Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed the last part, it always makes me very happy to get feedback on my fics. I'm glad you all seem to be enjoying this one, because I am loving writing it right now.

So here we go, chapter 11 - really hope you enjoy it.

For better, for worse

Chapter 11

Tuesday 6th March 2012

Sam knocked on the door of the office that had quickly become her bolthole away from her husband's bedside at the hospital and waited until she heard confirmation she was able to enter, before opening the door and making her way inside.

"Sorry, I didn't realise you were busy," she began on seeing that Nick Jordan had company in the form of Zoe Hanna and that they had obviously been deep in conversation until she disturbed them. "I'll come back later?" she queried.

"No, Sam it's fine," Nick responded, shaking his head as she went to back out of the door. "We were just catching up on a few things," greeting her with a smile. Sam caught Zoe's gaze and the two women exchanged a polite acknowledgement of the other.

"They're discharging him in a little while," Sam explained as she entered the room and she saw a look of surprise cross her husband's colleagues faces. "To be honest I think they might be getting a little tired of his attitude," she continued with a slight smirk at the memory of how hard a time Dylan had given a nurse who had changed his dressing earlier that morning. She was sure that he had been sent a different member of staff every time he required any form of care purely because once you had crossed Dr Keogh's intolerant behaviour once, most people were not masochistic enough to return for a second opportunity.

"And you're okay with that?" the Clinical Lead questioned, concern evident in his tone and etched across his face at the task the young woman would be taking on when she took her notoriously unforgiving husband home from the hospital and was solely in charge of taking care of him pending his next surgical procedure. "You have everything the two of you will need until he is readmitted?"

Both Nick and Zoe noticed that Dylan's wife hesitated before answering that particular question, chewing her bottom lip in a visible demonstration of her uncertainty at the enormity of the commitment she had made for the next few weeks. However almost as quickly as she had looked down at the floor and struggled to provide a convincing answer, Sam's eyes were filled with determination.

"We'll be fine; I mean how hard can it be? It's only Dylan after all," she replied light-heartedly as she smiled back at the worried man, who was fast becoming someone she felt comfortable to confide in. "It's not like I don't know what I am doing and I'm going into this with my eyes wide open, believe me. I know exactly what he's like and how to deal with him. Years of being married to the grumpy thing has taught me that at least," she added more seriously, but with a slight cheer in her tone.

Nick studied her intently, trying to establish quite how much of her outward positive attitude was bravado but before he was able to probe her further there was a knock at the still ajar door. "Come in," he shouted in response and Charlie's appeared behind Sam in the entrance to the small room.

"Sorry to interrupt," the nurse spoke; obviously not keen to disrupt the three doctors from their conversation. "Nick, your patient Sally Wells, her condition has deteriorated and Dr Lyons is struggling to manage her pain."

"Thanks Charlie, I'll be right there," Mr Jordan responded and the nurse nodded in the direction of Sam and Zoe before departing. "Sam, if I don't see you before you take him home, then wish Dylan a speeding recovery from me," he stated towards the younger of the two women, as he stood up from behind his desk and moved to exit the room. "And if you need anything at all, you have my number," he added, allowing his hand to rest on the younger woman's arm for a moment and giving her a reassuring grin, before exiting the room behind Charlie.

From her position on a chair across the room Zoe watched Sam stand awkwardly in the doorway and couldn't help but wonder at what point over the previous few days her ex-partner had given Sam his number or what had possessed him to do so in the first place. She felt a strange unease at how close Dylan's wife was becoming to Nick, for reasons she could not quite put her finger on, but with Sam apparently staying in Holby for the immediate future Zoe knew that the two of them were likely to be seeing a lot more of each other in the coming weeks.

"He's missed seeing you, you know?" Sam said quietly, starting the conversation back up again and causing Dr Hanna to look up at her with curiosity. "Dylan, I mean," she clarified. "You haven't visited him much in the last few days and he's been missing you."

"We've been very busy," Zoe responded curtly, recognising the blunt edge to her voice as she spoke, but feeling slightly under the spotlight at the words. "It's not like I didn't want to, but we were already short staffed before Dylan's accident. I've been working double shifts ever since."

"I wasn't trying to accuse you of anything," Sam replied, an apologetic look across her face. "Mr Jordan said you were all really busy and Dylan knows the score. It's just I don't want you to think you can't see him because I'm there, if you need me to make myself scarce then that's fine by me." In truth Sam was incredibly worried about the state of Zoe's relationship with Dylan, the fact being that as far as she knew Dr Hanna had only visited him twice since he had woken up and both of those visits had been very short. She had questioned Nick the previous night over a couple of beers exactly how serious the association between the her husband and his own ex-partner had been before the accident and what the other woman was like personally, having gleaned little from her own meetings with Zoe except for a shared understanding of their mutual affection for one Dr Keogh.

