You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter.
"I know you're over 30 now, but that's no excuse to start acting like Leo," Nikki giggled at the look that appeared on her boss' face in reaction to Harry's comment.
"Do I need to remind you that I have the authority to fire you?" Leo joked.
"Come on," Harry ignored Leo completely and continued staring at Nikki with his best puppy dog begging face. "It's April Fool's! Live a little! You're always saying how much you hate the admin people anyway,"
"As a mature and responsible adult, I will not be involved in any pranks tomorrow – including your stupid office booby traps." Nikki shuffled around with some papers on her desk, attempting to make herself look busy, in hope of deterring him from persisting. She should have known it wouldn't work; it was Harry after all.
"You're such a fun sponge,"
"A fun sponge?"
"You soak up all the fun, like a sponge soaks up water. Therefore, you're a fun sponge." She couldn't help giggling at the childlike look of frustration and rejection that had spread across his face.
She hid her smile of anticipation very well the next morning, as he wondered in, soaked through from the spring rain. She laughed as he carefully inspected his chair before he sat down; he fiddled with the levers, checking the chair still rose up and down when desired and that the back didn't fall off, this was followed by a study of the wheels and finally a second check of the cushioned area.
"Harry, what on earth was that for?" She giggled as he finally sat down 5 minutes later.
"Checking for April fool pranks." He grinned. "Although I don't know why I'm worrying when I work with two mind-numbingly boring robots,"
"I heard that!" Leo called from his office.
"I have plenty of fun," Nikki argued.
"Yeah? When?"
"When you're not around. I don't like mixing pleasure with work."
"But I'm both pleasure and work."
"Don't kid yourself." She grinned. "I get my pleasure from plenty of other men." She rose from her seat and was out of the room before he had a chance to retaliate. He wondered briefly what she needed in the locker room; they had no autopsies scheduled and no special cases had come in yet, so there was no need for her to prep. He brushed it aside, deciding that she must have left something in her locker by accident the night before.
Leo, who had been absent for most of the morning giving evidence at a trial, came in a few hours later and placed a file on the gap between their two desks and without a word retreated into his office, leaving them to decide who took the case.
"This is mine." Harry declared whilst leafing through the papers, having quickly grabbed the file before Nikki had the chance.
"What is it?"
"Simultaneous heart, liver, lung and kidney failure."
"What the..." She stuck her hand out, expecting him to let her look through.
"You're not touching this. It's mine." She laughed at his face – some people would have found the rush of excitement he got from a difficult body unnerving, but she was used to it by now, just as she was sure he was used to her being exactly the same. On that particular morning, unlike most occasions, she wasn't too upset over letting him have the case.
Once Harry had finished reading through the file, he made his way to the locker room, pausing briefly to take a bite of Nikki's sandwich whilst she was distracted talking to Leo. He stopped when he reached the push doors, and looked around checking if anyone was watching, before throwing them open as if he were a doctor on one of those overly dramatic hospital shows. He winced as the doors loudly collided with the wall, hoping Leo didn't notice.
"HARRY!" Maybe he wasn't as deaf in his old(ish) age as Harry had thought.
He rushed to his locker, desperate to get out of his clothes, still soaking from the morning rain, and lay his briefcase down on one of the benches, before rifling through it. He had been telling himself to clean it out for the past 6 months.
Cinema ticket from the previous week. Empty crisp bag. Deodorant. The sunglasses he'd been trying to find ready for summer. Not-so-empty crisp bag. Half finished bottle of coke (now flat, much to his dismay). Finally, keys.
He thrust the key into the lock and turned it.
"WHO THE..." Harry's curses were drowned out by Nikki's deafening laughter.
"What on earth is going on?" Leo was out of his office in a flash, and made his way towards the locker room, only to collide with Harry on his way in. "What happened to you?" Leo struggled to contain his laughter as he stared at a flour covered Harry, who was still coughing out white clouds.
"ZAK!" Harry yelled. "ZAK!" Nikki imagined that below the thick white layer, his face had turned red. "You can stop laughing too!" He shouted at her.
"What?" Zak stopped in his tracks at the sight of Harry.
"Do you think this is funny?"
"Yes,"
"You little shit..." He charged towards Zak, who nimbly dodged out of the way, before holding his arms up in surrender.
"I didn't do it though!" Zak managed to contain his laughter long enough to defend himself. "I wish I did, but I didn't, swear to God," Nikki let out another loud giggle, causing Harry to whip his head round to stare at her.
"You did it." His fists relaxed – there was something so inconceivably wrong about even thinking about hitting Nikki. His anger didn't relapse though.
"You better get scrubbing up," She smiled sweetly. "Otherwise you'll never be finished in time for tonight."
"I hate you." He hissed into her ear, as they stood in a cluster of Nikki's friends; waiting to be seated.
"Awwww, thank you," She pecked him on the lips. "You don't look too bad yourself."
"Harry," Hannah, Nikki's best girl-friend, peered at Harry's head. "You seem to have bird shit in your hair."
"Not bird shit," He corrected. "Flour." Hannah looked at Nikki, expecting her to explain, but the only reply was a short giggle, and a sort of I'll-explain-later glance. Nikki figured it was probably best not to have all her friends laughing about it, when he still seemed irritated. She looked at the small clumps of flour that remained stuck to his scalp – she hadn't expected him to be wet during the prank, but it had only made it better – apparently he'd had 4 showers trying to get the gloopy mess off.
"So," Hannah continued. "Any funny April Fool stories, or is your office as boring as mine?" Nikki couldn't help sneaking a side wards glance at Harry, grinning self-righteously, as he popped a canapé into his mouth.
"Oh, we're all fun sponges, aren't we Harry? Selfishly soaking up the slightest droplet of amusement."
Wow, posting something I started in March in December. You can tell I'm a quick writer ;)