Conflict of Interest (23/24) Morgana/Nikki
Title: Conflict of Interest (23/24)
Fandom:Silent Witness/Merlin (Modern AU)
Rating: R
Characters & Pairings: Morgana/Nikki (with side Arthur/Gwen, unrequited/past Nikki/Harry and maybe-not-so-past Gwen/Morgana)
Word Count: ~ 53,000 so far, 4,633 for this part
Summary: Morgana/Nikki. Morgana plays the hero and takes her reward.
Disclaimer:I don’t own Merlin or Silent Witness, this is not for profit, just for entertainment!
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 |Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 22
Somewhere between the bang of the gun and her muffled scream, the light had gone out, leaving Nikki blind. She didn’t know what had happened. She didn’t know where Morgana was. All she knew was that the plane of Morgana’s back was no longer pressed flush against her and that reaching out could not find her. She was alone. The echo of the gunshot seemed to lick at her skin as it rebounded again and again, crashing over her in an unending series of waves. Her lungs laboured on the thick air, dragging it in and out with no relief. For several long, life shattering moments she existed within a vacuum where not even her heart beat. There was no sound, no light by which to see, and only the solid feel of the sofa behind her to keep her grounded.
“Morgana!” In her head it was a scream but out in the room it was no more than a whisper.
Before she could move tongue to speak again, a yelp of surprise broke the thunderous silence. Her mind scrambled to garner every piece information from it that she could. It came from within the room, close but not as close so close that she could reach out and touch its maker. It hadn’t been her yelp and it hadn’t been Morgana’s either. She wasn’t completely sure of that last point, but she thought she would have recognised the timbre if it had been hers. Assuming no one else had entered the fray, that only left Joseph Gaius. If the yelp had indeed been his, then that was good. Either it meant he had hurt himself in the dark - this seemed quite unlikely given the fact that he had been lying in wait of them in the very same darkness, presumably growing accustomed to it - or someone else had hurt him. Nikki hadn’t moved, so that left Morgana, meaning that the bullet has missed its quarry. The air thinned.
A second later, there was a bang, sharp and loud. It rippled through the lingering echoes of the gunshot, feeding them and making Nikki’s ears ring with renewed fervour. She couldn’t pinpoint where it had come from, the darkness and stolen her sense of distance and orientation. Where was she facing? The sound came from in front of her, not from behind, but how far in front of her? Was it from all the way near the wall or closer? Before she could begin to think it through, the bang was followed by a smashing sound, like glass being broken against something solid. Then came silence, cold ear piercing silence.
“Morgana?” She had found her voice, though it sounded thin and fearful in the newfound quiet. Her ears had stopped ringing. Or had she just gotten used to it? She could hear her own breathing, that was it.”
“I’m here,” Morgana called breathily from somewhere in the darkness. Her voice was laboured but strong Nikki felt like crying. “Switch on the main light, will you? I think he shot the lamp.”
For a moment, Nikki could not recall the layout of the room. She had lived there for years and she hadn’t changed the scheme since six months after moved in. Her bedroom sprang clear into her mind, her kitchen too and the hall to the bathroom and spare room, but her living room eluded her, hovered on the edges like it was mocking her. Morgana’s under her breath whispered curses floated to her from somewhere in the darkness and it all came back to her. She slid along the edge of the sofa and crossed the three foot of open floor to the light switch. Nothing had attacked her in the dark, no Joseph Gaius and none of Morgana’s hostile furniture.
Flicking the switch brought a hiss of pain from her lips as the bright light bleached her eyes, rendering her blinded again, this time by white light.
When she regained her vision, she exhaled her held breath. Gaius was on the floor at Morgana’s feet, unconscious. Morgana was stood over him, her hair hanging down in front of her face and her arms around herself as if she was shivering.
Morgana looked up at her sheepishly. “I think I knocked him out. You should probably phone an ambulance.”
“Or the police,” Nikki countered. “He’ll live,” she said shortly, regarding the apparently unconscious man with suspicion. He had proven himself to be a sly man and she did not trust him. “How did you knock him out?” she asked once Morgana’s brief conversation with the emergency services coordinator was finished. She had requested an ambulance and the police.
Morgana reddened. “You know your mother’s vase? Well, I sort have, might have, just a bit, used it to whack him on the head with.” Her lip was bleeding. “Sorry.”
Some of the tension in Nikki’s muscles slipped away. She could see the shards of the glass vase scattered on the floor. “That doesn’t matter,” she said almost scoldingly. How Morgana could worry about a vase at that moment escaped Nikki entirely. Though, it occurred to her that she probably didn’t. It was just the easiest thing to face. “Are you alright?” she asked. There was bruise forming already on Morgana’s left cheek, long, like a dark stripe on her pale skin.
“I can’t believe it Nik. How could he-” She looked fearfully down at Joseph Gaius, her former friend and role model.
“He wasn’t the man you thought he was,” Nikki cut her off. She crossed the room, taking a wide detour around Gaius’ motionless form. She stopped to make sure he wasn’t bleeding from the impact and, seeing he wasn’t, had to try very hard not to give him a kick. She knew better than that though. Those sorts of things turned up on post mortems, she didn’t want to take the chance of turning Morgana’s self defence into a vicious attack on an old man if things went south. When she got closer, she could see that Morgana was shaking, and little wonder. “Morgana,” she said softly, reaching out to turn her girlfriend away from Gaius. “Look at me. Are you alright?”
Morgana met her eyes, trembling. She nodded. “I - I don’t-”
“I know,” Nikki whispered, rubbing her arm. “Come here.” She had to stand on her toes to wrap her arms around Morgana’s neck in hug, pulling her close. She closed her eyes and savoured the feeling of Morgana’s arms around her waist, though only for a minute - she didn’t trust Gaius to stay unconscious.
