(A/N): this is a Harry/Nikki fic, set during a guilty mind. What if Harry had stayed when Nikki had been naked and terrified in her bed, instead of leaving her? I'm not entirely happy with the ending but I couldn't obsess over it any longer so you all get whatever my brain came up with. I own nothing, but please enjoy and let me know what you think.
Stay when I call your name.
"Harry? Harry!"
"Hey, it's okay babes." The 'babes' snuck out before he could stop it, but Harry Cunningham was much more focused on Nikki Alexander and the terror he could hear in her voice, sliding onto the bed beside her and gathering her up into his arms. He knew he'd done the right thing when she practically buried herself into his side, actually shaking. He glanced round, only then noticing Naomi Silverlake, the daughter of a recently deceased who had befriended Nikki, watching them, or rather him, with narrowed eyes that quickly changed to a blank expression. Maybe he'd imagined it. Harry rubbed Nikki's back gently, his face turned back to her and automatically full of her hair. She was still shaking in his arms and he rubbed her arm lightly, trying to instil a little warmth into her. She was more than worrying him, but he knew he had to simply be there and hope it was enough. "Naomi's been looking after you. You were dead asleep." Ordinarily that lame joke would have at least gotten an eye roll from his blonde friend, but instead she still looked terrified.
"Harry," Nikki hissed frantically. "You have to stay with me. Help me please." She desperately wanted him to help her, but she knew that her terrified state, plus everything she'd done the last few days, would only worry Harry further and not make him see that there was a specific reason she needed his help. Naomi was still watching them in seeming concern, so Nikki buried herself further into Harry's side. Maybe if she held on tight enough, he'd at least stay with her and she wouldn't have to be alone with the woman who had scared her on multiple occasions and had undressed her without consent. Now she thought about it, Naomi had somehow appeared every time she'd felt like she was being followed recently. But then, surely that was just a coincidence?
"There's someone Leo and I would like you to see." Harry pulled back a little, his hand resting on her hair as he looked her in the eye, silently conveying that her agreement would benefit him and Leo as well as her. She knew they worried about her, particularly with her unintentional knack for trouble finding her. Slowly, she nodded. She didn't want to go, but she would, for Harry's sake and for Leo's sake. Harry smiled gently at her then, his hand slipping from her hair to her back, where he frowned, the initial panic from his first entrance to the room slipping away to reveal more details that he hadn't taken in before, like her current state of undress. He knew she usually slept in pyjamas from their many movie nights together. "Nikki, not that I'm complaining, but why are you naked?" Harry's eyes widened as Nikki's panicked gaze shot to Naomi, the trembling in her limbs starting up once more. He followed her gaze to find Naomi watching them both in an eerie sort of detached manner.
"She was sleeping in her work clothes. Hardly comfortable." Naomi's sing song voice repeated her reason for a second time, which did nothing to reassure Nikki, who clutched the duvet closer to her as Harry's arms instinctively tightened round her.
"You undressed her?" Harry checked incredulously. Even he wouldn't go any further than taking off her boots and maybe taking off her jumper if she had a top on underneath, and he knew if push came to shove, Nikki would trust him to undress her. She most definitely would not trust a relative stranger to do so, and especially not when she was dead to the world asleep. Now he could understand the trembling of the woman in his arms. She'd clearly only just woken up when he'd arrived, and the shock of having no clothes on when he'd definitely put her to bed in her clothes had been enough for her to call out for him in a panic. "Why the hell would you do that? Tell me that's all you did."
"Well, I tidied up a little. The place was a little messy." Naomi's unconcerned tone only concerned the two pathologists more. To their shock and horror, she stood up from the small couch and slipped out one of Nikki's biggest kitchen knives from under her bag, pointing it in their general direction.
"Shit." Harry swore under his breath, pushing both himself and Nikki as far back on the bed as he could without them both tumbling to the floor in a tangle of limbs. Out of everything that he thought could possibly have happened when he went to check on Nikki, a knife wielding woman and a naked best friend had not been what he was expecting, though he was trying hard to ignore the latter point and pretend she was still wearing clothes for his own peace of mind.
