Next chapter - this one follows directly on from the last one and is slightly longer. Enjoy and please review...
Tuesday Morning, Holby
Jac's Apartment
"Jac" he said softly, leaning over and stroking the side of her face, "Jac, sweetheart, I'm sorry but you need to wake up." And he was incredibly sorry that he had to do this, would have much preferred to let her slumber carry on until she woke naturally. But knew also that she would not be happy if they were so late that her patient's care suffered, as he knew it would if she wasn't there to start her list at 9.30, and knowing also that she would want some time with Jil before this, he really couldn't leave it any later. "Jac, sweetheart" he repeated, pulling the covers back slightly from her and taking the hand this action revealed in his, still stroking her face with his free hand. "It's time to get up – we need to go to work soon, Jac…Jac." And she began to stir, swatting his hand away from her face before squeezing his hand in response to his gentle pressure. Her eyes opened briefly, before closing again. And then she rolled over onto her back, causing him to sit up, as she yawned covering her mouth with the hand he was holding, whilst she moved her free arm above her head and had a half-hearted stretch, yawning once again. She blinked once more, and then opened her eyes fully and looked at him. "Morning gorgeous" he said, as had been his custom for some time now, smiling at her as he said it. "There's a cup of tea for you there," he continued, letting go of her hand "made just how you like it."
And she smiled back at him, saying "Great" slowly pushing herself up to a sitting position and reaching over for the cup. But before she picked it up she suddenly turned back to look at him, and seeing the concern that, all of a sudden, had clouded her eyes and the question that accompanied this feeling he quickly said.
"Jil's fine – I phoned the ward earlier and they said she'd had a good night – everything stable, no concerns at all." And the relief she felt at his words was evident, as she took a deep breath before once again turning to pick up the cup. She wriggled so that she was sitting more comfortably and took a careful sip, to test the temperature, before on finding that it was drinkable taking a longer sip. She looked at him over the cup and he could tell she was smiling, before her eyes slid from his face to wander round the room, he saw them stop and then widen as they came to the radio alarm clock, and then saw something approaching panic flit across them as she exclaimed, trying to get out of bed
"Jonny, it's nearly twenty past seven, we're going to be late." Her efforts to get out of bed were being hindered by Jonny whose weight was holding the covers down and who, for some reason she couldn't understand, wasn't standing up and didn't seem at all fazed by the knowledge that, even if they left now, with her still in her pyjamas they probably wouldn't get to the hospital on time. Unless, of course, she thought, she could somehow achieve what had always proved impossible before and persuade him to go on her bike. He still wasn't moving off the bed but she saw that his mouth was, but her head was too full of the arguments she could use to persuade him that the bike was the best option, the only option they had to even stand a chance of being on time, to hear what he was saying.
Jonny could see she wasn't listening and in desperation took her gently by the shoulders and, making her look at him, said, enunciating each word very clearly. "Jac, it's OK – we don't have to be in until nine. I've cleared it with the ward and they're not expecting us till then. We've got plenty of time!"
And Jac said accusingly, "Well why didn't you tell me that before I noticed the time. Honestly, I've got enough stress in my life without you adding to it"
"Just drink your tea woman" Jonny replied, shrugging off her annoyance, and then blatantly ignoring the look she gave him after he'd said that. "Like I said we've got plenty of time, so you can savour every drop. You wouldn't believe the work I put in to making that."
"No, I wouldn't!" Jac replied sarcastically.
"Right" Jonny said standing up, once again seemingly impervious to her comment, "you drink that, I'll go and sort out breakfast" and so saying, headed across the bedroom to the door.
"Jonny," Jac said quietly, stopping him as he'd just reached the hallway. He turned back and stood at the doorway, "thanks" she continued "for last night – I don't know what I'd have…well you know"
"Hey," Jonny said, "there's no need for gratitude – that's what I'm here for. Right?" And Jac nodded, smiling, experiencing again that feeling that she need never be unsafe again as long as he was here. "Right – breakfast!" Jonny exclaimed, before once again heading off down the hall. Jac snuggled down in the bed and glancing at the clock thought '4 more minutes' before taking another sip of tea, and beginning to wonder how on earth Jonny had swung yet another hour off.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Jonny meanwhile was searching through Jac's cupboards. He had located the one which held all the cereals early on but wasn't exactly bowled over by the choice – organic muesli, organic porridge oats, organic bran flakes – all far too healthy for his liking. He liked his breakfast cereals sweet and preferably with the power to turn the milk chocolatey – he'd have to bring a packet over he decided. Maybe toast was a better option, but would Jac have any jam? He was trying to find out the answer to this question when he made a discovery, 'even better' he thought, as he saw what was in the biscuit tin he'd just opened
"You can't have that for breakfast" Jac objected from the doorway.
