A/N: New chapter, gang! Whew, it feels so good to be working on this story again! Thank you all for the reviews, favs, and follows that are still pouring in. I'm floored by how many people are enjoying this story! And on a sidenote, HOLY CRAP we passed the 100K word mark! 0.0

As always, read and enjoy. :)

She was going to strangle him. That's all there was to it.

Almost as soon as they had pulled up to the curb, just outside the flickering yellow line of police tape, Lassiter had seemed bound and determined to give her a migraine.

Probably retaliating for her opening her mouth and inserting her foot back in the car. Not that she wasn't already regretting it. The entire ride had been tense. It was sheer luck that Juliet was already questioning the missing child's mother, a young woman with dark hair and chocolate brown eyes, her pretty features puffy and lined from worry and stress. They were in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood. The houses were still very neat and trim, the yards tidy, but there was so much more personality present than in the cookie-cutter homes a few blocks away. There were flower beds everywhere, bursting with bright color and stone knick-knacks, houses decorated with cheerful flags and vibrant potted plants.

Currently, Felicity was standing to the side of the blonde detective, trying to listen to the interview even as Lassie's barking threatened to completely distract her. At least she wasn't his target this time, although she couldn't say that she wasn't sympathetic to the poor, elderly neighbor at his mercy right then.

"Mrs. Garcia, are you certain that's all you can remember?"

She didn't catch the older lady's reply, but from the squawking tone, she'd hazard to guess that it was less than polite. Juliet was scribbling in her notebook.

"Long blonde hair, tall Caucasian male, black trenchcoat," the detective glanced up, her wide blue eyes full of gentle sympathy. "Did I get that right, Mrs. Fernandez?"

The young woman nodded, her luminous brown eyes red-rimmed, still brimming with tears as she tried to keep them back long enough to speak.

"Y-yes, I think so."

"And this description of your son is accurate?"

"Si."

"Does he have any birthmarks or anything that could help us identify him quickly?"

"He...he has a mole on his right cheek." Her eyes clouded as she attempted a watery smile. "It's right in the middle of one of his dimples when he laughs."

"And you said that your husband is overseas?"

"Yes, he's...he's been in Iraq since January. A marine."

"And you said that you do not see which direction this man went?"

She shook her head vigorously. "No, he…" she hesitated, but Juliet prompted her.

"He what, ma'am?"

She licked her lips and looked upwards, pressing her arms tightly against her body, her shoulders hunching forward. "You're not going to believe me."

"Try us," Felicity said quietly, meeting her eyes with an even gaze.

"He…" she trailed off, shaking her head again. "No, no me vas a creer. Yo no lo creo!"

"We will believe you, Mrs. Fernandez. Cada detalle es importante si usted quiere que nosotros recibamos su hijo," Felicity pleaded softly.

Juliet raised her eyebrows. "I didn't know you spoke Spanish."

"It was my minor in college," she answered with a sideways glance. "Señora, por favor...qué viste?"

The distraught mother spoke rapidly, almost too fast for Felicity to catch it all. "Era extraño. Él sólo parecía ... desaparecer. Sólo alcancé de visión de él, y la chaqueta de Joseph, y tan pronto como he tratado de buscar, ya no estaban." She spread her hands, gesturing both right and left, her voice becoming desperate. "Vivimos en medio del barrio. Cómo podrían ellos simplemente han desaparecido sin que alguien verlos en la calle?"

"Ojalá lo supiera, señora." Felicity turned to look at Juliet. "She said that she only caught a glimpse of the man and Joseph, but when she tried to get a good look, they'd both just vanished. No one saw anything, which she thought was very strange. They live in the center of the neighborhood street, so she thought that someone would have seen something since there's no other way out except to the right."

The young mother nodded as Juliet wrote rapidly in her notebook.

"Mrs. Fernandez, this next question may be a little difficult, but we really need to investigate any possible leads, so bear with me, but...do you know of any reason why this man would take your son?"

