A/N: this one is from Serena's point of view, and turned into a little bit of a feminist rant from me sorry! Enjoy :) x

1992

Serena settled down into a seat at the back of the lecture hall, setting down her coffee and rummaging through her bag to find her notebook. As always, she was early but that was how she liked it, able to get the seat she liked and she used the ten minutes before the lecture began to watch people entering the room. As usual, she was the only female there, most of the other seats were being filled with balding white men.

Surgery was still very much an old boy's club, made up of stuffy upper class old farts, and Serena was the only female that regularly attended her hospital's monthly surgical grand round. As a junior doctor she was subject to a lot of sexism, despite the rise in percentage of female medics. Her seniors had sneered when she showed an interest in surgery, suggesting that general practice may be more suited to a woman's lifestyle and hinting that she wouldn't be strong enough to cope with long hours of standing.

This had just made her more determined to prove them all wrong. She was currently trying to get a surgical trainee post, having taken two years out of medicine to do her MBA at Harvard. It gave her a massive edge in applications and her fiercely competitive nature meant she wanted to do as much as possible to ensure she got her dream job. That was why she attended these lectures every month: to further her knowledge of surgical fields and show her dedication to surgery. It infuriated her that a lot of her male colleagues did not need to bother, she had to do so much more to get ahead in her career than those with whom she had graduated.

This month's lecture was busy, there were many unfamiliar faces and the sixty or so seats were filling fast. She wasn't surprised; Major Duncan Rathbone was a world renowned surgeon in the Royal Army Medical Corps and he was giving a lecture on transferring field trauma techniques into the NHS. It was a fascinating subject, especially as it would probably entail a lot of vascular surgery, but Serena suspected that the main attraction to a lot of the younger doctors here was stories of war.

Major Rathbone greeted everyone and started talking. He was a formidable figure, easily six foot six, with broad shoulders and a square set jaw. His voice was soft but projected well which commanded attention. Serena could see why he was so well respected as both a surgeon and an officer; he probably didn't bark orders like she had seen people doing on TV or film, but she could imagine that no one dared to disobey him.
He was a fantastic speaker and within five minutes she was almost considering signing up to RAMC herself; until she thought about the army lifestyle and decided she liked her home comforts slightly too much.

About ten minutes into the talk the door opened and Serena tutted. Lateness was one of her pet peeves, how hard was it to be organised and turn up on time? It was probably some arrogant surgeon that would make an excuse about a long and complicated procedure when in reality he'd been enjoying his midday cigarette. So she was surprised to see a tall blonde woman, probably about the same age as herself. She looked quite flustered, her long curls messy from the wind and cheeks flushed. Serena hadn't seen her around before; while a lot of the people here rarely turned up to the grand round meetings, she had seen most of them on the wards. She looked around for a seat, the only one was just in front of Serena. She was quite pleased that she was no longer the only female in the room, even if this stranger was disrupting the talk.

Hopefully, she was a fellow doctor and aspiring surgeon and Serena wanted to talk to her after the hour had finished, work out why she hadn't met this woman before. As she made her way towards the back of the room and got closer, Serena noticed a slight fullness under her shirt, she was obviously a few months pregnant. Even better, a female doctor starting a family. Serena was planning on having children, although she first needed to plan her wedding to Edward, and wanted to be well established in a surgical training post before she could even consider taking a career break.

Once the woman had settled down in front of her, Serena turned her attention back to Major Rathbone and what he was saying about methods of prioritising patients to make emergency and elective surgeries run smoothly without too many cancellations. The hour passed quickly, he was an engaging speaker, encouraging the audience to interact and ask questions as he spoke. Serena had filled several pages with notes, but every so often she glanced at the latecomer in front. She hadn't made any notes at all and had spent the entire time relaxed back in her seat, arms folded and resting on top of the slight bump.

Serena was quite envious, she was very slim and was one of the lucky women that carried all the weight in a nice round bump at the front, from the back she probaly didn't look pregnant at all. Her mother had once told Serena that having children would ruin her body and she'd never be able to lose the baby weight, but she suspected this lady would give birth and look exactly the same as before.

When the lecture ended there was a slight queue for people to talk to the Major. Serena slowly packed her things away, she still had half an hour before her shift started. Her fellow female stood and arched her back, the material of her shirt stretching slightly at the front. She caught Serena's eye and smiled.

"It's nice to see a fellow female at these meetings, I'm normally the only one," Serena was naturally confident and easily spoke to strangers.