"Why not?" Jonny said, holding one of her flapjacks in his hand, "it's got oats in hasn't it? And they're good to eat at breakfast - they're in porridge!" he concluded, as if that clinched it.
"Not you as well," Jac replied. "Sacha's already tried that one and, if it didn't work for him, what makes you think it will for you? If you want oats I've got porridge"
"Yeah, but porridge isn't half as nice as these," Jonny said, hoping flattery would get him somewhere.
"No!" Jac exclaimed, "because porridge doesn't have half a tin of golden syrup to hold it together."
"Well," Jonny said, "I've got to eat it now – I've touched it."
"Well that's true," Jac admitted. "I don't want it put back after you've had your grubby hands all over it. OK, you can have it but" she continued, quickly, that dreaded word wiping the triumphant grin that had started to appear on Jonny's face away again, "only after you've had some proper breakfast."
"But I don't like any of your cereals!" Jonny argued, "which is why I was looking for jam, and then found these," he continued, holding up the biscuit tin slightly.
"Oh, you're such a child!" Jac said dismissively, "I expect you prefer your cereal sugar-coated and with a toy in the box. You must like Weetabix," she continued, "surely everyone likes Weetabix."
"It's OK I suppose," Jonny said grudgingly.
"Well then – Weetabix it is." Jac concluded, walking over to the cereal cupboard Jonny had abandoned, "and then you can have the flapjack."
"But there isn't any Weetab…" Jonny started to say, just as Jac took out a Tupperware box from the cupboard, which as she was more than happy to show him contained 2 packets of organic Weetabix.
"You just needed to use your eyes, Jonny, that's all" she said, getting two cereal bowls out of another cupboard
"What's with all the organic stuff anyway?" Jonny asked, putting the biscuit tin back but holding on to the flapjack "I don't think Waitrose has as much organic stuff as you do!"
"I don't like putting unnecessary chemicals in my body" Jac explained, walking over to the kettle and turning it on again, "and before you say it, caffeine is NOT an unnecessary chemical, well not for me anyway." She then handed him one of the bowls and after opening the Tupperware box and placing it on the table, said "after you"
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
"What's with all the flowers?" Jonny asked, breaking the companionable silence that had fallen as they'd both been eating their Weetabix, touching the leaves of a flower he didn't recognise that was in a vase on the table, and then remembering all the others he had seen scattered round the flat.
"Ah," Jac said smiling, as she pushed her bowl away from her, "well, we forgot the golden syrup the first time we went shopping on Sunday….for the flapjacks," she explained noticing the confused look on Jonny's face.
"Riiight," Jonny said uncertainly, still not quite seeing the connection.
"So we had to go back to Tesco's to get some and Jil went a bit mad with the flowers in the reduced section. Actually," she said, getting up and picking up both their bowls and carrying them to the sink, "she went very mad. So much so that we ran out of things to put them in so had to resort to some unusual vessels," she continued, pointing to what looked suspiciously like a measuring jug that held what Jonny was pretty sure were irises paired with yellow roses.
"I never had you down as a flower type of girl."
"Really?" Jac said, turning back from the sink to look at him, her eyes narrowed, "what type of girl did you have me down for then."
"Err," Jonny hesitated, realising what treachorous ground he'd managed to step on, "erm, I don't know – the kind who forgives her boyfriend for making stupid comments, maybe."
"Hmmm, well I'm not sure I'm that type of girl. But I do like flowers and Jil loves them – reckons that like a cup of tea they can always make things just a little bit better – plus, she can't resist a bargain. And they really were a bargain. We got all of them for less than £5, and there's a lot of flowers in this flat at the moment," she concluded, smiling.
"What, all of them?" Jonny asked, incredulously, remembering the huge bouquet of lilies with red roses in the lounge, and those other flowers he could never remember the name of – peonies, pansies – he'd noticed in the hall when he'd picked up the phone this morning.
"Yep," Jac confirmed, "she's a real bargain hunter is Jil," she continued, before falling silent and gazing, lost in thought at a point on the floor. After a few moments, she gave her head the tiniest of shakes, and said. "Well, all this floral talk isn't getting us any closer to work is it? I'll go and grab a shower and then I'll be ready in a few minutes. OK?"
"Fine by me," Jonny said, as Jac walked behind him towards the door.
She paused as she reached the door, "if you want to score some brownie points you could do the washing up if you want," she said.
"I was going to anyway," Jonny replied, smiling, "but if it earns me some brownie points as well, so much the better."
