AAU was manic that Wednesday and, despite the impressive efficiency of the entire team, doctors and nurses alike were treading water with the admittance rates.
"Aren't the ED staff sweethearts?" Fletch sarcastically smiled at Jasmine, swiping through the nurses' station to pick up another few files and drop a couple off simultaneously.
"Wasn't he-?" The F1 pulled a confused look at Morven, who shrugged knowingly, nodding her head.
"When it suits him." She mocked the nurse's hypocritical comment, walking out into the ward herself.
Both Bernie and Serena had been on shift since early that morning, which had started rather sharply when the red phone shrieked, quite literally, as soon as the pair had walked through the door. The outcome had not set the day off to a very promising start, the surgeons losing a young woman involved in a nasty RTC involving a drunk driver.
"She was completely innocent in this!" Serena slammed through the theatre doors, which bounced back harshly, hitting the following blonde forcefully. Normally, she would have muttered some smart comment, but knew that right now, Serena wouldn't be so accepting of the light humour. It wasn't that Bernie hadn't been upset to lose the patient, of course she was- and the minute emotions became mute in her medicine would be the day that she would give it up. But, especially with her previous life, feelings had to take a back burner in their work or face the spiralling consequences. Bernie considered, momentarily, why she had been harder to it than her partner, despite their equal length of experience. Maybe it was just the military conditioning and she'd developed a thicker skin in the field. But then, Serena Campbell was very rarely one to be affected so easily…
Since the first catastrophe of the day, for Serena, the day had gone from bad to worse. Morven had needed her help with a tricky diagnosis, which had consequently lead to emergency surgery when they discovered internal bleeding and a violent patient had left Fletch unusually shaken up, so had taken his break early. It was of course during this period that another elderly man had gone into cardiac arrest and, unfortunately, they'd lost him too. This was all while Bernie had been in surgery, assisting Jac Naylor with a ground-breaking operation.
"Is the bloody grim reaper here in disguise today?" Serena huffed, slamming down numerous folders before sitting down at the station to complete a small amount of general paperwork. It was the first two minutes of the day she'd managed to sit down, when a distressed mother, with a young baby, was wheeled onto the ward.
"This is Maddie Summerton," Fletch began to explain as he helped the woman onto the bed. The redhead sat back, cradling her child close to her, and her tear streaked face looked up to Serena, smiling slightly. Her eyes sagged under heavy fatigue- more so than the usual new mother- and her skin was pale. "She was admitted from ED with abdominal pains and sensitivity to her skin. But Miss Summerton has insisted on having her baby with her. She's refusing treatment without her nearby."
"Okay, thanks Fletch." She smiled gently at the younger woman as Fletch walked back to the nurses' station.
-As if cursed by the Erinyes themselves, Serena had struggled to diagnose Maddie, running various tests on a continuing cycle, desperately trying to bring comfort to her worries by discovering something. It had been four hours since the woman had been admitted when a dark haired, suited man had come onto the ward asking for her. Serena could detect what she and Bernie referred to as the Pillock Power, symptoms of their own previous experiences with men that indicated an unhappy ending. She was short with him from the off, especially when he asked to see the man in charge. She couldn't help laughing out loud as she turned away, after explaining that AAU was run by two women, resisting the urge to explain that the co-leads, as well as sharing a ward, happened to share a bed too.
Half an hour after he had arrived, Serena had gone to notify Maddie that yet another test had come back normal and that they were going to take another route with her treatment. Briefly perplexed as to why the curtain had been pulled around her bed, she pulled it back quickly to reveal an empty bed and her bag had disappeared. She nearly choked in surprise when she heard a soft gurgle at the end of the bed, to find the young child kicking about, dangerously close to the edge. Placing the tablet down on the mattress, she slowly picked the young baby up, pulling her close to her chest and rocking the child back and forth carefully, dreading to think what could have happened if she'd been left much longer and had wobbled any closer to the side of the bed. Before turning away completely, a fluttering caught her eye, and she bent down to pick the crumpled paper from the floor.
Please look after Rosie. I'm sorry.
