The next generation
(Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to Holby City, Casualty or any of the characters used in this story)
Grace flicked her layered brown hair out of hair eyes and stared out of black outlined eyes towards the window of Holby City hospital as she waited for her mother to finish her shift. "One hour I promise Gracie" she had said. Grace scowled at that memory it had been nearly two hours and she hated being called Gracie. It was either Grace or nothing. She started biting at a hang nail a habit she did when she was bored. Usually she got the lecture off her mum about germs and how disgusting that was but she wasn't around. She was performing surgery on some guy and she had said an hour tops.
Suddenly the door of her mother's office opened and a tall dark haired man walked in and looked quizzically at Grace
"Have you seen Connie?" he said, his sharp American accent rang across the space between them
"Mum..." Grace stressed "Is busy at the moment" she said picking at the hang nail again
"Your Mum?" he said smiling "That makes you Gracie then" He said
She scowled and said "Grace not Gracie, it's not a hard name to get right" she said returning her gaze to the window
He held his hands up in defence "Sorry but she always calls you Gracie" he said sitting on the edge of the desk
"Yeah whatever" Grace said not listening "Is there something you want?" she said turning back round and glaring back.
Michael was taken a back for a moment. This young girl dressed in black looked like her mother in a spookily similar way. The frosty brown eyes outlined in black glared back at him just like Connie's did when he annoyed her (which was very often!!). Even the tone of her voice was like Connie's.
"Nope just waiting for Connie" Michael said. It was clear his presence annoyed most generations of the Beauchamp women "How old are you anyway?"
"Thirteen" she said starting to get irritated and Michael gave a low whistle "And what's that supposed to mean?" she demanded
Michael couldn't help laughing at her expression "Nothing" he grinned "You just look so much like your mum"
"Whatever" she said tossing her hair and walking out the room in a strop
"Where you going?" Michael called
"To the loo you got a problem with that!" she shouted back and rounded the corner and nearly bumped into a tall woman will long strawberry blonde coloured hair "Watch it!" Jaq Naylor said looking down at the girl
"Whatever" Grace said for what felt like the hundredth time in that hour and kept walking ignoring whatever the woman was saying to her.
"Who was that?" Jaq said turning to Michael
"Can't you guess? That's Connie's daughter" Michael smirked as he watched the young girl storm off down the corridor.
Grace was really in a bad mood now. She stormed down the corridor and walked slap bang into someone. She looked up and saw her dad grinning down at her with a slightly bemused expression on his face
"Grace, what are you doing here?" Sam said
"Waiting for mum" she muttered still scowling "She's taking ages. She said she'd only be an hour"
"Curse of a surgeon, I'm afraid. We seem to have no sense of time"
Grace looked up at Sam and couldn't help but break into a smile. He could always bring her out of one of her moods, as Connie called them, no matter how bad it was. Just then Sam's pager beeped and Grace gave a loud sigh. It seemed like both her parents were too busy for her tonight
"Sorry Gracie, I have to go" he said ruffling her hair
"Grace not Gracie" she repeated for the second time that night and then sighed again as her pleas fell on deaf ears.
She sulkily made her way back to Connie's office where Michael was still waiting for her. He looked up as she walked in and flashed her an arrogant smile
"You still here?" she said flicking her hair out of her eyes and sitting down on the chair with a dramatic flounce
"Afraid so" Michael said. He liked this girl who was trying so hard to dislike him much the way Connie did "Can't you go and find your dad or something?"
She raised her eyebrows before saying "You trying to get rid of me?"
"No...I just meant..."
"He's busy" she sighed and Michael couldn't help but feel sorry for her. It must be hard having two parents who worked at surgeons at most of the day and night and who never really seemed to be off duty
"That sucks" he said and Grace turned towards him. She seemed to be slowly warming up to him
"Tell me about it. Mum said an hour tops and she's been gone double that"
"I bet she'll be done soon though"
"I doubt it. Mum always seems to find something that stops her from spending time with me"
"That's not true. She's always trying to make time in the day to spend time with you and she always speaks so highly of you" but Grace shook her head
"She's missed a grand total of thirteen parent's evenings, twenty school assembles, ten sports days and two school plays "she reeled of the list counting on her fingers
"That's the trouble with being a surgeon. There's always something you have to sacrifice
Grace paused for a moment thinking this over before she glanced at the clock and said "I'm fourteen"
"Sorry?" Michael looked confused
"It's 10:32pm" she pointed to the clock "And my birthday. I just turned fourteen"
"Did they forget?" Michael said looking at the girl sadly
"Yeah as usual. They don't seem to care"
"Just because they forget things doesn't mean they don't care"
"Oh yeah, what does it mean then?"
"It means they're just forgetful. Ok they're not the worlds greatest parents but believe me it's hard bringing up kids. I've got three daughters and i can tell you it's not picnic. So sometimes we mess up but it doesn't mean we stop loving you and just because they forgot your birthday doesn't mean they don't care"
"I guess you're right" she smiled
"You have your mum's smile" he noted
"Don't push it" she laughed
"Mr Spence is it not enough that you have to torture me every day with your incessant babbling without having to torture my family" a familiar voice called and they both looked up as Connie walked in the room
"Connie, how lovely to see you. I was just keeping Gracie here company"
"Grace!" Grace shouted
"Lucky here" Connie said shortly "Is there anything I can do for you then?"
Michael held up a file and mumbled some medical jargon. Connie nodded before saying "Gracie can you just wait outside two seconds, I promise this will be really quick"
"Grace!" she called back before turning to Michael and saying "See what I mean? always finding something"
Once the door shut Michael turned to Connie and said "It's her birthday"
Connie turned to look at her calendar and sighed as she saw the date circled, she sighed "I was so busy with this patient"
"Don't worry I think I talked her out of throwing a teenage strop later" Michael grinned
"Oh I am not worthy, getting parent advice from the great Michael Spence
"Just doing my bit" he grinned arrogantly "She's a good kid though" he said turning serious
"Of course she is, with me as her mother why would you think any different" she smiled "So was there actually really any patient?"
"No, I thought Grace could do with cheering up. When I walked passed your office she looked kind of glum"
"Oh you Good Samaritan you" she teased as he turned to go to the door "Michael?"
"Huh?"
"Thank you"
"What can I say, the Spence charm is irresistible with both generations of Beauchamp women" and Connie rolled her eyes
Michael left her office and turned to go down the corridor. He paused and turned back calling to Grace who was sitting outside biting one of her nails
"Happy Birthday by the way" he said and she smiled
"Thanks"
"See you around...Gracie" and he could hear her frustrated sigh as he turned into another corridor
"That man is so annoying" she said to her mother
"You don't have to work with him every day. Grace what have I told you about biting your nails" she scolded "Anyway we can go now"
"Finally"
"I'm going to invite your dad round for dinner tonight seeing as it is your birthday" Connie smiled
Grace looked up at her mum and smiled "Thanks mum"
"I'm sorry I forgot"
"Don't worry, just because you forget things don't mean you don't care!"
"Who said that?"
"Michael"
"You're taking advice from Michael Spence!" Connie laughed as they walked down the corridor
Sam met them by the car and gave Grace a hug before wishing her a happy birthday. She looked at her parents and then at the hospital. Maybe her family wasn't the closest knit ever and maybe her parents missed school assemblies and sports days but it was a family all the same. Grace knew she would be loved and cared for and after that it didn't really matter how forgetful her parents were or how many hours she had to wait for her mum to finish at the hospital.