I know, I should be writing Yellow Scrubs, but had this in my head and wouldn't leave me alone :p And I know it's a little early for Halloween, but it's going to be a three/four parter (hopefully not much more but I never seem to be able to guess how many chapters it'll end up), and I'm going to a Halloween party tomorrow so thought I'd upload it now :)

I'm not sure about it. I know I seem to say that about most of the stuff I write, but please, let me know if it's not worth carrying on :D

I really can't write shorter chapters lately...

xXx

Trick or Treat – Part One

Nikki hit the power button on her remote, silencing the TV that had been playing one of Harry's war films, and sighed heavily. It had been a long day. Scratch that. The longest day in the history of long days.

It had started off bad from the beginning, and progressively got worse as the day went on. Harry was on the first of his three days off work as he was on call for the weekend, which meant that Nikki had prepared herself to get caught up on the paperwork that had built up on her desk without the added distraction of Harry. After looking through the ever growing mountain of paperwork, she was sure that most of the reports were in fact Harry's, but they shared each others desks so often that it was no wonder that they got mixed up occasionally.

The first half hour had been taken up with simply sorting out which reports Nikki did actually need to complete, and which ones were Harry's that he'd 'accidently' placed on the wrong desk.

Turned out, only three were Nikki's. The other eleven were Harry's…

Once the files were properly separated and Nikki had sat down to finish off the coroner's report for their latest victim, she had found it almost impossible to concentrate. As if it was somehow too quiet in the office without Harry around. Not that she would ever voice that of course, it would only give Harry an excuse to annoy her whenever possible.

Just when she thought that she was going to fall asleep with boredom, Leo had appeared wearing a sombre look and with a small piece of paper in his hand. Nikki knew instantly that it was a bad case, she could tell by the look in Leo's eyes, and sure enough, it had turned out to be the beginning of the day from hell.

Leo had silently handed Nikki the slip of paper and walked back to his office, pausing as he got to the door.

"Nikki, phone Harry will you? I know he's been on call all night, but we're going to need all the help we can get. He's more likely to say yes to you than he is to me."

Nikki nodded, folding up the paper and pushing it into her pocket.

She had felt guilty about ringing Harry, knowing that he had been called out the night before, but Leo was right. They would struggle with just two of them at the scene. By the sounds of it, the body count was going to be a high one.

Harry had picked up on the second ring, and had sounded rather awake considering it was still only nine in the morning.

"Nikki! You missing me already?" he had joked, and Nikki felt herself smile at the sound of his voice.

"What? I didn't even realise you weren't here," she had said light-heartily, although she knew that Harry would be able to tell instantly that something was bothering her.

"Very funny. What's up?" It was the way that he asked her, the concern evident in his voice, that let Nikki know that she was right. That he knew she wasn't calling for a casual chat. That and the fact that she never phoned him before ten on his day off anyway, as he was usually still asleep.

"How tired are you?"

"Oh no Nikki, please no. I've just got home. Some guy decided to throw himself off the roof of his apartment at half three this morning!" he moaned, and Nikki could just imagine him throwing his head back in protest. So that's why he sounded so awake at this time in the morning on his day off; he hadn't actually been asleep yet.

"How very inconsiderate of him," Nikki tried to joke. "You know I wouldn't ask if we weren't desperate."

"I know. How bad?" he asked, and Nikki could hear him pick up his car keys.

"Bad. Probably all over the news by now. Collision on the motorway. Two coaches, three cars, a motorist and a heavy goods vehicle."

"How does something like that even happen?"

"That's what makes it worse. Oil spill from the HGV," Nikki explained, and Harry sighed.

"Which usually means fire, which usually means-"

"Less survivors. Yeah," Nikki finished. "We could do with an extra pair of hands."

Harry groaned loudly.

"You owe me big time for this one."

"I know. Thanks Harry. I'll text you the directions and see you there."

"See you soon."

The crash site had ended up worse than Nikki could have expected, with the flames still licking at the vehicles by the time they got there. As soon as they arrived they were given strict orders by the fire department to stay away from the collision until the flames were fully extinguished, and the traffic on the motorway was backed up for miles. It was only once they had proved who they were that Leo had been allowed to drive up the hard shoulder to get to the collision point, and even then they could only get so far, the emergency vehicles at the scene littering the roads.

Harry had arrived not long after, looking slightly dishevelled, and wearing the same shirt as he had on the previous day. He'd obviously just grabbed the first one he could find when he had gotten the call out in the middle of the night.

It wasn't until the flames were out completely and the fire brigade had deemed it safe to go any closer that the full extent of the damage could be seen. Some of the survivors that had managed to get off the coaches before the flames took over were huddled around the ambulances getting checked over, the majority of them young children. One little boy, no older than six, stared at the firemen in awe, and it was then that Nikki noticed the small fireman's costume he was wearing as he clutched his plastic yellow helmet.

