Author's Note: A one-shot dedicated to Hadrians77 in return for the 50th review for 'The Next Step'. I hope this meets with your approval :)

I couldn't quite manage to think of anything fluffy and keep it vaguely within the realm of possibility, so I put my thinking hat on and this is what I've got. There's a slight bending of the truth in places but I've tried to keep it as true to the episode as possible.

This has also spawned an idea for another new story but that won't be up for a little while yet and I will try my best to get a move on with updating 'The Next Step' and dusting off 'Improper Conduct' too.

Enjoy. Usual disclaimers, yadda, yadda, yadda.

"Just when you thought all the good guys were gone..."

Serena Campbell watches the news on the TV with the other members of staff on Keller ward, standing next to Michael Spence at the back of the room. After hearing the American's comment about Hanssen's actions she feels the urge to speak to the man of the moment.

He had the perfect opportunity to hang her out to dry but he hasn't done so, instead choosing to appear on the local news with Richie Mooney's son and issue a public apology for her non-referal scheme. Even if it looks like it pains him to do so, Serena frowns a little at Hanssen's expression, it probably wouldn't be noticeable to anyone else but since she started at Holby, Serena has been very careful to pay as close attention to Hanssen as she can to gauge the enigmatic man's responses, a tactic which has worked in her favour on several occasions. She knows that she owes him and she knows that she needs to tell him that he can count on her support over the next few weeks.

Serena slips out, unnoticed before the end of the interview and makes her way up the now familiar stairs to the fifth floor. As she appears from the stairwell onto the landing, she sees Hanssen's business manager, George Binns, waiting for the lift.

"Good afternoon, Mr..." She pauses deliberately, making the small man feel uncomfortable. She knows his name, of course she does but it's been clear from day one that the man is out of his depth and Serena is determined to reinforce that message now by alluding that she doesn't consider him important enough to warrant remembering his name. Also, by making him respond to her, he concedes the power and momentum in the conversation to her and power is the name of her game. She smiles politely as he falls into her trap.

"Binns... George Binns." She has to resist the urge to roll her eyes at the ridiculous James Bond impression combined with the five foot man's attempt at puffing himself up.

"Of course," Serena's smile turns predatory and she's gratified to see Mr. Binns take half a step back. "Tell me, Mr. Binns, what did you make of our illustrious leader's fifteen minutes of fame this afternoon?" Within a minute Serena has the information she wants and isn't surprised to find out that Binns has jumped ship.

As he steps into the lift, Serena can't help but tell him so. "At least now at the top it'll be just the adults around, now the children have left Hamelin."

"But we're in Holby..." His confused face has her rolling her eyes, 'the man's an idiot' she thinks, 'why on earth did Hanssen hire him?'.

"Yes, we are." She turns and heads towards Hanssen's office without another word to the ex-business manager and knocks on the door and waits for Hanssen to answer. She tilts her head and scrutinises the door in front of her. Binns told her that Hanssen was in his office, having just come from there to resign and there is no way that the tall Director of Surgery could have escaped unnoticed in the ten paces from the lift to Hanssen's office door.

She knocks again, more firmly this time, wondering if he just hadn't heard her before. Unaccustomed to being kept waiting, Serena twists the door handle to open the office and walk in anyway only to find the door is locked.

"What on earth?" She mutters to herself under her breath, she has never known Hanssen to lock his office door before and certainly not to lock himself in the office if that is what he has done. He doesn't appear to be in his office now which suggests that Binns wasn't telling the truth.

Her mobile phone vibrates with an incoming text message and Serena absent-mindedly removes the phone from her long cardigan pocket to see who the sender is. It's O2 and she sneers at the phone in response. She is about to replace her phone when she decides to ring Hanssen to find out where he is.

As the call connects, she hears a mobile phone ringtone start to play in the office, she assumes that is Hanssen's mobile ringing. She holds the phone away from her ear for a moment, listening to the door and the office beyond, she'd thought she heard movement but she couldn't be certain.

