Chapter Text
“What the hell did you think you were doing?” Serena shouted as she stormed into her office. Bernie’s head shot up as she looked over to her co-lead. Bernie, as usual when confronted by her co-lead couldn’t get the thoughts in her brain to unjumble to form words to come out of her mouth, and she sat there just staring, trying to speak.
“You waltz in here all bloody heroic, turn my ward upside down, get your own trauma ward BECAUSE OF ME I MAY ADD, and then question MY judgement in front of MY staff” Serena yelled as she slammed the door shut and stalked over to Bernie’s desk.
Bernie leant back in her chair, craning her neck up and her head back to be able to see Serena in focus as she was so close, finger pointed to Bernie’s chest.
“WELL? What do you have to say for yourself?” Serena’s voice was now dangerously low. Bernie needed to speak, and needed to speak now as she knew if she didn’t then Serena would walk away slamming the door and there would be an atmosphere for the rest of the shift.
She cleared her throat “Well, I didn’t exactly question your judgement Serena, I simply pointed out that I thought it was incorrect. That’s what us medical professionals do when we feel something is off kilter with a patient or their treatment, and in all honestly, I think you were going down the wrong route. I apologise if you thought I was questioning your judgement, I was simply giving my opinion on the matter” Bernie managed to slide her chair back and stand so she was at the same height as Serena “and if we remember correctly Ms Campbell, you were the one who asked for a second opinion, my opinion to be exact”
“Now, if you will excuse me, I have things to do” Bernie walked towards the door a lot calmer than she felt inside, something had got under Serena’s skin lately and Bernie felt she could do no right at all.
“Don’t you dare just walk away Bernie”
Bernie, hand on the door handle, turned “What has got into you lately Serena, you ask for my opinion, I give it, you don’t like it. I am not questioning you, I am here to help, to have your back, as you are to have mine, yet for the past week or so all you have done is dismiss what I have been saying, avoid me when you can, and then you come in here all guns blazing because I dared to say I thought you were wrong in your diagnosis of Mrs Brittle” She took a breath and calmed down “So tell me, what have I done to get you so wound up? What have I done to deserve to be treated like a second class surgeon, as opposed to one of the best trauma surgeons in England, as well as being your so called co-lead. I know you don’t like to relinquish your power over anything but give me a break will you. We either work together, or we don’t work at all”
With that Bernie turned on her heel and left the office, not quite slamming the door on the way out, but closing it a bit harder than she usually would.
That caused eyebrows to be raised, Raf to suddenly look up from his computer, and the porters bringing old Mr Jeffries back from x-ray to hurry along quietly.
She needed a break, she looked over to Raff catching his eye and pointed up, indicating that she was popping up to the roof. She popped into the locker room on her way to grab her cigarettes. She was trying to give up, but days like today made her reach for them.
She took the stairs to burn off some energy, finally she was pushing open the fire door to the roof. She rounded the corner to sit in her favoured spot and noted Dom was there, face raised to the sun “Hey Bernie, you look like you have found a pound and lost a fiver, what’s up” “Serena Bloody Campbell” was all Bernie responded with before plucking a cigarette out of the packet and lighting it, taking a long hard drag and blowing the smoke harshly out of her mouth.
“Oh, trouble in AAU paradise I see, what’s happened then this time?”
“In all honesty Dom I don’t know. She asks for my opinion and then either questions it or dismisses it, avoids me if at all possible, and then just now came storming into the office screaming and shouting accusing me of questioning her judgement in front of, and I quote HER STAFF. I just don’t know what’s got into her recently Dom, I really don’t”
“Want my opinion Bernie?” Dom asked turning towards her. Bernie didn’t respond “Well I’m going to give you my opinion anyway whether you want it or not, Bernie it sounds to me like she bloody well fancies you” Bernie practically chocked on the smoke she had just taken into her lungs, she spluttered and coughed and Dom patted her on the back.
