I need to apologise in advance for Henrik's slight OOC'ness towards the end of this chapter but it was coming at some point and I never knew how he would say it. Hope you enjoy anyway.

Before she could utter a single sound he was already dragging her to the middle of the crowded dance floor.

"Ok, I don't know how hungry you are but we can always get some more later on, I got you a couple of sausage rolls, a few cheese and pineapple sticks and some of those prawns with the dip, does that sound… alright?" He finally noticed she wasn't where he'd left her, "Tabitha?"

"Let go of me." She growled at him quietly.
"Why should I?"
"Because I did not consent to this." She shut her eyes and tried to shake him off but his grip was too strong for her.
He pulled her into him and began to dance, "But this is night for celebration and dance and if I did not offer the chance to a beautiful lady such as yourself, then what kind of gentleman would I be?" He trickled his fingers down her waist and rested his hand on her arse causing her to whimper slightly.

"Tabitha, where are you?"
"Having a game of hide and seek I hope." Came the not too impressed sounding voice from behind him.
"Mr Hanssen, I can explain I was getting her some food and-"
"I don't care what you were doing, where is she?"
"I don't know."
"Well let's find her then."
After a quick scout of the outskirts of the room they scanned the dance floor and as a couple waltz out of the way they revealed the girl they were looking for, unfortunately in the sleazy clutches of a certain Fraser Anderson.

Tabby glanced around for any sight of Hanssen, but none could be found.
"Fraser what on earth do you think you're doing?"
"That's Mr Anderson to you and I just wanted the chance to apologise."

"She's there." Terence pointed out.
"Where on earth does he think he's placing his hand?" Henrik growled, "Get security."
"Right on it." Terence made haste for the door.

"Apologise? What sort of a sick man are you? No amount of apologetic gestures will account for what you did to me. You disrespected me, took advantage of me, abused me and shamed me-"
"Shamed you?"
"Yes, I am ashamed of what I went through, I feel embarrassed and most of all, and I'm not afraid to admit this, I'm scared, scared of you, scared of what you could do to me, scared of your strength over me, if it wasn't for Henrik, you would have had your way with me."
Fraser leaned down to her face, "And you would have enjoyed it wouldn't you, slut."
Feeling his hand squeeze her arse cheek to emphasize the degrading label her fight or flight reflexes kicked in and within half a second she gathered a sufficient amount of saliva in her mouth and projected the collection into the dirty man's face causing his grip to falter. Immediately she took her opportunity and as she turned away to unwrap herself from his grasp she spotted the man she had been longing for. There was a clear gap for her to run through but soon she realised how much of a hindrance her ankle brace was to her and she began to hop for dear life across the floor, dragging her handicapped leg behind her. As she finally reached the edge she fell, straight into the arms of her boss. He reached down to hook his arm under her knees and lifted her, automatically she wrapped her arms around his neck and turned her head back to the dance floor to see Fraser getting escorted away by two security guards.

