"Da!" Harry looked up from his work to see his daughter crawling towards him
"Hello Alice," he said scooping the youngster up onto his lap
His daughter was growing up fast, at 18 months old she was starting to walk on her own and put some simple sentences together. Her baby blue eyes had changed to match Nikki's brown ones but her wispy blonde hair had still stayed the same colour.
"Where's mummy?" he asked her
"Right here," Nikki said walking into the room "I didn't know you were going to be home this early?"
Leo let me take paperwork home," Harry told her as he placed Alice on the floor with her toys "I feel as though I've been neglecting you,"
"Hardly," Nikki shook her head
"Nikki, do you think I'm a good father?"
"Where did that question come from?" Nikki frowned
Harry shrugged "I'm not here all the time and when I am I'm tired and moody and…"
"…nothing like your father." Nikki said firmly "Harry you're a brilliant father. You saw the way Alice's eye lit up when she crawled into the room. She adores you and so do I,"
Harry gave her a weak smile as she leant down to kiss him gently
"Kissy!" Alice called from across the room
"I wonder how she learnt that word," Harry chuckled
"Probably picked up on her father's bad habits I imagine," Nikki teased
Harry pushed himself away from his laptop and stacked the files up on the desk. Nikki froze as she caught sight of one of the names
"Mark Jones," she said quietly "Erin's father,"
Harry nodded "She found his suicide note,"
"Where?"
"Nora's house," he said and Nikki sighed, "She just wants to know about him, she needs to know about him,"
"Just like you did," Nikki said understandingly
"More than I did. I at least have some memories of my dad, both good and bad. But Erin has nothing, there's just a blank space,"
"What does the report say?"
Harry flipped open the file "He was found in the bath with his wrists cut. Toxicology showed that he'd taken an overdose of anti-depressants as well,"
"Failsafe," she said and Harry nodded
"There was no mention of the suicide note in the case file," he said, "Her father must have hidden it,"
"Leo's going to have to give it in then," Nikki said "It should at least be known that there was a note,"
Harry made a noise of affirmation "There's a note in here about bruising. He seems to have fingertip bruising to his neck and there were the remains of a black eye,"
"Do you think Erin's mother lashed out at him too?"
Harry nodded "It seems that way and once Mark was gone, well there was just Erin left,"
"Is there any mention of family in the file?" Nikki asked
He flicked through the paper quickly "There's reference to his wife, albeit briefly. There's a little but about Erin, mainly just stating he had a young daughter. There is a mention of a John Rochester but it doesn't sound like he's related to the family,"
"What does it say about him?"
"He found the body apparently so I imagine he's a family friend,"
"I've never heard Erin mention him,"
"Maybe she was too young to remember him," Harry reasoned
"Erin!" Alice called from the play mat
"Yes that's right sweetheart," Nikki cooed
"She's growing up," Harry sighed as he gazed down at his daughter who was wrestling with her soft toy lion
"Everyone has to sometime," Nikki smiled "Even you,"
Harry snorted with laughter "I'm the boy who never grew up,"
"Emotionally you're the same age as Alice," She teased
"Physically I'm all man," Harry grinned
"Oh really?" Nikki raised any eyebrow
"Oh sure," Harry said calmly "I have many women to verify it,"
"And you moan at me for all my inappropriate men,"
"I can be another one of those men," Harry said standing up
Nikki grinned as her husband snaked his arm around her waist "Alice needs a bath," she said turning round to kiss him.
"No she doesn't," Harry protested
"Alice," Nikki called "Daddy's going to given you a bath,"
"Da!" she squealed in delight "Bath, Da!"
"You are evil," Harry sighed, unwinding himself from Nikki and scooping up their daughter from "Come in Alice, let's leave Mummy to suffer on her own whilst we have fun,"
Nikki poked her tongue out at Harry as he took their daughter to the bathroom, listening to the splashes and squeals of delight as father and daughter spent time together.
….
A while later and Nikki was curled up in bed reading when Harry finally stumbled into the room.
"Bathed, bedded and out for the count," he told her
"You look like you had more of a bath than Alice," Nikki giggled as she saw Harry's soaking wet shirt
"Our daughter, rubber ducks and bubble bath are clearly not a good mix," Harry sighed as he pulled on a dry t-shirt
"I think we should give this John Rochester a call," Nikki said
"Do you think?" Harry frowned
Nikki nodded "He might be able to let Erin find some peace,"
"I'll call him tomorrow then,"
"I already have," Nikki grinned "I looked him up in the phone book, along with the five other ',"
Harry rolled his eyes "What did he say?"
"You were right; he was a friend of Erin's father. He lost contact after Mark died but he seemed pretty eager to know how Erin was,"
"You don't think he's another Nora?" Harry asked
Nikki shrugged "He didn't sound like it, but I've asked him to meet us at the lab tomorrow,"
"Does Leo know about this yet?" Harry asked
"Not yet but he'll come round to this idea," Nikki smiled sweetly "And anyway if he doesn't I can use Alice as blackmail,"
"Exploiting our daughter, why Nicola I'm shocked,"
"You married me so deal with it," Nikki grinned as she rolled over in bed, away from Harry, taking half the duvet with her.