“Miss Lafferty.” The police officer’s voice brought Morgana out of her trance. She had been watching Nikki being questioned across the room, guilt that she had once again brought danger to Nikki’s door twisting in her gut.
“I’m sorry. What did you say?” She asked distractedly. The police had arrived in tandem with the ambulance. Gaius was still unconscious but his vital signs were good and they were confident that he would soon be awake. There was a warrant out in his name, so four police officers had turned up to the call, two going with him to the hospital and the other two staying to take statements.
“We need to know what happened. From the beginning.” The officer was young, younger than Morgana by a few years at least. He had a little of the look of Arthur about him, short gold blond hair, bright eyes. “You were at the hospital?”
“My sister-in-law just had a baby.” She felt cold, alone. She wanted Nikki, wanted to hold her.
He smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Congratulations. What time did you leave the hospital?”
“About an hour ago, maybe more. I’m not really sure.” Then she remembered the new security protocol at the hospital. A disillusioned father had stolen his baby a few months ago, so now every person coming in and out of the wing was monitored. “We had to sign out of the maternity wing. The exact time we left will be on there.”
He nodded. “Okay, thanks. What happened from there?”
“Nikki drove home. We had to park down the road so it took us longer to get here than it should have done. There was a capavan parked outside where the residents usually park. It’s been there for weeks, Nikki’s trying to get the other people in the building to make a joint complaint. You have to pay for a parking permit, so if the capavan is there and you have to park outside our zone then you have to pay in the meter.” She looked nervously back over to Nikki. The capavan detail wasn’t important but nerves made her ramble. “And we were talking outside for a couple of minutes.”
“What about?”
“About my new nephew.” It wasn’t really a lie but she wasn’t about to divulge personal information when she didn’t have to.
“What happened when you got inside?”
Morgana blushed. “We - err - we won’t really paying attention... and the light was off so we didn’t see him. I didn’t know he was there until he spoke.” She swallowed and waited for him to finish jotting it down.
“What do you mean, ‘distracted’?”
“We were kissing,” she said, unimpressed. Either this police officer was few knives short of a carvery set, or he was pressing her for details for his own amusement. Either way, she wasn’t in the mood. “He said something - I can’t remember what it was - so I switched on the light. He had a gun. He kept talking about how I had messed up his plans and that the company should be his, and then he raised the gun at me and pulled the trigger. I think it must have hit the lamp because the light went out and Nikki screamed. I tried to get the gun away from him but I couldn’t. He hit me, with the gun I think, it was cold and hard. I grabbed the closest thing and hit him with it. I had to.”
The police officer looked around the floor at the broken glass. “Where is this gun now?”
“I kicked it away. I don’t know where it went.”
He closed his notebook. “Right. That’ll be it for now but you can’t stay here tonight and you can’t take anything with you. My boss is going to come down here with some people to see if they can find this gun you mentioned-”
Morgana snorted in annoyance. He didn’t believe her.
“- and collect any other evidence they require. Do you have somewhere you can stay?” He didn’t sound concerned.
Morgana found herself wondering why it was that all law enforcement officials seemed to take an instant dislike to her. Maybe they could smell her activist past on her. Or perhaps they had just looked up her criminal record. “My house. It’s about half an hour away from here.” She laughed humourlessly. “You lot have the address. I had to refloor my living room after the last visit.” Okay, so that had been Emrys’ fault but she still blamed them for trekking the black ash through the rest of the house.
He nodded. “Someone will come and talk to you again tomorrow.”
“That was one long day,” Morgana sighed collapsing lengthways on her sofa, sending up a puff of air. When no answer came, she craned her neck to loop around the room. Nikki came walking back in from the kitchen carrying a flannel and Morgana’s glass salad bowl filled with water. “What are you-”
“Your lip,” Nikki said softly. She put down the bowl and flannel on top of the magazines on the coffee table and sat beside them. “Sit up so I can take a look.”
Morgana did as she was told, leaning forward so that Nikki could cup her chin in one hand and bring the wetted flannel to her lip with the other. She tried to tug away when the flannel made contact but Nikki held her firm. After she was done cleaning away the blood, she took the flannel and bowl back to the kitchen to wash out. When she returned, Morgana was laid out on the sofa again, her eyes on the ceiling.
Nikki crawled on top of her and laid her head on Morgana’s breast. “A long, long day,” she agreed belatedly, playing with the longest strands of Morgana’s hair. It was longer now than it had been when they met. If it was straightened, it almost reached her waist, every inch of it smooth and silky. She turned into Morgana’s soft skin and murmured, “I thought I’d lost you.”
“Never,” Morgana promised, wrapping her arms tightly around Nikki. “We’re safe now.”
“Thanks to you.” Nikki propped herself up so that she could look into Morgana’s eyes. “Don’t ever act the hero again,” she said sternly.
“I won’t.” There was something in Nikki’s eyes that made Morgana’s heart beat faster. Silence prevailed for a few minutes. “Nik, I need to tell you something.” Nikki didn’t move, didn’t show any signs that she had heard her. “While Gwen was in labour she explained some things about when we were together.”
“Things that change things?” Nikki asked warily. She tucked a strand of golden hair behind her ear and barely resisted the urge to bite her lip.
“No, love. Though, I can’t really tell you what they were. She doesn’t want anyone else to know,” Morgana said. A selfish part of her didn’t want to tell Nikki anyway. The same part, which had imagined in the car on the way home what life would have been like if Gwen had proposed to her and she had said yes. They would have been married for over 5 years already. Would they be happy? Live in a big house with sensible furniture and, perhaps, a baby gate? She imagined how much greater the feeling she had had when holding Morgan for the first time would have been like if he was her son.
