A/N: hello! I feel like everytime I write an author's note I'm apologising for the delay in updating, but I am sorry! Thanks so much for letting me know of your interest and for your encouragement, it really makes me happy! And obviously it encourages me to keep writing.

This chapter is a little bit random – it started going one way but I suddenly decided to throw in a random flashback. Anyway, it's not too serious and meant to be light-hearted, so I hope you enjoy! xxx

…

Taking a day off work just to relax at home isn't as much fun as it's cracked up to be. At least, that's what Matthew thought as he lazily scrolled through Youtube videos on his iPad (a rather outlandish gift from Robert for his birthday). Deciding that trying out a new recipe for lunch would be a productive thing to do, he began Googling ideas, only to be interrupted by the sound of a key in the front door. That could only be Mum or Mary…

"What are you doing here? Is everything alright?" Matthew immediately rose from his chair upon seeing Mary, carelessly dropping his iPad - the safety of which he usually fretted over - on the sofa, and strode over to her. She looked weary.

"It's nothing too bad." Mary assured him, although she raised a hand to her forehead and closed her eyes as she spoke. "I was feeling rather dizzy and nauseous at work so they sent me away." She explained as Matthew wrapped an arm around her shoulders and gently guided her towards the sofa. "I put up a fight but they insisted that I should go home and rest."

"Quite right." Matthew said firmly, touching her forehead to discover that she had a fever. It wasn't terribly high, but she wasn't well enough to work. "Stay here, I'll get you something nutritious to eat. I told you you've not been eating properly, that's probably why you're feeling faint." He stated, making his way to the small kitchen.

"That's not what this is." Mary protested, although she had no suggestions to offer for what it actually was. Instead, she slumped against the cushions behind her. "And don't lecture me - you sound like my mother." She said, the twinkle in her eye fighting its way through in spite of her sickness. Comparing Matthew to Cora was a sure-fire way of getting him to stop doing whatever it was that she didn't like.

"Speaking of which," Matthew began, after wincing at the comparison to his girlfriend's mother, "why didn't you go home? Did you forget your key again because you change your handbag on a daily basis and forget to transfer all the contents?" Matthew raised a questioning eyebrow at her. It was so easy to irritate her, and the results were so amusing that he indulged himself in it. And he needn't feel bad about it, as she did the exact same thing with him.

"You're outdoing yourself, Mother." Mary said sarcastically. "I didn't forget my key, I just decided to come here instead." She clarified matter-of-factly, resting her head on the soft cushions which she'd propped up.

Mary couldn't see Matthew from where she was situated, but a joyous smile lit up his whole face as soon as she answered. She had chosen to go to him. Mary had the option of recuperating in an incredibly plush house, equipped with a full-time housekeeper, plenty of good food, comfortable beds and - most importantly - her own family, yet she'd chosen to seek comfort in his small flat, in his presence. She had more-or-less grown accustomed to expressing her love for him over the last few months, but Matthew still found little things like this - subtle indications of her affection and the importance he held in her life - nothing short of wondrous.

Unable to suppress his surge of love, he stopped rummaging through the fridge and walked over to where she was seated, stooping to kiss her. Her hands pressed against his chest to push him away.

"Don't kiss me!" She cried. "Whatever it is that I have might be contagious!"

"I think I'd bear it much better than not being able to kiss you." Matthew replied, prompting a shy smile from Mary as she accepted his sweet kiss.

An hour later, Mary had filled herself up with the lunch Matthew had prepared for her. It turned out he'd been correct in his assessment of her being in need of a good meal. She'd been terribly stressed at work over the last couple of weeks, and had been making trips to the office over the weekends too. This, coupled with the fact that she wanted to minimise the impact her work had on the amount of time she spent with Matthew, meant that her diet and care for her own well-being had been neglected. She'd at first been alarmed by the plate Matthew had presented her with; it was teeming with carbohydrates and there was a randomly placed fried egg atop some potatoes, but now that she'd consumed it all, she was feeling much better. However, she was suddenly very tired.

"Do you mind if I take a short nap? I feel drowsy." Mary asked sleepily as her droopy eyes watched Matthew finish off the dishes. He's quite good at doing the house-work, she thought absent-mindedly.

"Of course I don't mind!" Matthew hastily dried his hands and strode over to his bedroom, clearing away his books, fluffing his pillows and grabbing an extra blanket before Mary had even properly risen from the sofa. "Do you want anything? A…hot water bottle, or something?" He asked cautiously, glancing at her stomach.

Mary couldn't help but laugh as she watched the cogs whirring in his male brain. "It's not my time-of-the-month, darling, don't worry." She patted his arm reassuringly before settling herself into his bed. Matthew always tried his best not to be wary of the menstruation cycle and to embrace it as a natural thing that every woman goes through, but he still found it all quite mysterious and difficult to understand.

