Jolted into consciousness by the sound of her name being called out, Kate opened her eyes, feeling a heavy cloud hanging over her. For a moment, she couldn’t remember where she was or what was going on.

Ben’s face appeared through the door, and although she could see his lips moving, she couldn’t quite understand what he was saying. She stared blankly back at him, blinking several times to try and focus on what he was saying and how long he’d been there.

His forehead wrinkled and a look of concern grew in his eyes. She saw him move forward and wave his fingers in front of her. It felt like she was lost in a bubble, like she was looking at the world from the inside of a fish bowl. She heard him say her name again, and as he clapped his hands together in front of her face, the bubble burst.

‘Kate?’ he repeated, louder this time. ‘Can you hear me? Have you taken something? You don’t look well.’

He clapped his hands in front of her face again. ‘Kate? Stay with me? Did you take these?’ He was holding an empty plastic bottle in the air.

She nodded, as best she could.

‘How many did you take? How long ago, Kate?’

He blurred into two Bens until she blinked again. ‘I don’t… know.’

He left the room, returning a moment later with a glass of water, his phone pressed firmly to his ear. He put the glass to her lips and told her to drink. She retched at the bitter taste of salt and knocked the glass from his hand in a clumsy swoop. It bounced and rolled lazily across the carpet.

Ben leaned down – the phone suddenly gone – and hoisted her into the air, carrying her out of the room. His embrace was warm and firm, and she found herself nuzzling her head into his shoulder as her eyes grew heavy again.

Suddenly he was undressing her and lowering her into the bath. She clasped her hands around his neck, but he broke them free, and rested them by her sides.

‘I’m really sorry about this,’ she heard him mutter, ‘but it’s for your own good.’

The spray from the showerhead was cold, and shocked her into a scream.

‘I’m sorry,’ he repeated, but the spray didn’t relent.

Kate tried to bat it away, but he moved it out of reach, focusing the spray primarily on her face and head. She tried to stand, but he had hold of her bandaged ankle, outside of the bathtub, and as the sides of the tub became slippery with water, she couldn’t find purchase to shift her body weight.

The fog was lifting and her anger began to boil. ‘Enough… of… this…’ she pleaded between mouthfuls of spray.

He tilted his head to look at her properly. She folded her arms, no longer resisting the funnel of water. Shutting her eyes, she let the water wash over her.

Satisfied, Ben turned off the tap and lowered the showerhead into the bathtub. She wanted to call him every name under the sun, but the words just weren’t there.

He left the room, returning with a large towel, which he held out for her, offering her his arm to lean on. If she hadn’t been so cold, she would have remained there staring him down, but she relented, shivering into his arms.

Ben wrapped the thick towel around her torso, and then rested her dressing gown over her shoulders, tying it in the middle. He helped her hobble through to the living room, propped her up on the sofa and left the room.

‘Wh— what are you doing here?’ she stammered when he returned with a steaming mug of tea.

‘Laura phoned me. She was worried about you. When you didn’t answer the door, I asked your neighbour Trish to let me in.’ He paused, studying her face again. ‘How are you feeling?’

Her teeth chattered. ‘Cold. And wet.’

‘You’re only supposed to take two of those painkillers every four hours. By my count, you’ve taken at least twelve today already.’ His eyes fell on the empty bottle of wine on the carpet. ‘You’re lucky I turned up when I did. Drink your tea.’

She wanted to ignore his command, but the warmth of the mug was too tempting. She sipped the tea, and grumbled. ‘You put sugar in it.’

‘Yes, lots of it. It’s good for shock.’

‘I’m not in shock. I’m just cold.’

‘You could have died, Kate!’

She shuffled, unnecessarily fussing the cushion beside her. ‘I’ll be more careful next time.’

‘I’m serious, Kate. What if I hadn’t stopped by? You could have slipped into a coma, or choked on you own… I need to know you can take care of yourself.’

She rested the mug on the coffee table nearest her seat, and tried to sit up, but her head felt woozy, and she collapsed back against the cushions.

Unable to look her in the eye, his voice strained. ‘Just tell me one thing… was it deliberate?’

‘Was what deliberate?’

He continued to stare at his feet. ‘The overdose.’

She gritted her teeth. ‘Ben, I didn’t…’

He finally met her stare, the frown lines like crevices in his forehead. ‘I’m worried about you, Kate. The doctor told you to rest. But I can see by the state of this room that that’s the last thing you’ve been doing.’ He glanced around, taking in the various papers stuck to the three walls opposite the sofa. ‘What the hell is all this stuff, anyway?’

‘Just a case I’m working on.’

He moved to the nearest wall and read one of the pages. ‘This is a pathologist’s report on someone called Roxie O’Brien. Why have you got a copy here? These reports are confidential, not wall-art.’

‘I don’t need a lecture on procedure. Besides, they’re all copies.’

He stared wide-eyed. ‘That makes it worse! You’re breaking all kinds of rules having this sort of material here!’

‘I’m not doing any harm. It’s just an old case of mine.’

He started reading the next document. ‘Willow Daniels… why does that name ring a…? Wait a minute, Daniels and O’Brien were victims of the man who killed…’ He turned back and glared at her. ‘Tell me you’re not interfering with an active investigation.’

‘How is reading a few old notes interfering? Watching the reconstruction last night got me thinking, that’s all. I just wanted to check a few things, read though my old notes from the case.’

Ben shook his head in disbelief. ‘No, no, I’m not buying that for a second. I know you, Kate. You’re like a dog with a bone when you get an idea in your mind. You’re stubborn and you won’t let anyone persuade you you’re wrong. Remember that mess you got in with Danny Fenton six months ago?’

‘I solved a triple homicide!’

His voice rose. ‘And nearly lost your own life in the process. You seem to have conveniently forgotten that psycho who broke into this very flat, tied you up and threatened your life. Chloe’s life!’

Now Kate’s voice rose to match. ‘I haven’t forgotten what happened. He came after me, not the other way around. I learnt my lesson. I got an intruder alarm, for God’s sake. Nobody is getting in here again without my knowledge.’

‘I got in here without your knowledge just now. It really wasn’t all that hard.’

‘That’s different and you know it is, Trish wouldn’t let in some stranger she didn’t know.’

‘You’re missing the point, Kate. You take these cases so personally.’

She could feel her eyes beginning to sting as she shouted. ‘It was my fault! I put her undercover, I missed her call, and I let that sonofabitch get away with it. You know nothing about it.’

He moved to the door as if he was going to leave. ‘That’s because you won’t let anyone in! Laura called me, begging me to check on you. Don’t you see? We’re all worried about you.’

She forced herself up, leaning against the edge of the sofa so they were almost back at eye-level. ‘I know my mind and my strengths. I failed to protect Amy, but I will never make that mistake again.’

‘Dammit, Kate, you’re not listening to me! We all know how much pressure you’ve put yourself under these last few months, but surely even you can see what it’s doing to you.’

‘You don’t know anything about the pressure I’m under.’

‘Listen to yourself! You are putting yourself under this pressure, and if you don’t do something about it, you’re going to push away everyone who cares for you.’

She grabbed the mug of tea and hurled it at the wall nearest him. It crashed against the wall, spewing tea across the pale-blue paint, ceramic shards bursting out like a firework and dropping silently to the carpet. ‘Get out of my flat!’

Ben looked from the patch of liquid on the wall back to her. He opened his mouth to speak but the words wouldn’t come.

Kate’s breathing came in quick, shallow breaths. She was shocked by her own actions.

He left the room, the front door clattering open and shut a moment later.

Hot tears streamed down Kate’s face as she shivered, alone.