Conflict of Interest (18/?) - (Morgana/Nikki)
Title: Conflict of Interest (18/?)
Fandom: Silent Witness/Merlin (Modern AU)
Characters & Pairings: Morgana/Nikki (with side Arthur/Gwen, unrequited/past Nikki/Harry and maybe-not-so-past Gwen/Morgana)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~ 51,000 so far, 3,000 for this part
Summary: Morgana/Nikki. Harry hears something he shouldn't and Gwen has a shocking revelation.
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
FOUR MONTHS LATER
Morgana was fidgeting. The last time she had been in a courtroom, there had been handcuffs around her wrists. This time she was a witness, not the defendant, but that did nothing to ease her nerves. In the months that had passed since Emrys had abducted her and Nikki, she had largely tried to ignore what had happened. The therapist that Arthur had insisted she see had told her that denial wasn’t healthy, but she wasn’t in denial. Her mind was just occupied with other things - things that didn’t remind her of waking up in the dark with pain radiating through her body and panic in her chest. Dwelling on it wouldn’t do anyone any good. Except now she had to tell a court full of strangers every single detail to make sure that Emrys paid for what he did.
“Miss Lafferty,” the prosecution began. “Thank you for being here. I know it must be difficult.”
Morgana nodded and wished he would get on with it.
“Can you please tell the court where you were on the morning of December 18th last year?”
“I was at the home of Prof. Leo Dalton,” Morgana answered.
“And what is your relationship to Prof. Dalton?”
“He is my girlfriend’s colleague.” She had been worried about this part, the part about Nikki.
“Why were you at his house that morning?”
“Leo had found evidence that suggested someone might be after me and my brother,” she answered, her eyes flicking to Arthur in the gallery. He gave her an encouraging smile. “We didn’t want to be at our homes in case he was right.”
“Who else was at the house?”
“Apart from my brother, Leo and I, there was Leo’s partner Janet, my sister-in-law Gwen, Harry and Nikki. We had all stayed the night before.”
“Your girlfriend Dr. Nikki Alexander and Dr. Harry Cunningham, both pathologists?” he asked, looking for confirmation.
“Yes.” She could feel her pulse quickening, hear it rushing in her ears. “Nikki was talking on the phone in the back garden to the inspector who was working on the case at the time,” she said, trying to move things along.
“And what happened next?”
“Harry and I noticed that Nikki wasn’t in the garden anymore and went looking for her. The back gate was open so we went through it. We came to a fork in the path leading from the gate so we split up. It was overgrown, but eventually the path opened up into a field.”
“What did you see in the field?”
“There was a car park at the bottom of the hill. It was one of those ones put in by the National Trust with the gravel and the log boundaries. There was a dark blue car there, an Audi.”
“Had you seen the car before?”
“I remembered seeing it earlier parked across the road from Leo’s when Nikki and I went to get the milk from the front step.”
“So he saw you two together?”
“Yes,” Morgana said, cold guilt stirring in her stomach. It didn’t matter how many times Nikki told her that it wasn’t her fault, Morgana knew that it was.
“What happened next, after you saw the car in the car park?”
“I don’t remember.” Harry had told her that she had shouted Nikki’s name but Morgana couldn’t remember anything past that first glimpse of the car.
“What is the next thing you remember from that day, Miss Lafferty?”
“I remember waking up somewhere dark and small but I passed out again after I tried to move my leg.”
“Let the court note that Miss Lafferty was suffering from a broken tibia and fibula - her shin bones to us non-medically inclined - as well as a broken rib on her right side. She was also bleeding internally from a tear in her portal vein, for which she was rushed to surgery for following her admittance to hospital.”
There were more questions about that day and the month or so before, both from the prosecution and the defence. By the time they were done, the judge called for a break for lunch.
“Are you alright?” Nikki met her outside in the corridor, hugging her briefly and kissing her cheek. They were doing well together, far better than Morgana had ever imagined.
FOUR MONTHS EARLIER
Morgana wasn’t released from hospital for another week after she came round from the anaesthetic. Even then, she was only allowed home under the understanding that she was on strict bed-rest and was not to be left alone. Gwen had, of course, offered her and Arthur’s spare room, but when Nikki made her own offer, Arthur immediately endorsed her. He made every argument for Nikki’s flat that he could think of. It was all on one level and with Nikki still suspended, Morgana would have a constant watcher. Gwen never stood a chance. Arthur even helped move some of Morgana’s stuff.
