Ok so this was the very first fanfic I wrote so it really isn't that good. I keep it up here mostly for sentimental reasons and because I actually quite like the idea - what would happen if Karen and Neil approached Nikki and Helen for help with getting rid of Jim. This was originally split into 20 chapters (I think I struggled with the difference between a paragraph and a chapter) but now I've consolidated it into two. Enjoy! :)

It is set in series 5 at some point around episodes 10 or 11

Neil was in a bad mood. Jim and Karen had been at each other's necks for months now, it was obvious that one of them had to go. Karen was definitely the better officer and had probably caused less problems, she would doubtless be much more cooperative if Jim was no longer around. However, Jim would be harder to get rid of because he was so slippery and he could still drag out what happened at Neil's stag do, even if it was only one man's word against another it could still scupper up the options, he decided that he had the most evidence against Fenner, however, he still needed more. He knew Karen was planning to go and visit Shell Dockley to hear her side of the story about what happened the day she was shipped out, and that she had her own rape allegation to add to the pile, so Neil thought that he would follow up the other lead that he had heard about. Helen Stewart.

As the sun was setting, Helen and Nikki rolled out of the car into the house carrying bulging cotton shopping bags and giggling like young school girls. It still amazed them both that a simple trip to the supermarket could still feel like an adventure, even after all this time. It was just over a year since Nikki had been released from HMP Larkhall, where she spent 4 years for attacking and killing a police officer who had been trying to rape Trisha, her girlfriend at the time. She had originally been sentenced to life for murder, but Helen, who was the Governor at Larkhall at the time, spent the last few months of her time at Larkhall working all out on Nikki's appeal. The appeal succeeded and Nikki was released after her sentence was reduced from murder to manslaughter. That night Nikki and Helen fell into each other's arms outside Chix, Nikki's club, and they had barely been apart since.

Helen dumped the bags she was holding onto the kitchen table and went over to switch on some music. The room filled with sweet piano notes, accompanied by a female voice singing softly about love and happiness. The music matched both women's mood perfectly and they started to unpack their shopping in an intimate, companionable silence, both soaking up the deep, meaningful music and enjoying spending time with each other. They had both expected the novelty of being able to spend time together freely to wear off after a couple of weeks, possibly months but it hadn't. Helen had got herself a part time job with the Home Office, creating links between lifers' units in prison's across the country. It was an interesting job, but nowhere near as hands-on as her previous jobs, she never actually visited prisons anymore, and it was only 4 days a week with almost exactly the same hours as Nikki's job in the local library. This gave them a long weekend from Thursday afternoon until Monday morning, completely free every week; they often went out to the country or down to the beach for a few days, to get away from the business of London where they lived and worked.

Their relationship hadn't all been plain sailing; they had had their fair share of rows, disagreements and even all out arguments, sometimes it was small things like what they should watch on the television or an insensitive reference to a past relationship, sometimes it was bigger things like Helen's reluctance to tell certain people about her new sexuality or either of them overreacting to situations where they became jealous. Whatever the row was about, it was usually triggered by news from or about Larkhall, which always caused emotions to run high and tempers to fray. Nikki still got regular letters from Barbara Hunt, her ex-cellmate and sometimes from the two Julies, occasionally Yvonne Atkins wrote, but Yvonne's letters were always filled with confusing messages that Nikki assumed she was supposed to be able to decipher but she rarely could.

As soon as the shopping was all unpacked and tidied away, Nikki poured two glasses of expensive red wine and her and Helen snuggled up together on the sofa, chatting gently about their respective days at work and their plans for the coming weekend. Helen's head was rested gently in her partner's lap and she could feel Nikki's soft hand tenderly stroking her thigh. She felt so calm, so happy and so right.

Karen was feeling pretty pleased with herself. Her meeting with Shell Dockley had gone pretty well, Shell's story had backed up what Colin had told her, and if she added that to her report on Fenner raping her then she definitely had a good case against Fenner. There was just one more person she needed to speak to before her dossier was completed, Helen Stewart.

The only problem was that Helen was not going to be easy to find. She had tried a few times before to locate the ex-number one but to no avail. She had scoured the phone book, twice, gone through the personnel files for all the prisons she could find, but nothing. She had even called Thomas Waugh, he had been blunt and unhelpful. "No, I don't know where Helen is. And I don't care. Last time I saw her was the day after she left Larkhall." she said sharply and angrily, "Stupid woman" he mumbled and the phone went dead.

