Chapter 2: Fair and Square

The next morning and Nikki arrived at work in pretty much the same mood as she had the day before. This time Leo stayed safely in his office, so it was down to Harry to bear the brunt of her frustration. However, it wasn't until she released a long, despairing sigh for the third time that he finally decided to engage in conversation with her.

"What's wrong now?" he asked her amusedly.

"I know," she said simply.

Harry frowned in confusion. "Err... you know what?"

"I know that you lied," Nikki said, still not exactly helping Harry to understand what she was talking about.

"You're going to have to help me out here, Nikki. I have no idea what you're on about," he told her with a puzzled smile. Nikki groaned in impatience.

"You! Yesterday evening when I turned up on your doorstep!" she exclaimed. Harry was now beginning to have an inkling as to what this was about, but he decided that feigning ignorance was probably his best bet for now, so he shook his head and raised her eyebrows. Nikki rolled her eyes and added, "You were on your way out, weren't you?"

"Err..." Harry bit his lip, bracing himself for the explosion. However, it never came.

"Don't bother denying it, you know I can see right through you," she told him quietly. "Why didn't you tell me that you were going on a date?"

Harry decided not to answer this, but tried a different tactic. "How do you know I was going on a date?"

"Your whole demeanour gave it away when you opened the door. Plus, you had your really nice aftershave on that I bought you for Christmas last year, and your 'pulling' jumper."

Harry snorted. "Pulling jumper?" he repeated.

"Yes, it's the one you always wear when you're trying to get lucky. You wore it last week when we were working with DI Marlowe," Nikki said with a reluctant smile.

"I did not!" Harry exclaimed indignantly. However, this may have been a slight lie. Suzie Marlowe had been an extremely attractive police officer. But so what if he wore his favourite jumper? That didn't mean anything. Besides, he'd soon found out that she was already in a relationship, which put an end to that idea.

Harry realised that he hadn't said anything for a while, and when he looked up it was too see Nikki grinning at him smugly.

"Oh shut up," he told her, feeling his cheeks redden slightly.

Nikki just laughed, but then sobered up pretty quickly and said, "So why didn't you tell me?"

Harry sighed. He'd hoped that she'd forgotten about her initial motives. "I don't know," he admitted. "I knew you were upset about something. I thought you needed me than the woman I was supposed to be meeting."

"But Harry, I wouldn't have minded if you'd gone out. I've probably ruined your chances with her now," she said sadly.

Harry waved his hand and said, "It doesn't matter. I wasn't looking forward to it that much."

Nikki gave him a small smile and the pair of them lapsed into a comfortable silence. After a few minutes Nikki suddenly said, "Who was she anyway?"

"I think her name was Sarah. My mate introduced us a couple of weeks ago," Harry shrugged.

"The fact that you're uncertain of her name makes me feel considerably better," she grinned. "But thank you."

"What for?"

"For staying in with me," Nikki said softly. Harry gave her a gentle smile.

"Nikki, you know I'll always stay in with you. Well, I will as long as you bring the wine," he replied, causing Nikki to tut and throw her pen at him.

*

The next week passed pretty uneventfully for Harry. It was a Friday afternoon and the lab was silent with boredom and lack of activity. Harry was sat at his desk, resting his chin on his folded arms and staring at the phone. Nikki was sat across from him, clicking her pen absent-mindedly whilst closely examining her finger nails. He released a long breath.

"I'm bored," he stated.

Nikki didn't even bother replying, but just made a small noise of agreement before they lapsed into silence once again.

"Why aren't there any cases?" she asked after a few more minutes.

"Because nobody is considerate enough to die any more," Harry groaned and Nikki grinned. "I'm hoping if I watch the phone for long enough then it will miraculously ring and save us from this hellish pit of boredom."

"A watched pot never boils," she reminded him. "Why doesn't Leo just let us go home early? We could go and find a pub."

"God, I could do with a drink right now," he sighed wistfully, not bothering to even lift his head from his arms when he replied.

"Which brings me back to my original question: why can't Leo let us go early?" Nikki whined.

"Because he's too mean and tight," Harry grumbled.

"What was that, Harry?"

Harry's head snapped up and he saw Leo stood a few meters behind Nikki, observing them with his arms folded across his chest, eyebrows raised. Nikki also spun around in her chair, her cheeks reddening.

"We're bored, Leo," Harry moaned. "We haven't had a day this quiet for months."

"Well, it's a good job I've got a crime scene for one of you then," Leo grinned, walking nearer to them and wafting a post-it note in the air.

"I'll take it!" both Harry and Nikki cried simultaneously. Leo laughed and looked between them thoughtfully. Harry sat up straight in his chair, with the air of a student eager to please a teacher. Nikki was doing the same.

"Nikki," Leo said eventually, passing her the piece of paper.

"What?" Harry exclaimed. "That's so unfair!"

