"We should bunk off work"

Nikki laughed at Harry's words that were mumbled into her neck as they both lay in bed together, her partner trying so desperately to get her to agree to calling in late to work, or calling out all together.

"You are a bad influence, Harry Cunningham, how did you get where you are now with that attitude?" Nikki teased him, running her fingers through his hair and kissing his forehead, a grin slipping easily onto her face when she heard and felt him huff, another kiss pressed against her skin "And no, Leo can't manage Charlie and Zak on his own he needs another pathologist"

"Fine"

Nikki giggled at Harry's sighed word, putting her hands on his cheeks and kissing him softly on the lips, before pushing back the sheets on the bed and climbing out, grabbing one of Harry's jumpers from the nearby clean pile and putting it on so she wasn't completely naked. She glanced back at the bed as she pulled her hair out of the collar and felt her cheeks heat up when she saw Harry staring.

"What?"

"Nothing"

"What, Harry?" Nikki laughed, pushing up the sleeves that were slightly too long and walking over to the bed to lean down and kiss him, nudging away his hands when they wandered to the hem of the jumper "Stop it. I'm going for a shower and then I'm going home to get ready for work, and no, you can't join me in the shower"

She grinned to herself as she heard Harry's disappointed sigh from the bed as she walked out of the bedroom.

"Nikki, can I have a word?"

Nikki looked away from her computer screen when she heard Leo's voice, seeing him standing in the doorway of his office. She nodded, looking over at Harry at his desk when he whistled and shook his head, still writing whatever notes her was doing.

"Someone is in trouble"

"Shut up" Nikki told him, rolling her eyes and only barely managing to stop herself from throwing a pen at his head as she stood up and walked over to Leo's office, stepping inside and shutting the door "What is it?"

"I've had a request from a lab in Northern Ireland, asking for your expertise with facial reconstruction, from an old friend and colleague of mine. And Harry's actually" Leo told her as she sat down on the couch across from his sofa "Professor Sam Ryan?"

"Northern Ireland?"

"Yes. I was speaking to her one time and I mentioned how it was your expertise, she must have remembered"

"How long does she want me for?" Nikki asked, she wasn't against going, quite the opposite in fact, especially if she was going to be working with Sam Ryan "I've been to a lecture or two of Professor Ryan's back when I was at university, we never met, but she was always the top of her field. I remember she did a lecture about women in pathology, as a male dominated field"

Leo chuckled and nodded, opening the e-mail as he listened to Nikki speak. He knew they would both get on very well if Nikki took this job and they did happen to meet.

"She says it will probably be a maximum of two months"

"I was...expecting a week or two" Nikki frowned, resting her arm on the back of the couch and glancing out through the slightly open blinds to Harry, then back to Leo, missing the way that he looked at her when she had turned away. "Two months? What about this place?"

"Well we have Charlie"

"She's still a student"

"And we can get a locum in"

"Are you trying to get rid of me, Leo?" Nikki couldn't help but tease him, laughing when he rolled his eyes at her.

"Yes, that's what I'm trying to do" Leo rolled his eyes at her and motioned to his computer screen "You think I would willingly let you go and leave me with Harry for two months? This is a great opportunity Nikki"

"Does she say what she needs me to do?" she then asked, hiding her grin at his comment about Harry behind her hand.

"No, but it seems big to need you that long"

"I suppose.." Nikki frowned and ran her fingers through her hair "Give me her e-mail and I'll contact her, ask her some questions"

"I knew you'd say that"

Nikki rolled her eyes and stood up, taking the sticky note from Leo's hand as she walked past his desk and he held it out for her, folding it over as she left his office and walked over to her desk, Harry's desk now empty.

"You know Professor Ryan, don't you" Nikki said to Harry that evening when they were at her place making dinner, or Harry was at least, she was sitting at the kitchen counter with her laptop on in front of her.

"Used to work with her, Leo too. Reminds me a bit of you actually, headstrong, intelligent, top of her game, short. Why?"

Nikki ignored the comment about her height, giving Harry a look over the top of the laptop and seeing him already smirking at her.

"Git" she muttered, but her lips twitched up into a smile despite her words "She's requested that I go to Northern Ireland and help her on a case, needs my help with some reconstruction"

"Oh? When do you leave?"

"How do you know I'm going?"

"Well, it's your field, and Sam asked for you specifically, so I assumed you were going" Harry shrugged, pushing the vegetables into the heating pan and turning the gas down a bit when they hissed "How long for?"

Nikki bit her lip and sighed, shutting the lid of the laptop and resting her arms on top of it as she looked at her partner.

"Two months"

Harry looked up at her quickly, trying to see if she was joking or not, but he could tell by the look on her face that she wasn't. Two months. Not really a long time in the grand scheme of things but a long time otherwise. They hadn't had more than two weeks away from each other in the time that they had known each other even as friends, let alone two months away from each other when they were a couple.

"Harry?"

"Well, it's Northern Ireland not Australia" Harry finally told her as he wiped his hands on the cloth on his shoulder and gave her a smile, leaning against the counter with his palms on it "And we can talk every day, I can come and visit it's not like it's going to be expensive, or forever"

"I know, I just..."

"You can't say no to this Nikki, it's two months"

"I've had relationships break for much less"

Harry sighed, walking around the kitchen counters and putting his hands on Nikki's cheeks, leaning down to kiss her and resting their foreheads together. He had too, but this was them, all the stuff they had been through.

"Do you really think that you going to Northern Ireland for two months is going to break us apart? Unless you have queues of men over there lining up for your attention" he grinned, kissing her before she could respond "Which I'm certain you will have. Some tall Irish man come to steal you from me?"

"Oh shush, that will never happen" Nikki smacked his arm and rolled her eyes at him, knowing he was being ridiculous on purpose "Unless he's rich"

"I probably would let you if he was rich" he mused, earning him another light smack on the arm "Ouch, I'm cooking you dinner and that is how you repay me"

"Baby. Now, I need to go and give Professor Ryan a call"

"Wait, so you're leaving me alone with Leo for two months?" he called after her once he realised what her going to Northern Ireland meant, seeing her shoot him a cheeky smile over her shoulder as she walked from the room with her phone to her ear "Nikki?"

It was going to be a long two months.