"Harry," Nikki whispered quietly, stepping closer to him and noticing that he had also been watching the small boy.

"It's Halloween," Harry explained, looking at Nikki. "Look, that little girl's wearing a princess costume. They were on their way to a children's party that their school had organised for them. There were a few schools going, as a kind of get together before the Christmas season started."

"Did any of them-" Nikki couldn't finish her sentence, and the look from Harry was all she needed to confirm her fears.

Once the fire crew had given the all clear, the three pathologist split up, Harry and Nikki each taking one of the coaches and Leo the other vehicles.

Nikki had found it particularly hard to step onto the coach, knowing that there could be children on board, somebody's baby, but she had forced herself to, telling herself that it was all part of her job. That their parents were counting on her to look after their child until they get them back. It still didn't make it any easier.

The front of the coach that Nikki had entered was almost completely destroyed, the fabric seats burnt away to nothing and the glass smashed due to the heat. But at the back of the coach the damage was less obvious, and that is where she found the bodies of a teacher and two small children, pushed right up to the back and sickeningly close to the emergency exit door that must have been impossible to see through the thick smoke.

Their bodies were darkened with the smoke, and yet their skin looked relatively intact. It was the smoke that had got to them, as they got stuck at the back of the bus. The teacher must have ushered the children forward so they could escape. All that was, apart from the two that got trapped with her, a little boy dressed as a dinosaur, and a little girl as a fairy, the pale pink love harts painted on her cheeks still visible despite the effects of the smoke.

Nikki felt the tears spring to her eyes as she checked the bodies over, before walking to the entrance of the coach and breathing in deeply, feeling the tears run silently down her cheeks. Harry appeared from the other coach, taking one look at Nikki and holding up his hand for her to take, before pulling her into a tight hug.

"A teacher and the driver on the other coach," Harry said, running his hand through Nikki's hair. "They managed to get all the kids and a teacher off in time."

"Seven fatalities in total for the other motorists," Leo's voice appeared from behind them, making them both jump. "The biker must have been killed outright. Four were trapped in one car, two in another, and the passengers in the final car got out ok as well as the HGV driver."

Harry let go of Nikki, who wiped her eyes roughly with the back of her hand. She had to act professional. At least while they were still at the site, where they could be seen. This was her job after all, and she couldn't let every case involving a child upset her.

"Teacher and two children on the second coach," she said, not meeting either of the other two in the eyes. "Looks like they died from smoke inhalation."

And with that said she walked away from the others and back to Leo's car to get her case from the back, ready to start the examination before the bodies were moved.

It was once she had reached over the back seat and got her case that she felt someone standing behind her and knew who it would be.

"Leo sent me to get his as well as mine," Harry said simply, taking Nikki by the shoulders and pulling her into a hug once again, letting his chin rest on the top of her head as her tears blended into his jacket. "You're strong. You can do this, ok. And then after work I'll come round to yours. You're less likely to get kids knocking at your door looking for sweets. Yeah?"

Nikki nodded her head, wiped the tears from her cheeks again and gave Harry a weak smile.

By the time Harry, Nikki and Leo had finished looking round the vehicles, identifying the bodies and searching for anyone that could have gone missing using the school's registers and the suspected passengers in the cars, darkness had began to creep over although it was only late afternoon. So by the time they had left the Lyell Centre, each of the bodies having been identified and locked away in the fridges until the morning, it had gone nine and the sky was an inky black.

The identification of the little girl had been the worst. The technicians had carefully removed her fairy costume and cleaned her skin so it had looked like she was sleeping, which had somehow made it even harder when her mother had come to identify her, breaking down at the sight of her baby.

"She had chosen her fairy costume in August," the mother's words still echoed through Nikki's mind as she had gently stroked her young daughter's hair and kissed her on the forehead. "She insisted that she wore her wings everywhere. To the supermarket, to school, even to bed, I just couldn't get them off her. She told me that when she grew up, she wanted to either be a doctor, or a tooth fairy. At least she can keep her wings now. My little angel."

It was these words that had haunted her all night as Harry had served up the Chinese they had collected on the way back to her apartment and put on a film. And now Nikki was sat on her sofa, Harry's arm draped over her shoulders as his heavy breathing filled her consciousness. The mixture of exhaustion and too much wine had finally taken its toll on Harry and he had fallen asleep. He had been up for nearly two days with only a few hours of interrupted sleep the previous night, so she wasn't surprised when he hadn't made it until the end of the film. He had barely lasted past the opening credits.

Nikki rested her head back on her sofa, letting her eyes flutter closed momentarily, before the sudden sound of Harry's phone vibrating along her coffee table made her eyes fly open again. Gently lifting his arm off her shoulders, she jumped up from the sofa to answer the call before it woke him up again.

