I was supposed to update Made in Heaven, but I got confused and wrote this instead. Sorry. (The bit at the end of the chapter about what Cal would do in Ethan's situation is inspired by the current episodes, but the other similarities are coincidental.)

Tato Potato, thank you for your review. I'm sure Lily is hoping to explain things to Honey - but Honey might not be in the mood to listen!

Bonnie Sveen Fan, you're right, the ring was very important to Ethan and he'd be even more devastated if he knew he'd lost the ring as well as Honey! Thank you for your review.

Tanith Panic, I think Ethan might care about the ring as it was his mum's, but he probably would rather have Honey back than the ring. If he can forgive her for losing it... thank you for your review.

ETWentHome, thank you for your review. I'm sure Honey would be glad to know Ethan wasn't cheating on her, but then she'd feel even worse about the ring! Honey is going to be upset no matter what happens.

The anger boiled up inside Honey, stronger than ever before. This woman had such a nerve coming to see her after what she'd done. Did she really think there was any way in which she could make it better?

"What do you want?" asked Honey rudely. After all, it wasn't as though Lily was going to speak politely to her.

And to think I was going to make her my bridesmaid!

Then she remembered she had no longer had any need of a bridesmaid of any description and tears welled in her eyes.

Noel barged into the room and caught Lily by the shoulders. "You are leaving right now. You're not welcome here and you never will be. I'm asking you politely to leave and if you don't leave, I'm going to call the police."

Lily had tensed and gasped as he grabbed her, but she kept her eyes fixed on Honey. "Please let go of me, Noel. Honey, I'm so sorry. There has been a terrible misunderstanding."

Honey seized upon her words with hope. Would Lily really have said that if there was no misunderstanding? If she and Ethan were seeing each other behind Honey's back, wouldn't they be glad Honey was finally out of the picture?

"Don't listen to her, Honey," said Noel. "She'll say anything."

He was right. If Lily was Ethan's other girlfriend, she would say anything to throw Honey off the scent.

"Ethan was very tired today," began Lily.

"What: are you saying it's my fault?" burst out Honey.

Noel's hands tightened on Lily's shoulders. "You'd better not be saying it was my daughter's fault. You're lucky you're not a man or you'd have got the same treatment as Ethan."

"There's no reason to be sexist," said Lily severely. "If you want to punch me, you can punch me. If not, take your hands off me now."

Noel hesitated and removed his hands from Lily's shoulders.

"Thank you," said Lily dismissively, and turned back to Honey. "Of course it's not your fault Ethan's tired. Ethan's job is a very tiring one and he's studying to be a consultant as well. We all get tired sometimes and when it happens, the best thing we can do is take a day off work and catch up."

"But isn't taking the day off going to make you fall further behind?" said Honey, confused.

"No. It will make you more alert," said Lily shortly. "And consequently more able to help people. Ethan was tired and I understand Cal had been encouraging him to go home all morning. When I saw him and advised him to go home, he finally gave in."

"But you took him home!" wailed Honey. "And you slept with him!"

Lily frowned. "Certainly not. Ethan is engaged to you. I would never sleep with my friend's fiancé and Ethan wouldn't want me to because he loves you and has no interest in anyone else. I took Ethan home because he was tired. I tried to convey to Ethan that he needed to go to bed and sleep, but he was unwilling to do this. When your father phoned me, I told him that I was attempting to persuade Ethan to go to bed. Unfortunately, I did not choose my words as carefully as I might have done."

Honey stared at her, trying to work out if she was telling the truth. If Ethan was too tired to work, he probably should be in bed, but Honey couldn't imagine Ethan being too tired to do his job.

"Honey, I promise you. This is the truth," said Lily. "Now, please come with me and we'll go and tell Ethan everything is all right and the wedding is back on."

"But how can I be sure you're telling the truth?" said Honey uncertainly.

"Good question," said Noel.

"You know I'm telling the truth because I'm here," said Lily. "If I wanted Ethan and I'd succeeded in sleeping with him today, I would be with him now. I would not be here encouraging you to o and see Ethan and tell him you love him."

Honey was forced to acknowledge the truth of this.

"I hope you can believe me, Honey," said Lily softly. "Ethan is very unhappy and I don't want to lose either of you as friends."

"I believe you," said Honey at last.

Lily took her hand. "Honey, I'm sure everybody will be…" She stopped and frowned. She lifted Honey's hand closer to her face. "You're not wearing your engagement ring."

