'Come in…' Ric glanced up at the timid knock on his door and was surprised to see Connie standing in the doorway, wringing her hands nervously and occasionally glancing furtively over her shoulders, as if checking that there was no audience.

'Thanks' she stepped inside and shut the door behind her, moving swiftly over to the sofa and perching nervously on the edge of it, stroking the soft leather with a smile lingering on her face 'You know if this sofa could speak…'

'It would have a few interesting stories to tell' he nodded, his brow furrowed with concern as she changed the subject 'you look nervous'

'I was wondering' she paused, biting her lip tensely for a moment before continuing 'I know its Tuesday and you only usually come at weekends but… would you like to come around tonight?'

'Sure' his brow furrowed slightly with concern at her sudden change of heart. In their first few weeks together, he had pressed her to let him visit during the week but she always refused and he had been left with no choice but to accept her decision 'What's bought this on?'

'I uh…' she flushed slightly, gazing intently past him and out at the block of flats that his office overlooked, steadfastly refusing to meet his eyes with hers 'I missed you last night'

'You missed me?' a small smile played across his lips as he stood up, putting his arms around her and kicking the door closed and reaching one hand away from her to lock it before turning back to her.

'It's a big house and its better suited to two people rather than one' she shrugged dismissively 'I wasn't really sure what to do with myself when you weren't there'

'What do you do with yourself on the other 4 nights every week when I'm not there?' he asked, an expression of amusement on his face as she nodded, leaning against him, convinced that nobody was likely to walk in on them.

'I… drink mostly' she flushed slightly 'a large glass of wine, a hot bath and the TV. It just didn't seem so alluring last night on my own. In fact, it seemed rather sad, especially since I knew you were sitting somewhere on the other side of town feeling the same way'

'How do you know I wasn't out clubbing?' he asked, the mock offence in his face growing as she started to laugh, her whole body shaking with amusement as she remained in his arms 'You could at least try and pretend that it isn't totally ridiculous'

'What? That you'd go clubbing? You'd probably bump into one of your children and traumatise them for life and God knows what you'd make of the music – they don't play disco any more'

'What do they play then?' he blinked slightly, looking more confused when she shrugged dismissively 'Is it that dreadful baseline stuff that Amy plays the whole time?'

'Which one was Amy again?' Connie asked wearily, long since having lost track of the Griffin children, especially as she'd met only two of them.

'Third oldest, first by my fourth wife. Well third if you only count Lola once' he flushed slightly as Connie stifled a snigger.

'Its probably the same thing – bass line and a lot of swearing. They used to play it a lot at the balls Michael took me to – his preferred breed of well endowed, brainless bimbo couldn't get enough of it'

'Didn't you mind going to the parties knowing that his intention was to pick up a girl and take them up to his room?' Ric asked, slightly curious as Connie peered up at him, considering his question before answering, a small frown furrowing her brow.

'Of course I minded. I mean, it wasn't nice, going to parties knowing that at the end of the evening my husband would be in our bed with another woman while I drank myself into a stupor in the bar, but it was the best Michael could give me. I had his heart; the bimbo's got his body. Turns out they were both equally worthless' she finished slightly bitterly, her grip on Ric's upper arms tightening slightly as she spoke. He had seen her like this once before; so full of hurt and anger at her husband that it was visible to the naked eye, oozing from every pore, directed at the nearest person who was present in the absence of the cause of her unhappiness. The first time had been on the roof the week after she had stormed into his office, raging against the new clinical lead. Since that day he had been concerned, privately watching her, knowing how close to the edge she was. Knowing that she would never admit it to anyone. On that particular afternoon she had disappeared, cancelling her surgical list citing personal issues and leaving the hospital without speaking to anyone. It was only when Elliot Hope had tapped on his door, announcing timidly that Connie had taken the afternoon off and he was a little concerned about her that Ric realised that she had gone past breaking point and carried on going for as long as she could. Wherever she was, he suspected that she was breaking. He could never identify what it had been that drove him to the roof that day – it was as if he instinctively knew that she would be there, simply because it was where he would have gone in a similar situation and he knew that he and Connie weren't all that different.

