A/N: First, this is based really loosely on the episode Sleight out of Hand that Criss Angel guessed starred it. i re-emphasize loosely. I'd really rather not hear about any discrepencies between this piece and that episode, they're probably intentional or unimportant. Next, it is sort of a follow up piece for my first CSI:NY piece "Saving Her" but I'm pretty sure it can be read as a stand alone and is better as such. Everything that connects it to that piece is explained in this one, I really hope. I guess, tell me if you disagree and I'll try and fix it.

Disclaimer: Don't own CSI:NY or even the basic concept for the story, as it's based around an already existing episode

Claimer: Leila and Luna are still mine, though

Warnings: language, some violence, mention of adult situations

Tortured Souls

"Dammit," Leila grumbled, rummaging through her bathroom closet. Rummaging quickly turned to tossing items out onto the floor behind her. When the closet was completely empty and for the first time since she'd moved into the apartment, she could actually see the dark green carpet of her bathroom closet floor, Leila let out a string of curses. She hopped to her feet, using the door knob for leverage, and darted out into her foyer. She snatched her keys off the table by the door, and without bothering to put something over her shorts and tanktop, walked six steps over to Danny's apartment.

Danny heard someone knocking on the door. He snarled an obscenity under his breath and started to untangle himself from the sheets. Lindsay grabbed his shoulder. "Leave it. They can wait," she pleaded, eyes half lidded, hand kneading his shoulder suggestively. Danny thought for a split second longer. Lindsay's tongue down his throat decided him, and he completely forgot about the door.

Leila knocked on the door a little harder, and much to her surprise, it fell open. One had to jiggle the door knob just so to actually close it, but Danny knew that. Leila's eyes widened when she realized someone other than Danny must be in his apartment. Her quest for toilet paper was forgotten and she shifted her keys in between her knuckles, as Danny had taught her to. Carefully, she toed the door open. A barely audible creak escaped its hinges as it swung open the rest of the way.

"Danny?" Leila shouted into the apartment, holding her makeshift weapon ready. "Danny?"

Danny's eyes went wide in recognition when he heard Leila's voice. He ripped his mouth away from Lindsay's and flung himself out of bed, snatching the top most blanket and draping it around his hips. "Danny, what the…?" Lindsay started, but he was already out the bedroom door.

Danny stumbled into the living room with a blanket around his waste. Leila stopped dead in her tracks and stared at him dumbly. He looked her up and down, noting the tension in her body stance, the way she was braced on the balls of her feet, and how her keys were laced between her knuckles. "Leila, what's going on?" he asked calmly.

"I…" she stammered, "I ran out of toilet paper, so I came to get some from you, but when I knocked on your door, it was open, and I thought someone might have broken in, so I…"

Danny messaged his temples with the pads of his fingers; Lindsay must have closed the door. She wouldn't have known to jostle the handle. "So you were going to stop them?" Danny gave Leila an amused grin.

"Well… uhm…" the teenager stammered uselessly, tucking her keys into the elastic waistband of her shorts. "I dunno…" she traced a crescent shape in his carpet, watching intently as the threads parted for her bare toe.

"I'm fine, no one broke in, I just… must not have gotten the door closed when I brought groceries in last."

Leila's nose and brow wrinkled with skepticism. As if to prove her point, Lindsay entered, his nearly sheer bed sheet barely draped around her making it obvious what had been going on. "Danny, what's going on?"

A flush spread darkly across Leila's face. "Hi, Lindsay," she greeted, eyes now impossibly more intently glued to her toes. "Danny, I'm gonna grab a role of toilet paper and run, okay?" She flashed him a fake grin, brushed past Lindsay to his linen closet, and reappeared with a package of toilet paper. She slipped out the still open door without saying anything, making sure to close it all the way behind her.

Leila dropped the package of toilet paper despondently on the unorganized mess piled into front of her linen closet and dropped face down on her couch. She screamed loudly into the cushion and pounded her fist into the pillow that rested against the arm rest. "You should have known," she muttered into the cushion. "You should have known!" she screamed this time and thrust her fist a little more violently into the pillow. With determination, she forced herself upright. She placed the pillow in her lap and wrapped her arms around it tightly. Tears were leaking from the corners of her eyes. "They hit it off… you should have known," she told herself hoarsely, "and besides… why would he be interested in you, a retired whore that's half his age… you should have known." She dropped onto her side and stared blankly at the black screen of the TV. It reflected her limp figure back at her as the pillow dropped from her arms onto the floor. "You idiot," she muttered at the reflection.

xXx

"Danny?" Lindsay asked, "Was that Leila?" She hadn't gotten a good look at the girl's face, only the general shape of a tiny figure with bedhead.

"Yeah," Danny answered.

"You didn't tell her?"

"I didn't know how she'd take it."

Lindsay was silent.

"I hoped maybe she'd grow out of the crush…" Danny tried to justify his withholding Lindsay and his relationship from Leila, "But she hasn't…"

"You idiot," Lindsay told him softly, shaking her head.

xXx

Leila was shivering, and the bouncer standing between her and the warmth of the club was not relenting. She realized she should have known no bouncer was going to let her in dressed in jeans, blank tank, and etnies. She shoved her hands in her pockets and puffed out a cloud of condensation when she exhaled, and involuntary shudder racking through her when she realized that was how cold it was.

"Go home, kid," the bouncer ordered.

Leila glared at him. "I'm going to talk to Luna."

"Right. You know Luna. And I'm the Queen of England."

Leila snorted, and the bouncer sniggered, like he saw something funny in his statement. Absently, he let several blondes dressed in mini skirts and tube tops passed her. She glared after them.

The bouncer noticed her stare. "No, honey, you see, they actually belong here."

Yes, just because they look like whores, I know, you brute, Leila thought as another shudder passed through her.

Another mass of scantily clad females sauntered up to the door. The bouncer let them in, and when he went to order the girl to leave again, she was gone. He turned to look over his shoulder just in time to see a small figure in a blank tank break away from the group of girls he'd just let in and disappear onto the dance floor. It was too much effort to go in and drag her out, so the bouncer turned his efforts to insulting another wanna-be clubber.

Leila spotted Luna in an instant. She was sitting at one of the only tables at which the men outnumbered the women. "Luna!" she shouted over the music and stood on her toes to wave to her former co-worker turned high fashion lingerie designer. She pushed her way through the crowd and crammed herself onto the bench across from Luna, aware of the glares she got from the woman's suitors.

"Leila! Hey, honey, how are you?" She swatted at the boy toy hanging on her arm that was nibbling at her ear and made a shooing gesture at him. Suddenly, the table was vacant but for herself and Leila.

"Eh, okay," Leila answered with a shrug.

The corner's of Luna's mouth turned down in a frown. "What's the matter, love?"

Leila shrugged again.

"Is that pretty CSI boy not treating you right?"

Leila started at the way Luna referred to Danny, and smiled wryly. "He's not treating me at all, Luna."

"What? After the connection I know I saw between you two?"

"He's twice my age, Luna."

"Pssh, age is just a number, sweetheart, that little thing on my arm just now is definitely ten years younger than me."

