Thanks for reading, the drabble continues, honestly they do speak eventually... and of course you all know what scene is coming up soon.
Chapter Two
A Monogamous Commitment to the Profession
She wasn't going to jump through his hoops anymore. They'd got past that this week. She stayed where she was on the floor. Ambrose would no doubt come back and check on her but for the moment she was alone and grateful for the freedom to breathe freely now that Harry had gone.
"A monogamous commitment to our profession," she heard the words from the conference in her head, that's where all this had started. She had dared to play the mistress, to come between Harry and his work, his precious profession and look where it had got her. And it had all been so promising…
She remembered the half smile on Harry's face. She'd searched his out from all the conference attendees after her demonstration. It was hard to see through the protective screen and the blood spattered safety glasses but she'd spotted him and removed the glasses to get a better look. With the smile and affirming nod he had given her, she knew that she had finally been accepted onto the Lyell Centre team as an equal. It had taken two years. Two years of being submissive, excluding the desk stealing of course, two years of doing the jobs that Harry or Leo didn't fancy, two years of long days and the occasional all-nighter but she had done it.
And then within hours of being accepted as Harry's equal professionally she found herself on the receiving end of Harry Cunningham's lips in a country pub sat by a roaring fire. For the first time Nikki realised with a jolt that not only had he accepted her as an equal professionally, he had also for the first time recognised her as a woman personally and in nervousness and surprise she found herself biting her lip and fiddling with her hair like a teenager.
But now the job, the profession in the role of the jealous wife mocked all those thoughts of something more that Nikki had entertained in the few hours between the night out at the pub, the dinner offer and Penny's appearance in the mortuary. His later actions made it clear where his priorities lay and it wasn't with Nikki, the minute he had flexed his wings to break free from its grip by going on one date the whole world it seemed had come crashing down around them.
Nikki had naively believed that her new status on the team would have improved the atmosphere at work; working together now instead of her always having something to prove. But it seemed that Harry's interpretation of the new status quo was to throw out any of the social niceties afforded a new member of staff. No scrap that she thought, he'd just thrown out all social niceties, he'd yelled at her, questioned her work, shaken her and shut her out of his investigation.
"Can you do me a favour?" At least he'd asked kindly that first time, he'd even told her where the sports shop was.
"Then do it as a favour!" The words still rang in her ears, her arms burning under his rough touch.
Why was she still sat there asking herself these questions, she wondered? What had she to gain? He was the one who had given her the glimpse of another life, not the lonely spinster pathologist with the rusty scalpel that she had described. He could throw his life away, commit to the job but she had always worked to get the most out of life and she would show him that she could do it.
But first she had to be the one to make the third breakthrough of the case. Harry was no doubt off chasing phantoms and hunches but she knew exactly where to look, there was no great hurry.
"Who else would have motive for killing Simon?" it had been the last question Ambrose had asked before Wheaton had called a conference with his lawyer. She knew; Anne Wheaton. Another jealous wife exacting her revenge on the one who posed a threat to her monogamy.
