Chapter Text
Her first steps at Holby hadn’t gone so badly, considering. Of course, it was all very civilian, very different from what she was used to. In some ways, it felt like going back to her first years as an F1 at St Michael’s in Bristol. Once again, she was the newbie, and she would have to earn her stripes. Jac Naylor reminded her of a commanding officer she’s once served under – tough as nails, but once you’d proven your worth, with a bark worse than her bite. With Ric Griffins…well, she’d messed up a bit, but luckily, he’d seemed to accept her apologies. They might not end up the best of friends, but they were a lot alike. Sasha Livy was a teddy bear, and the perfect go-to person to teach her the ways of her new home. As for Henrik Hanssen…Well …She liked him …or at least she thought she liked him – or rather, she wanted him to think well of her. Bernie sighed – the snag was that Hanssen seemed to be very keen on rules and protocol, and well …following the rules might have been second nature to her before, but now …strange how the army had finally cured her of obeying the rules. Not only the army, of course …a certain tall brunette might have played a role in that but …Bernie sighed again. She had to forget that part of her life – she was back now, back with Marcus – she had to make a go of it. Otherwise …
She snapped back to the present when she heard her name, and realised she’d missed the first part of Henrik Hanssen’s sentence: “…Ms Wolfe, I’ll introduce you to her now.” Oops …If she wanted to make a good impression on him, she’d better focus. Apparently AAU was short-handed, and she was to lend a hand for a few days. Just then a dark-haired woman came out of an office and nearly bumped into Hanssen: “Oh, sorry, Henrik – didn’t see you there.”
Henrik Hanssen raised his eyebrow quizzically: “This is not something I hear frequently, Ms Campbell. Anyway, I wanted to introduce your new colleague, Ms Berenice Wolfe. She’ll be working with you today.”
Serena gave a brief smile to the woman almost hidden behind Hanssen’s tall frame: “Yes, we’ve met. No need for introductions – as long as she knows her job and can follow instructions, I’m sure there won’t be any problems.”
Bernie stared at the brunette – who did she think she was talking about? She may be a newcomer, but she was not a novice. She extended her hand, but the other woman had already turned round, saying: “Follow me, Ms Wolfe – we’ve got work to do – two RTC victims are on their way.” Somehow the woman she’d met in the parking lot had seem a lot warmer, even with a broken-down car. Bernie fell into step behind Serena, wondering how the day would go with someone who seemed to have taken an immediate dislike to her. It wasn’t the first time she had had trouble with other women, but …Come on! She hadn’t done anything to antagonise Serena Campbell.
One of the new patients had no serious injuries, but the other one had apparently taken the full impact of the accident and the car window on his side had exploded – Serena directed him to a free theatre and motioned Bernie to follow her, while listing all the patient’s injuries. Both of them worked on repairing the damage, and the two consultants seemed to be on the same wavelength until it came to the liver injury – Bernie had repaired the same kind of injury before, and she was sure she could save the organ. However, Serena didn’t want to risk further bleeding and she decided to take it out.
Neither of them wanted a row in from of the rest of the team, but they argued as civilly as they could until Serena put an end to the discussion: “Ms Wolfe, I’m in charge here, so I take the decisions – now, you can help me take this liver out, or you can leave this theatre and reflect on the word “discipline” – seems to be something you need to learn.” Bernie reddened and bit her lips – she had to summon all her self-control not to throw the instrument tray at the other woman – how dare she treat her like a beginner? How dare she humiliate her like this? Instead of answering, she very deliberately put down the scalpel she was holding and walked out of the theatre. Only when she was scrubbing off did she realise what the brunette had murmured under her mask. It sounded suspiciously like: “This kind of behaviour deserves a good spanking…” Surely not? Surely Serena hadn’t said that?
On her way to get coffee, Bernie walked straight into Hanssen. Great! Exactly the person she didn’t want to see right then. She didn’t think Serena had told him about the surgery yet, but …
“Ah – Ms Wolfe – how’s your first morning in AAU going?
- Fine, thank you, Mr Hanssen …and if you’ll excuse me, I’ll …
- Of course – don’t let me stop you.”
He walked away and she winced – she hated lying. Moreover, she was terrible at it – her face betrayed her every time. And anyway, this time, she wouldn’t get away with it – Ms Campbell was sure to tell Hanssen what had happened in theatre – how she’d tried to take over, how she’d argued …Why did she always have to get into trouble? Of course, going from being the one in charge to being a subordinate was never going to be easy, but if she could just learn to keep her mouth shut… The coffee suddenly tasted bitter – even worse than the one they’d drunk in Afghanistan. She gulped the last dregs and dragged herself back to AAU, where a nurse immediately told her she was to go and see Ms Campbell as soon as possible.