I don't own anything that Dick Wolf owns

Hey readers,

Thanks for taking the time to read the fic and thank you so much for the reviews. It really means a lot to me that you like reading my stories. I'm working on this one and on the last part of the "everything and nothing" (aka the pregnancy story) trilogy, but I think I'm going to finish this one before I post the other fic.

Enjoy and let me know what you think : )

"What?" Nick asked.

"There's nobody in here" Tom repeated.

"What do you mean there's nobody?"

"I mean" he said "the safe house is empty, no sign someone's been staying here"

"No clothes? No nothing?" Nick asked even though he already knew what the other man was going to say.

Tom wanted to give a sarcastic answer but he had a feeling this was not the right time "nothing, everything is just as it was before I gave her the key" he said.

Nick didn't speak for a moment "is there a sign of a struggle? Anything suspicious?" he finally asked.

"Nothing like that, it looks clean. I mean, are you sure she brought someone here?"

"Yes, she did" Nick answered "Thank you Tom, I really appreciate your help"

"No problem" Tom was a little worried but decided not to say anything, he figured that if Nick needs is help he would call him again.

Hanging up Nick wished he could stop thinking. What did this mean? He knew Amanda took her father to the safe house, and now he's gone?

Did someone find him? Whoever if was that was maybe after him. Or was he…no, Nick didn't want to even consider the possibility. There's no way he was behind this.

Right?

Fin was outside of Amanda's room when Nick got back. He was watching the doctor say something to the nurse, they were looking at her chart and something else, probably test results.

"What's going on?" Nick asked him Fin shook his head.

The nurse stepped out of the room and the doctor followed her. He stopped in front of them and they both looked worried.

"Detectives, as I said before, there is a high risk of infection and she has a slight fever. I don't want to take any risks so we will start with antibiotics. We will monitor her closely"

"Thanks doc" fin said and the doctor walked away "she just can't catch a break" he said.

"Yeah" Nick agreed, Amanda's been through a lot and she didn't like talking about it, she always wanted to deal with things alone, he was the same, but he should have been there for her more.

"What's your take on this?"

"What?" Nick asked, he wasn't listening.

"What do you think is going on?"

"I wish I knew, I don't even think she knows"

"Maybe she does know something, I mean maybe that's why…"

"Could be" Nick agreed "you have a point but I really don't know"

"Do you know anything about the guy she visited in Vermont?"

"Diaz?" Nick asked and Fin nodded "she said he was her father's Marshal, he got him into the program"

"And who's the other Marshal she talked to, you know his name?" Nick shook his head, she never told him his name, but she probably has his card somewhere.

"We've got to talk to him" Fin said "we need to find out what's going on"

"We'll do that"

"And we need to find her father, she didn't tell me where he is though" Fin saw Nick looking at the floor "what is it? You know something?"

Nick looked at Fin "she asked me to help her find a safe house through a friend who's at Narcotics"

"So you've known where he is all this time?" Fin got a little closer to Nick, he didn't want to raise his voice but he wasn't happy about this.

"I had no idea, he gave Amanda the address" Nick answered "and the thing is I asked my friend to check on him and he's not there"

"He isn't there?"

"No, my friend said there's no sign of foul play or anything else, like he wasn't even there"

"So he's gone?" Nick nodded "Amanda knows?"

"He just told me about it, I called after she was…"

"You know what?" Fin said "we are going to get to the bottom of this no matter what"

"Yeah, I'm in" Nick said, ignoring Amanda's request.

"First thing we need to talk to that Marshal who was at the precinct"

"I think she has his card somewhere in her desk"

"I'm gonna look for it and call you when I find him" Fin said and walked away.

Nick entered Amanda's room. He was glad she was still asleep, it meant he could sit by her side. A nurse came and hooked an IV drip. She smiled at Nick "that's the antibiotics" she said and he nodded. The nurse left after writing something in the chart.

He just watched her, his eyes exploring her face, he loved looking at her, but he wanted to see her smiling, lying in his bed, not in a hospital bed, sick.

He heard a weird noise and it took him a moment to realize where it was coming from. The bag on the table was vibrating. He reached for it and looked inside, it was her phone.

She had an incoming call from an unknown number. He wondered whether he should answer and decided it was the right thing to do.

He accepted the call but didn't talk, he wanted the person on the other line to say something first "Amanda?" he heard.

He recognized the voice right away "it's her partner, detective Amaro" Nick replied "we've met at the precinct the other day"

The man didn't say anything but didn't hang up too "we need to talk" Nick said, he decided to tell him about Amanda so he could hear his reaction "Amanda's at the hospital"

It took a while until the other man replied "is she alright?"

"She's stable" Nick answered, trying to keep his voice calm "we need to talk, where are you?" he got quiet again but Nick wasn't going to let this go "we have to talk, tell me where you are and I'll be there" he still didn't get a reply so he raised his voice a little, he didn't want to wake Amanda but also didn't want to make Tim wait until he could leave the room, he was afraid if he would make him wait Tim would hang up "listen to me" he said "your daughter was stabbed and she is lying in the hospital" now he had to take a breath to calm down a little "you can't tell me this has nothing to do with you, so tell me where you are cause we need to talk"

"Ok" Tim answered, his voice a bit uncertain but he let Nick know where he was.

Nick told him to wait there. He'd be there as soon as he can.

He had to go there even if it might be dangerous, he didn't know if Amanda's father had anything to do with her being stabbed, he did sound concerned over the phone, but it's not hard to fake these sort of feelings.

Nick took Amanda's hand in his and looked at her "I know you don't want me to do this" he said "but I'm not going to listen to you, I am going to make sure that whoever's behind this will pay. But there's something I want to ask of you, get better, ok?" he kissed her palm "I need you to be alright, I love you" he said and got up. But when he turned around he froze when he saw the person standing at the door.