Next chapter. Enjoy, and as ever please review...

Monday Morning, Holby City Hospital

Stairwell

Jac powered down the stairs, jumping down the last few steps of each flight to gain a few seconds, ignoring the twinge in her knee that made its presence felt as she reached the lower floors, driven on by her bleep which was still going off intermittently. Her mind was racing– filled with jumbled images of Jil lying in an ITU bed, premature babies in incubators and Daniel's face, all accompanied by the soundtrack of the reactions of countless relatives she had given the worst news imaginable to over the course of her career. And as she ran, she repeated over and over and over again, the mantra she had been muttering to herself since she'd left Darwin, "Please let her be OK. Please let her be OK. Please let her be OK." She didn't notice any of the people she passed in the stairwell and, luckily, everybody she did meet had heard her coming, and sensing her urgency kept out of her way as she rushed past them. Although, several of the hospital staff did then look over the bannisters to watch her progress wondering, as they did so, where on earth Miss Naylor was heading to in such a hurry, before carrying on with what they had been doing, confident that if it was anything worth knowing they soon would, the hospital gossip machine being what it was.

After what seemed like an eternity to Jac she finally reached the ground floor and dashed along the corridor to AAU, she arrived at the door and desperately pressed the button that would gain her admittance. Before, remembering that her ID badge would work, bursting through the doors, stopping dead inside as she saw and heard her worst fears realised. The curtains were drawn around Jil's bed space, but the material did nothing to muffle the sound of the numerous alarms that were going off behind them. Slipping in to auto-pilot, she went to move forward only to find herself stopped in her tracks by someone's arm around her waist holding her back. "Hey, Jac no!" Michael Spence's American drawl said. "You can't go in there, you'll put them off."

"Get off me," she said, desperately, struggling to extricate herself from his hold, "I need to…."

"No," Michael repeated firmly, "you need to let them do their jobs."

"Well why aren't you in there helping?" she asked, knowing he was right but still determined to do something to help Jil. "You should be in there, you're the consultant!"

"Sacha and Chrissie have got it" Michael continued, calmly. "He won't be doing anything different than I would, and he knows far more about Jil than I do, so I'd say on balance he's the best man for the job, wouldn't you?" Sensing that Jac was a little bit calmer he relaxed his hold on her, ever so slightly, and steered her towards the nurse's station. He had managed to manoeuvre her close to one of the chairs that was behind it, and was just about to try and get her to sit down on it when the alarms that had been sounding behind the curtain stopped. And, once again Jac became unwieldy, tense and resistant to his efforts to move her, the entire focus of her attention centred on the curtain that surrounded Jil's bed. Seconds passed, and they seemed long to Michael, so he could only begin to imagine how they felt to Jac. And they waited, and then the curtain was pulled slightly away from the wall and Sacha appeared, saying immediately "It's ok, she's ok." And Michael, feeling Jac sag as she breathed in, realised that she'd been holding her breath since the alarm had stopped. She sat down suddenly, surprising him and almost pinning his arm behind her as she did so. It was as if the wind had been taken from her sails, and all the stress and strain of the last few minutes had suddenly hit her like a bolt of lightning. "Are you ok?" he asked, which was, he knew a stupid question to ask in the circumstances. Jac just nodded, further convincing him that she was actually anything but OK – she'd never have let something like that pass on a normal day.

By this time Sacha was at the nurse's station, and after looking at Jac and exchanging a concerned glance with Michael also came behind the desk. He crouched down by her chair and said, "Chrissie's just sorting everything out and then you can go and see her OK?"

And this promise seemed to flick a switch in Jac, and she sat upright in her chair, and asked in a voice only a little different from normal. "What happened?"

"Well, I was just about to do the ECG when suddenly her heart rate slowed and then she had a brady. That caused her oxygen saturation to drop which I don't think the baby was too happy about."

"But her heart didn't stop?" Jac asked.

"No, and we didn't need to shock her, although I did have the crash trolley just in case. We gave her atropine and some oxygen and her heart rate started to come back up."

"And the baby?"

"I could hear a strong heartbeat after, but she'll need a scan to check, just to be sure." Sacha replied.

"Are her bloods back yet?"

"No, not yet, I didn't fast-track them because she seemed fine. I'll get on to the labs now, see if I can speed them up." He offered.

