Zoe woke slowly, her head hurt from lack of sleep, but the bleeping of her mobile phone alarm was too much to ignore. She opened an eye and reached for it, pressing the button to turn it off without really looking and pushed it further back on the coffee table.

Max...

She opened both eyes this time and pushed herself up. She shivered, though she noticed the fire had been rebuilt and relit.

She heard a noise in the kitchen, and sat herself up, she ran a hand across her face, rubbed the sleep from her eyes and pushed her hair back from her face where it had stuck to her cheek. Had she dribbled on him?

She twisted round so that she sat with her back to the arm of the sofa, looking towards the door to the kitchen.

She heard him whistle the first few notes of the Indiana Jones theme music before he stopped, and she heard the clink of a spoon against the sides of a mug and the scrape of something on the work surface.

Then he moved, she heard his footsteps and he appeared in the doorway.

"Good morning Dr Hanna."

He said, far too cheery for the hour, though she forgave him as soon as he smiled that smile...

"I made you breakfast."

He said, and placed the plate of toast and mug of black coffee down on the coffee table.

"You know you might want to think about buying some actual food."

He added, and moved quickly back into the kitchen to retrieve his own mug.

The sofa dipped and creaked and he sat down next to her. Instinctively she pushed her bare toes beneath his thighs to warm them like she used to. Whether he noticed or not and chose to ignore it she didn't know, but she caught the ever-so-slight flutter of a smile at his lips as he dipped his face to sip his coffee.

She reached for the plate of toast and set it in her lap, taking a slice before offering it out to him.

She yawned, and he took a slice for himself.

"Thank you, for this."

She said, her voice soft with sleep.

"That's ok."

He murmured, and swallowed his mouthful of toast.

"I thought I could come in with you? Speak to the powers that be about getting my old job back? I don't think my purpose in life is to stack shelves..."

He watched her as he spoke, saw the faint wince of panic behind her eyes.

He smiled.

"Or not!"

He added.

She cleared her throat and touched her fingers to her lips to brush away any crumbs before she answered.

"No, it's fine. That's fine..."

She said quickly.

"So why did you look so terrified?"

He asked, and finished off his slice of toast.

"Habit?"

She said quietly and shrugged.

"I'm just not looking forward to being outed."

She added.

"The quicker the better."

He said.

"Like pulling off a plaster. You never know, it might be like a said, they might just think I'm making it up."

He smiled again and she laughed.

"Well, we'll just have to show them then."

She whispered and shifted herself forwards so that she could lean against her knees and pull herself close enough to him to place a soft kiss against his cheek that froze, his mouth full of coffee.

She moved back and he swallowed.

"I think we'll have to be a bit more convincing than a kiss on the cheek."

He said gently and turned so that he could look at her, saw the colour rise in her cheeks and her hair slip from behind her ear to rest against her jaw.

"What did you have in mind?"

She asked.

He raised a hand to push the errant hair back, and she closed her eyes as he touched her, feeling his fingertips brush her cheek.

"Just something a little bit more..."

He whispered, his breath against her face, and he moved, nudged the tip of her nose with his, smiled, and kissed her lips gently, once, twice...

"Like that."

He murmured.

More later today xxx