Love and War

Caught in the Act

It was a slow afternoon in the Manhattan SVU office and Detective Nick Amaro was sitting at his desk, completely worn out. He had spent the last eighteen hours with his team scouring the city for a serial pedophile. It was a little after one pm when they finally spotted the creep hanging around a daycare center attempting to abduct a child. The team immediately swarmed in and arrested him. The suspect was currently being processed leaving the detectives without anything to do for the time being. "Alright everyone," came the voice of commanding officer Olivia Benson, "good job out there today. I know it's been a very tiring case and I knew that we would get this guy. Great job team." She turned to Nick and said, "Nick, you've been here for the last twenty-four hours. Go home and spend some time with your family. Take the rest of the day off." Nick stood up with a smile. "Thanks Liv." He said his goodbyes to the squad and headed home.

Nick Amaro was married to his wife Maria and together they had a daughter named Zara. He absolutely adored his family and worked his ass off at SVU to provide for them. His daughter was the light of his life and he wanted so much to provide her with a great life. His wife was a soldier in the Army and he couldn't be more proud of the work she was doing for her country. She had recently come back from deployment which the entire family was thrilled about, especially since this time she was home for good.There had been problems in the marriage for awhile now and Nick couldn't quite figure out why. He believed that the distance had finally gotten to them and now that Maria was home, those problems would go away. But not quite; Maria still seemed distant and quiet and he was worried. Was it PTSD or could it be something more serious? He pushed the thoughts from his mind whenever they arose. He was sure it was nothing major. After all, they loved each other and their family and their life together. He convinced himself that everything would smooth over soon. Or would it?

Finally letting himself feel the exhaustion he had been suppressing, Nick got out of his car and approached his house. He was so focused on getting inside to see his girls that he didn't even notice the strange car parked out front. He entered the front door to a shocking scene. His daughter was nowhere to be found and there were clothes scattered around the floor and two half empty wine glasses on the coffee table. He heard some giggling coming from the bedroom and charged in, hoping it wasn't what he thought. Sure enough, there was his wife in bed with another man; and not just any man. She was in bed with Jason Harris, a fellow officer and father of a victim in one of Nick's past cases. Maria had been the one to send Jason to Nick to find his missing daughter who told Nick that her mother had suspicions of an affair. This information from the young girl didn't spark suspicions in Nick however. But standing here seeing them together in his bed, he felt so stupid. How could he not see this the whole time?

"What the hell is going on here?!" he shouted. "Nick, I wasn't expecting you home until this evening." Maria was obviously shocked to see him home so soon. He never came home in the middle of the day. Jason was keeping quiet, obviously not wanting to get involved. "Yeah, I see that." Nick said angrily, "How long has this been going on? And where the hell is my daughter?" Maria rose from the bed and slowly approached Nick. "Nick, calm down." She said softly. "She is with your mother." Nick backed away from her, his jaw clenched in anger. "Really Maria? You've been home barely two months and you dump our child off with my mother so that you can be with this guy?" He didn't even give her a chance to respond, he just stepped to the side and pointed towards the door. "Get out." He said. "What?" She asked like she couldn't believe what he was saying. "Get out." He repeated, "Both of you. Now! I don't ever want to see you again, you adulterous bitch." Maria gasped at his word and Jason jumped up off the bed and stepped towards him. "Hey now, don't call her that." He finally spoke. Nick turned to him, fire raging in his eyes. "And if I ever see you again, I'll make you wish you'd never even been born. Now both of you get out of my house." His fists were balled up so tight, his knuckles were white. The two men stood there staring angrily at each other like two wild animals about to engage in a fight to the death. Maria finally grabbed Jason by the arm and said, "Come on, let's go." She looked Nick in the eyes with a look of sadness and said, "I'm so sorry Nick. I never meant to hurt you." He looked away from her and said, "Yeah, sure you didn't. Now get out of my house." The two of them left and Nick sank to the floor. He felt like he'd been hit with a ton of bricks. He wasn't even sleepy anymore and he didn't know how he was ever going to be able to sleep again. He definitely wasn't going to sleep in that bed again.

After calling his mother and having a long talk with her, she agreed to keep Zara for the night and let him figure things out and have some time to think. But after a few hours sitting alone in that house, he couldn't take it anymore. He decided to go back to work to keep his mind off of things and distract himself for a while. He didn't want to face it yet. His mind was swirling with thoughts and images of the two of them together. Maybe if we worked, he could push those images away; or at least replace them with the usual haunting images his job provided.