Bonnie Sveen Fan, angry Zoe can be scary (though not on Connie's level), but she's nearly always funny! I can't quite imagine her being virginal though! It wasn't nice of Robyn to call Zoe a slapper - I was shocked when she said it in one of the episodes, but I thought it might work as a quote. Thank you for your review.
Tanith Panic, thank you for your review. I'm glad it's okay using darker storylines. I do think Grease has quite dark subject matter, but it's handled in a light-hearted way. The slapper comment is a quote so I hope you'll forgive me this time. I think Lily is so used to being right, it doesn't occur to her that she might have got things wrong!
"Lily, it wasn't like that!" said Alicia, tears starting in her eyes. "Why would you even think that? I'm not like that at all!"
"That's not what Caleb Knight told me," said Lily. "I have overheard Iain and Jez commenting on the matter too. Also Louise and Dr Hanna."
"But it's not true!" said Alicia. "I promise you, Lily. I would never behave like that at work. Or anywhere else, for that matter."
Lily gave a little smile. "Not what I heard, Dr Munroe."
Alicia stared at her for a moment, then she turned and ran. She heard Lily demanding that she came back this instant, but Alicia couldn't. She was aware she was doing nothing to disprove the rumours – she was technically abandoning her job in order to see Cal – but she had to speak to him.
She burst into the staff room to discover the others sitting around. They looked surprised by her sudden entrance.
"Alicia, are you okay?" asked Robyn.
Lofty stood up. "Come and sit down."
Alicia ignored them both, focusing her attention instead on the man who was ruining her life. "You just tell them right now, Caleb Knight. That everything you've been saying about me is a lie!"
Cal looked at her.
"Go on!" said Alicia, tears filling her eyes. "Tell them."
"I don't know what you're talking about," said Cal. "I haven't said anything about you."
"Caleb!" said Ethan in a voice of shocked disbelief. He went to Alicia's side. He gave her a tissue and two awkward shoulder pats. He didn't know what to do after that.
Honey started to cry. Ethan and Alicia would probably get together and live happily ever after.
Rita put her arm around Honey. "Don't cry, sweetheart. I know it's horrible, but I'm sure it'll stop soon. If it doesn't, I'll have a word, but let's give them the chance to sort it out themselves first."
"Cal, how could you?" cried Alicia. "After all we meant to each other?"
Ethan tried patting her again, but it didn't seem to help.
"We had a bit of fun," said Cal. "And now it's over."
"You think you're such a big man, don't you?" sobbed Alicia. "Trying to make everyone think I'm another slapper."
Zoe gasped and stood up. "What the hell do you mean by that?"
"Zoe, I'm sure she doesn't mean anything," said Lofty quickly.
Tears were pouring down Alicia's face. "I don't know why I ever liked you, Caleb Knight!" She ran from the room, completely ignoring Ethan's attempts at comfort, and bumped into Elle.
Elle caught her arms, steadying her. "Alicia, what's wrong?"
"I… I…" Alicia couldn't bring herself to tell her what the others had done. It seemed too much like telling tales. "I really like Cal and he's not interested."
"Oh, Alicia." Elle gave her a hug and held her for a few minutes as Alicia cried. "Come on, sweetheart. Let's go to my office and have a chat." She put her arm around Alicia, guiding her along the corridor. "Cal does have a lot of charm and you're not the first girl who's fallen for it. I doubt you'll be the last either. But there are much better men around than Cal and I'm sure there's one who's just right for you. What do you think of Ethan? He'd be perfect for you."
"Oh, just… just go and have your lunch!" shouted Dylan. He held open the cubicle curtain. "Go on. Get out of my sight."
Sebastian looked at Dylan in disbelief. He didn't understand why Dylan was so angry. He'd been trying really hard to show Dylan how much studying he'd done and how enthusiastic he was at everything, but Dylan had just got more and more annoyed. "Dylan, can we just-"
The look on Dylan's face told him the answer to that.
Sadly, Sebastian turned and left the cubicle, trying to work out what he'd done wrong. It was true that people with a fractured tibia and fibula didn't usually need their thyroid function checked, but Sebastian hadn't had the opportunity to suggest a thyroid function test for ages and he really wanted Dylan to know how much he knew about them. And it wasn't completely stupid: the patient might have fallen over due to fatigue or muscle weakness. She might have only thought the floor was slippery.
Perhaps it hadn't been the best idea to suggest a pregnancy test for a thirteen-year-old – even if she had just come back from a holiday in Spain, where the age of consent had been thirteen until about a year ago – but her mother probably wasn't really going to make a complaint.
But the latest problem really wasn't Sebastian's fault. The patient had developed breathing difficulties and Sebastian had panicked. Everyone panicked sometimes. Even Dylan got slightly anxious sometimes, like that time in Cubicle 4 when a 'time-waster' had collapsed on his way out of the cubicle and had to be rushed to Resus. Dylan hadn't frozen like Sebastian had just now, but he had been scared.