Henrik placed her down gently by the bar where her crutch was, "Nice aim." He smiled.
"Cheers." She picked up her glass from before and downed it, "Christ, needed that." She placed the empty glass back down, "Thank you, Henrik. You're always there for me when I need you. Anyway, I need some fresh air and glass of champagne, want to join me?"
"Yes I think I shall." He followed her upstairs to the first floor, grabbing a glass from the waiter before leaving, and they headed out onto the balcony, sitting on the wooden bench which was lined with cushions.
Tabby took a sip, "So, Mr Cunningham told me you went to retrieve something from your room."
"Ah, yes of course." He suddenly realised and placed his glass down to reach into his waistcoat for the item. He turned to her, "Happy birthday." He smiled handing it to her.
She placed down her own glass and took it with both hands. She admired the wrapping paper, it was white with silver patterns and the whole thing was tied beautifully with a purple ribbon.
"I'm not sure how happy it is now though." He sighed.
"It's fine, I haven't properly celebrated my birthday for a few years so I'm used to it. Many people forget about it." She laughed.
"Because you don't tell them." He chuckled.
She suddenly wondered, "Yeah, how did you know it was my birthday?"
"A CEO has many secrets he doesn't share with his PA you know." He whispered.
She realised, "Employee profiles; don't think I don't know, I've hacked into Holby's computer system already you know." She glanced back at the gift, "Can I open this now then?"
"Of course you can." Henrik picked back up his glass and took another sip.
Carefully, making sure not to tear the very neatly wrapped parcel, she undid the bow, "Give me your wrist?"
Henrik naively held out his hand to have a pretty purple ribbon tied onto his wrist, "Why, thank you, Tabitha, does it suit me?"
She then undone the wrapping paper to find a box, in the bottom right hand corner was some shiny indented lettering, 3M Littmann. The box was black with the '3M' in blue shiny letters and the 'Littmann' in silver shiny ones. A small squeak came from her when she recognised the company and as she pulled off the lid, there, sat in the box looking pretty was a glistening new stethoscope with plum coloured tubing.
She stroked it gently, "Oh, Henrik it's gorgeous thank you so much." She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.
"You're very welcome." He grinned.
"Wait is this the Cardiology S.T.C?" She asked noticing the chest piece.
"Yes it is."
"Wow, I've had my eye on this for a while now." She grinned.
"Yes I did notice it in my browsing history." He glanced to her knowingly.
She giggled and put the lid back on, placing the box next to her, she cuddled up to Henrik.
"Blimey, if it wasn't so dark I could probably see those goosebumps from miles off." He laughed rubbing her arm. He decided to take off his tailcoat and wrap it around the birthday girl, "So you're now 23."
"Yes I am." She nodded pulling the coat around her more. She soon gave a deep sigh though that didn't go unnoticed by Henrik.
"Something the matter?"
"Am I a good doctor?"
Henrik frowned and pulled out of the cuddle, "You're an excellent doctor. Why what's wrong?"
"Well I always feel like I'm being contradicted."
Henrik tilted his head, "Why, do you not feel you're good enough?"
"I won't lie to you but there have been many moments where I just feel I can't do my job properly. But then people tell me otherwise, I think that I'm good at playing piano, but people say I'm shit haha."
"Tabitha-"
"Then I think sometimes that you have feelings for me, but then I think better of it."
"Tabitha." He breathed.
She suddenly got up from the bench, "Go on, say it, you're embarrassed by me, you don't have feelings for me, never have and never will, I'm being stupid."
"Tabitha that's not how I feel at all." He stood behind her, placing his hands on her arms.
She turned to face him though she kept her head low, "Henrik, I didn't mean to be so forward I just-" She was silenced by a finger on her lips.
"Tabitha…" He licked his lips in thought, "Would you like to be my girlfriend?"

*Squeeeeeeel bang*

Tabitha was jolted out of her shock by the firework and they both turned to watch the show of colourful explosives.
"Henrik I'd love to."
Henrik raised an eyebrow and looked her over before wrapping an arm around her shoulders. Soon she rested her head onto his chest and they watched the rest of the fireworks together on the empty balcony. All too soon though they had ended and all that was left was the faint coloured smoke, hanging in the air.
"It's a shame though." Tabitha suddenly spoke.
"What is?" Henrik looked down at her.
"I've finally decided."
He furrowed his brow, "Decided what?"
"I'd like to go to university and study to be a surgeon."
"Now you can't become a surgeon at this hospital unless you have the qualifications, the one we look for is a Bachelor of Surgery, which you don't have. Now I have spoken with HR and they have agreed to open up a permanent job here for you as a doctor, or we can fund a course for you to gain a surgeons' qualification, in your case I doubt it would take you long to finish the course but it's up to you."
"Oh, you do?" Henrik seemed slightly disappointed.
"Yes, I looked up the courses. I'd like to study General Surgery with Laparoscopic Surgery, which also involves some robotics. It really piqued my interest and I thought, well what use am I in a hospital if I can't perform surgeries." She spun around to face him, "So can I? Please?" She gave him her puppy eyes.
Henrik sighed defeated, "Well, I shall look into it and see if we can get you the funding." He suddenly felt arms wrapped around his waist.
"Oh, thank you, Henrik." She whispered.
Henrik chuckled and stroked her hair slightly, "Now, I think it's time for bed."