*I apologise once again for the lengthy gap between this chapter and the last, I appreciate how patient you've been. I've been insanely busy these last couple weeks. So I have requests for shorter and more frequent posts, and more of Connie's past so that I shall do. Thank you to those who left reviews on the last chapter, I really appreciate it! I hope you enjoy this next chapter and once again, please, please review! :)*
Their heartfelt exchange was short-lived. Not disregarded but definitely cut short due to the fact that they now had to fix this mess they were in with Greg, or more so the mess that Connie was in with Greg. She'd fled her office near enough straight after letting Sam into her personal struggle, she needed some air and some space to think, not to mention tracking down Greg. Much to her annoyance, she knew she had to apologise to him in hope that he wouldn't make any sort of complaint about her. That was the last thing she needed. Sat outside in the cool night air, she hugged her blue coat tightly to herself, her own breath visible on the icy air as she exhaled slowly.
"You've got some strength behind that petite frame, I'll give you that." The Irish accent sang over her shoulder from behind as he approached the backless bench and took a set on it also, facing the opposite direction but sat directly beside her. He'd had some time to cool down and think about what had just happened.
"I shouldn't have-" She began but was halted instantly.
"No, you should have done it." He didn't let her get her words out, knowing what was to come. "I was way outta line and blaming the wrong person. I'm sorry." His eyes connected with hers as he whole-heartedly apologised. The mark on his cheek was still flaming pink and her hand was still tingling.
"Still, no excuse to physically hurt someone." She looked down apologetically. "I'm sorry, there's a lot going on right now and I should't have taken it out on you either."
"Both in the wrong and both forgiven, yeah?" He smiled when she nodded, a moment of silence engulfing them in the chilly air. "You okay? Y'know?" He motioned back to the hospital with his head. "About your friend? I'm sorry it ended like that." He studied her strange reaction as she folded her lips together and looked down uncomfortably.
"It's fine, we-uh, we lost contact a long time ago."
"It's never easy though, is it?" He took her refusal to respond or glance at him as a definite yes.
"About what happened, I understand if you want to take it further-"
"No chance." He smiled. "I'm not taking it anywhere, I was hysterical and needed a good slap." He laughed lightly, an undertone of sadness still present. "Anyway, I better get back in there, face Strachan and apologise I suppose."
"I think I softened him up for you." She smiled back finally looking at him.
"We're gonna be okay, aren't we? Working together?"
"Be like old times." She blinked slowly, her smile still present before they were interrupted.
"Mr Douglas?" Anna's dainty voice waved over them lightly. "Mr Strachan is looking for you."
"Right, thank you." He inhaled deeply. "Time to face the music."
He headed back inside with Anna, leaving Connie to have her moment alone outside. Truth be told he was actually a little bit worried but hopefully everything would pan out well.
"Now I know why you said to never challenge the alpha female." Anna smirked through her words as they walked through reception side by side, everyone's eyes on Greg's pink-tinged face.
"Yeah, yeah. Very funny."
"I have to say, you took it quite well. She's got a hell of a swing."
"Tell me about it!" He moved his hand up to the stinging side of his face, rubbing it softly. "Thought she'd knocked me into next week."
"I can sympathise." Sam's voice jumped between the two as he approached them from behind. "Nurse Stafford, can you give Charlie a hand in cubicles please?" He watched her nod and disappear quickly before he turned his attention back to Greg. "How's your face?" It was a concerned question but his words lacked any kind of worry or care.
"It's stinging, actually. But I think I'll survive."
"I take it you've calmed down then?"
"Yeah." He looked down sheepishly. " I've apologised to Connie and her to me, we're all clear and I'm sorry. I let my emotions get the better of me, it won't happen again." He rushed his words out embarrassedly, almost as if it was an effort to apologise but Sam could hear the regret in his voice and knew it was a genuine apology.
"Good, make sure it doesn't. I think it's best you go home, get some rest, it's been a long day."
"But Mr Holland's accompanying friend needs to be informed, and his family-" He tried to argue but was cut off.
