Mercy

[Eli]

Story Title: Mercy

Type of story: Short/Medium fic (8 chapters)

Main Characters: Charlie, as well as many others

BTTB rating: A

Genre: Drama

Does story include spoilers: Not really. I think. Maybe slight UK spoilers, but nothing you will know for sure is a spoiler unless you've actually seen Aussie episodes and read spoilers

Any warnings: Violence

Summary: Who's targeting police officers in Summer Bay? Charlie suddenly finds herself in the middle of someone's revenge. But whose revenge is it, really?

Decided to do some writing again. Now this is either brilliant or crap, I don't know. I just know I got the idea about ten hours ago, and I've written 16 pages since then... So judge for yourselves

Prologue

Another fight, and Martha was the one to walk out again.

“That was a little harsh,” Hugo pointed out, “She’s still grieving.”

“So am I,” Tony replied, “But we’re not going to get anywhere if we are to hang on to all this anger.”

Hugo didn’t know what to say. Even though he could see Tony’s point about moving on, he still couldn’t see how Tony could forgive Angelo this easily. Martha’s anger was more understandable.

“I know,” he finally admitted to his uncle, “I guess I just don’t understand how you can be so calm, knowing Angelo will be back in town. He killed Jack, how can you forgive him, no matter how much of a mistake it was?”

Looking upset and exhausted, Tony sat down and pulled his short hair back from his forehead, like he did when he was stressed.

“I don’t know,” he said, “I think a part of me just sees this in a different way; a part of me thinks we’re making the mistake of judging Jack’s friend, who in fact was so much more like Jack himself than anyone seems to realize…”

***

Chapter 1

”Seriously, do you have to do that?”

Annoyed, Senior constable Charlie Buckton put down her copy of the latest edition of the Coastal News.

“Seriously do I have to do what?”

Her girlfriend put on a fake, innocent expression, pretending she had no idea that Charlie was referring to her whistling along to the song on the radio. A few months ago the expression would have made Charlie smile, but today she just rolled her eyes and returned to the newspaper.

“What’s making you so crabby anyway?” Joey asked, realizing cuteness wouldn’t get her anywhere with Charlie today.

“They’re printing this story about how we got Angelo out of jail despite the allegations against him that he shot Jack. They’re making it sound like we went out of our way to help out a friend or something.”

“Charlie, seriously,” Joey replied, and now she was the one rolling her eyes, “You know you can’t believe a word that paper prints! They probably just decided to ignore the fact that Jack was also your friend, just to get a good story.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” Charlie snapped, “I know it’s a crap paper, but it doesn’t matter what I know anyway. People will read this, and they will believe it. This is the last thing we need right now.”

***

Usually, at this time of the day, Yabbie Creek Police station was – quite frankly – a rather boring place to be. Nothing really happened while the sun was up to highlight any criminal breaking the law, so Charlie was surprised when she walked in and saw practically every single police officer in town, gathered around the front desk.

“What’s going on here?” she firmly asked, using her role as an authority figure, even for them, to make them feel a little inferior. This day had started bad enough, and she wouldn’t want to have to deal with people not doing their job properly today.

“We have a problem, Charlie.”

Surprisingly, Lara Fitzgerald stepped out of the crowd, holding a folder, and looking very serious.

“Fitzie! What-“

“I came back a few weeks early to help you guys out,” Fitzie replied before Charlie even got a chance to finish the question.

“During the nigh shift, Watson and Banks were ran off the road while driving on old Yabbie Creek Road to check out a report about a disturbance. It later turned out the call about the disturbance came from a pay phone, located near the scene of the accident, which was more than four miles away from the neighborhood they were heading to.”

“So you’re saying it was a set up?” Charlie asked, piecing the information together.

“I’m saying,” Fitzie replied, “That we have two officers that were deliberately ran off the road last night. Banks is still in surgery, Watson is in a coma, and we can only hope that they’ll both make it. I think we need to be aware of the fact that there could be someone out there targeting us.”

***

Joey was just about to take one last look in the mirror, and leave the house, when she realized the answering machine was blinking. One new message.

“Hey, it’s me. I can’t make lunch today after all,” Charlie’s voice sounded through the machine, and Joey’s smile faded.

“Something came up at work, I’ll make it up to you later.”

***

The police station was still in a state of chaos. There were no news on Banks and Watson, and while also trying to maintain peace and order in the community by working as usual, everyone wanted to know exactly what had happened. When Fitzie finally managed to get back to what had been her office, and probably would be her office again, unless Charlie decided to make a big deal about it; she hadn’t even noticed the delivery man who had gone in there and left a letter on the desk.

Quickly, without breathing, Fitzie skimmed through it.

“James?” she called out, and the tall, blond, young officer came into her office.

“Yes, senior constable?”

“How can it be that someone dropped off a letter directly to this desk today?”

“The regular delivery guy, Cameron, is allowed to drop letters off directly to the offices. Charlie asked him to do it.”

“Charlie…” Fitzie muttered to herself, trying to get a clearer image of what had happened.

“Thanks James.”

As soon as he had left her office again, she picked up the phone and dialed the front desk at the Sydney Police Head Quarters.

“This is Lara Fitzgerald from Yabbie Creek PD,” she said as soon as a woman picked up, “Give me Detective Peter Baker, please.”

***

“You asked for me, detective?”

Peter Baker looked up from the file he was working. The fairly small, but strict looking woman in front of him looked at him, clearly wanting an explanation for why she had been called back from a crime scene in the middle of an investigation.

“Senior constable Corelli,” he said, “Congratulations on the promotion!”

“Yeah, yeah, thanks, Pete,” she replied shortly, “You didn’t ask me to come up here just to congratulate me, I hope?”

“No, of course not,” Peter was quick to reply, “I’ve been asked to assist on a case in Summer Bay, and I know you used to work there.”

Pia Corelli rolled here eyes. If he simply needed an officer familiar with Summer Bay, there was plenty of others he could have picked; not that she could see why he would need it, considering he had worked up there for years himself.

“I’m sure we have other officers who have lived there and can help you around town if you’ve forgotten where the Diner is,” she replied coldly, “Or you could call Charlie Buckton. She transferred to Yabbie Creek a year ago or so, and I believe she’s a Senior constable up there now. She’ll show you around.”

“I know that,” Peter said, losing his patience with her, “But this isn’t just any case in Summer Bay. They need someone who has been on the force there, but who isn’t anymore.”

“What’s going on?” Pia couldn’t hide the fact that this intrigued her a little.

“Two officers were set up and ran off the road last night,” Peter explained, and handed her a file, “And now they have received a threatening letter. They think it’s related to the Jack Holden case.”

[Eli]

Thanks for the comments, guys!

I only got back home an hour ago, but at least now I have a stable internet connection (home, sweet home) so here's another chapter. I'm kinda tempted to just call this entire fic off and delete it though. I've written all the chapters and all, but I don't really like how it turned out, so I kinda regret posting it in the first place. I don't know though, maybe I'm just being to self critical

Chapter 2

Even though she had done her very best to be as quiet as possible, it obviously hadn’t been enough.

“Where are you going? Your shift isn’t starting for another two hours?”

“Did I wake you? I’m sorry,” Charlie replied, barely looking at Joey, “I’m just going for a quick run.”

