Disclaimer: I don't own the WaT gang or their universe.

Title: Fallen From Grace

Summary: You can't win them all.

Rating: PG-13

Jack Malone's apartment, New York City

November 21, 2003

6.15 am

It was still dark outside when he had gotten up. In fact, during the winter months, he hardly ever saw daylight through the window of his apartment. He left before dawn and usually returned long after dark. Today the blackness outside seemed to mirror the gloomy atmosphere hanging over the breakfast table.

Jack Malone had just opened the newspaper when the phone rang.

At this time of the day, the ringing of the phone rarely meant good news. A glance at caller ID confirmed his initial feeling. He was about to be called to work and the reason was never a pleasant one. Someone, someone's parent, child, spouse or friend had gone missing. As he had gotten up to answer, he had not missed the stern look that Maria had given him. She too knew what was happening. She didn't say anything, but she didn't have to. He knew that he had promised to take the kids to school that morning. He hesitate for a second, then picked up. It was Vivian.

"Morning Jack. There is a new case. I don't have a lot of details yet. Apparently there was a fire and now a woman is missing." Vivian came right to the point.

Jack shifted into professional mode, forgetting his surroundings, fully focussing on the case.

"I'll meet you there as soon as possible." he paused and it occurred to him that he had already another commitment at the moment.

"No, take Danny and Samantha with you there, I'll meet you at the office later. Keep me updated."

Jack deliberately avoided details. But he knew that he wasn't fooling Vivian. She probably had a pretty good idea what was going on in his home life.

After a short pause, Vivian answered .

"Okay, I'll put the file on your desk and call as soon as I have more information. Bye."

"So, are you still taking the girls to school?"

Maria asked as soon as he got off the phone.

"Sure"

He bit back the rest of the sentence. It had been like that between them for weeks. It had started the morning after the shooting in the bookstore, when he'd come home, mentally and physically exhausted. Maria had been quick to put two and two together. She had seen on the news that he had traded himself in as a hostage. For her that had been the ultimate proof that his job would always be first and his family second. He couldn't really blame her. The sad truth was that he had been willing to risk his life for his ex-mistress. He'd have to live with that as well. But there was no way he could even try to make Maria understand. In fact he himself didn't understand it. Any attempt to explain would both lead them to the conclusion that whatever had once been between them was now gone. Jack knew that and he was certain that Maria knew as well. But neither of them dared to voice the failure of there marriage and so the tension seemed to become more unbearable every day.

Samantha Spade's Apartment, New York City

November 21, 2003

7.35 a.m.

It was her first day back in the field after the shooting. She had been on desk duty for over a month and couldn't wait to get out again. When Vivian had called her early this morning, she had felt a rush of excitement that she had missed while having been confined to the office. But still, somehow, it had taken her longer than usual to get ready for work. Maybe because she had been distracted, by an odd nervous feeling. The traffic had been heavy and she was running a bit late. She'd told Vivian that she'd met her at the house of their latest victim, a mother and her three children. The scene that greeted her was not what she had expected. The street was filled with buzzing activity; a fire truck was parked directly in front of the building, as were several police cars. There was a faint hint of smoke in the air. She got out of the car scanning the people hurrying around the scene until she spotted familiar faces.

Vivian and Danny were standing on the sidewalk, talking to a police officer. She walked up to them. Both of them were wearing grim expressions.

"Where're Jack and Martin?"

"Jack's meeting us at the office; Martin is doing background on her." Vivian spoke fast. Samantha was confused, this was going too fast.

"Back off. Who's missing?"

"Diane Durkin. Twenty-seven years old, unemployed, mother of three children, father unknown, no drivers licence. She has been living in the building for about fours years. Last night, around midnight a neighbour saw smoke coming out from under her door. He called the firemen. They bust in and found her three children inside. Two of them died in the fire, the oldest has been taken to the hospital. No sign of Diane or her body. The police is trying to contact her parents."

"Are they sure it didn't just burn?"

"Positive. The fire wasn't intense enough to completely destroy a body. The kids died from smoke inhalation. NYPD asked around, but no one has seen Diane recently."

"I see. Do we know anything else yet?"

"The preliminary cause of the fire is arson, but the report is still pending. One of the children might have accidentally set the fire. But someone from the fire brigade is going to met us upstairs and tell us more." Danny joined the conversation.

