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Will winced as he read the blurb of the book that his nieces had picked out for Henry, a theologian tome that had managed to bored him witless in only those few lines. The magazines offered by the nursing auxiliary, although trashy and the pages creased and well thumbed, looked like the less evil option. Tossing the book back into the holdall, he picked one up, lounging back into his chair and swinging his legs up and over the opposite arm, so that his feet dangled in mid-air. He caught sight of Elizabeth's nurse lifting her head from her mountain of paperwork and raising an eyebrow at him. "Against the rules?" he queried.

She gave a smile. "Probably," she told him, her lips giving a conspiratorially twist. "But I'll overlook it."

"Great," Will returned her smile and proffered the biscuit packet. "Want one? Consider it a token of thanks for your silence."

"It's kind of you, but I just ate my weight in pasta on my break, so I'll give it a miss."

"Well if you change your mind then just help yourself, especially round about the 3am slump." Will took a biscuit for himself, crunching on it as he leaned his head back and peered once again at Elizabeth's monitors. "She seems to be doing a lot of the work herself, breathing wise, I mean."

There was a nod. "She's doing well."

"Is there a plan in place for exubation the morning?" When he saw nurse's eyebrow quirk, he added, "I'm a trauma surgeon across at Walter Reed."

"Ah." She gave a nod, that explained his constant perusal of the monitors and his ease in the ward; it wasn't what she expected from relatives, her husband's tense frame and awkward silences were much more in line with that. "There will be an anaesthetic and surgical review in the morning round, they'll assess how she's been overnight and decide then how best to proceed."

"Ok." Will nodded thoughtfully, his fingers tapping against the magazine. "You know, it's odd to be sitting on this side of things. I'm trying not run everything through my head like it's one of my cases at work." Shifting, he rubbed his finger against the bridge of his nose. "Although I'm not sure it's working all that well."

"Let me guess, you already have a plan of action in your head?"

Will held his fingers an inch apart. "Little bit," he admitted guiltily. "But I promise not to write it down for them." A sly smile pulled at his lips at his words, no consultant liked to be needled and prodded by another.

She gave a small snort, shaking her head at him. "Why am I not convinced by you?"

"Because you've probably met so many of us that you know exactly what we're like. Territorial." His grin widened. "Anyway, I won't need to leave notes, I plan to be here to annoy them in person."

"I shall warn the dayshift nurse," she teased, then looked up towards the monitors she tapped her pen once, twice against her desk. "Although, lets face it, they would all do the same in this situation."

"Of course they would." He gave a slight, humourless smile, his head tilting back so he was glancing at the ceiling. "But I have to admit, being able to run the numbers, knowing what all of this is," his hand gestured across the expanse of medical equipment. "That it makes all of this that little bit easier, because when I do that, I can forget that it's my sister in the bed."

"One of the benefits of our training," the nurse mused. "The ability to detach yourself in an emergency." She placed her pen down, leaning forward on her elbows, one foot balanced on the bar along the bottom of the table, the other anchoring it's wheels in place by resting on the floor. "Are you close?"

"I think so, Lizzie would probably say otherwise." Will caught sight of the expression of surprise on her face and gave a chuckle. "Not because she dislikes me, but because I have…had a tendency to go off grid for long spells." He looked over at the bed and smiled, reaching out to rest his hand over his sister's. "But she was always there, graduations, birthday's and Christmas. And when I stopped turning up for the latter or was deployed abroad, she was always just at the other end of a phone when I needed her. Ready to jump if I ever asked." His fingers curved around Lizzie's, giving them a soft squeeze. "She was the dependable one out of us, always was. She would tell you she had to be, but even before that, she was the same." He looked up at her still expression, remembering every bickering conversation they'd had, the exasperation with him she could never quite conceal. "She'd call me irresponsible, accuse me of running away, tell me that I was taking the easy way out." His smile widened. "Not at every phone call, but in a fair few, and she wasn't wrong." He tapped his fingers against hers, his next words addressed to Lizzie. "Although if you remember a word of this then I will of course be denying it all and blaming it on ICU psychosis."

"I'm not sure you'll get away with that," the nurse warned him, a note of humour in her tone before she turned serious. "So, what made you run away?"

"It was easier. It was just the two of us left and Lizzie's answer to that was to pull me closer, or at least she tried to. I had the opposite reaction and pulled away…" He broke off and shook his head, aware that he was beginning to voice thoughts that he'd spent the last thirty four years trying to block out. "Sorry, I shouldn't be boring you with this."

"It's not boring."

