When Miller and Vera returned with the news that the daughter had left that night with a gun, the gun that had possibly killed Clarice, Lilly and Scotty were even more anxious to go talk to Marissa Harvard.

"C'mon Lil, this kid has some explain'n to do," Scotty said as they left the building and headed towards the parking lot.

"You drivin'?" Lilly asked as they neared the silver SUV they were driving to the apartments.

"Yeah…well, unless you wanna," he answered.

"Wouldn't have asked if I wanted to," she replied, opening the door and sitting in passenger seat.

Scotty couldn't help but smiling; he was always in a better mood when Lil was.

"Coming?" she called when she noticed that he was still standing behind the vehicle.

"Yeah, yeah jus' thinkin'," he muttered before jogging up to the driver's seat and getting in.

After driving in an awkward silence for about five minutes Lilly, surprisingly, started up a conversation. "Soo, are you going to tell me?" she questioned, crossing her arms and studying her partner.

"Tell ya what?" he was genuinely confused and he looked back and forth between his partner and the road.
"What you were thinking about back there," she deadpanned, still smiling, Scotty didn't think he'd ever seen Lilly smile this much.

"Just glad you're in a good mood and not biting my head off!" he joked, but Lilly could tell he was serious too.

She turned and faced the window, staring outside and didn't say anything for a couple seconds. "I'm not in that bad of moods," she finally murmured. Her voice sounded full of emotion, which was very rare for Lilly.

"Hey, don't take it seriously - even I become pretty mean when I don't get my coffee," he joked, trying to lighten up the mood.

"Am I really that rude?" she asked, not letting him change the subject.

"Nahh, like I said, only a joke," he said, regretting saying it in the first place. He was glad when Lilly smiled, letting him think she dropped it.

"You're lucky you brought me my coffee then, or else you'd be decapitated by now," she said, her voice only semi-joking - the other part still sounded mad.

"Ouch," Scotty murmured, but at least she wasn't pissed at him right?

"Here's the place," Lilly said, her mind totally back on the case.

As the neared the place they couldn't help noticing they were in one of the nicer neighbourhoods; how could an eighteen-year-old make enough money to afford a place like this, especially if she had ran away at thirteen and hadn't been in any foster homes? The detectives weren't even sure if she had finished high school.

They walked up the front steps, pressed the buzzer and waited for a reply.

"Hello?" came a definite female voice.

"Hi Marissa, it's detective Rush and Valens, may we please come in?" Lilly buzzed back.

"Yes, of course," came her polite reply.

Lilly and Scotty knocked on the apartment door with the number 26 on it; it opened to reveal a young lady. She wore a pair of black dress pants and a white blouse, she had her blond hair let loose around her shoulders, at the ends it curled inward. For a second her image changed to that of a thirteen-year-old girl with black dyed hair and dark eye liner, her black blouse replaced with a black, long sleeved shirt.

"Hi, my name's Marissa, please come in," she greeted, opening the door wide so they could enter.

"Hi Marissa, I'm Lilly Rush and this is Scotty Valens, my partner," Lilly said, walking into the apartment - it looked much nicer than any eighteen-year-old's home either of them had ever seen.

"We have a couple questions to ask about your mother, Clarice Harvard," Scotty started. He watched as a series of emotions crossed her face, most of them anger.

"I disowned my mother years ago. The Clarice Harvard I loved as a child seemed to leave after the 'shit' as she calls it happened…why what did she do now?" she forced out.

"Nothing, she died five years ago, and could you please tell us about what happened December 16th, 2003?" Lilly asked, her voice going slightly cold.

"Oh my God, she's dead? She can't be, no, she can't be!" Marissa yelled at them.

"Keep it down!" Lilly demanded.

"Sorry…" the girl replied, "b-but she died thinking I hated her!"

"I'm sure she knew that you loved her." Lilly tried to comfort her, but not being very emotional or touchy she had a hard time. As she walked over to pat the girl on the back she was pulled into a tight hug.

Scotty almost laughed as he saw the panicked look cross her features. "It's just a hug, they don't bite," he teased her, and watched as she slowly started hugging back, patting the girl on the back.

Suddenly the girl sat up straight. "You said December 16th?" she asked them urgently.

"Yeah" Scotty replied, as Lilly was still trying to recuperate from her hug.

"That's the day he came…" she mumbled "but I hadn't seen him since..."

July 15, 1998

A scared eight-year-old Marissa watched her parents fight in the living room - they had a nice house then, they knew nice people and lived in a good neighbourhood.

"How could you!" her mother screamed at her father, pushing him backwards against the wall. "We broke up three months ago, I told you I never wanted to see you again!"

"But we took vows!" he yelled.

"If you ever loved me you would have left, not done this…I hate you!" she screamed back at him.

"You …"

"Get out of my house!" she uttered, her voice sounded like she was resisting the urge to kill him.

"Marissa come on!" he yelled at her.

Realizing that she was found out she ran out. "I'm staying with mommy," she said quietly, holding her mothers hand.

"You'll regret this," he said to her mother.

"You shouldn't have raped me…then you could have seen your daughter…now get out, I'm buying a gun, and if I ever, ever see you again, I will not hesitate to shoot you."

"Your mother was raped?" Lilly asked, her voice quiet.

"Yeah, it's where Little Benny came from, is…is Benny ok?" she asked, tears coming into her eyes. " I knew I should have taken him."

"He's living with another family now, but I'm sure he'd love to see you - you're the only family he has left alive," Lilly replied.

"Hey, by the way, what happened to that gun? The one you took with you when you left?" Scotty asked.

"It was taken from me that day by the neighbour - he saw me leave and asked my why I had a gun - I think he thought I was suicidal, so he took it, said he'd keep it...he even gave me money…told me to work things out with my mom."

"The neighbour, eh?"

"So, how did you afford this place - I mean you were too young to have a good job, and do school, obviously…"

"So how did I get the good job I have now, without schooling?" she supplied the rest of Lilly's question.
"I did home schooling and got a job for the first couple years. I graduated two years ago, and I only moved back here for a job interview, which I got, so I stayed," she replied with a bittersweet smile. "When I was twenty I was going to go see my mom and Benny, show them how good I was doing."

"Well I'm sure she'd be proud," Lilly said as they left.

As they sat in the car on the way back Scotty wished she'd say something, but she was staring out of the windshield and completely ignoring the rest of the world. "I'm the one driving Lil, why you staring at the road?" he asked her lightly, not looking at her - he didn't want to see the glare that he was sure would follow.

"Just thinking," she replied. She sounded far off.

"About?"

"About why I'm in a good mood," she answered.

"And why are you in a good mood?" he dared, hoping it wasn't another boyfriend; he didn't know why but he always got upset when his friend had a guy. Admittedly there had only been about four, but hey, that was four too many for him…"Wait, what?" he questioned himself.

"Because I got my coffee this mornin'," she teased with a big dazzling smile; she really was in a good mood.

A/N-Okay, Scotty and Lily talked to the daughter, please tell me if they were OOC, I was trying to make them nice to each other without making it seem unrealistic compared to the show. Tell me what you think…and a special thanks to penny4him and cyn23.