"I'll handle all of that. I think it's for the best anyway, with what happened outside resus, don't you?" His brows rose expectantly, receiving a guilty look in return. "I'll see you tomorrow, Mr Douglas." With those final words, Greg did as he was told and headed back to the staff room like a puppy that had just been scolded.
Taking himself to the relatives room, Sam proceeded to inform Peter's friend, Graham, about the unfortunate circumstances. Needless to say, he was distraught. His best friend had essentially been murdered. They sat for a couple of minutes in the room before Graham spoke up glumly.
"Can I see him?"
"Of course, I can take you now. I have to warn you though, it might be distressing."
No other words were said as Graham was adamant on seeing his deceased friend. Heading back into resus, Louise was just finishing up with the body. He looked strangely peaceful.
"I'll leave you to it." She spoke softly before exiting the room, leaving Sam and Graham alone.
"He still kept hold of all the guilt, right up until the end. It was killin' him."
"Guilt?" Sam asked cautiously, extremely aware of the man's emotional words.
"Connie, what he did to her, it screwed him up. Followed him wherever he went. It ate him alive." He sniffed, attempting not to cry, he seemed like a hard man. Bald head, leather jacket, tattoos but he was struggling against the tears. His best friend lying lifelessly before him. "I recognised her out in reception after he'd been brought in, I knew she was working in Holby just wasn't expecting to see her, y'know? That's why Pete up here."
"Connie?" Sam became instantly involved. "What happened between them?"
"We were stupid, thoughtless kids." He defended instantly before even stating what it was that had happened. "I mean, we all make mistakes, we learn from them and move on." His voice was becoming raised. "But Pete just couldn't let go." Swiping violently at his face, quickly stopping any tears he stood up straight again after leaning on the bed railing. "You see." He started shakily. "We had a stupid bet on when we were Fifteen maybe even Sixteen. Each of us had to bed a shy girl, you know, a real goody two shoes, a virgin. None of us succeeded like, except Pete." He smiled sadly. "He pinned his bullseye to Connie and he bloody got her. The next day he paraded her underwear around school, told everyone what he'd done. She was mortified, didn't come to school for over a week. And when she finally did come back, she was like a completely different person. I don't think I ever saw her smile or speak to anyone again after that. She just sort of kept her head in books."
Sam was lost for words. He knew he shouldn't but he felt so much hatred for these men at this very moment but like Graham said, they were young, stupid kids. Everyone makes mistakes. Peter had apologised last time he was admitted, this time as well and Connie seemed to have accepted the apologies. This was her battle, not his.
"If it makes you feel any better, Connie was the last one to speak to him. He said he was sorry and she acknowledged it. She was with him the whole time."
"That's what he would have wanted." Graham nodded before turning his attention back to Peter's motionless, pale body as Sam's mind reeled with thought, no wonder Connie was the way she was with men. His expression went blank as his mind roamed back to her medical notes, Pete definitely must have had something to do with her teenaged pregnancy. He wanted to approach the matter with her but there was no possible way of doing it. He'd also be raking up bad memories she obviously wanted to bury and who was he to go digging through her past, even though technically he already had.
/
The next three weeks dribbled by slowly and people were starting to notice Connie's bump. Not everyone yet, but with how hospital gossip had the ability to spread like wildfire, Sam gave it until the end of the week before that was the case. She'd been confining herself to her office more and more as of late, possibly wanting to hide for obvious reasons but Sam wasn't entirely sure. He had to give her props though; at Four Months pregnant she was concealing it very well with her wardrobe choices. Thinking to himself he approached her office swiftly and let himself in. Jumping slightly when he was greeted with something he definitely wasn't expecting.
"Nurse Stafford? What are you doing?" He'd caught her red-handed, snooping through Connie's desk drawers. Her face was a picture right now.
"Sorry, I-I was looking for a yellow pages." She stammered nervously, pulling at Sam's heartstrings a little, she looked upset.
"A yellow pages?" He asked, slightly unconvinced. She could sense he wasn't buying it but she kept Greg's notes in mind. He's lenient with the ladies.
"My Daughter, she's not well and I need to call a taxi to get home." Playing his heart strings like finely tuned instrument, she allowed her lip to quiver for extra effect.
