Zoe wandered back to the apartment alone, after convincing Dylan that she'd be okay without being babysat by him or anyone else. The past few days in the hospital had been draining for Zoe, even though she spent a lot of her time asleep and barely moved at all. The consultant walked through to the kitchen to find that all the bottles of wine were in the bin, she presumed that was Dylan, and the place looked as if it had been cleaned since she'd been there. Zoe made a mental note to thank Dylan, not just for tidying her apartment but for everything he had done for her recently.
After the rubbish hospital food that Zoe had barely eaten over the past few days she was dying to eat something that suitable, and that looked edible, to fill her up before heading to bed. The consultant opened the freezer to pull out some chicken nuggets and oven chips before standing up and getting a small salad out of the fridge.
Zoe sat on the sofa with her dinner and a large glass of water as the radio played in the background, although Zoe wasn't actually listening to what was being played. She sat and thought about how much she mad messed her life up so many times, especially with Max.
She had eaten half of her chicken nuggets and most of her chips before there was a firm knock on the door, it sounded more confident than Zoe felt. Zoe put her plate down on the table in front of her and walked slowly towards the door, presuming that Dylan was checking up on her despite her earlier protests.
Max stood before Zoe looking lost and fatigues, just how she felt.
"Hi." Max said, his voice shaking. It was now that Zoe realised Max had been crying and that the knock had betrayed his own feelings as well as hers.
"Max?" Zoe was shocked; the last person she expected to be on the other side of her door was her already-estranged husband. She stood in the doorway, unable to speak, for a while before she stepped sideways to let Max into the apartment.
Max walked through the apartment so that Zoe could close the door behind him; this place used to be his home, their home, but now Max felt like a stranger.
"What are you doing here?" Zoe asked; venom laced each word that she spoke, remembering how he'd left her in the hospital to recover on her own.
"We need to talk." Max responded, making harsh eye contact with Zoe.
"About?" Zoe knew that, even though Max was exhausted, he was being intentionally harsh to try and hurt her.
"Everything. Us." Max said, his voice wavering under the confidence of Zoe's.
Zoe went to sit on the sofa and Max followed as he sat next to her, but not too close.
Max began to speak but Zoe cut him off before he'd said anything. "Here's how we're going to do this." Zoe got her phone out and opened up the timer app. "You're going to speak for 1 minute without me interrupting you, and then I will speak for a minute without you interrupting me. We will go back and forth until everything has been said that needs to be said. Agreed?"
Max nodded, preparing himself to say what was on his mind before nodding again to let Zoe know that she was allowed to start the time. "I hate what you did to me, even if you didn't want to do it. I can't touch you without seeing his hands all over your body where mine should be, and I don't even know what he looks like. I feel betrayed and when I first found out I thought that maybe it had been going on longer than just that one night, but I know that you've been honest in saying that it was a one-night stand; but that doesn't make it any better. That will never make what you did to me, and how you made me feel, any better." Tears welled in Max's eyes as he spoke. "I will never be able to forget what you did, but with a lot of time and work I feel like I might be able to forgive you for your actions."
Zoe stopped the timer at a minute, glad that Max's first speech was over as she was uncertain that she'd be able to listen to much more without breaking down again.
"Thank you for that." Zoe composed herself before starting the timer and spilling her feelings. "I want to be with you; I've always wanted to be with you. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me and the only person who has ever taken a lot of interest in me and not fallen out of love with me once you found out about my infertility and countless other flaws that I have; some which I am able and willing to work on. I was afraid of marrying you because I was afraid of being fully open to you and putting my heart in your hands, which I now realise I actually did a long time ago, and have not regretted since. I hope that you can forgive me, whether that's in Holby or whether we need to be somewhere else to sort out our, sorry my, problems. If you ever forgive me for doing what I did to you I will be eternally in your debt." Tears welled in Zoe's eyes as she spoke and as she finished talking she was crying harder than she thought she would.
Max shuffled on the sofa to get into a better position and pulled his wife in for a hug to comfort her, the one thing that he'd wanted to do all night, because without him she'd never get through all of the difficult conversations that they'd have to have eventually. Max was also crying as he held Zoe tightly, not ever wanting to let go.
The rest of the night was spent talking until they both felt as though everything they needed to say was out in the open, which made the two Walkers feel at peace with themselves and with each other. They both knew that they couldn't recover from what they'd been through in just one night and that it would take a lot longer, but the first step had been taken towards a happy and healthy future together.
Chapter 4 marks the end of this story, it was only ever going to be short anyway. Hope you enjoyed it. I really loved writing this story, actually.
I have mock exams coming up and as it's year 11 all my focus will be on those for the next 2 weeks as well as college applications and personal issues as well.
I knew that something needed updating so that you guys don't think I'm dead but I can't upload things very often. I will also update another story at some point this week so watch out for that. Hope you're all okay.