So this is overdue, I'm so sorry! Illness again, it's that time of year. I've had such awful back ache I could barely move but I'm mostly ok again now so don't worry yourselves too much. This week's chapter is fairly Bonnie heavy but she's my favourite character so I do tend to enjoy writing her. And as anyone who's read my other longfic knows I find her most interesting when she's being emotionally tortured. So... yeah, sorry not sorry. Also Sharon Thorn is based on the mayor of the Spiky People's wife, remember her? Pretending to be the Gut Grinder, messing with Jake. Well if you know anything about basal cell carcinoma (and who doesn't?) then you know it's often caused by mutations in the hedgehog signalling pathway. Hedgehog is actually a really important gene in cancer genetics. Spiky People. Hedgehog. Get it? I know, geneticist jokes suck.

Hey guys, I don't usually send a request like this but if you have the time would you consider leaving me a quick review on this chapter? Just so I know if you like it or not. I genuinely appreciate everyone who takes the time to give me a little feedback, it always makes my day and I take it all on board for the next chapter if there's anything you want to see or have questions about. Just take a second to let the author know your thoughts, I can guarantee they appreciate it.

And you know what comes here, right? Yeah. The Choices We Make is beginning to heat up, it's leading into some stuff I think is gonna blow your mind holes. Go drop by IAmTheTrashPanda and read it, tell her Plesi sent you and you claim your free hug. She's an awesome person and deserves mad props for proofing this chapter and making suggestions when I was stuck.

Sorry for the long notes, here's the Content Warning: emotions, anger, abuse of power.


Saturday mornings in bed were literally Bonnie's favourite time of the week. Too bad Marcy was bouncing around excitedly and flinging clothes at her and talking a mile a minute about all the things they were going to buy that day. Bonnie mostly just tuned her out and closed her eyes again, still half lost in a bizarre dream she'd had about building giant robots. She was almost halfway asleep again when an unexpected weight dropping very close onto the bed next to her made her jump.

"Dork. Come on, up! We've got shopping today!" Marcy said loudly, grinning wide enough for both of them.

"Yay. Baby furniture shopping." Bonnie replied drowsily.

"This is part of the magic. I just wanna go look at adorable tiny people stuff and be excited about having babies with you, is that so wrong?"

Bonnie tried to reply but it just came out as a huge yawn and a stretch that was interrupted halfway through by Peppermint leaping onto her stomach and meowing hungrily.

"See? Even the cat wants you to get up."

"He wants his breakfast."

"Yeah, ok. Wait here, I'll go feed them."

Marceline bounced off the bed and was away down the stairs to the kitchen before Bonnie even had chance to reply. Instead she let her eyes slide closed again and rolled onto her front so she was stealing the residual body warmth from her girlfriend's side of the bed. Marcy always had the softest pillows, she complained if Bonnie stole them when she wasn't looking. The redhead could never work out why her own pillows always felt like they had rocks in them compared to Marcy's; it was one of the small pleasures in life to lie on those soft pillows in warm fresh sheets and give in to the weight of sleep dragging against her eyelids. It felt like just a moment later when a hand was gently stroking the hair back from her face and a voice as soft as summer rain was saying her name.

"Bonnie? Hey sleeping beauty, I made you some coffee."

"I'm awake." she replied automatically, although it took a moment for her eyes to focus and her brain to make sense of the blur of colours.

"You were fast asleep." Marcy corrected her with a smile. "Didn't you get much rest last night?"

"Dunno. Nightmares, maybe? You were rolling around a lot, guess you must have woke me a couple times." she shrugged, sitting up and accepting the mug of coffee with a contented sigh. Soft pillows and warm sheets were good but nothing beat receiving expensive coffee that she hadn't had to make herself and getting to drink it while still sitting in bed.

