"Have you heard from Jacob today, Mum?"
Connie looked up from the mixing bowl to watch her daughter as she weighed out flour, her expression one of mild annoyance.
"Not today, darling. Are you sure you don't mind staying at home rather than with Hannah?"
"Yep, if you're home then I'd much rather spend time with you." Grace turned back to watch the scales, but took a quick glance at her mother who was looking at her, smiling.
"What, Mum?"
"I'm just... I'm just so happy that things have worked out, Gracie."
"Me too, Mum."
"Right then. If you put that in here, you get the mixer out and do that whilst I sort the oven." Grace reached over to the CD player before tipping the contents of the scales in the bowl, the noise of the kitchen drowning out the notifications on Connie's phone, which lay forgotten under a recipe book on the kitchen table.
In Spain, Jacob lay on a hospital bed drifting in and out of consciousness. Every time he came round, his friends could only hear one word. "Connie."
"We're trying her mate, she's not answering." Tom hovered by his friends bed. They'd been riding around for almost an hour before the accident happened. Although he knew Jacob was the only one amongst them who had hardly had any alcohol, he was at the front of the pack when a truck travelled onto the wrong side of the road and had been unable to stop in time. It was almost in slow motion that his friends saw him sailing through the air, but the thud of him landing by the side of the road sobered them all instantly.
"Grace," Jacob finally managed, aware Grace always kept her phone on her.
"You want me to try Grace? I'll try her." With shaking hands, Tom scrolled through the contacts on Jacob's phone for the name Grace, but was unable to find it. Before Jacob could tell him that she was listed under 'firecracker' the morphine he'd been given took a wave over him and lowered Jacob back into unconsciousness.
Looking at his friend with panic, Tom decided to just try every number in the phone that had a nickname. For Jacob, that meant most of them. It was another ten minutes before he got down to 'firecracker' and he was feeling decidedly stressed.
...
"Mum, a weird number is calling me." Grace held out her phone as Connie bent down to put the cake in the oven.
...
"Tom, try from the phone by the bed. Maybe his contract is funny, this will have the right landline number." He wasn't sure who the suggestion came from but he agreed, and typed Grace's number into the phone, hoping desperately that she would answer.
...
"Leave it, Gracie, I'll check it in a minute." She closed the oven door and went to the sink to wash her hands, laughing as Grace came around to untie her apron. She pressed her wet hands to her daughter's cheeks, earning a grimace before a fit of giggles, and Grace handed her phone over to Connie.
"You shouldn't be getting funny phone calls, I'll block this one but if you get anymore I need to know, okay?"
"Okay."
Connie sat down on a stool at the table as she scrolled through Grace's call history, smiling as she flicked past the picture of her, Jacob and Grace together on her lock screen. "This isn't even a UK number." She muttered, and Grace came over to peek over her shoulder.
"I have Dad and Emma's numbers already in there-"
"It's not America, darling. 0034 that's..." She picked up her phone, ignoring the missed call notifications which were most probably from Hanssen, and quickly typed the country code into a search engine.
"Spain?"
"Hm?"
"Look, it says Spain." Grace pointed to the one of the results, and felt her mother immediately tense next to her. "Mum, what's wrong?" She got no reply, Connie quickly closed the internet screen and viewed her call history. 14 missed calls from his mobile, and three from the same number that had called Grace.
"..Why don't you go and-" Connie began, wanting Grace to be out of the room when she returned the call.
"Has something happened to Jacob?" Grace interrupted quietly.
"..I don't know, sweetheart. I'm going to call him back." Connie replied, pulling Grace to sit beside her on another stool. She hesitated then, unsure which number to call, but finally decided on just calling Jacob. Perhaps he'd just grown bored or was angry with her for not answering, or-
"Connie? Thank god." Tom let out a long breath. "I've been trying you for hours. My name is Tom, I'm-"
"I know who you are. Why are you using Jacob's phone?" Connie snapped, making Grace flinch.
As Tom went to reply, Jacob's eyelids flickered and he mumbled Connie's name again. "I have her on the phone, mate."
Though his arms felt heavy and moving them made him feel nauseous, Jacob lifted a hand for the phone. He needed to be the one to tell Connie something had happened.
As Connie gave a frustrated tut, only able to hear mumbles on the other end of the line, Tom's voice suddenly spoke clearly. "I'm going to put Jacob on the phone. He might be a little difficult to understand."
"Why?" Connie questioned, but Tom gave no answer, just put the phone to Jacob's ear.
"Q-queen B?" Jacob questioned, stuttering a little as he tried to stay awake.
When Connie shut her eyes, Grace saw her face visibly pale and moved to hug her mother. Connie pulled her close, holding her tightly as she wished she could hold Jacob. "What's happened?"
