*Sorry, I'm so late posting this chapter! I really struggled with this one, so I hope it's okay! Thank you so so so much for the reviews! I really, really appreciate them and I'm glad you all seem to be liking this fic! It's going to get quite dark before things get better with this story line. Please, please review and I hope you enjoy it!*

"When can I go home?" Her voice was raspy with fatigue as she lay angrily in the hospital bed. "This really isn't necessary."

"Connie, you collapsed in resus and you had a seizure. This is necessary." Jacob inched closer to the end of her bed as he spoke but she refused to glance his way. Upon feeling the awkward atmosphere, Louise decided to depart the room.

"Yes, well I'm fine now and the scans came back clear so I really don't see why I need to be here." She huffed and began pulling her drip and various other wires out.

"Connie, you're not fine, they want to keep you in overnight." Speaking loudly, he attempted to stop her from trying to leave but it didn't work. "Could have something to do with how you decided to spend your night last night." As soon as the words left his mouth she froze, her eyes locked ahead of her.

"Don't you dare." She warned and her tone of voice made him aware of the anger brewing inside of her.

"What? Call you out on stupid decisions you've made?" He stood up straight again, his chest broadening as he became more irate. "I mean, seriously Connie, what were you thinking? I didn't think sleeping around was your style?"

"Excuse me?" If looks could kill, Jacob would be a dead man right now.

"Yeah." He smiled but the hurt was evident in his face. "Louise saw you leaving Dylan's boat this morning."

"Oh right." She scoffed. "Because of course that means I must have slept with him doesn't it?." The sarcasm in her voice made him wince, in hindsight the accusation he'd just thrown at her was a big one but it was also a logical one. Why else would she have been on Dylan's boat?

"So how do you explain it then?" He questioned.

"I don't have to explain anything to you." The words were hissed, not spoken. That's when he realised he'd really pushed too far but before another angry word could be uttered by either of them the door behind Jacob opened. It was Sam, followed by Charlie.

"I came as soon as I heard, is everything okay?" His sentence faltered towards the end once the awkward atmosphere became more evident. He looked to Charlie and then made eye contact with Jacob, who looked hassled to say the least. "Jacob." Acknowledging him politely, Sam gave him a small nod.

"Sam, I was just leaving." Nodding back to be courteous, he left the room, clearly irritated by his not so calm conversation with Connie moments earlier. The room fell silent again as soon as the door clicked shut.

"Connie, you should be resting-"

"I'm fine, Charlie." She snapped tiredly, regretting it straight away once she realised how horrible she sounded. "Sorry, I just want to get home. It's been a long day."

"I know." He reassured kindly. "But they need to monitor you, see if the meds they've prescribed will help with the swelling on your brain." There was silence as she obviously understood that she couldn't leave. "You're lucky there was no bleed, you really must have banged your head last night."

"Can you please stop going on about last night." She was avoiding eye contact still, especially with Sam who up until now had been almost completely silent.

"So you don't remember anything at all?"

"No, that was the point. I wanted to forget." Charlie and Sam exchanged a concerned glance.

"Right, well it's happened, it's in the past and you escaped a serious injury last night. Now you need to rest, see if we can get you out of here tomorrow." Sam marvelled at how Charlie could get through to her, nobody could do that apart from Elliot Hope. His thoughts catapulted back to her complete set of medical notes he had sat at his house. Maybe she always sought a fatherly figure in someone close to her? Maybe it had something to do with her numerous visits to hospitals as a child? His thoughts ceased when Charlie's spoke again, he was looking at Louise who was trying to get his attention out in the corridor.

"I'll let you two have a minute." He turned to leave and murmured to Sam before exiting completely. "Make sure she gets back in that bed, you know the deal with brain swelling." Sam nodded professionally and watched the nurse leave. The room once again fell silent.

/

"Louise, what is it?" He ushered her away from earshot of the doorway, he could tell the young nurse was troubled with something.

"Look, I wasn't gonna say anything because it's none of my business."She paused in thought before blurting the last of her sentence out. "But I saw her last night."

"Who, Connie?"

"She was hammered, Charlie. I should have called someone or done something-"

"Louise, this isn't you fault." He interrupted with a comforting smile, registering that she was obviously worked up about this but it didn't calm her.

"No, I'm not finished." She looked down hastily. "And then this morning, on my way to work, I saw her leaving Dr Keogh's boat." There was a prickly silence between them again, Charlie wasn't quite sure what to say.

"Well, they're adults, Louise." He shifted uncomfortably. "I'm not really sure where you're going with this." Trying to cover his embarrassment, he chuckled softly but Louise didn't find humour in the situation at all.

"You seen her arms?" She questioned firmly, noting that Charlie wasn't taking this seriously. "The bruises?"

"She was completely inebriated, Louise. She can't even remember how she hurt her head or hands last night."

"No, Charlie. These aren't normal, clumsy drinking bangs and bruises. It looks like somebody's grabbed her, hard enough to leave a mark. " Charlie was silenced, he knew exactly what Louise was trying to insinuate but it didn't paint Dylan in the best light.

