Chapter Ten

A/N: Thank you so much to chosenbap for reviewing the last chapter!

The next morning rolled around and Nick was woken suddenly by the screech of the alarm on his cell phone. He groaned as he sat up on the settee, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and, eventually, casting off the blankets. He had to return to work at some point, and that point was going to be today; he only wished he had managed a little more sleep.

It had taken Nick until the early hours of the morning to finally drift off, a fact that had very little to do with the relatively comfortable settee that would be his bed for the next fortnight. Every time he came close to falling asleep, his pulse began to race again, and he went upstairs to check on Isabelle, make sure she was alright. She was perfectly fine every time he checked, sleeping heavily enough that he never woke her, but still the fears would not leave him be.

Eight o'clock was a relatively comfortable time for a police officer to wake, though not, it seemed, for a teenager. Nick's first port of call was to throw open his son's curtains, whispering various threats of confiscating his video games if he did not ready himself for school without a racket. Theo was an exceptionally caring boy, but not so early in the morning.

Reluctantly, Nick ducked his head into the next room, surprised to find Isabelle sat up in bed, engrossed in her latest thriller novel. The woman really never could leave the job at the door, rather like him.

"I tried to keep him quiet." Nick announced by way of an apology, running his fingers through the short hair at the back of his neck.

"It's alright." Isabelle answered, marking her page and putting the book aside. "I've been awake for a couple of hours, actually. Can't kick the habit."

However tempted he was to comment, Nick held his tongue. He leant against the doorframe, a slight smirk on his lips, watching as Isabelle gave in to the cold and pulling her blanket more tightly around herself. "I'm going to get Theo off to school, if you fancy a lie-in."

"I don't think I've been out of bed for more than an hour this whole week." the woman complained, quick to push the blanket down again. "Sleep isn't high on my list of priorities."

"Well, we're going to have to agree to disagree on that one." Nick sighed, not willing to start an argument so early. Isabelle sighed gently. Nick thought he could see her cross her arms beneath the blanket; it would not have surprised him.

What did surprise him was that Isabelle broke first. He could probably count the number of times that had happened on both his hands. "Alright, I'll rest. I promise."

"Thank you." Nick's thanks was sincere, and he turned to walk out the door, hearing that Theo had finally- if very noisily- made his way downstairs.

"I'll do it," Isabelle piped up again. Nick sighed. That was more like it; he would have been worried if he had won an argument that easily. "Just… can I rest on the couch instead? At least that way I've got the TV to distract me from my own head."

Nick thought for a moment. Really, she should have been resting in bed, she would get better quicker that way. But she had already conceded this much… "Alright, deal."

Isabelle's face broke into a smile, and Nick could not help but smile back at her. Over the past week, he had feared so many times that he would never see that smile again. He did not think he would ever begrudge it again.

It took a minute or two to tackle the stairs, Nick insisted on supporting his ex-wife's weight through every step. Once again, she let him with no complaint; it was becoming a slightly alarming pattern now.

"You sure you're going to be okay on your own?" Nick checked, pulling on his overcoat. He could see Isabelle roll her eyes from across the room. "Alright, I got it. But I'm coming back at lunch to check on you. Not debatable."

"Fine." the woman allowed. They held each other's eyes for a few seconds before she nodded towards the door. "You better get going. Don't want to be late on your first day back."

The thought of being pulled into Gendron's office once again was enough to secure Nick's agreement, and he nodded. "I'll see you at lunch. Try and get some sleep."

"I'll try." she affirmed, for what felt like the hundredth time. A minute later, Nick was gone and the house was silent.

Nick did arrive late to work- as he had expected- but by coincidence, so did Gendron. The commander did not enter the morning briefing until it was almost done, and the junior officer could not help but wonder if his luck was finally changing.

The first four hours of the shift went by in a blur of issuing letters, parking tickets and petty domestic disputes, so fast that Ben had to remind him their break had arrived, grabbing the pair of them a sandwich each from a nearby deli, to make sure that his partner ate something. It was an extraordinarily kind gesture, but the country cop laughed it off. "You're no good to me passed out on the floor."

When the two of them pulled up outside the house, Ben volunteered to mind the car. He claimed it was a precaution, in case someone saw the police logo and needed help; Nick suspected that was not the real reason, but he was grateful nonetheless.

The first thing he noticed was the quiet. That was a good sign. Perhaps Isabelle had actually listened to him for once and gone to sleep on the couch. But when he looked across to where the woman lay, Nick could not help but sigh. True, she was asleep, exactly as she had promised, but sat upright with her neck tilting to one side, surrounded by an abundance of official-looking paperwork that must have been hidden away in the drawer of the coffee table.

"Jesus, Issy," the man whispered under his breath. "You can never just let it go."

He ought to have woken her- she could not be comfortable slumped over like that- but something told him to leave it be. One way or another, she was sleeping, he had got his way, everything was alright.

Still, the man crossed the room, pulling the blanket a little more securely around her, making sure he did not disturb the papers. It was not the first time this had happened. In fifteen years of marriage, half of which spent in a white shirt, Isabelle had often fallen asleep mid-task, and he had never told her he knew. Something told him she knew anyway- there was always a look on her face the next time she saw him- but it was an unspoken rule between them.

'This is different now.' he told himself. 'She was your wife then. Now she's the mother of your son, you're looking after her because of Theo. Things can't be like they were.'

But it was not enough to overcome the temptation, and so Nick reached out to stroke the hair from Isabelle's forehead, watching her eyelids flutter as she dreamt.

After a few moments, Isabelle began to stir, and her ex-husband pulled his hand away, standing from where he had crouched by her side and making his way to the door, back to his partner and the deli sandwich he proffered from the window of the squad car as soon as the door opened.

When Nick returned home that night, Isabelle was still sat on the couch. All the papers had been tidied away out of sight, and she was cradling a steaming mug in both hands. They did not speak beyond the obligatory small talk, the hellos and the goodnights, but they did not need to. The look on Isabelle's face spoke a thousand words.

A/N: I realise this chapter was a bit weird, but I just wanted a bit of an affectionate moment, even if it is a bit one-sided. More to come, please review!