Disclaimer: I do not own CSI:NY. I am a college student. I can't even afford to own all seasons.

Notes: Probably my last CSI:NY story. It's a big one. The name of course comes from the TV show Arrested Development. This has its funny moments. The only warnings I can think of are multiple pairings. Niki Foxx and the Foxx family belongs to NikNak17. Like always, enjoy.

Rated T for language.

Arrested Development

Chapter 1: Fight or Flight

It was just like a game of chess. Move your pieces into place and when the opportune moment hits, you strike.

Recently, all he had done was block these strikes. After firing Aiden only a month before, he felt shorthanded and had agreed to move Sinclair's lackey up to working more of his own cases. At the time, she helped out. She helped lift some pressures off the team before Lindsay came, and even now that Lindsay was here, she was still a help not a hindrance.

That was until a week ago when he put everything together. Since then, he had been accumulating everything he needed.

For weeks, he had flirted with the possibility that she had some mob connections. Sure, most of his team had those connections (part of the job - they knew people with less than pleasant backgrounds), but this was more than just a connection.

He tried to separate his own feelings about her. His dislike of her mingled with his level headed investigator approach to this.

First, there was the original case.

A thirty-seven year old man was found in an alley on 52nd with a bullet through his head and beaten beyond recognition. After a missing persons report had been filed, they were managed to confirm his name from his DNA. One Stephen Hanson. He worked for Hanson Law. His father started the company fifty years ago. Before the death of his son, they hadn't had any trouble. Now, the floodgates were open.

It turned out that Stephen had several infamous ties. His worst was to a cousin of the Foxx family.

Apparently, Stephen failed to come up with whatever his end of the bargain was with the Foxxes, and he paid for it with his life.

Then there was the evidence.

A nine-millimeter slug was found in the autopsy. Several impressions were made from his bones. Brass knuckles did most of the damage, but the rest was done with a series of punches and kicks.

A tiny onyx figurine of a fox was trapped in Stephen's hand.

Underneath his fingernails, they managed to collect DNA evidence that linked someone to the crime. Only, that evidence had somehow disappeared.

There was a suspect list. Two names on it.

Foxx. Not specifically one Foxx because it was damn near impossible to indict a Foxx on any crime. Not even tax evasion. They were suspected, however, of murder, arson, extortion, bribery, theft, assault, forgery, and racketeering. And that was just the short list of their (suspected) crimes.

Higgins. His- no Sinclair's Higgins. She wasn't connected to the murder as much as she was connected to the missing DNA evidence.

And of course, there was the evidence against her.

She was a trace expert who sometimes moonlighted as their sketch artist when they needed another. Although she may have been certified to handle DNA, she knew her place at the crime scene. She should have been nowhere near the DNA evidence. Yet, for some reason, it showed up in her crime scene photos, but not in her log of what she found.

If for whatever reason she took the DNA from under Stephen's fingernails, she should've logged it. She shouldn't have just taken the photo. Yet she had the photos of his hands and fingernails and of the DNA sample.

And that DNA sample that she should've never taken in the first place went missing right after she put it in the evidence lockup. It's not that there wasn't a DNA sample there. It's just that the swab in the lockup was completely sterile, meaning that it hadn't even been in contact with anything let alone Stephen Hanson's fingers.

The cameras in the evidence lockup conveniently decided to malfunction when she walked in with the DNA sample, which she never should've had in the first place. It started working again when she left. The next person who came in was Amy Smith, a DNA tech. He had already asked her about it, and saw she was telling the truth. She didn't have time to switch the samples in any case. The security cameras verified that.

She had the opportunity. She had plenty of opportunity. She had time to switch out the swabs while the cameras were out.

Not to mention her connection to one of the most notorious crime families in New York.

Niki Foxx was, as far as he or anyone else could tell, Kelly Higgins' best friend. Her phone records proved it too. Several calls a week to said Foxx matched up with his assessment. What made him more suspicious were the weekly calls from a 212 number. When he looked up the owner of the number, he wasn't surprised at all that it was another Foxx. Michael Foxx, a patriarch of the family and uncle to Niki Foxx, notorious for her leaving the family.

