Author's Note: This is a short, little story, only two or three chapters and it was prompted by a thought of mine when reading the second chapter of PinkCollins' – 'My Only Friend'.
I may have taken a couple of liberties with the timings but it's my story and I'll do what I want :) so any inaccuracies are mine and (hopefully) deliberate.
Would love to know if you think this is worth continuing, it's a little bit different to the other Sedward stories floating around at the moment.
…...
"Imbecile."
Serena slams the door behind her, locking herself into the car in case Edward decides to follow her, jump in and tell her yet more lies in an effort to dig his way out of yet another sorry mess he's gotten himself into. She uses a hand to massage her temples as the tension threatens to develop into a full-blown migraine.
"As Deputy CEO, I am more than happy to accept full responsibility for Mr. Campbell's fitness to work."
"Idiot." Serena's fingers squeeze a little too tightly and she grimaces, knowing that her insults apply as much to herself as they do her ex-husband. He has managed to make her look like a fool yet again and she was right when she told Edward that it is her who doesn't seem to learn. Leaning back into the chair, Serena rests her head and closes her eyes.
She'd spotted Edward waiting for her in the corridor almost immediately as she leaves AAU after her shift. He's tapping a finger against his forehead in some weird parody of 'The Thinker' which is almost laughable because her ex-husband certainly hasn't done any thinking recently. He looks up when he hears her approach and Serena makes her displeasure at seeing him quite obvious.
"You're suspended; you shouldn't even be on the premises."
"I know I behaved appallingly, unforgivable." Serena has little desire to continue the conversation and carries on walking but Edward turns and falls into step next to her to to Serena's annoyance. "But Eleanor wants us together as a family for Christmas." Serena is careful to remain outwardly unmoved and she holds her tongue, she'd love nothing more to point out that they haven't had a family Christmas for 13 years.
"I'll get treatment, whatever it takes, please, Serena..." They seem to have come to a halt and Serena can guess what Edward is about to say, she's heard it all before. "We have a future." She sighs, sounding more resigned and defeated than anything else.
"Had a future; based on lies, deceit, half-truths, game-playing, all our relationship's ever been, really..." she swallows, determined to keep her voice flat and unemotional, to pretend that she doesn't care when they both know the opposite is the truth – she cares too much. "You use people, Edward and you let them down, again and again. It's not just me and Eleanor but Mary-Claire, Harry, Mr. Chandler – the list's endless..." She can hear her voice starting to crack and Serena stops, taking a calming breath as she looks up and down the corridor they're in.
"I know, I know – I'm sorry." There's no-one in hearing range and yet another meaningless apology from the man she has known for the best part of thirty years is enough to provoke her.
"I took responsibility for you. I risked my career, for you... and you have humiliated me."
"Please."
"Ha, where have I heard that before?" It's the same old song and dance with Edward and Serena has truly had her fill of him and she starts walking away once again.
"I can see that you're angry but think about Eleanor for a sec, how do you think she'll react to this?" It's a low blow from her ex-husband, their daughter has taken Edward's side in pretty much everything over the last 18 years and they both know it but this time, Serena was careful to nip Eleanor's resentment in the bud.
"I've already told her and she wasn't surprised." Edward moves to stand in front of her this time, blocking her path and Serena looks up at her ex-husband and sticks the knife in. "She's used to being disappointed by you. I'm the one who never seems to learn."
They'd parted a few seconds later, Serena stepping around the suspended anaesthetist and off out of the exit; she had wanted nothing more than to slink off into the darkness and lick her wounds in private but she'd been spotted by some of the carol singing staff and instead of causing a scene by ignoring them, Serena had reluctantly plastered a fake smile to her face and gone to join them, to pretend to share their Christmas Eve happiness.
After a couple of songs, Serena had managed to slip away unnoticed, the strains of carols following her until she reaches her car and she jumps in, her breath catching slightly as she takes a couple of deep breaths. Once she's decided that she is finally calm enough to drive, Serena turns the car on and engages reverse a little more forcefully than she needs to. She backs out of her allocated parking space and makes her way off the hospital grounds, not wanting to linger.
Just after the main building, she passes a couple of teenagers on the path and about fifteen yards ahead of them, the painfully familiar silhouette of her ex-husband as he walks home, looking as if he hasn't got a care in the world; Serena reflexively slows her BMW as if to offer him a lift but as soon as she realises what she is doing, she deliberately keeps her foot on the accelerator, not slowing until she reaches the exit and she indicates left, towards the ring road and home.
…...
"I guess we won't be needing this tomorrow after all."
The first thing Serena does when she gets home is uncork a rather expensive bottle of wine that she had bought to share with Edward over Christmas and pours herself a generous glass. However, it doesn't take too long before it's empty as she paces around the kitchen, venting her frustrations at the day. If she's honest, she dreads what Adrienne will say when she sees her mother tomorrow and Serena instinctively refills the glass.
But then she stops, looking at her glass of wine, almost as if seeing it for the first time and she carefully puts it back down onto the worktop; the clink of glass on the granite work surface loud in the otherwise silent kitchen. Serena removes her hand quickly as if the glass or its contents had burned her – she absolutely refuses to drown her sorrows tonight, to turn to drink to cope with the sheer recklessness of her ex-husband's actions.
