A/N WOW! Thank you so, so much for such a lovely response to this story so far! I am so overwhelmed with the lovely reviews (thank you Guests, NiamhMcGrady-Fanpage, lxtta and foreverholby !), follows and favourites, and the number of people who have read so far, so thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has helped encourage me with this story in any way, so thank you!
I am very sorry for the delay, I've been really busy but wanted to feel happy with this chapter before I posted it, so enjoy! I don't know how realistic some bits are (you'll know what I mean when you get to it!) but I hope it doesn't detract from your enjoyment!
Zosia never quite worked out what had happened to her necklace, and she was devastated that she had lost it. She started to doubt herself- had she even worn it to work? Was it really in the flat somewhere? Ollie tried to reassure her that it would turn up but over the next few weeks, other weird things kept happening. Little things like the consistent feeling of being watched- as she walked through the car park with Ollie after her shift, as she went for a morning run, as she did her food shopping with Arthur and Dom. She told Ollie about this feeling and he took great pleasure in teasing her about it.
'I know you like it when all eyes are on you sweetheart, but trust me, they have better things to be doing than watching you try to decide whether you want white bread or brown' Ollie smirked as he and Zosia lay in bed one night. She lay cuddling into his chest as he wrapped one arm around her shoulder and the other holding her hand, stroking it. She thumped him playfully.
'Seriously, it feels like I'm being watched, and it happens all the time' she moaned. He kissed her temple.
'I say this because I care, but I think you're being paranoid' he said, genuinely.
'Mhm, and what was it my housemate used to say?' She raised an eyebrow.
'Just because you're paranoid, it's doesn't mean they aren't after you' he replied, mimicking a girly voice and she laughed, thumping him again as he gently squeezed her.
'It's true though!' She laughed.
'Short of surveying your surroundings every few minutes, I'm not sure what else we can do without concrete proof though, Zosia' he replied and she sighed. She knew he was right. She looked up and kissed him, before they fell asleep.
'What's he doing here again?! That's the third time in 2 days' Ollie complained as he, Zosia and Elliot strolled through the different Darwin bays and caught sight of Seb loitering by the desk.
'I don't know' she sighed, and then Ollie smirked at the Professor.
'Have you thought that he might be the one lurking around corners and following you? He seems to do a pretty good job at stalking you around here' and Elliot grinned. Zosia smiled and shook her head exasperatedly.
'Honestly you two' she chuckled, 'you sound as "paranoid" as me, apparently' she smirked, and then an alarm went off on her phone. She looked down, and acknowledged it. 'Sorry, I'll be back in a few minutes' she excused herself as she hurried to the locker room. It was a reminder for her to take her medication. When she re-emerged back onto the ward, Seb saw her and when he was sure she was going out her day as usual, he inwardly smiled. His plan was working... While the three were doing their ward round, Seb had again snuck into the locker room to put into place his most cunning plan yet. To get Zosia back, he figured he should be the one to save her. Save her in a way only a psychiatrist can...
While dating, he became aware of her medication needs. He knew exactly what her lithium dosage was, and how often she took it. With some quick calculations he realised that if he replaced the tablets with lower dosage tablets, she would soon slip back into her previous state. And who would they call in the event of a mentally distressed patient losing it? The on call duty psychiatrist. After all, there were only two, including him. If he played this right, she would be his again in no time...
'Zosia did you actually come to bed last night?' Ollie asked, hinting at concern as he leaned against the doorway on the living room of his flat as Zosia sat at the kitchen table, papers everywhere and a cows heart in the middle of the table on a plate, with a scalpel and suture kit nearby.
'But Professor Hope said I could lead on this aortic stenosis procedure' she responded excitedly, as Ollie picked up the cows heart on a plate she had been practising on. He examined it briefly.
'Sweetheart I could have talked you through the procedure this morning, why didn't you come to bed?' He frowned, worried. She looked at him.
'Because without practising, doing it by hand, the patient could die if I slip up' she justified, looking a little put out and frazzled. Ollie nodded in understanding.
'It looks like you've done a good job, but we've talked about this before haven't we? You can't keep staying up all night and then doing a shifts, especially in theatre. You'll burn out' he continued, moving towards Zosia and wrapping his arms around her waist. She looked tired. Her face, usually so vibrant and full of life, looked frazzled and tired, but mentally it was as if she had drunk a years supply of caffeine. She looked wired. It had been several days since she started going without sleep, but a couple of weeks since she started to behave differently. She was more energetic, frighteningly so, and a couple of times just talking to Ollie, he had noticed her fly from one topic to the next, and he also noticed a period of hypersexuality. In the back of his mind he thought about her bipolar, but he knew she had been taking her medication, so in his mind he always thought of other excuses for her behaviour. She had assessments coming up, hence the extra work, for example.
However, it was obvious that something was wrong that morning on the ward. Before Ollie dropped Zosia off at the hospital before his day off, she had been talking constantly about the procedure she was to perform. During her shift, she flitted from one thing to the next, escaping Elliot's notice. As he came to tell Zosia to prep the patient, he was confused to enter the room and find that the bed with the patient had gone.
'Adele?' He called over, and she walked to wards him. 'Have you seen Mr Hendrix?'
'Yeah Dr March prepped him for theatre, she took him in about 10 minutes ago' she replied, and then his face dropped and he turned on his heel and ran to theatre. When he burst through the door, he was gobsmacked to find Zosia start to put the patient under anaesthetic, herself. No anaesthetist, no nurses, no supervision. He frowned as he entered theatre, grabbing a face mask. As he entered, Zosia smiled at him. Her eyes looked tired, he noticed, but she also looked frantic and wired. Her eyes gave everything away, and Elliot knew just from looking at her eyes in that moment, that something was wrong...
'Ah Professor, I'm just getting started' she smiled and Elliot frowned. He had remembered hearing about a similar incident on Keller and knew that it was an unfortunate result of her bipolar. He didn't want to startle her, so he approached her and put a calm, reassuring hand on her back.
'Lets go into my office and run through the procedure just once more' he smiled and she nodded. 'I'll just give the anaesthetist a call, you let yourself in and make yourself comfortable, I won't be a minute.' He smiled.
'You're the boss' she gabbled and smiled as she abruptly put down the scalpel she had just picked up, and left theatre. Elliot frowned, and pulled out his pager.
Elliot paced around outside his office, waiting for the on call psychiatrist to arrive. He had been hoping for the other one, so when Seb sauntered down the corridor he started to worry that he had made the wrong decision.
'Dr Coulter, I don't think it's appropriate for you to be the one to-'
'I'm the on call duty psychiatrist Professor Hope.' Seb pointed out, although deep down he was smiling inanely. 'This has nothing to do with me and Zosia, it has everything to do with a patient in psychiatric distress' he continued, pointing at Zosia, 'and the psychiatrist' he added, pointing to himself. Elliot was reluctant to let him take Zosia, but he wanted to help her, and right now the only way he could help her was to brush aside his feelings about Seb and let him do his job.
As Seb edged towards Zosia, her movements jerked and she threw herself away from him.
'No no, I don't trust you...' She warned him away, and he took gently steps towards her.
'Zosia, it's ok, you're just not very well' he reassured. 'But it's ok, I'm here...'