AN: Ok, so this is a little shorter than I wanted it, but I've basically finished with Becca's second day. Because, essentially, each chapter will be one day unless I say different at the beginning of the chapter. I wanted to make this a little longer, but I was getting stuck, so I decided to cut my losses and just post.

Becca stared at herself in the mirror over the sinks in the bathroom, knuckles white as she clenched the sides of the sink. She couldn't really blame Stella, for asking if tomorrow really was her birthday. Starting a new job only two days before the milestone probably hadn't been the greatest idea, considering what it reminded her of. Adam had shot her a worried look as she rocketed past his lab, and she knew he was probably ensuring she would be alone long enough to pull herself together.

Stella stood in the lab behind Adam, bothering him in an attempt to make him spill what had the new girl so emotionally off kilter. Adam was trying valiantly to ignore her, simply moving around her when it was absolutely necessary to get past.

"No, Stella. I'm not going to do that to Becca. She trusts me with everything about her, and there's no way I'm betraying that kind of trust. We've been there for each other since college, and I'm not about to lose that now. Not the muinín* we have with each other." Adam peered down the microscope again. "If you want to find out, I suggest asking Becca. And nicely. She doesn't take well to prying."

Stella huffed and stalked out, completely missing the impressive mix of apprehension, relief, surprise, and protectiveness on Adam's face. She knocked on the door to the women's bathroom, leaning her forehead against the smooth surface. "Becca, can I come in?"

"Free country." Becca's voice was rough and quiet, and as Stella pushed the door open she looked down at her hands on the sides of the sink. "Please don't make me explain."

Stella stepped over to Becca and draped one arm around her shoulder. "Becca, I don't want to push you, but I want to understand why you're not happy about your birthday. I asked Adam, but he said he wouldn't betray your trust. Please Becca. I want you to trust me."

Becca breaks free and backs up to the wall, sliding down the cold tiles. "I can't, I can't. I'm sorry, but I just can't. I should have just waited a week to start. Then I wouldn't have to deal with this." She burst into tears, pulling her knees to her chest.

Stella slid down next to her and pulled her in for a gentle hug. "Adam said that the two of you have muinín with each other. What does that mean?"

Becca suddenly tensed and pulled away to look at Stella, scrutinizing her behind teary eyes. The bathroom was silent for several minutes except for the steady sound of the drippy faucet. "Only one reason he would use that word. Muinín is simply the Irish world for trust. Adam used that word for a very specific reason." Becca reached around into her back pocket, pulling out her wallet and flipping to a clearly well loved picture. Silently she handed over the snapshot, obviously from a street photo-booth.

Stella gasped. Grinning out of the image were two Beccas, arms thrown about each other's shoulders, laughing and having the time of their lives. "Becca, you failed to mention being a twin."

"I was a twin."

"Was? Past tense? How can you stop being a twin?"

Becca fiddled silently with the fabric of her pants for a moment. "Melissa is dead. It's been 7 years and six days since I lost my second half. It took six minutes. We were walking to a bus stop from a party, and we were walking along the street when a car drove past and opened fire on one house. The scar you saw on my arm, one on my leg, and another on my side are reminders of what happened. Lissa got hit in the shoulder and in the leg. She was dead by the time the first responders arrived, six minutes later. Six minutes that felt like six years. I didn't even realize that I had been hit until the paramedics started pulling me off her body."

Stella said nothing, instead simply pulling Becca into a tight hug. They sat on the floor of the bathroom for a couple minutes, before Stella spoke quietly. "How does Adam know about it?"

"He, well, he saved my life. He was there for me when I was at my lowest. He found me at the apartment after the funeral, drunk off my ass, forced me to get cleaned up," She gave a sobbing laugh. "Hell, he practically cleaned me himself, and then made sure I kept my head above water. He was there when I had nothing else left. 's why we're so close."

"So you and Adam are like Mac and me." Becca looked questioningly at Stella, and she elaborated. "We trust each other with our lives. Completely, with no reservations or worry when we're in a tight spot. He was there for me when I had some boyfriend trouble, and helped me get past that mess."

"Yeah. I guess so." Becca pushed herself to her feet, Stella following her. "Thanks Stella."

"Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me." They walked out of the bathroom and ran right into Adam, who had been standing outside and chewing on his thumbnail for almost ten minutes. "Adam. Is there something you need?"

"No, no. I just.... I wanted to make sure.... I......" He trailed off, clearly struggling to find words that wouldn't get him in trouble with either woman. "I should get back, I've got evidence to process."

Adam turned to leave and was stopped by Becca's hand on his wrist. "Muinín. You trust Stella, then so do I. We're good." Adam grinned and walked back to his lab, leaving Stella and Becca standing in the hall. "Right. We've got a case to finish, no?"

Stella smiled and they walked back to the trace lab in a companionable silence.

Don strode into the trace lab, waving a folder at Danny as he circled the table. "Got a name on a suspect, phone records came through." He leaned his hip against the table when he reached his friend. Becca's eyes flicked up from her magnifying light across the table, watching the two unobtrusively. "He's got a couple of priors for assault, and one for indecent exposure, so he's definitely a viable suspect. What've you got?"

Danny opened a swab as he stared intently at a spot on the jacket he was processing. "Some kind of transfer. Looks like some sort of gel. I'll get this to Adam and then we can head out." Danny grinned sideways at his friend. "You ah, still up for hoops Saturday?"

"Danno, when have I not been up for wiping your ass across the court?"

Danny let out a snort of laughter, his grin spreading. "You wipe my ass across the court? I think you've got things backwards there. As I recall, I'm the one who wiped your ass across the court last game."

"Are you sure about that? I think your memory is getting faulty there."

"Boys, as entertaining as this is, Becca and I do have better things to do than watch you banter about who is better at basketball." Stella's small smile is enough to let them know that she's teasing, but mostly serious.

"Besides, I could wipe the court with both of you." Both Danny and Don turn to gawk at Becca, who has returned her eyes to the jacket she's inspecting. Her face is impassive as she glances up at them for just a moment. "Don't believe me? Fine. Time and place. I'll wipe the floor with the two of you. Two on one. I'll take the both of you at the same time."

"You sure about that short stuff? I wouldn't want to hurt your feelings by having to make you eat your words." Don smirks at the redhead.

"Hold on, she's offering to take us on, two to one. I'm sure she knows she's setting herself up for defeat. If she wants a game, I say we give it to her." Danny finishes sealing his evidence and turns to Don. "Could be fun. Besides, we should mix it up now and again. Keep us on our toes."

Don nods thoughtfully, scratching his chin. "Alright. You're on."

"Noble Playground.** 9 o'clock."

"I'll be there." Becca smirks and returns to working as the two men walk out.

"I've got to warn you Becca, those two are good. Be careful what kind of challenges you issue to them."

"Yeah, well, I'm good too. I'm not just a twin, I've got three other siblings; an older brother, a younger brother, and an older sister. We would play basketball free-for-all, Lissa, Andy, Greg, and me. Kate would keep score for us. She wasn't nearly as competitive as the rest of us. I usually won." Becca smirks down at the sleeve she's inspecting. "You saw one of our games, right Adam?"

Stella's head snaps up to stare at the door, where Adam is standing, looking slightly awkward. "Yeah. Kinda scary, actually."

"He didn't dare try to jump in, even though we did offer to let him play."

"Not with the way Greg played. He was one scary guy!"

Becca rolled her eyes. "Adam, he's younger than you."

"He still scared me." Adam holds up a folder. "Results for Danny."

"You just missed him. He and Don just went after their suspect." Stella shrugged at Adam. "We've got some swabs for you to process though." Stella scooped up the small collection of swabs and Adam stepped into the room to take them. "Have you seen Mac lately?"

"Yeah, he's in reconstruction right now. Want me to tell him you need him?"

"No, I'll just head over there in a couple of minutes. Thanks Adam."

"Not a problem." Adam sends Becca a swift grin and a wink and exits trace with the swabs.

"What was that all about?"

Becca looks up, her face deceptively blank. "What was what about?"

Stella rolled her eyes. "Why did Adam wink at you?"

