"He's ill and he doesn't want you to know"

The words had been going round and round in Jodie's head since the chance meeting with her Grandmother the week before. She found herself watching Max that little bit closer, scrutinising the way he moved around the ED, trying to work out if he looked more tired than usual, when he was particularly tetchy the previous morning she found herself wondering if that meant something. No matter how hard she analysed it, he seemed like his normal stubborn self, and they worked in a building full of medical staff, someone would've noticed?

She may not have spent that much time with him growing up, but she knew better than to go and ask him outright. He was only going to deny it, probably shout at her and find some way to turn it around into her doing something wrong. He never had been the approachable type.

But there was something about the way he was leaning against the nurses station that made her do a double take as she walked by. The awkward posture that looked like it was trying to relieve some kind of discomfort, that thin sheen of sweat, which she knew if she asked him about he'd tell her was a result of the chest compressions he'd been doing on his previous patient. Except it wasn't, and she knew it wasn't.

She hesitated for a second before walking over to stand next to him. "How's it going?" She asked, trying to keep her voice casual. Now she was standing next to him he looked exhausted, although she supposed trying to keep an ED running and working all those hours would do that you.

He shifted uncomfortably, turning to look at her. "What are you doing?" He looked suspicious, and she supposed he had every right to be. They'd barely spoken since he'd rather abruptly turned down her dinner invitation and told her he'd never be her Dad. In fact, she'd been going out of her way to stay as far away from him as possible.

"Making conversation." She shrugged, wondering if he was going to buy it.

He looked around for a second, checking to see if anyone was watching. He wasn't sure why, it was all out in the open now after the events of the explosion, but it was still a force of habit. "Is the ED not busy enough for you? All these patients and you've got time to stand around making conversation?" It sounded sharp as the words left his mouth, perhaps a bit sharper than he'd intended it to, but he felt like death and the only thing keeping him upright was a firm grip on the nurses station. He didn't have it in him to stand around and make small talk with Jodie, as much as he was secretly enjoying the fact she seemed to be talking to him again.

Her face fell and she tried to rearrange it into a more neutral expression before he saw but it was too late. "Never mind." She sighed, turning away from him and heading back towards her patient. She wasn't really sure what she'd been expecting, he was never going to willingly open up, but it felt like a slap in the face every time she tried to speak to him.

Max opened his mouth to stop her as she walked away, but no words came out and she carried on walking away. He so desperately wanted to make things right with her, to tell her how much pain it had caused him to keep her at arms length all this time, but how was he supposed to do that and avoid the inevitable questions that would then come if he let her in? It was better this way, he reminded himself, the last thing he wanted was for her to think he was in it to persuade her to give him a kidney or something ridiculous.

He straightened up, holding back a groan of pain as he did so, and turned towards his office. It was eight steps, maybe ten on a really bad day but it felt like a marathon trying to hold himself together to get there. Closing the door behind himself he wobbled unsteadily, knocking a folder full of paperwork off the bookshelf as he grappled for something to hold on to. He'd clean it up later, he told himself, he just needed five minutes to lie down and he'd be fine.

He sunk down on to the small sofa, the cheap fake leather was cold against his feverish skin and it was welcome. He wiped his scrub top over the thin sheen on sweat on his forehead and squeezed his eyes shut in the hope it might stop the room from spinning quite so much. His stomach lurched and had he actually managed to eat or drink anything that day, he probably would've been sick.

Ten more minutes. That was all he would allow himself and then he had to get back out there again. It would be fine, just a blip, and he didn't want to show weakness to the rest of his team.

It was a couple of hours later Jodie found herself stood outside his door, plucking up the courage to knock. When Stevie had asked her to go and find Max Jodie had tried several times to palm it off on just about anyone else, but had been unsuccessful. His recent bad mood had not gone unnoticed by the rest of the department and everyone was keen to stay out the firing line.

She took a breath and knocked, opening the door as she did so. The lights were off and she didn't think he was in there anyway, at least she could say she had tried.

"What is the point of knocking if you don't wait for an answer." Max snapped, attempting to scramble into a sitting position as she walked in. He hissed in pain under his breath as he forced himself upright. The room spun again at the sudden change of position.

"I was just…" Jodie stopped in her tracks as she looked at him. He probably looked worse than the patient Stevie had sent her in her to ask him about. "Are you okay?"

