Evidence

"So," Janet began, as she and Nikki sat on the sofa in her living room, waiting for Harry and Leo to bring the drinks through, "you're absolutely certain that someone has, what? Planted a body?"

"Yes." Nikki nodded, smiling slightly at the absurdity of it.

"Why?"

"We're not really sure. The police still haven't let us autopsy all of the bodies yet, which is very, very weird; it's been two days now. Apparently our other, more boring cases are far more important…"

"That does sound… suspicious." Janet nodded, taking the glass that Leo passed her as he sat down.

"You're not talking about this again, are you, Nikki?" Harry asked, unsure of whether or not he should laugh or cry. Nikki just took her glass of wine from him, and sipped it, allowing him to wrap an arm around her, without responding.

"I think Nikki has a point, you know, Harry." Janet told him, "there is definitely something odd going on there."

"See!" Nikki exclaimed, triumphantly. She had been about to stick her tongue out at him, childishly, until she realised that doing so might detract slightly from her serious argument in Janet's mind.

"Leo?" Janet asked, clearly expecting him to side with them over Harry.

"Well, I don't know. It certainly seems odd… but the paperwork does counter Nikki's argument –"

"I DID NOT SIGN THOSE FORMS!"

"- and the fact that there's nothing odd on the CCTV doesn't exactly back you up, either, Nikki…" he concluded, trying to ignore the fact that both women were staring daggers at him.

"If looks could kill…" Harry commented, smiling placidly as he pulled Nikki closer to him and began absently playing with her hair, in a vague attempt to calm her down.

"Then autopsies would be very difficult indeed…" Nikki laughed, turning to kiss him on the cheek. Her anger seemed to have eased temporarily; she was still on a warpath, but she could see that she was fighting a losing battle, and so she was happy to leave it for the moment. Besides which, she had a plan – but she wasn't going to tell anyone that. Instead, she turned back to Leo and Janet, who were on the other sofa, and placidly commented on the fact that their dinner, which was in the oven, smelt good. Harry nodded in agreement, but there was something else playing on his mind; it was a Tuesday evening, and he genuinely wondered why it was that Janet and Leo wanted to see them, anyway. He voiced this question soon after it came to him, and Janet and Leo turned to each other, smiling genuine, dreamy smiles, their eyes connected for just a few seconds too long before they turned back to the younger couple. "Well…" Leo said, nudging Janet, as though asking her to tell them:

"You know that we've been engaged for a while now, and that we've been trying to put off choosing a date?" Janet asked; Nikki and Harry nodded. "Well," Janet continued, "we've picked one. Next Saturday."

Nikki and Harry stared at her in shock; "Next Saturday?" Harry asked, and Leo nodded.

"We decided that we didn't want a big, fancy ceremony. We've both been through that before, and, well, it didn't exactly work out for us, did it?" He took Janet's hand, and squeezed it as he spoke. She smiled, in response, shifting closer to him and leaning her head against his shoulder. "So," he continued, "that's why we asked you both here tonight. We're just going to the registry office, and then out for a meal; it'll still be special, it just won't be fancy or big… and, well, we wondered if you two would mind witnessing for us?"

"Us?" Nikki asked, sitting up, shocked.

"Yes." Janet smiled; "we couldn't think of anyone better than you two. We'd be honoured if you two would be there with us on our special day."

"Really?" Harry asked, mirroring Nikki's shock. When both Leo and Janet nodded again, the younger pair agreed, of course, and stood up to hug their boss and his fiancé. It was unexpected – but it was nice… unlike the last unexpected thing to happen to them.

Temporarily, Nikki's mind moved from the case at hand, and she allowed herself to relax and enjoy the evening, without fear of what that extra body could mean.

*

By morning, though, her mind was back on the case. She was glad, in a way, that she'd driven herself to Leo's the previous night, and that she'd remained under the drink-driving limit, because if she hadn't, she'd almost certainly have ended up in a taxi back to Harry's house… not that she would have objected to spending the night with Harry (the very thought gave her butterflies); it was just that she knew what she needed to do, now, and in order to do that she had to be the first person to the lab. She had to open up, early, and beat all the technicians. She needed to do exactly what it was that she had been forbidden from doing, and she needed to do it before anyone arrived so that she could have a theory ready before they could stop her. Essentially, she needed to autopsy the bodies.

She was a little uncomfortable with going against what the police had told her, but as she pulled in to the lab car-park and swiped her ID at 4:30am, she was firm and resolute; everything was fixed in her mind.

She parked, and climbed from the car, and as she unlocked the lab, she was careful to turn all the lights on; something weird was going on, and, much as she tried to breathe steadily and convince herself that she wasn't scared, she knew, in her heart, that she was quivering. If the lights were on, though, she would see anything that happened. She was careful, too, to turn the key disabling all of the doors from the inside. She knew that is someone was skulking around she would now be locked in with them – but it was better to take that small, insignificant risk than take the other; it was better to risk that than risk letting people walk in on her before she'd finished the autopsies. She checked her watch as she dumped her bag on her desk, and noted that she had about three and a half hours before a technician or other arrived, and began wondering why they couldn't get in, and then rang Leo, or worse still, the police. Or her.

In her haste to get to into her scrubs, she didn't notice the way that several of the papers on her desk were missing – and that her previously tidy piles were spread haphazardly across the whole table. She wouldn't notice this, in fact, until Harry arrived, later, and by that point she could easily attribute the mess to him. He had the annoying habit of dumping things on her desk at random and expecting them to file themselves, and so, by that point, the evidence would be unnoticeable.

A/N: Can't remember is Janet was ever married before… she was now! ;) Oh, and sorry if Janet and Leo are massively OOC! They're necessary to the plot, which is kind of annoying as I very definitely can't write them! .

Reviews would be lovely… *hint hint*