Luke stood at the sink scrubbing his hands. He could have saved him. He should have saved him. Luke dried his hands and walked to the locker room and sat on the bench and rubbed his face. He changed into his jeans and blue t-shirt. He walked to Mollie's ward, he looked through the window in the door. He could see Mollie in her bed from here. She was reading a book that they obviously had lying around on the ward. Luke put his hand on the door handle ready to pull it open. He took a deep breath to compose himself before he did. Luke pulled the door open and went in.

The door shut behind Luke and everyone looked around to see who had come in. Mollie smiled when she saw Luke. He had built up quite the rapport with her in the short time that they had known each other.

"Hey, have you seen Mum and dad? Are they just being checked over and then coming up?" Mollie said happily. She then noticed the upset on his face. "What's up?"

Luke perched on the edge of Mollie's bed whilst she put the book, she was holding down on the table next to her. Luke took a deep breath.

"When the bus exploded it was catastrophic. Mollie, one of the cars that was hit in the explosion was your parent's car. They were driving past the coach as it exploded. They would not have been able to have avoided it." Mollie's face had dropped, and she started to cry. Luke put his arm around Mollie's shoulder. "Sweetheart, there is no easy way to say this, so I'm just going to come out with it. Your mum has died, she took a large part of the impact. She died immediately, by the time any of the team got to her there was nothing they could do. It would have been very peaceful; she wouldn't have known anything about it. It would have been like going to sleep."

Luke passed Mollie over a box of tissues.

"Dad's ok though. You're looking after him and he's going to come and visit. Luke, please tell me he's ok." Mollie said as she wiped her face.

"I tried, so hard to save him. I did everything I could. I was in the operation with one of the best surgeons in the country and I was performing CPR for 45 minutes. I didn't want to stop, I would have kept going but no matter how hard I tried, I wasn't going to be able to save your dad. There was too much trauma and he'd lost too much blood. I'm really sorry, Mollie." Luke said, trying to comfort Mollie.

Mollie sat up and pulled her legs up to her chest and sobbed. Luke stood up and pulled the curtain around to give her some more privacy. She didn't need other people watching in on her whilst she was trying to process that she had just lost both of her parents. Luke sat next to Mollie on her bed again. Mollie put her arms around Luke and rested her head on his shoulder and sobbed into it. Luke put his arm around Mollie to comfort her and make her feel safe.

"Everything is going to be ok. You do know that, don't you?" Luke reassured Mollie.

"How? Both my parents are dead, and I've got no one else. All my grandparents have died, and my parents were both only children like me. I have no one left anymore." Mollie between sobs.

"I'm going to make sure of it, I am going to look after you every step of the way. You won't be doing this alone. You try to get some sleep. I'll come see you tomorrow." Luke said as he stood up. Luke went to pull back the curtain.

"Luke," Luke spun back around "I don't blame you. Thank you." Mollie said.

Luke smiled, "I'll come visit tomorrow."

Luke walked out of E.D. It was nice to feel the cool September evening breeze after all day rushing around inside. He took a deep inhale of fresh air. This wasn't quite the first day that he had planned. Luke hadn't expected to form a connection with Mollie, he never usually became involved with patients because he knew it would be unlikely that he would see them again. But Mollie was different, she was one of his first patients that he treated in the hospital and she had had her whole life turned around in a matter of hours. How could he not get involved with her after all she hadn't been through and lost. If getting mugged wasn't bad enough to then lose both your parents, he couldn't imagine what was going through Mollie's head right now.

He checked his phone and realised that he hadn't replied to his dad's text from earlier on. He now also had messages from his step mum and brother as well, making sure he was okay after hearing about the coach explosion and the evacuation of the department. Luke was incredibly close to his dad, Richard. Luke was single-handedly raised by his dad after his mum left them both whilst Luke was only 4. His mum went back to Australia, where she originally was when she split from Richard. Richard went on to marry Luke's stepmum, Elizabeth, who Luke was also very close to and saw her more of a mother figure than his actual mum after everything that she has done for him. They then had Luke's younger brother, James, who Luke was also very close with. The four of them together were an incredibly close family. Luke replied to them all telling them that he was okay and that he'd been in the hospital and not left until now.