"And don't forget to eat your flapjack," Jac said as she left the kitchen, calling from the hall, "and I don't want crumbs all over the place either."
"Right," Jonny said quietly, to himself, "washing up, flapjack, no crumbs – think I can just about manage that."
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
True to her word, and despite her having another small Jil-related wobble, after she'd finished in the shower Jac did only take a few minutes to get ready, and from what he could see, from his front row seat in her bedroom, the majority of that was spent doing her hair. "You ever considered shaving your head?" he asked, after she'd turned off her hair-dryer, and then got her straighteners out.
"What?"
"Well, think about it – you'd be able to have at least an extra ten minutes in bed if you did."
"And why would I want that?"
"Well, we could do a lot in bed in ten minutes," he commented, which earned him one of Jac's looks - the one which told him he was skating on very thin ice. "Or," he continued, "you could get ten minutes more sleep"
"Are you saying I normally look tired?" Jac asked
"No, of course not." Jonny said, cursing himself for, once again, stepping on to such dangerous ground. "Look, just forget I said anything, it was a stupid idea OK"
"You got that right" Jac replied, "I suppose there's got to be a first time for everything," she continued, smiling triumphantly over at him.
And Jonny, who knew when he was beaten, had to agree, and smiling back at her said, "Mmm I suppose there is!" And then watched in silence (figuring this was probably safest) Jac finish getting ready.
"Right," she said, slipping her shoes on, "you ready?"
"Yep," Jonny replied, getting off the bed, checking his pockets to make sure his keys were there. "Ready when you are."
"Ok, then," Jac said, picking up her keys from the slightly misshapen, brightly coloured bowl on the chest of drawers that was the non-identical twin to the one on her desk and, after a final look around the room, continued "let's go," and headed out of the room. She stopped briefly in the hall, picking up her bag and handing Jonny his jacket after taking hers down from the hook, and then opened the front door. However, she stopped suddenly in the doorway, and quickly turned back in to the flat. "I need to leave a note for Jenny," she said, by way of explanation to Jonny, who reading it over her shoulder was touched, but not surprised by its contents. "Right," Jac said, after putting the note on the kitchen table, "come on then, flat exit, take 2." And this time they did make it out of the door and as Jonny waited for her to lock the door he thought of the 'wobble' that had led her to write that note...
He had been waiting to ask her something, so when he realised that the shower had stopped had gone to the bathroom door, however, before he'd had time to knock the door he heard Jac sob, a small sob, but definitely a sob. He immediately tried the door and finding, to his surprise, that it was open let himself in to find Jac sitting on the side of the bath, a towel wrapped round her slender frame, quietly crying. "Hey, hey, hey," he said, crossing the distance that separated them with his arms open which Jac, standing up, almost collapsed into, "what's the matter?" It took a couple of minutes of him holding her, stroking her back and murmuring endearments similar to those he'd used the previous night, whilst she cried softly into his chest, until she was able to explain. Finally managing to point to a message Jil had written for her on the bathroom mirror, which had become visible as the bathroom had steamed up. It had faded slightly by the time Jonny saw it, but was still readable, 'DAZZLE THEM! xx' accompanied by a smiley face and what he assumed was Jil's handprint. He found out later, once Jac had recovered and was able to talk to him about it as she got ready, that it was a method of communicating they'd been using since they were 12, since they had discovered it worked after Jac had drawn anatomically correct diagrams of the male and female reproductive systems on the glass in Jil's kitchen door, after they had done the washing up one Saturday evening. They hadn't realised then, however, that the diagrams wouldn't just disappear when the steam did, and that they would reappear whenever the glass steamed up again until they physically wiped them away. Unfortunately, Jac recounted now smiling, they only made this discovery the next day when Jil's mum was cooking the Sunday dinner, which, even more unfortunately, she'd invited the parish priest to eat with them. To say Mrs Santini was embarrassed when he came in to ask if he could help at all and noticed the pictures on the door would (according to Jac) have been the understatement of the century, but luckily for all concerned Father Winder was much more impressed with Jac's biological prowess, than he was shocked by the content of the diagrams. 'Rosa told me you wanted to be a doctor' he had said to her, 'going by that' pointing at the door, 'I think you'll make an excellent one.'
And since then Jac and Jil had continued to communicate through the medium of mirrors, windows and steam, it was she explained 'one of our things' and this Jonny could see made perfect sense of the message she had left for Jenny
'Please don't clean the bathroom mirror today. Thanks. J.'
Just to say the thing with the steam and mirrors/windows does actually work (so if you ever fancy leaving someone a message unexpectedly it's a brilliant way of doing it. And obviously (as they'd say on the BBC) other breakfast cereals are available