Sunday 9th November 2014
The sun had begun to rise as the auburn haired consultant rolled over in the Scotsman's arms and then slowly opened her eyes to see him sleepily smiling at her.
"Morning." Jonny whispered as he tucked a bit of her long, wavy hair behind her ear. She had fallen asleep with her hood up, along with many layers – including Jonny's black hoodie – to keep warm however in her sleep, the hood had fallen down. "I am so glad we had showers last night." He croaked. "It means we can stay here a wee bit longer until we have to get up."
"Just because you're in Scotland doesn't mean you can use Scottish dialect i.e. 'wee', around me." Jac grumbled which caused Jonny to chuckle.
"You know, you can be as sharp and icy as you want around everyone else but I'm the only one who knows how grumpy and cranky you always are first thing in the morning."
"Shut up." She huffed before she slowly sat up and ran her hand through her hair before she glanced at her watch. She then took out the box of prescription painkillers from under her pillow and swallowed two tablets dry.
"One to ten?" Jonny requested softly as he sat up beside her. He knew she'd be in some pain because she always was when it was her time of month but he did sometimes worry she was in more pain than she let on.
"Two." Jac replied sheepishly as she begun to remove her layers one by one so she could put clean clothes on.
"Right, okay. In human terms that'll probably be a six. But anyway, I'll let you get dressed and I'll go and boil some water for you to have a coffee." He smiled as he leant across and kissed her forehead before he climbed out of the tent and disappeared from her view.
Meanwhile, Zosia had just exited the shower/toilet block wearing only a checkered night shirt with a towel turban around her wet hair and a toiletry bag in her hand when she bumped into her father.
"Do you really thing that that's appropriate to be worn in public?" Guy complained as he could see far more flesh that he'd like and he knew it wasn't only the Holby group that were camping on the site so he, as her father, felt responsible for her wellbeing and safety.
"Shut up, I'm going to get changed in the tent." Zosia moaned as she didn't even slow her pace until she reached the junior doctors' tent where Dom was sorting through his bag whilst Arthur was still in the showers.
"Zosia, can I borrow your tweezers please? I've got a splinter in my finger." He grimaced as he pinched the tip of one of his fingers.
"Yeah sure." Zosia replied confusedly as she began to sort through her bag until she took out a pair of silver tweezers. "How did you even get a splinter?" She questioned.
"You don't want to know." He grinned before he focused on the task at hand: removing the splinter.
"Dom." Zosia sighed.
"What?" Dom protested innocently.
"Can I get dressed please?" She huffed.
"Oh, yeah sure." He nodded. "But don't forget to put on old-ish clothes. With this assault course thing, I bet we'll end up disgustingly filthy." He warned as he got to his feet, and zipped the tent shut behind him.
"Congratulations Jac, your team has triumphed again." Guy announced as the group of ten stood in boilers suits, caked in mud and soaked through to the bone. It had rained overnight, and rained in the morning whilst they were doing the assault course and so everyone was freezing cold and wet. Jac's team – Jonny, Sacha, Guy ad Dom – had beaten the other team and so they had won the beers. "Now, as you all know the numbers of showers at the campsites have been limited so far and I don't want riots when we get to tonight's campsite so I'm implementing a hierarchy for the showers." He stated. "Depending on how many they are, the winning team have priority, followed by the losing team." He explained.
"That's completely unfair!" Zosia protested.
"Well we'll just have to see how many showers there are there first." Guy stated. "Come on, boiler suits off and everyone onto the minibus." He ordered.
Everyone was waiting by the minibus for Guy to return as he was checking the number of showers. They were mostly freezing as they stood in vests or thin tops along with leggings or tracksuit bottoms, smeared with mud and those such as Zosia, Jac and Colette still had wet hair. They weren't going to set up their tents until they had showered and changed into clean clothes.
"Right, there's four men's showers, four women's showers. So myself, Sacha, Jonny and Dom are the first men to shower, as well as Jac and three women from the losing team." Guy announced.
"Shot gun it's me." Zosia, Mo and Adele said simultaneously.
"Well you're going to have to sort it out amongst yourselves." Guy chuckled as he glanced at Colette who he knew probably wouldn't mind waiting a bit longer.
"Go on you three." Colette nodded.
"Jonny, seeing as you're the first one ready can you get a fire going please?" Guy requested as he entered the changing room with a towel around his waist whilst he watched the Scotsman lift his hiking bag onto his back after he had already gotten dressed.
"Yeah sure." Jonny nodded. "They reckon it's gonna get near 0° tonight." Jonny stated before he walked out of the building into the field where it was already beginning to get dark, but he could just see a woman with long, damp hair and their grey NHS hoodie on walking towards the minibus so he jogged over to catch up with her. "Hey, you fancy helping me set up a fire?" Jonny asked as Colette and Arthur made their way over to the showers now that there were two spaces.
"If I must." Jac sighed as she grabbed their tent from the minibus whilst she kept her hiking bag on her back but Jonny noticed it was more of a defeated tone rather than her usual sharp quips.
"You alright?" He asked concernedly.
"What do you think?" She snapped. "It's bloody freezing."
"Of course." Jonny concluded sympathetically. He knew when she was cold, she often experienced far worse pain because she was less comfortable and she generally hated the cold anyway. Let alone when she could blame it on being forced to go to Scotland. "Nevermind about the fire. Come on, keep this on until we get the tent up to keep you out of the wind." He said softly as he pulled her hood up and tucked her long, damp hair inside of her hoodie. "I'll sort the fire out after." He stated as he took the tent out of her hand and they walked over to their empty pitch before he and Jac started to put their tent up.
