Most of this story is already written. It was a challenge from a friend which lead to me writing this as I have never written any kind of fanfiction before. Your feed back would be greatly appreciated. I will not comment too much on the plot as I think it's better to discover as you go along. I hope people enjoy it, let me know if you do and also let me know if you think it's gone awry anywhere. I hope to keep the updates regular but it depends on work commitments.


Man märker andras fel och glömmer sina egna.

(We notice faults of others and easily forget our own.)


Hanssen drummed his fingers impatiently on his desk. He checked his watch. It was one minute past the time Ms Campbell had agreed to come to his office. He looked towards the table in the corner of his office where he had laid out the various files and reports needed. The hospital was undergoing an annual review for the Trust and the level of detail required on all aspects of the hospital's running was exhaustive. He had spent the morning with Zoe Hanna preparing the Emergency Department aspect of the final report and then meeting with various executive administrators which caused him to miss lunch, he'd had a conference call with two Board members and then did his rounds. He had allocated the late afternoon to focusing on the surgical side with his Executive Director of Surgery. He glanced at his watch again, his Executive Director of Surgery who was now two minutes late.

Admittedly, Ms Campbell was not usually late without a valid reason and of all the people he had to coordinate the compiling of this report with she was the most efficient, so he should show her some leniency. He knew her last surgery had been over an hour ago but that she had rounds after that, so perhaps that was where the delay lay.

He pondered for a moment his current working relationship with Ms Campbell. After his sabbatical and all that had occurred surrounding that his relationship with Ms Campbell had been strained to say the least. He had known of course when he hired her that she was ambitious and he had not been overly surprised to discover she was after his job. He had chosen her to be his Executive Director of Surgery for two reasons, one being he thought it might placate her, he certainly knew it would placate the Board, and secondly because he wanted to keep an eye on her. She was an intriguing woman. Smarter and sharper than most people he came into contact with, but without the awkwardness that sometimes came with such intellect. Serena Campbell could charm the birds from the trees and, he had no doubt, convince them that being eaten was a good idea. It was better to have her on your side than against you and so he had decided to try and harness her ambition and efficiency for the betterment of the hospital, because that was their only commonality. They both wanted what was best for the hospital and the patients. Where they differed perhaps was how they went about achieving it. Although he had to admit that until seven or eight months ago he and Ms Campbell were very much on the same page regards what needed to be done to bring about change and efficiency at Holby. That had changed somewhat in the intervening months.

After the incident involving her mother's care on Keller Hanssen had seen a change in Ms Campbell. A hardness and anger, brought about by sadness and fear for her mother's future he knew, but he had worried then that she would undo everything that had been achieved at Holby through her sheer doggedness to punish the system for failing her mother. And whilst he understood her need for action, he could not allow her to ruin not only Keller and Nurse Lane's career but her own career as well.

Fortunately, her mother had made good progress and Ms Campbell had eventually dropped her complaint. There had been a cooling period during which they had endeavoured to avoid each other as much as possible, he was certain this was as deliberate on Ms Campbell's part as it was his.

Now, three months after she had dropped her complaint, things appeared to be back on an even keel, much as they had been when he first hired her. Of course, everything that had happened had left an aftertaste that could not be ignored but it did not affect the current state of play.

There was a knock at his door.

'Come in.' he said as he checked his watch again. Three minutes late. He stood up as Serena appeared with a stack of files beneath one arm and balancing two cups of coffee and a small brown paper bag in her hands as she struggled with the door.

'You were delayed.' He said, more as a statement of fact than a question. He came around his desk and watched her leave the cups on the table and then plonk the files down next to them.

Serena checked her watch. 'Dammit, maybe if I'd shoved that old granny out of the way getting to the lift I wouldn't be so dreadfully late.' She said, rolling her eyes.

Hanssen made no reply but approached the table and took a seat next to her. Serena placed one of the coffees beside him and opened the paper bag leaving it in front of him so he could view the contents.

'If your day has been anything like mine you'll need the caffeine and sugar hit too.' She said. She took a sip from her coffee and opened up a file.

'Thank you.' Hanssen said, mildly surprised at her thoughtfulness. He took a sip from his coffee and was again surprised to discover she knew how he liked his coffee, when to his knowledge he had never told her.


Some weeks later...

Serena arrived to a packed conference room where Elliot Hope was presenting on the latest developments on the Hertzig. The entire hospital Board, several senior consultants, registrars and one or two nervous F1's Elliot had brought along and were now terrified at being in the presence of the entire hospital hierarchy were gathered around the table and some seated by the wall.

Henrik Hanssen was, as usual, holding court at the head of the conference table. He noticed Serena as she entered.

'Not late am I?' she asked, checking her watch. No, she was dead on time.

'No, not at all.' He replied.

'I wasn't expecting such a crowd.' She whispered.

'The Board's tour of the hospital overran and when they heard of Professor Hope's presentation they asked to stay for it.' Hanssen explained. He looked around the room for a spare chair but could not see one, so he stood up and offered Serena his.

'No, no, it's fine. I'll get another. Or turf an F1 out of theirs!' she joked.

But Hanssen insisted and so she sat and he disappeared from the room for a moment and returned with another chair which he brought to the head of the table next to Serena's and sat down. She smiled gratefully at him again. He really was quite the gent. Hanssen awkwardly returned the smile, suddenly aware that because he was sitting so closely to Ms Campbell due it being so packed around the table, they're knees were touching. He manoeuvred slightly to rectify the situation but found that either his knees must touch Ms Campbell's or Terence Cunningham's leg, and Ms Campbell was the more acceptable option.

Serena felt Hanssen's knee against her leg under the table. She glanced quickly at him as he fidgeted in his seat. She felt his knee move away from her and she supressed a smile. She had noticed that Hanssen's aversion to physical contact bordered on phobic, therefore she was surprised to feel the pressure of his knee return seconds later.