Martin smoothed the picnic blanket out beneath him, before laying back and shuffling to make himself more comfortable.

Beside him Kate was already studiously scanning the night sky. "Don't forget, you have to make a wish when you see one." She reminded him with a smile.

They'd headed out into the hills outside Fitton to watch for the Perseids meteor shower. It was something Kate had always wanted to do, but never got around to, and Martin was more than happy to take her. They weren't alone; it seemed that quite a few of Fittons residents had taken to the hillside to watch for natures very own firework display. The pop of corks and rustling of food packets emanated from little pockets of people camped out in the darkness.

"I...I should have brought more food." Martin fretted, staring up.

"I'm stuffed." Kate reassured him. "If I eat any more I'll burst. And my scales won't be happy either."

Martin had cooked them dinner before they headed out and the novelty of cooking for two hadn't quite worn off yet. Neither had his tendency to get the measurements completely wrong, leading to more food than was quite decent for two people.

"You don't need to worry about that." Martin chuckled. There was absolutely nothing wrong with Kate's figure.

She turned her head to look at him. "So you don't mind if put on a few stone then?"

Martin shook his head. "Nope. Don't care." He genuinely didn't. Martin appreciated a pretty girl with a lovely figure as much as the next man, but he liked to pride himself on being slightly less shallow than some of his contemporaries. Besides, what was wrong with being curvy? Women were supposed to have curves.

Kate studied him for a little while, clearly trying to work out whether he was kidding or not. "No. You probably wouldn't." She finally answered, before looking back up to the sky with a smile on her lips. Martin reached out to take her hand and they lapsed into a comfortable silence, side by side.

It was a perfect evening, the smell of summer flowers carried on the gentle breeze across the hilltop, the sky was crystal clear and the stars twinkling above them. A perfect evening to tell someone you loved them Martin thought idly.

It had been two weeks since his conversation with Douglas in the cockpit. Thankfully Arthur had bounded in at precisely the crucial moment and the conversation had been forgotten. Well, perhaps not forgotten entirely. Martin had gone home that night and lay awake all night thinking about what had been said.

He hadn't dared to think about it before, which given all that had gone before might strike some as a little strange. The question of love just hadn't come up and Martin found himself wondering why. It was certainly where they were headed, wasn't it? Though Kate had made no mention of it herself.

Martin let the word drift around his head, almost trying it out for size.

Love. L.O.V.E.

It wasn't that he hadn't used that word before. He had, just once, to Emma. She said it back straight away, almost too quickly, almost automatically. At the time, he'd just been ecstatic to hear it from someone who wasn't related to him and had no real choice in the matter. But looking back now, he realised that it had no real meaning when she'd said it. At least not in the way that Martin had wanted it to.

Surely he loved Kate, didn't he? His heart skipped a beat when she walked into the room or his phone beeped with a text from her. He was comfortable around her and he couldn't wait to see her again whenever they were apart. Their physical relationship was great, and not just sex, it was the intimacy of falling asleep with someone, holding hands, the pure physical presence of her. It was intoxicating, but also familiar somehow.

They'd fallen into something of a routine of late, with him spending much of his time at her flat. She'd stayed with him too, of course, but her flat was the more comfortable, and indeed private, of the two so it was natural that it was where they met the most. Whenever he was away with MJN they'd text each other every night before falling asleep.

This was love. He knew it was. So why on earth could he not just say it?

After a while, he realised that it wasn't just a fear of rejection that plagued him, it was that by telling her he made it all real. Until he said it out loud he could fool himself that it wasn't true, so that when things went wrong, and he was Martin Crieff so they always went wrong, he could pretend it didn't hurt so much, because...well...it wasn't like he loved her.

Who are you kidding, Crieff?

His mind betrayed him.

"Kate?"

"Hmm?"

"I...just wanted to...I wanted to tell you..."

"Oh wow! Didn't you see that?!" Kate interrupted him gesturing towards the sky. "Huge falling star! That was amazing."

Martin couldn't help but smile at the huge grin on her face. "I...er...must have missed it." He confessed, not admitting that his mind had been elsewhere.

Kate turned to look at him with a knowing look on her face. "You were watching the plane in the sky over there, weren't you?" She gestured with her hand.

That was easier to confess to. "I...might have been, yes." He smiled at her sheepishly.

She laughed at him. "Oh, Martin. You can take the Crieff out of the plane, but..." She trailed off, looking back to the sky.

"Sorry."

Kate squeezed his hand. "It's ok. I made a wish for both of us."

"Oh?"

"I can't tell you. Or it won't come true, will it?"

They lapsed into silence again for a short while, as Martin began to wonder what Kate's wish for them could have been.

"You were going to say something." Kate said suddenly, turning to look at him expectantly. "Sorry, I saw the shooting star and interrupted you. What were you going to say?"

Martin stared at her for a moment, the words on the tip of his tongue. He could barely see her face in the darkness of the hillside. The wind had stilled, the voices of the others around them sounded distant and certainly not paying attention to them. Now would be perfect, now is the moment. It would be so easy.

He opened his mouth to speak, hesitating.

"...Oh, it's nothing."

The words wouldn't come out.

"I thought you wanted to tell me something?" He could make out the look of confusion on her face.

"I...er...Carolyn has booked us for a flight to Hong Kong in a week, I'll be gone for a couple of days. Just wanted to let you know." He lied. Well, the trip wasn't a lie.

"Oh." She nodded. "Ok."

They both looked back up towards the heavens.

Martin Crieff, you are an idiot and a coward.