Tanith Panic, I'm really glad you liked Dylan's meeting with Dylan. Exactly: Max hasn't necessarily even seen Zoe since she made that list so she's not necessarily keeping secrets! Thank you for your review - I'm really happy you're enjoying the story.

Tato Potato, thank you for your review. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter - more Cal and Ethan in this one!

X-Sammii-X, thank you for your review - I'm glad I made you smile! I don't think Cal will ever stop loving Matilda.

Rita sidled up to Iain as he was leaving the ED. "So, why are you avoiding me?"

"No reason!" said Iain, which meant there was definitely a reason, but he was hoping to get away with not telling her.

"I'm glad there isn't a reason," said Rita. "Because I'd really hate to think you were avoiding me because you haven't decided what you're going to say when I ask you how it went with Alfie."

Iain smiled winningly at her. "It went fine," he said. "I said things; he said things. We had a conversation."

Rita sighed. She liked joking around with Iain, but this was serious. "Iain, please just tell me what happened."

Iain put his arm around her, had a quick look around and moved them into a quiet corner. "I didn't know what to say to him, Rita. I'm sorry."

"Okay," said Rita, disappointed with her husband but realising an argument wouldn't help Alfie. "We do need to talk to him about it. We've given him time; waited for him to come to us, but he hasn't. We need to talk to him and we're going to do it tonight."

Matilda was trying not to feel jealous. Only one pupil was permitted to travel in the ambulance with Ariana, and Dylan was easily the best choice. She knew Ariana's medical history; she'd be able to help treat Ariana if needed, and even if she did miss the whole of afternoon school, she wouldn't need to worry about catching up because she was so far ahead already.

But Matilda wanted to see Cal.

She'd wanted to see him ever since they'd said goodbye.

When the text arrived, she felt guilty for envying her friend.

"It's from Dylan," said Ariana. "She's sending us a taxi to take us to the hospital."

Matilda gasped. "Oh, I hope Cal's there! I mean, he's a very good doctor. Obviously, I want Lottie to have the best doctor there is."

Ariana smiled, but was kind enough not to comment.

"Ariana! Wait up!"

Ariana froze. At first Matilda thought it was one of the teachers, but then she realised it was worse.

"Ariana!" Alfie caught up with them, panting slightly.

Ariana's voice was barely audible. "What do you want?"

"I want to talk to you," said Alfie. His voice was serious and the dark eyes so many of the girls admired were fixed intently on Ariana's face.

"Well, I don't want to talk to you!" Ariana burst out dramatically. "You lost the right to talk to me when you told me it was over." She grabbed Matilda's hand and started walking.

Alfie came after them. "Ari, I never meant to hurt you. I think you're great. But some things just aren't meant to be: you know?"

"I can't talk about this." Ariana's eyes were full of tears. She started to run, dragging Matilda along with her. "Not now, Alfie! Not ever."

Lily looked from Ethan to Cal and back again and nodded to herself. Something had happened. Ethan was no longer shooting Cal looks of concern; Cal had stopped pouting. Instead, they were standing close together, both looking sad.

As Lily watched, Ethan put his hand on Cal's arm and said something into his ear. Cal managed a tiny smile and nodded. Ethan smiled back, patted his arm and Cal left.

Lily walked up to Ethan. "What's going on?"

Ethan laughed nervously. "Why would you think anything is going on?"

"Because we've been married for twelve years," said Lily.

Ethan made a great show of checking the time. "Isn't it time for you to go and pick up Caleb?"

To Lily's annoyance, he was right. "Very well. I will go now. But I'm not going to forget about this, Ethan. We can talk when you get home."

Ella was amazed by how well the two Dylans were getting on. Dr Keogh wasn't usually that good at chatting, but he looked almost animated as he talked her through Lottie's 'Before and After' x-rays (as Ella called them).

"Um… Dylan," said Dr Keogh. "Have you considered applying for a work experience placement at this hospital?"

"Oh yeah, I done one of them," interrupted Ella. "It was well good. You should give it a try, Dylan. You know loads more than I did when I did mine."

"Thank you," said Dylan, smiling at both of them. "I'd like that."

Dr Keogh looked like he was trying to smile. "Right. Well. If you'd like to come with me… Louise, you'll stay with Lottie, won't you?"

"Of course," said Louise, who seemed as much taken with Lottie as Dr Keogh was with Dylan.

But before the Dylans could leave, the door opened. "Sorry to interrupt, Dylan," said Lofty. "But you're needed in Resus."

A look almost of disappointment passed over Dr Keogh's face. "Dr Ashford, would you be able to find the paperwork for Dylan?"

