That night, Alice picked Matthew up at the station and drove them back to Mycroft Avenue. They placed a few groceries in the cupboard and fridge for Jean for when she returned the next day. They decided to eat there and then head over to Alice's to sleep.

As they were finishing dinner, Alice put her hand in her pocket and pulled out two keys and handed them to Matthew, "one is for the front door and the other for the back. There yours now and you can use them any time you like. It'll be our house now."

Matthew took her hand and kissed her knuckles. "I like the sound of that. We'll need to discuss money and how we manage the bills, but we can do that at some point. Not tonight please. Tonight, I just want to fall into bed, and sleep with you in my arms." He looked over at Alice and said, "you must be knackered sweetheart? You haven't slept for more than 24 hours. We should tidy up and have an early night; how does that sound?"

"Sounds like a great plan." She leaned over and kissed him gently on the lips.

They fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow but at 2 am on the dot, the phone went, and Alice got up to answer it. When she came back, she cuddled back into Matthew and said, "a courting couple were in their car in the woods; they heard a gunshot and drove to the police station to report it. Bill went out and found another body. Same thing, sounds like."

Alice hid her face in the crook of Matthew's neck and mumbled, "Matthew I don't want to go, I'm so tired. I'm sure you're tired too."

"Not as much as you are, I managed to get some sleep, remember? Come on, the quicker we get there, the quicker we get back."

"Sure enough, it looked very similar to the other two cases and sure enough, Alice ended up back at the morgue; she had however, had the sense to take her own car this time. Alice left Matthew at the scene and went to the morgue to begin the examination of the body and get the autopsy completed.

Matthew had made it back just after 3.30 am and fell back into their bed. When he woke at 7 am he noticed that the other side of the bed was empty, and Alice hadn't come home. He got washed and dressed and made some breakfast then headed over to the morgue to see if Alice was alright.

When he arrived at the door, there was a note saying that "Dr Harvey had been called to assist on Ward 10" and to contact her there. Matthew walked up in the direction of the ward and saw Alice checking patients, doing morning rounds. She looked so sexy with her lab coat and stethoscope, he thought.

Alice caught a glimpse of her handsome police officer and went over to greet him. She kissed him quickly in the lips, ignoring the rest of the medical staff as they clapped their hands together and made sounds of "ooohs" and "ahhhhs".

One of the nurses leaned over and said, "we did wonder who you were getting married to" as she pointed to the ring on Alice's finger, "everyone's money was on the inspector. You're a dark horse doctor!"

Alice blushed and said, "yes, it's definitely the inspector."

The young nurse said, "that's lovely Doctor Harvey; congratulations to you both…from all of us."

As Alice turned around, the rest of the staff who were looking at them, all applauding again, and Alice could feel her face burning with embarrassment. Matthew thanked them all for being so kind, took Alice by the hand and pulled her over to the small nurse's station at the end of the ward.

"You haven't been to bed Alice: what are you doing here?"

"Two doctors called in sick with a stomach flu and the Sister came down as asked if I'd cover the morning rounds until they could get a locum in."

"Alice, I love you, but you look awful. Have you had something to eat since I saw you?"

"Alice shook her head and Matthew took her hand saying, "let's get you a cup of coffee and a slice of toast."

Alice turned to refuse but she could tell by the look on Matthew's face that there would be no point in arguing with him. She knew he was right.

She kissed Matthew gently on the lips and continued, "I'll be right back…promise." She let go of his hand and went to find the Sister in charge of the ward.

Matthew waited for Alice to return then they headed to the hospital canteen where he bought a coffee and toast for Alice and a tea for himself. They sat in silence while Alice ate; Matthew just held her hand and rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb.

"Alice…you need to go home for a kip. You've had about four hours sleep in the last three days. It's not good for you. I'm worried about you."

"I'll be fine Matthew; I used to work all the hours and more when I was a junior doctor."

Matthew continued the rub the back of her hand and said, "Alice, without sounding like a right arse…you're not 25 anymore." He kissed the side of her temple, trying to avoid looking at her face, as he knew she'd be giving a look that could kill right now.

"I'll go home as soon as I can…I promise."

Alice reached up to touch the side of Matthew's face and looked into his eyes, "thank you for looking after me Matthew. I know I might look annoyed, but it means a lot to me that you care."

Matthew removed her hand from his face and kissed her knuckles. As some of the staff passed by, they leaned down to congratulate Alice and Matthew.

"Bloody Hell Alice, word travels fast here!" he saw Alice was blushing and said, "it's nice Alice. People must think a lot of you to make the effort to congratulate us."

Alice just smiled at his remark and said, "I need to go back and check if the locum is there yet then finish off in the morgue. I'll go home after that, assuming nothing else finds its way into my day."

As Matthew go up from the table, he leaned in and whispered, "have I ever told you how sexy you look in that white coat and stethoscope?"

Alice blushed and told him no but told him to be quiet as she was at work, but she walked away with a little spring in her step, telling Matthew she would see him later.

It was one thing after another; the locum turned up still half cut from the night before, so they sent him home. Alice had to cover that and her work in the morgue and by 4.30 pm, Alice was so tired she was feeling sick and had a bad headache. Mr Beaufort, the hospital administrator walked into her on the ward, thanked her for her extra hours and told her to go home and take the next day off as she looked "positively awful."

