As Laura woke she felt an arm over her and gentle snoring next to her Robbie, she smiled. Then the last few weeks hit her all at once, she opened her eyes, and looked to her right to see that the arm belonged to a naked James Jesus. Guilt and grief washing over her, Christ, bloody pain and with that her stomach turned, my head! a massive wave of nausea flooded her, SHIT. She knew she had to get to the bathroom, NOW, she couldn't hold it down, and escaping James' limbs, she ran as fast as she could to the bathroom, just managing to get to the toilet in time.

James slowly came to, the noise of her leaving so fast had woken him. It took him a moment to figure out who was in his bathroom, and from the sounds of it, vomiting. Laura! Then 'Shit.. then I'm so thirsty.. Christ.. my head. As he got up he realised he was naked, and trying desperately to put what he thought they may have done out of his mind, he made his unsteadily over to the back of the door and put on his dressing gown. He turned on the light as he padded into the lounge, making his way carefully through the shattered glass on the floor, the clothes, and cigarette butts, to the kitchen. He got two glasses down, and filled them up with cold water. He downed a glass, and then filled it up again, downing it for the second time, hoping it would help clear his head, and making him feel slightly more sober. As he filled Laura's glass, he looked at his watch midnight. When.. How?

He walked to the bathroom, the light that was on eliminated the room showing him that Laura too was naked, shit. His mind whirring to this fact, trying to overcome the headache, he also realised as he got closer, that even in the stale hot air in his flat, she was shivering, whilst a glistening of sweat covered her back from the effort of vomiting. He went back into his room to get her one his t-shirts to help her feel less exposed and to hopefully stop the shivering. He opened the cupboard and noted that he really needed to do some laundry soon as this was his last remaining shirt. Picking it up he went back to the bathroom.

Laura was too engrossed in emptying her stomach to know that he had arrived behind her, until she felt the hand on her back. She looked up - slightly startled from the staring into the toilet bowl - and gave him a weak smile. He put the glass of water on the floor beside her, and straddled her back as he pulled her hair out of the way, holding it up into a pony tail. She could smell the mixture of his sweat, scotch and of his cologne and it made her vomit again. Still holding her hair with one hand she felt him straddle her; 'I'm going to flush Laura' and pressed the button on top of the loo. She pulled her head out of the way, and as she did so realised for the first time that she was naked, whilst he, trying to avoid looking at the sick but failing noted there seemed to be absolutely no food present.

'Here' she looked at the hand with the t-shirt in, and took it from him, whilst her stomach still gurgled crazily. 'Do you want help to put it on?' he asked.

She nodded, scared of speaking in case she was sick again. In fact she didn't want to move, but knew she would feel better if she wasn't sitting here naked in front of him, she turned slightly and as she did the room spun slightly in front of her. Closing her eyes to protect herself against the room spinning, she raised her arms above her head, feeling like she was a child again and her mother was taking care of her. God I feel ill. As she felt it go over her, and pulled it over her, her stomach angrily protested against the movement, and with her head feeling like it would explode at any minute, she vomited again. He placed a reassuring hand on his back and rubbed it up and down and then when she finished handed her the water again.

They sat there together, silent for a while. She thought she had probably finished so she moved so that her back was against the bath, and she rose her knees up and pressed her face down into her hands, all the while he watched her.

'Do you think you're done?' She nodded, feeling a bit better.

She looked up at him, 'James.. we did, didn't we?'

James looked at her sitting there, so small, noting how swollen her lips looked and wasn't entirely sure how to answer 'Potentially, yeah..'

'Oh buggering hell' came the muffled response from behind her hands

Unsure of whether it was the situation they were in now or whether she was just commenting on how she felt or even all of it, James decided to ignore what she said -mainly as his head probably couldn't cope with it. Instead, he decided that he'd what he should have done; before the alcohol and when she first arrived. I'll look after her. In the silence he could hear her stomach gurgling madly.

'When was the last time you ate Laura?'

She looked up at him, like she couldn't believe what he was asking. Narrowing her eyes, James could see she was trying to think against what he assumed was one hell of a headache.

'The day Lyn left.. she cooked us all lasagne before they left…'

James calculated in his mind, today was Wednesday and he knew from talking to her at the funeral it had been Sunday that she was planning to leave. 'So.. three days.' Shit. He needed to get something down her.

She nodded. 'What about you James?' suddenly concerned.

'Ah I'm a cigarette and caffeine man – breakfast, lunch and dinner. Whatever gets you through.'He smiled

She smiled remembering how in another life time that's what he said about victim, when they discussed what had been found in his stomach. She remembered Robbie saying after she had told them what was his stomach that the victim hadn't been a happy man.. She looked at James, definitely not a happy man..

Do you think you could eat something Laura?'

She nodded, 'Something small.'

He got up from his position against the bath, slightly unsteadily and padded over to the kitchen, sighing at the state of the lounge in the light, no wonder his head felt like someone was fighting their way out. He realised that this must have been the first time of being awake in a long time where he hadn't gone straight for the scotch bottle, no wonder his head was so awful. He paused next to the scotch bottle, thinking that whatever had gone on last night he could quickly drink it away, but, the thought of Laura in the bathroom, made him walk past it. He had a mission. He was going to look after her. He made his way over to his freezer and pulled out the bread, he put four pieces in the microwave to defrost them, and then placed them in the toaster.

