DISCLAIMER: The characters herein are used without permission. No infringement intended.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, so I don't really actually watch Home and Away, but I was on YouTube browsing other videos when I came across the Charlie Joey Love Story, and got engrossed, and watched the whole thing. I literally lost my whole evening. Anyway I was so taken with the story I decided to write my own. As I say I don't really watch the show, so I have no idea what has happened since – well I know Joey didn't come back, and I know Charlie got hit by Brett's car, and possibly died later on at some point. But needless to say my story won't be following the reality of the show – because I really have no idea what that is!! Sooooo let me know what you think.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
FEEDBACK: To debrafitzakerley[at]yahoo.co.uk
One More Chance
By EdenAshley
Part 6
Charlie wakes up after what feels like the best night's sleep she's ever had, she seriously feels like she just woken up from a coma. Then she feels a presence in her arms and she remembers why. Joey. She could get used to waking up like this. The smile instantly hits her face.
She can't help herself. She starts to kiss and nibble at Joey's neck, it tickles and it's enough to wake Joey up, she turns to face Charlie, unbelievably happy. She doesn't waste any time, her lips immediately seek out Charlie's. They both get lost in the kiss, any thoughts of 'taking it slowly', well and truly forgotten.
The passion certainly sparks at a faster pace due to Charlie being in only her underwear. She had been so excited to see Joey last night she just chucked her uniform on her bedroom floor, and jumped into bed, no thought for pyjamas. Joey was wearing slightly more than her ex girlfriend having slipped into some shorts and a vest before Charlie had gotten home.
Charlie manoeuvres herself almost sub consciously, she's now straddling Joey. Joey loses all concentration at the sight before her; she just hungrily kisses Charlie back, allowing Charlie's tongue entrance into her mouth without a second's hesitation.
Just as Charlie starts to play with the edge of Joey's vest, her plan being to lift it over her head, an alarm starts to reverberate around the room. Saved by the bell. They both instantly return to reality, the kiss stops almost immediately, and not for the first time, they find their foreheads resting against each other, taking deep breaths, they both need a second to recover from that kiss.
"Sorry, that's my work alarm. I have to get up." Joey's almost embarrassed as the words leave her mouth.
Charlie just smiles at her full of adoration. "Probably for the best. That wasn't really taking it slow."
"I'm not sure how slowly I can take it after that." Joey closes her eyes; she really is in inner turmoil. Charlie brings her hands up to Joey's face, causing her to open her eyes again.
"I want you to trust me Joey. Before we're intimate again, I want you to trust me." Charlie reaffirms her words.
"The last thing I want you to be thinking about while were making love, is whether or not I'll hurt you again."
Joey just nods, Charlie's words have induced so much emotion in her, she gets it, she really does get why Joey wants to take it slow, and not only that, she's willing to go along with it, she's willing to give Joey the time she needs. Unbelievable.
After the two woman have taken a shower, separately and with the water more than a few degrees lower than usual, Charlie is sitting in the kitchen, she has made coffee and toast, and is waiting for Joey to get dressed and come and join her. She looks up excitedly as someone enters the room, she actually frowns when it's Ruby that wanders into the kitchen, something which isn't lost on the younger Buckton.
"Nice to see you too Charlz." Her mood immediately picks up when she sees breakfast. "Aw sis you made breakfast, you shouldn't have."
Ruby helps herself to some toast, Charlie just smiles she made more than enough for everyone. Ruby is suspicious.
"Why are you in such a good mood?" Charlie can't help the Cheshire cat style grin that appears on her face, she tries moving her coffee cup to her mouth to try and shield it, but Ruby can see straight through it, anyway she's got a pretty good idea of what the cause of her sisters happiness is.
"Like I need to ask."
"What do you mean?" Charlie asks coyly.
"We all know Joey stopped by last night to give you a goodnight kiss."
Ruby stops her teasing when Joey walks into the kitchen. Opened mouth, Ruby continues to speak. "I guess 'stopped by' was the wrong turn of phrase. Stopped over more like it."
The three women smile at Ruby's words. Joey leans down and gives Charlie a kiss.
"Gross." Ruby's still teasing; the massive grin on her face is testament to that.
"Morning Rubes." Joey grabs a slice of toast, and a pours herself a coffee, as she speaks, and then plants herself down at the table next to Charlie.
"Good morning to you too Joey. So, had a little sleep over last night did we?"
Joey feels her face turn a lovely shade of cherry red. Ruby decides to take pity on her and changes the subject. "You looking forward to your first day at work?"
"Can't wait. Speaking of which, I better go."
