Frank approached the cubicle when he heard the highpitched voice of a stroppy teenage girl protesting loudly that she didn't need a "f***ing doctor". He pulled back the curtain and saw Jess struggling to keep the young girl in bed and Charlotte rolling her eyes in exasperation. The girl sneered at him when he entered, her long blonde hair tossed and her blue eyes glaring daggers at him.
"Is there a problem?" he asked.
"Yes, this nazi is trying to hold me against my will!" the girl hissed, referring to a stressed looking Jessica. Her breath reaked of alcohol and vomit. "There is nothing wrong with me."
Terri had told him a teenage girl had staggered her way into the ED and taken a tumble before vomiting all over the floor. They were used to getting drunk teens but usually on a Friday or Saturday night, not 3 o'clock in the afternoon! He normally had no patience for these cases but she was making so much noise, Charlotte was obviously struggling so he decided to have a look.
"I heard you had a fall." Frank said, he approached the bed and tried to examine her but she pulled away.
"I slipped on your stupid wet floor! I could sue you know!"
"I thought you said there was nothing wrong with you?" Frank asked.
"Your floors shouldn't be wet. I COULD be hurt." She wouldn't give in.
"Well why don't I give you a quick exam and then we'll know if you have a case or not." Frank looked at her with amusement. He didn't bother to point out that the floor hadn't been wet.
"Get off on touching up teenage girls do you?" She sneered again.
Jess raised her eyebrows, the girl was a real pain.
"If you are not comfortable with a male doctor let me examine you then." Said Charlotte.
"I don't need to be examined. I need to get the hell out of here."
"Then let us get on with it and we will gladly set you on your way." Said Frank. "You had a fall on hospital grounds, it's policy that we examine you."
She eyed him grumpily for a moment before nodding grudgingly. "Be quick about it."
Frank shone a light in her eyes and began to examine her.
"What's your name?" he asked quietly.
"Why? Do you think I have amnesia?" she replied haughtily.
"We need it for our records." Jess explained. "Do you want me to contact your parents?"
"No."
Jess glanced at Frank.
"And your name?" he asked.
The girl eyed him for a moment, clearly debating whether or not to say anything. She looked at his ID tag.
"I'm Dr Frank Campion. Head of Emergency." He told her.
"So I read." She replied. "I'm...Hanna."
"Do you have a surname Hanna?" Jess asked.
"No, I just go by Hanna. Like Madonna." She said sarcastically. "She's not the brightest is she?" she asked Frank.
Jess was starting to lose patience with this girl. Frank held back a smile.
"What's your surname?" Jess asked grumpily.
"Newell."
Frank looked at her suddenly. Hanna stared at him. There was something about her...
"No relation to our Director of Medicine, Dr Newell?" he asked.
"Her daughter."
Jess dropped her pen. Charlotte looked on with interest. Frank raised an eyebrow.
"Really?" he asked sceptically. "Funny, she's never mentioned you."
The girl is strange, Jess thought, why would she pretend to be Newell's daughter?
"Maybe you haven't picked up on it but she's not exactly the open and sharing type." Hanna said.
Well she had that right, Frank thought. Perhaps she was Alison's niece, although he didn't think Alison's brother had a daughter.
"We should tell her you're here then." Jess said, expecting this to give Hanna a fright. Instead she shrugged.
"I was on my way to see her when your wet floor intervened."
"Ok then." Jess slowly and deliberately pulling back the curtain and emphasising that she was going to call Newell. She expected Hanna to cave and admit she was lying. But she didn't. Jess looked questioning at Frank who nodded for her to continue. Jess left and Charlotte excused herself. Frank looked Hanna over carefully. The more he looked at her the more she looked like Alison. She was obviously some relative but why lie about being her daughter?
"Where do you go to school?" Frank asked.
"Huntington."
"You have a day off?" he asked. He had heard of Huntington, it was a boarding school on the other side of Sydney.
"Unofficially." She replied smiling.
"You dogged school, got drunk and then decided to come all this way and visit your mum?" he asked.
"I really love my mum." Hanna said dryly.
She was as confident as she was strange. Frank kind of liked her.
"I can't imagine Alison will be too happy." He said.
"No, she won't be."
"But you came anyway."
"Yep."
Charlotte and Jess watched the 15 year old tearaway in the short denim skirt and tight t-shirt. She was picking chipped nail polish from her fingernails and scowling intently.
"I would never have pegged her as Newell's daughter." Jess said. "Do you think she's telling the truth?"
"Why lie?" Charlotte asked.
"But she seems so..." Jess couldn't think of a polite word. "Feral."
"I guess Newell is as good at parenting as she is doctoring." Said Charlotte. "Is that a word? Doctoring?" she mused.
Jess eyed her suspiciously.
"You're in a very good mood today." She observed.