Then she had looked at Nikki and started to think about what life might have in store for them. She pictured herself sitting cross-legged on the sofa late at night, laptop on her knee, working on her thesis, Nikki leaning against her shoulder, asleep. In her imagination, she turned to her girlfriend and kissed her forehead, making her stir and snuggle in closer, but not wake. Then she imagined marrying Nikki. She imagined her in a beautiful ivory dress, simple and elegant, her hair pulled into a bun with little white flowers, a few loose strands framing her face and Morgana’s mother’s first wedding ring on her finger. She imagined the honeymoon, laying Nikki out on a white sand beach kissing the seawater from her skin, taking breakfast in bed, making love in a secret cove, giggling and needy, all the more sweet for the risk of being caught. Nikki’s hair would lighten in the sun and her skin would tan, making the contrast between them even more beautiful between the sheets. It was Nikki she wanted. Of that, she was certain.
“There’s something else,” she said, hoping those dreams would come true. “I kissed her goodbye. It wasn’t really a kiss, just a touch. She needed closure, to seal that part of our lives and put it behind her.”
The angle of Nikki’s body changed, leaning away from Morgana.
“It means it’s over,” Morgana promised. “There’s nothing left between Gwen and I now, nothing. She’s my best friend and I love her completely, but not like I love you, not anymore. I need her Nikki, that’s why we had to do what we did, so that she could move on like I have. I want to be able to be with her like I was before all of this started. I want to be able to be close to her without people wondering if there’s something else going on. I’ve never loved anyone the way I’m in love with you and I’m asking you, please, to forgive me. I know I don’t deserve it but I’m asking for it anyway. You’re the first person I have ever wanted a future with. I’ve dreamed about it, Nik, and it’s so beautiful.” She reached up to touch Nikki’s satin-soft cheek with the back of her fingers. “I’m so sorry. Forgive me,” she pleaded.
It worried Nikki that her first thought was to say, ‘of course’, and brush it off but she said it anyway. She felt illogically safe in Morgana’s arms, like nothing could touch her. Time slowed down and all that mattered was the glint in Morgana’s eyes and the brush of her fingers against her lower back, where her shirt rode up. “I trust you.”
“I could never hurt you,” Morgana whispered, leaning up until their noses brushed together.
“I know.” Nikki nodded. And she believed it. People said that the eyes were the windows to a person’s soul. That was never truer than it was for Morgana. Every emotion fluttered across her sea green eyes, bare and raw. Once you knew how to recognise them, it was almost as if you could read her mind. Right then, they were pools of fear and love. There was something almost child-like in the way Morgana feared rejection. It made Nikki ache to be nearer to her, skin to skin, where it was only them and no one else mattered.
“I love you,” Morgana whispered fiercely.
“Show me.”
Morgana strained her neck up for a kiss; soft at first but soon deep and longing. Nikki opened up to her, letting Morgana take her wherever she wanted to go, which, it turned out, was on her back on the soft sofa cushions, one of Morgana’s legs still trapped beneath her, the other between her knees. Tilting her head up into the kiss, Nikki brushed the hair back from Morgana’s face with both hands, running her them through the silk strands, cool between her fingers. The hand that wasn’t holding Morgana up was tracing over her collar bones, spanning out on her neck and pushing back her head so that Morgana could nip from her jaw to the wing-like bones her fingers had danced upon moments before. Nikki arched up into her, her shoulder blades lifting from the sofa. She slipped her hands down over Morgana’s shoulders and down onto her back, pulling her closer.
Holding Nikki’s gaze, Morgana slipped her leg up until it was trapped between Nikki’s opening thighs and rolled her hips, eliciting a gasp and the sting on short fingernails digging into her lower back.
There is no way that I could doubt her, Nikki thought, when being with her feels like this - so perfect, like it was always meant to be. She knew it sounded stupid but she didn’t care, not when she so tangled up in Morgana that she didn’t even think each of them ended anywhere, just flowed together.
With a teasing kiss, Morgana sat up, pulling Nikki with her and wrapping the other woman’s legs around her waist. “Hold on,” she whispered, nipping at Nikki’s kiss-swollen bottom lip.
“Why- Ah!” Nikki shrieked and wrapped her arms tightly around Morgana’s neck as she stood up, taking Nikki with her, her hands on Nikki’s arse.
“Because I have a present for you,” Morgana said with an impish smile squeezing the firm flesh beneath her hands. “Upstairs.”
Nikki laughed, feeling light as a feather from how easily Morgana was carrying her. There was only the barest definition of muscles on Morgana’s arms but she was far stronger than Nikki would ever be. Not that Nikki minded. She certainly wasn’t complaining when Morgana carried her up the stairs or when she stripped her naked, drinking in body greedily, or when she spread her out on the bed, feasting on her until Nikki couldn’t even raise her head from the pillow.
“Where’s my present?” she murmured afterwards, exhausted and aching sweetly all over. Her eyelids were heavy and the world was just that little bit blurred. She was asleep before she could get her answer.
When Nikki awoke, Morgana was sat up in bed beside her in a strappy top and shorts, flicking through the copy of Nature which had arrived on her welcome mat that morning. In the minute or two it took her to really come around, Nikki kept her hazy gaze on her girlfriend’s animated face, scrunched up with interest or distaste depending on which article’s abstract she was scanning.
“Not enough microbiology?” Nikki asked teasingly, her voice raspy from sleep and, perhaps, screaming.
Morgana didn’t take her eyes from the journal. “Too many people with medical degrees thinking they can do decent research. Their place is in the kitchen, as it were.”
That earned her a swat on the thigh.
