Chapter Text
"Doctor Beauchamp to Resus!" The tannoy announcement blared.
It was a Saturday night, and the usual amount of party goers and drunk drivers were in the Accident and Emergency Department at St Anne's Hospital, Scotland.
Claire sighed, and asked the nurse to keep an eye on the patient she'd been looking after.
Claire was a very hands on Doctor, she liked to be involved in patient care, rather than leave the nurses to do everything. For a few years, she'd been an army doctor. That hadn't helped her relationship with her ex husband, Frank. He was a good enough man, a little older than her. He was educated, clever- when Claire was younger they'd appeared to be a perfect match. They'd grown apart, when Claire was away in the Army. After her marriage had broken down, Claire had made the choice to move from London up to Edinburgh, Scotland. It was a lot different than what she was used to, but it was a place of great beauty.
Claire made her way into Resus, and tried to save the patient, a young woman who had been driving whilst high, and crashed- from passing away.
Eventually, she was brought back and Claire felt a sense of relief, as she usually did.
"Please tell me when she's well enough to talk, I want to make sure that she won't do it again." Claire said to her friend, Jocasta. Jocasta was older than Claire and has also been in the army with her. She was a nurse, not to be trifled with, the best Scotland had to offer.
Jocasta nodded. "Aye, I thought that ye'd be wanting a word."
Claire made her way back to her first patient, and the nurse updated her.
A&E was life and death, every single day. It was a struggle, sometimes when all the patients seemed to be dying of their injuries when they'd woken up in the morning not knowing that they were going to die.
However, the good days far outweighed the bad, sometimes babies were even delivered. Claire picked up the odd shift on the labour and delivery ward, to surround herself with nothing but new life.
After that, Claire went to her office to do some paperwork. It was getting towards the end of her shift, and she was tired. She'd been on since 4PM, it was getting towards 11. She finished at midnight.
Soon enough,Jocasta appeared with a coffee with a shot of caramel in it, Claire's special favourite drink. It was simple enough, but such luxuries as a caramel shot was rare in the army, so she enjoyed it very much, even though she'd been retired for a good few years.
"What are you doing tomorrow, with yer day off?"
"Oh, nothing. I'll probably take Chester up for a walk in the forest." Replied Claire. Chester was her dog, a little Border Terrier. "How about you?"
Jocasta launched into a detailed plan of what she was going to be doing with the couple of days she had off- she was going to the cinema with her husband, Murtagh, she was seeing her nephew, Jamie, and her niece, Jenny, and Jenny's children, her great nieces and nephews.
Soon enough, they were joined by Geillis, a doctor who had trained with Claire.
Geillis talked about her plans when she was next off, also involving family.
"I'm going to see the new DC film with some folks from work in a month or two, would you like to come, Claire?" Asked Geillis. "I know that it's not your thing, Jocasta."
"Um, I'm probably working." Responded Claire. "You know how it is, we're always short staffed."
"What happened to the Claire I used to know in the army? You were always up for a film night or a game of cards." Said Jocasta. "I'm sure that someone would be willing to swap shifts with you. Ever since you split up with Frank, it seems like you're just bobbing along, working at every waking moment."
Geillis nodded in agreement. "Claire, I think that Jocasta would agree with me when I ask you this, but are you living, but just existing?"
"I don't know." Claire sighed.
"Well, you never know what fate has in store for you, here's hoping that something comes along, whether that be a man, or something else."
Said Jocasta.
A few hours later, Claire was lying in bed, thinking about her friends' words, and sent a silent prayer up to whoever was in the clouds, that something would change in her life.