Iain's eyes opened to the buzz of his mobile. 3. Three in the morning. He slid his finger across the screen and held it to his ear.

'Hello?'

'Iain?' Lily's voice came down the phone. It was quiet and she sounded teary, although Iain didn't know if he'd picked it up wrong.

'What's wrong?' Iain said, instantly.

'Can I come over?' She asked.

'Uh... well. What's wrong? I'll come to you.' He replied, eyes wandering to his clothes on the back of a chair.

'I'm outside now.' She said. She sounded upset and Iain became worried, despite his earlier thoughts. His concerns were not dampened when he learned she was outside his flat. In fact, he felt something rise in his chest. Anger? Panic? Relief?

'Let me buzz the door. Hold on.' He walked over to the door, holding the button down.

Within the space of ten seconds, Lily was upstairs.

He opened the door and took one look at her. Her eyes were more tired than usual, dark shadows highlighting them in the worst way. She wore her glasses, something Iain wasn't used to seeing. Her hair was matted and scraped back, in place only by a plastic hair grip. She wore no makeup and was in joggers and a hoodie. He felt angry at her for making her own way to his flat - in the middle of the night - alone. However, he knew being angry wouldn't help her open up, nor would it change anything.

Iain just shook his head, in semi-disbelief and sadness too. He just held the door open wider. She made her way in. 'I'd offer you a coffee but I think you need to sleep.' He said, quietly.

Lily just nodded. 'I couldn't. And then I got worried as I haven't slept in ages, Iain. Not in ages.' Her voice wobbled.

'Understandable.' He nodded.

Her face screwed up in angst. Iain understood now.

'You will be fine, though.' He said. He didn't convince himself by this, but Lily just needed to hear someone sound sure - the conviction in his voice, however false, would be reassuring enough.

'I've heard all sorts of things about what can happen if you get too fatigued...' Lily started. 'And earlier when you said..' Her face was a picture of worry and distress.

'Right, well ignore what I said. You're the expert out of the two of us, hey? What would I know? Besides. Nothing is going to happen to you. You'll just be a little tired.' Iain comforted.

Lily nodded, taking shaky gulps of air. She'd started to shake a little bit, noticeably so.

He frowned now. Panic attack. He'd recognise it if ever he saw one, with having PTSD and being in the army for so long.

'Alright. Sit down.' He soothed. He did worry for a moment he was being too bossy, but remembered she needed someone to look after her in the moment - and there was no one else to do it but him.

A few minutes after, it had subsided, and Lily was sitting on Iain's sofa, upset still.

'Look, Lily. Hey. Lily, look at me darling. You're going to be fine. Okay? You won't be ill and you won't have anything awful happen to you, or anything like that. Maybe you should just have a little lie down. Physical rest, if nothing else, is good.' He told her.

'But my work, I didn't finish the report on leukocytes and their functions-' Her voice sounded strangled, coming out in whispers.

'Sod your work. Listen to me. You can do that tomorrow, if at all.' He muttered the last part.

'I'm running out of tomorrows!' She sounded panicked. He ignored this.

'Look. I promise you there will be time, Lily. Time to do it. Time to do everything you want in the world. You've got to trust me.' He moved to give her shoulder a comforting rub. She rested her face in her palms and started to cry again.

Iain knew how she was excessively overtired, but managed to refrain from making any more comments about that. It would just cause her to become more and more agitated, and he had neither the ability or energy to deal with an even more upset Lily.

'Let's have a lie down.' Iain sighed, looking at her with pity in his eyes.

'I'll stay on the sofa, I'm not even tired..' Lily whispered, but her voice cracked as she said it.

'Now you are being daft. You came over here for a reason, didn't you? You didn't want to be alone. The sofa would be no different from just staying at home. And, look, I want to sleep. Even if you don't plan on it, you can keep me company.' He told her, being careful to persuade her with his language. It seemed to work.

She nodded now. 'If you're sure, after the other night and even yesterday when I just left and-'

'We'll talk about that another time. We've.. well, we've lots to discuss, haven't we? Even so. No rush now. He comforted.

She just nodded and let him guide her to his room, mumbling the odd sentence that was indistinguishable and completely incoherent. He exhaled slowly. He started to realise there were more layers to Lily than he first imagined there were. He switched off the light, just before catching sight of her glasses on the bedside table. Things were oh so simple yet oh so complicated. He sighed again, thinking back to earlier. How was he supposed to know what to do? He took solace in the fact that she was beside him - maybe they would get the chance to discuss further in the morning. Maybe they'd get somewhere. Maybe his hopes were up too high.