He went back to the bathroom to where Laura was sat hunched up 'Laura, do you think you can move?' She nodded, and allowed him to help her up, picking up her glass of water and then walked into the kitchen, noting as she did so she felt stiff and sore.

He got some pain killers from the cupboard, passed them to her, and she swallowed them gratefully. The toast popped up, so he put it on their plates and they ate together in silence. Laura feeling better that some food was passing her lips.

'Do you want to talk about…'

Laura shook her head, she didn't really want to think about it, her brain felt like it would explode out of her head if she had too. James felt relief pass over him, his head certainly couldn't cope with discussing what they thought had happened. Suddenly the I-phone which had been on charge for the past week on the countertop, jumped to life. Saved by the bell she thought. Both of them realised who it would be long before he answered. Who else would be ringing at this time?

'Hathaway'

On the other side of the phone, Innocent's voice came through loud and clear

'I need to tell you this Hathaway, before you find out from anyone else, Peterson got the bastard, we've brought her in.'

James sat on the chair that a moment before he had got out of, clutching the side of the table, relief washing over him.

'Her?'

'Yes, Pamela. I'm going to go down in a second to have her explain to me why, but I thought I would tell you first. By the way I've been trying to get hold of Dr Hobson, but…'

'She's here, Ma'am. I'll tell her.'

Innocent decided to ignore why Dr Hobson was around at Hathaway's at this time of night but then she was a grown adult and realised that it was probably better they were together rather than apart..

'Oh and James, I'm not accepting your resignation. You're one of the best cops we have! Get what you need to out of your system and come and see me.' The line cut dead.

James put the phone down, and looked at Laura. He looked like he'd seen a ghost thought Laura.

'What is it?'

I want to kill her.

'James?'

'Peterson arrested her. It's over.' But it's not over. It won't bring any of them back. He got up from his seat, and started to make his way out of the kitchen.

The air suddenly seemed to be pushed from her lungs. 'Oh my god, finally' she whispered, a sense of relief washing over her. He turned back and looked at her. She looked at him,

'Where are you going?'

'Isn't that obvious?'

'James. Not in this state. No.'

The sternness in her voice, made him look at her and take note, he smiled realising that this was Dr Hobson sat at his breakfast bar, and that she could be downright scary at times. Suddenly he saw her crumble, as everything from that evening, the past few weeks enveloped her and suddenly the tears were pouring down her cheeks, she let out an animal like howl as her feelings became too much. James was there in a second, next to her where she was sitting, wrapping his arms around her as she sobbed, massive bone shuddering sobs. He held her to his waist and she could feel the softness of the dressing gown against her cheek. He made what he hoped were comforting sounds, until his own heart broke at the sights and sounds of her sobbing, I can't leave Oxford when I know she's all alone. But I can't make it better for her. I can't bring them back and all I want to do is see him. Tell him how I feel about him. God I wish it was me in that coffin. Lizzie...that poor woman. He felt huge warm tears running down his cheeks.

Finally she managed to get herself in check, hiccupping with emotion and looked up as a tear fell on her nose. He looked down at her, and she realised through the stinging pain in her eyes and the blurriness of tears, that he too was crying. She stood up and hugged him, both of them enveloped by the grief they felt.

They weren't sure of how long they stood there sobbing, taking comfort from one another, but eventually James stopped, and another wave of embarrassment swept over him.

'Sorry…'

Laura pulled herself together, her eyes felt raw from the crying, and felt completely drained. Putting on her best authoritative doctors voice, she decided to ignore what he'd just said;

'James, if you do want to go down the station later, I won't stop you, but need to take a shower and then sleep in that order, and then drink about a gallon of coffee before I even allow you to get near the car.'

He smiled at her, thankful that some small part of the doctor had returned and walked off in the direction of the shower, he couldn't remember the last time he showered. As he left, she saw the state of the lounge in front of her properly for the first time; bottles and cigarettes and smashed glass aplenty Oh James. You're worse then me. She heard the shower turn on, and she moved around slowly picking up the bottles, opening the window to allow the warm summer air come through, taking the smell of fustiness of the flat away. She was grateful to be doing something, so she couldn't think about the pain, guilt or anything else that seemed to constantly follow her around, nor was she able to think about what had happened in the last few hours. She was pretty sure she was still drunk though, as she kept having to put a hand out to steady herself.

After his shower - which he spent the majority of it leaning against the shower wall to steady himself - he padded back into the lounge, a towel wrapped round him, and stopped as he watched her finishing picking up the shattered pieces of glass from when he had thrown it at the wall. He leant against the wall watching her;

'Laura, you needn't worry.. I would have done that…'

'That's a blatant lie James. You would have sat around here in this for weeks.' He knew that she was right, he also knew that when facing Laura as Dr Hobson he would be beaten, so went back to his room to dry himself off, and then come back in and help her. As he dried himself he took note that there were no condoms hanging around, either a good or bad thing depending.

Laura; eyes stinging, stomach complaining, head feeling like someone was playing the drums, watched him go, and suddenly tiredness swept over her. She felt so drained. She walked over to the bin, wrapping the last remaining bits of glass into a newspaper and made her way back picking up her dress, and slumped down into the armchair. She sighed, picked up her legs and bundled herself into it, and within seconds was in a deep sleep.