"You will never guess what I have just found" Nikki told Harry as she leant in the hole that they had dug two of the five bodies out of.

"Let me guess" Harry said as he walked over to her "A dinosaur fossil"

"Sarcasm doesn't become you Harry" Nikki sighed and Harry just chuckled "No I have in fact found what looks like a hammer"

"Well it either is a hammer or it is not a hammer" Harry replied "They are pretty simple to identify"

"Oh really" Nikki asked and looked at him "Since when are you such a hammer expert?"

"Since..I am the male in this relationship so I must know this stuff" Harry told her seriously but snorted when Nikki shook her head and looked back down the hole. Nikki then reached out with her gloved hand and pulled something out of the dirt which both of them clearly identified as a hammer.

"Ten pounds that this is the murder weapon" Nikki said to Harry as he held a bag open for her to place the hammer in.

"No because this is most certainly the murder weapon" Harry responded as he sealed the bag, he then tapped Nikki on the nose causing her to wrinkle her face and poke her tongue out at him.

------

"The police have printed the towns people" Adair told them both as they stood in the morgue under the hospital "You should be able to find a match to any prints on the hammer, yes?"

"Maybe" Harry replied and Nikki winced slightly as a shot of pain flew through her stomach and she sat down heavily on one of the chairs "We don't have the equipment here that we have at home but we will do our best"

"That is good" Adair nodded but he had a troubled look on his face "It is hard for us to imagine that one of us may be a murderer, you have to understand"

"Of course" Harry nodded and both men looked around in alarm when they heard Nikki heave and vomit over the floor behind them "Nikki.." Harry made his way quickly over to her and his heart pounded when she doubled over and clutched her stomach as she tried to stand up. Harry helped her stand up and Adair walked over to them but Nikki's pain seemed to increase as she got to her feet and she let out a sob.

"Where does it hurt sweetheart?" Harry asked quickly as he bent down in front of her "Your stomach?"

Nikki just nodded and tried to take in a breath but Harry heard her having trouble to do so.

"Are you sure you can't be pregnant?" he asked, his mind searching his medical training for any possibilities of what could be causing her pain "Go and get a doctor" he shot this at Adair as Nikki nodded.

"Of course I'm bloody sure" she ground out "Make it stop Harry" she sobbed and tears leaked down her face "God it hurts so much" she sat back down heavily on the chair behind her and took a deep breath.

"What did I say?" Harry snapped at the older man as he turned to the terrified looking Adair "The doctor"

"He's not..he's not around, he's visiting patients in another town" Adair stammered as he looked at Nikki "He won't be back for a few days"

"Where did it start?" Harry directed this at Nikki as his mind settled on something "Was it around here?" he moved his hand to touch next to Nikki's belly button and she moved involuntarily away from him before he even touched her, her breaths coming in short gasps "I'm sorry Nikki but I have to do this" he muttered and pressed down slightly on the left side of her stomach causing her to cry out and reach up to grip his arm tightly. Harry then reached up and placed the back of his hand on her forehead, she was burning up. "Shit" he breathed out and spun around to Adair just as Nikki leant back against the chair and took a deep breath before closing her eyes against the pain "I need to get to an operating theatre now, she's got a burst appendix, it's the only explanation I can think of and she's got all the symptoms and if I don't operate now she is going to die"

Adair saw the pleading look in Harry's eyes and nodded, walking quickly from the room. Harry gently picked Nikki up and walked swiftly after the elderly man who was walking very quickly for someone of his age.

"You're going to be fine" Harry whispered to Nikki who whimpered slightly in his arms as his movement jolted her stomach "I promise, I won't let anything bad happen to you"

"I'm sorry Dr Cunningham" he was saying "We have so few people in our town that a doctor isn't needed all the time, neither is a surgeon and there aren't even any patients here at the moment"

"You do have the proper equipment" Harry had to make sure as Adair held the door to the operating theatre open, it was surprisingly up to date.

"Of course" Adair nodded "Our doctor moved here from London and made sure we had it all up to date just in case"

"Just in case" Harry mumbled as he placed Nikki on the table in front of him, he found he was shaking violently and tried to stop himself from doing so, he couldn't perform surgery with shaky hands. He ran his hand over Nikki's sweaty forehead and gave her a small smile as she groaned and opened her eyes.

"Nikki calm down, do you remember?" Harry told her as he saw her start to panic but the panic was overridden by pain as she tried to curl up into a ball "Don't" he warned "Nikki I think your appendix has burst, it wasn't period pains you were having it was an inflamed appendix"

"Who's..." she ground out and clamped her eyes shut against the worst pain she had ever felt, she tried to think back to what Harry had said in the morgue but the pain was clouding her mind. She cried out again as another wave of pain flew through her body and she let out a loud sob.

"I'm going to have to operate on you" Harry whispered to her as he pressed a kiss onto her clammy forehead "Do you trust me?"

"Of course" Nikki replied instantly "With my life" she muttered as she lost consciousness again.

Harry had never been so nervous in his life as he washed his hands and prepared Nikki for the surgery, his hands were still shaking and he couldn't help but think back to the last time he had performed live surgery which was back in Africa. This didn't help his state of mind at all as he carefully anesthetised Nikki, he knew he shouldn't be doing this on his own but there was no-one else and he couldn't risk Nikki getting an infection.

"Can I do anything?" Adair asked from where he was hovering by the door and Harry shook his head violently as he picked up the scalpel.

"No I need to do this as quickly as possible otherwise she could.." he didn't finish his sentence but Adair got the message and exited the operating theatre leaving Harry alone with an anesthetised Nikki.

Ha! How evil am I? All that medical stuff is true...I actually researched XD.

xxx