Thank you all for the feedback on the last two chapters. I'm happy you liked what I made of Amy's story.

Now, prepared for what there is to come next?

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Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing…

Back at the precinct, Don was sitting at his desk, his head held low. Surely, Amy's story and her past had moved him deep down, but she had also lied to him. Don wasn't sure whether such a past justified her behaviour in the present. She did look broken, sitting there on her hotel bed, the blanket still dishevelled from the night before. When he had seen her crying, he had had the sudden urge to walk over to her and take her in his strong arms, assure her that everything would be alright. But then he remembered that she had used him for her own selfish purposes and he had stayed where he was, at the other end of the room, as far away from her as possible. He wasn't certain that he could believe her confession – that he had swept her off her feet and that her feelings for him were genuine – it might have been just another ploy to save her own ass. Don thought that in the end it all came down to one thing: he simply couldn't trust her and wasn't sure whether he ever could.

Amy was still in her hotel room, unpacking all her things again when her cell phone rang. She had a look at the caller ID and saw that it was Tom calling from London. He always seemed to sense when she was in trouble and always had the perfect timing for his calls and visits.

"Hey Tommy," Amy greeted him, her voice rather sad.

"What's up, Pumpkin?" Tom immediately wanted to know, alarmed by the sound in her voice.

"It all blew up in my face," she exclaimed, tears running down her cheeks. She had never had a problem crying in front of her quasi-brother.

"Your plan didn't quite work out, did it?"

"No," she said meekly.

"I told you that it was a stupid idea, but I was talking to a wall. You really are stubborn, I have to notice time and again, 'sis," Tom told her. They had both started calling each other brother and sister when they were 10 and in front of strangers, they normally sticked to the story of them being blood relatives because the truth would be too sad and shocking for others.

"Please, just please don't tell me 'I told you so'. I really couldn't bear that at the moment," she cried.

"Look, I don't want to upset you any further and I wish I could do this in person, but I can't," Tom started.

"What is wrong? Are Kendra and Jim alright?" Amy asked, alarmed.

"They are fine, don't worry. But I had a talk with our boss this morning."

Amy knew that nothing good could come out of a talk like this. "And?" she asked, hesitating, not sure whether she really wanted to know the answer.

"He's letting you go," Tom confessed. Amy took a deep breath, but didn't answer, so Tom continued: "Apparently he got a call from some detective in New York and he was told all about your stay there." Tom was silent after this, waiting for Amy to say something. But she didn't.

"Ames? Come on, say something," He tried to coax something out of her.

"I'm fired, Tom. What is there to say?" she finally said.

"We've been through so much, this is only a tiny rock on the path. You're not alone with this, Amy," he gave his support.

"But I am," she said and hung up.

Amy wondered which one of the detectives it had been to call her boss in London. Both Mac and Don were certainly angry enough to make such a call. Her future was now officially ruined. This would appear on any job reference and no-one would give her a job as a CSI ever again. Resolutely, Amy got up and decided that even though her career was ruined, she would make this loss worthwhile by finally finding this serial killer.

Meanwhile, Mac was standing in one of the conference rooms in the crime lab, holding a folder in his hand and looking at the faces of his entire team. He had gathered them there to fill them in on the latest discoveries.

"So, she was actually following her own agenda the whole time?" Stella wanted to know, after Mac had finished his report.

"Yes, she was," Mac stated.

"Unbelievable, the prettiest ones are always the most dangerous. My mom did warn me when I was younger. Wish I had listened to her more often," Adam mumbled.

Even Hawkes was completely shocked and surprised – he had honestly started to like Amy and her quirky and mysterious ways. Never had he expected her secret to be this large and heavy. He couldn't say anything to Mac's revelation and so he simply shook his head in disbelief.

Lindsay and Danny looked at each other. Both hadn't known Amy that well and she had seemed nice on their last visit.

"So, what now?" Stella asked Mac.

"I told her to stay in New York till the case is wrapped up, but she isn't to come near the lab again. I called her boss in London and he's letting her go," Mac informed all of them.

"Isn't that all a bit harsh, Mac?" Stella carefully wanted to know.

"No, it's not, Stella. She compromised the integrity of the lab and that is the most important thing for us!" he shouted.

Stella was silent for a minute, knowing that there was no arguing with Mac about the integrity of the lab – he had said more than once that he valued it more than anything else in the world. She could understand his harshness, but she also knew that she herself would have been a little easier on Amy – probably because both seemed to share troubled childhoods.

The rest of the team started mumbling and the attention shifted away from Mac. They were discussing Amy and her past and how no-one of them would have thought her possible of doing such a reckless thing. Hawkes, always concerned with other people's well-being, asked Mac:

"But she does understand now that she has to stop those solitary ways? She must know that she can't find this guy all on her own." Hawkes took a look at the others and Danny and Lindsay were both nodding at him, supporting his concern for Amy.

"I think she knows," Mac said, indicating that he was not sure and that with Amy, probably no-one could be a hundred per cent certain that she understood the danger she put herself in. Catching her parents' murderer had been her agenda for so long – Mac somehow knew that it was impossible for her to give it up just yet. But there was nothing he could do but to find the killer himself and put him behind bars. That might give Amy the closure she desperately sought for.