"And you didn't think of maybe Googling the number on your phone?" He crossed his arms slowly, not worried about creasing his suit for once as he was actually modelling some scrubs today.
"I left it at home, oh God, I'm so useless." She teared up rapidly, causing him to regret his last retort. She reminded him of Maria in a sweet, naive way.
"Here, use mine. Why don't you call a taxi and take the rest of the day off, of all things, I can at least be understanding about sick children."
"Of course." She winced regrettably, or not so. "I heard about your daughter, how is she?"
"Progressing, and that's all we can ask of her."
"We?" She asked inquisitively, a roundabout way of asking if he was single. If everything she'd just said was actually true then she'd feel bad about eying him up right now but she was lying through her teeth and felt no remorse whatsoever.
"Connie and I, Grace is our daughter." How did she not know this? Her face dropped. Speak of the devil, as soon as Connie's name was uttered, she entered her office. Understandably, her eyes narrowing as soon as she lay eyes on the two of them in her private space.
"Oh, sorry." She scoffed sarcastically. "I didn't realise my office was now open all hours to anybody and everybody?" Sam rolled his eyes slightly at her hostile temper before jumping to Anna's defence.
"Nurse Stafford was just leaving." He took his phone back once she'd written down a random taxi service number. "Her daughter's not very well."
"So we're another Nurse down today?" Connie continued speaking irately; not looking at either of them as she removed her coat and smoothed her blouse wrinkles out, suddenly becoming uncomfortable under Anna's intense stare. Her eyes were fixed on her prominent yet neat little bump. Shifting awkwardly she cleared her throat and moved around Sam to get to her desk.
"We can manage, things are moving pretty slowly out there for a change." He caught her ferocious glare as she passed him and knew he was in for it once Anna was dismissed. Right on cue, her stony glare moved to Anna, who was still staring intently at the bump beneath Connie's loose-fitting blouse.
"Thank you, Nurse Stafford." She prompted the young Nurse, politely yet harshly, asking her to leave without necessarily saying so.
"Right." She gushed. "Sorry, thank you." Grabbing her purse she quickly scurried out of the room, silently thanking Sam with a smile as she passed him and closed the door behind her.
"Rough morning?" He let it be known that he thought she was in a bad mood and he was correct.
"Don't start." She shook her head and sat down behind her desk, rubbing her right temple vigorously.
"Anything I can help with?" He felt like she was shutting him out again and it had taken him so long to get her to allow him in. He didn't want to mess things up now.
"No, it's already done." She hissed. "He got off." Her abrupt sentence left him silent for a couple of seconds whilst he tried to process what exactly she was talking about.
"What?" Moving closer to her desk, he couldn't believe his ears.
"Michael, he was released last week, on the condition that he attends AA meetings weekly and participates in two hundred hours of community service." The dryness of her tone and lack of eye contact let him know she was taking it badly. "I don't want Grace coming over this weekend anymore. It's too risky."
They'd discussed the matter of Grace and her anger about the current situation at length and decided to have dinner at Connie's this weekend with Grace, hoping to explain to her in more detail about the baby. For things to be as neat as possible regarding his paternal figure it was best if everyone was under the same impression. The baby was Sam's, for it to be convincing enough, everyone had to believe it.
"Don't you think you should perhaps stay somewhere else as well?" He questioned worriedly. "He's shown up at your address twice now, what's to stop him from doing it again and causing even more harm this time, Connie?"
"If he's off the drink he should be fine." Her words were quiet and sad. "But still," She continued. "I won't risk having Grace there." A sigh of frustration escaped him at her hard-headedness.
"Right, well, we'll have dinner at mine instead then." He grabbed his stethoscope from her office wardrobe, wanting so much to say more, to do more but she was hard to deal with sometimes and he didn't want to suffocate her like she'd asked him not to. As long as he kept a close eye on her, that's all he could do for now. The matter was out of his control.
/
"You running away from me?" Greg appeared behind Anna as she grabbed her belongings from her locker, his arms snaking around her middle as he buried his head into her neck. A blossoming relationship was something the ED had a helping hand in. Everyone works together so closely and intensely it's hard for relationships to not transpire.
