This chapter spends a bit more time focused on Lila, I'll get back into the case in the next chapter but for now enjoy! Please Review :) !!

Laila

"So tell me again why I had to tell Lena that I, in fact, could not come up to her apartment for a night cap?" A very beaten Flack inquired from the doorway of the lab.

Danny flew back and forth past him as he tore apart file after file occasionally muttering profanities under his breath.

"I've see him before"

"Who?"

"The guy"

"What guy?" Flack asked completely confused

"The guy, the "friend", the jag off"

"Look man, you gotta settle down, I mean Jesus, what is it with you and this girl?"

Danny finally stopped moving, sat down and dropped his head into his hands.

"I don't know it's just…something –"

"Doesn't feel right I know your spider senses are tingling. But come on man, even if she needs it she doesn't want help. I mean, do you even know her name or are we still looking for a hot chick named Jen?"

"Lila." Danny muttered muffled.

"Lila? Lila what?"

"I don't know, I don't know alright."

Flack sighed and sat down across from Danny.

"You're getting yourself all worked up over this chick who you don't even know and meanwhile you've already got what appears to be the makings of a serial killer piling up cases on your desk, when is it enough man?"

Danny put his head on the table, after a moment he stood up abruptly and flung his chair into the filing cabinet.

"I need some air." And with that he left the room.

"Yea you go get your air, me I needed to get laid, but you, go ahead buddy get your precious air." Flack stopped talking to himself once his phone rang.

"Flack" he answered "Who? Wait say that name again? Oh you gotta be kidding me."

"Where's Jen?" Lila asked quietly as she tried to scoot as far away from her "Friend" as humanly possible.

"Don't worry about her baby." The man started to slide his hand up her thigh."

"Damian you promised."

"And you promised me some things baby cakes."

"I do everything you ask me to."

Damian laughed in a way that made Lila's skin crawl.

"Now Lila, you're too pretty a woman to lie." He leaned in and started kissing her neck.

"Damian stop it! I mean it get the fuck off me!" She tried to shove him off her but he had her quickly pinned by the wrists against the window.

"What are you doing?!"

"What am I doing? I'm exercising my right to access my property."

"Your property? Damian – you want property invest in a condo."

"You're one of my girls Lila and as one of my girls certain things are expected of you."

"I'm not a whore."

Damian laughed at this but never loosened his grip.

"No you're not. Whores do not get paid as well as you would have, had you not been so rude to my friends Thursday night."

"Yeah well you never said anything about having to fuck you low life associates when I agreed to help you out."

Damian removed one hand just long enough to slap her across the face. She immediately brought her knees to her chest and in doing so forced him off her with a painful groan. Shaking she fumbled with the door handle before it finally gave way and swung open. The driver slammed on the brakes sending her backwards onto the curb. She cried out in pain.

"Get up." Damian stood over her and popped a stick of gum into his mouth casually.

"I said Get up." He gave her a swift kick to her ribs. Tears began to surface in the corner of her eyes from the pain.

"Okay fine." He pulled her up and slammed her into the wall. Too weak to fight, Lila did her best to remain conscious. Her ribs and head throbbed.

Slowly he unbuttoned her jacket, ripped it off and tossed it to the driver who was keeping watch.

"I thought that was a gift Damian" she managed to get out with a sarcastic smirk

Damian backhanded her across the cheek.

"I had higher hopes for you Lila. Girls like Jen, your friend, they're one in ten but you…you were gonna turn a pretty profit."

"Boss" the driver warned. Someone was coming.

"Why'd you have to screw it all up?"

"I'd rather be dead than earn you one cent."

"Careful baby, you never know who might be listening."

With one last shove into the bricks Damian retreated to his car. As they pulled away Lila finally broke down, exhausted and in pain she sunk down the wall to the ground. A rat skidded past her and she shot up sending shockwaves through her battered ribcage.

Each step took effort but she began her walk home.

"Damn girl you busted up!" Tamika, the resident Queen of their Queens apartment lingered in the doorway of the building.

"Not now Tammy, did you happen to see Jen come in?"

"No sugar, but its only 11:00"

Lila closed her eyes feeling woozy from the 90 minute walk home.

"And what are you doing without a coat, girl did you get mugged or something?"

"No Tammy, I just need some sleep"

"Girl I don't know when the last time you checked yourself out in a mirror was, but you don't need sleep you need stitches."

"It's not that bad"

"Come on" Tammy linked arms with Lila and helped her the rest of the way. Once inside the apartment Lila crawled into her bed.

"First we gotta take care of your face, where are your bandaids?"

"Screw the bandaids; find me some pills and maybe a little vodka to wash them down."

"Oh sweetie, what happened, come on now, talk to Tammy."

"Tammy my body hurts too much to talk right now."

"Alright, then let's just get you out of this dress."

Too tired to fight, Lila allowed Tamika to help her out of her dress.

"Oh good lord child" She breathed in shock

"It's not as bad as it looks"

Tamika scoffed "Uh honey, have you seen this because I got a great pair of heels that go with the colors of this bruise."

"You're not funny."

"Course I am – you just confused from the extreme pain I know you must be in." She shook her head, "Lila honey, you gotta go to the hospital."

"No, I gotta go to work in 6 hours."

"If by work you mean a doctor then okay"

"Tammy…"

"Alright, just give Tammy a minute to think…Oh! I might have an ace bandage lying around my boudoir from when I sprained my leg a month ago."

"You sprained your leg?"

"Yes, and you do not want to ask me how."

"You're right I don't."

