A little later, after the shift had finished, Robyn sat by Resus, pinching her nose, in an attempt to stop the tears. Lofty rounded the corner, out of breath, and bent over double, asked her between gasps what happened.

"I just mixed up the saline and antitoxins. Lily went a bit ... overboard." Even as she said Robyn inwardly laughed at the understatement; Lily had asked her if she had even passed medical school and told Robyn that she had no chance of getting a place on the advanced trauma course if her attitude and work continued to be so sloppy.

"Right you're -gasp- coming with me -gasp- and we're talking -gasp- to Ethan. And then i'm -gasp- getting a gym membership."

"Why are we talking to Ethan?", asked Robyn.

"Because we're talking about Lily." Lofty replied as if that cleared everything up. And in a way it did; no-one with a nose for gossip or, to be honest, eyes in their head could miss Ethan's almost constant glances at Dr Chao. Ethan was the only one who had any chance of understanding Lily and was their best bet for finding out what was going on in Lily's head right now.

Meanwhile Ethan was carefully explaining again to Caleb how he knew Lily loved Ash. Caleb let him finish before laughing in his face.

"You are an idiot! She loves you or she wouldn't have cried on your shoulder, twice! Come on Ethan, you know that as well as me."

"Caleb, I really think that if she 'loved' me she would have kissed me back. So yes, I am an idiot... for ever thinking that Lily might possibly love me." With that Ethan turned into the staffroom as Caleb watched in amazement. Honestly his little brother might be fractionally better at medicine (but only slightly), however he was a complete dunce when it came to women. Caleb laughed quietly remembering the comic moment when as Ethan had turned to stare at Lily, she had turned her head from its position of the last five minutes-staring at him. One look at her face then should have told Ethan everything but as he evidently couldn't tell love from friendship Caleb might have to steo into the breach himself. Ethan deserved a break with a woman for once. He was woken from his thoughts by a call from across the desk

"Caleb!"

"Lofty, Robyn. What can I do for you?", Caleb replied happy to talk to the two nurses who could be relied upon to make a bad shift funnier.

"Its actually Ethan we want." Lofty continued breathlessly, while Robyn discovered how quickly Cal's smirk could disappear.

"Really?", Cal must have misheard. Why would these two need Ethan?

"Yeah, its about Lily."

"Told him it was obvious.", Caleb said to himself, "I don't think that's a good idea right now."

"Why?", asked Lofty and Robyn together.

"Why don't I tell you in the pub? I'm parched. First round's on me."

Later in the pub Robyn, Max, Rita and Lofty crowded around Caleb who had, true to his word, bought the drinks and delayed this moment for what seemed like eternity to self-proclaimed gossip addict Robyn. Adding her black coat to the pile of leather jackets and suit jackets by Lofty's chair, she took her chance when the conversation lulled.

"So... Why can't we talk to Ethan about Lily?", Robyn asked excitedly. She was queen of gissip at Holby but even she had no idea.

Cakeb's smirk faded for only a second before continuing in his normal, if slightly less sober, conversational tone, "She sorta broke his heart."

"She did what?", interjected Rita.

"Yeah turns out, surprise, surprise Ethan's got the hots for our resident ice princess. And..."

"And what?", asked Robyn excitedly. Gossip this juicy makes up for the wait, although it was reasonably obvious thst Ethan was head-over-heels for the coldest doctor in the ED.

"They've kissed." Caleb enjoyed watching the expression unfold on his eager listeners faces. Robyn was evidently delighted, Rita looked ready to fall out of her seat (nothing to do with her two pints) and Max refused to even look bothered.

Lofty, sufficiently recovered from a coughing/ choking/ laughing fit exclaimed, almost in horror, "When? And nobody noticed anything?"

"I don't know; all I know is that she didn't kiss him back or something like that."

"So Lily has...", pondered Rita

"Broken Ethan's heart, made Robyn cry and gotten Ash a written warning", replied Lofty. "All in less than a week!"

i know, i know... Too short!

but the big kiss is written and will go up soon, probably (apologies in advance)

you guys are amazing... i ask for possibly 200 views, you give me 260!

That's not much to some but for me, it's incredible

thank you to anyone who has written a review, followed or favourited this story!

PS I have added some, although probably not enough, description. Thanks to everyone who told me that, cos i do and i did ask for constructive crit!