Something, Silent Witness fanfiction, 2/5
Title: Something
Rating: T
Summary: H/N fluff, on a conference in Scotland.
Chapter Two
They’re barely five minutes into their journey, and Nikki’s just pulled off of the main road and is following the signs to Pencuik, where they’re staying, when the radio starts to crackle.
That’s the first sign.
Harry half-heartedly fiddles with the buttons for a few moments, trying to find something that isn’t just white noise, but gives up quickly, and turns it off.
“Crap hire cars.” He grumbles, leaning back in his seat, “Was it your idea to book Budget cars?”
Nikki gives a little laugh, and somewhere inside, some hopelessly romantic version of Harry notes that her laugh is one of his favourite things, about her, about anyone.
It all happens very quickly after that.
Firstly, the flakes of snow falling lightly around them turn heavier, and the windscreen wipers are making a futile attempt to keep Nikki’s line of sight clear. They’re off the main roads when the fog descends, and suddenly neither of them can see anything but the reflection back of the headlights, and Nikki’s hands are suddenly gripping the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles are turning white.
He doesn’t say anything for a few minutes as they plough on at 25mph through the twisting roads, but eventually, watching his friend’s chest rise and fall slightly too quickly, he speaks.
“You all right?” he murmurs.
“Hate driving in the snow.” She breathes, not taking her eyes of the blurry road in front of her. Occasionally a more well-accustomed Scottish driver will overtake them, zipping past, as if they’re not driving through the same awful conditions, but other than that, it’s tedious and silent in the car. Harry doesn’t want to say anything, break her concentration, and Nikki has no wish to make polite concentration, her heart thumping in her chest.
She was still in university, and she’d gone to stay in Leeds with one of her Bio-chem friends. They’d been driving home in the middle of winter, and the car had skidded underneath them, and they’d careered straight into a tree. She’d been in the passenger seat, but Caroline - her friend - had been thrown forward straight into the steering wheel, her head smashing against the windscreen. She hadn’t woken up for seven weeks, and after that she’d never been the same. She hasn’t thought about her in so many years - but suddenly she can see her face in her mind, and the car feels like something completely out of her control, like it’s slipping under her grasp, and she wishes more than anything that she hadn’t been so stubborn and she’d just let Harry drive. Harry, who’s staring out of the window like there’s nothing wrong.
It’s a tight corner on a road hardly big enough for even one car when she skids, and she’s hardly doing twenty, but the turn’s too sharp. Their slow speed means the back of the car only swings out a few metres, but Harry lurches forward in his seat, and for a moment she imagines his head colliding with the windscreen the way Caroline’s had - and she feels so sick. She thinks Harry’s saying something, but there’s a roaring in her ears.
Everything she’s ever known about driving in the snow goes out of the window and she slams the brakes on, her whole body shaking as the car skids to a halt, diagonally positioned at the side of the road, engine grumbling.
She can’t stop shaking, and she can’t look over at Harry, not for a second. It’s not til she feels him lean across and turn the engine off wordlessly, and he places a hand on her shoulder that she turns to him, concerned eyes meeting her own.
“Sorry?” she whispers, and it comes out sounding like a question.
“It’s ok…” he whispers, the hand on her arm snaking round her shoulders, and pulling her into an awkward hug.
For a long moment she stays exactly where she is, but then her seatbelt is digging into her neck, and this isn’t the most comfortable of positions, so reaches down and slips the seatbelt out of its holder, and buries her head in his neck.
Harry strokes her hair lightly, wondering not only what the hell is going on but also where to go from here.
“It’s ok…” he breathes again.
“This is stupid, I’m being stupid.” She hisses, and he feels her breath on his neck… he can’t help his body tensing as he realises her proximity, as he feels her pressed against him.
“No…” he disagrees lightly, keeping his hand in her hair. “You can’t see anything out there… it’s frightening…”
He hates that he sounds like he’s talking to a child, but he feels the imprint of her lips smile slightly, and he rubs her back gently, wondering how long he gets to keep this moment.
“When I was nineteen… I was… we were driving in the snow… hit a tree… my friend… subdural haematoma… she was lucky to even survive…”
He fights the overwhelming urge to kiss her hair, realising her story explains her shaking hands, her pale, afraid face. He settles for rubbing small circles into the small of her back instead, holding her close.
“It’s ok…” he says for the third time, wishing he had something more substantial to comfort her.
Minutes later, she pulls back slightly, not disentangling herself from his arms entirely, but so she can see his eyes.
“Harry?”
“Uh huh?” he breathes, because there’s something different about this moment, and he’s sure she can hear his heart thudding in his chest, it’s that loud.
“Would you drive the rest?”
