ANYTHING TO MAKE YOU STAY
Based on the TV Show "Silent Witness"

Chapter 3


He has taken Nikki for lunch down by the river. His treat. She has protested about this, of course, but he has insisted. One last thank you before he moves back into his flat.

Because he is finally moving back into his flat. Today, as a matter of fact.

When he had first told her, she had pointed out that he might as well stay for dinner, seeing as she was making it for two, anyway.

Then, staying for dinner had turned into staying for one more night. Staying for one more night had turned into staying until he had hired cleaners to get rid of the last of the redecorating mess.

Staying until his flat was pristine had turned into…a realisation that he had no more excuses left. So, he had collected together his things, removed his shaving stuff from her bathroom, bundled his sheets into her washer and now, here they are.

They are sat outside, at cold metal tables that have holographic circles embossed on the table-tops. There is a chilly breeze coming in off the river. Nikki is huddled into her pashmina and Harry is warming his gloveless hands around his coffee cup.

Their breath is clouding in the air as they talk. It is probably the last time they will be able to sit outside until next spring. It is just getting so cold.

They are not the only ones who have chosen to sit outside, though.

A group of students are sitting in hoodies and Uggs, tucking into toasties and jacket potatoes. Harry can hear a BBM alert pinging off every couple of minutes from someone's Blackberry.

There is a little family of three behind Nikki; a baby, sucking determinedly on a soggy bread roll, anchored into his pushchair. The baby's dad and what looks like his grandma are sitting at the table, sharing a pot of tea and perfect, dainty sandwiches. The dad has a dirty bib sticking out of his breast-pocket and every so often, the grandma leans over to coo at the baby, affectionately.

Then, somehow and Harry is not entirely sure how because time seems to have accelerated whilst they've just been talking and sipping at coffee, but he has finished his grilled sandwich and Nikki has given up on her three-bean salad and they're finished.

Nikki waits until a pretty teenage girl has appeared and whisked away their plates and cups before she moves to get up from the table.

'Shall we?' She says, making an awkward 'stand-up' gesture at him and bending down to pick up her bag.

Harry grunts noncommittally and in a comfortable silence, they leave the café's patio and head out onto the path.

'Thank you for lunch, Harry,' Nikki smiles, touching his arm lightly as they wander beside the railings that run along the muddy-brown waters of the Thames.

'You're welcome,' he replies, elbowing her and giving her what he hopes is his most suave wink. It probably hasn't worked, though because Nikki laughs at him. Undeniably laughs at him.

'And if there's anything you've left at mine,' she continues, sounding suddenly business-like. 'I'll bring it in to work tomorrow.'

'Thanks, Roomie.'

He knows he hasn't left anything, but it's nice of her to offer.

'I thought we weren't saying anymore thank yous?' she asks, the hint of a tease in her voice as she looks sideways at him.

'Well, we had but then you thanked me for lunch,' he points out.

'But lunch was to say thank you for letting you stay,' Nikki presses on, refusing to let it go. 'And you'd already bought me flowers for that so now we're uneven, again!'

Harry is half paying attention to her quibbling, half just listening to the sound of the river and her heels on the concrete. He smiles and doesn't immediately answer.

'Well,' he says thoughtfully, as if deliberating the point. 'I'm sure you could think of a way to make it up to me,' he tells her, faux-seductively, laughing.

Nikki titters and rolls her eyes at him, shaking her head at his immature sense of humour and they carry on walking.

But then, Nikki pauses and drifts over to the railings to gaze at the river, looking preoccupied. She frowns at the water thoughtfully, as if she has been asked to answer a particularly difficult question.

'I can try,' she offers quietly.

It is on hearing her voice behind him that Harry stops dead, realising that she's not beside him and looks back at her, wrong-footed.

He had been joking. Just carrying on like they always did. So why does Nikki look so flustered? All of a sudden, he feels uncharacteristically serious and the last thing he feels like doing is laughing.