"I have to go, it's important." She turned around in his arms, kissing him sweetly between words. "It's my daughter." She lied. "I have to het home, she's unwell and the carer just called in sick."
"I didn't know you had a daughter, I was going to argue my case of being more important than anything, but I understand." He smiled, kissing her again. "Is Connie here yet? I need to speak to her." Moving away from her, he opened his own locker, grabbing a snack whilst he was there.
"Yeah." She smiled mischievously, causing him to frown.
"What? Why are you smiling like that?" He began to smile too, almost as if her small grin was infectious. He had no idea what they were smiling about but just seeing her smile made him smile. He was really falling for this girl.
"Don't say anything." She glanced around nervously. "But I swear I just saw Mrs Beauchamp sporting a small, yet very visible, baby bump." She watched his face slowly lose its bright shine, his smile fading away gradually. "I wonder who the Father is?" Her eyes were wide with wonder but he was still speechless, slightly upset if he had to be honest.
"God only knows." He growled before wincing at his own ugly words. "I didn't mean that." Shaking his head he turned to look at her now disappointed face.
"You have a thing for her, don't you?"
"What? No!" He huffed. "Look, if you must know, we had little fling a few years ago. It wasn't serious and it didn't last long." Trying to reason with her, he placed his hands on her upper arms lovingly. "I promise, I hold no flame for the Queen B, I only have eyes for you." Attempting to turn things into a joke, he soon stopped smiling upon realising she was annoyed.
"I should get going." Shrugging out of his grip, she slammed her locker door shut and brushed past him out of the staff room doorway.
"Anna! Don't be like that!" He called out to her pointlessly as she was too far-gone to hear him. Slapping his arms down helplessly he groaned at his own stupidity, had he just ruined things between them? And why was he so bothered about Connie's private matters? Deep down he knew why, but he didn't want to face those feelings just yet.
Back out in the busy hub of the ED, a buzz of excitement was rushing through reception.
"Man is it great to be back!" Jacob's voice echoed loudly, gaining the attention of Louise and Elle as they darted over to him, greeting him with a hug.
"I'm so jealous." Louise moaned and stepped back, looking him up and down. "I need a holiday."
"Less of you, more of Mr Barbados." Elle quipped, turning her attention to a grinning Jacob. "So! How was the sun, sea and sand?"
"I'm not gonna lie to you, Pancake." He smiled smugly. "It was bliss."
"You jammy git." She laughed, hitting him on the arm. "I want to see photos later, but we've got a major RTC headed our way." She started walking away from him backwards, suddenly remembering there was something else she needed to tell him. "I need to have a word with you. Meet me in the staff room in ten." She was now calling out to him as she kept on moving, just hoping that he'd take the news well.
/
"Thanks, I appreciate your help." He sounded rough, at least he was sober now though. "Have you seen her? Has she said anything?"
"Michael, I said I could find small things out for you." Anna paused, concentrating on the road for a second whilst she spoke. "But what you're asking? It's too much, I could lose my job." Her voice was raised, finally losing her patience. "I got caught going through her desk drawers today, and not just by anyone, but by the alpha male."
"Alpha male?" His face contorted with confusion as she shook her head in response.
"Never mind, it doesn't matter." Pulling the wheel sharply she pulled up to her house, turning the key once she parked on her driveway. "You can stay for as long as you need but only if you're serious about getting help and sorting yourself out." She warned, now facing him in the passenger seat. "You're my brother, Michael and I love you, of course I do but there's only so much of this I can take."
"I know." He sighed. "I'm sorry and I promise you I'm going to get better." He folded his lips together, nodding to himself. "I have to, for my baby's sake."
*Not too much was covered in this chapter but I was trying desperately to just get something posted for you guys! I hope it was okay, for those of you who never watched Holby, Peter Holland was a legitimate character from Connie's past. From what I can gather, he slept with Connie and then told everyone at school, embarrassing her in the process as it was only a bet. She claimed that he changed her and made her the way she is today and in a way owed him a thank you. If anyone is interested and hasn't seen it, it's S8E16 'Roots'. Please Review! The next chapter should hopefully be better, after a lengthy gap it takes me a while to get back into my rhythm lol*