"Thank god your building has an elevator. I almost died going up the stairs to my apartment, I can't imagine doing that every day." I laughed as I lowered myself into her couch, sweat seeping through my shirt.

"Well it's my pleasure to have you here. You know I don't mind." She smiled. "Your bags are in the guest room, and the bed it set up. You can sleep in there or out here, or wherever. I just want you to be comfortable."

"Anywhere will be fine Liv. I really appreciate this."

"It's not a problem. So we can order in or I can cook something, if you're hungry. Or if you just want to lay down I can help you to bed." She was rambling, nervous. I on the other hand had a light buzz going with the pain pills I had taken an hour earlier, and felt no nerves.

"Liv, be quiet and sit down." I patted the seat next to me. "Relax." I grabbed her hand and brought it to my lips and kissed it, just as she had earlier that day in my hospital room. "I'm glad you brought me here. I keep thinking about my first day on the job here in New York. I had always admired your work when I was in Atlanta, but when I actually got here, and met you and worked with you. Liv, it took on a life of its own. I couldn't stop thinking about you either. At first I thought you hated me. It seemed like you dreaded working with me. But then somewhere something changed. You looked at me differently. You wanted to talk to me, to get to know me. I never imagined that in a million years I'd be here, with you, that I'd kiss you and you'd kiss me back. I always thought you'd push me away, or say it was inappropriate. But here we are, holding hands your couch." I smiled.

"I have to admit, when you first got here I didn't want you here." She looked ashamed, but she took a breath and continued. "You replaced Elliot, my old partner. He and I, we were… very close." I remembered hearing rumors about her and her partner when I first got to New York. "We never slept together, but we were just as close. He was married, not always happily, but he was devout." She laughed, like she was lost in a memory. I squeezed her hand to let her know I was still there and she smiled sadly at me. "I was so hurt by the way he left. He just, left. I didn't get a goodbye or an explanation or anything. The captain was the one who told me he had put his papers in, and I guess I just shut down. When you got here and then Nick, it was like he was being replaced and I didn't receive it well. So I guess I'm saying I'm sorry for the way I treated you when you first arrived."

"Liv, it's fine. I get it. I have no hard feelings for what happened. We are both different people than we were when I first got here." We sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes. I tried to stifle a yawn to no avail.

"Come on, you're tired let me help you to the guest room." She stood and extended her hand to me, which I gladly took. Standing on my own was a chore. I grabbed my crutch and she put an arm around my waist and together we hobbled to the guest room. I lowered myself into the bed and lifted my legs up with me. She helped me take my shoes and jacket off and pulled the blankets up over my legs.

"Thank you Liv." I said, another yawn escaping.

She brushed the hair away from my face when I finally got comfortable, the blankets pulled up under my chin, and kissed my forehead. "Sleep well."

While Amanda was sleeping I decided to take a long shower. I felt like I hadn't showered in a week, in reality I hadn't relaxed in a week. I stepped into the steaming water enjoying the feeling of it releasing the tight muscles in my back. I felt as if I had a layer of hospital covering my skin from the week long stay at Amanda's bed side, but I wouldn't change it for anything.

I thought about running back into that apartment a week ago, finding her laying on top of a scared young girl, still. The blood was stuck in my mind. I had seen allot in my career, but nothing prepared me to see someone I cared about in such a state. My stomach tied itself in knots at just the memory of it.

As I stepped out of the shower and wrapped myself in a towel I thought I heard a noise coming from somewhere in the apartment. Standing still and quiet I waited for it to happen again. When it finally did it was unmistakable; Amanda was crying.

Worrying that she hurt herself getting out of bed I ran into the guest room. When I opened the door, the sight I found broke my heart.

She was sprawled on her back on the bed, the blankets were thrown to the floor and she was fighting. I quickly went to her side and sat on the edge of the bed. Afraid to scare her I gently laid my hand on her shoulder and shook lightly.