"Nice of you to say, but family issues are always boring." He shot her a polite smile, his tongue had run away with him; the tiredness must be taking it's toll on him, he decided. He pulled his hand slowly away from Lizzie's and holding up his magazine, he told the nurse lightly, "Much more interesting to read about celebrity scandals."

She gave him another smile and sensing his sudden discomfort and picking up on his cues, she picked up her pen and went back to her paperwork.

Will stared back down at his magazine, dwelling on his words. For Lizzie, her family was everything and she pulled them close to her, fearful of losing anyone again. He had feared the same, but his reaction was to not let anyone in. They were the two side of the same coin.

It was just like he had told Sophie; he had thought he would go first; he'd been prepared for it and the thought of dying didn't frighten him. It was only now he might be the one left standing that he regretted turning down all the invitations to the various family events that Lizzie had pleaded with him to turn up to. It was only now he realised that shunning these things hadn't made him less vulnerable, just gave him more regrets. If she pulled through this, then he would turn up to anything she wanted to badger him into, he decided firmly.

It was the burning ache in his right hip that woke Henry, and he gave a groan as he opened his eyes, thrown off balance by his unfamiliar surroundings, by the warm stuffiness of the room's air. For a blissful three seconds, confusion reigned, and the events of the day were nothing but a brief nagging sensation on the periphery of his mind as he glanced around the chapel. His eyes rested on the dimly lit cross and it all rushed back to him with a sickening lurch. It felt like it should all have been just a surreal dream, that he should have been waking up in his own bed, with Elizabeth curled up next to him. Instead he found himself curled up on a hard chapel pew, alone.

Blinking, he shifted as he realised that the edge of his watch was digging into his cheek and winced at the dull, nagging pull in his neck. He'd fallen asleep upright, he remembered belatedly, before shifting to try and make himself slightly more comfortable. Clearly that hadn't worked for long.

Henry pulled himself into a seated position, his hip screaming at him as he moved. He rubbed his cheek and could feel the indented line pressed into the skin of his cheek from his watch. Looking down at the offending item, Henry's stomach rolled, and he felt a jolt of panic when he saw it was almost half past one in the morning. He'd been asleep for almost three hours. Digging his hand into his jacket, he pulled out his phone, noting in dismay that it was out of battery.

Panic forced him onto his feet, and he lurched unsteadily, rushing from the room, his shoes skidding and squealing on the linoleum as he took the corner coming out of the chapel too quickly. The pain in his hip and the ache in his neck were forgotten, numbed by fear and adrenaline. Anything could have happened to Elizabeth and Will wouldn't have known where to find him. His heart pounded in his chest as he fought to remember just how the corridors weaved and what direction to take. The chill in the hospital corridor, caused him to shiver, for the flesh of his arms to goose-pimple. His teeth were set on edge from both the cold and from the tendrils of fear that had crept around his chest, squeezing it tightly.

When he got to the unit, the wait for the ward entrance to unlock felt like an age. The ward was quiet, cocooned in darkness other than the glow of the machines at each bed. He was breathless by the time he got to the door of Elizabeth's room, slumping in the frame when he saw that she was just how he left her, relief flooding through him.

Will barely looked up from where he was lounged across a chair, a blanket draped around his shoulders and a magazine open across his lap. "Fall asleep?" he asked calmly.

"Yeah." Henry carded his hands through his hair, the tightness in his chest starting to slowly ease

"Then wake up, realise how long you'd been away and panic," he stated, his eyes returning to his reading material.

"And for good measure also discovered that my mobile is out of battery," Henry admitted.

"Ah." Will's nose wrinkled slightly guiltily. "I should have said, the kids packed your charger." He gestured towards the holdall. He looked up again, his gaze flickering over Henry. "You feel any better for your sleep?"

Henry mused over that question, his head felt less leaden, but other than that he felt much the same, mired in the same despair he felt before he left. "Little bit," he mumbled non-committedly. He winced as his hip gave a sharp tug when he went to sit back down. "How is she?"

"No change, just like I promised." Will took a sip of water. "I on the other hand have suddenly became aware that you came third place in TMI'S Arm Candy US government edition." He grinned across at him, his eyes twinkling in unrestrained delight. "My belated congratulations, if I'd known sooner, I would have sent a card."

Unable to smother a smile in response, Henry remarked, "I wouldn't have thought your interest lay in gossip rags." His hand ran over Elizabeth's as he spoke, as though checking that she wasn't just a mirage in front of him.