Morgana smiled in satisfaction. “Well now, it doesn’t do to have the grunt workers thinking they can run the place. Think of all the trouble they would get in to. Best stick at what they’re good at, I say. That is, doing what we tell them to do,” she said in an overly posh English accent, closing the journal brusquely and dropping it on the floor. Her glasses were askew. “Was there something you wanted?”
“My present.”
“Was there a present? I don’t remember mentioning a present.” Morgana’s eyes were bright and she was smiling wickedly.
Nikki put on her best wounded face and avoided Morgana’s gaze.
Morgana chucked. “Oh, you mean this present?” She leant over and opened the drawer of her bedside cabinet, pulling out a small blue box tied with a white ribbon. Holding it just out of Nikki’s reach, she leant down and took a good morning kiss that was more tongue than lips.
Half sitting up, Nikki made a grab for the present, pulling it from Morgana’s fingers whilst she was distracted and breaking the kiss to pull at the bow. Discarding the white ribbon amongst the bed sheets, Nikki wiggled of the lid. “Oh Morgana,” she breathed, almost afraid to reach out and claim what was inside.
“It’s an anklet. I know you’re not supposed to wear jewellery at work - and you were complaining about how that means you barely ever get to wear any - but you should be able to sneak this past them.” Morgana bit her lip nervously. “Is it okay?”
Nikki reached up and kissed her briefly. “It’s beautiful.”
Relieved, Morgana took the anklet from its plush cushion and held it around her fingers for Nikki to see. The chain was gold and very fine, made from four even finer chains plaited together like a Celtic knot. The only decoration was a small gold pendent at the front, a deer with ears pricked and one elegant leg lifted in a curve. So fine was the detail, that you could see the serene expression on the animal’s face.
“It’s a doe,” Morgana explained, brushing the pad of her thumb under one of Nikki’s big brown eyes. “It reminds me of you.”
Her stomach fluttering, Nikki caught Morgana’s hand as it fell away from her cheek and brought it to her mouth to kiss her palm, then her wrist. She didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t an extravagant gift or one that would change her life, but it was so perfectly Morgana that it made Nikki’s heart swell and tears brim behind her eyes. She blinked them away and shook her head, laughing at the sentimentality that had overtaken her.
“Do you want me to put it on for you?” Morgana asked into the kiss Nikki had pulled her into. When Nikki nodded, she slid down the bed, tugging the covers down to fall about Nikki’s waist, leaving her breasts and soft tanned stomach bare. Morgana lingered for a moment to take in the view, smiling as Nikki’s nipples stiffened under her gaze, her breasts heaving with increasingly laboured breaths. Carefully, Morgana lifted Nikki’s left leg from the sheets, bending it first up towards Nikki’s stomach and then gracefully arching it towards her. Starting at the knee, she reverently kissed her way down the smooth skin to Nikki’s ankle, fastening the gold chain around her and kissing the doe last time before raising her eyes to Nikki’s flushed face. Bending her head, she began to drop a trail of kisses back up her leg, over her knee and up her thigh, parting Nikki’s legs as she went. “And now for my present.”
Nikki’s eyes fluttered closed and she gasped softly as Morgana’s kisses reached the slickness of the night before. She slid down the headboard as Morgana pulled her towards her, shifting Nikki’s legs over her shoulders and bowing her head, sneaking out her tongue to lick up and around and in, and in and in and -
Nikki’s hips were canting off the bed and her head was thrown back when a loud knock at the front door broke the quiet chorus of soft wet sounds and panting. They both jumped, Nikki pulling away from Morgana’s mouth and going beetroot red, Morgana laughing and wiping the back of her hand across her mouth.
“The police. Perfect time as always,” Morgana muttered dryly, getting up from the bed and searching out a cardigan to wrap around her. “I’ll tell then you were still sleeping. Come down when you’re ready,” she said to Nikki, smiling slightly in amusement.
Nikki was in the bathroom when she heard Morgana show the detective out and climb back up the stairs.
“What did he say?” she asked as Morgana entered the bathroom. She had discarded her cardigan somewhere, leaving the arms that circled Nikki’s midriff bare.
“They searched Joseph Gaius’ house last night and found evidence connecting him to Emrys. They found the gin as well and charged him with the murder of my step father’s murder and that of the American family, also breaking and entering and attempted murder. His injuries were minor so he has been taken into custody. Two other members of the board at Pendragon Industries - a Mr. Henrich Monet and Mr. Terrance Martin - have also been arrested. Mr. Monet was a friend of Darren Graham, the American. He’s been charged with conspiracy to have them murdered. Mr. Martin was part of a thankfully unsuccessful attempt to kidnap your Gwen and Arthur. It seems this went a lot deeper we thought. He said they will be in contact again for us both to give full statements about last night.”
“Did you know the other board members well?” Nikki asked, running her fingers along Morgana’s arm and meeting her eyes through the mirror.
“No,” Morgana said. She turned her face into Nikki’s neck and breathed in the honey smell of her soap. In the last six months she had lost her step father, been charged with his murder and then acquitted, kidnapped and beaten up. But she had also gained a beautiful nephew and found Nikki, a woman whom she loved more than she ever thought it was possible to love.
“When I get dressed we can go to the hospital to see Gwen and Morgan,” Nikki said, turning in Morgana’s arms to face her. “I know you’re itching to get your hands on him again.”
Morgana smiled, a wicked idea entering her mind. They had been in the middle of something when the detective had called. “I think,” she began, trailing her hands up Nikki’s back, “that I could be persuaded,” she flicked open the clasp of Nikki’s strapless bra and let it fall to the ground, “to wait a little longer.”
Nikki held her darkening gaze. “Oh yes?”
Morgana nodded, raising her eyebrows and hooking her thumbs into the waistline of Nikki’s red silk knickers. “I believe you have a present for me?”
