Olivia walked back into the apartment with Jim. They had been silent on the drive back home. Harvey had taken Olivia to the hospital where Jim had been. She had sat with him as he waited for Valerie to wake up. Perched in the seat in the hallway, she had her head leant back against the wall, her lips still tingling from Ed's kiss. She hated what she had done, but it had felt right. He had felt so right to her and he had been accurate in everything he had said. She still loved him. She was in love with him, she was just not in love with him. She knew there was a difference. Logically in her mind she knew the difference existed.

Jim had gone to speak to Valerie when he had heard she was awake. Olivia had waited in the hallway and had spotted Lee. She had gone over to talk to her, hugging her and telling her that she was glad she was safe. Jim had said nothing when he had left Valerie. Instead he had told Olivia they were going home and she had followed him dutifully.

"You saved Valerie."

Olivia finally said once they were back home and in the safety of the apartment. She tossed her shoes off and padded barefoot into the kitchen, reaching for two large glasses. Jim followed her, placing her bag down that he had carried for her. He nodded his head.

"I did," he agreed.

"Because you knew what he would do," Olivia said to him. "You knew that he would shoot her anyway…reverse psychology."

"No. I wanted to save Valerie."

Olivia rolled her eyes and grabbed the bottle of scotch Jim kept hidden in the back of the cupboard. She poured them both a glass. "Do not think that I am stupid, Jim," Olivia urged from her brother.

"Lee isn't mine."

"Jim-"

"-So none of it matters, does it?" Jim interrupted, grabbing the glass as she slid it across to him. She shook her head and began to climb up to sit on the worktop, her legs dangling. She crossed her ankles together and Jim sighed, downing his liquid. "She won't be mine, will she?"

"She…I think she does still love you," Olivia admitted to Jim. "I just think that she moved on."

"Which is what we all have to do, you included."

"Whoa, no," Olivia said, holding a hand up and then drinking a sip of the alcohol. "We are not discussing me right now, Jim. We know what my issue is and we know that I will get over it eventually. So you don't need to worry about me."

"But you were with him, Liv," Jim said. "You were with him again."

"That's not fair," Olivia said quickly. "I was only with him because he tossed me over his shoulder and took me with him. I didn't willingly go with him back to Penguin's mansion. I never wanted to go there."

"He tossed you over his shoulder?" Jim demanded from her.

"Yeah, don't get hung up over that though-"

"-I warned him not to lay a finger on you," he interrupted his sister. "But I mean it, Liv. You need to move on and stay away from him, do you understand me?"

"Yes," Olivia sighed, shaking her head.

Jim finished his drink and placed the glass down on the worktop. He watched his sister look down into her glass, swirling the liquid in it and watching it roam around. She looked downtrodden and Jim didn't want that for her. He didn't want her to be upset. He never wanted her to be upset, but he knew that Ed had his claws so deep in her.

"You should get some sleep," Jim urged his sister.

She nodded, still looking down.

"Liv…what happened between you and Ed?" Jim asked and she picked her gaze up and her eyes met his. "You came into the hospital and you were completely distracted. What did he say to you?"

"Nothing," Olivia responded, "well, nothing of particular importance. You know what Ed is like, Jim. He just talks…tries to get into my head."

"And you didn't let him?"

"I tried not to," Olivia said. "You know, it is easier said than done sometimes, right?"

"I suppose so," Jim said. "But just stay away from him, Liv…for my sanity as much as your own."

"I'll see what I can do."

….

Jim had found Tetch. He had gone after him, doing everything he could to bring him down. But then Jim had inhaled something. Tetch had drugged him. He had given him something and Jim had been delirious. Olivia had been called that evening to fetch him from the hospital, thankful that someone had found him. She had rushed into the building, unable to believe that she was there for the second time in less than twenty-four hours.

"Jim!" Olivia snapped as soon as she found him in one of the wards. Jim watched his sister rush up to him and throw her arms around him. She held him tightly, hugging him intensely. Jim was breathless for a moment and the doctor stood next to him chuckled. "Don't you dare do anything like this again!"

"I'll try not to," Jim responded and Olivia nudged him on the shoulder gently, perching on the side of his bed before her gaze found the doctor's and she smiled over to him.

"Mario," she spoke, "it's good to see you again."

"You too, Olivia," he said with a nod. "Your brother here just needs a bit more time to come around and have something to drink. You can take him home in half an hour or so."

"Thank you," she said with a smile and Mario inclined his head and went off on his own business.

