As a big fan of Bernie Wolfe I wanted to write a story focusing on her. Hopefully there's some other fans out there who will enjoy this :)

"OK! Can I get a crash team over here please." Dr. Levy called out across Keller as he lowered the hospital bed in order to lay his patient down.

As the crash team headed towards him, Sacha scanned the ward for his colleague.

"Ms. Wolfe!"

Bernie rushed over; briskly placing the files she had been holding into the hands of a nearby nurse. "What happened?"

"We're going to have to take him back into surgery, there's a bleed."

"Right, let's get Mr. Stokes prepped for theatre." She addressed the team surrounding the patient's bed, "Quickly please!"

Having made the call to alert theatre, Bernie waited impatiently for the team to finish so that she could take her patient into surgery. Tapping her fingers on the front desk in agitation, Bernie was just about to order them to hurry when she found herself being tapped on the shoulder. Spinning around to see who was bothering her now, Bernie couldn't help but let a small gasp escape her mouth.

"Hello Mum."

Standing there with her shoulder length blonde hair lightly tucked behind her ear, green eyes gazing forwards and a backpack slung across one shoulder – Bernie took in the sight of her daughter without saying a word. It had been such a long time, there was so much that needed to be said.

"Ms. Wolfe!" Sacha called out for the second time in an attempt to get his colleagues attention. His patient had almost been wheeled to the door as they headed for theatre and he was waiting for Bernie to come along and assist.

Pulled out of her trance-like state by Sacha's voice calling her name, Bernie turned to face her colleague but quickly turned back to face her daughter again.

"We need to go now Ms. Wolfe." Sacha insisted.

Never one to be indecisive or slow in her actions Bernie quickly pulled herself together. With just an apologetic look towards her daughter, Bernie turned towards the patient and began pushing the bed through the double doors. As she walked away the sight of her daughter diminished and with each step she further regretted not having said a single word. But now was not the time for regrets – she had a job to do.

o0o

"That was pretty impressive stuff in there Ms. Wolfe."

"Thank you, Dr. Levy." Bernie replied graciously. She had been trying desperately hard to refrain from using her usual stark and sarcastic responses around her colleague who was so infallibly cheerful.

Returning to the ward, Bernie was hit by a wave of disappointment as she realised that Isabelle had left. Yet again, she'd let her daughter down.

"Ms. Wolfe, your visitor is waiting for you in the staff room. I hope you don't mind, I just didn't think that she should hand around the ward."

"Thank you nurse." Bernie smiled gratefully before rushing off towards the staff room. As she got to the door she took a deep breath as she made a mental note not to mess the opportunity up.

"Izzy, darling, I'm so glad you're here." She walked over to her daughter who was sat at a table with a cup of coffee. Somewhat awkwardly she embraced her before taking a seat next to her. "I'm so sorry about earlier, it was an emergency and I was needed, it's such a busy ward you see and I couldn't –"

"Don't worry about it. I'm used to it." Isabelle cut her mother's ramblings and threw them both into an awkward silence.

After a few moments, Bernie tried again; "How have you been? How's Uni going?"

"Let's skip the small talk shall we?" Isabelle couldn't keep the anger out of her voice. She'd told herself that she would make an effort that this could be a new start. Yet, as soon as she faced her mother, no sooner was she reminded of all the pain.

Bernie couldn't help thinking how alike she and Izzy were; both so blunt and direct – perhaps that's why they clashed so often.

"Fine, then what do you want to talk about Izzy?"

"I need to borrow some money."

Before she could stop herself Bernie rolled her eyes.

"Oh for goodness sake, can't you even hear me about before you start judging me?" Isabelle stood up in anger.

"Well come on Izzy!" Bernie stood up too; she wasn't prepared to be confronted by anyone, especially not her own daughter. "You choose not to speak to me for what, almost a year and then suddenly you're here demanding money!"

"I'm not demanding anything, I'm asking you for a loan and I'm only asking because Dad said I had to!" All attempts to hold back her frustration had gone out of the window and she was on the verge of yelling now.

"I should have known your father would have something to do with this." Bernie spat; as much as she loved the man there were two things that they would never be able to agree on – their work and their children.

"Well at least he took the time to listen." Isabelle grabbed her bag and headed for the door. She'd had enough. She should have known that the two of them wouldn't last five minutes together before getting into an argument.

"Isabelle!" Bernie reached out and grabbed her daughter's arm to prevent her from walking away. Although it didn't hurt, Isabelle shook herself free from the grasp as if the very touch had stung her. "That's it is it? Are you just going to walk away for another year?"

"Don't pretend you've missed me." Isabelle's face was expressionless; she wanted to act as though she felt indifferent about this fact and she wouldn't let her mother see how much it really hurt her.

The sudden bleep of Bernie's pager broke through the almost tangible atmosphere. Checking the information, she stepped towards the door. "I've got to go Izzy."

"Of course you do."

"Look, can you just wait here. Please? We need to speak properly."

"I don't – "

"Please Isabelle."

"Fine."

o0o

Having drunk another cup of coffee, read another chapter of the book she'd started on the train and listened to her IPod for about twenty minutes, Isabelle was officially bored out of her mind.

"This is ridiculous." She grumbled to herself. She threw her belongings back into her backpack and got ready to leave. It took her a moment to get her bearings outside of the staff room but after a moment she headed down the corridor directed towards the exit.

"Izzy! Wait!"

Isabelle reconized her mother's voice calling out to her but she didn't stop. She'd tried, she'd made the effort to come here and her mother couldn't even spare her the time to just sit and listen.

"Isabelle stop!" Bernie had almost caught up with her daughter having had to practically run down the corridor.

"Look, you're obviously busy. I can't just wait around for you all day." Isabelle finally stopped and turned to face her mother but she had no intentions of staying.

"Yes, I'm busy, of course I'm busy – how was I supposed to know that you would just turn up here today Izzy?"

"No, you're right, I'll make sure I book an appointment to see you next time mother." Her sarcasm was cutting.

"Oh don't be so ridiculous." Bernie was trying to suppress her anger. No matter what had happened between them, it was unacceptable for her daughter to be so disrespectful.

"Goodbye mum." She started heading towards the exit again.

"You clearly don't need the money that much then do you?" It was a childish comment but Bernie wanted to grab her daughter's attention.

"We both know Dad will give it to me anyway." Isabelle spun around to shoot back her remark but as she did so she came over dizzy and wobbled slightly.

"Izzy, are you alright?" Bernie went to her daughter's side and held her arm to give her some support.

"I'm fine!" Isabelle pulled away from her mother but the sudden movement only served to make her more unstable.

Bernie saw the colour drain from her daughter's face and watched as she collapsed onto the floor in front of her.

"Can I get some help over here please!" She called out as knelt down to help her daughter; whether she wanted her help or not.

Please let me know what you think :)