THE CLOSING OF THE front door pulls me out of sleep, and from his flinching, it looks like it woke Jamie up too.

"What time is it?" He asks, stretching.

I giggle. "We must have dozed off. It's five. That'll be Dad home, I think."

He nods, yawning.

"You want some food?" I ask. "I was going to try and make fish and chips?"

"Sure." He smiles, kissing me softly. "Give me a minute to check emails and stuff and I'll be down." He disentangles himself from me. "I doubt there will be much because everyone else is probably even more hungover than I was."

"Okay." I nod with a smile. "I love you."

"I love you, too." He smiles, leaning down to kiss me. "And you know I'm sorry?"

I nod and he kisses me once more before he gets out of bed, pulling his laptop from his bag. I smile at him as I leave the room and head downstairs towards Dad, who seems to be coughing much harder, even since yesterday.

"Dad, are you okay?" I ask, trying to direct him to a chair. "You should get that cough checked." I've been saying it every day for the last three weeks, hoping he would actually listen to me.

He sees me and nods, hacking again. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just clearing something, apparently." He pours himself a glass of water and gulps it down, and when he breathes, the water seems to have helped. But he doesn't look well at all.

"Probably picked something up from one of the patients." He smiles as he finally lets me sit him down. "You okay?"

I nod. "Yeah. I spoke to Jamie." He raises his eyebrows expectantly. "Even if there was some shouting, he's okay with me going to New York." I shrug. "Just about."

"Ah that's great, sweetie." He puts a hand over mine, and his hands are cold. "Have you spoken to Millie yet?"

I nod, telling him that she was very much looking forward to seeing me in a few weeks time. But when I smile wider, he frowns at me.

"Is there something more?" He asks, not able to help smiling back.

I don't answer him, but I come and sit next to him, scrolling to Archie's messages from last night.

He frowns. "Tessa?"

Showing him our exchange, I watch as he reads all the messages. His face doesn't give away anything, but when he gets to the end, I feel like he's experiencing all the emotions at once. His smile is wider than I've seen it in a long time, and I swear more colour erupts into his cheeks.

"This makes me so happy, Tessa. I'm so happy that you're talking."

I shake my head as I stand and go to the fridge, putting all the ingredients for our omelettes back and getting what I need for fish and chips out. "It's just texting, Dad. The rest will happen over there... I hope. But I know this conversation is still going to be really hard, even with the broken ice."

He nods and stands to join me, pulling me into his chest. He feels warm now, and that warmth is making me feel happier than I did this morning, knowing that things are finally settling into place.

"How did Jamie take it?" He asks, and I can hear his question rumbling through his chest.

"Not great to start with," I tell him, pulling away to sit back down. "He blamed me for not telling him more about Matt and said I was doing this to hurt us, but..."

I look up at Dad, whose expression is unreadable. "But what?"

I continue with a shrug. "I read him Archie's letter. I told him about his past, our past... and I think that helped. I was honest with him. I think, even if he still hates the idea, we've at least come to an agreement that I am going... and that it's for the best."

"Good." He nods. "I'm proud of you, honey. You've handled this like an adult. And I know that Jamie can't be making this easy for you."

"Ha!" I give him an involuntary laugh. "You could say that."

He rolls his eyes, but because I'm smiling, he doesn't lose his smile. However, it's different kind of smile, one that maybe is starting to think texting Archie wasn't the greatest idea.

"Dad?"

He looks down at me and raises his eyebrows.

"Be honest... Do you think it was a good idea to text him?"

"Well..." He starts, sighing as he shuffles my phone around in his hand before handing it back to me. "You can't change it now, but... at least you have broken that ice, right?"

My face and stomach fall at him thinking it wasn't a good idea. Part of me knew it wasn't either, and yet I was so hurt from what Jamie said that I did it anyway.

"But I do think it is a good thing. The sooner you both talk things through, the better." He smiles wider at me, tapping my nose. "But maybe... keep it under your hat for now," he suggests, gesturing with his eyes to upstairs.

I follow his eyes and nod, agreeing. I'm not sure I would ever tell him to be honest... as awful as that sounds. "I'll tell him when I need to, but not now."

Definitely not now... because we both hear Jamie's footsteps thundering down the stairs.

"Jamie... you're home?" Dad asks with surprise, even though he knew.

"Yup," he says, tucking me under his arm. "And I'm planning to be here a lot more often, I promise." He smiles at me before lingering his lips on my forehead, kissing it softly.