Honey felt ten times worse. "I... lost it," she said. "But please don't tell Ethan."

Lily frowned. "You lost it? How could you lose it? Do you mean you took it off and put it down somewhere?"

Honey's eyes filled with tears. "I threw it down a drain!"

"You did what?" exploded Lily. "Honey, that was Ethan's mother's ring. I can understand why you weren't very happy with him, but you must know how much Ethan loved his mother."

"I know," wailed Honey.

Behind Lily, Noel was shaking his head. "Honey, that really wasn't a good move."

"You don't have to tell me that, Dad!"

Noel sighed and went to put his arms around her. "Maybe we could find one just like it. I don't know how I'm going to afford it, but we'll think of something."

"Or we could try to get it back," said Lily.

Cal carried the tray into Ethan's room and put it on Ethan's lap. "There you are."

Ethan looked at the bread rolls and salad without enthusiasm. He'd seen far less appetising meals prepared by Cal, but he really wasn't hungry.

"You've got to eat, Nibbles," said Cal. He laughed. "You've got to nibble, Nibbles."

Ethan thought about tipping the tray up and pouring the contents of the meal all over Cal. He began to regret rejecting Cal's offer to make soup in favour of something cold. It would be quite satisfying to pour soup all over Cal.

No. Of course it wouldn't. The only thing that would make Ethan happy now was Honey loving him again.

"Why did it have to be like this?" he said, tears starting in his eyes.

Cal looked at the plate in confusion. "How did you want it? Did you want me to arrange it into a smiley face like I did when you were five?"

"No, not the food!" said Ethan impatiently. "It's like our life was supposed to be going a certain way and it was going to be good, but then someone came along and changed it."

Cal squeezed onto the bed beside Ethan. "How was your life supposed to be going?"

"Honey and I were going to have a baby," said Ethan, trying to blink his tears away. "We were so happy."

"You were hardly happy," said Cal. "To start off with, you thought Honey was cheating on you. Then you thought she was losing the baby. Then you found out Honey was ill. You didn't have much time to be happy."

"Oh, shut up, Caleb!" said Ethan with uncharacteristic rudeness. "We had enough time to know we were going to be happy."

Cal rubbed his arm soothingly. "Okay, Nibbles. You were happy."

"There's no need to be sarcastic!"

"When was I sarcastic?" said Cal, looking confused. "I was agreeing with you! I know I don't do it often, but you should know agreement when you see it. You said you were happy and you'd know better than me so I accept that. Okay?"

"Okay," said Ethan. He really was too tired to argue and he had other things to worry about. "We were happy and we were looking forward to our future. Together. With our baby. But instead, Honey's really ill and I can't sleep because I can't stop thinking about her, and now I can't work because I didn't sleep, and it looks like the medication isn't working so we won't be able to have a baby, and now Honey thinks I've been cheating on her, and everything's just a mess, Cal!" He tore his glasses from his face and dropped them onto the bed, burying his face in his hands, his elbows knocking the tray.

Cal took the tray away from Ethan and put his arms around him. "You're just tired, Nibbles. Completely exhausted." He pushed Ethan's head into his shoulder. "You're so tired, you're actually letting me hug you!"

Ethan felt his tears soaking into Cal's shirt, though he did manage to stop himself from sobbing, so perhaps Cal wouldn't realise.

"It's going to be okay," said Cal. "You and Honey are going to get through this. I'm sure Lily will explain everything to Honey. I know it's tough for you both, but you've got me and Lily looking out for you."

"But if Honey wants me back, I'll have to tell her why we can't try for a baby!" said Ethan.

"Yeah... but at least you'll have her back," said Cal. "Isn't that the important thing?"

"But how can I tell her?"

"Straight out and as soon as possible," said Cal. "There's never a good time to deliver news like that, but the longer you leave it, the worse it's going to get – for you and for Honey."

"So, if you were in my position; if you had to give someone you cared about bad news about their health, you'd just tell them straight away?" said Ethan. "Even if they were upset already?"

"Of course I would," said Cal. "I'm not saying it would be easy, but it's the only thing you can do."

Ethan wasn't convinced. He thought it would be far more like Cal to pretend it wasn't happening and try to carry on as normal.

But it wasn't what Cal would do that mattered. Ethan was the one in the situation. He was the one who had to decide whether to break Honey's heart now or wait in the hope that it wouldn't be necessary.