Rachel wanted nothing more than to get back to work. The exhaustion was like nothing she had ever experienced before. She had reduced her pain relief to the minimum dose she could possibly bear, yet still, she could only stay awake for a couple of hours at a time. Eddie was doing everything he could for her. All she had to do was drag herself out of bed and into her study. She realised she could simply work in her pyjamas, getting dressed was pointless as it used energy that was better put into her work. Nobody was going to see her anyway. Eddie brought her drinks, did all the shopping, cleaning, cooking, tidying, even if not quite to the standard she would have liked it, she accepted it as there simply was no other choice. There was nothing left that she could cut out of her life to increase her capacity to work – she would have cut out eating, but even Rachel knew that eating was necessary.

There was only one non-essential thing left. She made herself comfortable in bed, determined that tonight was the first night in a week that she was going to sleep through. The problem was that Eddie was just so comfortable and warm. By the time he came to bed, she had already had a few hours of sleep, so her exhaustion had always lessened by that point. Cuddling up to him was so comforting, but then it always seemed so much nicer without any clothes on, and one thing always led to another. After so many months of burying her feelings toward him, a near-death experience, and her enforced break from work, had taught her that work cannot be the only thing in your life. And so, once again, she ended up having sex with Eddie instead of conserving her energy for work, and although she tried, she could not regret it.