A/N: Again, totally unacceptable time to be updating - sorry!

What happens to Hanssen in the second part of this chapter actually happened to me at the weekend. Bloody hell. Scariest. Thing. Ever. Road testing my mum's car to see what was going wrong with it was not a good idea; I don't even have a license (naughty, I know!) but it was a private road so it wasn't so bad. But I nearly ended up the the berry field and it was nothing to do with my crappy driving!

Yet again, thanks for all the lovely reviews :)

Sarah x

When Hanssen next saw Serena, it was as as she got into her car to go home. He had tried her office to find her gone. He couldn't help but panic slightly by that point; after seeing the weakest parts of her, he was finding himself rather protective of her. But it was with relief that he saw her making crossing an otherwise deserted car park from a second floor window.

He walked over as she unlocked it. She turned to him with a smile. "I'm fine, Henrik," she assured him before he could even ask the question. "Believe me. I am fine," she smiled. He didn't say anything as her hands came to sit on either side of his waist. "Although your concern is very sweet."

She was wearing a wide smile but he wasn't sure if he liked it or not; he didn't know if it was real and she had overcome today's events or if she was trying to appease him by pretending she was as she was.

"That is not a word used to describe me," he asserted sternly. She just grinned wider and pulled him down into a strange lingering kiss – when they broke apart, he still felt her lips on his.

"It is now," she replied. "You know, we could go for a drink. Christ knows I could use one. Or we could go back to mine and open a bottle of wine. Eleanor won't mind. She's been mocking my lack of a sex life since she was fourteen."

"Somehow I don't think that's wise," he reminded her. He didn't want her to drink after all that in case it made her upset again.

"No, probably not," she admitted. "There's always the on-call rooms," she said, a wicked glint in her dark eyes. Hanssen unsuccessfully attempted to disguise his horror at that idea; the chances of them getting caught in an on-call room in this hospital were massive. She kept silent a moment as she studied his expression before she burst out laughing. "Your face!" she giggled.

He couldn't help smiling; maybe she was alright like she claimed to be. Perhaps the scars were not who she was, but a part of how she used to survive. "I'll see you tomorrow," she finally stopped laughing. "Eleanor will be wanting fed and I banned from the kitchen last week," she explained.

"Why?"

"She set the pan on fire and then put water on it," Serena said with a look of disdain. "Could've burned the bloody kitchen down. I love her to bits but she can be ever so dense sometimes," she admitted.

"A bit like her mother," Hanssen answered her back. Serena gave him an odd look before she got in the car; what had he said wrong this time? He was only joking when he said Serena could be dense, and she knew that. Whatever had made her look at him like that, though, she quickly brushed off.

"'Night," she smiled.

"Goodnight," he replied. She closed the door and drove off with a smile; he was sure it was as much for her daughter's benefit as it was for Serena's.

He decided it was probably time to call it a night now; it had been a stressful day full of the strains of watching Serena Campbell's confident, cocky exterior crack right down the middle and knowing it was his doing. He almost regretted bringing it up but he couldn't quite bring himself to. It meant he could go to sleep knowing her one story better than he had waking up this morning.

It was funny – six months ago, just before he walked out on the hospital, she had well and truly driven him to distraction with her antics. Now, however, she drove him to distraction for completely different reasons.

He couldn't push from his mind the idea that she was simply too good an actress. She had obviously spent many years perfecting the art if she went through all of that and her own mother never realised.

By the time he reached his office, he was exhausted. How could a day that started so happily end with him in a hurricane of mixed emotions? In a way, it was his own fault. He had asked the question – albeit badly – and stuck around to hear the answer. Why had he put himself through that?

That was the question he continued to ponder as he started the ignition. Sighing, he set off, leaving the car park. He went over the speed bump carefully, startled when there was a clunking sound from the passenger side. He thought nothing of it and proceeded onto the main road.

What was the point of all this? What was the point of letting her bury herself under his skin, whether she was aware of it or not? She was only making him confused, his concentration a fraction of what it normally was.

And then he realised. It wasn't what she was doing. It was how he was reacting to her. She wasn't doing anything to him; the concentration issues and confusion and all the muddled emotions he felt was part of the way he was reacting to her. For the first time, he was reacting to Serena with something other than caution and a wish to hang her by the ankles from the roof.