“I thought we were having breakfast together since you’re not on until 10 this morning?”

“Sorry, we’ll do it some other time, I promise.”

“Okay, fine,” Joey replied, trying to hide the disappointment in her voice, “Wait up, I’ll come running with you.”

Charlie froze on her way out of the room.

“Joey,” she said, not turning around to look at her girlfriend, “If you don’t mind, I think I’d like to be alone.”

***

Angelo Rosetta stood in his kitchen and looked around his old apartment. It felt weird being back; he had thought he’d still be in jail for years; not moving back in to his apartment, and going back to work, like nothing ever happened.

Self defense. He knew that was what all his former colleagues believed, officially. That was only in theory though; how would Charlie and all the others react to him returning in a few days? Sure, they still blamed him, he was sure of that. He knew most of Jack’s family had forgiven him. Everyone, except maybe Martha, had come to terms with what they had eventually started believing had been an honest mistake.

But Charlie… He was not sure if she could ever forgive him for lying and hiding what he had done. Not that he blamed her; he had made the situation so much harder for her as well.

***

“Hey! Senior constable!”

Charlie slowed down the pace and took out the ear plugs, looking around to figure out who was calling for her when she was off duty.

“Over here!” the voice repeated, and Charlie turned around to see Hugo Austin down by the Blaxland.

“Care to give me a hand?” he asked, “I could use some help with something if you have a minute.”

Quickly she took another look at her watch. She wouldn’t have to be at work for another hour and a half.

“Sure,” she replied, “I have a minute.”

***

Pia Corelli hadn’t been at the Yabbie Creek police station since she left it in 2003. Not much was changed though, except the faces. Harper and McGrath had both retired, Tyler and Moore had transferred to the city, and the rest were probably either scattered around the country, or they had quit the force altogether. Instead the place was now filled with new faces, some of whom she had seen a couple of times before; either because they had worked in Sydney, or because they had met through mutual investigations when something happened that involved both departments.

“We really appreciate you coming here to assist us,” Fitzie said, after quickly briefing the two of them on the officers involved in the road accident.

“I only really felt sure this was a deliberate revenge targeting us after the Jack Holden case, when I received this letter,” she continued. She handed over the transparent plastic folder with the computer typed letter inside.

“Angelo Rosetta does not deserve this, and you are going to pay for your mistake,” Peter read.

“I think it was meant for Charlie Buckton,” Fitzie explained, lowering her voice, “But I haven’t told her anything yet. I only came back yesterday, unannounced. And this letter was addressed and delivered directly to the senior constable. Unless this was some sort of impulsive thing targeted at me, which I don’t believe it was; this letter was for her.”

“There’s a lot of blurry details though,” Pia pointed out, reading the letter again, “When they say ‘you,’ do they mean Charlie, or the police in general? And it just says ‘Pay for your mistake’. That could mean anything.”

“It means they don’t think Angelo should be allowed to walk free,” Fitzie replied, “What else could it be?”

“What if it’s the opposite?” Pia asked, “They could be referring to Charlie, and the police in general, getting Angelo into jail for this, and then realizing the case wasn’t strong enough because it was more like self defense. They could see it as you putting Angelo through something he didn’t deserve.”

Fitzie didn’t reply. Even if she didn’t want to admit it, Pia Corelli was making a very good point.

“So all we have, is basically that this has something to do with the Jack Holden case, but we don’t know which side we’re dealing with?” Fitzie summed up.

“I’ll go get us some coffee.”

***

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you’ve actually done a pretty good job here,” Charlie admitted, looking around on the Blaxland.

“You think so?” Hugo asked, and nodded for her to sit down, “It’s nothing fancy, just some new paint.”

He let his hand slide across the red wall.

“I still have to point some more of the details on the deck, but I’ll get that done as soon as I’m done with this week’s passengers. You wouldn’t believe how many bookings I’ve had lately, it’s insane.”

“I guess that’s good though,” Charlie replied, realizing how much she still enjoyed talking to Hugo, “Even if you have to work extra hard.”

She checked her watch again; what was supposed to be a few minutes of helping Hugo, had quickly turned into half an hour of chatting.

“I better get back home,” she said, and got up, “My shift starts in an hour. But it was lovely talking to you!”

“Charlie?” he called her back, just as she was about to leave. His voice suddenly sounded a lot different.

“Are you okay? I mean, I know Angelo is returning to work soon, so I can imagine things must be a little tough for you right now.”

Charlie smiled. Even if she didn’t feel like talking about it right now, because she still knew she would have to deal with their past together sooner rather than later; she appreciated the gesture.

“He’ll be back this week,” she said, and smiled at Hugo, “But believe it or not; I think I’m fine with it.”

***

Joey was in the middle of breakfast when Charlie got home.

“I was thinking we should have dinner tonight?” she called out as Charlie rushed past her, barely noticing her.

“We have dinner every night,” Charlie replied, and slammed the door shut behind her, not even giving Joey a chance to say another word.

The hot water felt good, and the sound of it hitting the glass doors around the shower, seemed to drown out the thought of Angelo. As soon as she stepped out of the hot water, it was back again though.

Charlie stared into the mirror. She knew she would have to convince herself she had put it all in the past before Angelo returned. That gave her exactly two days, so quite frankly she didn’t have much time to waste.

“When I said dinner, I meant some place nice,” Joey said. She had obviously been waiting outside the door to make sure she would get to say what she had to say this time.

“I don’t know,” Charlie brushed it off, “I have to work, and if we’re going out I need to change first, so it’ll probably be late before I can get ready to go out tonight.”

“Your shift ends at seven,” Joey pointed out, still not giving up, “So we’ll just make reservations at eight.”

Charlie hesitated; she knew she hadn’t been the best girlfriend lately, but it hadn’t exactly been easy.

“Look,” Joey said, a lot more softly, “I know things have been tough for you lately. I know this whole Angelo business is hard on you, and I don’t blame you for being upset. I’m just trying to help you take your mind off for a bit.”

She walked up behind Charlie and wrapped her arms around her waist, resting her head on Charlie’s bare shoulder.

“I know, and I’m sorry,” Charlie sighed, “Dinner sounds lovely. Eight it is.”

Joey smiled. Suddenly Charlie felt like Charlie again.

“Great,” she whispered, “I’ll even make sure to treat you like a real lady and pick you up after work.”

***

It was almost seven o’clock, but Charlie hadn’t paid any attention to the time. In fact, the computer screen was the only thing she had paid any attention to at all, until someone talked to her.

“Are you coming? We have reservations in an hour, and I know you said you wanted to go home and take a shower first.”

Joey stood patiently by the door.

Quickly Charlie closed the window she had been using, hiding the image of her and her ex from Joey. With everything going on, Charlie had realized she needed to start working through this, no matter how painful it still was. Even though she was with Joey now, and was happy that way, it hadn’t been easy to work on finally closing that door to the past.

“I’ll be right there,” she quickly replied, and unplugged the storage unit with the pictures she had spent the last hour looking through, even though she knew she should be reading the files for the case rather than dealing with personal issues.

On the way to the car, she threw the memory stick with the pictures into a trash can. If she was saying goodbye to the past; the pictures of her and Angelo would have to be the first to go.

[Eli]

Thanks, Shan, it seems like we might have lost the other seven though

Anyway, here's a new chapter! Contains some violence, but nothing extreme.

