Here is chapter 2 thanks to ficmouse, and Elly and Tilda for your reviews. This long one is for you.

This chapter is rather more serious than the last but we will return to the slightly funny soon, this answers all the questions about how they ended up there.

There is quite a bit of legal stuff in this chapter, I should warn you that I know little about law and although I researched loads to write this some of it may not be correct. If ere are lawyers reading maybe close our eyes when you get there.

As always I own nothing.

When Dylan reached the car she wasn't there, he hadn't really thought she would be. He had driven her there, it seemed silly for her to walk when they were going to the same place. But he knew as soon as she had left the room that her way of dealing with emotions was to run, which was what she had inevitably done. Rain had started to fall while he was inside the counsellors office, if you could call it rain. It was more like a fine mist that instantly soaked through your clothes, and was blown in your face by the near freezing wind. Dylan got in the car and pulled away before buckling his seat belt, turning left out of the car park hoping to catch Sam before she was completely drenched.

Sam hadn't run, it had been the first thought that crossed her mind when she slammed the door but she wasn't dressed for it. Her way of dealing with anything and everything was to pound the street, she could order her thoughts better while running and it was what her body craved now when she couldn't handle a situation. Unfortunately today she was dressed in skinny jeans and boots, not quite running attire. She had leant on his car for a moment before deciding to walk, the speed she walked at was closer to a jog for most people and would hopefully satisfy her endorphin craving. She pulled her inadequate jacket about her and folded her arms against the prevailing wind before setting off at a fast pace. Sam hadn't been walking long before the air became wet and began to engulf her, she sped up hoping to get home before hypothermia became a potential risk. As she walked there was nothing to distract her from the wave of thoughts constantly threatening to swamp her.

'We could get together, sit down and work this out.'

That's what he'd said, she knew he had been talking about the whole Keith Parr thing when he'd said it, but she had also known that he was really talking about them. In the same way that she had been talking about herself when talking to Tracey. She would hurt for Dylan, and protect him, that's what had gotten them into this in the first place. Keith had reported her to the police and tried to get her charged with assault occasioning to actual bodily harm, which if found guilty carried at least five year prison sentence. However once the hospital released the CCTV footage of the incident it was clear those charges would not stand up in court so they were reduced to inflicting actual bodily harm. The law was on Sam's side, both the common and statutory laws of defence stated that:

'a person is permitted to use reasonable force to prevent the commission of a crime.'

Which was exactly what she had done, she'd prevented an assault on Dylan which could have involved ABH, GBH or worse. Mr Parr appeared to her to have many issues and maybe anger management was something he should be looking into, yet it was her who had been advised by her lawyers to seek counselling both for anger management and to resolve the issues she clearly had with her husband. Those were the exact words that had been used and Mr Jordan had agreed that they needed to 'sort it out' so now they went to marriage counselling once a week for all the good it did. The big question mark was over the word 'reasonable' it came up over and over again in the defence laws, if she could prove that she had only used 'reasonable' force to stop the attack she would be fine. If not she faced prison, getting struck off by the GMC and dishonourable discharge from the army. No-one could be clear on what 'reasonable' meant. Sam had spent many sleepless nights since being charged trawling the Internet in the hope of finding something to help her, she had found one legal text book which said:

'... where a forcible and violent felony is attempted upon the person of another, the party assaulted, or his servant, or any other person present, is entitled to repel force by force, and, if necessary, to kill the aggressor ...'

She hadn't killed him so she surely must be fine, however that was said by some Lord in the seventies so probably wasn't relevant. She needed to be able to prove that someone else would have reacted the same way, and caused the same outcome. Unfortunately for her that particular partial law actually said that someone else of the same age and sex would have to react the same way, that was pretty unlikely how many 26 year old women could break a man's neck? A small smile graced her face, was she bragging? Maybe a bit, that definitely wouldn't help her defence. No, had it been anyone else they would have let Dylan get hurt. Probably called for security who wouldn't have got there quick enough to prevent her husband getting injured. But was it reasonable force? It would have been if Keith Parr were a squadie who needed restraining, it would have been if he had a weapon of some sort but he hadn't. Her response had been the culmination of a terrible day and her need to protect a man she had unresolved feelings for, who knew how a court would react.