She stares at her phone as her call transfers to voice mail. She cancels the call, declining to leave a message. She isn't sure now whether Hanssen has left the phone in his office, locked it and gone elsewhere until the fallout and fuss from his TV apology has died down a bit. She hopes that is the case, the alternative, that Hanssen has locked himself in his office and is unable or unwilling to answer his phone or the door doesn't bode well.

Serena feels a bit ridiculous, stood in the middle of the corridor on the fifth floor and puts her hands into her pockets, replacing her phone with one hand and she feels her other hand close around another object in her pocket. An idea forms as she picks up the object out of her pocket and looks at it in her hand before putting it to use.

Hanssen is just about to start stitching closed the wound from the nail gun in his stomach when there is a knock at the door which startles him and makes Hanssen jump. He glares at the door, hoping that whoever it is will leave him alone. He finds himself holding still to the extent that he's holding his breath in the hope that whoever his unwanted visitor is will take the silence as a hint.

He waits for half a dozen heartbeats before allowing himself to relax. Hanssen returns his attention to the needle in his hand and begins again, using his left hand to pinch the edges of the wound together and he guides the needle to the skin with his right hand.

"Shit." He curses quietly and drops the needle to the carpeted floor as his unwanted but seemingly persistent visitor knocks again and then tries the door handle only to discover it's locked. Hanssen is relieved that he took the precaution to lock it before he began. He watches the door warily, hoping to see the silhouette of someone as they walk past the frosted glass away from his office.

Seconds pass and Hanssen remains tense, half bent over his desk, his stomach really starting to hurt where he'd been stabbed, the adrenaline from earlier which had been masking the pain was wearing off. Suddenly, without warning a noise emanates from his jacket which is hung up on the back of his chair. The sound makes him wrench around in surprise, almost gasping in pain as he does so, the movement pulling on his damaged abdominal muscles. His mobile phone is ringing and he fumbles with his jacket, attempting to acquire it but dropping it to the floor in his haste.

Whoever is standing outside his office is almost certain to have heard the phone ring. After a moment he finally locates his phone, glancing at the screen before rejecting the call.

'1 missed call - Serena Campbell'

He scowls at the phone and silences the damned thing before she can ring him again and give him away. Even if there wasn't someone stood outside his office door right now he would not want to speak to the woman anyway. It was her bloody system which has led to this whole mess anyway, Hanssen would have thought that she would have been wise enough to keep her head down and stay away from him until the storm passes. Still glaring at his phone as if it had personally offended him, Hanssen stabs at the power button, deciding to turn it off.

In the confusion with his phone, Hanssen is unaware of whether his persistent visitor has left, he didn't see any movement past the windows and hopes that he just missed them leaving. Pressing his left hand over the wound, he is aware that his sudden movement for the phone has reopened the wound and made it bleed again, the tell-tale red stain again beginning to soak into the once white material of his shirt. He frowns at the sight and curses Ms. Campbell silently.

Hanssen is thinking about how he is going to get to his spare shirt in his car without anyone stopping him, seeing him or questioning why he needs it. He certainly can't walk around in this blood stained one for much longer nor can he change into a set of scrubs. He still hasn't reached a decision when his pager goes off.

Serena picks up the pager she carries in her pocket at all times, eyeing it for a moment before putting it to use and paging the Director of Surgery. He might not be in his room with his mobile phone, but he will have his pager with him. Almost immediately, the tell-tale beeping of a pager resonates from inside the locked office. Serena frowns, her expression one of confusion initially before it turns to suspicion, eyes narrowed, she considers the door and by extension the man she is almost certain is behind it.

"Mr. Hanssen!" She knocks firmly on the door for a third time and she listens carefully to the office to hear what sounds like footsteps approaching the other side of the door, the sound likely muffled by the carpet in the room. A moment after the footsteps stop the door is unlocked and thrust open, the tall Swede filling the doorway; he makes no move to allow her access to his office and regards her with a mixture of frustration and weariness.

"What, Ms. Campbell, have you deemed so vital that you have attempted to repeatedly interrupt me?" His words break her gaze away from his buttoned jacket before she can work out what seems different up to his face which looks tired. His look of fatigue and his slightly gravelly voice combine to paint a picture of a man who is under a fair amount of stress and Serena wonders why she or no-one else had noticed or even bothered to notice.