And, of course, she had the motive.

Something about crime families that usually rang true was that there were only two options when they offered a deal. Say yes or say yes. There was no other option. Well, there was, but that normally got you a one-way ticket to the city morgue.

So she must've gotten scared into it, he reasoned. He figured she probably didn't realize what she was getting into at the time, but then again, there was no way she didn't know what the Foxxes were about.

It was a good thing he never liked her to begin with because that would make arresting her hard.

With a warrant in his hand and two uniforms beside him, he practically pranced up to her in the park. The excitement that came with arresting a perp pulsated through him.

He handed the warrant to an Officer Perez, telling him, "She's probably not going quietly. I'll be over there." He pointed to an area about fifty yards past where Kelly Higgins and Niki Foxx were talking.

He walked over, reveling in his small victory against the Foxxes. Meanwhile, the two uniforms confronted the detective.

Perez grinned. "Kelly Higgins, you've been served."

"What?" The brunette eyed him warily.

He showed her the warrant. "Looks like you've been doin' some naughty things."

"So you're a stripper cop?" Niki asked wryly.

Perez's partner laughed. "She's under arrest. Looks like she's the dirty cop."

"What're you talkin' about?" Higgins spat. "I didn't do anything!"

"Yeah, right," Perez said unconvinced. He pulled out his handcuffs. "Just turn around."

Niki looked shocked. "You're freaking kidding me, right? Kelly a dirty cop?" She winked at the two uniforms and ushered them away from her friend.

She turned around and saw that her friend was still standing there looking shocked.

"Kelly! Haul ass! Balls to the wall and get the hell outta here!"

The detective's brain finally started working as she realized that no one would listen to her in cuffs. She ran as fast as she could away from the two uniforms so that when they finally got away from Niki, she had a good two to three seconds on them.

They bounded after her, slowly closing the gap between them. She sprinted a good thirty yards before daring to look back. After she saw that they were closing the gap, she began to glance back every other second as she dodged people walking on the pavement.

Mac was ready for her. Or so he thought.

He wasn't ready for her to not slow down at all and collide into him straight on.

He broke her fall as both slammed into the pavement. She bounced off him and onto the ground as Perez and his partner, Sanchez, caught up with her. She was clutching her knee and swearing. Sanchez cuffed her and read her her rights.

Mac glared down at his now bleeding CSI as the uniforms lifted her off the ground.

"What're you playin' at, Taylor?" She spat a bloody mixture on the ground. "You're arrestin' me?"

He lifted an eyebrow as if to say "obviously."

"What for?"

"Tampering with evidence, resisting arrest, assaulting an officer, and obstruction of justice for starters," he answered with a dark smile.

She glared back at him and dared to ask him what he was talking about.

"You know, you're doing a bad job of making yourself look innocent." He stared her down as they started to walk toward a squad car.

"I am innocent," she retorted.

"Then why would you run?"

"It's a nice day. I just felt like it," she quipped. "Gotta keep in shape."

He shook his head. "I almost didn't want to believe it was you."

She stopped suddenly. "Taylor, don't do this."

"It's my job."

She opened her mouth again to speak, but he held up his hand.

"You have the right to remain silent. Please use it."

She answered with a curious look at him as she realized that this was the result of so much more than the case. She knew then that he honestly didn't give a damn what she said.

The squad car faded in the distance and the next time he saw her was in interrogation. He didn't interrogate her, conflict of interest and all because he was her boss.

After about an hour of questioning, she remained silent (the first time he'd ever known her to not have anything to say since she started working for him). The only thing she said was such a cliché guilty phrase, he almost laughed.

"I'll take that lawyer now."

He looked at her for a moment before shaking his head.

"I'll see you in court."

A/N: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. Please leave a review if you liked it :) This will have sporadic updates, but I am planning on finishing this story out. Have a great day! :D