Halcyon

Four Times

An hour Later Nikki has been sat up in the bed and is talking to Jack a little more who has explained that Michael and Edward Swayer have been arrested for attempted manslaughter and that their investigation is ongoing as there's a possible link between Edward and Michael to the case of the three escort girls.
"...oh I almost forgot" Jack smiles as he stands up and puts his hand in his back pocket and pulls out his wallet and a piece of paper. He opens his wallet and grabs Nikki's engagement ring too. As he sits down he grabs her left hand and slides her engagement ring back onto her finger. "And Poppy wanted me to give you this" He smiles and hands her the piece of paper with the colourful yet flattering drawing on.

Nikki smiles and holds her drawing and admires it, "Oh it's lovely, very flattering" She croaks.
Jack chuckles to himself as she places the drawing on the side and grabs hold of his hand and he gently strokes her knuckles. "How have the girls been?" She questions looking down at her hand as Jack carefully strokes her knuckles continuously with his thumb.

"Hmm, questionable" He smirks.
Nikki raises an eyebrow and looks at him "What do you mean?" Nikki asks.

Jack takes a breath before speaking, "Well Poppy has been on breakdown central, she won't sleep in her own bed or she will take your pillow into her room and sleep with it. Maddison has been really fussy overfeeding and some days it's hard to get her to take the bottle. And she's out of a routine too" Jack explains.

"Oh god, you have had your hands full, are you okay with it all?" Nikki asks feeling sorry for her partner.
"One thing Niks, Never leave me..." He smirks and leans in to kiss her again.
"I promise" She smiles as she moves slightly but winces and pulls away from the kiss.

She rolls up her hospital gown and then pulls the sheets over her lap and looks down at her stomach to see a large square dressing over her stomach, "Woah, wasn't expecting that" She mumbles.

"You have one on your ribs too" He speaks and Nikki glances at it as she can't see it very well, she then runs her hand over the dressing on her stomach and gently peels it back to look at the wound. "Nik... don't do that..." Jack panics as he knows she can't help but mess with it.

She continues to look at the wound and smirks, "Keep your knickers on Jack, I know what I am doing, I'm a doctor" She replies completely fascinated by the wound on her stomach.
"A Doctor of pathology Nik" He begins and rolls his eyes. "You totally sound like a woman who has just been in an induced coma and then slept for three days straight..." He speaks and Nikki stops dead and places the dressing back down and looks at him dead in the eyes.

"What do you mean... a coma?" She speaks.
"Nikki..." He sighs and tries to take her hands but she snatches them back. "You were in a pretty bad way... They resuscitated you over four times... Even I... even I ... had to" Jack speaks his voice breaking with a rush of emotion.

"What... No, don't lie to me Jack" She speaks getting emotional herself that the fact she narrowly scraped death twice.
Jack sighs knowing Nikki isn't going to take it well, "I'm not lying Nik, I would never lie to you" He speaks leans forwards on his chair so his arms are resting on the bed.

Nikki takes a deep breath and looks away from Jack for a moment with tears in her eyes, she composes herself for a second and then looks back at Jack. He cringes for a moment expecting Nikki to get upset or start shouting at him in denial.
"I want to see Poppy and Maddison" She speaks and Jack looks up at her in shock.
"You what?" He replies.
"You heard me, Jack, I want to see my girls" Nikki admits and Jack just nods before realising children aren't allowed on this ward, but he has a feeling that she may be moving to a general ward today as they have been running a lot of tests on Nikki and taking blood samples from her.