Serenity

The all new edited version of my first ever submission!

I hope you guys prefer this.

Big thank you to my editor Nnish, you've turned my work from water to wine and I am ever grateful.

Enjoy

Mimi

xox

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Chapter 1

10 years previous...

Genevieve and Blake sat waiting in the doctor's office as Dr De Mont went to get the results of Genevieve's tests. Blake sat feeling rather smug; his wife had been feeling much better lately. He felt content that the results would come back negative.

He had always liked Dr De Mont. He was a friendly, gentle man, who had always strived to look after his wife and his level of care was unfaltering. He really classed him as a friend since the first time they had met, making a note at the time, to invite him and his family around for dinner.

Dr De Mont came back into the room. Immediately, Blake could see that the colour in the doctor's face had gone. Blake's stomach dropped as Dr De Mont said the words;

"I'm so sorry to say this Genevieve; the cancer has returned but this time it has spread throughout your body. It's terminal now and I'll be honest with you, any treatment will be just to keep you alive for as long as possible."

The room started to feel too hot and close, the last thing Blake heard was;

"The cancer has returned."

He felt his world crumble in front of his eyes. His dear Genevieve, the one woman he loved, was going to die and there was nothing they could do anymore. A sudden thought flashed through his mind; he was going to be a single parent and before that, how was he going to tell his baby girl that in a few months' time, her mum wasn't going to be around anymore, that she was going to be in a better place.

He looked over at Genevieve and Dr De Mont and realized they had been talking while he had spaced out. They were talking about her treatment plan that could keep her alive long enough to say goodbye to everyone and get everything set up for after she had gone. However, there was no certainty that she would not take a turn early.

When they left the doctor's office, they were silent. Blake kept looking over at his wife who looked surprisingly content.

On the long journey to his parent's house to pick up their daughter they barely spoke. As he manoeuvred his way through the busy streets, he couldn't resist asking her why she was so calm about the situation. He could not get his head around it.

She replied simply that it was time. She had prepared herself the first time, and she would not go through it again.

The next few months dragged on, there were many hospital appointments, and he watched his wife getting frailer. His daughter, although she appeared mostly happy and always willing to go to the appointments with her mother, there was no doubt in his mind that there was a lot of sadness behind his young daughters eyes and frankly, it was breaking his heart. It was too much for a 12 year old to go through, but what could he do? This was life.

_________

Present Day

*Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep.*

Honey in a disorientated haze glanced at the offending object disrupting her sleep.

The numbers 8:30 registered in her.

"SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!" she exclaimed aloud.

"Trust you, Honey Richards to be late for another event in your life. You will be late for your own funeral!" momentarily flashing back to her mother's funeral, she shook her head and jumped out of bed. Threw her freshly ironed outfit, brushed her long dark hair into a tight high ponytail and ran out of the door, yellow stethoscope in hand.

When she finally arrived at the A&E department of Mercy General, a short woman named Sister Barrington greeted her.

Beaming at the Sister, Honey spoke "Hello, I'm Hon-"

"You're 15 minutes late... great impression you made on your first day Perky." she said cutting in.

"I am so sor-"

"Your scrubs are in the locker 12 in the room to your left. And hurry up, accidents aren't going to wait round for you." she said, interrupting Honey again.

She handed Honey a key. "That's the locker key, put your stuff in there, and then meet me out here, Ok?"

Honey simply nodded.

Though slightly down heartened by the grumpy Nurse Barrington, she was none the less excited to be starting her first day as a real nurse.

Once she had changed into her light blue scrubs, noting how strangely comfortable they were, she couldn't help but think how truly happy she was to finally be a qualified nurse. Deep in thought, the grumpy nurse snapped her out of her little bubble.

"Hey, Perky... snap out of it, we have work to do!"

"Sor-"

"Go straight to bed 7, the lady has come in with a laceration on her head." the nurse said then walked off.

'Throw me straight in there why don't you' Honey thought. Though a little voice in her head told her to be thankful that she hadn't given her a patient with atrial arrhythmia or something!

She put her yellow stethoscope around her neck noticing how badly it clashed with her scrubs but nonetheless excited to be there.

