Author's Note: I seemed to be on a bit of a Casualty kick, so I thought I'd roll with it! This picks up from Eddie and Alicia's showdown and then veers off - the outcome could end up the same, only taking a different route, or it could be completely different. One way to find out ... ;) As always, thanks for reading and feedback would be gratefully received!


No Way Back

One

That breaking glass might as well have been his life shattering into pieces.

That dawning realisation felt like it might suffocate Eddie as he stood rooted to the spot in horror, Alicia's terrified cries of pain seeming to split the growing dark. Things were bad and only getting worse as the full extent of what had happened became clear.

His fellow doctor lay among the splintered ruins of her patio doors in her little back yard, light spilling from inside just catching the bright red arterial blood spurting from one of her arms.

But, despite the danger to her, it was really self-preservation that prompted him to pull his mobile from his pocket and make that 999 call, although it did eat at him to know that. Just like Alicia goading him over that night had also wriggled its way under his skin. He wasn't a monster, he wasn't. How could he be? He was a doctor, for god's sake – he helped people, saved people. He wasn't … He wasn't what she said.

He wasn't.

He hadn't meant to hurt her. He just wanted her to stop saying those things. Things that couldn't be true. Things that could ruin everything, ruin him, his career. That wasn't how he saw himself and he couldn't understand how she could. All he'd wanted to do was make her see. Make her realise she'd gotten it all wrong. But she wouldn't leave it, wouldn't stop getting at him. If she had just shut her mouth …

He knew he hadn't helped his cause by coming here though. He'd thought he could talk sense to her, convince her to drop this and let things get back to how they should be.

But now, he couldn't see a way out.

At the very least, he'd breached his bail just by turning up at her house. At worst, who knew how Alicia would spin this? She already had Mrs Beauchamp on her side, and that was before the tears and the blood and …

Oh god, his life was over, wasn't it?

His stomach lurched at that, but he couldn't shake the thought. He'd been convinced he would fight this. In fact, if he was honest, he hadn't even realised he would need to. He was smart, responsible, respectable. Things like this didn't happen to people like him.

He was Doctor Edward McAllister. He was a doctor …

"You have to let me help you," he said suddenly, glass crunching beneath his feet as he made his way to Alicia's side. "That arm-"

"Get away from me!" she screamed, the sound chilling him to the core.

Jesus, she sounded petrified. Of him. They were colleagues. Friends. How had things gotten so twisted up?

"Alicia, you could bleed out," he tried to insist, reaching for her arm, only to have to hold his hands up in retreat when she shied away and screamed at him again.

"Don't you touch me!" she half-sobbed, pale and shaking and practically hysterical.

He could have cried himself, desperation setting in. If she bled out, if she died … He couldn't go to prison, he just couldn't. He wasn't cut out for that, he knew it. He'd never survive. Especially if they thought he was a …

He couldn't even bring himself to think the word.

"Alicia, please …" he tried, but he was too scared to try to treat her against her will in case she fought him and ended up doing more damage. He held out a tea-towel instead, feeling utterly useless. "At least put pressure on it. I've called an ambulance."

She snatched it from him reluctantly, as if it might burn her to touch him, and he closed his eyes, willing himself not to throw up as his stomach churned and he wondered who might answer the distress call. How he'd explain the mess in front of him. For a split second, he even considered just getting the hell out of there.

In fact, he was still considering it when he heard the loud knock on the front door and then boots on the kitchen floor.

"Paramedics!" came the call, the familiar voice making Eddie's heart sink further. "Alicia?"


Iain Dean strode towards him, shock etching itself across his face as he clapped eyes on the scene and then looked to Eddie for answers. "What the hell happened?" the northerner demanded, not waiting for a response before following the newbie he was mentoring to Alicia's side.

"She … Uh, she fell …" Eddie tried weakly, not liking the suspicion on Iain's face. "She hit the window."

Having forced herself into a sitting position in order to treat herself as best she could under the circumstances, Alicia looked numb as she told the paramedics the extent of her injury.

"It's the brachial artery," she managed.

Eddie could only stand there as they got to work, caught off-guard when Iain once more demanded to know what had happened. It was out of him that they'd been arguing before he could think. But as soon as he'd said it, he knew how it must look – him stood there with not a scratch and her …

"It was an accident," he blurted out, trying to claw back ground. That proved to be yet another mistake.

"He attacked me," Alicia countered, seemingly spurred on by her anger at his version of events as she looked to Iain for support.

Eddie could see the moment the paramedic's heart sank and it sent his own plummeting into his boots with it. He was never going to convince anyone this was an accident, least of all Iain.

"All right, we're here now, sweetheart, okay?" Iain told Alicia gently, before turning his focus to holding her arm steady while Ruby tightened a tourniquet in place, making their patient shriek in agony.

Eddie winced uncomfortably at the sound, raking his fingers through his short hair as his mind raced. For a moment, relief flooded over him when the bleeding was stopped and he thought maybe there was a chance they could still sort this out somehow. That maybe, just maybe no one else needed to know.

Then Iain was on his feet and heading for the ambulance to get a trolley.

"This is a serious assault," he warned Eddie grimly, as he passed him in what remained of the doorway. "I'm phoning the police."

"No!" Eddie panicked, moving to block his path. "You can't – please, it's not what it looks like!"

"I can and I bloody am," Iain retorted. "Listen, you got any idea how many domestics I've seen by now, mate? Any idea how many were exactly what they looked like? You hear hoofbeats, you think horses. Not zebras."

