A/N: Thank you all for reading and reviewing! Hope you enjoy this next chapter :)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 2: How it's going

Over a week had passed since Kate found Edwina and Tom chatting with each other in the hospital cafeteria. Over a week since Kate had approached them and pointed out to Tom that this was her little sister, and then Tom "conveniently" got an emergency page before hightailing it out of there. Over a week since Kate had warned Edwina that Tom was a known womanizer and that she would do well not to associate with him, while Edwina kept insisting that the two of them were just talking and nothing was going on between the two of them.

Over a week since Kate had to force herself to let it go and hope that Tom would leave her sister alone. Perhaps she really was just reading too much into this.

In the days that followed, Kate kept noticing Tom glued to his phone and texting someone during his shifts, and she knew the texts weren't work-related as he always had a smile on his face as he did it. It made her suspicious, but she ignored her gut instincts as she went about her nursing duties.

It wasn't until the following Friday, when Kate checked Facebook at the beginning of her morning shift, that she saw the dreaded news:

Edwina Sharma
is in a relationship with
Tom Dorset

"No!" Kate gasped aloud, staring at her phone in shock. Daphne looked up from the computer she was typing at.

"What is it?" she asked, getting up and walking over. Kate simply showed her her phone screen, and Daphne's eyes went wide when she read it.

"Oh God. That isn't good," Daphne said, looking over at Kate worriedly. "I thought you said they weren't talking to each other?"

"Apparently, I was wrong," Kate said angrily, looking up just as Tom walked around the corner, reading a chart. "Excuse me for a moment."

"Kate –" Daphne began, but Kate ignored her as she marched over to Tom.

"Dr. Dorset," she said coldly, and Tom stopped to look up at Kate, blinking at her angry expression. "May I speak with you for a moment?"

Tom gave her a suspicious look before glancing over at Daphne standing at the nurse's station. "I take it you've heard the news?" he asked baldly.

So he wasn't even trying to hide it, and Kate felt her anger spike. "What the hell do you think you're doing, messing around with my little sister?" she hissed angrily, keeping her voice low. She glanced around, making sure people nearby couldn't overhear her. "Edwina told me the two of you weren't talking to each other, but considering this involves you, I should've realized I was being lied to!"

A look of annoyance flashed across Tom's face as he closed his patient chart. "Look, I'm sorry that she lied to you. I told Edwina that I had a bit of a reputation around the hospital and that was why you didn't like me, but she said that she didn't care. She probably didn't want to upset you by telling you about us, but I actually like her quite a bit. She's funny and smart and beautiful – is it really such a terrible thing that I want to see where it goes?"

Kate's anger flared once again. "Have you even told her?" she asked, glancing at several nurses walking past them. "About what happened between us a few months ago?"

Tom's eyes shuttered into a cold expression as he glared at her. "I don't see how that's relevant. The two of us never dated."

Kate's eyes widened in shock. "You –!" she almost cursed him out, but quickly gritted her teeth to keep her voice calm and tempered. She took a deep breath. "I know we technically didn't, but we do have a history as you well know. Edwina needs to know the truth."

"Then you tell her," Tom shot back at her.

Kate was taken aback. "Me? I'm not the one dating her, arsehole!"

"But you are her sister," Tom pointed out. "And, according to her, you two tell each other everything. So why haven't you told her about you and me yet?"

Kate hesitated, her face going a bit red. While she and Edwina did share a lot with each other, Kate was always hesitant to share details about her love life. She'd never had much luck with guys, and after the way she and Tom had ended things, Kate had been too humiliated to share it with her sister. She had just wanted to forget it ever happened, but apparently she couldn't even do that.

"Maybe I should tell her," Kate said defiantly, glaring at him. "She should know the type of liar she's involved with."

Tom narrowed his eyes. "You want to break up a happy couple over something that happened months ago before I even knew her? That's real low, Kate."

"She needs to know!" Kate snapped.

"No, she doesn't. And if you tell her, I'll say that you've secretly been harboring feelings for me for months now," Tom threatened.

That shocked Kate into silence for a moment or two. "What?!" she sputtered. "You know that's not true!"

"I do, but Edwina doesn't," Tom said coldly. "If you don't want everything to blow up in your face, then you won't tell her anything. Leave the two of us alone and we'll all get along swimmingly. Understood?"

Before Kate could respond, Tom brushed past her and walked away. Kate practically shook with rage as she stalked back over to the nurse's station.

"Can you believe the nerve of that man?" Kate snapped at Daphne, who had been watching the whole exchange with wide eyes. "He threatened me so I would keep lying to my sister!"

"I know. He's truly awful," Daphne said, watching Tom walk away with a frown on her face. "What are you going to do?"

"Honestly, I don't know," Kate said, shaking her head in distress. "Barring a bolt of lightning coming from the sky and striking him dead, I don't know if there's anything I can do."

"Well, it all might turn out okay," Daphne said reassuringly. "Their relationship is still new, and once Tom inevitably starts showing his true colors, I'm sure Edwina will make the right decision and leave him."

"I hope you're right," Kate said, scowling as she picked up a patient chart. "I would just rather my sister not get hurt by that scumbag."