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Fandom:Silent Witness/Merlin (Modern AU)
Rating: R
Characters & Pairings: Morgana/Nikki (with side Arthur/Gwen, unrequited/past Nikki/Harry and maybe-not-so-past Gwen/Morgana)
Word Count: ~ 53,000 so far, 4,633 for this part
Summary: Morgana/Nikki. Morgana plays the hero and takes her reward.
Disclaimer:I don’t own Merlin or Silent Witness, this is not for profit, just for entertainment!
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 |Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 22
Somewhere between the bang of the gun and her muffled scream, the light had gone out, leaving Nikki blind. She didn’t know what had happened. She didn’t know where Morgana was. All she knew was that the plane of Morgana’s back was no longer pressed flush against her and that reaching out could not find her. She was alone. The echo of the gunshot seemed to lick at her skin as it rebounded again and again, crashing over her in an unending series of waves. Her lungs laboured on the thick air, dragging it in and out with no relief. For several long, life shattering moments she existed within a vacuum where not even her heart beat. There was no sound, no light by which to see, and only the solid feel of the sofa behind her to keep her grounded.
“Morgana!” In her head it was a scream but out in the room it was no more than a whisper.
Before she could move tongue to speak again, a yelp of surprise broke the thunderous silence. Her mind scrambled to garner every piece information from it that she could. It came from within the room, close but not as close so close that she could reach out and touch its maker. It hadn’t been her yelp and it hadn’t been Morgana’s either. She wasn’t completely sure of that last point, but she thought she would have recognised the timbre if it had been hers. Assuming no one else had entered the fray, that only left Joseph Gaius. If the yelp had indeed been his, then that was good. Either it meant he had hurt himself in the dark - this seemed quite unlikely given the fact that he had been lying in wait of them in the very same darkness, presumably growing accustomed to it - or someone else had hurt him. Nikki hadn’t moved, so that left Morgana, meaning that the bullet has missed its quarry. The air thinned.
A second later, there was a bang, sharp and loud. It rippled through the lingering echoes of the gunshot, feeding them and making Nikki’s ears ring with renewed fervour. She couldn’t pinpoint where it had come from, the darkness and stolen her sense of distance and orientation. Where was she facing? The sound came from in front of her, not from behind, but how far in front of her? Was it from all the way near the wall or closer? Before she could begin to think it through, the bang was followed by a smashing sound, like glass being broken against something solid. Then came silence, cold ear piercing silence.
“Morgana?” She had found her voice, though it sounded thin and fearful in the newfound quiet. Her ears had stopped ringing. Or had she just gotten used to it? She could hear her own breathing, that was it.”
“I’m here,” Morgana called breathily from somewhere in the darkness. Her voice was laboured but strong Nikki felt like crying. “Switch on the main light, will you? I think he shot the lamp.”
For a moment, Nikki could not recall the layout of the room. She had lived there for years and she hadn’t changed the scheme since six months after moved in. Her bedroom sprang clear into her mind, her kitchen too and the hall to the bathroom and spare room, but her living room eluded her, hovered on the edges like it was mocking her. Morgana’s under her breath whispered curses floated to her from somewhere in the darkness and it all came back to her. She slid along the edge of the sofa and crossed the three foot of open floor to the light switch. Nothing had attacked her in the dark, no Joseph Gaius and none of Morgana’s hostile furniture.
Flicking the switch brought a hiss of pain from her lips as the bright light bleached her eyes, rendering her blinded again, this time by white light.
When she regained her vision, she exhaled her held breath. Gaius was on the floor at Morgana’s feet, unconscious. Morgana was stood over him, her hair hanging down in front of her face and her arms around herself as if she was shivering.
Morgana looked up at her sheepishly. “I think I knocked him out. You should probably phone an ambulance.”
“Or the police,” Nikki countered. “He’ll live,” she said shortly, regarding the apparently unconscious man with suspicion. He had proven himself to be a sly man and she did not trust him. “How did you knock him out?” she asked once Morgana’s brief conversation with the emergency services coordinator was finished. She had requested an ambulance and the police.
Morgana reddened. “You know your mother’s vase? Well, I sort have, might have, just a bit, used it to whack him on the head with.” Her lip was bleeding. “Sorry.”
Some of the tension in Nikki’s muscles slipped away. She could see the shards of the glass vase scattered on the floor. “That doesn’t matter,” she said almost scoldingly. How Morgana could worry about a vase at that moment escaped Nikki entirely. Though, it occurred to her that she probably didn’t. It was just the easiest thing to face. “Are you alright?” she asked. There was bruise forming already on Morgana’s left cheek, long, like a dark stripe on her pale skin.
“I can’t believe it Nik. How could he-” She looked fearfully down at Joseph Gaius, her former friend and role model.
“He wasn’t the man you thought he was,” Nikki cut her off. She crossed the room, taking a wide detour around Gaius’ motionless form. She stopped to make sure he wasn’t bleeding from the impact and, seeing he wasn’t, had to try very hard not to give him a kick. She knew better than that though. Those sorts of things turned up on post mortems, she didn’t want to take the chance of turning Morgana’s self defence into a vicious attack on an old man if things went south. When she got closer, she could see that Morgana was shaking, and little wonder. “Morgana,” she said softly, reaching out to turn her girlfriend away from Gaius. “Look at me. Are you alright?”
Morgana met her eyes, trembling. She nodded. “I - I don’t-”
“I know,” Nikki whispered, rubbing her arm. “Come here.” She had to stand on her toes to wrap her arms around Morgana’s neck in hug, pulling her close. She closed her eyes and savoured the feeling of Morgana’s arms around her waist, though only for a minute - she didn’t trust Gaius to stay unconscious.
