Saturday seemed to come round a little too quickly for Jeff's liking. Yet again he was up early, stood in the kitchen with the dog munching through his bowl of food. Jeff, on the other hand, was facing the calendar on the wall. Dixie had written in their shifts so they knew what they were doing, it was easier to plan things knowing they both worked the same shift, however, it was all change now. Jeff studied the week ahead seeing when Dixie was working, she was on today; he knew that as well as tomorrow. The rest of the week didn't look much better; she was working up until Wednesday morning solidly. He had five days without her to fill while he was suspended, but had made a pact with himself. Even though he wasn't on duty, he would follow the same pattern as her. He promised himself he would get up with her, take her to work, collect her at the end of the shift and bring her home. In a way, he wanted to keep that bit of his routine the same; it provided some sort of security to him.

He hadn't shared this plan with Dixie though, she would only tell him to take a break, have a lie in and just relax, but, he wasn't going to do that. Jeff still felt that he had let her down and was determined to make it up to her, he wanted to show he could get over the trauma he had suffered and was back to the old Jeff again.

His letter from the trust had arrived the day before, Dixie had written his Review Panel date on the calendar as well, it was in three weeks time. He remembered how his heart sank as he read the letter out loud to her when it arrived.

'Three weeks, what the bloody hell am I going to do for three weeks?'

'I dunno, watch TV, play football, walk the dog, sleep?'

'Dix, are you taking the piss?'

'No'

'Seriously though Princess, I am going to go mental being stuck here for three weeks by myself.'

'But you won't be, you will have Lil Abs. Anyway, I am sure you will enjoy not having me around every second of the day Enjoy the time to yourself Jeffrey' Dixie called back as she left the room to write the date on the calendar.

'At least I now have a therapist appointment to keep me entertained for some of it' Jeff said out loud before looking over at the dog catching the time on the clock.

'Right mate, I think it is time your mummy got up, we don't want her being late do we?' Jeff patted the dog on his head before taking a mug of tea upstairs to wake Dixie.

It was 6am and she was due to start a 12 hour shift in an hour and a half so Jeff knew she needed to hurry up when he knocked on her bedroom door.

'Dixie' he called waiting for a sound to come from behind the door before he slowly opened it venturing in to give her the tea.

'Morning princess, time to get up I am afraid.' Jeff was soft in how he spoke to her as he moved around her bed to place the mug on her bedside table before sitting on the end.

'What time is it?' came her croaky voice.

'Six. C'mon, you need to get ready; you start work in n hour and a half.'

Dixie managed a smile at her husband before he left her to get ready for work. He kept to his promise of driving her to work, as he wasn't allowed to drive into Ambulance HQ, he had to pull up on the road outside.

'Right, see you in 12 hours then.' Dixie said as she moved to get out of the car.

'Yeah, have a good shift wont you and let me know if you need anything.'

'Will do mate.' She called as she closed the door and walked away.

Jeff again was filed with sadness and guilt. I should be walking in with her. I should be working with her. I shouldn't have beaten up that patient. I shouldn't have got myself suspended. He waited a few minutes before driving off returning home thinking about how he was going to spend the next 12 hours without his best friend by his side. As he drove home, he thought back to the last time they worked different shifts, they only did it once, and Dixie had a hospital appointment about her asthma and needed to work earlier, Jeff hated it although he never voiced that to Dixie, she would only laugh at him. No matter how mad she drives him, he only wanted to work with her.

As Jeff pulled up on the drive, his thoughts were turned to what he would do with himself. It was just after 8am, he knew he would need to leave at 7 to go and get Dixie, so he worked out he had 11 hours to fill, but with what?

'First things first, a cuppa and a read of the paper' he said to himself unlocking the front door greeting a confused looking Lil Abs who had already made himself at home on the sofa. However, it wasn't long before Jeff's thoughts turned to Dixie and what she was going to be doing on her shift with Dom. He wondered how many RTC's she would attend how many domestics and hoax calls she would get. Jeff wondered what sort of mood she would be in when he picked her up.

'Blimey, she has only been gone two hours and I am already thinking about her.' He thought. It was fair to say he was lost without her so proceeded to keep himself busy.

Jeff felt he needed to make things up to her; he needed to make up for lashing out at her, so, by lunch time he had fixed the shelf in the bathroom and put up the new bathroom cabinet. He had also put up the mirror in Dixie's room before turning his attention to sorting out the junk in the garage.

It was almost as if he was de-cluttering his mind as he sorted through boxes of his old stuff and Dixie's old things making space in the garage for the car. He came across old photos of his children and Dixie's parents along with them on their wedding day.

'Blimey, haven't we changed' he thought placing them into a small box to take back into the house. 'These need to be on display.'

Jeff was pleased with what he had achieved on his own; he had left a pile of rubbish in the middle of the garage. He didn't want to take them to the tip incase Dixie wanted to keep anything, so, he decided they would go through it in the morning before she started on a late shift. Looking at his watch, it read 5.45pm; he only had another hour to kill before he went to get Dixie and he couldn't wait.

Even though day one of his suspension had passed without too much incident, he wondered just how long it would last before he was climbing the walls with boredom, but for now, he was content in knowing Dixie would be home soon.

A / N – Not the greatest update, but I hope you enjoyed it.