Fifty-Four

Harry pretended to look at the menu, but in reality he was watching Nikki out of the corner of his eye. She was beautiful, especially now, her face warm and flushed from laughter and the emotion of their little play fight. He let his eyes move further down, taking in the swell of her breasts and the ever increasing bump. He was a doctor, he knew the science behind all this and yet this mystery, this amazing journey, the creation of life fascinated him.

It was somehow fitting he thought that his child had been conceived on his desk. In their crazy mixed up relationship, that desk seemed to be the one defining factor for them; the one place where their lives intersected completely. It had all started with her dumping the bones of an iron age family on it and so it was the most perfectly appropriate place to begin their own family. He smiled as he thought back to that winter night. The two of them had been trawling through student applications for the next internship. They were dull, and they had been reading for hours.

"I'm bored," he'd remembered saying without any particular intent and somehow without even noticing her move, she was there, sat on the edge of his desk, her legs either side of his chair and with that look in her eye and a reply of:

"I can think of a way to cure that!"

She had cast her eyes towards the couch in Leo's office, but he had rejected that out of hand.

"Not Leo's office!" he said, shocked and had himself looked towards the cutting room.

"Perv!" had been her immediate reply, so there they were at his desk. He had tried to reason with her, claiming a lack of protection, how it could have consequences.

But then she had leaned down and kissed him hard, he didn't really hear what she had said, she was good at kissing, it was difficult to stay focused. But it had something to do with school playgrounds and being called Grandpa and taking a chance, and that was when he saw her in his mind's eye. His little girl.

Say 'yes' she had said and run off.

He'd hardly needed any more convincing by that point, but he still managed to ask one more time to be sure.

"It can take a year to fall pregnant at my age," Nikki had replied with the voice of the scientist.

"Or it can happen the first time," pronounced the believer and now here they were four months down the line. He hadn't dared say 'I told you so,' he valued his life now after all.

"To us!" Harry heard, and happily joined his friends in a toast.

"Are you alright Harry?" Leo asked, you were looking a bit pale.

"I'm absolutely fine," Harry confirmed. "Let's have a look at that medal again,"

Leo handed the box over to Harry.

"For outstanding services to the community," Harry declared and then said.

"I know it's been a difficult year, and I just wanted to thank you both for all you have done. I want you to be assured how much I value your friendship and am truly thankful for it. I have relied on you both these last few months and you have never let me down."

"Come on," warned Leo. "We promised we were going to celebrate, we're not getting morbid, not now."

"I just thought that today, there was someone else here, that deserved an award, a medal of appreciation for all their outstanding service," Harry continued.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a smaller box and placed it on the table.

Nikki gasped and looked from Harry to Leo and back to Harry again.

"Harry?" Nikki asked.

"Nikki, I am nothing without you, and with you I have everything. Please would you accept this as a sign of that. I know we haven't talked about it, and I don't want to force you into anything you don't want, but it doesn't matter it's not about that anyway. I want you to know, that I love you, and with this I am committing myself to you and our child for as long as I live,"

"So, you're not asking me to marry you?" Nikki said her eyes narrowing.

Harry faltered. He felt he'd been doing ok up until this point, but now he wasn't sure. He hadn't really even intended buying a ring when he chanced into that jewellery shop and told the sales assistant he needed to give his girlfriend a gift to show her she meant everything to him.

'A diamond really was the only choice,' the sales assistant had said and had had the decency to refrain from rubbing her hands in glee.

"Show me anything you have with a diamond from a legitimate source in South Africa," he had said. The ring had been the only option. It wasn't showy but it oozed sophistication and had the price tag to match. He'd bought it right there and then and had been waiting for this day, so he could make his own little presentation. He looked back at Nikki, his heart thumping. This time clearing out his current account had been amazingly satisfying.

"Is that what you would like? I didn't expect… we haven't…" he stuttered, unable to keep his voice from trembling.

Nikki made a face as if she was thinking about which flavour ice-cream to choose.

"Nikki," Harry growled, his voice deeper than he was expecting.

"I think I might do," she replied as if she had surprised herself by this realisation. "But you have to do it properly!" she warned.

Harry's mind raced. Do it properly? How was he going to achieve that? Do what properly? Did that mean asking her father for permission, surely she didn't expect that? He took a few moments to catch his breath and catch her eyes. They were looking expectant.

"Leo, as the most venerated Member of the British Empire at this table, and longstanding father figure to Nikki here, do you give me your permission to ask her to marry me?" Harry declared.

"I do," pronounced Leo, a look of utter delight in his eyes.

Harry pushed his chair back, grabbed the ring box off the table and knelt down. He was eye to eye with the bump and he had to work hard not to laugh. But as he looked up and met her eyes he became serious again.

He had been right that first time, right to make sure she truly opened up to him before they had made love. It wasn't that he was on some power trip, or that he always took the lead, he didn't. But in a way he was there to rescue her, just as she had rescued him and it was that trust, and that honesty, the ability to be free to show their vulnerability to each other that were the only reasons a long term relationship between them could work.

"Nikki Alexander, will you marry me?" he asked. He didn't need to add any extra words he let his eyes do the talking.

"I will," she replied and leant forward to kiss him.

Harry fumbled the ring out of the box and handed it over.

"You put it on," she said.

"I tried, it doesn't fit," Harry replied, his goofy look back. But he took her hand and slipped the ring on her finger.

"Thank you," she beamed. "It's beautiful."

"And so are you," Harry confirmed as he lifted her hand to his lips.

"Congratulations!" called Leo and Harry sat back on his seat so they could all clink glasses again.

"I have a present too," Leo confessed.

"Well, Janet found it really," he added rather sheepishly "and it's not the real thing, but we will get it when the time is right."

He handed over a torn out page from a magazine.

"This had better not be another poem," cautioned Harry as he opened it up.

It wasn't. It was a page from a children's clothing catalogue.

"I'm not sure these suits are going to fit either," Harry replied.

"The other side!" laughed Leo but by this time Nikki had grabbed the paper and turned it over. There it was, just as he had described it, an oriental red jacket with the corded buttons and little upturned collar. It was beautiful.

"Thanks Leo," Harry said sincerely.

"The baby, might not be a girl!" Nikki interjected. But Harry and Leo just laughed.

"To us!" Leo proposed.

"To all of us!" Harry added with another sideways glance at the bump.

"I can drink to that," Nikki agreed.

"Good, but that's your lot for the day," Harry fussed.

"To all of us!" they agreed. There was nothing that could spoil their celebration now. Nothing at all.


Well there you go, I thought I'd leave them all happy and warm and fuzzy for you. Thank you so much for sticking with this, I realise it is long and I have made many demands on your imaginations and your suspension of disbelief and am truly stunned by the lovely things you have said. I hope maybe you have learned something along the way too, not an easy subject I know, but one no one is immune from.

I'd just like to wish all those with exams coming up this summer all the best: 'May your revision be like Harry: thorough and diligent, your answers like Nikki: passionate, brilliant and right and your results like the two of them together: just what you need. Good Luck!

PS bonus marks are available to anyone who can point out the similarities between Harry in this story and Mr Rochester (Jane Eyre) and of course anyone who can squeak in a quote from Pablo Neruda into an exam question. As always PM with any questions or answers. D

All Silent Witness characters and scenes belong to the BBC, I'm keeping Ron and the Japanese couple though.