Karen was down to her last resort, Yvonne. Karen knew that Yvonne was well connected and had ways of finding things out and Karen trusted her, but, because Yvonne was a prisoner, Karen was wary about going to her for help, it could get them both in trouble. The two women had become quite close friends over the last few months, despite the bars, and Karen knew that Yvonne would be all too happy to help if it would mean getting rid of Fenner.

By the end of her shift that evening, Karen had an address for Helen Stewart, courtesy of Lauren Atkins. Initially, she was planning to head straight over there, but then she thought better of it. She needed to get her head together and work out what to say and what to ask, she couldn't just go in there unprepared, asking insensitive questions and requesting help. She and Helen were not getting on particularly well last time they saw each other. Karen knew it was her fault, for trusting Fenner, but Karen was unsure whether Helen would be prepared to forgive her and help her, even if it was to get rid of Fenner.

Neil had had very little trouble finding an address for Helen Stewart, he asked around all the people he knew in the Prison Service and the Home Office and it turned out that Daniel, one of his old boyfriends, had met her through his work with lifers in HMP Holloway. Neil had never actually met Helen but she had been mentioned many times on the wing. It was evident that neither Jim or Sylvia gave Helen an ounce of respect and he was pretty sure that neither Di or Karen particularly loved her regime either. He had, of course, read Helen's report about Jim Fenner's sexual assault on her, but it just bought up more questions. The report seemed to imply that Helen was gay but Sylvia had told him in great detail about the time that Helen's fiancé had turned up in the prison garden and burnt his wedding suit and there was a rumour that Helen had been seeing the SMO. There were other questions too, like why Helen hadn't pressed charges against Jim, or even followed up her report; and why she had just packed up and left Larkhall, twice.

Neil hailed a taxi and gave the driver the address he had been given for Helen. On the way, he considered what Daniel had told him about Helen; it didn't seem to fit with what little he had gleaned from Larkhall files and whispered rumours around the prison. Daniel had described a fun, jolly, light-hearted woman who got on well with everybody she met. Some things that Daniel said, such as that Helen was always late and that she really cared for the women in prison, did seem to match what he had heard, from the residents at least, not the officers. The taxi drew up outside a large, white, terraced house in a well-off part of London, so Neil decided he would see for himself what Helen was like./p

Nikki felt like the luckiest person in the world. Here she was, a free woman, curled up on a comfy sofa, listening to beautiful music, with the love of her life snuggled against her, it couldn't get any better. She felt Helen, who had been dozing lightly, stir and her heart nearly burst, she felt so proud, of them both, for surviving through everything and getting to this point, even though it had been hard. Nikki knew that she had found the one person that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, her soul-mate. Helen smiled up at her, "What're you looking so serious about sweetheart?" asked the Scott, sleepily. "I love you so much" came Nikki's reply, accompanied by a brief but meaningful kiss. "I love you too, sweetheart." replied Helen, as a big smile decorated her face, she leaned up to Nikki and the two of them met in a deep, passionate kiss that seemed to make time freeze and the whole world disappear. However, time did not freeze and the world did not disappear, they were rudely interrupted by a sharp cry from the doorbell. Nikki dragged herself unenthusiastically to the door and opened it to be faced with an unfamiliar man at the door was tall, well built, stern looking man with short dark hair and wearing a smart suit. "Hello, my name is Neil Grayling, you must be Helen Stewart, it's a pleasure to meet you." he said, offering his hand, Nikki took his hand, "Oh, hello, but I'm not Helen, I'm Nikki, come in though, Helen is in the front room." Nikki replied opening the door and standing aside to let him in.

Helen, who had been listening from the front room, shook herself to make sure she was properly awake, then peered into the hall to see if she recognised the visitor. She did not. Although the name did ring a bell, and from the look on Nikki's face she was thinking exactly the same thing. "I'm Helen Stewart, do come through." said Helen, formally, gesturing towards the front room. "Neil Grayling. Thank you. I am so sorry to disturb you at this time of night" Neil went into the front room, Nikki went to follow him but Helen caught her arm.

