Valentine's Day:

Jac Naylor rolled her eyes. Sitting in her email inbox was an email from the notorious Holby Sixth Form, begging once again to let a few of their students come to Holby City Hospital. Usually, Jac managed to make up excuses as to why she believed they shouldn't join her on Work Experience within Darwin Ward, and usually let Keller or AAU pick up the unwanted students, but this year Hanssen was being particular. Questions had been raised as to why Jac didn't want any students to work with her, so this year she had been reluctantly forced to offer at least one student a two-day placement.

Jac rolled her eyes as she flicked through the CVs of the five hopeful candidates. Some of them didn't have nowhere near good enough grades or extra-curricular passion for Medicine, so Jac immediately discarded them. Another applicant spelt her name as 'Jack' and that was simply idiotic. Therefore, Jac quickly found the student she would reluctantly try and persuade to do Medicine for the next two days. And much to Jac's annoyance, the application was flawless. The girl seemed to know all about Jac's research about stents, particularly her old Digby Stent Project, clearly, she had done her research. It appeared Jac had found her victim…

A Hotel Somewhere in Holby…

The sunlight cracked through the cheap curtains in the budget hotel Marina Valentine was staying in. She woke up, heart pounding and sweating- today was the day that Marina would get to work alongside other doctors at Holby City Hospital, including Jac Naylor. She had spent most of her life hearing about the hospital, her cousins Ollie and Penny Valentine were both doctors there and since she lived with the siblings during their time at Holby, Marina had heard many tales of what happened. She remembered hearing about Darwin's Connie Beauchamp (who now apparently was on the ED), Ollie's love-hate relationship with his mentor Greg Douglas, Penny and her affair with a patient, Linden Cullen's relationship problems and his subsequent death trying to protect his ex-girlfriend; and needless to mention, the sister turned doctor the Valentine household referred to as 'Freaky Frieda.' Marina had spent so much of hearing about the lives of doctors, she stupidly thought it fitting to join the profession herself, and even more fitting to try and spend as much of it at Holby as possible.

Her phone flashed up at the side of her bed, it was from Ollie, wishing her good luck and also offering her a tonne of plasters to help cover the verbal wounds that Jac would throw at her during her two days. Marina sniggered at Ollie's message, he had finally matured, him and his wife Zosia were expecting their first child together. Ollie had suggested they appoint Marina as Godmother, however Zosia was unsure. For some reason, Zosia had never really taken to Marina, she had always been rather distant and in some cases cold. Either way, Marina wished Penny could see Ollie now. Penny unfortunately died when a train roof collapsed on her whilst she was helping a patient at the scene of an accident. The loss devastated Marina for weeks since she was closer to Penny than Ollie, and she spent countless hours trying to understand that Penny was never coming back. If she was determined to make one thing go well today, it was to make Penny proud.

Holby City Hospital

"What's the rush for Jackie?" Kian Madani teased as Jac dashed past him, heading for the lifts.

"I have to go and collect a student… For work experience." Jac said, disgruntled.

Kian raised his eyebrows and looked delighted. He clearly had a lot of antics he could get up to with this student. He fantasised trying to get her to like his latest food creations (it was bought from the corner shop, but nobody needed to tell her that) and showing off to her whilst he performed his unique takes on surgeries. After all, it isn't called theatre for nothing. Kian grinned as he watched Jac storm into the lift, clearly someone was not as excited as he was…

The lift doors rattled open and Jac stormed into reception, looking frantically around for any sign of Marina. She could hear Carole Copeland happily chatting away to some visitor about her latest happy discoveries, and Jac heard the dreaded word 'dazzle' crop up a few times. With still no sign of Marina, Jac thought it best to shift the blame onto Carole instead.

"Carole," Jac barked, storming up to Jac's desk and pushing past the people in the queue. "You haven't come across a girl on work experience have you- oh… and sorry." Jac said, turning to apologise to the woman at the front of the queue who Carole was talking to.

The woman raised a small smile and brushed her bright pink hair out of her eyes. "No problem. Nice to meet you Ms Naylor, I'm Marina Valentine."

"Tada!" sang Carole excitedly, doing jazz hands in the process. "Also, did you know she's the cousin of Ollie Valentine who is married to Zosia. My dazzle always talks about Zosia, him and her are good friends. Did you know that once my dazzle and Zosia went-"

"Alright Carole," interrupted Jac. "I need to take Marina now."

Carole smiled politely but looked crestfallen that Jac did not want to listen to her stories about her son, Dom Copeland. Well, if no one else would listen to her, maybe the next visitor would be interested in Dom's childhood tales.

"Whose 'Dazzle?'" Asked Marina as they headed towards the lifts.

"Her son, Dom Copeland, you'd think that she would have stopped talking about him after he practically removed her from his life, but hey- what can you do when you're an annoying mother and your son is so self-centred that he thinks the only solution to his problems is cutting off his mother. "

"Funny you say that," Marina added coldly. "I did the exact same."

The journey to Darwin was unpleasant. Jac appeared to have hit a nerve. They walked into the main area of Darwin to be greeted with balloons and rapturous applause from all of Darwin staff. Kian grinned at the front, clearly this was his doing.

"Welcome!" Kian said, presenting his samosas to Marina. "Welcome to Darwin Ward."

Nicky McKendrick and Cameron Dunn grinned sheepishly the other side of Kian; clearly Jac wasn't impressed.

