Her whole body jolted with fright when there was a loud knock at the door. Her decaf coffee immediately going everywhere, she set the now half-empty mug down, muttering to herself at the mess she'd made. There were three more louder knocks, initially she'd been annoyed at both the fright and the drink spillage but now that she was aware of time she quickly became concerned. Nobody ever really knocked on her door, unless it was the postman with a large parcel. But at nearly midnight it was hardly likely to be him. She stopped trying to clean the desk and started cautiously making her way out of the room towards the front door. Surely enough, they knocked again. More urgently this time and her breath instantly hitched in her chest.

"Please!" The loud muffled male cry on the other side of the door made her shiver. "Please, Connie, I know you are in there! Please let me in!"

"Wh-Who is it?" She shouted loudly, completely positive she should have just kept quiet an not said a thing but it was too late now. There was no answer this time though, just the soft sound of a body collapsing to the ground, her instinct told her it wasn't anything to be threatened by and before she could even think properly she'd already moved to the door, opening it cautiously. Initially she was looking straight ahead through the tiny gap but she jumped back and moved her attention down to the floor when the weight of his body pushed it open.

"Alex?"


She was thrown into a flurry of panic, her heart positively racing in her chest as she moved through to the kitchen as quickly as she could. Her brain had geared itself into overdrive, instructing her body with exactly what it needed to do. Yanking the drawers and cupboards open two at a time, she scavenged for the essential items she needed.

"Alex? Alex, can you hear me?" She called out loudly upon re-approaching him again, this time she had materials to at least try and help him, he was still sprawled out near the front door, his chest and abdomen coated with his own blood. Despite her loud yells, he wasn't responsive. Kneeling at his side, she checked his pulse again, her face twisting worriedly with how weak it was. "Okay, let me have a look at this." She whispered to herself, attempting to locate the wound on his front where all the blood seemed to be coming from. Her nice over-sized knitted jumper was absolutely destroyed, the dark red blood staining over her bump where she'd leant over him. "Jesus." she muttered to herself, slowly peeling his jacket back to gain a better look. "What the hell have you got yourself involved in this time?" Her delicate yet angered whispers seemed to reach him even in his state of unconsciousness, he was drifting in and out of it as the minutes passed by agonisingly slowly. Her eyes darted over his body, desperately seeking the wound point but she felt like she was just staring at an incredibly blood-stained jumper. Her heart skipped a beat when she finally pinpointed a small tear in his shirt. "A stab wound." She stated quietly, her hands rushed to grab the tea-towels sat by her side before pressing them firmly over the knife-wound in the left of his chest, it was hiding right on his side. Pressing on to them with some amount of pressure she looked back at his stirring face as he started to come around. "Alex, you've been stabbed, alright? So I need to you to hold these towels in place whilst I call an ambulance-"

"No!" He choked out in agony, trying to sit up in sheer panic. "No ambulance, no police! Please!"

"Alex, you're bleeding out-"

"No!" He grimaced ferociously, a small growl in his tone but this was mostly down to the amount of pain he was in. "No ambulance!" He more or less roared the words, trying to sit himself up whilst she tried her best to keep the tea-towels firmly placed on his side.

"Alex, please, you need to stay still!"

"You don't understand." He grimaced with a pained grumble, his brow was coated with beads of sweat. "They're after me! They'll find me there!"

"What?" She frowned with confusion before suddenly snapping back to her main focus, his bleeding chest. "No, Alex, can you please stay still!" His blood was now covering her sleeves and her nice cream carpeted floor. Crimson red and angry looking. "You're losing far too much blood, I can't fix this here! You need to go to hospital, if you'd just let me call an am-"

"For the last time!" He spat before dropping back to the ground again, clutching at his wound over her blood-stained hands. He cried out loudly, panting through the immense discomfort he was experiencing. "No ambulance." The gasping breaths barely escaped, at this rate he was going to die on her floor in front of her.

"Right, well at least let me drive you then!"

"They'll know where I am." His voice was considerably softer now, almost defeated as his eyes flickered over her and landing on her bump. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know you were-" He cut off his own whispered sentence, a huge wave of regret hitting him hard whilst he continued to battle the pain.

