"No, Ern, there was no fight... What are you two on about?" Wayne finally raised his head and tried to open his eyes, but only one would respond fully. He looked up and noticed a mirror nearby... And saw that his eye was bruised and swollen. With a softly spoken expletive, he quickly brought his hand up to his eye to hide it from both of them.
All sorts of scenarios were running through his mind. Did he smack himself in the face while sleeping? Did Sally-Anne hit him? He did notice her fidgeting a bit as she drifted off... Did he sleepwalk? Did he perhaps get into a fistfight in his sleep? With Ayers? Did Ayers look worse than he did? Wayne had high hopes for the third explanation, but he figured the first two were more likely.
"It's alright, mate, it's not like we've been all that public about it," Wayne said to Ernie. "Neither of us has been sleeping well, so we thought we'd camp out for a night." In the deepest back of his mind, he was hoping that was a reasonable enough explanation to dissuade Ernie if he was planning on taking points from them. It was practically a medical excuse--surely that would hold up under scrutiny.