"Your jacket." Both pathologists stared at Naomi with incomprehension at her words as she gestured to Harry with the weapon. "I assume your phone is in your jacket. Take your jacket off and throw it across the room."
Harry eyed her warily, but slowly did as she asked, sliding the coat off his shoulders and arms before screwing it up in a ball and throwing it in the direction of the doorway where it hit Nikki's hardwood floor with a loud thunk, proving his phone was actually in the garment. His arm automatically went back round the blonde woman beside him, this time round her waist as they both watched Naomi with wide eyes.
"Naomi?" Nikki's voice was soft, a hint of confusion but mostly worry colouring her tone. Naomi turned to her more than Harry at the sound of her name, offering an approximation of a smile, though the effect was ruined by the wild glint in her eyes and the knife she was still pointing at them. "Naomi, why don't you put the knife down?"
"No." Naomi shook her head instantly. "No." She waved the knife further at them, both doctors instinctively moving back until their backs hit the headboard and they had nowhere else to go, sat propped up in Nikki's bed staring at Naomi. As if on cue, Harry's phone started ringing, his jacket moving across the floor slightly with the vibrations. Neither pathologist made a move for the coat, for Naomi was watching them carefully, the knife firm in her grip. She'd reach them before they could reach the phone and they both knew it. The noise ceased, only for Nikki's phone to start up a similar noise from the living room.
Nikki and Harry exchanged a frantic, worried glance. Only one person would ring both of them in such quick succession. Only one person would automatically ring the other when they couldn't get hold of the first person they'd tried calling, knowing they were practically joined at the hip most of the time. "Leo," they murmured in unison.
"I was meant to be meeting him at the hospital once I'd checked in on you." Harry told Nikki carefully. Here in his arms, she seemed more herself than she'd been for at least the last few days, and he found himself wondering just how much of her current mental state was down to the woman holding them at knife point. It wasn't difficult to tell that something was deeply bothering the blonde pathologist, and if Naomi had picked up on it, it would have been all too easy to manipulate things for Nikki and convince her she was worse than she actually was. It was Naomi that had brought in the only evidence of her father's medical files after all, and she did seem to appear at the oddest times. "I've been gone longer than I said I would."
"The hospital?" Naomi's voice cut through their little bubble, slightly too high and a little unstable. Harry's phone began ringing again, but the device was unceremoniously ignored by all three of them.
"Yes, the hospital." Harry confirmed, feeling Nikki shiver a little next to him. Even under the covers, she was too cold, and he doubted she was going to warm up anytime soon on her own. Sighing, he began to pull at his jumper, slipping his arms out from the sleeves and pulling it over his head, leaving himself shirtless with the warm bundle in his hands.
"What are you doing?" Naomi demanded.
"She's cold." Harry motioned to Nikki with his head. "And somehow I doubt you're going to let me up long enough to get her her own clothes." He turned then, helping Nikki get the jumper over her head with minimal protests from the blonde woman, though he knew she'd be concerned with him being cold as well. She pushed her own arms through the sleeves as he held up the duvet for her, allowing her a modicum of privacy as she pulled his jumper down to cover herself, the long material covering her to about mid-thigh. Harry's phone had ceased ringing, but Nikki's had once more taken up the incoming call instead.
"Thank you." Nikki murmured gratefully, the jumper already doing wonders. She was a lot warmer already and she felt less exposed, less violated. How on earth did she keep ending up in these ever ridiculous situations? It was only a small blessing that for a change, Harry was there, at her side, his arm round her waist. It usually happened once he'd left, or she had wandered off on her own for whatever reason. "Are you sure you won't be cold?" She checked.
"I'll be fine, plus you can't ogle me nearly so much if I've a shirt on now, can you?" Harry forced the tease out, knowing they needed to keep the tone light, for their benefit as well as to keep Naomi calm. They just needed to wait it out. Leo would be there as soon as he realised neither of them were picking up, hopefully. Nikki slapped at his bare stomach playfully, the corners of her mouth twitching into an involuntary smile, the first genuine one he'd seen since he'd offered to remove her liver for her in the cutting room.