She jumps up, leaning down to give Charlie a kiss. "Catch you two later."
"See you later sweetheart."
"Bye Jo."
Joey rushes out of the kitchen through the back door; Charlie follows her with her eyes dreamily until she is out of view. Ruby watches all of this highly amused, she never had her big sis down for a lovesick puppy. She can't help the laughter that bursts out of her mouth. This snaps Charlie out her daydream.
"What?" Charlie is genuinely confused.
"Nothing, it's just I've never seen you this in love before. It's nice." She concludes. "So I take it after last night, you two are well and truly back together?"
Charlie grimaces slightly. "No. We're still just taking it slowly, one day at a time." She starts to play with her mug.
Ruby doesn't really understand, and as usual isn't backwards about being forwards. "Wait, so you're sleeping together, but you're not an actual couple."
"We're not sleeping together, I mean we did last night, but that's all we did, sleep I mean."
"Oh. It's just you two had that glow about you this morning. I just assumed."
"Yeah well we didn't. Joeys worth the wait."
"Wow. You are too loved up. Pass the sick bucket."
"Not a little jealous there are you sis?" Charlie sticks her tongue out at Ruby, now it's her turn to tease.
Charlie headed into work around half an hour later, still absolutely buzzing. This is what everyday could be like if she can make it work with Joey. She's more determined than ever to make that happen.
Well as sod's law would have it, if the last week has been the busiest week at work Charlie has ever known, today is the slowest day she's ever known. But the one good thing to come from that is that she can surprise Joey with lunch. She's just pulled up outside of the garage; she's got a stash of sandwiches and a couple of cokes.
She makes her way inside, and her eyes nearly pop out of her skull at the sight of Joey. Blue mechanics overalls tied off at the waist, white vest, thin sheen of sweat, and the obligatory smudge of oil on her cheek, one word springs to mind for how Joey looks right now. Hot.
Joey has noticed Charlie, and starts to worry when she just stands there open mouthed and doesn't speak. She decides she better break the silence.
"Charlie, what are you doing here?"
Joey's words seem to snap her back to reality, she shakes her head to try and regain some sort of composure. "I thought I'd surprise you with lunch." She holds up the bag of food to emphasize.
She smiles. Joeys new work mates are intrigued by her friend, probably down to the fact she's in full uniform, Joey can see a small crowd gathering.
"Guys this is my friend Charlie." They all nod and smile; satisfied with the introduction they all get back to work. Charlie hates to admit, but it really hurt that Joey didn't introduce her as 'her girlfriend.' She decides she's being silly, she isn't her girlfriend, not yet, not properly.
"There's a pier out the back, we could sit and each lunch out there, there's a beautiful view of the ocean."
Again Charlie is pulled from her thoughts by Joey's voice. "That sounds great."
She follows Joey out and settles down at the end of the pier, Joey wasn't kidding about the view, you could see the whole bay. Breathtaking.
They dig into the sandwiches and get down to some small talk.
"How's your first day going so far?"
"Really great." The excitement is literally oozing out of Joey; Charlie can't help but be happy for her.
Joey has had the best morning; she has gotten on so well with her work mates, as silly as it sounds she really feels right at home at the garage. She loves the work too, alright it's not on the ocean, but it's the next best thing. In fact no, it's even better, because this way she still gets to see Charlie every day. Although her first day at work has been amazing, truly Charlie surprising her with lunch has still been the highlight of her day. With this in mind she decides to give her a proper hello.
She leans in and her lips meet Charlie's briefly. Charlie is slightly surprised by the affectionate gesture, but she's not complaining.
"What was that for?"
"Just giving you a proper hello."
Charlie smiles. "Well hello." She leans back in and steals another chaste kiss from Joey. They both just grin, then return to eating their sandwiches and taking in the astounding view.
After a few minutes Charlie breaks the silence. "Last night was amazing you know, thank you for being there when I got home."
"It was my pleasure believe me." Joey smiles.
"It was weird, sleeping together, but not sleeping together." Charlie muses as she takes a bite of her sandwich.
Joey lets her words wash over her. "Hard." She clarifies what she means, "I'd say it was more difficult than weird."
"I think this morning was the difficult part."
Joey can feel her cheeks blush when she thinks back to this morning, pure desire just takes over her, and she can tell Charlie is right there with her, the lust is apparent in her eyes. Joey can't help but get lost in them, she leans into Charlie, and before she knows it sandwiches have been discarded, and they are having a full blown make out session at the end of the pier.
It's around five minutes later; the two women are still completely engrossed in each other, exploring each other's mouth. Still kissing like a pair of teenagers. Joey is sure she's heard something. She pulls back.
