A/N: Yeah, I was definitely faster with this one. The first half was easy to write, the second part kept giving me grief- but we have attended counseling and have since worked things out.

Always a huge thank you to the reviewers. I am so thankful for every comment. So here you go!

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Don sighed into his tepid coffee and took a sip before grimacing and pushing it away. He looked at his watch and had to blink hard before the hands came into focus. "Was the plane delayed?"

"If you remember that I actually talked to him, no. He landed almost an hour ago- unless he was calling in the air, which is a big no-no. In that case the phone interacted with the radio signals, the plane crashed, and we will be waiting here a very long time."

Don slowly raised his head to quirk an eyebrow at his friend. "If he doesn't get here in five minutes, I'm putting out an APB. I don't care if he didn't kill these people. My wasted time is worth a life sentence."

"Hey, Adam sent a text, though." Danny informed him happily. "He says he's ruled out that Jacyie has a similar looking brother, a manly twin and … gender reassignment. Thank-you, Adam." Danny shut his phone with a snap and tossed it onto Don's desk where it slid until it clinked against the mug of lukewarm coffee.

Don took another sip and didn't even wince. He was past tasting anything anymore. Don didn't like that. It took away his whole reason for eating and food was the only thing fueling him at this point. "It's possible she just has a deep voice." He suggested as he rocked back in his chair, interlacing his fingers behind his head. "You ever talk to Officer King?"

Danny's eyebrows shot up as his eyes widened. "He's a woman?"

Don gave a snort of laughter. "She's always been a woman, Messer."

"Huh. I just thought she was a dude with nice skin." Danny said thoughtfully, rubbing the stubble on his chin. "You know the hat and short hair make it kind of hard, and she's really buff- Okay, I can buy that our perp was always a chick."

"Mac's neighbor did mention the person she met was a tenor; high-voiced male, low-voiced female. It's possible. Plus, she was always wearing a big jacket and a hood."

Danny nodded, "It does answer a lot of questions. I thought the texts were kind of weird, and- Oh!" He sat up and clenched his fist, a triumphant look on his face. "Stella owes me. I was right when I said it was a woman at Mac's apartment and she just gave me that death glare of hers."

"You called women needy and attention-seeking." Don reminded him. "I think you deserved it anyways."

Danny tilted his head and pursed his lips in reluctant agreement. "I can't wait to see what Mac thinks of it though. He's on the edge of sanity because of a woman." Danny paused and blew out a breath. "Actually, never mind. That sounds normal enough."

Don grinned. "Lady troubles, Danny-boy?"

"Between Lindsay despising me and spending every waking hour at work, I think I can safely say there are no viable relationships in my future. So, my lack of ladies is troubling, yes."

"Oh, just wait." Don said in a patronizing tone, "We haven't met Jaycie yet. You two might have a real connection."

"Oh yeah," Danny rolled his eyes dramatically, "between our love of guns and our close bond with the criminal justice system, we have a lot in common."

Don chuckled. It felt good to get a break, however brief. The only problem was it gave him time to feel the exhaustion starting to settle into bones. He felt old. He wasn't old.

Don's eyes were suddenly drawn toward the precinct doors as they swung open, revealing a man of average height in a dripping wet, beige trench coat. As he flattened his collar and smoothed back his short brown hair, Don could finally make out his face. He had a sharp jaw, small nose and piercing blue eyes. Don was pretty sure if he hadn't seen the man in the pictures at Amy Chase's apartment, he would assume this guy was a model who was coming in to report that someone had stolen his moisturizer.

"Hey," Don lightly hit Danny's arm with the back of his hand and nodded toward the front of the precinct.

"Finally," Danny groaned as he climbed to his feet and followed Don.

"Allen Williams?" Don asked.

The man, who had been looking around curiously, flashed his perfect teeth and held out his hand. "Yes."

Don shook it as the dread started to well in his chest. "I'm Detective Flack. This is Detective Messer."

"We spoke on the phone." Williams nodded, smiling amicably. "Can I, uh, ask what this is about?"

Don glanced at Danny and back at Williams, whose smile was fading fast. "Why don't you follow us?" He lightly touched the man's arm and could immediately feel him tense and pull away. Still, he followed as Danny led him back between the desks and past the first interrogation room to a smaller one behind it. It was still a drab gray with peeling green paint around the windows, but unlike the larger room, it didn't make those being questioned feel like they were tiny, helpless prisoners in a vast expanse of open space. "Take a seat." Don offered as he pulled out one of the metal chairs. "Can we get you coffee or anything?"