It was almost eleven by the time they were both dressed and out of the house but Marcy couldn't find it in herself to begrudge Bonnie a weekend lie-in. Soon enough neither of them would sleep much past five or six most mornings, not with two tiny babies demanding morning feeds and cuddles. She didn't even mind any more; if someone had told Marceline a year before that she'd be looking forward to getting woken up at five in the morning to change and feed a howling infant she probably wouldn't have believed them. But now the prospect brought a soft smile to her face. She couldn't help imagining how it would feel when they were old enough to smile and laugh, how their faces would light up when they recognised their mothers every morning. Lady had told her that one of the most beautiful moments in her entire life was when she'd stumbled still half asleep into baby Kim's bedroom and he'd already been awake and waiting for her. The huge smile that had spread across his pudgy little face when he saw his mother had made her cry happy tears right through his morning feed. Marcy was so lost in thought that she barely even noticed they'd reached their destination until Bonnie parked the car.

"So where do you wanna start?" the redhead asked as they crossed the car park to the store.

"Bedrooms. We need baby bedroom furniture." Marcy nodded decidedly.

"Can we stop by the cafe first and get a cinnamon bun?" Bonnie added in an innocently hopeful tone. Marceline rolled her eyes.

"I just don't get the obsession with them. But fine, yeah, have your weird Swedish cinnamon cake if that's what it takes to finally get you to look at furniture. Feels like you've been avoiding this, I've barely seen you in weeks."

The redhead sighed and ran a hand through her hair as they entered the store and took a small wooden pencil and order sheet from the stand by the door. It was hard to put into words, she didn't want it to come out wrong.

"It's not that I dislike shopping because you know I don't. I just... look at us. We're a pair of nesting thirty year old lesbians spending our weekend buying baby thing in Ikea. Remember when we were cool? We went to all the best parties and clubs, we were never out of bed before noon on a weekend. We had adventures and did crazy things just for fun. This is less like an adventure and more like the kind of thing that me from ten years ago had nightmares about."

"Yeah well you from ten years ago needed to grow the fuck up a bit." Marcy replied with a frown. "You can't just spend your entire life working all week to make money so you can go drinking all weekend. It gets old, sooner or later you want something more. Don't you?"

"Yeah, I do. I was at least half joking." Bonnie replied, chastised.

"Well it wasn't very funny." Marcy muttered.

She stayed quiet and a little sulky right through Bonnie's third coffee of the day and refused to even nibble the end of a cinnamon bun, claiming they would make her heartburn worse. Bonnie let her have her bad mood, knowing Marcy would cheer up as soon as they started looking at baby things. Sure enough the moment they stepped around the divide between bathrooms and children's bedrooms her eyes lit up and her annoyance with her girlfriend was completely forgotten.

"Oh, look at that one! Isn't it just gorgeous? We should get it." Marcy grinned, already running her hand across the top of a tall cot in pale wood.

"Don't you wanna look around a bit, maybe not just buy the first one you see?" Bonnie asked, amused.

"I guess. But this one is far and away my favourite."

They looked at a few different cots and of course Marcy changed her mind every time until they agreed on the first one after all. Eventually the kids would need their own beds and rooms but until they were big enough not to need feeding through the night they'd sleep in the same room as their parents and share a nursery for a while after that.

"Babe? I gotta just run to the bathroom real quick, your kids are taking it in turns to kick me in the bladder." Marcy told her as they were on their way to the next set of children's room furniture.

"Sure. I'll get started with wardrobes and stuff, catch me up." Bonnie nodded, a little distracted. She was trying to work out if the cot would fit at the end of the bed or if it would be easier just to switch sides with Marcy and put it between the window and her dressing table. Her girlfriend dropped a quick kiss on her cheek before hurrying off in the direction they'd just come, grimacing slightly with one hand rubbing her bump soothingly. Bonnie was just turning back to the shopping when a voice she'd never wanted to hear again interrupted her.

"Finally. Thought she'd never leave."

Bonnie turned with glacial slowness to find none other than Shoko leaning on a display of stuffed pandas grinning at her.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" she asked in a dangerous voice.