Leila flushed at how casually Luna flaunted the fact, and Luna laughed seeing her blush. "Alright, so you're not with him, but there's still something on your mind isn't there? Something involving the pretty CSI boy?"

Leila hated how easily Luna read her for a moment. "I dunno…" Leila fidgeted absently with the ash tray, sliding it back and forth between her hands until Luna snatched it away and ordered her to stop fidgeting.

"You 'dunno' what, Leila?"

"I thought, maybe… there could've been something… but he… he's in a relationship with another woman, one of his co-workers, someone who's actually his age."

"Don't worry about it. Those kinds of relationships never work out," Luna said casually.

"Luna! How could you say such a thing?" Leila blurted.

"I'm just saying, honey." Luna leaned forward and patted Leila on the head. "Now, if I were you, though, I'd just move on. There are other fish in the sea." She craned her head to look at the dance floor. "Speaking of fish…" she waved and winked at blonde in his mid-twenties who was gawking at her, "I think I'm going to catch one."

Luna disappeared, and Leila dropped her head into her hands. "Thanks, Luna," Leila grumbled.

"How did you get in here?" a voice above her asked.

Leila's head snapped up, and she immediately started to stammer an excuse to the bouncer…

"Hey, hey, shh, calm down," the voice immediately soothed, a hint of laughter in the tone, sitting down across from her in the seat Luna had previously occupied. "What I was really trying to say is I thought they only let whores into this club, and you look far from it."

The irony of the statement wasn't lost on Leila, but she ignored it. She cocked her head to the side. "Thanks?"

The man across from her laughed and shook his head. "That didn't come out right either, did it? Let me try again. You actually look like a nice girl."

Leila smiled a little, and dainty blush dusted across her nose. "Thank you."

"So what are you doing here by yourself?" he asked.

"I was actually about to leave," Leila admitted. "I just came to talk to Luna."

The man's eyebrow went up. "You know Luna?"

Leila smirked. "Yeah, that's everyone's reaction. She's kind of like my older sister."

"Huh," he cast a look over at where Luna was on the dance floor, "Interesting older sister."

At this, Leila laughed. "You're telling me."

He reached across the table. "So, I'm Luke."

Leila hesitantly took his hand. "Leila."

She studied him closely in the brief instant their hands were connected. Shaggy brown hair hung in dark brown eyes, chunks of it died shades of green and blue and pink. His eyes were thickly lined with charcoal and large gauges were through both his ears. Something about him was strangely familiar. "Oh my God!" Leila blurted, "Luke… Luke Blade?" She buried her face in her hands and peered at him between her fingers. "I can't believe I didn't recognize you," she groaned.

Luke threw his head back and laughed, and Leila chewed her lip in apprehension. Noticing her discomfort, he regained his composure. "It's fine. In fact, it's sort of nice when there's someone who doesn't know. They don't immediately start hounding me to do tricks."

"Oh…" Leila was looking at him funny.

Luke grinned wryly. "Well, that was awkward."

"Yeah." Leila had re-taken up sliding the ash tray back and forth between her right and left hand. Several moments of silence followed, barely interrupted by the slight noise of the ceramic ash try scraping against the marble table top, which managed to marginally carry over the music. Luke snatched her wrist in one hand and the gliding ash tray with the other.

"You want to dance?"

Leila's face got hot, and she immediately stared down at the table, catching a brief glimpse of Luke's watch. Her eyes widened in horror when she saw what time it was, and a perfectly legitimate reason not to dance sprung to her mind. Luke just barely registered the meaning of the reaction before Leila blurted, "I've got to go!"

She launched herself out of the booth and out the door, ignoring the snarled obscenities from the bouncer she had slipped past earlier in the evening. As soon as she was long past the line of people still convinced they were going to get into the club at three in the morning, the chill air of the early morning hit Leila and she stopped. She stared forlornly in the direction of hers and Danny's apartment complex, at least a five mile walk back. She started when someone tapped her shoulder. "You could have at least said you weren't interested."

Leila wanted to cry, she was so embarrassed. "No! I'm so sorry, it's not that! It's just that I was supposed to be home…"

Luke silenced her by softly pressing a finger to her mouth. "Shh, I'm sorry, I was kidding. I know. I noticed that you panicked when you saw my watch." He patted her cheek softly, noting how cold it felt with a slight frown. "Magicians are just observant like that."

"Oh."

"Can I walk you home?"

"It's kind of far."

"All the more reason for me to walk you."

"Like five miles far."

"Ahh, well, in that case, may I drive you home?"

Leila couldn't hide the brightening of her eyes at the prospect of not having to walk home. Her small figure already felt like it was going numb, and there was no way Luke couldn't notice the way she had started to tremble. "Would you?"

He laughed. "Yeah. Let me get a valet to bring the car." He flagged a man in a bell-boy uniform down and handed him a valet slip before turning back to Leila, whose mouth was clenched shut to keep her teeth from chattering. "You look cold."

The little figure didn't answer, just gave a weak shrug.

"Here," he shrugged out of his hoodie and draped it around her bare shoulders.

Leila thought briefly about protesting, but the jacket not only blocked out the chill, it was also still warm from Luke's body heat. She slipped her arms into the sleeves and wrapped the rest of the coat as tightly around her as she could. She grinned at Luke, "Thanks."

He grinned back, absently wondering if she would think he was strange if he told her she looked cute wrapped up in his hoodie, as she could easily fit two of herself into it and it fell almost to her knees. "No problem," he answered.

The valet pulled up in the car, got out of driver's seat, and handed the keys to Luke. Luke then unlocked passenger side door for Leila, holding it open patiently as she got in and closed it gently after her before hopping into the driver's seat. "You don't have a driver?" Leila asked as he started the car.

"Nah, waste of money. And half the time they get lost."

"Oh."

Luke laughed. "You say that a lot."

"Oh… Ahh!" Leila covered her face with her hands in mock embarrassment, laughing at herself. "I guess I do." She shot Luke a genuine smile, which he returned. They'd been doing that a lot this evening, too.

"So, that bouncer seemed pretty pissed off when I ran out past him to get you, muttering about some stupid, underage, under dressed bitch." He gave Leila a pointed look. "Not that I think you're any of those things, but you could fit that description if it was given by someone as uneducated as that bouncer."

Leila smirked a little. "He wouldn't let me in. For whatever reason, he didn't believe I knew Luna."

"Can't imagine why," Luke interjected teasingly with a grin.

"Mhmm," Leila agreed and continued, "So I slipped into the middle of some entourage of whores and their pimp. I was in and lost before the bouncer could do anything about it."

"Very clever. I wish I was small enough to pull a disappearing act like that when I was trying to sneak into clubs a few years back."

"Are you calling me small?" Leila accused playfully as they pulled into the apartments' parking lot.

Luke laughed and reached out to ruffle her hair, "I am."

Leila crossed her arms over her chest and pouted at him. "But you're cute, too, so it's okay."

Leila's eyes widened and a charming blush spread across her cheeks and nose. "Thank you for the ride," she said as she got out of the car, "Hopefully I'll see you again sometime."

"Give me you're phone number and I'll give you a call sometime?"

