The flight was long from Ghana to Holby, and at one point, Connie found herself drifting off to sleep. Ric put his arm round her, and moved her head against his chest. He could smell the combination of perfume and cigarette smoke in her hair, and it comforted him to be surrounded by something that was becoming so familiar. He needed this bit of quiet time, to allow his brain to come to terms with what she'd told him. Paris dead, Jess and Zubin's child dead, his grandson dead. How did he begin to help Jess, or Zubin for that matter through this? He hadn't known about Leo's baby when it had happened, yet when he'd found out it had completely floored him. How, in that case, was he going to deal with it this time? How did he begin to console his daughter for a loss that no mother should ever feel? He had openly loathed the idea of Jess and Zubin together when he'd initially found out about them, but that didn't mean he'd ever wanted anything like this to happen to them.
After about an hour's sleep, Connie's eyes opened, and she briefly wondered where she was. There was the reassuring sound of Ric's heart beating in her left ear, and she could feel his chest rising and falling under her cheek. "Sorry," She said, lifting her head and looking him in the eye. "It's all right," He replied, gently stroking her face. "I wish I could sleep." "Ric, I don't know what to say," Connie said regretfully, totally at a loss as to how to comfort him. "That must be a first," Ric commented dryly. "Yes," Connie agreed with a slightly nervous laugh. "How am I supposed to get Jess through this?" He asked, his one main thought coming to the surface. "I don't know," connie told him softly. "Just being there will help, I'm sure. I think Zubin will appreciate it too." She leaned over to kiss him, her soft, beautiful lips making him feel temporarily content.
When they arrived at the airport where Connie had left her car a few days before, it felt as though it was two in the morning, though it was in fact nearer eight as a result of the time difference. "What do you want to do?" Connie asked as she got behind the wheel. "I don't know," ric said helplessly. "Let's go home," Connie decided for him. "And you can go to sleep, or have something to eat, and phone Jess and Zubin when you're ready." It was a relief to him, that she was making such minor decisions for him, because the logical part of his brain seemed to have shut down.
When they reached her house, Connie shivvered slightly at the cold interior. Lacking anything like the energy to make up the open fire in the sitting-room, she switched on the central heating and filled the kettle for coffee. After dropping his bag in the hall, Ric slumped in a chair at the kitchen table as he watched her spoon Nescafe into mugs. Connie could see that he was flagging, and when she placed a mug in front of him, she stood leaning against the kitchen unit to drink her own. Reaching for an ashtray out of the cupboard, she lit herself a cigarette, the nicotine coarsing down to her lungs and increasing her energy ever so slightly. Ric drank most of the coffee hardly without noticing how hot it was, his eyes staring off into space, and his thoughts clearly far away from where he sat. Taking the empty mug from his hands, connie said, "Come on, you need some sleep, we both do." Making an effort to rouse himself, he followed her up the stairs.
when they were eventually huddled in her large four-poster bed, the thick, goose-feather duvet keeping out the winter February chill, his arms went about her and he held her to him. "Thank you," He said, softly kissing her, both of them tasting of the coffee they'd drank downstairs. "What for?" She asked with a gentle smile. "I don't know," He said ruefully. "Just for being you." Connie laughed huskily. "I've never been thanked for just being myself before," She told him with a yawn. "I mean it," He assured her. "go to sleep," She told him quietly, not sure how to respond to something quite so sincere. But, she mused to herself as his eyes began to close, Ric was going to need her in the next few days, and it was up to her that he made it through them in one piece.