Hi everyone! Sorry for the lack of update yesterday but on the bright side this is a relatively long chapter and there will be another one tonight! Thank you to for your review and everyone else who has too! Enjoy :)

Kian

'Any luck?' Kian asked Connie as she entered the Darwin Clinical Lead office.

'No. She asked what happened, and I told her as much of it as I thought she could handle, but then I messed up.'

'What did you do?'

'I shouted at her. She asked if I was ok, and I shouted to her that I wasn't the one that had died. I'm so stupid.' Connie put her head in her hands and sat down next to Kian on the sofa.

'Come on, Beauchamp. You've been sitting with her every hour that you haven't been working, for a week. And that's on top of handling the police,' he said kindly, 'You're exhausted.'

She waved him off and told him she was fine, but Kian could see the thicker than usual layer of make up under her eyes, hiding the dark circles he knew were there. She was barely able to concentrate on paperwork for more than half an hour, and even in that time, she got work done at half her usual pace.

'Connie,' he began, 'You've taken on being Jac Naylor, after what happened, so that Jac doesn't have to. Where is the logic in that? If you don't think that she could handle it, or me for that matter, then why should you be able to? What happened was hard on you too, don't think I don't notice your face when you step in here. It's fine for you not to be at 100%, you've got me for that.'

With that, he gently pulled her to lie down on the sofa, a cushion under her head.

'Sleep,' he said simply. He turned the light off, shut the door and left the office, leaving a do not disturb sign outside.

Deciding to talk to Jac, he walked slowly back to HDU. Why had she seemed so scared of him earlier? Jac wasn't usually rattled by such things. Sure, they'd both been to Hell and back (if Hell had been halfway up a mountain), but that was an accumulation of things. She'd recovered from the hospital shooting quickly, even if it had caught up with her eventually. But again, it was an accumulation of things.

Kian reached the side room and knocked softly. He sighed as Jac jumped at the noise, even though she had watched him approach. Tears filled her eyes as she shook her head, and Kian longed to go in and give her a hug, to promise that it was going to be ok. But if he was scaring her, then he wouldn't do any good by sitting with her.

'Where's Mummy?' a child's voice asked.

'Well Emma, let's see if we can find Mummy, shall we? Why don't you see if you can see her? Warmer, warmer, warmer,' Fletch laughed as Emma walked around, getting 'warmer' each time she took a step closer to Jac in HDU.

Kian watched her, smiling, as she turned to him and ran up to him.

'Kian!' she squealed as he picked her up and gave her a hug. Jonny walked onto the ward, laden with pink sparkly bags and a big teddy bear.

'Emma, I'm sure Kian is busy. Come on. Where's Jac?' he asked Kian, who looked at Fletch and shook his head quietly.

'Listen, mate. Jac's feeling a bit overwhelmed right now. We all right to just send Emma in, yeah?'

Jonny nodded.

'Cheers mate.'

Jac

She heard Emma before she saw her. She saw Kian look from her to Fletch. She heard the exchange between Jonny and Fletch and saw Kian look back to her, checking she was up for a visit from Emma.

It had been weeks since she'd spoken to her daughter, and the thought scared Jac. Jonny would inevitably be annoyed, and what if he'd told Emma something? What if she thought that she didn't love her anymore, because all she seemed to have done recently to her daughter was shout, send her away and ignore her.

She shook her head and held up two fingers. Two minutes. She needed two minutes.

Two minutes to pull herself together.

Two minutes to come up with a million reasons as to why they hadn't spoken.

Come on, Jac. It's Emma, she's six. Anyway, it's highly likely that you could just go into cardiac arrest; then you won't have to worry about it all.

Jac looked to her left, saw that her heart rate had increased and took a deep breath.

Kian reappeared back at the door, looking to see if she was ok. She nodded and smiled. Might as well be convincing, she thought.

'Mummy!' Emma called as she ran in carrying the huge bear, 'he's for you Mummy. To make you better!'

Jac laughed and Emma climbed onto her bed.

'Are you ok Mummy? Fletch and Kian said to be careful because your tummy and your chest hurts.'

'Yeah I'm ok. Just watch where you are, ok? I missed you sweetheart.'

Jac stroked Emma's hair and stroked her cheek, tapping her playfully on the nose. Suddenly, Emma wasn't there and she felt Mark holding the knife, his hand in her hair. Ge ran his hand down her face and she could hear him hissing threats at her. She pulled her hand away and heard the monitor protest as her heart raced.

'Mummy?' Emma tried, gently tapping her mother's hand, 'Mummy, did I hurt you?'

Kian appeared at the door, summoned by the frantic beeps.

'Emma? I bought some chocolate earlier, and I wondered if you wanted any? Go to the desk and see if you can find it.' Emma hopped off the bed and raced outside.

Jac held the sides of the bed tightly as she focussed on her breathing, trying to calm herself down.

'All right, Jac?' Kian asked. She nodded slightly. The monitor quietened as her heart rate returned to a safer level. Tentatively, he came to the end of her bed and tried to place his hand comfortingly on the bottom of her leg, but she jerked away before he could. As she brought her legs up to hug them with her arms, pain flashed across the top of her thigh and Jac cried out in pain. She gritted her teeth as blood flowed down her leg and soaked into the mattress cover.

'Can I take a look?' Kian asked warily, 'I need to check if your stitches have come out, ok?'

Jac nodded her head slowly. Despite having given her permission, she leaned away from him as he gently lifted her gown and inspected the cut. She felt sick as she saw the small scars that Yates' son had left behind, intermingled between ugly purple bruises that ached late at night.