"Good job Jonny." Guy smiled as he arrived to find a crackling fire not far from Jac and Jonny's tent and the Scotsman was still adding small branches to it.
"Thanks." Jonny replied as he put the last bit of wood on the fire before he disappeared into his tent. Guy then put his hiking bag and his tent bag on the ground when he turned around to see his daughter carrying over her bags.
"Would you like some help with your tent?" He offered as he was sure the junior doctors' large tent would be difficult to put up singlehandedly.
"Yes please." Zosia smiled gratefully as she dumped her bags on the ground.
"So are you enjoying this trip?" He asked curiously as they began to get the poles and pegs out of the tent bag but he received a raise of her eye brow and a sarcastic look from her. "Alright let me rephrase that: the purpose of this trip was to get everyone here working together and getting on together more. Do you think it has worked?" He queried.
"I think it's scared the living daylights out of me on more than one occasion." Zosia quipped.
"Seriously Zosia, I need to know if it'll be worth doing something like this again."
"I don't know." Zosia admitted honestly. "Some things have been fun like the assault course but it's just the weather and the camping. No one's enjoying sleeping on the floor and the entire time we've been here, it's been freezing cold."
"So maybe something in the summer would be better." Guy concluded. "I mean, the only reason we've come here in November is because Darwin and Keller are being refurbished now and the revamp had been scheduled for months. I thought it'd be good to do this as opposed to having you all work in different areas while the wards are closed." He stated.
"If you wanted to make it even better, next time you could do something abroad." Zosia suggested cheekily.
"And of course the board would cough up the cash for that." Guy replied sarcastically. "Just remind me once I've done this, I've got to get the winning team's beers out of the minibus. You can have mine again." Guy stated.
Jac was sitting in her tent with a blanket around her shoulders to keep her warm when Jonny entered the tent with eight bottles of beer – they had each won four for being part of the winning team. She briefly glanced up as he put them by the entrance of their tent before she looked back down at her phone which she had just turned off to save the battery.
"You can drink you know." She finally spoke up as he came and sat next to her.
"I don't want to drink alone." Jonny replied innocently. She couldn't drink because of her medication and so she had already given her other beers to Mo after she had agreed no questions asked as to why she wasn't drinking them and she had shared them with her sister.
"Well then go and drink with Mo and Adele."
"No, I don't want to." Jonny chuckled. "You know you'll be a lot warmer if you come and sit by the fire." He advised.
"I don't want to." Jac mumbled. "My hair'll go smoky and Saucer and that lot are out there."
"Zosia." Jonny corrected. "Right, what do you want to do for dinner?" He asked. "Would you like to go to a restaurant or a takeaway or we could get something healthier from a supermarket."
"I don't want a big meal, I'm not that hungry." She admitted before she ran her hand through her hair and then she pulled the blanket around her tighter.
"You'll be feeling better in a few days." Jonny whispered before he kissed her on the cheek. "Just tell me anything you fancy and I'll see what I can get. Sandwich, salad, pasta…?" He suggested.
"Pasta sounds good." Jac nodded.
"Alright, I'll see what I can do."
"Zosia, I think you've had enough." Guy stated as he prised the unopened bottle of beer that she had just picked up out of her hand. The Keller group minus Sacha were all sitting around the fire with darkness surrounding them and it was beginning to get late.
"Spoilsport." Zosia slurred as she clambered up and stumbled over to the box containing the rest of the beers but Dom quickly got up and stood in her way. He, Arthur, Guy and Colette had watched her drink far more than the rest of them but because she had consumed them so quickly, it hadn't been until half an hour later that they had begun to take effect. And unfortunately, they took effect all at once. "I need the toilet." She announced drunkenly before she turned around and proceeded to vomit onto the grass in front of her.
"Right come on, go to the bathroom with Colette and then I think it's time you hit the sack." Guy declared as he stood up and placed a hand on her back whilst he avoided the pool of vomit.
"I miss Mama." She mumbled before she wrapped her arms around her father and Guy had to carefully manoeuvre her away from the puddle before he gave her a proper hug and his heart broke as she began to cry. "I miss her so much."
"I know you do Zoshie." Guy whispered as he rubbed her back up and down before he glanced at Colette over his shoulder and mouthed 'can you take her to the toilets?'.
"Come on Zosh." Colette ordered sternly yet softly as she took one of her hands and began to lead her over to the toilet block and the men could only watch as Zosia began rambling on to Colette about god-knows what.
"Boys can you keep an eye on her for me tonight?" Guy requested awkwardly.
"Yeah sure." Arthur nodded eagerly.
"And put plenty of blankets on her; it's supposed to get cold tonight and she's so out of it she probably won't feel the cold." He advised.
"Yeah sure, we'll make sure she's alright." Dom stated as he gathered the empty bottles of beer and put them in a pile together until Zosia returned with Colette.
"She's just been sick again so watch it." Colette warned the two other junior doctors as Zosia stumbled across the grass.
"Zosia, that's the wrong tent." Dom shouted as he quickly ran over to the Effanga sisters' tent and lead Zosia over to her own tent.
"They've got their work cut out." Colette smirked as she stood with Guy whilst he watched them get his daughter into her tent and then they tried to settle her down.
"Do you think she was trying to get drunk?" Guy asked concernedly. "It's just with what she said about Anya, she sounded really down."
"I'm sure you've dealt with enough drunken patients to know that they'll talk about literally anything when they're out of it." Colette stated. "She probably wasn't trying to get drunk, she was just having too much of a good time to stop."
"Right, I'd better get some rest, I'm knackered after today." He admitted.
"Yeah, see you in the morning." Colette yawned before they all called it a night and fell asleep listening to Arthur and Dom as they argued with Zosia and told her to stop talking and go to sleep….