The phone sat on the table, matt black and gleaming. He had found time to clean the blood from it, his blood, Anna's blood, Agnes' blood and now it sat there. Somewhere in the ether his mail box bulged fatly with messages, messages of relief that he was alive, desperation from Leo that he can't get hold of him, and Anna. There's a message from her too and that he can't listen to. Not yet.

Harry moved restlessly around his apartment, unable to settle in any particular place. He had been shopping and re-stocked his fridge, done his washing, thrown away the clothes that were ruined beyond repair and sent some emails. He had spoken briefly to his mother whose home he had just left after spending 2 weeks under her care. Hardly a mother hen, she has supported him silently through his grief, never asking for details, details which he nevertheless gave one sunny afternoon in her kitchen. Leo has been in touch every day and Nikki? Nikki has texted him a couple of times and rung once while at his mother's but otherwise he hasn't heard anything from her. He hates that there is this division between them. He hates anything that comes between them, professionally or personally. He saw the grief written on her face as she approached the mausoleum, the stress that his presumed death had caused her and even as he held her close and she collapsed into his arms, she didn't seem to believe it was him. They'd barely spent any time together or even spoken since their return from Hungary, and he wondered how they would even start putting their friendship back together.

It occurred to him that at this minute in time what he wanted was her. Not her in bed although he would be honest and admit that he had done in the past. Would probably do so in the future but right now he wanted her presence. Just here. Sitting with him. Her obvious distress at having to give the news about Anna's pregnancy, that she was destroying some kind of dream for him, was something that would take a long time to heal. She told him on the plane home that she hadn't checked Leo's voicemail until she was leaving the office. That it was her fault things had gone the way they had and perhaps if she had checked more regularly he wouldn't have been through... what had happened. Harry had laid his hand on hers, told her he didn't blame her but he knew she blamed herself.

His decision made, Harry grabbed his phone and dialled Nikki's number. It diverted straight to voicemail voicemail would doom them all he thought. Nikki? It's Harry. I guess you're elbow deep in someone at the moment. I wondered if you wanted to come by for dinner tonight. About 7ish. Drop me a text to let me know.

An hour later while he was shoulder deep in a hot bath his phone buzzed with Nikki's text back. See you at 7. Nothing else. He frowned at the brief message but put his phone down and submerged himself under the hot foamy water, holding his breath until his lungs ached and he came up panting for air but alive.

His doorbell rang at just gone 7 and Harry was impressed. Nikki was notorious for being late, to the point where her secretary told her her appointments were twenty minutes earlier than they were, just to build in the extra time. He had brought her an alarm clock for Christmas one year but somehow it made no difference. Nikki was just set to a different time zone to everyone else. He opened the door and she stood there, hands full of bags which he reached out to take.

"I came straight from work," she explained. "I thought I'd get dessert."

"Good plan." He stepped out the way to let her in and followed her into the kitchen where they dumped the bags.

"I got cheesecake, is that OK? And some wine because I didn't know whether you had any. Red and white. Perhaps I should have got beer – I should have asked what dinner was and then I'd have known but I only had time to check my phone quickly. I've been so busy today, me and Leo both have and the locum we've got is useless."

Harry's finger settled on Nikki's mouth and she stared up at him, her eyes wide.

"Just shhhh." He said quietly. "Just be quiet."

He enfolded her into his arms and in the peace of his apartment they stood there, leaning into each other, breathing the other's presence in.

"I thought you were dead."

"I thought I was dead too."

"I had to ring your mother. I feel dreadful, perhaps if I'd waited she could have been spared knowing what was going on."

"She would have heard through the news. Better that it came from you."

"Harry, I'm so sorry."

"I know you are Nik. It's OK."

They lapsed into their usual routine, dinner, clear up – Nikki washing and Harry drying because Nikki always put things away in the wrong place. They had polished off the bottle of red which went with Harry's chilli and now he was opening the white to accompanying the cheesecake and now they were curled up at opposite ends of the sofa with the telly on, burbling away to itself in the background.

"Tell me about my replacement then," Harry topped up Nikki's glass and then his own and she groaned.

"Hopeless. She's completely hopeless. Carol is so close to strangling her. She keeps trying to sit at your desk and look at your post and Carol has resorted to locking your stuff in her desk."

Harry stifled a laugh at the thought of his forthright secretary defending his privacy.

"She's dying to meet you. The locum. Her name's Deborah."

"Pretty?"

Nikki shook her head. "I'd push her out of bed but I suppose it depends what you like."

An awkward silence fell between then and Harry glanced up at Nikki who was watching the TV fixedly. He laid a hand on her foot which was tucked between him and a cushion and she nearly dropped her glass in shock. He took it from her and moved until he was sitting close, very close to her, until he had her full attention.

"I liked Anna." Nikki's eyes fluttered shut with sadness but opened in surprise at his next words. "And I like you." He shrugged self consciously. "Always have done. Always will do."

She smiled at him tenatively.

"And things aren't good now. I don't know when they will be. But I thought…." He trailed off for a moment. "I thought you should know."

Nikki laced her fingers into his and they looked at each other for a long moment and then he settled back on to his end of the sofa, pulling her with him, tucking her comfortably into his arms.

"I know," she whispered, and closed her eyes.