A/N: Thanks so much for reviewing! I haven't finished writing this so it has the potential infinite number of chapters, it obviously has to end at some point but does anyone have any suggestions of what you'd like to see happen or how you'd like it to end? Enjoy chapter 5 in which Zosia misreads the signs or Jac lacks tact and snap dramatic decisions are made!
Jac didn't realise how soon she'd come to regret that offer of an open door. Later in the week, the junior doctor came bounding in with news of a passed exam or something insignificant that mattered only when you were an F1. Jac was having an off day, she'd just been informed that she no longer had the funding for her latest research which effectively meant months of hard work had been for nothing. She hadn't meant to curt with the girl, it was just really bad timing.
She sat expressionless at her desk, pushing her glasses from the tip to the bridge of her nose.
"I see you've perked up."
Zosia stopped her babbling and smiled coyly at her mentor.
"Do er.. Do you want to go for a drink later?"
Zosia tried to act cool but her pink tinged cheeks gave away her nerves. No one had ever made her feel like this. She was the just the right mix of charm and flirty suggestion, she rarely had to be the one to do the chasing.
"In public? With you? I don't think that's appropriate Doctor March."
Her words were delivered far harsher than she intended but it was too late and Zosia already began to backpedal to save her disappointed embarrassment.
"Oh I didn't think. I just.. Er.. My place?"
She awkwardly pressed her fingers into the back of her neck, looking only at the floor. It had taken a long time for Zosia to work up the courage to do this. She didn't think her affections were misplaced, especially after that searing kiss and the way the so-called 'Ice Queen' had broken from convention to, albeit briefly, show genuine compassion.
Jac weighed up the offer for a moment, her pen poised between her lips.
"No."
She sat back in her desk chair and flicked her eyes nonchalantly to the computer screen.
"Of course not. I must have been mistaken to think for a moment that Jac Naylor was actually capable of possessing normal human feelings."
Zosia wasn't sure where the bile was coming from but she allowed it to bubble to the surface.
"I'm going to ignore that Doctor March and you're going to leave my office and get back to treating your patients."
"You're a mindfuck Jac."
"And you're crossing the line Zosia. What did I say to you about professionalism?"
Zosia slammed the door.
Jac swallowed deeply and tried to unfog her mind and return to her work. She let that stupid girl think she had any effect on her and that just wouldn't do. She certainly wasn't going to run off after her.
The nurses at the station braced themselves as the reverberations from the force at which Zosia slammed Jac's door shook the desk.
"Naylor's really got her work cut out with that one!" They sipped at their tea and clucked.
In the distance Zosia kicked a crash trolley, sending the sterilised contents flying over the floor of the hallway.
"BITCH!"
A day later a memo landed on Jac's desk. One of her F1's had requested a transfer to AAU effectively ending their surgical rotation almost 2 months early. Jac rolled her eyes, two guesses who that was.
She scanned the note again and glanced at her schedule to see she had a full day of surgery, she really didn't need this.
If she was the person Zosia wanted her to be, she'd have put her schedule on hold and taken the time to seek her out and convince her she was making a mistake. To beg her to stay for the good of her career and maybe take her up on that offer of a drink. But Jac wasn't that person and she knew Zosia knew that too.
Jac Naylor didn't beg for anyone ever. This wasn't a game and she wasn't going to run around after a silly girl looking for drama no matter how talented or aesthetically pleasing she was. Steeled in determination, Jac signed to approve the transfer with a brief sigh of inconvenience more than upset. She put the memo in her tray for outgoing mail and left the office to prep for surgery, pushing all thoughts of Zosia bloody March to the back of her mind.
"Doctor March? You're all set, AAU are waiting for you."
The CEO she'd hastily emailed after her encounter with Jac yesterday caught Zosia on her way in to the staffroom that morning. He was a tall brooding Scandinavian and she was a little unnerved by his shadowy presence.
"Today?"
Her heart plummeted and she knew her face showed it. She hadn't expected hospital bureaucracy to be this efficient. A couple of days wait to get over her initial embarrassment then she could have withdrawn her request. It was meant as a threat, not a decisive action.
"Problem, Doctor March? This is what you requested, yes?"
"No problem. Thank-you sir." She shook her head and forced a smile as she took off towards AAU. Her heavy heart made her steps laboured as she turned her back on both Jac and her dream.
Although the request had been made in haste and fuelled by the liquid courage of a couple of straight whiskeys at the end of her shift, she half believed Jac wouldn't actually sign it. She wanted Jac to consider her a personal protégé - an aspiring yet talented doctor integral to the ward but more than that she wanted Jac to want her.
On a different level her surgical portfolio wasn't as exemplary as she knew it could be if she stayed on Darwin with Jac. She was the best cardiothoracic surgeon outside of London and Zosia had let her scorned heart cloud her better judgement. She still had so much to learn and now Jac would spread all her wisdom among the other hapless F1's who aren't worthy of her attention and don't appreciate her brilliance.
She thought too about the way Jac had kissed her after they lost the young patient. The first taste of her, the way her skin had tingled beneath Jac's fingertips. She remembered the way she'd opened her eyes and Jac's were still tightly closed, her nose gently nudging hers, her lips looking again for Zosia's. She'd never been kissed like that, it had to mean something.
"Welcome to AAU! There's a patient in bay 3, just up from the ED, all yours when you're ready, Doctor March."
The cheerful face of the ward's clinical lead met Zosia in the hallway. Another nurse handed her a clipboard with the patients charts and a few others at the desk looked up from their paperwork to wave. The warm welcome was more than she ever received on Darwin.
A little overwhelmed, Zosia ducked her head shyly and quietly got underway with the job. Although the heaviness in her heart remained all day, Zosia relaxed into her new environment and wondered if the transfer had been the right decision. General surgery wasn't her passion but passion appeared to be her weakness lately.
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