Hi guys and welcome to my newest and first Neighbours fanfic! I have been obsessed with the episodes from the '80s and the most important couple on it aka Scott and Charlene. I really tried my best to make the characters as genuine as possible but you have to also take in mind that they're a little more grown up now because it is now the early '90s (in the story). All the other characters who still live in Erinsborough have not been changed or altered with the original story line of the series otherwise it would be too confusing. Hope you enjoy and please follow the story and leave a review because that gets me motivated to keep on writing :) xo

[small summary: Scott has found a job as a writer at a news paper firm in Brisbane and Charlene after completing her apprenticeship decided with full support of her husband to open a garage next to their house and now works there with fellow friend and female mechanic Debby]

Charlene could feel a cool breeze blowing through the open window into the bedroom; the curtains were dancing as the wind was spreading the fresh night smell into the room gracing her naked legs and arms. Rarely felt the wind cold to her, as it usually was a source of relieve in these kind of typical hot Australian nights, but this night it didn't as goose bumps spread over her entire body.

Charlene carefully tugged at the blankets that her husband had wrapped around his body as he moved a lot in his sleep. Charlene was jealous how he could just close his eyes and be gone. She looked at him and faintly smiled. He was lying on his stomach; he looked so peaceful as she could vaguely see his face because of the streetlights from outside. His blonde hair, which was now cut shorter, was peaking in every direction as he was breathing slowly but steadily, clearly in a deep sleep.

Not satisfied with the amount of blanket she got, she tugged at it again and moved her petite frame closer to her bare-chested husband, feeling the warmth of his skin against hers. This sudden movement awoke Scott as he slowly opened his eyes; feeling a little disoriented and was surprised, as he looked straight into his wife's eyes.

"Didn't mean to wake you up" Charlene whispered to him as she put her hand on his stubbly cheek.

Scott just shook his head and pulled her closer to him like he would always do so Charlene could rest her head on his chest, which she did.

"Why aren't you asleep?" he asked as he just noticed the red numbers of the alarm clock stating that it was '3 in the morning "-are you still nauseous from the flight?"

Charlene closed her eyes "only a little" she sighed as she caressed his cheek with her thumb.

Scott just nodded and closed his eyes as well "I know there is more-" he whispered to her and grabbed her hand that was on his cheek and held it as he started playing with the wedding ring on her finger.

Charlene just kept silent and sighed again "do you ever think back on our lives back in Ramsay Street?"

Scott opened his eyes and frowned, surprised by this sudden question "if I ever think back?" he responded after a long pause "well yeah of course, most of my life was there, my-I mean our family is there, it's where we met… would be more weird if I never thought about it right?" and smiled at her.

Charlene smiled faintly back "yeah I know, I guess I just miss mum and Henry and everybody else-"

Scott propped himself up and leaned forwards, his lips just hovering before hers "when we have a little more money, we'll pay them a visit alright?" he whispered and gave her a soft kiss.

Charlene nodded and relaxed her body again after Scott got into his former position "I would love that" she answered and closed her eyes, feeling a little better.

"You know…" Scott said just before he fell asleep "I always imagined us, especially around our wedding, that we'd always stay in Erinsborough and you know… get married, settle down, find a job, have a few kids" he said smiling "strange how life can turn out-"

Charlene opened her eyes and swallowed the lump down she felt in her throat "yeah strange-"

"OH RACK OFF!" Charlene shouted and stormed back into the garage.

Debby, her colleague but mostly good friend, looked up from underneath the hood of the car she was working on and raised her eyebrows

"What's going on?" Debby asked as she pulled her long dark hair out of her face.

Charlene started aggressively cleaning her dirty hands with a cloth "that asshole asked me if there was a mechanic, so of course I said I was and he laughed in my face and drove off" she grunted and threw the cloth in a corner before she sat herself down on the old leather couch they had moved into the garage "hope his breaks give up and runs into the nearset pole, that'll teach him" and hid her face in her hands.

Debby chuckled at her friend her words while shaking her head and walked closer to Charlene as she was cleaning a part she had just removed from the car "there are always those sexist pigs-" she said and let herself fall next to Charlene onto the same couch.

Charlene just kept shaking her head as she was still hiding her face from her friend "maybe I have made a mistake, setting up this garage, Scott truly trusted in me to make this garage a success and we put all our savings into it and we are losing customers everyday and why? Because you and I are girls…" as she looked up angrily staring into Debby's brown eyes.

Debby sighed and shrugged, as she felt a little concerned for her friend "of course it was a big risk to build your own garage next to your house and make it into a business but we knew that, would you have rather been still working into that garage with those sexist blokes?"

Charlene sighed again "I guess you are right, I just feel guilty towards Scott-" and sat up straight as she tightened her hairband "at least he is happy with his job" she smiled.