Neil surveyed the room he had just entered. It was spacious yet somehow still cosy, the lights were soft and there were two half empty wine glasses on the coffee table. There was soft, unfamiliar music swimming from a high class hifi system in the corner and two of the walls were lined head to toe with bookshelves, tightly packed with a multitude of books, most of each looked well read but still well looked after. He hear frantic whispering from the hallway and this lead him to consider what else he had discovered about the mysterious Helen Stewart. She didn't look like he had expected. He had anticipated, he didn't know why, a tall, serious, imposing woman who could give Jim Fenner a run for his money. In reality, Helen Stewart was a small, polite, kind looking woman; he could not imagine her walking the corridors of Larkhall, much the less standing up to Jim Fenner. She certainly didn't look like the kind of woman who could run a prison, not that he was prejudice, she just didn't seem to fit the picture. This visit had confirmed that Helen was gay, despite what Sylvia had said. It was clear to him that Helen and Nikki were together, just from the way they looked at each other.

Helen and Nikki entered the room together. Helen sat down, indicating for Neil to take a seat; Nikki disappeared through a door into what appeared to be the kitchen, appearing minutes later with a bottle of wine and a third glass. She filled the glass and handed it to Neil, then refilled the two from the table, passed one to Helen and then sat down next to her. "So Neil, what can we do for you?" asked Helen politely, with a kind smile. "I'm here to ask for your help Miss Stewart," Neil said, "Helen, please" interrupted the smiling woman, "Sorry, Helen, I am the governing Governor at Larkhall prison," started Neil. To his surprise, at the mention of the name of his workplace, both women breathed in sharply and grabbed on to each other, looking like they had just been smacked in the face. This completely threw Neil, he had guessed that Helen might be reluctant to talk about what had happened but he hadn't expected this unsubtle fear that had taken over the two women in front of him. It also brought up another question, who was this Nikki? She looked just as fearful as Helen did. Had she worked at Larkhall too? Could she help him?

The mention of Larkhall felt like a physical blow to Helen, and from Nikki's reaction,it was clear that she felt the same. Suddenly a wash of painful memories flooded back to her. All the times she had felt beaten or attacked; all the people she had failed: Zandra, Shaz; all the abuse she had suffered from above, below and beside her; Fenner's assault. She trembled at the thought, holding on to Nikki tightly, absorbing strength and comfort from the contact. Nikki had been dragged back to her tiny cell by Neil's words. Sickly green filled her eyes, banging doors and night-calls filled her ears, it was like she had never left. She shuddered, remembering the long lonely nights, the verbal abuse from officers like Hollamby and Fenner and the torment of not being able to be with Helen. She squeezed up against Helen, desperate for reassurance that she wasn't going to be locked up again.

"Um...Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you, I just wondered if you could help me, we are compiling a case against Jim Fenner and..." gabbled Neil until, at the mention of Jim Fenner Helen yelped and buried her face in Nikki's chest; Nikki, for one second, looked like a rabbit in the headlights then she put her arms protectively around Helen and kissed her lightly on the shoulder to let her know she was there. Helen was reliving, in full colour, the time that Fenner had assaulted her, she was shivering with fear as her brain replayed every painful second. Nikki could hear Fenner's taunts as if he was in the room, she was scared, both for herself and for Helen, who was shaking ferociously and whimpering, as if Fenner was actually two women held each other for a few seconds until their breathing levelled out and their hearts stopped battering their rib-cages. Then Nikki took a deep breath in and sheepishly looked up at their visitor. Bracing herself for what was to come, squeezing Helen's hand in reassurance.

"I'm really sorry, it's just that we are compiling a case against him and I was wondering if you would help me." said Neil carefully, embarrassed about how his words had affected these women, "We have already got quite a lot. I mean I've still got your old dossier, Karen has gone to the psychiatric facility to get a statement from Michelle Dockley, and of course We've got Karen's rape allegation too. But you know what he's like, we need everything we can get." pleaded Neil. Helen was still buried in Nikki's chest, but Nikki looked up, confusion written all over her face. "Shell's in a muppet house? Betts was raped? I thought her and Fenner were engaged." she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. This confirmed to Neil that Nikki had had something to do with Larkhall too, what exactly, he wasn't sure. It also told him that neither of them were keeping up to date with what was happening there. "Michelle Dockley was taken into psychiatric after she allegedly tried to smother her baby. However, I have new information that seems to imply that Jim made this up because Dockley refused to continue being pimped by him after her son was born. Karen has also reported that Jim raped her after their relationship ended but she chose not to press charges because she did not want her son to have to hear about it." Neil informed the women. At this point Helen's head emerged from Nikki's chest, her eyes red and swollen, perplexity written all over her face. "A lot has happened since we left." Helen remarked with a half-hearted giggle. She looked at her partner with a wavering smile that Nikki returned before they both turned to face Neil again.

