Meeting Mario had been slightly strange for Olivia. She didn't think that it would go down well, what with her being the sister of Lee's ex-boyfriend…hell…fiancé at one stage. Olivia had done her best to be nice to the man, sitting and sipping her glass of wine as Lee made conversation. Olivia suspected that he knew everything that had happened in their lives. Why would he not? Thankfully, he didn't bring any of it up. Olivia didn't know if she could stomach it if he did.

As the night went on and they relaxed further, she came to enjoy talking with the couple. Mario seemed like a good guy and it was clear that he adored Lee. He had doted on her the entire night, soft touches to her arm and her shoulder happening often. Lee had warned him not to engage into too much PDA, knowing that it would be awkward. But she had wanted Olivia to meet him.

"What did you think?" Lee asked from her once they were back in her townhouse.

Shrugging from her jacket, Olivia hung it up and Lee copied her movements.

"He is nice," Olivia said to Lee. "Really, he seems like a nice and honest guy."

"Okay, good," Lee said, "because there is something that I need to tell you about him."

"Oh?" Olivia questioned, slipping her heels from her feet and placing them on the shoe rack. "Lee, so long as he isn't some serial killing mad man then I think you're safe."

"No," Lee said, letting out a nervous laugh. "He…well…his last name is Falcone."

Olivia's brows knitted together. She felt her mouth gape open and she did her best not to blanche at what she had heard. He was a Falcone. "But…not…"

"Yeah, he is," Lee said, guiding Olivia into the kitchen. "Carmine Falcone is his father."

"What?" Olivia snapped and Lee went to the fridge to grab a bottle of wine. Olivia sat at the dining table, folding one leg over the other as she did her best to get her head around that. She threw her head back and shook it. "How did you meet Carmine Falcone's son? Do you have a magnet for guys who seem to attract trouble?"

Lee unscrewed the cap to the wine bottle, looking at Olivia sceptically as she poured the liquid into two large glasses. "You really want to go there with me?" she asked.

Olivia looked sheepish then, shrugging her shoulders and glancing down to the table. "Guess not," she mumbled in response to her, knowing that she had no room to talk after her dating history. "But are you sure that you want to get involved with the Falcones? You know what Carmine did…"

"Mario is not Carmine," Lee said, moving to sit across from Olivia. She slid a glass of wine across to her. "Mario is a good man, Liv. He is a doctor…and he is nothing like the men in Gotham. He is straight laced. I trust him and I think he is good for me. Honestly, trust me on this one."

"Hey, who you date is your business only," she said defensively. "I just don't want you to get hurt, Lee. I know that it is a bit awkward having me around-"

"-No," Lee interrupted, waving a nonchalant hand. "Liv, Mario was fine with it. He knows that we're friends and he knows that is not going to change."

"Still, must be weird for him and you."

"No," Lee said. "What I had with Jim was great and a piece of me will always love him. I just can't be with him. The life he wants and the life I want is very different. I had to move on. I just had to move on, Liv."

Olivia didn't want to tell Lee what Jim's plan had been. It seemed to be a case of wrong place, wrong time for both of them. She could tell her, but then that would risk what she had with Mario. Olivia didn't want to do that. It was not in her place to do that. If she loved Jim enough then she would have come back for him when she had heard he was free. That was what Olivia thought, anyway. But she understood what Lee meant. Jim lived for danger, even though he claimed to hate it. He would never be one to settle down and Olivia could see that. It turned out Lee saw it too and she didn't want to be around it.

"Yeah," was all Olivia offered back to her. "I get that."

….

Returning to Gotham, Olivia had done her best to understand the news that Jim had told her. She had spent two weeks with Lee, enjoying her time away. She had done normal things, like shopping for fun and drinking in a café with a book. She had walked through parks and Lee had shown her the sights and taken her to her favourite places to eat. Returning to Gotham, Olivia felt deflated. She had been in contact with Jim, but he had not told her what had been going on.

