A/N: Hope you all enjoy! Special thanks to NightMage for the reviews.
Dis: Only own plot.
Please review!!
Samantha yawned and rolled over in bed to turn off her alarm. She opened her eyes and glanced at the clock through sleepy eyes. 6:45, deciding to go for a quick run as she had plenty of time. She changed and had a quick breakfast.
She got out onto the street, shivering slightly at the sudden chill. She smiled as she ran past one of her neighbors, who was also out for an early morning jog. She ran down the street, turning to smile at the owner of the flower stand on the corner of the street. She turned back round and ran into a guy.
"God. I'm sorry." she apologised.
"It's fine." replied the guy shortly. He walked away quickly, his hat firmly over his head.
Samantha looked after him, surprised at his rudeness. She shrugged it off, and carried on running.
"Morning guys!" said Samantha walking into the bullpen.
"Morning." replied Martin and Vivian.
Danny smiled, from his seat at his desk. "You're very cheerful."
Samantha smiled. "Yeah. Actually managed to have a good nights sleep."
"Hey guys." said Jack, walking over from the office. "Remember Ken Jones?"
Samantha shuddered involuntarily, but nodded along with the others.
"We got a possible sighting just past the border of Pennsylvania. The local PD are going to keep us posted, but someone may have to go over there later."
"Alright." said Vivian nodding.
"Also we got a runaway case. The kid, Lily Pearce, left a note for her parents last night. She didn't say where she was going or anything, so they asked if we could find her. They live on 23rd and Western, number 26. Martin, you and I will go over there in a minute."
"Sure." said Martin.
"Ok, she's 15 and according to what the note said she was just sick of her family not letting her live her life."
"Is there any close friends or a boyfriend she would call?" asked Samantha.
"We'll find out from the parents. Sam, can you and Danny work on the phone records, and if she has a computer we'll get it to you guys. Viv, we'll get you the names of her friends asap, then you guys can go question them."
"Ok." said Danny.
"Let's get to work." said Samantha as Martin and Jack left.
Samantha managed to get hold of the phone records and was now going through them with Danny and Vivian.
"Wow, she makes a lot of calls." said Vivian.
"Yeah and this is only the past 5 days." Samantha smiled, "There's always lots to talk about at that age I guess."
"You find anything?" asked Danny, looking up from his own sheet of paper.
"This one number seems to come up a lot." said Sam writing it on a piece of paper.
Vivian glanced at it, "Yeah I've seen that a lot too."
"Close friend? Boyfriend?" speculated Danny.
Sam shrugged. "Jack and Martin should be sending us the name of her friends soon."
"Samantha?" called a male voice.
Sam looked round, surprised to see the guy from the flower stand, that she had waved to earlier.
"Hi Paul." she said getting up. They had formed a friendship a long time ago, when she would buy flowers regulary for an honorary aunt. She had known the woman, Sarah, for years, as she was a friend of the family (the one Sam would run to when things got too hard at home), she had had cancer and had liked the flowers to brighten up the place. So Samantha used to buy her flowers at least 3 times a week so her and Paul had gotten talking one time. However Sarah had passed away so Sam didn't buy flowers anymore, but she still talked to Paul regularly.
"So what's up?" she asked.
"Someone asked me to deliver this to you personally." he said handing her a box. "He gave me $50 extra, to make sure you got it."
"Thanks." said Samantha throwing a puzzled look to Vivian and Danny.
"Anyway I gotta get back to the stall." said Paul.
"Ok. See you later." Samantha walked back to the table they had been sitting around. Picking up a pair of scissors, she carefully opened the box.
Reaching inside she pulled out a small funeral wreath, with a note attached. Grabbing the note, she read it and paled. Danny reached over and grabbed the note, Vivian reading it over his shoulder. "I didn't appreciate the way you spoke to me on the phone Sammy. Time's running out; tick tock."
"Sam, what's going on?" asked Vivian firmly.
