She swallowed hard, the busy sounds of the bullpen suddenly seeming almost overwhelming. He was here. She could sense it – the ominous, foreboding presence. Feeling so vulnerable, so hunted wasn't something to which she was accustomed as she hated it as much as she was broken by it. Billy's hand touched her gently.

"You okay?" he whispered as he took a seat next to her and held out the small white paper cup of water. "I just spoke to Rey. They're getting everything set up and they'll be ready for you in just a minute."

She took the cup from his hands and nodded. "Yeah," she managed, though it was a complete lie and the look on his face as he narrowed his eyes told her he suspected as much.

"You know I'll be right next to you, right? You're not gonna have to go through it alone. I'll be right there."

"Actually …" It was Christine's voice that rang out through the room as she emerged from the office walking quickly ahead of Rey. "You're going to questioned separately. We need to make sure that we're getting unbiased reports here and …"

Billy stood up. "I don't see why that matters now. You know J.T.'s alive. What more do you need to know about this, honestly? How much more do you honestly need to torture people before you just take a seat and shut the hell up?"

"Billy." Phyllis's shaky voice stopped him and he looked back towards her, surprised to hear her speak.

"It's alright," she nodded. "It's fine. I'll talk to her. I'll tell whatever she wants to know. It'll be fine." She watched his eyes study her for a moment and she nodded again and forced the best smile she could to reassure him of her ability to keep her composure. "You'll be here when I'm done, right?"

He reached for her hand again, squeezing it supportively. "Of course I will. I'll be waiting for you, okay?"

Her eyes moved back to Christine as she let her hand fall from his grip and slowly entered the office with her.

Billy turned back to stare at Rey. "Was that really necessary?"

Rey sighed, looking for the first time to be almost sympathetic. "It's policy. She's big on policy. Why don't we go ahead and go through this quickly and you can both get out of here, alright?"

Billy leaned back in the chair, his eyes fixated on the black and white clock on the wall. What was once a soft, soothing ticking sound now became a menacing, maddening sound that served as a constant reminder of just how much time had passed.

"Rey!" Billy jumped from the chair as he saw the detective walk by. "What's taking them so long? You and I were finished almost an hour ago. There's no reason she should have to be grilled over this. She's been through enough and …" He stopped short as she door of the office finally opened.

Phyllis emerged looking exhausted, but better than he'd feared. He moved towards her quickly.

"You okay?" he asked urgently, realizing just how often he'd uttered the phrase in the space of the last few days.

"Just glad it's over," she sighed. Okay would have been a massive overestimation. She stopped for a moment at the desk as she waited for Christine to join them. "It is over, right?" Her voice still held the anxious tone.

Christine's jaw was tight. She'd gotten answers to her questions, but she still had one more objective today. "Almost. There's just one other thing." She pointed towards the room to the left and gestured for both Billy and Phyllis to enter. "You can go in as long as you keep your mouth shut," she warned.

Billy gritted his teeth, but followed quietly with his hand resting on Phyllis' shoulder. He felt her entire body tense as she passed through the doorway.

"What the hell?!" Her warnings no longer mattered. Nothing did. In seconds, he'd moved Phyllis from in front of him and placed body in between the two women. "Is this your idea of some kind of sick joke?"

"What part of keeping your mouth shut did you not comprehend?" Christine glared at him and gestured for an officer to enter. "I'm going to need you to escort from the …"

"Get your hands off me!"

Rey stepped into the room. "What are you …" He looked over at the table before turning to face Christine. "Can you give us a moment?"

"Gladly," Billy sneered as he led Phyllis from the room. Her eyes were filled with the same panic he'd seen in them at the campgrounds. It was a look he'd hoped he would never have to see again and yet here was, much much too soon. "You're okay," he promised her. "He's not gonna touch you. He's never gonna hurt you again. He's never gonna hurt anyone again."

"Why would she do that?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "I don't know what she'd planning or what purpose that's supposed to serve but …"

Rey stepped out of the room. "I'm sorry," he said honestly. "All we really need here is a positive ID and if you can do that for us…." He let his eyes rest on Billy. "There's really no reason she has to go …" He hung his head a bit. "I'm sorry."

Billy shook his head. "That's J.T. That's the sorry son of a bitch that terrorized Victoria, Nikki, Sharon, Mac, my kids, his kids, Phyllis, and God only knows who else. So yeah, there's your damn I.D."

Rey shook his head, this time not balking at the justified anger. "That'll do," he said quietly.

He let out a long sigh as the car slowed to a stop in front of the Athletic Club. "You know, you don't have to come back here right now if you're not ready. I …"

She cut him off. "Billy." The look on his face was devoid of the anger she'd become almost accustomed to seeing from him. It was a nice change, but she couldn't help but wonder how long it would last. He had been in crisis mode before. Billy, the guard dog. And now, the crisis had passed. "I'm sure Victoria will be heading home now that J.T. is where he belongs and I'm absolutely certain she wouldn't be happy to see you with a houseguest."

"Still," he protested. "You could stay at the Abbott house. I'm sure Jack would understand and Kerry, you and her and still close, right? I just don't know that it's the best idea for you be here alone especially given everything that you've …"

"I can't keep living like I'm somebody's victim, Billy. You know that's not my thing. It might work for someone people, but it doesn't' for me." She heard the words as they fell from her lips and she instantly regretted the tone. "I didn't mean that the way it sounded," she said, her eyes closing at the insensitivity that could be gleaned from the comment. "I know everyone has been."