"Sure! You have anything I can write on?"

Luke immediately produced the sharpie he used for signing autographs and thrust his arm out to her. It took Leila a moment to understand what he wanted, before she carefully wrapped the fingers of her left hand around his wrist to hold his arm still so she could write on it.

Luke yelped and jerked his arm back. "Jesus, you're hands are cold!"

"I'm sorry!" Leila blurted, backing up.

Luke caught her with one hand before she could get too far. Carefully, so as not to startle her, he took both her hands between his, laughing quietly when they disappeared beneath his fingers, and gently rubbed back and forth, warming them up. Leila was flushed a dark red through the entire ordeal. After what felt like much too long and simultaneously, not long enough, Luke relinquished her hands and re-offered her his arm to write her phone number. Delicately, fearful that he would pull back again, she replaced her fingers around his wrist so that she could write her number. She was careful to make sure she scrawled each number legibly, but just to be certain, she had him read it back to her.

"Then I'll be talking to you again soon." Luke reached and wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and tugged her toward him. Leila was almost going to pull away, but he stopped bringing her toward him and leaned forward the rest of the way, then pressed a chaste kiss to her cheek. "Good night, darling," he said softly to her before letting her go.

"G…g'night," she managed to stammer, face starting to feel hot yet again.

She heard the roar of his engine as she let herself into the apartment complex. When she reached her apartment, she expected to see Danny standing in front of her door, glaring murderously at her for being out so late by herself. Much to her shock, he was not. Just out of curiosity, not mal-intent, she tiptoed to his door and gave it a push. It fell open just slightly. Lindsay was there again.

Somehow it bothered Leila that Danny hadn't worried about her tonight. And it bothered her even more that he hadn't worried about her because he was with Lindsay.

xXx

Loud pounding on her door woke Leila. She yawned and rubbed her eyes, barely untangling herself from her sheets so she could roll out of bed. Stretching, she sauntered toward the door, using one hand to smooth down her frizzed morning hair. The pounding persisted. "I'm coming!" Leila hollered as she neared the door. "Damn," she hissed irritably as she unhooked her key from the hanger next to the door. She was startled when she opened the door and Danny was standing there, dressed for work. "Danny? What time is it?"

"Eight…" he trailed, "time to leave last I checked."

Leila's eyes widened in horror. "No!" she blurted in disbelief and whipped around to look at the clock on the kitchen wall. Sure enough, it read eight. "Dammit," she groaned, "I must have forgotten to set my alarm." She gave Danny a pleading look for a solution.

"Danny!" Lindsay walked out of his apartment, straightening her denim jacket. "Just got a call from Stella. Said her and Mac have a weird one up at an abandoned theatre. They're waiting for us."

Danny frantically looked between his lover and little sister.

"Don't worry about it," Leila said, "I'll call Don."

"Thanks, kid," Danny said hurriedly then dashed out to the parking lot with Lindsay in tow.

Leila sighed and went to call Don.

xXx

"This is just wrong," Danny stated with a grimace as he shown his flashlight around the half a body that was secured in the magic box by plastic handcuffs. Lindsay was examining the other half. She carefully removed a silk kerchief from the deceased's mouth. Mac was searching the rest of the stage with a flash light, making note and taking pictures of bloody footprints that lead away from the body. Stella appeared a little later, carefully overstepping the pool of blood between the two halves of the victim.

"I found her purse backstage." Stella lifted the simple denim bag with one gloved hand, an ID badge attached to neon yellow rope with the other. "You will not believe who our victim is."

Mac, Danny, and Lindsay circled around Stella to see the badge.

"Kara McKellan was a stage hand for Luke Blade."

xXx

Detective Don Flack was dozing at his desk when his cell phone buzzed to life. Leila's name scrolled across the name in pixalized purple letters, a color Don remembered with a grin that the teenager had chosen herself. "Leila, what's up?"

"Can you give me a ride to work?"

Don checked his watch. "You're not here already?"

"No, I forgot to set my alarm. Overslept."

"Where's Danny?"

"Ran out with Lindsay like forty-five minutes ago. Stella called or something."

If Don didn't know Leila as well as he did, he never would have heard the trace of bitterness in her voice at the mention of Danny and Lindsay. "Oh. Okay. Are you ready to go? When should I come get you?"

"I'll be ready in like five minutes, so you could leave now."

Leila met Don at the foot of the apartment complex's stairs. She was shivering just a little when he pulled up in front of her. "You could have waited inside, you know," Don chided as Leila ducked into the passenger seat, holding her hoodie wrapped hands up to the blowers on the dash.

"New jacket?" Don noted the oversized gray hoodie with a raised eyebrow.

From Leila's reaction, it was the first time she noticed she was wearing it. "Crap… I must have just grabbed it off the top of the rack."

"That doesn't answer the question."

"It's Luke's. He loaned it to me last night."

"Luke?"

"A guy."

"I figured as much." His tone of voice obviously prompted more information.

"A guy I met last night."

"Just met?"

"He drove me home, ok? And I gave him my phone number. That's it." She intentionally withheld the tiny kiss as she got out of the car. "He was a perfect gentleman and he seems like a sweet guy."

"Did you tell him you have a cop for a big brother?"

"Don!" Leila blurted, horrified. "You wouldn't!"

Don shrugged as he pulled into the parking lot. "Not unless he did something to deserve it."

xXx

A steamy to-go box was dropped on Leila's desk, the enticing smell making her mouth water and distracting her from the phone call. She snapped back to attention and scrawled the name and number on a sticky note and stuck it next to the parade of sticky notes lining the shelf above her computer. "Hungry?" Danny asked as soon as Leila dropped the phone onto the receiver.

"God, yes," Leila sighed, carefully pulling the tinfoil lip from around the plastic lid. She inhaled the scent of chicken lo mein deeply. "Have I told you you're amazing?" she teased with a grin.

"I already knew that." He tossed her a package of plastic wrapped utensils, which Leila promptly broke open. Leila gave him a look, but said nothing, opting instead to dig into the lo mein in front of her. Several bites in, she looked at Danny expectantly.

"Don't suppose you brought anything to drink?"

"I thought you'd never ask." He handed the twenty ounce mountain dew over the top of the cubicle.

Leila's eyes widened. "Oh my God, you fucking rock!"

Danny rolled his eyes and laughed. "You know, I really shouldn't be feeding you're addiction."

"It's not an addiction," Leila informed around the neck of the bottle, "I'm in complete control."

"Right," Danny agreed sarcastically.

After Leila's raging teenage appetite had been sated, she sat back into her desk chair and patted the seat next her. Danny promptly sat. "So, how's your day been?" she asked, cocking her head to one side.

"Aw man," Danny leaned back in the chair and ran a hand through the gelled spikes of his hair, "Weirdest case ever."

Leila was leaning forward and screwing the lid on her mountain dew bottle, already enraptured by Danny's story.

"We found this chick in one of those magician's boxes, you know, where they saw people in half?"

Leila's eyes got impossibly wider, and she nodded.

"Well, someone's trick went really wrong, because this girl was actually sawed in half."

