Niall

Nikki smiled proudly, sat on the sofa in the reception area with Niall Mynall, the fifteen year old boy she and Harry had looked after for a week. Not that he was fifteen anymore. No, now he was a twenty one year old medical student at Cambridge. Something about that week spent with them had stuck with him and he'd returned from his grandfather's a week later to pick their brains on how to become a pathologist. He'd walked away from that chat with a whole new outlook on his future and the numbers of both pathologists in his pocket. Nikki had fielded a few calls over the years from him, mainly when he wanted advice over something or other, but she hadn't seen him in person, not until an hour earlier when he'd shown up in reception and asked to see her.

"I'm so proud of you Niall." Nikki told him. "You'll make a great doctor, even if you don't become a pathologist." He'd just finished telling her about his latest grades and his electives.

"Oh no, I still want to be a pathologist. Most people think it's weird, but I know what it's really all about." Niall shrugged, smiling back at her. "I'd never have gotten where I have without you and Harry."

"You're the one that did all the hard work." Nikki pointed out, placing a hand on Niall's gently. "You're the one who has achieved everything. All we did was answer the phone when you called."

"No, you were there when I needed you." Niall countered. "You still are. That's… that's a lot." He shifted slightly, uncomfortable.

Nikki smiled at him, squeezing his hand gently. "I'll always be here." She promised softly, meaning every word. "Now, don't you have a class to get to?"

Niall glanced at his watch before standing up, Nikki following suit a moment later. "Yeah, in like ten minutes." He turned round and pulled her into a surprise hug just as Jack and Clarissa returned from their lunch break, the pair watching in surprise as Nikki hugged a young man tightly with a wide smile. Niall pulled back with a mischievous grin, picking up his backpack and making his way to the doors before turning back to the blonde. "Bye mum!"

"Niall!" Nikki called after him with mild exasperation, but he was already gone. Grumbling under her breath about the mischief of children, she turned towards the doors of the lab, only to stop short as she spotted Clarissa and Jack staring at her in shock. "What?"

"How did we not know?" Jack queried faintly. "How come you didn't tell us?"

Nikki frowned. "Tell you about what?"

"The young man who just left." Clarissa motioned to the door Niall had just exited.

"Oh, that's Niall." Nikki shrugged. "Did you have a nice lunch?" She asked as she swiped open the door, holding it open for her colleagues to enter before her. She managed to make it all the way to her desk before Clarissa cornered her, Jack not far behind. Even Thomas stuck his head out of his office to see what was going on.

"Don't you try to play this down." Clarissa warned. "How exactly is it you have a child?"

Nikki sighed. "Blame Harry."

"What?" Jack managed to choke out as Clarissa stared at her with wide eyes and Thomas reddened with embarrassment.

Nikki's brow furrowed as she tried to figure out what her response had sounded like to the other three. Her face flushed bright red. "No! No, Harry and I never… no! Niall isn't really our child, he just calls us mum and dad on occasion to mess with us."

"So how's it Harry's fault?" Clarissa probed, the two men looking less capable of real speech in that moment.

"Niall is the son of Harry's friend. Well, ex-friend. It's Harry's fault we played parents to him in the first place when Niall's dad left him with Harry for a week without so much as a word."

"You blame Harry for a lot of things." Jack commented as he sat down in his office chair.

"It's Harry's fault a lot of the time." Nikki shrugged again. "I blame both of us for Niall wanting to be a pathologist though, if that helps."