"May I come in?" She asks, tilting her head a little to pointedly indicate the fact that he is blocking her entrance into the office beyond. He ignores her gesture to her annoyance.

"I'll repeat my question then. What, Ms. Campbell, have you deemed so vital that you have attempted to repeatedly interrupt me?" She lets him finish, she had momentarily forgotten that Hanssen is also a master manipulator and would not be susceptible to the same ploys as that idiot, Binns, had been.

However, Serena considers Hanssen whilst he is speaking to her, appearing every inch as bored as his tone of voice indicates; master manipulator or not, he is still the Director of Surgery and is somewhat restricted by having to maintain certain appearances.

"I'm sure you don't want to have this conversation in the hallway, Henrik..." She smiles at him; he would know that her apparent concern isn't as sincere as it would be coming from someone else but they both know he wouldn't be able to prove it. With as much ill grace as he can muster whilst still keeping to this side of polite, Hanssen steps to the side, giving just enough space for Serena to enter the office.

Serena squeezes past him, frowning little when she hears him stifle a gasp as she lightly brushes him with her arm. She is aware that he whirls away to shut the office door as she makes her way to his desk, sitting down in one of the chairs in front of the desk. Serena is listening to the door click shut and is a little relieved not to hear the lock being engaged. Waiting for him to make his way to the desk, she catches sight of an unexpected glint of silver by his chair but before she can investigate, Hanssen interrupts her.

"Make yourself at home, Ms. Campbell." He awkwardly waves his arm, his left arm, Serena notices, at the chair she is already sitting in but he remains standing himself. Although she doesn't know quite what it is, she knows that something is up with the enigmatic Swede in front of her.

"Is..." She pauses and rephrases her question, aware of who she is speaking to, "are you okay, Henrik?" He gives her a withering glare which would work wonders on scaring an F1. Serena is equal to the task of meeting his gaze, her expression one of concern which doesn't falter in the glare of Hanssen's annoyance.

"Why would I be anything other than okay, Ms. Campbell." Serena knows it isn't a question, rather a statement. "Then again, you are not the one dealing with the fall out of your non-referral scheme, are you?"

"I saw your statement on the news, the apology to the son..."

"Such a comfort for him, I'm sure. Makes up for his father's death, wouldn't you say?"

"He accepted the compensation, there's nothing more he can say." Serena explains as if to a child, wondering what has caused this change of opinion in the man in front of her.

"Say? No." Serena is certain that she sees Hanssen wince as he turns away to face the window in his office but before he completes the movement, Serena does see his hand unconsciously forming a protective cover for his torso, the same part that she accidentally brushed against as she entered the office.

Searching for something to say, Serena talks about the first thing that pops into her mind, her words masking the sound of getting up and walking over to stand behind Hanssen.

"Talking of pointless; I met Mr. Binns on the way here. No surprise that he has gone." By the time that Hanssen snorts quietly in response, Serena is close enough to see his slightly pained expression in the window reflection. She puts a hand on his back, letting it gently come to rest just below his shoulder blade, the unexpected contact makes the man jump.

"Even an F1 would be able to tell that that movement hurts you." Serena brings her other hand up to steady him and turns him so that Hanssen has his back to the wall "What's happened, Henrik?" Serena notes that his face is more pale than usual and she can see that he is perspiring a bit, that, combined with the way that Hanssen is leaning against the wall for support makes her concerned for the stubborn and stoic man.

He doesn't answer her and she doesn't ask him again, switching into medical mode, she assesses the scene in front of her, information she has subconsciously stored is now helping to create a picture of what might have happened to him. The way he was holding his arm over his torso would suggest that he has taken a blow, punched perhaps? She needs to examine him, to determine whether he has any broken ribs or any internal damage.

Batting Hanssen's hands away from his torso, she unbuttons his jacket, intending to assess the injured area, checking for any possible fractures or swelling. Serena pulls the material aside and she gasps at the completely unexpected red stain which is covering a good deal of Hanssen's once white shirt.

