Very suddenly, the phone rang.

Not expecting it, Lauren jumped. "Excuse me," she said. Side-stepping her mother's body, she walked over to the bedroom phone and picked it up. "Hello?"

On the other end, a cool feminine voice with an accent that Lauren immediately placed as Australian answered, "Hello, Lauren. How do you like your... how shall I put it?... end of the school year gift?"

A shocked look made its way across her face before turning into a hard one. She adopted the sarcastic tone that was a defense mechanism. "Gift? What gift? Oh! You mean my mother. Actually, it wasn't quite what I had in mind. Next time, just give me a Barnes & Noble gift card and I'll be happy". As Lauren said this she maneuvered herself to sit on the desk where her left hand discretely hit speakerphone and the record button. Bobby, noticing what she was doing, gave an almost imperceptible nod.

"My, my, aren't we witty," the woman answered and it took all of his police training for Bobby not to tense at the voice. Nicole. "As much as I would like to finish this delightful chat, I have some unfinished business with your uncle. Could you put him on the phone?"

"Sorry to disappoint you, but my uncle's not here. You should know that since you're probably watching me right now. Who are you anyway?" Lauren asked.

"I am no one of consequence, but you are very perceptive much like your uncle in that respect, though on a bit of the shorter side," the woman replied.

"I'm afraid I don't follow you. Unless one of the men dusting for fingerprints is my mother's long lost brother, I think you are very much mistaken."

The woman laughed a frigid, mirthless laugh. "Oh, this is precious! Dear mother never told you that all you had to do to find out who your father was, was to look at your birth certificate?"

"How do you know this?" Lauren hissed while Bobby and Alex exchanged concerned glances.

"My dear girl, I know many things. Like how your mother was a prostitute, never told you anything about your past."

"I'm not you're 'dear girl'! Who are you?"

"Touching a nerve am I? Tell me, Lauren, how did it feel to have mummy sleeping with men who weren't daddy?"

More than a little worked up, Lauren retorted, "Leave my mother out of this. Let's go back to this long lost uncle I'm supposed to have."

Alex looked over at her partner and could almost see the wheels turning in his head. This is going to be a long night.

Nicole answered, "Ah, yes. Your father had a gambling problem – wasted away most of your mother's money if I'm not mistaken. He didn't leave you; your mother threw him out. Your mother threw him out, and his little brother is standing right in front of you. Small world, isn't it?"

All the eyes in the room widened. No one breathed. After a moment came, "I don't believe you!"

"But, it's true, Lauren. Not only that, but your aunt's husband is also Detective Goren's cousin. You're related in two ways. From the pictures there is an uncanny resemblance. Would you look at that? I'm just about out of time. Too bad I couldn't talk to you Bobby. Yes, I knew that this call was on speakerphone. Clever trick, Lauren. Too bad it didn't work. I'll be in touch."

The phone went dead.

For a while no one spoke. They were all brought out of their shock at Nicole's revelation when the CSU technician, who had been in the room since the beginning, coughed awkwardly and left the room. Then:

"Are you really my uncle?"

Bobby looked at her, into her weary, bloodshot-from-crying eyes. He sighed. "I don't know. Ricky never mentioned he had a, uh, significant other, or that he was a father. We could do a paternity test. I'm sure our ME would do it. We can… we can match the DNA to Ricky's because we have his prints and DNA in the system"

Alex walked up to Lauren and wrapped her arm around the teen's shoulder. "We're going to find Nicole and put her behind bars for good. She might even get the death penalty with all the murders she's committed." She led the now shaking girl out of the bedroom and over to the couch in the living room.

Bobby, after taking the recorded phone conversation tape out of the answering machine and placing it in an evidence bag, walked over to a man in a CSU jacket about to follow the rest out after the body and said, "I want the phone records of all the pay phones in a three block radius along with fingerprints. Did you dust the fire escape?" The man nodded. "Good".

When he walked over to the girls, Lauren asked, "Why only three blocks? That woman could have been anywhere."

Bobby answered, "She could see us. She knew you put the phone on speakerphone. She had to have been close."

"Right." Lauren looked to Bobby and Alex. "Can you excuse me? I have a few phone calls to make."

Alex smiled sympathetically. "Sure." As Lauren walked back to the phone, Alex turned to Bobby, "Do you think that Nicole was telling the truth? That you and Lauren are related?"

Bobby sighed and sat down on the couch, "With Nicole, you never know, but remember how much information she got on my past with just a name and social security number?"

Alex rested her hand on her partner's arm just as Lauren came back. By way of explanation, Lauren said, "Phone's dead, and so is the battery in my cell phone."

The detectives stood up.

"Do you have anywhere you can stay tonight?" Alex asked.

