The tree stood tall and fully decorated in one corner of the room, every so often the light would reflect off the decorations making it all look ever more magical. The fire provided the room with a homely feel, as for the first time in ages the place where Zoe had lived for years was beginning to feel like more of a home than just a house. The clouds that had appeared heavily pregnant with snow earlier in the day, were now delivering what they'd long since expected, leaving a white coating across the outside pavement.
Grace was long since tucked up in bed, the emotion from the day she'd had having caught up with her had left her exhausted so after a quick shower Zoe had tucked her up in bed. Zoe and Max sat curled up on the sofa together, the brown fluffy blanket that covered them keeping them warm from the sub-zero temperatures that could be felt outside.
"Do you think she's warm enough?" Max asked randomly, distracting Zoe from the film that neither of them were really watching and that seemed to be serving more of a purpose as background noise.
"I don't know, you can go and lay a blanket over her if you want but be careful not to wake her." Zoe warned, smiling slightly at how caring Max was. She pulled the blanket slightly closer as Max got up, letting cold air hit Zoe as well as the chill from the sudden loss of warmth and contact from Max. She watched as he walked across the room and took the blanket from the chair that Grace had earlier vacated and then left the room.
He walked up the stairs and into Grace's new room, he couldn't help but stand by the door and watch her sleep. She looked so peaceful, he wondered how she could sleep so peacefully after the day she'd had. Moving closer to her he noticed how tightly she was gripping the duvet, carefully he lay the blanket over her and watched as she pulled it closer in her sleep. Grace began to grumble slightly in her sleep but he couldn't make out any of what she was saying. Stepping back, he noticed that Grace had made the room a lot more her own, with several items that he recognised from her room at Connie's when he'd been helping her pack now in her room here.
Zoe felt her eyes beginning to shut, it'd been a long and tiring day that had begun with a visit from Connie and progressed to Grace moving in for a while, followed by Max. They'd then spent the evening decorating the Christmas together before ordering pizza in and watching Frozen.
"Was she okay?" Zoe asked sleepily as she felt Max's presence on the sofa again before he pulled Zoe into him. Letting her head rest on his chest as he placed an arm around her shoulder, she sighed happily.
"Yeah, she was fast asleep." Max replied. "She looked so peaceful, she was even mumbling in her sleep."
"Aww, I never thought you'd be a children person." She replied.
"Me neither, what are we going to do about work and looking after her?" Max spoke, raising the question that she'd been doing some thinking about.
"With Connie gone, I can't really take any more time off, we're already a doctor down. I could change to day shifts and try and leave work earlier each night?" Zoe spoke, yawning as the got to the end of what she was saying. "I'll get a few days around Christmas though, would you be okay with looking after her?"
"I'm sure I'll manage, I think we need to get you to bed now."
"I start at 1 tomorrow but I'll set my alarm for 9 and we can go and do some food shopping so that she doesn't live on takeaways." Zoe spoke as she got off of the sofa and made her way towards what was now Max and her room.
"Night baby." Max told her as he kissed her before she left.
"Are you not coming?" She asked hanging in the doorway.
"I'll be through in a bit." Max told her, he needed a while to do some thinking.
"Don't wake me when you get into bed."
Connie sat back on her daughters bed, around her were pictures of her daughter with some of her friends and then she spotted a single photo of her and Grace. She stood and walked over to where the frame stood and lifted it, running her hand over the image of her daughter's face gingerly. She kept in her grasp as she made her way down the stairs and out of the house and into her car where her cases were already packed. She'd booked her train tickets and a hotel on a Scottish island as far away from Holby as she could get in the UK, to somewhere where no one would know her and to somewhere that would be quiet allowing her to think and sort herself out.