Amy was restlessly wandering through the streets of New York City, without any particular place she was steering to. She didn't know what to do next, was at a loss for what to do next with her own future. On the one hand she just wanted to find the pervert and be done with the whole business. But she feared that afterwards, her life might not have a purpose anymore and she could fall down into a really deep and black hole, without any chance of ever getting back out. Her work, which had been her anchor till now, was gone as well. She felt rootless and didn't know how to change that. She hoped that going for a walk might clear her head, but all she did was think and wonder, so that this walk seemed to put her mind into an even worse state.

At the same time, there was someone else restlessly roaming the streets of New York City. Don had left the police department because he imagined everyone staring at him, as if all of a sudden they all knew what kind of a fool he had been with Amy. Deep down he was certain that this was complete rubbish, but he simply couldn't kill the feeling. He was now walking towards his favourite diner, hoping that a decent cup of coffee might sort him out. Inside, he ordered and walked over to one of the window booths. Someone else had left a newspaper on the table, so that Don started reading while sipping his coffee. His reading was not very productive because at the end of a sentence, he couldn't remember its beginning. It gave him something to do though, and so he systematically started going through all of the articles. He was glad for the distraction because for only just a few minutes, he wasn't thinking about Amy.

In the meantime, Mac was standing in front of Chief Sinclair's office, resolutely knocking on the door. Without waiting to be called inside, he opened the door and waltzed in. Sinclair was just on the phone, but told his caller that he would have to call him back and then stared at Mac.

"You want to tell me what this is about?" he asked.

"Amélie Gerrard," was all that Mac revealed.

Sinclair grunted and sat back in his chair. "So, you know," he simply stated the facts.

"I do indeed. My whole team does. Just thought I'd let you know," Mac informed him.

"That was very considerate of you, Mac," Sinclair ironically replied. "Anything else?"

"What does Gerrard have on you?" Mac blurted out.

"Nothing," was the simple answer.

"He can't possibly blackmail you with 'nothing'. Brigham, what is it?" Mac tried to dig deeper.

"Mac, leave it."

"Look Brigham, your stubbornness is not getting you anywhere. All it results in, is me losing my respect for you. Fatal, isn't it?" Mac said and left the room without waiting for an answer. At some point, he was sure of that, he would find out what was going on between Gerrard and Sinclair. One thing was certain though: it had to be something with a heavy weight because even though Stanton was in prison, he still had the higher hand over Brigham.

Amy's walk through New York City led her past the diner that Don himself was sitting in. She observed him from a couple of feet away, him being unaware that he was watched. Amy thought that Don looked sad and tired and she wished that this all wouldn't have been her fault. She really had started to care for Don, but had ruined everything that there might have blossomed between those two.

Determinately Amy walked towards the diner door. She would tell Don now and for the last time that she had feelings for him and after that it would be up to him to act on that or never see her again.

Just as Amy walked through the door, Don looked up from his paper and saw her entering the diner. She was marching straight to his table and positioned herself in front of it like a warrior about to enter war. She was here on a mission, but he wasn't really interested in what she had to say. Just as Amy opened her mouth, he got up and walked past her towards the counter, to pay for his coffee.

"You stubborn mule!" Amy shouted out, not caring that all the heads in the diner turned towards her, eager to see what was going on.

Amy had certainly gotten Don's attention now and he turned around, money in his hand. "What did you just call me?"

"I believe it was a stubborn mule because that's what you are!" she screamed at him.

"Are you completely out of your mind now?" Don asked in disbelief.

"No, I think I was never as clear-minded as I am right now. For Heaven's sake, I told you this morning that you swept me off my feet, I basically served you my heart on a silver platter and all you did was walk away!" Amy knew that her voice was so loud that she served as mass entertainment for the whole diner. No-one seemed to mind though and the first bets were placed on whether the guy would kiss the hot girl at the end or walk away again.

"You know why I walked away? Because you are a lying and manipulative bitch," he blurted out.

Amy gasped. "Lying, I understand. I know that I did it, but don't you think I had my reasons? But no-one has EVER called me manipulative before! Do I have to remind you that it was you who kissed me first in the lobby? And it was also you standing in front of my door last night, literally begging me to have sex with you!"

Now it was Don's time to gasp and he was not alone – everyone in the diner did so, too. "I'm not listening to the crap," Don then said, threw his money on the counter, didn't bother to wait for change and left.

Amy ran after him. "Hey, I'm not done with you, yet!" But Don didn't listen and he walked on, in the direction of the precinct. Amy was about to follow when her phone rang. She wouldn't have bothered with it, but she thought, or hoped rather, that it might be Tom telling her that she could have her job back after all. So she answered and the few words the caller said before hanging up again, made her scream for Don, in the middle of the street.

Amy's scream petrified Don and it cut him to the quick. Without thinking about it, he ran back to where Amy was standing in the middle of the sidewalk.

"What happened?" he asked, clearly worried.

Amy needed a couple of seconds to find the right words and all she could do at first was point towards her cell phone. Don had no idea what to make of that and looked at her, puzzled.

"Amy," he pressed again.

"Don, that was him," she said and Don immediately knew who she was talking about.

"What did he want?"

"He was nice enough to let me know that I would be next," Amy said.

"Next for what?" Don wondered.

"Next for what he's best at – next for killing," was all that Amy said before she fainted into Don's arms.

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