Sebastian walked towards the staff room, only to be sharply told to watch where he was going when he walked into Lily. Sebastian thought about telling her that if she didn't want to be walked into, she shouldn't stand around in the middle of corridors, but he decided she was too scary for that so he apologised meekly instead.
"It's quite all right, Dr Grayling," said Lily, much to his surprise. She smiled. "I was actually hoping I might run into you – I merely wasn't expecting it to be literal."
Sebastian looked at her a bit worriedly. Lily didn't usually make jokes.
"I was wondering if you had a date for the awards dinner," said Lily.
"Not yet," said Sebastian. He fully intended on asking Dylan the next time Dylan wasn't annoyed with him, but such moments seemed few and far between.
Lily smiled. "I was wondering if you might like to go with me."
Sebastian tried not to look too horrified. "That's very kind of you, Dr Chao, but-"
"Excellent!" said Lily. "I'll look forward to it."
"No, wait: I didn't mean…" Sebastian stopped. "I'm really sorry, but you're not my… I mean, I'm not your type."
"I think I'll be the judge of that," said Lily.
Sebastian swallowed hard. He doubted Lily was prejudiced, but she might be a bit upset. "I'm actually gay."
Lily stared at him in shock. "You're gay?"
Sebastian nodded. "So I do tend not to date women."
"I see," said Lily, as some of the severity returned to her face. "In that case, I would like to withdraw my invitation. I have no objection to working with gay men or even socialising with them on the rare occasions when I wish to socialise. But I never date them."
"That's fine, Lily," said Sebastian in relief. "I'm sure you'll find someone else to go with."
"I hope you're right," said Lily, almost to herself. She turned and walked away.
"Caleb, I can't believe you did that!" said Ethan.
Cal shrugged, though he didn't look completely happy. "What else was I supposed to say?"
"The truth?" said Ethan.
"How do you know it wasn't the truth?" said Cal.
"Because you look the way you always do when I catch you out and anyone can see Alicia isn't that type!" said Ethan.
Cal shrugged. "Appearances can be deceptive. You look like you're incapable of being mean to anyone, but you disprove that on a daily basis as far as I'm concerned."
"You don't exactly give me much choice." Ethan turned away. He was tempted to go after Alicia, but something stopped him.
Honey was crying. Really crying.
Ethan almost ran over to her. "Honey, don't cry. I'm sure everything will all sort itself out."
He wasn't sure he'd ever said such a long sentence to her before.
"How about we go and find Alicia and make sure she's okay?" said Ethan gently.
This suggestion seemed to upset Honey even more.
"Okay. Let's stay here," said Ethan. "I really do think it's going to be okay. Robyn, would you mind terribly if I asked you to make Honey a cup of tea? Thank you so much. Honey, I'm sure Zoe and Max will sort things out; they always do. Cal will probably never sort himself out, unfortunately, but Alicia will get over him. I know she will."
Especially with your help! thought Honey sadly.
Sebastian hung around outside cubicles, wondering what was taking Dylan so long. He knew Dylan was conscientious – that was one of the many things he loved about him. He wasn't touch-feely or overflowing with endearments – he was actually quite distant. But he worked hard to discover what was wrong and never gave up, which showed how caring he was.
Jamie came out of Dylan's cubicle and smiled at Sebastian. "Are you okay?"
"I'm just waiting for Dylan," said Sebastian. Waiting for Dylan to see I'm not just a stupid, incompetent F1.
"He'll be out soon," said Jamie. "He's just discharging the patient now."
Sebastian looked at Jamie for a moment and decided it would be nice to share his news with someone. "I'm going to ask Dylan to go to the awards with me," he whispered.
"Um… I don't think Dylan is really into all the socialising stuff," Jamie whispered back.
"He might be if it's with me," said Sebastian confidently. "I know he likes me, Jamie. That's why he gets so annoyed with me. Because I drive him wild."
"Oh… um… you probably know him better than I do," said Jamie uncertainly.
The curtain swished aside and the patient exited, followed by Dylan.
Sebastian planted himself in Dylan's path. "Dylan, would you like to take me to the awards' dinner?"
Dylan sighed. "Don't you think I see more than enough of you at work?"
"But this will be different," said Sebastian.
"Thank you, but NO," said Dylan emphatically and walked away.
Sebastian felt like crying.
"I'm sorry, Sebastian, but I really don't think he's interested," said Jamie gently.
Sebastian tried to speak firmly. "Of course he is. He's just playing hard to get."
"Um, why don't you go with me instead?" said Jamie.
"With you?" said Sebastian.
Jamie shrugged. "Why not?"
"I suppose I'll get to see Dylan," said Sebastian. "And if he sees me with you, he'll get jealous. And maybe then he'll stop playing hard to get."
"Um… Sebastian. I didn't quite mean…"
Sebastian gave him a hug. "It's a great idea, Jamie. I'd love to go with you."