Consultant Jac was sorting out patients' notes at the Nurses' Station on Darwin, while chatting to Dr Valentine and sitting beside Nurse Jonny.
"How's the research going, Ollie?" she asked the junior doctor.
"Remember, I want it done and on my desk, on the deadline, not one day late! Understood?" Jac said in a calm but cold tone, she always wanted to show that no one should mess with her, especially her mentees.
"Yes, of course, it's almost finished." Ollie responded confidently. He was used to her attitude now.
As Ollie walked off to observe the patient in HDU, Jonny took his chance to comment.
"That's my Naylor! Cold and icy on the outside, but hot and feisty with whoever manages to get close!" Jonny joked, while he sided closer to Jac.
"Keep it down will you? We agreed to keep a professional relationship on the ward!" Jac replied nervously. She still couldn't admit her relationship with Jonny to herself, let alone to her colleagues. What started as a casual relationship may have evolved into something better, but still Jac was in denial.
Jac finished talking in just enough time for Mo not to overhear their whispered chat.
"Jonny Mac! I want you to run the usuals for the patient in bed 8…you know...bloods, Us and Es, LFTs, a chest x-ray and an ECG and half-hourly obs, we haven't determined his condition yet." Mo ordered Jonny as she handed over patient's notes and continued her routine ward round.
Jac continued researching about her patient, when she heard manly footsteps coming towards the main desk. As she lifted her face from the computer screen, she was astonished to encounter a familiar face from the past…
"Joseph!" she exclaimed, as she got off her chair and stood up to greet him, "and baby Harry!" She couldn't believe it, it was Joseph, an ex-colleague, ex-lover and old friend, who she hasn't seen in more than a year. He was just as she remembered him, looking smart in a blue shirt, which made his amazing blue eyes sparkle.
"Well he is growing older, turning two next winter." continued Joseph.
"So, what brings you back to Holby?"
"Well, I thought I'd pay a visit to my old friends."
"Oh I see. It's nice to see you again after so long Joseph." Seeing Joe's face again, suddenly brought back many memories they shared together.
But Jac noticed something different, since she last saw him…a wedding ring on his finger.
"Wedding ring…you remarried?" Jac asked surprised.
"Ah, yes. Well, life has to go on, and I think I found my happiness. With respect Jac, we both made our own decisions and departed our own ways." Replied Joseph, remembering that he had asked Jac to leave Holby with him, but despite this, Jac had declined.
"I understand, Joseph. I'm pleased for you, really." Jac's feelings were sincere, but she didn't want to give Joseph the impression that she ended up alone.
"I'm also seeing someone." She continued. "He doesn't work here", Jac still couldn't come to terms with her relationship with Jonny.
"Right, well...Hope that this someone makes you happy."
But just in the middle of this conversation, Jac heard another familiar voice approaching.
"Joseph! There you are! I've been looking all over for you!" To Jac's surprise, it was Faye! … Joseph's ex-wife.
"Ah! This just keeps getting better and better!" exclaimed Jac, who was less than happy to see Faye's face again, and immediately smirked at her huge baby bump.
"Nice to see you too, Jac" Faye said sarcastically. "Joseph, hand over Harry, I want to show him off on AAU, they haven't seen him yet."
"Are you sure you'll manage carrying him?" Joseph asked her as she took her son in her arms. He was concerned about the heavily pregnant Faye.
"Yes, of course, I'm fine." Faye replied as she gave him a quick kiss, mostly to impress Jac, and she was off to AAU.
Jac lead Joseph into the closest staff room to continue their conversation, privately.
"Faye! ...You moved on with Faye!" Jac shouted. She wasn't happy to hear about this.
"So? What did you expect? To spend my whole life, waiting for you, when you feel comfortable, to finally come and be with me? I had to move on, Jac!" Joseph defended himself.
"I'm not saying that. I wanted you to move on and be happy. But from all people, you remarried Faye… the two-timing bitch who cheated on you with your colleague!" Jac started to lose it.
"Don't talk about her that way! Everybody deserves a second chance."
"Oh please! You're defending her, like you've forgotten what she did to you! She didn't even want you in theatre when she gave birth to Harry, for God's sake!" Jac cared too much about Joseph, and she still did. She didn't want to see him hurt again.
"Yes, I know, and I haven't forgotten. But, for Harry's sake, I've forgiven her."