When his pager goes off, Hanssen knows that whoever it is outside knows that he is indeed in the office, whilst he may have left his phone in his office, he wouldn't go anywhere without his pager. He leans back into his office chair and buttons up his shirt and then gingerly puts his jacket on, careful that when it's buttoned it covers up the red blood stain.

Making his way over to the office door, Hanssen realises that he hasn't checked who has paged him, he hopes that his summons are not related to Mr. Hope's patient and he unclasps his pager from his belt. 'Ms. Campbell again' he makes a frustrated face before blanking his features and unlocking the office door, resigned to speaking to whoever is waiting for him.

When Hanssen opens the door, he is not surprised to see Ms. Campbell standing in the corridor outside of his office; he probably should have known it was her. He doesn't want to speak to her and allows his expression to show his annoyance.

"What, Ms. Campbell, have you deemed so vital that you have attempted to repeatedly interrupt me?" He stands in the doorway, not allowing her into his office, determined to get rid of her as quickly as he can. He sees her gaze flicker from his torso up to his face when he starts speaking. Unconsciously he straightens a little, not only finding her scrutiny uncomfortable but he doesn't want her to suspect that anything is amiss with him.

"May I come in?" 'No', he thinks, 'you bloody well cannot' and his eyes narrow in suspicion at Serena's request, he makes no move to allow her entrance into his sanctuary. All he wants is to be left alone to sort himself out and to do his work. Right thing to do or not, Hanssen is starting to see the folly of his earlier public apology, soon enough he'll have no peace but until then he doesn't want any unnecessary disturbances. He registers the flicker of annoyance which passes over her face but it doesn't move him.

"I'll repeat my question then. What, Ms. Campbell, have you deemed so vital that you have attempted to repeatedly interrupt me?" He tries not to frown, not to show any reaction to Serena's calculating look but the smile which appears on her face unnerves him more.

"I'm sure you don't want to have this conversation in the hallway, Henrik..." He bristles at the overly familiar use of his name. She hasn't earned that right and her assumption about what he wants or rather what he doesn't want is unwanted and he is about to respond and tell her as much when it occurs to him that she may be correct; he is the Director of Surgery and there are certain expectations of him, arguing in the corridor outside his office with a senior consultant is not one of them.

It galls him that she has seen fit to manipulate him in this way and that he has fallen for it, so with as much disdain as he has the energy to manage, he steps aside, giving barely enough room for the woman to enter. He realises his mistake as she passes by him, her arm catching his injured torso and he barely manges to suppress a gasp of pain.

To his relief, Serena makes no mention of having heard him and she heads into his office. He turns back to the door and debates about the lock for a moment before he decides to leave it; he wants to get rid of her as soon as possible.

He walks back slowly but doesn't sit down, the process is too painful at the moment and that would raise alarm bells to the ever-observant Ms. Campbell. He sees that she is already sitting in one of the chairs he keeps on the other side of his desk but that her attention has been caught by something. Hanssen hopes that it isn't the needle he was about to use. He decides to distract her before she finds out something that he really doesn't want her to.

"Make yourself at home, Ms. Campbell." He is forced to gesture with his left arm and it annoys him, the way her eyes immediately lock onto the awkward motion. He curses and allows his frustration to show in his answers to her questions, not actually answering her question about him. When she explains how because the son accepted the compensation that was the end of the matter, Hanssen turns away in disgust, the movement hurting him, making him wince and clasp his side.

He isn't able to hide his pain when she makes him jump, placing her hand on his back and he isn't capable of fighting against her turning him until he's facing her. He doesn't answer her question about what happened to him, it has nothing to do with her. Hanssen puts up a token protest when Serena bats away his hands from their protective position over his jacket, but undeterred, Serena repeats the process. She's in full-on doctor mode and determined to treat him, her patient. Hanssen capitulates to Serena's demands, hating the way he is about to feel and be exposed in front of her. If he had had his way, had any control over the situation, he wouldn't have anyone here to see this, the brunt he has borne of Mooney's son's grief.