Serena cursed herself mentally, for making a harsh-though fleeting- judgement on the clearly distressed woman, but considered whether the berk who'd made an appearance had anything to do with the situation.
Serena cautiously made her way back to her own office, being careful to avoid other staff members, not wanting to draw attention to the issue quite yet. As she closed the door and drew the blind, Serena felt a small fist tap against her shoulder, a quiet mumble coming from the infant. She pulled Rosie from her shoulder, lifting her out slightly and up above her head, looking to the child.
"What are we going to do with you, eh?" She whispered, smiling softly at the child. A pang of sadness hit Serena, who had been in this job too long to avoid unfortunate involvement with social services. She looked at the tiny face smiling back at her, legs kicking in the pale yellow growsuit, decorated with delicate blue forget-me-nots. She couldn't help but giggle back at her, before bringing Rosie closer and cradling her in her arms.
Bernie had recently returned to the ward, buzzing with adrenaline from a risky yet successful dual procedure with Jac. It had been good to work with the CT surgeon again, despite to pressing questions of her private and professional life, true Naylor style. After circling AAU twice to find Serena, she noticed the blinds shut to their office, something that rarely occurred- the last time being her return from Kiev, in fact, the memory of the reunion causing a smile to grow.
She tentatively pushed the door ajar, wary of why their space had been isolated quite so much but the scene took her breath away, gasping quietly at the beautiful sight before her.
Serena was bouncing Rosie around the office, cradling the child in her arms, humming gently to quieten the child and, presumably, get her off to sleep for a while. A fleeting concern crossed the blonde's mind of 1) How long had she been gone?! And 2) What was Serena doing with a baby? but was too touched by the sight to care. The medic gingerly entered the room and Serena spun round when she heard the faint click of the door shutting.
"I leave you for half a day, Serena." Bernie whispered, approaching her girlfriend chuckling. Serena smiled briefly and held her finger to her lips, shushing her as she continued to rock the baby, whose eyelids flickered. Serena took a quick intake of breath, pausing in her motion for fear of Rosie waking again, and sighed when the baby's eyes flitted open again.
"Bloody hell," Serena muttered, though couldn't help a smile that crept onto her face when she looked back at her partner, who was now looking down to the child with the same adoration that she had felt. "Take her a minute, would you?" She pretended to be at an inconvenience, passing the fully awake infant to her.
"How-" Bernie began, but was silenced by a shaking of the Serena's head.
"Don't ask. Long day, short story- abandoned, basically." Serena huffed pathetically, perching on the side of her own desk, next Bernie, who was now bobbing Rosie on her leg, grinning at the fair-haired infant before her.
Serena often tried to discount the what if we'd met earlier ideas that crossed her mind at random points but couldn't help but delve into the idea herself this time. What if they'd had a child together? Neither of them would have been object to adopting and Serena couldn't help but imagine what an amazing team they'd have been with young ones, just as they were at work, even with Bernie away on tours so frequently. The idea made her tear up, thinking what could have been.
"Look at her," Bernie exclaimed in a whisper of awe, a shine to her voice that Serena rarely heard, of such joy and broke her back into the real world. Enjoy it while you can, Campbell.
"Yeah," Serena leaned in closer to her partner, pulling her arm around Bernie's waist, smiling up to her.
It was such a very bittersweet moment, as Serena now reflected back, lying in bed that night, snuggling herself into Bernie's own hold. She really did wish things had been different earlier in life, realising how much crap she'd put up with in her lifetime and how brilliant things were now. For the first time in her life, Serena Campbell felt truly an equal. Rosie had been such a gorgeous addition to the office that day and had highlighted to her just how deeply in love she was with her partner, but the road for that little girl was going to be quite bumpy for a while.
Don't get emotionally involved had been the first advice given to a younger, vibrant Serena with the world at her feet. But how could she not?
"It'll be okay for her, darling." Bernie mumbled from resting her lips to Serena's head.
"It's not fair though, is it? How I wish we could have-" She stopped in her tracks, crunching her eyes tightly, realising the cat was not only out of the bag, but pouncing around the room.
"Yeah," Bernie sighed sincerely, kissing her gently, "Me too."