November 1974

Three months later

"Got a case for you, Ben."

Ben looked up as Margaret, one of the secretaries in the DA's office, approached his desk in the bullpen. She was in her sixties, thickset, with a biting manner. She had taken his head off on more than one occasion in the four months he had been there, but it seemed as though they had finally reached a truce of mutual acceptance and respect.

"What is it?" he asked.

Margaret handed him a slip of paper, "Got a call from Carter and Haywood at the 2-7. Apparently some girl's been assaulted and they've got her boyfriend for it."

"Great," Ben said, glancing at the notes, "I'll just clear it with Bowyer." He got up and walked towards his boss's office. Knocking on the door, he heard Bowyer grunt from inside, the only indication he would get to come in.

"What?" Bowyer asked as Ben went in.

"Got a call to the 2-7 for an assault," Ben relayed.

Bowyer looked up from his papers, "Off you go then."

"By myself?" the thought of handling it alone filled him with excitement. Usually he stood one pace behind while Bowyer walked the walk and talked the talk.

"Sure. Get the details and get back to me," Bowyer looked back down at his file. He must have sensed Ben hovering, "Go Stone!"

"Ok," Ben left the office and hurried out to make his way to the 2-7. It would be the first time he had gone unsupervised and he was keen to get it right. The traffic was heavy, and as he sat in the cab, he could feel his impatience growing. Margaret hadn't been able to give him any more information and he could only imagine what the complexities of the case would be.

When he reached the precinct, he walked into the squadroom where Carter and Haywood were standing talking.

"Hey," Haywood, thirty and cocky, greeted him, "On your own?" Ben nodded, "Big responsibility."

Ben shrugged, "No big deal." He played it down, but his insides were churning.

Carter studied him from under bushy eyebrows. He was fifty going on ninety and had seen everything one could possibly expect to see. Ben knew the older cop liked him, but would never admit it.

"Guy's in interrogation," he growled, "Cocky little shit."

"What happened?" Ben asked as they began to walk towards where the boyfriend was being held.

"Neighbour called it in," Haywood explained, "heard screaming and shouting from the apartment, then nothing. Waited a half hour before venturing over and that's when she found her."

"Badly hurt?"

"Looked worse than it was. Broken arm, cracked rib, bruising. She was unconscious when they found her, but she'd come round by the time she got to hospital. She gave us the guy's name." They stopped in front of the window looking into the interrogation room.

At first, Ben thought his eyes were playing tricks, but as he looked again, he saw the face of someone he knew very well. A face he had seen looming over himself one night nearly two years earlier.

"Nick Phillips," he said.

"You know him?" Carter asked, swinging round to face Ben.

Ben nodded, "Sure. I went to Harvard with him."

"So, you know he's Senator Robert Phillip's son?"

"Who doesn't?" Ben shook his head, "I guess I'm not surprised. Phillips always was a bully and a thug." He looked over at Haywood, "What about the girlfriend?"

"We've taken her statement," Haywood replied, handing it to him, "Evelyn Sanderson."

Ben's head snapped up, "What?"

"Don't tell me," Carter said, "You know her too? Hey!" He shouted in protest as Ben wrenched open the door to the interrogation room and lunged at Phillips, who flew back to avoid the attack.

"You son of a bitch!" Ben yelled, swinging at him. He didn't get very far, as Haywood grabbed him from behind and pulled him back towards the door.

"Get this fucking maniac away from me!" Phillips yelled, cowering back against the wall.

"You, sit down!" Carter ordered, storming back out of the room where Haywood had released Ben. "What the hell was that about?"

"He hurt her," Ben said, his voice low, but quivering, "the son of a bitch hurt her."

"Calm down," Haywood tried to placate him, "You know Evelyn Sanderson?"

"Yeah," Ben nodded, "I know her." He could feel a hot knot of anger twist his gut painfully. If he could just get back in there, he knew he would beat Phillips to a pulp. Then his thoughts turned elsewhere, "Which hospital?"

"What?" Carter asked.

"Which hospital?" he demanded, louder.

"St Luke's, why?"

Ben didn't reply, he took off down the corridor, not caring about the reasons why he was there in the first place. He rushed out into the street and hailed the first cab he saw, directing the driver to go quickly to St Luke's. But his trip was in vain. By the time he got there, he was told that Evelyn had already discharged herself. Frustrated, he travelled across town to her apartment and banged loudly on the door.

After a few minutes, he heard the sound of the chain being pulled back and the door opened. Evelyn looked out at him and he felt his breath catch in his throat. Her face was bruised, her lip split, and she had her arm in a sling. Wordlessly, she stepped back, allowing him to come inside.

Ben stepped in and closed the door behind him. He wasn't quite sure how to begin, so he watched as she made her way painfully across the room back to the sofa where she lowered herself down slowly.

"I don't want your pity," she said finally, "so don't offer it."

"I wasn't going to." The truth was, he was angry.

She looked up at him, "Sit down." He sat in the chair opposite, "How did you…?"

"I was called to the precinct. It was one shock to see Phillips, quite another to find out that the girlfriend he had assaulted was you."

"You're wondering why I was with him?"

"Yes, I am." Instead of with me, his insides screamed.

"It wasn't planned. It just happened. He came into O'Malley's one night, we got talking…"

"You hated him! He hated you!"

Evelyn looked at him, "Loneliness and alcohol can be a dangerous combination."

"You could have come to me. You didn't have to go with him." He knew he sounded like a petty child, but it was the way he felt.

"I'm not going to apologise."

"Sure, why bother."

