She took a moment to adjust to the light, the alarm still ringing in her head despite the fact it had been off for a couple of minutes. Max stumbled out of bed and watched as Zoe just lay there, trying to keep her eyes open. She stumbled slightly as she got out of bed, her legs failing to support her, unfortunately Max had noticed while he'd been pulling his jeans on.

"Where do you think you're going? Bed Mrs." Max laughed, looking at her, noting the sunken look to her eyes and the slight red tinge to her cheeks. "Come here." She walked towards him slowly, the weakness in her body obvious. "See I know you're sick otherwise you'd have made a comment about being fickle." Zoe only offered a slight smile in response, before Max backed her back towards the bed, before putting a hand against her forehead, only to feel her burning up. "You're hot."

"Max, can you keep it down a bit. You're so loud." Zoe croaked, her voice barely there as she tried to speak to her partner.

"You're definitely ill, normally you'd have said that that was of the many reasons that I'm with you or that's what made you so far out of my league." Max joked, pulling the duvet back over Zoe before reaching for a blanket to make sure she was wrapped up snugly.

"Max stop! I have stuff to do." She replied, peeling back the various layers that he'd covered her with and pulling herself out of bed. Max sat back on the bed watching his partner look through her wardrobe for an outfit that would look okay as well as keep her warm. Zoe was unable to stop her legs from shaking, something which was obvious to Max, who despite having got up to add gel to his hair, was still watching her like a hawk. As she moved back from the wardrobe, happy with her choice of outfit, to make her bed she found herself breathless, seemingly incapable of getting the right amount of oxygen into her lungs.

"Zoe, you aren't going in today, you're ill." Max commented, taking over what she had been doing, and watching as she sat in the chair at her dressing table.

"Whatever gave you that impression?" She asked, cursing the fact that her voice sounded anything but normal as she struggled to get her words out with what felt like razors in her throat.

"Do you want a list?!" He asked sarcastically, Max watched her, the conflict of whether to give up or keep fighting him evident across her face. "You medics are the worst patients. Let's put it this way, if you go into work Connie will send you straight home, wouldn't you rather save yourself the effort of going in and just lay in bed?" She took a moment, clearly thinking this new information over.

"Fine." She sighed, crawling back into bed. "Will you stay?" She asked, showing vulnerability for one of the first times since they'd gotten together.

"No, I don't want your lurgy." Max replied seriously before he burst out laughing, "Don't you think Connie would get a bit moody if we both took a day off at the same time, she wouldn't really believe that you were ill. I will however walk home at lunch and make sure you're looking after yourself, you stay here and I'll go and run you a nice bubble bath but then I have to go."

"I knew there was a reason that I loved you." Zoe whispered to him, having found that whispering didn't hurt as much as talking did.

"There's thousands, you just chose to forget most of them." Max replied before leaving in the direction of the en suite. "There's my favourite invalid." Max spoke, coming back from the en suite not five minutes later only to find Zoe fast asleep, the heavy breath confirming that she was out for the count. "Remind me why I love you?" He whispered to her sleeping form, a smile creeping onto his face, she was gorgeous when she was asleep, the stress of the day a world away. Placing a gentle kiss on her cheek before tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear, he left some paracetamol on the side and a note before leaving for work for the day with the knowledge that Zoe would be okay.