Wednesday morning arrived and the both of them forced their way out of bed, unenthusiastic at the prospect of a twelve hour shift. Bernie was determined to stick to her word today, if anyone asked her anything about Serena - she would answer entirely honestly, with the obvious discretion of not going in to detail. They both got dressed, Serena wearing the same clothes as yesterday with underwear she had conveniently dropped in to her bag yesterday morning, and prepared to leave the house. Serena had left her car at the hospital so Bernie was going to have to drive her, if that didn't fuel the rumours then nothing would.

"Lunch together in the office?" Bernie suggested as she grabbed her Thermos and headed for the front door with Serena at her heel. Serena hooked her finger under the blonde's chin and drew her in for a kiss, that was likely the last one she'd get all day so she savoured it. Breaking away from it, Bernie grinned warmly. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Hmm, that was a yes." Serena finished sweetly as she grabbed the Thermos out of Bernie's hand and took a gulp as she walked out of the front door, with an astonished Bernie close behind her.

The car journey was quiet as always, with the morning news playing on the radio and announcing a pile up on the motorway to confirm their suspicions that it was going to be a great day at work. As they pulled in to the staff carpark, Bernie could see Dom getting out of his own car and there was no way that he wouldn't see the pair of them getting out of the same car. She was momentarily hesitant but she knew she had to stick to her word, she wasn't going to back out on Serena after her promise only a few hours ago.

Calmly, Bernie took her keys out of the ignition and opened the car door to get out. Serena hadn't seen him, nor did she see the anxiety in the blonde's eyes as she walked around to Serena's side of the car and took the Thermos from her. There was no awkward eye contact, Dom didn't even consciously clock the pair of them as far as Bernie could tell, and there was no walk of shame as they headed through the double doors and towards the lift. As the lift arrived, Sacha Levy stepped out, greeting them kindly before looking down at Serena's attire and pursing his lips to conceal a smirk.

"Are you alright to go to the budget meeting without me? Morven's the only junior in today and I don't really want to leave on the department alone on her first day back, not with everything that's happened." Serena questioned as they rode the lift up to AAU. "Or you can stay on the ward and I'll go? It's up to you."

"No, I'll go. Morven needs you close by today. We'll have lunch when I get back as long as nothing goes wrong in my absence." Bernie replied, smiling as the lift doors opened and they stepped out in to the hubbub of the ward.

Over the course of the morning, a number of people took notice of the fact that Serena's clothes had not changed, and many of the night staff had observed the fact that Serena's car had not moved since yesterday morning when she arrived. Bernie's morning went relatively smoothly with the budget meeting keeping her away from any potential gossip in the ranks, it wasn't until she left to find a fresh-faced Dom with a knowing grin across his face that things started to get a little tense for her.

"So, Fletch - Obs on bays 2, 3 and 6 and the man in 5 can be discharged as soon as his wife gets here. I'm taking my lunch, I'll be in the office if the hospital sets on fire, otherwise you have no clue where I've gone - understood?" Serena stated as she handed off the files to the younger nurse and headed across the ward towards her office.

As she entered the room, she found Bernie already sat there with two cups of coffee and two sandwiches from the vending machine. Exhaling dramatically, she fell back in to her chair and closed her eyes as she slipped her feet out of her shoes and relaxed for the first time all morning. Silently, Bernie slid her coffee across the desk and placed the sandwich beside it.

"Easy morning then?" She teased, keeping her own smugness surreptitious. "The budget meeting went to plan, nothing's changed massively apart from this electricity drive that's still going on. Hanssen was too busy moaning at Guy for all the money he's been wasting on keeping patients in for far longer than necessary in post-op observation, we barely got a mention."

"Well at least that went alright then, because nothing else is!" Serena retorted with anger brewing up in her tone, receiving a concerned and curious look from the blonde. "Morven's barely fit to be up and about let alone at work, Raf upset a patient and now has an official complaint going upstairs, Jason's decided he's coming in this afternoon because he's got nothing else to do and he wants to see Hanssen, something he doesn't seem to understand can't become a regular occurrence, and I have received at least a dozen dirty looks from the nurses because I haven't changed my bloody top!"

"Serena, breathe. I'm here - I'll deal with the complaint, and I'll sort Jason out when he gets here. You're going to have to take the reins with Morven because you can handle that situation far better than I, and you can ignore the nurses because if they even glance at you when I'm in the room, they will find themselves with a swift kick in the teeth." Bernie reassured calmly, she knew the stress that Serena was under and it frustrated her that there was little she could do to resolve it. "Just calm down, okay?"

"Sorry, I just- today has not gone very well so far." Serena admitted as she reached for her coffee and sipped at the steaming liquid. "Thank you, for the coffee and the sandwich. I'll pay you back."