Nikki grinned at him smugly as she shrugged on her coat.

"Stop moaning, Harry. You can scrub up and help Nikki when she gets back," Leo scolded, before retreating back into his office. Harry didn't say anything, but frowned moodily.

"Aww, stop pouting Harry," Nikki smiled, chucking him under the chin playfully. Harry pushed her hand away.

"Don't expect me to help you when you get back," he muttered mutinously but Nikki just laughed.

"Fine, you can just sit there and brood about how unfair your life is. But if you change your mind then I'll probably be back in a couple of hours," she smiled, before walking off. Harry released yet another long groan, and flopped his head back on his arms.

*

Harry knew Nikki was back. He'd heard someone walk past him. Despite his refusal to look at her when she had done so, Harry recognised the way in which she walked. He didn't know how, it was just one of those things. However, after half an hour he realised that he may well be overreacting slightly. It wasn't Nikki's fault, it was Leo's, and why should he miss out on what could – quite possibly – be an interesting case? Mind you, an OAP dying of natural causes would be more interesting that what Harry was doing at the moment. Which was nothing.

With a sigh Harry forced himself out of his chair and made his way slowly down to the cutting room. It took him a few minutes to get changed and scrub in, but eventually he was stood outside the large glass doors. However, when he walked into the room with a apologetic smile on his face and saw Nikki look at him with her eyes shining, his grin vanished.

"What's wrong?" he asked her, making his way over.

"Nothing." She shook her head. "It's just... this case."

Harry reached the slab and looked down at the body on it. It was a young woman, she couldn't have been more than thirty. Numerous cuts and abrasions littered her body, and the left-side of her face was grazed beyond recognition. Bone was jutting out of her left knee, and her ankle was at an impossible angle.

"What happened?" Harry asked.

Nikki released a long breath. "This is Jasmine Smart. She was waiting at the bus stop when a car ploughed into her. The driver ran off and left her. The police think he'd stolen the car and just lost control on the corner."

"Poor woman," Harry stated. It was always horrible to see people like this who ended up on the slab through no fault of their own.

"She's got two young children, Harry. Now they have to grow up without a mother."

Harry realised that there seemed to be an underlying issue somewhere that was upsetting Nikki. Cases didn't normally affect her like this.

"Are you okay?" he asked her slowly.

Nikki nodded, then shook her head, and said, "I don't know."

"Well that clears that up, thanks," Harry said, his voice laced with sarcasm.

"It's just... it's not fair."

"I know," he replied, his voice softer this time. He gave Nikki's shoulder a squeeze and this seemed to snap her out of whatever train of thought she was immersed in.

"Right, well I'd better get on with it then," she said, in an overly-loud, falsely cheery way. Harry frowned at her, but didn't dig any deeper into exactly what was troubling her. He suspected that her upset might have stemmed from the fact that her own mother had died when she was only young.

*

Harry had ended up just as involved as Nikki with the Jasmine Smart case. They had both decided that the least she deserves is to have their best attention given to her, so it wasn't until nearly eleven that night that Harry had finally managed to convince Nikki that the rest could wait until morning.

The pair of them were gathering their things from their desks, both completely shattered.

"So, how's the flat-hunting coming along?" Harry asked Nikki as they switched the lights off and prepared to leave the lab.

Nikki was silent for a moment, but then she said slowly, "Actually... I think I've found somewhere."

"Oh really? Where's that then?"

"Well... I have this amazing friend who offered me his spare room... and although I turned him down at first – I'm now inclined to take him up on his offer. That is, if he'll still have me?"

Harry realised what Nikki was doing and grinned. "I'll have to meet this 'friend'," he joked. "He sounds like a very kind and generous guy."

"He has his moments," Nikki smiled, playing along. "So...?"

"Yes, you can move in," Harry told her, causing Nikki to squeal happily and fling her arms around his neck.

"Thank you so much, Harry!"

Harry patted her on the back and couldn't help but grin broadly. "That's all right. I could hardly turn away a friend in need now, could I?"

"I honestly thought I was going to be homeless," she said. "I mean, in the past week I must have looked at every single flat in a five-mile radius."

"Oh, so I'm a last resort am I? I see how it is." Harry stormed off in mock indignation, but Nikki caught up with him just as they entered into the car park. Her arm slipped through his.

"Well, yes, you were originally," she confessed. "But I must admit that I have warmed to the idea since then."

"Ah, what was it?" Harry grinned. "My great sense of humour? Fantastic personality? Amazing cooking abilities?"

Nikki snorted at this last one, but said, "No, none of those. You just have a really nice apartment."

Harry glared at her playfully as she giggled.


Bit of a boring chapter, but I wanted to update. It's half term now (yay!) so I can hopefully spend more time on this and give you more frequent updates.
Anyway, let me know what you think. It will get more interesting, this story, I promise!