Tamika left to grab the bandage while Lila lay in her bed trying to decide what horrible things she'd done in a past life to justify her current one.

"So, what's new?" Tamika asked as casually as possible once she began wrapping up Lila's ribs.

Lila let out a short laugh.

"I hear there's a new man in your life"

"No you didn't"

"You're right; I found his business card next to the ibuprofen. So who is he?"

"Just a guy I keep bumping into and I do mean that in a completely non sexual way so wipe the smirk off your face."

"Is he cute?"

"Very"

"Nice?"

"Very"

"Rich?"

"Tamika how the hell should I know, I don't even know what he really does for a living, I think he's some sort of cop or something."

"No he's a CSI, he investigates the crime scenes."

"How is it you know that?"

"The business card girl!"

"Oh. Right."

"So you gonna call him?"

"Nope"

"Lila…"

"Tammy please, I need to sleep and my face looks like Rocky Balboa's after a rough match."

"Alright sweetie, you're all cleaned up, get some rest."

"Thank you Tammy"

"It ain't nothin "

And with that Tammy left Lila to her peaceful suffering.

A cell phone vibrates before going to voicemail on the corner of a nightstand. In the background the morning news report is blaring off the TV, the bathroom door is slightly ajar and steam is flowing out into the bedroom.

"Danny, its Flack. Give me a call back when you get this, I tried to call you last night but I got a little tied up…literally. "Flack laughed into the phone suggestively before clearing his throat..." Anyhow, I think you may be onto something with all your angsty brooding, that girl is either in trouble or about to be. I got a name back on that second car. You're gonna wanna hear this."

A few minutes later Danny, clad in only a towel came out of the bathroom. He quickly got dressed pocketing his cell phone; keys and wallet in one fell swoop off the night stand not noticing the missed call alert.

Lila was drying her 4th load of dishes that hour when she managed once more to catch her own reflection in the glass in front of her. For the 20th time, she had startled even herself, unable to recognize her own face. One eye was practically swollen shut and the make up did nothing to hide the bruising or swelling. But on an up note, she'd made it to work before Jen even got home from work.

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Tiffany filing her nails.

"Hey Tiff, the delivery truck is out back, you mind helping unload this week, I'm really not feeling well."

"Aw Lila I would but I just had my nails done" Finally she looked up "OMG what happened to your face?!" Tiffany asked in horror.

"It's nothing"

"It is NOT nothing, were you like attacked or something?" she pratically screamed as she lunged off her stool towards Lila, who had already begun to shrink back in anticipation of the outburst.

"No – nothing like that."

"You look like…like"

"Absolute hell I know, are you sure you can't unload the truck?"

The look of despair on Tiffany's face was evident; she was clearly fighting with her conscience. She should help but she didn't lift things. Lila thought she'd put her out of her misery.

"You know what, never mind, I've got it."

"Are you sure?"

"Yea I'm sure."

Lila took off her apron and headed out back.

"Hey uh, Tiffany right?" Danny approached the counter

"Uh huh" she responded absentmindedly while flipping through a Cosmo

"No early morning rush today?"

"Nah, they're all off this week."

"Listen is uh, Lila working?"

"Yeah she's out back unloading the truck the poor thing, her face is all messed up." She waved a hand in front of her face and gave Danny a strange look.

"What do you mean?"

Tiffany shrugged "Go see for yourself she looks like someone- "

Danny didn't wait to hear the rest. He made his way to the back and out the door.

One look at her and the blood in his veins began to boil.

"Who did that to you? Your 'friend'?" He was fuming.

Lila jumped and put out the cigarette she'd been smoking.

"Jesus, why are you everywhere?!"

"Just answer my question Lila, who did that to your face?!"

"Look, it's none of your business and it's not your problem. I already told you I don't want or need your help."

Danny had noticed the way she'd been moving, or not really moving, rather. He wanted to test his theory.

"You don't need my help?" Danny stepped in between her and the back of the truck. "Cause I can help you unload this stuff" he offered.

"It's not necessary I'm fine."

"You sure cause you don't look fine" Danny crossed his arms and stared her down.

"I said I'm fine Danny give me the box"

He hesitated for a moment before lifting a box off the top and handing it to her, it couldn't have weighed more than 5 lbs. She held onto it for only a moment before the pain became too intense to outlast her pride. She started to lose her grip and Danny quickly took the box and threw it back on the truck before helping her sit down.

"I must have pulled a muscle."

"Well why don't we take you to a doctor and he can tell us what you pulled."

"That's not a good idea"

"Why not?"

"Well for starters it's unnecessary, not to mention I'm working and just do not have the time to waste –"

"Why won't you talk to me, I'm telling you I can help you. I've been in situations…" He started but she cut him off.

"You've been where Danny? Where?! You can't just barge into my life and demand cooperation from me; I don't know you and I don't owe you anything. That works both ways. You asked me out I said no, stop coming to my job and stop trying to fix a situation that is so far past repairable that God himself would have trouble dealing with it."

"Lila –"

"No Danny, just go away and leave me alone. I mean it. You're just going to end up in trouble."

With that she turned and walked back inside locking the door after her. She calmly made her way to the employee bathroom where she broke down. Splashing some water in her face, Lila gave herself a good once over. Fresh tears came to her eyes when she lifted her shirt and saw the bruising creep out from under the ace bandage. Something was stewing inside her, fear and now guilt. She was afraid, too scared to ask for help, too proud to apologize. So she stayed in the bathroom for the better part of an hour and no one came looking for her. Part of her rejoiced in the safety of this solitude, while the other all of a sudden felt very alone.

Reviews please :)