After Gordon had cleaned her foot and put a dressing on, he went straight into the kitchen, not saying a word except for a brief 'thank you' to PC Bellamy.

"Doctor, are you okay?"

Jill looked up at the sound of PC Bellamy's voice to see him looking at her with some concern on his features.

She smiled briefly at him, though she didn't really feel like doing so. "Yeah, I'm fine." She lied. In reality, guilt was eating away at her, and she was worried about what she was going to say to Gordon. She really did need to apologise to him, but didn't know how it would be received. Part of her wanted to do it as soon as possible, but another, cowardly part of her wanted to put it off as long as she could. She didn't want to see him looking at her with a cold or even angry expression as she sure he would. And he had plenty to be angry about. The trouble that she'd caused him, both what he knew and also what he didn't; that the whole situation was her fault. Of course she couldn't tell PC Bellamy all of this so she pretended she was okay.

She sighed, wishing this was true. She wished a lot of things actually; wished that the situation was real, wished that Gordon wasn't involved, wished that she didn't have to keep lying to everyone; wished that she knew why she was being targeted in this way. If she knew, she might be able to stop it. Now she was even more scared than she had been before because if whoever was doing this found out that the police had been called, they might actually carry out their threats.

She felt something on her hands and broke away from her thoughts to PC Bellamy's hands on hers, and noticed that her own were shaking visibly.

"Doctor, are you sure you're okay?"

Jill nodded, but without the conviction to convince him.

"I'm going to get Doctor Ormerod." He made to get up but Jill grabbed his arm, preventing him.

"Don't, he doesn't want to see me. I don't want to cause him any more trouble."

"I'm sure that's not true. I can see how much he cares for you."

At this, Jill froze, she felt her chest constricting in mild panic. Did he know about them? Was it that obvious? She was about to protest when he carried on, his tone neutral and she realised nothing was implied in his statement other than friendship.

"Look, I'll go talk to him. I'm sure it's just the stress and shock of what's happened; he's not angry at you."

Jill conceded and dropped her hand from his arm, allowing him to get up and go into the kitchen. She just hoped he was right.


Jill didn't know how long it had been since PC Bellamy followed Gordon into the kitchen, but it had been too long for her liking. She shifted, trying to make herself more comfortable, an impossible task since she was perched on the hard stairs. Trying to distract herself from her discomfort, she focused on the sounds filtering down to her from Katie's bedroom. She heard PC Younger's voice then heard the hysterical giggles of the children. A good sign she thought; hopefully they hadn't been too affected by the night's events.

Despite her relief of hearing the noise from above, it couldn't distract her forever, and her thoughts turned once again to the kitchen. Unable to bare it any longer, she rose, and limped towards the closed door. Pausing outside of it, she strained, but could hear nothing but the muffle of the low, deep voices of the men. She knocked softly, vaguely aware of how ridiculous it was to knock on a kitchen door, then gingerly opened it, wary of the scene she would confront behind it. Half of her wanted to close the door and retreat to the relative ignorance of her stance on the stairs- she wholeheartedly agreed with whoever said ignorance was bliss at that moment.

However, the option of a retreat was ended as the voices stopped, indicating they had registered her presence. She pushed the door open further. PC Bellamy glanced at her. The two vertical lines between his eyebrows were more pronounced, and numerous lines of worry or concern marked his forehead. She couldn't see Gordon's face; his back was to her, but she could guess his mood from his hunched shoulders and slumped posture.

She looked back at PC Bellamy. He flashed a brief smile at Gordon before walking past her out the door, touching her arm briefly as he did so. She shifted on the spot for a few moments, unsure of how to start. Not knowing what his mood towards her made it difficult for her to decide whether to proceed with an inquiry into his feelings, or to start with an apology. Knowing it was stupid to stand without saying or doing anything and possibly making the situation worse, she started with the simple, tentative utterance of his name. "Gordon..."

He made no acknowledgement that he'd heard her, but she knew she'd said it loud enough. After a few moments, when she thought he was going to ignore her completely, he turned around. She was shocked to see the utter sadness and pain on his face. Tear tracks ran down his face, and more brimmed on the edges of his eyes, ready to spill it seemed, at any moment.

Once again, she was unsure what to do. She'd only seen him cry on very few occasions, mostly after Caroline's accident and the subsequent repercussions. On those occasions, she'd offered him comfort and most of the time, he'd taken it. However, on those occasions, she was sure of their friendship.

Despite the uncertainties, she couldn't just leave him there, so she did what she'd done those times before albeit more tentatively. Without a word, she closed the distance between then and laid a hand on his shoulder. He didn't flinch away, which must have been good sign, so she drew him closer. Soothing noises left her lips, her hands both stroked his back and his head, trying to ease the tension. His hair was soft beneath her fingers, a significant comparison to his taught back, but eventually, he relaxed slightly.

She pulled away, just enough so she could look at him, her eyebrows raised in question, and an encouraging soft smile curved her lips.

"Sorry..." He laughed humourlessly. She gently shook her head in admonition telling him without words that there was need for apologies. "It's just tonight. I can't help thinking that Katie and Tom could have been injured, and you even more so. And what effect will this have on them? And I just don't understand why anyone would want to do this. And who?"

Jill held up her hand, stemming the gush of words from an increasingly agitated Gordon. "Firstly," she said softly, attempting to get him to relax again, "Katie and Tom weren't hurt at all. There's no use dwelling on what could have happened. And," she stressed, as he opened his mouth to speak, "I just heard them laughing with PC Younger so I doubt tonight has affected them too much. As for me, I'll live." She smiled at him, rubbing her hand up and down is arm, but her tone became more serious. "The police will do everything they can to make sure we're all safe and so nothing of the sort will happen again."

Gordon finally smiled and nodded his tine lighter, playful. He was seemingly convinced by her words, more than she herself was probably. "You're right, as usual."

"Come on, let's go see Katie and Tom, eh."