AN: Once again I had some really wonderful feedback on the last chapter, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I apologise for the wait; the past month has been busy in the run up to Christmas and I've barely had any spare time to write. I've not wanted to rush anything and do the story any injustice but I hope this chapter lives up to expectations.
I can promise you that I'm not abandoning this.
We've got a (rather large) handful of chapters left, I reckon and I do want to get them posted before Christmas and then get some long overdue chapters for other stories up.
I haven't even been able to catch up with the last couple of Holby yet and I only caught the last ten minutes or so of one a couple of weeks ago; did I see Serena go home with Edward? I can't be the only one who thinks that isn't going to end happily ever after (ignoring the fact that this is TV land and no-one lives happily ever after in TV land).
The usual disclaimers apply – Holby City isn't mine, I'm only playing in the BBC sandbox.
…
Chapter Ten.
Serena steps quickly through her front door, not wanting to let the warm air out and the cold, outside air in. Having discarded her coat, keys and shoes in their appropriate places by the front door, she then makes her way along the hallway to the living room to find it in an expected darkness. It isn't particularly late on Friday evening but she hadn't had to worry about another confrontation with Eleanor – her daughter had been unwell for the past day or so and when Serena had made her way upstairs to check on her, she found the usually nocturnal teenager already fast asleep, duvet pulled up to her chin.
Serena pauses by the door for a few moments, an undisguised and gentle smile on her face as she watches over her daughter before softly retreating, closing the door quietly behind her and making her way across the landing to her own bedroom.
Serena unbuttons and peels off her light blue over-shirt, throwing it into her laundry basket before she shucks off her vest top, immediately reaching for her pyjamas in an attempt to ward herself against the cool air of her bedroom. As she sits on the edge of the bed to remove her socks, her mind replays the interaction between herself and the Swedish CEO outside his car in Holby City Centre all of forty five minutes earlier.
"Are these dates? Are you trying to court me?"
She isn't entirely sure where the courage to ask the enigmatic Swede came from; he'd avoided answering her at her first, staring intently into the dark interior of his car.
"Henrik?"
Serena had almost run her hand through her hair in exasperation when the tall Swede had finally answered, his deflection far too transparent to even begin to work.
"I find I enjoy our time together."
Despite the fact that even only one week prior, Hanssen's answer would have surprised her, Serena barely pays it any attention – it isn't the information she's interested in right now and she tells him as much. His expression is a curious mixture of resignation and if she didn't know better, she'd have said trepidation.
"Would such an occurrence be unwelcome?"
Serena remembers staring at the impossibly tall man in front of her, surprised by his answer even though it was what she had suspected; she did not expect Hanssen to admit it to her so easily, well, as easily as any interaction with Hanssen is ever likely to get. It took Serena a couple of moments, she isn't sure how long before she noticed that Hanssen had shifted awkwardly and she realised that she hadn't actually replied.
"I... I don't know."
She answers honestly, she can see that Hanssen had apparently been preparing himself for a negative answer, for confirmation that any advance on his part would not be welcomed by her. He had clearly not been expecting Serena's ambiguous answer (neither had she, to be fair) and Serena dimly notes that this is probably the only time she will ever see the unflappable Henrik Hanssen at a complete loss.
Serena pads into the bathroom to remove her make-up and brush her teeth, pulling her dressing gown off the back of the door and on, over her pyjamas. As they'd stood there, Serena had felt compelled to explain her answer, or at least try to.
"It's not a no..."
"But it's not a yes." Hanssen decides to finish Serena's sentence for her. Serena runs her tongue across the roof of her mouth as she exhales softly. "I quite understand, Ms. Campbell." Hanssen inclines his head and after looking at her for a moment takes a step away from her, towards the driver's door. "My apologies; I can assure you that the running of the hospital-"
"Wait."
Serena's call stops Hanssen before he can take a second step and he regards her silently.
