Jack lay on his fluffed-up pillows, on his childhood bed, and listened to Maggie’s phone send him to voicemail. He didn’t leave a message. She’d know no message was the same as saying, “call me back when you have a second.” Jack waited for the screen of his mobile to light up silently, because tonight of all nights, he knew that Maggie would call him back within seconds.

It was actually three minutes later when his screen eventually lit up.

“Hey, Mags,” he whispered.

Maggie got straight to the point. “How are things there?”

“He’s been given a few months. It’s in his lungs and his liver, but they’re both secondaries, they don’t actually know where the primary is.”

“Oh, Jack, I’m so sorry.”

“That can’t be right, can it, Mags? Not knowing where it started? I mean, it can’t have disappeared, can it? Why can’t they find the primary? If they find the primary, maybe they can fix it. Do you think . . . ?”

“Do you need me there?”

By changing the subject, Jack knew that Maggie had no answers to his barrage of questions.

“No, I’ll be home first thing.” He sounded almost bitter in his reply. “I was only given one day off and, anyway, they’ve got it all sorted here. They knew before Christmas, so they’ve already got their heads round everything and they’re off on a world cruise, if you can believe that.”

“So, no more treatment?”

“It won’t do any good.”

“Jack . . . you have to let them do this in the right way for them.”

Maggie could hear Jack holding his breath, then that slow exhale as he stifled the noise of crying.

“What about me?”

“This isn’t about you, love.”

Jack took deep, heavy breaths and regained his composure. Once his breathing was back to normal, Maggie continued.

“Don’t be angry for long. The most important thing in times like this is to have no regrets. Give them your blessing. We’ll Skype every day, and we can even meet them on one of their stops if you like.”

Jack’s voice suddenly perked up, just a little. “They go to St. Lucia.”

“There you go, then. We’ll meet them there and stay on for a few days. I can even book the same hotel we stayed in when we did that extravagant holiday we couldn’t afford. It’s nearly two o’clock, Jack. Go to sleep. I love you.”

By five o’clock, Jack was up, showered, dressed and heading out the front door to catch the 5:45 train back to London. As he leaned into the hallway to close the front door, he saw Penny standing in her dressing gown in her bedroom doorway.

They shared the tightest, saddest of hugs. Penny kissed his cheek. And Jack left.

If Jack hadn’t walked into the squad room carrying his overnight bag and looking as if he was running on fumes, he’d have been in big trouble. As it was, Ridley took one look at him and immediately assumed that Jack had had very bad news from his parents. Ridley wasn’t going to inquire further, and he allowed Jack a free pass for rolling in at ten o’clock rather than 8:30. Laura, on the other hand, was desperate to inquire further and see if Jack might need a friendly shoulder to cry on. Jack joined the briefing and Ridley continued.