"Oh my God! That's disgusting!"

"But it gets weirder. You know that Luke Blade guy? Huge TV star magician?"

Leila's eyes narrowed, but only for an instant, and not enough for Danny to notice. "Yeah…" she trailed.

"The victim was one of his stage hands."

Leila was silent.

"Ironic way for her to die, no?"

"No kidding," Leila agreed, leaning back in her chair and taking a pull from the mountain dew bottle which was by now half empty. "Got any leads?" She looked at Danny expectantly over the top of the bottle.

"Another stage hand's foot prints were found in her blood, but we can't say for sure if he did it yet. The plan is to bring him in as soon as we know for sure the foot prints are his."

Leila nodded, barely paying attention to the details. "You don't suspect it's Luke, do you?" she asked, trying to sound as disinterested as possible.

"No… not right now… Why?"

"Curious." Leila shrugged. "Think about it, though, how hard would it be to catch a magician that didn't want to be caught?" She smiled broadly, both at the humor of the answer and how deftly she had dodged Danny's question.

Danny laughed and ruffled Leila's hair. "Yeah, that would suck." He turned away from her desk, "Now I gotta run. As per the usual, I'm not discussing cases with you, okay?"

"Nope, I never heard a thing," Leila answered with a grin. She started in mid wave good bye.

"What?" Danny asked, brow briefly furrowing with concern.

"Cell phone," Leila replied with a grin. "Need to take the thing off vibrate. It's constantly scaring the crap out of me."

"Smooth." Danny disappeared around the corner.

Leila flipped her phone open. She didn't recognize the number, but answered anyway. "It's Leila," she greeted.

"Hey, cutie."

Leila's face redened and she ducked down behind her cubicle wall. "Luke?"

"Mhmm."

"What's up?"

"Nothing really. Seeing how you're doing. You weren't in trouble for being home so late, I hope?"

Leila's spirits fell a little with the reminder. "Nope, he didn't even wake up when I came in," she answered as brightly as possible.

"That's… good." Leila could tell from his tone of voice that he knew something was wrong.

"So… what are you're plans for tonight?" she asked, anything to drag the subject as far from Danny as possible.

Luke laughed. "I thought I was supposed to ask you that. I'm doing a performance tonight. Actually I was calling to invite you to see it, as my VIP."

Leila couldn't help but squeak. "Really?"

"Mhmm."

"Ah! That would be amazing!"

"I'll pick you up at seven?"

Leila hadn't thought of transportation being an issue, and fumbled for a minute. "Yeah, that would be good. You still remember where my apartment is?"

"Of course."

"You want my apartment number?"

"That might be good."

Leila rattled off the number and could hear the scratching of a pen as Luke wrote it down. "Then I'll see you tonight. I have to finish setting up."

Leila barely repressed a happy squeal. "Sweet. See you soon." The happy screech slipped out of her mouth as soon as she clicked her phone shut and she leaned her chair back until it was only balanced on the back two wheels and kicked her feet in a chair dance.

"Leila?"

The voice interrupted her focus and the chair tipped backwards, Leila toppling with it, ending her giggles with an ungraceful grunt and thud.

"Did I interrupt something?" Stella asked, small amused smirk on her face as she offered Leila a hand up.

A very embarrassed Leila scrambled to her feet without the aid of Stella's hand and picked up the over turned chair. "No, I'm just being a klutz."

Stella raised an eyebrow. "Danny wanted to me tell you that I'm gonna take you home. Him and Lindsay are going out until late."

Leila felt her mood crash. She hated teenage hormones. She just stared at Stella.

"Leila?" Stella asked. "Is that okay?"

She shook her head. "Yeah, sorry. That's fine."

"Okay, see you later then, Leila."

"Mhmm." Leila flopped into her chair. So that was why Danny had brought her lunch and the mountain dew, even though he was making every attempt to remove the substance from her diet. He was kissing up. Leila snorted and began to hammer away at the email notifications she was supposed to have sent out before lunch.

xXx

Leila heard the meager squeak of her doorbell, followed by the thud of the door knocker because whoever was outside assumed that the doorbell had not worked at all. Hair straightener in hand – Danny had bought her a cordless one after she'd seared her hand trying to walk away from the wall with her last straightener still plugged in. She opened the door with her free hand without a second thought.

Luke was standing there.

Leila was mortified, and her face showed as much. "Please tell me it's not seven," she whimpered, strand of hair still clamped between the plates of the straightener. Luke reached forward and disentangled the straightener from her hair, laughing.

"It's six-thirty, and it's cool if you're not ready. I'll just wait."

"Are you sure?"

He nodded and let himself in, closing the door behind him, and sat on Leila's couch, propping his left foot up on his right knee, leaning his head back, and closing his eyes.

"Uhm…" Leila was stammering. "You want anything to eat? Drink?"

Luke cracked one eye open at her. "Nope, I'm good. Quit panicking and finish getting ready."

"Right…" Leila ducked back into the bathroom, face hot and not from the straightener.

Twenty minutes later, she was ready to go, eyes thickly lined with black liner, but wearing no other makeup to speak. She wore a pair of shredded jeans, that looked like they wouldn't have stayed up without the thick studded belt and a snug black tshirt that exposed just an inch of mid drift. A thin black and silver choker completed the look.

"Got a thing for black shirts?" Luke noted, cocking an eyebrow at her. He silenced her before she could try and stammer an excuse or apology, one of which he was sure was coming. "You look cute in them, don't worry about it." He grinned and offered her his arm, which Leila took, giggling and shaking her head.

They nearly collided with a couple groping each other up the stairs, who were too busy shoving their tongues down each other's throats to look where they were going. When Leila tried to step out of the way, but was still tripped by the woman's leg which popped behind her when she pressed her partner against the wall, Luke caught her and coughed loudly. The couple immediately broke apart, and Leila's eyes widened in embarrassment when Lindsay turned to glare at them.

"Crap, really sorry," Danny stammered, Italian accent sounding thicker than usual and looked around Lindsay to see who he had made audience to his and Lindsay's behavior. Leila's smoldering eyes locked with his just long enough to convey her unhappiness before she turned and pointedly stomped down the stairs, leaving the man who was with her standing dumbly for a moment, trying to figure out what was going on, before he followed Leila down the hall. It occurred briefly to Danny that maybe he should stop to approve Leila's date, but Lindsay had grabbed his tie and was trying to drag him up the stairs with it, chasing the fleeting idea away.

Leila had stopped on the cement stairs outside the building when she realized she had no idea where Luke's car was. Blinking furiously to hold back tears, she crossed her arms tightly over her chest, feeling nauseous tremors racking her body.

A hand rested softly on her shoulder. "You okay?" Luke asked carefully.

Leila bit her lip and nodded curtly.

The hand on her shoulder kneaded gently. "You sure?"

Leila bit her lip harder and squinted her eyes shut. She didn't even know why she wanted to cry, but the tears were threatening to spill out despite her frantic attempts to withhold them. She tried to will herself to nod again, but her body betrayed her and she weakly shook her head no.

"Can I do anything about it…?"

