To my fellow Chuffy lovers, thank you for the love & support.


"See my dreams all die, from where you're standing on your own."


Duffy sits at the dressing table, applying her makeup when she hears the bedroom door open. Andrew stands there watching her and she looks at him via the mirror. There's nothing spoken for a minute before he asks,

"Where are you going?"

She doesn't answer as she applies her lipstick, "Just out for dinner with an old friend."

He can't help but think she's making a bit too much effort for a dinner date with an old friend but he doesn't comment. He nods and watches her for a moment as she put away her makeup in her bag.

"What time will you be home?"

"I'm not sure, it shouldn't be too late."

She stands up and turns around. If Andrew's honest with himself, she does look incredibly gorgeous. The red dress empathises her figure, clings to her curves in all the right places but he can't help but be slightly disapproving over the amount of cleavage she's showing.

He clears his throat, "Lisa, is it really necessary to show all that flesh?"

She looks down at her cleavage and rolls her eyes slightly. She doesn't speak as she pulls up her dress slightly before seeking his approval, "Better?"

Slightly, he thinks to himself but nods. She smiles as she takes one last glance at her reflection in the mirror and walks towards him. She plants a kiss to his cheek, "I'll be home before you know it."

He smiles slightly before taking in the smell of her perfume. He'd brought her it last Christmas and he wondered why she was making such an effort for an old friend. It wasn't more than dinner, was it? He doesn't believe Duffy would ever cheat, she can't lie to save her life.

He'd know, wouldn't he? He watches her walk downstairs, "Would you like me to drop you off?"

She shakes her head, "No need, they're coming to pick me up."

He notices she doesn't reveal whether the person is a female or a male, he wonders if its the latter. Dinner with an old friend? Dinner with Charlie perhaps? He doesn't understand why she's been so secretive.

There's a pip of a car horn and Duffy smiles as she puts on her coat and kisses Andrew's cheek again before disappearing out of the house. He closes the door behind her, leans back against it and sighs deeply.


"Hi." She gets in the car and kisses Charlie's cheek.

He smiles when she gets in and closes his eyes when she leans over to kiss his cheek. The smell of her perfume is lovely, one Andrew brought her at Christmas possibly? Smells like strawberries.

"Are you ok?" She asks, placing her hand on his thigh.

He nods with a smile, "You smell gorgeous and look beautiful."

She blushes deeply at his words. He begins to drive away from her home, they'd been planning their date for weeks but both being married proved quite difficult. Now, they'd managed to sort it and the date was happening tonight.

He takes her back to his, where they share half a bottle of wine whilst waiting for the taxi. He's got that look of mischief in his eye when he places his hand on her thigh. She just laughs, she's beginning to know that look all too well.

"Charlie, we're about to go for dinner."

"They said the taxi wouldn't come before seven forty."

She glanced over at the clock, by now it had just gone quarter-past seven. She finished her wine before she moved to straddle herself over his lap. With her around linked loosely around his neck, she pressed her lips to his and whispered in his ear.

"Better make it worthwhile then, hadn't we?"

Fifteen minutes later, it's just coming up to seven thirty-five and she laughs as she removes herself from his lap. She runs a hand through her hair trying to straighten it out, whilst readjusting her underwear and her dress.

"I hate you," She whispered as she reapplied her lipstick.

"Of course you do." He remarked as she watched him from the mirror.

"I didn't know red suited you so much Mr Fairhead." She smirked as she turned around. As she placed her lipstick in her bag, she took out her perfume and sprayed her neck, cleavage and wrists. He watched her, memorised by her beauty.

She blushed knowing he was watching her.

"You shouldn't watch me you know, makes me nervous."

Their eyes meet for a second but the moment is interrupted by the ringing of the phone. The taxi had arrived.


The restaurant is just outside of town. They couldn't risk one in Holby although they knew the chances of being caught were pretty slim, there was still a possibility and neither of them wanting their affair to be exposed.

It's a beautiful restaurant and it's just nice to talk, without the need for sex or worrying they'd be caught.

Their eyes meet again over the table and she smiles as she picks up her glass of wine, taking a small sip. Nothing's exchanged until Charlie takes her hand in his and runs his thumb over the back of her hand. She looks down at their hands and smiles, placing the glass down on the table.

"I'm going to leave Baz."

The words completely surprise her and she looks up at him, her eyes wide.

"What?"

He takes a deep breath, "I'm going to leave Baz." He repeats. There's a silence as she finishes her wine and reaches over to refill her glass. She doesn't move her hand from his grasp though. No, no this can't be happening.

"Why?"

She knows it's a ridiculous question to ask — she already knows the answer and he sighs, "I want you Duffy. Its you who I want to fall asleep with at night and wake up to in the morning. It's always been you, I want to make you happy. You and the boys."

She smiles sadly, her eyes becoming watery.

After a few seconds, she whispers; "I can't leave Andrew."

"Can't or won't?"

She closes her eyes as a tear rolls down her cheek, "Charlie, I won't do it to the boys, I won't do it to Andrew. This will destroy them. I'm trapped in an unhappy marriage but I don't care because, because my boys are happy Charlie and that's all that matters."

"But I can make you all happy." He answers as he leans over and kisses her. She smiles sadly before she deepens the kiss. Resting her forehead against his, she looks in his eyes and nods. She kisses him again.


"Is that Charlie?" Sam asks as he presses his forehead against the window of the restaurant.

"What?" Chloe asks as she joins Sam. "Oh yeah so it is. Who's he with?"

Both of them look at each other when they realised that the person Charlie was playing tonsil tennis with in the restaurant, wasn't his wife. Chloe hands out her hand with a smug smile;

"You owe me a tenner." She simply said, "I told you there was more to their friendship."


a/n: Now Chloe and Sam know, how long until the rest of the department does?
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