"Shopping. Like, you're not the only one with a life, princess. I got a new place and needed some furniture. So that's why I'm in a furniture shop. It's pretty logical if you think about it." Sho replied with an infuriating shrug.

"You got a new place and decided that you desperately needed children's bedroom furnishings? I don't even know why I'm surprised, you were always full of shit. Get lost, Sho."

"Or what? You'll go tell Less Cool Kim Deal that your evil scary ex is bothering you? And what's she gonna do, other than cry at me and go into premature labour? The only way that skinny bitch could hurt me is if her waters break and they don't put up a warning sign about the wet floor."

Shoko was smirking now, she'd always gotten a kick out of riling Bonnie. What she'd failed to take into account was that eight years working in one of the highest pressure environments within the hospital had taught the redhead a lot more self restraint than she'd ever possessed as a student and Bonnie was well used to dealing with people trying to make her angry for whatever reason. She simply slid her mobile out of her bag and held it up threateningly.

"Go away and stop following me around or I'll call the police and have you investigated for harassment. They might not find anything. Or they might. You wanna take that risk? Do you really wanna spend the next twenty four hours in police custody while they look into my allegation?" she asked with a smile completely void of humour.

"Learn to take a joke, bitch. I only stopped to say hello. As if I'd want to follow you around like a lost puppy."

Without another word Shoko turned on her heel and marched away. Only the clenched fist of her one remaining hand gave away how furious she was.

"So much for coming to find me because of everlasting love." Bonnie muttered to herself as she watched her ex disappear.

"What?"

Marcy was back and Bonnie was in no mood to upset her more than she already had that day. So instead she pulled a smile onto her face and ejected Sho forcibly from her thoughts.

"I was just thinking out loud, do you think they need a couple of tiny wardrobes or one adult sized one? It's not like they're going to be dressing themselves for a few years anyway."

Finally with the back of Marcy's huge car weighted down with a pile of heavy boxes they pulled out of the car park a couple of hours later. Like she usually was in the car Marcy was lost in thought, staring quietly out of the window at the clumps of golden daffodils they drove past on their way back into town. She took a moment to realise Bonnie was speaking to her.

"Do you know someone called Kim Deal?" the redhead asked carefully. Once the question properly sunk in Marcy turned to stare at her. Bonnie kept her eyes on the road.

"Is that supposed to be funny?"

"No? I just, I heard the name somewhere and I'm sure I've heard it before. Is it someone you know?"

"Bon, you are such a total and irredeemable dork. Kim Deal was the most awesome female bassist ever. She's like, one of the most influential female musicians in forever. You know The Pixies?"

Bonnie shook her head, cheeks burning with embarrassment.

"You know that album I used to play a lot when we first met and you banned me from playing it when you were around?" Marcy asked instead.

"The unlistenably awful one with the man shouting dirty things in Spanish?" Bonnie frowned.

"That's the one. That band is called The Pixies, they were massively influential on grunge music. Like, Nirvana practically worshiped them. Back in the eighties before grunge was even really a thing there was an absolute visionary, and that was Kim Deal."

Bonnie just smiled to herself and settled back to listen to another impromptu history of music lecture. She suspected that if Marcy had heard Shoko compare her to someone who was apparently one of her teenage idols she'd probably take it as a compliment anyway, right before slapping her in her stupid face for harassing her girlfriend. It was sometimes easy to take Marceline for granted, Bonnie considered; they were just so comfortable with each other that being alone together was almost like just being alone, like Marcy was an extension of who she was. But given that her only other serious adult relationship had been with Shoko really Bonnie could stand to be reminded of how grateful she was every now and then. She didn't know what she'd done to deserve someone as wonderful as Marcy in her life but she wasn't going to take her for granted. Even if that meant a weekend trying to bolt together flat pack furniture on her own while her girlfriend 'supervised' and offered criticisms.