Sensing his discomfort, Leila swiped her hand gently across her face, careful not to smudge her makeup and shook her head back and forth. "No, no, it's fine," she managed. With that she pointedly started down the stairs to the parking lot, tears still fighting to pour from her eyes, blurring her vision just enough that she missed the third stair and toppled down the last two, landing gracelessly on her right hip, barely catching herself with her hands. That was the last straw. Unable to hold in the tears, Leila started to sob.

Luke squatted down in front of her and used one hand to softly tilt her chin up so he could look at her. "You don't look as pretty when you cry," he said gently, reaching with his free hand to brush away some of the tears, but they didn't stop.

Leila bit her lip and tried to look away, which was rather difficult with his hand holding her chin.

"Nuh uh, don't to that either," he chastised.

She cast him a dejected look, but released her lip from her teeth, then returned to staring at the ground just to her right. Luke shifted his hand from her chin to cupping her cheek. "Talk to me on the way?"

Leila looked like she wanted to take up chewing on her lip again. "Yeah, ok."

Luke straightened up and offered Leila a hand, hoisting her up to his chest and wrapping his arms tightly around her in a brief hug before letting her go and just draping and arm around her shoulders. The minute walk to his car was silent, but as soon as Leila was situated and Luke had started the car he spoke.

"What's wrong?"

"Do you know the story of the Satin and Lace Lounge?"

"Closed about a year and a half ago because the boss killed one of his girls."

Leila nodded, and Luke wondered where she was going with this. She shot him a sidelong look. "Did you ever guess at how I knew Luna?"

"The Lounge? What the hell? You're what…?"

"Seventeen, eighteen in three months," Leila answered. "Danny saved me." She cracked a bitter smile. "What can I say? I was infatuated, even convinced myself I was madly in love. Sure, it died down a little, but I've always felt strongly for him."

Momentarily lost, Luke connected that Danny must have been the man in the hall.

"And then Lindsay showed up, and they were just 'made for each other' is what everyone at work said. All the sudden it wasn't me and Danny anymore so much as it was Lindsay and Danny. The night I met you, I found out they were officially together, but it wasn't like they'd just hooked up that day or anything. It's been like eight months and Danny never told me. Now he doesn't even bother to hide that she's replaced me…" Leila trailed. "I feel abandoned and lied to and lead on and… Crap, I'm sorry, this is stupid…"

"It's not stupid," he interrupted her. They pulled into the parking lot. Luke turned to face her and reached out to hold her face in his hands. He leaned his forehead on hers, locking their eyes. He gently brushed away a few stray tears from her eyes with his thumbs, then leaned up to kiss her forehead. Gently, he tugged her into his lap, a slightly awkward task as he had to lift her over the emergency break and gear shifter. She leaned on him without protest. "I'm going to promise you something," Luke started, "On the condition that you promise me the same."

Leila leaned away from him a little so she could see his face, confusion evident on her face. "Okay…"

"I swear, I'll never leave you, and I'll certainly never lie to you."

Leila was dumb founded.

"Would you do the same for me?"

For the barest of seconds, Leila thought she saw the same traces of loneliness and hurt that she had felt so many times. She nodded mutely and wrapped her arms around his neck, nuzzling into it.

Almost as abruptly as his intense mood had come on, it dissipated. "It's a promise, then," he said with a grin, then glanced at the neon lighting of the car's digital clock. "And we're going to be late." He hoisted both Leila and himself out of the driver's side door and set her on her feet.

Leila caught a look at her reflection in the window as Luke closed the car door and wrinkled her nose. "I'm a mess," she noticed with a sigh.

Luke turned to look at her, then reached and with both hands smoothed down her hair, which was mussed from being pressed against his shoulder. The he carefully wiped at the smudged eyeliner under her eyes. They were still slightly swollen from crying though. "You look fine."

Leila shivered, realizing that yet again, she had forgotten her coat in her haste to get out the door. And then the wind blew, a great cold gust, and Leila squealed and pressed herself as close to Luke's chest as possible. He wrapped his arms around her. "You should really bring coats with you," he teased, sliding out his own hoodie and wrapping it around her.

Leila flushed. "Thanks."

Luke ducked under the security railing, tugging Leila with him by her hand. He left her with several stage hands and slipped away for a moment, reappearing smelling of gasoline and wearing another hoodie, this one much thicker than the one he'd loaned Leila. He'd also pulled the hood up over his head, and his hair was tied back inside it.

"You smell…"

"Like gasoline?" Luke finished for her with a grin.

Leila nodded. Luke tossed her a lighter and Leila just barely caught as she had to free her hands from the sleeves of the hoodie first.

"That would be because you are going to light me on fire."

Leila's eyes widened to the size of saucers and her wind burnt cheeks suddenly lost all their color.

Luke laughed and reached to pat her cheek, but checked the gesture, remember his gasoline drenched gloves. Leila's nose wrinkled at the scent and she recoiled a little. "You'll go up in flames, though!"

"That would be the goal."

Leila shook her head violently back and forth.

Noticing that he had actually panicked his date, Luke rolled up his sleeve and offered his arm to her. Leila gave him a strange look. "Touch it," he explained.

Leila reached out a hesitant hand and brushed her fingers down the length of his arm. They came away with a layer of jelly like substance on them, and her brow wrinkled in confusion.

"It doesn't burn," Luke whispered to her. "And neither will I, so you don't have to worry about a thing. Just light me up and get out of the way."

Leila still looked skeptical, and Luke couldn't help but chuckle at her concern. "And there's a dozen people with fire extinguishers if I start screaming in agony," he said, tone casual but point completely serious.

"Fine," Leila relented.

"Alright then." He slipped through the crowd of stage hands, Leila following close behind, though she stopped when she reached the front of the throng of stage hands, where as Luke paraded with his arms outspread into the open space in front of the audience. He'd roused their excitement to fever pitch before he beckoned Leila out and in a booming voice ordered her to light him on fire. Leila nearly panicked, but a tiny reassuring smile from Luke that only she could see allayed the momentary fear, and she flicked the lighter on and held it out. The minute the flame touched him, Luke was alight, the flame danced frighteningly quickly along the trail of gasoline. Leila leapt back with a squeal, and disappeared back into the mass of stage hands to watch.

Eight hours passed, and Leila was dozing on her feet, having become quite confident that her new found confidant was not going to incinerate several hours before. Someone came up behind her, grabbed her shoulders and in a hoarse whisper shouted, "Boo!" in her ear. Leila would have squealed had a hand not immediately clamped over her mouth. Familiar musical laughter followed. "Don't scream," Luke teased as he lifted his hand away from her mouth.

Leila immediately whipped around and punched him in the shoulder. "You scared the crap out of me," she snarled, before succumbing to her own laughter and wrapping her arms around his waist in greeting. She inhaled deeply. "You still smell terrible," she informed him, pulling back a little and wrinkling her nose at him.

He laughed and shrugged.

"Hey wait!" Leila spun around again and noted the still burning figure walking around in front of the audience. "How'd you get here? You're supposed to be out there!"

Luke just smiled at her and kissed her nose. "Magic, dearest, remember?"

"Oh…" was all Leila could say.

