Before I start I would like to thank everyone who reviewed "War is never easy", your comments meant a great deal. "Snowdrops" is my new fanfiction multi-part piece, based on the Sam and Dylan relationship. I am aiming to update daily, as this seemed to work out quite well last week.
I hope you enjoy. Here is part 1 of 7.
Snowdrops
Chapter One
Today was the third time since she had arrived at Holby that she had considered asking for a change in her NHS placement and unsurprisingly to her all three of these occasions had been as a direct result of the very reason she had taken the placement in the first place. Holby City E.D. had gained a strong reputation for being capable of managing the large scale disasters which seemed to erupt in the locality on an almost clockwork basis, but if she had chosen her placement purely for career development reasons she would have selected a busier department in London, Manchester or somewhere similar.
Her army colleagues had considered her move to Holby as a signal that she wanted to step out of the fast lane for a while, which given that she could have died in an ambulance on her very first day and since then had been threatened, watched the E.D. burn down and got caught in a toxic gas cloud, amused her greatly. She knew that to the army medics currently serving placements in inner city London her new workplace in the West Country must seem deathly dull, but Holby had far exceeded her expectations since her arrival.
However it was on days like today that she wished she had followed her head not her heart and chosen to work somewhere else. Dylan had written to her in Afghanistan to notify her of his move to the Holby area, which had given her enough time to research local NHS placements prior to her return. Her decision had been between Holby City and St James' and on that basis the choice had been a simple one, due to the fact that she had read a number of papers by Nick Jordan and was excited at having the chance to work with him.
Until the day she had arrived to interview with Mr Jordan she'd had no idea that her husband actually worked in the E.D. she had selected. When she'd left England eight months beforehand he had still been working as a GP and whilst she was not surprised of his return to emergency medicine she had been shocked that he had made such a major change without once mentioning it in their postal and email communications.
When Mr Jordan had advised her of the team she would be working with, including one Dr Dylan Keogh, she had winced inwardly. They had always made an excellent medical team, working seamlessly together and she had learnt so much from studying alongside him the previous few years. Yet her intention had never been to gate-crash his workplace nor to be in his face every day and in that moment she regretted the impact she was about to have on his life. That first time she had considered moving placements was prior to her even commencing work but she had decided to stay, mainly because she couldn't face hurting him further by letting him believe she had run away from working with him once again.
The second time had been the day after the E.D. burnt to the ground. She hadn't even been on shift that day, but from the moment she was called in she had kept herself busy treating patients, desperately trying not to consider what could happen if Dylan didn't make it out alive. The team finding out she was Dr Keogh's wife had been by accident more than design, but inwardly she had been grateful that their secret was out. However when Dylan had dismissed her as a mere technicality before walking away, she wished she could just disappear. She would rather have been a secret wife and have a connection with him, that to be just a technical difficulty in his personal circumstances. With the department closed for a number of weeks for a rebuild and refit Sam had been given the option of moving her placement to another hospital, which she had given serious consideration for a few days. In the end though she had decided to stay, even if this was only to push Dylan into resolving the outstanding issues around their marital status.
Today was the third time she had considered moving to another hospital, which given how much better she was getting on with Dylan now was ironic. They had once again learned the skill of working alongside each other and when they were paired together in resus she knew they were a formidable team. Dylan's diagnostic skills and his knowledge of medical conditions she had barely heard of matched perfectly with her practical skills and no nonsense attitude. It was in those moments, when they were caught up in the intensity of a life or death situation, that Sam realised how lucky she was to still have the opportunity to be in his world, even if it was only on a professional basis.
She had to concede that it wasn't even Dylan who had irritated her today, although he was very much central to the thoughts whizzing round her mind. Her current problem actually revolved around Dr Zoe Hanna, who despite being friendly enough towards Sam seemed to be intent in pursuing her husband. Dylan had made it clear enough to Sam that there was no chance of reconciliation between them, but that didn't make it any easier for her to watch Zoe's continued flirtation with him. The fact that Dylan appeared to be oblivious to her efforts wasn't even providing any comfort, because despite his outward social ineptness she knew that eventually he would be enlightened. He already liked Zoe, which for him was quite a big step in itself, so it wasn't too much of a jump to get him to consider the possibility of there being a potential relationship available.
Sam's feeling of impending doom had only been worsened by Mr Jordan's announcement last week that he was unable to attend the emergency medicine conference in London with Zoe and therefore was sending Dr Keogh in his place. Sam had been surprised by the level of anger that had bubbled up inside her at the thought of them going together, especially because the conference was for two days and therefore necessitated a three night stay in an already booked swish hotel.
On her arrival at work this morning she had initially thought the day may not be as bad as she had anticipated when she had been given the option of choosing which area of the department she worked in. Naturally she had opted for resus, feeling it played to her strengths far more than cubicles or CDU ever had done, as she found patients who were unconscious or barely in the land of the living a lot easier to talk to. Unfortunately despite her getting the unexpected pleasure of choice she had then been saddled with spending the majority of the day with both Zoe and Dylan. She wasn't exactly sure why resus had required all three of them to be present but the closeness of the pair of senior doctors had begun to grate on her nerves almost immediately.
