Keeping Her Safe

Chapter 1

 "Morning, Nick," Olivia said quietly, still getting used to the sunlight and noisy chaos of the squad room. It was bright and buzzing with excitement even at the early hour of 8 AM.

"Hey, Liv," Nick replied, plopping himself down at his desk and resting his head in his hands. He looked exhausted.

"You okay?" Liv asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"You look tired," she said, eyeing him with concern.

The corner of Nick's mouth pulled into a tight smile.

"It's just a headache," he said dismissively. "I've gotten so used to the quiet without Zara, and now that she's back, well, you know-"

"Zara's back in New York, huh?" Olivia asked, unable to hide her smile. "Guess she couldn't stay away too long."

"Yeah, well, her mother is going to Europe for a month for work," Nick said. "It's not like Maria had a whole lot of options."

"Still, it must be nice having her around again," Olivia said.

"Yeah, yeah, it is," Nick said, thoughts of his beautiful girl swirling around in his head. She had only been back for a week now, but even in that short amount of time she had managed to single-handedly make him feel like none of the awful things that had happened in the past year had even existed. God, he had missed her.

"Morning, Rollins," Olivia said, and Nick turned around in his chair to see the gorgeous blonde with the incredible cheekbones walking towards them, giving Nick a slight wave.

"Hey guys," she said, pulling up a chair. "What are we talking about?"

"Nick's daughter is back in town," Olivia said, giving Nick a bright smile.

"Zara's back?" Amanda asked, blue eyes sparkling in excitement. "Wow Nick that's....that's just great!"

"Yeah, it's really good to have her back. She loves New York, too, I think she's missed it here."

"So she's in school right now?" Amanda asked.

"Yeah, I got her temporarily enrolled in St.Joseph's for the month. They only had one spot left in their 4th grade class, I guess we were lucky."

Olivia just shook her head and smiled fondly. Amanda smiled right back at her, like they were middle school girls sharing a secret or something.

"What? Did I say something?" Nick asked, confused.

Olivia gave a small laugh. "I was just thinking...fourth grade already? She's growing up so fast, Nick."

"Hey hey hey, I don't need to hear that," Nick said.

Amanda just laughed at him. "And here I thought your sense of humor was finally starting to improve."

Nick just smirked and looked down at his desk. "Yeah, yeah..."

Amanda walked away than and made her way to the coffeemaker, brewing two cups, Nick noticed. As soon as she walked into the other room Nick got up and followed her, laughing to himself a little bit about their little coffee-signal. If she wanted to talk to him privately before work, she would always make two coffees and know that he would join her at the signal. It was so childish, so high school, but so completely Amanda that Nick couldn't help but love it.

As soon as Amanda turned around Nick was there, mere inches from her face. She would never admit it to him, but she almost liked it, the way he startled her, she liked the way she could smell his slightly-too-strong cologne and feel the heat from his body. His eyes were such a deep, deep brown; dark and yet warm at the same time, and his dark hair was just a little bit less perfectly combed than normal, a few strands brushed off to the side. And than he smiled at her, and God, it was way too early to be feeling like this; way too early to feel her heart fly out of her chest.