"Implies you've anything to ogle." Nikki shot back right on cue as Harry placed his free hand to his chest in mock hurt, their flirtatious natures slipping out easily. In the background, both phones had fallen silent, though neither Nikki nor Harry decided to draw any attention to it.
"Stop it, just stop it." Naomi's eyes flashed dangerously as she took a couple hurried steps forward, glaring at them, though mainly Harry, the two pathologists noticed in confusion. "You're part of the problem, don't you see?"
"See what?" Nikki asked worriedly, her hands resting on Harry's forearm, as his free arm had moved round her front protectively at Naomi's jerky behaviour. "Naomi, what's part of the problem?" She'd noticed that Naomi tended to talk at Harry, but respond to her, so she thought it would be easier if she tried with the obviously ill woman before them. Honestly, Nikki would do anything to get both herself and Harry out of there alive, preferably in one piece.
"Doctors, with their fancy words and the pills." Naomi scoffed bitterly, waving the knife a little. "He," she pointed the knife at Harry, "is just trying to dope you up, so he doesn't have to deal with the way you see the world." She took another unsteady step forward, the weapon still firm in her grip despite the crazed look in her eyes.
"What?" Harry's gaze flicked incredulously between the woman holding them hostage and the woman in his arms. Neither he nor Nikki honestly thought Naomi was solely talking about them anymore, but they still had to tread carefully. "Naomi, I'd never do anything to hurt Nikki." He tried to assure the woman, glancing down at Nikki, whose brow had furrowed in that fondly familiar way that told him she'd just thought of something.
"The drugs." Nikki murmured, her grip tightening on Harry but her eyes focusing on the woman now stood at the end of the bed, only a few feet from them. "Naomi, those antidepressants, they weren't your father's, were they? They were yours."
Harry's eyes widened, another thought dawning on him. If Nigel Silverlake hadn't killed himself because he'd stopped taking his medications, then it had to be another reason. And he'd been dead before the nurse had been murdered, so he couldn't have been responsible for that. But the nurses had been insistent that a Dr Silverlake had visited the ward on the night in question. Maybe, much like the antidepressants, it wasn't Nigel Silverlake at all. "Naomi, what do you do for a living?"
Naomi stared between them both for a moment before apparently coming to the conclusion that telling them wouldn't hurt anything. "I'm a pharmacologist at the hospital."
"A doctor?" Harry pressed insistently.
"PhD." Naomi supplied reluctantly, taking another step closer, more at the corner of the bed than the bottom. Nearly within reaching distance. "My mother says I try too hard. Can you imagine? Being criticised for trying too hard." She scoffed loudly. "I won't let you take her." She threatened Harry with a dark glare, her eyes flickering to Nikki and giving away the 'her' Naomi was referring to.
Harry and Nikki both frowned in confusion. "Naomi, he's not taking me anywhere." Nikki tried to reason softly, pulling Harry slightly further behind her than next to her. For some reason, Naomi seemed to be fixated on hurting Harry but not hurting her, and she definitely didn't want Harry harmed. Especially not because of her. He meant too much to her for that.
"They claim to love you, claim to want what's best, but all they really want is to make you like them, to take away what makes you special, unique." Naomi had tears in her eyes at that point, the tip of the knife quavering ever so slightly. "Nikki. We both want the world to be kinder, don't we?"
"Yes." Nikki nodded, agreeing mainly to try and calm the woman down. Sure, she'd appreciate a kinder world, but she wasn't nearly so naïve as to believe that the world would ever be so kind. She was a pathologist, for crying out loud, and a forensic anthropologist. She was no stranger to how cruel, how unkind the world could be. "Naomi, Harry's not trying to take me away." She tried again. "He wouldn't want me to be anything other than who I am."
