Title: UNDIVIDED

Author: TAYA

Disclaimer: The characters and the concept of "Without a trace" don't belong to me. Places and names are what my mind made up as well as the story.

Chapter 1

The continuing rain made the crowd rush even more hectic through the streets of New York City than usual. People were hastening to get to the place they headed for.

Samantha Spade was not in a hurry though. She had got up this morning with a strange feeling that something wasn't right. She did have a terrible headache and had felt a little wobbly on her feet. The dream she had had that night hadn't haunted her for quite a long time. But this night it had come back. It had been about her childhood and that was not really a thing she liked to think about too much. It made her feel vulnerable and weak. She didn't exactly know why, but she wasn't sure if she really wanted to. It had been a time when she was so different from how she was now and she had done a lot of things she wished she could undo today. She had given her mother a hard time with her headstrong nature, but she had felt the need for attention back then. She and her mother hadn't really parted as friends and that made her sad when she thought about it. But she had made her decisions and she didn't regret what her life had turned out to be. She and mother were at least talking to each other again although it was not a typical mother/daughter-relationship yet.

However she had to admit that this dream had shaken her a bit and she was still trying to keep the pain in her head under control.

She had almost reached the main entrance of the FBI building when she heard a familiar voice.

„Hey, Sam, are you coming? I'm getting soaked here!" It was Martin. She couldn't help smiling.

"Well, you didn't have to wait for me. You could have just gone inside."

"Yeah, I know, but what kind of gentleman would that have made me?"

"Right." She said grinning.

The door opened allowing them access to the great hall.

Martin shook his head twice to get at least a bit of the water off his hair. Sam closed her umbrella as they made their way to the elevator.

"You know I just saw you coming down the street. That's actually the reason I waited there for you. Didn't you take a cab this morning?"

Sam pressed the button to call the elevator down and turned to look at him.

"No, I felt like taking the subway today. Just getting some fresh air on the way to the station."

"Tough night?" Martin asked jokingly, but it sounded more worried than anything else.

There was a "beep" of the elevator, the doors opened and they both stepped in.

"Something like that. Bad dream, I didn't really get much sleep."

Martin cast her a concerned glance. Though they weren't a couple anymore for almost a year now he still cared deeply for her and so did she. But their story was a complicated one and they both were okay with the friendship they shared at the moment. Still there was something between them that connected them deeply and which couldn't just be wiped out like nothing had ever happened.

"You know, if you wanna talk about it..." He offered after a short period of silence had passed between them.

She shook her head.

"No, thanks though." They stood in silence the rest of the time till the elevator doors opened again.

"Another day at the office." Martin sighed as they made their way to their workplaces.

"Morning." Danny yawned as he saw his two friends approaching.

"Good morning to you, too." Martin said, but when he got a closer look at him he added:

"You look like hell." Danny's hair was tousled and his eyes were still half closed.

"Is it that obvious? I really tried my best to hide it." He moaned and stroked his hair with his fingers.

Martin put his bag on his desk and came over to Danny's bullpen.

"So what have you been up to? Been out till early morning?" He asked.

Danny leaned back in his chair.

"I wish I had. But actually I was looking forward to a good night's sleep after that long office day yesterday. So I went to bed early, but my damn neighbor's damn cat thought it would be nice to meow the whole night. Martin, I swear I was so close to shoot that thing."

Martin laughed.

"I can well believe that. Maybe you should consider moving out."

Danny nodded.

"I have thought about that last night in one of those minutes I lay awake in my bed, but where I live now it's not far to my favorite club." These word's came out as if he really meant it, but Danny was a fantastic actor. Martin laughed again.

"Yeah right, that's an issue."

"Well actually, Marty, you should come with me some time. To the club I mean."

"I really appreciate the offer, but I think I'm getting too old for that sort of things."

He stood up from Danny's table and made his way back to his own desk.

"Too old! Come on!" Danny called after him.

Sam had listened to their conversation with amusement, but she didn't exactly feel like joining it. She had one of those days when she wanted to reduce talking to a minimum. Just get this day over with as quickly as possible.

She turned on her computer, greeted Elena Delgardo who entered the office and looked over to Jack's office. He was talking to Vivian in there. This wasn't a good sign. She could almost smell a new case.

