Merry Christmas peeps! Apologies for the wait but here's my Christmas present to all my readers. This is the spin off story to my first Holby fic and it follows Tabitha's escapades away from her surgical course in London. There will be laughs, there will be tears, and there will definitely be more sexy scenes along the way. I'm not sure how long it's going to be but here are the first two chapters to get you going. Hope you enjoy! :D

So the Journey Begins

"Er…Hi, um, can I get two tickets to, um, two returns, to, er, return tickets that is, um sorry, that was obvious, haha." Arthur was completely lost.
"Can we get two anytime return tickets to London Paddington please?" Tabitha butted in smoothly.

"Can I have a Latte please and Tabitha, what would you like?"
"May I have a medium Cappuccino please?"
"Of course, the Latte would you like a regular one or a Grande?"
"Er…"
"Do you want it medium or large?" Tabby explained into his ear.
"Oh, right, um, regular please? Though I don't see how it can be called regular, I mean how 'regular' is it? You either have a small, medium or large."
"Well…" The café assistant started, "…Regular means medium but we call it regular because that's the size most people get, and Grande means large in Italian and coffee tends to be Italian."
Arthur sucked in through his teeth, "Yes but we live in Britain where we speak English and in English Large is Large so why don't we just leave it that?"
The assistant tried to argue back but couldn't find a suitable come back, so instead gave a sigh of defeat, "That is true, £5.20 please?"

After their coffee Arthur and Tabby headed for the gates where Arthur's ticket failed. Seeing him go red as he held up a number of other business passengers, Tabby grabbed his ticket off him and headed to the ticket officer at the end.
"Hi, sorry, um…" She waved the tickets slightly to explain.
"Yeah no problem." He swiped through his card and let them through the gates.
"So yours didn't work either?" Arthur asked keeping up with Tabby as she was checking the platform numbers on the tickets.
"Don't know, I didn't try it." She explained absently as she found their platform and headed for it.
Arthur gave her a confused look but followed along anyway.
"Oof, sorry." He bumped into her as she halted staring up at the platform information screen.
"Our train's at 8:55 right?" She confirmed.
"Yes."
"So that should be the 3rd train to come in. It's not showing on the board."
"Maybe they only show the first and second ones."
"No because that's coming up with the first train as the 8:45 to Westbury, second is the 8:52 to Great Malvern, then third is the 8:54 to Bath Spa with the fourth being the 9:01 to Cheltenham Spa. Paddington isn't showing up."
Arthur looked around for someone who looked important, then he spotted just the person; a man dressed in smart black trousers and an orange fluorescent vest with the words "Platform Guard" printed on the back. He swiftly shuffled over, "Excuse me, um, on the board, er, our train, um, apparently it's supposed to be the third one up there but, er, well that's according to my, um, partner, work partner by the way not, er_"
"Sorry, do you know when the 8:55 to Paddington is? It's not showing up on the board." Tabby quickly swooped in like a superhero to explain the situation clearly.
"Ah, that, my love, has been delayed, you see, and isn't due until ten past nine, alright, my lovely?" The guard explained cheerfully in a thick west country accent.
"Bloody typical." She rolled her eyes playfully.
"Tell me about it." The guard joked.
"Ok, thanks for your help."
"Not a problem, my love, not a problem." He waddled away.
"Well then, another coffee?"
"How do you do that?" Arthur interrupted, pausing Tabby in her stride.
"Do what?" She asked confused.
"You have been doing it all day?"
She raised her hands questioningly, "Doing what?"
"Well, er…"
"Come on, let's go." She chuckled and headed down the steps to the foyer again.
They idly browsed through the confectionary at WHSmiths for a while; they then moved onto the books and then the magazines, making fun of some of the headlines on the front of them before Tabby checked her watch again, "Well, we'd best be heading back up." She got them back through the barriers and up to the platform again.
"There it is." Arthur pointed out on the board. It was the next train scheduled to arrive.
"You asked me something earlier on." Tabby began the conversation.
"You." He sounded serious.
Tabby stumbled backwards jokingly, "Bloody hell, what about me?"
"All day you have been saving me from awkward situations, you've been so patient and understanding of me I mean, how on earth do you do it?"
"Meh, I used to date guys like you in high school… and med school… and the Medical Education Group." She grimaced when she realised, 'Wow Tabs you used to be a bit of a slut didn't you?'
"Wow, so you were a bit of a sl- *cough*"
Tabby's jaw dropped, "A bit of a what?"
"No, no, nothing."
"No, go on."
"Oh look our train's here." He pointed behind her.
She glanced back before giving him a playful scowl, "Saved by the bloody train." She placed a finger on the corner of her mouth, "No, wait, we now have a 2 hour journey together, oh dear, Arthur, looks like you're in deep sh-"
*Bleep bleep bleep* The doors opened.

