The Sweetest Devotion

Strange Email

Jack and Nikki are currently getting ready for work, Jack looks over his shoulder as he takes a bite out of his toast to see Nikki walking into the kitchen. He smirks to himself noticing how her normal walk has become more of a waddle in the past week, it still baffles them both how they have less than nine weeks until they meet their daughter finally. "Good Morning Mrs. Hodgson, how is wee bump this morning?" Jack smiles as his wife walks to his side.

"Could be better. Kicking the life out of me since 3 am, and she has only now just stopped," She explains resting her hand on her protruding bump and smiling at Jack.

He leans forwards stealing a kiss from her and then picks up the plate of toast offering her a slice. Nikki smiles and picks up a slice, while biting into it she checks her work emails on her phone before walking to the refrigerator and picking up a piece of chalk, she wipes off the writing and then rewrites on the board 'ten weeks to go' she adjusts the scan photo on the refrigerator. "Ten weeks? that close now?" Jack smiles.

"Ten weeks today... if she behaves herself and comes on her due date," Nikki chuckles.
Jack smiles at her and places his hand on her bump, "I can't wait to meet her," He smirks and kisses her forehead before turning back around and sipping his coffee.

Later that morning, Nikki walks back over to her desk with a cup of tea as Thomas walks in, "How's it all coming along?" He asks curiously approaching his co-worker.
"The DNA profiles obtained from the blood samples in David Ward's house, they all match David Ward himself."

Thomas looks at Nikki for a moment and then back at her computer, "Toxicology?" He quizzes.

"Toxicology shows the presence of gemcitabine and capecitabine in Ward's blood." She explains while taking a sip of her tea keeping her eyes fixed on her computer.
"Gemcap? A Cancer drug? He was seriously ill" Thomas asks.
"Also has the presence of warfarin, so maybe he suffers from blood clots or a heart condition as well?" Nikki sighs as she tries to make sense of the case.

Thomas then looks across at Jack for a moment who is sat working on the computer, "His GP should have more information on Ward? I'll check it out," Thomas smiles.
"No worry, Jack is onto the GP..." Nikki responds.

Jack looks up from the computer, "Yeah they said a GP will call me back in good time once they know more," Jack responds glancing at Nikki. Thomas nods slowly and leaves the pair to work on the case. Once Thomas is out of the room Jack chuckles to himself and looks across at Nikki, "He didn't look impressed that we were already on the case."
Nikki simply gives Jack a knowing look and continues looking into the case more, she has already performed the postmortem the other day and now it was just a case of finding out if it was murder or accidental.

After half hour Nikki has left the office and is currently taking more samples from David Ward's body in the mortuary while Jack works in the lab. As he pulls prints from a book he hears his mac book laptop pin from behind him, he turns around on the stool and looks in his emails as he is awaiting emailed results from Nikki for the case. But instead of seeing an email from Nikki, he sees an email address he has never seen before.

Jack raises an eyebrow when he notices the title of the email which clearly has files attached, 'your password is...' Jack raises an eyebrow at it and sends his laptop a quick virus scan on the email before it coming back clear.

He reads the email and is shocked by what he is seeing, 'Linked below is images of your beloved wife, if I do not receive £15,000 in the next thirty-six hours, I will distribute sexually explicit personal images to your friends and contacts of Nicola...'

Jack can't believe his eyes and scrolls down the screen to see the images attached, he knew straight away that they were Nikki. Something at the back of his mind always told him that there was a hidden part to Nikki's past, something that just didn't add up.

His heart sinks as he looks at the images, they are clear as day he knew it was Nikki just from the side of her face, she could have only been around eighteen or nineteen in the photos. He looks up from these rather revealing photos he has been sent and notices Nikki 'waddling' into the Labs with a smile on her face.

Jack sighs knowing he is going to have to confront her about these images, "Nik?"
"Yeah?" She mumbles.
"Lawrence Adams? Ring any bells?" Jack asks reading the email sender's name, He scans her face for any form of reaction but there is nothing for a moment.

Nikki takes a breath finally and looks at Jack, "Why?" She quizzes.
"Just curious" He responds.
"Erm... You know about him. I've told you many times before... He's my ex-husband," She speaks with a smile.

Jack's heart plummets and his mind races wondering why after almost sixteen years Lawrence was doing this to her now. His eyes drift to her bump and sigh not knowing if to tell her or not, the last thing he would need right now is Nikki getting that stressed she goes into premature labour.
Nikki notices something isn't right and moves around the desk to look at his laptop but as she takes a look at the screen Jack clicks off his emails and back to his notes. "Jack Hodgson, Show me what you are hiding... I need to know," She begins as she attempts to lean over Jack to change the screen back.

Jack grabs her wrists and stops her from moving, he turns on the stool and looks up at her. Jack stands and pulls her into a kiss "I love you okay... not matter what okay?" He speaks softly raising Nikki's suspciosions.

She pushes past him without saying anything and clicks back onto his emails to see the email from her ex-husband asking for the money and the exposing images of Nikki. Her heart sinks and the tears fill her eyes thinking she could run from this