Lauren looked up and shook her head. "No, I don't. My aunt and uncle live in Mount Pleasant, but during the week, my uncle has standing reservations at some hotel so he doesn't have to commute, and my aunt… well… let's just say she doesn't like me very much. I have no other relatives."

"How about any friends?"

"I'd rather not stay with them. From that one phone call, I could at least gather that woman will do anything to get to Detective Goren including harming family and quite possibly friends of family members. I don't want to put any of my friends in that kind of danger".

Alex nodded understandingly and looked over to Bobby, "I'll call Deakins, see what he thinks."

As Alex walked away, Lauren made her way over to where Bobby stood, examining the photos on the wall. He was transfixed on the one with Lauren and her aunt and uncle. After a moment, he looked down to her and pointed, "That's my cousin. At least we know that we're related by marriage."

Lauren gave a dry laugh. "Talk about small world."

Bobby smiled, "I know."

Alex walked over, "Deakins – that's our captain," she added for Lauren's benefit, "says that for the time being, Lauren should stay with one of us. Until Nicole is behind bars. What do you say to that?" The question was directed at Lauren.

"Well, I know I'd feel safer with one of you. Thanks for the offer."

Alex smiled, "You're welcome. Now how about we go to your room and pack some stuff."

"Okay. Let me get my keys first."

Bobby looked at her. "You keep your room locked?"

"Only when I'm not home for longer than ten minutes. I don't…didn't trust mom enough to not have people home when I'm not. I have some irreplaceable things in there," came the explanation.

Lauren put the key into the lock and opened the door.

"Now I know you're related to Bobby. It's a geek's heaven in here."

The teen looked to Alex with a mild expression, "Well, it's nice to know you think I'm a geek."

Two of the four walls were covered in posters advertising movies such as Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Harry Potter, and posters and news clippings of fencing tournaments and archery competitions. The other two walls sported floor to ceiling bookcases – full to bursting with books in every genre. While Alex and Lauren started packing up clothes in a gym bag, Bobby felt himself gravitating over to the bookcases.

Hardly able to contain himself, Bobby started to run his hands over the spines, reading the titles. "The Lord of the Rings, Pride and Prejudice, Charles Dickens, The Phantom of the Opera, Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, Tom Clancy, Sir Walter Scott, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Douglas Adams, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle…" he turned to Lauren. "Your collection is amazing!"

Lauren grinned, "Those Lord of the Rings books? They're first edition publication signed by the great Tolkein himself."

"Really? How'd you get them?"

Alex smirked, "Bobby calm down! Christmas is still seven months away."

Laughing, Lauren answered, "Uncle Ray spent a semester at Oxford and was in one of the professor's last classes. He found the books at a used book store and had them signed. They were my tenth birthday presesnt."

"That's amazing!"

"I know!"

When Bobby had calmed down, he took notice to the fencing and archery posters. "You fence?" he asked.

"And I'm an archer," Lauren answered, standing up and made her way over to pack some books. "My addiction to fantasy made me take up fencing at a young age. I was seven, I think. I picked up archery three years ago because my school had it as a sport."

Alex walked up to them, "Are you all packed?"

Lauren nodded. "For now I am. I'll have to come back and put the rest of this stuff in storage."

As they walked out of the appartment to the elevator, Alex asked, "What do you say to staying at my appartment? I'm not too sure that Goren here's used to living with a teenage girl."

Lauren smirked, "Think I'll run him ragged, do you?"

"Probably."

"Okay, okay, you can stop talking to me as if I'm not here," Bobby interjected exasperatedly.

Alex gave him a mock pout. "But it's fun!"

"Yeah, well, whether or not it's fun, we're at the car."

Once they all got into the car, Alex turned on the ignition and pulled out of the parking space. They had been driving for about five minutes when Bobby turned and asked, "What to you do for your extra curricular activities. Besides fencing and archery, I mean."

"Well, I took your advice and joined my school's mock trial team. I moved up from witness to principle lawyer and even got a few awards for my portrayal."

"Why'd you need Bobby's advice about a mock trial team?" Alex asked.

"It was the… uh… the third time we ran into each other, again at the bookstore. At the time, I was a deplorable public speaker. Sure, I could banter and be sarcastic with one or two people, but I'd get nauseus whenever I had to speak to more than four people at a time. It was horrible. Anyway, Detective Goren suggested that I join a club that would hone my speaking skills. The forensic team was out of the question – I didn't want to recite poetry, and the drama club I wasn't ready for. The only other option was mock trial." Lauren replied.

"A lawyer, huh?"Alex asked. "Defense or prosecution?"

"My real-life counterpart would be your ADA."

"Great, another Carver."

Lauren raised her eyebrow. "Should I be insulted?"

Bobby chuckled. "No, he's a great attorney. Oh, here's my stop." Alex pulled the car over to the curb in front of his appartment and Bobby got out. "See you tomorrow."

