"Damn right my strong feelings are clouding my judgement! This is my family!"

For a split second, Jack was absolutely furious with her. She had hit a nerve, that's for sure and his anger knew no bounds, but as usual the second he saw Nikki's distress – the same second he yelled, his almost over-whelming feeling was the need to comfort her.

"Sorry" he muttered, now inwardly angry at himself fo rlosing his temper with his cherished.

Nikki swallowed and concentrated very hard on her glass of wine, unsure if she had overstepped the invisible mark that Jack had suddenly drawn between them. Jack himself, stood rooted to the spot, watching her nervously. She had come bearing the gift of pizza to make sure he was ok – and he had just thrown the kind gesture right back in her face.

Nikki couldn't stand it when he was angry with her. It was times like this when, for the briefest of moments, she missed the days before she knew him. The time when she had been oblivious to his existence and the possibility of losing him was an improbability. The days of Harry. She had loved Harry, of course, but she felt it was a different kind of love – less intense than her feelings for Jack she supposed. When he'd left, Nikki had felt anger at Harry for abandoning her – especially as she had never heard anything from him since, but Jack – if he was gone from her life – well, it had nearly happened when Thomas had died and Nikki didn't think she could have coped.

Right now, Jack was angry with her, and Nikki was desperate to be as far away from him as possible – but confusingly, at the same time she didn't want to be anywhere else. If she made it to the door, what would happen, she wondered? Would he try and stop her – try and persuade her to stay? If he was angry enough, maybe he actually wanted her to leave – though somehow, she doubted he was that angry, given that he'd said sorry immediately after shouting. Nikki sat pondering her escape route, but before she had a chance to move, Jack was making his way back to her on the sofa. He sat down next to her and quietly repeated his apology.

"I'm sorry"

Jack held out his hand out to her, hoping against hope that she would take it. His chest grew tight, as she remained facing away from him – almost as if she was afraid to look at him.

Nikki was partly afraid – but not of Jack. She was still afraid of losing him - in whatever way it might happen. She didn't want to look at him and see his fury and hurt. Eventually, Nikki dared to look, but there was no anger in his eyes – just desperation. She made eye contact, but her expression remained as fixed and neutral as she could manage. Jack held his breath.

After what seemed like an eternity, Nikki accepted his olive branch and although she still appeared to feel awkward, she took hold of Jack's outstretched hand with conviction.

"Don't give up. Keep texting her."

She spoke in her usual comforting tone – one she tended to reserve for Jack – and there they sat, hands tightly grasped, neither of them wishing to be the one to let go.

Eventually, Nikki decided it would be best to give Jack the rest of the evening to calm down. She had arrived loaded with pizza – the way to Jack's heart – and his stomach, hoping for an enjoyable evening that would help him to relax. His admission that he might be Cara's father had put her off stride. Granted, Nikki'd had her suspicions from the way Jack had reacted to certain things since Cara's appearance, but for some reason, hearing it from Jack himself had taken her by surprise. Nikki thought, maybe due to this she had been a little harsher and more judgemental in her response than she meant to be, and perhaps the apparent lack of understanding from her – the one who supported him in everything, had made Jack fly off the handle.

In any case, the atmosphere had soured, and their enjoyable evening had turned cold. Nikki wasn't 100% sure that Jack still wanted her there and thought that he was just too polite to say so. If he didn't really want her there, then she certainly didn't want to be there either, and since Jack was reluctant to let go of her hand, possibly due to his guilt over shouting at her, Nikki made the decision to let go first.

"Right, I'd better go" she uttered, releasing him from her grip. "I'll ring a taxi – you don't mind if I leave my car here tonight do you?" She hadn't consumed much wine, but what she had drunk had gone straight to her head during the course of the argument, when she'd downed it far too quickly out of agitation.

Jack stumbled to his feet unsteadily "Yeah ok" he mumbled tripping over the coffee table, his dejected form practically running out the room. Nikki stared after him in surprise.

In the kitchen, Jack picked up the bottle of wine that he and Nikki had started and decided that he was going to finish it himself, along with the second bottle he had in his kitchen. It was the only way he was going to sleep tonight. He had just ruined his friendship with Nikki. He had shocked her by revealing that he'd slept with his brother's girlfriend and might be Cara's dad, and then he'd shouted at her. She was disgusted and no longer wanted to be around him – and he didn't blame her.

Jack leaned on the counter for a few minutes, trying to get the burning behind his eyes to stop. At first he wanted to cry, then he wanted lash out. His punch bag was not in the kitchen. He closed his eyes in an attempt to stop his self-anger rising, but eventually lost the fight and punched the wall. It briefly helped, but the wall much less forgiving than his punch bag and it hurt his hand quite a lot. Jack sighed and took the second bottle of wine out of the fridge.

He went back to the living room and nearly dropped both bottles of wine at the sight he was met with. Nikki was still sat on the sofa – albeit now on the side Jack had been sat on, suggesting that she had got up to leave but had changed her mind. Her legs were folded and her arms crossed as she waited patiently for Jack's return, and in front of her, lined up on the table were a cloth, a bottle of antiseptic, some rubber gloves and a bandage.