"How was your day?" He turns and asks Dad, and I take the opportunity to turn my attention to dinner, just as my stomach lets out a monumental growl.

I listen quietly as they talk, talking about the football, then talking about plans over the next few weeks, which leads Jamie to direct the next question at me.

"Babe, did you have a date in mind for New York?"

I turn. I actually wasn't sure what dates Charlotte and Danny had said they were going. I was too busy trying to work out if I should go to ask when they were actually going.

"Erm, I think it's mid-October, off the top of my head. I'll check," I reply with a smile, happy he seems to be a lot happier that I'm going compared to earlier this morning.

He nods, coming over to me, showing me an email on his phone. "Darren's said they would like me to accompany the team on a business trip in Australia." I look up at him, and his smile is cutting his face in two. "Wasn't sure if it was the same week?"

My eyebrows raise. "Australia? Oh my God, wow!" I look at the email again and it's planned for three weeks in October, moving into November. "Jamie, that's incredible! You should go... even if I'm not with Charlotte. That's amazing!" I jump up and give him a hug and he catches me.

He laughs into my neck before putting me down. "I know! Not even there two months and they want me in Australia. But I don't want to miss you..."

"Jamie, it's Australia!" He grins at my reaction. "You absolutely should go. When else are you going to get that kind of opportunity?"

"I'm sure Charlotte will let you tag along for the whole time too, sweet pea," Dad chips in, and as I look at Jamie.

"Yeah, maybe she will?" He beams wider. "She definitely will."

I had no intention of asking her, because I didn't want to take away from her and Danny's holiday, but I nod along.

"But even if she doesn't Jamie, you should still go. It's an amazing opportunity," I say again.

He smiles again and kisses me. "See what Charlotte says though, because you should go. You should go for the whole time."

I frown, now doubly confused why he's changing his tune so much in so little time.

"You want me to go for the whole time?" I ask again, making sure he knows what he's agreeing to. "With Charlotte and Danny... and..."

I see a little redness behind his eyes but his smile remains sincere as he nods. "Yeah. You should. It'll be great for you hang out with Charlotte, and plenty of time for your... conversation. I know how much you've missed spending time with the two of them, plus Millie, right?"

I nod. "I do really miss them. But I would still have to ask, Jamie. I can't just barge in."

"Well yeah, and if you can't, then that's okay. We can make something work."

At school Charlotte and I were practically inseparable. Same as Millie, she's a sister to me, and she's always got my back. Maybe she would be okay with it? Besides, I'd be happy to do my own thing, if that meant I could go whilst intruding on their holiday as little as possible.

"So we're settled then?" Jamie asks, standing to join me at the kitchen counter.

"Settled?"

"Yeah." He nods. "No more arguments. You're going to New York, and I'm going to Australia. Whatever the dates are..."

I smile as I push up on my tiptoes to kiss him, glad that he seemed to have changed his tune.

"Yep. Settled."

He grins. "Good." He kisses my nose. "Now, what we having for dinner?"

"Fish and chips."

Dad turns to me and laughs. "You haven't made that for years."

It's true, I hadn't. I haven't made it since before Matt died. I figured that, seeing as Jamie practically accused me of not telling him anything about him, now was the time to start trying to open up again.

"Yeah. It's Matt's favourite... so I figured..." I turn to Jamie. "It was about time."

Jamie's face lights up before he kisses my forehead.

"But I do have to get on with it if you want it before eight, so as few distractions as possible would be great," I say with a laugh.

Jamie nods, understanding. "Well I have nearly four hours of work to catch up on, so I'll give you some space." He kisses my head one more time before nodding awkwardly at my dad and heads up the stairs.

"I didn't know you hadn't told him much about Matt?" Dad asks.

"I didn't mean to. I just... I don't know." I shrug. "I hadn't realised I was holding it back until he mentioned it earlier."

He gives me a look. "Are you sure you want to do that?"

"Sure?" It's my turn to give him a look. "Why would I not be sure?" I frown. "Why would I not want to tell Jamie about Matt?"

"He wouldn't understand, Tessa. No one understands!" He shouts.

My jaw drops at his reaction, but then I watch as Dad's expression suddenly changes. He shakes his head and puts a hand to his forehead as he sits down.

"I... I'm sorry. I didn't mean that..." He wipes a hand over his face again, and I suddenly realise how pale he is. He's gone as white as a sheet.

"Dad?" I step towards him but he raises his hand to stop me, laughing uneasily.

