7. "Count on me through thick and thin, a friendship I will never end, when you are weak I will be strong, helping you to carry on."

It had been 14 hours and 11 minutes since Nikki had been moved into one of the high dependency rooms on the oncology floor and through it all Harry had refused to leave Nikki's side, terrified that she would wake up alone.

Nikki, for her part however had slept through all of it, her body obviously needing the rest to prepare for the battle ahead.

Leaning back in the chair Harry studied her carefully, after 4 units of blood and a few pools of platelets her cheeks had started to regain a little colour, her lips however still remained as bloodless as before. Her temperature had settled to a manageable rate and her breathing was still laboured, although not as dangerously as before.

On oxygen mask sat over her face, ECG leads snaked in and out of her like a spiders web, tangling her in their midst and IV lines pierced her once perfect skin delivering the medication and fluids needed to prepare her body for the battle ahead.

"How is she?" Leo asked as he entered the room, carefully balancing 2 coffees in one hand as he carried an overnight bag for Nikki in the other.

Harry looked up, smiling gratefully as he took the cup from Leo. "Stable. Sleeping. Oblivious."

"Have the doctors said anything more?" Leo wondered, as he sat down across from Harry.

Taking a mouthful of coffee Harry shook his head. "No, there's not really anything else they can do until Nikki wakes up, they need her consent before they perform any more tests."

"Right," Leo breathed.

Harry's phone vibrated on the table next to Leo, instinctively he reached over and picked it up. "26 missed calls and 19 messages," he read, handing the phone to him.

"It's no one important," Harry shrugged, his gaze never moving from Nikki as he dropped his phone back on to the table.

"Emma will be worried," Leo started, trying to figure out where Harry's head was at.

Blinking slowly Harry watched as a nurse recorded Nikki's vitals before continuing. "I sent her a text, told her I had an emergency and that I wouldn't be around for a while."

"Don't you think she deserves more than that?" Leo asked.

"I don't have any more to give, not right now, not when Nikki needs me," Harry insisted, his tone making it obvious that he wasn't ready to say anymore on the subject.

The room settled into a comfortable silence as Leo pulled a forensic journal out of his bag and settled back in the chair to read it, whilst opposite him Harry resumed his previous position next to Nikki.

They stayed like that until a small moan could be heard from the bed, the sound was muffled by the oxygen mask but it was clearly Nikki.

"Nikki," Harry whispered, leaning forward.

Blinking rapidly Nikki smiled at the image of Harry hovering over her as her vision began to clear. "Hey," she greeted, pulling the oxygen mask down off of her face.

"Hey," Harry echoed.

"What happened?" Nikki asked.

Carefully Harry replaced the oxygen mask. "You had one too many cosmopolitans and passed out in the lab."

"Funny," Nikki breathed.

"I found you at your flat," Harry began to explain, his false bravado disappearing as he faced the daunting task of informing Nikki of the diagnosis. In his job he had delivered bad news many times, but this was different, this was someone he knew, someone he loved.

Nikki tried to remember back to that moment but everything was fuzzy around the edges, like an old home movie that had been played too many times. "I don't remember."

"I'm not surprised," Harry smiled sadly. "You were pretty out of it when I found you, you had a temperature of nearly 40 degrees and you were hypoxic."

"Hypoxic … I … why?" Nikki frowned, beginning to panic about the fact that she appeared to have lost a whole chunk of time.

Harry stood up and took her hand in his, trying to calm her panic a little. "You have a nasty chest infection."

"Flu?" Nikki asked.

More than anything Harry wanted to say yes, he wanted it to be nothing more than a nasty strain of influenza that had travelled to her lungs, because right now anything would be better than the reality.

"No," Harry breathed, his voice barely audible above the sounds of the hospital.

"What aren't you telling me?" Nikki asked, she had always been able to tell when Harry was hiding something from her.

Harry looked towards Leo for support. "I-"

"Harry. You're scaring me," Nikki stammered, pulling the oxygen mask off, needing to make herself heard.

Nodding Harry lifted her hand up to his face and kissed it. "You've got to understand that when I brought you in it was bad. You were in a bad way Nikki, the doctors they thought you had meningitis-"

"Meningitis?" Nikki questioned, her voice full of alarm.