Williams shrugged off his jacket and slowly sunk into his seat. He looked around the room before nodding. "Um, yeah, okay. Black, two sugars?"

Danny immediately nodded and left to fetch it as Don took a seat across from the man. "Mr. Williams, what was your relationship with Amelia Chase?"

"It's Allen." He shrugged with an anxious smile. "And Amy is my fiancé… Wait, did you say was?"

Don looked at the table, setting his elbows on it before meeting Williams eyes. "I'm afraid I have some bad news." The man's eyes instantly filled with tears as he pressed back into his seat, starting to shake his head. "Amy was found two days ago. She was murdered. I'm sorry."

The tears finally spilled over and Don had to look away. He couldn't remember how many times he had broken the same news to parents, siblings, spouses and friends, and it never got easier. There were a number of reactions: denial, anger, grief… He'd been slugged a few times, hugged a few more. The only thing that even came close to a grieving mother was a crying man- father, husband, brother, it didn't matter.

Williams didn't try to stop the tears or even wipe them away, he sat upright though his face was lined with anguish.

"Mr. Williams- Allen, I know this is hard, but I have to ask you some questions." Don said quietly after a minute.

Williams sniffed and took a shaky breath, wiping his wet cheeks with the back of his surprisingly steady hand. He blinked a few times and set himself, finally nodding at Don. Danny entered then, carefully setting the Styrofoam cup on the table to which Williams offered a quiet "thank you."

"How long did you know Ms. Chase?"

Williams slid the cup of coffee over and wrapped his hands around it, "Three years. A friend introduced us. I only proposed a month ago."

"When was the last time you saw her?"

"F-four days ago, I think. We had a fight… about the baby." Williams grit his teeth and clenched his fists. "So stupid." He cursed himself. "It wasn't that I didn't want it, I was just in shock. I left for the conference just after that. When she didn't answer my calls I assumed she was still angry with me."

"When did you find out she was pregnant?" Danny asked.

Williams screwed up his face briefly. "About two weeks ago."

Don scribbled a quick note and continued. He pulled out photos of the other victims and laid them out. Williams' eyes quickly darted from picture to picture. "Do you recognize any of these women?"

"No." He kept staring at them until Don gathered them up again.

"How about Jaycie Carlson? How well do you know her?"

The man's eyes snapped up. "Jaycie is the one who introduced us. I met her at school. We dated for a bit, but it didn't work out. She told me about her roommate and Amy and I hit it off… Is Jaycie dead too?" He added.

Don and Danny exchanged looks. "No." Don answered. "Not that we know of. Can you tell us a bit about her; your relationship, what she's like? Was anything going on in her life recently?"

Williams looked confused, but started to reply anyways, "She's very mellow- doesn't like to go out much. She's kind of quiet, but always has something smart to say. She has a great wit. She and Amy were almost complete opposites, but they were very close. As far as her life… We don't really talk as much as we used to, but I remember she had a pretty ugly breakup with her boyfriend a few months ago- I can't remember his name." Williams shook his head, "So, what exactly does Jaycie have to do with this?"

"We have reason to believe she may be involved. She's been missing for the same amount of time as Ms. Chase. Do you have any idea where we might find her?"

"Wait, how is she involved? Why do you think this is related to Amy?"

Don shook his head apologetically. "We can't discuss details, but we don't know her current whereabouts. Can you offer us any clue as to where she might go? Any friends, relatives or anything?"

Williams' eyes narrowed briefly. "No, I mean, I don't know about family or other friends. I don't think she had any nearby. She's usually out taking pictures. She likes that. Parks and the beach mostly. Specifically uh… Jackson, over on Long Island somewhere."

Don nodded, "Thank you for your help. Again, I'm sorry about your loss. We're doing everything we can to find her killer."

Williams nodded, but the light from his ice-colored eyes had gone out, replaced with a dark sort of emptiness. "Do you need anything else from me?"

"If you could have your secretary gather your flight confirmation and any receipts from this weekend, that would definitely help us narrow our focus.." Danny said.

Williams looked up again, his piercing gaze locked on Danny. "You think I could do this?"

"We have to look at every option, Mr. Williams." Danny explained.

The man immediately softened. "I'm sorry, I know you do. I work with families…I know the kind of things someone can do to people they love, but I would never…" He voice caught in his throat and he covered his mouth with his hand.