Another chaste kiss was the closest she got to an answer. "Now, if you'll excuse me briefly, I have to go put myself out." He disappeared into the cloud extinguishing foam, and Leila barely caught sight of his double scrambling out of audience view in the same instant. When the smoke cleared, only Luke stood there, fire extinguisher in hand. The crowd went wild and Luke just bowed gentlemanly, one arm wrapped about his waist, the other behind him.

Luke refound Leila again after the crowd had cleared. It was nearly six in the morning. He swept her up in his arms bridal style. Leila squealed and protested half-heartedly as she wrapped her arms around his neck for security. "You're coming with me to the after party, right?"

Leila laughed. She should have been home four or five hours ago, but Danny hadn't called, so chances were he had no idea that she wasn't home. "Sure, why not?" she answered smiling genuinely at him.

xXx

"You want anything to drink?" Luke shouted over the blare of the clubs music.

Leila thought a minute. "A mountain dew would be really cool," she shouted in answer.

Luke's eyebrows went up in mild surprise when she didn't take advantage of his obvious offer to get her something alcoholic, but he dismissed the shock absently. He returned with Leila's mountain dew and diet Pepsi for himself. If she didn't drink, neither would he. She was waving coyly at someone at the door. Luke followed her stare and saw the same bouncer from the night before glaring daggers at her. Just to piss the bouncer off further, Luke wrapped his arms around Leila's shoulders from behind and pressed a kiss to her cheek, giving the bouncer a look that clearly read "get used to seeing her around."

"Thanks," Leila said, inhaling half the iced drink in one gulp.

Luke raised his eyebrows in amusement as he sipped his own drink. "So what happened to last night's curfew?"

"Its enforcer is screwing his co-worker through his mattress," Leila answered harshly.

"Right." Luke decided re-bringing up the subject of Danny was by no means a good idea. After several moments of silence that was enforced by the blaring music which made civil conversation frustratingly difficult, Luke leaned across the table so he could shout an offer to Leila. "You want to dance?" he tried.

She gave him a look nearly as skeptical as when he had asked her to light him on fire, which he found amusing.

"Sure."

He hopped down from the booth and offered her a hand, which she hesitantly took and allowed him to lead her to the dance floor. A lot of teasing banter and smashed toes later, they gave up and toppled laughing back into their booth. "You are the first guy I have ever known to ask a chick to dance with him that didn't know how to dance himself," Leila managed to get out around fits of giggles.

"Well, with hips like those, I figured you had to know how to dance," Luke countered, taking a long drink from his flat cola.

Leila had started to sip at her own flat drink and started coughing and sputtering the minute the words left his mouth. "Excuse me?" she demanded incredulously.

"You heard me," he answered, grin plastered across his face.

"You loser," she answered back, slipping her phone out of her pocket to see if Danny had called. No message greeted her that said she had missed any calls or had an text messages or voicemails, however, the tiny digital clock in the corner of the screen read 7:40. "Holy crap!" I'm supposed to be at work in twenty minutes!" Leila squealed in panic, hurling herself out of the seat and wrapping herself back up in Luke's hoodie.

Luke caught her arm. "You can't honestly think that running back to your apartment is faster than catching a ride with me."

Leila stopped. It hadn't even occurred to her to ask for a ride. "You're probably right." She cocked her head to the side and grinned at him.

Luke swerved into a parking spot, not bothering to correct the parking job that clearly took up two spaces. Leila flung herself out of the car, catching herself on the door before it closed. "Come up with me, I'll give you back your hoodies," she exhaled, heart racing already in preparation for the dash up the apartment stairs.

Luke hopped out of the drivers seat, barely remembering to turn off the engine as he slammed the door shut. "Race you!" he challenged, already taking off in the direction of the apartment.

"Not fair!" Leila shouted, sprinting after him, not a prayer of catching up to him until Luke slowed to a jog as he approached the glass double doors. Leila nearly collided with him trying to dart around him to get through the doors. She scrambled up the stairs, using her hands every third stair for more propellant. Luke was laughing as he ran up the stairs behind, greatly reducing his pace to prevent stepping on the teen in front of him.

Leila froze when she reached the top floor, and Luke, not ready for her sudden stop, collided with her, sending them both toppling to the floor, Luke laughing hysterically, Leila deathly silent. He noticed her sudden change of mood and went quiet, too.

Leila had seen Danny walk out of his apartment to her door, seen him raise his hand to knock for the first time, not the slightest look of concern on his face. He had rapped on the door once when Luke had fallen up the stairs, catching his attention.

"Leila!" Danny blurted, "Where the hell have you been?" he snarled angrily.

Leila stared at him incredulously for a moment. "I can't believe you…" she stammered.

"I've been worried…"

"Shut up!" Leila snarled in interruption.

Danny was startled into silence.

"Don't you fucking pretend to have been worried about me! You didn't even know I was gone!"

"Leila…"

"Shut! Up! You can't deny it, Danny. You were too busy screwing Lindsay through your mattress to realize I wasn't here!"

"What the hell makes you think that?" Danny was frantically trying to back track.

Leila glared at him and pulled her phone out of her pocket, absently finding her list of missed calls and swinging it front of Danny's nose. "I don't see any from you."

Danny couldn't protest. "And what's worse," Leila said quietly, an edge of hysteria still in her voice, "You were really damn surprised when I came stumbling up those stairs, and no excuse in the world is going to make up for the fact that you honestly thought I was in that room." She was barely three inches from his face and glaring at him. "Go the hell away, Danny, I'll get Don to drive me." She pushed past him and let herself into her apartment, not closing the door behind her. Danny was still standing there when she returned with Luke's hoodie. Leila brushed past him as though he wasn't there. "Thanks." She handed the sweatshirts to Luke and got up on her toes to kiss his cheek. "I had fun," she whispered to him, "I'm sorry it ended like this. Try again another night?" she offered.

He could hear the edge of the tears she was struggling to with hold until she was in the privacy of her apartment lining her voice thickly, and wrapped his arms around her shoulders tightly in comforting hug. "Of course. I'll call you later today to see how you're doing, too."

She nuzzled into his chest. "Thank you, you're amazing."

"Nah," he denied, ruffling her hair gently, earning himself the tiniest smile before she turned away, glared coldly at Danny, and slipped into her apartment.

Luke shoved his hands in his pockets and started down the stairs.

Danny stared after Leila's date's multicolored head for a moment before he recognized the orange and green tufts as Luke Blade.

He placed the call to Flack before Leila could. A call from Mac came in as soon as he hung up.

xXx

"Hey," Don greeted when Leila opened the door.

"Hey," she answered, staring at her feet. "Thanks for getting me again."

"Nah, don't worry about it." He shrugged. "You are ready to go, though, right?" he asked looking her up and down, "Because I only allotted twenty minutes to come get you."

"Yeah, I'm ready." She followed him out the door, slipping her cell phone into her pocket on the way.

Not five minutes after she'd gotten in the car, it rang. Leila flipped it open, saw Danny's name, and flipped it shut.

It rang again. Leila didn't bother to look.

"You should talk to him," Flack suggested.

"Maybe another day," Leila answered coldly.

