A/N: I've been working on this in my mind for a while, but it's been delayed by laptop issues, work issues and a couple of health issues. Oh, and I managed to just about crack my head open this morning. I'm going to try and keep this to a few chapters, and it'll be set all in one night.

Sarah x

The wind blew right through Serena Campbell, the summer storm brewing all around her. Unnaturally chilly for June, the storm clouds gathered above. It was not the sticky, muggy, humid storms she had become accustomed to in the US. It was cold and threatening, as if it were telling her that everything she knew was ending. Her freedom was straining against her, pulling her back into the eye of that violent tempest while everyone she ever loved dragged her into varying densities of the storm.

Right now it was her mother who dragged her through that particular hell. Of course Adrienne could not help that, and Serena was well aware of this, but it didn't stop her wondering how much more peaceful it would have been to just up and leave it all behind. To start over. Again.

But she couldn't. This was her final move. The last stop before home. And she always went home alone.

With a sigh she stalked over to her car before the heavens were bound to open, preferring not to wait until the rain began to fall. It was going to be another night with just her mother's kind, loving but inconsistent conversation, a few glasses of wine and a hurriedly cooked meal that she doubted would taste very nice in her tiredness and haste to fill her empty stomach with something. She started the engine and waited for the engine to tick over for a minute, putting the radio on in the hope of hearing a local weather forecast.

But no such luck. All she got was pop music and adverts. She reversed out of her parking space and headed onto the road, wondering what to make for dinner. It was getting to the point that, as long as it was food and remotely edible, she really didn't care much. Saying that, though, she had to make the effort for her mother. It was like living with a child again in many ways. It was exhausting and draining and it made her wonder what the point really was.

When she finally reached her home, she saw the first drops of rain fall. The sensible part of her head told her to get moving before it started lashing it down but she craved just another moment's peace before she stepped back into the storm. She watched the clouds and the rain steal the last of what little light had been given through the cracks, blanketing her world, keeping the warmth in and the light out.

She groaned to herself and picked up her handbag, taking her key out of the ignition before she locked the car and made a bolt for the door. The customary call of "Is that you, Rena?!" never came, and its absence sent Serena's heart into her mouth. She bypassed shedding her coat, shoes and bag and hurried to the living room. To her relief, she found Adrienne sitting on the sofa, laughing at the television, obviously having not heard Serena come in the door. Allowing herself a little smile, she relaxed a little in the knowledge her mother was alright.

"What do you want for dinner, Mum?" Serena smiled gently.

Adrienne turned to her, a wide beam still on her face. "Oh, hello, darling. I didn't hear you come in." Serena just smiled to herself as Adrienne got to her feet. "You're soaking, Serena."

"Yeah, that was just from the car to the front door. I think there's a storm coming," she admitted. "Dinner?"

"Oh, it was just delivered about two minutes before you walked in," Adrienne smiled. "You looked so shattered this morning that I though you could do with a night off cooking, and since you won't let me cook, I ordered us pizza." Serena's eyes narrowed and Adrienne's looked to the ceiling, an exchange they seemed to make almost daily now. "Come on, Serena," she sighed. Serena laughed slightly and took off her coat and shoes at the front door, laying her bag down on the floor. This constant flicking between anxiety and relief was like being slapped in the face repeatedly from two different angles.

She smelled the familiar scent of pizza, cola and chicken strips, and remembered when her mother used to treat her to pizza and fizzy juice when she was upset as a young girl. It was a blast from the past that was both comforting and unnerving for her.

Heaving a sigh, she padded through to the kitchen, her feet aching like hell from a long day in theatre. More and more these days, she found she felt her age a little more. Or perhaps it was just stress mounting up with no way to release it.

Her mother handed her a plate with pizza and chicken strips on it, and a large glass of cola. A rare feeling of contentment, despite the underlying demon in the room with them, spread through Serena. It was a moment shared with her mother, and she was quickly learning to keep them sealed in her memory for she knew there would come a time Adrienne would no longer be able to.

Together they laughed at the television, momentarily forgetting all the strain in their lives, and the stress they caused one another. As Serena bit into a chicken strip, the doorbell rang. Out of habit she went to move her plate from her lap, and Adrienne tried to halt her, but she knew she could get rid of whoever it was more efficiently than Adrienne's incessant politeness allowed. The doorbell rang again, almost impatiently, and as she dashed down the hall she shouted, "Alright, alright, I'm coming!"

She swung the front door open, the wind helping her efforts, and was stunned to see a man she had not seen in months standing before her. "Serena," he said. Part of her really wanted to slam the door in his face just to remind him of all his mistakes, but the sincere apology in his eyes was evident, before he had said anything but her first name. She raised her eyebrow at him, making it clear he was definitely not off the hook for both lying to her and leaving her in the lurch. "I got back to Holby ten minutes ago and the road to my house is blocked by a fallen tree."

