Emily

I watched Warren from across the car park the bitter wind which cut into me having no effect on him or his phone conversation. I couldn't hear what he was saying but he looked extremely distressed. The other person hung up on him and he checked the screen of his phone before pocketing it and returning inside. I sighed this must be so hard on him.

"It's freezing out here come back inside and I'll make you a hot drink." Tess said putting her arm around me as we walked towards the door. At all the time I've worked at St James's not one member of staff, that wasn't a friend, had treated me this kindly. They really were like a family unit. A smile crept onto my lips as I walked thought the department watching each member of their 'family'. Tess was undoubtedly the mother with Charlie as Father, Big Mac the friendly uncle and Jordon the unfriendly one. Jay, Noel and Lenny the jokey brother's, Zoe and Adam the older sibling and finally Kirsty she seemed like the baby of their family. They all wanted to protect her but she would insist she was strong enough to protect herself even if she wasn't.

Every member of their team had there own place there own role to fill and they all seemed to fit perfectly together. Tess handed me the steaming tea with a strained smile. She sat carefully beside me in the staffroom and placed her hand comfortingly on my arm.

"How many times did you see her?" I could tell it was hard for her to talk about it. She had missed all the signs which she had been trained to see.

"Over a dozen." She sighed and sunk back into the sofa. I turned to her, "I started recognising her and taking over from other nurses when she came in. I didn't clock on for a while, maybe the fifth or sixth time I saw her, that's when I realised. She was so good at hiding it, it was scary. She was always bubbly and chatty whenever I saw her. Never letting on she had a care in the world every time apart from this last one. She was so quiet, she refused to talk to me or even look at me. We were so rushed off our feet I didn't get back to her for a while, I caught her trying to sneak out. She said she was late for work but I needed to dress her arm and that's when the bomb went off. While she was trapped we talked. She didn't tell me she was married and always gave me her maiden name but this has been going on for over fourteen years." She tore her gaze of her lap sharply looking at me hoping she had just misheard me.

"Fourteen years." She whispered in disbelieve more to herself than me.

"I'm sorry." I didn't know what else I could say so we fell into silence. After a couple of minuets the door open and Zoe flopped onto the sofa on my other side letting out a loud sigh.

"You alright?" I asked and then kicked myself, of course she wasn't. I looked across at her. Tears swelling in her eyes but she didn't let them fall. I put my tea on the floor at my feet then I reached over and pulled her into a hug unable to see her upset and not do anything. We were soon joined by Tess. I sat hugging these two people who I barely knew, not knowing how unlike them it was to be hugging me back and showing their vulnerable side.

I hadn't left Holby in over twenty four hours, my colleagues having long since left but I couldn't bring myself to leave. I felt a strong bond towards Kirsty and I didn't want to leave until I knew that she was going to be ok. I'd only met her a few times but I felt like I'd known her for so much longer. In fact I was becoming connected with everybody around here. They were all so kind. They were looking out for me even though we had only just met. At St James's I hadn't seen this kindness in the whole time I'd worked there and I'd been here one day. Everyone had stayed taking it in turns to nap in the staffroom and on-call room. Leaning on each other for encouragement and support, it was heart warming to see. Tears fell over my cheeks with out me realising that they had threatened to fall.

Slowly they pulled back and I released my hold on them. Tess quickly wiped a fallen tear from her cheek looking slightly embarrassed that I'd seen. I smiled and wiped the cuff of Kirsty's Holby hoodie across my cheeks mopping my tears. I caught her scent on it and regretted accepting it and her clean scrubs after I showered the dust and her blood off me. My hair was still damp and hung in a mass of messy curls from my bobble, soaking the hood of her hoodie.

I'm sure if Kirsty had walked in on us like that she would have laughed at us. She wouldn't think she deserved people to care about her and would have laughed it off nervously. I've fought to find out everything I could about her since I realised what was happening. I know she has a very low opinion of herself, feeling that she doesn't deserve to have people care about her and I would bet on it that she felt responsible for what he does to her. Although she puts up a front, appearing confidant and ballsy, behind it all I think she feels worthless and she can't except compliments but still she does everything she can to help others to the best of her abilities.

Kirsty

I knew I had to do something. I'd just been lying on the floor silent for what seemed like an eternity and I'd only gotten weaker. My breathing was more rapid and uneven; I fought to keep it steady but it was a battle I was losing.

"David," I rasped still lying motionless on the concrete, "I'm guna die." There was no point in beating around the bush, I knew the truth; I was a nurse of course I knew what was happening to me. He looked up at me, I guessed studying me before deciding I didn't look that bad and returning to something I couldn't see which he held in his hands. He didn't even bother to speak to me. One look that was what my life rested on. One look, one which I didn't pass and that in that moment - when I stole his attention from whatever it was in his lap that was more important than my life - he decided that I looked ok and went back to whatever he was doing and ignored me. That was the moment he signed my death certificate and I knew I could not count on him for help.

I had to move there was no other way. I wasn't sure whether David was simply waiting for me to die but I wasn't going to wait around to find out. I had to try, for my daughter. To protect her.

Nita

I'd been at Grandma's now for hours. I'd sat though her stupid dinner with her small talk in which she avoided all of my questions and stayed well away from anything to do with mum and dad. I'd eaten every mouth full of her disgusting cooking just for a bit of peace and quiet. She'd left me sulking over the huge mound of washing up. Who'd have thought one meal could have created so much. I was in no hurry to finish, its not like there was something to do afterwards. I stood at her sink using my wet rubber gloved hand to tuck a fallen strand of hair behind my ear. I felt useless I wanted to be with my mum, not here being my Grandma's slave.