"What happened?" He hadn't expected Leila to be so angry, hurt or sad probably, but a furious Leila was a rare sight.

"Don't worry about it," she told him.

Flack looked like he wanted to repeat the question, but his own cell phone vibrated to life in his shirt pocket, interrupting him. He took it out and answered it. He paled a little, "I don't think she wants to talk to you, Messer."

"Damn straight I don't," Leila agreed.

"Whatever," Flack replied and handed his phone to Leila, who caught his hand and pushed it away.

"I'm not talking to him," Leila protested.

"Just…" Flack was struggling to fight Leila and drive, "Dammit, just try."

Leila glared at him, but placed the phone at her ear anyway. "What?" she snarled angrily.

If winces could be heard, that would be the best way to describe Danny's response. "Were you with Luke the entire night?"

"Why the hell do you care?" she snapped back.

"It's not…"

"Bull shit, Danny. You're not going to convince me you care now." She pointedly pressed the button to hang up long and hard, making sure the beep would reverberate through Danny's line. The phone vibrated again. Before Flack could say anything, Leila rolled her window down. "If I answer it, I'm throwing it out the window."

Flack was silent. He wasn't about to lose his phone to Danny and Leila's fight.

However, he completely forgot to ask for it back, and it was slipped thoughtlessly into Leila's pocket.

xXx

"Fuck," Danny snarled when Leila hung up. He tried Flack's number again, but didn't really expect an answer. Sure enough, he was dumped into Flack's voicemail.

"What'd she say?" Stella reappeared at his desk.

"She is refusing to speak to me," Danny answered with a groan.

"What?" Stella blurted, startled.

"We're in a bit of an argument," Danny elaborated and dropped his head into his hands.

"So bad an argument that Leila's not willing to talk to you so she can help out a case?" Stella asked, eye brow raised in question.

"An argument involving both mine and Leila's activities last night."

"Aah." Stella thumped her hand on the desk once to get Danny to pick his head up. "Well, we still have an hour of time that Luke Blade has no alibi, so we're going to drag the information out of her if we have to do it the old fashion way."

xXx

For the third time, Leila found herself in the unforgettable metal backed chair of the interrogation room, hands folded on the steel table. Mac and Stella were sitting across from her, Danny was leaning against the wall to her right.

"What the hell is going on?" she demanded.

No one answered. Instead, Stella slid an open manila folder across the table to her. "Do you recognize this man?" she asked.

Leila's face took on a sickly shade of green and she looked away, shaking her head.

"His name is Frank Hatcher," Stella elaborated. "Does the name ring a bell?"

Leila peeked at them to make sure the nauseating picture of the victim's burned and blistered face had been put away. She paused and thought. "No, I don't know the name."

"Has Luke ever mentioned him to you?"

"What does Luke have to do with this?" She spun around in her chair to glare at Danny.

"Answer the question," Mac ordered.

"No," Leila shook her head. "He's never mentioned him to me."

"Were you with Luke all night last night?" Stella asked.

"Yeah," Leila answered.

"Think hard about that Leila," Mack warned. "Are you sure? Was there any period that you weren't with him."

Leila studied him closely and her brow furrowed in concentration. "He was gone for a while near the end of the stunt…" she trailed. "Wait! You don't think he killed this man do you!"

"That's not your concern right now," Mac said calmly.

"The hell it's not," Leila snarled, jumping to her feet. Danny tried to force her back into the chair. She turned and clawed him across the face. "Stay the fuck away from me," she hissed.

Danny backed away from her and the officers outside the room burst in. Leila held up her hands in surrender and sat back down.

"How long was he gone for?"

"I don't know," Leila answered honestly. "I didn't see him leave, just noticed he had to have gone somewhere when he came back." She looked at Mac pleadingly. "Please, tell me you don't really think Luke could have killed this man."

"I'm sorry Leila. Both this man and the woman we found in the box were his stage hands. Gossip has it that they were planning to get together and sell the secrets behind Luke's stunts to the tabloids and split the profit."

"That doesn't mean anything!" Leila protested weakly.

Mac sighed. "Luke was also a two time orphan, abandoned by his alcoholic parents, then returned to an orphanage when he was eight when it became apparent that he had fetal alcohol syndrome which made him moody and unmanageable. Leila, these murders are characteristic of someone with FAS. That in combination with the abandonment complex he's probably developed…"

Leila's eyes widened in realization. "That's why…" Something vibrating in her pocket interrupted her. Confused, she reached for the object in question. Her phone hadn't been set to vibrate. It wasn't her phone, though, that she removed from her front pocket, but Flack's, and across the screen flashed an address.

In the same instant, Stella snarled a curse. "Dammit! Mac, the unit watching Luke's foster mother's house screwed up; she's gone. One of Luke's equipment trucks is gone, too!"

Leila suddenly realized what the address on the screen was.

"They think he's heading towards the warehouse where tonight's stunt was supposed to be performed…"

Leila flung herself out of the chair, intentionally colliding with Danny long enough to snatch his keys from his front pocket. She bolted out the door, past the two officers. In the commotion, it took the room a moment to realize what had happened.

"Leila!" Danny shouted as soon as he realized his car keys were gone, but he ran into Flack as he started to follow her out the door.

"What the hell is going on?" Flack demanded, "I can't find my goddamn phone. I think I must have forgotten to get it back from Leila."

"What's the address again?" Stella was asking the voice on the phone as she fumbled with a pen and scratch paper.

"Fuck!" Danny snarled. "Yeah, Leila has your phone." He pushed past Flack and started sprinting toward the doors.

Flack was still confused, but chased Danny out anyway. Stella and Mac were scrambling after them.

Danny swore loudly and ran his hands through his hair. His car was speeding out of the parking lot as he reached the glass doors.

Mac and Stella collided with them at the doors. "I need that address, now!" Danny insisted hurriedly. He was shifting from foot to foot, watching as his car raced through a red light and swerved around parked cars until it was out of sight. "Leila has my car and the address."

A chorus of snarled obscenities answered him and Mac jumped into the drivers seat of an unmarked police car and flipped the sirens on. "Follow us!" he shouted out the window as Stella got into the passenger side. Other officers were piling into marked cars and the noise of sirens filled the parking lot.

When they reached the warehouse, they found Danny's car hurriedly parked half on the curb and still running. Leila was no where to be seen.

xXx

Leila skidded to a halt at the sight that greeted her when she got in the door. Luke was standing on a ten foot rolling stairs case, leaning casually on the railing as a woman, presumably his foster mother, hung upside down and chained over a three by three by eight foot tank of water. "Luke!" Leila yelled, "what are you doing?" She darted up the wrought iron stairs, listening to them creak with each step, momentarily afraid that they would break beneath her feet.

She met him at the platform. He looked startled to see her. "What are you doing?" she asked again.

"She abandoned me," was the answer.

Leila wanted to cry, so at loss was she for a good answer. She bit her lip and struggled for something. "So what?" she managed, frustrated tears squeezing from her eyes. "You don't need her. She's not worth this."

"She should be punished. You of all people should understand…" he argued.

The woman whimpered weakly from her hanging position. Leila ignored her.