"I doubt a woman like her, deserves forgiveness!" Jac muttered.
"That's Enough Jac!" He couldn't let her talk like that about the mother of his son and unborn child, and now his wife.
"She's Harry's mum! She has every right to be around him! After a year, she recovered from her mental illness, and came to take him away. I couldn't let her take my son away from me. Besides, she had nowhere to go, so I offered her a chance to live with me, and we could raise him together…one thing just led to another, and we bonded again." Joseph explained the backstory.
"Oh really?! … How exactly did you bond? Let me guess, she couldn't wait to jump into bed with you, and get her hands on you and your money." Jac couldn't take this anymore.
"Oh please Jac, stop being so petulant! It was nothing like that! We grew to love each other again, and we're happy that we are adding another member to our family."
"Right! And what happened to the fear of having Lowe's? I thought you'd be more careful than that." Jac reminded him.
"Yes, we were scared at first, but luckily enough we have nothing to be afraid of now. We found out, we're expecting a girl, so there's no chance of her suffering from Lowe's syndrome." Joseph said happily.
"Well, it's not my place to say anymore. If you're happy and you want this, then I'm happy for you." Jac told him to end the conversation, but she didn't really mean it. She didn't think that he would fall for Faye again.
Just as she was about to leave the room, Joseph received a phone call.
"Yes. What?! … Ok I'll be right there!" Judging by his facial expression, Jac knew something was up.
"Is something wrong? What happened?" Jac asked.
"Chrissie from AAU told me Faye's about to drop!" And he left hurriedly from the room to get to his wife.
'Oh God, not again.' Jac thought, remembering what they all went through Harry was born.
Joseph arrived on AAU and entered the side bay, where Faye taking deep breaths between each contraction, to find Chrissie calming her down.
"She's fully dilated, Joseph! We were talking and her waters just broke in no time!" Chrissie exclaimed.
"So can't we get her down to maternity?"
"No, I already called and they don't have any available beds. Besides, there's no time to wait. So a midwife is coming up to help." Chrissie explained.
"Oh and where's Harry?" Despite all the panic, Joseph wanted to know where his son was.
"Oh, um, Sacha took him and Daniel to the crèche." Chrissie answered. Sacha had always been a good friend to Joseph, and he wanted to help him in any way.
"Ok, Faye, you can do this, everything's going to be fine." Joseph tried reassuring his wife as he held her hand tightly. He wanted to show Faye, he was going to stay by her side all the way through.
The midwife arrived on the ward to examine her and see if the baby was in good health and that there were no complications.
"So, Faye, have you been pregnant before?" the midwife asked as she examined her belly, to gather as much as information as possible about the patient's gynae history.
"Yes, once." Faye replied between breathing deeply in and out.
"And, did you go full-term? Was it successful?"
"Yes, full-term but I had a C-section, aaahhh, it was breeched"
"Ok, well, the baby is in the perfect position, so we'll go with a normal delivery. Now I can see the baby's head, so on the next contraction, I want you to give a big push for me, okay?" The midwife reassured her that everything was okay and they can proceed normally. Needless to say, Joseph couldn't wait for the arrival of his second child into this world, and this was finally it.
Chrissie left the room to obviously give Faye some space. Also the midwife brought up a nurse from maternity, so basically there was no need for her help. She went over to the nurses' station, where Michael asked about Faye.
"So, how is Faye doing?" Michael asked with concern.
"She's giving birth just this minute; I left the midwife to it." Chrissie explained, as she started sorting out some notes. "I was talking to Faye just before her waters broke, and she told me, that it's a girl this time!"
"I remember when my girls were born, the best moments of my life! And Charlie's birth was even more special, because he was our first boy! Man, I'm amazed how time flies!" Michael gasped.
"Tell me about it!" continued Chrissie. "Seems like yesterday, when I had my C-section, and now Daniel's already two and a half!"
"They grow up so fast." Michael loved his kids but he missed his relationship he had with them. He was missing out on a lot since the divorce.
After an hour of resting for both mother and baby, Faye woke up to see Joseph embracing his daughter for the first time. Joseph couldn't believe she was finally here, he was overjoyed.
"Look at her, our little angel is adorable!" exclaimed Faye, happy like any new mother, as Joseph passed their daughter to her.
