"You and your doctor seem to be getting on rather nicely," Lucy observed as she and Maggie wrapped up at the end of their shift. Maggie looked around them and frowned at her friend. "Keep your voice down," she said warningly, knowing very well that if anyone too senior overheard both she and Neil would be in a fair bit of bother. Lucy grinned "There's no one here," she retorted "anyway, you can tell me everything on the way home." Maggie pulled her cloak around her tightly and slipped on her gloves. "I suppose I might," she answered teasingly."Come on then, spill the gossip," Lucy urged once they'd left the grounds. Maggie considered for a moment. "There's not that much to tell," she replied and Lucy laughed "Maggie Blackwood! The two of you have been going steady for weeks, and there's nothing to tell?" she exclaimed and Maggie smiled to herself. Lucy huffed. "He's lovely," Maggie replied "and that's all there is to it." She hugged her arms around herself cheerfully. "Reckon he's the one, eh?" Lucy asked mischievously and Maggie bit her lip, but didn't reply. Lucy turned to her friend "Oh really?" she teased and Maggie refused to say anything, though had it not been dark, Lucy would have seen the faintest hit of a blush across Maggie's cheeks and a twinkle in her eyes.
January was cold and bleak, and Maggie found herself working three weeks of night shifts on the trot. It couldn't be helped, and rotas couldn't be relied upon to work in one's favour all of the time but she wasn't thrilled about it. The small consolation was that she did get all weekend off to recover but the combination of cold and lack of daylight didn't do much for her mood. Neil's shifts countered hers, and she found herself frustrated by the little amount of time she was able to spend with him. "I miss you too," he'd told her when she'd lamented her shift pattern to him over tea one afternoon, "but you're nearly done. And I'm on nights next week too, so we can spend as much of the weekend as you like together. I don't like seeing you so glum." Maggie leant her chin on her hand and sighed and he looked at her sympathetically. "Sorry. I don't mean to be such a misery," Maggie replied and Neil squeezed her hand. "Come on, let me walk you home before your shift starts," he offered and she smiled. When they got to the end of Maggie's road, Neil wrapped his arms around her gently and held her tight. "You still want to go dancing tomorrow night?" he asked, kissing her hair and she nodded. "Shall I call for you about eight?" Neil suggested and Maggie smiled "I'll look forward to it," she replied before she kissed him, and then gradually extricated herself from his embrace. Neil mulled as he walked home, considering their shifts. He missed Maggie when their shifts were so horribly opposed, and he couldn't easily come up with a way for them to see more of each other. An hour and a half a week wasn't anything like enough time together. This week was at at loss now. Maggie was working tonight and he all day tomorrow. They'd see each other tomorrow night and then they had Sunday to do with as they willed. Then both had five nights of shifts. He wondered whether there was anything to be done with that, whether they could snatch any more time together. There had to be something he could do.