Chapter 3

Even Charlie had to admit that dinner with Joey had been a nice break. But still, the spark in their relationship seemed to be gone, and if she was being honest with herself, Charlie wasn’t sure if she would be able to keep this up for much longer. Being a good girlfriend only out of guilt for the times she wasn’t a good girlfriend, wasn’t fair to Joey at all.

It was just so typical; even if there wasn’t alcohol involved, the morning after a good night almost always felt like hangover. It seemed like a good time had the same side effects as any other drug; your head would still hurt the day after, and the world would feel horrible again.

As she got out of the shower after her run, she could see Joey’s face looking far less happy than usual as well. Maybe this good time hangover was a universal thing?

“Hey, what’s up? You look worried,” she said, attempting to sound cheery, as she walked into the kitchen, observing Joey’s serious face lost in some newspaper article.

The sound of Charlie’s voice worked with the same effect as a gunshot. Joey literally jumped up and tried to hide the newspaper behind her back.

“Nothing!” she replied, way too cheerful to be telling the truth, “Just a depressing weather forecast. You know how it is. I made breakfast.”

Charlie frowned a little and reached her hand out.

“Can I see that, please?” she asked, not buying Joey’s faking for a second, “The last time I checked, we were getting sunshine and high temperatures for the next two weeks.”

“Well… I…” Joey turned scarlet, “I… don’t’ like hot weather.”

“Paper,” Charlie demanded, calmly, and reluctantly Joey handed her the latest edition of the Coastal News.

It didn’t take long for Charlie to realize what article Joey had been reading. This wasn’t good, not at all.

***

One look at the newspaper, and Angelo was choking on his morning coffee. As soon as he had managed to swallow properly and stop choking, he took up his phone and dialed Fitzie’s number.

“Hi,” he said as soon as she picked up, “Did you see today’s paper?”

She confirmed, it wasn’t difficult to understand exactly what he was talking about.

“I’m thinking I should wait another week or so before I come back to work,” Angelo said, “You know, for Charlie’s sake.”

***

“Joey, I’m so sorry you had to see that,” Charlie said, turning to Joey again. The images of her and Angelo, accompanied with some article about how the senior constable had been involved with Angelo Rosetta, and how this could have affected her work to get him out of jail, was tattooed on her mind now.

“You shouldn’t have had to see that, I had no idea this would happen,” Charlie continued to apologize, but Joey cut her off.

“Charlie, seriously, it’s fine,” she said, and it sounded like she meant it.

“I knew you and Angelo were a couple, it’s not like you ever kept that from me.”

“Still, you shouldn’t have to see this,” Charlie argued.

“I know it’s a crap paper, but it doesn’t matter what I think,” Joey replied, using Charlie’s own words from the a few days ago, “I’m just worried about you.”

“Thanks,” Charlie replied, calming down a little, “But I’m fine. I have to go to work anyway.”

***

“’...Anonymous source provided the Coastal News with pictures never before released to the media,’” Peter quoted from the article.

“We know, we’ve all read it,” Pia replied, “And we’ve already checked with the paper. They claim not even they know who this person is.”

“Oh, I know,” Peter said, “I’m just trying to figure out what the hell is up with this town and crazy stalkers.”

“Charlie, this is Detective Baker and senior constable Corelli from the city,” Fitzie introduced rapidly as she walked in to the office, followed by Charlie, “Peter and Pia, this is senior constable Buckton.”

“We’ve actually met before, we worked on a case together when I was in Sydney,” Charlie explained to Fitzie as she shook hands with Peter and Pia.

“Good, so everyone knows each other then,” Fitzie said, “In that case, we can get straight to the point.”

They all sat down around the desk, and Charlie tried desperately not to look at the article in front of them all.

“This morning the Coastal News printed an article about Charlie and Angelo having a relationship,” Fitzie said, “I’m sure you’ve all seen it.”

“I have to admit something,” Charlie quickly said. It was better to just get it over with, “I think those pictures… I think they came from a storage unit I threw in the trash yesterday.”

“Don’t worry,” Pia said, quickly picking up on Charlie’s guilt over how the paper had obtained the pictures, “They are normal pictures; nothing you wouldn’t find on an average facebook page. You haven’t done anything wrong, what we’re worried about is how someone got hold of them after you threw them away.”

Peter looked at Pia. It still surprised him every time she showed a softer, more compassionate side of herself.

“It could have been anyone,” Charlie muttered, and swallowed, “Anyone could have found that memory stick and handed it to the paper.”

“It’s a bit of a coincidence though, don’t you think?” Peter asked, “Someone just happens to find a memory stick with pictures of you and Angelo, and that same person found these pictures valuable enough to go to the Coastal News? There were just a few hours between you throwing it out, and the paper having their deadline. Whoever did this knew what they were doing, Charlie. This wasn’t a coincidence as much as a case of someone watching you.”

“Someone watching me?” Suddenly Charlie felt a chill down her spine, “Why would you think that?”

Peter, Fitzie and Pia all exhanged quick glances before Fitzie pulled out the transparent plastic folder again.

“I’m sorry we haven’t told you this before, Charlie,” she said, “But this was delivered to the senior constable’s office a few hours after we got the message about Banks and Watson. I found it, but I only got back to work that morning, because of the incident that night.”

She handed the letter to Charlie.

“We believe this was intended for you. Whoever’s behind all this could be targeting you as their main victim.”

***

It was already dark when Charlie left the police station after completing another double shift. Joey was probably already home, and dinner was probably already served and cold. She felt bad for not at least having lunch with her after what had happened this morning, she knew it wasn’t really fair of her to leave Joey all alone all day long with Leah in Greece to visit her family, and Ruby in Sydney visiting their dad and Morag. But still that doubt was in her; whether she should be with Joey or break it off before it got any more serious.

Time after time Charlie would realize she was always trying to prove something to herself. She always had to be the one in control; always had to be the strong one who could stand on her own two feet without slowing others down. From time to time she wondered if that was what she was doing with Joey as well; thinking she would have to break it off because she somehow wasn’t good enough for Joey, and she needed to let them be separate people to prove to herself that she could be strong enough to be alone.

Suddenly regretting walking to work this morning, she picked up her phone to call Ruby, just to ask how she was doing or something. Whether she wanted to admit it to herself or not, being alone was pretty lonely, even if it was just for a walk home from work.

She was just about to dial the number when something hit her hard in the back of her head. Before she had the chance to understand what had happened, she was hit again, and the phone flew out of her grip. For a second she blacked out, and when she regained consciousness she was on the ground. She could feel someone, a fairly heavy person sitting on her back, unbuckling something from her belt. As she managed to clear her head enough to understand that he was going for her gun, and that she was going to have to scream for help, he pressed his hand in front of her mouth, forcing her head back a little.

The headlights of a car on the road a few meters away, on the other side of a large hedge, cast enough light for her to get a glimpse of him, but it wasn’t nearly enough. Still dizzy and confused she didn’t see much, except that he was wearing jeans, and his arm as he forced her down again.

She tried to bite him, but his hand was holding too tight, and he forced her head down again with such massive force she blacked out again when it hit the ground. Again and again he hit her, and just as he let go and switched to kicking her because she was already slipping in and out of consciousness too rapidly to scream for help; Charlie thought to herself what a stupid idea it had been to refuse getting extra protection.

