He could feel the tension in the air, bent so far back that it was almost ready to snap in two. It hung there between them heavily, until he shifted uncomfortably underneath her scrutiny of him sifting through the photographs. Gen was smart enough to know that there many things that were going unsaid; she might have also been perceptive enough to know that he was about to burst with the knowledge he held, barely contained, behind sealed lips pressed into a hard line once they left one room to venture into another.<br/><br/>“Have you considered selling the place? Starting somewhere fresh?” His voice sliced through the air, breaking the silence, until she hastily blurted that Nathan had mentioned his sister once. It made him hesitate. Ophelia had been a large part of Nathan’s life; the grounding point of their long term friendship. Her memory was what tied this entire mess together. While he had his own reasons for keeping such intimate relations of a long dead ghost from his current girlfriend, there was the rest that was usually spoken in hushed voices at night, when two people were curled up together in bed. The,<i>how was your day? </i>The fact that the two men had been investigating her death even after the file was closed off. Regardless of what lie Oliver had spouted in the office, he was under the impression that Nathan had been tracking a source when he was caught red handed in a circumstance he had no business being in. The cops covered it up, making it seem like he died while on duty.<br/><br/>Oliver knew better. His friend’s hands were dirty. But then again, so were his own – to some extent. He only suspected that Nathan was up to fouler play than Oliver bothered with. With haze eyes resting on the back of Genevieve’s head, he wondered just how much – or really how little – she knew of her former significant other. He wondered if Nathan had built this falsified life for himself around a woman who treated him better than he had ever treated her. There were cracks and crevices there yet to be explored. He just didn’t know which ones his partner had told her and which ones he kept hidden away.<br/><br/>Before he said anything more, he let her guide him through the disarray that was her bedroom. Looking around the room, he hesitated before moving further inside. “You’ve been staying here? No wonder you look like a bunch of twigs tied together to be some vague semblance of a person, Gen,” he teased her lightly as he waded through the sea of things, boxes, knick-knacks of a life. “You’re sleeping with a ghost. Maybe you should take a break from this and stay with me tonight. Or for as long as you want,” he offered carefully, absorbing the cacophony she had made of the bedroom. From the pile on the bed to the boxes on the floor. “Or at least let me help you out here.”<br/><br/>Speaking of Dunkin, the dog made his grand reappearance inside the bedroom, his tail wagging excitedly as he bumbled over to his mistress in order to bump his head underneath her palm as she sifted through the drawer. A whine followed when she didn’t immediately stop what she was doing to give him attention. Oliver took that as a sign as well and moved up behind the petite woman. Glancing over her shoulder, he leaned down to scratch the beast behind his ears. “We can even bring Dunkin. He’s a welcome guest in my home.” To reiterate his point, he crouched down and cupped the dog’s face in his hands. A reflection of a grin spread across his stubbled cheeks as he pressed his face close. “Isn’t that right, boy? That’s right, boy!” He laughed out loud when Dunkin smeared his affection across his face with the flat of his tongue. Still grinning, Oliver popped back up in time to be handed the flash drive.<br/><br/>The grin was quick to fade once the device was fitted to the palm of his hand. He had a suspicion that he knew what was on the drive already, but he tucked it in his pocket for later just the same. Along with the photographs, he was going to have his own sleepless couple of nights while he tried to decipher just what Nathan had been up to. The receipt she passed to him next was a relief, in a way. If Nathan was going to buy an unregistered gun, he wouldn’t go to a known gun shop to do it. And he wouldn’t have a receipt to show that he had made a purchase in the first place. Nathan had a concealed handgun license and so did Oliver. He had a piece on him now, tucked in a holster underneath his jeans. He nodded his head to confirm her speculation once his eyes jumped from the receipt to the bullet.<br/><br/>“It’s a .45 cal all right. I wouldn’t worry too much about that, though. If he bought it at a store, it’s going to be a registered gun. What I would worry about is why he thought that it was necessary to up his fire power. He didn’t mention that there was a reason to buy another gun. I’ll call the gun shop tomorrow to find out more details if I can,” he assured her. The receipt and bullet he slipped into his back pocket along with the drive.<br/><br/>The brush of her fingers against his skin didn’t go unnoticed, either. The barest flicker of surprise sparked something in his eyes when his eyes rose to focus on her face rather than one of the items she had given him. Smiling softly, he reached out to curl his larger fingers around her own, squeezing once. It was meant to be a comforting gesture, but he wound up tightening his hold and guiding her closer to him so that his other arm could wrap her up in a hug. Squeezing her against him, he breathed his next words just above the crown of her head. “It’s going to be all right, I promise. I’m going to try and find us both some of those answers. OK?”