Sorry for the wait… Thanks again to everyone reading and especially to those reviewing. I loved the amount of exclamation marks after that last chapter!


Chapter 13

Thomas saw the flutter first, Jack was too busy looking into the phone, to see who on earth Harry wanted to introduce Nikki too? Surely the man wouldn't parade a new girlfriend, not after what he'd just said? Would he?

"Hello Nikki," came a high pitched, heavily accented voice. It wasn't sounding much like a girlfriend. More like… No…

"Come on Nikki, where are your manners? Say hello."

Even Harry could see the effort she was making.

"Come on Nikki," Thomas whispered.

There was silence, Nikki's body became absolutely still, all but her eyes; they opened, took in a sweep of the room, her colleagues and then came to rest on the small screen beside her.

"Morning sleepyhead," Harry greeted her.

"Oh, don't go back to being annoy…" But Nikki didn't finish her sentence, she breathed in sharply.

"Oh Harry! She's beautiful!" Nikki exclaimed. "Hello Amira, pleased to meet you."

"Hello" the screen said again in the same heavy accent as before. "Me, Amira."

"Her papers are due to come through in the next week or so. We'll be able to visit Mum soon," Harry chattered excitedly. She's learning more English every day and we spend a couple of hours a week at a special Arabic play centre at NYU. She plays and I do language lessons. Maybe when we're in London, we could pop in and say 'hi, As – Salaam – Alaikum,'" he said proudly.

"Abi Harry!" Amira chuckled, rolled her eyes and quietly corrected his pronunciation.

"I'd like that Harry." Nikki agreed.

It was Jack's turn to stare at Thomas nonplussed now. What was going on? Whoever she was, Nikki had heard of her before. She knew her name, but they had clearly never met, never even seen each other. The girl didn't even speak English. It didn't make sense.

"What does she call you?" Nikki asked.

Thomas and Jack couldn't help themselves. They both took a step forward.

"Abi Harry - Daddy Harry!" he replied proudly. "Now if you ever want a chance of meeting Amira, you need to get out of that bed and get on a plane back to London. Can you do that for me?"

Nikki looked around her.

"With a bit of help from my friends." Nikki agreed looking at the two men standing smiling by her bedside.

"That's good Nikki. You're doing really well." Harry encouraged.

"Nikki, pretty," the little voice said.

"Thomas!" Harry called loudly. Thomas picked up the phone, reducing the volume as he did so. He had a feeling that Harry wanted to talk privately and he wanted a good chance to look at the owner of the other voice. Jack meanwhile helped Nikki to sit up and got her to take another sip of water. Thomas watched the two of them stare at each other, saw Nikki mutter what he took to be an apology and Jack pull her into his chest.

"When you get back to London, I don't care what you do or how you do it, but you take her passport and you lock it up somewhere and you don't let her have it back!" Harry commanded.

"Then she won't be able to visit you?" Thomas stared at the screen and the dark haired, light eyed little girl with luminescent olive skin, sat in Harry's lap.

"I told you before, nothing good happens when she leaves the country. Just keep it, and make sure she gets help."

"We'll look after her Harry." He looked up, Nikki was still buried in Jack's shoulder. They were both completely still and silent as if the world had suddenly stopped and left them frozen together.

"I know you will." Harry agreed.

Thomas looked at the two of them still, motionless in time, space and silence. Getting the two of them back to London was relatively easy. Getting them both back to full health and fit to work. It would be his hardest job yet.