A/N: OK...sorry for the long wait. Combination of dramas, no power and no internet sort of hinders writing and uploading :(

Sarah and Caja xxxx

"Crèche, crèche, please be open!" begged Sahira, dashing through the glass set of double doors opening to Holby. "Hold the lift!" she cried as she struggled with Indie's buggy and clung on to her daughters' hand. It was no less than five minutes later that Sahira said goodbye to the children, changed into her scrubs and darted onto Darwin Ward. Sahira made a beeline towards the surgery board which gave her the unfortunate news that she was already quarter of an hour late for a procedure in Darwin one with Henrik.

"You'd better get going," came the Irish utterance of Greg Douglas from behind her. "You don't want to be late for a chance to shine in front of the Swede himself now, do you?"

"Greg Douglas, will you please shut up and stop sneaking up on me like that!" she surprised him by saying, whipping round to face him. "And another thing, you should watch what you say about others. Karma comes back around after all." She stormed off in the opposite direction and with a turn of a corner she was gone.

"What was that all about?" Jac queried as she too checked today's list.

"I don't know," the reply came back, "all I did was joke about Hanssen and she went off on one." The baffled Greg then slowly walked off in the direction of x-rays and continues with his shift.

To Jac, this information came as a surprise. She had never particularly liked Sahira nor had she made any real attempt to get to know her but ever since Sahira had worked here Jac had only ever heard her shout once and even then it was over a personal matter with Hanssen. It was for this reason that she decided something was wrong and as she moved to treat a patient in bay four, made a pact with herself to find out what it was.

"Henrik," hissed Sahira as she rounded the doors to theatre. "What on earth do you think you're doing in theatre, you're down to lead, for God's sake, and you can't even keep your hands from shaking. How are you planning on fixing this man's lung if in actual fact you will probably do more harm than good?" she trailed off before looking up to fully take in the man stood before her. He looked worse than last time. His skin looked almost white in the bright lights of the theatre and his eyes seemed to have shrunken back into his skull. Not only this but his witty comments and sarcastic remarks had all but ceased and the constant trembling of his hands remained. This, she told herself, was not a man that needed to be lectured however stupid he may have been. "Sorry," she mumbled "I, I didn't think, I-"

"Alright, Miss Shah, thank you for making your opinions known. However, if you had looked properly at the surgery board, you would see that it is you that will be leading; I am merely here to oversee this procedure." With that he began to walk slowly over to the table. Despite Sahira's constant attempts to apologize and Henrik telling her that it was fine, Sahira still felt a tense atmosphere in the room. It was like she was standing on a knife edge. Never quite knowing when she might fall, never quite knowing when her friend's temper may snap. In addition to this, nothing much more was said in theatre and an uneasy silence was draped over the room. This state lasted until about Sahira and Henrik were scrubbing out. "I will see you in your office in ten minutes, understand Henrik?" asked Sahira tentatively.

It was strange, she thought, that their roles were somewhat reversed and it didn't feel right. It was like the illness had completely left him incapable, like he now needed her to look after and watch over him, not the other way round. Still mulling over her thoughts she walked off and straight into the unexpecting body of Jac.

"Oh, will you look where you're going, Sahira!" snapped Jac as she began to tidy the large pile of paperwork at her feet. Sahira was conscious of Jac staring at her unusually and she knew at once that she had spotted the bruises on her arms where her husband had hit her, from when she told him that she and the kids were leaving. She hastily pulled down her long sleeves and, at that moment, the tall figure of Henrik Hanssen loomed out of the theatre doors. Even Jac, paying barely any attention, could see that Hanssen wasn't in a good way. He was pale and shaking, and when she opened her mouth to comment, she was shot daggers by Sahira. This silenced her and, for the second time in forty-eight hours, she found herself in what seemed to be like a very deep and complicated situation involving Sahira and Henrik.

"Is there a problem, ladies?" he asked in a voice that sounded weak as well as tiered.

"No, Henrik," replied Sahira, "I just bumped into Ms Naylor, that's all." With a curt nod he stalked off and entered the lift. Once he was out of ear shot, Jac pounced on Sahira with questions enough to make anyone's head spin.

After a minute of incoherent babbling, Jac steadied herself and asked, "Who gave you those bruises, what was all that about and why on earth did you look at me like that?"

"It's nothing Jac. I've got to go somewhere now; cover for me." Following this remark, Sahira darted away, not once looking back. She opted to take the stairs. This way, she would have more time to think about exactly what it was she was planning on saying. It felt as if no time at all had passed when she reached the doors she knew so well, but something stopped her from entering. It was as if she was intruding somehow, like she was meddling and prying deep into Henrik's private life. He had never opened up to her as much as he had done in the past few weeks, than he had in all her time of knowing him, and she knew that if she wasn't careful with what she said and how she acted, he may clam up again and go back to not letting her in. This was certainly not what she wanted nor what he needed to happen.

"Were you planning on entering my office any time soon or will I have to wrestle you to get past?" a voice from behind her asked. With that the pair made their way through the glossy hospital doors and entered the office.

