This is set a little bit before 1.01. Thank you vegas nivel 3 for reviewing :) I hope you like Hayley and her story


The metal in the interrogation room of the Las Vegas CSI lab seemed to make the room chillier, but that could just be from the man sitting across from Nick Stokes and Warrick Brown. Thomas Abbott was currently their only suspect in the murder of the three Abbott children and his wife, but the man seemed unbreakable.

He held something in his eyes that set off alarms in CSI Stokes' mind, but that wasn't evidence that could be used in court, of course. They had requested for a detective to come in and question the guy, but they had yet to have someone come by and the request went in twenty minutes ago. The police station was literally a few feet away.

"Now, Mr. Abbott, why was your wife's blood found under your nails and even in your hair?"

"I held her while she bled out, clearly," he sneered.

"You were there when someone murdered your whole family and you did nothing and walked away with no injuries," Warrick noted. "That sounds a bit fishy to me."

"You don't have a wife or kids...had." Thomas had the audacity to act choked up. "Till death do us part."

"But for you, Mr. Abbott, I'm afraid that it wasn't just death that was ending your marriage," a new voice came from the doorway and the three turned to see who was entering.

A blonde woman stood there, a severely cold expression on her face that was heightened with the tight bun pinned up on her head. She was wearing a police uniform, but just the pants and a department tank top rather than the full dress. A file was gripped in her hands, the contents spilling out of the edges from its thickness.

"Apologies for taking so long. Mr Abbott here has a lengthy file." Her voice was low and quiet, but still laced with power. A slight Southern accent twinged her words and Nick could have sworn he recognized the slight Texan air to her words.

"Mr. Abbott, I am Officer Hayley McDonagh. I'm just going to go over a few things that these men might have already asked you. It's just routine," she announced, stepping closer to the table.

Nick stood, offering her the chair he was just seated in and she nodded her thanks, primly taking a seat and planting her boots onto the ground.

"Now, Mr. Abbott, I'm going to ask you some questions. Is it true that your wife and you were attending marriage counseling?" she asked casually, interlacing her fingers and resting her hands on the table as she stared at him with unblinking, wide blue eyes.

"Yes," he replied shortly and the officer nodded, writing something down on her notepad.

"And is it true that your wife was seeking a divorce?"

"No, we just hit a rough patch that's why we were at counseling."

"Of course. Yet, the legal information I found in her desk that led me to her divorce attorney begs to differ. It seems here that she was hiding this information from you to the best of her ability. Searches on her personal laptop reveal that she was looking into women's shelters in Arizona. Were you aware that your wife was leaving you, Mr. Abbott?"

He scoffed. "She wasn't serious about it. Yeah, she threatened it sometimes but she never did it."

"Yes, however it seems that the straw that broke the camel's back was the four calls that Child Protective Services received last month from your children's teachers due to the injuries they had. It seems, Mr. Abbott, that your children were being abused. Do you have anything to say of this nature?"

"We had a car accident."

"Yet there were no hospital records. That being said, you do have four DUIs."

He clenched his jaw, glowering at her and she flashed him a grim smirk, an inquisitive eyebrow raised. Leveling her gaze with his, Officer McDonagh set her jaw and didn't back down.

"You stupid bitch, I don't know what you're getting at but you have it all wrong," he hissed.

"Then walk me through it," she ordered.

"I have told my story four times now!"

"And each one of those times, you've given us some conflicting information. For example, where were you at the time of the murders?"

"At home, in bed, with my wife!"

"Yet you have no injuries."

"I don't know how!"

"I think you do, Mr. Abbott. I do remind you that lying to police is an obstruction of justice." She regarded him cooly.

The metal chair made a large screech as he pushed away from the table, his eyes wild and veins pulsing in his neck. Abbott slammed his hands down on the table and leaned in closer to Officer McDonagh. Warrick and Nick surged forward but she held her hand up, never pulling her gaze away from the suspect.

"They deserved it! That bitch thought she could run from me, well I showed her! Her and those damn little brats!" Abbott screamed. His hands reached up towards her neck and before the CSIs could even blink, Officer McDonagh had Abbott bent over the table, her cuffs out as she read him his Miranda rights.

"Holy shit," Warrick breathed and Nick nodded in agreement. They got the bastard and they even got a confession. Officer McDonagh's stoic expression broke and a blistering grin crept up on her face, a dark look in her eyes.

"When I play that recording in front of a jury, just know that I get to be the one to escort you to your nice little room with your new friends when they find you guilty," she reassured Abbott. "Let's go, buddy."

She marched him towards the door and pounded on it twice. Two uniformed officers opened it and dragged the struggling man out. With a sigh, Officer McDonagh smoothed down the front of her uniform and turned towards the CSIs.

"Hi, my apologies for the curtness. It's easier to break them if you don't give 'em any emotion," she said, a bright smile lighting up her face. She looked like a completely different person than when she entered. Her blue eyes seemed lighter and Nick was completely and utterly hypnotized by them.

"Hi, CSI Warrick Brown and this is CSI Nick Stokes," Warrick introduced, noticing the starstruck expression on his friends face. The older man rolled his eyes and held out his hand which McDonagh shook firmly. Warrick nudged his friend who immediately put his hand out, not trusting his voice to speak.

"Pleasure to meet you Mr. Brown, Mr. Stokes. We might be seeing each other more often," she offered with an amused expression.

"New to the force?" Nick finally was able to spit out.

"A year on the force, two weeks into nights."

"Welcome to a completely different sleep schedule," Warrick laughed.

"It feels like breakfast for dinner every time," she joked. "Well, I better go finish this paperwork and transcribe the audio." As she made her way towards the table to gather her things, Nick spoke up.

"You did a really great job. Thank you for helping us with the case."

McDonagh glanced up at him, a somber expression passing through her eyes as she shrugged. "I just did what I'm supposed to do. It won't bring them back. There...there I failed."

With that, she walked calmly out of the interrogation room.