Charlie whimpers at the withdrawal of contact. "Did you hear something?"
"No." Charlie barely gets the one syllable word out of mouth, before her lips are firmly back on Joeys.
"Joey."
Okay they both heard it that time. They pull back startled.
"Joey." There it is again, this time they look to where the noise has come from.
Joey's heart sinks, when she sees a rather pleased looking Mitchell calling her name. But he's not the cause of her worry; she wouldn't have been bothered if it had just been Mitchell there. But behind him all with equally excited grins on their faces, are the rest of her new work colleagues.
As soon as she's able to assess the situation, her eyes are firmly on Charlie, she's expecting her to look mortified, she knows people knowing about them was the main issue the last time they were together, as in Charlie didn't want people to know.
She surprised to see that Charlie's smiling. She watches as Mitchell, who is now satisfied that Joey has heard him and will follow them into the garage in a second, ushers the rest of the work force back inside. Charlie is the first to speak.
"Wow that was embarrassing."
There it is the rejection Joey had been expecting. Her head drops, Charlie doesn't seem to have noticed.
"First day at work and you get caught pashing the local copper like a school kid with too many hormones." Charlie chuckles.
Joey can't believe her ears; Charlie obviously meant that it was embarrassing for her. Charlie suddenly picks up on the fact that Joey is looking at her like she's grown a second head.
"What?"
"Aren't you bothered?" Joey looks genuinely confused as she's asks.
Now it's Charlie's turn to be puzzled. "About what?"
"Charlie, at least ten people have just seen us making out. All from Summer Bay."
Charlie knows where this is going now, she's a little hurt to be honest, but she knows that this is part of the whole proving herself to Joey process. "So?"
"Well aren't you scared that it will get around town?"
"Joey, the only reason I'm not shouting it from the rooftops myself is because you want to take things slowly."
Joey doesn't know what to say. Charlie grabs her hand. "I've changed Joey. I will prove that to you."
Charlie says it with a defiant smile. Joey still looks puzzled, but a good puzzled, she hoped with all her heart that Charlie could change, that she could learn to accept their relationship and be proud of it. But she hadn't dared to let herself believe that it would actually happen. But it seems it's already started to happen.
"We should probably head in; I assume that was your boss that was calling you." Charlie rises as she speaks and holds her hand out to Joey to help her to her feet; it seems she's still in a daze.
They head into the garage through the back door; they are met by a lot of smirking faces. Charlie takes it all in her stride, Joey heads straight over to Mitchell.
"Hey sorry Mitch, I was just grabbing some lunch."
He beams. "Looked like you were enjoying it too."
He looks at Charlie appreciatively, he can certainly see why Joey's willing to take the risk with her heart for this woman, she's beautiful. He can't help but notice that both women have a slightly crimson tinge after his latest comment. He offers his hand to Charlie.
"You must be Charlie."
She accepts his hand and shakes it enthusiastically. "And you must be Mitchell."
"That I am." He turns his attention to Joey. "I just came down to make sure your first day was going okay. But looks like I needn't have bothered." There's his smirk again.
Charlie feels slightly sorry for Joey, she's bound to get some gentle ribbing from the rest of the crew, but she has to get back to work.
"I've gotta get back to work. It was nice to finally meet you Mitchell."
"You too Charlie. Well have to get you round to ours for dinner one night."
"Sounds great." She turns her attention back to Joey. "Will I see you tonight?"
Joey smiles. "Yeah if you want to."
"I always want to." Charlie smiles. She leans in and kisses Joey on the lips. They are greeted by wolf whistles from behind them, they both grin into the kiss.
"Seeya later." Charlie nods at Mitchell, and heads for her car.
Joey's mind is blown yet again. She can't believe Charlie kissed her goodbye, in front of all these people. She really gets her hopes up for the future. Charlie doesn't care about people knowing. Wow.
The huge smile hasn't left Joeys face yet, Mitchell just smirks. "Come on you. Get back to work."
This pulls her from her thoughts. She heads back over to the engine she had been working on before Charlie had arrived. She's a little apprehensive, after all, the last time she was in the bay her sexuality hadn't exactly been greeted with hugs and kisses. She had been getting trained up by Beno, she smiles sheepishly at him as she arrives back, he grins, and he can tell for some reason she seems anxious.
She braces herself it appears Beno is about to speak. "Wow Joey, your girlfriend is super hot."
He laughs at the expression on Joeys face. That was it. No shouting no screaming, no one berating her for her sexuality. Joey can't help but feel like she dropped into some sort of alternate universe. Not that she's complaining of course.