The Sweetest Devotion

All too Much

"Nikki?" Thomas speaks as he approaches the gallery window and presses the intercome to talk to Nikki while she performs the post-mortem on Abigail Simms, after sending the young teenagers body to the Lyell the same day from Epsom.

"Yeah?" Nikki responds as she looks up from the body with a needle and thread in her hand.
"Are you almost finished? Abigail's parents would like to come and formally identify her" Thomas questions as he watches Nikki close the body up.

"What? already? don't we usually wait a day for that?" Nikki quizzes.
"DCS Drake, has requested we do it now, because of how young she is" Thomas adds causing Nikki to roll her eyes.

Nikki places the needle and thread down and gets a lab technician to finish off closing up the body, "Bullshit, but that's breaking professional codes of conduct..." Nikki responds knowing her rightful place and that she should be doing everything by the book.

She walks out the cutting room and to the changing rooms and changes back into her clothes, she then comes back out of the changing rooms to the offices to see the parents of Abigail stood waiting. She takes a breath and walks over to them, "Mr and Mrs Simms I presume?" She smiles holding her hand out to shake hands with them.

"Hi please I'm Gary and this is Harriet, and you are?" the father of Abigail questions.
"Nice to meet you, I am Dr Alexander. I performed the post-mortem on your daughter, we are currently preparing her body for you to view" Nikki explains.

She glances over at Jack who is looking her direction as he sits at his desk thinking to himself, Jack smiles at her and gives a little nod before allowing Nikki to carry on her work. She waits with the parents for a while and is introduced to their six month old daughter, "Professor Chamberlain will show you through to our non denominational chapel," Nikki smiles happily as Thomas leads the parents through to the chapel.

Nikki walks over to her desk and sits down with a sigh, "You okay?" Jack quizzes.
"Yeah, always the children, it hits harder than adults" She mumbles with her head in her hands.
"It never gets any easier, I feel your pain, my first case was a child. Laura Johnson, six year old, murdered by her Dad and bursied under the garden," Jack explains.

Nikki looks up at him and smiles slightly, "Mine was a SIDs baby, Eloise Mansell, she was four weeks old, parents had a history and the social wanted a PM done," Nikki responds. Jack looks at her with a smile and then carries on with his work.

Later on that day Nikki has arrived home earlier that expected meaning she gets some time alone in the house before her lodger - Jack, returns home. She heads upstairs and runs herself a deep bath with a bathbomb, she takes her hair out of the pony tail and undresses once the bath is filled and climbs in, She closes her eyes and instantly bursts out into tears, she hates child deaths too much that each time she had one she would come home and just cry for hours.

But right now she had to time her crying right so Jack wouldn't see how vulnerable she can be. She lies back and looks at the ceiling as the steam rising before dunking her head under water and running her hands through her hair.

She comes back up from under the water, she shampoos and conditions her hair before sitting in the bath just starring at the ceiling for a little while longer, she doesn't even hear Jack come in she is in so much of a state crying.

Jack steps into the hallway and suddenly hears sobs coming from upstairs, they could only be Nikki's, he slowly walks up the stairs and sees the bathroom door slightly open with the light on, he peers through the crack to see Nikki sat up in the bath, the bubbles hiding her body, she is crying into her hands, his heart drops. He then takes a breath and knocks the door, "Nikki?" Jack calls out.

He hears Nikki jolt in the bath, "Yeah?" She responds her voice still heavy with emotion.
Jack waits a second as he hears her getting out the bath, "Are you okay?" He asks.
"I'm fine" She replies as he hears her pulling the plug out the bath, she pulls a towel around her body and then walks to the bathroom door and opens it. "Hi" She mutters.

Jack sighs and looks at her, "Why have you been crying?" Jack questions noticing how red her eyes are.
"It's nothing" She repsonds and then walks off to her bedroom and shuts the door.

He sighs and then quickly uses the bathroom before heading downstairs, deciding he should cook for them this evening. He gathers a few things and decides to cook the lasagna she has left in the freezer.