Her dad had put all of his money into her education in order for her to have a career.

When her mother died, her father had to give up his work as an accountant when he became severely depressed.

He used his savings to put her through education and she worked all the hours she could as a waitress, to keep them going on a day-to-day basis.

He gave her the stethoscope as a present for qualifying as a nurse. Yellow had been her favourite colour since she was a child and her dad always noted that it matched her personality.

She was knocked out of her dream state by a hard chest and a thud of files hitting the ground.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed whilst trying to pick up the files she had knocked out of the stranger's hands. "I was completely in my own world."

"Well instead of daydreaming, why don't you watch where you are going next time!" the stranger said in an irritated tone.

Honey continued apologising and picking up files from the floor.

"Again I'm very sorry, it's my first day and I'm still trying to get my head around everything."

"I don't really see that as an excuse, do you?" he asked in a belittling tone, like a teacher does when talking to a troublesome child.

Honey looked up at him. She had been expecting to look at a fat, balding, grumpy old man but he was the complete opposite.

He was about 6'3 with short blonde hair, that was slightly ruffled for a professional yet sexy bed hair look. His face was very angular with medium sized lips.

He was very Nordic looking, but what struck her were his eyes; one bright blue and one green. A complete heterochromia. It was captivating. She had seen a sectorial heterochromia before but even that was only on television with people like Kate Bosworth! But, although it did very much interest her medically, he might have had the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen! Completely mesmerizing! She thought she was a sucker for blue eyes but this...this; she was drowning in their beauty!

"Hello?" he said waving a hand in front of her face, "Are you actually going to get some work done now? Make a half decent impression on your first day?" he said, almost in a mocking tone.

Honey nodded her head, yes, and apologised for what seemed like the hundredth time, feeling like a scolded child she hastily went to see to the woman in bed 7.

She finished her first set of rounds at around 13:00. Nurse Barrington therefore allowed her to get some lunch in the canteen.

After picking a cheese sandwich to eat and paying, she sat at a table and started eating alone and sipping on her bottle of water.

No one came to sit with her over lunch.

She imagined working in a hospital to be more like being in the couple of episodes of Scrubs she had seen, but, having been in hospitals so much when she was younger meant she should have known better. It's a lonely place.

She felt very small sat at the table on her own, she was about to get up and leave when she heard a thud on the table in front of her.

"You dropped this." said a familiar voice, throwing her bright stethoscope on the table.

She looked up only to look into the same pair of beautiful eyes.

"Oh my goodness, I hadn't even noticed. I was so rushed off my feet." she replied.

"See that it doesn't happen again. You're beginning to make a habit of clumsiness and considering being rushed off your feet is a big part of A&E, you better get used to it." he stated matter-of-factly and before she had time to answer, he was gone.

A little bit stunned from her second encounter with the stranger, she failed to notice a man sit down next to her.

"Hey, you're new here, right?" she heard before lifting her head.

"Ummm... Yeah sorry, I'm Honey, nice to meet you." she said smiling and extending her hand for the guy to speak.

"I'm Rory" he said shaking her hand. "So tell me what you were doing talking to Dr Dreamy over there?" Moving his head to the left in the direction of where the stranger was sitting.

"Isn't he lovely?" he continued before letting her speak.

"I hear that he paid out of his own money to build a small hospital in Uganda or something and volunteers there in the summer...such a big heart." he said in an almost intoxicated state.

"Oh wow... That's wow! Unfortunately I don't think he likes me very much though." Honey said, looking down at the table sadly.

Rory snapped out of his little world and looked at her a little dumbfounded.

"But...why do you say that? Mr De Mont likes everyone?" sounding slightly amazed.

"Well, since I accidentally bumped into him, he keeps telling me off or mocking me like I'm a school child." she said, starting to feel a little irked that he seemingly just didn't like her.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about it, he's probably just having a bad day or something." He replied quickly, though he'd never known Mr De Mont to say a bad word to anyone!

Brushing it off, he proceeded to ask Honey about herself, probing into her life until it was time for them to get back to work.

______________

Matt had had a long day so far, he was in the middle of a 14 hour shift, which he, frankly, wasn't very happy about.

