Zoe woke up extremely late in an empty bed. Great, he's awake and didn't wake her. She jumped out of bed, had the quickest shower ever and got ready for work. As she was buttoning her blouse up, Max walked in, carrying breakfast.

"Thanks for waking me" she scowled at Max. "We're going to be late!"

"Relax" he replied, calmly "I thought you were the boss."

"What gave you that idea?" she raised her eyebrows and sighed as her phone rang, Connie.

Max picked her phone up, before she had chance to. "Hi...no, it's Max...no, she's not available right now...shower...yep...no...bye Connie."

Zoe stood, shaking her head at Max "you can't jus-"

"It worked didn't it?" he smirked, wrapping his arms around her waist.

Zoe couldn't help but laugh and respond to his actions by wrapping her arms around his neck as she kissed him, "thank you."

"Now, how about you thank me properly..." Max raised a teasing eyebrow as he moved his hands down onto Zoe's bum.

She tried to pull away from him "Max..we've got work.." she closed her eyes as he kissed her neck slowly. "Max.." before she knew it, she'd taken Max's t-shirt off and thrown it to the floor.

An hour later, they arrived at the ED. Zoe sighed as Connie approached her, "don't even start..the car broke down" she lied, looking around trying to change the subject quickly. "Everything seems fine here. I'll be in my office if anyone needs me." She began walking away.

"You mean my office."

Zoe turned round like a shot, "what?!"

Connie smiled "shall we take this into the office."

"No!" Zoe snapped, "what the hell do you mean, your office?!"

"Well, you failed to show up to the meeting with Mr Self" Connie said almost smirking. "Too busy with lover boy..? Mr Self wasn't happy, obviously, and thought you were too unreliable to run the ED."

"Bitch!" Zoe spat, staring at Connie before stomping off.

"Where are you going? You should have started over an hour ago!"

Zoe just held up her packet of cigarettes, her fingers arranged perfectly so her index and middle fingers were facing Connie. She stormed outside and round the corner, immediately lighting her cigarette.

Max walked out shortly after and pulled Zoe into a tight embrace but she just pushed him away and walked off. "Zo.."

She turned back to him, "No Max. A hug won't make all this better! Nick trusted me with this place and I've lost it. He warned me she was only here for my job but did I listen? No! Now look."

"Don't blame it all on me.." he pleaded, holding his hand out to her.

She just shook her head and turned to Jeff as he brought a patient out of his ambulance, "what've we got?"

As Jeff told Zoe who the girl was, the girl saw Max and started to cry, "daddy!" She held her arms out to him and Zoe turned around giving Max a deathly stare.

She tutted and walked inside with Jeff and the girl, "Lily, can you sort this girl out please?" She didn't give her chance to reply and stormed off to what used to be her office.

The first thing she noticed was the name on the door, it wasn't hers. She felt the blood rush round her body like a volcano about to explode. She opened the door, almost knocking it off of its hinges, now noticing her things had already been put into boxes, "you didn't waste any time" she glared at Connie as she lifted the boxes up, walking out, slamming the door shut behind her.

She hadn't looked where she was going and walked straight into a patient, the bottom of her box opening and the contents falling out all over the floor. As she crouched down to pick her things up, a photo caught her eye; her, Nick and Sharice. Tears filled her eyes, threatening to fall. She looked so happy, she had everything she needed, all three of them did. She took in a deep breath and swallowed hard attempting to remove the lump that had formed in her throat.

Zoe stuffed things in her pockets and under her arms, trying to carry everything out to her car at once. As she stood up she saw Max in front of her. "Need help?" he reached to try and take hold of some files for her.

"I don't need anything from you" she pushed past him and made her way to her car, throwing the contents of her box into the boot and getting in the drivers side. She reversed out of her parking space and sped off the hospital premises. She drove, and she drove, until she reached the beach. The place she always went when she needed to cool off. She took out her phone and texted Nick 'I'm sorry. Z'. She switched her phone off and got out the car. Leaning against it, she began to cry; hot tears racing down her cheeks.

Love reading the reviews. Please keep leaving them, I love you all and hope this chapter is okay for you all :) R&R

Gemma x