All of a sudden, the car pulled itself into the middle of the road, right into the path of oncoming traffic. "Bloody hell!" Henrik shouted, grappling to get the car back onto the right side of the road. His heart was in his mouth. That wasn't his driving that caused that; he was sure of it.

He drove far slower now, ignoring the protests of drivers from behind. He wasn't going to risk his life to get them home faster.

Everything seemed to be alright but he was reluctant to increase his speed by much. His heart was pounding so hard he could have sworn it was going to break a rib. He racked his brains trying to find a reason for what happened. Something to do with the steering, most definitely.

He didn't trust the car; he tried to think of a way out of driving it all that way to get home but there were no shortcuts he could think of. It wasn't like him to do that but that had honestly been a terrifying experience.

He approached the T-junction witch care, gradually slowing down long before he normally would have done. He turned off and cautiously continued his journey, conscious that he was now in an increasingly built-up residential area.

His heart nearly stopped again when the car pulled in towards the pavement. It was a struggle to keep the steering straight and Hanssen found he was frightened of his own car. That the next time he wouldn't be able to control it and it would end up hurting him or someone else. He wouldn't be able to get home in it without losing his nerve.

An idea crossed his mind as he reduced his speed once more. Serena's house was not far from here. Not as far as his was and the less time he spent driving like this, the better.

Without considering it further, he drove to her house and parked outside, trying to regain his composure. He didn't want Serena to see he was unnerved. That was a plan he knew was going to fail when he realised his heart was still pounding and his hands were actually shaking.

He got out the car and locked it, carefully stepping up to the front door. He knocked and seconds later was greeted by a teenage girl. "Hello?" she asked.

"Is your mother home yet?" he asked.

"No need to check up on me, Henrik!" he heard a shout from through the house somewhere. The girl he assumed to be Eleanor rolled her eyes and let him in. She guided him to the kitchen where Serena, for once, seemed to have the cooking situation under control.

"I'm not," he admitted. "I couldn't drive my car as far as my house so I stopped here," he explained his logic.

"What?" Serena asked, turning to lean against the countertop.

"The steering pulled. Twice," he added. "Well, I say it pulled, but it felt more like it was actually powering over to the side. The first time straight into the oncoming traffic on the main road."

"You're bloody lucky you weren't killed!" she exclaimed the obvious. Eleanor rolled her eyes once more at her mother's reaction, much to Henrik's internal amusement. He could already see there were similarities in the mother and daughter's personalities. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," he reassured her. "I refuse to drive that car, though. Next time I may not be so fortunate."

"You're welcome to stay here," Serena immediately offered.

"We don't have a spare room, Mum," Eleanor reminded. Serena met Henrik's eyes briefly. It was obvious she hadn't told her daughter what was going on between them. Probably wise considering neither one could really define it at the moment.

"We're mature adults," Serena finally said. "I'm sure we're more than capable of sharing a bed, aren't we, Henrik?"

"Oh, so it's Henrik now," Eleanor feigned surprise. "Only, what, a month ago it was the Dark Lord. And Count Dracula. And-"

"Alright, Eleanor, that's quite enough!" Serena cut across her daughter, shooting Hanssen an apologetic look. "You should have something to eat," she reminded him that neither of them had really eaten all day.

He smiled and took his coat off, hanging it up on the only free hook. How on Earth could two women possess so many coats?

As they sat down to dinner, Henrik listened to Serena chatting to Eleanor about her day, talking about everything from coursework to fights in he shelter area to PE accidents. It made him wonder how Serena could so quickly flick the switch between businiesswoman and mother. Not to mention that switch that she seemed to so easily flick between who he saw mere hours ago and who she was now in front of her daughter.

He ate mostly in silence, feeling slightly awkward at his intrusion while the logical part of his mind reminded him that, had he continued his course home, there was a high probability that he would have been hospitalised, or worse.

That awkwardness finally overcame him by about eight o'clock, not long after dinner, when he announced that he had had a long day and needed an early night. He knew how little time Serena got to share with Eleanor and he didn't want to impose on that. And it wasn't really a lie, anyway. Between the hours spent with Serena, the insane amount of work he had done in half the normal time and now the scare he had just experienced in his car, he really was drained.

He headed upstairs and, for what was probably the first time in his life, fell into bed fully dressed, so exhausted from today that he couldn't even be bothered to get out of his clothes.

Hope this is OK!
Please feel free to review and tell me your thoughts!
Sarah x