It had all been brought up one day a month previously, when Mary had been experiencing particularly agonising stomach pains and particularly changeable moods. Poor, unsuspecting Matthew had bounded into her house happily brandishing a DVD of 'Twelve Angry Men'. He'd been on a quest to find a copy of it for months, and now that he finally had one, he'd wanted to share with his girlfriend the film that had inspired his interest in law.

"I found it!" Matthew announced with a broad smile, holding the prized DVD out in front of Mary's thoroughly unimpressed face.

Mary glared at him and turned back to her magazine.

Frowning at her lack of enthusiasm, Matthew persevered. "You know, it's that film that I told you about a while ago. The one that made me realise what I wanted to do with my life?" He said earnestly.

"That film did not make you realise what you wanted to do with your life." Mary told him, not taking her eyes away from the glossy pages of Vanity Fair.

"It- it did." Matthew argued feebly, rather put out that his girlfriend wasn't sharing in his enthusiasm.

Mary rolled her eyes exaggeratedly and turned to him as if addressing a worryingly stupid child. "Are you telling me that you sat down at the age of fourteen, watched a film and decided that you wanted to be a juror for the rest of your life? Because that's what the film's about." She said firmly. "And correct me if I'm wrong, but you sit in an office all day drafting sale and purchase agreements for medium-sized companies who want to merge. You've not set foot in a courtroom in about five years - barring the time you dragged me to that godforsaken tour of the Royal Courts of Justice." She huffed, turning back to her magazine.

Matthew wasn't sure whether to laugh or not – her ability to effortlessly disparage things was both impressive and humorous, and he could tell that she often adopted her haughty and antagonistic airs in order to amuse him and herself, but he sensed that her current mood would not accommodate laughter at her expense. He briefly debated with himself whether to argue his case for why the film had inspired him, but decided not to. "Is everything alright?" He asked, casually plopping the DVD down on the coffee table as he made to sit next to her.

"It would be if you didn't mess up my house." Mary complained drolly, leaning forward to re-position the DVD on the table.

Eyebrows raised, Matthew eyed Mary warily as she painstakingly adjusted the DVD so that it was at a perfect right-angle to the small pile of books next to it. She was always a neat and tidy person, but he had never seen such behaviour from her before! "Er…" He cleared his throat. "Are you…" He trailed off as she moved to rearrange the cushions on the opposite sofa so that they were perfectly symmetrical, unsure how to ask what on Earth had gotten in to her.

"Am I what?" Mary snapped, then immediately groaned as she bent at the middle and clutched at the sofa.

"Mary!" Matthew leapt out of his seat.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Mary batted him away as she saw his arms reach for her. "It's just these stupid cramps, they're getting worse." She complained, hobbling back to her seat with her arm over her torso.

"Oh." Mary's irritable mood now made sense to Matthew. Although her need for absurd levels of neatness did not. Unless that was somehow linked to her menstruation as well? Could that happen?

Mary noticed her perplexed boyfriend remained standing across the room, obviously trying to decipher her curious behaviour. She had done well in concealing her strange moods for the first couple of months of their relationship, and she had been away on business for the next two occasions, but recently her symptoms had worsened. But none of that was poor Matthew's fault.

"I'm sorry, darling." She said sincerely. "I shouldn't snap at you. It's just frustrating because none of this is really in my control, and it seems to change so frequently."

"I see." Matthew replied, sitting down next to her again, but Mary could clearly see that he still had no idea what was going on or what she was talking about.

And so Mary had taken his hand in hers and explained all the effects that menstruation can have, and how those effects can change over the years, but now Matthew seemed to interpret any mildly unusual behaviour or vague sign of illness from Mary as being connected with it.

"I wasn't worried." He said defensively. He thought he'd been doing well in noticing that Mary sometimes wanted a hot water bottle to hold against her stomach when she had bad cramps, and that the surrounding area had to be meticulously tidy lest her strange cycle-induced OCD unleashed itself. He wanted to seem completely fine and nonchalant about it all. "Are you comfortable?" He asked as Mary wriggled around under the blankets in an attempt to find a position to sleep in.

"Yeah, I'm fine - although could you turn the heating up a little, please? It's a bit cold in here." Mary requested.

"Sure, let me know if you need anything else. I'll be in the living room." Matthew dropped a kiss on her lips before standing up to leave her in peace.

"What would I do without you?" Mary queried fondly. Her eyes were already closed but a smile graced her lips.

"Lead a sad and miserable life." Matthew replied over his shoulder with a smirk.

…

A/N: I suppose the point of this chapter was to show that Matthew and Mary would do rather well living together, but it was mainly just for a bit of fluff. Please let me know what you think, and if there's anything more you'd like to see in future chapters, as my 'plan' at the moment is to continue with the fluff! xxx