Chapter 2

It wasn't until a little over three weeks later when Connie was next seen in the hospital, and this time she was there to work.

The news had only been delivered to Elle that morning, so the rest of the staff had no opportunity to be told before Connie came into the department to begin her shift. She looked perfect, as if the crash had never even happened, and she didn't seem the least bit nervous or unconfident that she was fully capable of doing her job, although something about her was off.

The team were slightly shocked by the sudden return of their clinical lead, since she had been away for about 5 months now, but they swiftly adapted and made the best of the situation that they were able to. Even Jacob managed to keep calm and do his job around Connie, despite not knowing where he stood with her.

Just before Jacob's lunch break Charlie went into the office that they shared and sat at his desk before speaking.

"Ah, Jacob, just the man I've been looking for." Charlie began, making Jacob nervous. As far as he was aware he had been working excellently recently, so he couldn't think what could Charlie want to speak to him about, especially since his tone of voice was rather serious.

"Yeah, everything alright?" Jacob replied, trying to act calm and cool.

"Well, I was just thinking actually…maybe one of us should speak to Connie; she's obviously not herself at the moment."

Almost as if a switch had been flicked, Jacob became a lot more defensive. "Yeah, and what do you want me to do? She's been horrible to everyone and she obviously wants nothing to do with me." Jacob had noticed the change in Connie, it was almost exactly the same as when they'd broke up after Grace had returned from America, but he doubted that anything specific could be changed, certainly not from just having a conversation with the woman.

It took Charlie a few long moments to speak again, taking a deep breath before doing so. "I'm sorry, have you been ignoring the fact that your girlfriend is having a breakdown, or have you just not bloody noticed?" Charlie rarely ever raised his voice, especially at work, but he was wondering just how stupid Jacob had to be to not realise that Connie was ill.

Jacob was silent. He didn't know what to say. Was she having a breakdown? And had he been too involved in worrying about his own feelings that he hadn't bothered to recognise hers? "No, Charlie, Connie is not having a breakdown. She's just dealing with a lot at the moment."

"How would you know? You've not even bothered to look at her since the crash." Charlie disputed.

Jacob had no reply, because he knew it was true. He hadn't really tried with her as much as he could have done, not since the few days following the crash, in fact, all he had really done was look at other women, and he had sunken low enough to sleep with one of them – although he had regretted it the very next morning.

"I'll speak to her; you go for your break." Charlie left the office as he finished speaking, not wanting to give Jacob the option to debate.

X

As there was a knock on her office door, Connie called for the person on the other side to come in, hoping it wasn't Jacob. She felt a small wave of relief when Charlie opened the door and stepped into the office.

"Afternoon Charlie, what can I do for you?" Connie kept a formal tone as usual, acting as if the past 6 months had never even happened, which worried Charlie more than he'd initially realised.

Charlie sat on the sofa in Connie's office, noting that she'd moved a few things around in the small room. "I'm just making sure you're alright. You seem different."

"Well, it's been a long time, you know. You can't expect me to stay the same woman forever." Connie replied, already knowing that Charlie could sense that she had changed for the worse, and that it wasn't just a normal change.

"Come on, this is me you're talking to." Charlie sighed quietly and smiled at Connie to reassure her. "What's wrong, Connie?"

"It's not that simple." Although Connie's voice did not crack or change at all, there were visible tears pooling in her eyes. "There's a lot more to it." This in itself was a confession for Connie, although it was too vague for Charlie to make much sense out of it.

"What do you mean? Did something happen to Grace?" Not wanting to push too hard in case Connie built her walls up too high for him to break them down, Charlie carefully selected his words to gleam as much information as possible from Connie.

"Yes. No. I don't know." The room was silent once again, Connie thinking about what to say and Charlie not wanting to interrupt her in case she shut down. After a few minutes Connie spoke again. "Sam took her back to New York."