He smiles slightly, but the laugh isn’t set free, because he couldn’t possibly have mistaken the obvious glance she just gave his lips, could he? And he finds himself looking down at hers, curved slightly, parted slightly… he meets her eyes again and there’s something unreadable in them…
Nikki’s pretty sure she’s about to kiss Harry Cunningham, and in this moment she can’t think of the thousand reasons she tells herself almost every night before she goes to bed - the thousand reasons she’s compiled as to why she shouldn’t. Some rubbish about him being her best friend, about not wanting to lose him, ever, and they could destroy everything they had, that he drove her mad most of the time, and she knew she evoked the same reaction in him…
Right this second, all she can see are his intense dark eyes, focused so absorbedly on her own that she can practically hear her own heartbeat.
Suddenly, all those reasons mean nothing, because he’s looking at her like he does in her dreams, and her breath hitches in anticipation as he leans closer to her…
Her phone rings, buzzing violently in the compartment between the seats, and they spring apart so violently that Harry bangs his head on the roof of the car. She glances down at the phone, inwardly cursing the caller, desperately avoiding Harry’s gaze. The words LEO MOBILE appear on the screen, and Harry sees it at the same moment as her and she’s pretty sure she hears a bitter laugh.
Trying to conceal her disappointment, she lifts the phone to her ear.
“Leo?”
“Just checking in, seeing whether you’ve gotten to the hotel safely.” He sounds far too jovial. Nikki stares pointedly out of the window.
“We’re nearly there.” Her eyes dart to the Tom Tom, indicating a further nine minutes. “The driving conditions are terrible.”
“Let me know when you’re there safely, ok?” she hears someone say something in the background, “And make sure you set your alarms in the morning and set off in plenty of time… you don’t want to miss the conference.”
He’s become so much more of a worrier since Janet’s pregnancy.
“We’ll be fine, Leo. I’ll let you know when we get to the hotel.”
“Thanks, Nikki. See you.”
She hangs up, daring to dart a glance in her friend’s direction. He’s staring at her, smiling enigmatically, and though there’s nothing of the desire in his eyes there was moments ago, there’s still something new, something unreadable, like he’s in on a secret she hasn’t quite caught up with yet. She smiles sardonically back, and puts the phone back down, her pulse slowing to normal, her rationality taking over again, those thousand reasons creeping their way back into her mind.
It’s going to be one hell of a long night.
Hope you enjoyed, let me know what you think.
Rating: T
Summary: H/N fluff, on a conference in Scotland.
Chapter Two
They’re barely five minutes into their journey, and Nikki’s just pulled off of the main road and is following the signs to Pencuik, where they’re staying, when the radio starts to crackle.
That’s the first sign.
Harry half-heartedly fiddles with the buttons for a few moments, trying to find something that isn’t just white noise, but gives up quickly, and turns it off.
“Crap hire cars.” He grumbles, leaning back in his seat, “Was it your idea to book Budget cars?”
Nikki gives a little laugh, and somewhere inside, some hopelessly romantic version of Harry notes that her laugh is one of his favourite things, about her, about anyone.
It all happens very quickly after that.
Firstly, the flakes of snow falling lightly around them turn heavier, and the windscreen wipers are making a futile attempt to keep Nikki’s line of sight clear. They’re off the main roads when the fog descends, and suddenly neither of them can see anything but the reflection back of the headlights, and Nikki’s hands are suddenly gripping the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles are turning white.
He doesn’t say anything for a few minutes as they plough on at 25mph through the twisting roads, but eventually, watching his friend’s chest rise and fall slightly too quickly, he speaks.
“You all right?” he murmurs.
“Hate driving in the snow.” She breathes, not taking her eyes of the blurry road in front of her. Occasionally a more well-accustomed Scottish driver will overtake them, zipping past, as if they’re not driving through the same awful conditions, but other than that, it’s tedious and silent in the car. Harry doesn’t want to say anything, break her concentration, and Nikki has no wish to make polite concentration, her heart thumping in her chest.
She was still in university, and she’d gone to stay in Leeds with one of her Bio-chem friends. They’d been driving home in the middle of winter, and the car had skidded underneath them, and they’d careered straight into a tree. She’d been in the passenger seat, but Caroline - her friend - had been thrown forward straight into the steering wheel, her head smashing against the windscreen. She hadn’t woken up for seven weeks, and after that she’d never been the same. She hasn’t thought about her in so many years - but suddenly she can see her face in her mind, and the car feels like something completely out of her control, like it’s slipping under her grasp, and she wishes more than anything that she hadn’t been so stubborn and she’d just let Harry drive. Harry, who’s staring out of the window like there’s nothing wrong.