"Amanda? Honey, you're dreaming. Amanda wake up." Still she cried and fought someone in her dream. "Amanda! Wake up!" I shook her harder this time. When she opened her eyes she wasn't really looking at me, but almost through me, at something or someone who wasn't there. "It's me, Olivia. You're safe. Look at me sweetie." I reached to touch her face and she smacked my hand away. "Amanda! What-"

"No! Don't touch me, don't, please don't hurt me." She cried out cowering into the bed. It dawned on me she was experiencing a very vivid night terror. Of what I wasn't sure.

"Amanda, hey look at me honey. Look at me, it's Olivia." There was a flicker if recognition in her eyes and her demeanor shifted. "There you are." I smiled at her, but didn't make another move to touch her, afraid to scare her again.

"Olivia? I, I'm sorry Liv. I'm sorry." Fresh tears began to spill from her bloodshot eyes. This was the first time I had ever seen her so scared, so vulnerable. She was truly afraid.

"No, no it's okay. You're okay, you're safe. You're in my apartment, in my guest bedroom. You're safe." I suddenly realized I was wearing nothing but a towel and felt very inappropriate for the situation. "Will you be okay for a minute while I put some clothes on quickly? I don't want to make you any more uncomfortable than you already are."

"I'll be okay. I'll be okay." She said sheepishly, looking hard at me as if trying to reassure herself more than me.

"I'll be right back." Quickly I went to my room and pulled on a pair of sweat pants and a tee shirt. Taking just a moment to compose myself before going back in, I stopped just outside the door. Taking a deep breath a slowly walked back to the side of the bed. I noticed blood seeping through her shirt, worried she had busted her stitches I asked her if I could take a look. "Amanda, I need to make sure I don't have to take you back to the hospital. You have to let me check the stitches."

"I'm not going back to the hospital. I just got out." She said with a panicked look in her eye.

"I understand that, but if you have ripped them open you have to. Is it okay if I check?" reluctantly she nodded her head, giving me permission. "Okay, I'm going to lift your shirt a bit too get a better look alright?" she looked away and nodded stubbornly. I lifted the hem of she her shit just enough to get access to the two spots on her abdomen where she was shot. One bandage was soaked in blood, the other wasn't as bad, but was bleeding nonetheless. Carefully I removed the wise bandage first to expose the stitches. Luckily there were a week old and had healed some, but a few stitches were loose. "I'm going to get the first aid kit and clean this up so I can get a better look alright?" without waiting for a response I got up to find the first aid kit. When I found it I hurried back into the bedroom. "I'm going to clean you up now okay? It might sting a bit." Again she gave me a stubborn nod, and so I started. Gently I cleaned the blood away with an alcohol swab. She flinched at the contact. "I know, I'm sorry it hurts." I replaced the bandage with a fresh one, and went on to the next one. When I finished I got her a fresh shirt and checked her knee. Luckily it was stabilized by the brace which didn't have enough give to open the wound back up. "Alright, were finished. Do you want to try and get some rest, or order some food and talk for a while?"

"I think I want to go sit in the living room. I'm not all that hungry though, and I'm not sure I want to talk." She said, sounding almost ashamed.

"We don't need to talk, but you do need to eat, especially if you're going to take more pain medication in about an hour." I said smiling lightly, offering my hand to help her up.

We decided on Chinese, or I decided rather. The conversation was mostly one sided with Amanda giving an occasional *yeah* or *sure* or *I guess, throwing in a nod or two. With a sigh I went to the kitchen to order from the take out menu tacked to the refrigerator.

I returned to the living room and sat on the opposite side the couch as Amanda. I wanted to know what had happened earlier, what the violent nightmare was really about. I was having a hard time believing it was due to the shooting by the way she was afraid to be touched.

As if she could read my thoughts Amanda turned to me. "Liv there's something I gotta tell you." She paused and looked at her hands, pulling lose threads from the blanket draped over her legs. "It's about Atlanta, the full reason I left. It was the deputy chief, Patton."