Finally, a few free minutes to write :)

James was the first to wake, taking special care not to make any unnecessary noise as the last thing he wanted to do was wake M prematurely. He had been the recipient of her epic, sleep deprived rants before and had learned to avoid them whenever possible. In order to hopefully avoid such a meltdown, James busied himself by first building a fire, as the cabin had no furnace, and there was quite a chill in the air, and second by making the all-important pot of coffee. Regardless of the mood she was in when she woke up, coffee always had a way of calming her down.

"Good morning M" said James cheerfully as she appeared in the kitchen doorway

"There is nothing GOOD about this particular morning" she snapped

"Well this might help" he said handing her a steaming cup of coffee, black, just the way she liked it.

"Thank you" she replied taking the cup "Why the hell is it so bloody cold in here?"

"Because this is a cabin in the woods, not the Holiday Inn" he said

"I suppose that in addition to the lack of heat, we also have no hot water"

"Well not exactly, there is a small generator for the fridge, but I think I can wire it to also work the hot water heater as well"

"Just so long as you don't blow us to kingdom come in the process"

"I think I can manage a simple rewire thank you very much" he snapped, his cheerful mood quickly disappearing

As James searched around the kitchen for the proper tools, he noticed that M seemed to be shivering a lot more than she should be. It was a bit chilly, but not so cold that her lips should be blue, and she appeared to be abnormally pale.

"Are you feeling alright?" he asked with a hint of genuine concern in his voice

"Just peachy" she said sarcastically

James could tell by her tone that she was not exactly telling the truth so he headed to the sofa and returned with a blanket, which he promptly draped over her shoulders.

"Here, why don't you come and sit by the fire while I go and see about getting us some hot water" he said

"Do stop fussing James, I'm fine" she snapped as she clenched her teeth to keep them from chattering

"Please
forgive me if I don't believe you" he said as he knelt beside her and felt her forehead "You've got a fever"

"What...are you a Doctor now as well as an overpriced babysitter?"

"Will you for one second stop being so damn difficult. You've gone and caught a chill and if we don't get you warmed up, you're just going to get worse."

James managed to locate a hot water bottle and not having the benefit of any hot water, used the next best thing

"Here, hold on to this until I can get the water to a reasonably warm temperature" he said sharply

"If we have no hot water, just exactly WHAT did you put in here?"

"Coffee. Think of it as a medicinal thermos" he said with a wink

"That is ridiculous, not to mention a complete waste of good coffee" she replied

"Any port in a storm M"

"You're loving every second of this aren't you?" she said as she glared at him

"Now that you mention it, No! Not especially. I could have found this whole fiasco entertaining, but not if you are sick. That puts an entirely different spin on things"

"I should think you would enjoy seeing me incapacitated, it would mean that you're job just got a lot easier" she replied in a somewhat softer tone

"M, I do love our endless banter back and forth, in fact it is always the highlight of my day, and truth be told I think you enjoy it as well to a point, but I really don't want to see you incapacitated...It takes the fun out of needling you"

"Why James, for a second there you almost sounded like you care" she said with a hint of sarcasm

James stopped what he was doing and stared at her with an expression of both surprise and hurt on his face

"Why would you think I wouldn't care? You are my friend as well as by boss, at least that's what I thought" he replied quietly

M shifted uncomfortably in her chair as she pulled the blanket closer around her

"I'm sorry James that was uncalled for. Of course you care, otherwise you would have found some way to avoid this assignment" she said as she reached out and brushed a few strands of hair from his forehead

James reached up and captured her hand, only to find that is was cold as ice.

"I'd better get going on that rewiring" he said with a smile "And I'll get some more wood for the fire as well"

"While you're doing that, I think I will go in and lie down for a bit. It's not as if I have any place to go at the moment anyway" she said. When she stood up, she momentarily lost her balance, but James quickly reached out and put his arm around her to keep her from falling.

"Are you sure you're alright?" he asked again

"It's nothing...really. I just stood up too fast is all" she said with an unconvincing smile

"Has this happened before?"

"Once or twice...It's nothing, I'm fine"

"All the same, let's get you back into bed, and I'll come and check on you when I've finished rewiring the generator" he replied as he led her back to the bedroom

M reluctantly allowed him to assist her to the door and managed to make her way back to bed, pulling the blankets around her as she continued to shiver.

It took James the better part of an hour to locate enough proper tools and extra wire to rig the hot water heater. Once he was satisfied that it was heating properly he went out and got more wood for the fire and then began perusing the cupboards to see just what Mallory intended them to eat for the next week. M had been very quiet so James decided to check on her. When he opened the bedroom door, he could see that she was curled up on her side with the blankets pulled up around her so that he could barely see the top of her head. As he reached the bed, he could see that she was sleeping peacefully, and he hated the idea of waking her just to see how she felt, so he leaned down and softly kissed her forehead, just to see if her fever had broken.

M's eyes flew open and she found herself staring into the most incredible and yet annoying blue eyes.

"James! What the hell do you think you're doing?" she demanded in a rather hoarse tone

"I...I was just checking to see if you still had a fever" he replied defensively

"Why did you kiss my forehead? You could have just asked"

"Isn't that how Mothers check to see if their children are running a fever?"

M did her best not to laugh at him as he stood by the bed with the most sincere and confused look on his face.

"Thank you for your concern James, but I'm fine" she said making a face as she cleared her throat

"You're not!" he said with a worried look as he sat down beside her

"It's just the start of a cold, nothing to worry about" she replied as she reached out and took his hand." "Look, if you really want to be useful, why don't you go fix something for lunch"

"What I would really like to do is contact Mallory and get you home to your nice warm flat"

"You'll do no such thing. I will NOT give him the satisfaction of taking a SICK day" she snapped "And just what do you mean contact Mallory? I thought you said you didn't have a phone?"

"I don't, but I do have a flare" he replied

"What are we supposed to do with a flare? Start a large bonfire and hope someone sees it?"

"Mallory said there are no cameras or hidden microphones on the island and if we ran into trouble we were to shoot off the flare. Apparently he has some knob head, who was in desperate need of disciplinary action, watching from shore, and they will sail in to the rescue, should we need them."

"Oh great " she huffed "I hope he knows that this is coming out of his budget and NOT mine"

"Well, you have to give him credit. This time he really did think of just about everything" replied James with a smile

"How did the rewire go?" she asked, abruptly changing the subject

"Fine. The water should be just about ready"

"Good. I'll go and take a shower and try to warm up while you prepare lunch" she said as she started to untangle herself from the blankets

She was halfway across the room when she glanced at her overnight bag and rolled her eyes

"What's wrong?" he asked

"Well, I had only planned on being gone less than a day, and I didn't expect to be held captive on a primitive island in a cabin with no heat or hot water, so you could say that I did not really pack for the occasion" she replied

"Believe it or not, he planned for that as well. If you will just look in the chest of drawers, I think you will find everything you need" said James with a grin

"That cheek little buggers thought of everything hasn't he?' she said in a disgusted tone

"Almost."

"What do you mean almost?"

"His taste in scotch leaves a lot to be desired." he said ducking out the door

"This is going to be a long week" the thought as she headed off for her shower

TO BE CONTINUED...