On the Friday morning, the day of the funeral, Rica drove Connie into work as he had done the day before. "You do know that I'm covering for Lola today so that she can come with you?" Connie said as they waited in traffic, unable to remember whether or not she'd told him this the day before. "Yes, you said," Ric replied with a grateful smile. "And it is very much appreciated, believe me." "It'll probably give me something of a wake up call," Connie said ruefully. "Working as a doctor in critical care for a day, it'll show me just how lucky I am not to be doing it on a regular basis."
Later that morning, when the time for Lola to leave was approaching, Connie went down to AAU to do the hand over with her. Lola looked wild, distracted, and not in any way her usual, authoritative self. When she'd finished going through the patients they currently had on AAU at twice her normal speed, Connie gave her a soft smile and laid a brief hand on her shoulder. "Lola," She said gently but firmly. "Take a deep breath, calm down, and go and sort yourself out. Ric said he would be here at about eleven to pick you up." "It ain't right, is it," Lola said darkly. "To be burying one so young." "No," Connie said quietly. "Which is why Jess and Zubin will need all the support you can give them." When Lola began to look slightly calmer, Connie asked, "so, who have I got as nurses today?" "Mark Williams and Mickie Hendry," Lola told her. "I did phone for some agency cover, but no joy."
Ric was there on time to pick Lola up in Connie's Jag, and she dropped into the passenger seat with a look of curiosity on her face. "This Connie's car?" She asked without preamble. "Yes," Ric told her. "She's allowing me to borrow it while I'm here." "I don't know what she's done to you, Eric," Lola said philosophically. "But you're looking far better on it than you ever did with me." "I'm not sure how long it would last if I was here all the time," Ric told her reasonably, as he drove towards Jess and Zubin's house. "I just wish it could work both ways." "Explain," Lola invited succinctly, seeing that he had something on his mind. "I'm not sure that today is the right time to be asking your advice about Connie," Ric said with a rueful smile. "Depending on what Jess and Zubin want to do afterwards," Lola said thoughtfully. "We'll go for a drink and you can get that little quandary out of your head then. Connie told me to take all day if necessary."
The funeral wasn't until one o'clock, and at around half past twelve, Donna appeared on AAU. "Mrs. Beauchamp," she said, walking straight up to Connie. "I was wondering if you could spare Mickie for an hour or so. This is one funeral where Jess might need her friends." "Mickie," Connie called her over. "Nurse Jackson here is asking me to give you time off to go to the funeral." "It would be appreciated if you could," Mickie said politely, looking Connie in the eye for the first time since Will's death. "I'm not going to prevent either of you from supporting a friend," Connie replied, in her own way acknowledging once and for all that Will's death hadn't been Mickie's fault. As the two girls thanked her and moved towards the exit, Connie called after them, "Be back by two thirty at the latest."
As the six of them stood at the graveside, watching the little coffin being lowered into the earth, they each in their own unique way wondered why such a tragedy had to happen. Even Donna, with her somewhat dismissive approach to life's consequences, couldn't help but feel sorry for Jess, even though she'd known that the baby had been unexpected in the first place. Professor Khan looked almost dead himself, Donna couldn't help but think, as though the very purpose of his life had been taken away, which she supposed it had. The six of them barely listened as the words were intoned, each of them having far too many thoughts in their own heads to pay much attention. Tears ran freely down Jess's face as the first shovel of earth was cast onto the wooden lid of the coffin, and Ric found Lola's hand slipping into his, needing just for a moment to recapture the support he had tried to give her when they were married. He gave her hand a tentative squeeze, telling her that he was there, if only temporarily.
When the coffin had been well and truly covered, and they all began to move away, Lola asked Zubin what he and Jess wanted to do. "Much as your coming here has been appreciated," He said to the four of them. "I think we need to be on our own for a while." "Thanks for coming, you guys," Jess said to Mickie and Donna, and the two of them gave her a communal hug. "You know where we are, any time," Mickie told her. When Jess and Zubin had driven away, Donna asked of no one in particular, "Why does it always rain for funerals?" As she said this, she gestured up at the dark, grey clouds above them, looking ready to break at any moment. "It's the souls of the dead, crying to have a new one in their midst," Lola told her philosophically, making Donna look as though she wished she hadn't asked. "Do you two want a lift back to the hospital?" Ric asked as they moved towards where Connie's car was parked. "Yes please," Mickie answered for them, as they had been forced to get a cab out to the church on the outskirts of Holby.