Serena inhales slowly, part of her is certainly fed up of thinking about work all the time, of putting the hospital's needs ahead of her own, even on her own time. As Serena returns Hanssen's gaze, she appreciates that he is probably the only other person at Holby City Hospital who quite understands the sacrifices they make. Although she and Hanssen have hardly confided in one another to date, there is an inherent understanding of the tiredness in their expressions.
Since their Friday evening dinners became a regular thing, Hanssen has, for the most part, shed his supercilious persona and Serena rather likes the slightly shy and introspective man with a dry sense of humour underneath even if he does still drive her mad when they cross paths on the ward. Asking herself whether she would want to willingly spend any more time with the frustrating yet brilliant man, Serena has her answer and it doesn't surprise her as much as it would have once.
"Look, that wasn't quite what I meant." Serena glances away, her eyes following a car as it passes them, wondering how to explain her reticence. Since her divorce, Serena has politely (or not so politely, depending on the other party) declined any invitation which isn't work-related and only a couple of weeks ago, Serena would have certainly have done the same to the Swede without missing a beat.
"I have a feeling I should probably be offended going by the look on your face." Serena waves Hanssen's apology away, she isn't particularly bothered. "Listen, Henrik, I'm not running to the hills but that doesn't mean I'm going to leap blindly into something again."
'Not after Edward', her mind supplies. Hanssen looks curiously at her but he doesn't press her for any elaboration. Any questions he may have asked are forgotten when his mobile phone starts to ring. He fishes it out of his suit jacket, apparently unsurprised at the identity of whoever is calling him and he cancels the call with a frown.
"For what it's worth," Hanssen begins, replacing his phone and looking back at her, "I can't say I've ever been inclined to leap without knowing all the facts."
Serena smiles at Hanssen's response, she can't help but wonder if the Swede has ever made any impulsive decisions in his life and stood next to him under the orange sodium street lighting, Serena finds that she wouldn't mind provoking one or two from him.
With a smirk, Serena gets into the cool bed, settling back against the pillows and pulls the duvet almost up to her chin. He'd offered her the smallest of smiles and the action had transformed his face and in her mind, it confirms that she's made the right decision and in the darkness of her room, Serena smiles; exploring this something with Henrik Hanssen would be rather nice.
…
"Some time today would be appreciated, Mr. Griffin."
Serena calls to her colleague who is signing something at the Keller nurses' station; she watches as he makes a long-suffering face at the clipboard he's balanced against the desk and signs the paper with a flourish, handing it to a nurse who offers him a brief, commiserating look.
Serena watches the interaction with a smirk which deepens when the nurse glances over at her and satisfied that she still has the look when the nurse makes herselflook busy in response, Serena waits for Ric to catch up with her by the double doors which lead off the ward.
It's late morning on Monday and the two senior consultants are heading from their 4th floor General Surgery ward up to the 5th floor boardroom for the usual meeting, Ric is leading part of it but appears in no rush to make his way off the ward. Serena has had a productive morning, she's rattled through her ward rounds without any complications for once, bulldozed her way through two piles of paperwork and a dozen emails and it's not yet 11am; something she casually mentions to Ric.
"Even by your standards," Ric begins, holding the door open for her and Serena steps through with a brief nod of thanks, "that's a busy morning. Although are you sure you haven't just been adding your work to the mountain on my desk?"
"Certainly not." Serena drawls. "Are you finally admitting you can't keep up?"
Ric looks undeterred by another dig at his perceived efficiency, it's become a rather comfortable topic for light-hearted teasing between them. "I'd say you were deflecting attention away from the real reason you're firing on all cylinders," Serena can see Ric look speculatively at her out of the corner of her eye as she presses the button to summon the lift. "It must've been a wild weekend."
Serena laughs.
"If I had had a wild weekend," Serena turns to Ric, amused partly by his comment and partly by imagining the look on his face if she told him about Hanssen's awkward declaration on Friday. "Which unfortunately I haven't – it was very dull; you would be the last person I'd tell."
Ric feigns disappointment and Serena shakes her head, wondering quite what the other staff would think if they could see the way she and Ric tease each other when they're on speaking terms.