"That's what they thought," Harry remembered. "You had this purpuric rash and you were in the early stages of DIC and-"

Trying to push herself up into a sitting position Nikki felt her frustration grow as she realised just how weakened she really was. "What is it Harry? What's wrong with me?"

"Like a doctor?" Harry questioned.

Nikki nodded, knowing exactly what Harry was asking. "Like a doctor."

"When your blood test results came back they realised that it wasn't meningitis they were dealing with. Your clotting was deranged and you had dangerously low haemoglobin and platelets," Harry explained, pausing to give her a chance to digest everything,

"The DIC-"

"Would explain that, I know," Harry agreed. "What it wouldn't explain however was the white cell count of 219 and the high percentage of circulating blast cells. What would explain them however is an acute form of …"

She could see that Harry was struggling to say it, the dreaded diagnosis that no one wanted. "Leukaemia. I have leukaemia."

"I'm sorry," Harry whispered.

"Er-"

Not knowing what to say or do Harry did the only thing he could think of and he held her hand close to his heart, letting her know that he was there and he wasn't going anywhere.

"Do they know any more than that?" Nikki asked, even though she'd only been awake for a matter of minutes she was exhausted already.

"They think you have APML, DIC is more unique to APML than any other form of acute leukaemia," Harry informed her.

Dropping her head back down to the pillow Nikki closed her eyes. "Sophia … do we know what happened? Has Rhys spoken to Lisa?"

"You don't need to worry about that, not anymore," Harry tried to reassure her.

"Yes I do," Nikki insisted. "I need to know what happened to her, it's my case, it's my case Harry, I need to finish it."

Knowing that this was something Nikki needed to do Leo made his presence known. "I'll phone Rhys, see if he has any new information."

"Thank-you," Nikki smiled sadly, as her and Harry were left alone.

Watching as Nikki's face remained stoic and void of emotion Harry started to become concerned about her lack of reaction. "It's alright to cry."

"I don't want to cry," Nikki answered, her voice never wavering.

"And it's alright to be angry," Harry continued, as Nikki just stared blankly at the ceiling.

Nikki turned her head to face him, her face expressionless. "I'm not angry, there's no point in being angry."

Leaning back in the chair Harry swallowed past the lump in his throat as he tried to fight back the tears, seeing the emptiness in her usually emotive chocolate brown eyes was as if there was a violation in nature; the tides frozen, the stars nailed to the sky whilst the moon wept far from sight. It just didn't feel right, but then nothing about this situation did.

S - I - L - E - N - T - W - I - T - N - E - S - S

Opening his eyes Harry winced at the bright sunlight that filtered in through the crack in the blinds. Hearing the door behind him he turned his head to find Leo and Janet entering the room.

"How is she?" Leo asked, placing a duffle bag down on the small sofa that sat at the far edge of the room.

"Her consultant, Dr. Alex Michaels has started her on leukopharesis, they've also decided to start her on ATRA-"

Leo frowned. "Even before getting the definitive diagnosis?"

"Yes," Harry breathed. "She thinks it would be more damaging to wait, so they've started her on that, they took a bone marrow aspirate and CSF sample a few hours ago, so we should have a definite result soon anyway."

Janet took Leo's hand in hers. "How is Nikki coping with it?"

"She's pretty out if it, I don't think she really knows what's going on, they gave her a sedative for the aspirate and that combined with the illness and drugs they've been pumping her with has really knocked her out," Harry guessed, picking up his still warm coffee.

Sitting down in one of the empty chairs Leo's gaze flitted between Harry and Nikki. "Has anyone called her father?"

"No, I haven't," Harry sighed.

"Do you think we should?" Leo queried.

Harry shook his head. "No, at least not until Nikki says she wants him informed."

From her place on the bed Nikki could hear muffled voiced floating around her, she immediately recognised Leo and Harry but it took her a while longer to put a name to the female voice.

"Harry," Nikki croaked.

Standing up Harry moved to the top of the bed. "Nice of you to join us," he smiled.

"How come every time I open my eyes you're here?" Nikki asked with a smile.

"Because I have nothing better to do with my time," Leo joked. "At least this way it makes it look like I have a life outside of work."

Licking her dry, cracked lips she pulled down the oxygen mask. "Glad to be of assistance."

"How are you feeling?" Harry asked, pleased to see her smile for what felt like the first time in days.

"Tired," Nikki admitted.