"Who, Alex? Who will know where you are?" She genuinely did want to know but she was attempting to keep him talking at the same time. Her eyes were studying the messy wound before her but she was forced to glance up at his face when she received no response. "Alex? Alex?!" She exhaled sharply, not believing this was really happening right now. He'd lost consciousness again. "For God's sake!" Huffing irately, the adrenaline rush had her hands trembling rapidly to match her quick and panicked breathing. Holding pressure on the wound with one hand, she reached for her phone with the other and ignored his stern warning as she dialled 999.


"And you're sure you don't need checking over, Mrs Beauchamp?" Ruby asked, her small voice masked with huge concern for the pregnant clinical lead. They were in the back of the ambulance, en-route to Holby City hospital like they should have been as soon as he'd arrived at her house. It wasn't looking good.

"Hm? Oh, no, no I'm fine." She glanced down at her bloodied clothes, the majority of it covering the knitted material over her bump. "It's all his blood." The words she spoke were empty and monotonous, perhaps from shock Ruby wondered.

"And you don't know how it could have happened?" She questioned as kindly as she could in between attending to him.

"Like I said." She purred slightly irately. "This is how he showed up at my door, he said someone was after him and that's it."

"Do you know who? Did he perhaps say anything that could indicate who it might have been?"

"No, he didn't. And if he had, I would have said so when you asked, wouldn't I?" She huffed, feeling a little like a broken record before opening her mouth more calmly this time. "He really didn't want me calling an ambulance though, I can tell you that much." The two shared a concerned glance before Jan called out from the driver's seat to let them know they'd arrived.

"Okay, well, here's hoping we get some answers soon." Ruby smiled nervously as the engine turned off and within seconds Jan was at the rear doors, opening them loudly.

"Alright, thank you Mrs Beauchamp, we can take it from here." Her distinct Welsh accent almost made it sound like she was singing sometimes. "I did mention it wasn't worth your while coming along with us didn't I?" She smiled. "Would you like me to get Noel to call you a taxi?"

"No, no it's fine I'll assist."

"What, looking like that?" She stepped aside, slightly taken aback.

"I have spare clothes in my office, I'll see you in resus." She spoke directly and exited the back of the ambulance cautiously, subconsciously cradling her bump with one hand as she stepped out with an unsure yet helping hand from Jan. She and Ruby shared a worried look before getting back to their duties without another word.


"Right, apparently he was treated here not too long ago?" Archie spoke as she stood at the foot of the bed in resus, reading his notes. "The circumstances surrounding his last visit were also a little suspicious, he discharged himself against our advice nonetheless. Says here that he's Romanian, so we might need a translator bringing in, if you can organise that Robyn?" She smiled when the nurse nodded but Connie's voice halted both of their actions.

"No need, he speaks English." She was having a familiar feeling of deja vu as she continued with what she was doing at the side of his chest, not offering either of them so much as a sideways glance.

"The police are waiting outside, they want to speak to him whenever he's ready." David's feeble yet deep voice drifted over to them slowly from the double doors as he re-entered resus.

"They'll be waiting a long time, once I'm finished here he'll be headed straight up to theatre on Darwin." Connie scoffed slightly as she examined his chest in a more appropriate environment with the correct instruments and people around her as opposed to tea-towels and a bottle of alcohol for disinfectant. They had him stabilised but it was a deep wound and extremely messy. "This must have been done with some sort of large serrated knife." Her brows pulled together in the middle as she spoke.

"They also want to speak to you, Mrs Beauchamp, when you have a spare moment."

"And again, they might be waiting a long time."

"Well, I can take over, if you like?" Archie's proposal was so out there and in the open, Connie felt the staff look between them, awaiting her response as though it was some sort of table tennis match between them. The two had been butting heads a lot recently, particularly given Connie's current situation and Archie's growing ambition to become a consultant. Obviously she knew Connie would never step aside and let her fill her Louboutins, but surely she'd be going on maternity leave soon and thus a door may open for her to slide in and prove her abilities.

"I can assist as well, you're probably wanting to get home." Ethan chimed in, always eager to find a solution and make things as easy as possible. Despite failing to recognise that Connie wanted to stay put and keep her mind on work rather than go home to an empty house and overthink things until it was daylight again. Everybody was treating her as though she was some sort of fragile doll, she was pregnant not rendered useless.

"Go on, we've got it covered." Charlie rumbled before speaking more lowly. "And if I may, a word after you've spoken to the police please." The look he gave her was slightly cold and she knew she would be getting an earful, most likely on the topic of why Alex was here and what he was doing at her house after everything that went down with his son in Romania.

