Alison walked down the hallway with Lindsay at the crime lab.

"So whose watching Ethan today," Lindsay asked, flipping through the latest report on their homicide case.

"Jack and Sean are off school, and we offered to help pick in on the car they are trying to buy." Alison explained, spotting Greg and Hawkes in their office. "Apparently, they're getting tired of taking the bus." Lindsay laughed.

"At their age, I don't blame them. In Montana, most kids have their car's right when they turn 16." Alison shrugged her shoulders.

"When you live in the city, there's not much of a point." Lindsay opened her mouth to answer but was cut short by the sound of glass shattering and gunfire to their right. The two of them dropped to the ground, trying to find the source. Someone was in another Highrise shooting into the lab. Through the window, they had been standing in front of. Alison rolled over to one of the cement pillars that divided the large, now shattered windows pulling Lindsay with her.

"You alright," Alison called out over the continued gunfire.

"Yeah, you." Alison glanced down at her hands. They were bleeding from several cuts from the broken glass.

"Nothing life-threatening." The gunfire stopped, and her eyes scanned the lab. Mac and some other man were on the floor in his office. Mac looked to be fine, but the man had a gunshot to the arm. She could see Greg and Hawkes in the main hallway helping up one of the other lab techs to a more covered spot. Her eyes locked with Greg's, and they both gave a small nod. They were both fine for now. The gunfire slowed, and Lindsay and Alison dashed further into the lab to get more cover. Heading into the computer lab, they found one of the lab techs leaning against a desk. There was a large cut on the side of his head.

"You look after him. I'm keeping an eye out." Alison said as Lindsay ran over to him.

"What do you think is going on." Alison reached into her pocket, pulling out her phone before dropping it and letting out a hiss. The cuts on her hand were deeper than she thought. Lindsay handed over a packet of bandages from the first aid kit. Alison resorted to using her teeth since her hands were slick with blood. Doing her best to apply pressure to the cuts and not pushing any of the remaining glass further into her hands. A group of officers in full tactical gear entered the lab, taking over care of the lab tech. Messer following behind them. He walked over to Lindsay, giving her a hug and nodding at Alison.

"You to alright." He asked.

"Al needs to get her hands looked at," Lindsay explained, grabbing Alison's phone off the ground before putting it in her own pocket.

"What do you know."

"We've got a five-block radius that has been cordoned off." Messer started to explain. "Uh, subway stations are all shut down in the area. Flack and Reagan are with ESU across the street getting ready to sweep the building."

"Yeah, the shots came from the Conroy building." Lindsay confirmand. "I think I saw Mac heading in the direction. What's going on."

"I have no idea. We should get the two of you downstairs. Let's go." Messer started ushering his wife to the door.

"I'm staying," Alison said plainly. They both looked at her.

"Alison, you can't process this area, not with those hands." Alison nodded.

"Yeah, but with everything that happened, we need all the Level 3 here. Even if I can't physically collect evidence, I can oversee the other stuff." Lindsay nodded.

"She's right. We should get our kits." Messer pointed at Alison.

"Fine, but we're having Sid fix up those hands first."

Greg opened the door to his office and found Sid stitching up Alison's hand. He ran over to her.

"You said that you were alright." He looked down at the cross stitching on her hand.

"And I am. Thanks to Sid." She smiled up at him.

"Then why haven't you be responding to mine or the rest of the family's text. I had to get special permission to get back up to the floor." Alison tilted her head then closed her eyes.

"Because Lindsay has my phone." She held up one already bandaged hand. "I couldn't really do anything with it. It must be in her locker. She wanted to change out of her close I got some blood on her." Greg sagged slightly as the adrenalin of the past hour wore off. His knee buckled, and Sid, who had just finished with Alison's other hand, caught him.

"Easy there, do I need to take a look at you?" Greg rolled his eyes as she got his feet under himself.

"No, I've been running around this building for the past hours and need to take a minute." Sid gave Greg a long stare.

"It's alright, Sid, I'll watch him," Alison said.

"Thanks for the help." Sid glanced between the two of them.

"No problem, glad you two are safe." He headed out of the office, leaving the two of them alone.

"Here, you should be the one sitting," Alison said, getting to her feet. Greg waved her off.

"I just need to grab my crutch." Alison hurried over to where it leaned against the wall. She waited a moment, looking at her bandaged hands. "Wait, I can get it, Ally." She ignored him. Looping her arm through the opening, she dragged it over to him, being careful not to pull her freshly placed stitches.

"Except if you fall, I can't catch you." Greg took the crutch from her pulling her into a hug. He took a deep breath.

"I'm glad you're alright. There were a couple people wounded, some seriously." Alison nodded.

"It a miracle no one was killed." There was a knock on the door, and they two turned to find Mac standing in the doorway.

"Al, I need you to look at the surveillance cameras." Mac glanced over his shoulder at the destroyed lab where they were in the process of clearing. "Considering the windows in front of my office were the only ones damaged." Alison held up her hands.

"I can do my best, but my typing might be a little slower than normal." Mac shook his head.

"Adam is busy looking into when he cloned my phone." Mac rubbed his forehead.

"I'll help Alison." Greg said, adjusting his crutch. "Unless you need me." Mac nodded his head, walking back down the hallway. Alison walked over to her desk then paused, turning to look at Greg.

"Can you grab my tablet?" Greg moved as quick as he could, picking it up. "Thanks, I didn't want to drop it." Greg kissed the top of her head.

"Not a problem now, let's get this guy."

Alison stood in front of the screen in the conference room. Mac had wanted to see their results as soon as possible. Greg was the only one sitting down with a large Ice pack on his knee.