If it had to be anyone, Hanssen supposes that Mr. Hope would have been his first choice, strange, considering how badly their professional relationship started off. He feels a sense of resignation and defeat as Serena pulls aside his jacket and he tries to look dispassionate as he stares down at her whilst leaning back against the wall for support. Hanssen avoids Serena's stare and looks at himself, not surprised that the red stain is bigger now than earlier.

"Good God, Henrik." He notes that she sounds concerned, about him. Then again disinterest is highly unlikely to be prevalent at the discovery of an unexpected stab wound. The concern in her voice both soothes and disturbs him.

"Sit down," she manoeuvres him to his chair and forces him to sit down, he lowers himself gingerly into the chair and he watches her kneel in front of him, making him feel a little uncomfortable for a moment before she tells him "don't move."

She instructs before crossing the office floor once more to the door. Hanssen's immediate response is concern that she will leave and report this incident to someone and he's about to rise to move after he when she stops at the office door and turning the key that is still in the door, she locks it. He relaxes.

Serena gasps as she pulls aside the material of Hanssen's jacket. She was certainly not expecting the blood stain. No longer concerned with the fact that Hanssen is her boss, in her mind, the man in front of her has just become her patient. She manoeuvres him from the wall to his chair. Serena watches as he gingerly lowers himself into it, following him and kneeling in front of him.

Serena, momentarily distracted by the view in front of her, considers the way that she is knelt in front of Hanssen, between his legs, her mind unbuttoning his shirt and she shakes her head, trying to refocus her thoughts and hopes that she isn't blushing, if someone was to walk in now... Realising that the office door is still unlocked, she instructs him to keep sat down and she locks the door, too focussed to be amused by his silent compliance with her instructions.

Returning to his side of the desk, Serena gets a better look at the silver item which caught her attention earlier and she holds it up in Hanssen's line of sight.

"Planning to use this on yourself?" He doesn't answer, not that she expects him to and his gaze remains locked with hers, defiant. After a few seconds, Serena averts her eyes, her focus returning to Hanssen's bloodstained shirt, her mind assessing the location of the wound and possible complications.

"How long since this happened to you?" She asks, surprised when she doesn't get an answer, Serena tilts her head to look at Hanssen's face again. He shrugs and Serena feels a flash of annoyance at him which she attempts to temper. An exasperated sigh escapes and she reaches out to begin to unbutton his shirt and see the state of the wound for herself only for his hands to still hers, holding them in place against his. She can feel the steady heartbeat and it reminds her again that he is human.

"That is not necessary, Ms. Campbell."

"It's absolutely necessary." 'What is wrong with the man?' She questions herself, 'of course it's necessary' and she knows that he knows that.

"Your concern, although unwanted is acknowledged, now I would appreciate it..." She wonders if it really is as simple as Hanssen not knowing how to accept concern or help or whether it is her presence that he objects to.

"Mr. Hanssen," Serena's voice is firm and it stops Hanssen mid-sentence, "I can either sort this out for you here in the privacy of your office or we will go down onto Keller and it can be done there if you object to my treating you? It's your choice." Serena's eyebrows raise, daring him to challenge her.

When he doesn't respond verbally, Serena reaches out her hands to unbutton his shirt, trying to stifle the flash of something she feels in response to the enigmatic Swede slowly being revealed to her, refusing to view him with anything other than a clinical eye.

After ascertaining that his injuries are limited to the one location, Serena assesses the wounds and her question about what caused this are also unanswered to her frustration. Although it's undoubtedly painful, the wound appears to be relatively superficial in nature and stitches should be sufficient for treatment.

The sight of a woman leaning down to assess his injury while he sits compliantly in a chair, submitting to her ministrations leaves a bitter sweet taste in Hanssen's mouth. When he and Sahira Shah were working at Colchester together, he'd once slipped on a piece of ice in the hospital car park and had cut and grazed himself, bleeding all over Sahira who forfeited her night out to tend to him. He can admit to himself now that that was the event and the night which sealed his fate and with a pang he recalls the end of their friendship back in April.

'just crawl back into your private, little isolated hell and let's pretend that we were never friends'

Hanssen is glad that Serena, who is still examining the wound obviously mistakes his intake of breath for physical pain and apologises, instead of prying for further details.