"You mean you'd tell Michael before me?" Serena frowns, she hadn't considered that. Perhaps Ric can be promoted to second-to-last-person, however they're interrupted before she can tell him the good news.
"Ms. Campbell!"
Chantelle bursts out of the side room next to them and Serena takes a step away from the lift which has just arrived. Ric enters the lift but pauses, making sure that the doors won't shut until Serena is in. Serena can hear the blare of the alarms from the room beyond and turns to Ric.
"Make my apologies upstairs." She tells him, already moving towards the side room.
"Do you want me to take the case?" Ric asks and Serena shakes her head.
"No, you've got your spiel to perform; I don't think I'll be too long but I would hate for Mr. Hanssen to think that I'm avoiding him." Serena quips, sounding sarcastic, provoking a smile from Ric and he nods, stepping back into the lift and letting the doors close.
Serena follows Chantelle back into the side room, pulling on a pair of gloves out of habit as she approaches the bed. Although she'd made it sound sarcastic, the meaning of her last sentence to Ric was genuine – she doesn't want Hanssen to think that she is avoiding him a the first possible opportunity after their brief exchange on Friday night.
Several minutes later finds her in theatre, attempting to locate the source of the problem. It doesn't take Serena long to find the culprit and she suspects that even Arthur Digby on a bad day would reach the same answer as she extracts what looks like a shard of knife blade. It appears to have moved around a bit, causing multiple bleeds and she curses, ready to read the riot act to whoever admitted this patient onto the ward, there was no mention of a stab wound in his notes. Mentally composing her verbal evisceration of the guilty party, she sets about trying to repair the damage.
Serena has no idea how long she's been up to her elbows in the patient but she looks up to speak to the scrub nurse and nearly jumps when she catches sight of the CEO, half hidden in the shadow at the theatre observation window. Asking for a suture to cover her surprise, Serena calls out to him and returns her gaze to the patient in front of her.
"Something you need, Mr. Hanssen?" There's a brief pause and Serena doesn't look up from her patient.
"Nothing which can't wait, Ms. Campbell, carry on." Serena is immediately annoyed at the thought that he is probably checking up on her, obviously not trusting whether Ric was telling the truth when he explained about Serena being summoned to attend to a patient. She purses her lips behind her face mask before taking a calming breath; she needs to focus on her patient – she doesn't want to undo her hard work in locating and stopping the bleeds – she can be annoyed at Hanssen later.
"Of course, Mr. Hanssen."
'Some things don't change', Serena thinks to herself, irrespective of what was said between them on Friday. She huffs to herself, she and Hanssen could have ended up in bed on Friday and he would still feel the need to check up on her on Monday. Studiously ignoring the observation window, Serena returns her focus to the patient.
It's another forty five minutes before Serena steps foot back in her office, half-expecting to find Hanssen sat in her chair, ready to quiz her but to her surprise, there is no sign of him. A few moments later, Serena spots a plastic presentation file which wasn't on her desk when she left earlier, in search of Ric. Serena didn't make it to the meeting and makes a mental note to catch up on what she missed, in the meantime, she warily opens the folder and on the first page is a post-it note written on in familiar handwriting.
Regards
H.H.
She exhales as she looks at the post-it note and through the rest of the folder, finding Hanssen's notes from the meeting already typed up and printed off, wondering if she'll ever get any closer to understanding what goes through Henrik Hanssen's head.
…
After the oddness of Hanssen on Monday, Serena doesn't see the Swede until late on Wednesday. Her night shift had only started an hour ago but Serena had found herself on Darwin. She'd made the mistake of bumping into Elliot Hope in the lift up from reception and had mentioned Hertzig.
That was it.
The CT consultant, mistaking Serena's polite inquiry as enthusiasm had launched into an update, talking in a long, rambling, never-ending sentence which Serena discovered was not only nigh-on impossible to interrupt but really rather hypnotic. Forty five minutes later found Serena stood in the middle of the Darwin consultants' office, several folders and papers pressed into her hands about Hertzig 4 staring almost in a daze at the door as Elliot disappears onto the ward, called away to attend to one of his patients.
