Chapter 28

Sam woke up in the empty flat looking around. Since Emily had been gone he'd not even seen Connie at work, let alone outside of it. Sitting up in the bed he rubbed a hand across his face before getting up.

"Mrs Beauchamp there's an RTC on the way in, ETA 5 minutes." Connie looked up from her desk before standing and following the young nurse outside. "Okay Charlie can you prep resus, Tess can you manage cubicles with Jacob and Rita I want you with me." Connie left her orders before turning and walking out of the doors to wait for the ambulance.

Rita stood beside her and remained quiet for a while. "So how is everything?" She noticed for a second something pass across her face before she composed herself. "Everything is fine, why wouldn't it be?" Rita went to speak but was cut off by the arrival of the paramedics. "Right this is Lucy, she's 10 years old…"

Sam arrived at work and everyone seemed to be busy. He contemplated between going to her office or just starting his shift but as he wandered past her window he realised she wasn't there anyway. Already in the staffroom Cal and Max turned to face him "Where have you been the past couple days?" Sam shrugged before closing his locker door "I've been around, why what have I missed." Cal began reeling off several different things before stopping. "So pub tonight, you game?"

After a while Connie left resus with Rita. Stopping at the nurses' station Connie looked around the department. "He's not been in all week if that's who you're looking for." Leaning forward against the desk she closed her eyes for a moment before feeling Rita's hand rest on her arm. "Hey, just call him-" "And say what exactly? You're ex girlfriend came here to tell me she was leaving and reminded me just how much I screwed up your life-" "No you say how much you love him because that is pretty obvious to me." Connie wandered away from Rita who turned back and returned to work in cubicles.

There was a brief knock at the door but no answer. Charlie gently pushed open the door and noticed Connie just sitting at her desk looking at nothing in particular. She'd been staring at her phone for the past hour doing nothing. She wanted to call him, speak to him or something but she'd been fine all week just pretending that none of it existed. "You know phones do this amazing thing where you can talk to people by pressing a few buttons…"

Connie hadn't noticed Charlie come into the room and so jumped as she heard his voice. "Rita asked me to see if you were alright, said you were funny earlier." The older nurse took a seat opposite the clinical lead and watched as she finally seemed to let everything spill out. "I don't know Charlie, sometimes I just feel like I should leave this place for good. Something always seems to go wrong when I'm here and I end up hurting someone, normally the same person."

Charlie listened to her as she began opening up without being specific. Telling Rita already seemed like a mistake and Jessica knew almost everything too. "Do you want to know what I think?" Connie watched as Charlie stood up and rested his hands on the chair in front of him. "You deserve to be happy too Connie, and I don't know how many times I have to tell you that before you believe me." She watched as he left the office before looking back to her phone and doing what she should have done days ago.

Sam's shift was coming to an end as he walked to the staffroom with Max. "So is Emily meeting us over there?" Sam paused before opening his locker. "Er no, we're not together anymore-" "I didn't realise, sorry." Sam shrugged before putting his coat on and putting his phone straight into his pocket. "It's fine, but I could definitely do with that drink." Walking from the room they made their way towards reception.

Connie decided it was probably best to stay most the night seeing as she had so much paperwork to get through. She'd not done much the last few days but she was finally beginning to get through it. Taking a quick break and seeing who was in for the evening she wandered from her office but bumped into a small crowd of staff leaving for the pub. "Sorry- Connie?" He rested his hands on her arms before dropping them remembering where he was. "Sam, I didn't realise you were in today. I thought you weren't coming back until next week-" "Yeah well sitting around at home was never really my thing-" "Could have fooled me, you were always lazing around."

Sam laughed before the smile faded from Connie's face to be replaced by a serious expression. "Do you want to come over to the pub, a few of us are heading over." Connie smiled at Zoe as she wandered past before looking back at Sam. "Oh no, it's alright I've got a lot of paperwork to get through tonight." Sam watched as she stood there wanting nothing more than to be able to just talk to her, about anything and know that things were still kind of normal for them. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow then-" "Yeah, see you tomorrow…"

Connie walked past him as he slowly moved away from her office. "Sam-" He turned around to see Connie looking after him "Don't be late tomorrow and don't drink yourself into oblivion because a hung-over consultant is not something I fancy explaining to Guy." He smiled before turning and walking away with Max and the others. Connie leant against the nurses' station and watched as he walked away from her once again. Rita appeared next to her also looking towards the entrance. "You know you could go tonight, the paperwork will be there in the morning-" Rita wasn't exactly greeted with a response, instead Connie just walked back towards her office only stopping to look out the doors again to where they'd all been standing.

Sam was ordering everyone a drink at the bar when he took his phone out and finally turned it back on. He was talking to the barman as the phone vibrated in his hand, to which he glanced down at before his full attention fell on it. "Max, could you take the drinks over I've just got to make a call…" he turned and wandered outside where it was quiet.

Looking back down at the screen he looked at the message saying a had a voicemail. "Sam it's me, I don't really know what I'd have said if you answered this it doesn't surprise me that you didn't either… Anyway I just called to say I need time before-well before anything really." He looked up at the hospital as he listened to her voice before putting his phone back in his pocket and glancing through the windows of the pub. Nobody seemed to be paying much attention so he jogged across the road back towards the hospital.

There was nobody around in the entrance as he got there which he was thankful for. The blinds were closed but there was a dim light shining around the edges of them. Without thinking he gently knocked on the door and without waiting for an answer pushed it open and closed it behind him.

Connie was sitting at the desk surrounded by loose pieces of paper before her eyes settled on him standing in the doorway. "Sam what are you doing back here?" He moved closer to the desk looking down at the mess she was sat in and laughed. "What?" Sam shook his head laughing "You really weren't joking about the mess of paperwork you had were you-" "Did you just come here to gloat about that?" A smile had appeared on her face as he walked around the side of her desk before settling in front of her. "Not really no."

She looked away from him before he crouched down and rested a hand on her leg bringing her attention back to him. "Sam-" "You said you needed time… I was just wandering if the time between me leaving and coming back here was long enough?" The smile reappeared on her face as she rolled her eyes at him. "Sam I-" her eyes met his and she watched as he leant closer to her. His lips met hers and she felt his hand move to rest against her cheek. She gave in pretty quickly and moved her hands to rest on his shoulders as he deepened the kiss.

When they parted Sam smiled resting his forehead against hers. "I just needed to know… I'll leave you to your paperwork now." He stood up and walked towards the door as Connie laughed. She stood up and wandered around to the other side as some had fallen off the desk. Sam watched her before she stood back up and caught hold of his arm as he went to open the door. He let go of the door before turning back to her and kissing her again. He held onto her as she rested a hand against his chest while looking up to him. "So what you said about time-" "I did mean it, I can't pretend that everything we've done is fine… We just need to give it a while before anything happens." Sam moved some hair from her face before nodding "Okay, but know this I'm not going to stop-" "Wouldn't expect you to…" "Night Connie."

He finally left the office as Connie began picking up the paperwork again. This time as she sat down a smile crept onto her face before she tried organising the paperwork again.