Samantha understood now their grim faces. A case starting off with two bodies, especially children, was going to be emotionally hard. But in spite of the appalling details, Samantha was still wondering why they had been assigned the case. From what she heard it was not a typical missing person's case.

"Why are we on the case? I mean from what you've just told me, it looks more like a case of parental neglect or arson. Why does NYPD think that the mother has gone missing and didn't just spend the night on town, leaving her kids alone?" The possibility although sickening was certainly with the real of the possible. They had all seen cases like that.

"I don't know. They're probably so stuck in their case overload that someone decided to do them a favour and dump the case on us." Vivian theorized.

"So we're going take a look and hope that the mother will turn up after a night on the town. Then it's definitely not our case." Danny said grinning cynically.

"Let's go." But I doubt there is an elevator." He shot Samantha a look.

"I'm probably in better shape then you are" She replied wit mock indignation as they entered the building.

Two minutes later, she saw the point that Danny was having. Her left legs was not happy about the morning work-out. She was no longer hobbling around, but still, her legs was hardly up to such strenuous activities. She made a mental note to start exercising slowly again. They had climbed two stories already and Vivian and Danny had made no move to stop their ascent.

"How many more?" Samantha asked, trying not to sound like she was out of breath already. Her leg was aching more with every step. Danny turned around to her. He no doubts saw the strain on her face.

"The apartment is on the fourth floor. We're half-way there already." He answered and slowed down, while Vivian was still getting ahead of them.

It was clear that no one paid rent for the hallways. There were a cross between dumpster and storage space. That combined with the general decay of the building gave a dire impression. The smell of cold smoke intensified with every floor the climbed up. Once the reached the fourth floor, it was immediately clear that this was were the fire had been. The carpet in the hallway was soaked with dirty water. The smell of smoke was biting, and through the opened window icy air had made for a chilling temperature in the hallway. The scene was creepy, different from what they usually. Scenes of such destruction were rather rare in their cases. The cases with overt signs of struggle and violence where a person had last been seen were rather rare. The fire-fighters seemed to have finished their task, because as they entered what had been the apartment of Diane Durkin, there was no one else in sight. Danny walked across the hallway, looking for Vivian who had already gotten to the fourth floor well ahead of him and Samantha. He found her standing in the kitchen with a man in fire fighter uniform.

They were introduced. He was Mark Davis, an arson specialist. He started explaining the origins of the various kinds of fire damage around them.

"From what I can tell you the fire originated here in this room. Probably the curtains were the first to burn. Might have been set on fire, but I'd have to take a much closer look at the lab to tell you for sure. No sign of accelerant. We'd sniff dogs up here, but found nothing. It would have been pretty surprising if they had found anything, the fire spread far too slowly for an accelerant."

"But if no accelerant was used, then how did the fire spread all over the room? Vivian asked, looking around at the almost totally burned room.

"Most curtains will light up simply be holding a candle too close to them." He explained. "The burning curtains probably fell down, setting the table on fire. From what is left of it, you can see that the table had a veneer. Now in cheap table those are mostly synthetic veneers glued to the table. Both the veneer and the glue would have caught fire instantly when the burning curtain fell on the table. From there the fire spread to the carpet and the rest of the room. Once it was on the floor, there was hardly any way to stop it. Before that an adult could probably have put it out. And then spread out into the bedroom. We found two bodies in the bedroom. The ME will be the one who can tell you for sure, but going by experience, they were probably killed by the smoke before the fire ever left the kitchen. The boy was passed out next to the door when we found him. He was trying to get away from the fire, but the smoke got top him too."

"Why didn't he run out of the apartment?"

He probably passed out before he got the chance. The fire-man shrugged.

Samantha walked over to the door. The rescue team had made a violent entry and the cheap, thin wooded door had probably given way to their efforts easily. But amidst the splintered wood, Samantha found what she had been looking for. The door had been looked at the time of the fire. There was a key stuck in the lock on what used to have been the door's inside. Samantha took out a napkin and tried to get the key out of the lock. It first she just pulled gentle, when it didn't yield, she pulled more firmly, but it didn't budge.

"Come and have a look at this. Someone jammed a key into the look. The door is locked, so it looks like someone was trying to get it open.