"Ben…"

"I can't figure you out, Evelyn, you know that?" he raged, getting to his feet, "You're…you're like a maniac! One minute you're up, the next you're down! I'm seriously beginning to wonder whether or not you have some kind of mental illness!"

"Don't be ridiculous."

"Ridiculous? Who's being ridiculous? I'm not the one getting beaten up! I'm betting it's not the first time either."

"You told me that next time I had a crisis I wasn't to call you, remember?" she shot back. "That's what you said, Ben."

"I didn't mean it that way," he mumbled.

"Well I heard it that way and I did as you asked. I didn't call. Don't think I didn't want to. The first time it happened, I thought, 'why am I putting myself through this, when I could be with Ben?'"

He turned to look at her, "I gave you that option."

"I know. Maybe I was a fool not to take it. But I wasn't sure…how you really felt about me."

"I love you," he said simply.

"I'm a mess, I always have been. I'm no use to man or beast."

"Didn't you hear me?" he said, kneeling down in front of her. "I said, I love you."

Evelyn looked at him sadly, "If only you meant that."

"Damn it, I do!" he shouted at her. "You're all I think about, all of the time."

"I want to drop the charges," she said suddenly. "I know," she continued off his look, "it's the wrong thing to do, but…" she shook her head, "I don't want to go through the indignity of a trial."

"He'll cop to a plea," Ben said, "he has to."

"You really think Daddy's going to let him go down for assaulting a nobody like me?"

"You're not a nobody," he said, "and you deserve justice as much as anybody else. You can't let him get away with this, Evelyn!"

Evelyn shook her head, "I've made up my mind." Ben sighed in frustration, "I've decided I want to go back to law school."

"Really?" She nodded, "that's great. Harvard?"

She made a face, "You really think they'd take me back? I got in on a scholarship in the first place and then I screwed up and dropped out. I doubt they're begging for me to go back."

"So…?"

"I'm not sure," she replied, "but there's plenty of other places that do law."

"If you're so keen on getting back into the law, do the right thing and let me prosecute Phillips."

"Oh, listen to Mr Big-Shot DA," Evelyn mocked, "Going to single-handedly send Phillips away for life?"

"If I could." Ben replied, his face serious.

"Oh, Ben," she flapped her hand at him, "I'll get over it. I'll heal. It's not the end of the world."

"That's not the point and you know it."

"Maybe not," she said quietly, "but that's what I want."

Ben held her gaze for a long moment, "Ok. If you're sure."

"I'm sure."

"I'll go back and tell them we haven't got a case. They won't be pleased though."

"I don't want to get you into trouble."

"I always seem to get into trouble around you," he said, "besides, I'm a big boy."

Evelyn leaned forward and put her good hand on his cheek, "Yes, you are." She kissed him lightly on the lips.

"Would you like to have dinner with me tonight?" he asked.

Evelyn laughed, "Looking like this? People might think you beat me up."

"As if I could," he kissed her again, "you could let me cook for you."

"Cook? I'm injured enough as it is, thank you very much." She grinned at him, "but I never turn down an offer to be fed."

"I'll come back later," he said, giving her a final kiss before getting to his feet, "I'll see myself out."

"Bye Ben," she said softly, only this time, she didn't look sad.

SSSS

No-one was particularly pleased that Evelyn had decided to drop the charges. No-one that was, except Phillips. He swanned out of the precinct with a big grin on his face and Daddy's very expensive lawyer by his side.

"This is crap!" Carter growled, "He put her in hospital for Christ's sake!"

"She doesn't want to go through a trial," Ben said.

"You know damn well we could have got him on a plea!" Bowyer weighed in, upset at being dragged away from his lunch to deal with the mess which until a few hours ago had been a good case.

"He would never have folded," Ben said, "and you saw the mouthpiece he hired."

Bowyer glared at his junior, "You better not have persuaded her, Ben, or I swear to God…"

"I tried to persuade her to keep going, but she wouldn't."

"Great, just great," Carter lit a cigarette, "all that work for nothing!" With that, he stormed away down the corridor, closely followed by Haywood.

Bowyer turned on Ben, "I sent you down here to see what you made of handling your first case yourself and what do you do? Screw it up!"

"If the victim doesn't want to press charges…"

"It's not up to the victim!" Bowyer shouted, "We're the ones who decide whether a prosecution should go ahead, not them!" He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "Well, you can explain to Wentworth, because I have enough on my damn plate as it is!" He turned on his heel and stormed off.

SSSS

"…and then he told me that I shouldn't let my emotions rule my head," Ben relayed the story to Evelyn later that evening as they sat eating Chinese takeout in her apartment.

"What did you say?" she asked.

"That I was doing no such thing. That the victim was a really scary woman whom I didn't want to cross."

Evelyn laughed, "You did not!"

"Well, I said something like that," he put his plate down.

"As long as they don't demote you," she said, "I'd hate to think I was responsible for the fall of Ben Stone." Ben didn't say anything. He leaned over and kissed her. "What was that for?"

"No reason," he replied, then he kissed her again, feeling himself straining against his pants.

"Someone's happy to be here," she murmured.

"We've been waiting a long time," he replied, kissing her again.

"Well…you're both just going to have to wait a little longer," she pushed him back. "I don't perform at my best with a broken arm, a cracked rib and a face like Mike Tyson."

He kissed her bruised face, "I like your Mike Tyson face."

"I mean it, Ben," she said, quietly but firmly.

"Ok," he said drawing back and stroking her hair gently, "You don't have to do anything that you don't want to."

"Thank you." She pushed herself slowly down in the sofa and put her head on his shoulder, "Stay?"

"Of course," he replied, kissing the top of her head, "as long as you want me to."