Ed watched Olivia leap to her feet as soon as the door opened. In walked Jim, closely followed by a woman Olivia had never met before. Ed remained seated on the sofa, his hands holding his thighs as he watched Olivia launch herself at her brother. Jim caught hold of her by the waist, enveloping her into his arms and holding her tightly, one hand moving up to cup the back of her head.

"It's alright," Jim said in a soft whisper. "Everything is okay."

"Barbara?" Olivia simply spoke her name.

"Safe," Jim promised. "He had taken her to her parents house…killed them…forced her to watch. She is in hospital and she is safe. He is dead, Olivia. He's gone."

"I should go and see her," Olivia said and Jim shook his head, pulling back and looking her in the eye, moving his hands to her cheeks, holding them gently. "She was with me, Jim."

"Not tonight," Jim said to his sister. "She is resting, Olivia. You can go and see her tomorrow. You need to rest too, okay? You need to sleep."

Olivia nodded once, seeming to accept what her brother was telling her. Jim moved slowly, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and holding her tightly against his side. Looking to Lee, Jim managed a soft smile as she stood there, her arms dangling by her side. Her hair hung down her shoulders softly, her gaze tender and her lips curling upwards slightly.

"Olivia, this is Lee…who I told you about before all this," Jim said, knowing that now probably wasn't the best time to introduce the two of them, but Lee had insisted on driving him home considering he was exhausted.

"It's nice to meet you," Lee managed to speak. "I'm sorry about everything that happened."

"I…it's nice to meet you too," Olivia managed to say to the woman, uncertain of how she should react to her brother's latest girlfriend. She assumed the two of them were officially dating now. She didn't know, but she would find out in time. Jim would tell her everything.

"Lee is a doctor and after everything that had happened I thought that you might need someone to talk to," Jim said to his sister, trying not to babble.

"I'm not a psychiatrist," Lee said with haste, holding a hand up. "I'm just a medical doctor, but…well…I have some basic training. That's not to say that you have to talk to me, but if you want to then I am here."

"Thank you," Olivia said gently, not entirely sure if she intended to take Lee up on her offer. She didn't entirely know how to respond to everything that had happened. For that moment, all she wanted to do was crawl into bed and go to sleep.

"No worries," Lee said. "I should get going and leave you two. You need to rest."

"Yeah," Jim agreed with her.

"I suppose I should get going too," Ed said, pushing his glasses further onto his nose as he contemplated everything that had happened in the past few days. He needed time to think. He needed to know what was gong to happen to him.

"Do you need a lift home, Ed?" Lee asked him.

"Please," the scientist nodded and stood on his feet.

His gaze met Olivia's and he looked to her as she peered down, folding an arm over herself as Jim kept her in his grip. She kept her gaze on the ground, her hand moving up to push her hair behind her ear.

"Thank you, Ed," she managed to say to him, "for staying with me…for everything."

"I…I'm sorry," Ed said and Olivia looked up to him as Jim looked down to his sister and let her go from his grip, sensing that she needed a moment with Ed. He nodded to Lee and she held her hand out to him, stepping out of the apartment and leaving the door ajar.

"Why are you sorry?" she asked him and she saw him gulp, a look of hesitance take over him. He looked back to her and shook his head. She didn't need this right now. She didn't need his problems on top of her own. She had just been kidnapped and saved. She had been sent back to him. He should be relieved. But he kept thinking about what he had done to Officer Dougherty.

"Because…well…things might have been different if I had acted differently," he said and Olivia's brows furrowed together. Her pyjamas crumpled on her body as she held herself. "I could have stopped him from taking you."

"Ed," Olivia spoke softly, "you couldn't have stopped this."

"I could have," Ed said. "I should have done better. I should have helped you…stopped him from taking you."

"No," Olivia said to him, this time slightly more forcefully. "Ed, stop blaming yourself. This is no one's fault. Listen, it has been a long day. Why don't we talk tomorrow when we have both had some sleep?"

"Yes," Ed agreed with that, inhaling a sharp breath. "I have a lot that I need to talk to you about. I trust you, Olivia. I…I trust you more than I have trusted anyone before."