“Miss Lafferty.” The police officer’s voice brought Morgana out of her trance. She had been watching Nikki being questioned across the room, guilt that she had once again brought danger to Nikki’s door twisting in her gut.
“I’m sorry. What did you say?” She asked distractedly. The police had arrived in tandem with the ambulance. Gaius was still unconscious but his vital signs were good and they were confident that he would soon be awake. There was a warrant out in his name, so four police officers had turned up to the call, two going with him to the hospital and the other two staying to take statements.
“We need to know what happened. From the beginning.” The officer was young, younger than Morgana by a few years at least. He had a little of the look of Arthur about him, short gold blond hair, bright eyes. “You were at the hospital?”
“My sister-in-law just had a baby.” She felt cold, alone. She wanted Nikki, wanted to hold her.
He smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Congratulations. What time did you leave the hospital?”
“About an hour ago, maybe more. I’m not really sure.” Then she remembered the new security protocol at the hospital. A disillusioned father had stolen his baby a few months ago, so now every person coming in and out of the wing was monitored. “We had to sign out of the maternity wing. The exact time we left will be on there.”
He nodded. “Okay, thanks. What happened from there?”
“Nikki drove home. We had to park down the road so it took us longer to get here than it should have done. There was a capavan parked outside where the residents usually park. It’s been there for weeks, Nikki’s trying to get the other people in the building to make a joint complaint. You have to pay for a parking permit, so if the capavan is there and you have to park outside our zone then you have to pay in the meter.” She looked nervously back over to Nikki. The capavan detail wasn’t important but nerves made her ramble. “And we were talking outside for a couple of minutes.”
“What about?”
“About my new nephew.” It wasn’t really a lie but she wasn’t about to divulge personal information when she didn’t have to.
“What happened when you got inside?”
Morgana blushed. “We - err - we won’t really paying attention... and the light was off so we didn’t see him. I didn’t know he was there until he spoke.” She swallowed and waited for him to finish jotting it down.
“What do you mean, ‘distracted’?”
“We were kissing,” she said, unimpressed. Either this police officer was few knives short of a carvery set, or he was pressing her for details for his own amusement. Either way, she wasn’t in the mood. “He said something - I can’t remember what it was - so I switched on the light. He had a gun. He kept talking about how I had messed up his plans and that the company should be his, and then he raised the gun at me and pulled the trigger. I think it must have hit the lamp because the light went out and Nikki screamed. I tried to get the gun away from him but I couldn’t. He hit me, with the gun I think, it was cold and hard. I grabbed the closest thing and hit him with it. I had to.”
The police officer looked around the floor at the broken glass. “Where is this gun now?”
“I kicked it away. I don’t know where it went.”
He closed his notebook. “Right. That’ll be it for now but you can’t stay here tonight and you can’t take anything with you. My boss is going to come down here with some people to see if they can find this gun you mentioned-”
Morgana snorted in annoyance. He didn’t believe her.
“- and collect any other evidence they require. Do you have somewhere you can stay?” He didn’t sound concerned.
Morgana found herself wondering why it was that all law enforcement officials seemed to take an instant dislike to her. Maybe they could smell her activist past on her. Or perhaps they had just looked up her criminal record. “My house. It’s about half an hour away from here.” She laughed humourlessly. “You lot have the address. I had to refloor my living room after the last visit.” Okay, so that had been Emrys’ fault but she still blamed them for trekking the black ash through the rest of the house.
He nodded. “Someone will come and talk to you again tomorrow.”
“That was one long day,” Morgana sighed collapsing lengthways on her sofa, sending up a puff of air. When no answer came, she craned her neck to loop around the room. Nikki came walking back in from the kitchen carrying a flannel and Morgana’s glass salad bowl filled with water. “What are you-”
“Your lip,” Nikki said softly. She put down the bowl and flannel on top of the magazines on the coffee table and sat beside them. “Sit up so I can take a look.”
Morgana did as she was told, leaning forward so that Nikki could cup her chin in one hand and bring the wetted flannel to her lip with the other. She tried to tug away when the flannel made contact but Nikki held her firm. After she was done cleaning away the blood, she took the flannel and bowl back to the kitchen to wash out. When she returned, Morgana was laid out on the sofa again, her eyes on the ceiling.
Nikki crawled on top of her and laid her head on Morgana’s breast. “A long, long day,” she agreed belatedly, playing with the longest strands of Morgana’s hair. It was longer now than it had been when they met. If it was straightened, it almost reached her waist, every inch of it smooth and silky. She turned into Morgana’s soft skin and murmured, “I thought I’d lost you.”
“Never,” Morgana promised, wrapping her arms tightly around Nikki. “We’re safe now.”
“Thanks to you.” Nikki propped herself up so that she could look into Morgana’s eyes. “Don’t ever act the hero again,” she said sternly.
“I won’t.” There was something in Nikki’s eyes that made Morgana’s heart beat faster. Silence prevailed for a few minutes. “Nik, I need to tell you something.” Nikki didn’t move, didn’t show any signs that she had heard her. “While Gwen was in labour she explained some things about when we were together.”
“Things that change things?” Nikki asked warily. She tucked a strand of golden hair behind her ear and barely resisted the urge to bite her lip.
“No, love. Though, I can’t really tell you what they were. She doesn’t want anyone else to know,” Morgana said. A selfish part of her didn’t want to tell Nikki anyway. The same part, which had imagined in the car on the way home what life would have been like if Gwen had proposed to her and she had said yes. They would have been married for over 5 years already. Would they be happy? Live in a big house with sensible furniture and, perhaps, a baby gate? She imagined how much greater the feeling she had had when holding Morgan for the first time would have been like if he was her son.