Faintly, Harry and Nikki could hear the buzzer by her front door, indicating someone was trying to gain access to the building. Hopefully, someone else would let them in soon, as they just hoped Naomi hadn't heard the sound. She seemed lost in her own bubble though, focused on the pair of them and not the flat she was stood in. Harry quickly nodded his agreement, trying to keep Naomi focused on them for as long as possible in the hope that help would soon arrive. "Of course not. I'd never want Nikki to be anything other than who she is. She wouldn't be Nikki Alexander otherwise. Fine, no doctor, no psychiatrist." He held his hands up in a sign of surrender, though his arms were still wrapped round the blonde pathologist. There was no way he was letting her go unless he absolutely had to, and even then he'd put up one hell of a fight. "No drugs."
"Good." Naomi nodded jerkily, though contradictorily she took another step forward, prompting Nikki to slide further to the middle of the bed against the headboard, pulling Harry along with her with her grip on his arm and his grip still round her waist. Harry nearly apologised to Nikki for having his shoes on her bed but bit his lip just in time. It was hardly significant in the circumstances. "People… people are weak. That's why the world will never be kinder."
"People, people like those in the hospital?" Nikki checked as all the pieces of the puzzle slipped into place. "The ones you…"
"I took their burden from them." Naomi's voice was cold, calculating, as though she actually believed what she was telling them.
All three of them jumped as thuds emanated from the direction of Nikki's front door, like someone pounding their fists on the wooden barrier. "Nikki? Harry?" The faint voice wafted through to the bedroom and the two pathologists exchanged relieved looks. Leo was at the door, pounding to try and get in. "Nikki! Harry!"
"Not a word." Naomi hissed dangerously, her eyes glinting wildly once more, the knife wavering between them both. More pounding came from the direction of the door along with more shouts of their names before Harry's phone started loudly ringing once more. Very clearly able to be heard throughout the flat, including the front door. Naomi glanced more at Nikki than at Harry, desperation in her gaze along with a sad sort of finality. "I want you to tell them… when people ask why. I took their burden from them." She smirked sadly at the terrified pair on the bed. "I was never going to hurt you, Nikki. We're very much alike, you and I." She raised the knife as Harry shifted protectively, trying to protect Nikki despite Naomi's words she wasn't going to harm the blonde woman. However, instead of using it on the two people she was holding hostage, she instead brought the knife to her own neck. "I took their burden from them." The sound of the front door crashing open made all three of them jump but didn't deter Naomi one bit. "What's the point in me?" She slashed the knife across her throat, slumping to the ground just as Leo stumbled into the room, the two police officers working on their latest case close on his heels.
Leo stared at them for a moment, surprise all over his features as somewhere in the background, he saw the female officer try to stem the bleeding on Naomi's throat and the male officer phone for an ambulance, both from the corner of his eye. He was too busy staring at his two pathologists. Both were sat in the middle of Nikki's bed up against the headboard, sheets crumpled around them. Both had messy bed hair and it looked like Nikki was wearing nothing but Harry's jumper, which the shirtless man beside her had obviously given her at some point as Leo had seen him wearing it already that morning. They were clutching each other as close as humanly possible, almost as though they'd disappear if they let each other go. If one was to ignore the horrified, scared looks on their faces, and the crazed woman at the side of Nikki's bed with a knife wound to her neck, it would look as though he'd just burst in on his two pathologists sleeping together. Honestly, he could understand most things about the scene he'd burst in on, including why neither of them had answered their phones, but how on earth had it come to Nikki wearing Harry's top and neither seeming to have even registered it? "Are you two alright?" Leo settled on, moving to the opposite side of the bed as the officers worked on stopping the bleeding on their suspected murderer. Two pairs of wide eyes shot to him instantly.
"Just peachy Leo, if you don't include being held at knifepoint when you show up to check on your best friend." Harry managed to get out, his arms still tight round Nikki, as though she'd vanish if he let up his hold for even a moment. "She has been ogling me though, so it's not all a waste."