[Eli]

Wow, thanks for reading everyone! I seriously can't believe I have this many readers on this fic!

Chapter 4

After drifting off to sleep and then waking up, before repeating the same pattern all night, Charlie no longer had any idea what time; or even what day it was. She remembered very little from after the attack. She could remember the attack itself; or the parts of it she had been conscious during. She then remembered laying on the ground for some time – minutes or hours, who knew; before mobilizing enough clarity and strength to reach for her phone. Somehow she had apparently managed to call for help; she had no idea who she had called or what she had said though. After that things were blurry. She could remember paramedics asking her for her name, the date, the name of the prime minister and other things. She knew they were doing it to check the extent of her head injuries, but she could only answer about half of the questions.

As soon as she had been examined at the hospital – something she only remembered vaguely; she had been given something to relieve the pain, and after that things were one big blur. She remembered asking for Joey, but had no idea what the reply had been.

“Joey?” She muttered, and tried to turn her head a little when she heard someone else in the room. She could see a shape, still very blurry to her because of the injuries and the medication she had been given to manage the pain. The shape wasn’t Joey though, she could see that much; and suddenly the panic gripped her.

“Charlie, relax,” a voice said, “It’s just me, Rachel. How are you feeling?”

“…Pain…” was the only word Charlie managed to get out. She could hear Rachel say something, but had no idea what. Then she could feel a needle being placed in her arm, and some of the pain fading away. Then she drifted off again, once again completely unaware of her surroundings.

***

Without noticing anything around him, Angelo Rosetta rushed through the main vestibule at the police station. Bumping into people, he didn’t stop until he saw Fitzie.

“Senior constable,” he said, breathlessly, “I need to know what’s going on.”

Fitzie grabbed him by the arm and got him into her office.

“I’m sorry to barge in on you like this, Angelo continued, “But I just heard that another police officer was attacked last night?”

“I was hoping you knew more than us, Angelo,” Fitzie said, “The media is going crazy over you being released, and making us look like the bad guy. If you knowanything, we need to know it now.”

“Fitzie, I swear,” Angelo said sincerely, “I had no idea what was going on; actually I still don’t! What’s happened?”

Fitzie took a deep breath and looked at him. Saying something would be a risk, but sooner or later he would find out, and if she told him now she could only hope that it would make him more loyal to them if he in fact was on their side.

“It’s Charlie Buckton,” she finally said, “She was attacked last night. She’s at the Northern Districts Hospital.”

***

When Charlie woke up again, someone else was at her bedside. It seemed like the medication and the sleep had helped clear her head a little, because now she only needed a few seconds to tell that it was Hugo sitting there.

“Hugo,” she muttered, “Where’s Joey?”

“Hey there,” he replied softly, “You’ve been out for almost 24 hours. How are you feeling?”

“Confused,” Charlie muttered back, “What day is it? What happened after the attack?”

“It’s Thursday,” Hugo explained, “You were brought in to hospital, and then yesterday you were complaining about pain, so Rachel gave you something stronger because you hadn’t been sleeping much either. That’s about 20 hours ago now, so you’ve been sleeping for a while.”

Charlie didn’t reply right away, she needed a few seconds to comprehend and understand the things he was saying.

“How bad is it?” she finally managed to say.

“You’re going to be just fine,” Hugo said, “You have a lot of bruises and cuts, and a pretty bad concussion, as well as a few broken ribs and a fractured bone in your nose.”

Again Charlie needed a few seconds to digest the information.

“Where’s Joey?” she repeated after a while.

“We’ve tried to get a hold of her,” Hugo explained, but I don’t think she’s home, and she’s not answering her phone.”

“Hugo,” Charlie replied slowly, and tried to find the strength to look him in the eyes, “Please, can you do me a favor? Take the key from under the plant on the front porch, lock yourself into the house and see if Joey has left a note.”

“I’m sure there’s nothing wrong,” he quickly replied, “She’s probably just gone to stay with a friend or something.”

“Hugo… Please…”

He paused, obviously reluctant to leave her here alone.

“Okay,” he finally gave in, “I’ll get one of the nurses to come sit with you while I’m gone.”

***

“So you never saw him?” Fitzie repeated. Charlie knew she meant it well, and that she was only trying to help, but nevertheless, five minutes of questioning made it feel like her head was about to explode, and Charlie wished Hugo would hurry back.

“I saw that he was wearing jeans,” Charlie muttered, “That’s all.”

“Okay,” Fitzie sighed, “I’m really sorry, Charlie. Do you want me to stay here with you until Hugo comes back?”

“No, it’s fine,” Charlie replied, “I’ll be okay.”

“Okay, I’ll check on you later then,” Fitzie said, “You just let me know if you need anything. Whether it’s a change of clothes, or a shoulder to cry on. And don’t hesitate to contact me if you remember anything else.”

“Actually-“ Charlie managed to say, just as Fitzie was about to leave, “There’s something.”

Fitzie immediately turned around and looked at her, ready to write down anything Charlie remembered.

“His right hand,” Charlie said, “I think he cut himself on my gun or something when he attacked me, because it looked like had had a small cut on his right hand when he was about to hit me again.”

“A small cut?”

“Yeah,” she replied, it was suddenly getting a little clearer now, “Pretty small, just like a centimeter, or maybe two… But it was definitely fresh, because it looked like it was still bleeding a little.”

Fitzie sat down next to her bed.

“Thanks, Charlie,” she said, and for the first time there was a small smile on her face, “We’re going to get this jerk off the street, and it’ll be thanks to you.”

***

“It’s not exactly a lot to go from,” Peter pointed out, “We can’t prove anything because someone has a cut on their hand.”

“But it can help us,” Fitzie argued, “That cut will still be visible for the next few days. If we catch someone tomorrow and there’s no cut, we’ll know that chances are we’ve got the wrong guy.”

Peter looked skeptical.

“Well,” he eventually muttered, “I guess it’s the best lead we have for now.”

***

Hugo had returned from the house with a note he had found. Joey had, like Hugo had suggested, gone to see a friend, and would be staying in Sydney for a few days. Charlie knew it probably was because she was tired of being alone all day, abandoned by her, but right now Charlie was just thankful she was okay.

Around noon there was a knock on the door, and Charlie was once again woken up, after dozing off for a few minutes.

“I thought I told you to leave Charlie alone when you came by yesterday?” Hugo’s voice cut through the blur in her head, and when she opened her eyes, she could see that he was already on his feet.

“I just want to talk to her, just give me two minutes, please!” Angelo’s voice begged, “You can stay in the room, I just need to talk to her…”

“You’re the last person Charlie wants to see right now,” Hugo said coldly, but Charlie cut him off.

“Hugo, it’s fine,” she said, “I’ll talk to him.”

It was hard to tell who was more surprised; Angelo or Hugo.

“Just let me talk to him, Hugo,” Charlie repeated, “Go get yourself a coffee or something, I’ll be fine here with Angelo.”

Hugo looked as if Charlie had just told him she wanted to move to Greenland, and finally he decided he didn’t know what to say; so instead he did as told, and left the room.

Angelo walked closer to her, and only when he sat down on the chair Hugo had been sitting on next to her, she realized he had tears in his eyes.

