'PART FOUR'
The fire crew walked gingerly through the burning wreckage. They shone their torches all around, searching for any one left alive. Passing over burnt bodies, they moved slowly on through each floor, listening intently for any signs of life. As they approached AAU there was still no indication of any life. A firemen at the back began to twiddle his thumbs. He was a fairly young recruit, thrust into the deep end at his first major fire.
"They're all dead...they're all dead," he said in a nervous voice. The fire chief swivelled and looked straight at him.
"Enough of that talk, we will find them!" Right behind them, they heard a retching cough. "What did I say?" The fire chief shone his torch at the direction of the cough. Oliver Valentine, lying trapped under part of the ceiling was illuminated. "Can you hear me?" Oliver coughed horribly.
"Just about," he said with difficulty.
"Are there any others with you?"
"Just me. Have you found my sister?"
"You're the first." Oliver was panicking.
"You've got to find her, she was here with another doctor, they went through there..." Oliver tried to point at the doors at the far end.
"We'll find them don't you worry." The fire chief knelt down beside Oliver. "What's your name?"
"Dr. Valentine." He winced. "Oliver."
"How are you Oliver?"
"Feeling a little trapped actually..."
"We're going to get you out." He snapped his fingers at three of the firemen. "You three go on ahead." He looked at Oliver. "Your sister?"
"Penny. She's a Doctor as well."
Hanssen and Elizabeth stood impatiently inside the lift. The metal doors were slowly getting hotter as the fire raged closer to them. Elizabeth brushed her hand against them and cried out in pain. Hanssen took hold of her hand.
"I wouldn't touch those doors Nurse Tait, the likelihood of burning is rising every second." Elizabeth tried to hide her annoyance.
"Thank you Mr. Hanssen," she said grimly. Hanssen smiled sardonically. "Oh this is hopeless!" Elizabeth shouted.
"The mouse has a voice," Hanssen said making an attempt at a joke. Elizabeth ignored him.
"How are they ever going to find us!"
"Carry on shouting like that and the whole of Holby will have no difficulty in hearing us."
"My God! Can you stop being such a smart-arse for one second! You drive us all mad! Do you have any friends in this place Mr. Hanssen?" Hanssen was unperturbed.
"I have no need of friends in my job. They only get in the way." Elizabeth didn't give up.
"Any family?" Hanssen declined to answer this. "You've got no one don't you? Not one person gives a damn about you! And I'm beginning to see why..."
"You seem to know so much about my private life Nurse Tait, but personally I prefer to separate it from my career."
"Why are you so closed to everyone?" Elizabeth asked incredulously.
"I used to very open. Now I'm not." Hanssen displayed a very rare show of feeling. Elizabeth pushed further.
"You can't go through the rest of your life alone. The job isn't everything."
"No, but it's my life..."
Jac shook her head vigorously. She poked at her eyes, blinked and sighed with relief. She could see. Clambering to her feet, she looked behind her.
"Joseph..." She hobbled back to where Joseph had gone inside the office. The doorway was blocked, completely impassable. Jac called out.
"Joseph can you hear me?" At long last, he heard her.
"Jac!? I'm glad to hear your voice..."
"Is there any way I can get through to you?" Jac asked.
"It's tricky, I can try to push the rubble out your way. Stand back." Jac took several paces backwards from the doorway. Joseph turned to the girl next to him. "Keep over there, I'm going to try to break this through." The girl nodded. "Good girl." Joseph stood and aimed his shoulder at the rubble. He rammed it. The rubble shifted. He rammed it again.
"It's working Joseph!" Jac yelled. Joseph rammed at it with his other shoulder forcefully. Part of the rubble gave way and fell out on to the corridor. "You're through!" Jac climbed into the room through the small hole created. "Hello Joseph, thought I'd lost you."
"I'm not that easy to shake," Joseph coughed. Jac eyed him with concern.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, smoke's getting to me that's all," Joseph coughed again. Jac pulled a bottle of water out of her coat.
"Here," she said, offering the bottle to Joseph. Joseph took a deep swig.
"Thank you." Jac gestured towards the girl.
"So, you going to introduce me?"
