The morning dragged slowly on and Leo still hadn't returned with the body. Nikki could feel Harry's eyes on her yet she refused to meet them. She knew that he was only looking out for her; concerned for her - as a friend should be, but at the moment she just wanted to be left on her own.

When she could no longer pretend to still be working on her finished report she spun her chair around to face him.

"Ah! The creature lives!" Harry joked. He grinned at her and she found herself smiling back. Why did she always do that? She wasn't in the mood for his silly jokes but still she found herself being infected by his contagious smile.

"Have you actually been working or just staring at me the whole time?" she teased.

"Yes I have Dr. Alexander I'll have you know," he replied, "I've been extremely successful at Solitaire and in between winning I've managed to collect every missing person's file in a ten mile radius." He smirked at her, clearly impressed with his answer.

Nikki rolled her eyes. She happened to know that Leo had already uploaded the files onto the database yesterday and Harry had obviously just found them there, but she didn't want to bring his mood down as at least one of them was happy today.

Harry seemed to be thinking along the same lines as he watched her give him a small smile and turn back to her report. "You alright?" he asked; her pen stop inches away from the paper.

"I'm fine Harry, why do you keep asking me that?" she again spun her chair around to face him, annoyance written across her face. Harry could see that she was trying to make a joke about it and any other person not as close to her would've fell for her pretence, but not Harry. He had noticed the sadness in her eyes and the exhaustion in her features.

"I –"he began before being interrupted by the door opening and to see Leo and a detective walking in.

"Hi guys, sorry we were a bit longer than expected – the traffic was bad," Leo grumbled as he dumped his coat in his office. He shot a look at the detective who was walking around the lab with a scornful expression on his face. Leo caught Harry's eye and raised his eyebrows, unaware of what he had interrupted, "This is DC Gunn."

The man turned around from observing shelves and gave a cold smile, "I've taken over from DC Flack due to the seventh murder," he stated bluntly, eyeing Harry and Nikki up and down, "I expect the best possible work from all of you and I want a result within the week."

Harry coughed into his drink when he heard this. Who did this guy think he was coming into their lab and demanding that they work even harder than they were already? He glanced at Nikki to see what her reaction was – she didn't normally stand for arrogant coppers telling her what to do, but he was disappointed. She sat in the same position at his desk, with a vacant expression on her face. A frown creased Harry's face as he again exchanged a glance with Leo, who shook his head slightly – silently telling Harry not to draw attention Dc Gunn's attention to her.

"Right then, I'd better start the PM then," Leo said. He turned to the police officer, "I take it you would like to observe?"

"Of course," came the cool reply.

Harry bit back a retort, for Leo's sake. Already he didn't like their detective and it made the case a whole lot harder when he didn't. "Send a copy of her face or any distinguishable features up here Leo and I'll start to find out who she is," he called as the pair walked out the door. Leo nodded in acknowledgement and looked over at Nikki one last time before disappearing to the mortuary for the body.

"Can you believe that git?" Harry said angrily to Nikki. She looked up at his heated tone. "How dare he come in here and tell us how to do our jobs?"

"I don't think that was what he was implying Harry," Nikki said, sighing slightly.

"What? How can you say that? 'I want a result within the week'" Harry echoed sarcastically. He met Nikki's eyes and was shocked at how fierce they were.

"You don't get it do you? He wasn't being a pompous git like you seem intent on making him - even though you've only just met the guy. He just seems to want to get the twisted individual who's done all this. Which, in case you'd forgotten, is what we all want isn't it?" she said angrily, now on her feet glaring at him.

"What?" Harry said, shocked at her outburst. She had seemed fine minutes ago. In fact, he hadn't even realised that she'd been aware of DC Gunn's presence, let alone listening what he was saying and now she was suddenly defending the man and turning on him!

"He's right Harry, we do need a result – and soon, because if we don't then even more innocent girls are going to be brutally murdered as nobody can stop it!" her eyes flooded with tears and she turned away from Harry. Right now, she just wanted to be on her own; away from everyone.

"Nikki?" she heard Harry ask from behind her. The way in which he said her name asked a thousand questions all at once, but she didn't turn around. Drawing in a shaky breath, she grabbed her bag and hurried to the door, desperate to be on her own.

"Nikki?" Harry called again, this time more urgently. She turned around and shook her head slowly, before leaving the lab.