Mike walked out of the theatre doors and pulled off his cap and gloves. He sighed and slumped down on a bench in the hallway. He had just saved the life of a critically ill patient, he should've been happier about it but his mind was on something else. Or should he say someone else?

Kath was married, for God's sake. Who was he to expect her to leave her husband? He knew they didn't always get on but he couldn't ask her to leave him. And he didn't for one minute believe she would turn her back on her faith. He had known her long enough to realise that God and her family were the two most important things to her.

Loyalty. One of the many qualities that he liked about her. But he had long since resigned himself to the fact that nothing was ever going to come of his feelings for her and grudgingly excepted that they were never going to be together.

***

Victoria glanced at her watch as she raced along the pavement and up the steps into her building. "I'm going to be late" she murmured to herself as she absently fumbled around in her bag for her door keys. She checked her coat pockets, desperate to just get her purse and meet Alex. She was in a hurry to get going. The last thing she wanted was for him to think she was uninterested.

She ran up the stairs to her flat and stopped dead in her tracks when she got to the top. Her door was open. It had clearly been kicked down. "Oh God, that's all I need, a burglar."

She inched closer and closer to the door, not really wanting to see what damage had been done to her home. It never really occurred to her that someone might still be inside.

She pushed the door open wider and jumped. She saw a shadow inside the house move. Just for a split second. But long enough to unnerve her and make her want to run away. She thought about doing just that but told herself not to be so stupid and to just see what was going on.

Against her better judgement, she stepped through the door. It was tidy. Exactly the way she left it this morning. And quiet. Eerily quiet.

This is too freaky, she thought and turned around to leave. She heard soft breathing coming from behind her and the voice she heard startled her, despite the fact it was neither angry or threatening.

"Dr. Merrick. I need to talk to you."

***

"Come on!" Alex yelled out his open window and honked his horn impatiently. For one, irrational moment, he thought about screaming to everyone that the woman he loved was in danger and he needed to get through. It wouldnt do any good though. And even Alex, in his fragile, anxious state, knew that.
It didn't stop him wanting to try.

But it was too far away. Until he was with her, in her house and knew that she was OK, he would always be too far away.

"I would've paid for lunch" he grumbled under his breath, and rested his head on the steering wheel in frustration.

"Move it!"

***

"Mr Campbell, I..." Victoria inched further and further away from the intruder that was standing in the middle of the living room floor. There was a distant, slightly disturbed look in his eyes that unnerved Victoria and set her heart racing.

"Allison's favourite colour was purple, you know" he said, observing the décor of the room. "we were going to paint her new bedroom that colour. You know, after the fire." He stopped walking about, gazing around the room in a seemingly relaxed fashion and stop, glaring straight at Victoria. This sudden change in his demeanour made her jump, and step further and further towards the door. "But we didn't get a chance, did we? You put a stop to that."

***

"Jasmine, have you seen Mike?" Kath asked, hurrying up to the Keller ward desk.
The younger nurse jumped slightly and put down the sandwich she was eating. "Uh, yeah. He came out of theatre and said he had to go and see the big men upstairs. Something about a job offer?"

"How long ago?" There was a trace of desperate urgency in her voice, and she was sure Jasmine could pick up on it.

"About 5 minutes."

Kath took this in momentarily and raced towards the lifts.

Jasmine swung around in her chair and watched after her, slightly bewildered. "Kath, is everything OK?" She called, but she was gone.

***

Was this the right thing to do? Mike sat outside the boardroom, still wondering if this was the right thing to do. Was he taking the easy way out? Was he just running away from his feelings instead of confronting them or did he really want this job?

He was snapped out of his thoughts by the large door opening. "Mr Barrat, we're ready for you."

***

Alex came screeching to a halt outside Victoria's building. As he got closer and closer, he got increasingly nervous about her safety and now his anxiety was overwhelming.

He jumped out of his car and raced up the steps, not even bothering to lock the doors. He tried in vein to open the doors but he knew that wouldnt do any good.
He buzzed on the intercom, the butterflies in his stomach, growing and growing.

"Please be OK, please."

***

The grief stricken man stood straight opposite Victoria now, his stone cold glare piercing right through her.

"I only want to talk" he tried to reassure her, but the air of desperation about him, negated the words he was speaking.

"Please, just go" Victoria murmured, her voice small and full of fear.

"No! I just want to talk!"

It was then that Victoria noticed that her was holding a knife behind his back. She had been so focused on his face, trying to detect a change in his mood, that she hadn't noticed before now. He pulled it out slowly, the sunlight bouncing off its shiny metallic blade.

She gasped and made a dash for the door, but he grabbed her and pulled her in, holding her around the neck with one hand and brandishing the kitchen knife in the other. "Its your fault Allison's dead! You took my daughter away!"
They both glanced over at the intercom by the front door when it started to franticly buzz. A ray of hope crept over Victoria at that moment but it was quashed by his menacing words.

"I see someone cares. Too bad they're too late."