"What the hell do you mean Theo Galavan returned?" she demanded from her brother as he drove her back to their apartment from the airport. He looked exhausted and his hair was a mess, flopping down on his forehead. His face was pale and he had a cut on his cheek.

"I mean," Jim drawled to her, "Theo Galavan never died. Hugo Strange, the doctor at Arkham, picked him up and turned him into…well…he called himself Azrael."

"Azrael?" Olivia echoed back to him. "How did I not know about any of this? Why did you not tell me?"

"I didn't want to worry you," Jim responded with a shrug. "I'd told Lee to keep you away from the news too when she could. I didn't want you looking or…well…wondering about Ed."

"I'm not wondering about Ed," Olivia retorted to her brother. "What I am wondering is why you didn't tell me. You need to tell me things, Jim."

"And I do, but I was fine," Jim promised his sister. "Listen, Azrael died. We got to him before he could do any damage, but no one knows for certain that it was Theo Galavan. We suspect that Strange covered his tracks."

"So…I'm not supposed to know he was Galavan?" Olivia asked.

"People suspect it is him," Jim responded. "People aren't blind and they saw him on TV, but we are not confirming that it was him, which it definitely was. Anyway, Harvey is dealing with that PR mess. I have bigger things to worry about."

"Like what?" Olivia enquired from him.

"Selina Kyle," he said to her. "She has gone missing. Bruce came to me and said he thinks that Strange has her."

"Has her?" Olivia asked. "Wait, what is Strange doing to people? He must have done something to Galavan considering you shot him."

"Yeah," Jim weakly said, pulling up outside of the apartment block. He turned the engine off and looked at Olivia. "Strange has been experimenting on the prisoners at Arkham. I don't know specifically what he has been doing, but there was a woman who attested to that…I saw her, Liv. She had hands…like claws."

Olivia felt her stomach churn. Shaking her head, she got her head around what he was saying. "So…there is a lab?" Olivia asked. "There is a lab where he is experimenting on prisoners?"

"Yep," Jim said, popping his lips. "Lucius Fox, who works at Wayne Enterprises, knows that the company has ties with Strange and the work he has done, well, the legit work anyway. The plan is to get Bruce into Arkham with Lucius. Lucius thinks he can find where the lab is and then I will call Harvey to bust Strange."

"This is a ridiculous plot," Olivia said to him, unable to stop herself. "How old is Bruce Wayne? He is just a kid. You cannot use him as bait."

"He will have Lucius with him," Jim promised his sister. "Besides, Bruce has seen a lot more than you would have thought. He isn't a naïve kid."

"I still don't like it," Olivia said. "If Strange is experimenting…well…"

"I doubt he is experimenting on him." Jim said to his sister.

"How do you know?"

"Why do you care?" Jim retorted, deflecting from her. She folded her hands into her lap. "Liv, his safety should be the least of your concerns."

"It doesn't work like that though, does it?" Olivia snapped back at her brother, looking at him with gritted teeth. She took a moment to try and compose herself. "It hasn't even been a month, Jim…I can't turn off how I feel about him…not deep down inside."

"You cannot love him, Liv-"

"-It isn't that simple," Olivia interrupted, shaking her head at him. "I might not like him. I might hate him for what he has done, but I cannot stop…I just…I can't stop thinking about him, Jim. I've tried to. I have tried so hard to forget him, but it is almost impossible."

Jim sat back, closing his eyes for a second. He turned to look to the side as his sister observed the backs of her hands. "Perhaps you need to see someone, Liv? Maybe talking to someone could help?"

"I'll be fine," Olivia said. "I just…I need time."

"Yeah," Jim said, not sounding convinced on that front. But what else could he say? There was nothing that he could do. He just had to keep his eye on her and keep her safe and, as best as he could, keep her mind off of Ed. He didn't know if he would be able to do that, but he would do his hardest.

….

Olivia went behind her brother's back. She knew that she shouldn't. She just had to see him for herself. She also wondered if he knew anything about what Strange was doing. Ed was many things, but naïve and ignorant was not among them. If Strange was doing something dodgy, then she had a feeling that Ed might know what.