Leo nodded, moving so that he was stood opposite Harry. "I'm not surprised, you're body has taken quite a hammering over the last 24 hours."

Shifting uncomfortably in the bed Nikki winced at the ache that had taken up residence in all of her bones. "And it's only just begun."

Entering the room Dr. Alexandra 'Alex' Michaels was please to see her patient awake, since she had taken over Nicola Alexander's case just under a day ago she had barely had the chance to say 2 words to her.

"Nicola Alexander?" she questioned, approaching the bed.

Blinking slowly Nikki nodded. "Nikki. Yes."

"I'm Dr. Alex Michaels, I'm going to be the consultant in charge of coordinating your treatment," she explained, taking the seat by the head of the bed.

"Then I guess we're going to be spending a lot of time together over the coming months," Nikki smiled, trying to feel as at ease as possible in such an alien situation.

Alex nodded. "That we will."

Desperate to pull herself into a sitting position Nikki groaned in frustration when her aching body wouldn't comply.

"Here, let me," Harry offered as he moved her slightly up the bed before moving the electric, hospital bed into a sitting position so that Nikki could feel more in control.

"Thank-you," Nikki smiled.

From their place in the room Leo turned to Janet as they silently communicated with each other before Leo spoke. "We're going to head to the canteen, get a coffee."

"I'll come with you," Harry offered, after the way things had been between him and Nikki lately the last thing he wanted to do was outstay his welcome, especially when she was at her most vulnerable.

"No," Nikki almost shrieked. "Please Harry, stay," she pleaded.

Smiling a sigh of relief Harry sat down in the chair. "Of course."

"We'll be back later," Leo assured them as he followed Janet out of the room leaving Nikki and Harry alone with the consultant.

Standing up the doctor closed the door before addressing her patient. "We have all of your tests results back," she began.

"And?" Nikki breathed, drawing the word out as much as possible to delay the inevitable.

"They all confirm that we are in fact dealing with the M3 subtype of AML; acute promyelocytic leukaemia, the cytogenics and bone marrow aspirate were conclusive, now due to the atypical presentation and your dangerously high white cell count I fell that we need to start treatment as soon as the leukaphersis is finished," the doctor explained.

"Ok," Nikki agreed, too shocked to say anything else.

Harry could see that Nikki was struggling with her emotions too much to ask the important questions. "What treatment are we looking at?"

"I think that we should start you on the AML 17 protocol, it's the most commonly used one for AML and APML with very promising results, 85% of patients have been shown to achieve complete remission," Alex tried to reassure her patient.

"What am I looking at?" Nikki asked.

The doctor gave Nikki a few seconds to compose herself before speaking. "The protocol consists of 4 cycles of intensive chemotherapy and ATRA treatment, each cycle will be up to 10 days of chemotherapy but probably about a 3-6 weeks stay in hospital as your counts recover and we monitor the side effects,"

"So we're looking at 6 months of feeling like crap?" Nikki asked bitterly.

The doctor nodded. "Minimum. Yes."

"And if it doesn't work?" Nikki needed to know.

Harry leaned forward resting his hand on Nikki's. "We'll cross that bridge when and if we come to it."

"When do we start?" Nikki asked.

"I'd like to get a central line placed tonight," the doctor began. "And then tomorrow, if your white cell count in less than 10 I'd like to get started. Now this first cycle will be chemotherapy every other day for 4 doses and ATRA twice daily, orally, until your blood tests show complete remission. Also because if your high white cell count we need to add Rasburicase and Mylotarg on days 1 and 4," she concluded.

Nikki nodded. "Ok. Sounds reasonable."

"We'll bring in a full copy of the protocol we'll be starting you on when we consent you, but as I tell all of my patients it really is best to take it one step at a time," Alex advised, knowing from experience that those who did, coped better.

"First step-"

Harry brought her hand up to his mouth. "We need to get that white cell count below 10."

"Then let's do it," Nikki smiled tightly.

"Let's do it," Harry echoed, kissing her hand.

Looking up at her friend Nikki smiled, a small ghost of a smile that barely reached her eyes. "I'm tired."

"Then sleep," Harry whispered.

"Harry … will you …," Nikki mumbled, as her heavy eyes closed.

Harry pulled his chair close to the bed. "I'll be here when you wake up. And every other step of the way," he reassured her as he watched her finally give in to sleep.