Compared to her own clean styled house, Nikki was afraid that Morgana would find her flat small and cluttered. She did the best she could to tidy away things that had rightful places and bin the things that didn’t and shouldn’t. The morning that Morgana was due to arrive, Nikki had a massive attack of doubt over where Morgana would sleep. There were two bedrooms, Nikki’s and a guest, in which no one but a too-drunk-to-go-home Harry had slept in before. It wasn’t as cosy as her room and the mattress had cost less than half as much, so that made it easy, didn’t it? Or was she just assuming things she shouldn’t to assume?
“Good morning Nikki,” Harry mumbled when he picked up the phone. It was before ten on a Saturday, so his greeting had been sarcastic.
“Where should she sleep?” Nikki asked immediately. She was far too stressed for small talk or anything as trivial as a ‘hello’.
“I assume you mean Morgana.” There was a rustle, the sound of Harry getting reluctantly out of bed.
“Yes Morgana,” Nikki said shortly. “Where should she sleep?”
“Where she wants to?” Harry hazarded. He didn’t like when women asked those sorts of questions, the correct answer was never the one he gave and they were more often than not a trick. When he didn’t get a reply, he guessed again. “Your room?”
“That’s what I thought,” Nikki sighed in relief and hung up. She put Morgana’s things in her room and went to wait nervously in the living room. James Martin was cooking something wonderfully tasty and dangerously full of butter on the television but she couldn’t pay attention, despite the fact that it was dawning on her that she was probably going to have to cook. She tried not to think about it. She also tried not to think about the fact that the lift was being renovated and that her flat was looking more and more unsuitable as a recovery retreat with every passing second.
Luckily, she didn’t have to wait long. There was a knock on her door at half past ten exactly.
“Special delivery,” Arthur joked when she opened the door. “I have one incredibly annoying sister here who I believe is now your problem.”
As simple as that, Morgana was pushed into Nikki’s arms and Arthur ran off down the steps calling, “Ring me if she needs anything.”
Nikki tried awkwardly to help take the weight of Morgana’s broken leg, which wasn’t easy to do seeing as Morgana was a good couple of inches taller than her.
“I, err - It’s a bit of a mess. I haven’t had chance to tidy up.” That was a lie, she had spent an hour and a half on the living room alone the night before.
“After hospital it’s paradise,” Morgana assured her, having to lean more than she would have liked on Nikki, “believe me.” Her voice was still a little hoarse from being intubated and Nikki was surprised to discover that she found it sexy. “Good morning,” she murmured, tilting her head up to capture Nikki’s mouth in a kiss.
“Good morning,” Nikki smiled against Morgana’s lips. When the kiss threatened to deepen, she pulled back. “Mmm. You smell good,” she whispered.
“Coca scented shampoo,” Morgana smirked, “works every time.”
Slipping an arm around Morgana’s waist, Nikki helped her hobble over to the sofa. “It doesn’t look much but it’s comfortable, I promise.”
“I come out of hospital and have to sleep on a sofa? Ouch. What did I do wrong?” Morgana joked, sinking down into the cushions with a wince.
“You could always... stay in my room,” Nikki suggested, sitting beside Morgana.
“That’s better,” Morgana smiled, kissing Nikki again. “I’ve wanted to do that so much this past week, but not even private hospital rooms give any privacy.”
Nikki smiled blissfully and brushed the hair back from Morgana’s forehead. It was the first time she had seen the long black locks anything other than poker straight. The waves gave Morgana’s face another layer of softness that Nikki wanted to trail with the pads of her fingers. “How do you feel?”
“Like I’ve gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson,” Morgana answered unoriginally, though with enough of a flash of teeth that she managed to get away with it. “I feel better though,” she said seriously. They had found out after she woke up, that Morgana had broken a rib as well. Though it wasn’t a bad break, it had set back her recovery. “Just don’t look at my eyes. My pupils are the size of dinner plates. I look like a junkie.”
Tilting Morgana’s head so that she could look into her eyes, Nikki considered, “Not quite dinner plates. Saucers, maybe.”
“So... Have you spoken to the police?” Morgana asked tentatively, catching Nikki’s hand and playing with her fingers. “Arthur won’t tell me anything. I think he’s enjoying acting like the older sibling for once.”