Serena huffs darkly, if she'd had a drink every time Edward had done something stupid, Serena would almost certainly be dead or in desperate need of a liver transplant – his list of failures and disappointments is endless. Taking a deep breath, she closes her eyes as she exhales, willing the tension away and she feels marginally better when she opens her eyes.
Serena busies herself, turning on the radio to fight away the silence which is threatening to settle – Eleanor has gone to Adrienne's and Serena is all set to join them tomorrow morning, their original Christmas plans restored; a last minute revision necessary courtesy of Edward. When Serena had rung Eleanor earlier, her daughter had displayed more calmness and maturity than Serena would previously have given her credit for. In fact, Eleanor had arranged to go and stay with her grandmother that evening in order to let Adrienne know what had happened without causing an argument but also to allow Serena to spend the night on her own so she can vent and get any murderous thoughts out of her system.
Singing along to the radio, off-key, half a second out of time and only knowing every other line, Serena opens the fridge to see what she can use to make some kind of dinner. She doesn't have a lot in the fridge, they'd planned to be away over Christmas so Serena hadn't really stocked up.
"Hell, I've got wine, what else does a woman need?" She asks herself out loud but picks up a packet of chicken breasts, pretty certain that she's got a jar of stir-fry sauce around somewhere. Using up the last of the vegetables in her fridge, Serena methodically chops them into appropriate sizes, trying not to let herself get caught up in memories of the day.
"One of my nurses has made an extremely serious allegation against Mr. Campbell."
"She's obviously out to discredit him in any way she can."
"Why would she lie?"
"I've been working with Mr. Campbell all day so it's completely ridiculous"
"Darling, I love you."
Her chopping action becomes slightly more erratic as thoughts of Edward, Colette and Mary-Claire keeping replaying and completely distracted, Serena's grip accidentally slips and she cuts her hand with the sharp knife.
She jerks reflexively and some of the blood splatters onto her pink shirt but Serena barely notices at first; immediately switching into doctor-mode, she assesses the cut, there's quite a lot of blood but it's not deep enough to need stitches. Cursing as she spots the damage to her shirt, Serena moves to deal with the cut and the flow of blood soon slows and then stops completely.
It takes a couple of minutes for Serena to locate and put a plaster over the wound and she removes her pink over-shirt, tiredly eyeing the stains as she tosses the offending article of clothing straight into the washing machine.
She's rather lost her appetite and Serena replaces the unopened chicken back into the fridge and tips the vegetables away. The central heating hasn't been on for very long and it's a bit chilly to be stood in just a vest top so Serena heads upstairs to change out of her work clothes, signalling the start of her Christmas holiday and she showers before changing into some unflattering yet remarkably comfortable clothes that only Eleanor knows she owns.
"And Edward." She mutters, always Edward.
Remembering her abandoned wine, Serena heads back into the kitchen, turning off the radio as she picks up her glass. Knowing she really has to eat something if she wants to have the second glass of wine, Serena grudgingly makes herself a couple of slices of toast and swallows them, barely tasting them.
Padding back into the living room, Serena kicks off her slippers and tucks her legs underneath her as she picks up the TV remote and skips through the channels until she finds a film she recognises. She huffs at the irony when she lands on 'It's a Wonderful Life' but with little else on, Serena doesn't have much competition and so, adjusting her wine glass, she settles down to watch the familiar events unfold.
…...
The doorbell's piercing ring reverberates around the house and Serena's skull and it takes her a few seconds to work out that it isn't the alarm clock making the noise. She opens her eyes to discover that she's fallen asleep on the sofa with the TV still on, now part-way through a different film that she's never seen before. Finding the remote, Serena turns it off, blessed relief at the silence before pushing herself up into a seated position trying to get rid of the kink in her neck muscles – she's too old to spend the night on a sofa these days.
Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Serena blinks, her watch reads 11:06pm and she grimaces, it's rather embarrassing to have fallen asleep so early, these days she is rarely gets to bed before midnight. The doorbell rings out again and Serena frowns and stands, making her way towards the door. Serena doesn't know who would be outside her house at 11pm on Christmas Eve; Eleanor has her own key but she is staying with Adrienne tonight and they're both probably already fast asleep. None of her colleagues know where she lives. Except one.
If Edward dares darken her doorstep tonight, Serena decides that she won't be held responsible for her actions. Turning on the hall light to let her visitor know she's coming, Serena shuffles down the hallway and blearily opens the front door. To her initial relief, it's not Edward. Instead, she has two visitors, a middle-aged man and a younger, dark blonde woman. Serena doesn't recognise them but she does recognise the uniforms that they're wearing and the initial relief evaporates.
"Mrs. Campbell?" Serena nods, too tired to correct them about her title – she isn't married any more - and it's probably not important. "PC Frances and PC Harvey, may we come in?"
…...
AN2: I would love to know what you thought of this and whether you think that this is worth continuing? Any guesses as to what's happened?