‘Sounds like you had a bad one,’ Harry said as he craned his neck to look at the bedside clock. ‘Why don’t you take a shower and I’ll mix you some space food for breakfast?’

‘Peach flavour?’

‘Sure,’ Harry said. ‘Don’t use all the hot water. You know how mad Charlie gets when it runs out!’

Ed managed a smile, and he got off the bed and grabbed his towel from a hook. Harry started to cough as he crossed the hall and stepped into the room he shared with Charlie. Ed’s nightmare had woken her too, and she sat up in bed, looking at the battered laptop Harry had bought her more than five years earlier.

‘Ed OK?’ Charlie asked as Harry gave her a good morning kiss.

‘The Care4Kids nightmare again,’ Harry sighed, hunting in a bedside drawer. ‘He’s so frightened when he wakes up like that. I told him to go shower.’

Charlie looked anxious. ‘You reminded him not to hog all the hot water?’

‘Sure,’ Harry said. He grabbed a syringe from the drawer and settled on the edge of his bed. ‘How are the threat forecasts looking?’

‘There’s a new strain of super-flu flaring in Melbourne,’ Charlie said. ‘It’s winter down there, I guess. Killer-T3B is showing vaccine resistance in the Ukraine. I’ll get you and Ed the latest vaccine shots in town today. It’s been more than a week.’

Harry pulled the cap off the needle and injected a dose of steroids into his upper arm.

‘Do you think they’re helping?’ Charlie asked. ‘You were coughing half the night.’

‘Did I keep you awake? I can always go down and sleep on the couch.’

Charlie shook her head. ‘I want you here, beside me,’ she said fondly. ‘Cough or no cough.’

Harry smiled as he crawled over the bed towards Charlie and gave her another kiss.

‘Ed woke us up early,’ Harry said. ‘You wanna fool around?’

‘Depends what you’ve got,’ Charlie teased, kissing Harry back as she set the laptop on her bedside table and kicked off the duvet.

Charlie had her legs hooked around Harry’s back when Ed burst in.

‘There’s no hot water,’ he announced, trailing damp footprints.

‘I’ve told you to knock,’ Charlie said, halfway between amused and irritated as she hurled a pillow at him.

‘Did you adjust the middle tap?’ Harry asked. ‘If you push the lever too far, you just get cold.’

‘The hot is only a dribble,’ Ed said as Harry grabbed well-worn jeans off the floor.

Harry crossed to the bathroom. Ed loomed in the background as he stepped into the shower cubicle, turned the hot to full blast and got a dribble.

‘Told you,’ Ed said. ‘I’m not stupid.’

‘You look stupid,’ Harry teased, poking his tongue childishly as he went back to the bedroom to grab a shirt.

‘You’re rude, Harry!’