Here is another chapter of Discovering Hearts for you! I hope you'll enjoy! Just to give you a heads up, updates this week might not be very frequent. It is Easter Weekend and the Church Choir has to sing every flippin' day between Thursday and Monday. I hope I'll be able to update at least once over the weekend.

Disclaimer: I do not own or make any profit from Flashpoint or its characters. I own only Nikka and her mother, Rose Carroll.

Enjoy!

"Nikka!"

Nikka turned around was immediately hugged by her mother. "Hey Mom."

"How are you? You were involved in the hospital hostage situation weren't you? I could have sworn I heard your name mentioned." Nikka's mother, Rose Carroll, asked as she stepped back from her daughter and looked her over critically. "You don't look like you got hurt."

"I didn't, Mom. I'm fine. How have you been holding up?"

"I've been doing well. I'm no longer a free lance writer, but a columnist for the Star. I heard your father paid you a visit."

Nikka winced as they sat down in the restaurant. "He did. And he still wasn't too happy. When he started to get really mean, Lou made him leave."

"And speaking of your boyfriend...where is he?"

"He's coming soon; he just wanted to give us some time alone."

"He sounds like such a sweet man."

"He is."

"Who is?" Lou's voice interrupted the two women who looked up at him.

"Nothing." Nikka smiled across the table at her mother as Lou sat down beside her. "We were just talking. Lou, this is my mom, Mrs. Rose Carroll."

"It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Carroll." Lou stretched out one hand to shake Mrs. Carroll's.

"I could say the same about you." Mrs. Carroll replied, liking this young man who had already protected her daughter. "So, where do you work?"

"I'm a police officer with the SRU, Strategic Response Unit." He replied as the waiter came by to take their drinks.

"Must be hard, living the worst twenty minutes of everyone's life every day."

"It can be stressful, but I've managed to get through it." Lou smiled at Nikka, adding silently to his sentence 'with some help from Nikka.'

"How's Ben doing? I haven't heard from him lately." Nikka asked. Her older brother, Ben Carroll, was a free lance nature photographer, so he traveled a lot.

"He managed to get a contract with a wildlife magazine for the season, so he's going to be busy."

"He'll like tramping around it the woods all day." Nikka smiled at the thought of her older brother. He had been ten, Matt had been six and she had been eight when their parents had divorced, her mother getting custody of the boys and her father getting custody of her. Her father and Ben had never gotten along, as their father believed Ben should have been a lawyer.

The waiter arrived with their drinks and took their orders as they continued to chat easily among themselves. The time flew by and soon they were interrupted by Mrs. Carroll's watch beeping. "Look at the time! I have an interview in twenty minutes! I'm sorry to run, but-"

"Its fine, Mom. We have to do this more often."

"We do! Take care of yourself!" Mrs. Carroll waved goodbye to her daughter and her boyfriend before stepping into a cab.

"She's certainly energetic." Lou said, holding Nikka's hand in his.

"She always has been. I'm still not sure why she and Dad married. They have nothing in common."

"Don't worry about it too much." Lou told her as they walked along the street. "What would you like to do now?"

"You just want to walk along and shop a bit?" Nikka asked, tilting her head up to smile at Lou.

"I think I can live with that."