A/N: So this is where it starts to split into a couple of different stories. Anyway. Thanks to everyone who has been reading and reviewing so far :)
Sarah x
Jac sat in the back of the car, despite being offered the front passenger seat by Serena, and watched as the morning began to unfold. Jonny was perfectly at ease and she suspected he was quite used to the snow. Hanssen was calm until he realised that he didn't have a clue where to go if the A90 turned out to be impassible too. And Serena was just loud and worried and, though she seemed not to notice, making Hanssen nervous.
"Serena, I can barely see ten feet in front of me. I need to concentrate!" Hanssen eventually said. Jac glanced at Jonny; she didn't like it when Serena and Hanssen argued because she knew that they were both so quietly passionate and outwardly stubborn that one argument could easily split them up.
"Well, stop being so silly and pull over. You'll never get to Dundee like this," she insisted.
"Look," Jonny chipped in in an effort to reason with them both. "You can't pull over anywhere along here. You're past Craichie already so you're closer to Forfar than you are to Carmyllie. If it comes to it we can park in Forfar and bus it to Dundee. But, for God's sake, don't pull over on this road."
Jac leaned her head against the window, watching the snow swirl around and around. It was pretty to watch it fall onto the trees and the fields and the hills and the little cottages. The only problem was that it had to be a total nightmare to drive through. Hanssen's patience was fraying and Jac could see that, and she could see Serena worrying that they would end up stranded. But there was always a worst case scenario, and for that there was always help around.
Hanssen nodded at Jonny in the mirror and headed onwards. Jac sighed, deciding to intervene with Serena's part in the tense atmosphere. "There's only so bad this can get. Worst comes to the worst and we get stuck, we're surrounded by farms, and there's always the police. So stop panicking, Serena," Jac advised her. Serena turned to look at her and Jac started to wonder what had got into her. She was touchy in the kitchen this morning, every time Jonny cracked a joke or Hanssen tried to cheer her up, and now she was stressing over things she had no control over.
Jac sighed as Hanssen put the local radio on. Jac looked at her watch to find it was almost nine o'clock. It had taken nearly twenty minutes to drive seven miles. She only hoped the dual carriageway was in a better state than this. She could see this trip spelling the end of Serena and Hanssen's relationship if they carried on like they were just now. It was odd; yesterday when Hanssen had got lost, Serena was his voice of reason and kept him calm. Now they were both uptight and both winding each other up without realising what they were doing to each other.
When they eventually got to the outskirts of Forfar, it was clear that the road had been treated here; perhaps only the rural roads were that bad then. It was still snowing, and visibility still wasn't great, but the road itself was not as snow-covered as it was a mile behind them. That was a relief, at least.
"And we're in the relative safety of a built-up area," Hanssen sighed. "Finally."
Nobody spoke, but Jac watched Serena bite back her retort. This was going to be a long day; she could feel it already. Hanssen parked outside a small shop and told everyone that if they needed anything now was the time to get it. Immediately Jonny found his wallet. "Can you get me some pickled onion crisps? And a Twix? And a bottle of cherryade?" Jac asked. He laughed to himself and got out the car. Serena dived out like she was going to suffocate without the cold fresh air outside.
Jac watched Hanssen carefully in the mirror as he pinched the bridge of hid nose. "She's driving you crazy, isn't she?" Jac guessed. "Serena, I mean."
"I'm going to kill her," he vowed. "One more word about my driving, my navigation or my decisions and I am going to kill her."
"She's just..." Jac tried to find an excuse for Serena's apparent anxiety, but she found no reason. They all knew what might happen, and how to deal with it, apart from Serena. The normally collected general surgeon was on edge and Jac wanted to know why.
She heard Hanssen sigh and watched him flop his head onto his hand. "She spent half of last night crying. She's sulky and anxious and loud this morning. But she refuses to tell me why."
"Hormones," Jac immediately suggested; her time being pregnant had taught her hormones had more control over a woman's attitude than men seemed to understand. A sudden thought occurred to her. Serena was in her forties, so there were two options Jac immediately thought of. "Hey, you don't think she's-"
"Don't even say it, Jac," Hanssen sighed. "Either of them," he added when she opened her mouth to make her second suggestion. She obeyed and shut up in the knowledge that Hanssen was considering what might have been going on with Serena, and he wasn't ruling anything out. "What did you and Jonny see last night?"
Jac huffed a little, put out that Jonny had confided in Hanssen. But then Hanssen was the best person to talk to about these things, really. "A family, I think," she admitted. "A man and two little kids, Isla and Charlie. We went outside and they vanished into thin air," she explained. She watched him consider it in silence before she added, "Whatever it is, I don't think it'll hurt any of us."
Jonny got in the back and handed Jac what she asked for. "They have Barrs up here. Sweeter than the stuff you drink at home," he explained as he passed the bottle to her along with her crisps and sweet. "What's going on?" he asked; he had obviously noticed the tense air in the car.
