The Right Pizza

"That was amazing" Jack murmured, half under his breath, so that only Nikki could hear.

He had been totally memorised by her performance of 'Angels' – partly because he knew she was aiming the words at him, but also because he hadn't expected her to so readily accept his challenge, and had been rather taken aback when she happily got up and breezed to the stage with enthusiasm. Whilst Jack had every confidence that Nikki would do a brilliant job, he had been truly captivated by just how beautifully moving it was to hear her sing.

As a result he had been incapable of speech on her return and had to resort to squeezing her hand – albeit under the table, to avoid detection from Simone, who was clearly wise to his adoring gaze and badly disguised feelings.

Nikki didn't mind his silence. She and Simone had no trouble holding the fort discussing firstly, ending their respective long-term relationships, and then archaeology and the like. For once, Jack had enjoyed listening to the two women without speaking and Nikki found his gentle squeezing of her hand a comforting feeling she never wanted to lose.

Now they had left the premises, Jack had found his voice again, but was also aware that Simone was only two steps ahead of them.

"Thanks" Nikki whispered, taking his hand in hers and immediately taking his breath away again by raising it to her lips for the briefest of moments.

Jack's situation didn't improve upon reaching the car park. After saying 'Goodnight' to Simone and watching her drive off, Jack spent the following few minutes fumbling frantically for his car keys, before gazing around in bewilderment for his car. Nikki appeared next to him.

"No sweetie" The term of endearment naturally rolled of her tongue. "Your car is at the Lyell. I drove us here." She reminded him sympathetically.

In normal circumstances, Jack would have remembered, due to the fact Nikki had been on soft drinks all evening, but as the latter was undoubtedly aware, his forgetful behaviour was solely down to her.

Jack kicked himself as they got in her car. He was acting like a love struck schoolboy. He needed to pull himself together before she decided he was actually a total idiot and not worth bothering with.

"Will you come to mine for pizza?"

To his astonishment his accent came out stronger than he expected – but then he hadn't used his voice very much since Nikki's stint at Karaoke, so maybe it wasn't that surprising.

"To make up for shouting at you" He added, hopefully.

Jack was suddenly nervous. It had all come out faster than he expected – what if Nikki hadn't understood what he said?

He needn't have worried – Nikki was well tuned to his accent. He breathed an inward sigh of relief as he realised that her pause was due to navigating the car park, which had got much fuller since arrival earlier, and was also much more complicated than it should be to exit.

"You don't need to do that, Jack. You've already said sorry." Nikki responded. "And I'm not going to hold it against you for caring about your family."

"Will you though?" Jack pleaded, ignoring her point that he had already apologised. It didn't matter. He still felt bad about yelling at her.

At the time, Jack had seen straight away that he had upset her and was worried she would get up and leave. It was the only thing that made him hesitate before going back to sit next to her – to hold his hand out as an olive branch. It was the only reason Jack hadn't pulled her into his arms for a hug. They could normally communicate without words but in those moments, it was almost as if the bond between the two of them had been briefly severed by his anger and they genuinely couldn't understand each other. Nikki couldn't work out if he was really angry at her or the whole situation – and Jack didn't know whether she wanted him to hug her or leave her alone. It was a punishing few minutes for them, but when Nikki accepted his hand and spoke softly to him, both their hearts overflowed again.

Now, in the car, even though the argument was long since over and Nikki had clearly forgiven him, Jack wished he had not doubted himself, and had just pulled her straight in a hug after saying sorry. He was determined that she would get to relax with him and a pizza, the way she had obviously been hoping to when she had turned up on his doorstep.

"What about you're Dad?"

"Huh?"

"Will he mind me being there?" Nikki questioned, as she stopped the car outside his house. "I mean maybe you and he need to spend time together."

Jack was frustrated and had to take a deep breath before he answered. Nikki appeared to be trying to find reasons why she couldn't have a pizza with him, and he didn't understand why. He was disappointed that she didn't seem to want his company anymore – maybe she had decided he wasn't worth bothering with after all.

Jack creased his brow with the effort to keep the agitation out of his voice. "Da won't mind. He thinks you're brilliant – especially after you helped him the other night."

"Then I would love to have pizza with you." Nikki answered promptly, taking Jack by surprise again.

She did want to have pizza with him. She was just being her normal considerate self. He was over thinking things again - and the beer he'd drunk probably wasn't helping.