The air was filled with the sounds of beeping cars, ruffling plastic bags, and people going through their days. A brunette and a blonde man walked out of a Chinatown shop just as the first snow began flurrying.

"Sorry again about the stove, I swear I make the best pancakes when the gas isn't freaking out." Kim said.

"Hey, what's living in New York without a two dollar dumpling breakfast once in a while?" Jake asked.

"So you've got an audition today?"

"Yup, for a Coke commercial. My agent says I should wear surfer gear for it- I've got a Hawaiian shirt, so I hope that's fine."

"It probably is. Plus the fact that you're blonde and tan in the middle of winter helps. How long were you here before you found an agent?"

"About eight months I think. I met her at a showcase of my last theatre company, actually."

"That's so awesome. God, I need to find an agent, but there's so many roads that just lead to dead ends."

"Yeah, it's tough out in the talent ocean but just keep swimming through. If you ever need any tips, you know where to find me."

"Talent ocean?" Kim giggled.

Jake looked at her blankly. "Something wrong with that?"

Realizing he wasn't kidding, she sobered up and tried to backpedal. "Oh I just mean, I haven't heard that used before."

In a serious context anyway, she added mentally.

"It's true babe, it's vast and deep so you gotta learn how to sail it."

"Got it." Kim nodded, holding off judgement until at least the fourth or fifth date. "Well break a leg today. Wanna get together and practice for the audition this weekend?"

"Sounds great, just give me a ring." He bent his head down and kissed her before walking off in the opposite direction.

"What a great ass." Kim muttered to herself, watching him walk away before walking two doors down back to her apartment. She called Christine to tell her that she had slept with him before even taking off her jacket.


Dan sat at the prosecutor's desk with his arms folded behind his head. Christine sat across, looking at photos and cooing all the while.

"What've you got there, Christine?" Bull asked her.

She looked up, smiling. "Just a few pictures my sister sent me of my new nephew." Bull crossed to her and loomed over her shoulder.

"Hey, those are awfully cute." he said.

"I know," Christine said while holding them to her chest, "I just adore babies."

"Wanna go make one now?" Dan quipped.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Not to save your life."

"Don't test me." he answered. Did he think that she'd eventually cave to his pick up lines? Probably not. Would that stop him from laying them on every day? Absolutely not.

Then she speed-walked into the courtroom and dropped her things at her desk.

"Spending time with Jake again?" Christine asked. She and Dan still didn't talk, but he knew from hearing her (constantly, especially with Christine and Roz) that she started seeing some actor bozo a week ago. If there was one group in this city that Dan couldn't stand, it was that artsy-farsty, holier-than-thou, "starving artist" self-righteous types. Why she was trying to fit in with them was beyond him. It was the sorority girls all over again.

Good thing he couldn't care less.

"All rise, New York criminal court Part 2- Judge Harold Stone presiding."

Dan rose, like he did every day, and sat back down when Harry got to the bench. He waded through the cases for a few hours before one sounded more familiar than the rest.

"People of New York versus John Keller, for the violations of public intoxication, reckless abandonment... and child abuse."

Dan read the case file, but that guy seemed familiar from elsewhere. A heavy tone fell over the courtroom as the weight of the charge came down on all of them. He watched Kim stiffen out of the corner of his eye.

The guy walked in- or dragged, by Roz- and it hit him. It was the guy he let off easy for public drunkenness so he could get back to his kid weeks ago.

"How do you plead?" Harry asked with rare contempt in his eyes.

"Not guilty." Keller said, puffing out his chest.

Dan stood beside the man, not sure if he was angrier at him or at himself.

"Your Honor, a woman in the apartment next door called 911 when she heard the defendant's daughter crying for help. He was arrested on the scene, drunk, and the girl was taken by child services." he recited. He glanced to the side to see Kim, typing out every word being said. She was slamming her fingers down on the keys harder than necessary and staring at the man with open hostility.

"Does the defense have anything to say?" Harry asked.

Christine came forward with any reluctance her professionalism would allow. "Mr. Keller claims that he came home after a few drinks when the baby sitter had to leave early. He tried to put his daughter to bed and she refused, and there were raised voices."

"Were you intoxicated, Mr. Keller?" Harry asked.

"I just had a couple'a drinks after work. Nothing major."

"And where does the abuse come in?"

Dan kept a poker face over his disgust. He opened the folder. "The police found the child crying in the bathroom with fresh abrasions and bruises."

"She was throwing a damn tantrum," Keller protested, "she threw herself on the ground and started bangin' on the walls."

As if on a cue, the side door opened. All attention turned to a kindly woman in a suit leading a young girl into the courtroom. One look at her threw all doubt out the window. Her long brown hair fell over her face but did little to obscure the welts on the side of her face and the swelling under her eye. One of her arms was bruised as if someone had a vice grip on it for hours. She looked around in fear that caught Dan harder than he thought it would.

"This is no place for a kid." Kim said suddenly.

"Pardon, Miss Jenkins?" Harry asked impatiently.

"I- nothing. I'm sorry, your Honor." she shrunk back quickly, staring hard at her paper and biting her bottom lip. Dan knew that look.

"Mr. Keller you will be held over for arraignment and sentencing." Harry banged the gavel and Bull and Roz walked over, grim faced.

"What about my kid?" the drunk asked.

