"What?" Sam asked, completely at a loss for words. Kate hated Molly? That doesn't sound right, not from everything that Molly's said. Molly acts like the sun shines out of Kate's ass. "I thought they were really close."

Emma, Heather, and Melina exchanged knowing looks, the kind of look that clearly said they should have seen this coming. Sam had seen that look before, had probably worn it herself more than once, but for some reason, it just didn't click with everything she had learned during the investigation. Then again, nothing about this investigation clicked. Sam couldn't remember any other cases that had gone quite the way this one had. It was almost as if someone were testing them, trying to see if they were smart enough to figure it out.

Well, damnit, she was going to figure it out.

"You've only gotten Molly's side of the story," Heather said, rolling her eyes a bit. "Trust me, if you could hear Kate talk sometimes…"

Sam turned to a clean page on her notepad and looked up at the women. "Can you think of any time in particular?"

The three shared a glance again, as though debating who should be the one to tell the story. At last Melina sighed and said, "Okay. There was one time about, what, six months ago…"

Kate had sounded upset on the phone, so Melina made sure to hurry over to her apartment. It was just about the one-year mark in her and Steve's relationship, which was usually about the time everything went to hell, so she expected to spend all night listening to how much men sucked. Melina, married with a young daughter, would only half listen to Kate's rantings, because Kate needed to get them out of her system.

The first thing Kate said, upon opening the door and finding Melina on the other side, was, "I hate her."

Melina was immediately taken aback. "Her" could be any number of people, logically, since there were a lot of women in Kate's office and over one hundred girls in their sorority, but somehow, Melina just knew whom she was talking about. "What did she do?" she asked, cautiously, because getting Kate mad would not help matters any.

"She's getting a raise!" Kate said, as if she were announcing that Molly was responsible for the end of humanity. "She did something good at work, and now her boss is giving her a five percent raise. Five percent! I can't even remember the last time I got a raise."

Melina bit her tongue to keep from saying something, because no matter what she said, Kate would just take it the wrong way. "And she was gloating?" she asked, just trying to figure out why in God's name Kate was so upset about this. But she knew that wasn't it, because Molly didn't gloat. In fact, Kate probably had to beat the information out of her at all.

"No," Kate said through clenched teeth, now pacing about in front of the couch. "Just said it like it was a natural, everyday occurrence." She was so mad she was practically spitting. "Like people get raises all the time."

Melina didn't want to say that people did get raises all the time – not all people worked for an asshole like Kate did, and some people were actually good at their jobs, unlike Kate. "I'm sure she didn't mean to upset you."

"Of course she did. That's the only reason she tells me stuff like this – to piss me off. She knows I hate my job and just wants to remind me how much better hers is."

Melina pursed her lips but said nothing. They didn't even know exactly what Molly did for a living – all she would ever say was that she consulted for the government – but whatever she did, she took it very seriously, and as this was her first raise in her entire four years of working this job, Melina personally thought that Kate had nothing to be angry about. "That's not what she does. She's happy, and she wants you to be happy for her."

Kate snorted. "Why should I be happy for her? Perfect Molly. I hate her."

Sam shook her head in utter disbelief. "If Kate hates Molly so much, then why does she live with her?"

"Because," Emma said, leaning forward conspiratorially, as though she were telling Sam a big secret, "Molly's the only one who will live with her." She sat back against the booth. "Kate's impossible. Always has been. She was in CR almost all the time. Chapter relations," she said after a pause, having obviously seen the look of confusion on Sam's face. "It's kind of like the chapter's judicial committee, to handle disputes between sisters and such."

Sam shook her head again, this time in complete denial. That had not been the picture that Molly had painted for Danny. "Molly told one of our agents that Kate was the nicest – "

"Of course Molly would say that," Heather said. "She's got a blind spot where Kate's concerned. Can't see the forest for the trees."

"Surprising, really," said Melina, "since Molly's always been very perceptive. But even when Kate's practically throwing it in her face, Molly still can't see what a drain she is."

"A drain?" Sam asked.

"She's sucking the life out of Molly," Emma said. "Bit by bit. And if I thought Molly would listen to me, I'd have tried to get her out of that apartment years ago."

Sam's hand was cramping, she was writing so fast. "Has Kate ever tried to hurt Molly?"

"Not physically," Emma said, becoming very absorbed with her fingers. She glanced up suddenly and met Sam's gaze. "But there are other ways of hurting her. Like two weeks ago, a bunch of us were over for drinks…"

Molly and Kate were in the kitchen, being the hostesses, as usual. Molly was bustling about making food, and Kate was preparing the drinks. There were probably a dozen people over, and Kate was making mudslides. She loved mudslides, but the others hated the way she made them. She put too much vodka in them.

"Hey, Moll," said Kate, not even glancing over her shoulder, "you want one?"

Molly spared Kate the briefest glance before returning to the all-consuming task of chopping vegetables for the veggie tray. "No."

"Come on." Kate turned on the blender and watched the concoction puree before her eyes. "One drink won't kill you. You need to loosen up, have more fun."

By this time the others in the apartment had turned to watch the conversation. They were all very quiet, watching to see who would pop first. If they had been betting women, there would have been a pool going, because one of them popping was a sure thing – probably Molly. It was the Irish in her.

"I'm fine, Kate," Molly said, dividing the vegetables into their separate sections on the tray. "I'll just have a Coke."

Kate grinned and held out a glass right in front of Molly's face, pouring the mixture into it. "Just one. Nothing bad will happen. You're just paranoid."

Molly shook her head, grabbed the veggie tray, and walked into the living room. "I'll stick with soda, thanks."

