Oh and just because I'm so proud of it, check out the teenie tiny phone on Nikki's pillow in the picture! Thanks for all the reviews, each one genuinely cherished.
Chapter 10
Neither, Thomas or Jack heard what Harry had to say next, their relief exploded in a soup of hysterical laughter, shock and even an unexpected tear. But despite her words, Nikki's eyes remained tightly shut.
"I know you're tired Nikki, you can sleep later I promise, but I need you to wake up now. Thomas and Jack are here to take you home, but you need to wake up."
"No, they're not," came back Nikki's sneering and incredulous voice. "Why are you being so stupid today Harry?"
"Just today?" asked Harry flippantly. "Thomas and Jack are with you, you just have to open your eyes, Nikki." Harry explained.
"They're not here," Nikki countered. "Jack hates me. He'll never speak to me again."
"Jack doesn't hate you Nikki. Do you Jack?!" Harry shouted assuming the men were there listening in. He knew if the situation had been reversed that's where he would have been.
Jack opened his mouth, but suddenly he was lost for words. The words that had flowed so smoothly all the time she was under the ground had dried up. Now she was right there in front of him and he didn't know what to say.
Every thought, every action of the last few days had been to get her back. And then when he thought he'd lost her… He knew he had failed. Knew her time had run out and the hope he had clung to was futile. All he had left was his sense of abject failure and consuming pain. Whenever he closed his eyes he just felt panic, his chest constricting as if he were the one suffocating under the ground. He'd not closed his eyes since. Thought he never would.
Until he'd heard that screech of brakes. And a dull thud as her body had hit the sand.
"I don't…" Jack began. But what did he think? He didn't even know. Maybe she was right. Maybe right now, he did hate her, she exasperated him. She'd lied to him, deliberately misled him and he? Well he'd lied to her too, but that was what he had been supposed to do wasn't it? It had been to keep her calm, preserve her oxygen. To keep her sane, distract her from considering the possibilities.
And now here she was, back of her own accord and he should have felt happy, relieved. But he didn't. He just felt?
Numb?
Sick?
Guilty.
"I…" he stuttered again.
But Nikki clearly wasn't hearing. "You don't even know Jack," she continued. "You don't know what he's like, that man can hold a grudge. It's a shame I've made him hate me…" she tailed off. "He was a good friend," she said wistfully.
"He still is your friend and he doesn't hate you Nikki. He thought you were dead and now you're not. You of all people know what that feels like. I shouldn't have to remind you of that."
Nikki's voice took on a cold tone. "Don't talk about it Harry. We never really talked about it then. I don't want to now."
"We didn't need to talk Nikki. You don't need words to tell someone you love them."
Nikki made a harrumphing sound. Thomas tried to give her another drink, but she turned away from the straw. The joking Harry, hadn't surprised Thomas, although he wasn't keen on his choice of subject matter. He'd gleaned that much when he'd talked to other staff members at the Lyell, in his original research mission to find out about Leo. But this Harry was different, this one sounded so sad and so serious. That Harry hadn't been mentioned. That was the Harry that only the very few got to see.
"Come on Nikki, I haven't told you anything new. Back then in Budapest; lying to you and Leo was the hardest and the stupidest thing I've ever done. If I could change it, I would. But I knew how I felt long before that, it never changed how I felt about you. It just assured me that you felt it too."
"And then you left!" accused Nikki.
"I did Nikki. And that we did talk about. And you know why." Thomas hoped this line of conversation would continue, he still hadn't figured out what would have made Harry choose to leave, it didn't seem to make any logical sense. Hadn't he just confessed to being in love with her? He flicked his eyes across to Jack, and then looked pointedly at the stack of recycled receptacles for vomit on a side table. Cleaning up sick was definitely not in his job description and Jack was getting paler by the minute.
"Do you think Jack will leave me?" Nikki asked.
"I don't know, Nikki. You could ask him yourself if you woke up fully."
"How did you get to Mexico?" Nikki asked, but her words were becoming indistinct, as she began to give in to her body's tiredness. Thomas watched as the monitor recorded the slowing of her pulse again.
She was drifting away. Harry would have to think of something else to grab her attention and quickly.
Lots of references to Bloodlines throughout this, don't think it deserves a spoiler alert after all this time... It was series 14 if you need background.
