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Chapter 1

"Daddy!"

"Hey munchkin!" Mac said as he unbuckled his belt and hung it in the closet. He swung Emily up as she came running to meet him. "How's my big girl?"

"Good," Emily said, resting her hands on his shoulders. She looked him square in the eye, and asked quite solemnly, "Did you catch the bad guys today, Daddy?"

Mac gave a little laugh, "Yes I did."

Emily nodded in satisfaction, her big green eyes, framed by brown curls, very round and serious. Then her face lit up as she remembered something, "Guess what we got in school today, Daddy?"

Judging from the god-awful screeches that were emanating from the bedroom Emily shared with her twin sister, Mac already had a fair idea. "Why don't you run and show me," he said.

"Okay," Emily gave an excited wriggle in his arms, and Mac set her down. She dashed off down the hallway.

Mac sighed as the sound of cats being killed suddenly doubled.

Claire came around the corner. "They're your daughters, Mac," she said.

"Half mine," he corrected, untying his boot laces and tossing his uniform shirt on the corner chair. "They're half yours too." He straightened back up. They both glanced despairingly down the hallway.

"Recorders," Claire sniffed, "I don't know what their teacher was thinking, giving 4-year olds recorders." She turned back towards Mac, "How was your day?"

"Busy. Very, very busy. It starts warming up and the whole city explodes! And I had to spend the last five hours of my day in court. I hate going to court and playing their stupid mind and word and political games," he continued in a rebellious tone of voice.

Claire kissed him, "I know you do. I was wondering about the uniform. Well, at least you managed to get off on time."

"Barely," Mac told her. "I slid out right as another call was coming in. Kinda felt bad just leaving, but I would have been there all night if I had stayed."

Claire gave him a look. "I'm glad you didn't," she said.

Mac grinned at her, "I had a feeling you wouldn't be too happy about it if I had. Besides," he gave another glance down the hallway, "How could I miss the 'serenade' of such wonderful music…?"

Claire laughed, "How indeed?" She gave him another kiss. "I'm going to get dinner going. Should be ready in about 45 minutes."

Mac nodded and meandered his way to their bedroom. Emily had apparently become sidetracked by competing with Brianna on who could screech the loudest, and hadn't come back. Mac finished changing out of his uniform and put on a pair of tattered jeans and a faded t-shirt. Returning back out to the living room he went over to where Liam was happily surveying his surroundings from his battery-powered swing. Mac crouched down next to him. "How do you put up with that?" he asked him, as the twins continued blithely murdering an entire neighborhood of cats.

Liam kicked his feet and waved his fists in the air.

"So it does drive you nuts!" Mac said.

Liam babbled something at him.

"I'm sorry bud. I'd bust you out of here, really I would," Mac said. He picked Liam up out his swing and lounged back on the couch with him. He whispered conspiratorially in his baby son's ear, "It's just you and me against the rest of them," he said, indicating Claire and the two girls. "We're outnumbered and they're sneaky. We gotta pick our time and place."

Liam lay on Mac's chest and babbled happily back at him.

Mac grinned.

"Who's sneaky and who's outnumbered?"

Mac jumped as Claire appeared over the back of the couch. "Nothing, darling… dearest… sweetpea…" he flustered.

"Uh-huh," Claire said, entirely unconvinced at his attempt at innocence. "I'm watching you," she said. "And you," she continued, pointing at baby Liam, "I know you're in cahoots with him and whatever it is he's planning, so don't even try to pretend you're not!"

Mac tried to look positively angelic. "Me? Us?" he asked.

"Yes. You." Claire said. The pre-heat timer on the oven beeped, and Claire headed back to the kitchen. She glanced over her shoulder and pointed at her eyes with two fingers and then indicated the pair of them, silently mouthing, "I'm watching you."

Mac grinned.

"DADDY LOOK!"

Mac jumped for the second time in five minutes. Emily and Brianna were standing next to the couch waving their recorders only inches from his face.

"Daddy look! See?"

Mac blinked as the whirling sticks of plastic nearly took off his nose. He held up his hand and gently pushed them to a less precarious distance.

"It's a recorder, Daddy!" Brianna said animatedly.

"I see!" Mac said. How could he have missed it? he thought wryly. "Can you play anything on them?" he asked, regretting every word of his question as he asked it.

"Uh-huh!" said Emily.

"But not very good yet," Brianna added.

At least they had that part right, Mac thought with a mental cough. "What can you play?" Dammit…!

"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," Emily told him.

"Would you like to show me?" Dammit!

The twins nodded proudly.

Mac braced himself.

Liam froze, startled, and his eyes got very big at the sudden explosion of shrieky noise that was this time right next to him. The twins blew away blithely and loudly on their recorders to some sort of random rhythm, their fingers moving frantically and landing on anything but the holes.

Mac tried to keep his mental wincing out of his face as 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' went on for many more verses than he ever remembered it having. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Claire standing around the corner, shaking with silent laughter.

Finally the little star twinkled itself out with a dramatic flourish, and Mac resisted the urge to rub his ringing ears. Liam was still staring in apparent shocked horror. Mac stifled laughter at his son's wide-eyed look.

"How was that, Daddy?" Emily literally bounced.

