It Must Be Love - Jacob and Connie

Chapter Ten

There was a soft knock on the door.

"Oh, didn't Doctor Hannah tell you I didn't want to be disturbed, especially after the evacuation?"
"That's why I'm here, actually." Connie rolled her eyes at the sound of Rita's voice. She always had such a cocky, arrogant tone to her voice around Connie, but around other staff she was warm and comforting. "Do you know who it was who got shot?"

"I presume it was one of the extremists, as they were the only ones in the hospital. If all you've come here for is to gossip-"

"If you want to be like that, then fine, but I thought you'd want to know that it was Staff Nurse Masters that got caught." Connie's head shot up at the mention of his name, and her heart began to pound in her chest. How, how could it be him? She knew something hadn't felt right, oh goddammit, she should've listened to her gut. She sprung up from her chair, scattering a pile of papers over her desk, and tipping a pot of pens on to the floor. She wasn't able to care. Jacob had been shot. Tear pricked at her eyes, but she knew that if she cried, she wouldn't be allowed to treat him and that's all she wanted to do.

"Where?" Connie rushed out of the door, and began running down the corridor towards resus, as that was the only place they could've really taken him. She burst through the doors, just as one of the nurses was informing the doctors of Jacob's stats. She listened intently, then pushed her way forward.

"Excuse me, let me take this." She hummed as she pushed through the other doctors.

"Connie, Connie, I'm fine... tell them I'm fine,"

"You will be, Jacob, you will be." She hated to see him like this. She had to stand her ground, but how could she? All that secret history... she loved him. And she had never told him. "Alicia, I need you over here, gloves on. Right, I need FBCs, clotting, I want two units of O Neg stat, I want cross match of six units, ten milligrams of morphine, and some Ondansetron!" She turned to Alicia in a panic. "Can you keep the pressure on here? Let's do the blood gases as well, and can someone call the surgeons? Let them know we're on our way!"

"Calling theatre now," Lily called, over at the phone.

"It's alright Jacob, you'll pull through it, okay? Look who's got you. I'm not gonna lose you, look at me." She said to him, and she didn't care if the rest of the department heard it. He was still losing blood rapidly, and Connie was beginning to get stressed again. "Right, this tourniquet isn't going to work," she huffed in defeat. "That's no good. Right, I'll take over pressure, you get the TXA. All right, Jacob?"

He answered her with a muffled groan.

"Jacob, do you have the sickle cell trait?" She asked, her voice full of empathy.

"Is it 'cause I is black?" He answered. Connie smiled. Her precious man was still making her laugh even on his deathbed.

"Yes, yes it is," she replied softly. "All right, stay strong. We've got you. I've got you." Her voice was merely a whisper on the last sentence, but he heard every word.

"Alright, morphine's going in," Rita said, injecting Jacob in his arm.

"Okay, that should help." Connie replied, never ceasing to keep the pressure on the wound.

"Seeing your fine self helps," Jacob whispered, looking at Connie. She blushed, because of the other doctors around them, and just smiled a little awkwardly trying to ignore his comment. "Oh, the things I could do to you!" She looked over at the other doctors, who obviously noticed his comment, but chose not to say anything, and then she smiled again, a burning desire in her stomach for him to show her exactly what he could do. Urgh, getting aroused on the job, great. Only she supposed that was inevitable when Jacob was around. She wasn't able to reply to him - words wouldn't form in her mouth. "Um, er, quickly with the TXA." Jacob was still losing a lot of blood, and it was Rita that stated the obvious:

"Oh Connie, he's losing a lot of blood. We've got to stop the bleeding."

"Right, ermm, it's okay, he's okay, quick as you can." Connie was starting to get a little emotional and she was trying her hardest not to let the staff see it. "Hold that arm up for me." Jacob groaned again and her heart sank a little. She wanted to kiss away his pain and never to see him suffer again, but she couldn't. She felt so useless. "ETA on theatre?"

"They're still with their last patient, they say at least another 40 minutes." Connie almost crumbled. She did what she usually did and translated her fear into anger and determination.

"We don't have 40 minutes!" She cried. "Right, we need to open up this wound. Louise, level one transfuser please."