They were all quiet as Ric drove them back to the hospital, but when he drew up in the car park, Lola was the one to say, "I think we all could do with a drink, don't you?" "We haven't got to be back till two thirty," Donna replied. "So yeah, a drink sounds good to me." As they all trooped over to the bar opposite the hospital, Ric wondered if now might be a good opportunity to talk to Lola about Connie. Fishing a ten-pound note out of her purse, Lola handed it to Mickie. "You two go and get yourselves a drink," She said with half a smile. "And don't be late back on duty." Taking this as a hint to leave them to it, Mickie and Donna took Lola's word for it and found a table to themselves. After paying for a scotch for Ric and a glass of wine for herself, Lola led the way to a corner table. "So," She said, when they'd sat down opposite each other and she had taken a swig of her wine. "Tell me all." "For a start," Ric said carefully. "I'm not really sure that I should, and second, it'll probably sound a little odd to say the least." "Eric," Lola said with a smile of remembrance. "Nearly everything to do with you and your women is usually a little odd. So, get on with it." "You don't change, do you," He said almost fondly at her forthright attitude. "I'm not sure why you expect me to change," She replied thoughtfully. "You certainly don't." "Lola," Ric began cautiously. "When we were married..." "Which time?" Lola put in with a sardonic smile. "Either," Ric told her. "Did I ever make you feel, that any, regular reason why we couldn't, make love was your fault?" Lola's eyes widened in surprise. "It's not like you to be euphemistic, Eric," She said with a smile, entirely understanding what he was getting at. "But to answer your question, no, you didn't. Why?" "Because of how Michael was during the entire time they were together, Connie assumes that I won't even want to kiss her. I think Michael used to use that as his excuse to play away." "That's not exactly unusual, Eric," Lola told him thoughtfully. "But why?" Ric said in perplexed anger. "It's just a normal part of living day in day out with a woman. As a doctor, you'd have thought he would have known that." "Eric," Lola said, laying a hand over his and trying to calm him down. "Just because you feel like that, doesn't mean that every other man on the planet feels the same. With some men, they see it as their right, to be able to have sex with their woman any time they like, monthly interruptions be damned. They don't want to understand that it's not something we can control, and they think that just because they can supposedly pleasure a woman every day of the year, women should automatically be the same with them. From what I've heard of Michael Beauchamp, I'd say he was as selfish a man as you could possibly find." At Ric's raised eyebrow, she added, "The hospital grapevine hasn't exactly been very quiet since Christmas." "How do I make her relax?" Ric asked, unable to believe he needed Lola's advice on anything, never mind something as personal as this. "How do I make her see that I love her, no matter whether she can sleep with me or not?" "My god, you have got it bad," Lola said with a smile. "And the simple answer is, you just need to tell her. Tell her that you love her, if you really do, and try to show her that you don't find her any less attractive, just because of what time of the month it is. It might take some time, which I appreciate isn't something you often have with Connie. But I can tell you now, what little time you have spent with her over the last few months really has made a difference. She's not the proverbial ice queen any more, and she doesn't verbally beat inferior mortals into submission like a Sergeant Major just as she used to. If that's your achievement, then well done." Ric smiled softly in spite of himself. "I just wish she would talk to me," He said a little despairingly. "If she wasn't used to being able to talk to Michael, then she won't think she can talk to you, no matter how much you've already tried to convince her," Lola said succinctly. "I don't know what's changed with you, Eric," She said thoughtfully. "But something has, and it's definitely for the good." "I haven't gambled in nearly eighteen months," He said almost proudly. "It doesn't mean I haven't wanted to, especially recently, but I haven't as yet given into it." "Then keep it that way," Lola told him firmly. "Because that won't help anybody, least of all you. As for Connie, you remember that massage you often did on me? Well, try it on her, she might just like it."