Dedicated to Spazey, who favourited this story this week. Someone is still reading! Love, IJKS xxx
Chapter Five Hundred and Thirty Six
Charlie did not want to wake up the following morning. They had had a full on day shopping and exploring, eating and then enjoying a fabulous night at the theatre. But their night had been extremely late as they had enjoyed their own private party, just the two of them, back at their hotel room, which hadn't ended until the early hours of the morning. With very little sleep, Charlie was utterly exhausted and now, tucked up in bed, she just wanted to stay there with Joey forever. As she thought about that, she thought about the engagement ring in her drawer at home and wondered if last night should have been the night she should have brought it with her and proposed. But she shook her head. No. Last night was special. Very special. But her proposal needed to be the most special moment of their lives to date.
"What are you thinking about?" Joey asked curiously beside her.
Charlie smiled, rolling across the bed and scooping her into her arms, both of them still undressed from the night before. They kissed.
"I was just wondering how much time we had before check out…"
Joey grinned and kissed her harder.
"Oh, we have time…" she said certainly.
It had become a bit crowded in Liam and Bianca's tent, which had not been designed for three people. A rather unhappy April had spent the night with them, having broken up the party the night before after walking in on Xavier making out with Summer, some girl he hardly even knew. Bianca had tried to tactfully point out that April hadn't even spoken to the guy for weeks and he had been utterly heartbroken, irritating everybody with his glum face, thinking that she had abandoned him. But that had only earned her a telling off for standing up for him so she had changed her stance to being completely Team April from then on.
However, she knew Liam was already itching to find out if their living arrangements were going to be permanent or temporary, which put Bianca in an awkward position. She too was enjoying living in their bubble of love, on the back of their weeks away, travelling. And the way they had designed their back to nature living arrangements were not really designed for guests. But April was her sister and Bianca had been very worried about her. She definitely couldn't turn her away.
At the Beach House, Irene continued to fret over her own house guests. Lily had developed a terrible sore throat, enough to warrant needing to go to the Doctor. But her father didn't seem to have noticed. He was just wandering around in a haze of alcohol and depression and Irene just couldn't reach him. She wondered if that's how people had felt about her when she had been drinking. Unreachable and battling with her own pain. She shook her head, not wanting to think about the past and all that she had now escaped from.
Charlie and Joey had checked out of their hotel at their exact check out time and driven back to the Bay. They had bought Ruby a present – an expensive perfume she had mentioned a couple of weeks prior – as a gift to say thank you for their lovely surprise treat.
Instead of heading back home, they stopped at Bucktons' for lunch. Alf was at the bar chatting to Angelo and Romeo who were on shift. After Romeo took their order, Alf approached, anxious to speak to them.
"I just want to know what you think about Morag's defence," he said. "I mean… this whole Nicole thing. I don't… I can't see that girl put through so much stress. It's not fair. She's pregnant. She's fragile. I can't put her through that."
"I totally get it," Charlie said. "I agree with you. But I don't think you have any other defence than to deflect onto someone else."
"But not Nicole!" Alf said desperately. "What if she ends up on trial or something? I couldn't live with myself if…"
Joey patted his hand.
"I understand," she said gently. "Speak to Morag. Make her understand how you feel. But you need to be reasonable about it not so hot headed. You and Morag need to work together, okay? You need to get yourself off this charge. Ethically, of course. I would do the same as you when it comes to Nicole."
Charlie sighed and nodded. She couldn't help but agree.
"But please, please, please work with Morag and do whatever you can to put up the best defence possible," Joey begged.
Alf squeezed her hand and promised he would. He left the restaurant to go and find his sister.
Irene had given up pestering Will to take Lily to the doctors and taken the little girl herself, leaving Will home alone. He growled in frustration when there was a knock at the door the moment she had left. He didn't want to speak to anyone today. His mood plummeted further when Robertson stood there, smiling that annoying smile and looking so perfectly well turned out. He looked like life had just landed perfectly in his lap and he had never had a problem ever to contend with.
"Good afternoon," the Detective said cheerfully. "You look awful."
"Yeah, I'm having a bad few months if you hadn't noticed," Will snapped, refusing to let him in.
Robertson brushed past him anyway, not waiting to be invited.
"Yes, I had noticed," he said. "And so has everybody else. That's why I'm here."
Will was confused.
"Don't tell me you care about me all of a sudden," he said sullenly.
"Not especially," Robertson admitted. "But I do care about justice. And your statement in the Penn Graham case is critical. The way you're behaving right now is making you look like you have something to hide. It's making you look like a very guilty man."
He looked very serious now, his smile having firmly faded.
"It's making it look like my case is about to fall apart."
Will looked anxious. Robertson looked cheerful again.
"So," Robertson said brightly. "Why don't you shape up, be happy that you've helped justice prevail and get on with your life? For your daughter. Because that was the whole point. Wasn't it?"
He turned to leave.
"What if I wanted to retract my statement?" Will burst out.
Robertson turned around on the spot.
"Then I would advise you against it," Robertson said. "I would tell you that if Alf Stewart were not the man in the dock that there is only one other possible suspect. And you wouldn't want that to happen, would you?"
Will swallowed. There were so many things he wanted… needed to say. But he fell silent and watched the Detective leave.
Charlie and Joey had finished their meals and gone for a walk along the beach.
