Instantly thoughts begun to race around Sahira's head each and every one of them fighting for dominance. Was this man who she thought or rather assumed he was? Why was he here? But most of all what exactly was it that he did to provoke such a reaction from her boss and long term friend?

She gathered her thoughts and then managed to stutter out the sentence of, "I'm sorry Mr Hanssen but I've got to ask to fill out the required forms, when you first came round you spoke in a foreign language. I gather from this that your nationality isn't English. Can you please tell me what it is?" She asked all the while being careful not to let on that she knew anything out of the ordinary was occurring.

"No your right, I'm originally from Sweden but I moved over here about 6 years ago when my wife's job required us to come here." He replied frankly. To be honest with herself Sahira had no earthly idea where she was going with any of these questions or what she was hoping to achieve by finding out the answers. What really baffled her though was why exactly it was that she cared so much about any of the answers that she got back. All she could think of was finding out was much as she could about this... case if for no other reason than to ensure that whatever it was that may have happened many years ago, never got the chance to reoccur and hurt Henrik yet again as she was sure it would given the chance.

"Ok thank you. Urm you mentioned before that you had a wife and that you lost your father when you were younger, do you have any other family members, any siblings perhaps? It's just that we can't find your records on the system at the moment and we need to know for urm, our notes." She rushed out quickly before she could change her mind as to what she was going to do. Sahira was lying through her teeth by now but the need to know what it was that happened was overpowering. Besides, she thought to herself, she had to certain of her facts before she dared to breach the matter with the great Henrik Hanssen. That much she knew for sure and she also knew from experience she would have to have all her facts exactly in place before she said a thing.

"Sorry but without wishing to sound rude are you quite sure that you need to know this?" This quizzical sentence threw her off guard slightly. After all she knew that she was prying deep into something that she really had no real need to pry into.

"Yes Sir. I'm certain." She slowly and solemnly answered. In one way Sahira half didn't want to know the answer. After all what would she do this information? If this man was in some way related to Henrik, which she highly suspected he was, then she would face a long, difficult and unavoidable conversation with her boss. If she turned out to be wrong then she would be back to square one with the case and she would still end up having to do something or other to find out exactly what was amiss.

A deep sigh interrupted her thoughts. "In that case yes I do. My mother still lives in Sweden and I had a half brother once." He replayed in a toneless manor. There weren't any detectible emotions to be seen or heard either on his face or in his voice.

"What do you mean; you had a half brother once." She queried. "It's just that I- we, sorry, really do need to know."

"If you really must know he chose to board in this country from the age of nine. I only ever saw him when he could be bothered to come home. He was a miserable sod, always moaning about one thing or another. He was despised by the family. My father never told him that though he just…" He trailed off slowly seeming to realise that he'd said too much.

"Just what exactly…" She asked slowly. She hoped against hope that she wouldn't hear the answer that she almost knew was coming.

"I've said enough," was all that he gave her. That last conversation made her blood boil. She had no idea how anybody could say anything like that against someone who, as far as she knew didn't deserve a word of it. Sahira always thought that there was more to Henrik's past than just what he had told her but she never really questioned it.

"Thank you Mr Hanssen." With this she excused herself and dashed off to the one place she could think of. She opted to take the stairs as she knew that that way there would be far less chance of her having to wait ages for the lift or of her accidently bumping onto Jac Naylor, the last thing she needed right now was her criticism and questions.

She stopped short outside Henrik's office door and took a minute to think through exactly what it was she was going to say to him. She always remembered him saying she should consider the consequences of her actions before she went ahead with her plans. She always knew in her heart that he cared too much for her and that he probably always will do and truth be told she cared about him incredibly deeply too. This however was the one matter she had never dared raise with him. His feelings.

She had obviously been standing there for slightly longer that she had thought because from behind her she heard the well polished and well used phrase of, "are you going to allow me to enter my office or am I going to have to beg you to let me past."

"Not now Henrik." Was all she could say before her voice broke and try as she might she couldn't stop the tears that begun to stream down her face. The very thought that someone hated him so much they didn't even care to acknowledge their existence anymore made her so angry and so upset that even he couldn't sooth her.

"Sahira," he said quietly, "you come across as being just a tad bit upset. Shall we take this inside, please?" She nodded slowly and let Henrik guide her gently into his plush office.

After a minuet of her crying and his attempts to comfort her she managed to utter out, "why, why didn't you tell me Henrik? And before you start please will you just tell me the truth, you know what I'm talking about don't you Henrik? Don't you!" she was shouting by now and practically begging him to tell her what was the matter, what he was hiding for her.

"Sahira, you are one of my best registrars and you have two small children to look after. I promise you I can look after myself now, just like I have done pretty much since I was nine years old, ok?" the concern in his voice was easy to hear and as she broke down into another set of sobs that racked her whole body, he came round to her front and leant down slightly to her level. "Look at me Sahira," he told her with the hint of his usual commanding and calm voice. As she looked up to meet his eyes he continued, "I promise you I will be fine. Ok?"

"No!" she surprised him by replying with such force in her words. This was one of the many things that he loved about her; her fiery passion for everything that she did. He had loved her for fifteen years, seven months and two weeks of their sixteen years of knowing each other. He'd never tell her though, not unless he was absolutely sure of his facts. That was one thing that life had taught him… never expecting anything to just work out.