The chaos around Jennifer was more than a little overwhelming. She had pulled Nick's unconscious body into her arms and used her magic to stop the bleeding on his lip and wake him up. She probably could have come up with another way to do it, but her instinct was to kiss him, pulling back when she felt him start to kiss her back.
As soon as Nick was awake and realized what happened, he sat up himself, kissed her swiftly, and hurried to the kitchen to get his mobile. He called his friend Duncan, and Jen had to go invisible again.
Cops swarmed the house, searching the area for Dalton. Nick had to lie and said he heard the car drive off. It was Jen who had heard it, Jen who had told him after he woke up. Luckily, it was completely believable that he had been knocked to the ground and unable to get up in time to chase after Dalton.
The whole time Duncan was there, the whole time the uniformed officers were doing their search, Jen stood by. Silent and invisible once again. She placed a hand on the dining table, letting its humming song calm her from how upset she was getting. She could do things to help. She knew she could. But even if she found Dalton and asked questions and got the truth and figured everything out, it wouldn't help Nick. It would only cause more problems, having to lie and find a way to explain what she'd found without explaining the truth of her. They couldn't allow that. She and Nick understood that perfectly, despite understanding for different reasons. Jen had to protect the secrecy of the fairy realm. Nick had to follow police procedure for evidence to hold up in court.
Nick was given strict instructions to come in to the station to speak with Senior Sergeant Wolfe first thing in the morning. And with that, the police finally left. It was past nine at night by that point.
When the final car drove off and the door was locked up tight, Jen made herself visible again. "Nick…"
"I don't want to talk about it," he snapped. He put his hands on the back of the chair and leaned forward, sighing heavily. "Sorry. I just. I need a little time."
"Do you want me to go?" she asked quietly. She hoped he would not say yes. She hoped that he would let her stay, let her hold him and try to find a way through alongside him.
He looked up at her, pain radiating from his eyes. "No. Unless you want to go."
"I don't," she confirmed.
Nick nodded and pushed off the chair to stand up properly. "Dinner's probably ruined but…"
Jen gave a soft smile, going with him to the kitchen. "I can fix it."
He watched, always fascinated by her magic, as she put her hands up to face their cold dinner plates. She stared at the food and exhaled slowly. Nick thought he might be able to feel her magic flow from her hands and into their meal. Maybe that was just wishful thinking.
They ate quietly at the dining table. Nick hadn't wanted to talk, and Jen didn't want to push. But halfway through their reheated chicken and gravy and veg, she could not help herself.
"What's going to happen?" she asked, breaking their silence.
Nick did not answer right away. He took another bite of food and chewed slowly, thinking. "Not sure. If they catch Dalton, it'll be his word against mine for all of it. Juliette and Majors and that bloody golf club," he said through gritted teeth.
"And what are you going to do about it?"
He looked up at her, having answered before staring down at his plate. He was surprised to hear that tone in her voice. She'd been gentle and kind and supportive through all this, but he was reminded now of the spitfire attitude she'd had when they first met in the woods.
Jen raised her brow at him in a challenging manner, displeased over his hesitation. "Well?"
"I dunno what I can do. Investigating on my own, going after Dalton or whatever else, I'll only make it worse. What do you suggest, Jennifer?" he challenged back.
She softened immediately. "I don't know, Nick. This isn't my world. I just don't like seeing you defeated. You're better than that."
"Am I? You barely know anything about me!"
"But I know you, Nick!" she insisted, her volume raising to match his. "You're smart, you're patient and quiet, you don't give up. You didn't give up on me. Why are you giving up on yourself?"
That gave him pause. He considered his answer before speaking. "It's about knowing what's worth fighting for," he explained. "You were. You'll have to ask that bird why I knew that you were, but I did. I do. This case, this job…maybe they're not worth it."
His words frightened her. It should not have mattered to her what his feelings about his job were. He should be free to have doubts, to decide what his priorities really were. But there was something about Nick that, like Jennifer, was so tied to what he did. For fairies, their purpose was spoken practically from birth. Humans were different, she knew, but Jen had somehow gotten it in her head that Nick was like her. That his role and his job was integral to who he was. Maybe she had been wrong.
Nick wiped his mouth and put his napkin on the table, leaning back in his chair. "Anyway, there's nothing we can do about it tonight."
Jen nodded. "Maybe we should try to get some sleep," she suggested.
They cleaned up the dishes and got ready for bed, quiet again. They curled up together, neither speaking but neither really sleeping. They must have, eventually, because Nick was awoken the next morning by his alarm and Jen grumbled beside him.
"Sleep," he whispered, kissing her cheek. "I'm going to go on a run to clear my head. I'll be back soon."
Jennifer hummed, not really listening. She was perfectly happy to go back to sleep, which she did. By the time she woke again, it was the sound of the front door opening and closing that rousted her. She sat up and stretched just in time to see Nick come through the bedroom door in his running clothes. She smiled. "Good morning. Nice run?"