Reluctantly deciding that she can't not take the information she's been given, she knows that if Elliot finds it piled back up on his desk, he'll assume that Serena has read it and will undoubtedly question her about it and ask for her input at the next opportunity. Suppressing a sigh at the volume of reading that awaits her, Serena absent-mindedly leafs through the first few pages – it's not the layman's version.
She will need to dig out a couple of textbooks to understand some of the ideas, Elliot has been kind enough to provide several research papers for her but Serena admits that it's been a long time since she worked on a cardiothoracic ward. She carries her reluctant treasure out of the office, managing to shut the door with an elbow as she attempts to negotiate with her conscience how many pages of reading is worth a glass of good Shiraz.
A couple of nurses had initially looked at Serena questioningly, her presence unusual on the CT ward but the scrutiny was only fleeting and the staff soon lost interest in her. Serena had only made it half a dozen steps from the office when a familiar voice speaks up from her right.
"A foray into cardiothoracics is a slippery slope, Ms. Campbell." Serena turns to see the familiar dark suit of the hospital's CEO appear from a corridor to her right.
"Mr. Hanssen." She greets the Swede, careful to keep her expression schooled, she doesn't want to be seen smiling at Hanssen – that would be more than enough to set the rumour mill off into overdrive.
"Ah, may I?" Serena follows Hanssen's gaze and finds him looking at the armful of folders with recognition, he reaches out and Serena gladly hands them over. "Hertzig 4?"
"I may have mentioned Hertzig within Elliot's hearing range," Serena confesses ruefully. "I suspect it's not a mistake I'll make twice." Hanssen remains silent but allows his amusement to show on his face and by unspoken agreement, they head off the top floor ward together.
It's relatively late on Wednesday evening, the night shift already under way and the two consultants don't meet anyone on their way down to Keller. Serena had assumed that Hanssen would stop at the fifth floor landing and then head separately to their own offices but he'd merely arched an eyebrow when Serena had stopped, waiting for him to give her back the folders and had carried on walking, poorly concealing his smirk when Serena had caught him up.
Hanssen still has the files tucked under his right arm as he opens one of the double doors onto Keller with his left hand. He nods in response to Serena's thanks, she is equal parts amused and pleased by his behaviour; it was hardly necessary to carry her folders back from Darwin, she could have managed perfectly well by herself but she appreciates the man's old-fashioned gesture even if his complete lack of social skills usually tend to mask his manners.
It's quiet on the General Surgery ward, Arthur Digby is sat at the nurses' station working his way through some work and the two consultants pay him no mind as they travel along the ward to the office she shares with Ric.
"If you could pop them on the desk," Serena tells Hanssen and the soft, yet depressing thunk she hears indicates that Hanssen has done just that. "Well, I'd say that's my evening sorted," Serena comments dryly. "I don't suppose you fancy sharing the burden over a mug or two of the finest tea Keller has to offer?" She asks, knowing that at some point Hanssen will have to read Elliot's mammoth project and probably before the next board meeting.
"I've already had the pleasure of perusing Professor Hope's research." Hanssen comments, looking around the office. Serena sighs to herself, not only has she still got to work her way through this lot, Hanssen has apparently completely missed her invitation. Hanssen appears aware that it is not Friday, his usual day for visiting Serena and that he has no other work-related reason to be stood in the office and it isn't long before he makes his excuses and disappears back into the depths of the hospital.
And Serena is left for the second time in a week, wondering quite what goes through Henrik Hanssen's mind.
…
Serena and Hanssen make their way out of the hospital together at the usual time on Friday, their routine practised over the past few months and as they step out of the main entrance, she is pleased to note that nobody like Michael Spence or Ric Griffin have seen them leave; trying to explain away their Friday night dinners to Eleanor was hard enough. Serena unlocks her car and deposits her bag inside the rear passenger foot-well, taking a moment to adjust it so that it can't be seen by anyone walking past her car.