It’s a tight corner on a road hardly big enough for even one car when she skids, and she’s hardly doing twenty, but the turn’s too sharp. Their slow speed means the back of the car only swings out a few metres, but Harry lurches forward in his seat, and for a moment she imagines his head colliding with the windscreen the way Caroline’s had - and she feels so sick. She thinks Harry’s saying something, but there’s a roaring in her ears.
Everything she’s ever known about driving in the snow goes out of the window and she slams the brakes on, her whole body shaking as the car skids to a halt, diagonally positioned at the side of the road, engine grumbling.
She can’t stop shaking, and she can’t look over at Harry, not for a second. It’s not til she feels him lean across and turn the engine off wordlessly, and he places a hand on her shoulder that she turns to him, concerned eyes meeting her own.
“Sorry?” she whispers, and it comes out sounding like a question.
“It’s ok…” he whispers, the hand on her arm snaking round her shoulders, and pulling her into an awkward hug.
For a long moment she stays exactly where she is, but then her seatbelt is digging into her neck, and this isn’t the most comfortable of positions, so reaches down and slips the seatbelt out of its holder, and buries her head in his neck.
Harry strokes her hair lightly, wondering not only what the hell is going on but also where to go from here.
“It’s ok…” he breathes again.
“This is stupid, I’m being stupid.” She hisses, and he feels her breath on his neck… he can’t help his body tensing as he realises her proximity, as he feels her pressed against him.
“No…” he disagrees lightly, keeping his hand in her hair. “You can’t see anything out there… it’s frightening…”
He hates that he sounds like he’s talking to a child, but he feels the imprint of her lips smile slightly, and he rubs her back gently, wondering how long he gets to keep this moment.
“When I was nineteen… I was… we were driving in the snow… hit a tree… my friend… subdural haematoma… she was lucky to even survive…”
He fights the overwhelming urge to kiss her hair, realising her story explains her shaking hands, her pale, afraid face. He settles for rubbing small circles into the small of her back instead, holding her close.
“It’s ok…” he says for the third time, wishing he had something more substantial to comfort her.
Minutes later, she pulls back slightly, not disentangling herself from his arms entirely, but so she can see his eyes.
“Harry?”
“Uh huh?” he breathes, because there’s something different about this moment, and he’s sure she can hear his heart thudding in his chest, it’s that loud.
“Would you drive the rest?”
He smiles slightly, but the laugh isn’t set free, because he couldn’t possibly have mistaken the obvious glance she just gave his lips, could he? And he finds himself looking down at hers, curved slightly, parted slightly… he meets her eyes again and there’s something unreadable in them…
Nikki’s pretty sure she’s about to kiss Harry Cunningham, and in this moment she can’t think of the thousand reasons she tells herself almost every night before she goes to bed - the thousand reasons she’s compiled as to why she shouldn’t. Some rubbish about him being her best friend, about not wanting to lose him, ever, and they could destroy everything they had, that he drove her mad most of the time, and she knew she evoked the same reaction in him…
Right this second, all she can see are his intense dark eyes, focused so absorbedly on her own that she can practically hear her own heartbeat.
Suddenly, all those reasons mean nothing, because he’s looking at her like he does in her dreams, and her breath hitches in anticipation as he leans closer to her…
Her phone rings, buzzing violently in the compartment between the seats, and they spring apart so violently that Harry bangs his head on the roof of the car. She glances down at the phone, inwardly cursing the caller, desperately avoiding Harry’s gaze. The words LEO MOBILE appear on the screen, and Harry sees it at the same moment as her and she’s pretty sure she hears a bitter laugh.
Trying to conceal her disappointment, she lifts the phone to her ear.
“Leo?”
“Just checking in, seeing whether you’ve gotten to the hotel safely.” He sounds far too jovial. Nikki stares pointedly out of the window.
“We’re nearly there.” Her eyes dart to the Tom Tom, indicating a further nine minutes. “The driving conditions are terrible.”
“Let me know when you’re there safely, ok?” she hears someone say something in the background, “And make sure you set your alarms in the morning and set off in plenty of time… you don’t want to miss the conference.”
He’s become so much more of a worrier since Janet’s pregnancy.
“We’ll be fine, Leo. I’ll let you know when we get to the hotel.”
“Thanks, Nikki. See you.”
She hangs up, daring to dart a glance in her friend’s direction. He’s staring at her, smiling enigmatically, and though there’s nothing of the desire in his eyes there was moments ago, there’s still something new, something unreadable, like he’s in on a secret she hasn’t quite caught up with yet. She smiles sardonically back, and puts the phone back down, her pulse slowing to normal, her rationality taking over again, those thousand reasons creeping their way back into her mind.
It’s going to be one hell of a long night.
Hope you enjoyed, let me know what you think.