Don Flack was walking down the hall of the crime lab, about to leave, when he saw Lindsay in her office. She had just slammed her phone down, looking frustrated. Concerned about his close friend, Flack headed to the office instead of the elevators.

"Hey Linds, what's up?" he asked as he stood in the doorway and watched as she ran her hand down her face.

"There's this wedding tomorrow and I find out this morning that the dress Lucy was going to wear doesn't fit her anymore. But Danny and I can't take her shopping because we're both really busy with work since we both have tomorrow off, and everyone who usually watches Lucy are busy, too," Lindsay explained.

"I can take her," Flack offered. "I've got the afternoon off, so I have the time."

"Are you sure taking a five year old shopping for dresses is how you want to spend your afternoon off?" Lindsay asked.

"I'd do anything for my favorite niece," he said, grinning. Lindsay smiled back.

"Thank you so much, Flack," she said before handing him a small piece of paper, "That has her size and the list of colors that the dresses are allowed to be. Why the bride decided to make the wedding color coordinated, I'll never know."

"Alright, got it. Where is Lucy right now?" Flack asked.

"In Mac's office. Thanks again for this. I owe you."

"Hey, it's no problem."

_____________________________________________

"What do you think of this one?" Flack asked as he held up a purple dress to show Lucy. She made a face when she saw it.

"It's ugly. All of 'em are ugly. I hate dresses. Why do i hafta wear one?" she asked. Flack sighed as he put the dress back on the rack. He should have known this wouldn't be easy. Wearing Converse, jeans, and a Yankees t-shirt, it was obvious to see that Lucy was a tomboy who would not be caught wearing a frilly dress. And since this was the seventh dress she had turned down, Flack was beginning to wonder if Danny and Lindsay were lying about being busy today. They probably just didn't want to deal with their daughter's stubborness. And at this point, he didn't blame them.

"Luce, you have to wear clothes like this to a wedding. So come on, if you had to pick any of these dresses, which would you choose?"

Lucy rolled her eyes as she began looking through the dresses. "I guess this one's not as bad as the rest," she said, picking out a green dress. Flack looked at the list of allowed colors and sighed in relief when he saw that green was acceptable.

"Great, now go try it on. And if you don't complain too much, I'll take you to get ice cream."

_____________________________________________

About ten minutes later, Flack and Lucy were heading to the register of Macy's, dress in hand. Just as they were about to reach it, Lucy stopped.

"Where's Harry?" she asked.

Flack turned around and saw that Lucy had a worried look on her face. "Who's Harry?"

"Harry the Hippo, duh!" she stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Flack thought about what she had said, then he realized she was talking about her stuffed hippo. Lucy had that thing since she was born. Danny had gotten it when he decided to basically buy the entire baby store after he found Lindsay was pregnant. No one expected Lucy to get as attached as she did. She wouldn't go anywhere without it. It was her security blanket. And now Flack realized that she had the hippo when they entered the store, but now she didn't.

"Do you know where you had it last?"

"He, not it!" she corrected, "And I don't remember. Someone must have taken him!"

"Or you could have dropped him."

Lucy shook her head. "Why would I do that? I'm a good mommy. Oh no, he must have been hipponapped!" she said loudly. A couple of people close by gave her strange looks. Flack just gave the people a smile. "Uncle Flack, you've gotta tell people! Make sure the news knows! Tell people in the store to be on the lookout! No one's leavin' with my hippo."

Flack couldn't help but laught at the little girl's determination.

"You can't be laughin'! This is serious," she said, giving him a glare to show that this was no laughing matter.

"Okay, okay, but sweetie, how am I supposed to do those things?" he asked.

"You can show your badge to people. Question 'em. That's what Daddy tells me he does, and you pretty much do the same thing as him, right? So Uncle Flack, go do your job!"

"Yeah, but that's usually when I'm asking questions about people, not hippos," he said. When he saw the disappointed look on Lucy's face, he let out a defeated sigh. "Okay, come on, I'll talk to the lady at the register."

Lucy grinned as Flack pulled out his badge and walked up to the register.

"Can I help you?" the attractive young woman asked.

"Yeah, I'm Detective Flack," he said, showing her the badge. "I have to report a missing, uh, person."

The woman looked shocked. "Someone went missing here? In the store?" Flack nodded. "Okay, I'll alert people over the intercom. This is a big store, I'm sure the person is here somewhere. Now what's the person's description?"

Flack thought a couple of seconds about how to describe him.

"Well, he's pretty short, and fat. He's got two large front teeth. He's pretty, uh, gray. And he responds to the name of Harry," Flack said.

"Okay, so he's short and fat, has two large front teeth, has gray hair, and responds to the name of Harry. Harry what?"