“They aren’t really saying anything,” Nikki sighed, “other than he won’t get bail and that they are processing the evidence from the crime scenes again. There was a couple of DNA samples at the Graham’s that they couldn’t get a match for. A different lab is dealing with it. Leo’s not happy but he couldn’t do much because of my suspension.”
Morgana frowned. “You aren’t going to lose your job are you?”
“I hope not.” Nikki got up and retrieved an envelope from the table, she handed it Morgana. “I’ve been given a formal warning.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Nikki dismissed.
“No,” Morgana said, struggling to her feet and wrapping her arms loosely around Nikki’s waist, “it isn’t. I’ve turned your life upside down.” Carefully, she ran her hand along the cast on Nikki’s arm. “I wanted to thank you.”
“For what?”
“For believing in me when nobody else did.” A tear rand down her cheek and she quickly brushed it away. “You’ll never know how much that means to me.”
Nikki kissed her before she could say anything else.
FOUR MONTHS LATER
“I’m fine,” Morgana whispered, pulling Nikki closer for a moment and breathing in the light smell of her perfume.
“Are you sure?” Nikki looked worried.
Morgana smiled and nodded.
“At least this time you weren’t in handcuffs,” Arthur said lamely, coming out of nowhere to give Morgana a stiff hug. Something had been different between them recently. They weren’t as close as they were before and Arthur didn’t bring his problems to her anymore. “Gwen sends her apologies. Janet’s taken her home. She said the seats were too hard or something but I think she just didn’t like hearing it all.”
“I understand,” Morgana nodded. She didn’t. If Arthur had been a little cold with her lately, then Gwen had been avoiding her almost completely.
“Who’s on the stand after lunch?” Harry asked, coming towards them with Leo. He gave Morgana a quick hug, and then Nikki. Morgana wondered if everyone who talked to her that day would hug her. The thought made her laugh.
“What?” Nikki asked, laughing too, though she didn’t know why.
“Anderson, I think,” Leo answered Leo’s question.
“Nothing,” Morgana smiled, shaking her head.
“That should be fun,” Arthur said sarcastically. “We don’t need to be there for that, do we?”
Leo shook his head. “No, but I’m going to stay anyway. I want to hear what he says about us and the investigation. You should all go though. Get some lunch or go for a drink.” He patted Morgana on the shoulder. “You deserve it.”
~*~
“I can‘t believe that you have been in my car for fifteen minutes without a single protest,” Harry grinned at Nikki through the car mirror.
“Only because I have recently come to appreciate that you aren’t that bad of a driver... comparatively speaking,” Nikki quipped, grinning back. She had been back at work for just over three months and had never been happier to be bogged down with paperwork and aching from standing over a body all day. Banter with Harry had been seriously lacking during her suspension. “At least you’ve never crashed with me in the car.”
Morgana scoffed from beside her. “That wasn’t a crash. Ford Cortina, summer of 2005 - now that was a crash.”
“You drove a Ford Cortina?” Harry asked sceptically. “I don’t believe it.”
“It was Gwen’s actually. She didn’t speak to me for a month. Apparently it was her baby. It had a name and everything,” Morgana said, frowning. “She always did have a strange relationship with cars. I blame her father.”
“I was most definitely a crash,” Nikki persisted. She had no idea what a Ford Cortina looked like or why Harry didn’t believe that Morgana would have owned one. “If you have to exchange insurance details then it counts as a crash on your insurance.”
Morgana rolled her eyes. “I can’t help it if some old man - who, I might add, was far too blind to be driving in the first place - cuts in front of me because he almost missed the slip road. If he had just taken the next exit then it never would have happened. Besides, it was only a tap.”
“Your bumper came off and two kids appeared from nowhere and stole it,” Nikki laughed.
“It was already scratched, I had been meaning to get a new one,” Morgana lied. It was only a white lie. A white lie, that had distracted Nikki from noticing how much it had cost to get Morgana’s Porsche looking brand new again. She had got the money back on her insurance anyway.
Harry was watching them, smiling fondly. He was dating a lawyer he had met through Morgana and had decided that it was time to get over Nikki. They would never have really gotten together. The timing always seemed to be wrong. “Morgana, have you got the order?” he asked, taking the scrawled on piece of paper when she held it out to him. They pulled in at the curb in front of an Italian deli.
Nikki went to take off her belt.