Debby now looked up concerned as she took a closer look to her friend "are you sure you are all right? No offence but you look kind of awful…"

Charlene frowned "I'm fine, just-" she answered irritated and distanced herself a little from her friend and stared at all the cars that still needed to be fixed "-and even if I wasn't fine we have still heaps to do, I am just a little nauseous and maybe a tad tired"

Debby slowly nodded "Well, just know I could handle it all if you felt sick, just let me know, Scott would kill me if he knew I let you work while you were sick" she laughed and stood up slowly walking back followed by Charlene who grunted "I just hope I feel better soon" Debby who was already installing the part she had cleaned back into the car snickered "who knows… maybe you are pregnant, the way you guys go at it-"

Charlene gasped and playfully threw a dirty cloth at her friend "no way" she laughed "we are way too careful for that, especially when we are this broke-"

Debby shrugged "hey you never know…" she teasingly said and stuck her head under the hood of the car.

Charlene sighed and rolled herself under the car where she was repairing an oil leak and shook her head a little; trying to keep herself awake after a rough night of almost no sleep. She stared at all the parts under the car that was lit with a flashlight in her hand as she was reminiscing the teasing words of her friend "pregnant" she whispered to herself, she smiled at those words. She and Scott hadn't really thought about having a family after they decided to wait a few years ago, sure they kept that extra room open, there were only a few boxes stored there but she couldn't be pregnant, not now…

But the longer she thought about it the more it seemed to fall into place, her heart started beating faster as the symptoms she had for weeks now started adding up in her head, she felt herself getting dizzy and quickly rolled herself from underneath the car to get some fresh air and stood up wobbly on her feet, leaning against the garage walls pulling her hair out of her face, trying to get some air into her lungs so she could calm down as thoughts were racing through her head.

Debby looked up concerned "are you alright?" she asked, quickly walking to her friend who's bright blue eyes were now watery and full of fear

"What if I am?" Charlene muttered with a dry mouth

"What if you are what?" Debby asked oblivious.

Charlene swallowed trying to get sense of the panic she felt in her gut and paused for a few seconds before answering "pregnant"

"I reckon Charlene really misses Erinsborough-" Scott said through the phone as he absent-mindedly stirred in his cold coffee

"You think so?" his older brother Paul answered him who was on the other end.

"Yeah she has been distant and maybe a little lonely, she has this girl she works with in the garage but that's it really…" Scott paused for a few seconds "-and she asked me at like '3 in the morning if I ever thought about Ramsay Street"

"Oh really?" Paul answered a little surprised as he remembered Charlene was the one who was most keen on moving to Queensland "-well Gran really misses you guys too she wanted to paint a family portrait but decided against it because you guys weren't there-" Paul answered who was leaned back into his office chair chewing on a pencil with the phone clamped between his ear and shoulder.

Scott felt a knot in his stomach "really?" he just answered after a long pause.

"Hey but Scotty if you and Charlene ever want to come over you are welcome to stay at Lassiters no problem-" his older brother answered

"Well we would love to but-" Scott stopped midsentence as his bosses assistant called him "-oh I gotta go, gonna find out if they liked the article I did about New-Zealand, Charlene and I went there 2 weeks ago remember?" Scott said excited.

Paul couldn't help but smile at the enthusiasm in the voice of his little brother "yeah sure, good luck and say hi to the Lenny from me alright?" he answered before he got hung up on.

"Scott Robinson, come in, sit down-" the smiling woman said who looked to be in her late 50s.

"Hello Mrs. Richardson-" Scott said still a little intimidated when talking to his boss.

"Please call me Emily alright? I know I am your boss but I call you Scott so you need to be able to call me by my first name" she responded as she pointed at the chair in front of her, gesturing Scott to sit down.

Scott just nodded and smiled, still uncomfortable with calling his boss by her first name and sat down.

"You may be wondering why I called you in-" Emily asked him as she ruffled through some papers on her desk.

Scott who saw his newly written article about the trip he had done to New Zealand smiled and pointed at the papers in her hands "I guess it's about the article?"

Emily nodded at her employee creating bit of an awkward silence

"So you liked it?" Scott asked now a little more careful as he didn't seem to be able to read his boss anymore.

"Look Scott-" Emily answered and paused again as she stared into Scott's eyes and took off her glasses "I didn't like it"

Scott felt like he got hit by a bus "you-you didn't?" he stammered, surprised by this sudden blunt remark of his boss

"Look Scott-" as she looked at his article again and shook her head before putting it down "-you are honestly a talented kid, when your old boss send me your references I was truly impressed by your writing, you were so young but you had this really different way in how you would write about things, especially at that age and I needed something different for this newspaper and I thought you would be the one to do it-" Emily picked up the article again and almost dropped it immediately back onto her desk "-this is average"

Scott didn't know how to behave or what to say as he tried to take in her words "you think it's bad?" he answered

"No, like I said, not bad, just average… And that is not why I hired you, I needed someone to really take a fresh new approach to this newspaper but what you wrote here… anybody in this office could've written" Emily looked at Scott who didn't seem to respond and continued "-and it is not just this, it has been going on for a while, you seem to have lost that edge you had and in all honesty that special trip to New Zealand you had was a test if you maybe could do it right again, but there wasn't-"

Scott looked up "I could write it again, right now! Let me prove myself to you again" he interrupted her still confused after this sudden blow of reality.

