Giatrix: She isn't unfortunately. Poor Lily, things just keep getting worse for her. Thank you so much and hope everything is okay with you.

Bluebell140: I do like supportive and lovely Sam. Some drama in this chapter, so enjoy.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Days passed and Iain was surprised at how well he was getting along with Sam.

He'd been worried at first, considering that the two of them had history together, and he wasn't sure whether her feelings for him were still there. Things were fine though and Sam seemed to accept the fact that Iain was engaged and happy.

"Iain. Do you mind if I ask you a question?" Sam asked, as the two of them drove down the street in the ambulance.

"Go ahead," Iain sighed, indicating to turn right. "As long as it's not the question, where do babies come from?"

"Haha, so funny!" Sam spat sarcastically and slapped his shoulder.

"Hey, hey!" He scolded. "I'm driving! Go on, what was it that you needed to ask me?"

"I'm not sticking my nose in or anything," Sam sighed. "But does Lily even work at Holby anymore? I'm just wondering because I haven't seen her around, and you don't actually talk about her that much. No one does."

Iain returned the sigh and kept his eyes on the road. He knew that Sam would probably end up finding the truth eventually, but having to tell people that Lily was currently on a psychiatric ward was still upsetting for him. Also, there weren't many people in the world who'd understand.

"It's complicated," he said. "Lily is um...Well...She's on the psychiatric ward."

"Seriously?" Sam raised her eyebrows and she seemed at a loss for words. "Bless her. Do you mind me asking what happened?"

"You might as well know," Iain sighed. "Everybody else in the ED does. She just wasn't right; her behaviour was changing rapidly, she wasn't eating, and she was withdrawing herself from everyone including me. Basically, it soon came out that she'd been hanging out with this girl called Alicia, but Alicia wasn't real. She's on medication to stop the hallucinations but she still isn't eating."

"Has she been diagnosed with anything?" Sam questioned.

Iain shook his head. "Well, anorexia," he answered. "But that's it. None of us know why she'd been seeing things, but it could just be the fact that Lily was just insecure about herself and having someone like Alicia made her feel better."

"I see," Sam whispered and hung her head. "So, how do you feel about everything?"

"I don't know to be honest," Iain said. "I love Lily, or I wouldn't have proposed to her. It upsets me though to see her in there, and I struggle to understand why she has so many body image issues because I obviously think she's beautiful. If I say that to her though, she disagrees and accuses me of lying. It...It can just be difficult to maintain a relationship like that. Don't get me wrong though, I love her, I always will, and I'm not going to hurt her in any way."

"Maybe you should talk to someone," Sam said.

"Mrs Beauchamp said the same thing," Iain said. "I have no idea what I'd say though. I guess I just feel bad because I always thought that it was Lily's fault, but it isn't, is it? Like, part of me kept thinking why the hell won't you just eat something?!"

"Anorexia is one of those illnesses where people think it can be controlled by the person," Sam informed him. "Obviously it can't though, and it is not Lily's fault in any way. She'll get better, Iain. I'm sure."

"Yeah," Iain sighed and gave Sam a faint nod. "I hope so."

"I'm here if you need to talk to someone, you know?" Sam said. "I mean that."

"Thanks, Sam," Iain whispered and gave her a kind smile. "That means a lot."

"It's good to see you in the ED for a change," Zoe said, as Connie strolled into reception. "You look exhausted though. Is everything okay?"

She could see that Connie didn't quite look like herself though. Her hair was tied up in a messy ponytail, her blouse was creased, she looked as if she'd been crying, and there were bags sitting neatly under her eyes.

"I'm fine," Connie sighed, brushing some hair out of her face. "Lily just doesn't seem to be getting any better, that's all."

"What's happened?" Zoe asked, dropping everything so that she could focus her full attention on Connie.

"Her mood swings are extremely severe and Caroline can't actually deal with them," Connie said, shaking her head in disbelief and running a hand through her messy hair. "But she still isn't eating either. We're going to have to put her on a drip or something, because this can't carry on."

"I really didn't want it to get that far, Connie," Zoe whispered.

"None of us did," Connie practically snapped, but soon noticed the hurt look on Zoe's face. "I'm sorry," she quickly apologised.

"It's fine," Zoe said, keeping her voice low in case anyone seemed to be listening. "Maybe you should go home though."

"I can't!" Connie raised her voice again, and more than one head turned to stare at the two of them. "Lily has been in a bad mood all day, so I'm bound to be getting a phone call from psych at some point."

"Then either myself or Charlie will go up there," Zoe said. "But you're exhausted, Connie. You have the ED to run as well, and you're barely giving yourself time to sleep. If there is a real problem, then we can contact you at home, but I'm sure the two of us can handle it between us."

"I just don't want to throw it all on other people," Connie whispered. "You and Charlie are needed here, so I can't have you two feeling drained as well."

"Well, maybe Caroline needs to be more assertive with Lily then," Zoe said. "I know that she can be difficult but in that job, she's going to come across difficult patients. She shouldn't have taken that career path in the first place if she couldn't handle it."

"Do you want to tell her that?" Connie muttered under her breath.

"Mrs Beauchamp!" Noel called from the desk and gestured to the phone in his hands. "I have psych wanting to speak to you. They say it's urgent."

"What was I saying?" Connie said to Zoe with a sigh, and strolled across to the reception desk. "Thank you, Noel." She took the phone and held it to her ear. "Mrs Beauchamp speaking."

Everything went quiet and Zoe could somehow sense that there was something wrong. She turned to look at Connie who had her head hung over the desk, as she listened to what the person on the other line had to say. The state of Connie, the silence that had filled the air so quickly and the fact that Lily had already been having a bad day. Panic washed over her and as Connie slowly made eye contact with her, Zoe just shook her head sadly.

She needed to know what had happened.

"Is she breathing?" The clinical lead asked in a small, teary voice.

The worst question that could ever be heard. Zoe closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, her mind immediately wandering to Iain. He was on a call-out with Sam but was he aware that something had happened to his fiancee? Was he on his way back?

"Okay," Connie exhaled deeply and held a hand to her face. "I'll be right there."

She sniffed and hung up the phone, tears escaping her eyes before she could even stop them.

"What's happened to her?" Zoe questioned straight away, desperate for Connie to tell her.

"I need to head up to psych," Connie said, her tears falling faster than ever. "Lily's collapsed."

Cliffhanger! I've had this chapter planned for a long time, so I was desperate to write and post. I apologise that it's a bit of a shorter chapter but I hope you all enjoyed it, and I will try my very best to update the story soon. Let me know what you think x