Six O'clock

"Here, Jess? Why did the chicken cross the road?"

"I've already heard this one a thousand times."

"Okay," Connor shrugged, rolled over in bed a little to face her in the opposite mattress across from him, "Why did the pig cross the road? Come on; enter into the spirit of Christmas!"

Jess sighed and curled up further under the covers. She focused her eyes on the door, hoped she wouldn't get the chance to murder Connor before someone arrived to distract her. "It's not been the greatest Christmas ever, to be honest."

"At least we had that pudding with all the raisins and cherries, hey? Everyone told me that hospital food was horrible, but it's actually not that bad. And for free, too!"

"Have you heard of taxes?"

The door swung open, and Becker rushed forward to her side, crouched down. She smiled for the first time in a while, let him brush back her hair and stroke her face. She savoured the warm gaze as he looked at her, realised how much she'd missed him.

"Hey, babe," he squeezed her hand, "How're you doing? I've really, really missed you."

"I've missed you too. So much."

Abby had entered behind him and sat down by Connor's bed, whilst Matt hovered in the middle. Connor and Abby were laughing, having a similar reunion to Jess and Becker. They were sweet, in their own way. But Jess really couldn't work out how Abby could put up with that guy all the time – a couple of days had driven her mad.

"Here, Matt," Jess called to him, thought he looked awkward on his own, "How's your week been?"

He sank down onto the edge of her bed, "Not bad. And yours?"

"Well, it's been worse," she grinned at Matt.

"You're so brave," Becker leant down and kissed her, "I brought your present, you know. I hope you'll like it."

"Yours is at home..."

"Don't worry about it. Having you back is the best Christmas present I could wish to have this year."

"Aww," Matt smiled, picked up his Tesco's carrier bag and rummaged through it, "Actually, we saved the Secret Santa presents to open with you two – aren't you honoured?"

"Well, it would've been a bit dull without us," Connor shouted across to them.

Abby laughed and helped him sit up in bed; everyone gathered around Jess. Matt handed out the presents silently, like it was a sacred ceremony. Connor shook his, Abby tried to peel back the paper and take a look inside.

"Okay. Three, two, one..."

The whole room was filled with 'ooh' and 'ahh' and 'Connor!'.

Abby held up a pair of woollen socks from Becker, "Very inventive, soldier boy."

"Yeah, well," Becker showed them all a pot of honey, and Matt smirked, "What, is it to sweeten me up?"

"Something like that."

Jess had a bracelet from Abby, Matt had a hat from Connor, and Connor had a decent joke book from Jess. He grinned and opened it at the first page, but Abby shook her head. Jess realised that was how she did it – she kept him under control.

"Connor, I brought your present too. Although I don't know why I bothered."

"Thanks, Abby," he grinned as he ripped open a new book about the Jurassic period for dinosaurs, and immediately buried his head in it, leaning against Abby.

A couple of days before Christmas, there'd been an incident with a creature where Connor and Jess had been infected. They hadn't been badly injured, but they'd had to stay in quarantine in the ARC hospital.

Aside from being together in the ward, they'd not seen their other colleagues since then, and now it was New Year's Eve. They'd tried to stay optimistic, but it had been hard. Christmas without family was the worst thing in the world to Jess, and Connor too, even if he didn't admit it.

Today was really special; maybe it was a sacred ceremony, in some ways.

"Are we staying up all night, then?" Matt asked them.

"Well, it depends..." Abby glanced from Connor to Jess, "If they feel up to it. They look a bit peaky, don't you think?"

Connor dropped the book onto his knees, "We've been here for... for more than a week! All we've done is lie here! We have to have a party today! From now until midnight!"

"Here, Jess," Becker held out a present to her, a small rounded package, like a bauble. She peeled back the paper, slipped a box out of the bubble wrap. She opened it up slowly, screamed and threw her arms around him.

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