Then she had looked at Nikki and started to think about what life might have in store for them. She pictured herself sitting cross-legged on the sofa late at night, laptop on her knee, working on her thesis, Nikki leaning against her shoulder, asleep. In her imagination, she turned to her girlfriend and kissed her forehead, making her stir and snuggle in closer, but not wake. Then she imagined marrying Nikki. She imagined her in a beautiful ivory dress, simple and elegant, her hair pulled into a bun with little white flowers, a few loose strands framing her face and Morgana’s mother’s first wedding ring on her finger. She imagined the honeymoon, laying Nikki out on a white sand beach kissing the seawater from her skin, taking breakfast in bed, making love in a secret cove, giggling and needy, all the more sweet for the risk of being caught. Nikki’s hair would lighten in the sun and her skin would tan, making the contrast between them even more beautiful between the sheets. It was Nikki she wanted. Of that, she was certain.
“There’s something else,” she said, hoping those dreams would come true. “I kissed her goodbye. It wasn’t really a kiss, just a touch. She needed closure, to seal that part of our lives and put it behind her.”
The angle of Nikki’s body changed, leaning away from Morgana.
“It means it’s over,” Morgana promised. “There’s nothing left between Gwen and I now, nothing. She’s my best friend and I love her completely, but not like I love you, not anymore. I need her Nikki, that’s why we had to do what we did, so that she could move on like I have. I want to be able to be with her like I was before all of this started. I want to be able to be close to her without people wondering if there’s something else going on. I’ve never loved anyone the way I’m in love with you and I’m asking you, please, to forgive me. I know I don’t deserve it but I’m asking for it anyway. You’re the first person I have ever wanted a future with. I’ve dreamed about it, Nik, and it’s so beautiful.” She reached up to touch Nikki’s satin-soft cheek with the back of her fingers. “I’m so sorry. Forgive me,” she pleaded.
It worried Nikki that her first thought was to say, ‘of course’, and brush it off but she said it anyway. She felt illogically safe in Morgana’s arms, like nothing could touch her. Time slowed down and all that mattered was the glint in Morgana’s eyes and the brush of her fingers against her lower back, where her shirt rode up. “I trust you.”
“I could never hurt you,” Morgana whispered, leaning up until their noses brushed together.
“I know.” Nikki nodded. And she believed it. People said that the eyes were the windows to a person’s soul. That was never truer than it was for Morgana. Every emotion fluttered across her sea green eyes, bare and raw. Once you knew how to recognise them, it was almost as if you could read her mind. Right then, they were pools of fear and love. There was something almost child-like in the way Morgana feared rejection. It made Nikki ache to be nearer to her, skin to skin, where it was only them and no one else mattered.
“I love you,” Morgana whispered fiercely.
“Show me.”
Morgana strained her neck up for a kiss; soft at first but soon deep and longing. Nikki opened up to her, letting Morgana take her wherever she wanted to go, which, it turned out, was on her back on the soft sofa cushions, one of Morgana’s legs still trapped beneath her, the other between her knees. Tilting her head up into the kiss, Nikki brushed the hair back from Morgana’s face with both hands, running her them through the silk strands, cool between her fingers. The hand that wasn’t holding Morgana up was tracing over her collar bones, spanning out on her neck and pushing back her head so that Morgana could nip from her jaw to the wing-like bones her fingers had danced upon moments before. Nikki arched up into her, her shoulder blades lifting from the sofa. She slipped her hands down over Morgana’s shoulders and down onto her back, pulling her closer.
Holding Nikki’s gaze, Morgana slipped her leg up until it was trapped between Nikki’s opening thighs and rolled her hips, eliciting a gasp and the sting on short fingernails digging into her lower back.
There is no way that I could doubt her, Nikki thought, when being with her feels like this - so perfect, like it was always meant to be. She knew it sounded stupid but she didn’t care, not when she so tangled up in Morgana that she didn’t even think each of them ended anywhere, just flowed together.
With a teasing kiss, Morgana sat up, pulling Nikki with her and wrapping the other woman’s legs around her waist. “Hold on,” she whispered, nipping at Nikki’s kiss-swollen bottom lip.
“Why- Ah!” Nikki shrieked and wrapped her arms tightly around Morgana’s neck as she stood up, taking Nikki with her, her hands on Nikki’s arse.
“Because I have a present for you,” Morgana said with an impish smile squeezing the firm flesh beneath her hands. “Upstairs.”
Nikki laughed, feeling light as a feather from how easily Morgana was carrying her. There was only the barest definition of muscles on Morgana’s arms but she was far stronger than Nikki would ever be. Not that Nikki minded. She certainly wasn’t complaining when Morgana carried her up the stairs or when she stripped her naked, drinking in body greedily, or when she spread her out on the bed, feasting on her until Nikki couldn’t even raise her head from the pillow.
“Where’s my present?” she murmured afterwards, exhausted and aching sweetly all over. Her eyelids were heavy and the world was just that little bit blurred. She was asleep before she could get her answer.
When Nikki awoke, Morgana was sat up in bed beside her in a strappy top and shorts, flicking through the copy of Nature which had arrived on her welcome mat that morning. In the minute or two it took her to really come around, Nikki kept her hazy gaze on her girlfriend’s animated face, scrunched up with interest or distaste depending on which article’s abstract she was scanning.
“Not enough microbiology?” Nikki asked teasingly, her voice raspy from sleep and, perhaps, screaming.
Morgana didn’t take her eyes from the journal. “Too many people with medical degrees thinking they can do decent research. Their place is in the kitchen, as it were.”
That earned her a swat on the thigh.