Harry takes three steps back towards Nikki so that he's standing in front of her. He stares at her, staring like he has never stared at anyone before.

Nikki does her best to return his gaze, but she swallows and looks to the side before bringing her eyes up to meet his again, her cheeks turning pink. She looks so nervous. It makes her look so much younger.

'Stay,' she says tentatively. She's unconsciously playing with the nails on her right hand; clicking the nails of her thumb and first-finger together.

'Stay…?' Harry repeats, frowning. 'Stay living with you?'

He doesn't know whether to laugh or not. He's half-expecting her to start giggling and tell him that she's only joking.

But, wordlessly, Nikki nods.

Harry lets out a breath he isn't aware he's been holding. He looks at the Thames and then back at Nikki. She's waiting for him to say something; she's standing stock-still and looks nothing short of petrified.

Harry sighs and smiles, humourlessly. His mouth turns up at the corners, but it doesn't quite reach his eyes.

'What for?' He asks her sharply. Probably a little too sharply. His expression is impatient. He's thinking of the half-baked excuses they have used for the past month or so. Their childish, 'just-one-more' rationalising. He just can't be bothered.

Nikki blinks, taken aback at how harsh he sounds but is undeterred.

'For me,' she breathes.

There is a small silence in which Harry can only gape at her, almost transfixed. Except, it isn't a silent silence, at all. The river is gushing past them, to their left and they can hear the sound of the inner-city traffic not too far away.

For some reason, for some inescapable reason, he has the mental image of the two of them, sat on Nikki's sofa on Christmas Eve, sharing a bottle of wine, watching The Snowman, with his arm slung casually around her shoulders…

'No,' he says gravely, his eyes full of anguish. 'Nikki…no, I can't. I'm sorry.'

He reaches towards Nikki, and grips both her elbows, squeezing her upper arms, gently.

'No, Nikki, listen…'

Nikki looks aghast. Stunned at her own forwardness. She's still gazing at him, her lips slightly parted, as if she can't quite believe that those words had dropped from her mouth or that Harry had said what he's just said.

Lower lip quivering, her eyes slightly shinier than they were before, she tries to shrug herself out of Harry's hold.

'Nikki!' Harry implores her, not relinquishing his grip. 'Not like this,' he tells her, using one finger to gesture between them, pointing from Nikki to himself and then back again.

'Not if it's going to be like this,' he continues his eyes boring into hers. 'This just-friends, never-ending roundabout of tiptoeing round each other and ignoring the bloody issue that we've been doing for more than half a decade, Nikki, no,' he bursts out hotly, his voice rising.

He leaves his words hanging in the air for a second, whilst he takes a breath and nods at her encouragingly, as if willing her to understand.

'Only if it's like this,' he says, gently.

Before Nikki has time to even register his words, he pulls her closer to him by her elbows and not thinking about the fact that they both must taste of coffee, he kisses her, one cold hand coming up to hold her face.

Nikki responds almost immediately, clutching his jacket into fists and kissing him back with such force that Harry actually stumbles backwards.

They stand there, tightly entwined in the middle of the path, Nikki's pashmina flapping out behind her in the wind until gently, they pull apart.

Harry rests his forehead against Nikki's for a moment, his breathing faster than normal.

'Was that you agreeing with me?' he murmurs, with a hint of amusement in his voice.

'Yes,' Nikki says, smiling widely, her eyes shiny with unshed tears. She blinks furiously and sniffs, trying to gain some form of composure. 'It happens occasionally, Harry.

Before he's even opened his mouth to reply, she presses a hard, quick kiss to his lips, just to prove her point.

They carry on walking back to the car, eventually, after a few ecstatic hugs and marvelling 'I can't-believe-I-can-just-kiss-you-now' kisses.

After all, the world doesn't look any different to how it did just a few moments earlier. The sky isn't an exotic blue, the sun isn't beaming down. It is still cold and miserable and there is the dank smell of old, dirty water hanging in the air.

Despite this, Harry reaches out to lightly hold Nikki's hand.

