Hi lovely people, sorry it's been so long. You've all said such nice things, I'm having kittens about the ending and rewriting and rewriting, I hope you'll like it. Anyway in the mean time here's a bit more, and you are all genius's of course.

Friday June 11th Week Minus 1

"Harry, in here!" Leo's voiced called across the office.

"I thought I asked you to find out what was up with Nikki?" Leo asked crossly.

"Well?"

"I'm not sure." Harry mumbled. "She's not always easy to talk to, and she's not been carrying any placards saying 'I'm really depressed' so..." Harry trailed off.

"Harry!" Leo scolded.

"Did you know she fell asleep at her desk yesterday, whilst you were in doing the post mortem on the overdosed student?"

"She's been through a lot Leo. She's here isn't she?"

"Not for much longer if this continues, she's a lawsuit waiting to happen. And I know you've been doing her paperwork, I'm not stupid Harry."

"No, Leo of course you're not." Harry was trying, but failing to sound contrite.

"I do have one possible avenue to explore, but I'll need to go out, and I can assure you she won't like it." Harry ventured.

"Whatever, I don't care. Just get her back. Please." Leo pleaded.

"What's this?" Nikki asked, with more vivacity than Harry had seen for weeks.

"Erm, just something I thought you should have." Harry said non committally. It had seemed like a good idea earlier, but now the moment was here, he wished he'd stopped off for a Kevlar jacket.

On her desk was a white paper bag.

"Ooh, it rattles," she said giving the bag a shake and tipping the contents onto her desk.

Harry heard a gasp and then

"Harry, is this some kind of sick joke, what on earth has got into you?"

Lying on the desk between them was a large bottle of folic acid tablets and a pregnancy testing kit.

'Damn', he should have thought of what to say, whilst he was out buying the stuff.

"Nikki, I'm worried about you, Leo's worried about you, everyone's worried about you. You've not been yourself for a while, I know the circumstances of the break up were difficult.." Harry trailed off and dared to look across at her. She had her best fighting face on, the one usually reserved for police officers she took a dislike to, and him on one or two hideous occasions when they were fighting. So he went into work mode for self preservation and started rattling off evidence as if he was performing an autopsy, he got up from his desk and paced up and down.

"The individual in question is in her mid thirties, was in a full time relationship and was known to be on antibiotics. There is anecdotal evidence that she had sex during this time and that it was at the most fertile time of her cycle." Harry didn't dare look up, if he had he would have seen her eyes, wide as saucers taking in the information. He carried on,

"Since that time, approximately one month ago the individual has at times complained of headaches and extreme fatigue. She has shown evidence of an aversion to strong smells, previously enjoyed, an increased need for urination and has experienced dizzy spells. There is evidence from an external source confirming that the individual has vomited at least once during this time. No evidence has yet been collected as to whether any more personal matters have or have not occurred within the last month."

He sat down quickly ready to take cover from whatever she could find to throw at him. It was a large bottle of folic acid and there was a good chance it could do some damage, if she went for a head shot.

But Nikki didn't need to throw things, she was well skilled at shooting him down verbally.

"Let's review the evidence shall we," she began, and now it was her time to take to the floor. They'd done this a thousand times before, pick through the evidence of the case from their different view points. Harry silently congratulated himself for putting it into a work context. At least there was some neutral territory between them.

"The antibiotic evidence is only of use if the individual was using the pill as her only form of contraception." Nikki began,

'and were you?' Harry thought, but didn't dare interrupt.

"I really don't want to know how you know the next two pieces of information, but yes it is true sexual intercourse did occur in the same week." Nikki recalled grimly how awful she had been feeling, but was so surprised and pleased to see Henry that she didn't really think she could refuse him, had they used other protection? She always insisted, but she'd felt so ill, she really couldn't remember, but there was no way she was sharing that information with Harry.

"And so on to the symptoms experienced. Fatigue and headaches are often associated with traumatic personal events. Insomnia during the night makes the fatigue during the day worse. Coupled with depression, and a decreased appetite dizzy spells would be common if the individual were not eating properly. The problem with strong smells would also arise as a direct result of the fatigue where the body suddenly loses it's ability to tolerate extreme stimuli, noise, light smells etc.