Just as Luke hit send, he felt a hand clap him on the shoulder. He turned to see that it was Abs and a large contingent from the ED.

"We thought we could do with a trip to the pub after the day we've all had. Plus, to welcome you properly to Holby." Abs said as he walked out.

"That sounds like the best offer I've had all day. But only a couple I've got work tomorrow." Luke said as he walked away with his new colleagues.

In only one shift they had become the closest people Luke had to friends since he left the army. He could tell that he was going to fit right in.

Luke was sitting in the pub, drinking, and laughing as got to know him better as well as him getting to know about them and hear about all the drama that goes on in the department. After five pints, Luke was beginning to feel the effects of the alcohol. He used to be able to tolerate a lot more alcohol when he was younger but when he joined the army, Luke cut drinking out of his life. Luke realised that it was probably time to call it a night seeing as he had work early tomorrow, he was no longer as tolerant as he used to be, so it was time to quit whilst he was ahead. He looked over and spotted Alice, a health care assistant in the department, however, was not just slightly tipsy, she was very drunk. She was celebrating a successful first day in the role after being the department receptionist. Like Luke, Alice wasn't usually a very big drinker, so it didn't take much for her to get in this state.

"Come on you. Let's go, we can share a cab." Luke said helping Alice up with Kelsey, another nurse and good friend of Alice's.

Luke and Kelsey led Alice outside to wait for the cab. "Go back inside Kels, we'll be fine."

"Are you sure because I can wait. It really doesn't bother me." Kelsey said.

"We'll be fine." Luke reassured him.

Just as Kelsey. went back inside the taxi pulled up. Luke put Alice inside the cab. He waved to Kelsey once they got in the taxi to show that they were okay and he watched as she went back inside.

"25 Parkside way, please mate." Luke said to the driver.

"Why are you doing this, Dr. Stone? You don't have to take me home, I'm sure I could have looked after myself." Alice said, resting her head on Luke's shoulder.

"As a doctor and friend, I'm doing it to make sure that you don't hurt yourself and that no strange men beat you up from the time it takes you to walk from this cab to your front door." Luke explained.

For the rest of the journey. Alice sat quietly looking incredibly white. The cab pulled up outside Alice's house and Luke got the cabbie to wait outside whilst he took Alice inside. They walked through the door and Alice ran upstairs and into the bathroom. Luke could hear her being sick. Luke went upstairs.

Luke pulled back Alice's hair. "Also, if you decide you want to start puking everywhere I'd be here to help you."

Alice went into her bedroom to get changed. Luke downstairs and paid the cabbie as he didn't want to leave Alice in the state, she was in just in case she hurt herself and ended up choking on her own vomit. Luke went to check on Alice, and he found her slumped on her bed asleep before she had even got the chance to change properly. He lifted her up and put her in bed properly. Luke went in a cupboard in the hallway and found a blanket, he took it out and went downstairs and lay on the sofa. Before he knew it, he'd drifted off and he was asleep.

Luke woke up at 7:30 in the morning. His head was pounding, this was what he got from thinking that he would still be able to tolerate the same amount of alcohol as he used to be able to. He lay on the sofa rubbing his head. Suddenly, he realised that he was due at work in an hour. Luke got up and went to make sure that Alice was ok, she was still fast asleep. She didn't even make a noise when the floorboard squeaked as he left the room.

Luke jumped in a taxi and got home. Luckily, he only lived around the corner, so it didn't take him long to get back. Luke jumped in the shower and put on a fresh set of clothes to try and hide the fact that he didn't make it home last night. He picked up a packet of Paracetamol from his medicine cabinet. He packed his bag and looked at his watch. He dissolved a could of tablet in a bottle of water ready for him to drink when he got to work. He didn't have time to run to work today. He picked up his car keys and left for the hospital. The one day that Luke could have done without there being a traffic jam on the ring road was the day that he was going to be late.