When she bumped into him, it had really annoyed him, just making his bad mood worse; knowing that he would have to sort through the files again. Completely clouded by his bad mood he didn't really notice what she looked like or who she was.

Now, staring at her from across the room, he had been looking at her since he gave her back her stethoscope.

He noticed her raw beauty; there was something almost angelic about her. The charcoal hair that though tied up still came to the base of her neck. Her brown skin that had a golden tone, like caramel. Her full, kissable lips and finally her glistening doe eyes, like shards of amber. Simply beautiful.

She seemed so happy but behind her eyes he could see a deep sadness, that he wanted to magic away.

The idea struck him that, that sadness could be something to do with him, it tugged at his heart that it might be his fault. Realizing that he was getting a little too involved with a girl he didn't even know, he pushed the thoughts of her to the back of his head. She really was the least of his worries right now, nothing more than a pretty face and a clumsy body, he hastily got back to his work.

Slightly perturbed by his building feelings for someone he didn't know.

______________

Honey was more than happy to be at home after her long day, nothing had gone particularly well, but at least she was home now, she could get into bed and go straight to sleep. Her dad was asleep in front of the TV again. She lightly kissed him on the head then went up to bed.

The light came on as soon as she went in her bedroom; of course Kimmy was sitting there, as they shared a bedroom when Kimmy was back from University.

Kimmy was Honey's cousin, though they were more like sister's as she had been living with Honey on and off since she was 4. Kimmy's mum, Genevieve's youngest sister, couldn't always look after herself, let alone Kimmy. At these times, before Kimmy could go into care, Blake and Genevieve agreed to take her in until her sister got back on her feet.

Kimmy was 4 years younger than Honey but they were very similar they often got mistaken for sisters; the main difference being the Kimmy's dad was Japanese whereas Blake was White.

"So how was your first day?" Kimmy asked intrigued. Though usually a lot more reserved and shy than Honey, when it came to gossip, Kimmy was all ears!

Honey told her all about her run in with Mr De Mont and the intoxicated look Rory had in his eyes when he talked about Mr De Mont, until eventually they both drifted off to sleep.

_____________

The rest of the week flew by for Honey, she saw little of Rory and even less of Mr De Mont, which she was rather glad about. Concentrating on settling in and working as many our as she could.

_____________

Honey woke up determined to have a better second week at work, try to erase the first one from her mind and hopefully not piss a certain someone off.

When she arrived at Mercy General, this time 10 minutes early for her shift she was addressed by the ever grumpy, Sister Barrington, who ordered her to Bed 2, where there was a woman with a suspected broken ankle. As she walked through the curtain of bed 2 she realised that there was already someone in the room with the patient.

"Matt, I told you I'm fine. I just fel-"

Both Matt and the woman starred at Honey.

"Oh hi, I'm Cecile" the lady said, outstretching her hand.

Matt and Honey continued to stare at each other.

It suddenly registered in Honey's head that someone had spoken, and she knew it wasn't Mr De Mont so it must have been the women on the bed.

"What did you say? I was in my own world for a moment!" Honey responded.

"As usual" Matt said under his breath.

Honey looked at the floor in embarrassment.

Cecile shot him a daggered look.

"Sorry, it's not like my brother to be so insolent, I was just saying my name's Cecile but just call me Cece, now, Matt go and do some consultant work, I'm sure...what's your name?"

"Nurse Honey Richards" Matt answered before Honey could. Leaving Honey slightly shocked he even knew who she was.

"Honey can patch me up fine without your help."

"Okay, but if you need anything don't hesitate message me." with that, Matt left.

"So again I must apologise for my brother, you must believe me he's not usually that rude."

"It's ok, I don't think he's too fond of me, since I bumped into him on my first day." Honey said smiling sheepishly whilst examining Cece's tender ankle.

"Oh don't be silly Matt doesn't dislike anyone, he probably just needs some more time to warm to you. He can be a bit like that sometimes."

"Hmm, I hope so. I hate to be disliked. Wait. I guess everybody does, I just like to be liked. Oh gosh, that just sounds stupid as well! Probably why he doesn't like me. I'm so stupid!"