"Right, well, I'll leave him in your capable hands then." Slowly de-gloving and removing her plastic apron with an air of reluctance and annoyance, she binned them appropriately yet angrily and headed for the swinging doors. She greeted the police and led them to her office before taking a seat behind her desk, her feet and ankles were in agony, after all she'd been at work all day and was back here again a mere five hours later without a wink of sleep.

"Thank you, we won't take much of your time." The male officer nodded towards her bump understandingly before the female officer jumped straight into business.

"We just need to ask you a couple of questions regarding this evening's events." She spoke calmly before flipping her notebook open, clicking her pen at the ready.

"Fire away." Connie answered genuinely, awaiting the line of queries.

"What time did Mr. Anghelescu arrive at your house this evening?"

"About midnight, or just a little before."

"And you were doing what when this happened?"

"I was doing some work in the office, just some paperwork I'm behind on." She blinked tiredly.

"That's an interesting time to be up for someone in your condition."

"My apologies." She jolted her head back in disbelief followed by an ill-humoured laugh. "I didn't realise there was a bedtime curfew for pregnant women." Her angry stare subsided before she continued, her tone slightly more prickly now. "I was struggling to sleep, so decided to put my time to good use." Her chest was rising and falling more quickly than before, this had been happening frequently with lengthy conversations as of late, she figured the baby was sitting high up and hindering her ability to breathe easily.

"So you've said he arrived at your doorstep at around midnight, yet we have it on record that you didn't dial for an ambulance until 12:42am." She paused, glancing at Connie expectantly. "Why the wait? He was obviously bleeding a lot, you're a medical professional, you could see that."

"I was attending to him myself, I tried to call an ambulance twice but it was just causing him more distress." She snipped, growing impatient with the direction in which this questioning was going.

"So he protested when you attempted to call the emergency services? Do you have any idea why?"

"No ambulance, no police. He made that quite clear, he said they would find him. As soon as he lost consciousness, I ignored his request and dialled for one. He was going to bleed out otherwise." She felt her palms getting sweaty for no apparent reason as the officers became silent, only the scribbling of her pen could heard before she finally glanced back at Connie.

"Quite interesting that he should show up at your house, Mrs Beauchamp? The odds of that are quite impressive, don't you think?"

"Not particularly." She shocked them with her nonchalant answer, finally losing the last of her patience. "We're familiar with one another."

"He was a patient here previously, we saw that but it still doesn't explain how he knew to go to your house for help."

"Yes and prior to him being a patient here, I'd slept with him. There's no law against that, is there?" She blinked coolly, asserting her dominance in her domain. The nerve of them coming into her office and asking her these kinds of questions.

"No, of course not." She smiled sarcastically, a catty atmosphere brewing before the male officer interjected to try and cool down the situation.

"We're just trying to gather as much information as we can, that's all. We really appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions, especially at this hour-"

"One last question." The female officer interrupted her partner, gaining an eye-roll from him before she proceeded with her question. "Aside from his last admission here, have you had any other contact with him prior to this evening?" The air frosted over as Connie looked to the side, a disbelieving smile on her face.

"What is it, exactly, that you want to hear? Hm? That I slept with him after he discharged himself?" Her cocky smile faded and her expression became angered. "Because I did, bur I don't know how he knew my address, once again, he just showed up as soon as he was released from the emergency department. He had nowhere else to go."

"And you just let him in, no questions asked?"

"Look, I shared a bed with him on more than once occasion. So, what are you saying? That it automatically frames me as a possible suspect? He wasn't a recurring patient and he'd discharged himself, the last time I checked there was no rule against relationships outside of the hospital after that. Now, I'm not sure where exactly you're going with this, but I'd appreciate it if we could wrap things up."

"No, not at all, Mrs Beauchamp." The male officer was quick to try and diffuse the situation having noted how riled she'd become. "Like I said, we're just trying to get as many details as we can. We do seem to have gone slightly off-topic though, I do agree." He faced his partner angrily, shooting her a displeased look "Thank you, Mrs Beauchamp, that'll be all for now." The initially polite line of questioning had soon turned sour with their ridiculously invasive questions and her ever-growing impatience. "We'll have a patrol car sent out to your address-"

"I wouldn't bother." She shook her head with a humour-lacking smile. "I don't plan on leaving here any time soon so there'll be very little going on at my home address for you to scrutinise over." The disbelief was evident in her voice, completely dumb-founded by this whole situation and the fact that they seemed so suspicious of her actions.

