Frowning slightly above a confused smile, Jeannie shook her head slightly. "I'm sorry, what?"

Sherry Reese's grin got impossibly bigger. "I'm here to take you out to lunch," she repeated with a throaty chuckle, "or a least a coffee." Her purse over her shoulder, she raised both hands in mock surrender. "I'm harmless, believe me. Like I said, I worked with your dad and his partner on a case a couple a years ago." She chuckled disarmingly again.

"You're a police officer?"

"Uhm-humh," Sherry nodded, reaching for her purse and pulling her badge out. "I work Vice. Today's my day off."

Still confused, Jeannie looked at the badge and I.D. then took a step back into the house, holding the door open a little wider as an invitation for Sherry to enter. "Um, okay…" she began quietly, "but why are you taking me to lunch?"

The broad smile on the cop's warm features wobbled and dissolved and she put a gentle hand on Jeannie's forearm as she stepped past her. "Because I hear you had a rough time last week… and you've been keeping everything to yourself…. And you need someone to talk to who knows what you've been through."

Jeannie's haunted eyes slid from Sherry's penetrating stare to the floor, continuing to hold the door open as if she'd forgotten about it.

Sherry squeezed the arm under her hand. "And some people who care about you a great deal think that… well, that I might be able to help you… because I've been there too…"

Jeannie's head snapped up and she froze, swallowing heavily. "You were almost… raped too?" she asked softly, realizing it was the first time she'd used that word out loud.

Sherry nodded. "Umh-humh… and it was Steve that saved me."

Jeannie's eyes widened. "Steve…?"

"Umh-humh," the cop nodded. "Listen, uh, why don't we go out to lunch and I'll tell you all about it… and then you can decide how much you want to tell me. And if you don't, then that'll be cool too." She grinned. "So how does that sound?"

Hesitating for a long beat, biting her bottom lip, Mike's daughter eventually nodded. "I'd, ah… I'd like that…" she said softly.

"Great."

"Uh, could you just wait here while I just go get changed and tell my Dad I'm going out?"

"Sure, go right ahead. I'm in no rush."

Her smile tentative and still slightly shell-chocked, Jeannie finally closed the front door, gestured towards the couch then started up the stairs to the second floor. Sherry, taking in every inch of the Stone living room, moved slowly to the couch and sat, smiling to herself.

Reaching the second floor, Jeannie went straight for her father's room. She hesitated for a split second before turning the knob, not sure if she was angry with him or not, and not even sure if Sherry was his idea or Steve's. Regardless, she wasn't going to give him the chance to bluff his way through this; she opened the door without knocking and charged into the room.

Mike was still sitting up in the bed but his legs were straight out in front of him, the newspaper was in his lap and his hands were at sides. His head was back, his eyes were closed and his mouth was open, and she could hear his gentle snoring.

She stopped abruptly and stared at him, frowning. She growled quietly to herself, debating whether to wake him or not. After a long second she exhaled loudly, backed up and shut the door.

When she had changed into black slacks, a maroon turtleneck and beige jacket, and grabbed her purse, she returned to the first floor, shooting another angry glance at her father's door as she passed it. At the bottom of the stairs she collected Sherry with a smile and they left the house.

The second he heard the front door close, Mike opened his eyes and smiled. Pushing himself up gingerly, he turned, reached for the phone on the table beside him and dialled.

"Homicide, Keller."

"They just left," he said.

# # # # #

They were sitting in a small pastry shop in North Beach that Jeannie had never visited before. Sherry had driven, and they had spent the twenty minutes in the car getting there just making small talk, mostly about what Jeannie was studying at university, a subject that the young cop found fascinating.

"So what do you think of the Pyramid?" Sherry had asked when they got out of the car, nodding over her shoulder in the general direction of downtown, the building in question no longer visible.

Jeannie chuckled, amazed at how relaxed she felt in Officer Reese's company already. The cop had a easy, breezy personality that she found instantly charming and appealing. "I know a lot of people don't like it but I think it's magical. It really adds a lot to the skyline. I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes the Empire State Building of San Francisco… you know, iconic."

Sherry laughed. "I like that! The Empire State Building of San Francisco. Well done."

They had ordered their coffees and pastries at the counter, with Sherry paying over Jeannie's objections, and found a small round table tucked into a back corner. It was just before the lunch hour rush, and the place was relatively empty.

Sherry stirred her coffee in silence then deliberately put the spoon on the table, avoiding Jeannie's somewhat furtive glances. Then she looked up and smiled warmly.

After a couple of silent seconds, Jeannie frowned slightly, realizing the young cop was waiting for her to start. She cleared her throat softly. "Was it Steve who called you?"

Still smiling, Sherry nodded. "Umh-humh. He's worried about you… and so's your father."

"Did you talk to Mike?" Jeannie sounded almost horrified.

Sherry shook her head quickly. "No, of course not," she chuckled. "To be perfectly honest, your father still scares the hell out of me sometimes."

