CasualtyFanForever81, thank you for the idea - I think that would make a really good addition to the story. I'll see what I can do.

ETWentHome, I'm happy you enjoyed the last chapter. Considering how much I love Cal, I do seem to spend a lot of time making him suffer! Thank you for the review.

Tanith Panic, thank you very much - I'm glad you enjoyed it.


Lily stared into the mirror. Without her glasses, the eagle-eyed members of the department would know she'd been crying, but with her glasses, she would be fine.

She didn't know why she was so upset. All she'd done was give her opinion. She hadn't tried to hurt Sophie. She'd just stated the facts as she saw them. It wasn't her fault that Sophie had overreacted. It also wasn't her fault that Cal had gone a little too far in defending his latest girlfriend's honour.

But Zoe seemed to agree that Lily had done something badly wrong and Lily respected Zoe's opinion. She also respected Ethan's opinion and although she and Ethan had seen each other a couple of times today (albeit at a distance), he hadn't so much as smiled at her.

Lily remembered when she'd first started working at the ED. She hadn't been popular and she knew everyone had been looking forward to her departure. She'd asked Zoe to let her stay and although Zoe had tried to be diplomatic, she'd known Zoe didn't want her. Then, unaccountably, she'd changed her mind, but until that point, Lily had been convinced she wasn't coming back. She had tried to hide her feelings, of course, but she had been hurt.

She wondered how she would have felt if Zoe had told her she had no future as a doctor; that her impatience, abruptness and inability to connect with the patients would make her dream impossible. That would have hurt her even more.

If Zoe had said all that and then offered Lily the chance to stay on, would she have been strong enough to accept?

Lily hoped she would have been, but she wasn't sure. The humiliation might have driven her away even if the hurt did not.

"Lily, are you okay?"

Lily saw Robyn appear in the mirror behind her. "Why wouldn't I be okay?" she said sharply. Then she took a shaky breath. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

Robyn looked even more concerned. "You didn't hurt me, Lily." She came to stand beside Lily. "I just thought you looked a bit sad, that's all. But there are always loads of reasons for feeling sad in a hospital. Like double shifts."

Lily knew she was supposed to smile. She almost managed it.

"If there's nothing wrong, then I'm really happy," said Robyn with a smile. "But if you do want to talk to someone, you can always talk to me. I'm actually quite a good listener when I remember to stop talking."

Lily wasn't in the habit of discussing her feelings, but she did feel slightly comforted to know someone wanted to listen. It probably meant Robyn didn't hate her.

Though of course, Robyn loved pretty much everyone. She probably even loved Connie. She might even love Cal.

"I'm okay," said Lily. "But… thank you."

"No problem," said Robyn. "If you ever aren't okay, you know where to find me."


Cal sneaked up behind Sophie and put his arms around her. "I've got a surprise for you."

"What kind of surprise?" said Sophie, a bit nervously.

"I've booked a table for tonight," said Cal as he turned her to face him. "The best restaurant in Holby. Because you deserve the best."

There was uncertainty in Sophie's eyes. "Cal, I do like you. I really do."

"I know you do," said Cal, surprised.

"A bit more modesty and humility wouldn't go astray, but I think you're basically a good guy," said Sophie.

Cal nodded. "I am a good guy," he said before deciding this wasn't very modest. "Most of the time." He frowned slightly. Perhaps that didn't give the best impression either. "I do always mean well. Except sometimes when I'm talking to Ethan."

"The thing is," said Sophie as she gently extracted herself from his embrace, "I am kind of getting over someone."

Cal dismissed this with a sweeping gesture. "Forget about him. He's a moron."

Sophie looked startled. She gave a nervous laugh. "You don't even know who he is."

"I know he's a moron," said Cal. He held his face close to hers. "Anyone would have to be a moron to break up with you."

Sophie seemed slightly breathless. She took a step back. "He didn't break up with me. We were never together. He asked me out for a drink and I assumed he liked me, but then he gave me a big speech about how it wouldn't be appropriate for us to go out, but he'd like to be friends. It doesn't seem fair to go out with you when I'm still getting over him."

Cal put his arms around her again. "Come here, beautiful. Now listen to me. It's very sweet of you to worry about hurting me, but you can't spend the rest of your life moping over this idiot. You need to get out and enjoy life and if you come out with me, I'll make sure you have a good time. That's the best way of getting over someone: to find someone else to fill the hole he left in your life."

"Caleb, I make it a point of honour never to go out with a guy who offers to fill up my hole."

"Okay," said Cal with an awkward smile. "Maybe I didn't put that in quite the best way. But I'm sure you know what I mean. Let me be your rebound guy and by the end of the night, you won't even remember who you're on the rebound from."

Sophie laughed. "Are you sure about that? I don't usually forget things when I'm around you."

"Then I'll have to work harder, won't I?" said Cal. "Okay, what's a dacryocystorhinostomy?"

"Not something we're likely to do in the ED."

Cal kissed her cheek. "Don't tell me I've finally found something you don't know."

Sophie tilted her head. Or perhaps moved her cheek away from him, but Cal preferred to believe she was tilting her head in a flirtatious manner.

"No, I do know," she said. "That's when the nasolacrimal duct doesn't function and you need to restore the flow of tears from the lacrimal sac to the nose. There are two methods of performing this procedure. Would you like the external or the endoscopic method?"

Cal put his mouth close to her ear. "Perhaps we could discuss it over dinner."