"Am I?" Charlotte asked casually with a glint in her eye.
"Have you called Newell?" Frank asked.
"Yes," Jess nodded. "She had already left her office but her PA said she'd let her know."
"Hmm." Frank was extremely suspicious about this whole thing.
Alison Newell arrived looking flustered. She looked around the ED and spotted Hanna sitting on the bed.
"Alison." Charlotte greeted her smugly. "I believe we have something that belongs to you."
"So I hear." Alison said through gritted teeth. "Is she ok?"
"She has puked her guts up and had a bit of a fall but no damage done."
"I can take her home?"
Charlotte nodded.
"She really is your daughter then? A girl her age drinking so much is..."
Alison ignored her and made her way over to Hanna. Frank had also returned. Frank turned and saw Alison approaching. She looked furious but instead of berating him for being dragged from her ivory tower in Admin she came to a halt in front of Hanna's bed and fury turned to upset.
"Frank..." she looked nervously at him. "What has she said?"
"Hi mum, nice to see you too!" Hanna chimed. "I'm ok don't worry!"
"I will deal with you in a minute!" Alison hissed.
"Wait!" Frank was stunned. "Is she telling the truth?"
Alison averted her eyes as though she was embarrassed.
"We should discuss this somewhere else." She whispered. "This isn't the time or the place."
"Oh here we go!" Hanna rolled her eyes. "Just tell him!"
"Shush Hanna!" Alison barked.
"What is going on? Is this girl your daughter?" Frank demanded.
"Yes." Alison nodded.
"And...?" Hanna urged.
"Hanna!" Alison warned.
"And what?" Frank asked.
"And yours!" Hanna told him. "You're my dad. She forgot to mention it."
Frank slammed his office door shut so hard it made Alison jump.
"Tell me this is a bad joke." He said.
Alison couldn't look at him.
"Alison!"
"I..." Alison was speechless. "I don't know what to say."
"Just tell me – is she my daughter?"
"Maybe." Alison whispered.
"MAYBE?" Frank yelled.
Terri opened the door not realising Frank was in there.
"GET OUT!" Frank shouted.
"I'm sorry, I didn't rea..." Terri apologised, noticing how tense the atmosphere was.
"Are you bloody deaf? Get out!" Frank practically shut the door in her face.
She stumbled backward and made her way to the staff base where Charlotte and Jess were gossiping.
"Have I missed something? What's Frank done to get up Admin's nose this time?" she asked.
"Nothing as far as we know." Charlotte said.
"Then why is he shut up in the office with Newell?" Terri asked.
"Not completely sure but probably has something to do with Newell's daughter turning up." Jess told her.
"Daughter?" Terri thought she misheard.
"Yep. The teenage girl who came in?" Jess nodded towards Hanna.
"No way!" Terri was surprised to say the least.
Hanna noticed them looking at her and yelled.
"Take a photo it'll last longer!"
"She has clearly inherited her mother's people skills!" Charlotte said as they watched Hanna give them another sneering look.
"It was one night! You made it clear it wouldn't be anything more." Alison said.
"You didn't think knowing I could be a father would have changed that?" he snapped.
"Oh so you would have given up your wife to play happy families with me?" she asked.
"We could have sorted something out." Frank said. He couldn't believe this.
"She might not be yours." Alison reminded him.
"What are the chances?" he asked.
Alison shrugged.
"Does the other guy know? I take it it's just one other possibility right? Or.."
"Of course there is just one other! I didn't make a habit of sleeping around." Alison snapped. "He doesn't know either."
"Why haven't you ever tried to find out?"
"How could I without telling either you or him?" she said.
"Why not tell?" he didn't understand.
"You made it very clear what happened was nothing more than a one night stand. I felt stupid and embarrassed and there was noway I could face you again, especially saying I was pregnant."
Frank had thought she understood and was fine about it all.
"Then why not tell the other guy?"
"Let's just say he wasn't all I intially thought he was cracked up to be. If Hanna was his I didn't want him in our lives."
Frank was quiet in thought for a minute.
"Hanna said I was her dad. She didn't say I might be her dad." Frank turned to look at Alison. "Why?"
"She doesn't know about...I couldn't tell her I wasn't sure." Alison said shamefully.
"Then why tell her anything if you obviously didn't plan on telling me?"
"I didn't tell her, not first. But ever since her stepfather and I divorced she's been more curious about her real father. She snooped around in some of my old things and...I don't know, guessed. She asked if you were her father and I denied it at first but she's so persistant. She kept asking, threatened to come and ask you herself so...I said that you were but that you didn't know. I thought she understood about not telling you yet but she's been going on and on at me ever since." Alison looked at him tearfully but Frank felt no sympathy.
He took a deep breath, it was time someone took control of this mess.
