A/N: Another post-2am update. Sorry about that. It seems being off work for two weeks isn't agreeing with me. Anyway, thanks as usual to everyone who reads or reviews.

Sarah x

Serena stared at the floor in despair. "They caught fire on a candle, Mum," was her answer. She noticed she was fighting to keep her voice level, and she was making a conscious effort not to let her upset show in the form of tears. "We have to remember to keep the candles back from the fabrics."

She heard Ric re-enter the room, his hand on her back when he knelt down to help her clean up. His touch stirred some sort of restrained emotion in her, and she felt like her chest was going to crack open with the pressure on it; she was trying her best to hold it all in, though, because she didn't want Ric or her mother to see it. She didn't want to seem weak or fragile. But when she looked up to take a fresh towel from Ric, she was met with a sad and knowing expression on his face. She had allowed herself to forget how much he actually noticed.

In silence they mopped up the last of the water as best they could and Serena stood up, helping Ric to his feet. "Right, just stay away from here, OK, Mum? It's still a bit slippery."

Serena took the torch and avoided looking at her mother, trying not to hate herself for not wanting to look at a woman she no longer recognised. The mother she knew never hit her or pushed her, and she had always been kind and long, knowing and optimistic. She couldn't do it anymore. The woman didn't realise she had almost burned the house down, for Christ's sake. She didn't remember slapping her across the face. She didn't remember trying to throw her out the house. It wasn't her fault, and Serena knew that, but it was insanely hard for her to keep in mind when it got tough. It was increasingly painful to keep going in this madness.

She threw the wet towels in the washing machine and leaned back against the counter. The room was dark; there was little light coming through the window, apart from the frequent flash of lightning. The weight on her chest made her want to just give in, but her humanity didn't allow it. How could she give up on the mother that has never once given up on her in close to half a century? Adrienne was her mother, one of probably only three people on this planet she would sacrifice her heart's peace for. She needed to keep going.

Keeping going, though, was the same as running herself into the ground. What use was she to anyone if she was so worn out that her mind felt like it was fighting against her? She was exhausted to the point that she had a constant nagging in the back of her mind that she had forgotten something, like she didn't trust herself to deal with everything that needed done. How could she keep going when it was just keeping her down? But the fact remained that she couldn't leave Adrienne on her own.

Then a realisation fell upon her: Adrienne wasn't on her own. Ric was too sensible and too human to leave a woman with dementia on her own. Maybe there was an escape route.

In a desperate moment of anger and fear, she went to the back door and picked up her wellies, lifting her phone and her car keys from where she had left them on the cluttered kitchen table. A sudden thought of possibility occurred to her, so she got her passport out of the kitchen drawer before she left the room. She was careful to remain silent as she gently walked to the front door, refusing to stop and look at what she was leaving behind. She pulled on her coat and picked up her handbag, and she gently opened the door.

Lightning flashed through the sheets of rain, reminding her of the dangers of venturing out in this weather, but she didn't care. She needed out. She needed to go.

Wincing slightly as the thunder crashed overhead and she felt the wind blowing through her, she unlocked the car and walked steadily to the driver's side door. She fought not look back at the house. It would only remind her that she had responsibilities that she was flouting for her own selfishness. She got in and started the engine, hoping Ric and Adrienne wouldn't hear it through the weather as she pulled off. She didn't know where she was going. She just knew that if she stayed here, she wasn't going to survive in one piece.

She drove down that old familiar road that she travelled just about every day. The road to work, to the hospital where once she had hid but where now she suffered. She didn't think. She just drove where her subconscious took her. The rain bounced off the window, and she could even feel the car pull ever so slightly when a strong gust of wind blew. The thunder and lightning did not let up at all; if anything, they became more frequent, the time between each burst growing shorter all the time.

Before long, she was driving into Holby City Hospital car park, instantly finding her designated parking spot. She felt no relief here, but it was somewhere to stop and plan. She realised that she had been rash, that she had gone with no thought as to what on Earth she was going to do. She had no plan ahead of her.

Part of her wanted to go to the airport and board the first flight she could, to wherever it was headed. Paris, Madrid, New York, Sydney, Glasgow, Toronto, Chicago, Moscow, Beijing...she didn't care, as long as it wasn't here. As long as her mother wasn't there, she didn't care where on the planet she found herself. It was sanctuary she sought from this storm that raged around her, draining her of all energy and compassion.

But before she could do any of that, there were certain things she needed to retrieve from her office – her spare phone charger, the flash drive on which her CV and other documents were stored, and the necklace she had forgotten to put back on after her last stint in theatre today, having managed to stress herself out completely.

She sighed and felt her chest tighten as the conflict tore her apart. She was split between who she was and what she was so desperate to escape. Steeling herself, she stepped out of the car and locked it. She was suddenly aware that she was wearing pyjamas, but she was beyond caring very much. All she wanted was to escape.

