A/N: Thanks everyone, for reading and reviewing. I really appreciate it. Here's the next chapter.

Disclaimer: I only own the OC's.

Spoilers for 3x09, And Here's to You Mrs. Azrael. You might recognize some of the lines, as they were taken directly from the episode.

Don's Car
Manhattan, New York
November 12, 2006
2:04 PM

"And he told her that he had been drunk the night before and he had no clue what he did and apologized for anything he put her through. Oh turn here!" Dallas said.

Don laughed. "Is that it?" He asked.

"Is that it?" Dallas asked. "He's breaking her heart!"

"I'm not saying that he isn't." Don said patiently. "But you have to let them work this out."

She grumbled as she told him to park. "It's right there." She pointed to a nice-sized brownstone. He did as she said and parked in a space across the street.

She met him on his side of the car, the presents for her niece and her brother in hand. He took both bags from her and grabbed her hand, lacing his fingers through hers. She smiled as he did so.

"Nervous?" She asked.

"Little bit." He admitted.

She pushed herself up on the tips of her toes to give him a small kiss. "Don't be. Now come on." She pulled him across the street, up to the door, and in the house.

"Hello?" She called, dragging out the word.

"Aunt Dallas!" A small girl came running toward them. Don knew this to be her niece. With the exception of the hair (which was a caramel color), she looked just like Dallas.

Dallas laughed and bent down to her level to pick the girl up. "Hey Bell. Happy birthday!"

The girl grinned. "Who's 'at?"

"This is Don." Dallas said.

"Is he your boyfriend?" The girl asked. Dallas nodded. The girl turned to Don. "Daddy doesn't like you very much. I don't know why. You seem really nice. My name's Bella."

Don laughed. "It's nice to meet you Bella."

"It's my birthday." Bella said.

"I know," Don told her. "We got you a present."

"Present!" She exclaimed. "Well, come on, let's go. I wanna open it!" Dallas put her niece back on the ground. Bella used one hand to grab Don's hand and the other to grab Dallas's and pulled them toward the inside of the house.

"Bells, calm down," A deep voice said, coming down the stairs. The voice was followed by a man, a man who was quite clearly Dallas's brother. "Let them come in the door."

Dallas stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her brother. Her brother laughed and lifted her up off the floor.

"Down," Dallas said. "Please."

"You sound like my four year old daughter!" Her brother sniggered.

"Hey!" Dallas and Bella protested at the same time, sounding exactly the same. To Don, looking back and forth between them, he could tell that the little girl was going to grow into a woman just like her aunt.

"Oh dear lord, I'm in trouble." Her brother looked up and shook his head. "All right, let's get this over with; who's the bottom feeder?"

Dallas smacked his arm. "Be nice!" She said. "This is Don. Don, this jerk here is my oldest brother, Chris."

"It's good to meet you." Don held out his hand. Chris eyed it warily; before he took it and they shook.

"Good to meet you too." Chris said and Dallas sighed with relief, causing both of them to laugh.

"What, did you think I was gonna kill him or something?" Chris asked his sister, leading the way to the kitchen.

"It wouldn't have surprised me." Dallas shot back and they entered the room. Chris laughed.

"What wouldn't have surprised you?" A woman with the same caramel colored hair as Bella asked, as she stood up and made her way over to the group.

"Chris killing Don." Dallas said as she wrapped her arms around the woman.

"Don?" The woman said. "Don and Dallas. Don and Dallas." She nodded, clearly satisfied. "I like it." She and Dallas burst into laughter.

"That," Chris said dryly. "would be Rachel, my wife."

Don grinned. "Well she seems just about as crazy as my girlfriend."

Chris looked at his sister. "I like him."

Dallas's jaw dropped and that was the face that her younger brother saw as he entered the kitchen.

"What happened?" This brother looked nothing like Dallas and Chris; he had lighter brown hair and green eyes, rather than the dark brown hair and dark brown eyes of Dallas and Chris.

"Chris actually likes Dal's boyfriend." Rachel said.

Her younger brother's jaw dropped. "Are you serious?" Dallas and Rachel both nodded. "But…but…but Chris never likes Dal's boyfriends!"

"That's not true!" Chris protested. "I've liked some of them."

"Name one." Rachel said, a smile gracing her beautiful face.

"Uhhh…umm…" Chris stuttured. "Well, there had to have been one."

"Yeah," Dallas said. She pointed at Don. "Don's the first."

"Well he seems like a good guy." Chris said.

Dallas smiled. "He is a good guy."

The younger brother turned to Don. "Hey, I'm Logan."

"Don," Don held his hand out to shake. Logan smiled. "So, it's your birthday too?" Don said.

Logan nodded. "Well, it was. We're a bit late celebrating."

"By like two weeks." Rachel said. "Quit your bellyaching."

Logan stuck his tongue out at her. "Now you're acting like my four year old." Chris said, as he and Dallas laughed.

Dallas turned to her younger brother. "So how's being sixteen?"

Logan nodded. "Good, I guess, I mean, I got my permit, but other than that it's not all that different from being fifteen."

"Nonsense," A dark blonde haired man entered the room, along with a (fake) raven haired girl. "You can drive now. That's what so great about sixteen."

"With a licensed driver over the age of 21." Logan teased. 'But yeah, I guess."

"Hi Naish." Dallas waved.

"Hey Dal," He greeted automatically. Then looked over to see Don next to her. "Hey, you must be the boyfriend." Don nodded. "I'm Naish, Dal's older but not too much older brother." His hazel eyes shined.

"That's Don." Bella said informatively. "He's really nice. Even Daddy thinks so."

