Her face didn’t change. Not the side Ben could see, at least. She turned away from the window, and the effort it took made Ben wince behind his plastered-on smile.

There was a pull on the right side of her face from when the stroke had struck. Her mouth had a noticeable downturn at that corner, blighting her features with what looked like a grimace of distaste. More so than usual, even, which was saying something.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, and Ben was pleasantly surprised to hear only the faintest slurring of her words.

“I heard what happened,” the DI replied. “Thought I’d pop in and see how you were doing.”

Her eyes swivelled in their sockets as she looked him up and down. “Why?”

“Well, because I’m nice like that,” Ben said.

One half of Moira’s face scowled. The rest did its best to join in, but didn’t pack nearly the same punch. “I don’t need anyone’s pity.”

“Good bloody job, because you’ll no’ be getting any from me,” Ben told her. He sat the supermarket carrier bag he’d been carrying on the chair beside the bed, then produced a small bunch of flowers from inside. “I brought you these.”

Moira eyed the bouquet with suspicion. “What for?”

“Just… because that’s what people do, isn’t it? When they’re visiting someone in hospital. They bring flowers.”

“I’ve got nowhere to put them,” Moira said with a sniff.

Ben’s eyes fell on a cardboard pee bottle hanging at the bottom of the empty bed. He unhooked it, shoved the flowers inside, then set it on Moira’s bedside table. Due to the design of the bottle, the flowers stuck out at a shallow angle, so they were more lying down than standing upright. Undeterred, Ben presented it with a, “Ta-daa!” then reached back into the bag.

“Got you these, too,” he said, holding up an orange bottle and a yellow and red cardboard box. “Bottle of Lucozade and some tea cakes. Aye, Tunnock’s. None of your cheap rubbish.”

“I can’t stand Lucozade, so you can take that away with you,” Moira told him. She shot a fleeting look at the box, rolled her eyes, then begrudgingly gave him permission to leave the tea cakes.

“You want one now?” Ben asked. “I’m sure I can find us a cup of tea.”

“I’m fine for now, thank you,” Moira curtly replied, much to Ben’s disappointment. He eyed the box of tea cakes longingly, then set it down on the bedside table beside his makeshift vase. “Aye, well, if you change your mind, I can always open them up for you.”