"Hey!" Joey called cheerfully when she spotted Bianca further up.
It was a surprise to see their friend without her boyfriend at the moment. They had been joined at the hip since their return to Summer Bay.
"Oh, hey!" Bianca greeted. "How was your night out in the city?"
"It was amazing," Charlie said, swooning a little. "How are you doing?"
"I'm okay," Bianca said, not terribly convincing.
"Okay, what's up?" Joey asked, plopping herself down on the sand.
The other two followed suit.
"Just… a little bit difficult at my place right now," Bianca said.
"Oh really?" Charlie teased. "I thought it would take you a little bit longer to miss electricity and WiFi!"
Bianca laughed, jabbing her in the arm.
"Not that!" she said. "Liam and I are getting on fine. It's April."
"April?" Joey said in surprise. "Is she back?"
"She came back last night," Bianca explained. "Right as Xavier was making out with some girl from school!"
"Ooh! Not good!" Joey winced.
"Nope," Bianca agreed. "So we're now all three squeezed into the tent. Me, a withdrawn, sulky teenager and… April."
Charlie snorted, making Joey and Bianca both laugh.
"So, are April and Xavier over?" Joey asked.
"I mean… who knows? She's pretty pissed off. Not that she has that much right to be. She did abandon him."
"I wouldn't say that to her…" Joey ventured.
"Oh, I learned that the hard way!" Bianca admitted.
"Teenagers," Charlie said. "Who would have them?"
"Well, ours is behaving pretty well for now," Joey mused.
"Show off."
Alf had spoken to Morag and made it clear that he would comply with her defence plans so long as nobody such as Nicole got caught in the crossfire. With that in mind, Morag drove to Irene's with the hope of speaking to Will. Charlie had easily persuaded her that he was the key to all of this. She just had to find her way in.
Inside the house, Will muttered to himself. He had only just got rid of Detective Robertson. The last thing he wanted was more visitors. His heart sank further when he saw Morag standing on the doorstep.
"I really don't want to talk to you," he said, attempting to slam the door in her face. "Or you again."
Morag turned and glared when she saw Robertson appear behind her.
"What do you want? You were literally just here."
"I was," he said. "Then I saw the lovely Morag come to see you and I thought I'd join the party."
"You're not terribly welcome," she said flatly.
"Oh well," Robertson said, nudging her inside. "I've never been one to wait for invitations."
Will rolled his eyes and threw himself down on the sofa.
"What do you want?" he demanded.
"Yes, what did you want with my witness?" Robertson asked.
"I just wanted to ask you again about the statement I was reading about your daughter," Morag said, sounding as casual as possible.
Robertson's presence had thrown her a little and she was trying not to let it show.
"What about it?" Will demanded gruffly.
"She mentioned that her Dad – you – had 'done a bad thing'," Morag said. "What did she mean?"
"She was talking about my affair," Will told her. "I've screwed up her life, her home, her family by cheating on her mother, bringing her here, disrupting everything she knows. She knows how guilty I feel and how I can't cope with it all. That what she means."
"Right…" Morag said thoughtfully, nodding her head.
That was not what Watson believed, although it was the answer she expected.
"And your daughter would testify to that, would she?"
"What do you mean, testify?" Will asked in panic.
"In court?"
"You can't make her go to court! She's a child!"
"Oh, I can," Morag said easily. "And I won't hesitate in doing so if it means justice will be done."
She turned to Robertson.
"Anything you'd like to add?"
"Nothing from me," Robertson said, leading the way out of the house.
Will remained on the sofa, scared and miserable.
Charlie and Joey arrived back home, pleased to see their daughter who was eager to hear all about their night away 'apart from any dirty bits'. They happily told her all about the show and where they had eaten and shopped. She drifted off when they talked about the gallery the'd been to but she was thrilled with her gift.
"So, you had a fun night out too?" Charlie asked.
Ruby looked confused.
"We bumped into Bianca," her mother explained.
"Oh! April! Seriously, she pulled up in a cab literally as Xavier had his tongue rammed down Summer's throat! It was so awkward."
She shook her head, laughing.
"How was your day otherwise?" Joey asked.
"Yeah, it was good," Ruby said. "I hung out with Romeo for most of it, which is always fun. I think he's feeling a bit out of sorts what with Indi moving onto Uni and him staying behind to repeat high school. But we had a good day. And Claire and I had a fun sleepover. Well, we always do."
Charlie smiled.
"I'm glad you had a good time," she said. "And thank you again for the tickets and the hotel. It really was so sweet of you."
"Yeah, thank you," Joey said.
"You deserve it," Ruby said.
"Do you think we need to look out for Romeo more?" Joey asked worriedly.
"Nah, I think he's okay," Ruby said.
She was quite happy to look out for him herself, although she opted not to say that.
"He's just… adjusting."
"Well, that's a relief," Charlie admitted with a laugh. "Honestly, I don't think I can keep up with you kids!"
Irene stopped at the Diner to buy a treat for Lily in the hope that alongside the antibiotics the doctor had given her, the little girl might feel better. She froze when she saw Alf ahead of her in the queue.
"Hi, Alf," she tried. "How are you doing?"
"I'm not hungry anymore," he said.
"Alf…"
He turned and left the Diner.
Next time… Charlie agrees to meet Will in secret…