"He's going to kill Serena," Jac said with a nod towards Hanssen.
"You're gonna have to speak to her, Jac," Jonny sighed. "She can't keep going like this or it's going to split them up," he whispered to her.
"Why me?!" she hissed back.
"You're a woman!"
"She's Hanssen's partner!"
"She's your friend!"
They promptly shut up when Serena got in the car with throat sweets and chewing gum. Wordlessly, Hanssen started the car again and headed through North Street to Castle Street to Kirriemuir Road to the roundabout at the Kirriemuir junction, and just like that they were on the A90. It was easy enough and, when left to his own devices, Jac knew Hanssen handled adversity quite well. But when he was having to listen to Serena, he struggled to keep his cool.
People were obviously cautious on this road during the winter weather because they were going at a reasonable speed. Hanssen was doing about fifty on the straights; the only thing worse than going too fast was going too slow. To her surprise, it took little over half an hour before they were entering Dundee and a junction onto a road Jac recognised with great distaste as the Kingsway. She remembered Serena driving around a roundabout five or six times and getting stopped by the police and breathalysed only to be given directions to the city centre.
"Which way, Jonny?" Hanssen asked.
"You can get there either way. You know that," Jonny reminded him. Hanssen glared at him in the mirror and Jonny quickly said, "Straight over."
"Why aren't you driving?" Jac asked him quietly. "You know where to go better than anyone else."
"Because I hate driving in Dundee," he admitted. "I know where I'm going but I don't like driving here." Jac grinned at his admission and Jonny added to Hanssen. "Right, keep going onto Dura Street. And then the first exit on the roundabout." Hanssen obeyed and they found themselves on Dens Road. "Turn right."
"Oh, for God's sake!" Hanssen shouted when a large van cut in front of him as he turned onto Victoria Road, narrowly missing the front of the car. "What was the point?!"
"And that would be why I hate driving in Dundee," Jonny grinned. "They forget that there are people who don't know the road as well as them." Hanssen's blood pressure was going through the roof; it was easy to see he was getting frustrated. "Take the first exit," he said when they reached yet another roundabout.
For once, as they drove onto North Marketgait, Serena remained quiet as she stared out the window. She was sulking. She was sulking and it wasn't doing anyone any good. "Are you OK, Serena?" Jac asked, and the older woman turned her head to look at her.
"Fine," she replied. Jac allowed her a light smile she did not return.
"Straight over the roundabout," Jonny said.
"What is it with Dundonians and bloody roundabouts?!" Hanssen demanded. To hear him curse surprised Jac and she gave a wry smile when she remembered that Hanssen wasn't always as restrained as he seemed. He had, after all, been arrested for fighting in a pub probably not too far from here.
"Next left," Jonny said. "Next right," he added when the car turned. Under a minute later he said, "Next right." Hanssen turned, frustration radiating from him. "Left," Jonny said, and Jac soon saw a sign for Ninewells Hospital.
"How do you know where to go?" Jac asked curiously when she realised he knew it for each and every manoeuvre. Jonny looked slightly sheepish, and she took that as an indication that the story was not one of intelligence.
"When you drive from Kirrie to Ninewells with agony in your knees," he said with a smirk, "you're not likely to forget how you got there." Jac gave him a confused look so he elaborated, "When I was twenty-one I came up here to help my pal shift the engine out of his old BMW. It hit me in the knees." Jac fought not to laugh because she knew that would have been extremely painful, but the image of a young Jonny Maconie being hit by an engine was almost comical.
They got out of the car to find there was no let up in the snowfall or the wind. The snow hit Jac's face as she pulled her coat around her bump with the instinct to keep her daughter warm. Smiling as she felt her baby kick slightly, she let the men walk ahead of her, hanging back with Serena. Jonny was right; she needed to speak to her before she said or did something that ended her relationship.
"Serena," Jac said. "What's wrong?" Serena looked around, and it became clear she didn't even have an answer for her own behaviour. "Is it a woman problem?" Jac asked gently. Serena just shrugged her shoulders. She was being less than cooperative and Jac now saw what was frustrating Hanssen so much. "Homesick?" she asked, even though they had only been away for a day. "Problems with Henrik?"
Serena looked straight at Jac as they stepped into the main entrance to the hospital and started walking up the slope. "I don't really know," confessed Serena. But she did know, and Jac could see that she did and was too scared to say so. But Jac didn't push her – she would say it all in her own time – and she linked their arms as they approached Hanssen and Jonny in the entrance area.
It was only when they approached the lifts that Serena pulled her phone out and started texting. Hanssen and Jonny were talking about which shop to go to when they left here because potatoes were not going to sustain four and a half people for a week. When they stepped out onto the general surgery ward, Jac's phone rang with a text tone and she realised just who Serena had been sending a message to.
Hope this is OK!
Please feel free to leave me a review and tell me what you think!
Sarah x