"Okay, I'll get you booked in for your x-ray, and hopefully we'll be able to see if you've broken any bones sooner rather than later. Is there anything else I can do for you?" Ange asked her patient.
The woman in the bed smiled gently. "I don't suppose Zosia March, Dominic Copeland or Morven Digby still work here?" she asked. "Morven might be going by Shreve, rather than Digby, I'm not sure."
"Well, I don't know about Morven," Ange said. "I never crossed paths with her, so I'm assuming that she left before I got here, but Zosia did some locum work here a few months back for a couple of weeks. Dom still works here though; he's up on Keller. I can let him know you're here if you like?"
"Yes please," the woman replied, "It's been too long since I've seen him; I'd like to see how he's been. Don't tell him it's me though, I don't want him to avoid me."
Nodding, Ange asked, "Is he going to want to see you? I don't want to put him in a situation that he isn't comfortable in."
"It isn't a case of him not wanting to see me, it's just that we share some sad history, and he's pulled away over the last year or so."
"Okay," Ange agreed, stepping away and pulling out her phone.
Dom smiled when he saw Ange's name flash up on his phone. He still got a warm fuzzy feeling in his stomach every time she got in touch, almost like he couldn't believe that she actually, properly, wanted him as a part of her family. Picking up the phone, he greeted her warmly.
"Hey Ange,"
"Hey love," she replied, causing Dom's smile to grow. "I've got a bit of a weird one for you."
"Okaaay…" Dom said, slightly confused.
"So, I've got a woman who's come in with a query fractured radius after a car crash, and she was asking after you and a couple of other people. When I said you still worked here, she asked me to get you to come down to AAU, but didn't want me to tell you her name."
"Right," Dom said sceptically, feeling his heart rate starting to rise. "She, erm, she isn't anything to do with I-I-Isaac, is she?"
Ange felt her heart drop to her feet as she suddenly realised how much his fear of Isaac still had a hold on his everyday life.
"No, sweetheart," she tried to reassure him. "I asked if you'd want to see her, and she just said that you shared some sad history."
"Okay," Dom sighed. "I'll be down in a minute."
Ange turned around as the lift pinged behind her, and smiled sadly at the sight of her son stepping out, biting his lips nervously and wringing his hands in front of him as his breath caught in his throat.
"Hey, Dom, it's okay," she said softly, as she took his hands in hers, feeling him immediately tighten his grip. "I'll point her out to you, and you can decide if you want to see her. If you don't, we'll get in the lift together, and go somewhere quiet while you get your head together. How does that sound?"
Dom let out a shaky breath and nodded his head. He turned his head in the direction that Ange pointed, and squeezed her other hand tightly when he saw the woman's face.
"You okay?" Ange asked gently, rubbing the back of his knuckles with her thumb.
"Yeah," he whispered, letting go of her hand and taking a step forward. "Just not one of the people I expected."
"Marion," Dom said warmly, walking over to the bed and kissing her on the cheek.
She hadn't seen him since her son's funeral, but Marion Digby couldn't help but smile at how happy and healthy Dominic looked.
"How are you?" she asked. "Bring me up to speed."
Dom laughed. "Well, you know your consultant?" he asked, nodding when Marion gestured over at Ange. "It turns out I was adopted, and she's my biological mum."
Marion's jaw dropped. "Well, you always did have some sort of drama surrounding you. How's that all turned out?"
"Well it was all very rocky for a bit, lots of shouting, lots of fighting, but we've worked through it all, and things are really good."
"And how about Carole?"
"Again, it was rocky, but we're doing well now. At the end of the day, she raised me for over thirty years. I'll tell you what though, I could have really used Arthur's level head over that time."
Marion sniffed, nodding her head as she wiped away a tear.
"I'm sorry," Dom said softly. "How are you doing? And James?"
"We're doing okay," Marion replied. "The first year was really hard, and we kept pushing each other away. At one point, we even discussed divorcing, but we worked through it. We miss our son everyday, though."
Dom nodded, wiping his own tears away. "Me too," he whispered. "I really needed him by my side these last couple of years."
Both of them took a couple of moments to get their emotions under control, and then spent some time properly catching up. After a while, Dom suddenly remembered something important.
"Oh! Do you know that Zosia had a baby?"
"No!" replied Marion excitedly. "Is this with Ollie?"
"It is indeed," Dom confirmed, taking out his phone and bringing up a photo. Taking Marion's hand, he turned the phone around. "Meet Arthur Dominic Valentine."
That was too much for both of them, Marion gripping on to Dom as they shared in their grief for the young man that had been taken from them.
Across the ward, Ange hung up the phone from radiology, informing her that Mrs Digby's slot had been confirmed for her x-ray. Looking across at her patient, she didn't want to interrupt the pair, who were obviously united in some sort of deep grief, but she did need to go now, or she would have a much longer wait.
Making her mind up, she walked slowly over to the bed, smiling apologetically at them when they looked up, both wiping their tears away. Placing her hand on Dom's shoulder, she squeezed it gently in silent support.
"Sorry to interrupt, but a slot has just opened up for you in radiology and you need to go up now."
When Marion nodded, Ange leant down, placing a kiss on her son's head, and whispered for him to wait there, before helping Marion into a wheelchair and wheeling her over to where Jason was waiting. As she went to leave, Marion gripped her wrist, motioning for her to lean towards her.
