Friday night, April 30th BNTN Week minus 7

"So got plans for the weekend?" Harry asked Nikki politely as she packed up her laptop. It was his weekend on call and although all was quiet now, that didn't mean anything on a Friday night. He'd promised his mother he'd pop in if he wasn't knee deep in crime scenes.

"Oh, just take it easy I think, it's been a long week, I've still got some paperwork to finish on that hit and run." Nikki replied.

It hadn't been the answer he'd been wanting, so he fished a bit harder.

"And you're seeing the most suitable, unsuitable man on Sunday again?"

"Harry!, you shouldn't call him that!" Nikki retorted "Henry's really..."

"Nice?, Boring? Safe? Soulless?" Harry interjected, he was being miserable and he knew it, but it was his night on call.

"Attentive, was what I was going for." and then she added,

"Oh cheer up, you've got a face like a dead dog."

"I have not! This is my depressed pathologist on call face, surely you know the difference by now!"

They both laughed and shared an intimate smile, as Nikki picked up her bags and headed for the door. Just before she went through she turned and said "By the way, thanks for the chocolate Harry, it really hit the spot."

Harry smiled and turned his attention back to his desk. His diary was open and there at the top of the page in his coded script was BNTN.

It had all started not long after Nikki had stolen his desk and started to work with them. They had little rows right from the word go, but there was always a reason, some disagreement or difference of opinion between them and then suddenly out of the blue he found himself knee deep in a shouting match and he had no clue what it was about. He would always end up apologising figuring it must have been his fault or Nikki wouldn't have got so angry and life would go back to normal.

The third or fourth time it happened he remembered being called in to Leo's office. He got a tongue lashing from him too, but at least the door was shut and the assorted members of HM police and lab techs didn't get an earful as well. He remembered very clearly Leo saying to him,

"I thought the two of you were just beginning to work things out, we haven't had a fight like this in at least a month, would you please keep it professional out there.."

It hadn't mattered what the rest of Leo's speech was, he had hit the nail on the head, it had been at least a month. The investigative pathologist part of Harry began to piece some parts of the puzzle together.

He tried going back through his diary to see if he could remember when the last 'random fight', as he liked to call them, was. It hadn't taken long, and he had tentatively counted another 28 days forward in his diary and written BNTN. Be nice to Nikki today.

He knew he would have to be careful, anything obvious and Nikki would click what he was doing, and then he really would be for it. So he just made sure he was the one to get the coffee, and would slip a sugar in. Or another month bring in a couple of chocolate bars. He never offered them to her, he just left them on his desk and invariably one or both would disappear by the end of the day. If they were out at a crime scene he would make a point of stopping at a coffee shop or newsagents on the way back, claiming he had the munchies. They were simple things but the difference was startling. Now if they had a fight, he at least knew what it was about. The power of sugar was a wonderful thing.

As soon as he had enough evidence to determine the pattern properly he wrote BNTN through the rest of the diary. You can always rely on numbers he thought to himself with a smile.

Saturday morning post mortem May 1st Week Minus 7

.

Hangover?...none

Bed?...empty

Work?...still on call but had a full nights sleep

Run?...

He hadn't even thought of the answer to point 4 when his phone rang. Early morning jumper on the train tracks. 'Who would pick a Saturday to jump under a train? ' Harry wondered as he pulled on yesterday's clothes. Even with a white suit this was going to be messy and he'd probably end up throwing the clothes away, this way he didn't have to wash them either.

There was one small consolation nagging at the back of his mind. He might have to scrape a jumper of the train tracks but if his BNTN calculations were correct Henry would not be having sex this weekend either.

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