Why the hell had dad left me here? If he didn't want me to see mum like that I could have stayed at a friend's. At least I knew mum would be safe at the hospital. Dad would never try anything in front of people, after all he never tried anything in front of me but I couldn't shake of the bad feeling I'd had since I remembered what happened. It was most likely the reason why she was at St James's in the first place. My life was going to be turned up side down. Scratch that I was going to turn my life upside down as soon as mum was well enough we were leaving. If she wasn't going to protect herself I was going to do it for her, that or make her do it herself. I should never have left her at the hospital. I should be there with her.

That's it I've had enough if he isn't going to come back and take me to see her I'll just go by myself. I grabbed my coat of the back of a kitchen chair and headed for the door. I'd only gotten a couple of steps when she appeared in the doorway.

"Where do you think your going?" She asked her wrinkled face crunched up into a frown with her hands on her hips. Great.

"I just wanted some fresh air. Why is something wrong?" I knew exactly what I was doing with my, I'm so innocent I could never do anything wrong, face looking up at her. She looked down at me as if trying to decide whether to believe me or not. Everyone always believed me why was she having such a hard time with it.

"No nothings wrong," she finally replied coyly, "but I am glad you want some fresh air. My flower bed looking rather over grown and could do with a good sorting out," when I didn't make an offer to do it for her she spoke again, "it would be so kind of you to do it for me." She said giving me no choice but to collect her gardening tools and head into her back garden. Ughhh, just what I wanted to be doing.

Tess

I pulled back trying to discreetly wipe a tear from my cheek but I caught Emily watching me her big blue eyes filled with tears. She brushed her tears away with her sleeve. I felt for her, this was all new to her. We all knew each other but she only knew Kirsty. I could tell she was kind and sweet it showed. Zoe had also pulled back and we sat looking at each other before we all let out a little laugh. What did we look like?

It had been hours now since that moment on the sofa and even longer since David had taken Kirsty from rhesus and tempers were running high. Nobody knew what had happened to them where they had gone and if Kirsty was still alive. Everyone was on edge, knowing that it was getting more and more unlikely that she wasn't going to make it back alive. Adam and Jay were still of gallivanting around the hospital checking every nuke and cranny they could think of and correlating with security and the police as the search was widen out of the hospital grounds but there was still no sign of them anywhere. They had popped down a couple of times now to check up on us and to see how we were holding up. We'd broken the four hour rule several times today but no one seemed to care I certainly didn't blame them, although I still wanted to keep the ED running smoothly. Nobody had gone home, just catching the odd hour to catch up on sleep either in the staffroom or on-call room. Everybody was just living off coffee resulting in the coffee jar in the staffroom needing a desperate refill.

In came Charlie shopping bags at the ready, I smiled, perfect timing. They were filled with coffee, milk, sandwiches and other snake foods including my favourite biscuits. For a couple of minuets the staffroom was heaving as everybody dove into the bags choosing a sandwich or making a hot drink. I stood bag smiling at the chaos a couple of bags of shopping were causing. Charlie was also stood back smiling not at everyone else but at me. I mouthed "thank you" silently over the bedlam to him.

"Anytime," came his silent answer.

After everybody was fed and watered the atmosphere changed for the better, we started focusing more on the patients and moving them along quickly. We were getting twice the number of patients with everyone in the near area coming to one hospital instead of two and all of the St James's staff had already gone home so to say the ED was hectic was an understatement.

Adam

The police had asked for the hospital blue prints. They wanted to check they had covered every exit to make sure they hadn't missed anything. From what I knew every exit out of the hospital had CCTV covering it making it impossible for them to escape with out being seen. People had been trawling though hours of CCTV tapes for hours now and nothing had been found. I was certain they were still in the hospital I just couldn't figure out where and why. He could have left and got away so why did he stay?

I was stood beside two police officers who where studying the blue prints crossing off places they'd already checked. I'd already checked the whole hospital with Jay and security and thought this was a waste of time but I didn't have any better ideas so I stayed to listen, hoping there would be news soon. The blue prints were spread out over the work surfaces in order of floors. They were working from the top down and the roof and the whole top floor had been covered showing on signs. I sighed removing my stethoscope from around my neck and then replacing it the other way around. I looked around at the floor plans trying to find a place that we had missed but we'd covered every ward, office and store cupboard finding only her absence and my worry growing.

I wouldn't give up, Kirsty was counting on me to find her so I would. They had last been seen heading toward the east staircase that lead downwards onto the first floor cafeteria and upwards onto the roof. So they must have got off some where in-between. After drawing my conclusion I knew we would have seen them of they had each exit of those stairs was covered by CCTV. It was a dead end. Frustration got the better of me and I lashed out kicking a plastic chair across the room. The officers looked up at me for a second before returning to their job. I had to get out I needed to find her and found me feet walking to the last place the CCTV had seen them. I pushed open the double doors leading onto the stairs still not in the best of moods. My feet lead me down and I took the stairs one and a time looking for something anything no matter how small that I could use to place her here. I found nothing, I didn't even know they had come this way. As I got nearer the ground floor the hustle and bustle of the cafeteria came into ear shot growing louder the closer I got. I stood a couple of steps from the bottom staring though the little glass window in the door watching the people on the other side eating their food. My heart sank I'd really lost her.

Slowly a door opened I hadn't seen it before; it was hidden in the wall behind the stairs. Blood there was so much blood covering trembling hands, arms and front.

"No," I pushed past him not caring at this point if he got away, all I could see was a dimly lit passage blood smearing the floor and wall. My eyes then settled on a small blood soaked body sprawled across it, a mass of unruly curls telling me.

"Kirsty."

Sorry couldn't resist the cliff hanger! I think I've made this part too long and dragged it out but it should all become clear in the next chapter.