"Look," said Helen assuredly, "We are both really glad that youv'e got so much evidence against Fenner. And we really hope that you get the bastard. But we can't help you, we're sorry." This bewildered Neil. He had expected that Helen might not feel comfortable talking about it, but he had assumed that she would be as desperate to get rid of Jim as Karen was, her certainly wasn't prepared for her to plainly refuse to help in any way. "Sorry, but are you sure? This could be the final piece that we need to nail him completely." he asked. "Sorry, but no way. We just can't. Sorry. Good luck though, it was nice to meet you." Nikki said forcefully, standing up and opening the door into the hallway, her face stern and understood that this was his cue to leave, it was obvious that he wasn't going to get Helen's support now. He would talk to Karen in the morning, she had worked with Helen so might have more luck, she also might know who Nikki was. He thanked the women and left quickly, not wanting to upset them even more.

As the front door closed, Nikki sighed. When she had invited in that smart, businesslike looking man into their home, she had not expected him to start bringing up that hellhole and all the bad memories that came with it. She hurried into the front room to check on Helen who was sitting, staring into space. She looked so small and vulnerable. Nikki knew that her partner still had nightmares about the night that Fenner assaulted her, just as Nikki still had nightmares about being locked in her old cell. Although they regularly heard news from Larkhall, both women worked hard to avoid talking properly about their time there, whenever they did mention it, they usually ended up arguing. Both Nikki and Helen knew that the reason why their discussions about the prison so often triggered an altercation, was that neither of them had talked openly about their feelings surrounding Larkhall and what they experienced there. It was complicated. They didn't talk about it because they would argue, but they argued about it because they didn't talk about walked over to Helen and reached to put an arm around her, however, Helen viciously catapulted off the sofa into the corner of the room, silently glaring into nowhere. "Sweetheart." pleaded Nikki, weakly. Helen stormed angrily out of the room leaving Nikki feeling helpless and alone. Situations like this seemed to be the only times when Nikki and Helen couldn't connect with each other, one of them always shut the other out. Nikki sat down with her head in her hands, trying to work out the best way to help her partner.

As Karen and the other officers unlocked the cells on their wing the next morning, Karen was still feeling furious with herself. She had wimped out of going to see Helen Stewart last night because she realised she had no idea what to say to her, or how Helen would react to seeing her. Initially, she had been planning just to turn up and ask Helen to help her in the battle against Jim Fenner, then she realised that she needed to be a lot more tactful if Helen was going to agree to help her. Last time the two women had spoken, they were not on the best of terms. Until she reached Yvonne's cell, Karen had been working on auto-pilot. However, when she opened the door, Yvonne leapt over, her eyes wide, "How did it go? What did she say? Will she help?", Yvonne's unusually tense manner surprised Karen who looked sheepishly at the floor, "I didn't go. I couldn't work out what I would say.", "Your kidding?" snapped Yvonne, "Just go. Speak to her. She was a decent sort. And she hated Fenner!", "Yes, I know," Karen sighed, "Its just that...well...last time I saw her...it wasn't great. I'll go this evening though. I will!" Both women looked at each other silently for a few seconds. "Good luck then." Yvonne said, walking out onto the landing, not looking back at Karen.

"I went to see Helen Stewart last night." Neil said, his emotions unclear. Karen almost gasped with surprise. "Oh...wow...um...I was actually planning to visit her tonight. What did she say?" she asked, still taken aback by Neil's pro-activeness. Neil pulled an unreadable face, "She got really upset and her partner asked me to leave. They said that they won't help." Both of them sat in silence for a few seconds. "Are you sure?" Karen asked quietly. "We can't give up. Will you come with me to see them again tonight?" Neil asked determinedly,"It may be easier. You knew them. Oh yes, I was going to ask, has someone called Nikki worked here? Helen's partner seemed equally upset when I spoke to them.", "Nikki? Last time, I saw Helen she was still with Thomas." Karen replied, surprised that the couple had broken up, "They seemed pretty perfect for each other. He left at the same time she did." she continued. "Wait, Helen used to be straight?" inquired Neil. "What do you mean 'used to be'?" asked Karen, thoroughly confused.