A/N: Well I guess we are one week closer to getting Ruzek back! So until then here's a little chit chat between two parents :)

"How's Daisy?" Adam waited until she sat down. He pushed his empty cup away and folded his arms across his chest and watched her and she looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here. They had to have this conversation now though; he wasn't about to ignore what he'd learnt. He was trying to keep his temper in check and that wasn't easy.

"Good. Completely oblivious to any drama." Kim put her phone on silent. Adam leant across the table and flipped it over so that they wouldn't be interrupted by messages flashing on the screen.

"That's good. I hope you didn't mind that I sent Lindsay to check on her. I was worried." He clipped all his words short; it was like he used to talk to some suspects and it unsettled Kim.

"Why?" She felt a little on the defensive, he had basically cornered her into this conversation which she knew wasn't going to be pleasant. He'd already told her that earlier and now he was talking about Daisy. He needed to get to the point.

"Why what? Why was I worried?" He waited until Kim looked at him and nodded. "Because Oliver was upset and worried about his sister. I didn't know if he'd been drinking and because she's your daughter."

"Okay. Not because it's you being all alpha male?"

"Perhaps a little, not for the reasons you seem to think though." Adam laid both hands on the table and spoke as calmly as he could. "I don't want him around my son anymore."

Kim's head snapped up. "Adam."

"I don't want him anywhere near Oliver."

"Adam, you can't do this."

"Yes Kim, I can."

"You've been his father for ten minutes." If there was a way you could just rewind and take something back Kim would have. The pained looked on Adam's face was awful.

"Fuck you." He suddenly picked up a butter knife off the empty plate left over from breakfast and held it out for her to take the handle. "Why don't you just stabbed me in the heart with this." When she didn't move he dropped it on the table with a clatter. "Actually that wouldn't hurt as much as finding out from my son that his 'father' had hit him."

"Oh God."

"Oh fucking God indeed." His voice had taken on an edge that Kim didn't like.

"What did Oliver tell you?"

"What did Oliver tell me?" He repeated, his voice suddenly calmer as he leant back in his chair. "Let me see. Dad, I'm scared he was going to hit me again. I think it went something like that when I had to pick him up from your house because he had been left alone at night in the dark with no power because his 'father' had been a fucking asshole."

Adam had tired to talk to Oliver about it but he wouldn't say much. He kept telling Adam that he knew he didn't mean it, that it only happened once and that he had been too scared to tell Adam because he'd get angry and he didn't want Adam to be angry.

"Adam, I'm sorry."

"You say that a lot." He ran his hands over his head roughly. "The first time my son calls me Dad I can't enjoy it for more than a minute because he then told me the man who was supposed to be his 'father' had abused him. God damn it Kim, why didn't you tell me? You should have told me." He pointed angrily at Kim before waving his arm around wildly. "I find out everything from Oliver. I found out that I had a son because I just happened to walk into Al's kitchen one day and he was there and now this."

"What do you want me to say?" Kim rubbed her temples. "I kicked him out, that was the end of my marriage, the moment he laid a finger on my son, that was it. I'm sorry Adam."

"I want you to say that Oliver won't be left alone with him again."

"It's not that easy."

"Yes actually Kim it is. It is that easy for me. When I came back and found out we had a child I said that I was all in, you wanted me to be either in or out. There were no other options. All in, means all in. I'm not half a parent, I am not here for just the fun times, this is it for me."

"It's complicated."

Adam ignored her. He heard her but he wasn't going to acknowledge that comment because agreeing it was complicated would give her a chance to wriggle off the hook. "You keep telling me 'don't let Oliver down' he needs you to be there for him. Well guess what Kim? This is me.." Resting his hands on his chest to make a point. "..being there for him. If I let him stay around my son I am putting him in danger of getting hurt again and that will be letting Oliver down. I won't do it."

"Adam, I love that you are here for him now. I'm just trying to…"

He cut her off and went off on a little tangent. "Can I tell you how shit I felt this morning when I had no idea what he even has for breakfast?" He was clenching and unclenching his fists. "I am trying to learn how to be his father. I had nothing for nine years."

"You've got time. You don't need to do everything and know everything today."

Adam's eyes clouded over and he added painfully. "Yes I do, because maybe I won't have a tomorrow."

"I think you will."

"Then let me care about him, let me worry about him, please. Let me do something about this." He was almost begging and Kim needed to bring him back from the edge. They had been here a few times, when his anxiety got the better of him.

"I want you to care about Oliver, I really do but this also involves Daisy? He's her father and she loves him. He's always going to be around."

"I understand completely that you are not just worried about Oliver and trust me, neither am I. However he is my priority and I'm not sorry about that." Adam still sounded a little anxious but the edge had definitely come off. "He's my son, my flesh and blood and I won't leave him in danger."

"He has never hurt Daisy." That caused an unexpected flash of anger on Adam's face and Kim was a little caught off guard.

"He's hurt Oliver and I am hoping that very fact hurt you so by default he is hurting Daisy too."

"So this is all cut and dried as far as you are concerned?"

"Kim how many cases like this have we dealt with? Would you have ever put up with this shit at work? Would you have ever left a child in a situation like this? Would you have turned your back and walked away from a child who had been abused?"

"Of course not."

Adam intense stare was a little unsettling. "Then don't leave my son in that situation and don't ask me to do it either."

"Do you think I don't care about what happened to Oliver? I've done nothing by worry about him for eight years, I think I've done a good job."

"I think you've done a great job. Let me care now, let me help you care for him."

Kim covered her face with her hands when she could no longer hold it in anymore. The burden of carrying around that secret had weighed heavily on her. Oliver had shaken it off, or so she thought. He told her not to worry, that he knew the Steve was drunk and seeing as he was no longer living at home he was okay. He had pulled away from him even before Adam turned up. "This is all so fucked up. I can't believe he did this to Oliver."

Adam wasn't sure what to do. He didn't know how welcome it would be if he wrapped her up in his arms like he used too. That hesitation was gone in an instant when she let out a deep guttural sob and he scrambled from his seat and caught her as she fell apart.

"You know what?" Kim wiped her face with the back of her hands, Adam was still crouched down beside her and his hands resting on her thighs and she could feel her skin burning beneath his touch. "I think Steve won't give a shit if I tell him that he can't see Oliver. I think he gave up on him a long time ago."

"Why?"

"I don't know. He just started pushing him away once I said no to the adoption; I think Oliver knew. And then when the drinking started they started fighting more and more. That night, I got home and Ollie was locked in his room and Steve was banging on his door and Daisy was screaming. Apparently Oliver had got home late, I had told Steve that he didn't need to be picked up from school but he had stopped reading my messages long ago. He waited for him at school and that pissed him off. When Ollie got home he went all ballistic at him and Ollie told him to 'fuck off'." Kim smiled painfully. "Sounds like something his father would do."

"Probably about right."

"Steve gave him a black eye. I do honestly think he regrets it."

"I bloody well hope so."

"I never thought he would hurt Oliver. It was the first time I ever heard Oliver say that Steve was not his father. I feel like I failed him. I was supposed to protect him. I made a promise to him the night he was born that I would always look out for him, do what was best for him. You never would have let this happen. Then when you came back I couldn't tell you because I did not want to see you look at me like I had failed as his mother."

"Kim, honey. Look at me." He begged, lifting her chin with his finger until she was looking at him. "I don't think you've failed him. He's a great kid and that's because of you."

"I love him so much Adam. He saved me, I should have protected him." She looked as anguished as he felt.

"We are going to do that now. From now on, okay? You and me together."