and Nicole's idea and Leah touches a nerve with Joey…