If Bonnie had been hoping that Monday would bring her any relief from the stresses of having to call Finn and Jake to come finish putting up the furniture because Marcy's lower back was mysteriously too painful to help and it was a two person job then she was sorely mistaken. The first thing that happened when she walked into her office that morning was a knock on the door before she'd even sat down. Without waiting to be invited Lydia waltzed in with an uncharacteristic frown on her heavily made up face.

"We got a voicemail this morning, King's bailed for the day. Probably tomorrow too. Like, apparently he's got 'gastrointestinal issues' which I guess means it's pouring out of both ends?"

"Lovely." Bonnie grimaced, trying hard to repress that mental image. "Guess that means I'm picking up his rounds today?"

"Admin didn't mention a locum so I guess so. My bet is he's probably just hungover." Lydia shrugged. "I'm doing a coffee run, you look like you could use an espresso."

"Double, please." Bonnie replied gratefully. The curvy woman nodded and let herself out of Bonnie's office, leaving the redhead to sigh over her paperwork and try to access Dr King's patient notes on the shared departmental servers.

It was mid-morning and she'd finally finished writing up her own rounds as well as Dr King's, her neglected coffee had gone cold but she threw it back hurriedly anyway just before an unexpected knock at her door interrupted her.

"Excuse me, the lady on reception said I should talk to you instead of Dr King today?"

It was a sharp featured middle aged woman peering anxiously at Bonnie from the doorway. She'd been about to go check if some important results were back from the labs yet and catch up on her work emails but instead she plastered her best dealing with relatives of patients smile on her face and gestured to the empty chair in front of her desk.

"Of course, please take a seat. I'm Dr Sugar, I'm afraid Dr King is unexpectedly ill today. How can I help?"

"Um, I'm Sharon Thorn, my son is on the ward? He's got skin cancer. Well I know what Dr King said about the pharmaceutical company not wanting to involve too many people with their research and that I wasn't supposed to discuss the details of CJ's treatment with anyone but him. But the lady on reception said you were his boss? So I guess you know all about the drug trial." the woman continued, biting her lip nervously.

"I... remind me, please. I've got a lot of patients under my care and I'm not completely certain what treatment you're referring to." Bonnie replied carefully. She had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach; so far as she was aware the department weren't involved in any drug trials and King wasn't overseeing any extra treatments. Unless he was doing so without her knowledge, and that was a very worrying prospect.

"CJ, my son. Cameron Junior Thorn." the woman replied hurriedly. Bonnie typed the name into the patient database and looked over the notes on the boy's file. Cameron Thorn, nine years old, diagnosed with a rare genetic basal cell carcinoma that was currently in remission following surgery to remove the tumour and a couple of sessions of radiotherapy to catch any cancerous cells that they'd missed. He was only on the ward due to complicating factors surrounding his absent spleen and lowered immune system, from what Bonnie could tell at a cursory glance everything looked fairly routine in his treatment and there was no indication that he was on any medication other than what she'd have expected.

"From the notes here CJ looks to be doing fine, he's still recovering from surgery but I can't see any reason for undue concern." she told the woman.

"But it's about the payments, Dr Sugar. Dr King said we'd need to pay monthly for his medication and Lord knows his Dad, my Cameron, he's been working as hard as he can but they just won't give him any more overtime. They said it was health and safely and he couldn't work more than nine shifts in a row. We're already struggling what with me having to pay for a hotel close to the hospital and I was wondering if there'd be any flexibility on this month's payment. I don't want him to come off the medicine, Dr King said it was the only thing that would keep him healthy."

With every word out of the woman's mouth Bonnie could feel her horror and fury growing. There was no drug trial, no private payments that the hospital had authorised. And there never would be, that wasn't how the National Health Service worked. All treatment was free at the point of use; that was the nature of universal health care. Even if CJ was involved in a drug trial his treatment would be free as part of the trial. There was only explanation Bonnie could think of for a patient's parent to be making a monthly payment directly to an individual doctor and it chilled her to the bone with disgust and horror. King had been deliberately scamming the parents of sick children and stealing God only knew how much money from them, asking for payments for bogus private treatment.

