As Claire walked back in, she had a luggage bag worth of homework making Mac and Flack look at her. "This is all the lessons, the homework assignments are all on one page, all the extra readings, and contact information for her." Rebecca decided to walk out at that moment and she stepped back at seeing it. "Your school is harsh on the homework, aren't they? I thought they were kidding when they said you'd have a ton of homework to get done."

"Welcome to New York Prep. Where we are never out of homework. They probably gave me double what my classmates have as I usually finish too soon for their liking," she explained. Mac finally took a look at what Rebecca was wearing and couldn't believe how he had found the perfect dress. She was in the forest green dress that stopped at her knees and she was in her black pants, black flats and her hair actually looked to be normal. "I see the look you're giving me about the hair. I actually tried to tame it down."

"Well since it's tamed, you're coming with me. I want to do something with it," Claire answered taking Rebecca with her making Flack chuckle. He and Mac had planned the dinner and had the reservation for 4 in a few hours which meant it was a good thing that Claire came back early. Mac was about to say something before he saw the tiny Pomeranian and he picked it up and it yapped at him.

"You better be being nice with Boo," Rebecca called out and Mac looked at the hallway confused. "What? She yapped."

"She's a pup. She will yap," Mac answered as he looked at it and couldn't blame how Claire and Rebecca fell in love with it. It was a shorthaired Pomeranian and it clearly had a thing for using it's paw to tap things. "So you're the one that got Rebecca's eye huh?"

Mac went into his room and grabbed his suit as he saw Rebecca was being worked on by Claire. "She's not going to a really big thing. It's just dinner," Mac chuckled looking at Claire. Claire shrugged and grabbed a curling iron and went to work on Rebecca's hair.

"She is not letting up," Rebecca informed before Mac chuckled and went to go get changed. After another 20 minutes, Mac watched the two of them walk out and Rebecca's hair was placed in a french braid with one strand of hair curled along her cheek.

Walking out to the Avalanche, Mac noticed Claire smiling as she climbed in as well. Flack and Rebecca were in the back and they looked to be chatting about something in secret. But Flack clearly was enjoying it. Getting out of the car, Rebecca saw a couple of her friends and Mac rolled his eyes and chuckled as she approached them back. "Are we not going to eat?"

"We have 10 minutes before our reservation. I can let her talk for 5 minutes," Mac promised. Flack nodded and knew it was true. Rebecca was still a child and deserved a little bit of time with her friends if they were right there and just had to walk inside. Flack noticed though that Rebecca was starting to look a little uncomfortable with the topics. "She can't be defended all the time from words. This is her chance to show them that maybe the girl they knew, was just a mask. That the real Rebecca has come back and isn't afraid anymore."

Meanwhile with Rebecca she looked at her friends. "Look at you. Pretending to be someone you're not," one of them commented and she swatted their hands away from her hair. "Oh come on. This isn't you. Your hair frayed everywhere is how you like it." Rebecca shook her head at the girl who she knew as Esmeralda and she chuckled. "Oh come off it. This whole pretty act? It's such a stage show. You always swore never to wear makeup or do your hair all fancy."

"Actually, I really like what Claire did for me. This is pretty," she responded looking at them. "It's someone that I want to be. I don't want to be the angry kid on the streets all the time," she responded looking at them calmly. "Why can't I have a moment of pretty?"

"Because it's not you," one of them answered roughly ripping at the elastics and clips in her hair and making Rebecca yell in pain. Mac glanced over and then didn't hesitate to grab his cuffs making Flack and Claire look before they felt nothing but bile accumulating in their throats. Flack didn't hesitate to get in there and grab the one offender while Mac grabbed the other two and cuffed them at the same time as Flack cuffed his. Claire had hurried over to Rebecca and noted all the work they had done went down the drain. Her hair was all scattered and as Claire saw her look up, Rebecca had a cut on her face from where the unique clip she had placed in had dug right into her head.

"I'm so sorry Claire," Rebecca apologized but Claire took none of it and shushed her holding Rebecca's head to her chest and then felt it. She made Rebecca sit on her knees and look straight and began checking her head. Claire had tamed her hair even more but she had a few stray hairs that were longer and shorter than other's so to prevent it from messing with the style they had clipped it down heavily. She checked to see a few cuts on her head that were bleeding.

"Rebecca what happened sweetheart?" Claire knew she had to hear what happened for when the other officers arrived. Rebecca though shook her head as Mac walked over and had cuffed the two offenders together and then to a pole. He wasn't hesitating in checking her head over. "They have to have forcefully ripped out all the clips Mac. There's 4 cuts within her hair and one on her forehead from this," Claire explained revealing the butterfly hair clip that Mac remembered seeing in Rebecca's hair right by her forehead.