“Nope, you stay here and drive like the wind if a traffic warden comes. It’s no parking between eight and six,” Harry said, before opening the door an inch and nipping out between cars.
“Hi,” Nikki whispered, kissing Morgana properly now that they were alone. She hadn’t gotten used to people staring when they touched in public places. It hurt, but she knew that she would get used to it. Morgana said that she barely noticed at all anymore.
“Hi,” Morgana smiled, wrapping her arms around Nikki’s neck and leaning into the kiss.
“You were brilliant on the witness stand,” Nikki murmured against Morgana’s jaw. “I was proud of how you held it together, even when the defence laid into you about me and how you didn’t remember some of it.”
“I wish I remembered,” Morgana sighed, tilting her head as Nikki’s thumb brushed over her cheek. “Nikki,” she pulled back from the blonde’s touch, “do you remember what I told you about Gwen and the garage?”
Nikki nodded, sitting back in her seat. “You slept together.”
“It won’t happen again,” Morgana assured her.
“I know.” Nikki smiled but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“I think Arthur has found out.”
“They have been acting a bit... strained,” Nikki agreed. “You should talk to him about it.”
“Do you think?” Morgana frowned. “I was hoping you would say that I shouldn’t.”
“You don’t want it to come between you,” Nikki sighed, running her hand through her hair. “If he was going to kick off about it, I think he would have done it by now.”
They jumped when the front passenger door was pulled over and a brown paper bag was thrust onto the seat.
“What are you two talking about?” Harry frowned, sliding into the driver’s seat and pulling the door shut behind him with a satisfying ‘clink’.
Morgana and Nikki shared a look.
“Harry, there’s something you should probably know before we get to Arthur and Gwen’s,” Nikki began.
“Sounds serious,” Harry said, resting his hand on the handbrake.
“About eighteen months ago, Morgana slept with Gwen,” Nikki said quickly, hoping it would be like pulling off a plaster and be better if she just got it over with. “It isn’t a big deal but we think that Arthur knows, so Morgana is going to talk to him about it when we get there. Don’t get mad because it was before we met and she won’t do it again.” She looked at Morgan then, who nodded brusquely at Harry.
Harry braced himself for trouble. “I - err - I already know.”
Note - there isn’t an awful lot left now, about three or four chapters.
Fandom: Silent Witness/Merlin (Modern AU)
Characters & Pairings: Morgana/Nikki (with side Arthur/Gwen, unrequited/past Nikki/Harry and maybe-not-so-past Gwen/Morgana)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~ 51,000 so far, 3,000 for this part
Summary: Morgana/Nikki. Harry hears something he shouldn't and Gwen has a shocking revelation.
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
FOUR MONTHS LATER
Morgana was fidgeting. The last time she had been in a courtroom, there had been handcuffs around her wrists. This time she was a witness, not the defendant, but that did nothing to ease her nerves. In the months that had passed since Emrys had abducted her and Nikki, she had largely tried to ignore what had happened. The therapist that Arthur had insisted she see had told her that denial wasn’t healthy, but she wasn’t in denial. Her mind was just occupied with other things - things that didn’t remind her of waking up in the dark with pain radiating through her body and panic in her chest. Dwelling on it wouldn’t do anyone any good. Except now she had to tell a court full of strangers every single detail to make sure that Emrys paid for what he did.
“Miss Lafferty,” the prosecution began. “Thank you for being here. I know it must be difficult.”
Morgana nodded and wished he would get on with it.
“Can you please tell the court where you were on the morning of December 18th last year?”
“I was at the home of Prof. Leo Dalton,” Morgana answered.
“And what is your relationship to Prof. Dalton?”
“He is my girlfriend’s colleague.” She had been worried about this part, the part about Nikki.
“Why were you at his house that morning?”
“Leo had found evidence that suggested someone might be after me and my brother,” she answered, her eyes flicking to Arthur in the gallery. He gave her an encouraging smile. “We didn’t want to be at our homes in case he was right.”
“Who else was at the house?”
“Apart from my brother, Leo and I, there was Leo’s partner Janet, my sister-in-law Gwen, Harry and Nikki. We had all stayed the night before.”
“Your girlfriend Dr. Nikki Alexander and Dr. Harry Cunningham, both pathologists?” he asked, looking for confirmation.
“Yes.” She could feel her pulse quickening, hear it rushing in her ears. “Nikki was talking on the phone in the back garden to the inspector who was working on the case at the time,” she said, trying to move things along.