"Diane locks the door when she leaves, the kids try to get out, but have the wrong key."

No one spoke, as the implications sunk in. Intentionally or not, Diane Durkin was most likely responsible for the deaths of two of her children.

"I'm calling forensics; they need to take a closer look at the door." Danny pulled his cell phone out of the pocket of his coat.

While he was talking, Samantha and Vivian went on to examine the remainder of the apartment. The kitchen and bedroom were the only rooms which have sustained fire damage and only the kitchen was largely charred. The short corridor, the second bedroom and the bathroom had remained untouched. The intact part of the apartment told a story of neglect. The corridor was littered with trash, a few dirty dished were lying on the floor in pieces. It was hard to tell how much disturbance had been caused by the firemen and how much had been present already. Vivian seemed to be thinking the same thing.

"Even if there was a struggle, it will be next to impossible to find any evidence of it."

"Are you thinking that someone kidnapped Diane?"

"Not necessarily kidnapped. An argument turned ugly, she storms out, or may be is injured or killed in a fight. So far nobody we talked to has mentioned a boyfriend, but the kids have to have a father somewhere."

"True. We should talk to the fire-fighters who were first at the scene, maybe they recall seeing something that might help us."

"I'll take care of that. They should still be down by the truck." Danny headed outside. Truth be told, he needed to get out. He needed fresh air. It wasn't just the smoke filled air in the apartment. It wasn't the charred furniture. What got to him was the atmosphere of dereliction and neglect.

Samantha and Vivian decided to team off, to take a closer look at the rest of the apartment. The fire had not caused so severe damage that all clues had been obliterated.

Samantha wandered over to the mother's bedroom. It had been furthest away from the fire and had not been affected by the flames, aside from scorch marks on the door. It must have been closed during the fire. It was open now, but that had probably been the rescue workers. The room was orderly. The bed was made, a small desk was cleared. She opened the closet. A full set of clothes, a jacket, two pairs of shows, underwear, an empty gym bag. No evidence of a planned departure. There was one empty hanger in the closet, but that told her nothing. She took a closer look at the clothes. For a woman who was supposedly unemployed her wardrobe was pretty good. Not exactly designer clothes, but it didn't look like Oxfam either.

The nightstand. A bible, worn, someone had been reading it regularly. Aspirin. No condoms, or other contraceptives. An envelope. She opened it. $5000. A lost of cash for an unemployed single mother. She went check out the bathroom. toothbrushes. No indication that a man had been staying regularly.

Samantha had just been going back to check on Vivian when she ran into Danny in the apartment's corridor.

"Did you learn anything new?"

"Not really. They just confirmed what we already knew. But they said that it was already a mess here." Danny pointed to the mounds of soaked and charred items in the corridor. "But I met the ME. She says she want to talk to us. It's urgent. She didn't say why, Figured, I'd get you and Viv."

Vivian had heard them talking and came out of the kitchen.

"Nothing. And I mean nothing. The cupboards and the fridge were all empty. Not even dishes in the kitchen."

"Could they have been destroyed in the fire?"

"The top-row cupboards were never touched by fire. They were empty before the fire started."

"That's strange. Robbery?" Danny theorized.

"No. Several grand in the nightstand. Easy to find. Beside, no signs of violent entry."

They left the apartment.

Outside, in the hallway, a woman in her thirties was already waiting for them. She introduced herself us Dr. Summer, the medical examiner assigned to the death of the two children.

"You wanted to talk to us." Danny restated the obvious.

"Yes." Dr. Sommer paused, she seemed oddly nervous for a professional her age. "I'm going to send you my report as soon as possible but there is a detail that I thought you should know as soon as possible.

"What is it?" Vivian asked impatiently.

"The little girl has certainly been dead for several days before the fire. The body was only partially burned, but the advanced decomposition is clearly visible without an exam. "

"Cause of death?"

"No obvious wounds. Could have been smothered, poisoned. What about the second body." Dr. Sommer shrugged sadly.

"Hard to tell. It was far more damaged by the fire, but from the lack of flesh contraction, he was dead by the time the flames reached him, It might have been from smoke inhalation, but there are some signs that point an earlier time of death as well. But I'll have to do a post-mortem exam to be sure."

