Another 2 weeks go by without hearing anything about Doyle and his escape. I decide not to call anyone from the BAU or my father, knowing they'll contact me from now on if anything comes up. We just wrapped on a case about a girl found in a suitcase, drugged and left to die. It was an intense one, but cleared up and the right person went to jail. Our unit is getting a little bit of backlash from the media, so Benson is on our cases more than usual to keep things going smoothly and making sure things are run by the book.
"Hey. Can I help you?" Sonny says to someone walking in. I turn to see an older gentlemen, his jacket and scarf covering a suit.
The man answers "yeah. Where's Nicky?"
"Who?" Sonny returns.
"Nicky Amaro." The man answers. It's obvious now to me, this man is related to him.
Benson introduces herself "I'm his sergeant. And you are?"
The man smiles "you're the sergeant? I'm the father."
Her face enlightens at the realization "you're Nick's dad?"
He steps closer to shake her hand "yeah, Nicolas."
"How are you?" She accepts it.
Instead of answering that question he compliments her "my son never told me his boss was so encantadora."
Benson brushes him off "okay. Why don't you have a seat and I'll let him know that you're here."
"Thank you." He takes a seat next to our desks. "Nick. What's your name?" He puts his hand out towards Sonny.
Sonny accepts it "Dominick Carisi Jr. You can call me Sonny." His hand is released and he gestures over to me "and this my partner, Maddison Grey." He takes my hand and instead of shaking it he kisses it gently.
"Nicky never told me that all the women he works with are beautiful. Woowwee." He smiles wide and looks over to Sonny with a grin "how can you get any work done around here?"
Sonny laughs it off and stands, offering him his more comfortable chair. "I can't believe I'm meeting Nick's father. What a treat!" Sonny exclaims.
"He's a great detective, your son. We're lucky to have him here." I offer up as well.
"He's always wanted to do the right thing. My son, when he was just a kid he always had it out for the bad habits I had." His father shakes his head at the memories. "Like this one time, with my cigars." He looks to us as if we should know something about them. Sonny nods to him, I guess with some experience and I nod as well after, not needing a further explincation. "Well, some people roll them He unrolled them!"
"Wait, wait, wait, how old was he?" Sonny stops him, laughing at the thought.
"Five. Hand to God." Mr. Amaro continues "I come home, he's cutting up my montecristos. I said, "what are you doing?" He says, "smoking is very bad for you." We all laugh at the story, them 2 more then me. We all spot Nick emerge from the back and his father speaks up as he gets closer. "Speak of the devil. Nicky."
"What are you doing here?" Nick asks, his voice stern with annoyance.
"Aw You see how he talks to his father?" He dad semi smiles, but goes on "I just come by. Just to say hello. To talk."
Nick breathes out for a moment. "Yeah? Well, I'm working." He goes to walk around the desk, coming up behind me.
His father asks "sergeant, would you mind if I took my son to lunch? It would mean a lot to me."
Even from looking at Nick from in front of him I see him give Benson a look. She catches on and says "Uh, I don't know if now's the best time."
Sonny clueless to Nick's silent request adds "no. I got it. I can mop up with Fin.
"You know, that's nice. You got real friends here." His dad smiles to him. "What do you say, big guy, huh? You still like Chinese?"
Nick exhales deeply, annoyed. He looks to Benson. "I'll be 20 minutes." He tells her.
"Okay." She answers. Nick grabs his coat and walks out with determination for his lunch to be over quickly.
Benson and I both give Sonny a wide eyed look. He shrugs his shoulders "what?"
"You are so clueless." I roll my eyes and return back to my computer screen.
"Better get in there." Benson shakes her head with a smirk and walks away.
We work through the week, Nick burying himself in paperwork. Sonny signs out of his computer, putting his jacket on "Hey, when you're done racking up that ot, I'm going bowling at the piers." He offers to Nick. "Some friends from law school."
"Law school?" Nick asks with a snarl.
"They're not lawyers yet." He replies. "Some of them are hot. Well, they're not hot. They're pretty." Sonny smiles.
"Uh, rain check." Nick declines, barely looking up from his screen.
"Suit yourself." Sonny says back going to leave "take it easy."
"What, I'm not invited to go bowling?" I call after him from my desk before he can leave.
He shakes his head "you'll screw up the pretty to hot ratio, sorry Grey." He winks and continues his way out of the office.
I chuckle to myself and get back to typing up a report. "Why don't you two just tell everyone already?" Nick asks.
"There's nothing to tell, Nick." I respond with an eye roll.
"Oh, please. Everyone in the office knows you two are hooking up." He says back to me.
I pull my eyes off my screen and put them on him "1, you mean we should tell everyone like you and Amanda have told everyone? and 2, there is nothing to tell because we are not hooking up."
He gives me a know it all glare but keeps his eyes trained on me "you really aren't?" He asks. I shake my head no and put my focus back on my work. "Well damn, that's some serious sexual tension then between the two of you." He chuckles.
I go to say something back to him but his cell phone begins to ring so I just tell him to "shut up."
"All right, just tell me what's going on." Nick stands up quickly, grabbing his jacket and running out of the room.