Luke finally pulled into the staff car park. He walked into the E.D, he hoped that he would be able to sneak in without anyone realising that he was late. He wasn't that late so hopefully no one had even realised. He walked into the staff room drinking from his bottle and he turned around to see Kelsey watching him.

"You look rough. Have little bit too much last night?" She asked.

"Not really. What makes you think that? Can't I not arrive late to work with my name being dragged through the gutter?" Luke replied.

"Is that Aspirin you're drinking?" Kelsey continued to ask.

"See this is the problem with cynical nurses, such as yourself. You take, as it be, some circumstantial evidence and come to a preconceived conclusion. There may be any number of reasons why I am drinking this concoction of paracetamol and electrolyte infused water," Kelsey laughed. "Maybe I'm replacing lost fluids from an early morning run or perhaps I am simply coming down with the flu." Luke said as he sat behind the nurse's desk.

"Or maybe after you left the pub last night, you never made it home and spent the night on Alice's sofa. Then after oversleeping you rushed home this morning to try and cover up the fact." Kelsey said smartly.

"How do you do it?" Luke said with his head in his hands.

"Err…you have managed to change your top to try and deceive us. You failed to change your jeans. You spilt drinks down yourself last night and they have left quite the stain. Plus, you drove to work which you prefer not to do, and you said you only do if you're running late. Your keys are hanging out of your pocket." Kelsey pointed out.

"Don't start Kelsey. I've got the mother of all hangovers and I don't want any of your northern lip. I don't think I've drunk so much since before I was in the army. I just want to drink this, get on with paperwork and sit quietly. Ok?"

"Ok."

Luke went into the locker room and got changed. He swallowed a couple of paracetamols and walked out.

"Dr. Stone, nice of you to join us." A male voice said.

It was the locum who was in charge of the ED today.

"Look, I'm really sorry. I stayed with Alice last night and she was throwing up and I wanted to make sure that she was ok. By the time, I woke up and checked on her again…" Luke tried to explain

"…I don't want to hear it. You can make up the time at the end of your shift. For now, you can go and help nurse Phillips."

Luke spent most of the day working with Kelsey. He was avoiding Alice, he only met her yesterday and he didn't want people to start thinking things were happening that really weren't. Luke was sitting at the nurse's desk again looking through his mail, chucking most of it in the bin.

"Aren't you supposed to open letters, not throw them in the bin." Kelsey said when he came over.

"I guess. But you can normally tell what's inside an envelope just by looking at it," Luke produced a brown letter. "It's addressed to a Dr. Luke Stone, so clearly someone who doesn't know me very well. Return address on the back, so clearly not a personal letter. Not internal mail, the hospital uses white envelopes. The weight suggests a booklet or leaflet of some kind. The return address is Crick Services which I know is a drugs company. Therefore, a booklet or leaflet from a drug company is not very important. Simple."

Kelsey stood, arms folded. "You should have become a detective not a doctor."

"Elementary my dear Watson." Luke said, chuckling the letter in the bin.

Luke spent the rest of the shift with Kelsey, he managed to avoid dealing with anything that would have set off his nausea too much. Fortunately, he wasn't needed in resus all day so managed to avoid any of the cases that would have done that. Luke went home after a 12-hour shift. He was sitting on his sofa eating his dinner when the front door rang. The person didn't stop ringing.

"Yes, alright. I'm coming." Luke said whilst walking to the front door.

Luke opened the front and stood there was a blonde woman. The lady turned and Luke looked like he had seen a ghost. This was a person that he hadn't seen in years, ever since she went back to Australia.

"Mum?" Luke said, confused.

"Hello Luke." The woman replied.