"It's alright." Don assured him. "An officer will be coming in soon to let you know how you can go and claim the body. If you need anything, just let someone know."

"Thank you…" Williams said quietly as Danny and Don stood up with a scrape of their chairs on the concrete floor.

"So Jackson Park was a favorite of hers." Danny muttered once they had shut the door behind them.

"We did connect two bodies to that location." Don said thoughtfully, "But I can't imagine she'd hide out there. It's over an hour away. We had units scouring that place after Mac saw the car."

"Can't hurt to check again." Danny shrugged.

"Well, it can if our officers drown out there." Don said, peering out the foggy precinct windows as they walked along the hallway.

"At what point exactly do we have to wake Mac up and tell him all of this?" Danny asked.

"When we have an urgent lead. He's integral to catching her."

"We are detectives last I checked. If we can catch this chick without him, why not go for it?"

Don vigorously rubbed his tired eyes. "If an opportunity presents itself, then sure, but I don't see it happening."

"Why is she hooked on him, huh? You were at the first crime scene too. Why didn't she pick you?"

"More prominent figure? I dunno." Don shrugged hopelessly. They arrived back at his desk and he had lifted the mug of cold coffee halfway to his lips before thinking better of it and setting it back down. "Look, see what else you can get from Williams. Put Lindsay in charge of getting his expense reports from this weekend to the lab."

"And where are you going?" Danny asked as Don pulled his jacket from the back of his chair and swung it around his shoulders.

"Back to the lab. This lady has gone hours without calling and she sounded like she wanted to talk, so it's gonna happen soon, and Mac won't wait for me to get there. Get King to help you." He added, nodding toward a passing officer.

Danny eyed her as she passed and turned back to Don with a smug grin. "I totally see it now."

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Waking up was not easy. If Mac could compare it to anything it would have been like trying to claw his way out of a deep, mud-lined pit. Every inch of progress took a tremendous amount of effort and he only wound up slipping back to the bottom anyways. There wasn't any reason to leave the pit that he knew. It was quiet, dark, and relaxing down here. Up there on the surface were just bright lights, loud conversations and someone incessantly shaking his shoulder- Wait, what?

Consciousness gradually crept over him, but he still felt buried under heavy mud. The comfortable weight held him down and lured him back into the depths… and then the shaking started again. It wasn't appreciated and was starting to send shooting pains down into his opposite hand.

"Stop it." He mumbled, attempting to shrug the hand off his shoulder.

"Mac!" A voice snapped, and he felt a sharp sting of a hand slapping his arm.

"Hey!" He cried in protest, turning from his right side onto his back to face the culprit as he forced his bleary eyes to open.

"Mac, answer it."

Mac shrunk back as a cell-phone was shoved into his face, its shrill ringing assaulting and consuming his muddled brain. He stared at it blankly, blinking slowly in confusion until he heard an exasperated sigh and the phone was briefly retracted and then pressed against his ear a second later. "Hello?" He rasped as he finally started to catch on, lifting his left hand to hold the phone in place.

"That was close…" A distorted voice warned in reply. "I see you're keeping a low profile. Your lady friend is very pretty though."

Mac closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "What do you want?"

"Humor me, I'm getting bored. I love seeing your lackeys running around, but this is really between you and me."

"So all the people you killed are just collateral?" Mac heard himself talking and even loosely understood what he was saying, but it was surreal somehow- like he had no control over it.

"Hardly. You're just here to spice things up, but you're not making it much of a challenge anymore."

Mac slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position, hoping it would help to turn on his sluggish brain. Stella hands supported him much of the way. "What was breaking into my apartment supposed to accomplish?"

There was silence for a few seconds. "Your neighbor is a nice lady. Very trusting. Don't think I can't make this about you. I'd love to have that wife of yours involved. She would have been a perfect fit really, but I guess somebody already handled that for me."

In a brief moment of complete lucidity, Mac's fingers closed tightly around the phone, causing the plastic to crack under the strain. He screwed his eyes shut and forced himself to take a few breaths. "Get to the point." He growled.

The voice chuckled. "Alrighty, then. I decided to make this a little more interesting for you. I would hate for you to think I'm not completely invested in my purpose. I think you should take a visit to that park again, but you won't have much time to nap before this one… She's still alive; I just can't guarantee she will be when you get there. I'll give you a hint: I will give you that tall lanky detective, but the less people you bring with you, the longer she has. I'll let you decide where that line is." There was a quiet click and the line went dead.