"Whoa Honey! I don't know If you meant to say all that out loud, but seriously Hon you need to stop beating yourself up. Now that I think about it he might like you more than you know. I think he mentioned you the other day......whoops I think I let a little bit more slip out than I meant to, but never mind, I said it now!" Cece tried to comfort a slightly distressed Honey.

Honey in a typical Honey manner just dropped her head and blushed.

'He spoke about me?! Now I'm really confused' she thought.

"So am I gunna need a big ol' cast for my ankle, Hon?" interrupting Honey's dream state.

Honey looked up brightly.

"Unfortunately, I think so. I'll take you up to X-ray first though."

The 2 ladies nattered happily until Cece was allowed home with her new navy blue cast, insisting that navy was the best colour of a bad bunch.

"Honey, I know it's a bit soon but we've got on so well, I feel like you're an old friend! So you have to come to my house warming party, I've just moved into this cute apartment in the village with my new hubby!"

"I would love to Cece, but I don't think your brother would want me there"

"Hon, I couldn't give two shits about what he thinks, you're my new friend so you ARE coming, besides I think Matt would be happier than you think to see you." she said winking.

"Well I guess... I'll be there." she said with a radiating smile, though inside Honey was not so sure how this was going to turn out.

___________

3 week later...

Honey felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, whilst resting in the on call room, she ignored it and continued to try to get some sleep. After another 15 minutes it vibrated again, so Honey conceded and decided she should probably get up anyways. Checking her messages she saw 2 messages from Cece:

Honey are you still coming to my party tonight? Xxx

And don't even think about trying to get out of it, you are coming end of.

7:30 @ Crescent Place. Xxx

'I guess I can't get out of it now, better go find a dress after my shift' she concluded, as nothing at her house would be suitable as she did not own any cute clothes due to never having the time to go anywhere nice, since her mother was alive.

'Good job, I've been working overtime' she thought, as there would have been no way she would have the money for a nice dress.

___________

As Kimmy was back at Uni until the summer and her best friend, Ann-Marie, still wasn't back from the US., Honey text Cece to see if she wanted to come and look for something to wear for the party. It was only 13.30; it would still leave Cece time to finish setting up for her party.

Cece picked Honey up from the hospital in a chauffeur driven black Maybach 62s.

"Honey, I'm so glad you text, I forgot to tell you, the party is formal wear, I got my dress a few weeks ago and I wasn't sure if you had anything to wear!"

Honey got in the back with Cece, extremely careful not to even touch the paintwork, knowing how much Maybach's cost.

"No, I literally have nothing to wear Cece!"

"Good job I text you then! We should have a proper girly day get our hair, make-up and nails done!"

"Don't you have to get set up for the party though?" Honey said looking questioningly.

"Hon, seriously? I have a party planner to do all that, you really think I would do that with this big old cast on?!" Cece laughed, as the chauffer pulled off and drove them to the shopping centre.

Honey and Cece had been shopping for hours. They had found the perfect dress for Honey, complete with accessories and shoes. They had gotten their make-up and hair done and Honey had a manicure for the first time. Cece had insisted on paying for the hair, make-up and nails brushing it off as her little treat!

Cece dropped Honey back at the Hospital so she could drive home and get dressed for the party.

___________

Honey arrived home to find that her father wasn't up, not really surprised; she went to check on him.

Still in bed as she had thought. Since her mother had died, her father had fallen into a deep depression. Honey made food for him every night and did all she could in between school and now work. Though he took medication for it, he still got low days and didn't have much motivation.

She checked that he had eaten something, and then went to put on her dress and get ready.

"Good job I showered at work." she said allowed to herself.

Once she was ready, she realised it was 19.15 and that she had better get a move on.

Jumping into her little Vauxhall Corsa, she hotfooted it to Cece's party.

________

When Honey arrived outside Cece's apartment block which looked more like a upscale hotel, she was surrounded by expensive cars; Bentley's, Rolls Royce's, Mercedes, Range Rovers, every expensive car imaginable. Now feeling quite embarrassed about her little Corsa, she begrudgingly let the valet take her car. Immediately it hit her that Cece hadn't given her the number to her apartment. Just as she was about to text her, an older man dressed in a burgundy suit with gold trim came up to her.