Nick sighed as he got into his car to head to work, he looked at Zoe's Audi; the sleek and shiny car seemed to sum up her whole personality. He wondered where their marriage had gone wrong, when the passion had died out between them and they had become so distant from each other. He didn't blame her for going out last night, they both needed time to cool off but it was where she spent the night that worried him. He decided to make time for himself and Zoe; they needed to communicate with each other.

The majority of Nick's shift passed without major incident; he'd dealt with two cardiac arrests and a minor RTC before lunch.

He took the long way back from Darwin, after accompanying a patient up to the ward. He sipped his coffee slowly as he walked past the offices of surgical consultants, pausing when he heard his wife's name mentioned.

"She was crying when I was at the bar with her" Matt's voice spoke, explaining his sudden disappearance to his colleagues from last night.

"Anything happen?" came a reply

Matt laughed "Well, I never thought I'd see the day that Dr Hanna would beg for sex 'he hasn't touched me in months' she was practically on her knees begging me" he told his colleagues

"She's hot that one, you're a lucky so and so. That was supposed to have been my round too, I could have taken her home" the other man in Matt's office laughed.

Nick's stomach dropped; surely Zoe had gone home with Matt last night. By the sounds of their conversation she'd done a lot more than just go home with him. He and Zoe both had their pasts, but not once would he have suspected her of cheating; they were married and had a child together.

Nick made his way back to his office, sick to the stomach with thoughts of Zoe, his wife, sleeping with another man. He looked at his phone, no calls or texts from Zoe, just a text from Sofia's childminder asking why she hadn't been dropped off that morning. Nick frowned, Zoe always took Sofia to the childminders; hangover or not. He wondered, briefly, whether something had happened to her, then decided that she was just being lazy. He was dreading going home to Zoe, confronting her on her actions from the previous night.

"Adam, you'll need to cover the rest of my shift, something's come up" Nick called across the ED, hurrying to the car park he needed to see Zoe, allow her to explain, he couldn't let things lie anymore.

The sounds of his daughter's delighted squeals greeted him as he walked through the door; she was sat on the kitchen worktop, Zoe standing in front of her tickling her mercilessly. His eyes were immediately drawn to Zoe's back side, his favourite area of her body, currently clad in the tightest jeans. He watched as she bent over to place Sofia back on the floor, before turning around to see him standing there.

"Oh, you're home early" she greeted him, moving forward to kiss him; he turned his face to the side unable to get the thought of Matt kissing her from his head.

"Yes, I think we have things to discuss..." he looked at her, before turning away in disgust.

"We do?" she questioned, a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach. "Let me just put Fifi in bed and I'll be right back, will you check dinner?" she asked, picking up their daughter "Say goodnight to daddy"

"Night night daddy, love you" she chirped as Zoe carried her upstairs.

Thoughts of Zoe and himself getting divorced filled his head, he couldn't bear for Sofia not to live with him, she was his everything.

"So..." Nick questioned as they sat at the dining table, eating the spaghetti that Zoe had made, the first sign of guilt he though; she never made dinner. "Are you going to tell me where you were last night?"

Zoe's eyes dropped back to her plate, the sudden urge to vomit over coming her "I stayed at a friend's house, I met her at the club and I didn't want to wake you by stumbling home last night" Zoe lied through her teeth.

Nick frowned at her "What was her name?"

"Oh, Gillian, you know from St James', the cardiologist" Zoe replied, Gillian wasn't even a friend just a mere acquaintance from her rotation almost ten years ago.

"Is that right" Nick mused "So you didn't spend the night at Matt Strong's then?" he questioned, his anger beginning to build up at her blatant lies.

Zoe looked shocked, she didn't bargain on him finding out ever, never mind mere hours later "Did he tell you?" she asked quietly "He promised he wouldn't"

Nick looked, shocked. He hadn't expected her to admit things so quickly "No Zoe, he didn't tell me. I overheard him in his office bragging about how easy you were, how you begged him for sex. Am I not doing it for you anymore?" he barged on, giving her no time to explain "I can't believe you did that, I know things weren't great here but sleeping with another man was completely out of order. Do you have any idea how I felt hearing him say those things about you, like you were some cheap tart"

"Nick" she pleaded weakly "I never meant for it to happen, I just needed some attention, you were never there and I was drunk... I didn't have it in me to say no, I really am sorry. I didn't want to hurt you, I really do love you" Zoe began to cry "I just liked feeling wanted, he made me feel special, buying me drinks and letting me talk about my problems. I'm so, so sorry" she drained her wine glass, standing up and moving towards him, reaching out to take his hand.

"You're a disgrace" Nick hissed, "You should have spoken to me; we could have talked things through last night. Here I was, talking about wanting another child, and off you go and shag some other bloke. You're not fit to be a mother to the child you have, never mind make another one" he raged at her, trying to keep his voice down.

"Nick, please..." Zoe tried to interrupt him "You know I love Sofia, more than anything. Please just talk to me" she begged trying to grab his arm as he left the room.

"Get off of me" he snarled at her, he didn't remember feeling this angry before not ever. "I don't want to see you tonight, I'm taking Sofia with me" he hurried upstairs, grabbing a bag and throwing in some clothes, his toothbrush and a few things for Sofia; clothes, toys and her 'blanky' "Come on princess" he spoke softly as he lifted her from her bed, half asleep as she lay across his shoulder "We're going on an adventure" he took her back downstairs, with their bag where a worried Zoe was pacing.

"You can't take my child" she cried at him, she always did have a penchant for armature dramatics. She grabbed at his arm in a futile attempt to pull him away from the door.

He ignored her, pushing her from him and going out to the car and strapping his daughter in and covering her with a blanket. "Shut your eyes darling" he kissed her on the forehead, before shutting the door softly and turning back towards the house.

"Nick you can't do this, please don't leave me" she begged, on her knees in front of him, tears streaming down her face.

"Is that how you begged Matt last night?" he asked maliciously "get up, you look a mess" he held out his hand pulling her up. "I'll call you in the next few days, I've taken the time off work so you won't see me there" he told her emotionlessly before getting into the car and driving to the only place he could think of.

"Charlie, can we stay here tonight" he asked, as the older man opened the door. Looking at Nick with a confused stare, he looked like a lost child.

"Of course, I'll get you a whiskey. Come in" he took the sleeping child from him "Zoe trouble?" he asked, knowing full well what the answer was going to be.