Leila shook her head. "It doesn't work like that…" She needed something to say. What had she planned to do about Danny? "Just forget about her. You've got me, now…" She reached trembling hands up to touch his face. "Don't kill her, she's not worth the heartache…" Leila shook her head, "I mean the effort, of all of this…" She was crying hard now. Luke wasn't showing any sign of stopping. His hand was still poised on the remote that would drop his foster mother into the tank.

Leila collapsed against his chest and fisted her hands in his shirt. "The police are coming. They'll catch you. You'll go to prison. I don't want you to go to prison. I'll be alone if you're thrown in jail. I don't want to be alone. Please, Luke, don't abandon me." Leila sobbed. Every word was true, and she hated the disparity of it all. But she couldn't deny how alone she was without Danny, and how easily Luke had filled the hole.

She felt a hand rest on her back and gently stroke between her shoulder blades.

"Police!" Mac snarled as he barged in the door, gun raised, followed by a dozen more officers as well as Danny, Stella, and Flack.

"No!" Leila blurted. She felt Luke tense and let go of her. She looked up in time to see him make a desperate reach for the remote again. "Luke, no, please, don't!" Leila fumbled to catch his hands first.

"Don't move!" Mac barked. Leila froze, terrified, but Luke managed to snatch the remote. "Drop the remote!" Mac ordered.

Leila heard him cock his gun. She launched herself at Luke, knocking him off balance and knocking the remote from his fingers and sending it swinging. It hit Luke's foster mother in the face. Leila vaguely remembered hearing the gun shot, and so associated it with the pain lancing through her shoulder and arm.

It felt like it was in slow motion to Mac. He fired. Leila jumped for Luke. The bullet hit her, through and through her shoulder, pinging loudly off a metal crate ten feet away. The shot had knocked Leila off her precarious balance and she toppled over the railing and into the tank intended for the woman hanging above it, knocking her head on the edge. Simultaneously, he could hear Flack's frantic shout for an emergency vehicle into his radio. A bright plume of red blossomed from Leila's shoulder, forming a grotesque cloud in the clear water.

Luke's enraged scream was the next sound, followed immediately by another gun shot, which shattered the tank, sending Leila sprawling to the ground in a pool of blood and water. Luke hopped deftly over the railing to the ground, stumbling briefly and falling to his knees, but easily getting back to his feet to kneel at Leila's prone body.

"Step away from the girl," Mac ordered.

Luke glared at him, daring him to shoot, and lifted Leila carefully to his chest. Her eyes fluttered open, and she sputtered water. Luke gently cradled her head against his chest with one hand. Leila's hands lifted to fist in his shirt; she couldn't find the strength to wrap them around his neck. Blood was quickly soaking his shirt. Another weak coughing fit caused more water to splutter from her mouth.

"Luke," Mac slowly lowered his gun to the ground, as did the other officers. It was too late to shoot him now, and they definitely couldn't risk shooting Leila again. "If you want to help her, you'll let us take her to the hospital."

"Only if you let me go with her," Luke issued his ultimatum.

"We really can't…" Mac started.

"Only if you let me go with her," Luke interrupted, repeating the phrase more forcefully.

Mac started to speak, but Flack stepped in front of him. "Fine," he answered. He walked confidently up to Luke, who hesitated a moment, but allowed the detective near him.

Flack reached out and touched Leila's cheek. Her eyelids fluttered briefly in response, but then closed. "Don?" came half a whisper.

"Yeah, kid, it's me. How you feeling?"

"Real tired, kind of numb, except for the throbbing in my head."

Flack grimaced. "You hang in there kid, we're going to get you to a hospital."

A team of medical technicians in their crisp white uniforms burst in then, rolling a gurney with them. Luke was reluctant to let Leila go, but relented. He and Flack road in the ambulance with her.

"You owe her, when she pulls through," Flack stated casually over the noise of the nurses. "She took a bullet for you."

Luke was studying Leila intently. "Of course."

xXx

Leila groaned and opened her eyes, then tugged the blanket up over them because of how bright the overhead lights were. "Morning, sunshine," Flack teased.

Leila peered out over the blankets at him and glared.

"I'm sorry kid, but it's just not very effective to glare when your head is wrapped in bandages and you're holding a blanket up to your nose with one hand because the other arm is in a sling."

"Shut up," she grumbled and tried to ease herself to an upright position, a task made difficult by the fact that she could only use one arm.

"Easy does it," Flack helped her, shoving an extra pillow behind her back for more support,

Leila inhaled, "Something smells good."

"Probably all the flowers," Flack jerked a thumb in the direction of dresser. Three vases decorated it and another three sat on the floor. "There's one from Stella, one from Mac which also comes with an apology note, one from the lab, all the other desk workers, Danny, and the biggest one there with I think it's a box of caramels, which if you're not planning on eating, I'd love to take off your hands…"

"Flack, who's it from?"

"Luke, of course."

Leila was starting to crawl toward them so she could study them closely.

"Are you trying to reopen that? After how long it took the doctors to stop the bleeding. You stay put. I'll hand them to you."

The card from Stella read simply 'Hope you feel better and come back soon.'

The cards from the lab and the other desk workers were computer printed 'We Miss You! Get Well Soon!"

She grinned when she read Mac's card.

Leila,

I've never had to apologize to anyone I've shot before and I realize, I'm not quite sure how to say "I'm sorry I shot you" in a more sophisticated manner. In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have fired at all, but all the same, I hope you don't hold it against me.

Mac

Leila shook her head. It had never occurred to her to be mad at Mac.

"Here's the one from Luke, and I'm serious about those caramels…"

"They're mine, Don," Leila growled playfully, and detached the card from the basket.

I love you.

That was all it said, but it said enough, and Leila could feel her eyes watering. "Hey, Don?"

"Hmm?" Flack looked up from where he was studying the box of chocolates.

"What's going to happen to Luke?"

"A whole hell of a lot of intensive therapy and some major time in a hospital for the not-so-stable, but anyone can understand that he's not completely at fault for what happened."

Leila stared at the flowers, then looked at Flack, then looked back at the flowers.

"You'll be able to see him, kid, no worries."

Leila grinned. "Thanks, Don." She paused, "Can I see Danny's?"

"It doesn't have a note or anything."

Leila was silent.

"Not because he didn't care, kid. God, no. He doesn't know what to say just yet. As far as he's concerned, if he traces everything back, this is his fault some way or another."

Leila stared at the sheet in front of her, toying absently with a few fallen flower petals with her good hand. "It's probably for the better…" she trailed. "I think we need to have the conversation in person anyway."

Flack nodded. "Probably true."

Not a minute later, Danny slowly pushed the door open. "Hey, kid," he greeted.

"Hey."

"You up to talking?"

Leila smiled just a little, a gesture for which Danny couldn't have been more grateful. "Yeah, I think that would be good."

"I think I'll get a cup of coffee," Flack declared as he stood, then ducked out the door.

Thank you so much for reading! Of all the pieces I have posted here, I was actually uncertain about posting this piece, so hopefully you enjoyed it. Thankyou again.

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Der Traumer