Special thanks goes out to Brown Eyed Girl75 for being so patient with me and betaing this for me.....You are amazing. Also, thanks to everyone who has either reviewed or added this story or my other stories to their alerts or faves. It really means a lot to me. I hope people are still interested in this. I promised chapter seven should be up quicker this time. Hope fully. Remember, read and review.


Don got up from the kitchen table and began to make his sister breakfast. He knew that he would have to leave for work soon, but decided to spend as much time with her as he possibly could before he left.

"Are you going to have lunch with Danny today?" He asked curiously.

"Hopefully, if he's not too busy." Julia still sounded tired, if not a little bit stressed out. He didn't blame her. Having to deal with their mother and the thought of having to testify at Sonny Sassone's trial was too many things for someone like her to deal with. He would have to remember when he got to work to make time to go and have a talk with Mac and the DA to find out about what they were planning on doing about his sister's testimony.

"I don't think he will be." Flack told her. "He's got no open cases. Just some reports to finish up."

"You guys must be really close."

"Why do you say that?"

"You know everything about each other. He probably knows more about you than I do." Julia thought that was the worse thing about being undercover and away from her brother for so long. Not being able to be there for him whenever he needed to.

"No, you know the most important stuff. Yeah, he's been there for broken relationships and interesting cases but you are my sister. We've been through some pretty shitty stuff together. No one will ever know me more then you do." He looked over his shoulder at her and saw her sad face light up as he spoke.

"Don't you have to get to work?"

"Yeah, are you going to be okay here today?"

"I think I can handle it." Julia answered confidently. "I've lived by myself before."

"Yeah but that was at Grams' house." Flack said "And she was there with you."

"I might do that today. I might go and see her. Why wasn't she here last night."

"She wanted me to tell you to come and visit her when you are more comfortable. She knew that you had been out in the world making a difference and wanted to give you a chance to catch back up with Dad and I first. Give her a call before you go over. I think she had some stuff planned for today as well. I'm going to go and hop in the shower. Why don't you eat and relax a bit before you go out and do anything today?"

Julia nodded as Don headed into the bathroom and closed the door. As much as she loved her brother, she was starting to feel a little smothered. She knew that it was a big deal that she was back after being gone for four years but at the same time she wasn't an invalid, she just wanted some time to herself. She had plenty of time to relax in the coming days before she started looking for a new job. She just wanted to spend some time with a few people before her schedule got too hectic.

After she ate, Julia headed into her room, got changed and left the apartment. Her first stop was going to be her grandmother's house. She giggled to her stuff as she realized that, in her head, she sounded like Little Red Riding Hood. She pulled out her cell phone and entered the most familiar number, after her brother's.

"Hello?" A timid little voice answered.

"Grams?" Julia answered just as timid.

"Is that my darling Julia?"

"Yeah Grams, it's me. How are you?"

"Sweetie, I am good. How are you doing?"

"No worse for wear. Are you busy right now?

"No, I am not. Did you want to come over and visit?"

"Yes. Actually I am on my way over there right now. So I will be over there in about 20 minutes. Is that ok with you?"

"Any time you want to come over is good for me. I will see you in a little bit."

Julia headed down the street to the subway tunnel. She knew the way to her grandmother's house off by heart. At least there was no wolf tracking her every move and waiting for her when she got there.

At the Precinct.

Don sat down at his desk and looked at the growing pile of case files. He shook his head and knew that there was no way that he was going to be leaving work, either early or even on time. He just hoped that his sister would be able to find someone to hang out with until he was able to get home. He felt a little guilty at the fact that he was treating his sister as if they were fifteen again and she needed a babysitter, but at the same time he knew that it was a little necessary.

He decided that he would start on his cases files as soon as he talked to Mac. He headed to the crime lab with the thought of telling Mac that there was no way Julia was going to testify in front of Sonny.

He walked through the halls, watching the lab rats run around doing whatever tests necessary to put the bad guys behind bars. He knew that they were the reason why they caught the bad guys and that without any of them criminals would go free.

He continued walking through the halls until he reached the head office. He knocked on the door and entered when he saw a little wave. He watched as Mac turned his back to quickly finish up his phone conversation, undoubtedly with the Chief of Detectives. He hung up the phone and looked apologetically at Don.

"Sorry about that. Sinclair wanted to know what is going on with the Sassone case."

"Well, that's why I am here." Flack told the older man.

"Something wrong with Julia?" Mac asked, with concern in his voice

"Yeah," the homicide detective admitted. "How are you guys going to be handling her testimony?"

"I'm not sure. Why?"

Don knew the different ways that Mac Taylor reacted to certain questions if he wasn't telling the whole truth. This was one of those times that Don wasn't certain whether or not he could actually trust Taylor.

"Because there is no way that she is going to be able to testify if front of Sonny. She's scared enough."

"That might be the only option," Mac informed him.

"So, you are willing to hang my sister. Everyone is willing to let my sister walk into an open courtroom, with her would be killer, and let her tell what actually happened to her. In front of everyone who she needs protecting from? Is that what you are willing to do?"

