Serena arrived at the hospital and made her way up to Keller after the usual fly through Pulses for much needed caffeine. Holding two coffees and her bag, she stepped into the empty lift, absentmindedly pressed the button for the AAU and turned around to face back out. As she stared blankly ahead of her at the closing doors they were suddenly interrupted by an arm and dutifully reopened to allow entry to Cameron Dunn.
"Um, good morning Ms Campbell" he ventured cautiously when he saw that he had surprised her out of her half conscious state by his sudden appearance.
"Ah, yes hello Dr Dunn... sorry, I was miles away", she looked down at her coffees as if registering them for the first time. Cameron instantly thought of his mother in Kiev, he briefly wondered whether Serena had been thinking about her too as he watched her, closely registering the brief and resigned sigh she let out before she continued, "How do you have your coffee?". The lift began to move and she looked back up to him waiting for his answer.
"Um, white with two and a half brown sugars... ", he answered.
She let out a small, resigned laugh and smiled ruefully as she offered Bernie's coffee to him following its path with her gaze, "Yes, of course you do. Here."
It dawned on her then, that not only would she see Cameron's face and his smile, both of which that she knew would be a painful reminder every day, of her probable mistake in admitting her feelings to his mother. But that she would also probably continue this ridiculous new custom of buying a coffee every morning for Bernie, the invisible woman! She really needed to focus!
"Oh ok, thank you." He began as he took the gift in front of him. "How did you kn..." He stopped as he realised the answer to the question he almost asked, and perhaps more importantly, who the coffee was supposed to be for. They caught each other's eye briefly and both looked away. The embarrassment and awkwardness arising from the situation was dissipated only by the arrival of the lift on Keller.
As the doors opened and they made their way forward, Serena managed to collect herself together enough to get her first sensible sentence out for the day. She told Cameron that he would find scrubs etc in the staff change rooms and that Fletch would kindly show him where everything was. She introduced him to Fletch at the nurses station and told him to come and see her in the office for a briefing meeting as soon as he'd completed the tour.
Cameron watched her go toward her office with an obvious air of tiredness about her, she disappeared through it and shut the door to the ward behind her. He looked at the coffee in his hand and thought angrily about his mother and her latest escape from facing up to her life... "How many more people can she hurt? This time she may have gone too far, I'm not going to bloody let her", he thought.
"Penny for them mate?" Fletch said after a few moments.
"Is Serena ok?" He ventured "I mean, she seems very distracted if you know what I mean. She's definitely not the woman she was when I was here last, that's for sure."
Fletch knew better than to say outright that he thought Cameron's mum to blame for that and that she should be hung, drawn and quartered for doing what she did to Serena. So he settled, instead, with the rather more subtle, "Well, she usually brings two coffees in every morning but it looks like she managed not to today, so that's an improvement!" the grin leaving his face as Cameron held up his cup and shook his head to indicate there was no change there.
Fletch continued, "Hmmm. Well, I think since your mum went on her secondment, Serena's been feeling the extra pressure of running the Trauma Unit for her a bit..." Cameron tried to hide the guilt he felt on his mothers behalf, and Fletch perceptively tried to lighten the mood saying, "but now you're here to help reduce the load... maybe that will help snap her out of it, hey? C'mon mate, let's show you around".
Cameron gave an unconvinced half smile at that and followed Fletch for a tour of the Ward.
Dutifully reporting to Serena after his tour of the ward Cameron stepped into her office after being granted entry with a "Yep" from within. Looking up from her laptop she gestured for him to sit down in one of the chairs along the wall. "I trust that you know where everything is?" She enquired as he sat down. Somewhat of her usual demeanor had returned since he saw her last, for which he was glad. The paperwork she'd been doing had evidently roused her enough into a kind of professional, work mode and she seemed to be more in her element with it.
"Cameron," she began. "This is a busy ward as I'm sure you noticed the last time you were here..."
"Yes, I did Ms Campbell..." he interrupted, "When I was laying in the bed watching the goings on, I was very impressed with your team, you were all efficient and there was a nice atmosphere. Like a family, if you like." After a beat, he continued before she could, "I just want you to know that I'm not messing around this time. I have given this a great amount of thought and I now know that this is what I want to do. It's what I was always supposed to do."
He had rather taken the wind out of her sails with his speech, she was proud of her team and she was pleased the dynamic was clear to others, but she was also reminded that both his parents were unbelievably good at their jobs and she knew that he probably would be too, given his breeding. She was pleased for him, of course, she liked to see potential in anyone but she was also struggling with anything that placed Bernie back in the forefront of her mind. She remained silent.
Keen to reassure her, he reasoned, "I know my family have form, but, Ms Campbell, I'm not going anywhere. I won't let you down." The look in his eye was almost pleading with her to understand the point he was making. He was desperate for her to know that she could rely on him.
His effort was not lost on her, she appreciated his well meaning thoughts, and she wondered if he would make such efforts if he knew the true nature of his mothers relationship with her, especially given that the last relationship she'd had, effectively ended his parents seemingly happy marriage and broke up the whole family. She smiled gratefully, thanked him and told him that he would be shadowing Dr Digby. News at which his eyes lit up in the same way she'd seen his mothers do... or at least the way they did, when they caught each other's eye across the ward. Her heart gave a little lurch at the thought but she was also intrigued at what his reaction might have meant. She made a mental note to watch that closely.