"Do you want me to drive or..." Serena catches sight of Hanssen's expression. "Obviously not." She mutters. "You want to drive. Fine." Serena locks her car and dutifully makes her way around to the passenger side of Hanssen's black Volvo, not making much of an effort to conceal the look on her face.
"Why are we here?" Serena questions. Hanssen has brought them back to The Forge – the restaurant they ate at the first week they'd gone for dinner, the Friday evening after Serena had spent the day in theatre, repairing RTC victims.
"I enjoyed the food here on our previous visit." Hanssen comments and Serena barely stops herself from voicing his unspoken comment about his not enjoying the company. "I had rather wished for an opportunity to return and sample their stuffed peppers." Serena rolls her eyes, she isn't certain quite what the man is up to but without any other option, she warily accepts the explanation. In fact, Serena barely remembers the food; she'd been too tired and hungry after the day she'd had and too wound up by Hanssen's actions to really take any notice of her meal.
The table had apparently already been booked by Hanssen and Serena is pleased to note that it's a different member of staff than before but her relief is short-lived as they are led to the same table as their first visit here together.
The waitress takes an interest in Hanssen, attempting to flirt with the Swede and Serena rolls her eyes at the woman's attempt. To his credit, Serena notes that Hanssen is oblivious to the woman's undertones which is more than can ever be said about her ex-husband who would almost certainly have flirted right back, despite Serena's presence and as soon as their food has been ordered, Serena glares at the waitress and the woman grumpily moves off. Serena watches her retreat before catching sight of Hanssen looking at her over the top of his menu, he averts his gaze quickly but not before Serena caught his smirk and she belatedly realises that Hanssen had not been as oblivious as he'd made himself out to be.
"You do realise I know nothing about you, except that you like Bonsai trees, Sushi and apparently stuffed peppers." Both Serena and Hanssen are more relaxed than their first visit to this restaurant back at the start of the year, although Serena concedes that it didn't require much to beat it. The conversation flows as easily as Serena could expect from Hanssen and although some of her questions may seem innocuous to him, Hanssen's answers offer brief, intriguing glimpses of the man himself.
However, there had been one tense moment; just after their food had arrived Serena had followed up a question from Hanssen about why she chose medicine with a question of her own, asking why he had come to England to practice medicine, rather than remain in Sweden. She could tell that the shutters had gone up almost immediately and although neither of them had moved, the atmosphere had changed.
Eventually Serena had managed to coax Hanssen into rejoining the conversation, expending an effort to do so that she wouldn't have done at the start of the year. In fact, it would have been quite likely that Serena would have taken offence at Hanssen's silence but now she can't help but wonder if part of Hanssen's refusal is because he can't answer, rather than he won't. As she makes a mental note to avoid any future mention of his homeland for the moment, Serena concedes that it's something which requires more thought on her part and probably another talk with Jac Naylor.
They'd managed to resume their conversation albeit tentatively and Serena watches Hanssen begin to lose the open suspicion in his expression as she sticks to work-related topics of conversation. By the end of the evening, Hanssen had apparently gotten over Serena's question and they'd conversed gently until Serena exited the car back at the hospital. Serena had smirked at Hanssen, her eyes roaming over his face and torso and he'd looked endearingly self-conscious under her scrutiny as he'd bid her goodnight.
The next two weeks pass in a relatively similar fashion and as Serena watches the red tail lights of his black car disappear back through the hospital car park once again, she sighs to herself. Hanssen is being perfectly polite and therein lies her issue. Now that Serena has had a couple of weeks to come to terms with the idea of being courted by the Swede, she would quite like him to get on with it – patience isn't necessarily her strongest suit.
Hanssen however apparently has the patience and self-restraint of a saint. He has made no move to do anything other than treat her as usual during the week and then adopt a marginally more relaxed persona on a Friday night. She wonders if it would be too presumptuous to demands at least a kiss from him? Serena turns and unlocks her car.
What she needs is a plan.
…
AN2: And don't we all love it when a plan comes together?
Would love to know your thoughts :)