"Yeah, sure," said Ella. "No probs."

She smiled inwardly as Dr Keogh winced. She knew he thought her speech was far too casual and colloquial, but everyone was different. Ella could write grammatically when called upon, and was actually rather better in the punctuation department than Dr Keogh, but Ella didn't see why she should change her way of speaking just because she was a doctor.

"Lottie, there was actually something I wanted to tell you," Louise was saying as Ella and Dylan left the room. The nurse sounded quite excited. "Don't worry. It was nothing bad. But we've actually met before. You were…"

To Ella's annoyance, she couldn't hear any more after that, but she could always get the gossip from Louise later.

"Have you always wanted to be a doctor?" she asked Dylan.

Dylan smiled. "Yes: although there have been a few changes to my area of speciality. At first, I wanted to be a GP like my grandfather. Then I thought of becoming a surgeon, a paediatrician and an obstetrician before settling on emergency medicine. What about you, Dr Ashford?"

"Oh God: call me Ella," said Ella, repressing a shudder. "Whenever anyone says 'Dr Ashford', I always think they mean my dad."

"It runs in your family too then, Ella," observed Dylan.

Ella nodded. "My dad wanted me to be a doctor, but I was a right little rebel so I decided to do beauty therapy instead. It was okay, but the only bits that really like, stimulated me were injury-related massage and doing first aid. So finally I admitted to myself I wanted to be a doctor and went to med school when I was twenty-six."

"Sometimes it can take time to work out what you want to do," said Dylan. "And I'm sure all your experiences of dealing with the public as a beautician have helped you develop your bedside manner."

"Yeah, you're right actually," said Ella, slightly freaked out to realise this girl was young enough to be her daughter. "And I'll tell you something else. I can spot a fake tan allergy a mile off!"

Louise could hardly speak for excitement. "Noel, you'll never guess what!"

Noel sighed. "Don't tell me there's a sale in Dolsy and Gabbana."

"No, it's better than that!" said Louise.

This time, Noel groaned. "It's a sale at Jimmy Choo, isn't it?"

"Noel, would you stop talking about clothes and shoes?" said Louise. "This is serious. You know that girl who came in last week with the girl with BPD? The one I said I knew from somewhere?"

"Yeah, I remember," said Noel, in the voice he used when he had no recollection at all.

"She's here!" said Louise. "She dislocated her shoulder playing hockey. And you'll never guess what!"

"What?" said Noel, sounding not the least bit interested.

"She's Lottie-Daniela!" Louise blinked back tears. "She's the baby I delivered the night after Zoe and Max's first wedding. The baby who helped me to make the decision to go back to nursing!"

For a moment or two, all Cal could do was stare at Louise, but then he ran over to her and seized her arm. "Did Lottie bring any of her friends with her?" he asked urgently.

"Yeah: a girl called Dylan," said Louise, removing his hand and rubbing her arm pointedly, but she was clearly too excited to complain. "And it was so weird: Dr Keogh was helping me treat Lottie and it turned out he delivered Lottie's friend Dylan – she was named after him! And they've got another friend called Ariana, who's Zoe and Max's daughter, and she used to go out with Rita and Iain's son!"

Emotion swept through Cal. And their other friend Matilda is my daughter… "Can I see her, Louise? Can I see Lottie? Please?"

Louise looked surprised, but she nodded. "Yeah, sure. I'll take you to her room."

Dylan was smiling as he made his way to the staff room for his break. He remembered how embarrassed and awkward he'd felt when Chloe Wilkinson and Lally Brae had decided to name their daughter after him, but he realised he felt almost proud now. He'd never thought of having a daughter himself, but if he had, he'd have wanted her to be like Dylan. Intelligent, independent, competent and very engaging. He had no doubt that she'd be an excellent doctor.

Dylan sighed as his phone started to ring. It was probably Luke to say he was probably going out with Maya or his mates and wouldn't want dinner. Dylan hoped he was with his mates. Alfie Dean and Charlie Bateman were good lads, if rather too noisy for Dylan's liking, but Maya Wescott was trouble.

Dylan got out his phone and looked at the display. "Hello, Hazel. Thanks for getting back to me." There was a hint of sarcasm, but mostly, he was just relieved to hear from her.

"Hi, Dylan," said Hazel. The line was terrible, but he could just about make out her voice. "Sorry for not ringing you back before."

"Is everything all right?" said Dylan, but what it wasn't what he really wanted to ask. Where have you been? Why haven't you been in contact with your son?

"Not really," said Hazel, and her voice shook slightly. "You were right about your dad, Dylan. You were so right."