"Yep." He forced out, squeezing his eyes shut to stop the spinning sensation.

"Max." She was crouched down on the floor in front of him, hand on his knee, when he braved opening his eyes. "You don't look okay." She held a hand up to his forehead. "You're burning up."

"I'm fine. I just need a minute." His words didn't sound convincing to either of them even as he said them.

Jodie paused for a second, unsure of how far she could push it before he'd fly into a rage and throw her out. Although she suspected looking at the state of him, he'd have a hard time standing up to throw her out. She reached for his wrist to check his pulse and he didn't try to stop her. "Your heart rate is really high. Anything else you want to tell me?"

"It's fine, Jodie."

"Max." She sighed. "I can go and get someone else, if you'd rather not tell me. Stevie is around somewhere."

"No." He answered quickly, grabbing her arm to stop her as she stood up. A fresh wave of pain shot through him at the movement and he couldn't hold back the groan this time.

"Okay." Jodie nodded, "why don't you lie back down again for a minute." She put her hand on his shoulder and gently pushed him back down and he didn't argue this time. "Have you got any paracetamol in here?" She looked around at his desk which was covered in a scattered mess of paperwork.

"I can't keep them down." He mumbled, not opening his eyes to look at her this time. She was unsure if it was embarrassment or just a mark of quite how terrible he was feeling.

"Okay." She nodded. "I really think I should go and get someone. I know you're going to tell me you're fine but you actually look worse than most of the patients I've seen today."

He was quiet for a moment. "Dylan." He said quietly. "Can you get Dylan? He knows."

"Okay." She nodded, trying not to acknowledge the way knowing he'd confided in Dylan but refused to tell his own daughter hurt. "I'll be right back."

"Jodie!" Stevie caught her on her way to look for Dylan. "Did you find Max?"

Jodie froze, shaking her head quickly and wondering if she looked as guilty as she felt. She'd never been the best liar. "No sorry, he's not in his office."

"Okay, if you see him tell him I'm looking for him." Stevie called, already walking away.

"Dr Keogh." Jodie sidled up beside him awkwardly when she eventually found him. She'd be lying if she said Dylan didn't scare her a little and she wasn't quite sure what to say. "Can I borrow you?"

Dylan gave an exasperated sigh, running his hand through his hair. "Is there no one else, Jodie? I've got about a million things to do and my list seems to be getting longer by the minute."

"It's Dr Christie." She said awkwardly.

"Well, Max is a big boy I'm sure whatever it is he can take care of it himself without my help."

"No, I mean it's him." Jodie lowered her voice, not wanting anyone to over hear. "He's in his office, please. You were the only person he'd let me ask."

The change in Dylan's expression was visible as he finally made the connection. "He finally told you then, thank god. Come on."

"He-" Jodie was about to explain that she still hasn't got a clue what was going on really but Dylan had already set off and she was left running to catch up with him.

Dylan burst into the office without stopping to knock and Max didn't even flinch or attempt to pretend he was okay like he had earlier. Jodie scurried in behind him and closed the door, wondering if anyone had seen them come in here and was going to question why.

"Max." Dylan crouched down beside him. "Max." He shook him again and got a mumbled response.

Dylan turned back to Jodie. "Can you go and get him some fluids and we need to take some bloods. Discretely please."

Jodie nodded and scurried back out, wondering how exactly she was going to get this stuff back to Max's office without raising any suspicions.

She'd pulled it off surprisingly well, keeping her head down and avoiding eye contact. Luckily the ED was packed as always and no one had any time to question what she was doing, they were far too busy with their own patients.

"Oh good, okay." Dylan stood up as she walked back in. "Can you set that up for me and run the bloods? I'm going to have to go check on my patients but I'll come back in a bit." He hesitated for a second, lowering his voice. "Stay with him, please."

Jodie nodded, feeling strangely awkward as Dylan left and it was just her and Max alone again. What was she supposed to say to him? Small talk felt inappropriate given the circumstance.

"Right then." She put on her cheeriest voice, deciding to just ignore what an odd situation this was. "Let's get these fluids going."

He didn't say anything, or even open his eyes, he just nodded ever so slightly which she took as a sign of agreement and got to work. Thankfully she found a vein easily and was spared the embarrassment of having to try several times. Once the fluids were set up she took the bloods, ducking out to run them quickly and then returning to the office.