Samantha looked at them shocked. "I was just getting some prank phone calls--"
"I thought you said it was nothing serious?" said Danny.
"It's not, this is the first thing like this." she replied.
"How longs it been going on?" asked Vivian, looking at Sam worriedly.
"For about 5 days."
"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Vivian asked, although not surprised, Samantha wasn't one to admit that she couldn't handle something.
Sam sighed, "It wasn't a problem-just a few calls."
"God Sam...do you have any idea who it could be?" asked Danny.
Samantha shook her head.
"You should crash at my place tonight." said Danny decidedly.
"What?" protested Sam.
"Samantha, Danny's right. This is serious." said Vivian.
She scowled, "I can take care of myself."
"We know you can, we're just worried." said Danny gently, knowing how freaked Sam must be feeling, but still not wanting to show her insecurities.
"This person could be really dangerous." added Vivian.
"I'm staying at my place tonight, if anything at all happens I'll call you Danny." Samantha said stubbornly.
Danny and Vivian sighed, they knew there was no changing her mind once she had decided something.
"Alright." He gave in. "You have to promise though."
"I promise." said Samantha, smiling weakly, and dumping the flowers and the note back in the box. She sighed to herself, obviously quite disturbed about the flowers, and also scared. She tried not to feel scared, especially in her line of work as she had to deal with many unsettling situations, but this threat was directly aimed at her.
The phone rang suddenly, startling the others. Vivian being nearest picked it up. "Hello, Agent Johnson."
"Hey Viv." came Jack's voice.
"Anything?" asked Vivian.
"Yeah, she doesn't have a boyfriend, but her best friend is this girl, Amy Doran. She lives just a few blocks from Lily, on 69th and Western."
"Right, okay." said Vivian.
"You found anything?" Jack asked.
"Just one number that came up a lot. It may be the Amy Doran, I'll run the name and find out. You want us to head over to Amy's house or will you and Martin?"
"Martin and I will, we've finished here."
"Okay, see you soon." said Vivian and hung up the phone.
"Martin and Jack are going to talk to Amy, and then they will come back to the office." she reported back to the others.
"Did they find anything much?" Danny asked.
"Well Jack didn't say much, he said that Lily didn't have a boyfriend and that was about it."
"Okay." said Danny, shooting Sam a concerned glance. She was sitting at her desk, not really paying attention to what was going on around her.
"Hey, everythings going to be okay." he said.
Samantha smiled. She was glad she had friends like them, people she could always count on to make her feel better. "I know." she replied.
She excused herself, and headed for the restroom, needing to get some space.
Resting her shaking hands on the edge of the sink she gazed into the mirror. She saw the tiredness etched on her face, and sighed. Things were supposed to get easier, sort themselves out she had thought. When she was little, she used to think that when she got older things would be so much easier to handle. After the shooting, and everything that followed she finally felt that everything was getting better. Then it just took one case to mess her up again. She ran hot water over her hands, trying to stop them shaking. She'd never had to deal with anything like this before, and didn't quite know how to handle it.
Sam closed her eyes for a few moments. When she opened them she looked at the mirror and jumped to see Vivian's reflection next to hers.
"Jesus. You scared the hell out of me." she gasped.
"How are you? she asked, a concerned smile on her face. "The truth."
Samantha sighed. "Quite freaked to be honest." she gave a nervous laugh. "I don't really know how to deal with it. I mean, I've never been in a situation like this before."
"Well you've got us to help, you know we're always here if you need us." "Thanks Viv." replied Sam gratefully. "It means a lot." Sam had always thought of them being like family, but it was nice to hear it once in a while.
Vivian put a comforting hand on the taller womans shoulder.
"God. Everything's just so messed up." Sam almost whispered, trying to keep hold of her emotions.
Vivian sighed. She never went through anything like this herself, but she had friends that she knew from her many years of police work wh had also been in situations like this. She had seen it tear apart so many good people, and she and the rest of the team were going to make sure it didn't happen to Samantha.