"I'm okay. I'm okay." Jacob managed, but it was all he could get out, because his tongue felt too big for his mouth and he couldn't seem to swallow anymore.
The last thing Connie heard before the phone went dead was Tom yelling at someone that Jacob was having a reaction to something. After that, there was a silence that Connie felt right through to her soul.
"Mum?" Grace shook her Mum's shoulder as she sat, frozen. "Mum?"
"I need.. I need to get to the hospital."
"Mum, what's happened?"
"Jacob... He's, he's-"
"Mum is he okay?"
"I don't know, Gracie, I don't... I don't know-" She could feel the back of her throat constricting, and she picked up her phone to call the number back. It dialled, but after two minutes of nothing, she hung up, her hand shaking. She then stood up suddenly, grabbed her phone and took her car keys from the dish on the side.
"Mum, what are you-" She ran after her, straight to the car, and had barely fastened her belt before it pulled away from the house.
"If I can find out where he is, I can get the hospital to put me through on a camera, Grace I need you to keep trying that number-"
"What if-"
"Grace, just do it." She looked across at her daughter, tapping her hands quickly against the wheel as they waited at traffic lights, and Grace saw the tears her mother was struggling to hold back.
"Mum, he'll be okay. Jacob's always okay."
Connie just nodded, though her heart continued to hammer in her chest.
When they arrived at Holby, Grace had to rush after her mother once more, offering apologetic smiles to the people her mother almost knocked over as they rushed past.
"What can I do, mum?" Grace questioned as her mother pushed open the door to her office.
Connie opened her mouth to tell her daughter just to sit down and be quiet, but then she saw how worried Grace looked. "Go and ask Noel for the spare key to Jacob's locker and look for something that says which hotel he's staying in. That might help us narrow down which hospital he's at."
After Grace nodded and rushed from the room, Connie searched for the list of Spanish hospitals she knew she'd been given quite recently after having to transfer a patient to one. Just as she came across it, Grace rushed back in.
"I found it!" She pushed it into her mother's hands with a smile, pleased she could be helpful .That smile widened when her mother dropped a kiss to her head before she began checking the address against the list of hospitals and the map of spain on her computer. As she dialled the first number, Grace stepped towards the desk.
"...I found this, too, mum." Grace put a small jewellery box down onto the table.
Connie glanced at it, but her thoughts were pulled away almost immediately as a receptionist answered. "I'm looking for a patient with the name of Jacob Masters."
"No está aquí."
"Pardon?" There was a pause, and Connie looked at the clock. They were wasting time.
"We have no Jacob Masters." Connie looked at Grace, shaking her head.
"Ask them about other hospitals in Benalmadena, Mum. That's where Jacob is, they'll know his hotel too." Connie covered the phone, before replying to her.
"I don't think he speaks much English, Grace, it'll be quicker to-"
"I'll ask, give me the phone."
"Grace, what-"
"Mum! Come on, we need to find him." She took the phone from her Mum, pushing the card with the hotel details on in front of her on the desk.
"Hola Señor. ¿Dónde está el hotel Palmasol?" Connie watched Grace, in disbelief.
"Cuarenta minutos."
"Gracias." Grace wrote "40 MINS" on a post-it note to her mother, listening to the receptionist on the other line. Connie shook herself, and went back to the map and telephone list to trace three hospitals in a 50 mile radius from the one she had already on the phone.
"He says there are three nearby hospitals."
"Grace, you are-"
"¡Gracias!" Grace hung up, and gave the phone back to her mother. "Do you have numbers for any of those?"
"All of them, but... Grace, you do french!"
"We changed at the beginning of this year. I did tell you... And we're doing tourism at the moment." Connie brought her daughter into a tight hug, fuelled by an instinctive surge of pride, before quickly dialling the number of the next hospital on the map.
"Hello? Yes, yes I am, thank you, I'm looking for Jacob Masters."
"Are you a relative?"
"Is he there?"
"I need your name, please."
"Just tell me if he's there!" Her voice had now raised considerably, unaware that Charlie was standing now in the doorway.
"I need to have your name."
"It's Connie Beauchamp, I'm head of-" she began, but was soon cut off.
"I know you. I was told if you call to transfer. One moment." With that she was put on hold, loud music suddenly blaring down the line.
"Anything I can help with?" Charlie asked hesitantly from the doorway as Grace asked, "Is he there?"
"I don't know, sweetheart. I think so. Charlie, can you book me a ticket? And Grace. Grace has the details. Go with him Gracie." Connie waved her from the room, unwilling to let her daughter see the tears if it was bad news. The thudding in her heart told her it would be bad news.
"But mum-"
"Come on, Grace. It won't take us long." Charlie ushered the girl from the room before giving his boss a smile as he shut the door to her office.