Mac fought to keep his face serious and neutral. He saw Claire slide down the wall she was laughing so hard. He'd get her back later. "That was wonderful," he said to the girls. "Why don't you put those away for now and practice more tomorrow." He gave Claire a vindictive grin as she shook her head emphatically at him, mouthing the word "No!" at this last suggestion. He nodded his head solemnly and silently returned, "Oh yes!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Three hours later all the little terrors were in bed and at least supposed to be asleep, although Mac had a sneaky suspicion the twins were still awake and whisper-conspiring together. But at least the house was quiet. He sprawled on the couch, absently playing with Claire's hair as she lay next to him, head on his shoulder. The TV was on some show she followed that Mac had no clue about. But he didn't care. He loved these moments. All the responsibility and stress of work disappeared, and he could forget other things too. Deeper, darker things. Or at the very least, they took on a different perspective.

"Do you have to work tomorrow?" he asked Claire.

She shook her head, "Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday."

"Oh that's not too bad," Mac said. "And I'm off Friday as well, so that works out great. Do the twins have pre-school that day?"

Claire nodded, "It's their 9-3 day too."

Mac grinned, "Well this just keeps getting better and better. I think we might have to go do something."

Claire looked up at him, eyes dancing. She was about to reply, when the doorbell rang. Mac glanced down at his watch. It was 9:30pm.

"What the hell?" he said. He met Claire's eyes, and she shrugged her shoulders, as puzzled as he was.

Mac pushed himself off the couch and walked towards the front door, retrieving his gun out of its holster on the way. He held it loosely down at his side, hidden just behind his leg. He peered through the peephole, keeping his body perpendicular to the door. It was both comforting and sad the way he so easily was put on alert. On the one hand she knew that if there was any ounce of life left in him, nothing would be allowed to come between him and them, even if it meant losing that life. But while that fierce protection towards his family and those around him was simply a part of his character, Claire hated seeing him slide so completely and without thinking about it, into 'combat' mode. Not because it was ever misplaced or in the wrong context, but because of the representation of what he'd gone through to get to where he was. As much as he'd told her over the years, she knew full well that there were dark places in his mind which were still shrouded in secrecy, and the pain which still crept into his eyes at times made her heart ache.

Then Claire saw his body relax and his mind slide back out of the hyper-vigilant mode it had instantly and instinctively slipped into. Mac shoved his gun into the back waistline of his jeans and pulled his t-shirt over it as he slid the bolt back and opened the door. It was his partner from work. "Mitch! What's up?" Mac asked, gesturing the man inside with a smile.

Mitch stepped through the door. "Hey Mac!" he answered. "Hi Claire!"

Claire smiled and waved at him from the couch, "Hi Mitch!"

Mac turned and headed back to the living room, motioning Mitch to come with him. "Come on, come in. Sit down!"

But Mitch laid a hand on Mac's arm. Mac turned, and froze at the look on Mitch's face. It was more serious and somber than Mac had ever seen him.

"I gotta talk to you," Mitch said quietly.

"What's going on?" Mac asked, a horrible, sinking feeling creeping into his stomach.

"You know that call, that tip, that came in right as you were leaving?"

"Yeah," Mac answered slowly, the feeling working its way into his chest.

"Abby's working tonight so I stayed on. It was a hang-up from a disposable cell so it took us a while to track it down," Mitch paused, collecting himself, his voice almost shaking. "He got to us, Mac. He actually did it."

Mac's body went cold, and that sinking feeling turned into a knife. "Who is it?" he breathed, not wanting to know.

Mitch swallowed hard, "Gasecki. They just found his wife and kids. I'm on my way to the scene."

The knife stabbed hard under his ribs, and Mac closed his eyes.

From the couch, Claire watched the exchange between the two men. She couldn't hear exactly what they were saying, but Mitch looked almost pale. Then she saw Mac's back go rigid, and knew something was wrong. Mac nodded at Mitch and turned back towards her. His lips were pressed tight together and his eyes flashed with barely contained fury.

"Mac?" she asked.

He shook his head as he walked over to her, "I'm sorry sweetheart, I have to go in." He leaned down to where she was still sitting on the couch and kissed her. "I'm going to go quick change."

Claire nodded, and Mac disappeared down the hallway. She looked over at Mitch who was still standing by the doorway. "You really can come in," she said. "I won't kill you for stealing him. Yet."

Mitch gave a little laugh and sat in the chair opposite the couch.

"I don't suppose there's any point asking what's going on?" Claire queried.

Mitch shook his head, "It's a case we've been helping out with, but I'm sure you've already guessed that. And believe me," Mitch leaned forward, his elbows on his knees and face very serious, "You do not want to know more than that right now."

Claire looked at him searchingly. She was quite used to not knowing the specifics of what Mac did at work. They had met and gotten married when he was still in the Marines and a SpecOp recon unit on top of that, and compared to not even knowing where exactly on globe he was at any given moment, non-specifics about the cases he worked was no stress in the slightest. Still, to bring about the looks and body language Mac and his partner were sharing, whatever had happened, was no small thing.

Just then Mac emerged from the bedroom. He had dark, loose-fitting jeans and a layered t-shirt and pullover on, his vest between the two. He clipped his badge and gun to his belt. "You ready?" he asked Mitch.

Mitch stood up, "Yep."

Claire walked Mac to the door. She reached a hand to his face. "Be careful," she told him seriously.

Mac kissed her gently. He knew she wasn't saying the habit phrase of all who had family work in emergency services echoed. Claire didn't worry over him, and it was one of the things he loved the most about her. "I will be," he said. "I'll call you when you get up in the morning."

Claire nodded, and Mac followed Mitch out into the night and to the gut-wrenching crime scene that awaited them.