It would be surprising if the individual had in fact only vomited once over the last month after discovering her lying, cheating ex-boyfriend had been married the whole time. This information making her sick to the stomach on a daily basis.

And I can't believe Harry that you have never needed to pee half way through an autopsy, it's human. As for the evidence you have yet to acquire, I can't remember when exactly it was, but yes I have definitely experienced some bleeding in the last month so you can take your test and vitamins straight back to where you got them."

"Implantation bleeding." murmured Harry.

"What!" Nikki asked. She had fought a good fight but there was a tiny part of her brain that could follow Harry's chain of evidence and draw the same conclusion as he had.

"Do you think I'm pregnant?" she asked him outright.

"I don't know, Nikki. You could be right, everything can be explained by depression and insomnia but that's why I bought you the test. It's the one way to find out. It's top of the range too, you don't have to wait until the morning, you could do it right now," Harry spoke as gently as possible. She seemed to be taking this very well.

Behind Nikki, Harry could make out Leo gesticulating wildly at his office window. Although rubbish at sign language Leo was obviously conveying a message that went along the lines of 'well done Harry, she's not thrown anything at you yet and neither of you have started shouting.'

"Well, I'm not taking it" she said petulantly. "Not until I can deal with the answer anyway." And with that she slammed the boxes down onto the table. Leo turned his thumbs up, happy face to a thumbs down, sad face. Harry shook his head at Leo, he wouldn't be able to concentrate with Leo watching and fortunately Leo got the hint and backed off.

Harry was on dangerous turf here. The last time he offered a girl advice on an assumed pregnancy it caused the end of the relationship. He was damned if he was going to make the same mistake twice.

"Would it be a problem if you were?" Harry asked carefully. "I know your career is important to you, but you wouldn't have to give everything up, lots of people combine work and home."

"I'd be a single mother, with no other family to support me, relying on overpriced daycare and hardly enough money left at the end of the month to cover the bills," she said emphatically.

"Are you sure you haven't thought about this before?" He asked with his teasing face on and then quietly continued.

"I'd help you, if you'd let me." He looked up to see where this little speech had got him. Nikki was watching him intently so he took a deep breath and continued.

"I'd love to help you, I could be the best Uncle Harry in the world. I could take the baby out sometimes, give you some space, you know share things a bit. I could buy them the latest trainers or whatever they needed and I wouldn't have to be watching over my shoulder every day waiting for the poor child to succumb to inheriting my evil temper, or dreadful hair. And no one else would even need know the child wasn't mine. It was Janet that said Henry and I looked as if we could be related." Harry realised he was rambling now and had probably said too much already. A quick look at Nikki confirmed his suspicions. 'Shit' he thought why did he always mess things up?

"Earth to Harry" Nikki said spitefully.

"I don't know where these child fantasies have suddenly come from, but how dare you think you can organise my life! I know I've been a bit down lately but I've been depressed. I don't need your pity, or your help or you mothering me. I am certainly not going to keep a child if there is one, which I'm sure there's not, just to pander to you or your mother's desire to have grandchildren. Now leave me alone!" The speech was delivered through clenched teeth and fortunately at a volume that the rest of the office didn't get to hear. But as he made his way towards the door Harry noticed Leo shake his head sadly at him. Great, so now Leo thought he was a complete screw up too. What a week.

Saturday morning June 12th Week Minus 1

Hangover? Dreadful

Bed?..Empty

Work? He'd have to do some paperwork later but no trips into the office.

Run? It would have to be later, when the pounding in his head had stopped and he could replace it with pounding feet blotting out all thoughts from his mind.

Mood? Livid. Why had he said all that stuff about children?

What was he thinking? When he was sure that she had left for the day, he went back to the desk to pack up his laptop. He had noticed though that there was no sign of the boxes on her desk, or his, or in the bin. But he had blown his chance of ever even talking about it with her again. He cursed himself and fumbled for the painkillers.