She raced upstairs, her feet hardly touching each step. It was funny, but when she’d left Finn that morning, she’d said goodbye and had no intention of visiting him again. After all, he was on the mend now, out of the coma, and his recovery should be straightforward, a day or two to make sure there wasn’t concussion or any risk of internal bleeding and he would be sent home to resume his life as normal.

‘Ooh, Mr O’Connell’s personal tonic.’ Morgan laughed as he buzzed her through. ‘According to the notes, he’s hardly opened his eyes all day and when he has, he’s been asking for you?’

‘I obviously made a lasting impression,’ she joked, but now she wondered if perhaps he was traumatised by waking from a coma to find a strange woman holding his hand. That certainly wasn’t something she was going to share with Morgan though.

‘Hey,’ she whispered this time to announce her arrival, but Finn O’Connell was fast asleep, so she sat down next to him.

There was something quite extraordinary about watching him sleep. His chest rising and falling, his soft breath, in and out. It was calming, grounding. It was strange, but all of those other noises of the ward – the ongoing buzz of machines, the occasional bleep of a monitor recording a change, the swishing, clicking, buzzing sounds that made up this place – just faded away while she sat watching him.

‘Hi,’ he whispered eventually, pulling her from her trance.

‘You’re awake.’ She smiled at him.

‘It seems like it.’ He tried to sit up a little, but there were too many things to negotiate, like the drip, probably a catheter, and the severe tucking in by Morgan or one of his colleagues. ‘Can I have a sip of water?’

‘Of course,’ she said as she put the beaker to his lips gently and watched while he sipped. ‘How do you feel now?’

‘Super-duper,’ he joked. ‘Ah no, really, I can’t complain; even if I was in any discomfort, they have drugged me so well, I can hardly feel a thing – good or bad.’ He laughed.

‘Don’t knock it,’ she said. ‘It was a nasty accident. You’re lucky to be in the shape you’re in.’ And of course he was; miraculously, there were no broken bones or worse.

‘So, how do we know each other again?’ He was watching her now.

‘Well, I’m not sure we do, really…’ She smiled. ‘We spoke a couple of words just before the bike hit and then I travelled with you in the ambulance…’

‘My guardian angel.’ He nodded as if confirming something.