Emily shook her head "no, we're gonna print this because it is due for today but Scott-" and she took a deep breath "I need to let you go"

"Let me go? You mean… You are giving me the sack?" Scott answered in shock, as he looked straight into his boss' eyes who just nodded at him before they got both interrupted by knocking on the glass office door

"I'm sorry to interrupt" Sylvia, Emily's assistant, said "-but Scott your wife is here and she needs you"

Scott frowned as he was still processing what just had happened "can't it wait?" he asked as he had turned around, Sylvia shrugged "she seemed really upset, she said it was an emergency" she carefully answered him

Scott looked back at his boss who just waved with her hand "go to her, just come back alright" she said and Scott quickly stood up

"Look we need to really discuss this-" he said as he walked to the open door

"-Just go to your wife Scott" Emily answered and turned around in her spinning chair so she was looking outside.

Scott swallowed and looked at Sylvia "where is she?"

"She is at the entrance I'll walk with you," she answered but Scott shook his head

"No, no I'll find her" and hurried himself out of the office.

Scott aggressively hit the buttons of the elevator as he was cursing in his head "I can't lose my job, I just can't I need to convince her… and who is she even… testing me without telling-" as his thoughts were interrupted by the bing of the elevator and quickly got in pressing the button to go down. The elevator went way too slow for his liking as his thoughts were racing through his mind but when the doors opened he immediately forgot about his worries as he saw his wife looking at him from the waiting area, she hadn't even changed out of her trusty overalls which she always did when going out, and hurried himself to her, she clearly had been crying as her pretty face was still red and puffy.

"Charlene, are you ok? What happened?" he asked shocked as he grabbed her hands and held them

"We really need to talk- in private" she stammered as she looked into his worried blue eyes.

Scott nodded as he felt his heart beating fast in his chest and escorted her to an empty meeting area and locked the door.

"What's wrong?" he asked, trying to sound as calm as possible. Charlene was pacing around the room without looking at him, he knew she would do that when she couldn't think straight, so he sat her down on one of the chairs and kneeled in front of her "what is it?" he asked as he grabbed her hands again so she would calm down.

Charlene took a deep breath but she couldn't get the words out of her mouth, it would make it too real, too official… and she shook her head "I can't say it so I just have to show it to you" and let go of Scott's hands and grabbed her purse from the ground and took out a small white stick and presented it to him.

Scott took it from her and frowned "what is it-" he asked confused before he understood what it was, his eyes grew big and looked at her "you are-?" he stammered, "-it is positive?" he whispered and looked back at the little '+' sign on the stick.

Charlene swallowed as she felt her mouth dry and nodded "yeah-" was the only the only thing she could mutter.

Scott just nodded and looked at her forcing a smile "well this is what we always wanted right?" and tried to cheer up his wife as his thoughts were screaming in the back of his head how he was out of a job and there couldn't be worse timing. "How long have you known?" he asked as he pulled another chair from under the table and sat it in front of her so he could sit properly.

Charlene took another deep breath "it was really weird, I didn't even think about it- you know how I was feeling sick lately and we blamed it on the flight from New Zealand but your sickness disappeared and mine didn't-" she rambled "-and then Debby made a joke how I could be pregnant but I was like no way but then it seemed to all fall into place, and- and-"

She tried to finish her sentence without tearing up again "-she went with me to the drugstore and we picked up these tests and they were all positive… they were all positive Scott-"

Scott nodded again and wiped the tears from her face and sat closer "it's all good Charlene" he smiled at her as the news had sunk in a little "like I said, we always wanted this, the timing could be better-" he said trying to make her smile, which helped a little.

Charlene looked at him "you are ok with this?" she asked a little surprised at the laid back attitude of her husband.

Scott faintly smiled "yeah, I just wish-" and shook his head "never mind"

"What, what is it?" Charlene asked confused as her husband suddenly pulled back.

Scott sighed, "I actually just got… fired"

"You got what?" Charlene gasped who felt another surge of panic go through her body "we can't do this without your job Scott, we are dead broke!"

Scott frowned "I know, I know" as he suddenly got a determined look on his face "-but I am going to fix it, right now" as he stood up and walked to the door.

Charlene stood up "what are you doing?" she asked almost angrily as her husband practically ignored her "Scott-" she repeated "-what are you going to do?" she now yelled at him.

Scott stopped moving and turned around as he grabbed her close, giving her a quick but firm kiss "look don't worry ok, try to remember that this is good news!" and smiled at her and let go of her "just go home and relax I will be with you as soon as I can…"

Charlene frowned "you still haven't told me what you are going to do!" she answered irritated

Scott smiled at her "I am going to get my job back"