Thanks for reading so far, and for your reviews! There might be a few mistakes in here, because I'm tired, but I hope it's okay! Please tell me if there are :)
Tara stood outside Holby City, looking up at the imposing building, wishing she could just go back home. What if Ollie was already there? What was he going to do when he saw her? And on top of it all, she had a headache - one of those which was just a constant dull throbbing in the background. Not very pleasant.
"Come on, St Trinian's. You can't stand there all day," Jac said, as she walked past her. Tara nodded, sighed, and then followed the ginger up to Darwin. It was going to be a long day...
Jac's first patient of the day was an eleven-year old girl, who had collapsed at school, and had been identified with an irregular heartbeat. She'd been to see her GP before, complaining about chest pain, but no further action had been taken. All the symptoms led to heart disease. She walked over to the girl's bed. "Hello, Alice. My name is Dr. Naylor...".
"Whatever. I need to get back home, there's nothing wrong with me. So just let me go!" Alice interrupted. A young woman (sat next to her), told her to 'shut up', and turned to the doctor.
"Sorry 'bout her. She's just rude. But she is right, we need to get back as soon as possible, if there's nothing wrong with her, of course. I'm Nora, her sister," she said, and held out her hand to shake Jac's. Jac just stared at her.
"Well, Nora, would you mind telling your sister she has heart disease? So, she'll not be going anywhere at the moment. We need to get treatment sorted out. You'd better contact her parent's too," she replied. Nora and Alice both looked at her, disbelieving. Nora shook her head and Alice opened her mouth wide. Jac went over to the door, before adding "I'm very sorry,". She put her hand on the doorhandle, and opened it - to come face to face with Hansen.
"Very skilfully dealt with, Miss Naylor, if a bit insensitive,".
"Well, thank-you, it's better to tell them straight,". The tall man nodded.
"Quite," he paused, "I'd like to speak to you about Dr. Lo, if that's all right,".
"What about?" she asked. Just then, Tara came round the corner.
"Ah, there your are, we were just coming to find you," Hansen said seriously.
Tara threw an enquiring glance at Jac: her cold eyes were blank. "Unfortunately, the board have changed their conditions if you wish to continue working here. They insist that your mentor, Jac Naylor, should know about your unique situation," he announced. Jac narrowed her eyes at Tara; confused. The F1 nodded, letting him go ahead - she had no choice. "Tara has a benign tumour in her brain. She is being allowed to continue working here, however. Please respect that," Hansen lowered his voice, whilst looking down at the surgeon. Well, Jac had certainly not been expecting that! A brain tumour. Hansen left, leaving them alone.
"I'm sorry Tara," Jac said sadly, attempting a kind smile. Tara nervously returned it.
"I'm guessing you haven't told Ollie, then?".
"I...tried! I just don't want him thinking..."she put her hands up by her face and then put them down by her side.
"I don't really care what's going on in that head of yours, and I won't treat you any differently for it, but Ollie deserves to know," she sighed.
"I know, I just, don't...know how...to tell him,".
"Well, you'd better figure it out. If you don't tell him by the end of the day, I will. He has been through a tough time lately, and I don't want to lose a good F2. Believe me, it will be better coming from you, but he deserves to know the truth. Keeping secrets never helps," Jac whispered.
Jac Naylor walked over to the Nurses' Desk, still a bit shocked. "Morning," Ollie said, interrupting her thoughts. "What were you two talking about?" he murmured as he tilted his head to where they'd been talking.
"Oh, nothing much," she lied.
"Did you say anything about me?" he asked tentatively. She turned to look at him, feeling sad that his happiness this morning, would be replaced with sadness by the end of the day. Nevertheless, she shook her head. "Come with me. I've got a patient for you to see,".
Oliver followed her to where Alice was. The young woman, Nora, was on her phone, having a hushed conversation. "So, yeah, I got heart disease, right? But you can't cure me. Nora looked it up. So why did you say you could?" she enquired angrily.
"I never said I could cure you. I said, we could start you on treatment, so you can live your life properly, okay?" Jac shouted, before leaving. She wasn't in the mood for difficult patients.
"Don't worry about her. Her bark's worse than her bite," Oliver said kindly to the girl, smiling. She was obviously confused and scared, having been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, he thought. "We can't get rid of it, but we should be able to help you,".
The girl nodded. "So, when will I be able to go?" she asked.
"Not yet, I'm afraid. You will need to have some more scans,".
"But you don't understand. We...are going on holiday!".
"I can't make any exceptions," he said.
"Please?!" she exclaimed. He shook his head. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tara walking hurriedly along.
"Can you excuse me for a second please?".
He rushed out. "Tara?" Can we talk?" he pleaded. She looked over her shoulder, but didn't stop walking. "Tara, wait! I'm not angry," he whispered. Tara turned to look at him. Suddenly, a sharp pain came from inside her head. She winced and took a deep breath. "Are you alright?" Oliver asked, concerned. He looked down at her, but she avoided his gaze, her eyes full of tears. "I'm fine," she lied. Oliver narrowed his eyes, unconvinced. "There's something wrong. I can tell, Tara,".
"I'm fine, honestly," she smiled falsely.
"Why...why did you leave last night?".
"I needed to pick up my stuff for today,".
"In the middle of the night?!" he exclaimed. Some of the nurses looked over at them. Tara blushed.
"I didn't want it to awkward. I didn't know what you'd do..." she murmured. He wrapped both arms round her. "Relax. It's okay, I understand," he said, giving her a peck on the cheek. He stepped back, but she caught his hands. "I really like you, okay?" she said.
"I like you too," he smiled, puzzled. Tara nodded.
"Good,". She looked at him and took a step back. And then she collapsed.
"Tara! Tara, can you hear me?! "Oliver asked frantically, his smile gone. "Can we have a..."
"I'm...fine..." she stuttered. The ward seemed to be spinning around her, until someone's hands pulled her to her feet. She swayed, and held onto Ollie, whilst the world righted itself. Breath, she thought. In. Out.
"Tara?" a voice asked. Suddenly, Ollie's face popped in front of her, making her blink. "Are you really alright?" he asked. She gulped, and then nodded unsteadily. "Sit down in the staff room. I'll go ask Hansen if you can have the rest of the day off," he commanded.
"No!" she whimpered. "I'm fine!". She was truthfully feeling alright now, and she no longer had a headache, but Ollie wasn't' having any of it. He lead her over to a seat and went to find Hansen. Tara could feel everybody was looking at her. The centre of attention: for all the wrong reasons.
Ollie stood outside Hansen's office. He knocked at the door. There was no reply, so thinking it would be best to wait inside, he opened it. The office was fairly tidy, apart from the desk, which was covered in stacks of paper. One of those piles was made up of medical files. He looked round, just checking there was no-one there, and picked up the one on top. 'Tara Lo' he read. What was Tara's medical file doing here? Maybe, he was just sorting staff's files out? Yeah, probably... But he couldn't shake the feeling that it was more than that, so he opened it. There were brain scans. He squinted at them to see if there was anything. There couldn't be...He was just imagining it - surely, it couldn't be a tumour. He threw the scans on the desk, and scanned her medical description. He felt a wall of sadness rising up inside of him, mixed with anger. He kicked the desk hard, and watched as an ornament fell off and shattered into a million pieces. Oliver sat down slowly on the floor, letting a tear escape from his eye. Then the door opened...
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