"Ed, is something wrong?" Olivia asked him as his gaze flitted around her. She watched him intently, sensing that there was something amiss. She knew that Ed was usually odd, but he was acting even odder than usual. It was like there was something he was hiding, but he was too scared to say what it was. He finally managed to look back to her.

"No," Ed said and moved his hands around his body, "well, I mean, yes, obviously, you…what happened…it is on my mind…"

"I'm fine," Olivia assured him, moving a hand to his arm. "I'm okay now."

"Yes…if you're sure."

"I'm sure," she promised again and stood on her toes, pressing her lips to his cheek as she embraced him briefly. "Go home and get some sleep. I will see you tomorrow."

"Of course," Ed nodded and coughed, still feeling the sense of her lips lingering against his skin. He pulled back and adjusted his glasses once more before stepping through the door. Olivia watched him go as she saw her brother embrace Lee, kissing her goodnight. Stepping into the night, Lee and Ed walked back to her car together, Jim stood by the door and making sure they got to the car safely.

Once he had done that, he stepped back inside the apartment and locked the door, bolting it too. Looking to his sister, he managed a small smile, trying to reassure her that everything was fine. Everything would be fine now that his sister was back home with him. Sitting down on the sofa again, Olivia flopped back and pushed a hand through her hair, leaning her head back against the sofa.

"I should have gotten to you quicker," Jim said to his sister. "I should have found him sooner."

"No," Olivia said, "you got to me as soon as you could, Jim. I…I knew that you would be looking. I knew that you would never believe that I had just gone…upped and left."

"I tried to track down the name of the guy you had been dating, but he had different names," Jim explained to her, pulling his tie loose and unbuttoning his top button of his shirt. "I only started to put the pieces together when I got on The Ogre case."

"I know," Olivia said, turning her head to the side to look at him. "He started dating me initially to keep tabs on you, but then he said…he said all these things about me being lost. He said how I needed saving and how he could be the one to save me. I played along, Jim. I played along with everything that he said because I didn't know what else to do. I figured it would keep me alive…that if I kept him happy and acted how he wanted me to act then I would stay alive."

"You…you're clever, Olivia," Jim said to his sister. "You're smarter than I am. You did this by yourself, but you shouldn't have had to."

"Jim," Olivia sighed softly, "I don't want to spend anymore time listening to anyone blaming themselves…not you, not Ed. This was no one's fault but Jason's."

"But it-"

"-Ah," Olivia interrupted, holding a hand up to silence her brother. "Stop it," she demanded from him. "Jim, I just need you…I…that's it…I just need you to stay here for a little while."

"I'm not going anywhere," Jim promised her and she nodded, reaching for the blanket she kept on the arm of the sofa. She tugged it over herself, draping it up to her shoulders before leaning against Jim as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "You know that we need to take a formal statement from you, don't you?"

"I'd figured as much," Olivia said, sounding sleepy. "I have the clothes he gave me bagged up on the table…if forensics need them."

"I'll take them in the morning," Jim said. "But…just tell me if he…did he hurt you…in any way?"

"No," Olivia said, "well…he…I told Ed what happened. He just kept me chained up for the most time. He kissed me, but he never went further than that. I kept him at bay the majority of the time. I told him the right things to get him to stop."

"Jesus," Jim mumbled, a sense of disgust going through him. He felt a lump in his throat, the mere thought of someone touching his sister enough to sicken him. "Olivia, I don't know what to say."

"There isn't anything to say," she assured him. "He is gone and we are safe. That is all that matters now."

"But it might be healthy for you to talk to someone too. Lee is good, Liv, she can help."

"Thanks, Jim, but I am fine."

"You were kidnapped, Olivia," he spoke, "it is okay not to be fine. You don't need to pretend with me."

"I just…if…I can't let him win, Jim," Olivia said and Jim heard her voice turn hoarse. "If I break down then he wins and I'm not letting someone like him break me."

"You're not broken, Olivia," he promised her. "He isn't going to break you, but it is okay not to be okay."

"I know," she responded. "But I want to be okay."