"Rebecca which ones came first?" She pointed to the forehead one and then in order touched the cuts that occurred. "What did they say to you while we were over here waiting it out? I knew they were on your friends list so I didn't want to take you away from them."

"Said it wasn't me and I said it was," she dismissed as she looked at her friends all cuffed. "Let them go." Mac shook his head and she glared at him. "Mac they don't deserve to be arrested for what happened tonight. They should be allowed to leave."

"No. That was assault Rebecca," Mac warned making her look up. "They do not deserve to do that to you. Just because you defended one of your choices. You aren't someone that can be controlled. You aren't a slave or anything like that. You have the right to a choice."

Finally Danny, Lindsay and all the others caught up and Hawkes walked over with his medical bag. "What am I dealing with with you today huh?"

"Few cuts from clips being forcefully ripped out of my head." Hawkes slipped some gloves on and began to move her hair away from wounds and he began disinfecting and shushed her as she kept moving. "Really stings," she muttered.

"It's going to. These wounds are a little more precarious. It'll be a few weeks before you can even think of cutting your hair," he mused. He then got to one that was on her neck just where her hair and neck met and winced. "Ouch."

"They didn't like the idea that I don't want to fight anymore. That I chose to clean myself up instead of staying the way I was," she explained and Claire noted that Flack was behind Hawkes and writing it down. "Why can't I choose that for myself?"

"Because it proved to them that you weren't a puppet anymore and you weren't going to be controlled." Claire wasn't dumb and knew now what kids in New York were becoming. Hawkes held a gauze to the one cut for a few extra minutes and then grabbed a headband he knew she had since Mac had handed it to him and pulled her hair back. "We'll order out for dinner."

"I should have known it would go wrong if I spoke to them," she muttered and then winced as Hawkes pressed the gauze into her head. Hawkes then noted the cut on her face and wiped it down. "Must have been from one of the girls."

"Could you tell which one?" Mac knew they had to get an idea about who did the scratch to the face since it would help them align the other attackers. Danny and Flack waited and Rebecca then shrugged but Mac knew the shrug. "Rebecca you did know who attacked you from in front first."

"Doesn't matter."

"It does," Danny answered looking at her as he went to her level. "Don't let them get away with this. Don't. You looked really nice from the picture Flack sent me. Don't let them take that from you. Who attacked you from in front?" Mac knew she might not talk if they were around so he and Claire moved away as did Flack. "Listen to me. I had a brother okay? He was close to me. Because I was afraid he tried to defend me and paid the price. I found the ones the did it but I wish I could have done more. I don't want to watch someone like you make the same mistakes. Flack and I? We both are looking out for you like a little sister. Flack wants to beat them all up right now and I can't blame him. I'm looking at what was clearly a beautiful girl torn to shreds. So let me help you show them that they can't do that. Lindsay even was horrified to see the after effects since I showed her the picture."

"The one that Flack arrested," she answered after a few more minutes. Danny nodded and as the kids were loaded into cruisers, Flack watched as Mac and Claire took Rebecca back to the Avalanche and Mac knew the face she had.

"It wasn't your fault that dinner got wrecked. You were trying to still be around your friends and they were the ones who decided it wasn't okay with them. I know you and Danny talked about his brother Louie."

"Still. We tried to go out and everything went downhill."

Mac knew she'd be beating herself up so he nodded at Claire who walked away since this was where it was time for Mac to make her see she did nothing wrong for once. For once she had took a stand against the image she was making for herself. "Look at me," he instructed and after a minute she glanced up. "From what we've talked about, I know the girl I arrested? She wasn't real. She was someone you faked being since it got your a lot of friends. But clearly they aren't your friends if they can't let you do something that makes you feel worth something."

"I'm sorry." Mac didn't hesitate and pulled Rebecca into his arms and on his lap so he could hold her and knew she was crying as she looked away from where people could see her. "My fault," she muttered and he just shushed her knowing that was going to happen.

"Not your fault and you know it," he responded as he smiled softly hearing her breathing even and she fell asleep. "Flack, how about you go get some Chinese food and Danny you can get Lucy and we'll all eat as a team once we get back. Heads up there are two dogs."

"Noted and sounds good. Is it wear anything?"

"Yeah because we want her to be comfortable after what's happened," Mac responded. As they drove back, Claire was sitting in the back with Rebecca before they arrived home and Rebecca was woke up. She carefully stepped out and as she got inside and smiled as she saw Molly.

"Hey girl," she greeted smiling as the dog jumped so it's paws were on her shoulder and holding her down. "Where's Boo?"

"On her bed," Mac answered. "Now go get changed into something casual. Flack's bringing Chinese and my team's coming to the apartment to have dinner with us. It's going to be a little different but it'll work." She nodded and Mac smiled as Claire walked over.

"I think maybe your team will help us out in more ways than we could imagine."