A/N – just for this chapter: centred text is what's being typed on Nikki's computer. Bold text is Nikki; regular is Harry; italics is Leo :)

Notes

The stunned look on Harry's face said it all; and he was about to speak – to ask how she knew – when she glowered at him. She'd known. Of course, what he was about to say. And she'd known when to stop him. He smiled, slightly; it was a bad time to be smiling, but he smiled nonetheless. Nikki knew him better than he knew himself…

He nodded at her to make her see that he understood, and she leant out of the way, so that he could access her keypad:

'How do you know?'

Nikki glanced at him and rolled her eyes. Trust him to ask that first. Nevertheless, she leant across and began to type again:

'Charlie just told me that a DSI Jenkins came to see us whilst we were… out.'

'And?'

'And he knew more than he should. He told her about my "two bodies were planted" theory.'

Nikki heard a satisfactory response from Harry, standing behind her, as he read that; he breathed in, sharply, and glanced down at her, fear in his eyes.

'So, now you believe me…'

She typed, and Harry nodded. He did believe her. He had, he supposed, almost believed her all along, be he had been reluctant to accept it. This, though, was near-enough solid evidence. He wracked his brains, trying to think of something to say to reassure her, or to keep her from panicking, until he noticed that she wasn't panicking. She was calmly basking in the fact that she had been right all along, and, oddly, she was enjoying the moment. It was almost as if all of those hours of CSI: Miami, or whatever else it was she watched, had finally paid off. It was almost as if she was calculating what "the baddies" would do next…

As he watched her, marvelling at how cool, calm and controlled she was when she should, by rights, have been panicking again, a thought struck him, and he froze for a second, balancing it out in his mind. It was possible, wasn't it? If all of Nikki's conspiracy theories could be correct, why couldn't his?

He didn't like that his mind was suddenly working this way, but he couldn't help it. At times like this, telling the truth and putting forward every conspiracy theory possible was probably for the best. Reluctantly, and bracing himself for any possible retribution to what he was about to type, he leant forward and began:

'What if we're not just bugged?'

he wrote. Nikki turned round to face him, then, panic etched across her face, now. She pulled her hair back, quickly, into a rough ponytail, and Harry sighed. He knew what that meant. It meant that she meant business.

'What if,'

he added,

'they've got cameras? Or there's actually a mole in the team?'

'WHAT?!?!?!?!?'

Nikki typed, incredulous: she could accept the CCTV cameras theory. People could be watching them. That would make sense. But a mole?! She knew that Harry thought she watched too much CSI, but she was beginning to think that maybe he had a secret soft-spot for Spooks. A mole… Really!

'Niks, it could be real…'

'BUT A MOLE?!?!'

Harry grimaced; he hadn't been expecting her to react this way. He'd been expecting her to agree, wholeheartedly. He'd been expecting her to accept his theory. He glanced down at her, downhearted, and noticed that she was thinking again, and that she was thinking hard. She was clearly running it all through her head, and she was beginning to join up the dots…

'I don't think we have a mole'

she wrote,

'but we might. And so I'm not risking it. I don't know about you, but I want to get to the bottom of this case. The original case remains unsolved, and I would hate for more of the same to happen.'

Harry knocked her hand away from the keypad at that point, smiling wryly as he leant down to type another message of his own, his eyebrows raised;

'Nikki against the world, anyone? ;)'

'Oh ha ha haaa'

she wrote, glancing up at him with a smile which almost exactly mirrored his own on her face. It was nice, she thought, that despite… everything that was going on, they still had each other.

'No,'

Harry wrote, confirming what she'd just thought:

'this time, it's us against the world'

Nikki glanced up at him, and smiled. It was really, really good to know that, at last, she had his full support on this case. It meant more to her than he could ever know, and so she stood up, and snaked her arms around his neck, and whispered "thank you" in his ear, and kissed him…

And then Leo coughed, causing the pair of them to spring apart guiltily. They both smiled at him, and he rolled his eyes. "I see you two are still very much together, then?" he asked, and they grinned.

"Yes." Nikki smiled, "I don't think you can escape 'us' that easily, this time."

"Yeah," Harry replied, grinning, too "we've had dates and everything, this time!"

"Wow…" Leo mocked, "doing things conventionally. How unlike you!"

He paused for a moment, giving them the chance to laugh at his terrible joke before he continued, more seriously, this time;

"Now, I've been thinking."

"Dangerous…" Harry joked, snaking an arm around Nikki's waist. Leo rolled his eyes, and persevered;

"About this case…"

Nikki froze, as he said that; whatever he was going to say could not, could NOT, could not be recorded by the bug. She waved her arms frantically at him, and elbowed Harry, who understood instantly; he leant across to her desk, and scrawled "WE HAVE A BUG" on the first piece of paper he could find. Unfortunately, it was one of Nikki's completed reports – but she didn't even care. That fact alone was enough to show Leo how serious they were about this.

Nikki crossed to him, and grabbed his sleeve, dragging him to the computer. She showed him the conversation she and Harry had been having; he read it with interest, but rolled his eyes as he typed a response;

'You two do realise that there's an easier way to do this?'

They both glanced at him, confused, as he wrote his next sentence;

'Go somewhere else to talk.'

"Oh yeah…" Harry laughed, rolling his eyes at their own stupidity. Nikki, though, was having none of it, and she reached to her computer again, typing another message;

'We have to give them a decoy. We have to tell them that we're going somewhere to talk about it, and then go somewhere else.'

'Don't you think you're taking this a little too far, Nikki?'

Leo asked, as he read what she'd written, and she scowled:

'NO!!!!! IF THIS IS ANYTHING LIKE THE ORIGINAL CASE – WHICH IT WOULD APPEAR THAT IT IS!!!! – THEN WE HAVE TO COVER OUR TRACKS. WE HAVE TO GET TO THE BOTTOM OF IT WITHOUT THEM KNOWING.

WE HAVE TO!!!!'

Leo seemed slightly disbelieving, but he knew he was fighting a losing battle; Harry and Nikki were operating as a single unit, now, and he couldn't afford to argue with them, so he said "right, then, you two," in the most authoritative tone that he could manage, "I'll see you tonight, at that wine bar you so love, at what?"

"Eight?" Harry asked, playing along.

"Sure. We need to discuss that case…"

Nikki rolled her eyes, typing again;

'You two are the worst actors in the history of time. No one will be fooled by that.'

'Ouch'

Harry typed, laughing. Nikki hit him playfully, before typing the next part of her message;

'I know that you're getting married tomorrow Leo, but I do think we need to talk this through before then'

Harry batted her arm away from the keypad, laughing, and added;

'Because, otherwise, Nikki will talk of nothing else all through the ceremony'

'HEY!'

'It's true.'

'Yeah, I guess…'

She laughed,

'So, how about we all meet up at mine straight after work?'

Harry nodded, but Leo looked apprehensive;

'Janet can come. It might be useful to have a psychoanalyst there'

Nikki added,

'And, besides, you're hardly having a conventional wedding. So you can't complain that I'm interrupting your stag night.'

"Actually," Leo laughed, "you are. Harry and I were going to go to the pub and get absolutely blind-drunk."

"Because that's a good idea…" Nikki smiled.

"It is." Harry assured her, "it really is…"

A/N: Sorry – no updates for a couple of days; Grandma's birthday party and LFW. I'm excited about one of these things. Take your pick ;)

I'll update as soon as I can, though; promise. Chapter 11 is all ready to go when I get back, too. (I keep waking up in the middle of the night with plot ideas. It is driving me MENTAL. Ha ha) xxx