"I'm not trying to avoid you or Dylan for that matter," Zoe answered simply. "I've genuinely just been very busy. I'll go up and see him for a few minutes before you two go," she added, trying not to sound as despondent about the situation as she felt. The thought of her partner sharing a houseboat with his ex-wife and her being the one to take care of him had turned out to be quite difficult for her to swallow. Whilst she had heard Dylan's reassurances that the younger woman was only sticking around because of his current condition and that she would be gone as soon as his surgery was completed, she had felt quite snubbed at the knowledge he had not even considered asking her to look after him until he was fit enough to stand on his own two feet again.

After her own previous experiences with Nick she had to admit that she was far from keen to play nursemaid to anyone, especially not someone she was intimately involved with, but it was the thought that Dylan would rather his young, less medically experienced wife be the by his side had stung more than she had realised it would when she had first heard the plan the two of them had cooked up to get him out of the hospital as soon as possible.

"You are alright with this aren't you? Me moving in with Dylan for a while and everything?" Sam questioned on seeing the look of consternation crossing the other woman's face and on not seeing any response from Zoe, she felt the need to continue and justify the circumstances they all found themselves in. "I really am only going to be there to be the carer, come housekeeper you know?" she clarified. "Not that I was ever very good at the household stuff, so I am sure Dylan will be berating me soon enough," she added with a smile, eliciting a similar response from the other woman. "I really don't want to get in the way of the two of you and I did mean it about making myself scarce if you need me to," she added, trying hard not to think about the implications of her words as they left her mouth.

"He said you were keen to get back to the army?" Zoe questioned, looking for confirmation from the younger woman that she would not be wanting to make her stay in Holby a more permanent one.

"Oh definitely," Sam responded, nodding furiously. "It's all I've ever wanted," she continued, silently adding to herself that this was far from true given how much she had wished to stay as Dylan's wife forevermore when they made their wedding vows. "I've just delayed my posting by a few months that's all," she described, pushing down the sadness that had come over her as best she could. "As soon as he is back up and about I will be out of here and I'll leave the two of your in peace. Look, the consultant said he would be ready to go quite soon so I need to get back up there. Why don't you come up and see him now? I've got to check a few things out with the GS team before I finally take him home."

The two of them made the short, now familiar, walk from the E.D. to Dylan's private room in an uncomfortable silence, with thoughts of Dylan and Zoe together swirling around in Sam's mind. She felt more than a little nauseous at even the thought of having to spend half her time as Dylan's carer trying to find other things to occupy herself whilst the couple spent some alone time together and hoped that Dervla wouldn't be too put out by some very long walks to accommodate this, but she knew that for her husband's sake it was important that normality was maintained and he had supportive people around him, however much she herself disproved of their presence. It didn't help how she was feeling that Sam felt every inch the silly little tomboy in the glamorous older woman's company, as despite all that had occurred she could see the professionalism and style that Zoe emitted in every circumstance.

As they reached Dylan's room Zoe watched as Sam scurried off down the corridor in search of the doctor she needed to speak to prior to collecting her husband. Dr Hanna stood outside her partner's room for a couple of minutes, finding herself suddenly unsure exactly what it was she intended on saying to him when she entered. She eventually slowly pushed open the door and caught sight of him, for the first time she had seen him since the accident dressed and in a seated position and looking much more like the Dylan she knew and had grown to have feelings for.

"I wasn't sure if I would see you before I went home," the man immediately stated curtly, his frustration at his current state and annoyance at Zoe's lack of visit laying heavy on his mind as he saw her for the first time in days.

"I've been busy," she responded, but was cut off before she could continue.

"Samantha said," Dylan butted in. "She's been making excuses for you," he added pointedly.

"Don't start," Zoe argued back, finding herself feeling provoked at his unfair attitude towards her. "I've just had the longest few days at work I've had in years," she continued. "And then you tell me you're moving your wife onto your boat to take care of you and I don't even get a say in what is happening next. How exactly do you expect me to be reacting right now?"

"Nothing's changed," Dylan stated unemotionally. "She is just staying so that I can be discharged. I can't manage without her right now unfortunately. I don't see why that changes things between me and you."

"You really don't get it do you?" Zoe questioned, still irate at how detached he seemed from the situation. "The past few months have been brilliant and I've got so used to there being an 'us' here. Then all of a sudden your wife is here and I'm expected to carry on like nothing has happened? I'm struggling here Dylan and you aren't giving me anything back. I haven't got a clue where we stand anymore."