"Harry Cunningham's phone," she answered quickly, glancing at Harry, but he was still snoring.

"Oh, I was told that Dr Cunningham was on call tonight," came the female police officer's voice. "Do you know if he is available? We have the victim of a shooting and need someone right away."

Nikki looked at Harry again. It really was the first time he had gotten to sleep in days, and he looked comfortable on her sofa. She glanced at her watch. Ten pm. She hadn't been up as long as Harry had, and had only had half a glass of wine. She hadn't been in the mood for drinking after the day she'd had, and by now any kids out trick-or-treating would have been taken home. Not that she ever got any kids at her door other than the little boy who lived on the bottom floor.

"There's been a change to the rota," she answered the officer. "It's me on call tonight instead."

"Lucky you," said the police officer grimly. "It's a messy one."

The officer described the location of the scene before Nikki ended the call and quickly searched her bag for a pen and paper to leave Harry a note, not having the heart to wake him now that he had finally fallen asleep. Having to settle for her eyeliner, she gently took Harry's hand and quickly scribbled a note across his skin, careful not to smudge the lettering. Throwing a thick blanket over Harry and putting his phone on to the silent mode, she left her apartment, clicking the door shut behind her.

The scene was only a five minute drive from the Lyell Centre, and Nikki got there within ten from her apartment. The roads were quiet at this time of night, yet the streets were still littered with teenage kids, laughing and joking, the girls wearing barely any clothes and the boys with stupid masks, a sickening contrast to the small costumes that Nikki had seen earlier in the day.

"Evening," the officer smiled as she stepped out the car, nodding her head down a small side street. "He's down there. Not pretty I'm afraid."

"Is it ever?" Nikki sighed, her mind wandering back to the pile up on the motorway that morning.

When the officer had told her that the scene was a messy one, she hadn't been joking. Even from a distance Nikki could see the wall splattered with blood, the victim lying on his back with his eyes wide open. The guy looked to be in his early twenties, possibly late teens, and was wearing a ripped T-shirt that was covered in obviously fake blood.

Yet the bullet wound on his forehead was very much real.

Examining the body and taking a sample of the brain matter from the wall, Nikki waited for the SOCO team to take the crime scene photos and search the area. No gun was found, but the victim had obviously been shot at point blank range. Either he'd done it to himself and then the gun had disappeared, or he had been shot. Nikki strongly suspected the latter.

"Bag him up then," Nikki sighed, pulling off her surgical gloves and picking up her case. "Make sure you bag the hands separately, I'll need to check for gunpowder residue. Meet you at the Lyell to sign him in once you've finished."

Nikki yawned and took a deep breath, making her way back to her car. It was going to be another long night.

This day was just going from bad to worse.

"Tyler this is boring," she moaned, stopping in front of him and shivering. "I thought you said we were going to do something fun."

"Yeah Ty," a second girl smiled, wrapping her arm around his waist. "What are we doing next? I am not going home until I am completely plastered, and so far, I barely feel like I've had anything to drink!"

Tyler shrugged away from the girl and walked towards the first, taking her face between his hands and roughly kissing her on the lips.

"Simone, I told you I'd give you a night to remember, didn't I?" he smiled, throwing his arm over her shoulder and turning around to face the group that were following. "Hurry up guys, we have a lot of partying to do before the night's over."

The group looked up, the boy at the front smiling widely.

"And where are we supposed to go?" he asked, spinning a plastic gun around on his finger. "The police are still sniffing around at Eddie's after someone put a brick through his neighbour's car, and he was the only one who could get us the booze."

"We're going to go trick or treating," Tyler smiled slyly. "We're going to have a little fun, and then we'll go drinking."

"What about Mark?" another of the boys asked, his long plastic rifle slung over his shoulder. "Where did he get to? He was with us at Eddie's and I haven't seen him since."

"I don't know," Tyler shrugged. "Who cares? He's probably run home to mummy by now hasn't he? You know what he's like."

Stopping in his tracks, Tyler spun around and threw his arms us to the university behind them, smiling at the group and beginning to walk through the grounds. The building was in darkness. All that was, apart from a bright light at the bottom of the stairs.

The Thomas Lyell Centre.

"Ready for some fun?" Liam grinned, taking Simone by the hand and running down the stairs, listening to her squeal as she tried to keep up in her heels.

Placing his hand on the gun that was secured in his belt, he felt the cold metal under his fingers and smirked. He could hear the group behind him. Everything was going well so far. This place was going to be perfect. Actually, this was more than perfect. He hadn't expected a door to be unlocked, but being inside was going to work even better.

"Let's get this party started," he grinned to himself, pushing open the door and leading the group inside.