Her head shaking slowly side to side, she said, "No...No sé por qué este monstruo podría llevar a mi hijo."

She couldn't seem to hold back the tears anymore, and her voice was choked as she tried not to give into the sobs.

She looked between the other two women pleadingly. "Por qué alguien lo lleve? Está Dios me castiga?"

Felicity felt her heart break, and without thinking, she reached out and touched the woman on the shoulder. She looked earnestly down at her, unwilling to be the reason that the hope in her eyes died.

"No, ma'am, that's not true, and I wish I had more answers for you. But I know that God would never punish someone like this." She was firm, but not unkind, and the smaller woman stared up at her with wide, trusting eyes, and she found that she couldn't be anything less than honest with her. She wouldn't be. "I don't know why he took your son, but we're going to find out." Her tone hardened. "And we're going to make him pay for it."

Mrs. Fernandez nodded, her hand reaching up to clutch at Felicity's tightly. Panic, fear, and overwhelming grief surged through that touch, making her breath catch painfully in her throat.

"You'll find my son, won't you? Joseph's just two, and he has asthma. If he has an attack and doesn't have his inhaler-"

Felicity covered the other woman's hand with her own, pouring every ounce of determination she had into her voice.

"I promise you, we will do everything in our power to find him, and bring him home."

She meant it.

Juliet glanced at her out of the corner of her eye with a slight frown, but she didn't say anything. Instead, she nodded to the boy's mother, her features relaxing back into its usual softness.

"Thank you very much for your time, Mrs. Fernandez."

She nodded to one of the neighbors, an older woman, to help the distraught mother into her house, a neatly kept, one story brick house. When the women had gone inside, Juliet turned to Felicity, her expression quizzical.

"That was a carefully worded promise."

Felicity folded her arms loosely, keeping her eyes trained on the grass. Echos of Mrs. Fernandez's grief played through her mind like a torturous recording, thrumming in her temples like a pulse. It was an ache that couldn't be soothed.

"I know."

She had no intention of making any promises that she couldn't keep. Her gaze strayed to the lanky detective still interrogating the neighbors. Not anymore, at any rate, she thought grimly. Juliet seemed to understand what she meant, because she simply patted her arm and started walking towards her partner.

Someone tapped her shoulder lightly and Felicity turned. She was met with warm hazel eyes and a charming grin.

"Hey, Eddie, how are you?" she asked, forcing an easy smile, feeling the tension drain from her shoulders.

"Not bad." His grin widened as he looked her over. "I'm starting to like this more casual look you've been rockin' lately."

"No one says that anymore," she replied, deflecting the compliment.

"And that's a shame." He was teasing her, but there was an undercurrent to his words that she couldn't quite place. With the way he was looking at her, she wasn't entirely sure she was comfortable figuring it out, not when she was-

Well, when she was what?

Neither she or Lassie had actually come out and said that they were in a relationship. They'd had one date. She knew he was attracted to her, he knew she was attracted to him, but they hadn't spoken about it.

Which reminded her; they really needed to talk.

Felicity bit back a sigh, running a hand through her hair, her ponytail swishing as she tilted her head. It wasn't like they were avoiding it. Well, not entirely.

God, she needed apple juice.

"Have you and your team found anything?" she asked, changing the subject.

Eddie suddenly sobered.

"We've gone over everything with a fine tooth comb. The house, the yard, the street, and there's nothing. It's like the kid just vanished into thin air."

"Well, that wouldn't surprise me at this point," she muttered. She glanced back up at him. "Keep me posted, will you?"

"Yeah, sure."

"You've got my cell?"

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. "No, what's the number?"

She gave it to him and he quickly punched it in. She clapped him on the arm. "I appreciate it, Eddie."

"No problem, but you know," his eyes glittered mischieviously, holding up his phone and wiggling it. "Now that I have this, you can definitely be expecting me to call and ask you-"

"Sawyer!"

