Harry tried not to panic. What had started out as a perfectly normal mundane day at work had ended like this. Himself, Nikki, Leo and Bob Mumford cornered in the cutting room by a man wielding a gun. The man's pregnant wife had been shot earlier that day while they had been in a cafe, she had died in the man's arms and he seemingly had lost his mind. He had stormed the lab an hour ago, forcing the four of them into the cutting room and locking them in, demanding some answers and the person who had killed his wife and child. However none of them had anything. They had only just completed the autopsy.

"Sir" Mumford stepped forward with his hands held up to show the husband that he meant no threat. The man however trained his gun on the officer and nodded at him to continue "We haven't got sufficient evidence just yet to..."

"So you keep saying" the man spat and with his attention on Mumford, Harry took the opportunity to reach over and grip Nikki's hand tightly in his. He could feel her trembling and he turned to her slightly, giving her an encouraging smile which wasn't returned to him. "Do you have a wife or children?"

"No" Mumford shook his head and the husband glanced over at Harry and Nikki, spotting their entwined hands. He pushed Mumford quickly out of the way and grabbed Nikki's arm tightly, wrenching her away from Harry and making her gasp in pain. "Now..calm now"

The husband however gripped onto Nikki's arm and pointed the gun at her, all three men stepping forward slightly, instantly alert.

"None of you move" the man hissed, waving the gun slightly in case they had stupidly forgotten it was there. "Now how would you feel" he addressed Harry "If I shot your wife? Lover? Whatever, right here in front of you and let her die in your arms?"

Harry felt sick even thinking about it, Nikki's whimper of pain and fear making him look at her as he took another step forward, his hands up.

"Don't" the man warned, pushing the gun a little bit closer to Nikki and making her gasp, his grip tightening on her arm. Harry stopped where he was and glanced at his terrified lover as her brown eyes pleaded with him not to step any closer. "or she dies"

"You wouldn't" Nikki whispered to him, her voice laced in pain as he tightened his grip.

"Wouldn't I?" he hissed and Nikki shook her head, trying to look and sound more confident than she actually felt.

"No" she replied "Because you wouldn't kill a mother and baby, not after seeing your own die"

Nikki heard Harry's sharp intake of breath, Mumford's quiet 'what?' and the long breath that Leo let out. The main holding the gun to her chest glanced down at her stomach and then back up to her face, they all saw him hesitating slightly.

"You're lying"

"I'm not" Nikki shook her head, feeling the man's grip on her arm loosen slightly.

"You're not showing"

"I'm only two months" Nikki told him, praying that he believed her enough to let her go so Mumford could get the gun away from him. "When did your wife tell you that she was pregnant?"

"When she was two months" the man replied, the gun still dangerously close to her chest. "She..she told me when I'd come home from work one day, best day of my life" he chuckled hollowly.

Harry could see what Nikki was trying to do, getting the man to think of her, and the non-existent baby, as human, trying to relate to him. He glanced over at Mumford who was slowly making his way towards the man, Harry prayed that he would be quick, not giving the man enough time to shoot Nikki.

"The first time we felt the baby move we were in bed, just talking, and we felt the baby move under our hands. It was amazing" the husband was saying and Nikki nodded, encouraging him to talk some more. She had seen Mumford making his way over and was trying to keep the husband's attention on her. "and the first time we saw our baby at the scan, it was.." he shook his head.

"Then why won't you let me and Harry experience that?"

"Because I was meant to have it with my wife" the man screamed, cocking his gun just as Mumford made a grab at him. Harry quickly grabbed Nikki and pulled her away from the line of fire as the gun went off, shooting through the space that Nikki had been standing in just a few seconds before. He forgot about everything except for the woman in his arms as she let out a relieved sob. Harry leant down and kissed her repeatedly, both of them desperate to feel the other.

"Are you alright?" he whispered, placing his hands on her face and looking her in the eyes. Nikki smiled and nodded, letting out a shaky breath as she did so. Harry gently wiped away a few of her fallen tears and leant down to kiss her again, before wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her into his warm body. "I love you"

"I love you"

"Nikki are you alright?" Leo asked as he walked over to the couple, he had had his suspicions about them for a long time, but hadn't said anything to them.

"I'm fine" Nikki smiled, nodding at the older man as Mumford cuffed the sobbing husband to one of the stair railings, the gun safely out of his reach on one of the tables.

Half an hour later when the four of them had been checked over by paramedics and Harry had, while Nikki was being checked over, told Leo and Mumford that his lover wasn't actually pregnant, the two younger pathologists were curled up together on the lab sofas.

"You know, what you said in there about having a baby. We should try" Harry told her softly and Nikki giggled, pulling away from him slightly and turning on the sofa, pulling her legs up under her. She leant forward and kissed him, running one hand through his hair.

"We don't need to try" she told him as she moved away to see a grin forming on Harry's face.

"We're really having a baby?" Harry whispered and Nikki nodded, a giggle escaping her lips at the dumbfounded look on her lover's face. "You weren't making it up?"

"No"

Harry leant up and kissed her gently, as if scared that after her revelation that she would break.

"Bugger" Harry murmured as he broke away. Nikki frowned and shook her head, Harry's hand snaking down to her stomach. "I told Leo and Mumford that you had made it all up"

Nikki giggled and kissed him again.

Born from a conversation with thisisagift on livejournal :)

xxx