Sam took a deep breath and quickly scanned the papers on her desk. Okay, let's get this started with, she told herself and began following her daily routine.

It was not two minutes later that Jack and Vivian came in and asked them to take a seat at the conference table.

"What have we got?" Elena asked when they were all gathered around the desk.

Jack stood up and went over to the blackboard.

"We just got a call from a woman called Catherine Rowley who reported her husband Alexander Rowley missing." He wrote down the name.

"He has been missing for approximately 8 hours. Was out with a friend last night and never showed up home again. I'm going to talk to his wife. Elena, you're with me. Viv and Martin you go and talk to this friend. Sam and Danny you do a background check on this guy. I'll talk to his coworkers later. Maybe they know where he could be."

Danny already headed to his computer and tipped in some things.

"What have you got?" Jack asked him. He appreciated Danny's initiative. The team knew he welcomed to know something about the missing person before heading out somewhere.

"Alexander Rowley, 35 years old, born in Boston/Massachusetts, works in the IT section of Miller's and Lyme in Staten Island, married to Catherine Rowley, one daughter Loraine, no record."

Jack nodded and the other's began to rise from their chairs.

"Alright, let's find Alexander Rowley."

"I really wonder why they are giving us cases like this." Danny said while he and Sam were sitting in front of their computers searching for things that might tell them something about Alex Rowley's whereabouts.

She didn't even take her eyes off her computer and shook her head.

"I don't know either."

Danny leaned back in his chair and turned to look at her.

"Well for all we know he could be one of those guys who only ran away from their seemingly perfect life. Maybe this is Van Doren's way to tell us something."

Now Sam looked up at her friend in amusement.

"Come on, Danny. I think you're getting paranoid."

"Maybe I am." He turned back to his computer.

"This guy is so dull. I can't find a thing. He didn't even get a ticket for wrong parking. He's so white that it's almost scary." He said after a while.

"Who is as perfect as this in society usually has a lot to hide when you dig deeper." She stated and continued her work.

"Mrs. Rowley, when was the last time you saw your husband?" Jack asked the younger woman that was sitting opposite of him on the sofa.

Elena hadn't taken a seat. She stood behind the sofa and scanned the living room carefully. It was a modest, but comfortable room with light colours and pictures on the wall. She took a closer look at the pictures.

"Oh, it was yesterday about six o'clock. He came back from work at five, we had dinner which doesn't happen so very often lately, because he often has to work late and then he told me he wanted to meet with Phinn... This is a friend of his, Phineas Fitzlewis. He went out at about six and never came back." Catherine Rowley didn't seem to be the kind of person who took all of this with much composure. She started crying and her sobbing made it difficult for Jack to understand her properly.

"Did he say when he wanted to come back?"

"No, but he didn't have to. We have a silent agreement that he never comes back after midnight. When he still wasn't there then I called Phinn, but he didn't know where he was. I got so worried that I called the police."

Jack nodded and wrote down something on his notebook.

"Do you know why he wanted to meet with this Mr Fitzlewis?"

Catherine thought about this question for a minute, but then shook her head.

"No, but I suppose they would just go out to get a beer or something. I mean, they are friends. That's what friends do, right?"

Jack didn't answer her question and just took some notes.

Meanwhile Elena studied the pictures. Most of them showed a happy family. There was a picture of people she concluded must be his parents and one with hers. Several showed their daughter in almost every stage of her life. The newest ones showed her at about 5 years old. Then there were a lot of pictures which their daughter must have painted.

"Do you like them?" She heard a weak voice behind her.

Elena turned around and saw the girl from the photos standing there. She was blonde and rather small for her age.

"Yes, I like them. Did you paint them?"

The little girl nodded and raised her head in pride.

"I like painting."

Elena smiled at her.

"I can see that. My name is Elena. And you must be Loraine."

"I am. Are you looking for my daddy?" The girl's face showed sadness.

"That's right. And we'll find him, okay?"

The girl nodded.

"Loraine, please go back to your room." Mrs Rowley called and the little girl went back up the stairs to get to her room.

END CHAPTER ONE...

A/N: Sorry for any mistakes concerning language. I am a lazy German girl, who didn't use a dictionary;)

And this fic is actually more a general fic than romance. But I am a M/S-shipper and this might become obvious in some parts of the story:)

About Elena: I don't like her much, but I included her nevertheless.