"Uh, Hippo. Harry Hippo," Flack responded. The woman gave him a strange look.

"What an odd last name. What's his nationality?" she asked.

"He's a hippopopamus," Lucy piped in.

"A what?"

A hippopotamus," Flack said. He could feel his entire face turning bright red.

"Is this some kind of joke?" the lady asked, glaring at him.

"You'd think so, now wouldn't you?" Flack said, laughing a bit. When he saw that the woman was still glaring at him, he quit. "Look, my niece here lost her favorite stuffed hippo. It means the world to her, and I'd really appreciate it if you used your little intercom thing to let people in the store know."

"Look sir, I--"

"Listen," Flack began, glancing at the woman's nametag on her shirt, "Listen Rebecca, do you mind if I call you that? Well, if you do this for me, I promise you I'll make sure it's worth it for you. How's dinner at seven on Friday?"

Flack grinned and he could see the woman blush.

"It's a good thing you're cute," she said as she picked up the phone. "Attention shoppers, please be on the lookout for a stuffed hippo. If found, please come to the second floor in the children's department."

Flack looked down at Lucy and saw her beaming up at him.

"Now is there anything else I can help you with?" Rebecca asked, still blushing from before.

"Yeah, I'd like to buy this dress, and I'd like your number so I can call you about Friday."

________________________________________________

After twenty minutes of waiting, Flack was about to go to the toy store and buy a new hippo for Lucy. Only when he looked at Lucy and saw how hopeful she was, he knew he couldn't. Besides, a new hippo couldn't replace the memories she had with the old one.

"Excuse me."

Flack and Lucy both turned around. Lucy's eyes lit up when she saw what the man who had spoken to them was holding in his hands.

"Are you the people looking for the hippo?" the man asked.

Lucy nodded and ran over to the man, taking the hippo from his hands. She held it tightly, then walked away.

"Luce, don't you think you should thank this man? He brought Harry back," Flack said, pointing to the kind stranger. Lucy looked at the man, then at Flack. She tugged on his pant leg, wanting him to bend down to her level so she could whisper something in his ear.

"He might be a suspect. I think we've gotta question him," she whispered.

"But he brought Harry back. If he wanted to do bad things to Harry, he probably wouldn't bring him back," Flack said, hoping Lucy would just let him go. She wouldn't.

"It's better to be safe than sorry, right?" she asked. Flack sighed and nodded. As he walked over to the man, he made a mental reminder to talk to Danny about him telling Lucy so much about their jobs.

"Sir, I know this is going to sound odd, but my niece wants to question you. I know, it's crazy, but you see, I'm a detective and--"

"I understand," the man said, giving Flack a kind smile, "I've got a daughter about that age, so I know what it's like."

Flack smiled in appreciation, then he motioned for Lucy to come join them. "Alright Lucy, question away."

"Okay mister, where'd you find Harry?" Lucy asked first.

"On the elevator," the man answered.

"Really? Are you sure you didn't snatch him right out of my hands?" she questioned, using lots of hand gestures. Flack had to laugh to himself about how much she reminded him of Danny at this moment. He could see her growing up and becoming a detective.

"No, I really did just find him on the elevator."

Lucy nodded and thought about what the man said.

"So then why'd you pick my hippo up? Was it to steal him? Or to hurt him?" Lucy asked in a loud voice. The man shook his head.

"No, I heard that there was a missing hippo, and my intention was to bring him back to his owner, which I have," he said.

Lucy then looked at Flack. "Uncle Flack, I think this man's innocent," she declared.

"You know what Luce? I think he is too."

Lucy turned back to the man. "Thanks for finding my hippo!"

"No problem. You take care of that hippo now, okay?" he said.

"Oh, don't worry. I will," Lucy said, smiling. She turned and began to skip off to the elevators. Flack thanked the man again and went to go join his niece.

_________________________________________________

"Mommy, Mommy, guess what!"

Lindsay turned away from her computer screen and smiled when she saw her daughter running to her, Flack following close behind with a shopping bag in his hand.

"What, baby?" she asked, laughing at how hyper the five year old was.

"Uncle Flack got a date with the Macy's lady, and I got to question a suspect!" she said, grinning proudly at her accomplishment of handling her first ever suspect. Lindsay gave Flack a confused look as Lucy continued to talk, "And then I got ice cream! Mint chocolate chip, my favorite. Is Daddy here? I wanna tell him about my suspect! Uncle Flack says he'll be proud."

"Uh, yeah, he's down the hall with Stella," she answered. She watched as Lucy ran out of the room to find Danny, then she turned her attention to Flack.

"All I wanted you to do was get her a dress. What happened?" she asked, an amused look forming on her face.

"Well you see, it all has to do with that damn hippo Danny got her...."