Ltfl: Let's hope Iain helps her.

Chapter Eight

Lily laid awake that following night, the memories of her bad day glued inside the back of her mind. The thought of the shift she'd just endured would more than likely hang around for a while, reminding her how much she'd messed up.

She knew that Connie would never leave her in charge again, she had one chance and she'd completely gone and screwed it up. Why was she even a registrar anyway? She clearly wasn't any good at her job.

She groaned and rolled onto her back, throwing her hands onto her face. This was her fourth night of no sleep whatsoever; not that she'd been counting or anything. She sat upright in bed and tried to ignore the sound of her growling stomach. That was an obvious way of reminding her how hungry she was.

She glanced across at Archie who was sleeping next to her and her chest tightened. She so wished that he'd stop inviting himself over, sometimes it felt nice to have a night to herself.

She still felt stressed out and anxious over the day that she'd had.

Lily sighed heavily and climbed out of bed, slipping on a pair of slippers before checking the time on her phone. Her alarm wasn't even close to going off. Night time just dragged when going to sleep didn't seem possible.

She made her way into the kitchen and opened one of the bottom cupboards to see that she had a multi-bag of Walkers Ready Salted in there. She hadn't even opened them. There was also a couple of Dairy Milk bars. In the fridge was a tub of ice-cream, also unopened.

She filled the table full of the snacks and gulped anxiously before sitting down and opening the ice-cream. She was so hungry. Without a second thought, she grabbed a spoon and tucked into the vanilla goodness, unable to stop until there was just a tiny amount left at the bottom. She already felt so full but instead of stopping, she tore open a bag of crisps and one of the chocolate bars. Stuffing them into her mouth and chewing them quickly, her stomach was telling her that she needed to stop. Lily ignored it and kept eating.

What on earth had she become?

When everything had been eaten, she clambered off of the chair and dragged herself across to the bathroom. She knew what she had to do, otherwise, she was sure to gain so much weight by the mammoth feast she'd just had.

Weakly collapsing on the carpet in front of the toilet, she stuck her fingers into the back of her throat and gagged straight into the toilet. Everything that she'd just eaten came straight back up again.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" A voice boomed from behind her.

Lily coughed and spluttered, turning round to see Archie standing in the doorway. He grabbed her arm and pulled her up, his fingers digging into her skin. She quickly wiped at her hand, her sweaty hair sticking to her face and getting even wetter with her tears.

"You disgust me!" he spat in her face. "You disgusting, horrible, fat, ugly cow!"

"I...I'm sorry," she cried, jumping at his words.

She was cut off by Archie slapping her hard across the face. She squealed and flinched as he raised a hand to hit her again.

"I don't ever want to see you doing something like that again!" he shouted. "Do you realise how disgusting that is? God, what the hell am I dating?"

Lily couldn't speak. She just leant back against the wall, sobbing and hiccuping, scared about what he was going to do next. He'd never laid a hand on her before, never, and her cheek really stung. She was positive that it was going to leave a mark.

"If you ever do something so disgusting again," Archie threatened, twisting her arm and causing her to hiss in pain. "I will be breaking up with you, and you don't want that do you? Do you really want to be single again, left feeling lonely and unwanted? Because believe me, Lily, that will happen!"

"It...It won't happen again," Lily sobbed. "I just...I wanted to lose weight, to make you happy."

"And you still need to do that," Archie said, pushing her away from him. "But you don't need to do it in such a disgusting, awful way! God, I can't even look at you right now. I'm going back to bed. And clean that mess up in the kitchen as well!"

He shook his head and stormed out of the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. Lily slid down the wall in tears and ran a hand through her hair, feeling uglier than ever.

"Doctor Chao!"

Connie sauntered up to Lily at work the next morning, hoping that she was feeling better after the stress of yesterday. She knew that Lily was more than capable to take on the job, which was why she'd asked her, but the look of seeing Lily in tears yesterday had concerned her a little bit.

Lily was one to feel stress easily but she'd never once cried during a shift at work, apart from when she'd found out about her father's death.

After a discussion with Elle and Charlie about the matter, Connie decided to check on the registrar.

"Is everything okay?" She questioned with a small sigh, stalking up behind Lily.

"Fine," Lily answered as she jotted down a few notes. "Thank you for asking, Mrs Beauchamp."

"Iain and Jez need a doctor to go out on location with them," Connie said. "It may be nice to get out for a change."

"What?" Lily frowned. "Are you saying that you don't actually trust me to be around the ED anymore?"

"No," Connie sighed. What on earth had got into Lily lately? "That isn't what I'm saying at all. You're a good doctor and it might be good to get some more training in."

"I guess," Lily agreed reluctantly, turning to meet eyes with Connie.

"What happened to your face?" Connie suddenly questioned, her own eyebrows furrowing in both concern and confusion.

Lily had been right when she thought that Archie's slap would leave a mark. She'd woken up that morning, her cheek all red and bruised. It still hurt slightly but she had put an ice pack on it before she left for work that morning.

"Oh..." Lily slowly closed her notes and bit down hard on her lip. "I...I was rooting through the cupboards in the staffroom earlier on, I forgot that the door was open and ended up walking into it."

Connie sighed and shook her head, eyebrows raised. What was she supposed to say to that?

"Could you go and record that in the accident book for me?" The clinical lead asked.

"It's fine, Mrs Beauchamp," Lily argued. "I really don't need to..."

"Do as I say," Connie interrupted. "You've had an accident at work. No matter how little it is, it needs recording."

"Just leave me alone," Lily snapped, resting her elbows on the desk so that she could hold her hands to her head and focus on the notes in front of her.

"Excuse me?" Connie folded her arms across her chest. "Doctor Chao, what on earth did you just say to me?"

"Sorry," Lily said quickly, realising the way she'd just spoken to her boss. "I...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. I just, don't want to be around anyone right now. I...I just want to be on my own."

"Well, it'll be pretty hard to 'be on your own' if you're in a department filled with patients which you still need to treat, won't it?" Connie snapped. She was both concerned and slightly angered that Lily would speak to her in such a way.

"Y-yes-"

"Do as I say, put your accident in the book and then get back to work," Connie said, her hair flowing out as she turned around to saunter off and said loudly: "Now!"

So I hope you enjoyed the chapter :-) x