Speaking softly, she said to Ange, "You have a wonderful son there. He is incredibly strong, and incredibly kind, and he was there every step of the way for my son, and he was there for me and my husband, even though he has had so much to deal with himself. You should be really proud."
They looked back at Dom, who was still sat by the now empty bed, trying to compose himself.
"Thank you," Ange said, "I am really proud of him."
"Although," Marion continued, "He will not let anyone support him. He's been hurt too much by people he thought that he could trust, whether intentionally or unintentionally. My son especially, hurt him, even though it was completely unavoidable."
"Yes," Ange said, "I'm starting to realise that. How close are you two?"
"We were in touch really regularly for the first year, but after Isaac, and… well, I don't know how much you know, and I don't want to betray his confidence, but he kind of drifted away. He sends the occasional texts, especially on birthdays and the anniversary, but he tries to check up on us, without letting us check up on him."
Ange nodded, walking back to her son as Marion was taken away by Jason. Nodding her head towards the lift, Dom stood up and followed her, dropping an arm around her shoulder as she pulled him close, wrapping her arm around his waist.
As the lift door closed, Dom pulled away as he felt the lump growing in his throat and the tears welling in his eyes.
"Well, that was intense," he said shakily.
Ange just smiled sympathetically, waiting as Dom lifted his head up to face the ceiling, before clenching his eyes shut to fight away the inevitable tears.
Ange tightened her hold around his waist, but Dom took his arm from her shoulders and unclasped her arms from around his waist. Pushing her gently away, he pressed the button for the ground floor, before standing with his back in the corner, trying to get his emotions under control.
Not wanting him to close himself off, Ange followed him across the lift, trying to take his hands in hers.
"Dom, don't push me away," Ange said quietly, frowning as he shook her hands off him.
"Not here," Dom whispered, shaking his head, before bolting out of the lift as soon as the doors opened. Ange followed him, not entirely surprised when they headed to the gardens. This seemed to be a favourite place for him.
When Ange finally caught him up, he had settled in what Ange had started to refer to as 'his spot'. For the first time, she looked properly at the plaque above his head, and, upon seeing the dedication "In Memory of Arthur Digby", everything fell into place very quickly.
"So, Marion is Arthur's mum?" Ange asked, breaking the silence.
When Dom looked up at her in confusion, she nodded to the memorial above his head, and he nodded, before breaking down in loud, wretched sobs, his mum quickly sitting down beside him and pulling him into her arms, relieved when he held on just as tightly.
"I loved him so much," Dom sobbed. "Not romantically, but he was my best friend. Arthur, Zosia Dom. We did our F2 year together, we lived together, we helped Zosia through her drug overdose before her bipolar diagnosis. I went with him when he told his parents that he was terminal. He came with me to see Barry and Carole, and when Barry went off on a homophobic rant, he got up on stage with me, sang Gloria Gaynor's 'I Will Survive', and kissed me in front of all Barry's friends. It was incredible. If I ever needed anything, he was there; no questions asked. If I went too far with something, he'd pull me back from the edge. I can tell you now; I would not be the person I am without him."
Ange just sat there in silence, before saying softly, "He was your brother".
Dom sat, thinking, before shaking his head. "He was more."
Half an hour later, Dom started to sit up, moving away from the warm cocoon of his mother's arms.
"Sorry," he whispered, wiping his eyes.
Taking his hands away from his face, Ange pressed a kiss to his knuckles.
"Don't hide from me, sweetheart," she said, "Tell me what you're thinking."
"I just miss him so much. In my heart of hearts, I know that the Isaac thing wouldn't have got as bad the first time, and he never would have ended up back here this time."
"Why not?" asked Ange.
Taking a deep breath, Dom replied, "Because I wouldn't have needed to get back in contact. I would have spoken to Arthur about everything with you."
Dom went quiet, but Ange could tell he was building up to say something else, and so didn't interrupt.
Eventually, Dom voiced what he was worried Ange wouldn't want to hear.
"If Arthur was here, I wouldn't have been alone."
Ange watched her son as he pulled away from her again, shuffling to the end of the bench. Following him, she wrapped her arms around him again, a feeling of relief flooding through her as Dom turned to face her and wrapped his arms around her waist, pressing his face into her neck as he sobbed.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"
Cutting him off, Ange tightened her hold on him until she couldn't squeeze any tighter, trying to convey her love through that one hug.
"You never need to be sorry for being honest, and I'm sorry if I ever made you think that you should be. But Dom, you are not alone anymore. I promise."
Dom sat up, looking Ange in the eye, before asking in a wobbly voice, "Promise?"
Ange felt her heart break a little at his question, but couldn't blame him for his insecurity.
"Dom," she replied, looking him directly in the eyes, "I promise that I am completely, totally, here for you. You are not alone. I am in your life now. You will never be alone again."
Feeling the tension leave his body, he nodded, thanking her under his breath.
Pulling him into one more hug, Ange told him the one thing she wanted him to remember.
"Never thank me for being your mum."
A/N: Hope you enjoyed this – I can't get over how quickly they've moved on from the whole Ange/Dom storyline, and I just want to see all these emotional scenes that aren't going to happen! So please, people, keep writing them on here!