When he stepped onto the roof he spotted her immediately, curled up against the bitter chill in the air, her arms wrapped around her knees in a tight embrace designed, he suspected, for comfort as much as warmth. Tears coursed down her cheeks, falling freely to the damp concrete ledge where she sat, several feet from the edge, still far to close for comfort. Not wanting to scare her he moved cautiously, eventually sitting beside her as he received no discouragement.

'What are you doing here?' she asked eventually through gasps bourn of sorrow and sheer coldness as the bitter wind blew over them.

'Looking for you' he replied quietly, putting an arm around her, feeling relief pass through him as she leaned against him, accepting the comfort that he offered

'Well you found me' she replied bitterly, still making no move to pull away from his embrace 'aren't you going to try and talk me down?'

'You're not on the edge' he shrugged cautiously, gripping her slightly tighter as he mentally added the word "yet" onto the end of his sentence

'Perhaps not physically…' she trailed off sadly 'mentally, emotionally, I think I just went over'

'What happened?'

'My husband got locked away' she snapped, glaring at him as though he was somehow stupid 'I lost my job, my marriage, my home…'

'Your home' he glanced down at her with surprise – he hadn't known that things were that bad 'I thought you were financially secure…'

'I got a letter from my solicitor today. As part of the divorce they want to sell the house and split the proceeds. God knows what Michael's solicitor thinks he's going to do with five hundred thousand pounds while he's serving a life sentence but I suppose it's the principle of the thing' she sighed sadly 'There are no children so no reason to let me keep the house – they seem to think they're doing me a favour by letting me stay put until its sold'

'I…' he paused, unsure what to say to her to make her feel better. He wasn't sure that there existed a set of words that would make her situation in any way better.

'You must think I'm being stupid. After all, its only bricks and mortar; it's not even as if I have any particularly happy memories of the place. Michael and I were on the rocks by the time we bought the place and it wasn't as if I kidded myself that we were ever going to be filling the place with a family. I barely even spend any time there…'

'It sounds to me' Ric remarked sagely, holding her a little more tightly as he weighed up the risks of what he was about to say 'as if you're trying to convince yourself that you're being stupid. I think you're being perfectly reasonable; it's your home and someone is trying to take it from you. The carving up of assets is always one of the worst parts of divorce'

'You should know' she emitted a bitter laugh 'will it always hurt this much?' she asked quietly and he shook his head, stroking her hair gently from her face

'No' he stated with certainly, shaking his head slowly 'it will take time but it will get better'

'I never noticed how much I relied on him' she admitted with a small flush in her cheeks 'the nights are very long without him and I don't really know how to pass the time in my own company'

'Well, if ever you want some company one evening, you know where to find me. I'm probably only heading home to a take away and an empty flat so I'd be more than happy to oblige'

'Will you come tonight' she glanced up at him, a gentle note of pleading in her voice and her eyes and he nodded

'Perhaps you'd let me take you home now…' he'd glanced at her, amazed when she'd agreed and he'd taken her, somehow ending up spending the whole weekend with her. After that, it had become a regular occurrence.

He arrived at the house after her having stopped off on the way to pick up a take away and a bottle of wine and for a moment, he didn't think that she was there but then he heard the music, floating down the stairs and he followed the sound, up the stairs all the way to the master bedroom. As he pushed open the door he saw her, standing in the shower, singing along to the music that blared out of the stereo as if she hadn't a care in the world. Perhaps he was wrong; perhaps she wasn't as troubled as he thought she was. Certainly seeing her singing away to herself in the shower, he couldn't believed that there was more going on under the surface, and yet he couldn't quite shake the feeling that there was something else, something more than she had told him that troubled her and made her cry out in the night in the midst of a nightmare. He couldn't shake the feeling that he had been lied to.