Sophie's eyes widened. "You want me to discuss surgical procedures over dinner?"

Cal gave a reluctant smile. "Okay. Maybe we should save that one for another time. But you will come out with me, won't you? Because if you don't, I'm going to have to find another girl to go with me so I don't look stupid eating at a table for two on my own and that might ruin my chances with you forever."

Sophie shook her head, but her smile was affectionate. "I suppose it would be unfair to cause you that sort of suffering after you rescued me from Dr Chao. Okay. I'll go out with you."

"You won't regret it," said Cal. He held her head in his hands and slowly leaned towards her. When their lips were almost touching, he stilled. He looked into her eyes. "You'll have a good time, Sophie. I promise." He brushed her lips with a light kiss.

He knew he was going to have a good time too.


Ethan looked at the tablet in concern. As he'd expected, the clavicle was fractured and also displaced, but it looked like there might be a bit more to it than that.

"Ethan? Is everything okay?" asked Sophie. When he didn't answer, she looked down at the x-rays. "Okay. So it looks like the patient has previously fractured her clavicle on at least two occasions."

"But there's nothing in her notes," said Ethan. "And the way the bones have knitted together suggests no treatment was given at the time."

Sophie's voice quivered slightly. "Do you think this could be a domestic violence case?"

"It's possible," said Ethan.

"There was also some bruising on her arms," said Sophie. "And it looked like the patient was favouring her left foot."

Ethan nodded. Despite the situation, he felt proud of Sophie. She was very observant.

Sophie trembled slightly, but there was a determined light in her eye. "I'll deal with this, Ethan. She might be more comfortable speaking to a woman. I'll go and speak to her now."

She turned on her heel and walked towards the cubicle. Ethan could tell she was afraid, but her head was held high. He raced forward to stop her. "No, Sophie!" He grabbed both her arms and moved her away from the cubicle. "You can't."

"Can't I?" Sophie looked surprised. Then she dropped her eyes, her cheekbones stained an attractive pink. "No. You're right. It's not my job."

"It's not that," said Ethan, even though she was right. "But I'd like to rule out other physical causes first. Domestic violence is a common reason for not seeking medical help with an injury, but there are other possible reasons. If the patient has a high pain threshold she could have been suffering serious injuries without realising it. Or even if she has a low pain threshold, her past experiences could have taught her that extreme pain isn't something she should panic about because it's usually nothing."

Sophie said nothing. She stared down at the floor.

"We also need to do a bone profile test," said Ethan. "A high bone turnover can cause weakness in the bones so they're more easily fractured. Or it could be a problem with the vestibular system, of course."

Sophie nodded. She still didn't look at him. "Maybe Dr Chao was right. Maybe I am stupid."

"Of course you're not!" Ethan put his arm around her. "It's okay, Sophie. You haven't done anything wrong. Doctors make mistakes all the time. I've definitely made mistakes. We don't expect perfection and you're a lot closer to perfection than I'd expect anyone to be."

"But if you hadn't stopped me, I'd have gone in there and accused her husband of hitting her," said Sophie.

"I'm sure you wouldn't have done it quite like that," said Ethan. "And I did stop you so it doesn't matter. Look at me, Sophie."

Sophie raised her eyes to his. This did strange things to Ethan's heart rate, but he didn't quite forget what he was talking about.

"Sophie, what you did told me two things. Two very important things," said Ethan. "You're using your intelligence to make observations. Secondly, you care about the patient a lot and you really want to help. Those two things tell me you're going to be a good doctor."

"Really?" said Sophie.

"Really," said Ethan. "And you might be right about the domestic violence. We'll have to wait and see."

"I do actually hope I'm wrong."

"Yes. So do I," admitted Ethan. He hugged her more tightly. "It's okay if you're not ready, but I'd really like it if you could take the bloods for me for the bone profile test. What do you think?"

Sophie stared at him. "You want me to go back in with the patient after what I nearly did?"

"Of course I do," said Ethan.

Sophie's eyes were still slightly wide with shock. She moistened her lips (an action Ethan found considerably more attractive than he would have expected) and nodded. "Okay. If you're sure."

Ethan didn't let go of her. "Of course I'm sure. Don't worry. Everything's fine and you're doing really well."

"Dr Hardy!" said a voice and Ethan jumped.

"Mrs Beauchamp," he said nervously.

Connie gave him that look that made him feel not so much three inches tall as three millimetres. "When I told you you would do well to emulate your brother, I meant that you should try to work a little faster. I did not mean that you should manhandle the medical students."

Ethan quickly removed his arm from around Sophie.

"He was just showing me where my deltoid muscle was, Mrs Beauchamp," said Sophie brightly.

Connie gave her a withering look. "If that's the best you can do, I despair for the future of medicine." She walked away.

Ethan turned back to Sophie. "Right. Okay. Um… where were we?"

"Blood tests."

"Oh, yes. That's right," said Ethan.

"Though if we're supposed to be working quickly, have we got time for this?" said Sophie. "We could just give the patient a blood form and send her to pathology."

Ethan smiled. "I think Mrs Beauchamp would like you. I think that's exactly what she'd say. But I like to do things thoroughly and in view of the possibility of domestic violence, I'd like to get the tests done today."

"But we don't say anything about it to the patient?" said Sophie.

"No. At least not yet." Ethan checked Connie was out of sight and put his hand on Sophie's shoulder. "Are you ready to take the bloods?"

"Ready, Dr Hardy."

"I know you'll be brilliant."

For once, he was right.