The next few days passed in pretty much the same manner. Harry and Nikki said a grand total of 38 words between them and they were all to do with work. It was driving them both mad but neither wanted to be the first one to bring up what happened on Friday.

Between them they had managed to catch up on all of their paperwork and were up to date for the first time in about two years. There were no new cases and they were only waiting on the tox reports for two other bodies.

Although the silence was nice at first, Leo felt that he would soon go mad if they didn't start talking and decided to take matters into his own hands so he called Nikki into his office. He knew that he would never get anything out of Harry but Nikki looked up to Leo like a father so he assumed this would be the easiest way of finding out what was wrong and fixing it. They always had little argument, though never usually as bad as this, and Leo knew they would be able to get past it; they just needed a little help.

"Leo, how can I help? Please say there's a really interesting case. I'm going out of my mind with boredom."

"I'm afraid not, sorry."

"Well then what did you want to talk to me about?" Nikki questioned, even though she already had a pretty good idea.

"Okay since you asked I'm going to get straight to the point. What is going on between you and Harry? You've barely spoken to each other all week and you are even up to date on paperwork."

"There's nothing going on, Leo." She replied, not looking her boss in the eyes.

"I'm not stupid. Now I don't mind if you don't want to tell me but if you don't start patching things up with Harry I'm going to have to take matters into my own hands." Leo said with his voice ever so slightly raised. In a quieter tone he continued: "I just hate seeing you two upset."

"Thanks for your concern Leo but I can assure you that there really is nothing going on."

"If you insist." He sighed. " You can get back to work now."

"What work? There is nothing to do."

Leo just looked at her and she could tell he meant sort things out with Harry. 'Well,' thought Nikki, as she walked out of her boss' office. 'He's going to be disappointed then because there is no way I'm making the first move.'


Deciding that he had had enough of the silence, Harry swallowed his pride and attempted to start a conversation with his best friend when she walked back over to her desk.

"What was that about?" He asked, trying to find some common ground.

"Nothing." Nikki replied shortly, signalling that it was the end of the conversation as far as she was concerned.

Harry gave in for a while and decided to try again later.


Nikki was in the middle of drawing the third butterfly on the piece of paper she had been doodling on for the past two and a half hours, each one getting more and more detailed, when she heard Leo calling her name and asking her to come to the cutting room. She had been so engrossed in her drawing that she hadn't noticed Harry getting back from his scene so was surprised to see him in there as well, clearing up after finishing his autopsy.

"Nikki, Harry, can you come over here please?" Leo called from the far end of the room. He had his back to them and appeared to be looking at something through a microscope.

When they arrived, Leo craftily positioned himself so that the two younger pathologists were at the edge of the room and he was a bit closer to the door. He was also the only one who noticed the lab techs leaving the room silently and that was only because he had told them to when Harry was at his scene.

"What did you want, Leo?" Harry asked, not suspecting a thing.

"I just wanted your opinion on this sample. I can't quite tell what it is and was wondering if either of you had any bright ideas."

Being the big children that they were, Harry and Nikki immediately started fighting over who got to look at it first. By the time they had finished (which took plenty of time, as Leo had predicted) their boss was out of the door and had taken the keys with him, locking them in.

Oooo cliffhanger! Please don't hate me ;) I know the next chapter is the one you've been waiting for. Now I just have to write it, which should be fun. Please review.

Georgie xx