Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 2

who, for some reason incomprehensible to Jules, was not called Dr. but Mrs. Acharya.
    Jules hesitated outside the door, not wanting to go in. It was too much like the situation in Saint-Herbert when he'd heard the news about Claire. He felt the same fog around him. Mark took his hand, and after a moment he found the courage to step inside.
    They didn't sit down. The doctor was smiling but Jules couldn't let himself relax until she said, "It's viral. She'll be fine, almost certainly. There's very little risk of complications with viral meningitis."
    Jules couldn't speak. Mark said, "Can she go home?" His voice sounded wobbly and strange.
    "Not just yet. We'll stop the antibiotics but we'll keep her in until her spinal fluid is free of the infection. It'll probably be a couple more days." There was a pause and the doctor added, "Well, if you've no more questions, I'll start my ward round. I'll leave Nicole until last so you can take a few minutes."
    She went out. Mark's face was blotchy and there were tears of relief in his eyes. Jules drew him into a hug. With Mark's head on his shoulder and arms around his waist, Jules had never felt so close to anyone, but they both took care to keep their hips apart. As Mark had said, it wasn't the time.
    By Thursday night, Nicole was chirping in her old way instead of grizzling all the time, and on Friday Jules was impatient to have her released. He wanted her home where she belonged, and he wanted to get back to work. But the doctor said one more day.
    He tried not to expect to see him at the hospital that night. Nicole was better; it was the weekend; Mark would want to get back to his life. But early in the evening, there he was, walking onto the ward with a smile just as usual, even offering to drive Jules fifteen miles so that he could put in a few hours at the restaurant.
    Jules was not hard to persuade. "Okay, but I'll come back in a taxi," he said. "You don't have to stay awake until midnight to fetch me. You sleep here on the ward, and I'll go to the room upstairs."
    So Mark packed his bag and brought it down to stow it under Nicole's bed, leaving the room clear for Jules, then he drove Jules home, dropping him outside the restaurant.
    Jules walked in through the dining room as if he was a customer, pointing out a missing fork and frowning at the agency maître d' who should have noticed that himself. The staff snapped to attention. Only Carrie in the kitchen seemed unfazed, giving him a broad smile and asking about Nicole.
    He'd hardly settled into the evening's menu when his phone rang. It was Mark. Jules rushed out into the car park with his phone, away from the noise of the kitchen.
    "What is it? What happened?"
    "Nothing, don't worry," Mark said. "I'm just ringing to tell you that they've reallocated our room."
    Jules's heart was still thumping. "Is she okay?"
    "She's absolutely fine. Fast asleep. It's just that the staff saw us with our bags and thought we were going home for the night, and since Nicole's probably coming out tomorrow and I'd taken everything out of the room upstairs, they gave it to somebody else. It means there's nowhere for you to sleep. It's probably not worth you coming back, unless you want to sit by her bed all night."
    Jules considered the possibilities. Of course, he could take over at the hospital so that Mark could go to London, but he didn't want to lose Mark right now. Mark didn't work Saturdays and Jules had planned that Mark would drive him and Nicole home in the morning and then, with a little persuasion, stay for the rest of the weekend.
    He said, "So I come tomorrow and we bring her home? You have the bed in the ward?"
    "Actually no, they've taken that too. But it's okay, I can doze in the chair here."
    "No, no, you can't sleep in a chair." If somebody had to do that, Jules thought, it should be him; but perhaps it wasn't necessary. "You know, maybe she doesn't need us there tonight. She's used to the place now, she's not sick any more, she knows the nurses and she sleeps well. You can come back here and we can fetch her in the morning."
    There was silence on the other end of the phone. Then Mark said, "The nanny's room is still free, is it?"
    Jules was disappointed but he said, "Sure. Lucy starts next week."
    ****
    Mark arrived late, looking good in jeans and a T-shirt. Jules hadn't told the staff that he was coming and they clustered around him, unwilling to go home until he had spilled all his news.
    "You want some food?" Jules