“And what happened next?”
“Harry and I noticed that Nikki wasn’t in the garden anymore and went looking for her. The back gate was open so we went through it. We came to a fork in the path leading from the gate so we split up. It was overgrown, but eventually the path opened up into a field.”
“What did you see in the field?”
“There was a car park at the bottom of the hill. It was one of those ones put in by the National Trust with the gravel and the log boundaries. There was a dark blue car there, an Audi.”
“Had you seen the car before?”
“I remembered seeing it earlier parked across the road from Leo’s when Nikki and I went to get the milk from the front step.”
“So he saw you two together?”
“Yes,” Morgana said, cold guilt stirring in her stomach. It didn’t matter how many times Nikki told her that it wasn’t her fault, Morgana knew that it was.
“What happened next, after you saw the car in the car park?”
“I don’t remember.” Harry had told her that she had shouted Nikki’s name but Morgana couldn’t remember anything past that first glimpse of the car.
“What is the next thing you remember from that day, Miss Lafferty?”
“I remember waking up somewhere dark and small but I passed out again after I tried to move my leg.”
“Let the court note that Miss Lafferty was suffering from a broken tibia and fibula - her shin bones to us non-medically inclined - as well as a broken rib on her right side. She was also bleeding internally from a tear in her portal vein, for which she was rushed to surgery for following her admittance to hospital.”
There were more questions about that day and the month or so before, both from the prosecution and the defence. By the time they were done, the judge called for a break for lunch.
“Are you alright?” Nikki met her outside in the corridor, hugging her briefly and kissing her cheek. They were doing well together, far better than Morgana had ever imagined.
FOUR MONTHS EARLIER
Morgana wasn’t released from hospital for another week after she came round from the anaesthetic. Even then, she was only allowed home under the understanding that she was on strict bed-rest and was not to be left alone. Gwen had, of course, offered her and Arthur’s spare room, but when Nikki made her own offer, Arthur immediately endorsed her. He made every argument for Nikki’s flat that he could think of. It was all on one level and with Nikki still suspended, Morgana would have a constant watcher. Gwen never stood a chance. Arthur even helped move some of Morgana’s stuff.
Compared to her own clean styled house, Nikki was afraid that Morgana would find her flat small and cluttered. She did the best she could to tidy away things that had rightful places and bin the things that didn’t and shouldn’t. The morning that Morgana was due to arrive, Nikki had a massive attack of doubt over where Morgana would sleep. There were two bedrooms, Nikki’s and a guest, in which no one but a too-drunk-to-go-home Harry had slept in before. It wasn’t as cosy as her room and the mattress had cost less than half as much, so that made it easy, didn’t it? Or was she just assuming things she shouldn’t to assume?
“Good morning Nikki,” Harry mumbled when he picked up the phone. It was before ten on a Saturday, so his greeting had been sarcastic.
“Where should she sleep?” Nikki asked immediately. She was far too stressed for small talk or anything as trivial as a ‘hello’.
“I assume you mean Morgana.” There was a rustle, the sound of Harry getting reluctantly out of bed.
“Yes Morgana,” Nikki said shortly. “Where should she sleep?”
“Where she wants to?” Harry hazarded. He didn’t like when women asked those sorts of questions, the correct answer was never the one he gave and they were more often than not a trick. When he didn’t get a reply, he guessed again. “Your room?”
“That’s what I thought,” Nikki sighed in relief and hung up. She put Morgana’s things in her room and went to wait nervously in the living room. James Martin was cooking something wonderfully tasty and dangerously full of butter on the television but she couldn’t pay attention, despite the fact that it was dawning on her that she was probably going to have to cook. She tried not to think about it. She also tried not to think about the fact that the lift was being renovated and that her flat was looking more and more unsuitable as a recovery retreat with every passing second.
Luckily, she didn’t have to wait long. There was a knock on her door at half past ten exactly.
“Special delivery,” Arthur joked when she opened the door. “I have one incredibly annoying sister here who I believe is now your problem.”
As simple as that, Morgana was pushed into Nikki’s arms and Arthur ran off down the steps calling, “Ring me if she needs anything.”
Nikki tried awkwardly to help take the weight of Morgana’s broken leg, which wasn’t easy to do seeing as Morgana was a good couple of inches taller than her.
