Lilly finally finds Nick

(Lilly drives by as Nick is outside under a pouring rain)
Lilly: Nick! Get in. Joe Don's parents' house, huh? Been out here what? An hour?
Nick: Just trying to figure out what to say.
Lilly: You had a busy 48 hours. You had us all worried.
Nick: Have I been fired yet?
Lilly: Maybe the boss can pull some strings. For both of us.
Nick: You?
Lilly: Considering I covered up a DUI.
Nick: Sorry about that.
Lilly: You're a good cop, Nick... but you need help.
Nick: I saw my my ex-wife Julie. She's got two kids. I always thought that that'd be me.
Lilly: No, it's never too late.
Nick: I'm happy for her. Back when they caught this case, it's all I wanted was a kid, a family. And then when I saw that burnt-out bedroom... and the kids...
Lilly: Yeah.
Nick: Yeah, I sat down on the box across from this man, this father that had... had burned his kids alive, and I couldn't believe someone could do that.
Lilly: Did he?
Nick: I went at him day and night, Lil. I knew something wasn't right in my gut. I kept looking for that one thing in his story, that one slip that just lets you... lets you know he's a liar. Just needed one slip. But he never did. I didn't need a statement to get a conviction. I had everything. I was just so sure he'd done it.
Lilly: And you weren't the only one, Nick.
Nick: Firemen call it the "beast". Flashover. It only got hotter when he went outside, trying to find another way back to get his kids.
Lilly: But he couldn't.
Nick: I just couldn't get my head around that.
Lilly: What that was like?
Nick: I thought for sure he'd set that fire, and he tried to tell me, and I couldn't hear it.
Lilly: He tried to tell you what?
Nick: That he wasn't a killer. He was just afraid. Afraid for his own life. And for that, I couldn't forgive him.

(flashback to Joe Don's interrogation)

Nick: I mistook cowardice for guilt.
Lilly: It's an honest mistake, Nick.
Nick: One that can't be made right.
Lilly: Well, look, we'll talk to the DA. We'll try to clear his name. Okay?
Nick: First, I gotta do this.
(Nick steps out of the car to visit Joe Don's parents)