Greg sat in the back of the courtroom. His phone vibrated slightly, and he glanced down at the screen. Thankfully he was in the back, and the Judge couldn't see him, or he would have been thrown out. It was a message from Mac.

"A.D.A. Reagan, what's your recommendation." The Judge asked, pulling Greg's eyes from his phone before he could read the message.

"Prior to my recommendation. Your Honor, the mother of the deceased, Maureen Lee, would like to deliver a victim impact statement to the court." A woman with long blond hair and the face of a young boy printed on her T-Shirt stood up, walking over to stand at Erin's table.

"My son Jackson was a curious and funny four-year-old boy. Jackson was playing outside of our home on a beautiful Sunday morning when he was struck and killed by this reckless teenage driver." Mr. Lee looked over at the defendant. Her eyes shooting daggers at the girl.

"Samantha Wright likes to party, but on this night, she was partying into the early morning before she decides to take a joy ride…." Her voice cracked, and Greg resisted the urge to look away. "A decision that has taken our Jackson away from us forever; that has made me wonder if God gave me four years of laughter because I'll spend the rest of my life crying." Erin reached over, gently placing it on her arm.

"Thank you, Mrs. Lee." The Judge said. She nodded before heading back to her seat. "A.D.A. Reagan, what's your position on sentencing?" Erin got to her feet.

"Your Honor, the defendant deserves significant jail time. We recommend the maximum sentence for the crime she committed." Erin sat back down.

"Your Honor," The Defense attorney said, standing up. "I have something. May we approach." The Judge gave consent, and Erin and Defense Attorney walked up to the Judge. Greg glanced down at his phone.

"Found another body linked to the teenage girl case pulling Messer over to work the case with Alison. When will you be out of court?" Greg looked up at the Judge.

"Leaving now, the judge just delayed sentencing."

Alison pressed her hands on her temples as she stared at the screen.

"Have your gotten anything off the computers." Messer called out as he sat in the chair next to her.

"Nothing." Messer titled his head.

"You can't tell me that with all these victims and all this technology, you haven't found anything that can give us a lead." He asked. Alison mirrored her screen onto the main screen so that Messer could see what she was doing without having to lean over her shoulder.

"Look at this. Their emails are clear, and all their phones are empty." Alison took her glasses off. "This guy has to be talking to them somehow. Their friends mentioned that they seemed distant in the weeks leading up to their disappearance, but they also had stressful things going on in their lives at the time that caused it not to be out of the ordinary." Messer took a sip of his coffee.

"Is it possible that they all just ran away?" Alison tilted her head.

"I thought about that when we found the first two girls, but they aren't typical runaways. They are seen, from what I can tell to have a stable home. They didn't take anything, not even their computers. They just when out of the house and never came back. The fact that they all have turned you dead shortly after they gave birth is also concerning."

"Yeah, where are the babies?"

"That's the thing they haven't turned up dead or alive, so I have to believes that they're still out there somewhere." Alison looked at the images of the girls. "What do you see when you look at those girls." Messer paused with his mouth to his cup.

"Girls that died too young." Alison waved her hand.

"Besides that."

"They're all beautiful." Alison stood up, walking over to the screen.

"They are all the absolute standard of beauty." She pointed at them. "They all have what would be considered good genes. None of them needed glasses or braces. They all are in what appears to be good health."

"What are you getting at Al." Alison turned, looking at him.

"What if it's not about the girl but the Baby." Messer's eyes shot over to the monitor. "What if it has never been about the girls. But the genes that they carry.

"You think this is a baby trafficking ring." Alison took a deep breath.

"I think that it fits with what we have."

Greg added some vegetables onto Ethan's plate.

"Come on, no one made a New Year's resolution," Nicky asked. They all shook their heads.

"I'd rather give something up for Lent," Henry called out. Greg smiled at that.

"Yeah, beacon as long as it by itself." He said.

"Or sports as long as it's football," Danny added.

"Busted," Sean said, taking a bit of his food.

"I made a resolution." Eddie said, answering Nicky's original question. "To try and contribute to these dinners in a way that keeps them from turning into some cable news talk show." Erin tilted her head, looking at her.

"What's that suppose to mean."

"You know, everybody trying to make the other guy wrong."

"Is that what you think we really do here."

"That is what you do here if you biol it down."

"Not at all," Jamie said. "It's a free and open exchange of different opinions. Take Erin's case. Some of us think that she should go for the max, and others think theirs room for lenience." Greg glanced over at Erin who mind was turning.

"If the girl has mental health issues, then I think that should be taken into consideration." Nicky said, abending the topic.

"But she killed a boy with her car." Henry shot back.

"But it was an accident. It's not like she intentionally hit him with her car; that would be a different situation." Jamie said.

"Would it." The table went silent at Greg's voice. He looked up, meeting Jamie's gaze. "Would things be different if she had meant to hit him with a car?" The tension in the room slowly started the build. Greg leaned back in his chair. "I don't know about this girl, but I can tell you that no matter what happens, she's going to remember that moment for the rest of her life. In those moments when she feels joy will be undercut because someone else can never feel that again because of her. Everything wrong that happens to her with makes sense because she deserves it for what she did. No matter how much time she gets, she will be in prison the rest of her life." Greg tilted his head. "So, no, Jamie, I don't think it's different either way, her life changed that day, and nothing can free her from that prison."

Alison sat in the passenger seat of the car. She pulled her eyes away from the window and looked over at Greg. His gaze was so focused on the windshield informant of him she was surprised he wasn't burning holes in it. She checked to make sure Ethan was still asleep before opening her mouth.

"Did you feel you deserved it when I went missing?" Greg didn't look at her. "You said at dinner that you feel you deserved everything bad that happened. I get that you were talking about your leg, but what about me." Alison looked down at her hands. "Because if you do, don't. It wasn't your fault, and you didn't deserve it because of what happened." The corner of her mouth turned up. "I mean, I was the one that got taken by him; I should know." Again, the car was filled with silence. Alison turned back to looking out the window. Her mind slowly shifted to the cursed morning when everything changed. The blue, no, green eyes smiling at her. It was strange to think about how something as simple as a person's eyes could send such fear into her body. Alison forced her mind away from his face before the panic could take root.

"My shift changed." Greg's voice was so unexpected that it made her jump. She looked over at him. He was in the exact same position that she almost thought that she had imagined him saying anything. He cleared his throat. "My shift changed because of my leg. Mac had seen me struggling with my leg earlier, so he had me pull my double on Tuesday. The slower day at the lab." Alison was so stunned by his words that she could only stare at him.

"If I hadn't been moved, we would have been working the same shift, and I would have been there that morning."

"And then you would have been dead." That made Greg glance over at her. It was her turn to look out the windshield. "Victim number 4. Her husband got home early and was killed by him. She wasn't included in the list because it seemed out of character for Him to do something like that, but she had the mark on her body when she was found. So if you had been there, you would be dead, and so would I because they wouldn't have found me."

"That's not the same thing." Alison shifted in her seat.

"It's not the same. Just like you and that girl are not the same. The man you killed was going to kill his victim and then you. It was self-defense. That's what the court said." Alison took a deep breath. "I'm just sorry you can't see it that way."

"I don't think I ever will."