"With all due respect, Mrs Beauchamp, the patrol car will be there to check the safety of your home and the surrounding area." He spoke kindly, he was much more pleasant than his female counterpart. Connie's face relaxed quickly, her blank and questioning eyes inviting him to continue on. "The people we believe him to be involved with aren't a particularly pleasant crowd. If he's made stop-offs at your house on more than one occasion, such as tonight and the previous time he visited, there's a chance these people could have followed him to locate his whereabouts. It's just a safety precaution for yourself and your family." His words stunned Connie into silence, she hadn't even thought about any of that. She sat back in her chair, blinking slowly, her mind began to race as her right hand involuntarily smoothed over her bump soothingly.

"Were you home alone this evening?" He awaited an answer for a moment or two before prompting her for a response. "Mrs Beauchamp?"

"Hm?" She flinched, suddenly startled from her rabbit-hole thoughts that were now spiralling. "Oh, sorry, yes." she shook her head, her answer delayed in nature. "My, uh, daughter and her Father, they're away for a couple of days, it's just me in the house."

"Right, I'll let patrol know." He smiled with a reassuring nod. "We'll have officers here too, stationed at the hospital entrances for his protection. Perhaps you could stay with a friend for the night? Just to be on the safe side given your current state." He motioned again to her bump with a folded smile before grabbing the door handle and allowing his partner to leave first. "Again, thank you for your time and I apologise for the intrusive questions."


Her line of questioning didn't end there. She'd more or less just breathed a sigh of relief that they'd left when Charlie slipped into her office quietly, closing the door gently behind himself. He took a moment to take in her dishevelled appearance, it was nearly two o'clock in the morning and she was still sat behind her desk with her elbow planted on the desk surface and her head resting heavily in her hand.

"Please, Charlie, not now." She exhaled laboriously before glancing up at his reddened face. He didn't speak, just moved himself to the chair at the side of the room and sat himself down carefully.

"You've kept in contact with him, all this time? Why? After everything he did?" His sentence was clear, loud and extremely direct.

"No, no I haven't." She lifted her head quickly to correct him with a fierce tone of voice. "He showed up a few weeks ago, or months, I don't even know." She shrugged before rubbing her face tiredly. "And here he is again, for whatever reason. But I've had no contact with him since Romania."

"You must take me for some old fool." He shook his grey head with a sort of sadness. "Do you know how many liars I've dealt with in my thirty years of service here? I know a lie when I hear one, Connie." His angry expression etched itself into her memory, her eyes flickering over his as she realised she was backed into a corner now. Her whole body language changed, it was strange to witness but it looked as though she'd relaxed, resigning herself to the fact that he'd find out regardless so it'd be better to come straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak. There was a moment of silence before she spoke again.

"Alright, fine." She huffed quietly, leaning back in her chair. "After you and I had argued in Romania, I spent the night with him." She avoided his judging gaze, looking down at her rounded abdomen instead. The baby was moving a lot this evening, she'd had maybe half an hour of stillness and that's it. Perhaps it was all the adrenaline from the action-fuelled night she'd had? Rubbing at her bump gently, she finally moved her eyes back to his sheepishly. "He just appeared in Holby a few weeks ago, and after discharging himself he turned up on my doorstep-"

"And let me guess, he had nowhere else to go?" His face changed hue, an even more reddish-pink shade overcoming his complexion as she looked away with frustration at being cut-off. He wasn't even going to allow her to explain, not that she should even have to be explaining herself to him right now.

"Charlie-"

"I'd state on my life he somehow managed to find his way into your bed as well." He spat angrily, interrupting her again but his next sentence remained suspended in his mind as she suddenly clutched at her abdomen with a loud and pained gasp. Leaning forward in agony, her breathing accelerated to accompany the discomfort she was experiencing. "Connie?" His anger subsided instantly, jumping up and moving around her desk to crouch in front of her as she groaned softly. Her expression, matched with the vocalising of pain, told him something was definitely wrong. "Connie, is it the baby?" He was a little panicked and feeling guilty for firing at her as angrily as he was.

"Yes." She panted slowly through short exhalations as the sharp pain started to subside a little. "Yes, it's the baby." Her breathless response invited him to lay his hand gently on her knee.

"Alright, you stay put, I'll go and get Duffy."

