I'm Here For You

Chapter 1

A/N: Shout out to michaelstevensonfan, as we both had the same idea for this fic! Also, I am still very very sorry for scaring you and FictionalGirl94 on Friday about the trailer. Hope you all enjoy x

"Right, so what's happening now then?"

"Well, Mr Hanssen and the board are holding the inquest meeting today at 12 with Mrs Beauchamp, Charlie, Ethan and Alicia as they were witnesses to the fall. The police will also be present. Jez will be called in separately, as he's not technically a member of ED staff, so he'll require a rep from his union." Noel answered Iain, whilst keeping a look out for Mrs Beauchamp. "Oh, and Lily's been called up too."

Iain perked up, "Lily? Why?" As far as he knew, she had nothing to do with Scott's accident, and the fact that she could have been worried him.

"Well, she was Scott's doctor. There're questions about if she missed something which led to Scott..." Noel whispered the last part, not wanting to suggest such a thing, however there were rumours flying around.

"She won't have, though." Iain was quick to say, "Lily's a good doctor. She would have fully assessed him, cleared everything."

"Yeah, I know she is, Iain. Look, I'm not saying she did anything wrong, okay? But everyone's been put under a lot of pressure from Hanssen these last few days, and someone needs to answer the questions. He's already paid two random visits today, and it's not even 11 yet!"

Iain nodded in agreement. Connie came around the corner and they both quickly busied themselves with files. She looked flustered, and paid them both no attention. She grabbed some papers and started to leave again, when she turned to face them.

"Noel, have you handed out the inquest notices to everyone?" She asked in her usual, commanding voice.

"Yes, Mrs Beauchamp. First thing this morning." He smiled at her and turned back to his computer.

"Good. Oh, Iain, can you ask Jez to come and see me at some point today?"

"Sorry, Mrs Beauchamp. He's not in today, he's taken a few days off." Iain replied.

"Right, well, it's urgent. Tell him I need to see him today and Hanssen will need to schedule a meeting with him too, so he must come in to see me." She looked rushed off her feet and stressed out of her mind.

"Will do, Mrs Beauchamp." Iain smiled at her but she left as soon as the first word left his mouth.

Noel raised his eyebrows at Iain as if to say 'I told you so.' Iain smiled sadly and left the ED.

_______________________________________________________________________________

A while later, Iain was back at the ED and was filling in some paperwork for Dr Gardner's patient. The atmosphere was tense, all the staff's eyes kept flitting to their watches as the seconds ticked by. 11:53. The police had arrived for the inquest about 10 minutes ago and Noel had escorted them up to Hanssen's board room. Conveniently, several nurses, porters and even other paramedics were lurking around reception, all feeling the pressure. None of them said anything, just offered each other small smiles and silent support. The pressure their department was under was unfair; every single person who had been called up to that meeting did their duty that day. They always did, no matter who the patient.

The doors to the ED opened and they all turned to see who had entered. It was Ethan and Alicia, hand in hand. Alicia stared back at them all defiantly, whilst Ethan just looked down, shuffling his feet.

Dylan came out of cubicles and noticed the crowd that had gathered near reception. Angry, he shouted, "As far as I'm aware, the only member of staff who works at reception is Noel. We're already 2 doctors and a nurse down this shift, so if you all wouldn't mind, could you do your jobs, please?" They all looked around uncertainly, not sure what to do. Dr Gardner came up behind Dylan and smiled warmly at them all.

"Dylan's right. You all need to get back to work. As soon as we know something, we'll let you all know." The staff scattered slowly, getting back to their respective jobs. Dr Keogh shook his head disapprovingly and headed back to cubicles and Elle made her way over to reception. "Noel let me know if we get a call from upstairs." Noel nodded in response. "Iain?" Elle held out a hand to Iain and he handed over the papers he'd been filling in.

Sighing, Iain walked through the ED, and saw Lily coming out of the staff room, heading towards the stairs. Without thinking, he jogged over and called her name.

"Lily!" She stopped, surprised and turned around to see Iain. He walked up to her and she looked at him expectantly. He'd barely spoken to her at all since their argument, keeping patient talk to an absolute minimum. She was surprised he was actually coming to speak to her, didn't he know she had the inquest to get to?

He found his voice, "I just wanted to say good luck." He smiled at her warmly.

"Thank you, Iain." Her voice was unsteady and tears filled her eyes. He looked at her properly now. She had dark bags under her eyes, which were red and puffy. She had very light makeup on and she was wringing her hands together, which were shaking. Instinctively, he reached out and grabbed her hands to steady them. He saw her flinch at his touch, but didn't remove his hand as he noticed how her breathing had slowed and she was trying to blink back the tears.

"Lily, what happened to Scott was not your fault. You're a good doctor and you won't have missed anything, okay? Hanssen knows you're a brilliant doctor, and so does Mrs Beauchamp. You'll be alright. Just tell them the truth and it'll be fine." She looked up at him and his reassuring eyes were all she needed to calm her nerves. Despite everything they'd been through, he was still here for her. She placed a hand on top of his and smiled at him.

"Thank you, Iain. I really needed that." He smiled at her again and pulled his hands away, wary of the time.

"Alright, I'll see you after, yeah?" He said, knowing that mentioning after the meeting would calm her nerves.

"Yeah." She turned and walked up the stairs, Iain stood at the bottom watching her until she turned the corner and was out of sight.