Chapter 4

Nick Amaro was visiting them. Well, definitely more Olivia than them, but he was in Brian's apartment on Brian's couch watching Brian's television next to Brian's girlfriend. He'd also managed to get one of Brian's beers in hand while Brian was out after making the excuse of needing some groceries, giving the partners some time to catch up. The bonus to that was not being in the same room as Amaro for an hour.

As if reading his mind - or at least noticing the scowl directed at him - Amaro looked over and raised the bottle with a smile on his face. The smug prick. "No, please Amaro, make yourself at home." Brian offered sarcastically.

It earned a sharp turn of the head and glare from Olivia. "Really, Bri?" He shrugged it off and went to get himself a beer from the fridge before settling into his armchair. She'd been snapping at him for almost a week. He was the idiot who thought it was right to give her a week's fair warning that he'd be going back to working the glamorous nightshift at the Bronx Courthouse. Instead, it gave her a week to build up anxiety about nights alone. Which clearly manifested as you're an asshole instead of I don't want you to go.

But he'd been off for over a month now and while his bosses at the 5-5 had been - they'd phrased it as "accommodating to his circumstances," they were short-staffed even before his unforeseen extended break. Quite honestly he also knew he needed to do something to start getting them back to some semblance of normality. His own nightmares were reappearing, and some days when they both had too much time to spend in their heads and no desire to talk about it, his apartment threatened to become a Swamp of Sadness. Brian waist-deep in his own misery and not strong enough to stop Olivia from being completely swallowed by hers.

Just call them Atreyu and Artax.

The three of them definitely hadn't been paying any attention to whatever show their gazes were fixated to on the screen, but they all needed that buffer to keep the mood light. Nick would occasionally feed Olivia a harmless morsel of precinct goss, or a little anecdote about his kids - the oldest's existence inadvertently discovered thanks to that false rape accusation Brian had caught. He had not known what his lawyer was digging up and genuinely felt bad for how it turned out for Amaro, but it sounded like there was a relationship now being built out of the wreckage at least.

Eventually, Olivia's hand reached up to rub the side of her head as she looked at Nick apologetically. "I uh, am still getting these headaches. The doctors think it's because the concussions were so..." she trailed off and shrugged as if to indicate you know what I mean. "I should go lie down before this really takes hold. Sometimes helps."

Taking the painkillers the doctors prescribed would help more, Brian thought to himself.

Nick shook his head "No don't apologize. You go, go and rest. I should get going anyway. It was so good to see you, Liv." They both stood up, Nick wrapping her into a hug and looking over her shoulder to make eye contact with Brian, a look silently indicating he wanted to talk. "Brian will see me out."

Brian couldn't hold back a small chuckle. "Yeah, and change my locks straight after too." He then turned his attention to Olivia who had extracted herself from the hug and was making her way to the back of the apartment. "Liv, do you need me to bring you anything? Water? Painkillers?"

She shook her head gently in response. "Just, don't kill each other. Then maybe come lie with me for a bit?" He promised both and they watched her disappear into the bedroom before Nick sat back down and they stared at each other.

No love was lost between the two men. The tone had been set when on sight they took a dislike to each other and their introductions were fists to the other's face. Even after finding out he was UC, Amaro didn't have any interest in being buddies with Brian, and frankly, Brian had too much fun getting under Amaro's skin. They'd had multiple verbal and physical scuffles since. Including Amaro waving a gun in Brian's face while his mother was in the next room.

Jesus, he hated this prick. But he also knew this prick had Olivia's six and genuinely cared about her. They had both felt the weight of letting her down so badly, and had wordlessly called a truce while they were searching for her. If they weren't bonded by their animosity towards each other, they certainly were through their love and concern for Olivia.

"How is she really doing?" Nick asked.

"I was going to ask you the same thing."

"You live with her?"

Brian sighed heavily, rubbing a hand over his face. "She won't fucking talk to me about anything that happened."

Nick scoffed, tilting his head in curiosity. "You really don't know any of it?"

Brian felt his face getting warmer, the embarrassment that Olivia couldn't talk to him hitting it. "I mean, I know the headlines. I can figure a lot out through the old case files and context clues."

"Alright, Detective."

"Fuck you. Things like making me get rid of my vodka, and she won't take her sleeping pills. She won't go near the stove, and if I've even been near a smoker she has a panic attack if I don't shower the smell off the second I get home."

He lowered his voice, suddenly worried Olivia was listening in. "I haven't told her but, I saw a lot of what that bastard did to her body when we were still in the hospital. They had to sedate her a couple of times for wound cleaning and re-dressing and I was in the room for one of them. The cuts, burns… his fucking teeth marks were on her inner thigh."

Brain closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair.

"She told us she wasn't raped, at least," Nick offered.

"She's fucking lying," Brian spat back, eyes still closed.

They were both silent until Brian opened his eyes again and stared at Nick with a new resolve. "She's lying. But if that lie gets her through this, let her."

"Her story, her way." Nick nodded. An agreement reached, he got up and headed to the door, letting himself out without so much as a goodbye.

Brian doubled over and pressed the heel of his palms against his eyes, trying to physically tamp down the images flashing behind his eyelids.