"We haven't discussed any baby names yet. Do you have something special in mind?" Joseph asked her.
"How about….Angel?" Faye came up with idea, just looking at her precious daughter.
"That's the perfect name. Angel Byrne. I love it!" agreed Joseph, as the happy couple shared a kiss. But they were interrupted by Sacha, and Chrissie.
"Sorry to barge in!" Sacha called. "But I think somebody wants to meet his little sister!" as Sacha lead Harry by the hand to his dad. Joseph immediately lifted his son on his lap to meet his new sister.
"Harry, meet your sister, Angel!" Joseph joked.
"Aww, Angel! She's adorable!" Chrissie said as she leaned closer to Faye to see the new-born. "Faye, I know we haven't been the best of friends, but congratulations to you both! I brought you this gift basket, hope you like it!"
"Thank you, you shouldn't have!" Faye thanked them. "Well, who knows? Maybe it'll be you sitting in this bed next time!" Faye joked to Chrissie.
"Me?! No I don't think so, I'm not getting any younger you know!" Chrissie replied.
"Well, I heard you two married, right?" Joseph asked the couple.
"Yes, we did, a couple of months ago! Still, it hasn't crossed our minds."
"Well it's not actually a bad idea!" Sacha joined in.
"Don't get any ideas!" Chrissie joked. "I think, we should better get going, congratulations once again!"
Jac had just finished surgery, when she entered the changing room, to get her jumper from her locker. In the meantime, Elliot also joined her.
"I heard Joseph, came back to visit! And have you heard the good news? Faye has just given birth to a beautiful baby girl! I have just been there now. I'm so happy for them, that they reunited. Maybe it was meant to be after all!"
Jac just listened there, with her back facing Elliot, without saying a word.
"Look Jac, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…" Elliot realised she may not have liked the news, or maybe it was too hard because of her past.
"Elliot, I'm fine!" Jac snapped. Elliot just left the room, he knew what she may have been feeling that moment, and Jonny walked in, to grab her by the waist, enjoying their moment alone, with no one around.
"Look, it's just in time for our break, what do you think if we go for a walk round the hospital, just you and me? I'm tired of sneaking around, at least no one will see us." Jonny suggested. She couldn't believe this, but Jonny actually really cared about her.
"I can't. I need to be somewhere. I'll catch up with you later." Jac told him calmly, and left the room to go see the one person, she was thinking about.
As Jac, arrived down on AAU, heading towards the side bay, she met Joseph who was just entering the room with a bouquet of beautiful roses for his wife.
"Joseph! Wait!" Jac called, just before he could go in next to Faye.
Joseph turned to see who was calling him, and he was more than surprised to see Jac again.
"Despite all what happened, I just wanted to say, congratulations." Jac said coldly.
"Thank you. Do you want to come in and see her?" Joseph asked her to be polite. Everyone wanted to see the new baby.
"Thanks, but I don't think that's a good idea. I can't. I'm sorry." Jac couldn't just go inside the room and face Faye showing off their daughter, like nothing had ever happened. She couldn't handled it.
"Look, I'm sorry if I snapped at you, earlier." Joseph apologised, about the conversation they had in the staff room.
"There's no need Joseph. This is your life now and I hope you're happy with your family."
"Thanks, I think I should get back to her. Goodbye Jac."
Joseph joined his family in the room, as Jac stood there, still, staring through the window blinds from outside. She stood there watching Joseph, so happy, smiling, holding his daughter, Harry bouncing on the bed next to his mum, as a teardrop fell heavily down her left cheek.
Jac stood there, envying Faye, thinking that she would have been the one in there with Joseph, holding their baby. . She had moved on, but just seeing Joe's face again, got her thinking what might have been. Joseph was right, she had her chance and she blew it. She chose her job over her happiness with Joe, she didn't think of family at the time, but now, she felt different.
She felt ready to have a baby. She was scared to take the test, she couldn't tell him just yet, but now that she thought about it, maybe being pregnant with Jonny's baby wasn't a bad idea after all. Joseph has his life now and is part of her past. She felt ready to move on.
Amongst all these thoughts, she stepped away from the window and wiped her tears away. On her way down to Darwin, she met Jonny, in the corridor.
"Hey I've been..." Jac cut off his words by kissing him passionately, glad that she had him in her life now, and dragged themselves into the supplies' room.