Sugar

"How, how are we out of sugar again?" Thomas asked incredulously, holding up the empty pot as though it would magically refill under his watchful gaze. "I'm sure we ordered some just last week."

Nikki shrugged, not looking up from her report. "Try the cupboard above the fridge. That's usually where Jack stores all the tea and coffee things."

Thomas grumbled under his breath but dutifully checked the cupboard carefully. No sugar there whatsoever. "Nope, no sugar. Great." He sighed, sagging slightly against the counter.

Nikki glanced up from her report, placing her pen down on top of it at the sight of Thomas' dejected demeanour. Sighing silently, she opened her middle drawer and dug around inside it until she found a small, unmarked box. Standing, Nikki strode over to him, handing him the box. "Here. Until we can nip out anyway."

Thomas opened the cardboard box curiously, his brow furrowing in bewilderment when he found it full to the brim with sugar sachets. Some from the LSSE canteen, some from coffee chains, some he couldn't identify from the top of his head. Just sugar packets. He took two from the top, handing the box back to the blonde pathologist carefully. "I'm sorry, but why do you have a box full of sugar sachets Nikki?" He nearly groaned, recognising the shrug she gave him in response.

"Blame-"

"Harry?" Thomas cut in before she could finish the phrase herself. He'd never met the man and had only heard a couple of vague things about him in general, but Nikki seemed to have a habit of blaming him for all sorts of strange things. Blaming him for sugar sachets though was the strangest yet. "How on earth could you having sugar in your desk be Harry's fault?"

Nikki shrugged again. "He said I had to keep it in my desk in case I needed to sabotage any explosives."

Thomas' jaw dropped at her blasé explanation, an explanation that only raised more questions than it answered. "How… what… why…" He cut himself off, instead busying himself with adding the sugar to his tea. "Do I really want to know?" He finally settled on.

"We were held hostage in a university building. Then I was held hostage here in the lab. The only reason we didn't die was because a student had added sugar to sabotage the attempt at blowing us all up." Nikki almost laughed at the horrified expression on Thomas' face. There was a lot about her time at the Lyell she'd never spoken of, times long before the current team that sounded more like fiction than reality. "What's to complain about? At least I've always got sugar."

"Well, on this occasion, I think I'm thankful for the odd things Harry's done." Thomas shuddered lightly. "Are there any other insane stories I need to know about?"

Nikki only smirked as she walked away, her box of sugar sachets in hand.