"I shouldn't even care because I can't say we're close, and she was trying to stop me going to America, but she's not answering her phone, Honey."

Robyn sipped her Skinny Latte a little distractedly.

"She'll be sulking, sweetheart. You let her come round first."

"But when she sulks, she bombards me with messages. I hope she's okay. Oh my G- Honey, I told her to get a taxi to come and see me last night, and she sneered at me. What if she's been…"

"Don't even think that way, Robyn. I must say I like the security idea. But I can't understand why it's just the day shift who get escorted home. Surely the night shift are in even more danger?"

A little smile came to Robyn's lips as she thought of saying to Honey:

"Ah well that's because the night shift are all vampires. It explains why they never buy anything from you."

"I wish Ethan Hardy liked coffee. He's gorgeous. I'd love him to come to my shop and chat a bit."

"Ethan's got strange tastes" Robyn said, stabbing about for a reason to change the subject.

And then she had one.

"Just to let you know" said a cold voice behind them, "Ethan Hardy and I are already – I believe the word's an item?"

"Oh Dr Chao, I'm so sorry."

"Well, as long as you know where things stand. But you're right about him not being a coffee drinker."

And then, the strangest thing happened. Lily Chao actually winked at Robyn, who couldn't help grinning back.

"Black coffee, Honey, and hurry up with it. I'm just on my break."

Honey sighed and made the coffee for the lucky woman who was going out with her current idol.

Robyn made her way to the ED to find Dr Keogh staring gloomily at a newspaper headline.

"Another one."

"Believed to be a middle aged woman. He's not just attacking tarts this time" said the non-politically correct Dr Keogh. Then he sprang into action.

Robyn had fainted.

Dylan felt sick afterwards. This news was going to make Ben even more edgy. Surely he couldn't really believe that Jack the Ripper had followed him through a time slip and even so, it wasn't the young fool's fault. But the guy was just a copycat, Dylan was sure of it.

"I need to go to the police and at least make sure it's not her."

"I'll take you. I have a break soon and goodness knows, people are coming back from their breaks at the strangest times lately."

Robyn would never forget the nausea that had welled within her when she'd seen Greta in the mortuary. Even though the ugliest details of the case were hidden under the sheet, it was still the most sickening thing she'd experienced. Her stepmother had been a bitch but hadn't deserved this. She was escorted to the ladies and was violently sick, then was given a sedative by the prison doctor and taken home in a taxi – WHY hadn't Greta taken a taxi? – by Dylan.

"I'll let Dr Hanna know you'll not be in, and the reason why, if you're all right with that. Now will you be all right till Caleb joins you?"

Robyn suddenly screamed:

"Where WAS Caleb last night? Or Ethan? Or Ben? Zoe? Max? Any one of them could have stopped this happening. Why weren't they there for her?"

Then she began to sob in Dylan's arms.

Her dream of going to America looked like being over.

Night fell. Ethan arrived early for his shift and explained that he'd come to see Honey got home safely. Lily glared at him.

"What about me, Ethan? I need taking home too."

Jacob sauntered over, having also come along early.

"Hey, no worries. I'll see Sweet Honey to her door and you can look after the lovely Dr Chao here."

"Good idea" said Lily, cracking a smile.

Jacob escorted Honey home and even gave a little bow and kissed her hand before he left. She giggled but it didn't seem that there was any chance of her forgetting Ethan and concentrating on him, Jacob, instead.

On the way back, Jacob decided to go through the park – a few hundred feet above the ground – to see if the Ripper copycat was lurking anywhere. Please, he thought, let me at him! As he reached the kiddies' paddling pool looking like a tiny bowl of water below, his arm was grabbed and he found himself forced to land.

"You. Vamp boy. A message from Jack. Tell Ben Chiltern he's the only one who can end this. He knows how."

The adversaries glared at each other, and Jacob knew, much as he wanted to, it was useless for him to retaliate. He could always recognise one of his own kind. But he had no intention of passing on the message to Ben. He knew what 'action' would have meant and he wasn't going to let that happen. They'd just step up the vigilante work in future. He gave a non commital nod and the creature rose into the air, vanishing out of sight.

"Cal, I can't go. It's impossible. There's been a murder in my family and my place is here. Whatever my stepmum was, she was a relative. This won't be over by the end of the month; you'll just have to fly out without me. I – I can't possibly concentrate on all those forms and documents, either."

Cal hugged her.

"I don't expect you to abandon your family, sweetheart, and I know you won't want to fill out those forms. But don't think you'll be forgotten. There will be a day when this guy's caught. And when that happens, you text me, whatever time of day or night it is, and as soon as it's safe for me, I'll fly across and take you back again. The cheat's way."

Despite her misery, there was a real shred of hope and wonder. Cal loved her enough to come and get her; he could have had a really pretty talented girl but he'd chosen her.

As she snuggled into his arms, she felt that the darkness was slowly moving away.

Meanwhile, Ben's nightmares became more graphic and threatening. When he was alone, he paced the floor, if he was sleeping on the houseboat with Dylan, the latter would awake to see and feel Ben, eyes wild, chest heaving, coming painfully out of his nightmare.

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