Season Twenty, Episode Sixteen: Facing Demons

"And this one! This is Brian on his Little League team when he was thirteen!"

Olivia gasps and grabs the picture from Denise Cassidy's hand, holding it closer to her face and smiling brightly.

"Ma, come on, Olivia doesn't want to see those." Brian whines from next to Olivia, and she shakes her head and sticks her hand out to hush him up.

"No, I definitely do want to see these! Look at that adorable little face." Olivia pouts her bottom lip out before leaning over to kiss Brian quickly. "My Little Leaguer."

Brian picks his head up now to look at her, a blush on his cheeks as he smirks softly.

"I'm definitely taking this." Olivia's words fade out of his ears as she suddenly becomes the only woman in the room.

Something about her giggling at his baby pictures made his heart flutter and time stop. Dare he say he was falling in love with her?

If only she knew the truth behind those photos…

Olivia had sent Rollins back to the precinct to follow the lead from the apartment, and she told her she had an errand to run. That wasn't technically true, but she did have somewhere to be.

The whole way to Brian's apartment, she feels like her heart is going to beat right out of her chest. She hadn't seen him since he came back to her apartment last year with blood on his hands, literally, and things hadn't exactly ended on the greatest of terms.

But she couldn't believe she didn't know. Brian never told her. Granted, she never told him completely what happened with Lewis, but she's been a sex crimes investigator for twenty years and she had never even suspected.

When she gets to the front door, Olivia swallows hard and blows out a deep breath before raising her knuckles to the door and knocking on it.

A slight smile comes to her face when it opens and she sees him on the other side.

"Hey, Liv…"

"Hey Brian. Do you have a minute to talk?'

Brian nods and steps aside, gesturing for Olivia to come in. "What's up?'

"I-uh-something came up in this case we're working and I wanted you to take a look at this picture if you would."

Olivia pulls her phone out of her back pocket and brings the picture up to show Brian. When he sees it, his mouth falls open and he takes it from her hand.

"Oh wow…" He whispers, running a hand over his face. "This, uh…wow…"

Shit. Brian thinks. She can't know. I can't tell her.

XXX

"Why didn't you tell me?" Olivia asks Brian later that night, after court at Maloney's.

Brian sighs and shakes his head. "I didn't tell anyone, Liv. I couldn't. Especially you."

"Brian, I've been a special victims cop for twenty years. We lived together for either months. I-God Brian-I thought I was pregnant with your child. You could've told me."

"No, I couldn't have, Liv. Okay? I couldn't ruin you being the only one who's ever seen any good in me, okay? I couldn't do that."

Olivia eyes get wide and she reaches forward to grab Brian's hand. "You think what happened to you would make me think less of you? If anything, Brian, it makes me see how strong and amazing you are. It is not your fault, it just isn't."

Brian picks his head up now to look at Olivia with a smile on the corner of his mouth. "Do you think I made my dad proud?" He asks Olivia shyly.

"If he's anything like me, he's so proud of you."

He nods now and squeezes Olivia's hand tighter. "You're nothing like my dad, by the way."

Olivia giggles and shakes her head. "I'm glad to hear I'm nothing like your father."

The two of them laugh loudly and flag down the bartender for another round of drinks. Brian was heading back to Florida in the morning, but they saw nothing wrong with hanging out tonight.

Almost like it was five years ago again, when everything was good between them, and they were nothing but in love with each other and the demons were nowhere in sight.

XXX