Sam lifted her head from starring at the puddles on the pavement and pushed her dripping wet hair from her face suddenly realising that she hadn't been watching where her feet were taking her and now found herself in a part of Holby she didn't know, simultaneously she became aware that a car was crawling along the road beside her causing a tail back. It was Dylan, he'd obviously been trying to get her attention for a while.

"Samantha!" he sounded exasperated "get in the car." she did as she was bid listening to the symphony of horns that rang out behind them. "Will you shut up!" she looked at him in surprise as he pulled away from the curb driving quickly to try and dissolve the trail of vehicles following him. Eventually when they reached clearer roads he slowed down enough to look at her and noticed for the first time that she was shivering violently. He shrugged off his coat with some difficulty keeping one hand on the steering wheel at all times and threw it at her.

"Thank you." she took it gratefully and pulled her knees up to her chest so they could be covered too.

"Where we're you going? There's nothing in that direction."

"I don't know," both of them were surprised when she answered truthfully "I was thinking, my feet just kept going of their own accord."

He looked at her curiously, "You need to watch that, could be dangerous."

"What?"

"Thinking." he turned his attention back to the road having satisfied himself that her shivers had diminished at least a little, and allowed silence to fall. "What about?" No-one had spoken for at least a minute and she was once again lost to her thoughts.

"What?"

His tone hardened slightly, he hated repeating himself "What were you thinking about?"

"Oh," she looked out of the window "Everything"

"You couldn't have been thinking about everything so come on, what is it?" Sam snapped her head back round to look at him with amusement in her eyes, he really was the most pedantic man she had ever met. The amusement dropped and so did her gaze, "Sam?"

"Am I going to prison?" she may as well have whispered she'd said it so quietly and he finally saw just how much the case was affecting her, she'd been hiding it and acting tough as usual but as he looked at he now he saw the weight she had lost and the dark rings under her eyes.

"No." he glanced away from the road and met her eyes seeing fear evident in them. "No, I won't let you." he took her fingers and squeezed them gently before moving to change gear, she instantly missed the warmth his hand had provided to her freezing fingers but more than that she missed the comfort of the gesture. But he didn't put his hand back on hers, placing it instead on the steering wheel for the remainder of the journey.

Eventually they pulled up outside her flat and Dylan looked at Sam expectantly, she desperately wanted to invite him in. She'd been alone since getting suspended, Nick had tried to keep her working but she was suspended pending the outcome of investigation. He had at least managed to swing full pay for her somehow, but she missed being around people. Now she barely got out of her pyjamas, just wallowed in her self pity.

"Do you want to come in?" he looked at her curiously, she had never let him into her flat before. He guessed she must be lonely and probably bored without work to occupy her,

"No" he shook his head, "I have to work, and you have to dry off."

"Oh," she'd forgotten she was wet. "Yes" She un-clipped her seatbelt but was stopped from getting out of the car by Dylan's hand on her arm, she turned to look at him.

"Maybe, er if your not busy you could walk Dervla?" he held out a set of keys which she took, smiling as she saw straight through him. He knew she wouldn't ever willingly accept help so he had to make it seem like she was doing him a favour, Dervla would have two walks today but it meant Sam wouldn't be alone all night.

"Thank you." She got out of the car and headed up the steps to her flat still wearing Dylan's coat, but when she realised and turned back he had gone. She ran the rest of the way to her front door, quickly letting herself in and curling up into a soggy bunddle on the floor by the door. She didn't cry, she'd cried so much in the first few days after her suspension that she had no more tears to shed. She should get up and get out of her wet clothes but at that point she couldn't move, she was frozen by the emotions suddenly drowning her. It was always like this after counselling. She worked so hard the rest of the time to keep them in check but once that bloody woman opened the gate everything came tumbling out whether she wanted it to or not.

Thanks for reading, I would love it if you had the time to leave me a review.

I did research he legal stuff a lot and as far as I am aware it is correct, and judging by what I have read Sam should have nothing to worry about. However I sense the beeb ddon't agree with me there.