Max sat up for a while thinking, in a matter of days he'd got the woman of his dreams back and had taken the massive step forward of moving in with her. Not only that but they'd found themselves with a child, it seemed like the perfect family life and it'd only taken a week to achieve. He knew that the day was fast approaching when Connie would come sweeping back and take Grace back, but until then he had his makeshift family to spend Christmas with. For a while longer he sat up, searching through various pages on the internet in search of the perfect present for Zoe and for a present for Grace from himself and Zoe.
"Max, are you coming to bed?" Zoe asked sleepily as she appeared back at the door, her satin nightshirt creased slightly from where she'd been tossing and turning in her sleep.
"Yeah sorry, I was thinking. You should be asleep anyway, we said we'd set the alarm for 9." Max replied as Zoe placed herself on the sofa beside him.
"We did, its 4am Max. I turned over and found my bed empty and then wondered where you were so I came to find out."
"I was sorting some things out, after all Christmas is coming." Max replied playfully. "I've found something that we can get Grace as a present from us." Zoe smiled slightly, loving how excited he was but feeling slightly crushed at the fact that she'd never be able to provide him with children.
"Well can we have a look when it's a decent time?" Zoe asked, not waiting for a reply before she took the iPad from her partner's hand, replacing it with her own hand to lead him back towards their bed. "Bed time." She commanded, pulling the duvet back so that she could crawl back into the warmth and gestured for Max to do the same.
"Max, wake up." Zoe spoke gently as the alarm sounded, alerting them to the fact that it was time to get up.
"No, go away." Max spoke groggily.
"Maybe, if you hadn't of been up until 4 then you'd be ready to get up now." Zoe told him, pulling the duvet off them so that the cold air would get to him and wake him up slightly. "Actually, it probably wouldn't have done. We need to go food shopping Max, I'll go and wake Grace, you get up and dressed." She said as she wrapped a dressing gown around her body and walked towards the room that was currently being occupied by Grace. "You dare fall asleep again."
She walked through to where the young girl was sleeping, she looked peaceful sleeping. The blanket that Max had laid on her the previous evening was pulled close to her, despite the thick duvet. Zoe hated the fact that she had to wake the sleeping girl, she had little choice though as they had things to do.
"Gracie?" Zoe called gently, perching on the side of the bed, the little girl didn't even twitch in response. It was quite clear that it was going to be a lot harder to wake Grace up than it was Max, after all she couldn't pour cold water over Grace. Gently she lay her hand on the young girls shoulder and shook her slightly, in response Grace turned over and yet she remained asleep.
"Having trouble?" Max asked as he walked past the room, his grey pyjama bottoms hanging low and his chest bare.
"Yeah, she's worse than you in the morning. I'm glad you decided to get up." She replied, still perched on the edge of Grace's bed.
"Well like you said, we have stuff to do this morning, I'm just off for a shower."
"I wish I could join you but I have this one to wake up and then I'll see if I can make some sort of breakfast from whatever we have in." Zoe replied, having made sure that Grace was firmly asleep. She'd seemingly easily slipped into referring to the house as belonging to both Max and herself despite him not having lived their very long. Max smiled at her before he walked off in the direction of the bathroom. "What's wrong with the shower in the ensuite?" Zoe called down the hallway, half wondering if he'd even thought of that in his sleepy daze.
"Why are you shouting?! I'm trying to sleep." Grace moaned grumpily, her voice quiet as she moved slightly.
"Welcome to the land of the living, I've been trying to wake you." Zoe replied, standing from her position at the edge of the bed to allow the girl to move.
"I'm tired." Grace whined, her sleepy voice only just audible.
"I know but we have to go shopping before I start work at 1." Zoe explained. "If you need the toilet or shower then you can go to the one in my room, Max is in the other one."
"Can I have some breakfast before I have a shower?" Grace asked, finally sitting up.
"Of course, I don't have much in but I'll see what I can do."
Connie sat back in the uncomfortable plastic chair, her suitcase beside her and a photo of herself and Grace in hand. When booking a train for late the previous evening, she hadn't even thought that with picking a tiny Scottish island that she'd need a boat. Now as it was beginning to lighten up outside, she found herself getting rather impatient as she waited. Around her she spotted people napping on the chairs as they waited, Connie slowly stood and made her way across the tiny ferry port towards the coffee maker that looked like it would have been more at home in a century prior to the 21st. As the machine whirred into live she found herself gazing out of the window, the ferry port seemed to be located in a sparsely populated area surrounded by hills and sheep. It was greener than Holby was and a hell of a lot quieter, leaving her with little but her thoughts and the beep of the coffee machine to tell her that her coffee was ready. Once again she looked down at her watch in the hope that somehow she'd daydreamed an hour away and that the boat was finally here, unfortunately it was no more than five minutes from the last time she'd checked.