“I, err - It’s a bit of a mess. I haven’t had chance to tidy up.” That was a lie, she had spent an hour and a half on the living room alone the night before.
“After hospital it’s paradise,” Morgana assured her, having to lean more than she would have liked on Nikki, “believe me.” Her voice was still a little hoarse from being intubated and Nikki was surprised to discover that she found it sexy. “Good morning,” she murmured, tilting her head up to capture Nikki’s mouth in a kiss.
“Good morning,” Nikki smiled against Morgana’s lips. When the kiss threatened to deepen, she pulled back. “Mmm. You smell good,” she whispered.
“Coca scented shampoo,” Morgana smirked, “works every time.”
Slipping an arm around Morgana’s waist, Nikki helped her hobble over to the sofa. “It doesn’t look much but it’s comfortable, I promise.”
“I come out of hospital and have to sleep on a sofa? Ouch. What did I do wrong?” Morgana joked, sinking down into the cushions with a wince.
“You could always... stay in my room,” Nikki suggested, sitting beside Morgana.
“That’s better,” Morgana smiled, kissing Nikki again. “I’ve wanted to do that so much this past week, but not even private hospital rooms give any privacy.”
Nikki smiled blissfully and brushed the hair back from Morgana’s forehead. It was the first time she had seen the long black locks anything other than poker straight. The waves gave Morgana’s face another layer of softness that Nikki wanted to trail with the pads of her fingers. “How do you feel?”
“Like I’ve gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson,” Morgana answered unoriginally, though with enough of a flash of teeth that she managed to get away with it. “I feel better though,” she said seriously. They had found out after she woke up, that Morgana had broken a rib as well. Though it wasn’t a bad break, it had set back her recovery. “Just don’t look at my eyes. My pupils are the size of dinner plates. I look like a junkie.”
Tilting Morgana’s head so that she could look into her eyes, Nikki considered, “Not quite dinner plates. Saucers, maybe.”
“So... Have you spoken to the police?” Morgana asked tentatively, catching Nikki’s hand and playing with her fingers. “Arthur won’t tell me anything. I think he’s enjoying acting like the older sibling for once.”
“They aren’t really saying anything,” Nikki sighed, “other than he won’t get bail and that they are processing the evidence from the crime scenes again. There was a couple of DNA samples at the Graham’s that they couldn’t get a match for. A different lab is dealing with it. Leo’s not happy but he couldn’t do much because of my suspension.”
Morgana frowned. “You aren’t going to lose your job are you?”
“I hope not.” Nikki got up and retrieved an envelope from the table, she handed it Morgana. “I’ve been given a formal warning.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Nikki dismissed.
“No,” Morgana said, struggling to her feet and wrapping her arms loosely around Nikki’s waist, “it isn’t. I’ve turned your life upside down.” Carefully, she ran her hand along the cast on Nikki’s arm. “I wanted to thank you.”
“For what?”
“For believing in me when nobody else did.” A tear rand down her cheek and she quickly brushed it away. “You’ll never know how much that means to me.”
Nikki kissed her before she could say anything else.
FOUR MONTHS LATER
“I’m fine,” Morgana whispered, pulling Nikki closer for a moment and breathing in the light smell of her perfume.
“Are you sure?” Nikki looked worried.
Morgana smiled and nodded.
“At least this time you weren’t in handcuffs,” Arthur said lamely, coming out of nowhere to give Morgana a stiff hug. Something had been different between them recently. They weren’t as close as they were before and Arthur didn’t bring his problems to her anymore. “Gwen sends her apologies. Janet’s taken her home. She said the seats were too hard or something but I think she just didn’t like hearing it all.”
“I understand,” Morgana nodded. She didn’t. If Arthur had been a little cold with her lately, then Gwen had been avoiding her almost completely.
“Who’s on the stand after lunch?” Harry asked, coming towards them with Leo. He gave Morgana a quick hug, and then Nikki. Morgana wondered if everyone who talked to her that day would hug her. The thought made her laugh.
“What?” Nikki asked, laughing too, though she didn’t know why.
“Anderson, I think,” Leo answered Leo’s question.
“Nothing,” Morgana smiled, shaking her head.
“That should be fun,” Arthur said sarcastically. “We don’t need to be there for that, do we?”
Leo shook his head. “No, but I’m going to stay anyway. I want to hear what he says about us and the investigation. You should all go though. Get some lunch or go for a drink.” He patted Morgana on the shoulder. “You deserve it.”
