I own nothing, it's all part of Dick Wolf's empire. Merely playing with his characters for my own enjoyment.

Jesse and Noah don't and probably won't exist in this story

Chapter 1

The smell of freshly brewed coffee permeates her nostrils, slowly but surely dragging Amanda back to consciousness. He brain feeling like it's filled with cotton wool. Her mind fuzzy and confused.

Confused as to why she's waking up face down in the hallway of her home.

Confused as to why she's able to taste blood.

Confused as to why she feels like she's just gone twelve rounds with Mike Tyson.

Confused.

Slowly pushing herself to a sitting position, Amanda manoeuvres herself to lean back against the wall. Her knees bent and feet planted to the floor. Her arms resting on her knees. She scrubs her hands over her face, desperately trying to rouse herself, wiping away a slither of excess saliva from the corner of her mouth in the process.

"Here you go, my love." Amanda's fiancée says, extending a mug of coffee in her direction as she speaks. The blonde detective cowering away impulsively. "Now, now. It's just coffee. Everything is ok now."

"What, what happened Sarah?" Amanda asks the tanned, dark haired woman stood beside her.

"I was worried, my love. You were late and not answering your cell. You know how I get. I'm sorry, ok? It won't happen again." Sarah, a highly wealthy investment banker, tells her.

"Oh" Amanda replies carefully. Dropping her head to look at the floor between her legs in shame. "Sorry."

"It's ok 'Mand." Sarah tells her, crouching beside her and placing the mug on the floor. Sarah places a soft kiss on Amanda's temple before standing again. "I have to get to work. Make sure you cover yourself up, and I expect dinner on the table when I get home tonight."

The dark-haired woman hurries from their house, out of the front door, leaving Amanda slouched against the wall for a long while.

How things got like this she'll never know. She's supposed to be this strong, honourable detective, yet here she is, suffering at the hands of her own fiancée.

Closing her eyes, Amanda leans her head back against the wall, trying to muster up the energy to go and apply her make up to hide the bruise she knows is currently on full display for the whole world to see. Trying to muster the strength to face another hellish day of trying to hide both her physical and emotional pain from her obscenely observant colleagues. Something that is no easy achievement.

"It's all gonna be ok." Amanda says to herself before hauling herself to stand.

Olivia steps out of her office, surveying the squad room. Looking for a suitable pairing of detectives to hand off the newly received case to.

Fin and Carisi are up to their usual antics, throwing balled up paper across the room as each other. The behaviour causing the commander of the Manhattan Special Victims Unit to roll her eyes. She checks her watch, it's almost forty-five minutes into their shift.

"Fin, where's Rollins?" Olivia barks in annoyance.

"No idea Liv, let me give her a call." Fin answers, picking up the receiver to his desk phone as he speaks, taking a flying ball of paper square to the forehead as he answers his superior.

"I've got it." Olivia tells him, waving off his offer to ring Amanda in annoyance, then pointing between her two male squad members, "You two, vic at Mercy, go. Now."

Fin and Carisi glance at each other like naughty school children before hastily grabbing their jackets and making their way to the hospital. With that Olivia spins on her heel, heading back to her office, her desk to call her tardy detective and ascertain her whereabouts.

Slumping down into the chair behind her desk, Olivia removes her glasses and squeezes the bridge of her nose. This is already the third day this week that Amanda has been late, and it was only Wednesday. Releasing a heavy sigh, the lieutenant places her glasses down atop an ever-growing stack of paperwork before fumbling around with other scattered papers looking for her cell, that had at some point become buried in the very short time since she had arrived at the precinct only an hour earlier.

Finally, Olivia finds her cell and instinctively navigates to her recent calls, finding Amanda's number with ease. Just as she is about to hit dial she sees her detective making her way through the doors to the squad room. He hair down, flowing over her shoulders and covering her face since her eyes are trained to the floor. Dark sunglasses covering her ocean blue eyes. The experienced woman watches carefully as Amanda moves, trying to figure out what is going on with her detective. Nothing seems unusually out of sorts, until the blonde begins to sit down at her desk. An involuntary grimace briefly crossing her face causing Olivia to watch like a hawk for the next few seconds. Taking in every tiny detail she can.

Most people would have completely missed it, but years as a detective, sergeant and lieutenant mean that Olivia didn't miss it. She sits watching Amanda fire up her computer, the sunglasses still covering the blondes face. Even from her distance, Olivia is sure she can see the hint of a bruise peeking from beneath the rim of the dark framed spectacles.

The resolve Olivia had had to speak to her detective about her time keeping dissolves into nothing, being replaced with something entirely different. Concern. Nervousness. Disappointment.

Concern for Amanda's wellbeing.

Nervousness for the safety of her detective.

Disappointment in herself for not noticing sooner that something was troubling Amanda. That she was dealing with something.

She knows she should try and talk to Amanda, but Olivia is also all too aware that trying to talk to her detective is no easy feat. Especially not when she's just walked into the precinct nearly an hour late and clearly in pain. Trying to talk to Amanda now would just make the blonde assume she was going to get yet another ear bashing for her tardiness.

But this time, this time, it was all going to be different.

"It's all gonna be ok." Olivia says to herself. Silently promising herself and Amanda that whatever the consequences, she would solve this for them.

It's a short first chapter but it's been a long time since I've written anything. What do you think?