"Well you'll have to tell her now." He said.
"What?" Alison asked startled.
"Explain everything to her properly and we can get a DNA test done. I'll pull some strings and get the results asap. There is no point in hanging around."
"It's not that simple." Allison protested.
"Yes it is. Nothing is as simple as telling the truth." Frank replied.
"I can't. I need time to think I can't just tell her that I don't know who her father is. My relationship with my daughter has been shaky at best these last few months, the truth could push her away even further." Alison said really upset.
"I don't see how it would. If anything it's been all these lies that have damaged your relationship." Said Frank. "You have no choice. What do you expect me to do? Go along with saying she's my daughter without knowing for sure just so you can avoid embarrassment." He opened the door. "I'll bring her in here."
Charlotte was giggling to someone over the phone at the staffbase when Frank stormed past. He stopped and turned around, looking at Charlotte grumpily.
"That better not be a personal call!" he growled.
Charlotte quickly ended her call and blushed a little. Frank continued on his way to get Hanna. Jess who overheard and had seen Charlotte chatting and giggling on the phone came over and smiled knowingly at Charlotte.
"Come on then. 'fess up!" she said.
"What do you mean?" Charlotte asked trying to be innocent.
"Who is putting that smile on your face?" Jess demanded.
Charlotte grinned coyly then blurted it out.
"Her name is Vicky and she's gorgeous and funny and smart and...perfect." Charlotte couldn't stop grinning.
Jess was a little taken aback. She had nothing against people being gay but it still sounded a little strange to her to hear a woman gushing about another woman.
"Oh, wow. So...how long have you been seeing each other?" she asked Charlotte.
"One month today." Charlotte said dreamily.
"So, it's pretty serious?" Jess asked.
"I think so." Charlotte smiled. She could tell though that Jess wasn't entirely comfortable and even though she really wanted to talk about Vicky she knew Jess wasn't the person to do it with.
"Well I'm happy for you." Jess smiled, she really was.
"Thanks. I'm happy for me too!" Charlotte said.
Frank and Alison were in the office with Hanna. Alison had just explained the whole thing to her and she wasn't happy.
"I don't believe this." Hanna said shaking her head.
"I'm sorry, I should have explained from the beginning." Alison said.
"You should have not been a slut!" Hanna snapped.
Alison burst into tears.
"That's not neccessary." Frank said. "It's not your mother's fault."
"It's not her fault she slept with two men around the same time and didn't take precautions with either of them?" Hanna asked. She looked at Alison again with disgust. "After all the lectures you give me! Like I'm some out of control little whore for wanting to go out with my friends and all the while...well if I am now we know where I get it from!"
"That's enough!" Frank barked.
"You're no better!" Hanna told him.
Frank took a deep breath.
"Look, I understand that this is a shock for you. I'm bloody shocked myself! But insults aren't going to get us anywhere. We need to sort this out once and for all. We need to get a DNA test done."
Charlotte found Terri sitting in the staffroom doing paperwork.
"Is your office still out of bounds?" she asked.
Terri nodded.
"Whatever is going on in there...Frank had a face like thunder. When I stuck my head in briefly to get some paperwork he told me I'd have to "park my bloody bum somewhere else"!" said Terri.
Charlotte laughed.
"It sounds like he's facilitating some kind of counselling session with Newell and the girl." Said Charlotte.
"I'd never have picked Frank as the type to get involved in a colleague's domestics." Terri mused.
"Me neither." Said Charlotte. She took a seat next to Terri who was busy writing and sat smiling at her until Terri eventually looked up.
"What?" Terri asked suspicously. "Have I got inkmark on my face?"
Charlotte laughed and shook her head.
"Then what?"
"I've got a girlfriend!" she said in a singsong voice, still grinning widely.
"OH! Since when?" Terri asked.
Charlotte told her all the details of how she met Vicky at a bar. Vicky was a PR consultant. She was 24 and had a dog called Jo Jo and Charlotte thought she was falling in love with her. Terri was stunned.
"Wow you've fallen hard haven't you?" said Terri.
"I know. She's all I think about. I miss her when she's not around, I wonder what she's doing. We call each other during the day just to say hi. She likes everything I like. I hate everything she hates! I've never...fit...so well with anyone before in my life. I feel like I've known her ALL my life." Charlotte said breathlessly.
Charlotte was almost afraid of how strongly she felt about Vicky. It seemed to good to be true sometimes.
"I'm so happy for you." Terri said smiling. But she detected a hint of something else in Charlotte, she could see a little of the fear in her eyes. "Why do I think there is something else?"
"What if it's too good to be true?" Charlotte asked.
"What if it is?" Terri said. "But what if it isn't? There is noway of knowing unless you take a chance."
"Why does love have to be so scary?" Charlotte asked.
"Wish I knew." Said Terri.