Iota's hand remains halfway in the air for a moment. She looks up at the nurse, is she expected to do anything? Nurse Alexander just smiles at her, a smile that tries to say: whatever you do, it's okay. Iota looks around, sees the man who cuffed her father sitting at a table in the farthest corner. She looks at the nurse again, then back at Mac. Is he waiting for her? He doesn't look at her; he looks at someone else in the room.

Iota lets her eyes wander around the room, wondering who he is looking at. Then she sees the woman who was hurt in her bedroom. She takes an almost hasty step towards Stella, pauses, when nobody calls her back she takes another step. Another pause, another step, she turns around to look at the nurse again. Nurse Alexander is still smiling, nothing wrong with what she's doing. Iota looks at Stella again, who looks back at her with a welcoming smile. Every step that closes the distance between them is accompanied by a pause, each pause shorter than the one before.

They are eye to eye now. Stella's eyes are not the color of her mother's, but they are equally kind. Iota reaches out carefully and stops her hand right over where she knows the wound is, brushing the fabric only when Stella breathes in. Stella blinks quickly to fight back the tears. She takes the little hand and pushes it down on her blouse.

"It's okay, it doesn't hurt." she whispers. Not as much as you must be hurting, she thinks.

Iota looks directly into Stella's eyes, then she reaches up and wraps her little arms around Stella's neck. Stella pulls her closer and lifts her up a little to let the girl sit on her left leg. They remain silent in their embrace, with Iota resting her head on Stella's shoulder and Stella inclining her head so that her curls shield them both.

Mac stops watching them only for a moment when he realizes that Nurse Alexander has come to the table, smiling warmly. "You were right." she says simply.

Mac hears respect in her voice. "So do you think it would be okay to come for more visits?" he asks without looking at her. His eyes are on Stella and Iota again.

"Definitely!" They watch in silence for a moment before she continues, "Do you know yet when the funeral will be? Maybe Ms Bonasera could take Iota. I'll come too, of course, but I'm sure Ms Bonasera can offer her more comfort."

Now it's Mac's turn to smile warmly, "I'll let you know as soon as we can release the deceased for burial, and I'm sure Stella, Ms Bonasera, will be there."

--

Danny and Adam meet Lindsay in the hallway when they come back from processing Michael Bloom's shed.

"Hey Lindsay, how was the interview?" Danny asks.

"Uhm, well. Why don't you put that stuff in the layout room? I'll take care of it in a moment." she replies pointing to their bags and makes an escape towards the restroom.

Danny and Adam look at each other and shrug, although Danny has some idea what happened. They come past the break room on the way to the layout room and see Flack inside. He's munching on a chocolate bar with more force than is actually necessary. That confirms Danny's suspicion.

"Hey Flack, did Lindsay walk out on you during the interrogation?" he asks.

"Actually, no, she just beat me to the door." Flack says between bites, "I know I should be checking that bastard's alibi now, but if it checks out we can't hold him any longer and …, it should be illegal to annoy me!" he finishes of his rant and the chocolate bar.

Danny chuckles, while Adam cringes a little and thinks that an annoyed Flack should indeed be illegal.

"Anyway," Flack is calming down quickly, possibly due to the serotonin in the chocolate, "I've got the search warrant for Stuart Miller's place. Hope you'll find something useful there. No luck with the keys, only Marina's brother has a spare one, and he was definitely out of town, ended his business trip early when he heard what happened."

"And the key wasn't stolen?" Danny asks, "I mean, you never know."

"Not this time, he actually had it with him on the trip. Not everybody is as careless as Michael Bloom." Flack frowns again thinking of that guy.

"Oh well, yeah." Danny is reminded of the bags of evidence they are still carrying, "The locker was most likely forced open with one of the tools he kept in the shed."

"Under the circumstances it's kind of strange though that Bloom did not keep any bullets in the locker or the shed. He had them in the house." Adam joins in the conversation, "I'm telling you, DNA is a lot easier to understand than human behavior. Speaking of which, the results from the skin tissue and the blood on the knife should be ready. Can I just give you these?" Not waiting for an answer he passes the bags he's been carrying to Flack.

"You still here?" Lindsay asks, coming back from the restroom, "Come along now, show me what you've got."

Danny and Flack follow her to the layout room. "You know you'll be stuck here for a while." Danny grins.

"I'm fine with that, actually. I'm done talking to people for today." She hastily adds, "Excluding you, of course. But you'll be going to Stuart Miller's place anyway, won't you? Mac put Hawkes in charge and officially this is about what happened to Iota …"

Thinking of the girl immediately darkens their mood. Danny begins emptying the bags onto the layout table and sits down with Lindsay to examine the evidence he and Adam have gathered. Flack leaves to find out if anybody at the game on Monday remembers seeing Manuel Sans.

Thanks for reading, as usual reviews are much appreciated. You can start anytime, though you know what they say about now being the right moment ;-)