"I must be more tired than I thought," he explains, rolling his eyes as he shakes his head again. "I'm going to go and have a shower before dinner, okay. Let me know when it's ready." He dashes up the stairs, gone before I can wrap my head around what's just happened.

That was very odd, both him questioning why I was telling Jamie about Matt and then his weird behaviour after. It's not as if I have anything to hide. If it was about Jamie's tendency to see red, I could keep my Archie-Tessa-Matt stories to a minimum, strictly keeping Archie out of this. It would be okay, so why then was he acting so strange.

It's odd. It's so odd. It's so odd it's making my skin burn and crawl, like I was covered in fire ants.

"Oh my God, Tessa!" I hear Jamie shout from across the room before I hear a pan smashing to the ground.

"Wha-"

"You just got that out without oven mitts?" He shouts, pulling me over to the tap.

I shriek as the cold water hits my hands, not realising how distracted I had been. As I look at the pans around me, the potatoes boiling over and the fish pan on the floor, I realise I hadn't just been distracted. I'd been completely out of it.

"Tess, what were you thinking?" He says, holding my hands under the cool water.

His voice is an octave higher and his cheeks are flushed, and he only gets like that when he's worried. Although I'm not quite sure if he's worried about me burning myself, or worried that I don't seem to be feeling the pain in my hands at all.

"I... don't know."

"You don't know?" He asks, scoffing at the strangeness of my answer. "Keep your hands under there. I'm taking you to the hospital. I don't know how long you've been holding that pan, but they look really bad."

I finally look down, following his eyes, trying to understand what he means, and I gasp. My skin is mottled and deformed, and even through the water, I can smell the burnt skin, the smell suddenly hitting me.

And so does the pain.

I scream as the cool water is suddenly having the opposite effect on them, making the pain exponentially worse.

"No Tess, baby, you have to keep them under there," Jamie says, pulling them back as I try to take them out. I shriek again as Dad appears over my shoulder.

"Oh my goodness," he mutters, taking over from Jamie, holding my hands under the water.

"Should we call an ambulance?" Jamie asks, panicked.

"No, it'll take too long. We can drive her. "

His voice is calm, but his face is frantic. It's bad. It's really bad.

"Jamie, get a bucket of water and hand towels - soft, fabric ones - and wet them. We need to keep the burns cool." He nods and he then turns to me. "Sweetie, I know this is going to hurt okay, but I need to get that ring off."

My ring? I'm not sure if I've said it out loud or in my head but Dad answers me anyway.

"Your fingers may start to swell from the heat and the last thing we want is for you to lose blood flow to the finger, or for the doctors to have to cut it off."

He seems to be back from his momentary lapse, and he has his authoritative, medical voice on. He looks at me matter-of-factly as I try to focus on the coolness of the water, not the searing pain going up my entire arm.

I nod. "Okay." I groan as a wave of nausea floods through me because of the pain.

"Okay. After three?" He asks and again, I nod, gritting my teeth. "One!"

He yanks it before I was ready and I scream just as Jamie comes running in.

"Holy shit, what was that?"

I want to smack my dad. "You said three!" I cry, wanting to wipe the tears from my cheeks. "You said three!"

"I know I did, sweetie, but it's off now, okay. And now we can know that the ring will stay in one piece."

"Ring?" Jamie asks. "Wait, why did you take the ring off?" But he gets his answers as we all look at my hands, which are now swelling like water balloons just as Dad predicted. "That's not good, is it?"

"Nope. Right, Tessa, on the count of three y-"

"Do you mean three this time?" I interrupt.

He ignores me. "Tess, on the count of three, we move your hands from the tap to the bucket. Do you understand? Honey?"

I nod. "Yes." I breathe. "One, two, three!" I blurt out and run towards Jamie who is holding a huge, bright yellow bucket. I shove my hands straight in the freezing, cold water.

"Good," Dad says, although his voice sounds tight. "Now, let's go. I'll drive."

As a trio, we run out of the door, none of us bothering to lock the door properly as Dad shoves Jamie and me in the backseat, the bucket between us.

"I am so sorry. I literally have no idea..."

I take my hand out of the water for a second and it immediately starts to burn again, so I shove it back in.

"I'm so so..." I say again, my voice beginning to sound distant and far off, as if I were in a fish bowl or something.

"Andy I think she's fainting. Tess? Tess, baby, stay with me." Jamie's voice sounds distant too. "Tessa!"

But it's too late.

The world has already gone black.