Leo rolled his eyes as Nikki automatically tapped his stomach lightly in return. Of course they would've been making stupid jokes and cracks even with a knife wielding woman holding them hostage in Nikki's room. That was why he called them adults by technicality instead of thinking them to be truly adult. He definitely felt like the father of two unruly teenagers at times. "I told you, there's nothing to ogle." Nikki returned with slightly narrowed eyes, though a smile was playing at her lips as Harry pinched her side through his jumper in response. Leo fought the urge to sigh. How was it that another brush with people trying to hurt her could restore her somewhat to the Nikki they'd been trying to get through to for days now? "Leo, he just pinched me!" Nikki complained, the slight whine to her voice as though she was a child tattling to her father.
"Did not." Harry denied with a laugh. "Anyway, I very generously loaned you my jumper in the first place. You better not stretch it."
"Is that you calling me fat?" Nikki checked lightly before her whole face softened into sincerity. "Thank you, Harry. For the jumper. For… not leaving."
"Trust me, you are anything but fat. Even with the shocking amount of takeaway you consume." Harry assured her just as sincerely. "I wouldn't leave you; you know that Nikki. As for the jumper, don't worry about it." Their conversation was interrupted by the paramedics arriving, taking over from the police working on Naomi, leaving them free to approach the pathologists on and at the side of the bed.
"So, what exactly happened here?" The man, Skippy, asked briskly, his eyes betraying amusement at the circumstances of the half-dressed pathologists huddled together. "Threesome a bit much?" He paused for a moment before turning to his companion, Cat. "Reckon I should apologise for that?"
"Probably." Cat shrugged. "What happened?"
Harry cleared his throat uncomfortably. "I came to check on Nikki this morning and she was fast asleep on the sofa. I carried her to bed and took her shoes off for her." He deliberately missed out the part where she sleepily kissed him. They didn't need to know that part. Even if he was playing the moment on a constant loop in his brain. "Naomi was waiting and claimed to be her friend, promised to look after her. I didn't think too much of it because I was already late meeting you lot at the hospital." He fought back the overwhelming feelings of guilt that he'd left Nikki with a clearly unhinged woman when she was at what could possibly be her most vulnerable.
"And?" Leo prompted. He, of course, knew all of that from Harry that morning. "You told me you were popping in to check on her for a couple of minutes. What the hell happened?"
"I let myself in." Harry shrugged. "Didn't think anything of it but Nikki caught sight of me and the panic in her voice let me know something was wrong. It was only after I'd calmed her down that I realised she wasn't how I left her." He sighed at the looks of incomprehension he was receiving from everyone except the woman still in his arms. "Well, seeing as how I left her fully dressed and tucked in and came back to find her wearing nothing except her duvet and panicking, I'd say something was different."
Leo's expression darkened. If Nikki was as tired as Harry had said, then there was no way she would've been coherent enough to strip herself once he'd left. And there was no way on earth Harry would betray her trust and do it without her knowledge or consent. Which only left one answer and he really hoped he was wrong. "Naomi took your clothes off in your sleep?"
Nikki nodded with wide eyes as she took over the story. "Harry noticed and asked why. Naomi told him I looked uncomfortable in my work clothes. Then she pulled a knife on us, made Harry throw his jacket over there so he couldn't use his phone." She nodded to the doorway where Harry's jacket still lay in a crumpled heap. "Harry noticed me shivering and took his jumper off to keep me warm, helped me put it on."
"It's not like I would've been able to pick her out an outfit with a knife being pointed at us." Harry defended himself lightly. "Anyway, we figured out that Naomi had been the one to kill those people at the hospital and she… she told us that she did it to help them from their burden or something like that. She never hurt us, we're both unharmed." All eyes drifted towards the unconscious woman as the paramedics managed to get her onto a stretcher and began to wheel her out. Skippy nodded to them and left to follow the ambulance, Cat close on his heels. If they were unharmed, their official statements could be taken later.