The corners of Becca's lips twitched as she looked back down at the jacket. "Just a little reminder, at a rough point in my year." Stella is quiet, retracing the conversation a couple of steps, a small smile working it's way onto her face as she realizes the significance of Adam's parting words. "Stella, What does this look like to you?" Becca holds up a section on the front of the jacket, angling it towards Stella.

"Looks like some kind of pattern, scraped into the leather, probably during a struggle. What do you think made it?"

"A piece of jewelry. See the line here? Probably from the loop that connects pendants or charms to a chain or bracelet." Becca spread the section out on the table and picked up the camera, quickly snapping a few shots of the area. "I've seen this before. This pattern....." She jerks upright suddenly, eyes wide, and races from the room.

"What was that all about?" Stella shrugs and resumes her own processing. Moments later Becca rushes back in, carrying something in her hand. "Care to fill me in?"

"This pattern is a celtic knot, very similar to this one." Becca opens her hand to show Stella the keychain she had brought back with her. "A lot of people wear them as pendants, simply because they think they're pretty. The most common ones are the trinity knot, which you see in a lot of churches, and the celtic cross. There are a lot of other patterns, like mine. Now, mine is different, as you can see, it's not actually one solid knot." Becca fiddled with something on the back of her knot and it came apart into two pieces. "Originally, Lissa had one half, and I had another. Two parts of the same whole." She pauses and bites her lower lip for a moment, piecing the knot together again. "Anyways. Whatever medallion, keychain or charm that made this impression had to have been metal, and a really good one."

"So, considering the location of the impression on the jacket, I'd say that we're looking for a necklace."

"And it will probably have leather on it."

"Good, good. Can you finish up here while I go talk to Mac?" Becca nods as she turns back to the jacket, and Stella slips quietly out.

Becca wanders into Adam's lab much later and plops down in an extra chair. "What're you up to at this time of night?"

"Mac found a broken disc at his crime scene, split almost in half. Asked me to put it back together, see if there's anything of interest on it. I'm just about ready to see if there's anything on it." Adam grabbed the disc and carefully put it into the computer. Several documents popped up, and he skimmed quickly through them, stopping when he encountered two video files. "Which one first?"

"...... The earlier one." Becca gave Adam a pointed look, and he blushed slightly.

"Right. Stupid question." Adam opened the video and they watched as a young woman sat in front of the camera and began speaking. "looks like a video for an online dating thing." He glances at Becca, who's nodding, with a quizzical look on her face.

"Open the second one." Adam complies and they both gasp at the new scene that fills the screen. The woman from the previous recording is sprawled on a bed, hands tied together as she writhes in pain, unable to scream around the gag in her mouth. They both wince as the figure standing over her adds another cut to the many already seeping blood from her torso. "Is that.... is that the vic?"

"I think so. Apparently she was found skinned except for her head and hands." Adam looks slightly green as he stops the video, and they both shudder, just as Mac walks in.

"Did you get anything useful off that disc?"

"Yeah. And it's really horrific." Becca vacates her chair and pushes it towards Mac. "I think you'll want to sit down to see this." Mac quirks an eyebrow at her, but does take the seat, Becca pulling up another for herself.

"The first video is pretty ordinary, just a dating tape. The second one, however, is where things get really gruesome. Here." Adam once again plays the torture video, and all the color slowly drains from Mac's face before rushing back, the ire clear in his eyes.

"Adam, see if you can get anything of the attacker's face, I want a name for this guy. Becca, come on. We're going to process the victim's home. If that's where both videos came from, that's our primary scene. Grab your kit." Mac stalks out of the room before either of them can say a word.

"I'll see you later then Adam."

"Yeah. Guess it's going to be a long night for the two of us. You'd better get going."

"Right." Becca turns and rushes from the room and catches up with Mac just as he steps into the elevator.

*muinín- Irish for trust. Please don't kill me if I got this wrong. Online translators can only do so much for you.

**Noble Playground is in the Bronx, which is where, I think, Danny lives. Don't kill me if I'm wrong. And I'm pretty sure I am.

Also, last chapter, I said Becca pulls out her own lock, but then I remembered that the lab's lockers have electronic keypad locks...... whoops. Oh well. I'm not going back just to change that one little detail.

Also, the next chapter will be Becca's birthday. And Danny and Flack are..... well, Danny and Flack.

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