"So, care to explain yet how you ended up with these?" She waves her hand in the direction of the puncture marks and raises her eyes to his and for once Hanssen can't detect anything other than concern for her patient in them. That annoys him, the Ms. Campbell he has become accustomed to isn't kneeling next to him, tending to him and offering him some measure of comfort which he is sorely tempted to accept and it concerns him that he doesn't know what to do.

"A difference of opinion." He offers and hopes that Serena's questioning will let up.

"Don't be daft," she admonishes him instantly and a voice in Hanssen's head tells him 'I told you so', "we have differences of opinions almost daily but we don't go around stabbing one another." 'Only in the back' thinks Hanssen reflexively and in weeks to come he will wryly recall how prophetic that statement turned out to be.

He inhales sharply as Serena applies a liberal amount of cold antiseptic and starts to clean the wounds. He tries to ignore the feeling of her hands on him, gentle but firmly healing him, Hanssen almost snorts out loud in response to the ridiculousness of his own thought. He concedes that it's been so long since someone offered any kind of support or comfort to him that he finds he cannot be certain how to react but he's sure that his response is not correct. However, now he has had a taste of the offered comfort, he finds he wants more.

"A fact I dare say our recently departed Mr. Binns would have been most relieved to know." Hanssen finds he likes the smirk which finds its way onto her face before she turns away to prepare the needle. As he waits, he lets his eyes travel over the woman in front of him, taking care to avert his eyes before she can catch him looking at her, he doesn't know how she would react to that and she certainly doesn't want her associating him in her mind with someone like Michael Spence. Glancing down at his stomach, Hanssen suddenly feels quite exposed and regrets allowing the woman this far.

He must have been looking a little apprehensive because Serena amusedly reassures him that "I've done this a thousand times – you'll be fine, don't look so worried." The hand she trails down his right arm in an attempt at reassurance elicits goosebumps as well as faint but definite stirrings of arousal, he furiously tempers that reaction, ignoring the way that her fingers ghost over his skin, dancing around the wound.

He looks away, Hanssen does not want this committed to memory to plague him as will invariably do and so he studies the ceiling tiles in his office as he finally feels the needle bite, trying not to think about the last time someone touched him.

"All done and not a bad job if I say so myself." Tilting his head slightly to examine Serena's handiwork, Hanssen has to concede that she's done an acceptable job, with minimal scarring likely, not that he is vain enough to be concerned by a small scar.

"Thank you, Ms. Campbell." He sounds tired to himself and just wants to sleep for a couple of hours, the excitement and tension of the past few days starting to catch up with him.

"Is there anyone I can call for you?" She asks him the question that he had hoped to avoid. Having spent a couple of decades asking patients the same one, he is able to discern an awful lot about someone's life by their often one-word answers. He is sure that Ms. Campbell is capable of the same deductions and he reluctantly answers.

"No, no-one, thank you, I'll be fine" Hanssen gingerly stands to begin the process of re-buttoning his shirt as hastily as possible.

"You need to rest now." Serena insists and Hanssen finds he has no objections, she puts her arm around him, careful to avoid his injured area. Hanssen surprises both of them by pulling her into an embrace.

"Thank you, Serena." Her name sounds foreign on his tongue but it seems more appropriate given the circumstances of the moment. She returns his hug briefly before insisting that he needs to rest and she leads him to his sofa, retrieving his jacket and draping it over him. He's aware that she stands there as his eyes get heavier and he is asleep within a minute.

When Hanssen wakes, a couple of hours later, he finds the blinds drawn and his office dark. He lies still for a minute until the day's events return to him and he rolls sideways off the sofa rather than sitting up to reduce the stress on his wound. Peeling his shirt aside he is glad to see that the plaster does not indicate that the wound has reopened.

Although the non-referral scheme has proven not to be the correct course of action, apologising for it was the right thing to do and Ms. Campbell's unexpected actions today confirm his belief that everything will work out for the best.

Well! Let me know what you think, I did originally write a slightly different ending but took it out at the last minute and I may post it as a second chapter.