Jac had a nightmare of a day at work. She had been running around like a lapdog and had barely even caught sight of an operating theatre. Nor, in fact, had she caught sight of Fletch.
He was supposed to have lunch with her in his office but he'd text at the last minute and cancelled, and she hadn't even glimpsed him on the ward all day.
Just as she was leaving for the day, collecting Emma from the creche and heading down to the carpark, her phone rang in her pocket. She pulled it out, unknown number, and answered.
"You promised, you actually made a promise and I didn't think you'd stoop low enough to break it," the voice on the other end snapped and she immediately recognised it as Evie's. "What the hell did you do?"
"Evie, what's going on? Are you okay?" She questioned tentatively, locking Emma into her car seat before hopping into the driver's seat.
"Ha! Am I okay? Charming! I'm fine, but Dad's in his bedroom and he's told me to keep the others downstairs and to not disturb. He was on the verge of tears, I know you have something to do with this so either you get round here right now and fix this, or I hope to never see you again!"
This explained lunch...partly. Jac told Evie she'd be there in five minutes and headed straight for Fletch's house. Pulling up outside, she grabbed Emma from the backseat and carried her in, knocking on the door to be met by a very angry Evie.
"I don't know what's going on with him, I haven't even seen him today. If you look after Emma for me then I'll go upstairs and talk to him, okay?" Evie narrowed her eyes at Jac's words, she was only just beginning to trust her and this was the kind of thing that could set them back months. No matter how much Evie tried to be a good person and see the best in everybody, Jac was still Jacula in her mind.
Silently, she outstretched her arms for Emma and took the four-year-old into the living room, leaving Jac in the hallway.
Jac had never been in his bedroom, she'd only been upstairs a couple of times to use the bathroom. She kicked off her heels by the bottom step and padded up the carpeted steps, pausing at the top.
There were six doors. Bathroom, she knew that one. Ella and Theo's both had signs on the doors with their names. She gathered the fourth was Mikey's from the 'KEEP OUT' sign.
Only two left, so she quietly made her way to the first and knocked gently, turning the door handle and poking her head in to find purple walls with The Rolling Stones on one wall and the anatomy of the human body on another. Definitely Evie's.
She stood outside of the last door for a few seconds before knocking twice.
"Go away, Evie," she heard in response, slightly sniffly, and went for the door handle, turning it and pushing it open. "I said go- Oh, Jac."
He was sat at the foot of the double bed, red cheeks and a frown on his face. Jac approached slowly, perching on the bed beside him and placing her hand on his knee.
"Evie rang. What's going on, Fletch?"
"You know the other week I was moaning about the Trust cutting funding for the regular nursing staff so that more of it can go towards agency staff?" He began, eyes locked on the floor. "They've demanded the redundancies of five of my nurses, they've even picked out which ones have to go. Now I have to go in to work tomorrow and tell five people that I regard as friends that they don't have jobs anymore."
"Oh Fletch, you know this is out of your control. None of them are going to blame you for it, everybody knows just how hard you work to look after your nurses. The board are pricks, somebody should've told you that before you took DoN so you didn't have to deal with this disappointment," she said softly, "You have every right to be angry, but you don't get to mope around and blame yourself for something completely out of your control."
He looked up at her through teary eyes and Jac saw all the pressure he had been putting himself under. She pulled him into a hug and held him tight against her, feeling him fall against her as for first time in weeks, he let himself relax.
"I have to tell Carla she doesn't have a job, Carla who I've worked with almost every day since I moved upstairs from the ED," he whispers into her shoulder and all she can do is hold him closer.
They stayed like that for a long time, until the sun had set.
"Why don't you jump in the shower and have five minutes to yourself and I'll put on some dinner," Jac suggested, "I'll even leave Evie with instructions so by the time you get downstairs, it's on the table."
"Stay?" He asked quietly as he let go of her and stood up. "For dinner, I mean. If you've got no other plans."
She offered a narrow smile and agreed, kissing his temple tenderly as she headed for the door.
Downstairs, things had settled quite nicely. Jac poked her head in before heading for the kitchen with Evie following her.
"So, where is he?" Evie demanded snappily.
"Having a quick shower while I put something on for dinner, is that alright with you?" Jac asked, already on tiptoes with her head in the cupboard to try and find the tinned sweetcorn.
Evie nodded reservedly, bending down to grab a small pot out of the cupboard and putting it on the hob for Jac. She boiled the kettle, got out the fishfingers and put them on a baking tray, and passed Jac the frozen mixed vegetables.
"Sorry that I assumed the worst." Jac's head whipped around to make sure she had heard her correctly, earning her an eye roll from the young teen. "Dad would kill me if he knew how mean I'd been to you,"
"Well, maybe we can keep it between the two of us then. Future surgeons pact or something like that," Jac suggested with a smile and she couldn't believe that she was being nice, friendly even, to a teenage girl.
When Fletch came down the stairs with damp hair and a pair of sweatpants on, he was shocked to find the two co-operating so well. His daughter had set the table and Jac was panfrying the salmon from the fridge. It was the image of domesticity that he had never dared to imagine.