"It's okay," he quickly assured her. "I know what you mean. You've always been independent and strong. You count on that, on that side of yourself and I'm sure it's been maddening to feel like you've needed someone. I'm just glad you've let me be here for you. I'm glad you've been willing to let me help you."

She smiled. "You have. More than you know. But now, it's time for me to help myself and that starts by getting back to my life – my real life." She looked up towards the building in front of them. "And I guess that needs to start now." Her hand reached for the door.

"Well uh …" He spoke quickly, feeling his heart begin to race at the thought of her leaving so soon. "Maybe we could grab some breakfast first … since we didn't have any before going to the station. You said you weren't sure you couldn't stomach anything before, right? You've got to be starving. You've barely eaten anything."

"I'll probably just order something in the room. I'm not sure I'm really up to being the topic of conversation in the at the Club, you know." The look on his face was strange, a flash of something she thought looked a bit like disappointment if she didn't know better. "You're welcome to join me, if you'd like."

"Yeah. If that's alright. I'd like to make sure you get settled in okay. I know you said you're fine, but I'll feel better just seeing that everything's okay." Billy waited until she nodded before he began to climb from the car.

"I should feel guilty for paying twenty bucks for eggs and toast that I could make at home, shouldn't I?" Billy smiled as he scribbled his name onto the leather pad and handed it back to the attendant.

"You go ahead if you want to," she said, feeling more relaxed than she had in weeks. "I'd pay twice that. These taste nothing like what my version would."

"You're better than you think you are."

She laughed. "Please. I'm horrible. It's an absolute miracle that we lived together as long as we did without the fire department ever having to visit. It's a testament to our mutual love of take out."

He was quiet for a moment and she turned around, to find him simply staring at her.

"What? What's the matter?"

"Nothing. It's just good to hear you laugh. It's been a long time since I've heard it."

"It's been a long time since I've had a reason to do it," she admitted. "But hopefully things are going to get back on track now. For both of us. I can get back to running things at Jabot and you can get back to life with your kids and …" She swallowed before saying the word, "And Victoria."

"You don't have to do that." He let the piece of toast fall back onto the plate, his appetite suddenly fading. "You don't have to minimize what happened here."

"I'm not." She pushed the food around on her plate as she struggled to keep from meeting his gaze. "I'm not minimizing it at all. You were amazing. You got me through something that I'm not sure I would have survived without you, but that's over now and you don't have to protect me anymore. The danger is gone. J.T. is in jail and he's going to stay there. I don't need to be protected."

"And you think that's all this was?"

She let a puff of breath leave her lips before bringing the mimosa towards it. It was too early for wine, but she'd figured a mimosa was the most socially way to consume some early morning liquid courage. "Wasn't it?"

"At first, maybe." He stood up, needing to walk, to move, to give his brain a chance to spin inside his head and work through the jumble of words and thoughts that seemed to clog up his mind. "But that's not what it is now. I don't know how to describe. I don't know how to tell you exactly what it is, but I know it's not about protecting you. I just know that when I had to think about not …" He stopped, the words getting lost in the space between his brain and his mouth. "When I had to really think that I might not ever see you again, the other stuff, it just kind of faded away. I know there's a lot of stuff that happened. I'm not stupid. I haven't forgotten that things happened. Terrible things. Awful things. I did a lot of things that you probably still can't even begin to forgive me for and you have every right to feel that way, but I guess what I'm saying is I'm just so thankful that you're still here because it means that maybe I have a chance to try to make it right or maybe I'll just have a chance to fight with you some more."

He moved closer to her again, pulling the chair he'd been sitting to her closer and sitting down so he could look into her eyes. "And if we fight, it's because we're still connected and we still care enough and we're still trying to figure out how to do this and that means there's something still there. We're not the kind of people that are going to be happy all the time. Sometimes we're gonna be downright miserable, but I'd take miserable with you over happy with anybody else. We can figure all this out and we can do it together because at the end of the day, I love you, Phyllis. I love the moments when we're happy, when it feels like we're the only two people in the world that exist. I love the moments when we're crazy, when we're both just trying to survive that whirlwind that we call our life. I even love the arguments, when we scream and yell and there are tears because it means we care enough to do all those things and it means we love enough to fight for it. I love it all. I miss it all. I miss you."

She said nothing.

"It's okay," he finally said after a moment. "I get it. I know that I've been pretty awful to you lately and I get that you probably need some time to just …"

"No. It's just … I just don't know what to say …"

"I know it's a lot," he continued. "After everything that's happened and …"

"No. I don't' mean it like that. It's just, everything you just said, all those beautiful things, I can see how much you mean them. They just came pouring out of you and I'm sitting here trying to think of something I can say that will come anywhere close to that when all I really want to do is …"

"What?"

She dropped her head slightly, her cheeks flushing. "I just want to kiss you," she whispered.

His hand gently swept the hair away from her face, his eyes glancing down at the fingerprint bruises that still remained on her neck. It was good that J.T. was behind bars for if he had one more chance in a room alone with him, he wouldn't walk away. He snapped back to attention as he felt the warmth of her body press against his, the flutter of her breath tickling his jaw. She kissed him for what felt like forever with neither of them wanting to be the first to break. When she finally pulled away, her eyes shone up at him, a slight smile playing on her lips.

"I love you," she whispered.

"See," he said quietly, "you knew exactly what to say."

The End