Leo sighed, running a hand through his hair as he took in the pair huddled on the bed, watching him as though expecting to be told off or something. Not an uncommon expression when he had to deal with them. He'd lost count of the number of times he'd walked into the office to find Harry trying to prise Nikki away from his desk, or both of them huddled with their heads together looking as thick as thieves. "Usually I can't leave you two alone because you bicker like schoolchildren. Or play hide and seek in the office." All three shared a smirk at that. Only a couple of weeks before, a few days before Nikki's postmortem on the eight year old, Leo had returned late afternoon from being called out to a scene. He'd returned to a surprisingly quiet office, only to find neither of his pathologists at their desks, not even Nikki deliberately sitting at Harry's desk as she did at times for various reasons, including irritating her best friend or something being on her mind. Curious, Leo had gone looking for them, as it was too early for them to have gone home even without any bodies to examine. There was no sign of his forensic pathologists in the office area, or the lab area, though Zak had rolled his eyes when Leo had mentioned looking for them. Eventually, he'd made his way down to the locker room.
Leo frowned in confusion as he stepped into the locker room, finding Harry in there but no Nikki. Unless she was in the shower, there wasn't anywhere else she could be, as he'd glanced in the cutting room on his way and seen neither of his wayward employees that felt more like wayward children at times. Harry, curiously enough, didn't seem to notice Leo enter the room as he peered round a tiny corner space between the end locker and the wall before spinning round with a deep frown. "Harry, what are you doing?" Leo asked with more than a little exasperation in his tone.
Harry glanced up, shrugging at his boss. "Finding Nikki."
"Is she lost?" It was a fair question, considering the trouble Nikki somehow seemed to get herself into unintentionally.
Harry shook his head. "No, not lost." His face lit up with an idea as he span to his own locker and practically wrenched the door open, a grin covering his features. "Found you! How the hell did you even manage to cram yourself in there?"
To Leo's astonishment, the door to Harry's locker opened further, revealing Nikki somehow tucked into a ball in the bottom of the tiny metal locker, pouting a little at being found. Leo sighed. Of course they wouldn't be doing work like they were paid to, like the adults they supposedly were, but would be playing hide and seek instead like a couple of children. Somehow, Harry managed to get a grip under Nikki's arms to help pull her out of his locker, only to pull too hard and send them both tumbling to the floor in a pile of limbs and laughter.
"I swear, we didn't mean to do anything this time Leo." Harry shrugged. "I can't prove it, but I think Naomi noticed Nikki's… distraction, and exploited it." He shrugged again as both Leo and Nikki stared at him with wide eyes. "She obviously scared you Nikki and I know it's not the first time. She's probably also been following you, trying to find out when you're alone and mess with your head."
"The shoplifting." Nikki breathed out with realisation. "I left my bag in the changing room for a few minutes, and then when I was stopped, Naomi was suddenly there."
"She probably planted the things in your bag." Leo nodded, the theory making a lot more sense. "And then showed up to help in order to get herself closer to you."
Nikki shuddered in Harry's arms at the thought. "I'm just glad Harry noticed something was wrong. I know Naomi said she wouldn't hurt me but…" She trailed off with another shudder. The two men exchanged a look, both wondering how much of her state had been down to Naomi's manipulations and how much had been because she couldn't get the little girl out of her head. She certainly seemed a lot more herself now she was certain Naomi couldn't appear from nowhere. Harry tightened his grip on her instinctively, resting his cheek on her hair. "Thanks for not leaving."
"I told you, I wouldn't leave you." Harry reiterated for her firmly. "Listen, I know I promised Naomi no doctors, but how about I make it a choice? It's up to you if you want to see the psychiatrist or not." Harry ignored Leo's worried glare that was shot in his direction. The older man hadn't been there when Naomi had threatened them, or to see Nikki's initial reluctance to the idea before Naomi had produced the knife. "But, if you choose not to, you have to instead promise to be absolutely open with the pair of us about how you're feeling and if it gets any worse, we may not have a choice. Leo might send us both to see his doctor friend."
