Sorry this one took longer. Had loads of coursework, then tried to upload it yesterday and it wouldn't work...
But it did this time :D

Thank you! To everyone reading!

And to Lizziginne, EmmaJ1996, gem.S, pinkswallowsun, Diggs, Gevaudan, savingthestars, hoplesslyhalfhearted and dinabar - you are MORE than amazing. Thank you so much! :D

xXx

Chapter 10 - Voicemail

Nikki curled up in her bed sheets, the warmth of his breath on the back of her neck radiating through her body. She could feel his soft fingers run own her spine, and sunk further into the mattress, willing him to move closer. He chuckled into her ear, and whispered her name, the smell of his aftershave filling all her senses as she smiled into the darkness.

"Nikki," she heard him speak again as if in the distance, and the warmth of his breath disappeared.

"Nikki," the voice was closer this time, and she could hear the click of her bedroom door open.

Sighing heavily, Nikki forced herself to open her eyes to the reality of her bedroom, and the very real Harry that was now standing in her doorway.

"Morning," he smiled at her, and she could feel her lips smile automatically in response.

Sitting up, she leant against the headboard as Harry approached, a tray in his hands.

"I cooked you breakfast," he announced as he sat on the edge of her bed, placing the tray on her knee. "This will make you feel better, promise."

Nikki stared at the contents of the bowl in front of her which appeared to be a rather unusual green coloured liquid.

"What is it?" she asked, stirring the contents with her spoon.

"Harry soup," Harry answered matter-of-factly.

"Hmmm," she mumbled. "I can't see you in my soup."

"Ok smart arse. Harry's soup then," he grinned at her. "It's chicken and broccoli. I think."

"Sure it is," Nikki giggled, letting the contents run off her spoon and plop back into the bowl.

"Hey, shut up and eat up," Harry warned, trying to look serious, but Nikki knew that he was anything but. "I need to go to work."

"Work?" Nikki repeated looking at him with wide eyes. "What time is it? I'm going to be late."

"You are not going in to work today," Harry warned as he stood up from her bed and placed a hand on her forehead. "I think you've cooled down a bit though."

"I feel loads better," Nikki answered, smiling at the contact of his skin against hers, even though it was far less than in her dream.

"And you'll feel even better after Harry's soup. Now eat," Harry said as he made his way to her bedroom door. "I'll ring you later."

"Bye," Nikki whispered as he shut the door, finally tasting the soup that Harry had prepared for her.

The thick green liquid hardly looked appetising, but when she tasted it she could feel it warm her throat. Maybe Harry wasn't as bad at cooking as she thought. And he was right. It did make her feel better. But she couldn't quite work out if it was the soup, or Harry's presence that caused the warmth to consume her.

"Thanks. Will you send them up with Zak?" Harry spoke into the phone receiver. He waited for the reply before adding a quick "Bye" and hanging up. Kicking his feet onto his desk he leant back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling.

"Leo, tox reports are in!" he shouted through the building in the direction of Leo's office.

The phone on his desk instantly began to ring again, and lifting his feet from the desk he reached for it.

"Pathology," he answered automatically.

"If you can't be bothered getting off your backside to walk the few yards to my office, please pick up the phone rather than yelling through the building," Leo said seriously, but Harry could tell that Leo was smiling.

"Well Leo," Harry grinned. "If you can't be bothered to walk the few yards out of your office rather than phoning me, then you are just as bad."

Leo chuckled. "Fair point. Thanks for letting me know anyway. Be sure to let Nikki know when she's back, will you."

"Sure," Harry nodded. "I'm going to stop off at hers on the way home tonight to make sure she's ok."

"Good," Leo answered simply before adding "Now can you do some work today please?" and hanging up.

Harry placed the phone back and threw his feet onto the table again, resting his hands on the back of his neck, waiting for Zak to arrive with the results.

Although he had only been in work for half an hour, Harry's eyes were heavy and he knew that he would have to concentrate hard today so he wouldn't fall asleep. He had hardly slept all night, and had gotten up over an hour early this morning to get to Nikki's before work.

Stopping off at a 24 hour spar shop on the way, he had bought some ingredients from a particularly bored looking cashier, and headed to Nikki's. Using her spare key that was now permanently attached to the same key ring as his car key, he had let himself in to her apartment and headed straight for the kitchen. To be completely honest, he hadn't a clue what he was doing with the ingredients that he had just purchased, but after three attempts, he managed to make something that tasted edible, although it looked like green wallpaper paste.

