Aside from Jacob slipping in and putting a coffee from her desk before running out at great speed, which brought a smile to Connie's face, she didn't see him for a few hours, her head down as she worked on emptying her inbox. When she next saw him, she was walking into the staffroom to make a coffee and he was asleep sitting up. Biting her lip to stop herself laughing, Connie approached him slowly and then said loudly, "Wake up!"
Jacob jumped out of his seat, a hand to his chest and left wondering for a moment if he'd dreamt it, as the only person in the room was Connie, and she had her back to him making a coffee. It was the shaking of her shoulder's as she laughed that told him the truth. "That's the second time you've woken me up today." Jacob pointed out as his hands rested on Connie's hips for a moment before he moved his arms around her to unscrew the coffee jar lid she was struggling with.
"If I'm not allowed sleep, then neither are you." Connie replied. "Excuse me, are we forgetting who won that arm wrestle? I can undo it myself, thank you." Connie took the jar away from Jacob. "I had a call from Grace earlier. She wanted you to pick her up as well because she says she's too tired to get the bus."
Jacob frowned as he moved to rest his back against the bench next to her. "I thought she liked getting the bus?"
"So did I, but apparently not anymore." Connie sighed, finally giving in and pushing the jar back into Jacob's hands.
"Okay, well...That's fine, tell her I'll be there."
"Thank you..." She turned her head to kiss him, before pushing him backwards so that she could open the cutlery drawer to find a teaspoon. "Look, I don't know if I'm overreacting to this or something..." She trailed off at Jacob's raised eyebrow, which displayed quite clearly his thoughts on the possibility of her overreaction.
"Con, it's fine. She said she's tired, of course she is."
"I don't know, maybe I just expected her to-"
"Suck it up? Come on, sweet cheeks." He paused, taking the spoon from her hands and lying it down on the surface as he wrapped his hands back around her waist and swayed gently. She allowed him to hold her for a few seconds, before un-tucking her arms from his and taking the spoon, realising then that she had not yet pulled a mug down from the shelf. "Jacob, get off."
He groaned, and simply wandered down the side of the cupboards with her. She rose slightly to reach the shelf, her heels slipping from her shoes. She didn't often use the staffroom mugs, and sighed as she brought down one of Dylan's, which was adorned with greyhounds.
"You can't see what you're choosing, can you?" He grinned at her, chuckling softly as she shook her head. "Because you're so small..."
"Shut up. I can manage, thank you." She rose up again, and smiled in satisfaction as she pulled down a plain blue one with no obvious owner attachment. She struggled as she walked with Jacob attached to her, back to the kettle and the coffee jar, his head nuzzling into her hair.
"Don't worry about her. If you still think there's something going on, next week say, then I'll have a chat with her."
"Okay." She replied softly, too tired to argue with him. He turned her around, and brought her into his chest, when she tried to push herself away he only tensed the muscles in his arms to hold her there. Eventually, she began to relax, and momentarily closed her eyes before she heard footsteps enter the staffroom.
"Well, well, well. Still sexually harassing your colleagues I see, Jacob." Came a voice Connie didn't recognise. In no mood for such comments, she pulled back and opened her mouth to snap a reply, but soon found her mouth hanging open in shock, instead. As soon as his head had turned to see who had walked in, Jacob had released Connie from his hold to pull this other woman into his arms, spinning her around as they both laughed. When he finally put her down, Connie managed to close her mouth and plaster a tight smile on her lips.
"What are you doing here, baby girl? You didn't tell me you were visiting!" Jacob grinned down at the woman in front of him.
"I'm not visiting." She held up a staff ID card with a grin.
Unused to not being in Jacob's focus when she was in the room, Connie cleared her throat and stepped forward. "Who exactly employed you? There was no room in the budget for another staff member."
"And you are?" The woman asked with raised eyebrows, her eyes finally moving from Jacob's face.
"The woman who runs this department." Connie replied icily, though the tight smile was still on her lips.
"Sorry, Kate, this is Connie. Connie, Kate. Old friends." Jacob offered with a smile.
"It's Mrs. Beauchamp, actually." Connie added, holding out a hand to shake Kate's.
"Ooh, right then. Well, I'm the new Band Six nurse, so I guess we'll be able to catch up." She quickly removed her hand from Connie's, and turned her attention back to Jacob who was still smiling, much to Connie's irritation.
"As if... Kate, this is mad!"
"Oh, I know! When I asked who the other sixes were and I was told you were here... Well, I had no idea!" She paused, taking a quick glance at Connie before clearing her throat and adjusting her bag. "I take it, you two then, you're-"
"Married." Connie smiled her tight smile once more, noticing Kate's expression of surprise which she failed to cover.
"You did well to get him to settle, Connie." She winked at Jacob, and Connie folded her arms in front of her, her first intention being that on resuming her shift, she would arrange the rotas so that Kate would be on nearly every night shift going.
"Mmm. You'd best go, I'm sure Ms. Freeman will want to give you a tour before your shift, which starts-"
"Oh, I have ages yet. I just wanted to see Jacob." She smiled at Connie, who clenched her teeth before moving away from Jacob to pour water from the kettle into her mug, expecting him to dismiss the new girl and go back to the office with her. As they continued to talk, ignoring her presence entirely, she decided that she wasn't going to hang around. She took her mug with her, leaving the room but glancing back once, to see them still engaged in deep conversation.
She saw them again twice that shift, standing at the nurse's station laughing at something. The way Kate tossed her hair whenever she laughed was already irritating Connie and making her wish for Lofty back. Just as she'd buried herself angrily in files again, there was a gentle knock on the door. "What?!"
"Alright, snappy." Jacob smiled as he opened the door.
"How am I going to get this finished if people keep interrupting me?" Connie fumed, her annoyance made worse by the face Kate was passing and had heard her outburst.
"Hey, relax, sweet cheeks. Just bring some home when your shift finishes and I'll help you after dinner." Jacob approached the desk and then slid behind it to give Connie's shoulder's a massage. "I'm just off to pick up the kids, do you want me to get shopping on the way home?"
Connie sighed and rubbed her forehead, annoyance and sleepiness making her head ache. "No, I'll go when I'm done here."
"Okay." Jacob dropped a kiss to the top of her head. "Need me to do anything before I go?"
Connie shook her head with a sigh. "Just keep an eye on Gracie and see if she seems upset, okay?"
"Yes, boss." Jacob replied, dropping another kiss to her head before giving a smile. "And by the way, I thought you were Mrs Masters now, not Mrs Beauchamp."
She instantly felt guilty, despite how irritated she felt by his actions today. "I'm sorry, I-"
"Relax, Con. It's not a big deal." He knew it would take her a while to get used to it, she was the Mrs Beauchamp, it was her entire front. But instead of consoling her, this actually made her more annoyed. It should be a big deal to him, but that's not what he had made it sound like at all.
"I'll see you later."
"See you later." He pressed another kiss to her head, knowing that this wasn't just about Grace, but reluctant to push her if she evidently didn't want to talk to him about it.