Halcyon

Next of Kin

For Holls_Alexander because it's her Birthday so a double update for my best friend, partner in Crime, fandom Bud and co-writer!!

Jack sits there for a while longer before looking up to see a woman stood in front of Nikki's bed reading through her medical records, she looks up at the smiles at Jack. "Hi, I'm Ms. Doreta   Skubilina," She begins and instantly Jack picks up on a very prominent Ukrainian accent.

"Jack Hodgson, I'm her husband-to-be..." He smiles and holds his hand out to shake Ms. Skubilina's hand.
"Just a few questions Mr. Hodgson regarding Nicola's medication history..." She speaks as she looks through her notes which have been brought up from the archive.
Jack raises an eyebrow and looks down at Nikki's hand which is still in his. "Okay? From what I am aware she's not taking anything currently or in the past few years, apart from the usual paracetamol and other pain relief."

Doreta looks up at Jack from over her glasses that are resting on the end of her nose, "Okay, I asked one of my nurses to pull up her medication list and we have found one medication, prescribed on the 31st July..." She speaks.
"No there must be a mistake, Nikki isn't on anything..." Jack speaks.
"It says here it was prescribed by a psychologist erm a... Dr. Meredith Lawson... at a private GP practice in south London... Brookefield Mill? does that ring any bells?" Doreta questions Jack.

He looks up and looks across at Nikki before looking back at Doreta, "Yeah... that's the family practice we use... erm, Nikki forced me into signing up there, after she had our first daughter."

"In the notes which I pulled up, it says she attended with a baby... which states was possibly a newborn" She explains and Jack nods.
"That would be Maddison... erm, she... she would have given birth... a month before this so-called doctor's diagnosis, anyway what was she prescribed... probably the pill come to think of it" Jack speaks. 

Doreta checks her notes once again and shakes her head, "The last time she was prescribed 'Ortho Tri-Cyclen' was in September last year" Ms. Skubilina speaks.
Jack raises an eyebrow and glances down at Nikki and strokes her hand a little more, "So what was it then? I have a right to know, I am her next of kin" He declares.

She nods and flicks a few more pages into the detailed notes she has. "So it looked like she was prescribed fluoxetine, which is a common antidepressant and-" She is cut off by Jack.
"Yes, I know what it is. I know what it does... Nikki isn't depressed... you've got the wrong medical notes!" Jack says gritting his teeth getting completely wound up by the situation.

"Sir, I am going to have to ask you to calm down. there are sick people in this ward..." Doreta speaks in a calming tone.
"No, I get that but the only sick person here is you, you can't tell me she is depressed... she would tell me, we never keep secrets we promised each other" Jack says fighting his emotions as he realises that maybe Nikki has kept this from him.

Jack looks down on the floor and notices Nikki's handbag and picks it up while Ms. Skubilina runs a few testings including Nikki's Level of consciousness. He picks up Nikki's handbag and opens it before looking through it. He pulls out her phone and places it on the side before her purse, three of Maddison's dummies, a few butterfly hairclip of Poppy's, chewing gum and a packet of paracetamol.
As he digs to the bottom of the handbag to find a used strip of medication with one last tablet sat in the holder, he pulls it out and reads what's on the package 'fluoxetine 20mg'. He looks up and then across at Nikki as she Nurse who is with the consultant messes with Nikki's breathing tube. "Oh Nik, why didn't you tell me you were struggling" Jack speaks as he squeezes her hand tightly.

Jack places everything back into Nikki's handbag before looking at Ms. Skubilina who is just finishing up her observations on Nikki. "So tomorrow we shall make an attempt to remove the ventilator, although it's early days her brain activity is high so this shows good signs of making a full recovery" She explains.

"Right, but she didn't hit her head or anything..." Jack explains.
"Your Partner was resuscitated more than four times, once at the scene and three times in the operating theatre. Oxygen starvation to the brain is the biggest factor here" She speaks.
"What you mean she could be brain damaged... but her kids, her job... her livelihood" Jack speaks nervously fighting his emotions again.

He looks at Nikki with tears in his eyes wondering if Nikki will ever be the same again, he just fears that he will be bringing up Poppy and Maddison alone as Nikki could be far too brain-damaged to even look after her own children.