Just a short chapter today but the next one is going to be hefty so prepare yourselves! There's not much of a plot to this, more of a filler but I hope you enjoy and please, please stick with me because you are going to LOVE the next chapter! As always, thank you so so much for your lovely reviews :)

Three months. Three long agonising months. The only words spoken between Jack and Nikki had been about whatever case they had been working on. But Jack was still there, being unable to actually bring himself to start looking for another job. He hadn't totally meant what he said, it just came out. He was angry and upset. But the more he had thought about it over the past few months, the more he thought that it was probably for the best. He was watching Nikki grow by the day, she was looking so radiant and it was killing him. Killing him to see her this happy. Although if he was being honest, she wasn't as happy as she should've been. The thought that he was the cause of that made him feel even worse.

This case that they were currently working on wasn't helping much either. One body found in a hospital car park and a whole other world is opened up with a young girl locked in a cryogenic chamber, to bring some sort of hope to her family. Then there was Clarissa and her mum. She was going through a rough old time at the minute, he couldn't exactly just up sticks and leave. That wouldn't be fair on her, she needed all the people surrounding her right now.

Matt had seemed to have calmed down somewhat, ever since he had overheard Nikki's conversation with Jack that night. And after he had heard her telling Jack to his face that the baby wasn't his, he had backed off. Almost feeling as though he could trust her to keep her mouth shut for the next nine months. Although that didn't stop him from keeping a beady eye on her and watching her every move. He still dropped her off and picked her up from work and he still made sure that she didn't go to see Jack. But at the least his hands gripping onto her arms had stopped. Her skin free from all the bruises. However, she did doubt how much longer the respite was going to last, she had seen it too many times. They'd stop but it only took one foot wrong for them to lose it again.

He had relentlessly apologised to her in the past three months, telling her that he was only trying to protect her from the heartbreak and the pain. But he was the one that was breaking her heart and causing her pain. Nikki had debated on just packing her bags and leaving in the middle of the night but her hand would soon be on her stomach and she'd realise that she was going through all of this to protect this little one. She had seen the tip of the ice berg that was Matt's anger and she didn't want to push him any further, not if that would bring harm to her unborn child.

They were a good few weeks into the case now but as these things usually go another person has ended up dead. And unfortunately for them, that person was key to the investigation, someone who would be able to answer the questions that were now cropping up.

It had been a few hours after Thomas had completed the post mortem and the four of them along with DI Raymond had found themselves in the meeting room, discussing and collecting all of their new findings.

"We compared Hope's DNA to that of Sue and Derek and neither of them were her biological parents," Nikki breathed, walking over to DI Raymond, handing her the piece of evidence to look over herself. She could feel Jack watching her closely, of all the times they had to have a case like this, it had to be now. Things were hitting a little too close to home for her liking.

"But," Raymond started, not quite believing the evidence in front of her. She quickly glanced over at Nikki and then to Clarissa. "Was she adopted?"

"No records of her," Clarissa chimed in.

"Illegal adoption?" Raymond suggested. "Did they buy her?"

"The illegal route sounds more feasible," Jack spoke.

"Well that's a good reason not to register with any hospitals or schools," Clarissa explained. "They didn't want to draw any attention to her."

Nikki watched as Jack walked behind Clarissa, his eyes not leaving hers. A look that didn't go unnoticed by Thomas. It had been like this for three months, no words just looks. Stares. Nikki brought her hand to her now slightly protruding stomach as she felt a flutter. That was the first time she had felt the baby move properly. Her heart was pounding and for the first time since she had found out about her pregnancy she felt a glimmer of excitement pass through her veins.

"Any leads as to who she might be?" DI Raymond pulled her from her thoughts.

"We've got DNA but she's not on any database," Nikki moved to make her way over to her chair, desperately wanting to give her feet a rest now. She jumped as her arm brushed past Jack's back. She hadn't meant to do that but she could almost feel a jolt of electricity shoot up her arm and then there was a flutter again. Almost as if the baby knew.

Thomas watched the interaction between the pair of them and he shook his head slowly at them, he was going to have sort this out. He had thought that things would've settled by now, they usually do. But they never went this far. And the tension was getting too much for him to bear and he could see that the detectives they'd work with on cases were starting to notice as well and that didn't reflect well on the Lyell. He turned back to Jack who continued the explanation of their findings as Thomas thought about how it would be best to approach these two to sort their problems out.

"We know the front door was locked from the inside as we had to break it open ourselves," Jack pointed at Clarissa who just nodded, confirming his point. Jack was at the board again, clicking on a file to open up a picture of the crime scene. "So the only way out was via the bedroom window, this was the only window left unlocked. No signs of forced entry anywhere else."

"Fingerprints?"

"Yeah," Jack clicked on another photo. "Just a partial print I lifted from the frame of the window next to the door."

"Did you run it through the system?" DI Raymond asked.

"I have, no matches I'm afraid," Jack answered, edging closer to the table in the middle of the room again.

"Okay, let's see what else we can find to identify Hope. If she was bought illegally, it might be some sort of money trap," Thomas stood up, gathering the various files from the desk, his eyes flickering between Jack and Nikki. "Jack, Nikki, can I see you in my office please?"

Jack and Nikki shared a look, worry both on their faces. They knew what was coming and what was about to happen. Nikki was surprised that it hadn't happened sooner, she knew her and Jack couldn't go on like this any longer and now the time had called for Thomas to step in. Standing up from her chair, Nikki followed after Thomas, Jack a few paces behind. DI Raymond glanced over at Clarissa, both of them intrigued.

