Author's note: Spoilers for Hunted. Significantly helps if you have seen the episode or at least know how it ends.

MASSIVE SPOLERS FOR 'HUNTED'

Chapter 30b

Maggie sat back down onto the couch, she could hear PJ saying his goodbyes to the Boss outside but the words were not registering. She had been running on adrenaline for days, and she finally felt the last of it fade giving way to pure exhaustion. Thoughts of Robbie continued to swirl through her mind, he was her big brother, but she had always felt like his older sister. Childhood memories of birthday parties and days at the beach assaulted her mind, flashes of a much younger Robbie teaching her how to surf in the sea, or the two of them riding their bikes along the track, Mick to cool to hang around with his younger siblings. Her mind continued to flash, bringing up less fond memories. Robbie with a needle stick in his arm, days that he could barely remember her name. The hatred and desperation in his voice as she arrested him, his beat up body lying in a hospital bed earlier that year. That had been the last time she had seen him, before all this.

Maggie was startled out of her thoughts by a warm hand against her stiff shoulder. Looking up, she saw PJ's concerned blue eyes staring back at her.

His soft voice was filled with empathy "How are you doing?" he asked, reclaiming his seat beside her. She had cried on his shoulder earlier, listening to his words of comfort, his belief that Robbie had truly loved her and had known that she had loved him. But despite all that, she still felt shattered.

She gazed into his gentle eyes and not knowing what else to do, moved into his embrace, his arms wrapping protectively around her. She rested her head against his chest, listening to the soft thumping of his heart.

PJ could feel the hot wetness from her eyes, as her silent tears absorbed into his shirt. She had been through a lot lately and he could feel all of the day's pressures were weighing heavily upon her. He just held her, knowing that nothing he could say would make any of this better, that only time could heal her. But to sit there and do nothing went against every fiber of his being, especially when his Maggie was in so much pain. He knew that if he ever referred to her as his she would rip him to shreds, but she was and he wanted to punish the universe for making her cry.

After minutes ticked by, Maggie began to compose herself. Her tears had slowed and her breathing had returned to normal as she slowly began to pull away from his embrace. She threw him a small look of gratitude before leaning away to grab the box of tissues, dabbing her swollen eyes.

"I don't know what to do now" she choked out, her voice gruff from crying as she allowed PJ to pull her back into his embrace, her head resting comfortably on his shoulder as he ran his fingers through her hair soothingly.

"Well you grieve" he responded softly, watching her out of the corner of his eye.

"I can't cry anymore" she responded tiredly "Robbie always use to say I look like a frog when I cried…which never quite made sense to me…" she started "but I guess it never will.." she finished, her breath hitching.

"Hey" he responded soothingly placing a small kiss on her forehead.

"Have you ever….ever…lost someone that was like a sibling to you?" Maggie asked and he cocked his head to the side to meet her gaze. She watched him, seeing an internal battle waging within.

"Yes" he finally admitted, diverting his gaze slightly. PJ had always been very closed about his past.

"Tell me?" she asked meekly, needing to connect to him, needing to feel like she wasn't alone. That if PJ had gone through something similar and come out the other side, that maybe she could.

He drew in a shaky breath, before redirecting his gaze to the ceiling as he began to recount the old memory "When I was growing up there was a girl I went to school with, we were the best of mates…inseparable. She was a tiny little thing, but I kinda was at that time as well." He stated, taking another deep breath "Long story short, she uh fell , hit her head on the rocks and uh..drowned" he finished, stealing a quick glance to Maggie.

"What was her name?" she asked softly, moving her head off his shoulder to meet his eye.

"Charlotte" he whispered, the name obviously still holding significant meaning to him, even after all this time.

"How old were .." she started but PJ took another deep breath interrupting her "About eight..or nine..at the time" he stammered "You think you would remember…but I was young..too young to really understand but old enough to know that she was never coming home." He replied, before directing his focus back to her, giving her a small smile to let her know he was alright. Silently relieved that she was talking.

"When my mum died" she started choking slightly on the words "I thought that I would die without her. But Robbie was there. He was always the softer one…Dad and Mick they're quite similar..they just needed to fix things…refused to deal with anyone else's pain. The house was so quite… we weren't allowed to talk about it you see…" she began , running a hand across her face "But Robbie he used to come into my room and he would light a candle and we would just sit there and watch it burn and we would just talk. About anything that happened that day, sometimes about mum..sometimes not, anything but silence" she finished, a small tear running down her cheek as she reached up to wipe it away.

PJ gave a small nod, taking in her words as he quickly scanned the room. He shuffled her slightly and she shifted to allow him to stand, giving him a questioning gaze as he walked over to the mantle piece before heading into the kitchen.

"PJ?" she called, completely baffled by his behavior. He walked back into the room at the sound of his name and placed the glass holder onto the table, the white candlestick vertical as he lit the tip with a match, before sitting back down beside her.

"I know it's not the same" he started, watching her gaze flicker between him and the candle "but I'm here and I'm all ears"

She gave him a small half-smile, touched, before curling herself up next to him, his arm resting across her shoulders. She snuggled into him, watching the candle burn.