Her name reverberated across the yard and she winced.

"Sorry, Eddie. I'll talk to you later, alright?"

She tried to ignore how he thoroughly dejected he looked, waving to him as he nodded. Hurrying, Felicity strode across the Fernandez's lawn, narrowing her eyes at Lassiter's hard stare over her shoulder at the good-looking tech.

"You bellowed, my lord?"

His scowl shifted to her and she met it with one of her own, resting her hands on her hips. Her lips twitched when she saw his eyes wander briefly down to how the motion pulled her t-shirt tight across her chest before snapping back up.

"Don't be cute."

"Impossible, I'm afraid," she responded with a smirk.

He didn't react, disappointingly, just slid his gaze towards the house. "Not much to go on."

Felicity sighed, her index finger tapping against a denim belt loop. She suddenly felt very tired, rubbing her fingers across her forehead and shielding her eyes from the bright California sun.

"More than we've been getting. And the description sounds a bit like the man I had the sketch artist draw for me." She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. "But so far, we've got zip on the forensic front. Which means that description is all we've got."

"Flick!"

Felicity half-turned to see Shawn and Gus approaching at a rapid pace, both of them with seriously disturbed expressions. "Hey. I take it you two have about as much as we do."

"If what you mean is serious bupkis, then, yes, that's exactly what we've got," Shawn answered grouchily.

Lassiter quirked an eyebrow. "What, the spirits had nothing to say for once?"

Felicity shot him an incredulous look.

"Seriously, can you not resist getting a dig in at every opportunity? What are you, twelve?" She held up a finger towards Shawn with a glare, whose mouth was already open to retort. "Don't even think about it, junior." His jaw closed with a snap.

Gus shook his head. "You have got to teach me how to do that."

"It takes a certain personality trait to pull off." Felicity smiled at him. "And you're just too sweet to have it, Gus."

He seemed inexplicably pleased by the observation and Felicity felt her mood start to lift a little.

"If you're done flirting, Sawyer?" Lassiter asked tightly, jerking his head in the direction of the car. "I've got to swing by the precinct."

Well, that just shot it all to hell. With an exasperated breath, Felicity threw her hands up into the air.

"Shawn, Gus, I'll see you guys at Henry's later."

They waved as she pushed past Lassiter and marched to the car, wrenching open the door and slamming it shut as hard as she could as soon as she sat down in the passenger seat. Pointedly ignoring the detective's icy look in her direction, she reached down and grabbed her notepad and a pen out of her bag. Lassiter came around the car and opened the driver's side, sliding in next to her with a quiet grunt. He shut the door, but when he reached for the keys to start the engine, he stopped. She angled her head so that she couldn't see him out of the corner of her eye, twisting around in the seat until she was half-turned towards the window, the pad of paper on her lap, and her hand already flying across the pages.

"Sawyer?"

The hesitant note in his voice almost made her pause. Almost.

He was a lot of things, but he wasn't stupid. He knew she was pissed and he knew why. Frowning harder, she focused on scribbling down everything that Mrs. Fernandez had said, adding a few notes in the margins as she went. But what pissed her off more was that she understood where he was coming from. She knew why. She continued to silently write, the air in the car heavy and tense.

"Felicity?"

"I'm going to need to know what the neighbors saw," was all she said, her voice cool and even.

"Yeah, I figured you would, so I wrote it all down, but-"

"Notes," she demanded, holding out a hand without looking at him.

She heard him sigh heavily, then a rustling sound as he dug in his breast pocket and pulled out his small notebook. It slapped against her palm and she took it quietly.

"Thanks." She glanced up out the windshield and nodded. "Whenever you're ready to get this show on the road." She cut her eyes towards him, a sharp glint reflected in the grey irises. "Unless, of course, you'd rather I stay and flirt."

He let his head fall back against the headrest with a groan.

