When training was over and you became an SHO the late nights were still there but they were less frequent and more consumed with paperwork. No one wants a general surgeon at night. But the early morning, the day beginning at 5 o'clock, before even the birds were singing. Oh yes, they were definitely still there.

Nobody wants to wait until dinnertime for an operation, not when it can be done and dusted by 10 o'clock. But what surgeon in their right mind wants to take out an appendix, fix an old lady's varicose veins or resect a dying man's liver and pancreas? Diane Lloyd, that's who. She'll do anything to forget.

Danny was someone she was falling in love with. She could laugh with him, cry with him and she always felt close to him. She trusted him more than she'd trusted any other man in her life. But he still let her down, just like all the others before him had done. Well, actually that’s a lie. Ric hadn't let her down, but he didn't make it easy for her either.

She was his SHO, something which he never let her forget. Whenever they disagreed about something, be it a patient or what colour curtains to have in the guest bedroom, Ric always overruled her with the old "I'm the Consultant" line. But then when Diane got sick of it and threatened to leave Ric would turn on the charm and it would be "Diane, I love you, I need you, don't leave me."

And Diane being who she was, would always dutifully return and they would fall back into the old routine. She came to Holby for Ric. She wanted to try again; to see if the spark they once had was still there. Then she realised he wasn't the right person for her, she knew as soon as they stepped out onto the ward that they would never be anything more than friends again.

Diane and Ric were once again inseparable, but in a purely platonic manner she had to keep assuring everyone. Then came Danny Shaughnessy. She really did feel that her and Danny's relationship was working but evidently she was wrong. What did Lisa have that Diane didn't?

There was never any anger to contend with and the unbearable pain subsided with time. All she still felt was regret. Regret that she didn't do something more to make Danny stay, she always thought that there was something she could've done to keep him with her and not make him feel he needed to go to Lisa in the first place.

Diane learnt to deal with it. Danny made his choice and they both had to accept that and get on with the rest of their lives.

But it all comes back to the late nights and early mornings. That is the time when there is no escaping from it.