"Thank you for giving us this information so early on." Vivian finally said, breaking a stunned silence.

Dr. Sommer said nothing and quickly left. Vivian got out her cell phone as soon as the ME was out of sight. Samantha was surprised to hear her request and APB be put out for Diane Durkin.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Samantha questioned. " I don't think we have the grounds established to treat her as a fugitive. For now, she's just missing." She hadn't intended it, but she came off sounding somewhat aggressive, she realized.

"I'm going to talk to the DA and I'm sure he'll issue a warrant. We have nothing on the arson angle, but it should be enough for child endangerment at the very least. " Vivian was defensive.

"We don't even have an official report confirming that the fire was not the cause of death." Danny offered rather weakly, not eager to get into an argument.

Vivian ignored him and walked out of the apartment. Danny and Samantha shared a silent look then followed her downstairs.

The fresh air did her well after having been trapped in the smell of burnt wood, smouldered plastic and charred flesh for what seemed like hours. It would take ages to get the smell out of her coat. Samantha craved a shower more than anything at the moment. Not just to get rid of the awful smell, she needed the feeling to be able to wash away

After the fire truck and police cars had left and most of the neighbours had gone back to their lives a measure of false calm had settled over the street. Samantha could feel the adrenaline rush wearing off. As morbid as it was, this was part of what she had missed about field work. She certainly didn't enjoy coming face to face with the cruelties of humanity on a daily basis, but it was part of her job and over the years had ingrained itself in the way she was thinking. Here in the field, they had actually do something. They might have just saved three lives. That would not have happened from behind her desk. She sat down on the low wall surrounding the bath towel sized front lawn. Her leg was hurting again. Not badly, but the dull ache that ad never truly left her since the shooting was making its presence known again. The running up and down the staircase couldn't have helped.

"Are you okay?" Danny asked, having seen her easing herself down on the wall.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just not used to all that exercise anymore." She faked a smile.

Danny looked away. Following his gaze, she saw Vivian leaning against the wall a few meters away. She had never seen Vivian loose it, She kept her head even if everyone else came close the falling apart. She seemed to go about her work detached and professional, just the way thy were supposed to. But the expression she wore right now, spoke of anything but detachment. Samantha wasn't sure how to read it. Anger, sadness, maybe frustration. She knew that Vivian was a mother, but in the many cases they had worked they had dealt with numerous cruelties against children, abuse, neglect, murder. And not once had Vivian seemed anything but cool and professional. But this here was different. Suddenly, she spotted Jack walking up to Vivian. The two were talking, it did nit look too good. Jack seemed stressed out, but at was hard to really tell from the distance. A few moments later, she could tell for sure, as he came over to her.

"Samantha, how are you?" his voice was concerned.

"I'm fine." She smiled to underline her point. It didn't work.

"It's only been a month. This is a high pressure case, so if you feel …" Jack didn't know how to phrase his concern without coming across as overprotective in Samantha's eyes. He had seen how shaken Vivian and Danny seemed, he didn't want Samantha pushing herself to hard on this case. And he already knew from Danny that she was physically far from in shape for field work.

"I can handle this." She snapped at him. Before he had a chance to respond, she'd walked away. His day was getting better and better, he grimly thought. First Maria, then Samantha and on top of it all a gruesome case that was jarring on their nerves. This wasn't going to be easy.

He would have rather send Samantha over to the hospital, but she would just take this is another indication that he doubted her competence. Maybe it was true, he just didn't feel she was ready and he didn't want to send her out in the field if he wasn't a hundred percent sure. It was his job as their supervisor. But the fact that it was Samantha didn't make this any easier for him. It was impossible to separate private and professional impressions of her. The line that was supposed to separate them was blurry at best, sometimes it seemed not to exists at all. But those times were past. There was nothing personal going on between them, but somehow his feeling had yet to pick up on that notion. He sighed before he went to assemble his team again.

"Vivian, I want you to go over to the hospital and see what you can find out about the boy. We're going to look at scene again, NYPD is canvassing the neighbourhood. Our first priority is to pinpoint the timeline. We can work from that then."

"The press is going to be all over this," Danny commented.

"Exactly. We have to keep this as quite as possible, at least unlike know whether we are dealing with a missing person case or with a fugitive." Jack shot Vivian a look.