"Have you told anyone else about this?" She relaxed, finally sensing that he was taking this seriously now.

"Not about the bruises but I might have accidentally told Jacob that she was with Dylan last night." Her eyes lowered as she spoke the last of her sentence. "What's gonna happen now?"

"Leave it with me and tell no one." He spoke with authority, the last thing either Connie or Dylan needed right now was a nasty spout of rumours floating around the hospital. "Until we know exactly what happened we don't speak a word of this to anyone. I'll make the calls on who we tell or speak to it about, okay?"

/

Why was he here? Her mind was swirling with thoughts as they sat in silence. If she wasn't feeling uncomfortable enough already then she definitely was now. She rubbed her arms anxiously. She wasn't stupid, she knew Louise had seen the marks on her arms and she knew she was out there telling Charlie. It was pointless though, even she herself didn't know how she'd sustained them. She suspected it was someone attempting to help her in her drunken stupor last night. Inhaling sharply she moved her head to the side angrily. What the hell was she thinking last night?

"What's wrong?" Sam moved forward in his chair, concerned she was in pain.

"How's Grace?" Swift change of subject, she spoke calmly and moved to sit back in the bed again. Her head was starting to throb from leaning forward for so long.

"Grace? She's fine, I left her with home care. She was asleep when I left and I didn't want to wake her."

She nodded solemnly. "And she's doing okay with her exercises?"

"Incredibly well." He smiled proudly. "She's going at her own pace and she's progressing well."

Silence again.

"Connie." He spoke carefully. "They said the swelling could be down to previous trauma." Awaiting a response rom her, he exhaled disappointedly when she remained quiet. "You sustained a head injury in the car crash but you refused treatment."

"Grace was more important, I needed to be there for her." Her voice wavered with emotion before she summoned the energy to strike. "But you wouldn't know anything about that because you weren't here." Bang. There it was. She felt vulnerable and so her next move was to obviously warn him off with angry comments. Usually that would rile him up enough to argue back and eventually he'd leave of his own accord. There was silence for a few seconds, his initial instinct was to snap back but he was trying to read beyond her anger now. He felt like he was finally on the other side of her protective wall and she was panicking.

"I know." He sighed and saw her face fall with disappointment. He wasn't playing along like she'd hoped. He leant forward in his chair, elbows resting on his knees. "But that's going to change from now on. I'm going to be here for Grace and for you, I'm back in Holby for good this time."

"And Grace will stay with you permanently." She added her sentence into the conversation as soon as he finished speaking.

"Well yes, for now at least because that's what we agreed and that's what Gracie wanted."

Their conversation was interrupted when Charlie re-entered the room. He looked flustered, not like his usual calm self.

"Sorry to interrupt, Grace has been calling the front desk." He trailed off as Sam rose to his feet.

"My phone's switched off, I'll let her know where I am." He squeezed past Charlie to get to the door. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

Charlie turned to stare at Connie as soon as Sam was out of sight. "So?" He prompted.

"So what?"

"The bruises, where did they come from because I've never seen bruises like that from a fall."

"Charlie, I was drunk, I can't remember a thing and frankly I'd like to leave it that way so if you could all please stop reminding me that'd be fantastic."

"There she is." He smiled at her sharp, sarcastic response. "I thought we'd lost you." A rush of accomplishment came over him when he saw her smile slightly.

"I just want to get back to normal and forget all about this."

"I know you do." He smiled sympathetically. She looked knackered, something he'd never witnessed before, at least not to this extent. Her dry and tired voice regained his attention.

"Tell Sam to go home, I don't need him here."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive." She turned surly again and looked down. "I'm going to get some sleep, I want to be out of here first thing in the morning." Charlie nodded, just to keep her happy for the time being but he was more worried than ever after his talk with Louise and now he had to figure out where things would go from here.

/

Once again, in true Connie Beauchamp style, she managed to get her own way and have herself discharged the very next evening. She almost had to fight Charlie over it but in the end he rather unwillingly succumbed and she was allowed to go home. This time yesterday morning she couldn't think of anywhere else she would have rather been but right now she was more than happy to be undressing to get in her own shower. However empty and lonely it felt in the house. She was under strict instructions not to drive, operate anything mechanical or do any strenuous activities for the next seven to ten days. She had a whole cocktail of medications to take and she was on bed rest for the entire week, which meant she could wallow whilst she recovered and then hopefully bounce back to being her normal frosty self. As soon as the water was warm enough she began to peel her shirt and pants off.

She almost gasped aloud when she caught sight of her thighs. The purple marks she saw were harsh in contrast to her natural skin colour and she'd never seen bruising so dark on herself. Letting her eyes roam over them, she smoothed her finger over one slowly, it was so tender she wondered how she hadn't noticed them sooner. They matched the ones she was sporting on her upper arms and she instantly felt nauseous.

*Thanks for reading! Hope it was enjoyable! Please review and let me know what you think! :-)*