She ran through the rain, wishing to remain as dry as possible, and into the hospital feeling and probably looking like an utter bloody idiot. The place was quiet; it was nightshift now, after all, and most people had the sense to go inside when the rain started to pour. It was then, however, that she spotted Zosia March approaching with coffee in her hand. She pressed the button for the lift and waited, hoping she could be in the lift before Zosia got to her. No such luck, though, as the young doctor stood next to her wearing a puzzled smile.

"Pyjamas and wellies," she noted. "Making a fashion statement, are we?" Serena forced a somewhat wry smile, trying to disguise the raw fear and panic that was starting to rear its ugly head within her. "Have you come to rescue Keller from our inexperienced hands?"

"Um, no, afraid not," Serena admitted. "Just need to collect a few things of mine." Zosia was unconvinced by her answer as they stepped into the lift, but she said nothing about it. Instead they stood in silence until they reached the third floor. It was when they stepped onto the ward that her phone rang; she looked at the screen and saw it was Ric calling, and she declined the call without hesitation.

Ignoring Zosia's look of interest and concern, she stalked to her office and turned on the light. To calm her anxieties, she took a deep breath. She looked around her at the office she shared now with Sacha Levy – when she wasn't posted on AAU, anyway. She pulled open the top drawer of her desk and hastily placed the phone charger and flash drive in her bag, and tried to find her necklace, but she couldn't see it.

Annoyed, she took every item out of every drawer, dumping them carelessly on her desk, searching frantically for the necklace she could not leave without. She still had enough of a heart that there was no possibility of her leaving without that item of jewellery, purely for its sentimental value. "Oh, for God's sake!" she growled agitatedly. There was a timid knock at the door and she shouted, "Yes!" with no manners or patience.

It was Arthur Digby who stood there when she looked up, and his presence only irritated her further. "Um, Ms. Campbell, Mr. Griffin is on the phone for you," he informed her.

Without looking up again, too focussed on finding that necklace, she snapped, "Tell him I'm not here."

"Well, er, I can't. I've already told him I saw you come in, so..."

"Tell him you were mistaken."

"I can't," Arthur answered her, and she was alarmed to hear some firmness in his voice. "Nobody has heard from him in months, Ms. Campbell. If he's looking for you, it's for a good reason." She looked up to glare at him, but he did not care and she knew why. He had got his point across, and that was good enough for him. "What are you looking for?"

"My necklace," she sighed, sorting through papers in case it had got lost in there.

"Oh, um, Zosia found a necklace earlier. She put it at the nurses' station in case someone was looking for it. Maybe that's it?"

Serena sighed and followed him out onto the ward, and he led her into the nurses' station. He picked it up and she said, "Yes, that's it." He went to hand it to her but recoiled his hand, looking down at the phone that was off its hook while Ric waited on the line. "Oh, fine," she hissed. He smiled and handed her the necklace.

She picked up the phone and immediately hung up on Ric without so much as putting it to her ear. Digby seemed horrified by her actions, and probably more so that she had outsmarted him, and she raised her eyebrow at him, just daring him to speak. Leaving Digby with his mouth hanging open indignantly, and knowing Zosia was watching from her patient's bedside, she returned to her office and picked up her bag. She did not bother to tidy up because she just did not care enough to stop.

She closed the door behind her when she returned to the main ward; her phone rang again, and yet again it was Ric's caller ID that appeared, and again she hung up on him and put him through to voicemail.

Arthur approached her with concern on his face, and she realised only now that the young man felt a responsibility to ensure all was well, because even she knew that her sudden appearance at her workplace at night wearing pyjamas was not normal, and anything that wasn't normal was sure to ring alarm bells with Arthur Digby. "Ms. Campbell, is everything OK?" he nervously asked.

"Yes," she replied, her tone clipped and impatient as she tried to deter him.

He let out a breath with an uneasy smile but he was not finished. "OK, well, you're here after hours during a major storm, and you know, you're in pyjamas and wellies, and you've just turned your office upside down, and you've ignored a call from Mr. Griffin...so, um, you can probably see why there's cause for concern...not to say that there's necessarily anything wrong at all, but it isn't what...well, what you're normally like, is it?"

She started to walk towards the lift and said, "I'm fine."

Arthur persisted, walking alongside her. "Well, if any of us came in like this, you'd think we'd gone mad." Rapidly losing her patience with him, she called the lift.

"I can assure you I've not gone mad just yet, Dr. Digby," she briskly replied. The metal doors opened and she stepped in, pressing the button for the ground floor, causing the doors to close between her and a very much confused and frustrated Arthur.

Now she just had to work out where the hell she was going from here.

Hope this is alright!
Please feel free to review and tell me your thoughts!
Sarah x