"Jason, I'm off to work. Don't forget to get some milk on your way home; we are almost out and there won't be enough for coco-pops tomorrow!", she smiled at him fondly as he nodded and scooped up the last of today's coco-pops that were drowning in browned milk.
"Have a good day ok", she patted his shoulder lightly, knowing that any more affection than that could have interesting consequences; Lord knows, she thought to herself absentmindedly, she could use some sort of affection from someone right now.
"Bye Aunty Serena, you have a good day too. I won't forget the milk." He replied. At least he doesn't change, she thought as she made her way out to the car. Since Bernie had left for Kiev, Serena had had to concentrate on someone or something to take her mind off her abject misery, and her relationship with Jason had become rather more, close as a result - she couldn't say if it was for him, but it was for her. It's not that she was neglecting him before that, it was just that she was able to put in a little more time and understanding. He was unbelievably difficult to deal with at times but she had been getting things right mostly and it was quite rewarding really. Serena needed to get things right; to be good at things and this was a challenge she could easily distract herself with. It helped her to completely ignore other things that might play on her mind.
She'd been continuing to distract herself with thoughts about the week ahead with Jason when she arrived at work. She'd driven to work almost on automaton and couldn't quite remember the exact route she took. This kind of thing had been happening a lot lately. Her mind just seemed to be elsewhere when it should have been on the task at hand. It was most worrying when it happened in theatre. As a result she'd been taking on less and less practical and burying herself in paperwork.
She found herself in the office with two coffees in hand, again not quite remembering how she'd got there. And it wasn't the first time she'd gotten a coffee for herself and one for Bernie. Bloody Bernie - who wasn't bloody here. As if she needed reminding. She certainly did not! She set them down on the desk and sank into her chair letting out a great sigh, "Oh for goodness sake Serena! You need to get a bloody grip!" Dropping her head into her hands. A quick short rap on the door broke her thoughts, her eyes snapped up to see it open followed by Raf's smiling head. "Morning! Hanssen was looking for you. He asked us to send you his way when you got in..." he said brightly. She instantly, defensively, racked her brain to think what that could be about but there was nothing immediately obvious, despite being short staffed things had been more subdued of late - or maybe that was just her - "Right. Ok, thanks Dr Di Lucca", he gently shut the door again. As she made to get up, she thought that she had been at Holby City long enough to know that this place was always so full of surprises, it could be about anything. Exhaling deeply, she briefly glanced at Bernie's empty chair opposite and quickly made her way out, desperately trying not to think about how much she missed her and how angry she still was about the whole darn thing.
Serena knocked on the door of Henrik's office and waited to be called in. As she opened the door, Henrik rose from his desk and she was about to ask what this was all about when she registered the presence of another person in the room. Also rising and turning towards her as she approached the desk, she found herself looking into familiar dark eyes that made her heart violently lurch... "Good morning Dr Campbell", he began, nervously thrusting his hand towards her. Absolutely floored by the overwhelming feelings of god-knows-what rising within her, she automatically took the hand in front of her and shook it weakly, quite flustered she finally managed to croak out a "G...good morn... Good morning Cameron".
Her feelings turned to confusion, she paused and glanced at Henrik for an explanation, "Ah, to.. to what do we owe this pleasure...?", she ventured, looking from Henrik back to Cameron, her mind then jumped to the thought that something might be wrong, suddenly concerned she asked, "Ah, is everything ok?"
Cameron smiled - god he looked like his mother, she felt herself flush slightly at the thought and she dropped her eyes to the floor momentarily as she tried to keep a look of panic and embarrassment off her face.
Sensing the strange atmosphere, Henrik pipes up finally, "Cameron approached me a couple of weeks ago with the view that he would like to continue his training. We have discussed it in quite amount of detail because, as we know, don't we, Dr Campbell" as if to stress the point to Cameron, "it's not something we want to take lightly." Cameron dropped his head in slight embarrassment at his apparent fickle nature.
Henrik, addressing Serena continued, "Without wishing to speak out of turn, I think it's fair to say that the recent accident helped to put things back into perspective for him. We have agreed that an internship with the AAU would be beneficial for his training", the colour began to drain from Serena's face as she realised what was happening, Henrik quickly continued so that there could be no argument, "so with that in mind I'd like to start him on the ward as soon as possible. Tomorrow."
Serena's eyes grew wide at the suggestion, and resentment at not being consulted in the plan grew within her. However, she didn't want to come across negatively toward Cameron, as much as her pride was being battered here, she still could not forget who he was, and she could not help but feel a touch maternal when she looked at his young, very familiar, face, so she very quickly set her own with a professional façade and responded, "Very well, god knows we could use the help, what with the... ah, shortage of staff we are experiencing on the ward recently."
Cameron looked at her with a mixture of happiness at her acceptance of him, but also of knowing that it was his own mother she was not all that subtly referring to. With that she turned to leave shooting a resigned look to Henrik as she did. She knew there was nothing she could do about the new arrangement; Hanssen always had a plan, she just wondered what it was.
Reaching her office she leant against the back of the door wondering what on earth she had done to deserve this. Babysitting Bernie's, frankly quite irresponsible son, was not the highest up on her bucket list and she couldn't help feeling a little resentful towards his mother at this. What else was going to land at her feet; it seemed the fallout from Bernie's departure just kept on coming. She would need a great vat of Shiraz at the end of all this, she thought as she picked up the now lukewarm coffee on her desk.