The countdown to the wedding began and Emma was carted off to Lord knows where in the name of preparation. Jonny picked her up and dropped her off so much that he practically became a permanent fixing on the doorstep.
Meanwhile, things at work were hectic as usual. Jac was running the ward almost singlehandedly and Fletch was drowning under the pressure of finding nurses to take on all the new vacancies that were cropping up.
The two had barely seen each other, Monday night dinners had been postponed until the two of them had less stress at work, and pretty much the only time they saw each other at the moment was on the ward or at Thursday dinners which they had, so far, refused to sacrifice.
It was the busiest week of the year so far when Jac asked Jonny to keep Emma for an extra couple of nights so that she could work late, and Fletch resorted to paying Evie to stay in and look after the kids all the time.
On Thursday morning, it was Fletch who knocked on Jac's office door shyly. He didn't want to be the one to do it, but he knew that they both needed it, just for this one week, at least.
"Hey, how you feeling this morning?" Jac greeted, looking across at him and wondering whether he got any more sleep than she did.
"Absolutely exhausted, which I can imagine is just same as you," he replied, perching on the edge of her desk. "Look, I was gonna ask if you think we should reschedule dinner tonight. I know we said we wouldn't unless we really needed to, but honestly I can't see myself getting away before 10 tonight and even if I do, the only thing I want to do is sleep."
"I totally agree, both of us is far too busy for it and it's only one week. One week isn't going to make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things," she blurted out while on the inside, she was screaming at herself to persuade him not to cancel.
Rationally, it made no difference at all. It was one date, and they had gone on so many now that they were a part of the routine. She told herself that this wasn't them running out of time for each other but she couldn't stop herself from thinking.
"Somewhere posh next week to make up for it? Your choice," he offered with a smile, standing up and heading for the door easily.
Jac dragged herself through the shift and told herself that they were still going to be in the same building, even if they couldn't find the time to go to dinner, it wasn't as if he was off having fun with his friends instead; he was stuck at work, same as her.
At about 5o'clock, she went to his office with a coffee in each hand and a smile. Knocking on the door sharply before letting herself in, she found him with one of his team sat on his sofa, looking rather upset about something.
"I imagined you'd be alone at this time of day, do excuse me," she snapped out in true Naylor fashion before putting down one of the cups on his desk and fleeing without another word, inwardly rather embarrassed though she would never show it.
It wasn't until half an hour later than Fletch came into her office with a forced smile.
"I'm sorry about that, it's Priya's first day and she's having a rough time of it, was there something you need?" he asked her. "Thanks, for the coffee by the way."
"Oh no, Fletch, I'm sorry for interrupting you! For once, I know it wasn't me that upset her so at least there's that," she mused, noticing how he remained in the doorway rather than coming in. "I'm sure you have a lot to be getting on with, so I'll see you later on."
She is called onto the ward after one of her patients went into cardiac arrest. After getting him back into sinus rhythm, she sent him to be prepped for emergency surgery and turned to see the new nurse, Priya, giggling like a schoolgirl to Fletch.
Ignoring it, she went into surgery and got the job done as quickly as possible. An aortic dissection wasn't going to take up her entire evening, so she left one of the theatre team with the job of closing up and returned to the ward.
It was getting late now, the sun had gone down and the ward was starting to quieten if only slightly. She wondered if Priya had gone home yet, Jac already didn't like the woman and wasn't in the mood to cause drama.
Of course, it was just her luck that Priya was sat at the nurses station, gossiping to a couple of the younger nurses. Jac walked past them without batting an eyelid for the most, it was only when she heard what they were saying that she paused.
"So, that Mr Fletcher's quite handsome, isn't he? Wonder if he needs some company for the long night ahead," the new and oblivious nurse teased flirtatiously, making the other girls giggle for a moment before Jac spun on her heel and they halted, stock still.
"Sorry to disappoint, Priya," Jac began snarkily, "but he already has company and your attendance will not be required or requested on my ward again."
The thing about Jac and Fletch was that everybody knew but nobody really spoke about it, so it was common knowledge that was never shared around. Even though nobody had a doubt in their mind that it was true, Jac had just provided the ultimate confirmation.
For a moment, everything on the ward seemed to go perfectly quiet, and then Priya jumped up out of her chair and started rambling out an apology and Jac simply turned to walk away.
It wasn't until 9:45 that Fletch poked his head through her office door with a smile that told her he knew all about it. She inhaled richly, knowing that she was never going to hear the end of this, it was going to haunt her until the day she died.
"I hear somebody got a little jealous this evening," he taunted with a grin, taking a seat on the couch.
"She was half a minute from propositioning you, I didn't feel I was very out of line. I can't have your thoughts wandering too far now, can I," she joked easily, and in that moment, she realised that she hadn't doubted him, not for a second.
There hadn't even been a split second of her wondering if maybe he fancied Priya, if maybe he'd been flirting with her, it had never even crossed Jac's mind.
"I've only got room for one medical professional in my heart, I'm afraid," he admitted faux-glumly, rolling his eyes at the thought that anybody, let alone a mid-20s something or other with more hair than personality, could even come into consideration with Jac around.