"Greg and I were able to get a Man wearing a hooded sweater coming through the service stairway." She nodded at Greg, who keyed up the video for her. She stepped back so Mac could see.

"He covered the cams with spray paint."

"Security didn't notice." Mac asked in frustration.

"It was in the middle of a shift changed," Greg explained. "The day guard and the night guard were out front smoking. By the time they noticed, he had already shot through your window." Mac slammed his fist into his hand. The man after him was an old collar that just got out of prison after 17 years.

"Harrison is prepared. I'm guessing he observed those guards. He knew their routines. Just like how he knew the work crew on the vacant floor had the day off." Alison moved to stick her hands in her pockets, then remembering her stitches opted for crossing her arms.

"If he was that dedicated, there's no reason to believe he wouldn't make another attempt. I mean, the lab is locked up, but he's clearly after you." Mac grabbed his coat.

"He won't let him get another attempt. Thank you two for all the hard work. You two should head home." Greg waved his goodbye, not trying to get up. Alison walked, moving to run her hands through her hair and then stopping.

"I wish there was more that we could do." Greg turned the computer off, grabbing his crutch.

"We got what we could, but Mac is right. We aren't going to be of much help, not today." Alison nodded, resisting the urge to help Greg get to his feet. Alison looked over at the section of the lab that had been damaged.

"I just hope they get this guy." Greg smiled, grabbing the door with his free hand. Alison used her leg to hold it open so Greg to walked through it before following him.

"They will; this is Mac's Lab. He's not going to rest until they find him."

Greg sat on the floor of his home office playing cars with Ethan. The notes for his book were scattered over the floor, and Ethan was using them as a race track. He was getting more use out of them than Greg was. Something was missing. He could feel it. From the notes that his editor left, they could tell something was missing too. Greg took the melted ice pack off his knee, tossing it toward the door so he wouldn't forget to put it back in the freezer. He read another note before adding it to the pile. Ethen squealed in excitement, ramming his car over it.

"Maybe we should just burn them," Greg mumbled to himself. Ethan looked up at him, his chestnut brown eyes. His police baseball hat pulled down tight around his ears. Henry had given it to him, and he refused to take it off. Greg grabbed his car and moved it over next to Ethan.

"I can't imagine it's that bad." Alison's voice caused him to jump. Looking up, he found her at the door holding the ice pack gingerly between her two fingers that didn't have stitches.

"You saw the box of notes." He returned to playing with Ethan. Alison walked over, getting on the floor with them. Ethan handed her a firetruck. "You haven't read it." Greg winced at the words. They came out colder than he meant them two. He glanced over at her. She was staring down at her hands.

"I don't know if I want to." Her words were like a slap to the face.

"Why not." Greg did his best to keep his tone, even watching their son as they played with him. Alison shrugged her shoulders, grabbing the bulldozer to push the papers back. "Alison, we have to talk about this. Why is this book bothering you?" She stopped with the truck halfway between the two of them.

"Because I don't know if I can separate someone's worst day from mine." If her first words were a slap, those were a total knockout.

"you think I'm profiting off of someone else tragedy." Alison waved her hands.

"Not intentionally."

"But that's why you don't like this book. That's why you haven't talked about it. You don't want to rain on my parade, but it bothers you that this is about something that you have experienced." He looked at her, studying the walls that she had put up. "You look at people's worst days all the time at work. What makes this one different." She took a long shaky breath.

"It's different at work reading a report, but you and your writing, I'm afraid that it will be too close." Greg nodded. He reached up on his desk, grabbing a letter. He turned it over in his hands.

"Do you know why I choose this case?"

"No."

"Because each of the victims' families wrote me asking me to tell the story of their loved one. This case came through the crime lab while I was still working on DNA. I remember Nick and Catherine working shift after shift trying to get this guy. I never worked on this case, but I know the people that did. I met the third victim's mother once while she waited to collect her daughter's remains. Her greatest fear was that no one would ever remember her daughter for the woman that she was but as a number. Some people remember the first or the last victim. The ones in the middle can become just a number." Alison took a slow breath.

"They asked you." Greg shrugged his shoulders.

"The mother picked up one of my books and remembered meeting me. I still don't know why they wanted me to write the book. I've never done something like this."

"Because you're the best." Her phone started to ring, and she got to her feet, doing her best not to pull her stitches. "It's Mac." She said before walking out of the room. Greg let out a slow breath. Looking over at Ethan, who was burying his cars under the paper.

"Well, that could have gone better."

Alison walked into the kitchen at her Dad's house. He and Henry were sitting at the table playing cards.

"Hey Al, how are the hands." She shot them a look shutting the door with her foot.

"I can drive, but I'm not going to lie. It a pain not being able to really use them. Ethan tripped the other day, and I reached out to catch him forgetting." Henry winced.

"Ouch."

"Yeah, ripped 3 stitches." She said, sitting down.

"When do you get them out." Frank asked, playing a card.

"Not soon enough. Hopefully, next week some of them can come out." Henry played his cards down, winning the game.

"I saw the report about Hunt," Frank said, picking the cards up. "Shame this all could have been avoided." Mac's former partner had stolen money from a bust and pegged it on Harrison. He ended up serving 17 years.

"In the end, both Hunt and Harrison end up dead," Alison said, playing with her bandages.

"But that's not why you're here," Frank said, eyeing his youngest.

"I talked to Greg." Alison caught Henry and Frank share a look.

"About his book." She nodded at Henry's question.

"Good, you have been snapping everyone's head off since he started writing that book. I, for one, can't wait to read it." Frank held up his hand, stopping Henry.

"Alison, how are you doing." She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath.

"Better than I was but not there just yet." Frank slowly reached over, touching her shoulder, causing her to flinch slightly. He pulled his hand back.

"That's all any of us can say."