Thomas let the two of them enter first, making a point of closing the door to his office. He gestured for the two of them to take a seat.

"Now I was hoping that I wasn't going to have to do this," Thomas walked around his desk before eventually sitting in his own chair. "You're both adults, I would've thought that things would fizzle out sooner or later but clearly not. And now it's starting to have an effect on the Lyell and I can't have that."

"You both are great assets to this team and I don't want to see either of you leave but if it calls for it I will have to start thinking about moving you around," he explained. He could see the looks on their faces and he was half expecting Jack to fling a punch in his direction. Mercifully he stayed sat in his seat and Thomas hoped that he could see that this was something that he had no choice about. "Now I don't particularly care about what's happened between you but it's starting to affect your work and people are asking questions. So I'll give you the rest of the week to sort this out and if nothing's changed then I will be stepping in. Okay?"

Nikki nodded, knowing that he was right. She looked over at Jack who was doing the same thing as her. And then he stood up, leaving first. Nikki almost ran after him. Her mind returning to one thing Thomas had said, I don't particularly care about what's happened between you, did he know? Her heart sank as she realised that if Thomas knew about what had happened between her and Jack then it wouldn't have mattered if she walked back in here and told everyone that she was carrying Jack's baby. They would've known already. She wanted to cry, she wanted to go back to that day and change everything. But now she was stuck and she was too deep into the lie to do anything about it.

She reached out to grab Jack's arm pulling him back towards her, "How long has Thomas known?"

"About what?" Jack replied, his mind somewhere else entirely.

"About us," Nikki retorted, fighting against the temptation to roll her eyes.

Jack shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know. Since the crash?"

Nikki just sighed, they had all known and now she had got herself into the mess that is her relationship with Matt. He had convinced her that she would humiliate him if she told everyone the truth but now it turns out they were all probably laughing at her anyway. At her sham relationship with him. She just felt stupid and as though someone had slapped her across the face. She'd wanted to laugh at the irony of that almost being the truth in her case.

She pushed her way past Jack and walked down the hallway but she stopped dead in her tracks as she felt the biggest movement she'd felt all day. Jack came running up behind her, worried as to why she had stopped walking suddenly and why she had her hand on her stomach. All the thoughts about how he couldn't do this anymore escaping his mind as he looked down at the person he cared the most about.

"What's happened?" He asked, he wanted to reach out and hold her but he couldn't find himself doing it. He didn't want to push that boundary, if they were on the road to building up their relationship and friendship again then it needed to be one step at a time.

Nikki didn't say anything she just grabbed his hand and placed it against her stomach, the beam spreading across her face. She watched the expressions on Jack's face change from panic to adoration as he felt the baby move against his hand. Jack let out a breath as he felt it, it was almost surreal and he couldn't quite believe it.

"Oh my God," escaped from his mouth as he stepped closer to her, his hands not moving. He couldn't quite pinpoint exactly what it was that was making his heart race, the feeling of this baby moving underneath his palm or the fact that Nikki was the one to put his hand there in the first place. That she wanted him to experience this moment with her.

"That's the biggest one yet," Nikki grinned, actually allowing herself to be happy about this whole pregnancy for a change. She could feel the air was thick around them as she felt her eyes connect with his. Her heart fell to the floor and her smile dropped, this was wrong. She moved away from him, his hand slipping from her stomach and the seriousness washing over her once again. "Sorry, I shouldn't have done that."

"Nikki's it's alright," he put his hands up as if he was going to place them on her shoulder but he remained where he stood. "Honestly, you're just excited. You're allowed to be."

Her eyes looked down at the floor briefly before moving back up to catch his, "I know, it's just," she stopped, not really sure of what she was going to say next. "With everything going on, I don't want to rub your nose in it. I'm sorry."

Jack made the move and wrapped his arm around her, engulfing her in his chest, "You've got nothing to be sorry about Niks, I'm the one who's been an arse. You made your decision and I should've respected that," his hands ran up and down her back as she held onto him tightly. "I promised you that I would respect it but I didn't and for that I'm sorry. It was all just a big shock and I didn't know how to deal with it."

Nikki pulled away from him, the tears threatening to escape, "So you're not going then?"

Jack's hands cupped her cheeks as he shook his head, "No," he spoke matter of factly. "Because I can't bear the thought of not having you in my life. Even if it's just as a friend."

"Good," Nikki hugged him back. "I've missed you."

"I've missed you too," Jack spoke, resting his chin on the top of her head. The smell of her shampoo wafting up his nose and making him feel weak at the knees. They could get through this, it was going to hurt. Because he had got the taste of something he was never going to get again but he could power through it. And maybe seeing Nikki making her little family with Matt was going to be the key to him getting over that. He couldn't care less about Matt, he had never trusted him but Jack wasn't going to punish a baby for that. He wasn't going to break up a family. He had known what that felt like, to leave his mother back home in Ireland whilst he moved down to Yorkshire with his father and Ryan. And he didn't want to do that to anyone else.

He hadn't seen his mother in years, they had spoken over the phone occasionally but that was about it. He had tried to explain to her how video call worked so he could see her face but she had, in not so many words, told him to piss off and that she was too old for all of that now. Jack had wanted to go back to Belfast but he couldn't face the memories and horrors of the place. And there was no way he was going to be able to convince his mother to come and see him in London. That wasn't a good life for a child.