"Morning, where's Sam?" Jac asked as she rounded to Connie's bedside. Connie found her lack of ability to communicate verbally infuriating and rolled her eyes as she scrawled home on the board they had given her. The red head nodded in response with a small smile. "I want to talk to you about weaning you off the ventilator, but I can wait until he is here if you prefer." Connie shook her head slightly, indicating she wanted to hear what the other woman had to say now. She was desperate to properly talk to Sam, due to her intubation over the past few days they had been unable to work out the minefield that was currently their relationship. He'd only left her side when she'd instructed him to go and spend time with Grace, which she'd taken as a sign that he wanted them to be something. However, she still felt trapped in limbo.

"Your blood gases are stable. I think we can try SBT. I want to use a combination of PSV and SIMV." Jac hadn't sugar coated the medical terminology, not wanting in insult Connie's own intelligence. She however, took a softer approach in explain how she would guide her through. "As we would with anyone else, we'll take it slow. I'll be here with you throughout, it might be uncomfortable to begin with, but we'll be monitoring you throughout. If I see you are getting too tired, we'll stop. To start with we will only do 5 minutes and we'll build up. Do you understand?" Connie moved her head, nodding a little in response before turning her attention to the board. No Sam were the words scrawled this time. Initially Jac looked confused, but she knew this was Connie she was dealing with, she had given up trying to understand the older woman's reasonings "If that's what you want, but I would advise having a familiar face here to hold your hand." You're here was then written. Jac laughed reading her words, "You never change, Connie Beauchamp. I'll make the preparations and be back soon."

As Jac left her alone she stared towards the ceiling. She knew it was a step in the right direction, although it scared her that she might now be reliant on the ventilator and they would find she was unable to breathe for herself. She'd seen it happen before, patients reliant on the mechanical pump to sustain their life. It would be her worst nightmare. Tears threatened to fall but she fought them back, not wanting to show weakness.

It wasn't long before Jac was back with a team of medics. Connie winced as they sat helped her into a more upright position, the midline incision on her chest still held together with 42 staples. As expected the first few breaths of the test were exceptionally painful, it eased though as her body remembered what it had to do. As ten minutes were up Jac nodded indicating the test was over, "Well done, Connie. You did really well. Later we'll try for a little longer. If we continue to get these positive results I don't see any reason we won't be able to extubate and get you moved out of here."

That evening as Sam entered ITU with Grace he eyes shot to where Connie should have been. Instead he saw an empty bay. Rubbing Grace's back reassuringly he smiled at her, keeping his voice steady. "I'm just going to find out where they have taken Mum." They'd have phoned if anything had happened he reasoned internally as a nurse approached him.

"Mr Strachan, we were unable to reach you, your phone kept going to voicemail. We didn't have another number to contact you." Sam looked quickly down to Grace indicating for her to stay put as he took a few steps away with the nurse.

"Has something happened?" he swallowed hard. The nurse reached for his arm, giving it a reassuring rub as she spoke.

"It's good news. Mrs Beauchamp has been moved onto Darwin, if you take the lift..."

He stopped the nurse in her tracks. "Thank you, I know where Darwin is." The nurse nodded as he walked away and took his daughter by the hand.

Leading them back towards the lifts he listened to his daughter speak. "Mum used to speak about Darwin all the time, it's where you met, isn't it? When I was growing up she would tell me about you two working together, although I'm sure some of the stuff she said you did was made up." Sam snorted slightly, guessing it probably wasn't, he had been quite the rough during his time on Darwin, and certainly had enjoyed winding Connie up with his antics. As the lift doors opened to Darwin a familiar feeling coursed through his body, it felt like coming home. Things had changed a little since his last visit, but there was still a familiarity about the place.

It didn't take them long to locate her, there in a side room lay the sleeping figure of Connie Beauchamp. Quietly he entered the room with their daughter so as not to wake her, although the slight creak of the door roused her from her peaceful slumber. Her hand gently reached up, lifting the oxygen mask from her face with a smile as she saw it was them. "Hello," she croaked just above a whisper, the tubes having left her with a burning in her throat.

"Hello to you too. I can't even tell you how good it is to hear your voice." He smiled softly at her, sitting himself down beside their daughter, his arm wrapping around Grace.

"How did you get on?" Connie whispered to her daughter.

"She was amazing, Con. I got loads of photos for you."

"You're so embarrassing," Grace complained as pushed her father playfully, ". It was fun. I came second. Enough about me though, you look really well Mum, I don't mean to sound horrible but the last time I saw you, you looked rough as." Connie laughed in response.

"Thanks baby. Love you too"

"I did say you look better now." Grace gently climbed on the bed beside her mother, placing a soft kiss on her cheek. She jumped back in panic as her mother starting coughing, wincing as she did. "I didn't… I didn't mean to hurt you." Tears rose in the young girl's eyes as panic over took her. Sam was up and at Connie's side in a flash.

"Deep breaths, Con. Just like that." He caught the look in his daughter's eyes as he continued, "It's alright Grace. It wasn't anything you did. The ventilator will have made mum's throat sore, coughing when first extubated is normal. Where her chest was opened coughing hurts. She'll be okay" The young girl nodded, relieved by her father's words that Connie would indeed by fine and she was not the cause.

She watched on as her dad held a pillow to her mum's chest, supporting her to move upright as he soothed her through her discomfort. Never had she witnessed such caring actions between her parents. Her mother leaning into her father when the coughing subsided whilst he stroked her hair. His chin resting itself on her head as her eyes closed. His quiet reassurances to her. She couldn't pretend it wasn't a little confusing, as far as she knew they hated each other. The distance between Holby and New York only just about being sufficient enough for them. Yet over the past few weeks and here right now, there was something there that wasn't there before.