"She attacked me!"

"Tell it to the cops," the paramedic shrugged, taken aback when Eddie blew up at him.

"So you're taking her side too? That's so typical. It's never the woman's fault, is it?" the young doctor ranted, wild-eyed as he slammed his hand down on the counter as all his frustrations threatened to spill over.

"I haven't got time for this crap," Iain all but spat angrily. "I don't give a damn if my patient's a man, a woman, or a little green alien from Mars if they've been put through a glass door by someone throwing their weight around – you hear me? Now, get out of my way!"

Eddie took a deep breath, his jaw setting in determination. "No."

"What the … Eddie, move! She needs to get to hospital."

"No," came the strained response, along with a shake of the head, albeit a hesitant one.

"Iain?" Ruby's voice lifted to reach them, sounding even more anxious than usual. "Iain, we really need to go. She's still losing a lot of blood."

"You hear that?" the paramedic said, glaring at Eddie before glancing out into the yard over his shoulder. "Be with you in a second, love. Keep putting pressure on-"

But turning back around made Iain cut off mid-sentence.

A large kitchen knife levelled at the throat can have that effect.


"Eddie, don't be stupid. Put it down."

Eddie stared back at him, looking like he couldn't quite believe what he was doing either. His hand was shaking, but in Iain's book that only made him a bigger, more unstable risk.

"I can't. You don't know what this'll do to me."

"I know what it'll do if she dies. And Eddie, she will die if you don't let me help her."

"Iain?" Ruby called unsurely. "What's going on?"

"Just stay with Alicia, Rubes," Iain replied, suddenly worried his young charge might come to investigate and, sure enough, his fears weren't unfounded.

"We really can't wait any longer," she was saying, her voice drawing closer.

"Ruby, get back outside!" Iain barked.

But it was too late. Recognising her as the more vulnerable of the pair, Eddie flashed out an arm and grabbed the little blonde, hauling her in front of him – between him and Iain – and pressing the sharp blade right against her throat even as she cried out in fear.

Iain swore darkly, his fists clenched helplessly, hating to see the terror in his new colleague's wide blue eyes.

"Eddie, come on, let her go – this is bloody insane!" he tried. "You're only making things worse for yourself."

"Worse?" Eddie laughed bitterly. "Worse? She's already destroyed my life!"

There was plenty Iain could have said to that, having heard the rumours as to exactly what was supposed to have happened between the two doctors, but he bit his tongue for once. It was clear the pressure was getting to Eddie and he couldn't risk him doing anything stupid. Anything more stupid.

"Look," the paramedic tried, trying to summon what little patience he had and stay calm. "One of us needs to be with Alicia, deal with that arm. Why don't you let Ruby go and-"

"No," Eddie shook his head firmly. "She stays right here. You go. But if you try anything, or you try to call the police … I mean it, I'll …"

He trailed off, but his grip on the knife tightened and the blade pressed a little harder against Ruby's skin, drawing a little squeak of fright from her and she squeezed her eyes tightly closed.

Iain's jaw clenched. Fuck.


He might not have known Ruby that long, but she was on his team now and that meant part of his job was to have her back. And okay, she might rub him up the wrong way sometimes with her persistent by-the-book approach and her awkwardness and endless questions, but she was new and she was trying and he swore if Eddie hurt her, he'd drag him straight to jail himself. If he was lucky.

"Ruby …" Iain said softly. "Ruby, look at me. It's gonna be okay, yeah? I have to go check on Alicia, but I'll be back. I'm not leaving you."

She couldn't have nodded even if she wanted to, not with the knife pressed against her throat. And she looked like she wanted to cry or plead or beg him to stay. But only one word escaped her lips, the whisper so low he almost missed it.

"Go …"

After years spent in Afghanistan, Iain knew better than to think bravery was about not being scared. Experience had taught him it was precisely the opposite – being scared and doing something anyway. And Ruby's bravery right then made him inwardly vow to do more to look out for her. If they made it out of this.

"Good girl," he said, forcing a warm smile for her benefit and then hurrying back out into the yard to crouch beside a violently trembling Alicia. "How you doing, lovie?"

"I … I can't feel my … f-fingers …" she sobbed.

"That'll just be the cold, sweetheart," he bluffed, even though he realised there was little point trying to fool a doctor when it came to her own medical condition. She had to know how bad things were. But it had given him an idea – one he just hoped she could hold on long enough to see through. "She's freezing and I'm worried about shock setting in," he called out for Eddie's benefit, standing up to strip off the heavy outer jacket he had on over his regulation fleece. "Just gonna try getting her warmed up a little."

Settling the jacket around Alicia's shoulders, he wrapped his arms around her, his hands rubbing her back to try to generate a little warmth. "Listen to me," he whispered, his mouth right by her ear. "Left inside pocket. Mobile. Wait until I distract him and then call 999. Can you manage?"

She leaned in against his shoulder, tears slipping down her cheeks. "I … dunno …" she mumbled. "I'm so tired."

"I know, darlin'. We'll have you out of here soon, I promise," he murmured, hugging her tight. "Just hold on."

Climbing to his feet, Iain hoped he sounded more convincing than he felt as he braced himself to go back inside. There was nothing more he could do for Alicia, beyond getting her to the help she so badly needed.

But first … He had to get Ruby away from an increasingly unhinged Eddie.

Preferably without getting one of them killed.