He was faster than she'd imagined, with Duffy hot on his tail. She closed the office door behind them both, moving over to Connie promptly. She was still holding her abdomen with one hand and now massaging her lower back with the other, a pained expression on her face.

"Alright Connie." She cooed delicately. "Where exactly are we hurting?" She stood before her, examining her movements and body language closely. Charlie could do nothing but watch on helplessly, feeling awful about the way he'd spoken to her prior to this happening. "Charlie, love, can you notify Obs and Gynae that we're on our way up? Thanks." She offered him a smile to tell him it would be okay. When he'd approached her for help she was immediately worried by his frantic behaviour. He was normally the calmest in situations like these, but on en-route to Connie's office he'd explained what had happened leading up to this moment and she quickly understood that he felt he was to blame.

"I think it's preeclampsia." She whispered breathlessly as Duffy checked her pulse.

"Okay, well, let's not assume anything yet, alright? I'll check your blood pressure in a moment and then we'll head up to Obs and Gynae."


"Mother's intuition." Duffy smiled as the doctor removed the blood pressure cuff from Connie's arm.

"Indeed, you were correct, Mrs Beauchamp. You're suffering from preeclampsia, which would explain the awful headaches and nausea you've been feeling over the last couple of days. The abdominal and lower back pain might come and go as well as the minor swelling in your hands and feet." He packed the cuff away and clasped his hands together as Connie rolled her sleeve back down. Within twenty minutes she'd found herself gowned up, laying on a bed in a private room upstairs with Charlie and Duffy watching on worriedly. It was nearing three o'clock in the morning and her body felt drained of what little energy she did have left. "I hear you've had a pretty stressful evening as well?"

"Well, no more than usual." She smiled briefly but the exhaustion was clearly painted across her tired complexion.

"Perhaps we need to slow things down a fraction, hm?" He raised his brows, watching her glance down at her lap before continuing. "I know you've just recently come back to work following your daughter's diagnosis but given your own diagnosis now, maybe you should just take things a little more slowly. Your blood pressure is extremely high, we'll need to continue managing the preeclampsia and it's symptoms until the baby is delivered."

"Your midwife will monitor both you and the baby." Duffy added sweetly upon noting Connie's glazed expression.

"But this'll no doubt mean an induced labour?" She questioned quickly, fearing a smooth delivery would now be out of the question.

"Unfortunately, that may be the case depending on how much foetal distress is detected, not to mention your own well-being but we'll play it by ear, okay?" He smiled at the three of them in turn before sanitising his hands. "I'll leave you to it, we're keeping you in overnight just to monitor you but after that you'll be on strict bed rest for a little while, alright?" He acknowledged her obedient head nod before exiting the room and cascading them into silence. She felt disgusting for thinking it but it felt nice to not have a single person refer to her baby as a saviour sibling for the entirety of the night. Had Sam been here he'd be concerned for what this meant for Grace, which she could totally understand of course but it was almost as if there was no real care or concern for their baby.

"Listen, Connie-"

"Charlie, it's fine." She spoke softly, interrupting what was about to be a sincerely heartfelt apology. "You were angry, I was tense, it wasn't a good mix." She smiled up at him before looking at Duffy. "And thank you, Duffy. I, uh, I appreciate everything you've done."

"Don't be silly, no thanks are necessary. I'm just relieved you and the little one are alright." She smiled adorably before thinking on her feet. "Shall I give Sam a call?-"

"No, no, please, it's fine." She objected to the idea quickly, causing concern between the older couple. "He's on a school trip with Grace, she was so excited about it, I'd hate for him to cut the trip short for no reason." There was a short and silent understanding between them before she cleared her throat to talk again. "Alex, how is he?"

"Archie updated me just before I called Obs and Gynae, he's fine." He forced a smile, it was an uncomfortable one but still a smile nonetheless. "He's out of theatre and recovering on Darwin."

"The police think it could be gang related?" Duffy grimaced with worry as she spoke.

"It's definitely not good, whatever it is." Charlie agreed, not letting on to the fact that he and Connie knew more about Alex's background than either cared to admit. Placing his hand on his wife's shoulder lovingly, his eyebrows knitted together in a worried fashion. "Just as well you're staying in overnight, what happens if these people have followed him to your home? They might think you're involved somehow." He wasn't expecting an answer but upon seeing her yawn with exhaustion he pulled the plug on his troubled enquiries. "You look absolutely shattered, get some rest and we'll pop back in tomorrow."