Chapter 6

"Your wife's dead?" Nikki asked aghast. Harry nodded.

"What happened?"

He shook his head unable to form the words and in way of explanation gave a slight nod in the direction of the table. But words weren't necessary. Words had never been necessary for them and in her line of work, Harry knew that Nikki had seen every possible drug related cause of death under the sun. None of them were nice.

"Oh, Harry. I'm so sorry."

The humming from under the table had changed pitch slightly. Nikki knew now why she'd thought at first that the man looked defeated. There were absolutely no words of comfort she could offer.

In the silence she tried to process the reasons that Harry had broken contact with her after Leo's death. For years she had resented his absence from Leo's funeral: how he had left her totally alone. Broken all contact with her just when she needed him most. It was that betrayal more than his leaving that had cut her heart to shreds but now she tried to imagine Harry sat beside an incubator watching his child fight for his life and her needs paled into insignificance. She had felt the wrath of his temper too in days gone by, but she could not imagine or justify the level of depravity his wife had stooped to, to result in his banishing her from her house and her child. He must have known what would happen if he kicked her out? He'd spent enough of his life cutting open dosed up street junkies.

The monotonous humming noise was making her head ache, so was processing the contradictions in the man sat beside her. It was Harry, of that she had no doubt. But she didn't know this new Harry, she could it seemed still read him like a book, she understood every word he hadn't said in the previous conversation but she was unfamiliar with his last few chapters. Was the man sat next to her now still the man who she had worked alongside, had gone out to dinner with, and gone to parties with? The man who had lived in her house for a few days when his own flat was destroyed. The man she had held in her arms so many times, the man she had kissed, the man she had loved and who had broken her heart?

She looked at the dispirited man in front of her. She'd seen him like it before and had prayed at the time that she would never have to see it again. And yet here he was back from the dead for a second time and this was no less horrific than the abject horror of the first occasion. Somewhere she hoped that man, the Harry that she did know was still inside this shell of a Harry sat at the conference table.

"How long ago," she whispered, her eyes meeting his dejected gaze.

"Two months," he replied.

"Why did you leave?"

She saw him sigh again, and his shoulders slump. His eyes lost focus and he stared through her, and through the wall beyond.

"I have nothing, Nikki. Nothing." He gulped in a breath. "I had to go bankrupt because of the debt. I was forced out of my job, apparently spouses with blow habits don't go down well on campus," he paused, refocused briefly and twisted his mouth into a sneer, "well maybe that's how she got some of her money…"

"Harry stop!" Nikki begged her eyes boring through the table.

"Why are you here?" she inquired.

"I need your help."

"Yes, I know. But how?" Nikki asked.

"I need to be sure he's mine." Harry said simply.

"Leo?" Nikki questioned, the name feeling even more unfamiliar than Harry's had half an hour earlier.

"Laurie's parents have filed for custody, citing me as an unfit father and questioning even my rights of paternity. If they win, they can take him from me and I'll never see him again."

"But you know he's yours." She said quickly. Her brain adding another piece to the tragedy puzzle in front of her.

"I was there at the birth, but that doesn't necessarily make him mine. I need to know."

"Couldn't the paternity test have been done there?" Nikki blurted out, her brain snapping into action now it was on ground that she understood and that she could do something about.

"Laurie's brother Greg tipped me off about what the family were going to do. He wasn't like the others. I should have listened to him from the start. As soon as he told me, I grabbed Leo and everything I could put in a holdall and got on the first flight to London. 12 hours later and their court order would have banned us from leaving. I don't trust Laurie's family not to doctor the paternity test results over there. They have friends in high places, the family don't like scandals and they have enough money to make them go away. I don't trust anyone over there to do it."

"But you still trust me?"

"I've always trusted you." Harry replied. His eye's softened and she kept his gaze.

"And when they find out you've taken Leo out of the country, won't you be in trouble?"

"I'm bankrupt Nikki, my wife is dead. I have no job, I have an almost three year old with problems and my last $150 in my pocket. What is real trouble? Can you do the test please? I can pay. I have some English savings she couldn't touch. It'll take a while to access them but I need to be sure Nikki. I need the truth." He broke off and scrubbed at his cheek with his palm.

"I really have to know. I didn't know where else to go. I'm sorry for everything. You have every right to kick me out on the street and I wouldn't blame you for doing it, but I know you Nikki, I trust you. You never give up looking. You always believed. You found the children everyone else had given up on or that last vital piece of evidence. Please I need you to do this for me and for Leo; to find out where he belongs once and for all."

"It'll take ten days, a week at least."

"I know, Nikki. I can wait. I'm sorry, I didn't know what else to do." He repeated.

"I'll have to get Thomas' permission."

"That's fine. I'll talk to him if you like." Harry pleaded. Nikki shook her head, she'd already got that speech prepared in her head; Thomas would never refuse her. She looked back at the man in front of her, willing herself to see more of the man he'd once been. She was beginning to get tired, she had to get somewhere else to think, process. Somewhere quiet.

"Are you staying at your mother's?"

Harry shook his head morosely. "She's cruising around the Baltic, won't be back for another week." Nikki looked at him through hooded eyes. He knew she'd figured him out. After all he'd been through he never realised he'd feel this shitty.

"A week?" She felt her hand shake as she picked up her bag from the floor, ready to make her exit.

Harry nodded.

Nikki stood up, took a familiar key from her bag and held it out to him.

"It's the same place. You'll have to share with Leo. I need to get back to work. There might be food in the fridge. You alright to see yourself out of here?"

Harry couldn't help it this time. He held out his hand and watched as she dropped the key into it, silent tears spilling from the corners of his eyes.

"Thank you," he whispered as he watched her turn on her heel and leave.

So that's the set up... I always love to hear your thoughts on where you think this is going!