"I know," Daphne said compassionately. "But I don't think there's anything that can be done about it now. Don't forget, we're going out to the Angler Pub after our shift tonight, and some of my siblings said they could stop by. I'm excited for you to finally meet them – I think it'll be nice to go out with them and take your mind off of your sister and Tom for a bit."

"Yeah," Kate said, cheering up slightly at the thought of going out to the pub tonight. "I definitely need a drink."

"That's the spirit," Daphne grinned at her friend. "C'mon, we should go do our rounds."

"Alright," Kate said, hoping fervently she would be able to forget her problems tonight.

The Angler Pub was quite crowded, which was pretty typical for this place. It was a favorite hangout amongst the hospital staff since it was near St. Batholomew's and had a fun, casual atmosphere that thankfully didn't attract too many rowdy university students. Once Kate and Daphne arrived at the busy pub, Daphne went to go find a booth while Kate went straight to the bar.

"Two shots of tequila, please," Kate said to the bartender once he walked over to her. "And open a tab for me. I'm going to need a lot more liquor tonight, I assure you."

The man nodded with a smirk, and soon he produced two shot glasses of tequila for her. She downed them both, relishing the burning warmth in her throat as the liquid went down. It made her feel a bit better, but dark thoughts of Tom dating her little sister still pervaded her mind.

Kate felt her phone buzz in her pocket with an incoming text, and she groaned to herself. She and Edwina had been texting on and off all day, with Kate (not-so-subtly) insisting that Edwina was making a huge mistake by dating Tom. Edwina kept arguing back that she was a grown woman who could make her own decisions, and that Tom wasn't nearly as bad as Kate thought he was. Their text conversations just kept going around in circles, and since Kate couldn't exactly tell her the real reason why Tom was so awful, Kate was at a loss of what else she could do.

They needed to break up. That would solve all of Kate's problems, but she had no idea how that could happen. Edwina could be stubborn as a mule sometimes, and with Tom, she was just digging in her heels.

Why does this have to be my life?

The bartender was occupied with some other people who had come in, so Kate had to wait to order two pints of beer for herself and Daphne. As she stood at the bar, she noticed a bloke a few feet away from her talking to someone on the phone:

"…want different things, Sienna. I figured you of all people would understand."

Kate looked at him out of the corner of her eye. He was a young, good-looking guy wearing a suit with no tie, and his dark brown hair was ruffled in a rather handsome way. The silver Rolex on his wrist told Kate he came from money.

"I know, baby," he said compassionately, the tone of his voice convincingly sad. His other hand was holding a lowball glass of whiskey, which he swirled around a couple times. "I'm upset too. But I think it's for the best. You always knew with my career it can be very difficult to maintain a relationship…"

He lifted the glass of whiskey to his lips and took a sip before setting it back down on the bar. "…Yeah, I am working late again. It's the perks of being a barrister, I'm afraid."

He gestured to the bartender and tapped the rim of his glass, indicating he wanted another. Kate could only stare at this guy in disgust: from the sound of it, he was breaking up with a girl over the phone while also lying to her.

Is this bloke for real?

"…Yes, I know. I'm sorry too," he said apologetically to the girl on the phone. "Best of luck to you, Sienna. Alright… you too. Good night."

He hung up the phone, and Kate let out a loud, involuntary scoff.

The guy clearly heard her as he glanced over, eyebrows raised. "I'm sorry, did you say something?"

Kate glared at him, the alcohol in her system apparently making her more confrontational. "Did you seriously just lie to that girl while you were breaking up with her?"

The guy gave her a surprised look. "You were eavesdropping?"

"It was hardly an effort, with you standing two feet away from me," Kate rolled her eyes. "Are all men just completely incapable of telling the truth?"

The guy blinked, his expression morphing into something more amused as he leaned an elbow against the bar. "Run into a lot of liars lately, have you?" he asked, giving her a onceover.

"In my experience, one dishonest prick is enough," Kate snapped at him. "It's disrespectful enough to break up with a girl over the phone, but lying to her about working late while being at a pub? You really think she couldn't see through that?"

The bartender appeared again at that moment, and Kate ordered two pints from him, hoping to finally get away from this guy.

"Well, I'll be sure to consult you on the proper way to break up with a girl once my next relationship ends," the man said sarcastically. The bartender handed Kate the two beers, and she accepted them.

"Oh don't worry. I'm sure you'll manage just fine," Kate said rather snarkily, and with that she turned and walked over to where Daphne was sitting, anger still simmering in her blood. She really just wanted to forget about men tonight.

"Finally," Daphne said once Kate sat down opposite her, and she accepted the beer she handed to her. "What took so long?"

"Sorry, the bar got really crowded," Kate said, taking a long sip of her beer.

"My siblings should be arriving soon," Daphne said, glancing down at her phone. "Benedict and Eloise said they're coming together, so they should be here in a few minutes. And then there's… oh Anthony! There you are."

Kate glanced up and almost choked on her beer when she saw the guy at the bar approach the two of them, grinning down at Kate.

"Hey Daff."

A/N: What an introduction for our two lovebirds XD

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