"Oh, erm�it�s a year since Andrew died, so�"
"Ah, I see." Lara glanced at Holly�s grave. "Is that�"
"Oh, no, his is over there," Duffy pointed back to where she had come from.
"Right, so whose is this?" asked Lara, reading the name on the stone that Duffy was standing by. "Holly Miles," she muttered. "Did you know her?"
"Yeah, yeah I did. We worked together."
"When did she die, if you don�t mind me asking?"
"A year ago, the same day as Andrew."
"Oh, so that was when Patrick worked here then. Did he know her?" asked Lara, glancing at the grave next to Holly�s.
Duffy noticed this and looked herself - it was Patrick�s. She thought this was a strange coincidence, but very appropriate considering everything they had been through together. "Yeah. Yes, they were good friends."
"Just good friends?"
Duffy wasn�t sure what to say. Of course they had been much, much more than friends, though unable to admit it until the last minute. But should Lara know? Perhaps it was better that she didn�t.
Duffy must have been silent for too long because Lara asked again, "Duffy?"
"No, they were more than friends."
"Ah, I see." Lara looked up at Duffy who was wondering if what she had just said was the right thing. "Its okay, Duffy. I�d rather know. So what�s their story then?"
Duffy took a deep breath. How did you explain a relationship as complicated as Holly and Patrick�s to someone who hadn�t been there to experience it, who hadn�t seen the way they looked at each other and the way they acted around each other. It had been obvious that they had strong feelings for each other, but they had been buried deep and covered by years of history and memories of hurt and pain, yet the spark hadn�t quite died. Duffy didn�t even know the ins-and-outs of it herself � there were no words to describe it, but Lara wanted to know, so she�d have to find some.
"So what happened then?" asked Lara, intrigued.
"Well, from what he told me, they were sitting on this bed together in a disused ward where Tom had taken Holly to. Patrick said that he realised, when he saw her lying there on the bed, unable to breathe, that he didn�t want to have to live without her. He said all the feeling for her that he�d pushed aside over the years had come flooding back in that instant. He knew that whatever he did he couldn�t let her die. He told her all this while they were sitting there on their own, but before she found chance to give him a response, people began swarming around them, asking questions and telling them that Holly needed to be checked out. So Patrick took her down to A+E and Max checked her out. Thankfully she was okay."
"So how come she ended up in resus then?" asked Lara. She would never have thought she�d want to hear about her fianc�s �love of his life� - that was supposed to be her. But by the sounds of this story she had won second place.
"Well, Patrick decided to take her home. They were outside in the car park, about to get in the car, when she told him she felt exactly the same. All she had been thinking while Tom had her locked up, tied to the bed was what Patrick was gonna say when she didn�t turn up for the drink and whether or not he was going to notice she was missing and look for her." Duffy shook her head. "They had it all going for them. They were going to make a new start together, try to forget all the old memories that had them bound before. Then this happened�"
"What exactly happened though?"
"They were involved in a car accident on the way home. Patrick escaped practically unscathed but Holly was much worse affected. Even if she had survived there wouldn�t have been much of a life for her - she damaged her spinal cord so she would have been in a wheelchair anyway."
Lara was stunned. That was such an amazing and emotional tale. It seemed to be about a different Patrick. Not the one she had known and loved, but a completely different person. It must have been even harder than she had thought for him to loose Rachel at Christmas, after loosing Holly. "Isn�t it a strange coincidence that they�ve ended up next to each other!" pointed out Lara, looking down at the two graves in front of her. "He has the best of both worlds now, really, doesn�t he? He�s with Holly now, wherever they are, and he�s got me down here, still loving him and�missing him." Lara broke down and began to cry.
Duffy walked forward and gave Lara a hug. I know, it�s hard, it�s very hard. To loose someone you love is�is the worst thing to have to go through." Duffy began to cry herself. "You never get over it."
The sun finally set, throwing Holby into darkness. Yet the cemetery seemed so much darker than the rest of the city, at least it did to Lara and Duffy. Because for them it reminded them of memories � some bad, some good � but memories that they would sometimes rather not think about. So they stood there in silence in that deserted graveyard, losing all sense of time, thinking of those loved ones that they had lost, grieving for them. And thinking of acts of the past, wishing they had never happened. Wishing that they weren�t stood there now. Wishing that the hurt they felt deep inside would disappear and that everything would be as it was before. But it wouldn�t ever be, things would never be the same again.