"Mario saved my life," Jim whispered to his sister, openly admitting how he was feeling. "He saved my life and when Tetch had me drugged, I realised a few things, Liv. I realised that I want to go back to the GCPD. I…somehow, I hallucinated dad. I saw dad and I realised that this is what I want, Liv. I want to go back to being a cop and working inside the law."

Olivia sighed, her lips curling upwards. Jim's brow furrowed.

"I would have thought that you would be annoyed. You never liked me working for the GCPD."

"But I'd much rather you worked with them than doing this PI thing," Olivia said, crossing her legs together and sitting fully on the bed, dropping her bag to the floor. Her hair fell either side of her face and Jim reached out to rest his hand on hers. "I know I am never going to change you, Jim. You feel that you have a public duty and I understand that. I would rather you didn't, but I can't change you…so working inside the law instead of outside of it is better for me to cope with and it is better for you to cope with."

"Thanks," Jim said.

"You don't need me to thank you," Olivia retorted. "But, you saw dad?"

"Yeah," Jim said. "It was weird, Liv. It felt so real and I didn't want to wake up for a while. It felt nice just being back with him…and he…he was proud of both of us. I told him you were teaching and he reminded how you had always been bossy."

Olivia scoffed and shook her head. She squeezed her brother's hand tightly and smiled sadly. "I miss him too," she whispered. "It never gets easier, does it? Losing our parents when we were young was hard. They never got to see us grow up and I wonder what they would think of us now."

Jim shrugged. "I think they would be proud," he said. "I also think they might be concerned that their daughter was dating a killer."

"That's rich," Olivia retorted, "if I remember correctly you were engaged to Barbara. I never got engaged to Ed so you are technically one step ahead of me there."

"I'm older," he retorted, "I've always got to be one step ahead of you."

"Well, you are on that front," she responded and unstretched from her position on the bed. She moved to her feet as a nurse approached them and asked Jim to sign some papers before he could be discharged.

…

Oswald knew what he had to do. He knew that he had to tell Jim what his sister was and what she had done. He had sought Jim out, hearing that he had returned to work at the GCPD. Finding Jim Gordon proved to be easy. He had met him in the precinct as he worked on a case. He had attracted numerous stares on his way through the building, his hair slightly damp from the rain outside.

"Penguin," Jim said, seeing him approaching.

Oswald plastered a smile of glee onto his face. "Detective Gordon," he spoke, "I had heard that you were back. Couldn't stay away for long, could you?"

"What do you want? We're kind of busy on a case."

"I do not doubt it," Penguin said, hands held up in defence. "However, what I have to tell you will take just a moment of your time."

Jim's hands dropped to his hips and he arched a brow expectantly. "What is it?"

"It's about your sister."

…

Olivia was drenched by the time she got home. All she had done was run to her car from work and then into her building, but her hair was soaked by the time she got in. She shrugged out of her raincoat before she noted her brother was already home. His tie was hanging low on his chest and his top two buttons were undone. He was already drinking scotch and hunched over the worktop in the kitchen. Olivia pulled her boots from her feet and hung her coat up.

"Rough first day back?" she asked her brother, motioning to the scotch with her chin.

He slowly looked over to her and there was something in his gaze that frightened Olivia. There was something there that was not entirely normal. She inhaled a sharp breath, a fear coursing through her veins at the sight of him. What had happened? What was wrong?

"Jim?" she asked, her voice tentative. "What is it?"

"Is it true?" Jim asked her and Olivia's face scrunched up and she looked confused. Jim shook his head and slammed his glass down on the worktop, causing her to jump back. "Damn it, Olivia, don't you dare look at me like that. Tell me, is it true?"

"It might help if I knew what the hell you were talking about!" she snapped back, not caring for her brother's tone.

"You knew," Jim said, stalking around the kitchen and towards her. He saw her lips part and he noted her eyes widen. She turned pale. She almost looked as though she was going to pass out and Jim instantly knew from looking at her that she did know. She knew what he was talking about.

"What did I know?" Olivia asked, voice a whisper and meek.

Jim held a finger up. "Don't," he said the word dangerously low. "Don't stand there and play dumb. I can see it in your face. You knew exactly what Nygma had done."

"No-"

"-Penguin told me," Jim interrupted before she could even begin to attempt to lie to him. She felt tears fall from her eyes and slip down her cheeks. She shook her head, unable to believe that this was happening. She did not want this. She had hoped he would never find out. "Nygma told him and he told me. He told me everything…about how you knew what he had done to Dougherty…how you found out about Kristen and spent weeks keeping it secret."