"I feel… calmer than I was." Nikki replied slowly, her hands still firmly holding Harry's arm to her. "It's not the talking I mind. I just really don't like the drugs I know I'll get prescribed."
"Then don't fill the prescription." Harry shrugged. "They can't make you take anything you don't want to, even if I'm sure they wouldn't prescribe you anything on a whim."
Nikki shook her head. "No… I've felt… jumpy, I suppose, tired yes, but constantly on edge, like someone was watching me or following me and I couldn't figure out why. Now I know it was probably Naomi and it wasn't all in my head… I don't know, I feel sort of…"
"Relieved?" Leo offered gently, moving to perch on the end of the bed facing the younger pair. "To know there's a person behind it all that isn't yourself."
"Yes, maybe. The little girl is still haunting me I know, but I think that's because what happened to her was so horrific, so evil, and there was nothing I could've done about it." Nikki swallowed back her tears. "Maybe this is just going to be one of those cases that stick with you."
"Maybe. But it wouldn't hurt to talk about things." Leo leant forward to pat Nikki's foot over the duvet with a small smile. "I'll leave you two to get dressed."
Harry and Nikki watched Leo leave the room, closing the door behind him to give them a little privacy as her front door was broken. They turned to stare at each other, the magnitude of what had just happened sinking in for them. Nikki's hands clutched Harry's forearm as his arms tightened round her. "Did that just happen?" Nikki murmured, shaking a little. Harry instinctively held her closer, burying his face in her hair.
"I think so. Nikki, I'm sorry." Harry's face crumpled slightly as he breathed in the comforting scent that was just Nikki.
"What for?" She frowned, pulling back slightly to look him in the eye. He shrugged, but the self-recrimination practically radiated off him in waves.
"Leaving you alone with Naomi. I swear, if I'd have known…"
"But you didn't Harry, you didn't know." Nikki told him earnestly, placing a hand on his cheek and stroking it softly. "And once you did know something was wrong, you stayed with me. You stayed, Harry."
"Nikki." His eyes flickered down to her lips, barely an inch from his own. Nikki swallowed nervously, her fingers stuttering on their path back and forth on his cheek. Despite their disastrous attempt to start a relationship years before, the attraction and love between them had only grown, not waned, with time. Both were certain everyone around them knew they loved each other, though most had given up commenting on it. Leo still shot them knowing looks on occasion, but they'd ignored him ever since Nikki had started at the lab, so that was unlikely to change anytime soon.
Their heads gravitated towards each other instinctively, a natural movement between them as their lips met. It wasn't like the first kiss they'd shared, where it had been hard and fast. No, this was slow, gentle. Them. Harry's arms tightened round her further as Nikki's arms moved up round the back of his neck, tangling her fingers in his hair, lost completely in each other.
A cough broke them apart, turning to find a red faced Leo in the doorway, watching them with mock disapproval. "Whilst I'm happy for the pair of you sorting out whatever's going on between you, we do need to get to the police station. So, Nikki, please get dressed and give Harry his jumper back so we can get going."
Harry and Nikki shared a smile, laden with promises. His hand slipped round her to grip her fingers lightly, slipping his own between her slender digits and squeezing them in a silent vow. Together, intertwined, no matter what. Both pathologists turned to Leo with matching grins as they chorused out their response. "Yes Leo."
Leo simply laughed, shaking his head at them. "You two will drive me insane one of these days. Just one thing. No sex at work."
Harry smirked, pulling Nikki into his side and pressing a kiss to her hair. "No promises, Leo."
Nikki poked him in the stomach with a roll of her eyes. "Harry, behave. Yes Leo, we promise no sex at work."
"Yes dear." Harry laughed as she poked his stomach again. "Leo, are you sure it's too late to fire the girl?"
"I'm more likely to fire you at the moment than I am Nikki." Leo chuckled as Harry pouted and Nikki stuck her tongue out at her dark haired colleague. Things could have been worse, much worse, but they were all alive, all together, all happy. And for Harry and Nikki, an electric current ran between them, the promise of so much more together. Forever.
The end.