"Nick!" I call after him but he doesn't stop or turn around to tell me, his focus on what's being said on the phone. I follow behind him, knowing whatever is going on that he shouldn't be alone. We get inside a car and the phone connection was lost. He drives quickly to a location, only filling me in on what little knows. "She's going to be okay Nick. It's okay." I try to calm him down, his knuckles white from clutching the wheel.
He pulls up quickly behind another cop car and we get out fast. He begins yelling out for his daughter. "Zara! Zara!" We get to an open ambulence and find a man inside. " Zara!" He calls again.
He spots his little girl who comes running up to him, jumping into his arm "Daddy, it was scary."
"Are you okay?" He asks her, kissing her on the forehead and looking at her intently. "¿Que pasó?" He asks his mother.
"One minute everyone was dancing. Then all hell broke loose." She explains to us.
Nick grabs a uniformed officer off the street "hey, uh Excuse me. This is my mother and daughter. Can you get them out of here? Make sure they get home." He directs them.
"I'm going to go find who's in charge here!" I tell him, moving away to see what I can do to help. I run inside the building and see a massive amount of people sitting and holding ice packs to different parts of their bodies. Most are calm now, talking to one another or an officer. It takes me a few moments to find the women in charge, standing next to Nick's father whose struggling against the officers trying to restrain him. "Mr. Amaro!" I call out going over to him.
I hold up my badge to women and she asks "who called SVU?"
"We have some ties here." I say.
Just as I say it, Mr. Amaro yells out "Is Nicky here?!"
"He's outside!" I answer back, maybe more confused then Nick about what happened here. "What's going on?" I ask the women as they begin to walk him out.
"We're still collecting statements at this time, you said your partner is outside?" She asks me. I nod my head and she thanks me, walking behind Mr. Amaro and the officers. As I look around, I can't help but feel bad for Nick and for everything this is going to do to him and his family. I know family isn't always easy, and having everyone see your dirty laundry can be quiet overwhelming. When I get back outside I go over to where Nick is standing, the women in charge talking to him "Okay, you heard her outcry, so we need your statement. Meet us at the hospital." She tells him before walking away.
He nods back "yeah. Yeah, okay."
"Hey, Nick! Are you gonna tell them? You're my son!" His father yells back as they get closer to the cop car.
"Just- Just do what they say." Nick yells back to him, his eyes glazed over.
"You heard her outcry? What did she say?" I ask him as we walk back to the car to drive to the hospital.
He shakes his head, getting into the passenger side and letting me drive "that my father hit her."
I don't say anything in return, catching on to the feel of the night and that this could possibly be old behavior that never went away. It was clear at the precinct the other day they don't get along, and this could be the reason why.
When we get to the hospital there are people everywhere running around and calling out codes. Nick and I stay close to the entry, waiting for further news on his father's fiance. Within 40 minutes of being there, Benson walks into the hospital "Liv. Hey, what are you doing here?" He asks as she walks in, not expecting to see her.
He eyes me from where I stand, wondering if I called and I shake my head no. "I heard about the fight. Is Zara okay?" She asks.
"Yeah, she's fine." He answers. "Nicolas was arrested. His fiancée has a head injury."
"Sergeant Benson." The Sargent on the case calls out to her. "Thank you for coming. Can we talk In private?" She asks, eyeing Nick and I.
"Absolutely. Look, I'll go call my mother, check on Zara." Nick says, moving to make the call.
Benson stops him before he can thought "Nick, it's probably best if you go home." He eyes her wide and goes to say something.
I step in before he can say anything "just go home Nick. I'll stay here. Go home."
He nods and leaves in a huff. "One second." Benson tells the two women who begin to walk away. "Next time, I prefer to hear about something going on with my detectives from one of my own." She snarls at me, annoyed she got a call from some other Sargent. "What's going on?" I hear her ask as the three of them walk away from listening distance.
The next morning Benson fills Finn, Carisi and myself in on all the details. After, she calls Nick in. He walks in and as soon as he shuts the door he says "if my father did something, I don't want anyone here risking anything on his behalf."
"Yeah, but now she's claiming some other guy sexually assaulted her?" Sonny sort of asks him, wondering if he knew anything about that.
He answer "I don't know anything about that."
Benson tells Nick "Well, in the meantime, Nick, you're back at the desk."
Nick goes to say something "Oh-" but stops before he does. He instead walks out of the office, slamming the door shut behind him. Benson gives us direction. "You three get me a timeline, witness statements, cell phone pics, any video footage from that party. And this guy she's accusing?"
"Javier Arenas." I say as Carisi looks down at his phone.
He reads the email "Ah, look at this. Up until a year ago, he was on the registry. Statutory rape."
"Start there." She directs and the three of us leave her office.
"I'll work on the social media and photos from the party!" I exclaim going over to my desk and getting started on finding everything I can on the incident.
The trial starts on Monday, without a plea and without proper cooperation from the fiance. None of the video or photo evidence from the party help our case. Benson stays with Nick outside of the court house, while Finn and Carisi go inside. I stay behind at the precinct, completing paperwork and holding down the precinct. The closing argument is on Tuesday, and Nick's Father gets off on both charges. Benson returns to the precinct with Finn and Carisi, giving Nick time off to deal with all the family drama.