"And the ECG?" Jac asked, now that the initial panic had subsided, trying to retreat to her favoured position of (semi-)detached professional, to avoid thinking about what had just happened and what it might mean.

"Didn't get a chance to do it" Sacha replied, shaking his head, "she went off just as I was about to set it up."

"Don't worry about it," Jac said, "there's no point doing it now, not until she's stable again anyway. I'll get it sorted when she's up on Darwin."

"Ok," Sacha replied. "I'll phone them and get it sorted."

"You sure she nee…" Michael began, before stopping when he saw Jac's face, and noticed Sacha frantically shaking his head from behind her chair.

"Yes, I'm sure," Jac said, enunciating each word very carefully. "Where else would you suggest a 6 month pregnant woman with a history of heart problems, who's just had a bradycardic episode should go? Home?"

"Ok, ok" Michael said, "I was just asking."

"Well, don't!"

"Oh," Sacha said, trying to break the tension, "I got in touch with Professor Koppelman at the Royal Brompton – he's sending Jil's notes over. Luckily they've all gone electronic there so we shouldn't have to wait for anyone to photocopy them all and courier them over. He said it might take a bit of time to organise but he was going to send them via NHS email. I'll check if they've come through yet. And," Sacha continued, "he also told me to pass on my regards to you – apparently he's been following your career with interest since he first met you. Reckons he always knew you'd make it as a consultant, considering how tenacious you already were when you were an F2. You certainly made an impression on him – as soon as I mentioned Jil's name he asked if I had anything to do with you."

"Yeah, well," Jac replied, a slight smile briefly replacing the worried look she'd worn since she sat down, "I suppose I did harangue him a little bit when we first met. Thanks though."

"What for?" Sacha asked, puzzled.

"Contacting him and sorting that out," Jac answered, "I know how manic you are down here normally, and I know you were only really seeing Jil as a favour to me. So thanks for taking the time, making the effort."

"No need to thank me. I was just doing my job, ma'am" Sacha replied, in a terrible American accent, which earned him, as he hoped it would, another small smile from Jac.

"Well you two seem to have everything here under control." Michael commented, "so if it's OK with you" he continued, addressing Jac as he moved from behind the nurse's station, "I'll get on with my actual work. But if there's anything you need me to do – you just shout OK."

"Yeah, OK," Jac said, "and..thank you." Seeing the questioning look on Michael's face, continuing, "for earlier, you know, that" she said pointing over to the spot where he had stopped her.

"Hey don't sweat it," Michael replied, "once a homey always a homey, right?" reminding Jac of the time they had spent working together on Keller, and garnering a weak laugh from her too

"Yeah, I suppose," Jac agreed, "as long as you don't think it gives you carte blanche to put your arms around me whenever you want to, anyway."

"Would I?" Michael called back over his shoulder innocently, as he walked away, realising that Jac must be feeling better if she was saying things like that to him

"I wouldn't put it past you." Jac called back to him, earning herself a sarcastic smile and a wave from Michael before he turned the corner. Jac's attention then returned to Jil's bed space, around which the curtains were still drawn. "How long will it be before I can see her?" she asked Sacha, who could sense her anxiety levels rising again now she had nothing to focus on but Jil.

"I'll go and see how Chrissie's getting on," he said. Just before he reached the bed-space, however, Chrissie emerged from behind the curtain and they both had to stop dead to avoid a collision. "How is she?" he asked her quietly, indicating, by the smallest movement of his head, where Jac was.

Chrissie, had a very quick glance and seeing that Jac had stood up, quickly replied, "She's stable," before walking over to the nurse's station and repeating the information for Jac. "She's stable – blood pressure, oxygen saturation and heart rate all back to normal. She wants to see you though."

"Thanks Chrissie," Jac replied, the relief coursing through her. She was OK, Jil was OK – for the moment anyway. 'Now all we've got to do is find out what's wrong and fix it,' she thought. Before, consciously pushing these thoughts away to focus on what was important right now – seeing Jil. She walked around and out of the nurse's station, suddenly becoming aware that her legs felt a little bit shaky. She reached the curtain and after taking a deep breath drew it back slightly and walked in, she saw Jil sitting up looking pale and a little bit scared, and said shakily. "Don't you ever do anything like that to me again – do you hear!" Before, pulling out the chair that was beside the bed with one hand, and taking her best friend's hand with the other, she sat down.