Naish picked the girl up. "Well if Daddy doesn't have a problem with him, then he must be a good guy." Naish looked over to him. "But that doesn't mean we won't kill him if he does anything we don't like."

"I second that." Chris shouted from inside the fridge, where he was pulling out beers.

"Just ignore him." The raven haired girl who entered with Naish said. "He's kidding."

"This is Tia." Naish introduced. "Obviously, you know that's Don." He pointed. "That one's my sister, Dallas. Next to her is my sister-in-law, Rachel. My younger brother Logan is next to her. Chris is in the fridge." He pointed around, then came to rest his hand on Bella's nose. "And this beautiful girl right here is the birthday girl, Bella."

"Hi there Bella." Tia cooed in a high pitched voice, causing Dallas, Rachel, Chris, Logan, and Don to all look at each other. Quickly, they all looked away from each other, in fear that they would all start laughing.

"So um, I was thinking pizza for dinner tonight," Rachel said, changing the subject quickly.

"Pizza's good." Dallas answered, and the topic of conversation switched.

Trinity Hospital
Manhattan, New York
November 15, 2006
7:48 PM

"So how were the brothers?" Stella asked, as she and Mac met Flack at the entrance to the elevator.

Flack looked at her amused. "It's been three days since I went there."

"Yeah, I know." Stella said. "But we haven't seen each other since then. Now dish!"

Flack shrugged. "They were fine." Stella shot him a look. "Nah, they're nice guys. We got along as well as three guys who just met their sister's boyfriend could."

Stella shot him a look of half amusement, half confusion, but before she could say anything, Mac cleared his throat. "Flack," He asked pointedly.

"That's Nicole Garner." Flack said. He, Mac, and Stella were standing behind the tape of the crime scene, looking in at the heavily bandage blonde girl. "Nineteen years old." Mac ducked under the tape, beginning to examine. "Code blue was called but she was already gone." Stella ducked under too and stood next to Mac. "Duty nurse found the body."

"…Hemorrhaging." He heard Mac say. "Possible suffocation."

"Pillow could be our murder weapon." Stella offered, looking around the room a bit. She turned to Flack. "Any witnesses?"

"Duty nurse said it was business as usual," Flack said. "Hospital security did report that the doctor's lounge was broken into earlier in the day but that was eight hours ago." He looked back and forth between Mac and Stella.

"Anything stolen?" Mac asked.

"As far as security can tell nothing was swiped," Flack said. "They think it was a junkie looking for meds."

"So what else do we know?" Mac said, going right to business.

"Just the history," Flack recited. "Five days ago, after a night of drinking, Nicole lost control of her car heading home from a SoHo bar. She was in a coma up until yesterday. Apart from being paralyzed from the waist down, the doctor said she was making good progress."

"The kid was given a second chance," Stella said sadly, looking down at Nicole.

"The question is," Mac said, looking over at Nicole, "who didn't think she deserved it?"

Trinity Hospital Doctor's Lounge
Manhattan, New York
November 15, 2006
9:32 PM

"Whoa oh." Danny said, as he and Lindsay met Flack outside the doctor's lounge. "When Hawkes told me you were alive, I didn't believe him." He began circling his best friend.

Flack and Lindsay exchanged awkward looks. Finally, Lindsay spoke. "What…what are you doing?"

Danny stopped circling to look at her. "Looking for bruises. He's obviously not dead. I just don't believe he made it out of there without some kind of injury."

Flack rolled his eyes. "Mac wants you two to process the doctor's lounge. It was broken into earlier and it may have something to do with Nicole Garner's death. After you're done with this, go check in with him and see what he wants you to do. I'm off to do some more interviews." He turned on his heel and walked the other direction. He stopped and turned at the end of the hallway. "Hey, Messer?" Danny and Lindsay both looked over at him. "I can't think of anything right now, but this is where'd I would make some kind of witty comment and leave." He turned the corner.

With a grin, Danny followed Lindsay into the doctor's lounge. "Who breaks into a doctor's lounge?" He asked. She rolled her eyes, but laughed quietly.

After a few moments of both of them looking around, Danny announced. "I got tool marks on the door lock."

"Announce it to the world, why don't ya?" Flack called in, as he passed the open door, headed for the elevator.

"I got scratches on this lock too." Lindsay said. "Let's hope they were made by the same tool." She said, as he came over to her, camera in hand. "And belong to the person who left this print!"

"Beautiful," Danny told her, as he shined the flash light on the door lock.

Lindsay rolled her eyes. "It's just a finger print, Danny."

Danny smirked. "Who said I was talkin' bout the print?" He turned around, using the camera again to photograph the door lock he had been looking at before. And it was a good thing he did, for if he hadn't, he would have seen her blush.

St. Luke's Hospital Cafeteria
Manhattan, New York
November 16, 2006
8:42 AM

"Hey," Liv greeted her boyfriend with a small kiss. "You been up all night?"

He nodded. "Bagels and coffee." He gestured to the bag he had placed on the table next to them. But he didn't sit down, and so neither did she.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"What?" He asked, shaking his head. "Oh yeah, I'm fine. It was a rough night." Liv shot him a look. "Ok, fine." He said. "I had to talk to my old boss last night." He paused. "It uh…well let's just say it wasn't my most pleasant experience."

"Anything I can do?" Liv asked.

Sheldon shook his head. "Nah, not unless you can magically tell me who killed Nicole Garner."

Liv shook her head. "Sorry," She said. "but I can do this." She stood on her tippy toes to hug him.

And he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close, glad for the comfort she was offering.

A/N: So, what did we think?