“Charlie, I’m so sorry,” he whispered, “I’m so… so sorry…”

“For what?” Charlie asked, forcing herself to look away, not to get captured by him again.

“For everything,” Angelo continued, “For lying to you… For shooting Jack… For everything they’re putting you through because of me…”

“That’s not your fault,” Charlie replied, “It was self defense, right? When you killed Jack?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, then I did the right thing, and I would do it again.”

“Charlie, that’s nice of you, but I swear, if I had known everything they’d put you through… It’s not worth it; I’m quitting the force tomorrow!”

Suddenly forgetting about the pain, and going from being the victim, to being a senior constable again, Charlie sat up.

“No, you’re not quitting!” she exclaimed, “I have sacrificed so much for you to get through this; don’t you dare chicken out now!”

Angelo was crying for real now.

“I’m so sorry,” he repeated again, “If I had any idea how much you would have to go through for this, I would have turned in my badge right away…”

***

This was all wrong. How could he have been so stupid? He had thought he understood what it was all about, but he had been wrong all along.

The pictures in the paper; attacking Charlie Buckton, it had all backfired.

It was all so much clearer now; he had been targeting the wrong person all along. But the last piece of the puzzle suddenly fell into place now. Someone else would have to die for this to stop; and this time the shot that was to be fired, would be fired intentionally at the person who needed it the most.

[Eli]

Thanks for the comments

Chapter 5

“Here, let me help you with that.”

Joey reached out and helped Charlie put on her jacket. It had been two days since she had gotten the message from Hugo, returned to the Bay, and found Charlie still in hospital. The doctors didn’t have any reason to keep Charlie any longer, and she had finally been allowed to go home, on the condition that she’d only do paperwork when she went back to work.

It was a little bit tense between them. Charlie still felt guilty for being a bad enough girlfriend to drive Joey off to the city simply to get a break from her, and Joey misread that as Charlie being hurt because she hadn’t been there when she needed her after the attack.

“It’s fine, honestly,” Charlie said, “I feel much better now, and I’ll feel even better as soon as I get home.”

“Still,” Joey said, “Let me take care of you. I feel really bad for being away from you while you were in hospital.”

“Don’t think about it,” Charlie brushed her off, “There’s no way you could have known that would happen. Plus, I don’t blame you for wanting a break from me. I’ve been horrible to you lately.”

There it was; the truth. Charlie sat down on her bed again. Joey just stared at her for a few seconds.

“Charlie,” she said, “I know you’re going through a tough time, I don’t blame you for being in a bad mood. I just wish you’d talk to me about it. Despite what you think, I’m not going to stop loving you just because you’re not always strong and in control of everything. Trust me, if I wanted a reason to leave you, I would have found that in you always having to be in control of everything. I’m right here, and this is where I want to be.”

For a second Charlie was tempted to give in to the tears, and tell Joey she just wanted to be with her too. But again the fear of losing control got the better of her. There was something scary about how Joey saw right through her like that.

“I’m fine,” she said, “Let’s just go home.”

***

For some reason, Charlie couldn’t shake off the creepy feeling the attacker had given her. Being attacked was bad enough, but there was something else as well. She had thought it was the hospital that made her feel that way, but even back home with Joey she had that feeling. The creepy feeling; that voice telling her she knew the attacker…

***

“A cut,” Peter said, “That’s all we got. A cut that existed several days ago, and the fact that he was wearing jeans. Fitzie, I hate to break it to you, but this isn’t much. Unless Banks or Watson can give us a statement any time soon…”

“We can’t give up yet!” Fitzie protested.

“Well, we can’t keep investigating something when there are no leads, and hardly even evidence to link the incidents together,” Pia added.

“This can hardly be a coincidence,” Fitzie snapped, “They are targeting YCPD officers, and I have a whole team afraid to go to work! I have two officers in a coma, and another one lucky to have avoided a coma. I can’t pretend that’s just a coincidence!”

“We know that just as well as you do,” Pia assured her, “But still we can’t prove all that.”

Fitzie didn’t say anything. She knew they were right, but she also knew this person had no reason to stop attacking police officers as long as he could get away with it.

“Angelo Rosetta,” she said, “Let’s start with him. We’ll see if there’s anything that could link him to the crimes, and we’ll go from there.”

***

It was just his luck that Hugo was there when he came back to see Charlie again. Seeing his car in the driveway, almost made Angelo change his mind and go back home. But then again, he knew he owed Charlie too much to just back down.

“Hi there,” Hugo said as he opened the door; and that greeting shocked Angelo. He had almost expected Hugo to slam the door in his face and threaten to get a restraining order.

“Hi..?” Angelo replied insecurely, “Is Charlie home?”

“Yeah, come on in,” Hugo said, still shocking Angelo with his nice behavior, “She’s in the living room.”

Feeling as if he was entering a chamber used for executing prisoners, Angelo stepped inside the house, following closely behind Hugo.

“Hi,” he said a bit shakily as Charlie looked up from her laptop, and focused her eyes on him, “How are you?”

“Better, thanks,” she replied quietly, “Did you want something?”

She didn’t exactly sound hostile, but her words and the way she said it, seemed more understandable to Angelo than Hugo’s very friendly behavior.

“I just wanted to talk to you about something,” Angelo said, deciding she probably wasn’t interested in small talk anyway.

“You didn’t turn in your badge, did you?” Charlie said, suddenly forgetting all about being cold and closed, “I thought I told you not to?”

“No, of course I didn’t,” Angelo quickly replied, “Actually I wanted you to know I’m back to work.”

He paused and tried to read Charlie’s reaction. There hardly seemed to be one at all.

“Okay, good for you,” she finally said, calmly.

“But I want you to let me know when you’re planning on coming back to work, so I can take a few weeks off again,” he continued.

“What?”

“You probably don’t need to be dealing with me being there when you go back to work,” he said, “So I’ll just take a few weeks off.”

“Angelo, that’s ridiculous,” Charlie exclaimed angrily, “We have to be able to work around each other! In case you haven’t noticed, the only tension between the two of us is the tension you are creating by making such a big deal about this!”

She watched his face go from shocked to sad again. She knew she shouldn’t have snapped; Angelo was only trying as hard as he could to make up for everything that had happened.

“Angelo… I’m sorry,” she said softly, “I didn’t mean it like that…”

He swallowed and looked at her.

“Charlie, I’m sorry,” he said, like he had so many times already, “I just don’t want to cause you any more pain than I already have.”

“But that’s the thing,” Charlie replied, “This isn’t about me. If I feel bad about this, then that’s my issue to deal with. You haven’t done anything that should make it my right to decide what you should do. When you lied to me it was as my boyfriend, and you’re not anymore. You’re just my colleague now, and as my colleague you didn’t do anything wrong to hurt me.”

“I still want to make this transition easier for you,” Angelo whispered, and Charlie could barely hear him, “I can’t just forgive myself for what I did.”

“You have to at least try,” Charlie said, “Everyone else is. Even Hugo is trying to make this easier for you, and you need to stop punishing yourself for a mistake you made; no matter how horrible the consequences of that mistake were.”

***

Not the brightest one, that Senior constable. It always amazed him how history taught some people nothing. Didn’t she see that she was only making things worse? Pointing out his mistakes like that… It was stupid! And there she was, pretending she was trying to help him get through killing his mate! Hah!