"Well when the choice was between that or Summa Theologica, it seemed the lesser of two evils. Do you and my sister ever indulge in any light reading? Or does it always have to be something meaningful and dreadfully dull?"

"I was re-reading it to pull out some points for my next book."

"Hmm." Will gave a nod as he looked back down at his magazine, muttering, "Dreadfully dull it is then."

Henry resisted the urge to roll his eyes at his brother in law. "So, nothing happened while I was away?"

"I did eat all the Oreos, but in my defence, you were gone for hours and my sugar levels drop when I'm tired. So that was really born out of necessity." When he heard Henry's long-suffering sigh, he added, "Sorry, thought you meant with me. Because, like I told you," He met Henry's gaze meaningfully, each word a short staccato, "Lizzie. Is. Fine."

Henry sank back slightly in his chair, his hand still grasping Elizabeth's his thumb running over her wedding band, where he could feel the slight residue from the surgical tape they'd placed over it whilst she is in theatre. "Sorry, I just panicked, I didn't mean to be away for so long. I was worried something had happened and you hadn't been able to find me."

Thumbing across to the next page in his magazine, Will remarked, "Family room is only in the corridor."

"That's not where I went."

"Chapel?"

"Yeah." A frown crumpled Henry's features. "But how did you guess?"

Will held up on hand, a finger jumping up at each point he made. "Um, Catholic. Religion and ethics professor. Obsessed with churches. Also, you feel guilty and you want absolution for that. Really the chapel is the obvious choice." He glanced up at him. "If it were the other way round, I would have found Lizzie in the canteen, guarantee it."

Henry managed another smile. "She's much better at all nighters than I am."

"That'll be the sugar and caffeine." Will yawned as he spoke, stretching his arms up and back.

"What time you taking Annie to school?"

"Thought I'd leave here about seven, get home for about half past and then I can have breakfast with her. Be back here for the morning round."

"Then why don't you go home now and get some sleep?"

Will looked across at him, giving a slow shake if his head. "Said I'd stay with you."

"You need some sleep as well."

"Can get that in the relatives room."

"It won't be the same." He looked at Elizabeth and swallowed back the lump in his throat, his voice slightly raspier at his next words. "You said yourself that she's fine. So go and get some proper rest."

Will looked thoughtful. "It's tempting," he admitted. "But won't you miss my shining company?"

Henry have a soft snort. "I'll cope."

His lips twisted as he considered the offer, realistically it made sense. Once again, he looked up at the monitors to see the same numbers staring back at him as before. "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely."

"Ok, well let me get you a coffee first."

"You're going to bankrupt yourself at those coffee machines."

Will swung his legs back to the floor, shrugging the blanket from his shoulders. "Actually, I can go one better, turns out there's a twenty-four-hour coffee cart in the canteen. So, you can have a real coffee."

The sound of the nurse's chair scraping against the floor, interrupted them. "We're due for another turn and to top up some of the syringes again, so that sounds like perfect timing."

Henry hesitated, he'd only just got back to Elizabeth and he was loathed to leave her again. It was Will's hand tapping against the top of his arm that caught his attention. He gestured with his head encouragingly towards the door. "C'mon, this stuff needs done."

His lips drew momentarily into a thin line. "Ok, but bring your things with you and I'll arrange a car for you."

"Done."

Ellie pressed the pillow against her, fluffing it before she pushed it into Elizabeth's back. "Ok, I'll watch the tube, you can roll her back now."

Niamh slowly let go of Elizabeth's shoulders and hips, letting her sink back onto the folded pillow, her thin fingers moving a strand of blonde hair gently off Elizabeth's cheek. She began to pull the sheets back across her, lifting Elizabeth's arms so they could rest on the outside.

During this Ellie leaned across the bed, unhooking the tubing from it's metal holder and swinging both gently across to the other side so that it didn't obscure Elizabeth's face, before clipping it securely back into place.

Niamh glanced up at the monitor, her lips pursing thoughtfully. "Did you give her an O2 boost before we turned?"

"Course I did." Ellie followed her colleagues gaze to the monitor, her mouth rounding slightly in surprise. "Sats have dropped to 95%." She craned her neck to look at the ventilator. "Tidal volumes are down slightly and so are her spont breaths."

Niamh turned Elizabeth's wrist outwards so her arterial line didn't press into her skin. "She might just be tired. She's been doing most of it for herself."

"True."

"What are her parameters for oxygen?"

"Aim for sats of above 96%, can titrate oxygen between 30-50%, if her requirements go up any further than that then get blood gasses."

"She's only at the 30, maybe put her to 40 and see if that helps. She's still well within the range they want."

