Hi everyone, sorry I didn't introduce myself in my first Silent Witness FF. My names Tasha, and I write under the username RunningWild14 – and have been doing so for 8 years now. I know, it's scary. Anyway I'm a big Jack/Nikki fan so thought I'd come back to writing fanfiction – my last fanfiction was over 3 years ago I think! So there will be mistakes, but I hope you enjoy it.
This one shot was loosely inspired by Robyn's song Dancing On My Own – recently covered by Calum Scott.
It had been a particularly rough case. Jack, Nikki, Thomas and Clarissa had been fighting for weeks to close a child murder, and Jack didn't really feel like going out tonight. A four-year-old boy had died of grievous bodily harm – a FOUR YEAR OLD - and Jack had really struggled to put the image of the boy to the back of his mind. But now he had to put on a mask, swallow the reality of it and represent the Lyell centre at a charity ball for childhood cancer. It was an important cause, so he couldn't refuse and go in search of a punch bag instead, although tonight he really wanted to.
His only comfort tonight was Nikki. She'd also washed the reality of the case off of her, put on a gorgeous floral dress and those heels that made her 6 inches taller – which gave her some height next to Jack when she usually looked like a midget.
He saw her wobble as she got out of the car and he tried not to smirk at her. Nikki shut her eyes for a brief moment and steadied herself. Why had she worn these heels?
Ow. Ow. Owwww.
Her feet hurt already and she'd only been wearing them 10 minutes.
Calm yourself Nikki, she told herself. You'll be fine. Jack's here.
Soon they both were inside the ballroom – yes a real ballroom. Jack couldn't quite believe it but he pretended that he was comfortable in this environment when rich men approached him to ask what he did for a living. When he mentioned that he was a forensic scientist suddenly all the questions were about crime scenes and Jack couldn't quite handle it tonight.
Nikki was watching him amused when he grunted in response when -
"Nikki! Nice to see you!"
She spun round.
"Oh my goodness, Adam. Hi!" She smiled.
Suddenly there were hugs and cheek kisses and Jack watched in dismay.
Great. Fantastic.
This Adam guy was going to swoop in on his company and he'd have to endure the rest of the evening alone in a corner watching Nikki giggling and flirting with this handsome Adam. Jack wanted to be sick. She really had poor taste in artificial rich men. They didn't care about her. They never cared about her. At least, not the way Jack cared about her.
It turned out that Adam was a guy she'd studied pathology at university with. So even better - they had history.
Jack found himself sat at one of the tables at the side of the dance floor. He had flashbacks to his parents wedding. They'd married when he was 9 years old, in a very similar set up to this. Granted, it had been in Yorkshire, so it was way less fancy.
Well he was here, representing the Lyell. He knew he probably wasn't giving people the best impression. This was the first time Jack had been invited to one of these charity events, but according to Thomas it was important that pathology and forensics were seen together. Leo had believed the two combined could be revolutionary.
Was that him and Nikki? Revolutionary?
He scanned the room for her and found her dancing with Adam. He twirled her and she laughed. She looked genuinely happy to see him. To be with him.
He tried to ignore the words of the slow song that was playing but they echoed in his head 'I'm in the corner watching you kiss her, oh oh oh, and I'm right over here and why can't you see me?'
Jack was not happy. Nope, not happy at all. In fact, Jack was on the brink of an emotional melt down when Nikki appeared at his side.
"You ok?" She'd seen him sulking while she was dancing away and had immediately told Adam to please excuse her.
"Oh yeah. I'm great." He nodded. He knew it hadn't sounded believable and at this point he didn't care. He was tired.
"Jack?" Nikki sat beside him, and her hand fell to his arm. She gave it a sympathetic squeeze. "You don't have to be here."
He seemed offended by that, shaking his head and looking away from her.
Great, now she'd made it awkward.
"Sorry. I didn't mean it like that." She offered. "I like you being here, you know that."
Did she? He wasn't so sure.
"Have you finished dancing with Mr. Fancy Pants?" He raised his eyebrows at her.
And there it was. Jealousy. She'd suspected his jealousy of Greg and Scott when they had both been on the scene. But this was the first time she could pin the emotion on his face.
Nikki smiled. That big smile that she rarely did but when she did it melted him.
"Do you want to dance Jack?" She leant towards him and grabbed his hand. She'd pulled him to his feet before he could really protest. Not that he wanted to protest. No, no, no. He wanted to show Adam and everyone else in the room that she was here tonight with him, that she was his best friend…and nobody else's.
His.
He followed her onto the dance floor, looking lost for a brief moment before regaining his normal confidence and pulling her close to him. In hindsight he'd probably pulled her closer than she really needed to be but she didn't complain and she certainly seemed comfortable enough in his arms.
Well suddenly things weren't so bad. No, actually things were great.
He was dancing with Nikki.
He noticed Adam watching them with a hopeless look on his face. That's right Adam. Not tonight. Not ever. He couldn't help the smirk that rose to his lips.
Loser.
Nikki let go of his hand and Jack was about to protest when he realised she'd only done so to wrap her arms around his neck and pull him even closer. Now this was much better. He could encircle her waist with his arms in this position and he knew she'd done this to show him that it didn't matter when other men showed an interest in her. It didn't matter if she had brief moments with other men, because in the end she'd fall back to Jack.
He was her best friend and he'd had her back right from the start.
Always.
"Jack?" She pulled her head away from where she'd been resting it on his chest and looked up at him.
"Hmm." It better be important.
"My feet really hurt."
Jack laughed at her.
"Serves you right for wearing 6 inch heels." He quipped.
She nodded, "Yup."
"C'mon let's go."
She didn't waste time leaving the ballroom. She didn't even notice Adam watch her and Jack leave. And honestly, she didn't care. Not only did she want to take off her heels but also she wanted to go home. It was OK them leaving this early right? They'd turned up. They'd donated. They'd socialized and represented the Lyell. And it wasn't like they were leaving too early, it was already 10PM and Nikki always woke up early in the mornings – even on her days off.
It wasn't long before they were back in Jack's car and she had kicked off her heels.
"Never again." She murmured.
"Just don't stink out my car." He said pointing to her bare feet.
She laughed.