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Zosia woke the next morning to the chirping of birds and though she could see that it was light outside through the thin tent walls, she checked the time on her phone to see if she could catch another half an hour sleep. Unfortunately, it was a mere hour before they were due to leave and though Arthur and Dom were still fast asleep, she decided to get up and make herself a hot drink to wake her up.
She was feeling much better than the previous day so she grabbed the Trangia, took it outside and began heating up the water. She was just pouring a sachet of hot chocolate into her plastic mug when her father came over.
"I thought you were more of a coffee mind of woman." He commented.
"I used to be when I was staying up late at night studying, but now that it's the end of term, I can't have caffeine or I'll be up all night and can't sleep. And it gives me heartburn sometimes which isn't exactly fun." Zosia admitted. "Do you want some? I can put some more water on." She offered.
"Oh no, thanks. I'm not really a hot chocolate kind of guy." He grinned. "How're you feeling this morning? Alright?"
"Yeah, I had some more codeine in the middle of the night and I'm fine now."
"Just remember that codeine is–"
"Addictive and that I shouldn't take it for more than 2 or 3 days, I know." Zosia interrupted.
"Of course you know, my little F2." Guy beamed proudly.
"Good morning campers." Jonny grinned as he opened Mo and Adele's tent where both women were crashed out on the ground after a few too many beers around the fire the night before. The two sisters alongside Sacha and Colette had been the last to call it a night but everyone else had been asleep by the time they had done so. But Jonny's voice hadn't woken the Effangas so he cleared his throat and then shouted: "Good morning campers!" He shouted.
"Jonny Mac!" Mo moaned.
"You two do realise that it's about 7:30am so you've only got half an hour to get ready and pack your tent up yes?"
"Adele I thought you said you set an alarm for 7am." Mo protested.
"I did but I must've slept through it." Adele yawned. Jonny chuckled before he left them two to it and he went back over to his tent where he found Jac tying her hair back into a high ponytail as she knelt on the top of their sleeping bag because their tent wasn't tall enough for them to stand up in it.
"Good morning beautiful." He smiled.
"Why're you in such a good mood?" Jac raised an eyebrow.
"Maybe it's just all this Scottish air." He smirked. "Come on, you've got to admit it, it's beautiful here with the lake and everything. And of course, the Loch Ness monster." He joked.
"You don't actually believe in that do you?" Jac retorted.
"Of course I do." He replied at first. "Nah I'm just kiddin'. Do you believe in such things?"
"Of course I don't."
"Oh come on, there's got to be something that you believe in. I know it certainly isn't god, but maybe fairies? Pixies, goblins, mermaids?" He smirked.
"Oh yeah, I really believe in all of them. I go out hunting for them every week." Jac said sarcastically before she began packing her clothes into her bag.
"You should leave your hair natural more often, it looks nice like this." Jonny smiled as he ran his fingers through her long, wavy, auburn ponytail.
"Let's start taking this tent down, shall we?"
"You have got to learn how to take a compliment!" Jonny laughed at her avoidance of acknowledgement of his comment.
The group of 10 medical professionals had been walking for almost an hour when they reached a café with a veranda overlooking Loch Ness.
"Right, we'll take a break here for about 20 minutes if anyone wants to get some breakfast or a hot drink." Guy announced as he placed his bag down on an outdoor table. "If you want to tell me what you, Dom and Arthur want, tell me and I'll go and order it and I'll pay." He informed his daughter.
"Fine by me." Zosia smirked as she grabbed a table with the junior doctors.
"Did I just hear that right? We're getting free food?" Dom grinned.
"Yep." Zosia nodded as she sat down on one of the basket weave chairs.
"Right I'll have a…"
"What do you want?" Jonny asked as he shoved his hiking bag under the table after he'd grabbed his wallet. He and Jac had grabbed a table on the other side of the veranda away from the others but Sacha being Sacha, hadn't picked up on the fact that they were after some peace and quiet and he'd pulled a chair up to the table for two and joined them.
"Double expresso please. Oh, and get a couple of bottles of water for later; we haven't got a lot left." Jac replied.
"You not want anything to eat?" Sacha queried.
"We had porridge made on our trangia this morning." Jonny informed the general surgeon. "But that ain't gonna stop me – I'm going to have a full Scottish breakfast." He declared.
"And what's the difference from a full English?" Sacha asked. "I'm assuming it's got black pudding."
"Yep, and us Scots do not go skimpy on the serving sizes."
"Mm, which is why Scotland is in the midst of an obesity epidemic." Jac said with a hint of sarcasm. "Just go and get me my expresso." She ordered.
"Do you really think that it's wise to be eating that when we've still got to walk several miles today and tomorrow?" Zosia raised an eyebrow as Dom sat at the outdoor table, devouring into a plate of food from bacon and mushrooms to hash browns and fried bread.
"I'll be fine." Dom shrugged. "Besides, I doubt that eating this is worse than only eating an apple." He added.
"Fine." Zosia said as she nicked a mini hash brown bite from his plate and placed it in her mouth. "Happy?" She quipped with a mouthful.
"You never were the girly-girl your mother had imagined you to be." Guy chuckled as he walked past on his way to the table he was sharing with Colette with two steaming cups in his hands. "Oh and your lace is undone." He added.
"Hm? Oh I'll do it in a minute."
Zosia was walking along the forest path just meters away from Loch Ness as she led the group of ten hospital employees. Only as pointed out before, her lace was undone. As she had done a million times before, she went to put one foot in front of the other but one foot was stood on the lace of the other…
"Ha ha!" Dom shrieked with laughter as she'd fallen to the ground but with such a heavy bag on her back, it wasn't just a small tumble. She would've fallen on her face but the bag had changed her centre of gravity and she'd twisted as she'd fallen so she'd crashed to the hard ground on her side.
"Zosia? Are you alright?" Guy asked concernedly as he dived onto his knees on the floor in front of her.
"I think I've hurt my ankle." Zosia grimaced as she slid the bag off of her back and then sat up to evaluate the injury.
"Right ladies and gentlemen, we're due another break so we'll stop here for fifteen minutes or so." Guy announced to draw the attention away from his fallen daughter. "You think you've broken it?" He asked gently.
"No, I caught it on something." She muttered and she then found that above her trainer on her left foot, was a small gash oozing with blood and sticking out of the dirt path was a sharp rock.
"I'll get my first aid kit out." Colette stated as she also placed her bag on the ground.
"I told you earlier your laces were undone." Guy protested as he gestured the tangled mess around her shoes. "And I told everyone before they came to get a decent pair of hiking boots not trainers." He added sternly.
"You try living on an F2's salary and see if you can waste £50 on a pair of boots that you're only going to use a couple of times." Zosia quipped. "And if you wouldn't mind, I'm in pain here and I don't need to be shouted at."
"Right, there're a couple of antiseptic wipes." Colette said as she handed Zosia the sachets. "We're better off wrapping your ankle in a tight bandage to stop you from moving it too much and then let it air out tonight."
"Really? I never learnt anything about first aid at med school." Zosia said sarcastically but she was forced to stifle a groan as she wiped the first antiseptic wipe across the small laceration.
"Do you want some paracetamol?" Colette asked.
"No, she's taken codeine I think." Guy said questioningly.
"Yeah, I had some when we stopped at that café half an hour ago." She confirmed.
"Right okay. Just get that cleaned up and then I'll put the bandage on for you."
