Mac got the address for Patricia Stanford, got his coat and headed for the elevator. Jo grabbed her coat and went after him. "Mac!" she said. "Mac!" She could tell by the way he was walking that he was totally mad.

Mac pressed the elevator button just as Jo walked up beside him. "Mac, you have to remember that this person may not have done anything," Jo said.

Mac looked at her. "Somebody did, whether it was by accident or deliberate. That file had important information in it about how the evidence was processed. There's going to be a trial, Jo. Do you really want that guy to get off because of a technicality?"

"I know how serious this is, Mac, but we can make the file again."

"That doesn't look good for this lab," Mac said as the elevator opened.

They went into the elevator and Mac pressed the close-door button. "What are you planning to do?" Jo asked.

Mac thought a moment. He was not sure what he was going to do. If he found that the intern had misplaced that file, they would be looking for a job. He knew that for sure. Jo looked at Mac as she noticed his silence. She knew he was angry to the bone and she thought he was blaming himself for this. "Mac, this is not your fault," Jo said.

Mac sighed. He did not feel like being consoled today. The elevator doors opened, and he headed out to the Avalanche. Jo followed him and got in. She was going to make sure he did not come down too hard on this new intern. He had no proof that she lost the file.

Mac was steaming as he was driving. "I know what you're doing," he said. "There is no room for slack in that office."

"I know that, Mac," Jo said. "But this person has only been there two weeks and you don't know that she did it."

"Who do you think did?" Mac looked at her with a look she had not seen before. "You think I lost it?"

"I didn't say that."

"Well, if I did, it was because I was so preoccupied with getting to you last night."

Jo's mouth dropped open. "And you're blaming that on me?"

"You tease me all the time!"

"That is rude, Mac Taylor!"

"Maybe we should never have started this in the first place!"

"You're just saying that because you want to have an excuse for forgetting something! You still think you're not allowed to have fun or enjoy anything and if you do anything like that, you're going to lose control of that lab! You can't live in your job, Mac! You have a right to have a life too! Stop blaming me and stop blaming yourself! This has nothing to do with our relationship! You're just beating yourself up for allowing yourself to enjoy something!"

Mac frowned and stared out the window. He knew she was right but he did not want to listen right now. He was sitting in traffic and he was in no mood. He blew the horn and let the window down. "Hey, why don't you get this line moving!" he yelled.

"Why don't you keep your shirt on!" someone else said in the next lane.

Mac glared at him. Jo grabbed Mac's arm and pulled him away from the window. "Stop that," she said. "You're making a fool of yourself just because a folder got misplaced in the lab."

Mac let the window up and tried to calm himself down. He looked at Jo. "I'm sorry," he said. "This is serious though."

"I know, but you don't have to be ridiculous."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean what I said."

"I know that."

Mac looked at her a moment. "You're not upset?" he asked.

"I was getting there," Jo replied. "But I knew you didn't mean it."

"How did you know?"

Jo looked at him. "I just know."

Mac turned his attention back to the traffic. "You're teasing me again."

"I love to see you squirm. You need to squirm."

"Why?"

"Because it lets me know that you're paying attention."

"And I have to squirm for that?"

"Yes. You're so shy."

Mac sighed. "I can't help it."

"That's not a bad thing. I'm not shy so we complement each other."

"You're definitely good for me."

"You're good for me too, Mac Taylor. I feel like a woman again, not just a mother. I love being a mother, but I want to be a woman too."

Mac considered that. "I guess I never thought of that."

"Being a mother is not always easy. A woman needs other things too. She needs adult companionship."

Mac felt much calmer now. He knew he would have to handle this rationally although he wanted to fire this intern on the spot and make it where she could not get a job anywhere in a lab again. They soon arrived at the apartment building where Patricia Stanford lived. They went in and found the right apartment and Mac knocked on the door. He waited and knocked again but there was no answer. "Maybe she's not home," Jo said.

"I just have a feeling that there's something else going on here," Mac said.

"It is odd that all that disappeared."

"Right. It couldn't have happened without someone deliberately trying to cause trouble. That's what upsets me the most. Let's go and see if the landlord can let us in this apartment."

Jo followed Mac to the landlord's apartment. "You got a warrant?" the landlord asked.

"I just want to see if anyone's there," Mac said.

The landlord considered that. He went and let them into the apartment but there was no one there. "Did you see her come in last night?" Mac asked.

"No," the landlord replied. "I don't keep track of my tenants. As long as they pay, I don't care where they go or when they come back."

Mac and Jo looked around. It did not look like anyone had been in the apartment the night before because the bed was not messed up. Mac looked at Jo. "I'll just bet she's not coming back," Mac said.

"I would probably agree," Jo replied. She walked over to the other side of the bedroom where there was a crib. "She has a child."

Mac looked at the crib. "Where is she now?"

Mac was not sure what to do next but he wanted to know why Patricia Stanford would steal a file from the lab. He called Don Flack and told him to find out if Patricia Stanford had any connections with Patrick King. "I'll get on it," Don said.

Mac put his phone away. He and Jo headed back to the lab. "You think she is trying to keep him from being convicted?" Jo asked.

"It's possible," Mac replied. "She would know the procedures of a lab. If something doesn't go right, it can throw a case out the window."

Jo sighed and shook her head. "Maybe he's her lover or something."

"He's a drug dealer. Maybe she was one of his women or one of his distributors."

"You never know what people are doing after hours."

"That's true."

Jo thought a moment. "All I can think is that she is tied to him somehow but I don't think it's a lover," she said.

"Why?"

"Cause he's a drug dealer."

"Maybe she's a relative or something."

"That's possible."

They arrived at the precinct and went inside. Don Flack was at his desk. "Hey, Mac, I found out something about Patricia Stanford," he said.

Mac looked at the printout Don gave him. "His sister," he said. "I knew it had to be some sort of relation."

Jo looked at the paper. "So, she's trying to help her brother out by throwing away her career and everything?" she asked. "That doesn't make sense."

"It has to be the explanation."

"But why would she do it? What would make her do something like this?"

Mac looked at Jo. "You think she was threatened or something?"

Jo considered that. "There must be a lot of money involved in this," she said. "There is something that we're missing."

"And he'll have that lawyer saying that we can't go on with his trial because we've lost the file."

"What about her child?"

"You think they are threatening her with her child?" Mac asked.

"It's possible, Mac," Jo replied. "A mother will do anything for her child."

"Yeah, but would her own brother do something like that?"

"Maybe not her brother, but maybe some of the others who work for him."

Mac considered that. "They would do anything to get him off to keep their drug business going."

"Why don't we go and visit him and see if he knows what's going on with his sister?"

"That might be useful." Mac looked at Don Flack. "Bring Patrick King back here to interrogation. Let me know when he's here."

"Will do," Don said.

Mac and Jo went back up to the lab. "You find out anything?" Danny asked when Mac and Jo came out of the elevator.

"We found out that Patricia Stanford is Patrick King's sister. We think they may have been threatening her about her child," Jo said.

"She has a kid?"

"Yes. We found that out at her apartment."

"You think they may have kidnapped her child?" Lindsey asked.

"We don't know yet, but Patricia Stanford has disappeared."

"I'm going to get Flack to get in touch with someone about her child," Mac said. "She must have had a babysitter." He looked at the others. "Let's get busy and see what we can figure out. Someone's time is running out." Mac turned to go to his office. "I'll get the chief in on this."