Hi everyone. Thank you for being open to reading my new story. This is kind of a prologue more than a chapter but I hope it's good enough that you will continue reading. And that if you don't like it, you won't leave rude comments just for the sake of being unkind. Constructive criticism and all that… Anyway, this one is set on the night that Joey finds out about Charlie's betrayal but it has a bit of a different spin on it. Love, IJKS xxx

What If?

Chapter One

Sitting in her patrol car, Senior Constable Charlie Buckton felt sick. She felt like her life was ending and she had no idea how to save herself.

Only a couple of hours ago, things had seemed fine and she cursed herself now for making such a big issue about a lost earring. It was sentimental to her but if her girlfriend, Joey Collins, the person she considered to be the love of her life, had never known about the jewellery going missing then none of this would have happened.

The earring had been found by Joey in Hugo Austin's house, when she had been a good Samaritan and dropped round his missing mobile phone. It hadn't taken long for her to work out the truth. Charlie had slept with him behind Joey's back on a crazy night when she had been outed as 'queer' to the whole town and then been accused of abusing Joey, who had been in her police care when they'd fallen in love.

"What the hell am I meant to do?" she asked aloud, closing her eyes and trying to eradicate the look of heartbreaking devastation on her girlfriend's face.

She wondered if she was even allowed to call her that anymore. Joey had laid into her at home and then stormed out. They'd run into each other again when a fire had broken out at the caravan park, which was where she was still sitting. Joey had been nearby and helped and Charlie, on a night shift, had been called to the scene.

She shrieked when her car door opened and someone made themselves comfortable in the passenger seat. For a second, she hoped it was Joey, come to give her a chance to explain and forgive her. But with some panic, she realised it was a man and was about to tell him to get the hell out of her car when she recognised him.

"What the…?" she mumbled.

She had come face to face with her former friend and colleague, Constable Jack Holden.

Next time… Jack wants to help Charlie…