She had started to wonder if she was becoming paranoid or hyper-sensitive at anything relating to her husband, but throughout the shift it seemed that Zoe and Dylan seemed to be off in corners speaking to each other intently every time she looked up. She hated that Zoe had giggled at a lot of Dylan's comments and she'd hated the way Zoe appeared to stop talking every time she approached. The shift had fast become unbearable to the point where she had even offered to swap her resus stint with Lenny's one stuck in cubicles, although Mr Jordan had inexplicably refused to allow their trade. A small part of her even considered that he had noted how uncomfortable she was feeling and was acting as some kind of sadist.
When Dylan had been called away to deal with a case in CDU that required his clinical judgement Zoe started chattering inanely about the fancy meals and shopping opportunities she was looking forward to in London. Sam had been unable to shake the image of her husband and this woman driving down to London together that night in what she hoped would not become a romantic weekend away from her head and something inside her had snapped. She knew her tone had been quite curt and pointed in responding to her colleague when she had informed her that from her own previous experience of attending conferences with Dylan he would only be interested in attending the lectures and indulging himself in conversing with similar souls in an endless game of medical deduction and one-upmanship. When she thought back to some of the events they had been to together, she remembered they had spent most of their time in their hotel room curled up with him reading her extracts from medical journals that he thought may interest her.
She could only hope that Zoe and Dylan would never be in the same hotel room, because the thought of that was enough to make her both cry and scream in equal measure. Equally though her thoughts were dominated by the complexity of the situation they found themselves in. She knew that both her and her husband were considered socially awkward, but she did not understand how it was acceptable for Zoe to be bragging about nights out she was about to have with a colleague's husband. She could only assume that Zoe was either incapable of understanding the distress she was causing or that she was deliberately and publicly trying to stake her claim, but regardless of the reason it had only worsened Sam's mood.
She had escaped resus as soon as her shift was over but her mess of thoughts were still scurrying round inside her brain when she entered the staffroom to collect her belongings. A number of her colleagues were already present and were debating which of the many wine bars and pubs they frequented would be getting their custom that evening.
Whilst she was removing her coat and bag from her locker the door opened again and she knew it was Dylan who had entered without even turning around. His presence always seemed to have an impact on her, but today she would rather have managed to leave without making small talk with him about his trip with Zoe.
"I've been looking for you," he stated, causing her to reluctantly turn around. Without speaking again he stuck his hand out to offer her its contents, which appeared to be a set of keys.
"The dog," he remarked simply, as if this answered the look of confusion that she knew must have crossed her face at this bizarre statement, but she shook her head to indicate that she had no clue what he was talking about. "You need to look after the dog."
Sam felt as if she had been physically slapped. Her husband was going to spend a weekend in a hotel with a female colleague, a colleague who obviously had a soft spot for him, and she had just been demoted from wife to dog-sitter in a matter of words. She looked away for a few seconds to blink back the tears that were threatening to fall at the humiliation and indignation she was feeling before looking back to meet his gaze.
"Isn't there anyone else you can ask?" she queried petulantly, not wanting to make this conversation any easier for him than it was for her.
"No," he responded. "She is your dog too," he added. "Besides Dervla doesn't like change or strangers."
The temptation to shoot back at him with a sarcastic comment that Dervla must take after her master then was almost too great to resist, but instead she just shrugged.
"Ok, whatever," she said, removing the keys from his hand and trying to sound as non-committal as possible. She was about to ask him about the exact requirements of her newly acquired responsibility but Zoe appeared in the doorway to access her own locker and Sam was not prepared to continue the conversation with her in the room.
Instead she turned her attention to the colleagues behind her who were still babbling on mindlessly about a local bar, so rather than speak to Dylan she turned to join in their debate.
"I had a patient the other day who manages that new bar in town," she added in, gaining their attention. "Heaven, I think it was. Anyway, he said he'd let me have discounted drinks all night if I dropped in this week."
Her comments had the desired effect and she found herself enveloped in their murmurings about this potential location for a night of drinking and almost to spite a still watching Dylan she quickly agreed to join them. She was pleasantly surprised by their enthusiastic response to her coming out with them for the first time since her arrival months beforehand, but never before would she have considered socialising with work colleagues. The fact that neither her or Dylan were social animals had been a key reason their marriage had survived as long as it had, so she knew he would be thrown by her sudden interest in a night on the town.
As the rabble of ready to drink colleagues started to bundle out of the room in front of her, Dylan grabbed hold of her by the arm.
"Don't forget about Dervla," he said quietly, to which she instinctively rolled her eyes in response. However unexpected the request may have been she wasn't going to leave his beloved dog to starve, a fact he would already have known. As she shook off his grasp she caught sight of a concerned look in his eyes for a moment, but as Zoe was standing right behind him in the room she airbrushed that thought from her mind and continued past him.
"I'll see you on Monday," she heard him call out after her.
At that moment she was very grateful to Linda for appearing beside her, linking their arms and practically dragging her out of the department. The whole time she had been debating Dylan's upcoming absence with Zoe she had completely missed the relevance of one key fact. Today was Friday and Dylan would be absent for the entire weekend, returning on Monday. Even in the haze of emotions that was now threatening to overwhelm her she could calculate that this meant he would be absent from Holby this Sunday. It was the one day in the whole year that she needed to see him and he wasn't even going to be in same part of the country as her.
She really needed a drink.
Thank you for reading. Reviews are always much appreciated.
Part two should be up tomorrow. Callie x