He noted the ring on Alice's finger and said, "I heard congratulations are in order? Well…you know. It's good news about you and the inspector." He cleared his throat and as he was leaving, he said, "straight home Doctor Harvey; I don't want the Chief Superintendent of Ballaratt police putting me in the cells for you dropping from exhaustion at work!"

Alice was so tired that she thought that it wasn't safe to drive her car, so she called the station to see if Matthew was still there. It was Constable Crowe who picked up the phone and told her Matthew was interviewing a suspect in a case, but he offered to come and take her home.

True to his word, Peter was there in 10 minutes, escorted Alice out of the morgue and carried her medical bag for her. She had replenished her stocks and cleaned her instruments has they had been used at the last two call outs she'd had.

"Thank you for this Peter, it's very kind of you and I very much appreciate it."

"Can't have you crashing your car, can we doc? The Boss would never forgive me."

He smiled and they sat in silence the rest of the way to her house. When they arrived, Peter went to get her bag from the backseat and carried it to her door. He waited for Alice to unlock the door and placed her back just inside the door, "I think you should go straight to bed doc, you look like shit…I mean…you look tired!"

Alice laughed loudly and said, "yes, thank you for pointing out the obvious Peter. Now you head home."

She left the bag in the hallway, went to the bathroom and walked straight into their bedroom when she stripped down to her bra and panties, leaving her clothes in a pile on the floor; she lay on top of the covers as she was so hot and sweaty from the balmy temperatures they were having.

When Matthew came through the door a few hours later, he almost fell over Alice's bag but he was at least glad that she was at home. As he walked in, he couldn't hear any noises so poked his head round the door of their bedroom, seeing Alice lying on top of the covers. When he looked at his watch, he noted it was just gone 7pm so he leaned over and kissed Alice on her forehead, thinking she probably hadn't eaten yet.

Alice moved and sat up, regretting it as soon as she had done it; she looked at Matthew and a wave of nausea came over her. She ran to the bathroom and Matthew followed her as quickly as he could. He found her leaning over the bowl retching up the contents of her stomach but, as he leaned down to tuck her hair behind her ears, he noticed that there wasn't much there.

He helped Alice up to lean on the side of the bath, wet a face cloth with cold water and handed it to her, "Alice sweetheart? What have you eaten today? Apart from the toast I bought you this morning?"

Alice started rambling about how the locum had turned up drunk and been sent home, the problem with the patient in bed 4, the nurse who thought she'd lost the key to the medicine cabinet, and the list went on.

Matthew wrapped his arms around her and said, "so you're telling me you've been awake for 3 days with about 4 hours sleep and you've spent today running on a slice of toast?"

Alice nodded her head into Matthew's stomach and started to cry, "my head is pounding and I'm so very tired, Matthew. Please don't be angry with me."

"Alice, I'm not angry…I'm just worried about you. You need to look after yourself. Come on, why don't you have a quick shower, I'll make us dinner and then bed."

He waited until Alice had stopped crying before helping her up and into the shower, he changed out of his uniform and started on some dinner. He decided on a frittata as there were some leftover potatoes, and he'd throw in some cheese, onion then pour in the egg. It was stodge but it would be filling and that's what Alice needed right now. That and a good sleep.

They sat at the table with Matthew trying to coax Alice to eat; he'd given her an aspirin for head with a large glass of water and sat the food down in front of her. She protested at first but after the first few bites, she seemed to be enjoying it.

"Alice, I was wondering what you thought about calling in sick tomorrow? You really need some rest."

"Beaufort told me to take tomorrow off…he said he didn't want you coming after him!"

Matthew smiled and took Alice's hand, "he knows I'd kick him in the arse if he didn't make sure you were safe. Especially after all of what came out of the Orton case."

"Matthew!" Alice exclaimed "Jean is back!"

"Yes, Alice, I know. You don't need to shout at me."

"But she'll go to the shops tomorrow and people might tell her about you and I. She shouldn't hear it like that. Call her. Please."

Matthew nodded his head and made the call, "Jean, hello. Happy New year, how was Adelaide?"

Jean told Matthew that she'd fill him in when he got back but Matthew said, "I'm going to stay here with Alice. I'll explain…actually. Jean?" he looked over at Alice and she smiled.

"Alice and I have something to tell you…we'd like to tell you in person but…well we didn't want you hearing it from someone else…we're engaged! Alice agreed to be my wife."

There was stunned silence at the other end of the phone and Matthew looked at Alice as if to say, "I don't know" pointing at the phone.

Just as Matthew was about to say something, Jean said, "you're serious, aren't you? That's wonderful news Matthew. Why don't you and Alice come over for dinner tomorrow and we can have a catch up. I'm dying to hear how this happened!"

Matthew agreed and put the phone down, he reached out for Alice's hand and said, "come on sweetheart, bedtime."

He settled Alice into their bed and kissed her gently before telling her he was going to get changed and call the station; he was going to try for a late start in the morning.

When Matthew got into bed and snuggled up behind Alice he whispered, "don't need to be at work till 11 tomorrow. I'm a lucky man!" He kissed Alice on the cheek then lay down behind her and they both fell asleep.