She lingered awkwardly, checking the fluids were running okay far too often, just to give herself something to occupy her mind. She had so many questions, so many things she wanted to say, but she knew this wasn't the time. Maybe Dylan would cave in and tell her, or accidentally let it slip. Clearly he knew what was going on, and she found herself wondering what on earth it might be that Max felt he could tell Dylan but didn't want her to know.

"You can stop checking it every five minutes." The sound of Max's voice made her jump as she reached for the drip again. She'd been fairly sure he was sleeping.

"Sorry." She mumbled.

"You can go, you know." He said wearily, turning his head to look at her. "I'll be fine."

"No offence, but you really don't look fine. And Dylan made me promise I'd stay so…" she shrugged.

"Dylan worries too much." Max rolled his eyes.

Jodie breathed a sigh of relief that he was at least starting to sound a bit more like himself now, even if he still looked fairly terrible. "He's pretty sensible if you asked me. And don't try and pretend you wouldn't be doing the same thing if our situation was reversed."

Max was quiet for a moment. "I'm sorry, Jodie." He sighed. "For what I said the other day, it was harsh and I didn't mean it. Things are just… well, things are difficult at the moment."

Jodie was quiet, choosing her words carefully. This was probably the most honest he'd been with her and she didn't want to mess it up by saying something stupid. "I know, but you can tell me. Whatever it is, I can handle it. I might even be able to help. It can't be much fun trying to do this on your own."

"Right, how are we doing?" Dylan asked, bursting back in.

"I'm fine." Max forced a smile, pushing himself back into a sitting position. "I'll be back out there in a minute."

Dylan pulled a face. "No, I don't think so. I've looked at the bloods Max and the only place you're going is home to rest."

"Dylan, come on. I'm fine!" Max protested. "I'll switch to minors and-"

"No." Dylan said firmly. "You're not driving either. Jodie, can you take him home? I'll clear it with Donna. And before you both start I won't tell her what's going on, I'll come up with something. Good, that's settled then." Dylan left again without giving either of them a chance to argue.

"I'll just go grab my stuff then I can take the fluids down." Jodie said, feeling rather awkward. She didn't even know where lived, never mind going to his house. She scurried out to the locker room without waiting for him to answer. This was entering into new territory for the both of them, treating eachother like actual family as opposed to just work colleagues.

He was slumped back on the sofa when she re-entered the office, having fed Cam a lie about having an appointment when she'd run into him in the staff room. The brave face he'd put on in front of Dylan had clearly taken its toll. The bag of fluids had nearly finished by the looks of things and she reached up to check it. "These are done, I'll disconnect it and then take you home. My car is just out the front."

Max nodded weakly. Inside he was absolutely mortified to be accepting her help like this, she should be going out with her friends and having fun, not nursing him, but he was sensible enough to know he was in no fit state to go home and the only thing he wanted to do was go home and crawl into bed and probably not move for a week. How was it possible for his entire body to hurt quite so much?

He must've fallen asleep again because it felt like only a couple of seconds later Jodie was gently shaking his shoulder and asking if he was going to be able to get up. She'd already got his bag slung over her shoulder and held her hand out to him for support.

He reluctantly reached out for her hand and Jodie couldn't help but note that his skin still felt feverish. "Maybe we should stay for a little bit longer?" She suggested, the uncertainty clear in her voice. "I can go find Dylan and-"

"No." He interrupted, his voice strained as he summoned all of his strength to force himself to his feet. "I just want to go home, please?"

"Okay." Jodie nodded. "Let's go."

Rather impressively, he managed to put on a brave face as soon as he'd stepped out of the office and had she not have known, Jodie probably would've walked past him and not thought anything was wrong. Which led her to question exactly how long this had been going on under her nose without her noticing.

As soon as they reached her car though he flopped heavily into the seat, with Jodie having to go and shut the door for him because he just couldn't stretch that far to reach. "You know, you're going to have to tell me where you live." She told him, trying to keep her voice bright. "And I'll probably need directions because I'm not the best at knowing where I am around here still."

"Right." Max mumbled, giving her his address. "Thank you."

"You'd do the same for me." She answered quietly, setting off in what she was fairly certain was the right direction for the address he had given her.