Henrik opened his mouth to say something but Sahira interjected before he had the chance. "Henrik, I firstly want to apologise for what I said in theatre this morning. I was not only completely of order, but also I jumped to conclusions and I was wrong. For this, I'm sorry and I want you to know that I meant nothing of what I said. Clear?" she asked him looking up to stare deep into his tired eyes.

"Yes, fine, clear." he replied looking like a rabbit that had been caught in the headlights.

"Sorry" said Sahira softly. "I didn't mean to lecture." Again as Henrik looked into Sahira's dark eyes he saw that she truly meant all that she had said and, for the hundredth time today, he thought how lucky he was to have her as his friend, let alone having her move in with him. He had obviously been admiring her for slightly longer than he had thought because Sahira shook his arm and asked with genuine concern in her voice, "Are you alright?"

"Yes, yes, I'm fine," he replied, "I was just thinking, that's all."

"Right," she said with a regained sense of optimism in her voice. "Shall we go then?" Thoughts were instantly racing round Henrik's head; go where, with who, to do what? Sahira obviously sensed his confusion as she continued, "To your house. Its Tuesday, Henrik, the day that we agreed that the children and I should move in, remember?" This...forgetfulness...was another thing that worried her. At times, he seemed so confused, so out of it. Ordinarily, he would never forget a thing as big as this. "If it's too soon then we can always wait." She said, "We don't mind; if you think we should wait then-"

"No, no, it's fine. It just...slipped my mind," he admitted. He went on to tell her, very sternly, "If you think I am going to allow you and two defenceless young children to live in a place where your husband is more than willing to use violence against you, you can think again!" he said, his voice rising with the frustration he felt. Sahira put her hands on his chest to calm him down a bit. This was another problem. His temper rose so fast now, especially when he got frustrated.

"OK, Henrik, calm down," she told him gently. "It was only a suggestion." She watched as his eyes softened a little again. He was calm now, thankfully. "Now, shall we go and pick the kids up from the crèche?"

He nodded and picked up his laptop and briefcase. Sahira shook her head disbelievingly at him. He was ill, he was going to have to adjust to having her and two very young children around, and he wanted to work.

"I don't think so," Sahira stated. From past experiences, Sahira knew that, to Henrik, his laptop meant work, and there was no way she would let him sit there half the night tapping away on the keys and not paying the blindest attention to anyone else. "Laptop can stay here. I promise it won't mind. In fact, it might like the break," she joked. She saw a glimmer of amusement very briefly flash across his eyes. She grabbed her coat and his arm and pulled him out of the doors.

Fifteen minutes and several strange looks later ,the four people were walking close together across the car park and over to the car. Unbeknown to Henrik and Sahira, Jac had been watching all day. She still didn't particularly like Sahira, but underneath her heart of stone lay someone who really cared and worried about anyone who wasn't being treated right, and those bruises on Sahira's arm weren't everyday scrapes. Also, had she not seen her crying in the staffroom one day? When she had asked what was wrong all, Sahira had said was that she was alright and that she was just going to see Hanssen. When she thought about it, Jac realised that Sahira had shown many signs of being abused. Jac suspected that it was her husband and swore at herself for being so stupid. How could she not have seen? She made a mental note to talk with Sahira, at the first chance she got, and find out precisely what was going on.

"Are you alright.?" Henrik asked Sahira as the car began to slowly drive away. He was still able to drive, for now. He was well aware that he would need to take medication to control the tremors and involuntary twitching. With those drugs, he might even be able to be a capable surgeon for a little while longer.

"Yes, I'm absolutely fine," she said with a smile, and with a look of happiness on her face continued. "It feel like we're safe when we're with you, like you won't let him touch us," she confessed. She knew that wasn't entirely true, but she still felt better with him there. There would be a time, though, that her husband would remember where Henrik lived. Where his wife and children were hiding from him. Then, then it would a question of outsmarting him.

"I won't let him near you," he vowed. He could see very easily the worry in her face. He could tell that she knew that her husband was more unhinged than she wanted to believe.

She gave a soft, humourless laugh. "You don't know him like I know him," she said, with a sadness and fear in her eyes that Henrik hated to see. "If he has to go through you to get at me, he will." She knew this already, but saying it aloud made it feel like it was inevitable. That it just had to happen and there was no way around it. And, truthfully, there really was no way around her husband's behaviour.

With that, she reached over and tentatively rested her hand on top of Henrik's arm. This took him by surprise, but after regaining his composure, he gave her a smile that he put all his effort into making reassuring. He wasn't blind to the facts of the matter, though. They might be content here, but when he came call, and they both knew he would, content would be at the bottom of their list of emotions. Fear would be top of both of their lists, followed closely by anger and hatred, in Henrik's case.

He drove away with mixed emotions about the situation. Happy that Sahira was staying with him, that she and her children were no longer in immediate danger, but sad that she would have to see how ill he actually appeared at times. Confident that he could keep the three of them safe, but also fearful of the unknown, of what was to come from the man who had already caused havoc at the hospital. Not to mention the dread he felt for what he knew this disease was going to do to him at some point. But he knew he could control the shaking, and possibly the moods swings. For how long, though, he was unsure. His mother's deterioration had been rapid, but his grandmother's condition progressed slowly, and she was almost fully functional for many years. So, that was another unknown he, they, faced.

Hope it was alright!

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Sarah and Caja xxxx