"I don't want you to take care of me," he responded, seeing a devastated look cross his partner's face. "Not because I don't want you to be around, but, well I'm not the easiest person to get along with at the best of times. You've said that yourself on many occasions," he added, trying but failing to raise a smile from Zoe in response. "I just don't think we're ready for you to be looking after me, we'd be dead in the water in less than a day," he added sadly. "Samantha's seen me at my worse moments, with the drinking and things, so I know she isn't going to make a run for it at the first sign of me being my apparently grouchy self," he earnestly explained, before holding his hand up to silence Zoe as she went to deny that would be her course of action if she had been allowed to try to be at his side. "She'll only be here a month more than likely and then she can go take her frustrations out on her army comrades. She doesn't do this touchy feely stuff anymore than I do, she can walk away from the end of this unscathed in a way that me and you just wouldn't be able to."

Zoe considered his words and was able to see that there was a great deal of truth in them, despite not agreeing with him for a moment that Sam was not emotional as despite her short time with the younger woman she had seen the girl nearly break her heart over Dylan on more than one occasion. She also fully understood that it was far too soon for her to take on the carer role in his life, but now that she had his justification for feeling the same way it made the situation a little easier to bear.

"I do still want us to be together," Zoe responded softly. "I think we just need to take it slowly and you need to tell me what is going on, not just rush off and make decisions. By the time I knew you were hoping to get out of hospital you'd already sorted out this entire escape plan with Sam and no one had thought to mention it to me. If this is going to work I can't be an afterthought."

"You won't be," Dylan answered her concern, stretching out his hand and pulling Zoe closer to him and allowing their lips to meet briefly, before he was distracted by movement from the doorway.

"Sorry for interrupting," Sam said awkwardly, her face flushed red with embarrassment at the scene she had just witnessed. "You're all clear to leave; they just need you to sign a few papers at the desk on the way out."

It was at that moment that both Zoe and Dylan caught sight of the item in front of Sam, a shiny hospital issue wheelchair.

"If you think I am using that, then you don't know me at all," Dylan snapped at his wife, meeting her gaze with an intolerant glare.

"I know you aren't going to use it," Sam retorted. "Although I think I would quite enjoy the power of pushing you around grumpy," she added, which surprisingly raised a smile from the older female doctor. "Look, let's just play their game for now, at least until we actually get out of the hospital grounds," she said, giving her husband an innocent look. "I promise I won't make you use it when we get home. It isn't like you'd even be able to get around the boat in it anyway."

Sam came further into the room and pushed the chair towards Dylan's bedside before silently reaching around him to provide the support he needed, despite his protestations to the contrary, and eventually managed to manoeuvre him into the much maligned wheelchair under Zoe's watchful gaze.

"Listen," Sam started, catching Zoe's attention. "Why don't you come round for dinner one night this week?" She saw the reluctance in both fellow doctors' eyes, so felt the need to elaborate further. "If you came round on Thursday night perhaps? I have plans, so it would just be the two of you. I can cook something for you before I go out if you like."

Dylan snorted at that statement, having experienced his wife's numerous attempts at cookery when they were together but that outward gesture masked the anger he felt inside upon learning that she had already made plans for a night out despite the fact he had yet to be discharged and couldn't help but wonder quite who they were with.

"I'm not sure if that's such a good idea," Zoe spoke first, breaking the silence that had settled across the room and getting a bewildered look from Dylan in return. "It's not that I don't want to, but will you even be up for that?" she asked.

"I'm not an invalid," he responded brusquely. "Well not completely anyway."

"He'll be fine Zoe," Sam countered the other female's concerns. "It will give me and him a break from each other, stop me from throttling him in frustration."

"I am still here you know," the male in the room chipped in, not agreeing with the fact the two women in his life appeared to be making decisions about his week without consulting him.

"So we're all agreed then?" Sam queried. "You'll come round on Thursday after work?"

"Yeah, I guess," Zoe answered, still a little unsure as to how she felt about the whole situation but not wanting to drive Dylan any further away from her than he had earlier been. "I'll see you then," she added, speaking directly to him, before leaning down and meeting his lips with a kiss once again.

She watched as Sam picked up Dylan's bag of possessions before starting to push her husband's wheelchair from the room that had become his residence for a number of days. However as pleased as she was that he was now fit to be discharged and would be well taken care of, Zoe couldn't help but consider that the whole situation would have been a lot easier if Sam had turned out to be his damn daughter after all. As much as she had initially hated the thought she now realised that it would have been considerably less stressful to be the feisty and determined young woman's step-mother than it was turning out to be the third person in the complex Keogh marriage.

Thank you for reading and as usual, you know how much I love reviews. The next part is likely to be up on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Thanks, Callie x