AN: This took a little bit of re-writing, I kind of knew what I wanted to say and where I wanted it to go but it took several attempts.

Thank you all for your kind reviews and follows for the previous chapter. I agree it was a little cruel to have Sahira appear when she did but all good things come to those who wait (so I'm told). Not much longer now... ;-)

Chapter 11.

"What-"

Serena follows Hanssen's line of sight until she realises what it is that has caught his attention. Stood on the stairwell landing beneath them is a stunned, wide-eyed Sahira Shah. Serena blinks at the realisation and several possible thoughts and reactions flit through her mind; part of her wants to tell the woman 'fuck off princess, we're busy', turn back to Hanssen and kiss him regardless, effectively sticking two fingers up at the younger consultant.

Unfortunately, Serena knows that Hanssen would never go along with such a plan and his inevitable confusion would affect Serena's credibility in Sahira's eyes. However, Serena does take a moment to observe the expression that Sahira is wearing as she stares at Hanssen, an interesting mix of surprise, shock and almost betrayal that Serena is determined to exploit.

"Ah, Ms. Shah." Serena drawls, drawing Sahira's attention away from Hanssen. Serena knows that the tall Director of Surgery will be next to useless in this instance, the impending confrontation is strictly women-only. "I'm glad I found you," she pauses just long enough to note the change of expression to disbelief in the younger woman before she speaks again.

"I've got some forms which need a Darwin Consultant's signature." The sudden change in topic obviously surprises Sahira, cutting off whatever she was about to say. "As there is no time like the present. Shall we?" Serena's tone of voice appears to be pleasant, as if she isn't unduly bothered by the interruption to the kiss when in reality she just wants to wallop the woman back down the stairs from whence she came.

Placing a smile on her face which she acknowledges as possibly looking a little predatory, Serena moves away from Hanssen her fingers brushing against his hand, feeling his fingers twitch in response. Serena descends down the concrete steps to join Sahira and directs her away through the door to Keller, sparing a quick look back at Hanssen, still stood in the same place as he disappears from sight behind the stairs with an unreadable expression on his face.

Serena taps out the code for the Keller consultant's office and steps in, turning the light on as she goes; she hasn't wandered into the room without turning the lights on since Hanssen nearly gave her a heart attack that time. The two women had travelled in silence, only pausing for Serena to speak to a nurse as they pass on the ward. Making her way to the familiar desk on the right-hand side of the office, Serena sits in her chair, not offering Sahira a seat, too busy rummaging through the pile of papers on the side of her desk which has become a permanent fixture since she became the Executive Director of Surgery.

Serena is glad that Sahira is so openly confused and off-balance, it gives her a moment to acknowledge and then suppress her own confusion at the scene on the stairwell that Ms. Shah stumbled onto. It was Hanssen's move; Serena was rooted to the spot the moment that he raised a hand to her face and brought his head towards hers to kiss her. She sighs imperceptibly, the near kiss will almost certainly be fuel for her dreams for the near future, a traitorous part of her can't wait.

"Some of the Darwin referral forms were sent to me without a consultant's signature." Serena explains as she finally locates the correct pieces of paper.

"What?"

Serena repeats herself, knowing that she is adding to the younger woman's confusion by not providing an immediate explanation for the scene she witnessed just now as Sahira obviously expected her to do.

"I had rather meant to ask Elliot to come down but you know how many distractions there are in this place." Serena drawls, not bothering to hide her smirk as Sahira's agitated reaction is exactly what Serena intended.

She knows that she has control of the situation and if she plays the exchange correctly, she can assert her dominance over Sahira. Serena can remind the younger woman that regardless of what happened at Holby before, Serena Campbell is here now and won't hesitate to use claws to enforce the new pecking order.

"Chilly this evening, isn't it?" Serena asks deliberately casually, hoping that the continuous mixing up of topics will throw Sahira off-balance long enough for Serena to score a vital victory and she dutifully changes the topic again. "Oh, would you sign just there?"

"Thank you. If you could shut the door quietly on your way out." When Hanssen had said that to Serena once, she'd almost exploded at the rudeness of the dismissal but she recognises its effectiveness and doesn't hesitate to use it against Hanssen's former protégé once the woman has signed where Serena needs her to and she appears to return her attention to another pile of patient notes as she watches Sahira head to the door out of the corner of her eye.

"What was that?"

"What was what?" Serena asks innocently as she glances up, amused that it's taken this long for Sahira to find her voice and courage.

"You and Henrik. On the stairs just now."

Serena leans back in her chair and calmly observes Sahira, the woman stood rigidly by the office door; she is aware that her delay in providing an answer is annoying Sahira and briefly, Serena wonders how Hanssen would respond and she smirks as the answer comes to her.

"I fail to see what concern it is of yours."

Judging by the muttered curse and a partial exclamation which sounds suspiciously like 'as bad as Henrik' to Serena's ears, Serena has got the response correct. She watches Sahira push away from the door and she frowns until she realises that the younger consultant is only pacing and relaxes. Hanssen may have been Sahira's mentor but the woman has picked up none of Hanssen's skills of manipulation; the woman is like an open book and obviously distressed and Serena intends to take full advantage and get some answers to questions she would never ask Hanssen.

"Sit down Ms. Shah before you make both of us dizzy." Serena instructs, the woman glares but complies sullenly. "Now, I don't know what your relationship was with him and I don't care. So I fail to see why our relationship is of any interest to you?" There is a time for subtle word play and a time for blunt questions and Serena considers this to be mostly a case for the latter.

"Henrik is my best friend, I... we parted badly when I left, a few parting comments I'm sure we both regret."

"Badly how?"

Sahira huffs.