Mac glanced up at Stella who was looking over his shoulder toward the AV lab with a questioning look. A second later her face fell. Mac dropped his head onto his fist, as the exhaustion crashed over him again.

"Mac?" Came Stella's concerned voice.

Mac pinched the bridge of his nose and dropped his hand. "Not exactly a nice wake up call."

"I'm sorry." She winced.

"Not your fault." He muttered, having to put forth an actual concerted effort to keep his eyes open. "What time is it?"

"Nearly 8."

He rubbed at his eyes again. He'd been asleep for four hours and he felt more exhausted than he had before. "Everyone still here?"

"Don is almost here, and Danny is at the precinct, but other than that, yes."

Mac's eyes were closed again, but he heard Stella get up and talk to someone at the door. When she returned, he continued. "Get Danny to stop whatever he's doing. I need him for this."

"What's the plan? He said he didn't want you bringing anyone."

"He didn't say anyone." Mac was trying to explain this quickly, but the faster he talked, the more he stumbled over the words. He forced himself to speak slowly. While his mind was gradually waking up, his body didn't seem to be taking it quite as well. "Don goes with me. Danny can leave straight from the precinct with another team that stays out of sight. This guy has to be close if he wants his threats to bear any weight."

"Mac, there have been updates on this case. It was Jaycie Carlson who delivered the phone. She's our main suspect now."

Mac stared at her for a few seconds, or at least attempted to, but his eyelids kept closing without him realizing it. His brain couldn't even wrap itself around this new information just yet. He shook his head. "That doesn't change the plan. Don can update me on the drive." Mac tried to push himself to his feet and immediately fell back onto the couch, his head spinning, limbs full of lead.

"Take it easy." Stella cautioned him as she sat by him, her hand on his back.

"Not a lot of time, Stel." Mac scoffed, rather half-heartedly as his heavy eyelids slid shut again.

"And you're not going to help if you can't even stand up. Where's the medication the doctor prescribed?"

"Medication is my problem right now." He meant it to come out less garbled than it did. His tongue felt thick. "Can't wake up." He cursed, frantically rubbing his forehead.

"Sheldon, thanks." Stella suddenly said. A second later something cold was pressed into Mac's hand.

He pried his eyes open just enough to make out the bottle of orange juice in his hand. If he had the energy to give Sheldon a look, he would have. "It's not the best." He heard the former ME's voice say to his right. "But it's all that Flack left in the vending machine and it'll definitely help for now. Lindsay is rounding up cash to hopefully track down some Gatorades, but she has to hunt through the other floors to find them."

"How far away is Don?" Mac asked, blatantly ignoring Sheldon, mostly because he hadn't heard what he'd said.

"Two minutes." Stella offered.

Mac felt someone else sit beside him and bottle of juice was removed from his hand. He heard the snaps as the cap was screwed off. "You need to drink all of it. I read that report. CBC was all over the place. I'm sure they told you this."

Mac could only shrug. He vaguely remembered.

"You need fluids and you need sugar." The bottle was placed back in his hand. "I know you don't want to, but drink it."

It was a major effort just to get the thing in a position to drink from it. Mac nearly gagged at the strong taste. He normally wasn't against orange juice, but he couldn't imagine he'd ever be having it again after this. Still, he forced himself to take another swig. If it helped him wake up more, he'd have to suffer through it.

Stella helped to distract him by updating him on the information they had found from the sketch to the fiancé and what Don and Danny had found out from him.

"Good." Sheldon said approvingly as Mac suddenly noticed the bottle had become surprisingly light.

He leaned against the back of the couch between sips and forced his eyes open, this time to much less protest from his body.

"Better?" Stella asked.

Mac nodded slightly, but felt relieved when Sheldon took the empty bottle away from him, explaining that he would go see if he could help Lindsay in her search. Mac still felt like he'd just finished a marathon, but at least his mind had stopped switching off.

"You sure you're okay?" Stella asked once Hawkes had left.

She would have been a perfect fit really, but I guess somebody already handled that for me. Mac scowled, but nodded. How had they known? Or maybe they hadn't and he was just reading into it...

"Don's here. Be right back." Stella patted Mac's knee and rose to her feet, snapping him from his racing thoughts.

Mac let out a long sigh and dragged his hand over his face. It was all happening so fast, hitting him all at once, but with any luck they could end this tonight.

It was a few minutes before Don pushed open the office door and stepped inside. "You ready to go?"

Mac nodded. "Let's get this guy."

"Woman."

"Whatever."

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A/N: And there's that... Please review!