Title: Inevitable Discovery

Summary: Past decisions can come back to haunt you. And things concealed can't be hidden for ever.

Rating: M for coarse language, suggestive themes, violence, sexual situations, implied femslash

Disclaimer: I do not own "Law and Order", nor any of the characters therein. I am making no profit from this.

Characters: Jack McCoy, Arthur Branch, OFC, Serena Southerlyn, Mike Logan, Megan Wheeler, Robert Goren, Alexandra Eames, Ron Carver, Daniel Ross, Lennie Briscoe, Ed Green, Abbie Carmichael, Anita Van Buren, Emil Skoda,Tracey Kibre extras.

A/N: This story follows "Come Again To Carthage" and is another installment in the same series. It references events in the earlier stories but if you haven't read them I hope you can pick up here.

Huge thanks are due to Javanyet for patient and insightful beta-ing. This story is immeasurably better for her contribution: any flaws are entirely my own work.

If ff net would let me add as many genres as I want, this story would be angst, drama, crime, hurt/comfort, romance, suspense and friendship.

I am not NY native or indeed an American, as my woefully inadequate knowledge of NY geography and the American legal system makes perfectly clear! I do, however, love Law and Order. Down here in Oz, we get the episodes years late and often out of order, which has led to my long-standing confusion between who is in the show when and why and how old they are. My fannish imagination therefore has its own chronology, which differs from the show's canon in only three substantial ways: Lennie Briscoe didn't retire; Jack McCoy was snap-frozen ten years ago (since that's the age he is in the reruns that are all our free-to-air channels see fit to give us); and my series kicks off at the beginning of series seventeen, so it is substantially AU to everything from then on.

It occurs time-wise around the middle of season 6 of L&O:CI and follows canon up to there.

And incidentally, the poll on what should happen to Regan is still open on my profile page. Vote now before it's too late!

Prologue

"You know we have to," the girl said. She tucked her stringy black hair behind her ears and leaned forward, earnest. "You promised. And they can't get away with it."

"I know," her companion said. "I know. But it's going to be harder than you think. There are so many of them. And they're – you know – serious people."

"Serious people? Serious frauds. You know the way they played around!" she said angrily. "Are you going to chicken out now?"

"No! No. But we need to be patient. We need to plan."

She grinned, the expression making her look suddenly young and impish. "I have a plan! That's why I called you. And look!" She opened the duffel bag she carried. "What'dyou think?"

Lips pursed in a soundless whistle, her companion looked down into the bag. "That should get the job done," he said. "That should get it done, alright."

"We don't need to be patient," the girl said. "And we don't have much time. It's got to be done before January. For both of us."

.oOo.