five things that never happened to Nikki Heat...

3) IS IT ME YOU'RE LOOKING FOR?

Rook answers the door with a kitchen knife in his hand and not a stitch of clothing on his body. Not his typical someone's-ringing-the-bell-at-1am behaviour, but then he just got home from a twenty-five hour flight from Melbourne to find that someone had jimmied open the downstairs door and stolen Tom from 1c's bike and Mrs Prabhanarthy's stroller and he's feeling disoriented and vulnerable in a way he doesn't like at all.

The other thing that's not typical is seeing Nikki Heat through the peephole.

He puts the knife down and flips the locks, sticks his head demurely around the door. 'What, are you GPSing me now? How'd you even know I was home?'

'I just, you said..' She steps back and shakes her head, as if to clear the image of him naked from her eyes. 'I wasn't thinking. Sorry, out of line.'

'Nikki!' In the time it takes him to grab a jacket from the rack by the door and wrap it around his waist, she's already made it to the elevator and is punching the button over and over. Fortunately for him the elevator is a wheezy octogenarian that's in no hurry to groan its way up from the ground floor. She stops torturing the button and moves away before he can reach for her, which is a good thing because he's not too sure that the elevator won't retaliate by getting stuck somewhere like the second floor, and he's on the ninth and not too fond of climbing airless staircases in July.

'I'm sorry, I shouldn't have just come over,' she says quickly. 'I know the rules.'

She has that proud, brittle look he's coming to know all too well, the one where her back is straight and her head is up, but she's staring at the ground. He's pretty sure it's not really shock at his state of undress. It's not like she hasn't seen the full package before.

'Nik, it's fine,' he says. 'You can come in, if you don't mind my dirty laundry all over the living room.'

'No, it's okay. I should have texted first. Go back to bed.'

'Only with you in it.'

Her head jerks up and for a brief moment she's open to him, as vulnerable as he's ever seen her. 'I didn't come here for that,' she snaps, and the moment is gone. And the goddamn elevator is groaning to a stop.

He takes the last two steps and snakes his free arm around her waist, pulling her against him before the doors can open. 'We can do or not do whatever you want,' he murmurs into her ear. 'But can we do it in my apartment, because I'm pretty sure the old lady in 9b is watching and I don't need her heart attack on my conscience if I happen to lose hold of this jacket while I stop you from getting on that elevator.'

Her head bends forward to rest on his shoulder. He takes the opportunity to nose through her soft cloud of hair so he can kiss the back of her neck. She sucks in air, as if she's been denying herself even the comfort of breath, and presses against him. God only knows what's been happening down at the precinct while he's been gone; he can't imagine how bad a case would have to be to make her show up at his door at this hour in this condition.

'Come inside,' he whispers. 'Please.'

He feels a shiver run through her, and then the softening of posture that says yes, he's gotten through. He lets Nikki lead the way back, giving Mrs. Olson a jaunty wave as he passes by her door.