"No you won't - it's a sandwich, I'm allowed to buy you lunch Serena." There was a smirk on Bernie's face but behind it was a more serious look of kindness…all that mattered to her in that moment was that Serena was alright. "Did Jason say what time he's planning to come in?"

"As soon as he finishes work, so he should be here by about quarter past two. I don't know what I'm going to do with him for 6 hours though, it's not like I can leave him in here all afternoon." Serena grumbled, tearing open her sandwich with some force. "I do love him, really I do…he's just so exhausting at times. Only a few more weeks and Alan will be ready to start working again, although I'm not entirely sure I want him to leave…he can be a nightmare at times but life would certainly be boring without him."

"I'll sort him out when he gets here, you do what you're best at and keep the ward running. I'll have a quick word with Mr. De Lucca's patient and see if I can't fix it, but if not then I'll head up and bring Henrik up to speed. Just stop worrying." Bernie stated confidently, smiling warmly as she sipped at her coffee.

The two women sat, relaxing together until their lunch hour was up, and then back in to the breach.

Jason arrived precisely on time at 2:14PM and headed straight for Serena, only to be stopped in his tracks by Bernie and invited to take a walk to the vending machine.

"So, how was work? Are you enjoying it there?" Bernie questioned casually as they walked through the hospital corridors.

"Auntie Serena told me you're not supposed to enjoy work. But secretly, I kind of do." Jason admitted and Bernie almost laughed at what Serena had said, though she was a little too charmed that he had been willing to share something with her. She had been hoping to make a good impression upon him - she wanted Serena's family to like her and chances were that she wouldn't meet Elinor for quite some time, so she needed to get Jason on side. "Can we go down to the peace garden if you're not busy? I do rather like it down there, though I'll understand if you've got patients to look after."

"No, I'm all yours for the time being Jason. Let's head down there now." Bernie replied enthusiastically, she truly found Jason charming company to be in.

The pair headed downstairs with Jason fuelling the conversation and Bernie interjecting appropriately, entering the peace garden to find it empty and sitting down beside one another. Looking back at the building, Bernie could see Serena stood on the stairs watching them and she couldn't help but be concerned - she felt that the somewhat indiscreet declaration of their status had put extra pressure on her, on an already difficult day.

"What's wrong with you today?" Jason asked abruptly, drawing Bernie's attention back to him. "Don't say nothing because I can see it in your face. You've looked very worried ever since I arrived, a falcon with a worried face is a tad ridiculous if you ask me."

"Is that so? Can't falcons be worried sometimes?' Bernie inquired, attempting to divert the conversation but failing miserably, as her eyes flicked back to look at the stairwell which was now empty.

"It's not to do with Auntie Serena, is it? You can't break up with her, not after how bad she was after she left Robbie. That was because of me, you've got no reason to leave her so why would you?"

"I'm not- I'm not going to break up with Serena, Jason. Serena and I are just fine, it's the rest of the world that's causing the problem. Don't worry yourself, I'll sort it out." Bernie reassured, finding it endearing how much Jason cared about his auntie, only to stop her train of thought and look at him. "What do you mean after Robbie?"

"She was fine in front of me, but I heard her crying through the wall. It wasn't even about him, I don't think she ever really loved him, but she was upset because she started thinking she was gonna be stuck in her old age with no one to keep her company except me, which I don't really see a flaw in but anyway." The young man responded matter-of-factly. "She'd be so much worse if you left though, because she loves you. You can't leave her anyway because you love each other."

"Jason, I'm not going to leave her, okay? How did you even figure out that the two of us were more than friends? Because you seem to have realised it before us." The blonde questioned, curious as to whether they were giving themselves away.

"Do you not realise how obvious you are? You never stop smiling at each other, and spending time together, and talking to each other. Auntie Serena never really shuts up about you to be honest, it can be quite annoying at times. Especially when I'm trying to watch World's Strongest Man and she keeps going on about how you're stronger than all of them." His words couldn't help but make Bernie smile in the knowledge that Serena had talked to Jason about her.

Bernie took a moment to think about the fact that Serena had thought about her, that she did think about it. She'd been told enough times in the past weeks by Serena, but to hear it from somebody else made it more real. Her mind went back to Alex, and how she'd felt so deeply for her only weeks ago, only to find that those feelings now seemed incomparable to how her heart stopped beating whenever she thought about Serena. The pessimist in her couldn't help but wonder what she would do if Serena ever left her - Jason had said can't - but he was naive to the cruel ways of the world. "She won't, you know. She cares about you too much."

"Just because someone cares doesn't mean they won't hurt you, remember Lola?" Bernie reasoned, hesitant to bring up the subject but wanting to teach him this lesson.

"It's different. Auntie Serena loves you when nobody's looking. Lola said she loved me because she wanted something from me, Serena loved you even when she didn't think you loved her. You can't hurt people when you truly love them, it's just as painful as hurting yourself."

And Bernie had never heard such astute reasoning in her entire life.