Zoe awoke shivering, she turned over to see that her alarm clock only read half past 3 in the morning, meaning that she still had another 4 hours until she had to get up for work. She then turned over to the opposite side, stretching out her arm, she noticed that the space in the bed next to her was empty. The sheets were freezing cold, clearly nobody had slept in it. She pulled back the duvet and rolled out of bed, grabbing her dressing gown off the back of the door before heading downstairs. Everywhere was in pitch darkness as she descended the stairs, but she could hear the heavy breathing of Nick sleeping in the front room, so she carefully opened the door not wanting to wake him. He was flat out on the sofa, one arm resting behind him and a small scatter cushion being used as his pillow. He was still in yesterday's clothes so Zoe knew that he had not decided to join her at any point of the night. She smiled as she watched him sleeping so peacefully, she went a grabbed a throw from under the stairs and carefully positioned herself on the sofa beside next, moving as closely as she could to him and placing his arm around her so that he wasn't uncomfortable. She then placed the throw over both of them and rested her head on Nick's chest.

"I'm Sorry" Nick breathed into her ear, his eyes still shut and barely awake. He gripped his arm tighter around her waist, pulling her closer so that there was no danger of her falling off.

"Me too" Zoe whispered "I'm such a cow"

Nick smiled "You're my cow" He responded in a whisper.

"I love you Nick Jordan" Zoe breathed as sleep began to take over her once again, relaxing into Nick's arms.

"I love you too" Nick breathed.

[x]

"Wake up mum and dad" Phoebe cheerfully bounced into the front room, full of life at 7 o'clock in the morning.

Nick groaned as he heard her shouting above his head "Pheebs do you have to shout so early" He stretched, moving his arm which had gone dead from Zoe lying on it.

"Can I go to school today?" She grinned, trying to work her way around her dad.

Nick was now full awake and tried to sit up slightly not wanting to awake Zoe "I don't know baby" He whispered "You've only been out of hospital a few days"

Phoebe sighed "But I feel fine dad" She moaned, sticking out her bottom lip in a sulk.

Zoe was now beginning to stir from the noise happening around her, she opened her eyes and saw Nick wide awake, "Morning" She smiled.

"Morning" Nick replied, giving her a tender kiss on the lips. "Little madam here wants to go to school today" He said, moving his eyes towards Phoebe.

"Can I mum, please" Phoebe widely smiled, adding emphasis on please.

"I don't see why not" Zoe replied, turning to look at Nick to see his view first.

Nick nodded "OK then" He finally agreed "But if anything happens I will pick you up straight away" He told her.

Phoebe grinned "Thank you" She shouted as she already sped out of the room and upstairs to get ready for her first day back at school.

"Who knew a child could be so excited about school?" Nick chuckled.

"Your child" Zoe laughed.

"As much as I'd love to stay and lie here with you all day, we need to get ready for work" Nick said, rubbing the pad of his thumb tenderly across her cheek as he admired her.

"Can't the boss make an excuse for one?" Zoe teased.

Nick chuckled, "I'm afraid not, duty calls" He said, kissing her on the lips once again.

"The joys" Zoe groaned, as she pulled back the blanket and forced herself to sit up, not wanting to leave the warm comfort of Nick's arms.

"I'm going to take Oliver to football after school" Nick said as he got up off the sofa.

"Yeah it'll do him good" Zoe agreed, knowing that a bit of father and son time was probably just what Ollie needed right now.

"Come on chop chop Dr Jordan" Nick chuckled, ordering her to move as she proceeded to sit back on the sofa again.

"I'm going" Zoe laughed, standing back up again.

Nick placed his hand on the small of her back and guided her out of the room and upstairs to get ready.

An hour later all 5 Jordan's were ready to go, which was an usually impressive record time for them and even Maisie had managed to drag herself out of bed and get dressed into her school uniform so quickly.

"Well this is a rare sight" Nick joked, smiling as he joined his wife and kids in the kitchen, who stood waiting in their coats and shoes for him to go.

"Impressive" Zoe added.

"Seeing as we're all early, how about we go for breakfast somewhere?" Nick suggested, smiling as he saw the kids faces light up. They rarely got to spend time as a whole family these days so it was nice to make the most of it when the opportunity arose.

"Really dad?" Ollie smiled.

"Really" Nick echoed, indicating towards the door for them all to go to the car.

"Good choice" Zoe smiled as she wrapped an arm around Nick and they joined the kids in the car.