Jack stared at her gobsmacked, his mouth opening and shutting like a fish, as he tried find the words that were escaping him.

Nikki was slightly amused by his surprise. "Come on, come here then, I reckon that hand is quite sore. It needs looking at."

Jack put the bottles on the table and sat down next to her, allowing her to examine his hand. "I thought you were leaving"

Nikki shrugged "I was. I thought that was what you wanted but you were too polite to say so."

"Me – polite?"

Nikki chuckled. "Well, anyway, I was going to, but you looked so dejected that I couldn't bring myself to leave." Nikki sighed after surveying the damage to his hand. "Oh Jack, honestly! What was it? The wall?"

Jack looked down guiltily "Kitchen wall"

He looked back up after a minute or two "You had everything ready - how did you know?"

"Two things" Nikki commented, gently cleaning his hand. "You were clearly upset and you went in the opposite direction to the punch bag."

"oh" Jack stared around him. "But where did you get them?"

"Work"

Jack stared at her in amazement. Had she really had time to go to the Lyell and back? Had he been in the kitchen that long? He must have seriously lost track of time – either that or she drove far too fast and they would have police knocking on the door any minute, followed by him trying to get her out of trouble, losing his temper again and punching another wall – or worse.

"Don't be silly, Jack" Nikki mused, knowing exactly what was running through his head. "After the boxing match, I decided to keep some first aid supplies in my handbag in case. I know what you're like!"

Just then they heard the front door open and close. Presently, Connor stepped into the room, having returned from bingo.

"Hi Da, how was your evening."

Connor bobbed his head in Jack's direction "Alright, thank you." His eyes fell on Nikki carefully patching up his son's hand. "Oh Jack, not again! What happened? Why didn't you use the punch bag?"

Jack bit his lip and looked away.

"He was a bit upset, but he's ok now, aren't you?" Nikki intervened, lightly stroking the hand she was tending to. Jack nodded. "Unfortunately the punch bag was in the wrong place." Nikki added.

Connor sighed "Listen Son, I know you're stressed – things haven't been easy lately, but you need to stop this – it's not good for you."

"I know Da, I'm sorry" Jack answered "I promise I'll try."

"Right, well if you don't mind I'm going to bed. Oh, Jack here – thank you." The older man handed Jack the card he had borrow, owing to Ryan having disappeared his own. He turned to the blonde doctor. "It's nice to see you, Nikki – and thank you for sorting my son out! Night."

Nikki smiled "Its nice to see you too, Connor. Night."

"He always goes to bed straight after bingo." Jack explained as his Dad departed upstairs. "I think it wears him out."

Nikki finished bandaging Jack's hand, before patting his leg. "Your Dad is right you know." She told him gently. "You need to either invest in more punch bags or find another outlet for your anger. There's only so many times I can patch you up before your hand drops off!"

Jack looked away again. "You think less of me don't you?"

"What?"

"You were really shocked about Cara. You think less of me because I slept with my brother's girlfriend."

"No you idiot!" Nikki exclaimed affectionately "Of course I don't. I don't know why I reacted like that. I didn't mean to. I must admit I've had my suspicions from the way you've reacted at certain points since Cara showed up. These things happen, Jack – and I have to say if you are Cara's dad, then she's the luckiest girl in the world."

"Really?"

Nikki snuggled up to him and wrapped her arms around him. "mmm really."

"Certain points?" Jack repeated, enveloping her in his own arms and putting his feet on the coffee table. "What certain points were they?"

"Oh I don't know maybe when we were discussing Frank the wank and Adam made a comment about a teenager suddenly showing up and calling someone 'Dad' " She mused "And perhaps this case when the detective was shocked about someone having sex with their brother's wife. You looked really guilty. That's not a normal reaction."

Jack rubbed his face with his hand, before replacing the hand around Nikki. "I can't hide anything from you, can I?"

His heart nearly stopped as she leaned up and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Why – do you want to?" she whispered softly.

His shook his head, her spontaneous decision to kiss his cheek removing his ability to speak for a few seconds.

"I don't want you to go" he murmured.

Nikki looked at him sympathetically; knowing they both had work tomorrow, but not wanting to leave herself. "I know, I don't want to go either, but I don't have anything with me. Pyjamas." She added at his looked of confusion.

"You could wear one of my t – shirts – it would be long enough-" He trailed off.

"Or a toothbrush" Nikki commented.

"You can share mine" Jack responded instantly without thinking, then quickly tried to cover himself and ended up digging an even bigger hole. "We can get you a chest of drawers of your own and you can bring some stuff and-"

Nikki raised her eyebrows at him. Was he actually suggesting that she moved in?

Jack went red and tried to hide his face in her hair. "You could go home before work tomorrow if you need to."

Nikki looked at his legs suspended on the coffee table. "Yeah I guess I could." She lifted her own legs up and placed them on his. "Besides, someone needs to help you drink that wine" she indicated the two bottles on the table " – and on that subject, drinking yourself to sleep is not going to help either"

She snuggled up to him again. "Because that's what you were planning to do, isn't it?"