Sitting in the interview room, Olivia let out the breath she had been holding in when she saw him. His hair had grown even longer, but there was a look to him. Olivia arched a brow as he took his seat and the guard cuffed him to the table before leaving. He said nothing, letting Olivia make the first move. She leaned in closer to him, hands on the steel table. He noted the white blouse she wore tucked into a pair of dark jeans and longed to hold her to him again, to feel the cotton of her blouse under his hands.

"Do they record conversations in here?" she asked him.

Ed arched a brow and looked around. "They aren't supposed to," was what he responded with. "Why? Have you come for some dirty talk, Liv?"

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not that desperate."

"You always were when I was in your ear," he responded.

She held a hand up and shook her head. "We are not doing this," she said firmly to him. "I need to know what is going on in this place?"

"And what type of question is that?" Ed asked, intrigued. He leaned closer to her, folding one leg over the other. He observed her, wondering if she knew something. Jim had been to Arkham. Jim had been snooping in their business and Ed knew that. He had overheard it. "What do you know?"

"What do you know?" Olivia retorted.

"Oh no," Ed said firmly, shaking his head. "You are going to go first. Tell me what you know."

"I don't think so," Olivia said. She didn't want to get Jim into any trouble if Ed went and blabbed to someone. "I should get going-"

"-Fine," Ed interrupted, breaking first. He gave his head a shake and bit down on his bottom lip, chuckling darkly. He held a finger up, wagging it. "Firstly," he began, "what I tell you I assume will be used to help your brother?"

"Depends what you tell me," she responded.

"I know what they are doing in the basement."

"Experimenting?" she asked.

"Yes," Ed mumbled. "I saw it first hand and tried to escape. That plan didn't exactly work out and I bumped into that kid…she was trying to get in here to find her sister."

"Selina Kyle?" she asked him.

"Yes," Ed said. "So Jim has been talking."

"She hasn't come back out," Olivia admitted to him. "Is she still in here."

Ed shrugged. "If she is then she is still in the basement," he said to her, arching his brow. "Why? Let me guess, Jim is going to try and come in here and play the hero?"

Olivia shrugged. She was not going to give anything away. Ed chuckled.

"You're a bad liar," he said to her. "Is that why you came here, Liv? You wanted information on what Strange is doing?"

"Yes."

"No other reason?"

"What other reason could there be?"

"To see me," Ed said. "Jim told you what was happening here and you were worried. Did you think Strange would experiment on me? I think I am a bit boring for his tastes, Liv. You don't need to worry about that, but your concern is touching."

Olivia said nothing. How could she even deny it to him when she couldn't deny it to herself? Instead she moved to stand up, tugging her shirt down. Ed watched her movements, seeing how she self-consciously tucked her hair behind her ear. She wouldn't deny it because she couldn't. He found that interesting.

"I need to go," Olivia said.

"I suspect I will see you soon, Liv."

"Why would you say that?"

"Because you cannot stay away, despite what you say," Ed said, longing to stand up and stalk towards her. He imagined having her pinned against the wall. The things he longed to do to her. It had been so long since he had felt her touch – too long, in fact. He missed it. He needed it.

"I will this time," she said determinedly.

"You couldn't even deny that you were concerned, Liv," Ed said to her. "I know you better than you know yourself. You still love me, of course. Feelings like that do not disappear, especially after everything we have been through."

"Stop it," she urged from him, not wanting to listen to it. She didn't need it validating by him. "I am leaving, Ed."

"I still love you," he said to her and she froze. His words took her breath away. How could they not? "I think about you all the time. You consume my every thoughts and I keep thinking of ways for us to be together because I know, despite everything, you still love me and we can be happy."

"You see, that is when you become deluded," Olivia said, hands moving into the back pockets of her jeans. "We could have been happy, Ed. We could have been together…but you framed my brother. I cannot forgive that."

"Perhaps not, but you can accept it."

"No, I will not," she said firmly. "I am going."

Ed watched her walk out the room then, leaning back in his chair and wondering how he could meddle in Jim's business.

…

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