"Excuse me, Ms Thorn, how long has CJ been on the medical trial?" Bonnie asked as calmly as possible around the rising tide of boiling rage in her chest.

"Four months. Dr King said he was getting better." the woman replied earnestly. "Is he still sick?"

"I... no, Ms Thorn. CJ is doing fine and so long as he stays on his medication he doesn't need any drug trials. He's doing perfectly well with the medicine from the hospital, you don't need to make any more payments. I can guarantee you that whatever trial he was part of just ended, you don't need any extra medicine. I will need you to talk to someone from the hospital financial auditing team about the trial though, since Dr King didn't fill me in on all the details. We need to know how much you paid him and what bank account it went into."

The woman thanked her profusely and left for the ward to tell her son the good news and presumably call his father and tell him to stop working himself to death. Once the door closed behind her Bonnie could hear a kind of ringing in her ears overlaid across the hush of the office, like angry bees were filling her brain. Of all the things King had ever done wrong this was unthinkably low. To steal a large amount of money from the parents of sick children... she had to know how far back it went, how many people he'd done this to. With shaking hands she picked up her phone and dialed the hotline to reception.

"Lyds, can you go into archiving and pull up all of King's discharged patients for as long as he's been here please? I know you're on your lunch soon and it's a big job but I think we might be dealing with a situation here. And if you could call someone from financial audit and ask them to come to my office as soon as possible." she sighed tiredly. Bonnie's day was about to get exponentially worse.

"Dr Julian King, I am arresting you on suspicion of fraud and embezzlement. You do not have to say anything. But, it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence."

He was gaping around the room at them all, all his colleagues and the grim faced police woman who had approached him the moment he walked into the staff lounge on Wednesday morning still half hungover from the weekend's bender. His eyes fell on Bonnie, staring stone faced at him from the corner and gripping her coffee mug so tightly that her knuckles turned white. Every line of her body radiated disgust; King thought he'd seen her angry plenty of times before but apparently that had been nothing compared to the sheer depth of fury radiating from her.

"You. You fucking bitch, you sold me out?" he snarled, lunging forwards in a sudden rage. That bitch had done nothing but fuck his career up, deny him the job that should have been his and the pay and opportunities that went with it. He was going to make her sorry she'd ever been born. But before he'd even gone three steps towards her the burly police woman was wrestling him to the ground and snapping a pair of handcuffs around his wrists. He struggled against her, growling wordlessly, but to his shame and horror she was stronger than him and pinned him easily.

"This isn't going to look at all good on your arrest sheet, Julian. Come on, don't make a scene." she told him regretfully. Sugar was still staring silently at him with disgust and contempt etched into every line of her freckled face.

"You sack of shit." he heard her mutter before he was hauled to his feet again and marched out of the door, out of the building and into a waiting police car. King was completely certain whose fault it all was and it wasn't his. Sugar had better watch her back, he thought furiously as they drove him away. She was going to pay for humiliating him.

"You ok?" Lydia asked quietly as they watched the police car disappear around the corner of the building from the staff lounge. Bonnie nodded a little distantly, still staring out of the window.

"Twenty three." she murmured. "He pulled that scam on twenty three families under my care, probably more at his last hospital. Eleven of those kids died, Lyds. What if his scam contributed to their deaths? Why didn't I find out about this sooner?"

"Come on, you couldn't have known. Nobody could. He hid it from everyone, picked his victims carefully. You heard what auditing said. Nobody blames you." Lydia soothed.

"I blame me." Bonnie replied softly. Next second she turned away and strode out of the lounge, heading back to the ward with her face resolutely blank and free of any traitorous emotion.

