Diane sat in the canteen and stared into her coffee cup, watching it go cold, the day's events running through her head. She was waiting, just waiting for Inspector Smith to come and talk to her, to debrief her, to tell her how Nikki was going. On hearing the door open, she looked up hopefully, her stomach doing summersaults, but it was only Grace who headed over and started to speak.
"Are you okay?"
"Fine."
"You don't have to lie, you know!"
Diane was cut off replying by Smithy entering.
"Diane my office now, we need to debrief."
Once they reached the office, Diane voiced the question that she wanted— no, needed to know the answer to.
"Is Nikki okay?"
"She is still in surgery. I know that it has been a big day, but do you think you could tell me what happened today?"
Diane nodded and started the story.
Nikki got a call out, I was going stir crazy in the office, so I said I would join her. We drove to the house, and got out. The street looked quite enough, nothing out of place. So we found the house that had the suspected burglary and we walked up to the door.
We agreed silently that I would search the downstairs and Nikki would go upstairs. So we quietly went in, our weapons drawn. Nikki moved upstairs and I walked into the living room, there was no one there so I moved into the kitchen, which opened into the dining room, no one, no mess, it looked like it hadn't even been broken into.
Then I heard a shout I ran upstairs (she left out the part of her heart plummeting and how she feared for Nikki's life). Once on the landing I called out, but didn't hear anything, I quickly searched the house and found Nikki in the last room, A bedroom by the look of it. There was a guy there, my height, balaclava, blue eyes, medium build. He had a gun. When I entered he held it to Nikki's head. I stopped and stared. He said how he would shoot her if I did anything. So I talked to him.
"Can you tell me the conversation Diane?"
Diane nodded and continued.
"Look mate, put the gun down. It will only be worse for you, if you shoot her. If you leave now, it will be better for everyone."
"No bloody way, you're going to send me to jail."
"If you shoot her, you will be there for longer".
He seemed to deliberate for a while, then the radio went off. He shot Nikki, and then ran, knocking me into the room as he passed me and fled the stairs. I called for the ambulance and then did first-aid or what I could do on Nikki. Ten minutes later the ambos arrived. End of story.
At that the phone rang. Smithy picked it up, listened and then put it down. "That was the hospital, Nikki is going to be okay."
"Can I go see her, please?"
"I don't know, are you okay?"
"I will be a lot better once I see Nikki, Inspector."
"Okay, go on."
The drive to the hospital seemed to take forever, every red light in Sun Hill seemed to be turned on. She wasn't sure if this was a good or a bad thing, as the feeling of nausea in her stomach didn't seem to be settling, but the lights gave her head time to think. Once she arrived at the hospital. It didn't seem to take any time for her to find Nikki's room. Just before she entered, she took a deep breath and thought. Should she really be doing this? Her brain wasn't sure, but her heart yelled at her for stopping to think about it. She should already be in there.
Slowly she stepped into the room and saw Nikki there, awake, with Doug. She was about to turn away when Nikki spoke up.
"Diane, good to see you."
Diane saw Nikki squeeze Doug's hand, and he got up, an excuse about coffee or something, she wasn't quite sure, she didn't hear him her eyes were only for Nikki. All she knew was in less than a minute she was alone with Nikki and her stomach was going crazy with butterflies.
"I'm glad that your okay, Nikki."
"Well it's all thanks to you, if you hadn't have come out with me, or been there... Well who knows?"
The scene that she hadn't told the inspector flashed into her head.
The guy ran past her, knocking her. She had gone to Nikki, who looked shocked. Her own heart pounding.
"Di, am I gonna die?"
"No"
Diane had taken off her jacket and put it around Nikki's stomach, trying to wrap it tight. Although it quickly filled with blood. The gunshot to the stomach had done some damage.
"Where are the bloody ambos?" she whispered. Nikki's chances weren't looking great, and it had only been two minutes since she was shot. She couldn't lose Nikki, no she loved her too much. The next few minutes went slowly, Diane talking to Nikki about anything and everything.
Nikki's level of consciousness had deteriorated.
"Nikki, you have to stay with me!"
"Diane I want to die."
"You can't Nikki."
"Why?"
"Because Doug, your children, because I love you, you can't die!"
A minute later Diane was yelling downstairs for the ambos and they quickly bundled Nikki into the ambulance.
"Nikki about what I said in the house, I... I was lying." She knew she was lying now, at the hospital, that she really did love Nikki, but she couldn't rip apart a whole family. A happy family. She had to say this, for Nikki's sake, definitely not her own. No matter how much it tore at her heart, or killed her. She had to lie.
At that moment, Doug came back. Diane made her excuses and went to the door. As she got there, Nikki spoke up and Diane looked back, into her eyes.
"Thank you Diane"
It was at that moment that Diane Noble realised that she would always be in love with Nikki, and that Nikki knew that.