"We don't have a choice, Don." Mac said, keeping his voice calm and composed. "If there was any other way of doing it then we would. She'll be protected after the trial, for however long she needs to be."

"And what if that isn't enough?" Flack asked, "You know what Sassone's crew is like. They will take whoever out they has to. If it's me, Danny, my father, anyone. They won't care. If you are willing to let her sit and tell her story in front of him, than you are basically giving her a death sentence and I won't let that happen."

Throwing open the office door, Flack stormed into the hall and right into Danny Messer. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The last thing he needed was Danny running off and telling his sister that the only way they were going to be able to put Sonny Sassone behind bars was for her to actually sit in front of him.

"Please tell me that I didn't just hear what I think I heard." Danny implored.

"Well, if you heard the fact that this whole department is willing to put my sister in front of someone who wanted her dead and thinks that she is, then yes you heard right." Flack snapped

"That's impossible. They can't. There is no way that Julia is going to be capable of testifying in front of Sassone."

"I know. But apparently that is the only way that they are willing to do anything."

"Don listen," Mac said, as he appeared in the doorway of his office. "The DA and I have discussed this. There is no other way that we can do this. If there were we would do it. You have to know that." Mac said standing in the doorway of his office.

"Have you even tried to talk to the judge?" The detective asked angrily. "Or did that not even come into your mind when you were deciding my sister's fate?"

"The DA has been trying to meet with him all day but he's too busy." Mac replied.

"So instead of waiting for an opportunity to be able and talk with the judge, you are already going ahead with the fact that Julia is going to have to testify? Do you really want her death on your conscience?" Don was starting to lose his patience. He knew that if the wrong person found out that Julia was going to have to testify and it got back to her, there was no telling what she would do or where she would go.

"You realize, she finds out about this, she is going to disappear and when she does, she will make sure that you can't find her?" Danny asked looking at his boss. "And then you know what will happen? We won't be able to put the final nail in Sonny Sassone's coffin and all of this would have been for nothing."

At this point, Mac realized that there was no way that he was going to be able to reason with the males. He knew that they both cared deeply for the girl but at the same time they had to realize that this was the only option.

"If the DA comes back to me with another option then fine, I will be the first to apologize," Mac told them. "But until then, I am going to need to talk with your sister, Don and so will the DA."

"Be prepared for a fight, because not only will you have Messer and I fighting this but you will also have my father." Don warned, and turning around, stormed out of the crime lab. The first person he was going to have to call was going to be his father. The one person Don knew could fix the entire mess.

As soon as he got back to his desk, Don picked up the phone and called the most familiar number in his mind. He waited as it rang and rang; he was quickly becoming very impatient.

Just as he was about to hang up and try again later, someone picked up the phone. "Hello, Flack residence."

"Hey Mama, is Dad there?"

"Oh, Donnie. How is work going?"

"Not very well at the moment. Listen mom, as much as I want to talk, I really need to talk to dad about something important."

"Ok honey, just a minute and I will get him."

A few minutes later, the Flack patriarch got on the phone. "Don, what's going on?"

"We have a very bad situation. Taylor and the DA want Jules to testify at Sassone's hearing."

"She can't. She is supposed to be dead."

"I know that, Dad. But apparently, that doesn't matter to anyone. They just want to throw her to the wolves and they don't care if she gets hurt in the process."

"Where is your sister now?" His father asked.

"She was heading to Grams' house after eating. I haven't talked to her since before I left so I don't know if she got there ok."

"Alright, here's what we are going to do. I want to meet you so that we can discuss what is going on. Can you leave now?"

Don looked around his desk at all the paperwork that was covering the perimeter. He knew at that moment that figuring out what they were going to do about his sister was more important than the paperwork that was quickly piling up. "Yeah, I can meet you now." He responded.

The Flack males hung up the phones and made their ways to the destinations. Both knowing that this was going to turn into a matter of life and death in the matter of an instant.

Meanwhile on the other side of the city.

Julie walked up to the one house where she was always accepted. The one thing she loved about her grandmother was that no matter what was going on, she loved her granddaughter with everything she had.

Julie knew that her grandma Flack would always be there. Whenever times got tough at home with her mother, Julie would always end up at her grandmothers.

The one thing that you would never do if you were a relative of Margaret Flack's is knock on the door. Julie walked into her childhood dream home and smiled at the smell of baking drifting through the air. She knew that since her grandmother had known she was back, she had probably been baking.

She walked into the kitchen and saw the woman she always wished was her mother. She leaned against the doorway and watched at her grandmother walked gracefully throughout her kitchen, grabbing ingredients, remembering how much she loved helping her grandmother in the kitchen as a child.

"You know dear, it's not nice to stare at people and scare them."

"I'm sorry grams, I was just remembering some thing from the old days."

"You make it sound as if you are my age." Her grandmother chuckled.

"Some days, grams, I feel like it after what I have been through."

Julie walked over to her grandmother and gave her the biggest hug she possibly could. She was glad that she was back in the arms of someone who loved her unconditionally.


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