Thanks to perpetualpathology for being my beta and to everyone that has read it and left a review, and followed the story :-)
The following morning there was a somber mood around the hospital because everyone was aware that Serena Campbell was fighting for her life up in ITU. Ric and Michael spent the night in the on-call rooms. Guy spent half of it on the sofa in his office and the other half trying to keep his job; two murder charges and a staff member stabbed had not impressed the board. The board had started to push for him to leave the post. Whilst Chantelle had ended up camping on the sofa in the staffroom on Keller and Eleanor had refused to move from her Mum's bedside or let go of her hand.
In the taxi on the way to Holby Hanssen was mentally preparing himself for when he stepped into the hospital. He knew that the rumour mill would go into overdrive from the second that people saw him. But his main priority would be Serena and taking care of Eleanor. Slowly he was driven up to the entrance. He then paid the driver and had gotten out when he finally noticed that instead of standing outside of Wyvern Wing he been dropped in front of the ED. He chose to walk into the department and get the lift up instead of walking round. The second he stepped foot into the department no one turned to look at him or recognised him. So headed to the lifts and stepped in.
"Mate, what floor do you want to go to?" Max asked.
"ITU" He replied simply but whilst the porter in front of him frowned, the lift had been summoned from the floor above so the doors closed and it started moving.
"You're not heading there mate. You're a member of the press and I don't want you near that part of the hospital. You don't want to mess with me mate." He warned all while trying to look big and strong. Hanssen was pleased that everybody was looking out for Serena including the ED porter but he tried to put his argument that he wasn't a paparazzo but Max was not buying it.
It wasn't till Dr Zoe Hanna stepped in from the floor above and heard what Max was saying, pushed the floor she wanted and ITU then spoke.
"Max, Henrik is not press trust me." The lift just remained quite and everyone got off at the floors needed. It wasn't until Max returned to the ED and the story about the tall posh man called Henrik that Zoe said "Only you would think the Former CEO Henrik Hanssen would be a member of press."
When Hanssen arrived outside of ITU he was shocked at the state that Serena was in; she was so pale and small in the hospital bed. Tubes and wires everywhere. Chest drain in the left side and temporary packs inside of her. But the most shocking thing was that of the ventilator. How could someone so independent become dependent on so many machines to stay alive? He caught the door just as someone was leaving, headed over to the bed and felt Eleanor wrap herself around his body. He felt her tears against his chest, as he returned the action and rubbed his hands up and down over her back. They spent the next 10 mins like that until Eleanor let go and wiped her face with the sleeve of her top and said that she was off to get something to eat. Then, Hanssen finally let his emotion show.
"The second you get out of here and are well enough to fly, me you and Ellie are going on holiday. Somewhere hot and I don't care about the scars. To me they are apart of your story. You have everybody looking out for you from the porter called Max in the ED right up, the pain in the arse American."
He started to wonder where Eleanor had got to when Ric showed up.
"Chantelle has taken Eleanor back to her place so that they can get some proper sleep. Serena's MDT meeting is in half an hour in the board room. Now that she's stable, we can finish fixing the damage. Mr Hanssen she's in for a long road, the damage was extreme: a collapsed left lung and puncture to it, a removed section of the liver, repaired the left kidney. And there was a wound to lower back that just missed the spinal cord and she lost the baby. She was also down for fifteen minutes so don't know if there is any brain damage. But she's made it this far, she's fighting and her obs have improved and become more stable. This afternoon, I'd like to remove all the packs and check for any hidden bleeds."
As Ric was leaving he passed Jac just as she was entering nodding at each other. When Jac made to the bed she double checked the notes and chest drain and turned to Hanssen.
"You know she will get better. There's is no way in hell that she'll let Dumb and Dumber in charge of her ward and undo all her hard work. It was nightmare when they shared the post of Director of Surgery and was running the hospital. Keller will probably become the centre of plastics once again. Once you're awake I'll fill you in the stories they got up. Stuff of nightmares." They both noted the increase in heart rate on the monitor and laughed at each other noting Serena was in there and giving them hope.
Hanssen was then left her in peace, reflecting on how much his life had changed since Holby. Never in a million years did he expect to be dating the Iron Lady of Keller. How just meeting up once a week to give her some respite from her mother turned into something serious. He still got butterflies every time he thought about their first time. How she felt that she was not going to meet his needs and that the only way to shut her up was kissing her. He ended up falling asleep in the chair dreaming about future that he could build but was woken up very suddenly when Serena's crash alarm started going off and he was pushed out the way.