"Yeah. I'm going to shower quickly, then I can make us some breakfast before we go to the station."
"We?"
"You don't have to come if you don't want to."
"No, I want to." She wanted to know what was going on, to see it all there for herself. She was glad Nick wanted to include her. Even if she did have to be invisible during all of it. The idea of that was somehow more palatable now after having slept relatively well.
The meeting with Wolfe went much as Nick expected. Duncan was there with him, explaining how Nick had called for backup, how they couldn't find Dalton. Nick explained that he did not let Dalton go and did not collude with Dalton to plant evidence. He also painfully admitted that it was Bruce Dalton's word against his.
Wolfie then told Nick to go back home, but when Duncan's phone rang, Nick paused to see what was going on.
"We found Dalton," he announced.
Nick and Jen were forced to go back to his house where Nick paced like a caged tiger, waiting for Duncan to call and give him some news. Jen stood by, arms folded as she watched him. There was nothing she could do, he knew, but her presence was helpful. If she weren't there, he might have started throwing things against the wall or doing something rash. She kept him grounded. The slow wave of her wings out of the corner of his eye as he paced was a comfort. It wasn't all murder and corruption and failures. There was a world out there in the woods where there was magic and giant flowers and beautiful things. The fairy realm had a talking bird and a tree that matched his tattoo where the queen resided. There was more than this, and that thought became something of a mantra as he paced back and forth silently.
At last, his phone rang. He put it on speaker so Jen could hear what Duncan said.
"We found him," Duncan said. "In his car in an alley. Said he didn't mean to shoot the girl. Then he shot himself."
"Jesus," Nick swore.
"Wasn't till the body was processed that we found the note he'd been sitting on in the car. Admits to killing Juliette while he was aiming for the informant. And then…Nick, you're not gonna like this," Duncan warned.
"What?"
"He said 'we should never have planted that evidence.'"
Nick swore more strongly at that. He took a slow breath and swallowed back his rage. "Thanks, Duncan. I'll talk to you later."
"We'll figure this out, mate," Dunny said encouragingly.
"Yeah." And with that, Nick hung up the phone, tossing it roughly on the table. "We," he repeated in disbelief. "We should never have planted that evidence!?"
"This doesn't have to implicate you, Nick," Jen reminded him, standing across the table from him. She wanted to keep her distance, not knowing what sort of eruption he might have at this development.
"'Course it will," he disagreed with a scoff. "People will assume it's me. I'm the natural co-conspirator."
"Well, not necessarily."
"Oh come on, Jen!" he shouted, standing up to pace again. "You've been hearing what's been going on. They're lining me up. And you know what? I probably deserve it." His voice cracked there. "I didn't even consider that Bruce might have crossed the line."
Jen's heart broke from him. "Well why would you?" she reasoned. "He was your mentor."
"And if I learned from him, then what does that make me!?" he yelled, raw emotion coursing through ever syllable.
"Nick…" she said weakly.
"If I'd been half the cop that I pretend to be, Dane Majors would be free, Bruce Dalton would be in jail, and Juliette Gardiner would be alive." That lump in his throat was threatening to break him, but he wouldn't let it.
His phone beeped from across the table. He sniffed back his emotion and went to grab it. A text from Duncan, telling him that the attorney general was giving a press conference. Nick went to the living room to get the remote and turn on the television.
Jen watched as a man in a suit stood at a podium with flashing lights and a lot of microphones and said that there was no room for corruption in the police ranks, especially in Homicide. And then he said that he had ordered Dane Majors to be released from prison, effective tomorrow.
Her blood went cold. He was going to be out. He was going to be set free. And no one would be safe. "Nick, they can't…"
"He's innocent. Even if he does belong behind bars for the rest of his bloody life for what he did to Josh and the threat he posed to the fairy realm, he's innocent of this crime."
"Is he?"
"Everyone else seems to think so!" He threw the remote onto the sofa and stood up again. "Everything I thought about being a Homicide cop, everything I've done has been based on a lie."
"You weren't complicit in the lie," Jen reminded him.
"Yes, I was!" he shouted.
Jen froze, staring at him in shock, waiting for him to explain.
"I knew," Nick said in a low voice dripping with emotion. "Deep down, somewhere, I knew."
She felt slightly better, knowing that he had not lied to her, that he was not a part of all this. And maybe he was right, that he should have known and a small part of him might have suspected. "Nick, this one thing doesn't take away everything you are and everything you've done."
He shook his head. "I think it does, Jennifer. I think this case, this mistake, this is enough to take it all away. Enough to prove I'm not fit for this job. Not anymore."
"What do you mean?"
"Stay here," he requested. "I'm going to write up my resignation."
He went upstairs to his home computer to type up a letter, leaving Jen standing there by herself. She didn't know what else to do. So she just stayed there. Just as he'd said.