Richard guided Isobel to their bed, the contrast her extremely pale skin with the royal blue duvet made him even more aware of how poorly she felt. Her hands were clammy, she was running a temperature and there were tears streaming down her face. Turning over the covers, he let her sit and covered her legs before adjusting the fluffed up pillows to support her back.

Untying his bathrobe, he stepped into his sweatpants and got in beside her, taking her in his arms.

"Isobel, my darling lass, what's wrong?" he asked her holding the back of her head in his hand, using his fingers to massage her scalp soothingly as he used the other to run it up and down her flank.

"Did you change your mind Richard?" she whispered, her eyes desperate. "Was my father right? Did you change your mind?"

Richard was taken aback "Changed my mind about what darling? How does your father come into this?"

"Things between us have been different for so long and I was hearing the nurses in the station today...do you want to leave me? Do you want someone else? Do you want to have a child with someone else? Is this a sign - that we cannot have children - that you should be with someone else?" she whispered as more and more tears streamed down her face, her hands clutching his shoulders for support as sobs started to shake her body.

Richard felt as if some poured a glass of ice over him. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. It was not like his wife to not face an issue as soon as it started bothering her, but her reaction now told him she has been holding this in for months and this was her finally snapping. She was right, they have been living more separate lives since the early miscarriage she had about 7 months before. The fact that he had missed what was clearly eating at the love of his life made him want to punch himself.

"Bel, no! How could you ever think that? Oh my lass I am so sorry you were bearing this on your own. The nurses are mostly stupid gossips, especially the new ones. Besides, we can still have children and I know that the miscarriage hit us hard - especially you after trying for so many months. I still think about that child...whether it would have been a boy or girl or how big you'd be by now if things went differently but Isobel we cannot live in the past. I thought after therapy you were somewhat coping better but I wanted to give you space and you end up feeling abandoned. I'm so sorry love." he explained leaning in to kiss her nose, her cheeks and mouth, wiping her tears with his thumb.

"I don't even want to know what those little bitches were saying as I don't give a damn and as father as your father goes - I care even less. You should know better than to give weight to what that bastard said to you. He actually got it the other way round. You are the one who is too good for me...you let me know it since the very beginning." He chuckled softly as he recalled their first meeting.

Flashback


The code blue alarm went off and Isobel found herself running in room 305 with a crash cart. Isobel didn't even notice who the medic was as she pressed the charge button amping up the machine to 200 then to 300 all she heard was a commanding 'clear' with a slight Scottish brogue in a velvety but firm voice. When the patient's heartbeat finally stabilized, she allowed herself to be soothed by the steady beeps coming out of the machine and allowed herself to look at the doctor who was prescribing as her hand automatically went to the syringe before updating the chart.

So this was the Scottish doctor her father had been boasting about for the past week. It was hard for her to admit but he had done a pretty good job. As he accompanied her out of the room she could smell a faint smell of mint and maybe a bit of cologne. Feeling a hand touching her elbow she turned round to meet the most beautiful pair of blue eyes she had ever seen along with a very charming smile. Ah she could see why the nurses were ooing and ahing over him but if there was anything Isobel hated, was men who get their kick out of life by having their egos stoked and their bed filled with different women.

"What, no introductions?" the velvety voice said jokingly "I thought we did pretty well in there!"

Isobel stepped back and glared at the attractive doctor "I should hope so, it would be rather shameful to loose a patient on your very first shift here!"

End Flashback


So there's our fire cracker! What do you think? :)