Bonnie Sveen Fan, I remember when Ash told Lily that Sally had died and implied it was Lily's fault. I was so shocked by that. I think it's worse than what Lily did to Alicia. Lily was very upset and Cal was the only person to offer comfort, so I think you're probably right. Thank you for your review.
Tanith Panic, I'm glad you liked the tension between Alicia, Lily and Ash! It was the closest I could get to Lily teaching Alicia how to be a cheerleader. Lofty and Robyn do need to get together! So I'll see what I can do. Sebastian is very good at deceiving himself, unfortunately. Thank you for your review.
Alicia was standing outside Resus, waiting for Lily, when Cal crept up behind her.
"Hey."
Alicia jumped. "Hey."
Cal put his hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay? I didn't mean to make you jump."
"You didn't," lied Alicia. Her heart was jumping now. Calm down, Alicia. Don't forget the way he treated you on the first day.
"I was just wondering…" said Cal.
He's going to ask me out on a date! thought Alicia in delight.
"…if you wanted to help out with a dislocated shoulder reduction," said Cal.
Alicia blinked. "Dislocated… shoulder?"
Cal nodded. "For your portfolio."
"Oh. Oh, sure." Alicia tried to smile. It was actually quite easy when she was looking at Cal. "That would be really good. Thanks for thinking of me."
"I'm always thinking of you," said Cal softly.
Alicia stared into his eyes, mesmerised. "Really?"
Cal looked a bit sad. "You're not still upset about what happened on your first day, are you? Couldn't you tell I was happy to see you?"
"I don't know," said Alicia. "I thought maybe you had a new girlfriend or something. Which is fine. Totally fine."
"Look, if it was up to me, I'd never even look at another woman," said Cal.
Alicia looked at him for a moment, then looked away, a blush warming her cheeks. After the last week or so with Lily, it was good to have someone being nice to her. Louise was lovely and Robyn was always kind, but as Alicia always told them everything was great, they had no idea how she was really feeling.
"Look. I'll tell you what," said Cal. "We're having a party tomorrow night for Honey. Did you know she's going to quit her job and start up her own salon?"
Alicia nodded. She'd been sorry to hear that. Honey was very sweet and Ethan obviously adored her. She'd have loved to see them happy together. Then, if it works out with Cal, me and Honey will kind of be sisters…
"How would you like to be my date?" said Cal.
"Okay," said Alicia. "I'd like that. But please don't me around again."
"Of course not." Cal smiled and his hand came up to cup her cheek. Alicia closed her eyes as his lips moved towards hers.
She'd been dreaming of this ever since that sad goodbye in Barbados.
"Dr Munroe!" said a sharp voice. "May I remind you that you are here to work, not to consort with the senior medical staff."
"Yeah, because you'd never do that, would you, Lily?" said Cal.
Lily ignored this. "Cal, I have something of yours. You left it at my flat last night. I assume it was an accident."
"What were you doing at her flat?" gasped Alicia.
Cal looked trapped. "Oh… you know. She called me and said… well, actually she called Ethan and said she needed help with some studying, but, um, Ethan was at… at salsa class and I kind of answered the phone because he'd left his behind and..."
"I hardly need any help with studying," said Lily, but she didn't look as annoyed as she would have done if Alicia had said anything like that. "Come on, Dr Munroe. Time to get back to work."
Alicia swallowed hard. "Yes, let's get back to work! I… I can't wait for Dr Keogh to see how much my compressions have improved, and Dr Ashford was saying he's been keeping an eye on my defibrillation technique, and Dr Hardy was telling me just last night how much more fluent I'm getting at asking for blood tests, and Dr Grayling-"
"Oh, so I'm just one in a long line of doctors you're trying to impress?" said Cal angrily. "I notice you didn't mention Mrs Beauchamp or Zoe or Elle…"
"Is that a problem?" asked Alicia, forcing herself to meet Cal's eye. "You're not jealous, are you?"
"Jealous?" said Cal. "Why the hell would I be jealous?" He swung to face Lily. "Lily, you're going to Honey's party, aren't you?"
Lily lowered her head. "I wasn't actually invited."
"You are now," said Cal. "I'm inviting you. You'll go with me, won't you?"
Lily smiled. "I would be delighted, Dr Knight."
"I'll call you, Dr Sexy Chao," said Cal. He winked. "Or maybe I'll just drop by your flat again."
"You're welcome anytime."
"Excuse me," muttered Alicia. She ran to the staff room and burst into tears.