"Surely you don't need me to tell you how good he is at provoking reactions from people?" Serena remains silent, she is not going to mention what kinds of reactions the Swede is good at provoking in her and looks to change the subject.

"What happened?"

"I told I didn't want to speak to him anymore."

'And your issue is that he listened to you?' Serena maintains a blank expression, realising why Jac Naylor referred to the woman as 'princess', she knows that working on the same ward as Sahira would have tried her patience towards its limits.

"Then why did you accept his job offer?"

"Nottingham isn't what I thought it could be," confesses Sahira sadly and Serena almost feels sorry for her. Almost. "Henrik was right and he knew it; I should never have left. I don't know why I left." Serena frowns, trying to reconcile Sahira's answers with what she knows of the woman.

"And then I saw him at the conference and he didn't seem too different, a little more reserved than I remembered perhaps but I jumped at the chance to work with him again."

'I bet you did' thinks Serena bitterly and she wonders if her jealousy at the time was well-placed.

"Despite the 'parting comments'?" She sees Sahira wince a little and wonders what on earth they said to one another. Although Serena is thankful that she hasn't had much in the way of dealings with Ms. Shah, the few times she has seen her with Hanssen, the Swede had not reacted in the way that Serena expected for one half of a pair that had well over £1,000 riding on a relationship betting pool.

"Forgive me, Ms. Shah – I was under the impression that you were married?" Serena deliberately allows confusion to seep into her voice.

"I am," she sighs. "Rafi and I are... it's a trial separation." Sahira offers a pained smile that Serena understands all too well and is careful to keep her expression blank and respond non-committally.

"I see."

"I miss my children though, I've never been away from them for this long before."

"Children?" Serena glances up at Sahira, eyeing her speculatively as a plan begins to form.

"Two boys, four and two."

"And they're staying with your husband?" Serena tries not to think about how the woman has abandoned two small children and her husband on the off-chance of something with an ex-colleague halfway across the country, lest it creep into her tone of voice.

Sahira nods.

"It's perfectly understandable that you would miss them," Serena begins in a tone than anyone else would immediately be wary of. "You have to put your family first or all you'll wake up one day and realise that all you have left is your job."

"It's what I told Henrik," Sahira confides, "although my wording left a bit to be desired. I guess part of me thought that despite what we said, Henrik wouldn't change but it's clear he's moved on." Serena forces herself to meet the younger woman's stare evenly, trying not to give away that there is no relationship between the two, just one near kiss and months of petty arguments and tension.

"If Holby isn't right for you, why don't you return to Nottingham to be with your children?"

"I couldn't do that to Elliot." Sahira answers weakly and Serena smile turns predatory, like a shark closing in on its prey.

"Are you prepared to have say, another eight weeks away from your family?" Serena sits back in her chair, watching the younger consultant debate with her own mind, knowing that she has won and quite possibly removed Sahira in the same move.

A familiar ringtone begins to play in the office and Serena fishes out her mobile from her pocket, determined to silence it but frowns at the device when she sees her ex-husband's name on the screen and she tries not to let the sudden reappearance of her concern about Eleanor show.

"I've got to take this," she doesn't look up at Sahira. "Give me your answer in the morning and I'll talk to Mr. Hanssen for you." Serena waits until the door clicks shut until she answers the incoming call, ready to give her ex-husband a piece of her mind.

" Hey Mum."

Eleanor's voice on the other end of the line stops Serena short for a moment and her initial feeling is one of relief at her daughter's voice, quickly followed by anger. "What time is it now and what time were you going to text me by?"

"I know, I'm sorry – the band finished late anyway and then it took a bit of time to find Dad, he's driving us back now and I remembered I hadn't rung you and my battery has died and-"

"Alright." Serena's curt one-word answer stops Eleanor mid-ramble. "I was worried, I-"

"Sorry Mum, I really did mean to call you."

"What about using your boyfriend's phone?"

"Oh... I didn't think about that."

Serena rolls her eyes, if she had a pound for every time she had heard Eleanor say 'I didn't think'... She sighs, not wanting to argue tonight and pretends to ignore the comment. "Was it a good concert?"

"Yeah, it was amazing! Anyway, I gotta go, see you soon Mum, love you!"

Serena hopes she will see Eleanor soon, she's barely seen her own daughter since her mother's stroke and she misses her. Serena sits in her office chair, absent-mindedly twisting from side to side as her gaze flicks between the door that Sahira left through and her mobile phone, discarded on the desk in front of her. Exhaling forcefully through pursed lips, Serena feels some of the tension disappear with her daughter's phone call and she returns her focus back to the hospital, deciding to do another hour of work before heading to the on-call room for a couple of hours of sleep.

She stops spinning in her chair, sighing slightly as she pockets her mobile, her mind returning to the Director of Surgery. If Serena is perfectly honest with herself, she never really liked her plan of getting over her thing for Hanssen in the first place. Serena knows that she has been lying to herself for months now, she is finally able to admit that she wants more from Hanssen than their current distorted working relationship and judging by his move to kiss her this evening, the possibility of more than a professional relationship isn't an unwelcome one for him.

There is no doubt in her mind that Hanssen was about to kiss her and would have done so, had the unsuspecting Ms. Shah not turned up. The fact that Serena would have kissed Hanssen back went far beyond bending the structure of her plan, it damn well was equivalent to snapping it in half and ripping off the handles.

She has a phone call to make. Reaching a decision, Serena pulls out her mobile from her cardigan pocket and scrolls through her contact list.

Calling... Jac Naylor

After all, Serena thinks, she hasn't lasted this long in the cut-throat world of hospital politics without having a few back-up plans and tricks up her sleeve.

AN: Drop me a line, let me know what you think :)