"Yes of course. Jac this is Jac." Jac gave Joseph a look of complete and utter disbelief.
"I said I didn't believe in coincidence, but this is going too far."
"No it's true, she really is called Jac."
"Holby can be very strange..." The girl attempted at a smile but felt a little intimidated by Jac. Jac saw that she was anxious and looked down at her level. "Hey, it's alright. I'm not going to hurt you..."
"Careful, she bites," Joseph said with a wry look.
"Don't listen to Mr. Byrne, he thinks he's funny. We both know he's not."
"Are you his girl friend?" Jac laughed.
"From time to time," she said. The girl seemed puzzled by this.
"Not all the time?"
"We've had our ups and downs," Joseph said quickly. Jac shrugged, they might as well tell the whole story, it didn't matter after all, she thought.
"It didn't help when Mr. Byrne here quit his job and left Holby to become a GP..."
"I had to put Harry first."
"Who's Harry?"
"My son..."
"By another woman..."
"I can see why you two are together..." the girl laughed. Jac and Joseph shot each other bemused looks. Joseph looked at the girl, something ticking over in his brain.
"Can you breathe alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine." the girl told him. Jac beckoned Joseph.
"She may be fine now but in an hour or two who knows."
"I know, but there's nothing we can do."
"Is there a spare oxygen tank in here?"
"Maybe under the desk. I'll take a look." Joseph moved over to the desk and searched around. It was unlikely that he'd find a spare one in here but there was always a slim chance one would be brought inside.
"Any luck?" Jac called.
"Not so far...hold on, there is something here." Joseph drew the object out from under the desk and held it into the dim light of the fire raging outside the office. Jac and Joseph looked at each other stunned. A small oxygen tank under the desk? Surely the world couldn't get any stranger?
"Do you insist on shutting people out?" Elizabeth was still trying to find out more about Hanssen. But the depressing giant swede remained tightlipped.
"I find that human beings are such disloyal creatures, it's better to keep to yourself than to trust your life to others..."
"But can't you just open up a little?"
"Why should I?" Elizabeth had no answer for this. Hanssen stared into space.
"You've been at Holby a year, yet you have no real life outside your work."
"Maybe I like being mysterious..."
"It's getting old."
"I was brought in to control Holby's deficit..."
"Enough Mr. Hanssen!" Elizabeth was taken aback by her own daring at speaking to the director of surgery like that. "You tower over every one, dictating what they should or should not do. We get that it's your job, but it wouldn't hurt just once to socialise with your colleagues." Hanssen sighed.
"Do you like Cyprus Nurse Tait?"
"I'm sorry?"
"I knew a man who lived there. Wonderful beaches yet still somehow lacking in life."
"What's your point?"
"My point is, you're right. I have a excellent career, but it somehow lacks life..."
Frieda was breathless. She had never felt so happy. Penny looked down at her feet sheepishly.
"Valentine?" Frieda asked.
"This is wrong. So wrong. It should never have happened. What will people think?"
"I don't give a damn how people think of me. Look at my dress sense." Penny suppressed a giggle. "Look into your heart Valentine. What you feel is right, not wrong."
"I think...I think...I love you..." Penny said stutteringly. "But I can't let it happen."
"Why not?" Frieda asked point blank.
"What will people think?"
"They won't care. So you are lesbian now, nobody cares."
"Do you really think so?"
"Well it might take some getting used to but ultimately yes." Penny knew Frieda was just trying to reassure her but it worked.
"What do we do?"
"We together now yes?"
"I guess so."
Jac, Joseph and little Jac sat together in the confines of the office. There was something about little Jac that reminded Jac of her eight year old self. Something fiery.
"Any ideas of what you want to do in life?" she asked curiously.
"I want to make people better..."
"You want?"
"I will make people better."
"Follow your dream then." Jac took her hand and squeezed it. "Follow your dream, you won't get a second chance." Joseph retched. The smoke was beginning to overcome him. Unfortunately the tank they'd found had only enough to share between Jac and Jac. Joseph refused to have any of it, stating that it would be remiss of him to not let a woman go first. It didn't look good. Joseph retched again, then keeled over.
"Joseph?" He began to fit. "Joseph!"
'TO BE CONTINUED...'