Nikki was looking better than yesterday, and her temperature had definitely dropped. He smiled as he remembered the look on her face when she had stared at the contents of the bowl he had passed her, scrunching her nose up. He loved when she did that. She looked so childish.

"Tox reports," Zak announced, dropping a file onto the desk in front of Harry.

"Yey," Harry sighed as he once again took his feet off the table. "Just what I wanted."

Zak laughed.

"You sound as enthusiastic as ever," Zak said as he made his way towards the locker room.

"Ah ha," Harry agreed lazily as he opened the file, the results of Ray Yates toxicology reports staring back at him.

Harry scanned the many results that had been sent back, looking for anything out of the ordinary. The sediment from underneath Ray Yates' fingernails matched that at the scene, and Harry could remember that each nail had been full of the mud. As if he had dug his fingers in. Like he was trying to crawl away? There was also a small amount of skin found under the nails, but it did not belong to Jennifer, or any of the DNA on the system. A swab sample from his knuckles however did have traces of Jennifer's DNA. Harry rubbed his hand over his eyes. Ray could have hit her. The results were right in front of him. Her DNA on his swollen knuckles…

Harry flipped over the results and looked at Jennifer's. Again the mud under her nails matched that at the scene, but there was a considerable amount less under her nails than was under Ray's. There was however a larger sample of skin, but it also did not match anything on the system. Harry flipped between the sheets, noticing that the skin sample from under the nails of both the Yates' matched perfectly. There was definitely someone else involved. And it looked like both had fought back. But then why did Ray hit Jennifer? Something didn't add up, and Harry knew that until they could work out who else was involved, there were going to be a lot of unanswered questions.

Deciding that there might be more information on Nikki's computer, he moved to her desk and logged on using her password, smiling as he typed in the word 'pinacolada'. Leo would hate it if he ever knew that they used each others passwords. All the time. But it was just something else that they shared without even thinking about it.

Harry scrolled through the files, staring at the results on the screen for what felt like the hundredth time, stopping when he got to the end of the notes that Nikki had typed about Jennifer's and noticing the single word 'pregnant' that Nikki had typed in bold, before typing the information needed to write up the report. Harry sighed and rubbed his hand over his face again. Since he had got back from Hungary, Harry had tried to block out what had happened. It felt so long ago, and yet it had barely been six months. There was some things that seemed to bring back dark, fleeting memories. The ones that usually saved themselves for his nightmares, where there was nowhere for him to hide. Nowhere to run.

'Maybe Ray was better off dying rather than losing his wife and child,' Harry thought to himself, and then instantly regretted thinking such a thing. Hungary had been terrifying, and he had been distraught at losing Anna. And yet when those dark memories clouded his nightmares, there was only one thing that truly and utterly terrified him. And that was the thought of how close he had come to never seeing Nikki again.

The loud buzz from Harry's desk made him look away from the computer screen to see his mobile vibrating across the work top. Hoping that it was a text from Nikki, he reached over towards his desk and felt his elbow knock against something on the corner of Nikki's desk. Harry watched as Nikki's mug full of pens fell from her desk, and smash across the floor, as if in slow motion.

Harry swore under his breath and began to pick up the pieces that scattered the office floor, as well as the many pens that seemed to have thrown themselves as far from the desk as possible. The mug had been sitting on Nikki's desk since the first day she had started, and he knew for a fact that it was valuable. Some collectors piece that she had been given years ago. Probably worth a fortune.

Piling up the pieces, he knocked on Leo's door and entered without waiting for a reply.

"Leo, have you got any super glue?" he asked quickly, knowing that he sounded guilty.

"Hmmm," Leo mumbled scanning a finger along the page he was reading. Looking up at Harry he lowered his eyebrows in confusion.

"Super glue?" he asked. "Have you run out of thread for the stitches or something?"

"Oh ha ha," Harry mocked, rolling his eyes. "Have you got any or not?"

Leo searched through the drawers in his desk, shuffling through papers and stationary.

"Nope, sorry," he said to Harry who quietly swore under his breath again."What have you broken this time?"

"Nothing," said Harry quickly. "Why do you think I've broken something?"

"You look guilty," smiled Leo.

"I'm anything but," protested Harry, turning to leave the office but stopping in the door way. "Scellotape?" he added hopefully and could see the grin on Leo's face before he threw him a roll from the bottom drawer.

"'Thanks," Harry smiled as he left Leo's office. He had just got to his desk when he heard Leo shout from his office.

"Harry," he called. "If it's something of Nikki's, try and fix it before she's back."

