Hi everyone. So, I have started a new Charlie/Joey/Willow/Alex story. I've messed around with timelines and ages in order to set it back in 2011/2 when Charlie was shot so please use your imagination to close the gap between then and now! I've also messed with some character arcs, as you'll see as we go along. So I hope you'll go with it and I hope you'll enjoy it. This is just a really, really short chapter to set the scene. Love, IJKS xxx

Chapter One

Charlie had thought it was Ruby coming back for her, wishing her luck on her last shift at work before the pair of them, Brax and Casey set off for their new lives in the city. But it hadn't been Ruby.

It had been Jake.

Jake Pirovic, the leader of the rival gang to Brax's River Boys.

He had turned up at the house and shot her.

Twice.

She had barely felt it at first. Then she'd looked down and searing pain had flooded her body. She hadn't had time do anything. She just collapsed. Now she lay here, bleeding and alone on the floor.

"This is for my brother," he had said.

Maybe it was justice.

She'd come so far off her own path since being with Brax. She'd made so many decisions that a year ago, she would never, ever have made and done things she just couldn't be proud of.

But all the same, she was scared. She didn't want to die like this. Not gunned down on the lounge floor by a thug, all alone.

She was frightened.

Tears ran down her cheeks but like the blood from her wounds, there was nothing she could do about it. All she could hope was that it wasn't Ruby who found her.

Next time… There's a new Doctor in town as Charlie's loved ones wait for news…