Iain couldn't help smiling as he turned the object over and over in his hands. He knew the charade couldn't go on for too much longer, but he'd wanted to produce a fitting finale and this might just do it.
"What are you doing with that?" asked a voice from behind him, and Iain realised Jez had returned to the ambulance station without him noticing.
"You shouldn't creep up on me like that!" said Iain. "What if I'd been trying to treat someone?"
"You wouldn't be treating them in here," pointed out Jez. He nodded towards the thing Iain was holding. "So, what have you got that for?"
"None of your business," said Iain, jamming it back in the bag.
Jez shrugged. "Okay. If that's the way you feel, I'll ask Rita if she has any idea."
Iain hoped the colour wasn't draining from his face. "Rita? Why would she know?"
"Because she's the only girl I've seen you looking at lately," said Jez. "Which really isn't like you."
"So, you've been looking at me then?" said Iain, hoping to embarrass the junior paramedic.
Jez laughed. "Where else would I want to look? You're pretty fit for an old guy!" Then he sobered. "I'm serious though. What are you up to?"
Iain knew that telling Jez could be a big mistake. The last thing he wanted was Jez blurting it out to the whole hospital. He would reveal his secret when the time was right.
But if Jez was serious about asking Rita about it…
"Okay," said Iain reluctantly. "I'll tell you. But breathe one word of this and I'll tell Dixie you and Jack were having sex in the ambo."
"But we've never had sex in the ambo!" said Jez indignantly. "Or anywhere else unfortunately."
"Dixie would have to investigate though, wouldn't she?" said Iain. "And you know how guilty you look sometimes when you're telling the truth…"
"Have you heard from that Freddy guy lately?" asked Louise as she and Rita walked towards the staff room.
Rita smiled. She didn't like to boast, but when someone actually gave her an invitation to talk about him… "Yeah, he sent me a pair of shoes and a fascinator."
Louise looked slightly confused. "Didn't you say he was fighting in some mountain range somewhere?"
"Yeah, that's right," said Rita.
"I wouldn't have thought there were many shoe shops in mountain ranges," said Louise.
"Maybe he ordered them online and had them sent straight to me," said Rita.
"I thought you said he didn't have phone or internet reception," said Louise. "That's why he writes letter instead of texting like a normal person."
Rita was just uncomfortably registering that Louise had a point when they entered the staff room and found Alicia in tears. "What's wrong, sweetheart?"
"Cal asked me to be his date for Honey's leaving party," sobbed Alicia. "But then Lily came up and it was so obvious they'd spent the night together and then he asked her to be his date for Honey's party instead of me!"
"What a rat!" said Louise, as Rita put her arm around Alicia. "I'd be surprised if he slept with Lily though."
"He was definitely there last night," wept Alicia. "He admitted it. He said he was helping her study, but Lily never needs help with studying. And how could anyone ask someone out right in front of the person he's just asked out?"
Louise was glowering. "That Dr Caleb Knight had so better watch out! He'd better not even think of asking me to lend him a pen. I'd probably accidentally stab him with it."
"No, Louise, we don't want to create extra work for ourselves by making Cal a patient," said Rita as she stroked Alicia's hair. " We'll have to find another way of getting even with Cal."
"Though I can't think of a better punishment for anyone than having Lily as a girlfriend," said Louise.
Alicia wiped her eyes. "Everything was so perfect. He said if it was up to him, he'd never look another girl but me."
"Um… who else would it be up to, if not him?" said Louise.
"I know it hurts, sweetheart," said Rita. "But it's probably better now you know the truth."
"Then he asked me to go to Honey's party with him," sniffled Alicia. "And he said I could help him reduce a dislocated shoulder for my portfolio too. But then Lily came along!"
Rita hugged Alicia tightly. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. You deserve so much better than Cal."
"But I love him!" wailed Alicia. "I thought he loved me too. I thought we were soulmates."
Louise patted Alicia's arm. "You know what you should do, babe?"
"What?" asked Alicia tearfully.
"Go back in there and reduce that dislocation and show him how much you don't care," said Louise.
Alicia sniffed. "But I do care."
"Yeah, but you can let Cal think you don't care," said Louise. "It might be a lot more satisfying to stick a scalpel where the sun don't shine, but nothing would hurt Cal's pride like you ignoring him."
"She's right, Alicia," said Rita. She let go of Alicia and brushed some of the tears from her cheeks. "I know this isn't going to be easy, but we believe in you, okay? And we'll be here for you. We'll show that Dr Caleb Knight."
