Scarlett: Thank you. I agree, I love seeing Connie's more vulnerable side.

Bonnie Sveen Fan: Thanks so much and I don't think she will.

Chapter Twenty-Six

"Thank you for coming in, but you do realise that Lily isn't here this morning?"

Connie typed in the code for her office and pushed open the door, allowing the policewoman to walk through the door. She sighed and glanced towards the front entrance, hoping to see Lily walking in at that moment, but she didn't. She followed P.C Kendall in and shut the door behind her, gesturing to the jug of water that sat on the coffee table. She didn't touch it but just jumped straight into conversation.

"Will Lily be coming in at all today?" She asked.

"I can't say," Connie whispered. "She isn't currently working, for obvious reasons, so she doesn't really have a reason to be here."

"Is her boyfriend around?" P.C Kendall asked, the one who Connie and Lily had met with before.

"He starts at ten," Connie said. "Lily may come in with him, she may not, but I honestly can't say."

"Well, we will need to talk to you anyway, about Darren Warlow's death," P.C Kendall said. "I hear you were treating him at the time, Mrs Beauchamp, along with a Caleb Knight. We will need to have a word with him as well."

"Whatever for?" Connie shrugged her shoulders. "You're not actually saying that one of us purposely killed him? I think you're forgetting that our job is to save lives, not destroy them."

"We're not saying that at all," she sighed. "But we need to take everything into account."

"Darren Warlow was already gone when he was admitted to the ED," Connie said, flicking the hair out of her face. "There was nothing that we could do to save him."

P.C Kendall nodded and scribbled something down in her notepad.

"Did Lily actually confirm that it was him?" She asked.

"He had the features," Connie said, taking a seat in her chair. "And she fled the room, as soon as she saw him. What does that tell you?"

"That's kind of the reason I need to see her," she said. "That's all well and good, but I need to hear it from Lily herself. Or see," she quickly added, remembering that Lily wasn't currently talking.

"Why don't I give Iain a call?" Connie sighed, leaning across her desk to pick up the phone. "I know that he stayed at her place last night."

"That would be really helpful, thank you."

"You know, you don't have to do this," Iain said, as he and Lily arrived at the door to Connie's office. "Isn't it a little bit too soon to be talking to the police? He only died yesterday Lily, and...Well...You had a really hard day."

Lily just shook her head and turned the handle, before walking inside. Iain was about to follow but the door just slammed shut in his face.

"Morning, Lily," Connie whispered, looking up to give her a smile. "Sleep well last night?"

Instead of lying, Lily shook her head. Connie sighed sympathetically and nodded in response.

"Thank you for coming in, Lily," P.C Kendall said, and stood up to give her hand a shake.

Lily flinched, jumping backwards, whilst shaking her head vigourously.

"Right, sorry." P.C Kendall cleared her throat and sat back down. "I understand that you probably don't want to talk, but we need to know whether the man who was admitted yesterday was indeed, your attacker."

Lily gulped and anxiously took a seat at the other end of the sofa.

"Could you write it down for me?" P.C Kendall asked gently, kindly passing her notebook to Lily.

Lily tucked the strands of hair behind her ears, took the notebook and pen and slowly began to write something down. Connie pretended to type away on her computer, as she watched, and no one breathed a word.

"Are you sure?" P.C Kendall asked Lily, as soon as she'd written something down and passed the book back to her. "Okay, thank you. Mrs Beauchamp, because we now have clear evidence that Darren Warlow was in fact Lily's attacker, we will be dropping the investigation."

"Okay," Connie whispered, smiling to herself. "So, that's it then? It's over?"

"I have no doubts that Mr Warlow died on his own terms," she said. "Lily's been through enough, and I know it can't have been easy on you or the rest of the staff either. The cause of his death was clearly an overdose, so we're going to leave it at that, alright? We have no need to take it further."

"Really?" Connie asked, breathing a sigh of relief. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," she said, standing up and looking back down at Lily. "Get better soon, Lily. Look after yourself."

Lily nodded at her, smiling.

"I'll be in touch, Connie," P.C Kendall said. "You two might want to have words, so I'll see myself out. Keep in touch."

As soon as she'd left the office, Connie turned to Lily with a smile and gave her a thumbs up. Lily hid her laughter, as the clinical lead sat down and put an arm around her.

"Come here, trouble," she joked, pulling her in for a hug. "It's over now, eh? We can now focus on getting you talking again. Now, I know you're seeing Helen but you can still have meetings with me as well. I want you to know though that I will never, ever force you to talk, not if you don't want to. We'll take it nice and slow, alright? And if listening to music is the only way you can speak, then so be it, that is what we will do."

Lily turned her head to look at Connie, and she slowly nodded.

"Thank you," she whispered, and leaned across to wrap her arms around her.

Connie felt tears in her eyes, as she accepted the hug. She patted Lily's back and rested her chin on the top of her head, before pulling away. Lily grinned and stood up to leave the office, so that she could go and see Iain.

Connie sighed heavily and wiped away her tears, just as the door opened again. She thought that Lily had forgotten something, but it was just Charlie and Zoe. The two of them seemed to be catching up, and Connie hadn't been the only one who'd been pleased to see Zoe again.

"Are you okay?" Charlie asked, as he noticed Connie wiping at her eyes. "What happened?"

Zoe's face turned serious, and she gave Connie a worried expression. After the conversation that they'd had last night, she seriously hoped that nothing awful had happened.

"I'm fine," Connie said, happy tears rolling down her cheeks. "Lily spoke to me."

"Really?" Charlie's eyes widened in shock.

"Well, it was only two words," Connie said. "But it's still good, isn't it?"

"Of course it is." Zoe nodded at her. "That's amazing. I'm so pleased."

"Me too." Connie nodded back. "More than pleased."

Hope you liked the chapter. I'm in a happy mood because Crystal and Michael both tweeted me today, haha x