A/N I feel personally victimized by the BBC. Seriously. They keep killing people, they need to calm down! Spoilers for 16x5.

The Phone Call

Harry smiled as he saw the name dash across the screen. It had been a while since she'd called and he missed her and the updates he got on the Lyell centre. He sank back into his leather chair and clicked the button, dropping his pen and skidding the chair away from the wooden desk.

"Hello stranger" Harry grinned down the phone and ruffled a hand through his hair. Heavy breathing greeted his voice "Nikki, you alright?"

The breathing gasped, hitching on every breath. Irregular breaths huffing down the line. He leaned forward, frowning down the phone.

"It's Leo."

"He driving you mad? What's happened this time?" Harry smiled, another silly argument about Nikki getting too involved in a case and going off on one her mad missions. Nothing serious. Just a silly spat that Nikki needed to rant about. Everything was fine. It always was.

"Harry... Harry, he's dead." The voice was quiet, devoid of emotion and so unlike his Nikki's that he almost didn't recognize it. But it was her, it was her.

But she'd said…

Silence echoed down the line, the emptiness drifting across the Atlantic. Pain and shock filling him even as his mind cried out.

"How can he be dead" Harry choked, his vision blurring even as his head told him this couldn't be true. Leo couldn't have died. It just wasn't possible, he was far too alive, far too Leo to die. All those near death experiences, he'd survived. He couldn't die now. Not when he was miles away, not when they hadn't parted on best terms.

But Nikki would never lie.

"We were in Afghanistan... Leo he-"

"What the hell were you doing there?" His voice filled with anger at the thought of his friends, his family trotting off to a war torn country without even bothering to tell him.

Their ignorance of him now he had left hurt. Hurt because they were never far from his thoughts. But he seemed to rarely invade theirs.

It stung because they were his only family.

And now Leo was dead.

Part of his family gone, no warning. Just gone.

"What happened?" His eyes were closed, his hand fisted in his hair as he tried to put some sort of reign on his turbulent emotions. Leaning back on the chair he shut out this world and tried to ignore the pain.

"Harry..." Her voice begging, he knew she didn't want to tell him. It would make it real.

"Nikki, just tell me. I have to know." His voice was raspy, uneven.

"Suicide bomber" she whispered as ice settled in his chest "he saved us all, he saved me." He could believe that

But Harry had seen the bodies of soldiers caught up in explosions. He knew what had happened to Leo. Knew how many pieces he would have ended up in.

Leo couldn't of survived, not like he had in Budapest. No. This time, this death- was real.

"I'm coming home, I'll be there." He promised, already leaning forward to book the tickets, hands shaking as he skated over the keys that would send him home. Home to what was left of his broken and damaged family.

"I know"

Silence swam back across the line and Harry faltered. There was nothing he could do to comfort her and nothing she could do to comfort him. Nothing would make a difference.

Their breathing across the line was the only noise.

And somehow, that helped.

A/N Hope you liked, there might be more I'm not sure!