He knew there was only one thing to be done. This needed to end, and apparently he was the only one who could see that.

Mercy; exactly what Angelo needed, and also exactly the kind of strange revenge everyone else needed. Except it wasn’t really revenge, just ending a circle of mistakes. The third shot fired would not be a mistake, and that was why it would end it all; it would simply be an act of mercy, to put an end to it all.

[Eli]

Thanks for all the reads & comments

Chapter 6

If she was to be honest with herself, Fitzie didn’t really trust any of her colleagues to treat Angelo fair enough to work with him right now. Maybe Charlie would have been able to do it, she was just the right amount of rational to put aside her feelings. But the others… Even though they knew it had been self defense, they also were too upset about Jack’s death. Pairing Angelo up with her as her partner, had its advantages as well. This was she could be close enough to pick up on anything he might know that could lead them closer to the attacker; hopefully before more officers became victims of these violent crimes.

There were disadvantages as well though. Because she was still so tied up, working with Peter and Pia, Angelo ended up spending a lot of time on his own in the office, doing paperwork; or in some cases, doing nothing at all.

Monday morning turned out to be one of those days. Before she had even had time to finish her morning coffee, Fitzie got a call from the hospital. Banks had woken up, and was ready to give a statement.

Leaving the station without Angelo, Fitzie had no idea that she had just made one of the biggest mistakes in her entire career.

***

“Seriously, I’m fine,” Charlie said for the sixth time in thirty seconds, “You haven’t been out of the house other than to go to the store since I got back!”

“Well, can you blame me?” Joey replied “Someone nearly landed you in a coma, Charlie! Of course I would want to look after you!”

“Well, I’m fine now,” Charlie assured her, “Go out on the boat with Hugo today. It’s a job, I’ll be fine here.”

Joey hesitated for a moment. As eager as she was to see what Hugo had done to the Blaxland, she was still worried about Charlie, who didn’t seem to be dealing with what had happened at all. Not once since the attack had she shown any will to talk about it, and she was still acting like a closed book towards Joey; showing few signs of any emotion at all.

“Okay,” she finally said, “If you promise that you will call me if you want anything?”

“Absolutely,” Charlie said, “Now go have fun on the boat!”

From the couch she watched Joey get ready and leave the house, still sending Charlie a worried look every other minute. As soon as her girlfriend was out of the house, Charlie got up, and grabbed her purse. For a moment she considered changing out of her sweatpants and the washed out t-shirt she was wearing, but she decided it was just as good as anything else she had in her closet, if she wasn’t wearing her uniform anyway.

***

Walking briskly across lawn and over to her car, hoping that Joey hadn’t forgotten anything, or would come back to check on her as she escaped the house, only leaving a note on the kitchen table; Charlie barely noticed Martha walking up behind her.

“Charlie! Wait up!” she finally called out, and Charlie jumped. Great, she’d have to work on not jumping whenever somebody called her name if she was hoping to be able to stay at work for more than ten minutes without Fitzie sending her home.

“Martha,” she said, turning around, “How are you?”

“Fine, thanks,” Martha quickly replied, “More importantly, how are you?”

“Oh, I’m doing really well,” Charlie lied, “Actually I’m going down to the police station right now to check on the progress.”

“Oh,” Martha replied, “Actually I was wondering if I could talk to you? Just for five minutes?”

Charlie sighed, it had to be important if Martha would come down here to talk to her personally so soon after the attack.

“Sure,” she said, “Let’s go inside.”

***

Getting lunch was just a normal procedure for most people, but for Angelo it still felt weird. It hadn’t been a part of his routine for months to have the liberty to say “I’m going to get some lunch; I’ll be back in an hour!” and then just leave without anyone asking questions.

He was just walking through the park near the marina when he suddenly heard someone call his name. After a few seconds of frantically combing the area with his eyes, he realized it had been Hugo calling his name.

“Mate, are you busy?” Hugo called out, “I could just use someone with an idea about rules and regulations to take a look at some of the changes I’ve made to the boat. I’m a little unsure about how some of the boards are secured.”

Angelo looked at his watch, but realized this wasn’t the time for him to blow people off. Especially not people who were so desperate to forgive him.

“Sure,” he said, “I’ll take a look at it.”

***

The two of them, on a boat… This would be his golden opportunity; and he hadn’t even planned it out. And even if Charlie’s little girlfriend would turn out to be in the way… Well, she wasn’t important enough to get in the way of mercy.

***

“That doesn’t make sense, though,” Charlie said, responding to Martha’s worries about Hugo, “He has really made an effort to be nice to Angelo lately.”

“I’m just saying,” Martha insisted, “He’s constantly fussing over me. Don’t get me wrong, I miss Jack every day, but I’m dealing with my grief. It’s like Hugo went through this weird grieving process. First he was so mad at Angelo, and then suddenly he changes into this weird person who’s angry with him and wants to forgive him at the same time.”

“Maybe that’s just his way of working through his anger,” Charlie suggested, “Maybe he can’t help being angry, but he tries to be nice because he knows Angelo’s probably going through a tough time.”

Suddenly she froze.

“Martha, I’m sorry, but I have to go to work,” she said, mechanically, “I just remembered something I need to check out.”

“Is something wrong? Did I say something?” She could hear the fear in Martha’s voice.

“No, no, it’s nothing,” Charlie assured her, “I just need to take a look at a file.”

***

“It’s not enough,” Peter simply said, and closed the folder, “I’m sorry, Charlie.”

“What? There’s motive right there!” Charlie threw her pen down on the desk in frustration.

“No, I’m sorry, but it’s not,” Peter replied, “That’s only a record confirming Jack’s past. It doesn’t link anyone to anything. We can’t prove that his behaviour is linked to this. There’s nothing in here to suggest why police officers should have become targets.”

“How about the original theory we had?” Charlie continued, “How about the fact that we know this is happening because of how we treated Angelo, and landed him in jail?”

“I’m sorry Charlie, but it doesn’t make sense,” Pia agreed, “Peter’s right, it’s not enough. But Fitzie is at the hospital talking to Banks right now, maybe we’ll know more when she comes back.”

Charlie grabbed Jack’s file and got up without saying another word. Determined to do something to get to the bottom of this, she dialled Martha’s number and walked out. This wasn’t enough.

***

He still needed some more time. Needed to make sure he wouldn’t have any reason not to trust him. After all, he was here to help him, and to do him one last favor. He wanted to make this as comfortable as possible for him.

***

What a great moment for Martha to choose to turn her phone off. Stressed and annoyed, Charlie hung up. What else was there to do? Angelo didn’t pick up because he was a lunch, and she didn’t want to call Hugo unless she absolutely had to.

Then, suddenly she got an idea. Knowing it probably wasn’t the best idea she had ever had, she dialled Joey’s number.

***

Joey put down the brush and carefully whipped the phone out of her pocket. After accidentally leaning scratching her face with the brush without thinking, she was pretty much covered it paint; and the desire to get a red phone wasn’t strong. But Charlie didn’t call her all that often anymore, and something could be wrong. Carefully, not to stain the phone, she pressed the speaker phone button.

“Hi, Charlie, everything okay?” she responded, “Sorry it took me so long to answer, but I’m kind of covered in red paint right now.”