"What do you want me to do about that?" she demanded. There was a massive part of her being that was utterly furious with him, purely because he hurt her. He didn't explain before he left. He didn't say goodbye. He just left. "Look, Ric, I'm tired and I'm grouchy. Don't test my patience with stupid requests."

"I haven't asked you anything yet!" he protested loudly, and Serena closed her eyes as she heard Adrienne get up in the living room. The last thing she needed was her mother poking her nose in where Ric was concerned.

Serena laughed slightly and retorted, "You want me to go with you and shift that tree, don't you?"

"You are joking, aren't you?" Ric laughed cheerfully. "The size of that thing, it'll take a military operation to move it," he joked. Serena stood there, feeling Adrienne approach behind her, and felt her feelings of anger and affection for Ric entangling until she was lost. "Just...let me in. Please." Serena hesitated. Didn't she feel worked up enough without Ric's presence too?

Adrienne said from behind, "Come in, Ric. We have pizza!" Serena shot her mother a glare and looked around to find Ric looking amused, wearing a smirk Serena instantly wiped off his face with just one look. Not taking her stony stare off him, she stood aside for him to enter her house. "Oh, shoes off," Adrienne added. "It drives Rena up the wall when people trample dirt into her floors."

Ric grinned and Adrienne wandered back to the living room, leaving Serena alone with Ric as he removed his wet coat and his shoes. She made her point clear in her silence – that he had gone about everything the wrong way. That he had been gone when she had needed him. That he had no idea what had gone on in his absence because he had not bothered to make any contact with her. Had he bothered with her, he would have been able to hear even in her voice that she was hurting, just as he always had done. It wasn't often she actually needed him, but the one time she did, he was not there for her, and that stung.

"Are you angry with me?" he asked quietly. "I would completely understand if you were."
Now that he was here, so close to her, she didn't feel as angry. Now that she saw that he was sorry for the way he did things, she wasn't as inclined to slap him. "No," she whispered, grudgingly admitting that he hadn't exactly angered her. It was more like he had wounded her. That he hadn't been there when she had secretly hit rock bottom. "No, I'm not angry. Not anymore."

"Then what's the death glare in aid of?"

"I might not be angry, Ric, but I mean what I said before. Please, just don't test my patience right now." He nodded in acknowledgement of her caution. "How's Jess?" she added, knowing his daughter was the reason he left in the first place.

"She's getting there," Ric smiled. "It's been a challenge, both logistically and emotionally, but she's getting there. Jacob is adjusting. David is nowhere to be seen, thankfully. There's been a lot of arguing, and many sleepless nights, but they've finally settled down, I think."

Serena smiled slightly at the obvious love he held for his daughter, despite their strained relationship. It was something Serena saw from all angles, as she held complex and sometimes painful relationships with bother her mother and her daughter, and she didn't see it getting better anytime soon.

"You and your mother seem closer."

"Yes, well, we don't have much choice," she said, a dark tone to her voice that frightened even her while Ric's face dawned an expression of confusion. "She's not well, Ric. It looks like dementia." Slipping back into this friendship, this connection, seemed so effortless that she felt that it was too easy. That she couldn't trust it. Since when could she trust a feeling that came to her without her having to understand it? She struggled to trust anything these days.

Ric's face changed into a look of sad and uncomfortable understanding. "Oh, Serena, I am so sorry," he sighed. That voice, that tone she had almost forgotten, took her walls down, and she had to look away so she could retain her composure. His hand touched her back gently. "I'm glad to see your face again," he confessed. His arm sneaked around her shoulders and she smiled slightly; though she didn't want to admit it, she had missed him dearly while he was away. She felt him kiss her cheek and squeeze her tight.

Looking straight ahead, right down the hallway, she smirked, "You've only been back quarter of an hour ago. Don't push your luck." She allowed herself to turn her head to face him, taking in the depths of his eyes and the contours of his skin, and she smiled a little at him, just glad to have him back. She knew there were things they still needed to talk about, things that could not go unsaid and things he would find out when he went back to work anyway, but at least she wasn't alone anymore.

Despite her doubts she led him to the living room and sat down, offering him a slice of pizza, bracing herself for the height of the storm that neither could escape. She knew Ric faced a storm of his own too, and she was not the only one who desperately sought shelter these days. Safety was something she knew eluded Ric time after time, because the mistakes he and others made only brought him trauma, and she hated that he had felt he could not have fully confided in her.

So as the storm grew more powerful outside, she braced herself for its impact on her and Ric.

Hope this is OK!
Please feel free to leave a review and tell me your thoughts!
Sarah x