A/N: Congrats on making it to chapter 6! I feel mildly bad about my characterisation of Guy after the latest ep but then I remind myself that this is an AU!
"A little bird told me you've transferred to AAU?" Guy Self sat across the table from his daughter. He'd been building bridges lately and invited her over for dinner, an offer Zosia had begrudgingly and with much reluctance accepted.
She'd been anticipating this question, she set down her cutlery and took a sip of wine, composed and ready. "Yes. And?"
Guy pulled the ivory cloth napkin he'd tucked in his collar free and dabbed his mouth with it before he set it across his lap. "Wouldn't have anything to do with Jac Naylor would it?" He pressed, watching his daughter with great interest.
Zosia's palms began to sweat, "Not at all, it was entirely my decision."
"But Darling, I thought your heart was in cardiothoracic's not general surgery? There is no better mentor in the whole country than Jac Naylor!"
"I just fancied a change. AAU are very friendly."
Guy sighed and reached across the table to take his daughters hand, "Zoshie I've seen the way you look at her."
Zosia roughly pushed away her unfinished plate, her throat almost constricting in panic.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" She practically choked, the forced denial made her sick.
"You were the same with that young English teacher you had at secondary school, and that boy in your first year of med school. Your face can't hide anything, especially not from your father!"
"Don't pretend like you took any interest in me growing up! You have got it all wrong, this has absolutely nothing to do with Jac." She was overacting and he was right, her face always gave away any façade.
"Fine, fine. But that woman has no heart Zosia. She'll hurt you, just watch yourself."
"Can we please change the subject?" Zosia drained her glass, she was two seconds away from getting her coat and walking out.
In truth, she had very little in common with her father and with medicine and memories of her mother off the table as ice breakers, conversation was very forced.
"What about that smart young consultant with the blue eyes?"
Zosia sighed, exasperatedly. Her Mama would never have let Guy interrogate her about her love life, she was 25 for goodness sakes.
"What about him?"
"Well don't you want to see if he wants to go out with you?"
"No Dad, I asked you to drop this."
"Well what is your type? Women?" Guy scoffed, Zosia was mortified at having to have this conversation with her father.
"Not exclusively, I'm just attracted to people. I don't label it."
Guy looked on with amused interest, Zosia had enough and abruptly left the table.
"And you wonder why I don't want to spend any time with you! I'm not going to sit here while you pass judgement on my life." She gathered her things and left her father alone at the table.
"Zoshie! I wasn't judging! I just don't think Jac Naylor is the right person for you to go after!" He called.
"It doesn't matter because she's not interested in me anyway." Zosia muttered solemnly to herself as the front door to her father's shut behind her.
The relative calm and geniality of her first week on AAU had lulled her into a false sense of security. By the second week the flagship trauma unit opened and Zosia suddenly became extremely out of her depth very quickly.
Nothing like a massive RTA to christen the new unit. The specialist trauma staff were incredible and Zosia watched with awe as they performed under unprecedented levels of stress and pressure to save lives. She had a new level of respect for ED doctors but the whole event just acted to reaffirm she'd made the right choice in steering away from that avenue. However, the knock-on effect of the new unit on the rest of AAU was where Zosia began to falter.
They'd lost bed bays to be able to house the new unit and now frequently exceeded bed waiting times. When challenged by the ward manager for her slow treatment time, Zosia would argue that all patients were individual cases and should be treated as such and not as faceless figures obstructing targets.
It didn't take long for her to get a reputation for sniping back at superiors and insolence and for generally acting beyond the remit of an F1. There was no one to impress here, no one to fear. Zosia acted on instinct more often than by the book but always got the right result. She felt only begrudgingly appreciated on AAU.
A few days later she happened to overhear a hushed conversation between the co-clinical leads of the department. Their heads were bowed close together and consequently couldn't see Zosia crouching to reach a stack of disposable kidney dishes from the bottom shelf.
"I'm sorry but if she doesn't start following orders, we'll have no choice but to send her back to Darwin."
"I agree. She can be Jac Naylor's problem."
"A bit suspicious that she was even allowed to transfer midway through her rotation anyway. I wonder what happened."
Zosia's stomach lurched. She'd done well to avoid Jac since that fateful encounter and as much as she hated general surgery she'd made this decision on her terms and would not be forced out.
She vowed to herself to keep a low profile and not to ruffle any more feathers. She couldn't go back to Darwin in disgrace, Jac would never excuse that. She hated that she tied the consequences of all of her actions to Jac especially when she clearly meant so little to the other woman.
"If you see her, could you tell her to come and see me?"
Zosia chose this moment to stand up from her crouched position, revealing her location.
"No need. I heard everything. Message received." A big false smile plastered over her face. She pressed the kidney dishes into the chest of a passing nurse.
"Zosia! Oh.."
"I'm taking my break." The two clinical leads looked sheepishly at each other, unbeknownst to the inner turmoil their loose gossip had caused the young doctor.
Thanks for all the support, love to you all!