Something Has To Give

As Time Passes

4 months later
Time had passed slowly for Jacob. With each day he lost a little more hope that he could still break through to Connie. He still had no idea why she'd been like she had.

He knew Grace needed to be her priority, he got that, but they'd managed before that. What had changed so suddenly? The unanswered questions still bothered him now.

Connie had stuck to what she promised though. She'd distanced herself from Jacob in the past months enough for her to stop anything from developing between them.

Although all the time apart had done nothing but tear her to pieces inside. She missed him. She missed the way he held her. She missed the way he stroked her hair. She missed the way he kissed her.

To the outside world Connie had become the heartless ice queen that was a force to be reckoned with again. Even Jacob had started to think she was back to her former self but he knew her. He knew deep down that she cared, more than she'd ever let on.

"Staff Nurse Masters." Jacob looked up with a smile as Connie wandered along the footpath in front of him. "Morning Mrs Beauchamp, anybody would think you're happy about being in work."

Connie kept a slow pace walking with him towards the entrance. "Hmm paperwork and politics who wouldn't love it 'ey?" She smirked before responding to him. "Power and authority who would say no."

Jacob laughed as they stepped inside. "I guess I'll leave you to it, just don't go mad with all that power-" "Oh I'll try." She smirked as she tapped in the code to her office while Jacob disappeared to the staffroom.

Recently she'd felt herself falling back into all her old habits, including all the ones involving Jacob. It hadn't been missed by him either. In the last week he'd been aware of how they were around each other.

It was like he could pretend the months previous hadn't happened and they were just themselves again. As much as he wished it was true he knew it wasn't.

Connie didn't stay at her desk long. She entered resus and approached bay 3 where a young female was lying. "Right what have we got?"

Jacob quickly reeled off her stats and everything they had on her before she got to work. "Selling everything up all for this mystery man she's met a handful of times?" "You don't think she should have?"

Connie raised an eyebrow as she focused on inserting a chest drain. "You tell me... You meet, talk for a while and seem to have all the same interests. The person seems to be everything you've looked for and within a few months everything's sold for your new life together."

Jacob shrugged as he passed over a syringe. "You're pretty sceptical-" "It's not, I'm just a realist." Connie finished up before pulling off the latex gloves.

She wandered from resus with Jacob wandering along beside her. "A tenner says he shows up here-" "Only a tenner? Not very confident Staff Nurse Masters."

Connie leant against the nurses' station with a perfectly arched eyebrow and a hand on her hip. Jacob couldn't help but run his eyes over her. "Alright 11 quid..." Connie laughed rolling her eyes. "You're on muscles but you'd better have my money-" "Ooh fighting talk Mrs B."

All the while Charlie remained on the opposite side of the desk observing the pair. He'd been watching them dance about each other months before they admitted there was something and he seemed to be back at square one now.