'What are we, fourteen?' she teases, bumping into him with her shoulder. She smiles, her eyes crinkling and readjusts their grip so that her fingers are interlaced with his and holds on tightly.


They are almost a month into their Proper Real Life Actual Couple relationship when Leo ever so gently, ever so delicately drops a bombshell on Harry.

He tells him in almost the same way that he would remind him that he has a report due in at the end of the month.

They are in Leo's office, discussing the university's new Undergraduate prospectus. It is featuring a photo of Harry in full scrubs gazing intently at the contents of a freshly-opened stomach, which of course has been covered by a bright blue text box detailing the number of points per module for Forensic Pathology.

'Harry,' says Leo on a low voice. 'About you and Nikki…'

Harry's head snaps up from where he has idly been labelling every piece of equipment seen in the photograph. He is halfway through writing 'autopsy table.'

Leo's expression is one of a man who would rather be having any conversation other than the one at hand and his tone is apologetic.

'It would be irresponsible of me not to mention to you that colleagues who enter into a relationship with each other and continue working together do so at their manager's discretion,' begins Leo, hesitantly.

Harry makes an indignant noise, about to protest.

'You already know my thoughts on this,' Leo says hurriedly, cutting him off before Harry has a chance to argue. 'I have absolutely no problems at all. In fact,' he gives Harry a knowing look and pleased smile 'I don't think I could be more thrilled for you. For both of you.'

Harry briefly smirks at this in acknowledgement.

'But?' He prompts Leo cautiously, a note of warning in his voice.

'But,' continues Leo, reluctantly. 'The university itself won't allow a couple who are married to work together in the same department. It's not just this university, either; it's a common policy wherever you go. You know…holidays, maternity leave…paternity leave.'

Harry nods vigorously, as if nodding would block out Leo's voice, raising his hand in a surrendering gesture.

'Leo, Nikki and I aren't married,' Harry points out, sounding more than a little agitated. 'We've only just properly got together. Maternity leave...? He runs a hand over his face looking deeply, deeply unnerved.

'Well, of course I know you're not quite there, yet,' says Leo, awkwardly.

'No,'

'And like I've told you both, I have no problems with your relationship. It's just in the long-term,' Leo trails off and there is a pregnant pause as Leo looks down at the desktop and Harry chooses to focus on the prospectus in front of him.

'You think we're in this for the long-term, then?' asks Harry casually, intentionally trying to sound only vaguely interested.

He watches Leo earnestly, waiting for him to answer. He's almost holding his breath.

Leo sighs and manages to look both resigned and uncomfortable at the same time.

'Yes,' he replies carefully. 'I do. I think you'll fight like cat and dog as much as you always have done but…I think you'll get there in the end. Yeah.'

His voice rises, hopefully at the end and Harry makes a noise of faint amusement through his nose.

'Yeah…I think so, too.' Harry admits, looking sheepish. All of a sudden, he can't quite keep a manic, school-boy grin off his face, as if he's just had a massive weight lifted off his shoulders.

'You would be a fool to let her go, Harry,' Leo warns him, looking uncharacteristically moved, reaching out to shake Harry's hand in of-the-moment congratulations.

'I won't,' says Harry seriously, looking Leo straight in the eye. 'Just don't mention 'paternity leave' to me ever again,' he jokes, a glimmer of childish humour taking over. 'We don't have a defibrillator handy.'

Harry gets up to leave and Leo merely looks pointedly at the prospectus, where Harry has labelled himself, 'Dr. Harry Cunningham' and doesn't say anything.

'It won't be easy, you know,' Leo says at last. 'No matter which one of you decides to leave.'

Harry is nearly out of the door and whips round to look back at Leo. All at once, he looks years older. Very sad and very weary.

'You're both irreplaceable.'

He gives Harry a small smile and picks up a pile of letters marked for his attention.

Harry nods in acknowledgement and, feeling like he'd been hit over the head with a heavy object, heads back into the main office.

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