~*~
“I can‘t believe that you have been in my car for fifteen minutes without a single protest,” Harry grinned at Nikki through the car mirror.
“Only because I have recently come to appreciate that you aren’t that bad of a driver... comparatively speaking,” Nikki quipped, grinning back. She had been back at work for just over three months and had never been happier to be bogged down with paperwork and aching from standing over a body all day. Banter with Harry had been seriously lacking during her suspension. “At least you’ve never crashed with me in the car.”
Morgana scoffed from beside her. “That wasn’t a crash. Ford Cortina, summer of 2005 - now that was a crash.”
“You drove a Ford Cortina?” Harry asked sceptically. “I don’t believe it.”
“It was Gwen’s actually. She didn’t speak to me for a month. Apparently it was her baby. It had a name and everything,” Morgana said, frowning. “She always did have a strange relationship with cars. I blame her father.”
“I was most definitely a crash,” Nikki persisted. She had no idea what a Ford Cortina looked like or why Harry didn’t believe that Morgana would have owned one. “If you have to exchange insurance details then it counts as a crash on your insurance.”
Morgana rolled her eyes. “I can’t help it if some old man - who, I might add, was far too blind to be driving in the first place - cuts in front of me because he almost missed the slip road. If he had just taken the next exit then it never would have happened. Besides, it was only a tap.”
“Your bumper came off and two kids appeared from nowhere and stole it,” Nikki laughed.
“It was already scratched, I had been meaning to get a new one,” Morgana lied. It was only a white lie. A white lie, that had distracted Nikki from noticing how much it had cost to get Morgana’s Porsche looking brand new again. She had got the money back on her insurance anyway.
Harry was watching them, smiling fondly. He was dating a lawyer he had met through Morgana and had decided that it was time to get over Nikki. They would never have really gotten together. The timing always seemed to be wrong. “Morgana, have you got the order?” he asked, taking the scrawled on piece of paper when she held it out to him. They pulled in at the curb in front of an Italian deli.
Nikki went to take off her belt.
“Nope, you stay here and drive like the wind if a traffic warden comes. It’s no parking between eight and six,” Harry said, before opening the door an inch and nipping out between cars.
“Hi,” Nikki whispered, kissing Morgana properly now that they were alone. She hadn’t gotten used to people staring when they touched in public places. It hurt, but she knew that she would get used to it. Morgana said that she barely noticed at all anymore.
“Hi,” Morgana smiled, wrapping her arms around Nikki’s neck and leaning into the kiss.
“You were brilliant on the witness stand,” Nikki murmured against Morgana’s jaw. “I was proud of how you held it together, even when the defence laid into you about me and how you didn’t remember some of it.”
“I wish I remembered,” Morgana sighed, tilting her head as Nikki’s thumb brushed over her cheek. “Nikki,” she pulled back from the blonde’s touch, “do you remember what I told you about Gwen and the garage?”
Nikki nodded, sitting back in her seat. “You slept together.”
“It won’t happen again,” Morgana assured her.
“I know.” Nikki smiled but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“I think Arthur has found out.”
“They have been acting a bit... strained,” Nikki agreed. “You should talk to him about it.”
“Do you think?” Morgana frowned. “I was hoping you would say that I shouldn’t.”
“You don’t want it to come between you,” Nikki sighed, running her hand through her hair. “If he was going to kick off about it, I think he would have done it by now.”
They jumped when the front passenger door was pulled over and a brown paper bag was thrust onto the seat.
“What are you two talking about?” Harry frowned, sliding into the driver’s seat and pulling the door shut behind him with a satisfying ‘clink’.
Morgana and Nikki shared a look.
“Harry, there’s something you should probably know before we get to Arthur and Gwen’s,” Nikki began.
“Sounds serious,” Harry said, resting his hand on the handbrake.
“About eighteen months ago, Morgana slept with Gwen,” Nikki said quickly, hoping it would be like pulling off a plaster and be better if she just got it over with. “It isn’t a big deal but we think that Arthur knows, so Morgana is going to talk to him about it when we get there. Don’t get mad because it was before we met and she won’t do it again.” She looked at Morgan then, who nodded brusquely at Harry.
Harry braced himself for trouble. “I - err - I already know.”
Note - there isn’t an awful lot left now, about three or four chapters.