"Alright guys, party's over. It's work experience, not her birthday." Jac snapped. "Madani, Valentine, my office now!"

Marina couldn't help but notice Jac's office was uncomfortably hot, especially when the atmosphere was tense. It appeared that Jac was furious at Kian's idea of a welcome 'party,' and she kept furiously shouting that it was a ward and not a party venue. However, Kian didn't seem to mind, he rather seemed to enjoy the lecture. Finally, Jac was done with him, and he rose out of his chair looking thrilled.

"Again, my apologies Jackie. But if Marie over here wants any samosas, they are in the staffroom."

Kian laughed as he closed the door.

"It appears he has an annoying short form of your name alongside mine," Jac grimaced. "Marie? At least it isn't Jackie."

Marina nodded in agreement, she just wanted to leave Jac's office as quickly as possible.

"So, Madani has insisted you work with him today. He is doing some fascinating procedure that he refuses to tell me anything about, however I don't trust him, but if you are willing to trust him, I shall put you in his loving care."

Marina shrugged, "Sounds good. Let the farce begin."

"Valentine." Jac's tone softened as she said the name. "Please do Penny proud."

Marina nodded. "You know, Penny and I were very close, it has always been my aim to do her proud."

"I am sure you will Marina." Jac smiled for the first time as the door opened and in strode Adrian 'Fletch' Fletcher.

"Wow, is this Valentine Junior? Who also happens to be born on Valentine's day? Who in my opinion looks like she stole Frieda's wardrobe and spray painted it bright pink!"

Jac rolled her eyes at Fletch's comment whilst Marina laughed.

"I doubt Marina even knows who Frieda is." Jac snorted. "Saved her a lot of pain."

"Actually, I do. I probably know her better than any of you ever did."

Marina shut the door on a dumbfounded Jac and Fletch. The mention of Frieda and Penny had reminded her of something. If there was one thing she had to do before working with Kian, it had to be this. Marina darted into the nearest toilets and slammed the door of the closest cubicle. She rummaged in her bag and pulled out a baby pink diary, it belonged to Penny Valentine during her last year alive. Marina always read it whenever she needed motivation, and today was no different. Marina removed the bookmark from the latest page she had been reading, it was time to know more about Penny and make Penny proud by being as close to as good a doctor as she was.

Nine years previously

It was a bright but cold September morning. Penny Valentine wandered through the woods, rehearsing in her head a speech she was preparing for later on in the day. Truth was, Penny was in love. She thought she had passed the silly crushes she had during her time at school, however Penny had never crushed like it. Usually, it was some boy that played football at lunchtime, that in all honesty thought Penny was a massive nerd. However, a teenage Penny didn't care. This time however, Penny liked a girl. She didn't know how she developed feelings for her, but they were there alright. She couldn't get his woman out of her mind; she was the polar opposite to Penny: gothic and incredibly sarcastic; notorious for her permanent foul moods. But Penny for some reason loved her, and would do anything to be with her, even if it meant stalking her round the night shift. The birds sang overhead, did Frieda ever listen to birdsong, and mock it as it was like something from a perfect fairy tale film, where they all live happily ever after and usually perform some duet with a bird? Penny laughed to herself, only Frieda would think that. If she thought that. Was Frieda even capable of thinking? Probably she did, and Penny silently resolved to herself that she would try and find out as much about Frieda Petrenko during today's shift.

"Morning Penny." The familiar Ukranian accent that accompanied the strong body odour rose from behind Penny. Penny turned around excited and was met with Frieda staring at her from behind her dark eyeshadow, however her eyes glistened manically as she looked triumphant.

"Linden's having trouble with girlfriend," Frieda mocked, the corners of her mouth upturned in a cruel smile. "I want to be with you Faye, I love you. I do not mind that I am not father to baby, I really want to have- "

"Alright Frieda," Penny sighed, stopping Frieda as she was about to descend off onto a crude tangent. "Any patient updates."

"One man try punch Linden earlier. But he missed."

Penny rolled her eyes; Frieda was definitely in a difficult mood today. If Penny was going to ask her out, today may not be ideal. The entire AAU would know by the end of her shift that she was unsuccessful and Penny would never hear the end of it, especially from Ollie. Maybe today wouldn't be the right day. There were plenty of other days. And after all, how hard could dating Frieda be?

Present Day

"So…your cousin fancied Frieda," Nicky exclaimed during their lunchbreak. "I would have loved to have teased Frieda about that!"

Cameron nodded enthusiastically as they all tried to devour Kian's samosas. Cameron and Marina had been pranked by Kian that morning. Kian wanted to show them an elephant trunk and all the tricks he could do with it much to their disgust. On the bright side, Kian was positive and enjoyed their company.

"Didn't Frieda like Penny's brother Ollie more anyway.?" Nicky asked curiously. She met Marina's gaze and tried to correct herself. "Well that's what I heard from Zosia anyway."

"She liked Penny more," Marina corrected. "Definitely. Trust me, I witnessed it all. The love, the pain, the heartbreak…"

Nicky and Cam were hanging onto every word she was saying, she felt like a storyteller and they were some eager children on the front row. Marina pitied their excitement. They clearly had no idea of exactly what happened all them years ago. Everyone at Holby thought they knew the full story, but in reality… They couldn't be more wrong.

They had absolutely no idea what happened. Especially on Valentine's Day…