The rest of the day went by in a blur. Bonnie tried not to dwell on it and to all appearances she was her usual professional, efficient self. She caught Lydia peering at her worriedly a few times as she passed by but just kept her gaze straight ahead and didn't let the curvy woman catch her eye. All the time beneath her thoughts an undercurrent of churning guilt ran thick and deep. King had been screwing with her department, he'd been abusing his position right under her nose. And no matter what anyone else said she should have seen it. What else had King been doing and gotten away with? Could she trust any of the decisions he'd made at all? What about the rest of her colleagues? How many of them were involved in something that went against their oaths as doctors? Suddenly Bonnie didn't know if she could look any of them in the eye, unsure she would see their judgement over her not discovering King sooner or else their guilt over their own illicit behaviour. It wasn't like Bonnie had liked King at all, not from the very first time she laid eyes on him. But he was a doctor, he was entrusted with the care of sick children and their families. Never had she thought he could abuse that trust for his own gain no matter how much she'd personally disliked him.

The drive home was tense; Bonnie wasn't completely certain how she made it out of the hospital car park and onto the road skirting the park. She came back from her half space out just in time to slam on the brakes and narrowly avoid running into the back of the car in front when the traffic lights changed unexpectedly and she hadn't immediately noticed. Her attention had been on King again and the murderous hate in his eyes when he'd look at her that morning; she'd almost rear ended the car in front because of it. And really that was the straw that broke the camel's back. It was a good thing she was only a few blocks away from home, Bonnie thought as the tears she'd held under iron control all day began to fountain down her face. By the time she pulled onto the drive her eyes were a swollen, blackened ruin of messed up mascara. Marcy was waiting by the front door and the moment she saw Bonnie she hurried forwards, helping her out of the car and dabbing worriedly at her face with the corner of a tissue. It wasn't right, the redhead thought distantly. She should be the one staying strong her partner; Marceline was still recovering from the loss of her harp and that letter from her mother. But there she was being as comforting and gentle as she'd ever been, nothing but tender and supporting. Bonnie wasn't sure she'd ever have words to thank Marcy for that. She'd managed to keep her professional mask in place all day but she'd been vaguely aware that it had come at the price of being an emotional wreck the moment she got home. All at once the redhead had completely run out of cope.

"They arrested him first thing this morning." Bonnie told her quietly as Marcy gently pushed her down into the sofa and wrapped her in a hug. "Auditing spoke to the families of all of his patients. Twenty three of them, they think. He deliberately picked the most vulnerable. Single parents without any support or kids he knew wouldn't make it, families already under financial strain who wouldn't ask too many questions. Apparently he'd managed to find out that the Thorns already had debts. He was targeting the most vulnerable for his own gain."

"That bastard." Marcy murmured, holding Bonnie tightly and stroking her hair as soothingly as possible. "That utter, utter bastard. I hope he rots in jail."

"I do too. I tried to just go on like nothing had happened today but I couldn't stop thinking about it. How could he come to work every day and act like nothing had happened when he knew he was ruining people's lives? Some of those families took out huge loans, got themselves into debt to pay him. And they thought they were helping their children, they put their kids' lives in his hands. He exploited a parent's love for their child, made them think they were receiving life saving treatments just so he could steal from them. It makes me sick to my stomach."

Marcy felt her babies kick and felt Bonnie shiver in her arms with the tears of anger she'd held in all day and silently agreed. It made her sick too. If she'd been there instead of Bonnie that morning the police would have been taking her away instead of King and charging her with attempted murder.

"But there are good doctors in the world too. People like you." Marcy murmured.

"It doesn't make up for people like him though."

"I disagree. I think you're brilliant."

The night ended as well as Bonnie could have hoped. Marcy knew without having to be told that her girlfriend needed the comfort of intimacy and she was more than willing to help the redhead forget herself, even just for a few moments. Once the rush of climax had passed and her heartbeat had slowed back to a normal rhythm it was almost like Bonnie could sleep, almost like she could pretend the day hadn't shaken her to her core. Marcy fell asleep almost instantly beside her and she snuggled down against her warm back, needing the closeness of the contact more than ever. Despite the comfort and the knowledge that she'd done everything she could Bonnie still saw the families of deceased patients staring at her accusingly in her dreams that night.