The room was dark, save for the faint glow from the screens surrounding Zoe. Max was curled up in his chair with his legs resting on her bed, gently toying with her fingers. He had been playing the messages left on the tape machine over and over, hours of tears, gossip, love and idle chat, but it was silent now. He gazed at her face, so incredibly peaceful and with nothing but some faint bruising to suggest that night had happened at all.

"She looks so young." Max turned at Charlie's voice, smiling - the two had become close over the past few weeks.

"I listened to your message." Max had been dying to ask who Nick was, why he hadn't been to see her, but he wasn't sure how to go about it. "You really care about her."

"Yeah, well, it's Zoe." Charlie smiled ruefully in response, sitting in the chair opposite Max. The pair sat in silence for a minute, both watching Zoe, until Max decided to approach the subject head on.

"Who's Nick?" He looked at Charlie, who shifted uneasily. "You mentioned him in your message, said he'd left or something." Charlie didn't reply for a minute, instead rearranging the flowers at the foot of the bed

"He was the clinical lead here before Zoe. They were...close." Unsure on how far to expand, Charlie paused and sat back in his chair.

"How close?" Max wasn't being aggressive or demanding, but there was a hardness to his voice that hadn't been there previously.

"Well, they were engaged at one point." Charlie tried to keep his voice neutral, avoiding Max's gaze. "It didn't work out, too much history I guess, but they stayed friends. He's in America now." He didn't go into detail about what their history was exactly, or how close they'd remained, but from the look on Max's face he didn't need to.

"I'm never going to leave her." It wasn't a romantic gesture, it was a statement of fact, and Charlie glanced down at the interlocking fingers of the lovers, smiling gently.

"I know." His smile faded as he looked at Max's face - the level of determination on his face was almost frightening. "Look, Max, I know this has been hard but I don't want you to do anything stupid okay?" There was no response and Charlie took it as a sign to leave them to it. "I'll see you later." Max barely looked up, his eyes firmly locked on Zoe.

"I'm going to find who did this Zo. I swear, they will never hurt you again." He pressed his lips to her knuckles before jumping back, staring at her hand to make sure he hadn't imagined it. He hadn't - she squeezed his hand weakly and Max yelled for Charlie, almost in tears. The nurse came running back in, panicked for a second before he realised what had happened. As he rushed over, Zoe's eyes opened slowly and she choked slightly on the tube in her throat. Max was pushed to one side as Charlie and her doctor checked everything was under control. After what felt like years, the chaos that had ensued calmed down, and Max approached her with something akin to wariness.

"Hey you." He sat on the edge of her bed, unable to stop himself from grinning as she smiled feebly at him.

"Max, what happened? Nobody's telling me what happened." She looked up at him with tears in her eyes and he knew then that she understood what had happened, she just wanted someone to tell her it wasn't true.

"I'm sorry Zoe." He looked back at Charlie and was shocked to see the older man, who had been so supportive to him over the past few weeks, in tears. He turned back to Zoe, who had rolled over and reached out an arm, but removed it hastily as she flinched at his touch. "Zo..." He trailed off, no idea how he was going to end the sentence.

"Get out." Zoe's voice was barely above a whisper but it stung all the same.

"Zoe, please-" Max watched in dismay as she summoned all her energy and curled into a foetal position.

"Get out." She hissed and Max felt a hand on his shoulder, felt himself being guided back to the corridor, felt himself being pushed into a chair, but the whole time he kept his eyes fixed on Zoe.

"Max, I'm going to go let everyone know she's awake." Charlie was reluctant to leave the young porter by himself, but had little choice - Tess had made him promise to let them know as soon as there was any news, and this was fairly major news. He stood in the corridor for a minute, his hand hovering above Max's shoulder before he sighed and turned, disappearing in the direction of the ED. Max stayed frozen in his chair, unaware of anything Charlie has said or done; in the room opposite Zoe had fallen asleep, her hands clutching the hoodie that Max and left there the previous week. After a few minutes he stood up and made his way back to her bedside, gently pushing her hair from her face.

"It's going to be okay. It all going to be okay."

I am so sorry I've not updated for a while! I'm going to update again today to make up for it. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, please R&R! X