“Red paint?”

“Yeah,” Joey joked. If Charlie’s main concern was red paint, things were probably fine, “I look like I’ve been involved in a very dramatic war.”

“Joey,” Charlie said, sounding serious enough to make Joey worried, “I need you to listen very carefully, this is important.”

“What’s up, Charlie, you’re scaring me!”

“You have nothing to worry about, I think,” Charlie said. You’re on the boat with Hugo, right?”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m covered in red paint,” her girlfriend replied, still not getting what Charlie was getting at, “I’m painting some stuff for him on the boat.”

“Joey, listen to me,” Charlie repeated, “I’m at work, and I’ve been looking into some stuff. If you see Angelo, you need to call me straight away, do you hear me?”

“Charlie, what is going on?” Joey demanded.

“I’m not entirely sure right now,” Charlie admitted, “But I’m coming to get you right now, so don’t leave shore. If you see Angelo, make sure to keep him as far away from Hugo as you can, until I get there, do you hear me?”

“Angelo’s right here on the boat with us,” Joey replied, getting even more confused, “He was looking at some of the changes for Hugo, and now they’re just chatting.”

Before she got the chance to say anything more, she was pushed away, and her phone was taken. She could hear the call being ended right in the middle of Charlie responding to the sound of her being pushed, by asking if everything was okay.

Covered in red paint, and confused about what had just happened, Joey managed to turn around just enough to see who had taken her phone.

“I was hoping you and your girlfriend wouldn’t be any trouble,” Hugo said, and tossed her phone off the boat, “Why is it that you had to go and complicate this, just when everything was going so well?”

[Eli]

Thank you so much for reading and commenting! Here's another chapter. I will try to put the last one up tomorrow or Wednesday or Thursday, I'm very busy at the moment, but I'll try to remember putting it up to you. And then I'll start thinking about a better idea for a fanfic. I'm sorry, but I'm still not a fan of this one

Chapter 7

“Peter, he’s got Angelo and Joey,” Charlie said, barging into the conference room he and Pia were using as their office, without even knocking first.

“We need to get down to the marina, Hugo’s on the Blaxland with Joey and Angelo, and I’m pretty sure he’s about to leave shore with them. I need backup!”

“Charlie, what the hell are you talking about?” Peter exclaimed, “What makes you think we can be sure he’s going to hurt them?”

“Because I know,” Charlie snapped, “But there isn’t time to explain! We can’t risk not going down there, so either you go with me, or I go down there alone, and you risk being responsible for an officer putting herself in danger because you didn’t want to help her.”

Exchanging a quick glance, Pia and Peter got up.

“We’ll take my car,” Pia said firmly, “I think we should use a civilian car for this.”

***

“Hugo, what’s going on?” Joey said. She was scared, confused and angry at the same time, “Why the hell did you do that?”

“Because,” Hugo said, in a tone Joey barely recognized coming from him, and started up the engine, “Somebody needs to put an end to all this pain, and I’m not going to let you or your girlfriend ruin that for me!”

Joey just stared at him, not even realizing tears were streaming down her face, as they were drifting away from the shore.

“Hugo, what are you talking about?” she cried, “What is it that you need to put an end to?”

“Nobody else realizes it,” Hugo said, “But Angelo and Jack were exactly the same. And Jack never got over it; think how much worse it must have been for Angelo, who killed his own friend?”

“This is crazy,” Joey exclaimed, “What are you planning on doing?”

She gasped as Hugo suddenly drew a gun from the pocket of his jacket.

“You’re… You’re going to shoot him?” she cried, “Hugo, NO!”

“Don’t cry!” he suddenly said, and this time he sounded more like the old Hugo again, “It’s not like that. This is a good thing! Angelo will get away from it all, and your girlfriend and all of Jack’s other friends won’t have to see him around anymore. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

He sounded like he genuinely thought he was doing them all a favor.

“What about me?” Joey asked, dreading the answer before she had even asked the question.

“I’m sorry about that,” Hugo said, and Joey could see real tears in his eyes, as he looked genuinely upset, “But you know too much now. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, I was supposed to get Angelo alone. But if it helps you, I’ll do you first, so you won’t have to watch. I slipped Angelo a little something in his coffee, so he’s asleep, won’t have to watch either…”

“Please, please don’t do this,” Joey begged, “I swear, I won’t tell anyone, I’ll provide you with an alibi! I swear, I won’t tell Charlie!”

For a moment he looked like he considered it.

“That’s a bit of a risk you’re asking me to take,” he said, “I’m sorry, Joey…”

***

“They’re not here,” Charlie concluded, completely unnecessary, as everyone could see the Blaxland wasn’t in the marina.

“That could be them out there,” Pia said, and pointed at a boat disappearing further and further away from shore, “I’ll call for the police jet ski and ask for a coast guard helicopter to assist us.”

Charlie barely had time to appreciate that they finally took her seriously, she was already dialing Joey’s number again.

“Voice mail,” she said and muttered some less nice words to the fact that Joey didn’t pick up.

“Don’t worry,” Pia tried to calm her down, “We’ll have the jet ski here in a few minutes, and someone will get to them.”

***

“Why are you doing this?” Joey asked again, desperately trying to delay him. Charlie knew they were here, and would come looking for them; Joey was sure about that. How Charlie and the others would be able to stop Hugo when he was already pointing the gun at her, she didn’t know, but it was her only hope that they would be able to stop him.

“Tony told me about what Jack did,” Hugo replied, even though Joey had no idea what he was talking about, “And that just made me realize… Why are we punishing Angelo for something he’s already punishing himself for? Jack suffered from his mistake the rest of his life, and only when he died he got peace. Think about Angelo, it’s probably even worse for him! Everyone has been making it so much harder for him ever since he accidentally shot his partner.”

“Is that why you tried to kill those two officers,” Joey asked, “Because they helped land Angelo in jail?”

“They did more than that,” Hugo said, “Banks went on the witness stand against Angelo at the hearing. Watson just happened to be in the car with him. I’m sorry about her.”

He paused, and seemed to realize that since he was already spilling all his secrets to a woman he would soon get rid of, he might as well tell her the rest. After all Joey was innocent in all of this; he probably owed her the truth.

“Your girlfriend, on the other hand,” he continued, “She just needed a reminder that sooner or later she would be the victim. I tried to give the pictures to the paper to put some pressure on her to step down, but that didn’t work.”

“So you attacked her?”

“That was stupid, I admit that,” Hugo said, “A mistake. All it did was make Angelo feel more bad about what he had done. I didn’t realize back then that when you have done something like that; there’s only one thing that can give you peace.”

“So how about you then?” Joey tested him, “If you kill Angelo, your friend, won’t that put you in the same boat as him?”

“Of course not,” Hugo responded, “I’m doing him a favor.”

“Didn’t you just say that Angelo did Jack a favor too, though?” she said, nervously casting a glance towards the shore, only to realize she couldn’t see it anymore, “Don’t you see how this is exactly the same?”

Again, it looked like he was hesitating, and actually listening to what she was saying. Joey silently asked herself what he had been taking, or what was wrong with him. He was like a big child, all of a sudden, with a very black and white understanding of right and wrong.

