"So, off to New York then eh?" Robbie said, his eyes were on the road ahead but he smiled as he spoke. It felt good to have some company as he drove. It was early afternoon and he and Laura had just dropped James off at a shopping centre car park, just off the M1 on the outskirts of Leicester. Hathaway's friend was already waiting to drive them both on to York. After quick goodbye to Hathaway and a brief snarl up in local traffic, Robbie and Laura were back on the motorway heading north-westwards with a route planned that would eventually get them to Manchester by early evening at the latest.

Laura smiled. She too was enjoying the company. As usual, in Robbie's presence she felt the natural ease of how comfortable it was for them to chat, about all sorts of things – work, gossip from the station, the specifics of an old case or a myriad of other things, quite often things that Robbie wanted to discuss and would seek her counsel for. This she loved the best, she always felt a feeling of deep warmth when she knew he was opening up to her. More often than not their coffee breaks together or afterwork drinks turned into discussions that she had come to realise were important to him. Often he had a dilemma about family or Hathaway and it was a regular occurrence that it was he who divulged the inner workings of his thoughts and emotions more than she did. Today was a little different, however, and Robbie seemed relaxed with no quandaries for her to help him with and as such, Laura realised, he was asking her about her plans and she found herself talking back; about her family who she was visiting and the arrangements they had over the festive period.

Robbie listened, asking the odd question here and there and it occurred to him that there was a lot he didn't know about Laura. As she chatted about her family, he began to appreciate how much she let him talk when they went out for drinks after work or met for coffee. He smiled again as she continued talking, Laura found herself telling him about her family and her brother in New York who also had a flat in Liverpool where he stayed when he needed to work in the UK office of his company.

Listening to Laura as they drove, Robbie felt a warm and relaxed contentment. He knew it was because of Laura. They were good friends, perhaps she was one of his closest friends. As the years had passed since Val's death Robbie knew he had grown very close to Laura. He also knew he felt a great attraction to her, sometimes he felt that maybe she felt the same. When these feelings came up however, he usually stamped them down. Laura was younger than him for a start, what would she possibly see in him, even if he allowed himself to entertain the idea of anything romantic between them. Right now, however, with the landscape of the midlands racing by the car, he was simply enjoying her company.

As they sped northward up the M1 the clouds began to thicken and the outside temperature plummeted. Sleety cold rain blurred the road ahead and collected on the windscreen of the car in slushy waves. There was still plenty of daylight left but the heavy clouds made it darker than it was. As Robbie and Laura passed the county sign for Derbyshire, the sleet turned to snow. Swirling and blowing in the wind, it obscured the road and the traffic on the motorway was forced to slow. After 10 minutes of crawling, it came to a stop completely.

Ahead of them, through the thick rush of snowflakes, Robbie and Laura saw hazard lights. Orange from a highway maintenance vehicle and also blue flashing lights, the colours pulsing through the eddies of snowflakes that were now caught on freezing cold gusts of wind. The visibility was poor but it was just possible to make out what was going on. The whole carriageway was blocked by a massive lorry. Snow was already settling on the back half of the lorry which was on its side, dislocated and separated from the cab which had come to rest against the crash barriers. There didn't seem to be any other vehicle involved and a police car and paramedic vehicle was on the scene attending to the driver who was out of his cab looking a little shaken but unhurt.

"Bugger" said Robbie

Laura sniffed a soft laugh through a smile

"Now what?" She said glancing at Robbie, half amused and half concerned. The snow seemed to thicken even more in the air as they looked out, the flakes dancing in the orange and blue lights.

Robbie glanced in the rear-view mirror, traffic was already building up behind. The accident clearly wasn't serious but it was obvious that even at the front end of the queueing traffic it would be several hours before the lorry was removed from across the motorway lanes. He looked out through the windscreen, the blades of the wipers rhythmically sweeping the snow clear as it constantly fell. Through the arcs of clear glass he could see that not too far ahead of them was an exit junction and a sign reading Peak District.

Robbie knew he could certainly get them to Manchester through the Peak District but also that it would be likely to be affected by the snow. Perhaps, he thought, they could circumnavigate the worst of the weather and head to the western edge of the peaks and make their way up to Manchester that way instead, via Staffordshire and then Cheshire. It was a risk, but no more riskier than waiting for hours for the motorway to re-open. He looked ahead again at the lorry twisted across the carriageway, the snow blowing wildly in the near blizzard conditions.

There was no other option but to take the slip road off the motorway and hope that the route that way was clearer.