“What the hell are you talking about Dom? Serena Bloody Campbell doesn’t fancy me, she’s straight for heaven’s sake, and she treats me like a bloody leper most of the time, can barely be in the same room as me, I don’t know how we have managed to share an office for the past few weeks”
“Classic sign’s Bernie. She probably doesn’t want to fancy you, you are her colleague, her friend, and a woman. As far as I am aware, even though Serena would flirt with a camel, she has never been with a woman, never ever considered it, but we all do strange things when we meet someone we like, and I don’t think gender matters to be honest, we fall for the person, not what is between their legs”
“I don’t think she fancies me Dom, she has never given any indication that she does, I know that my interaction with women has never been that brilliant, but even I would be able to pick up signs if she did have a tendency towards me, wouldn’t I? Bernie questioned, flicking her finished cigarette into the sand bucket by the side of her. “I better get back down there anyway, I have rounds to do”
“Just think about what I said Bernie. You never know, I may actually be right for once. Why don’t you invite her out after shift one day, for a drink. See if you pick anything up when not in the work environment. But hey that’s only if you like her too, I mean for all I know you may not fancy the head strong, beautiful, curvaceous, intelligent Ms Campbell” with that Dom winked and turned his face back to the sun.
Bernie headed back down the stairs to AAU, the words Dom had said to her going around in her head. It would be nice to get to know Serena outside of work, as a friend. She didn’t have many of those around her. Most of her friends, if you could call them that, were still posted abroad with the Army. With that in mind she bypassed AAU and headed down to Pulses, stopping off in the locker room first to freshen up. She supposed a hot, strong coffee would go down well for both of them about now.
Heading into AAU she noticed that Serena was not in the office. She placed the coffee on her desk and grabbed a post-it note ‘peace offering, B x’ was all she wrote, and left the note atop the steaming cup, before heading out to the ward to do her rounds.
An hour later was when Bernie saw Serena again, Bernie was in the office after doing her rounds, head buried in patient files and charts. She straightened as she heard the door, and looked over to Serena who walked straight to her desk, noticing the coffee, a little smile on her face. “Probably stone cold now” was all Bernie said as she went back to her files.
“Thank you Bernie, it was a nice gesture. You really don’t need to be giving me peace offerings. I was out of order, I’m sorry” she walked to Bernie’s side of the office and held out her hand “Truce?” Bernie reached for it, a small smile tugging at her lips, and took hold of Serena’s hand “Truce, but only if you tell me what’s going on. We can’t go on like this Serena. It’s no good for me or you and certainly no good for the staff and the ward. Why don’t we go for drinks after shift, just the two of us and thrash out any differences we have. Take on board what pisses the other off, and promise not to get all upset about it ay?” Bernie noted that they were still holding each other’s hand, and gently pulled hers away.
“I would like that Bernie. I am sorry for the way I behaved the past few weeks. When would you like to go for drinks?” Serena sat at her desk and lifted the coffee taking a sip, it wasn’t stone cold just yet but was quickly turning that way. The caffeine was certainly welcome though.
“Whenever you want to” Bernie suggested, “after all I have no plans any night of the week, but you however have Jason to consider, and probably a load of other things you do when not here, you name the time and I will be there”
“Well Jason is at Alans this evening, so how about straight from work this evening. Not Albies though, sometimes I just want to get away from the crowd there” Serena finished the now almost stone cold coffee.
“Fine by me, we could grab something to eat if you want to, maybe find somewhere localish, though I will leave that to you as I don’t know many decent places around here just yet” Bernie smiled and looked over to Serena.
“Perfect, I think I know a lovely place we can get a table, nothing too fancy, just pub grub, but it’s delicious and plentiful, and they have a half decent wine list” Serena laughed “So our shift finishes in what an hour and 40, I will meet you here then” Serena chucked the empty coffee cup in the recycling bin, walked over to Bernie’s chair, placed a hand on her shoulder “Thank you again for the coffee, see you later” and with that she went off to finish her rounds and discharge a couple of patients, leaving Bernie to get on with her patient files.