“No,” he said, “No, it’s not the same… Angelo didn’twant to kill Jack… It was an accident, and this isn’t. I know this is the right thing. Angelo didn’t know that. I’m just helping Angelo. And I’m helping Martha.”

***

“Where the hell is that jet ski?” Charlie snapped, “Who knows what he’s doing to them?”

“Charlie, relax,” Pia begged, “You don’t even know for sure Hugo is the one behind this!”

“Did you read the reports from my attack?” Charlie asked, but she didn’t wait for an answer, “I saw what I thought was a fresh cut on the attacker’s hand, and I had a feeling I knew him. It wasn’t a cut, it was red paint from the boat. And I did know him, I recognized his cologne without realizing it.”

“We still can’t be sure,” Peter added, even though he could see Charlie was close to losing it completely, “Why would he defend Angelo, and then attack him?”

“He’s deluded,” Charlie practically shouted, “I don’t know why, but for some reason he thinks he needs to help Angelo out of his misery.”

“You mean like an angel of death?” Pia said, for the first time expressing that she believed Charlie could be on to something.

“Yeah, something like that,” Charlie nodded, “He thinks we’ve misjudged Angelo, and that he understands why Angelo is finding it so hard dealing with shooting Jack.

All of a sudden, it was like Peter woke up.

“The shooting,” he said, “Of course. Pia, I can see why you didn’t see it because you never worked with Jack, and you just read about it in his file. But of course…”

Without another word he ran back to the car and returned with a box of tools they had in all the police cars, civilian or not, in case something needed to be broken through. Within the next thirty seconds he had snapped off the lock on one of the private boats and got the engine going.

Charlie didn’t ask any questions; right now all that mattered was to get to Joey.

“Stay here and wait for the backup,” Peter called back to Pia as Charlie jumped in. And without even waiting for Pia to agree, they set off from shore, hoping they weren’t too late.

[Eli]

Sorry about the delay, lot of stuff happening! Anyway, here's the very last chapter & thanks for reading this fic everyone, it means a lot

Chapter 8

The small boat was surprisingly fast, and as soon as they could see the Blaxland, Charlie knew they would be able to get to them, unless Hugo sped up the bigger boat.

***

“Hugo, please think about this,” Joey begged, crying, “You don’t have to do this! Trust me, this isn’t the right thing to do, and if you stop this right now, we can all get off this boat, and nothing bad will happen. I promise!”

“No,” Hugo replied and shook his head, “That’s not true, this is the right thing. Jack and Angelo, they were the same… Angelo doesn’t deserve to go through all of this… He deserves peace, like Jack. And you, you just know too much. I’m sorry Joey…”

Hugo was crying now too, looking more and more like a big child, frustrated with a tricky situation.

“I’m sorry, Joey, but you don’t understand this…”

It was hard to tell which gun was fired first; Charlie’s, Hugo’s or Peter’s. But two out of three bullets hit their target, and as two new people climbed onto the Blaxland, two other people dropped. Wounded and bleeding.

As a police officer, Charlie’s job would be to make sure they had managed to get the shooter, and that he wouldn’t put them or the victim in another dangerous situation. But right now, she wasn’t a police officer. She was Joey’s girlfriend, and the only thought in her head was to make sure Joey was okay.

She barely noticed Peter pinning Hugo down, checking his pulse and handcuffing him.

“We have the shooter, he’s been hit with a bullet in the lower abdomen, but he has a pulse. We also have one of the hostages, she’s been shot in the right shoulder, but seems to be doing fine.”

Charlie didn’t notice Peter looking for Angelo and then reporting over the radio that they had the other hostage unconscious, but seemingly okay. After hearing him say Hugo was shot, she only saw Joey. Whoever had hit Hugo, had also fired their gun before him, so the bullet from the stolen gun hadn’t even gone in to Joey’s shoulder, just made a wound right on top of it, and hit the wooden box behind her. Luckily for Joey, they had been standing too close to the engine when Peter and Charlie had arrived; neither of them had heard the other boat.

Trying desperately to shelter Joey from anything and everything around them, Charlie just held her girlfriend and cried with her, not paying any attention to the things going on around them. Automatically, she took off her jacket and wrapped it around Joey. It wasn’t cold, but she had to do anything she could for her, it was as simple as that.

***

Two weeks later

“Senior constable Charlie Buckton, who recently saved a fellow policeman, and an innocent civilian held hostage at a boat, confirmed to the Coastal News last night that the man, now charged with attempted murder, has in fact been diagnosed with a brain tumor,” Senior constable Charlie Buckton read out loud from the newspaper, “The last time I checked with them, I was the evil villain who helped criminals out of jail. Ironic, huh?”

Joey smiled. Her shoulder was healing nicely, but she still felt a bit shaken up about the whole thing.

“What will happen to Hugo now?” she asked. Charlie shrugged.

“I’m guessing they will try to treat him for the brain tumor,” she said, “Then I’m guessing the defense will use it to prove that he wasn’t thinking clearly when he did what he did.”

“So that basically means he could be a free man?” Joey asked, not sure what she thought of that idea.

“I doubt it,” Charlie replied, honestly, “He’ll probably get some jail time. After that though, I’m guessing he’ll be a free man.”

“That’s good, I think.”

Charlie put down her coffee.

“You have every right to hate the guy,” she said, “You don’t have to pretend to be noble or anything.”

“I know,” Joey said, “But in a way I actually mean that. When I was out there, I was so sure he was on drugs or something, because he wasn’t Hugo. I’m not saying I’ll ever be able to forget what he did and be around him like before… But I think in a way he had a point.”

“What do you mean?”

Joey took a deep breath. Ever since Charlie had told her in the helicopter that Jack had once shot and killed a young girl by accident, she had been thinking about this.

“Even though he completely lost it and took it too far, Hugo was right about Angelo deserving forgiveness,” she said, “Just like Jack, he made a mistake. And because of who he killed, it got so much harder for him to move on, because of all the constant reminders. Hugo also made a mistake, because the tumor made him act in ways he would never have, if he had been in his right mind.”

“I guess you could be right,” Charlie admitted after digesting the theory for a few seconds, “Angelo has asked for a transfer, by the way. He’s been offered a job in Newcastle.”

“Good for him,” Joey said, “He deserves a chance to move on.”

Still amazed at this extremely noble way of thinking about these people, Charlie couldn’t help but look at her girlfriend with great admiration. Even if she was drinking chocolate milk from a straw and reading Batman for breakfast.

“Do you have time for lunch today?” Joey asked after no one had said anything for a while, “Ruby comes back tomorrow, and it would be nice to do something just the two of us together.”

“Sure,” Charlie said, before suddenly changing her mind.

“How about dinner?” she said, making it hard for Joey to hide her excitement, “I’ll get us a table some place nice, and then we’ll go there as soon as I get off my afternoon shift.”

“Are you sure?” Joey asked, “I know you’re always tired after doing a double shift.”

“You’re probably right,” her girlfriend said, with a cheeky smile, “Fitzie has just come back after months of maternity leave, and she’s even taken her office back. If anything, she owes me a favor. Covering a shift for me is the least thing she can do!”

“Are you serious?” Joey exclaimed, not even trying to hide her big grin anymore, “What have I done to deserve this?”

“I guess I’ll have to give you some more of my time to explain that to you,” Charlie said, still with the same cheeky smile, “Remind me to clear my schedule.”

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