Morgana smiled in satisfaction. “Well now, it doesn’t do to have the grunt workers thinking they can run the place. Think of all the trouble they would get in to. Best stick at what they’re good at, I say. That is, doing what we tell them to do,” she said in an overly posh English accent, closing the journal brusquely and dropping it on the floor. Her glasses were askew. “Was there something you wanted?”
“My present.”
“Was there a present? I don’t remember mentioning a present.” Morgana’s eyes were bright and she was smiling wickedly.
Nikki put on her best wounded face and avoided Morgana’s gaze.
Morgana chucked. “Oh, you mean this present?” She leant over and opened the drawer of her bedside cabinet, pulling out a small blue box tied with a white ribbon. Holding it just out of Nikki’s reach, she leant down and took a good morning kiss that was more tongue than lips.
Half sitting up, Nikki made a grab for the present, pulling it from Morgana’s fingers whilst she was distracted and breaking the kiss to pull at the bow. Discarding the white ribbon amongst the bed sheets, Nikki wiggled of the lid. “Oh Morgana,” she breathed, almost afraid to reach out and claim what was inside.
“It’s an anklet. I know you’re not supposed to wear jewellery at work - and you were complaining about how that means you barely ever get to wear any - but you should be able to sneak this past them.” Morgana bit her lip nervously. “Is it okay?”
Nikki reached up and kissed her briefly. “It’s beautiful.”
Relieved, Morgana took the anklet from its plush cushion and held it around her fingers for Nikki to see. The chain was gold and very fine, made from four even finer chains plaited together like a Celtic knot. The only decoration was a small gold pendent at the front, a deer with ears pricked and one elegant leg lifted in a curve. So fine was the detail, that you could see the serene expression on the animal’s face.
“It’s a doe,” Morgana explained, brushing the pad of her thumb under one of Nikki’s big brown eyes. “It reminds me of you.”
Her stomach fluttering, Nikki caught Morgana’s hand as it fell away from her cheek and brought it to her mouth to kiss her palm, then her wrist. She didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t an extravagant gift or one that would change her life, but it was so perfectly Morgana that it made Nikki’s heart swell and tears brim behind her eyes. She blinked them away and shook her head, laughing at the sentimentality that had overtaken her.
“Do you want me to put it on for you?” Morgana asked into the kiss Nikki had pulled her into. When Nikki nodded, she slid down the bed, tugging the covers down to fall about Nikki’s waist, leaving her breasts and soft tanned stomach bare. Morgana lingered for a moment to take in the view, smiling as Nikki’s nipples stiffened under her gaze, her breasts heaving with increasingly laboured breaths. Carefully, Morgana lifted Nikki’s left leg from the sheets, bending it first up towards Nikki’s stomach and then gracefully arching it towards her. Starting at the knee, she reverently kissed her way down the smooth skin to Nikki’s ankle, fastening the gold chain around her and kissing the doe last time before raising her eyes to Nikki’s flushed face. Bending her head, she began to drop a trail of kisses back up her leg, over her knee and up her thigh, parting Nikki’s legs as she went. “And now for my present.”
Nikki’s eyes fluttered closed and she gasped softly as Morgana’s kisses reached the slickness of the night before. She slid down the headboard as Morgana pulled her towards her, shifting Nikki’s legs over her shoulders and bowing her head, sneaking out her tongue to lick up and around and in, and in and in and -
Nikki’s hips were canting off the bed and her head was thrown back when a loud knock at the front door broke the quiet chorus of soft wet sounds and panting. They both jumped, Nikki pulling away from Morgana’s mouth and going beetroot red, Morgana laughing and wiping the back of her hand across her mouth.
“The police. Perfect time as always,” Morgana muttered dryly, getting up from the bed and searching out a cardigan to wrap around her. “I’ll tell then you were still sleeping. Come down when you’re ready,” she said to Nikki, smiling slightly in amusement.
Nikki was in the bathroom when she heard Morgana show the detective out and climb back up the stairs.
“What did he say?” she asked as Morgana entered the bathroom. She had discarded her cardigan somewhere, leaving the arms that circled Nikki’s midriff bare.
“They searched Joseph Gaius’ house last night and found evidence connecting him to Emrys. They found the gin as well and charged him with the murder of my step father’s murder and that of the American family, also breaking and entering and attempted murder. His injuries were minor so he has been taken into custody. Two other members of the board at Pendragon Industries - a Mr. Henrich Monet and Mr. Terrance Martin - have also been arrested. Mr. Monet was a friend of Darren Graham, the American. He’s been charged with conspiracy to have them murdered. Mr. Martin was part of a thankfully unsuccessful attempt to kidnap your Gwen and Arthur. It seems this went a lot deeper we thought. He said they will be in contact again for us both to give full statements about last night.”
“Did you know the other board members well?” Nikki asked, running her fingers along Morgana’s arm and meeting her eyes through the mirror.
“No,” Morgana said. She turned her face into Nikki’s neck and breathed in the honey smell of her soap. In the last six months she had lost her step father, been charged with his murder and then acquitted, kidnapped and beaten up. But she had also gained a beautiful nephew and found Nikki, a woman whom she loved more than she ever thought it was possible to love.
“When I get dressed we can go to the hospital to see Gwen and Morgan,” Nikki said, turning in Morgana’s arms to face her. “I know you’re itching to get your hands on him again.”
Morgana smiled, a wicked idea entering her mind. They had been in the middle of something when the detective had called. “I think,” she began, trailing her hands up Nikki’s back, “that I could be persuaded,” she flicked open the clasp of Nikki’s strapless bra and let it fall to the ground, “to wait a little longer.”
Nikki held her darkening gaze. “Oh yes?”
Morgana nodded, raising her eyebrows and hooking her thumbs into the waistline of Nikki’s red silk knickers. “I believe you have a present for me?”
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