"Nikki." Thomas appeared in the doorway of his office. He gestured for her to enter, so she got up and followed him, letting the door shut behind her. The blinds rattled against the glass and she immediately knew why he'd called her in here.
"I want to talk to you about Jack." Thomas stated.
She nodded in reply. She knew what he wanted to know.
"Are you…" He didn't know how to put it without sounding intrusive. If there was one thing that Thomas Chamberlain had learned since joining the Lyell centre it was not to say the wrong thing to Nikki, Jack and Clarissa. Unfortunately for Thomas he almost always said something to put his foot in it.
Nikki could see the internal battle going on inside his head and helped him.
"We're just friends. Nothing more. I would tell you if we were."
"Ok." Thomas was about to say she could leave when something came to him. "Why did he go to you?"
Her hand was on the door handle when she turned back to face him. "I wish I knew" She looked sad. "Perhaps he just needed a friend…"
She couldn't get Thomas' question out of her head. Why had he gone to her? She couldn't very well ask Jack because he'd keep up with the 'I can't remember' and at this point she believed he truly couldn't remember. Especially when he'd woken up at hers the morning after with genuinely no clue how he got there.
She was worried about him. Well actually, worried was an understatement. If someone was killing cage-fighters then Jack's life was at risk, and she knew exactly where he'd be right now - in the centre of it all…at the gym.
Nikki didn't find him at the gym. In fact she didn't find him at all. She checked his flat, no answer. So she went home, it was getting really late and she was tired and hungry and all sorts of emotionally drained.
She saw his car when she pulled up in her driveway. So that's where he'd been. She mentally slapped herself for wasting her time checking the gym and his place; chances are he'd been waiting outside her house for a long while now. She knocked on the window of his Jeep and he got out without commenting. They were inside in minutes and Jack repeated his actions of the last two nights by kicking off his shoes and shrugging off his jacket. This time however, he was the one that made them both drinks – of the hot, soothing sort and he found her watching the news again. It was the same story as last night, except now they had two bodies and the heading 'Serial killer?'
Why did most of their murder cases end up with more than one body? In fact, in most murders it ended with two or three. If they were really unlucky there would be more. Jack thought back to all those poor Syrians who'd been purposefully locked in a van in the middle of the woods, thought of the little boy who'd died in his mother's arms and took a deep breath.
Nikki had once said to Thomas that she and Jack had one very important thing in common. Sometimes they let their work get to them. And sometimes that was OK. They'd come back from it, and they'd come back stronger.
They sat on the sofa in perfect silence, just watching the news. And then the news was over and some drama was starting and Nikki just let herself fall back and her eyes closed. A few seconds later she felt his arms around her, and instead of pulling away, instead of resisting, she let herself fall deeper into him and she let herself sleep.
Jack sat with his arms around Nikki on her sofa until the television had automatically gone onto standby mode. He checked his watch; almost 11PM. Nikki had been asleep with her head resting on his chest above his heart for nearly four hours.
It was probably time he should move her.
Carefully he moved his arms down to wrap under her knees and lifted her gracefully into the air. It took him a few moments to remember where her bedroom had been and he was placing her into bed a little while later. He paused. He probably shouldn't undress her. He settled for just letting her sleep, and he himself crashed down beside her.
She awoke in the middle of the night. She checked the clock beside her bed; 3AM. She wasn't surprised to find Jack asleep beside her, his arm draped loosely around her waist. She turned to face him and snuggled deeper into his embrace. She felt his arms pull her closer. And then she was asleep again.
The next morning they were both woken up by Nikki's phone shrilling.
"Hello?" Her voice cracked. She was still half asleep when she realised what she was being told.
"OK, send me the address."
Jack didn't even need to ask.
