A/N: Thank you for all the reviews so far :) I've decided to involve Jac and Jonny quite a lot in this, because I would like to write them standing as a unit for a change.

Sarah x

Serena woke up, her head thumping. She brought her wrist up to look at her watch. Five in the afternoon. She was due to leave in an hour. She looked up to see that Jonny Maconie was watching her, a look of worry and caution on his face. "How're you feeling?" he asked gently, brushing her hair out of her eyes. She was surprised to find that Jonny didn't frighten her anymore; he was known for being as soft as putty, which was why he complimented Jac so well.

"Rotten," she muttered. She'd overdone it on the booze, she realised. Perhaps getting drunk really didn't solve much. She didn't try to get up yet; she felt really odd. Tired. Weak. Hungover. Over-stressed. At breaking point. Exhausted.

"Why'd you do it, eh?" he asked gently. "You were doing brilliantly, then you went and got yourself hammered." She realised he had no idea about who Fraser Pickering had been; he'd believed, like most others, he was just some insane patient. She hadn't pressed charges for what happened before. She'd only said about her experience with Chantelle, for which he'd been charged with a variety of crimes, including attempted rape and attempted murder.

"Long story," she whispered. The look her gave her was not one of pity as she'd been expecting; it was one of worry and care and bewilderment. But not pity. Maconie had learned that she didn't like pity, much like his fiery girlfriend.

"I've got as long as you need," he replied. There was a soft knock at the door and Jac walked in, sitting on the empty bedside table between Jonny and Serena.

"Sober yet?" she asked.

"Uh-huh," Serena moaned. "Just about."

"What the hell were you playing at?" Jac demanded, her tone firm but laced with care and concern for her friend. "You do know Hanssen would've hung you from a sixth floor window if he'd caught you drinking on duty?"

"Feel free to go and tell him then," Serena snapped. She only realised what she'd said when she looked at Jonny – he was shocked. He looked up at Jac, unnerved that Serena had said such a thing. She refused to take it back though. It was the representation of how she felt right now. "Will one of you please take me home? I'm well over the limit."

"Aye," Jonny said. "You don't need me here, do you?" he asked Jac.

"No, it's fine," she agreed. "Take the rest of your shift off. I'll see you at home," she smiled, leaning down to kiss him as she passed. Serena internally praised them; they'd come a long way in a year. They lived together now. Argued like cat and dog at times, but always came through it.

Left alone with Jonny, Serena realised she couldn't hide in the Darwin on-call room for the rest of her life, as appealing as that idea was at the moment. She groaned and started to get out of bed, leaning down to pick up her boots. Jonny was very patient with her, understanding that, for whatever reason, she wasn't in a good way at all.

She stood up, still a bit dizzy, Jonny's hand on her elbow as he gently kept her upright. "You need anything from Keller?"

"Ric will have taken my bag home. He was due to leave a few minutes ago," she sighed, letting Jonny guide her out of the room. He went to change out of his uniform and get his things, and emerged from the locker room in his usual jeans and sweater combo. In silence, they entered the lift, only to find Hanssen getting out. He didn't say anything, but gave her a tiny understanding smile, and she had a horrible feeling he knew where she'd been all this time but wasn't going to say anything.

As Jonny pressed the button, she was finding she wanted Hanssen to berate her for being weak. It would have made her listen. Or shout. Or argue. But she wouldn't be feeling like this.

She looked at anything but Jonny as the lift began it's descent, and she briefly wondered if Ric had missed her. He'd not made any contact. Did he actually even care about her? She disappeared for hours on end and he'd not tried to even phone her. Not even a text. But then why would he care about a borderline unhinged woman who took trouble with her wherever she went?

They got out of the lift at the main entrance, where the coffee stand was. Serena was walking silently through the reception area when her attention was attracted by the large TV on the wall, where the local news was being reported on loop, over and over again, just like it did every single day. Except today was different for Serena

"Dr. McKinnie, originally from Surrey, was reported missing, nineteen years ago, from her home in London when she failed to turn up for work at St. Thomas' Hospital, where she was a junior doctor on the general surgery ward," a skinny blonde reporter explained to all the people Serena knew here. "She was found safe and well, working as a consultant general surgeon and clinical executive director at Holby City Hospital earlier today."