"And you will be," Jim said, "but it might take time…no matter how much time…I'm going to be here, Olivia. I'm not going anywhere."

"I know," she said as Jim ran a hand down her hair and she kissed his cheek. "Thanks, Jim."

"I love you, Olivia," he said to her. "Get some sleep. I'm not going anywhere."

….

"How is she doing?"

Ed had been working while Jim had entered the GCPD with Olivia in tow. She walked closely by his side, her red coat on her body and covering the green dress she wore over thick tights. Her hair hung limply down her shoulders and she had a long red scarf around her neck. Jim was dressed in his usual smart suit. He guided his sister into an interrogation room, but for protocol reasons, he couldn't interview her.

He had gone to his desk and sat down on the edge of it, folding his arms and looking to the room, waiting for Harvey to finish the interview. Ed had found Jim by his desk and had gone over to him.

"She's…she's coping, I think," Jim said to Ed. "I don't know, Ed. She thinks she has to be strong so that he hasn't won, but I know that it will take time."

"What she has gone through is traumatic," Ed stated the obvious.

"Yeah," Jim simply scoffed. "I'm going to take her to see Barbara after this. She's insisting. I'm going to take the rest of the week of work too, just to spend time with her and be with her."

"I think that is sensible," Ed said. "I was hoping that I could come by tonight to talk to her, but do you think that might be too much?"

"No," Jim said, "it will be normality and she needs normality. Besides, she cares for you, Ed…like…a lot."

"Yes, well," Ed said, coughing awkwardly. "Likewise."

It was then when the door opened and Harvey came out with Olivia. He gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze before she managed to smile up to him and moved to her brother. Harvey threw Jim a wink and went off in the direction of the locker room.

"Everything okay?" Jim asked his sister.

"Fine, I think," she said to him.

"We should get going then," Jim said, "if we want to make visiting hours."

"Okay," Olivia said and turned to Ed, "will I see you today?"

"I was going to stop by after work if you fancied dinner…or…just…well…anything."

"Dinner would be nice," Olivia said.

"I'll get out of your hair this evening then," Jim said and Olivia felt slightly awkward. "See you later, Ed."

"Good-"

"-Detective Gordon!" a voice called up to Jim's desk and Jim saw an officer in uniform. He looked to Jim, hands on hips as he spoke. "Have you seen Officer Dougherty?"

"Tom?" Jim checked.

"Yeah," the officer responded.

"Not in a few days," Jim admitted, "but I haven't really been keeping track of the officers on duty recently, Warrens."

"Yeah, sure, of course," Warrens said and looked slightly embarrassed. "It's just that he hasn't been in for a few days and his girlfriend Kristen said she hasn't seen him."

"Kristen Kringle?" Olivia asked before she could stop herself and Ed felt his cheeks warm up.

"Yeah," Warrens nodded.

"I don't know," Jim said, not entirely concerned with an officer who had probably been ill or simply didn't fancy coming into work. "Have you been to his home?"

"No, tried calling and he didn't answer."

"Then go and see if he is home," Jim said, "if not then ask Harvey to help you deal with it. I have the rest of the week on leave with other matters. Harvey will help, yeah?"

"Thanks, Detective," Warrens said and left.

"I thought that Kristen was dating someone else?" Olivia asked of Ed and he shrugged as she saw his gaze flitter around again. There was something going on with him. She knew that. There was something odd.

"She broke up with him before dating Officer Dougherty," Ed said.

"He's probably gone on some last minute holiday and couldn't be bothered to turn in or call in. It happens more than you would think," Jim said nonchalantly.

"Probably," Ed said and Olivia watched Ed push a hand through his hair. "I should get back to work…I…well…I have things to do."

"I'll see you tonight, Ed."

"Yes…tonight…" Ed said and scurried off.

Jim led Olivia to the exit as she kept her gaze on Ed's back, knowing that something was wrong. He was hiding something from her. He had turned jumpy as soon as Dougherty and Kringle had been mentioned. He hadn't looked at her and he had struggled to form a sentence. Olivia frowned. Something was wrong and she would find out what.

…

A/N: Do let me know what you think!