It was a Sunday morning, and everything was still. Iain had woken up beside Lily, who was dozing. He glanced over at her and smiled, blinking his eyes closed again.

Too many mornings to count had he woken up alone. Not counting Gem, of course. She was always in another room anyway and he still felt sort of alone. The feeling he felt in that moment was far from alone. In fact, he felt as if he had all the company he ever needed. He wasn't bothered that she'd woken him up twice more in the night, or that all the duvet and blankets were draped over her. It was nice to wake up and have nowhere pressing to go.

Half of Iain hated the fact it was morning. Although it was a lovely feeling waking up beside her at first, he was snapped back in to reality. It meant they had to talk. Talking might have meant consequences that neither of them really wanted. Talking meant doing something. He didn't have one ounce of strength left in him, and he partly hoped Lily didn't either. It would give him more time to put off a discussion about what they were. What were they? Oh, god.

Lily stirred not long after, and Iain had made her a cup of tea. She sipped at it gingerly - tea wasn't her favourite but she drunk it to be polite. 'How you feeling?' Iain had asked her.

'Achy.' She replied.

He puffed out his cheeks, exhaling.

'Want any paracetamol?' He asked.

'I've had 1g orally in the last four hours, I perhaps shouldn't. Thank you though.' She said, quietly.

'Alright.' Iain nodded, working out that she'd had two paracetamols. He wondered why she didn't just put it normally, then remembered it was Lily. Everything had to be medical jargon.

'I wonder how Ethan is...' Lily said, snapping Iain out of his thoughts.

'Don't you worry about that. He's got Charlie and Alicia looking after him.'

'Yeah, but it's awful, Iain. Awful.' Lily shuddered visibly, clutching the mug with two hands after propping herself up by shuffling to sit against the pillows.

'It is, yeah. So scary to think.' Iain agreed with her.

'I ended things on bad terms, we snapped at one another, it was the strike..' Lily remembered, shaking her head as the words came out.

'You can't think like that. He had nothing against you, and vice versa, he knew that too.' Iain comforted, as he sipped his own tea. It burned the back of his throat but he didn't even wince.

'But... we shouted. And he saved my life. And I never even got to say thank you.' Lily shook her head again, tears spilling down her cheeks.

'Hey. Don't work yourself up... you've been through enough. None of that matters now. What matters is, that you find a way to thank him. Like, when you're mended, focus on becoming an even better doctor and perhaps by that, you'd save more patients. That's showing him your gratitude...' Iain said.

Lily just nodded, absorbing all his advice.

She dabbed at her eyes. 'Yeah, you're right.'

Iain just sighed. 'Look, how about you try and have a girly day today? I don't know, message Connie. See, I don't think she's working if I remember rightly. It'd do you good to get out. I'll even drop you off.' He smiled now.

'Thanks Iain, but I'm tired..' She sighed.

'Yeah. You must be. Well, it's just a suggestion.' He got up to take the mugs away.

When he came back, Lily was on the phone.

'Yep, yep. Okay. See you then.' She put the phone down quickly, greeting Iain with a small smile. 'That was Connie. We're meeting for a coffee.' Lily gave a smile.

'Good! Good. I know you feel a bit weak, but you can take your meds and escape the four walls of this place for a few hours. Don't get me wrong, it's a cracking apartment, but you will go stir crazy if you're stuck here any longer.' Iain communicated with enthusiasm.

Lily managed a smile. 'Yeah. Okay.'

Connie features lots in the next chapter! Thanks for reading Xx