Harry smirked as he picked up his phone from his desk and opened the message.

'See you tonight. Thanks again. Julia x'

"Shit," Harry muttered as he squeezed his eyes closed. Drinks after work were the last thing that was on Harry's mind. He wanted to see Nikki, but he had promised Julia that he would meet her. Nikki wouldn't mind. She never did. And that only made his annoyed at himself even more.

Nikki opened her eyes to a bright winter's afternoon, and stretched her fingers in front of her, like a cat waking up from a long sleep. The first thing she noticed was that the pounding behind her eyes now seemed to be no more than a dull ache, and the queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach had subsided.

Stretching over to her bedside table, she managed to find her mobile and noticed the small light on the bottom flashing, indicating that she mad a missed call. Unlocking the phone, the letters on the screen read the very thing that she had been hoping for.

'1 new voice mail: Scrubs'

Harry soup had definitely made her feel better (the sleep and paracetamol probably had something to do with it too), but Harry's voice was the only thing that she wanted to hear now that she had woken up again.

Putting her mobile onto loud speaker, Nikki placed it on her pillow and pressed play, Harry's deep voice instantly filling the room.

"Morning skiver. Hmmm, it's probably afternoon by now isn't it? You are so lazy. It's not as if you're ill or anything."

Nikki smiled as Harry laughed down the phone.

"Anyway, I messed around with the settings on your mobile, and changed it so that when I rang you it would go straight to voice mail. Just so I didn't wake you up. And before you ask, no. I can't remember how to change it back again, but you might want to do that when you're feeling better. Just in case Leo phones. Or one of your many hopeful admirers.

Yes, I did have a look through your contacts. Why are they all men's names, might I ask? I think I noticed only a handful of female's in your phonebook. You really do have to get out more. Actually, no you don't. You need to stay in more and have girly parties and bake cakes and… knit. You know, stuff that doesn't involve men and your famous bed."

Was that jealousy Nikki could hear in his voice? She smiled at the very thought as the message continued.

"I'm rambling aren't I? Why didn't you tell me to shut up? Oh yeah, I'm talking to your voice mail. You better listen to this when you wake up!

I don't think I'll make it round tonight after work. I need to meet someone. No Nikki, it's not like that so don't lecture me, ok? I'll tell you about it tomorrow. I left you more Harry soup in the microwave, and there's some pizza in the fridge that just needs heating up. All Nikki-proof cooking, don't worry. Even you can't burn it. I mean, come on. Who manages to burn toast?

Sorry. Don't hit me for that. I know, it was a one off. You're a brilliant cook really."

Nikki laughed at the sarcasm in his voice, and the small 'not' that he coughed under his breath.

"I think I should probably go. Leo is looking at me funny. Do you know what he's just asked me to do? Work! Can you believe it? He actually expects me to come to this place and work! So I should probably do something, just to keep him quiet.

It's not like I haven't been doing anything productive today though. I thoroughly searched Wikipedia, and I've come to the conclusion that you do not have any of the nasty diseases that they mention on there. I think it may have something to do with a certain river, on a certain freezing night… Sorry. I'll make it up to you though, promise. And I'll keep checking Wikipedia. Leo says that it's not a very scientific site to use though. I better not reference it in my report that I'm supposed to be writing then. Apparently you can change it! I think I might go and change the definition of dragon to 'Grumpy old pathologist by the name of Leo.' I'm sure he wouldn't notice. How often if he going to search 'dragon' on Wikipedia?

So, remember to eat. Don't pass out anywhere, I can't guarantee that I'll be there to catch you this time. Better staying away from sharp things, just in case you do. Actually, it's probably best if you just stay in bed, unless you're hungry. Or need the loo. You should probably get up for that.

Sorry."

Harry laughed again as Nikki let out an "Ewww" at the phone.

"Ok, Leo really is starting to glare at me now. I told him that I was phoning the lab, and funnily enough I don't usually have a lengthy conversation with them. Mind you, I'm now having a lengthy conversation with myself.

Oh, the tox reports came back today for the Yates'. I knew there was something I was phoning for. Pretty much what you would expect really. The skin under the finger nails doesn't have a match though, but it's from the same person in both results. I'll talk about that with you tomorrow too.

See you real soon. I'll be there to cook you breakfast in the morning. Promise.

Miss you.

Bye."

Nikki smiled as her fingers closed around her mobile. Curling up into a ball in the warmth of the sheets, she pressed 'repeat' on the screen as she closed her eyes again, letting Harry's voice follow her into her dreams.

Letting his voice take over her dreams completely.