Chapter 4: You Infuriate Me

Nikki jumped when the door opened and the doctor who was treating her – Dr. Reed – crept into the room to perform his early morning check-up on her. He looked surprised to see Nikki sat up in bed, wide awake.

"Dr. Alexander? Are you feeling okay?"

"Fine," she told him, her voice slightly higher pitched than normal.

"It's just that... sleep is very important to help your body recover, but you know that. So would you like to tell me why you are wide awake at five in the morning?" he asked knowingly.

"I just can't sleep," she sighed.

"Are you in pain? I can give you some more morphine."

"No, it's not that." Nikki took a deep breath. "I'm scared."

"Scared of what?" Dr. Reed asked her, sitting down in the chair beside her bed.

"Of the killer coming back to get me while I'm asleep," she confessed. "I just couldn't close my eyes last night without seeing that bike in my head."

Dr. Reed sighed. "It's perfectly normal to suffer from sleeping difficulties after a traumatic experience. I can give you something for it tonight. As for being scared, there's no need. You are aware that there's an armed policeman outside your door?"

Nikki raised her eyebrows. "No one told me that," she said, shocked but immediately relaxing.

"Well there is. He's a big, burly bloke. You'd be mad to cross him," Dr. Reed grinned.

"What, as in psycho-killer mad?" she asked lightly, and the doctor laughed.

"Okay," he said, getting up and unhooking the chart from the end of Nikki's bed. "How's the pain in your head this morning? On a scale from 1 to 10," he asked her professionally.

"About four," Nikki replied.

"Good. And how about your stomach? Did you manage to keep the food down that Nurse Brenda gave you last night?"

"Yes, but only just. That wasn't because of my intestine though, it was because what she called vegetable stew was actually vomit in a bowl," Nikki complained, causing Dr. Reed to laugh again.

"Don't let Brenda hear you say that, or she'll give you the stale bread and off-milk with your breakfast." Nikki giggled and the doctor pulled on his gloves. "Okay, I'm going to take a look at your incision now. Make sure it's healing up okay."

Nikki lifted her hospital gown to reveal a large dressing underneath. Dr. Reed then carefully peeled this back, and for the first time Nikki could see the large cut on her stomach where she'd had her operation. It was almost four inches long, and the stitches made her look like Frankenstein.

"Good, it appears to be healing nicely. There's very little swelling and no sign of infection," Dr. Reed muttered as he poked at the cut.

"Will it leave a permanent scar?" Nikki asked worriedly.

"Yes, but it will be considerably smaller than it is now. I can prescribe some cream once I discharge you that will greatly reduce the visibility of the scar."

"Good," Nikki said.

"Right, I'd love to stop and chat but I have patients to tend to," the doctor said, snapping off his gloves and throwing them into the bin.

"Thank you doctor," Nikki smiled as he left the room. He grinned at her and then he was gone. Nikki flopped back against her pillows, smiling to herself. To know that there was someone outside her door was a huge relief. She finally felt safer, and closed her eyes, intent on getting some sleep.

*

Nikki awoke to a loud clattering noise. In her half-asleep state she almost cried out, but then realised it was only Nurse Brenda with a food trolley.

"Good morning, Dr Alexander," she smiled. "I thought we'd try you with some scrambled egg this morning."

Nikki took a deep breath before shifting so that she was sat up against the back of her bed. The smell of freshly-cooked scrambled eggs was rather appealing, and seeing as she'd only had soup the previous night, she was quite keen to get some proper food inside of her. When the plate was put on her over-bed table, she eagerly took a spoonful. It was nice. A lot nicer than the soup, that's for certain.

"Okay. Now you've got some solid food inside of you, we'll have to watch your intestine carefully over the next 12 hours. If it shows no sign of inflammation or infection, then we can progress to rougher foods," Nurse Brenda informed Nikki. Nikki nodded, too busy shovelling spoonfuls of egg into her mouth to reply. When she was done the nurse put her plate on the trolley and passed her a glass of orange juice. She then refilled Nikki's water jug and left the room.

Nikki sipped on her juice, watching the sun rise through her window. It looked like a beautiful winter's day, it was a shame she was stuck in a hospital bed. However, the juice started to take effect, and after a while the desire for the toilet was overpowering. Luckily there was an en suite to her room as it was a private one, but it still took Nikki a lot of effort to climb out of bed. The wound on her stomach twinged in protest, and Nikki found that her broken ribs, too, were not happy at being forced out of bed. Eventually she managed it though, and she slowly padded across to the bathroom, wheeling her drip with her.

When Nikki came out again, only a minute later, it was to find Harry had entered her room. He was panicking about something, and once he spotted Nikki the immense relief on his face made it clear that he was worrying about her whereabouts.

"There you are!" he cried. "Thank God, I was imagining all sorts!" He walked over to her and embraced her in a hug. Nikki smiled and hugged him back the best she could with a drip attached to one arm, but she said "Owww!" when Harry squeezed her just a bit too hard.

"I'm sorry," he said apologetically, helping Nikki back into bed. "How are you feeling today?"

"Sore, but no longer hungry after a rather enjoyable breakfast of scrambled egg," she smiled.

