"Rita, a word." It was first thing in the morning and after the day they'd had before Rita really didn't need whatever attitude Connie was undoubtedly going to give her. Still she followed her to her office without question, it was better to bicker - and yes she knew they were bickering despite both being adults – in the privacy of her office rather in front of the other staff and patients.

"Sit, please," Connie gestured to the seat on the other side of her desk.

"What's this about?" Rita asked as she took the seat.

Connie didn't reply verbally and preferred to hand her an envelope.

"What's this?" she asked as she tore the envelope open.

"A new rota." It was at this point that Rita realised that underneath her makeup she looked more tired than usual. She hid it well but her eyes looked more sunken and the bags underneath slightly larger. "After yesterday's… incident I thought it best that-" she began before sighing and looking down briefly.

"What?"

"I," Connie sighed again as if the exchange was physically taxing her. "Apologise."

There was a pause

"Excuse me?"

"I'm sorry for my behaviour."

Rita didn't respond, instead preferring to review Connie's new proposed rota. If she was being honest it was better, even bordering on good. Of course the hours would still be tough, that was a given it came with the job, they all knew that, but at least these hours wouldn't be impossible. She'd have to let Lily know.

To break the pause Connie cleared her throat and Rita looked up. "I thought it would be in the ED's best interests if I consulted you on the new rota before implementing it."

"Well," Rita put the rota on the desk, "it's certainly an improvement," her voice, as it always was when talking to the consultant, was clipped. She got up to leave and took the rota with her saying, "I'll let everyone know," before leaving.

Rita closed the office door behind her and let out a deep breath. Lofty shot her a look that suggested he thought she was in trouble with Connie. Again. She beckoned him over and leaned against the counter. "What do you think of this?" she handed him the envelope.

His eyes widened and his eyebrows went comically far up his forehead. "What did you say to her?"

"Nothing, she must have finally come to her senses. She did apologise to me though."

"Shut up." There were only so many unlikely events in one day and Loft couldn't accept that Mrs. Beauchamp changed the rota and apologised to Rita in such a small space of time. In fact he never thought that she'd ever apologise to her.

Rita took the new rota back and put it in the envelope. "Between you and me I don't think she's had much sleep," she said tapping the paper with her free hand.

"She looked the same to me. You're probably imagining it."

"No, no I don't think so."

"Anyway, you should probably put that up somewhere so everyone knows. Call Lily too, she'll be glad to hear about this."

"I was planning to."

The day went, after its surprisingly good start, very smoothly which was a blessing in the ED so everyone who wasn't on call went out for a celebratory take-out.

"Rita, you alright you look a bit out of it?" Robyn said after she'd been staring into space for about a minute.

"What? Oh right, no I'm fine." Her chin still rested on her hand and she still looked deep in thought though.

Dixie snapped her fingers in front of Rita's face to snap her out of her daze. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm just thinking."

"About?" probed Robyn.

"Why would Connie bother apologising? Her changing the rota would have made her point but I, I don't know, I didn't expect her to swallow her pride and apologise to anyone if she didn't have to, let alone apologise to me."

Dixie's eyebrows quirked and she had a sneaking suspicion something else was afoot that was causing her friend to react so oddly to something that was quite clearly very good for everyone in the ED. "You're acting like this is a bad thing."

"Yeah, I don't think Mrs. Beauchamp has ever apologised to anyone in her life."

Rita picked at her food, maybe she was just overthinking it. Still it was progress and constantly being at the throat of the clinical lead.

A/N- So I'll do my level best to keep this updated because I honestly really love this pair. Side note: Connie arrested for murder? Holy cow