"Yeah." Ellie leaned across the ventilator and turned unlocking the screen, turned the oxygen setting up. "I've drawn up the propofol, can you check and sign for it?" she asked as she reached for the stethoscope dangling from the IV stand.

"Sure." Niamh whistled tunelessly under her breath as she twirled the glass bottle underneath her fingers, checking the date and batch number against the bright yellow label that had been attached to the filled syringe. Signing her initials on the label and on the prescription chart, she looked up to see Ellie frowning, slowly edging the stethoscope out of her ears. "Problem?"

"Left side sounds a bit quieter."

Niamh gestured for the stethoscope and adjusted it into her ears before leaning across, and sliding it across Elizabeth's chest, listening to both sides. Straightening, she said, "Both sides audible, but lower left might be a bit duller."

"Rest of her obs are ok. Heart rate's up very slightly, but only from 65 to 76." Ellie tapped her fingers against the table. "She didn't get furosemide in between her units of blood; she could be slightly overloaded."

"That sounds the most likely, I'll page, get someone to write her up for some." She hung the stethoscope back over the stand and turned to see that Ellie was still watching the monitors with a frown on her face. "You don't look convinced."

Ellie shook her head and then sighed. "It's nothing. You're probably right." She ran her finger down a column of numbers. "Her fluid input is definitely higher than her output, she's probably in a bit of fluid overload, it's making her work harder and she's getting tired."

"It's easily fixed. Any changes and let me know, we can call for a review."

Her lips pulled thin, her eyes scanning the numbers again as she ran through multiple scenarios in her head and then discarded each of them for now. She was stable, she told herself again. Everything was in the normal range. Ellie rubbed her eyes, night shift was playing tricks on her, she picked up the syringe of propofol and set herself back to work.

Henry and Will walked along the long corridors towards the entrance. Henry flexed his cold fingers against the warmth of his coffee cup, feeling it ease the ache in his joints. He took the smallest sip of the scalding liquid, feeling it sear and catch at the back of his throat.

Will gave a sigh. "You sure you don't mind me going?"

"I'm positive," Henry told him. "You have Annie to entertain in," he checked his watch, "about five short hours."

Will gave a snicker. "I was planning on letting her have her chocolate cereal. I've discovered that a lot of parenting is just doing whatever it takes to get through the day."

"How does Sophie feel about that?"

His head tilted one way and then the next as he thought through his response. "Depends on the day...and if she catches me out." He zipped up his jacket as they got closer to the entrance. "You know, I don't think I appreciated just how easy you and Lizzie made parenting look."

Henry shot him an incredulous look. "You can't have been paying much attention." He let out a bark of laughter. "When Stevie was born we didn't have a clue what to do, sometimes we just used to look at her in panic. And I hate to tell you, it just gets harder as they get older." He gave a shake of his head. "You won't be able to bribe her with chocolate cereal soon."

Will gave a pained sigh. "Better make the most of it while I can then."

"The both of you just muddle on through." He took another sip of coffee. "At least that's what we did."

Will's lips pulled tight, his eyes narrowing as he stared ahead of himself before he admitted, "Sophie and I don't always see eye to eye on a lot of this parenting stuff. I wasn't involved for so long, not properly, she has all her ways of dealing with Annie and they all work; for her."

"They don't for you?"

"Sometimes. Feel like a bit of a heel even saying this. Sophie has been amazing today and I am lucky to have her, she's put up with a lot." He scuffed his shoe against the floor, his pace slowing as they neared the automatic door, a hand running through his hair. "Everything that's happened today, it's made me think about how I've been living my life." He sucked in a breath between teeth. "But you don't need to hear about that."

"Look man, I get it." Henry replied. "I've done nothing but second guess every decision that might have got us to here."

"I had noticed. But there's one big difference."

Henry looked at him, a shadow of confusion across his eyes. "What's that?"

"I don't always make Sophie happy and I can see it. You make Lizzie ecstatic, you always have and she had the confidence to live her life exactly the way she wanted to." He chewed on the inside of his cheek, mulling over his next words. "When I say you shouldn't feel guilty, I mean it because I don't think there could have been anyone else on this earth who could have made her happier." He clapped Henry on his arm. "Anyway, I suppose I should get home and you should get back to her."

As he turned to leave, Henry called him back. "Will, you have time and if the bones are good, then you can fix anything."

"I'll keep it in mind." He lifted his hand in a small wave. "I'll see you in the morning. Oh and try the magazines, some of those stories are mind-boggling."