"Oh, I bought you some stuff," Harry said, pointing to one of Nikki's large flowery holdalls in the corner of the room.

"How did you get into my house?" she asked him, eyebrows raised.

"I know you hide the spare key in the geranium pot," he confessed. Nikki giggled.

"Thank you," she said gratefully, although the idea of Harry rummaging through her drawers made her feel a bit funny, even though it was what a lot best friends would do.

"I got you these on the way here as well," he added, passing her a carrier bag. In it were two or three women's magazines and a notepad and pen.

"The magazines are great, thank you so much," she said. "But why have you got me a notepad and pen?"

"I thought that you could use it to help you remember. You can write things down in it and it might help you piece everything together."

It was such a sweet thing for Harry to do that Nikki felt inexplicable tears spring to her eyes. However, then she thought about what Leo had said and decided that it would be best for her not to get too emotional.

"This is amazing. You're amazing," she told him. "But shouldn't you be at work?"

"Leo's given me the day off," said Harry, shifting in his chair so that he was more comfortable. "I had to beg and plead, but he gave in eventually."

"You don't have to do that for me," Nikki said modestly, although she was glad that she was going to have company.

"I didn't," Harry corrected her. "I did it to get the day off work."

Nikki laughed and Harry grinned at her.

"I had a visit from the police last night," she informed him.

"Have they had any leads yet, do you know?"

"They didn't say. They seemed surprised when I mentioned a motorcycle though. I just wish I could remember the face of the driver..."

"You will. It will come back to you and then the police can catch the bastard that did this to you," Harry said forcefully. There was something in his voice that Nikki had never heard before, and she didn't particularly like it.

"You really hate this guy, don't you?"

"Don't you?" Harry asked her incredulously.

"Of course I do," she insisted. "But I don't want you doing anything stupid."

Harry sighed. "Haven't we had this conversation?"

"Yeah. You're right, I'm sorry," Nikki said, forcing a smile.

"So, when are you getting out of here?" he asked her.

"Who knows? Soon hopefully."

"Good. Although, I like getting the time off," Harry grinned. Nikki tutted at him.

"Is that all I am to you? An excuse to have time off work?" she asked him, but she was joking.

"Yep."

"Well then you can leave," she said playfully.

"It's okay, I'm good right here," Harry said, putting his feet on Nikki's bed. She sighed and tried to push them off.

"Get off of my bed!" she exclaimed.

"I bet you've never said that before," he snorted. Nikki stopped hitting his shoes and glared at him.

"I hate you. You infuriate me," she told him. Harry just laughed.

"Now that you have said before."

Nikki let out a frustrated groan and buried herself in one of her magazines, but she couldn't stop the corners of her mouth twitching.

After five minutes, however, Harry began to get bored. He tugged Nikki's magazine out of her hand and laughed when he saw the article she'd been reading.

"What each kiss means," he read aloud. "Kiss on the forehead: we're cute together... ha ha, this is great..."

"Harry! Give it back!" Nikki laughed.

"No! I want to know what each kiss means!" he said, holding the magazine out of Nikki's reach. "Okay... on the cheek: we're friends. Hmmm..." He looked curiously at Nikki, almost as if trying to remember all the times he'd kissed her. "Right, well I kiss you on the cheek all the time, so that sounds about right."

"Harry..." Nikki moaned. He ignored her, however.

"Next one... kiss on the hand: I adore you. Kiss on the neck: I want you, now. Ooh, I do say!"

Nikki laughed, trying and failing once again to grab the magazine back.

"Kiss on the shoulder: You're perfect. Aww, that one's sweet, isn't it?" Harry went on. Nikki shook her head and resigned herself to the fact that Harry wasn't going to stop winding her up.

"Right, final one... Kiss on the lips: I love you."

They both froze, and Nikki could clearly remember Harry kissing her in the pub all those years ago. On the lips. Harry cleared his throat and avoided Nikki's gaze. She tugged the magazine from his hand and flipped it shut.

"You know, these articles are crap anyway," she said. Harry looked up and nodded enthusiastically.

"Oh yeah, utter rubbish."

"And this is meant for couples, I expect," she continued.

"Exactly. We were just messing around that time at the conference, it's completely different," Harry pointed out.

"See, nothing to worry about," Nikki smiled.

"Oh no, not at all," Harry grinned. However, both their smiles vanished and they looked away from each other. Harry stood up suddenly.

"I'm going to get a coffee," he said. He gave her a quick grin and left the room. Nikki ran a hand over her face and sighed. She was going to have to talk to Harry. Otherwise things were going to get awkward, because although he wasn't aware that Nikki knew how he felt, she was, and images kept popping into Nikki's mind. Images that were doing nothing to help Nikki stop thinking of Harry as more than a friend.

Bit of a boring chapter, but I haven't updated for a while. I got the 'what each kiss means' thing from Google, and I'm thinking of doing a one shot based on it. What do you think?
The next chapter might get a bit exciting by the way. That's all I'm saying...
Oh, I got my GCSE results this morning! I'm very happy. Three A*'s, four A's and four B's. It's so much better than I expected. Please review!