Jeannie snorted softly. "He does?"

"Umh-humh."

"But he's a teddy bear…"

"To you, maybe. To us young cops, he's a… well, like you just said, an icon. There's nobody on the force who's more respected than your dad, not by a long shot."

"And that makes you scared of him?"

"Well, not really… I mean, I had the… opportunity to work with Steve and him a couple of years ago, like I said, and I got to see the other side of him… the teddy bear side." She looked at Jeannie with a mischievous gleam in her eye. "It really comes out when he's with Steve, doesn't it?"

Jeannie's face lit up. "You've notice that too?"

Sherry snorted a laugh. "I would have to be blind and deaf not to notice." Her face and her voice softened. "I think it's kinda sweet…"

"So do I…"

They both focused on their coffees for a short spell, taking their first sips. Sherry put her cup down silently, then looked up at the young woman across the table. "So, Steve told me a bit about what happened last week but he was very vague. And I wasn't sure if he was doing that deliberately or if he really didn't know… but, Jeannie, why don't you tell me - as much as you want, you don't have to tell me everything - about what happened. How does that sound?" She smiled encouragingly but not demandingly.

Jeannie looked up from under a lowered brow and bit her upper lip. Then she exhaled loudly through her nose and nodded once. "All right…" she said quietly. In a soft but determined voice, she told Sherry about the vacation she and Mike had taken, how wonderful it had been, and her father's desire to leave early on the Sunday morning for home, with three big fish for her to dangle in Steve's face in retribution for his insinuation that they would be coming home empty-handed.

"Serves him right," Sherry laughed. "Boy, I would've loved to have seen that."

Jeannie's grin wavered then disappeared. "Yeah, me too," she sighed, and Sherry realized this was when things had gone very dark for the small Stone family. When the younger woman looked down, both hands around her coffee cup, she reached across the table and wrapped a comforting hand around the thin wrist. Jeannie looked up and smiled sadly.

The small shop started to fill up with office workers coming in for lunch, and the decibel level in the pace increased exponentially. Jeannie seemed to be annoyed at first as she struggled to tell the attentive brunette cop of the events that had unfolded on that horrific Saturday afternoon. But as they leaned closer to each other so she could be heard, she realized that the forced intimacy was making it actually easier to open up than harder.

And, surprisingly, it also meant that she had to keep her emotions in check, that she couldn't allow the anger and despair that she had let fester so close to the surface since she had been forced to lie on that filthy bathroom floor and succumb to the demands of Johnny Seddon to bubble to the surface in front of so many strangers.

By the time she had told Sherry of the assault, of Mike coming to her rescue, of the pursuit on the highway and subsequent accident, and of waking to the realization that her father was being charged with murder and she with accessory to murder, the overflowing lunchtime crowd had started to disperse and the small shop was growing quieter.

Finished, she sat back, her eyes surreptitiously scanning the nearby tables, alert for anyone who had seemed to be listening. But, much to her relief, no one seemed to be paying any attention to the two attractive brunettes so deep in conversation.

Sherry, who had been staring at her throughout, slumped back in the chair and exhaled loudly. "Wow," she said softly, "you had one hell of a vacation, didn't you?"

Jeannie frowned then, almost despite herself, laughed suddenly and loudly. Sherry's eyebrows shot up; she obviously wasn't expecting that reaction. Jeannie shook her head, trying to lose the smile. "I'm sorry," she said quickly, "I don't mean to sound flippant but… oh god, I've been keeping all this inside for so long, it seems, and it feels so good to just get it out…" she smiled, "and you're right… it was one hell of a vacation."

Sherry's smile was grateful as she reached across the table again and patted the younger woman's arm. She glanced down at the cups. "Honey, I don't know about you, but I could use another latte. What do you say?"

Jeannie smiled warmly and nodded.

"Okay then." Sherry started to get to her feet and Jeannie followed. "No no no, you stay here. I'll get this." She picked up both cups and saucers then looked pointedly at the chocolate croissant still sitting untouched on the small plate near Jeannie's elbow. "And I think we should probably eat our pastries before they go stale, do you?" With the signature throaty chuckle that Jeannie was quickly becoming familiar with, she headed to the counter, balancing the two large empty cups on the saucers.

Jeannie looked down at the table, absent-mindedly tearing a corner off of the croissant as she thought about what she had just done. She wasn't sure how much more she was willing to open up about. What she had told Sherry had been, to quote her father quoting an old TV cop show, just the facts; now she knew she would have to get into specifics, mostly about how she was coping with what had happened. And she wasn't sure how she felt about that.

As she put the piece of croissant into her mouth, she looked up at Sherry at the counter. It had felt almost good, she admitted to herself, to actually tell someone what had happened, someone that was not male and not in a formal investigative setting, though it was ironic that Sherry was also a cop.

But she wasn't sure how far she should go allow herself to go.