"He said it was an accident," Olivia blurted out and Jim turned away from her, a sickening feeling in his stomach as he heard her openly admit it to him. A part of him had hoped she would continue lying. He wanted her to continue defending herself. But she wasn't. She was proving him right. "He told me that he had gone to stop Dougherty from hurting Kristen and things had escalated, Jim. He just told me and he was…he sounded so honest…he was honest back then. He wasn't the Ed who he is today."

"He killed a man and you covered it up," Jim snarled back at her.

Olivia flapped her arms by her side. "And you are so perfect? I know what you and Penguin did to Galavan, Jim. You're not innocent!"

"But I never acted like Ed. I never killed in cold blood."

"He didn't kill in cold blood, not when we were together," Olivia responded. "It had been an accident. He hadn't meant to do it."

"And Kringle?" Jim demanded. "What was that about, Liv, because I know you hated the woman."

"That doesn't mean that I wanted her dead," Olivia hissed. "She…I found out about what he had done and he told me it had been an accident."

Jim laughed sarcastically. "He accidentally murdered two people?" he asked from her. "Come on, Liv, I thought you were the bright one in this family. You can't just accidentally kill two people. He's a killer and you know that. You know that and yet you kept his secrets. You lied to protect him."

"No!" Olivia yelled at him, cheeks now reddening from crying and her anger. She stepped closer to her brother and urged for him to look at her. "When I found out about Kristen I was going to leave him. I was trying to leave him when he basically kidnapped me. He tied me up and I couldn't leave."

"But you weren't trying to leave him and tell the truth, were you?" Jim asked her and she went silent. She wasn't. He saw that. "You would have covered for him until the end. You would have let him get away with everything…and Pinkney…Kristen…they would still be alive if you had just told the truth. If you had told me."

"That's not fair!" Olivia wailed back. "I didn't know what he would do to them."

"It doesn't matter," Jim retorted. "It happened and it had no need to have happened. And then he framed me, Liv," Jim said, moving closer to her once again and bending down so he could look her in the eye and be the same height as her. She shook her head. "He framed me and sent me to jail. He ruined what I had with Lee. I spent weeks locked in that cell because of him and all of that…it could have been avoided. It could have been avoided if you had just told the truth."

"Jim," Olivia tried to get him to look at her and she reached for his shoulders, but he pushed her back from him. He shook his head and held a hand up to keep her away from him.

"You lied to protect him, Olivia. I rotted in a jail cell because of what he had done and all that time you knew what he was," Jim's voice continued to rise, the anger apparent in his tone.

His sister simply stood on the spot. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

But Jim shook his head. "You chose him over me. He's poisoned you…ruined you…I don't even know who you are anymore."

Jim's words stung her. She felt burned. She felt his anger and it tore her up inside. Shaking her head, she tried to urge him to see sense. She needed him to see that this was not who she was. She was still his sister.

"I didn't choose him," she responded. "If I had known what he had done to you then I would have come to you straight away. You have to believe me, Jim. Please."

Jim scoffed. "Believe you?" he demanded from her. "You covered for him. You lied for him. You…you're just as bad as he is. My life was ruined, Liv. I could still be with Lee. I could still be happy and you had the power to make that happen, but you picked Ed. You picked Ed and lied for him."

Each sentence he spoke stabbed at her heart. She continued crying, openly sobbing and Jim couldn't even look her in the eye. He couldn't even deem to look at her as he turned his back to her and poured himself another glass of scotch.

"Jim-"

"-I need to get out of here," Jim interrupted, leaving his drink.

"Where are you going?" Olivia asked and he brushed by her, still not looking at her.

He rushed off to the door, grabbing his keys on the way. Olivia chased after him, forgetting her shoes as she followed him through the apartment block, moving down the stairs and following him. "Jim, please, we need to talk about this," she urged from him. "You're my brother. I love you more than anything. You know I would never have done anything to hurt you…please…Jim…"

"But you did," Jim snarled, moving to the front door and turning back to look at her. "You chose him over me. Do you think I will ever forgive you for that…for what happened to me because you picked him?"

"Jim, please." Olivia begged him again.

"I don't want to see you again," Jim said and Olivia shook her head, bottom lip quivering. "I can't stand the sight of you."

"Jim, you don't mean that."

"I'll come back in the morning and get my stuff. I want you out of the way."

"Jim!" Olivia snapped as he walked through the door and she ran after him.

Rushing down the stairs of the apartment block, she couldn't catch him up. He was already in the car and starting the engine. The rain poured down and Olivia slammed on the window, but he ignored her. He drove off and she almost tumbled into the street. Her feet were soaked, but she remained stood there, the rain coming down on her as she watched Jim drive away and she wondered what she had done.

….

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