"I'm not local, only in the area because I heard Major Rathbone was speaking," the blonde replied.

"Ah, seems he has quite the fan club," Serena said. "Look at them all queuing like teenage girls at a Take That concert."

She looked slightly puzzled by this, gave a small chuckle that sounded like she knew there was a joke in there somewhere, but didn't really understand it. Almost as if she didn't know who Take That were, how strange!

"I'm sure they wouldn't be so keen if they'd been subject to his early morning training drills!" What an odd comment, Serena thought to herself.

The two of them made their way to the front of the hall, Serena wanted to get another coffee to keep her going through the late shift.

"Ah, Lieutenant, good to see you," Major Rathbone stepped away from the junior doctor with whom he was currently talking to greet the blonde woman.

That explained why she hadn't seen this woman before, she was obviously an army doctor, on leave to have children.

"Major," she saluted, "Fantastic lecture, how long are you over in the UK for?"

"Only a few weeks, twenty-fifth anniversary celebrations with the missus. When will we be getting you back?"

Serena was surprised by the informal way they were talking. She'd expected a junior officer to be similar to a junior doctor; only there to carry out the menial tasks while the senior consultants showboated in surgery. She would never consider talking about her personal life with any of her seniors.

"Not for a few months, sir" she said, nodding down at her bump.

"Well, congratulations! Although your presence will be sorely missed. She is well on her way to becoming a leading trauma consultant, I need to watch out or I'll be out of a job!" He let out a loud, barking laugh.

Serena realised he was addressing her and chuckled politely, unsure what to do. She wasn't really sure why she had hung back, but she felt an affinity to this blonde, a fellow spirit fighting through a male dominated profession to get to the top. It was nice that Major Rathbone was appreciative of her talents, and seemed to treat her as an equal.

"I have to say, I'm disappointed by the lack of women attending the lecture, do you think it's just because the army doesn't appeal?" She was impressed that it seemed to be an issue for the army Major, she had expected he would be similar to a lot of the surgeons within her own hospital.

"I'm not sure it's the army, it's the surgery that doesn't appeal, sir."

"Well, that is a shame. Are you a surgeon yourself?"

"Well I'm hoping to get a training post, I'm absolutely fascinated by vascular surgery." She felt a bit embarrassed, admitting that her passion was the same specialty as the Major's.

"Wonderful, I'm doing a few teaching surgeries while I'm on leave, would you like to join and maybe assist? Any friend of the Lieutenant's must be a fantastic doctor, she's quite choosy."

Serena noticed the Lieutenant was blushing now and so she admitted that they hadn't actually met before, but if it was okay she would still like to observe the surgeries. She couldn't quite believe her luck, this was a fantastic opportunity and she had to put in a lot of effort not to squeal and hug the Major. He gave Serena his details and she gushed her thanks, earning a small smirk from the Lieutenant.

"You're a very lucky woman, he is a dream to watch in theatre. I'd better be off, sir, Marcus will be wondering where I've got to. I'm going for a scan later. It was nice to meet you, and good luck on the job application," the blonde smiled broadly at Serena. She had a friendly face, long nose and freckles dotted her cheeks. She was glowing, and Serena felt a pang of envy. She couldn't imagine Edward wanting to go to a scan with her, or supporting her through an army life with months of being absent.

Before Serena had a chance to talk to her, she had turned and strode out of lecture hall. She'd been right, there was absolutely no evidence of the baby bump from behind.

Serena got to assist Major Rathbone in an open aortic aneurysm repair and she decided that the rush she experienced was better than any drug (she'd only ever smoked cannabis herself, but a few friends had described their trips to her and her elation and giddiness after surgery sounded pretty similar).

She got the training post and a couple of years later she and Edward finally started the family she'd wanted. When she was pregnant, she thought of the Lieutenant a few times, wondering what she was doing now, whether she had been promoted and was making a name for herself as a RAMC surgeon.

A/N: Okay so this is set in 1992 when Bernie would have been pregnant with Cameron, because it also fits with when I reckon Serena would have been a junior doctor but she hasn't had Elinor yet. However, she references Take That and I know they didn't become super famous until about 94, so just pretend that they were famous before that? Because I can't think of any similar boy bands in that year that would have had a massive teenage girl fanbase... (if anyone can let me know!)

Also, a grand round is a teaching opportunity where doctors from the hospital present a case or interesting topic, but they do sometimes have external speakers