"It was out of my mouth before I could stop it, alright? I didn't mean-"

"Wow, you're actually admitting to putting your foot in your mouth?" She whistled lowly, then leaned forward, making a show of checking the sky. "Where's the snow? Hell had to have frozen over."

"Felicity-"

Frustrated and cross, she slapped her palm against her notepad.

"Look, Lassie, I get it, I do. You get insecure about where we stand and-"

"I do not get insecure, Sawyer, I-"

"Well, what the hell do you call it when you jump on me every time I speak to a guy or...or smile or even-"

"I don't jump on you, I-"

"Yes you do, because you don't trust me!" she snapped and he flinched, his jaw tightening. Her hands trembled even as she clenched them until her knuckles were white. There was a burning in her eyes that she was desperately trying to ignore, hurt and anger coursing in equal measure with every heartbeat. "You still don't trust me, Carlton," she said more softly.

Cursing, he ran a hand through his hair, only to let it drop onto the steering wheel. "Felicity-"

"Don't," she warned him, stretching her hand out to touch her fingertips against the back of his hand. "You might never come out and say it, but I can feel everything that you do. It doesn't matter whether you believe that or not, although it's a nice change that you've started to lately. But...even though you're starting to have faith in my ability, you still don't have faith in me...or...us, for that matter." She sighed, feeling incredibly drained as he kept his gaze firmly on the windshield. "Carlton, look at me...please." Maybe it was the 'please', or maybe it was the ache even she could hear in her voice, but he did, and she continued. "I don't know what it is exactly that we've got here, but I do know that I want it to work. Now I know that asking you to trust me is going to do me about as much good as catching a hurricane with a butterfly net, but...at least try and give me the benefit of the doubt."

His features softened, the muscle in his jaw relaxing as he lifted his other hand to cover hers. He grumbled, "You shift gears faster than anyone I've ever met, you know that? Enough to give a man whiplash."

She could feel the honesty just as clearly as she could see it in his face, entwined with a strong sense of affection and pleasure at her admittance to wanting to be with him. She was mildly irked that there was still a trace of incredulity about that, but she let it go. She'd take her apples where she could get them. There was also a whole lot of vexation aimed in her direction, but it was tinged with such a powerful surge of guilt that she was shaking her head before she even realized the motion.

"Stop it." He looked at her and she elaborated. "Feeling guilty. It makes me mad, but I really do get why you lash out like that. If I didn't, we wouldn't be having this discussion." She rolled her eyes upwards. "Christ, it would be the two of us to finally have this conversation at a crime scene." She snorted almost derisively. "Dysfunctional on the best of days, right? Pfft...oil and water."

"You're never boring, Sawyer, I'll give you that," he replied, sounding as tired as she felt. In fact, she felt the fatigue hit him.

"So now what?" she asked, letting the question slip past her lips even though she wasn't entirely sure she wanted an answer.

He met her eyes. "You tell me."

Her lips tilted in a crooked smile. "I think I made myself pretty clear. Your turn."

It was something of a challenge and they both knew it. He glanced away from her with a heavy breath, although his hand stayed on hers, the pad of his thumb rubbing back and forth across her knuckles. She could feel so much from that touch, an insight into his thoughts despite his silence; trepidation, doubt, desire, fondness, irritation, worry, a small burst of occasional satisfaction, which was what she wondered about the most. Finally, he looked back at her.

"I think that I'm starting to get used to you driving me crazy. And I can't deny that I enjoy the hell out of winding you up and watching you go. And I don't have a damned clue why you put up with me, but..." He smirked, giving her hand a squeeze. "I think I'd like to keep you around a while all the same."

Felicity couldn't help it. She laughed.

"That's the closest I'm ever going to come to you admitting that you like me, isn't it?"

He grinned at her. "Pretty much, yeah." His smile faded and his voice lowered an octave. "You still mad?"

She arched a brow. "Do you want me to be?"

The look he gave her was heated, making her heart thump hard in her chest as he turned the key in the ignition, shoving the gear shift into drive. "Haven't made up my mind yet."