"Jo – Jo can you hear me?" Lucas asked anxiously, as he checked her pulse and monitored her temperature. The rest of the team and several passers by had also come to try to assist and were now loitering around the scene.
Jo opened her eyes and looked up to find Lucas' intensely blue eyes peering into hers and a concerned expression on her face. She moved slightly, wondering as she did why the back of her head was throbbing so.
"Jo – I'm sorry about that, Elizabeta was completely out of order. It's over between us."
Jo didn't respond. Her vision was still blurry and her head was swimming.
"I think we'd best get you to a doctor," said Lucas firmly. "Harry can you give me a hand," Lucas called, gesturing to him for assistance.
While the rest of the team moved forward to see how Jo was doing, Lucas stepped aside for a moment to speak to his ex wife.
He glared at her, "I think you should get the hell out of here," he said angrily.
Then he added harshly, "And when I get home I don't want to see your face. Find somewhere else to live, you're on your own."
Elizabeta looked at him, shocked, her lip quivering, then said bitterly, "screw you Lucas," and turned on her heel.
With Harry's assistance Lucas carried a rather dazed Jo out of the station and placed her in one of the staff cars outside.
"You take her to the hospital, we'll finish up here," Harry ordered. "And let us know how she's doing."
Then he paused, and placed a hand on Lucas' arm before adding gently, "I'm sure she'll be fine Lucas, its nothing unusual at this stage of proceedings. My wife did the same thing when she was expecting Catherine."
Lucas was slightly taken aback by Harry's comment, but after a moment nodded and smiled slightly. "Thanks, Harry – I'm sure you're right."
**
Once they'd got back from the hospital to Jo's home Lucas had insisted on staying with her for the next hour and had fussed over her like she was a small child who was incapable of taking care of herself.
Jo found his behaviour both slightly exasperating and strangely endearing.
"You know the doctor said that I was fine, that there was nothing wrong except that my blood pressure was a little low, but that this was quite normal," she'd reminded him.
"He also said that you should take it easy for the rest of the day," he replied promptly.
"Jo," Lucas said, "I'm sorry Elizabeta upset you. I should have told her about the baby earlier, she was really angry and I want to apologize for that. I'm sorry things turned out like this."
Jo nodded and smiled weakly, "It's ok – I guess Russians are supposed to have fiery temperaments so I guess she was just living up to their reputation."
"She does have a temper," said Lucas, sighing "I wish she would learn to curb it but it was never one of her strong points."
Jo nodded. Try as she might she knew that she was unlikely to forget Elizabeta's temper for some time yet.
The scene at the station was still etched in her mind and she knew that facing up to her colleagues at work the next day was going to be particularly difficult in light of today's events.
Her last conscious memory before everything went black was seeing Lucas pull his wife aside and whisper in her ear, while had she stood isolated from the group and watched stupidly. Their every action screamed of intimacy - of the familiarity that came from years of togetherness, of waking up next to each other in the morning, of learning to predict each other's moods without even trying. Of a history she and Lucas didn't share and could never recreate.
When she came to, the first thing she could remember was Harry bending over her and smiling encouragingly as he and Lucas had lifted her up to sit upright.
Where Elizabeta was now she didn't know and she didn't care, but Lucas clearly did. She just hoped for both their sakes that Elizabeta could manage to keep her temper under better control the next time their paths crossed, as they inevitably would.