After Bobby left, Lauren moved to the passenger seat. They were quiet for about ten minutes when Alex decided to initiate the coversation. "So, you wanna tell me about when you met my partner?"

"Sure," Lauren replied. "Actually, it reminds me of one of those cheesy romance novels."

Alex laughed. "Really?"

"Definitely. Not that I'm interested, though."

FLASHBACK (four years previous, April, Lauren's POV)

I had just gotten home from school, and I was in a really bad mood. I failed my biology test, was late to my geometry class and got another page's worth of homework for it, and my English teacher just upped the minimum number of pages our term paper had to be (from a minimum of three pages to five pages). Not to mention the fact that my mom had a date with a shot glass and guy desperate for a lay tonight.

I quickly got changed, locked my bedroom door, grabbed my school bag and purse, and made my way out of the apartment and across the street to a combination bookstore café. Time to go book shopping for my term paper.

When I entered the store, I passed the front desk with a "Hi, Tom." I had known Tom for as long as I could remember. He even went to my eighth grade graduation. Anyway, after I passed Tom, I made my way over to the non-fiction section to search for my books. So, I got to the row that I'm looking for, and, just my luck, the book I'm looking for is about three feet above my current height of 5"2' (five feet, two inches). I reached up on my tiptoes for it, but my hand fell shy of it by roughly six inches.

I looked around for a footstool only to find none. Sighing frustratedly, I shrugged off my schoolbag and jumped. Great, I still couldn't reach it. I hate being short. I'm fifteen years old, five foot two, and I stopped growing two years ago. I jumped again. Only this time, my hand came into contact with someone else's. I looked up, and a man, around forty or so and six foot five at least, handed me my book.

"'Current Perspectives in Forensic Psychology and Criminal Justice'?" He asked, reading the cover. "Are you thinking about joining the force?"

I accepted the book. "No, it's for my term paper – due in June and worth 20 percent of my overall grade. So, have you got a name? Or should I call you 'Galahad'?" He looked like someone who would catch my reference to a knight of the Round Table.

He did, and he laughed at it. "No, not quite Galahad. Goren, Robert Goren," he introduced as he held out his hand.

I shook it. "Any relation to Bond, James Bond?"

He chuckled, "Again, no. You can call meBobby.Now that you know my name, what about you?"

I started to make my way over to the checkout counter and Bobby followed. "Wouldn't you like to know. It's Lauren. Lauren Grant."

"Well, Lauren," Bobby said, digging through his coat pocket, "if you, uh, if you need any help with that paper," he handed me a business card, "just give me a call."

I took the card and read it. "A detective?" I asked impressed. "I just might take you up on that. Where do you work?"

"Narcotics," came the answer.

"Really? Cool." I checked my watch and cursed. "I have to go. You know, lots of homework to do. I'll call you about my paper." I took the bag that contained my book and started to leave. "It was nice meeting you, Detective!"

END FLASHBACK

Alex was quiet for a minute then burst out laughing. "You're right, that does sound like a cheesy romance novel!"

Lauren grinned. "Tell me about it."

Alex calmed down and said something she had been meaning to say for the past half hour. "Lauren, I'd like to apologize for the way I acted towards you earlier. I was tired from filing paperwork all day, but I really have no excuse."

Looking over to her Lauren answered, "It's okay. Everyone has their off days. I know I've had my share. No hard feelings."

"Good. We're here."

Lauren got out of the car, grabbed her things, and followed Alex into the apartment. When they got to number 3-14, Alex opened the door and flipped on the lights. "It's not much, but it's home. I hope you don't mind sleeping on the pull-out."

Lauren shook her head. "The pull-out's fine. Um, where's you're bathroom?"

Alex pointed it out.

"Thanks."

Five minutes and one sofa bed made later, Lauren reemerged wearing her pajamas. "Thanks again for letting me stay with you, Detective."

"First, call me Alex, and second, it's no problem. I don't get much company."

"Still, thank you. Do you mind if I go to bed now? It's been a long day." Lauren asked.

Alex smiled sympathetically, "I don't mind. I understand. Goodnight, Lauren."

Lauren climbed onto the sofa bed. "'Night, Detect… Alex."

Alex smiled and turned out the light.

A/N: Ack. I don't really like this chapter. I tried to change parts, but nothing seemed right. If Alex or Bobby seem OOC, I'm still trying to get the feel of their characters. I'll try to make next chapter better. Constructive criticism is appreciated, and flames will be used to roast marshmallows.

A note about JRR Tolkien: He was a professor at Oxford University and retired in 1959. Lauren's Uncle Ray took a semester in Oxford and was between freshman and sophomore year in college during this time.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own LO:CI. It belongs to Dick Wolf, along with along with the other half of the world that doesn't belong to JK Rowling.