"She'll be brought to child services." He answered more gently, aware of the girl's presence.

"Daddy, what's gonna happen? I want to go home." the kid said, beginning to cry.

"Daddy ain't coming home. These guys wanna take Daddy away." Keller answered harshly.

The girl started crying and had to be held back by her escort.

Without warning, Keller turned to Dan just as Bull grabbed his arm hard- but probably not as hard as he grabbed his kid's.

"Hey, you, DA. You got me off last time, dontcha see I still gotta get home to my kid? You're taking her away from her daddy."

"Yes, it's my fault for not doing it earlier." Dan answered caustically. It's my fault this came up in the first place, he thought angrily to himself. He ran his hand through his hair and turned back to the desk.

"The boys down there are gonna love you, man. Plus they'll be your size so the fights'll be more exciting." Roz told the man.

A loaded silence filled the courtroom after he was let go.

"Next case, your Honor?" Mac ventured.

Dan leaned on his desk and looked over to Christine, who was looking on the ground sadly.

"Should we go talk to his daughter?" she asked.

"What's it gonna do?" Dan returned. She shrugged in defeat.

He looked over at Kim. She didn't look as bad as he thought she would. Her face was blank and she had her hands on the desk, physically here but mentally probably back at her dad's house.

"I think we'll take a recess." Harry decided, banging his gavel. "Lunch." he said.

She shot up so hard that her chair fell backwards.

"Sorry, sorry, I..." Kim drifted off and picked it back up before quickly walking out of the room.

Dan swore under his breath and stared at the door swing shut. His feet took him on her path before he had the chance to think about what he was doing.

He walked out right as she turned the corner and Dan jogged down the hall after her. He heard a door close ahead so he slowed down. Empty rooms and offices lined the walls. Dan walked down slowly, turning the door handle quietly at each empty-looking room. Some were locked, most were empty. Finally, he turned a handle near the end of the corridor and saw her sitting there by a window, her back to the door, perching her elbows on the windowsill and looking outside.

Dan gave the door a couple of knocks and put his hands in his pockets. You sucker, he thought to himself.

Kim turned around suddenly with surprise.

Dan looked down and leaned halfheartedly on the doorframe. "It's freezing in here, you should probably close the window." he finally said. She narrowed her eyes at him and Dan sighed and hung his head. "You okay?" he asked.

"Of course I am." she straightened and looked at him with a furrowed brow that almost made him feel stupid for even trying. Dan's ego was fighting hard against something else. While he didn't quite know what it was, he did know that it made him stay where he was and it made him know that her saying she was fine was a lie.

He scratched his nose and walked nonchalantly into the room, letting the door close. The moonlight left streaks through the window and on the floor. One line of light ran across her face, letting one of her eyes shine and left the other in darkness.

"I remember once when you climbed over my fence after my folks went to sleep. I forgot to lock up one of the pigs at sundown and you accidentally ran into it. It squealed and you started screaming."

She looked at him for a moment before nodding. "I guess?"

He continued. "I ran downstairs when my parents woke up and my dad gave me hell for forgetting to lock it up. I took it to the barn and found you hiding almost under the porch."

Dan looked at her hesitantly. Kim looked back out the window. There was a beat of an awkward silence. Fifteen years of awkward silence.

Finally, thank God, she started speaking. "You sat outside with me until they fell asleep even though you were grumpy and tired the entire time. We stayed out until sunrise."

"And we both got so mad that we didn't get to sleep and I told you that you should stop coming over."

The thick hesitance in the air that had started to ease returned when they both remembered how the good memory soured. But then she smiled.

"But I came over anyway because Dad was drunk. You were sitting on your porch waiting for me."

"I'm sorry."

More silence. Kim stared down at the street below.

"Yeah, you said that and gave me some dinner leftovers."

"No." She whipped her head around when he said that. "I'm sorry, I mean, now. I should've seen, I shouldn't have let that guy off that first time."

Kim looked down at her lap. "I'm not the one that needs the apology for that."

"At least she's safe now."

"She's alone now."

"She might have relatives somewhere."

"That kid shouldn't have even been in the courtroom, do you know how much that could scar her- whatever. It's not even my problem. I don't give a shit." She was lying again.

Dan ventured a step further. "I'm sorry about... about everything else, too." God, that was painful to say.

"What?" she asked- Dan hoped in disbelief, because he didn't think he could handle repeating it.

"I shouldn't have acted the way I did. It was unprofessional."

Dan saw the corner of her mouth that was in the moonlight turn up slightly in a tight smile.

"You heard me say it already, right?" she asked, looking at her lap.

"I- yeah, yes I did."

"Okay." she nodded and stood. As soon as she got up, Kim looked lost. Dan saved them both the prolonged awkwardness by sticking his hand out. Kim nodded and shook it. She looked him straight in the eye without blinking and the years almost disappeared. Almost.

"Colleagues." he said.

"Colleagues." she agreed.

"Coming to lunch?" he asked.

"No, I think I want to sit here a little longer. I don't feel great."

He looked at her and she walked back to the window and turned to him again. Just like before, she answered him before he asked.

"I just want to be alone and out of the way for a little. I'm fine."

A/N: Shameless admittance that I really like reading how people are liking the story. So if you're an anon or a fellow fanfic-er and you're reading, let me know what you like I can give you more of it, if you have the time! And thank you to my consistent reviewer :)