Arthur followed Tabby down the train to a four seater table area and placed his suitcase underneath the table with Tabby's before sitting down opposite her. He drummed on his thighs awkwardly as he watched Tabby tapping away on her phone. He filled his cheeks and blew out, slouching dejectedly as he thought about how to go about starting a conversation, "So, I bet you were popular at med school then."
"Meh, not really, I mean when I say that guys like you were the ones that asked me out I think that kind of proves I wasn't popular." She explained still engaged in her phone until she realised what she'd implied, "Not meaning that those guys were unpopular just the fact that I seemed an easy catch because I wasn't surrounded by girlfriends and such you know?" She stared at him hopeful that she hadn't offended him.
He narrowed his eyes, "Good save." He nodded.

After boarding and finding their seats they set themselves up with their entertainment for the journey. It was going to be long, tiresome, awkward and really boring but a quick text from her tall dark and handsome boyfriend lifted her mood:

Hope Digby's not causing you too much trouble with his lack of backbone xxx

She chuckled to herself before replying:

That's mean… but true, missing you already xxx

She gave a contented sigh before getting into her book.

"I didn't insult you too much earlier did I?" Tabby asked still engaged in her book.
"Of course not, I understood you exactly." Arthur pushed up his glasses.
"Are you sure you not humouring me?" She shifted her eyes over her book towards the geeky doctor.
"Sure, sure." He nodded.
Tabby nodded acceptingly then carried on reading.

Minute after minute passed by and the two student doctors were growing tired; thankfully though after a quick snooze and a cup of coffee they had arrived at their destination. Swiftly grabbing their suitcases and belongings they hopped off the train, headed through the station and breezed through the ticket barriers where they met their new tutor of surgery.
"Afternoon both, my name's Edward Solomon Showers." He held out his hand to each of the student doctors in turn.
"*cough* Arthur Digby." He shook his hand with an awkward smile.
"Tabitha Rees." She smiled.
"Pleasure to meet you Miss Rees." He winked.
"The pleasure is all mine Mr Showers." She flirted back.
"Soooo, shall we get going then." Arthur awkwardly tried to move things along.

"These are your quarters, simple apartment but it's-"
"Lush." Tabby gazed around the plush flat in awe as she began to mooch.
"Well these are the cheaper ones, the more expensive ones-"
"I don't care, this is better than Butlins so that does me fine."
Edward chuckled, "Ok."
Arthur then awkwardly butted in, "I'm sorry to disrupt your banter but may I ask if we can see the campus now?"
Edward rolled his eyes, "Ok, sure thing." He smiled before leading the way out.

Edward showed the two junior doctors around their place of learning. Tabitha was in awe, they had some amazing facilities and both of them couldn't wait to get started. It was going to be a long six months and they were going to have to knuckle down hard to get their qualifications at the end of it, but at least they had breaks to head back home and visited their mates and colleagues, and Tabitha was thoroughly looking forward to seeing Henrik again just cuddle into his arms and shower him with kisses, just thinking about it made Christmas feel so far away.