Two pictures, the one from the missing persons' site and one from the press release last year when she was attacked, appeared on screen, and Serena could almost feel everyone stop what they were doing. The hurly-burly of end-of-shift time stopped as everyone looked up at the screen. "Serena Campbell made the news in the summer of last year when both she and a nurse were viciously and near-fatally attacked on hospital premises," the reporter, to whom Serena was taking an extreme dislike, continued. "What she was doing in these nineteen years she spent off the radar is currently a mystery, but Henrik Hanssen, CEO and Director of Surgery at Holby City Hospital, released this statement in response to the news," she finished.

Hanssen appeared on the screen, no script to read from, saying, "Ms. Campbell was unaware that she had been reported missing in January 1994, and has continued to life with no knowledge of that fact. She has graduated with an MBA from Harvard University. She has been married. She has had a beautiful daughter. She has achieved fearlessly and lived a life of accomplishment, despite the horrors she has had to face along the way, and for that I, personally, am immensely proud of her. I would like to make it public that, regardless of what may transpire about her and her past during the coming days and weeks, Serena Campbell remains one of this hospital's most talented surgeons and has my full backing, and that of every member of staff here. Thank you," he nodded, and the camera cut away from him.

Serena felt a lump forming in her throat at the revelation that Hanssen was publicly supporting her, even if it transpired in the media that she was a coward, or whatever other mistaken conclusion they came up with.

"Ms. Campbell?" she heard Jonny's anxious whisper, his hand gently on her arm. "You OK?"

"No," she swallowed, finally telling someone the truth. "Can we just get out of here?"

"Course," he sighed, guiding her gently out of the building. She wasn't able to bring herself to look back through the glass doors; she already knew she was going to find a room of people who thought they knew her – or at least knew of her – and who were learning she was not who she pretended to be.

He helped her into the car, and it was all she could do to hold back her tears in front of him. They drove in silence for a short while, until the hospital was out of sight. She was aware Jonny kept sneaking glances at her; she was tempted to turn and tell him to cut it out, but she resisted.

Now she knew why Hanssen had given her a little supportive smile. He'd stood up and said he was behind her all the way, no matter what, and for that she was grateful. At least she knew there was someone willing to look like a moron when it all came out.

"What's going on?" Jonny asked, his tone low and approachable. There was something friendly about Jonny – he seemed to be understanding towards everyone, and if he could put up with Jac, he could put up with just about anyone. "What did you run from all those years ago?"

"I didn't run from anything," she lied, hoping he would take the bait and shut up. She had to turn and look at him, because she wanted to see if she was as good at lying as she always had been or if fear and pain and wariness had diminished that ability over the years. "I moved, and they got the wrong end of the stick."

"I don't buy it," Jonny shook his head, turning at the junction. "Nobody just ditches everything all of a sudden and expects nobody to say anything about it unless they're scared to death of what they're leaving behind," he reasoned, and she was annoyed to find he could be very wise under that class-clown exterior.

"Like I said," she said. "Long story. And it's one I don't like telling," she warned. She heard him sigh in reluctant acceptance, and she could almost see the cogs whirring round and round in his brain, trying to find a new way to get it out of her.

"Did you mean what you said earlier?" he asked.

"What?"

"About telling Hanssen if it meant he'd hang you," he replied. "Oh, yeah, I caught that," he added when she turned to face him yet again. "So did you mean it or were you just being a moody cow?"

"What's it to you?" she challenged. He raised an eyebrow at her, keeping an eye on the road as he tried to see how far he could push his luck with her. She knew he was just trying to be there for her, and he was trying to get her to open up about what she couldn't tell Ric, Michael or Hanssen. She was just wondering why he was taking that responsibility upon his shoulders.

"Believe it or not, Ms. Campbell," he gave her a tainted smile, "there are more people than the consultants willing to be your friend."

"They're the only ones masochistic enough," she snorted. "Them and Chantelle. Even Malick tries to keep out of it."

"Out of what?"

"Never mind," she snapped, realising she said too much again. He just shook his head again, driving in silence until they reached her home. She thanked him and started to get out of the passenger side, seeing Ric's car there. That was going to be an interesting conversation.

She couldn't bring herself to leave Jonny without any answers at all. It wasn't fair. He was being kind to her, after all; he could've just left her to drink herself into alcohol poisoning. Instead, he'd hid her up in Darwin until she was reasonably sober.

So she gave him a single answer, to the question she knew meant the most to him: "Yes, Jonny. I meant it." She closed the door and walked away, feeling his eyes bore into her back as she fumbled with the door handle. She managed to open the front door, and heard Jonny drive away, leaving her to find a lie to tell Ric so he didn't think she was weak.

Hope this is OK!
Please feel free to review and tell me what you think!
Sarah x