"Molly doesn't drink, right?" Sam asked, wanting to make sure she got all the facts right.

The sorority sisters exchanged yet another look, and Sam couldn't wait to hear the reasoning behind this one. Then she remembered Molly's record, and realized that there was still a whole other side to her – the delinquent she'd obviously been in her teens. That had been a pretty impressive rap sheet Martin had shown her.

"Molly's an alcoholic," Melina said. "She's been sober for a while now – she was sober even before we met her – but after 9/11…"

"It was hard on her," said Emma, continuing where Melina had trailed off. "She almost fell off the wagon half a dozen times, and Kate did nothing to help her. Almost managed to convince her to take a drink more than once."

Sam dropped her head into her hands, her notes momentarily forgotten. "Why would Molly stay in such a self-destructive relationship?"

Heather licked her lips. "Agent Spade, have you ever dated a guy where he meant more to you than you did to him?"

Sam froze. Wasn't that what Martin had accused her of only hours ago? That their relationship was more important to him than it was to her? Was she just as bad as Kate – slowly sucking the life out of Martin until nothing would be left but an empty shell, but he was still too far-gone to see just what exactly she was doing to him? Would she end up resenting him the way Kate obviously resented Molly, for keeping her in a relationship that she didn't really want?

"Agent Spade?" Heather asked, and there was concern in her voice.

Sam shook her head to free herself from the jumble of thoughts that had gathered, but she wasn't able to do it. They were still there, still nagging at her. She took a deep breath to compose herself and glanced up at the three women, who all wore identical looks of concern. "I'm fine," she said, hoping that she sounded convincing. The last thing she needed to do was pour her heart out to a bunch of strangers. "You were saying?"

"It's just that I think Molly needs Kate more than Kate needs her," Heather said, though she didn't seem to believe that Sam was okay. "And whether or not Molly realizes it, it's going to drive her crazy." She paused, and then said, with a little more bounce in her voice, "Plus, I think Kate's bipolar."

Jack tried calling Danny three or four times, but each time, it went straight to voicemail, which meant he'd turned his phone off. And with his phone off, they wouldn't even be able to track him with the GPS, which Jack suspected was the reason Danny had turned off his phone in the first place. Despite knowing that he was unreachable, Jack continued to call Danny's cell, pacing up and down Molly's hallway like a caged animal. The other cops in the apartment wisely stayed out of his way, but they'd at least had enough sense to put out an APB on Danny's car.

Jack was beyond pissed. What the hell did Danny think he was doing, taking off with one the case's prime suspects? He was going to be in so much trouble. Jack didn't even want to think about all the paperwork this lapse in judgment was going to cause. Danny would receive an official reprimand, for sure, for interfering with an ongoing investigation. He would most likely be suspended. He could even be demoted – restricted to deskwork, just like Sam had been after being shot. The only difference was that Danny had willingly done this to himself, whereas Sam had had no choice.

Jack left two cops at Molly's apartment on the off chance that she and Danny returned, but he was pretty sure that they wouldn't. Jack didn't know Molly all that well, but Danny at least had enough sense not to come back to the apartment. Thinking quickly, Jack also had two cops go to Danny's place, should the fugitives go there. Then he got in his car and headed back to the office to regroup. He knew that Martin and Vivian were already on their way there, and hopefully Sam would finish up with her interrogations and join them quickly. Jack desperately wanted to figure this out. That little Irish bitch was not going to get the best of him – not again.

29 Hours Missing

Martin couldn't remember the last time he'd seen Sam so excited over a case, but she ran into the office practically bubbling over with enthusiasm, hurriedly recounting her entire conversation with Molly and Kate's sorority sisters. She didn't give Martin and Viv much chance to ask questions, but after mentioning Molly's senior honors thesis, Martin felt compelled to interrupt.

"Wait," he said, and as he glanced at Viv he saw that she looked as though she would have said something if he hadn't, "are you saying that Molly wrote that?"

Sam nodded emphatically, shoving her notepad into his hands. "They said that Molly figured out a way to mathematically predict the outcome of every basketball game," she said, only slightly out of breath from rushing through her story. "And Jack said that someone broke into the library where Molly's thesis was being stored, and it was stolen. Someone's obviously after her thesis! That's got to be the motive behind Kate's kidnapping. They nabbed Kate to get Molly to explain the algorithm to them, so that they can use it to bet on basketball games! With that kind of information, they could make a fortune!"

Martin examined Sam's notes, which were very detailed and filled with all sorts of conflicting views of the relationship between the two roommates. "Just one problem," Martin said, glancing up at Sam. "If that's the case, then why hasn't anyone contacted Molly yet?" He chose to say nothing about the article Kate was working on. If Molly had written it, that may have explained why Kate had been unwilling to mention the author to Peter, and it probably wasn't important anyway.

"Yeah," Viv said. "She would have received some kind of ransom demand by now."

"We're the ones who may be getting the ransom demand," Jack said, strolling into the office, looking more pissed off than Martin had seen him in a long time. And Jack was usually pissed off, so that was saying something. And Martin couldn't help noticing that Jack was alone.

"Where's Danny?" Sam asked, glancing around as if expecting Danny to be lagging behind.

"Where's Molly?" Martin asked, raising his eyebrows. Jack was supposed to be bringing Molly in for questioning. It wasn't like Jack to not bring in a suspect. Something was up.

"I have absolutely no idea," Jack said, and Martin could tell he was really fighting the impulse to throw something.

"They took off?" Vivian asked, sounding completely bewildered.

"Seems that way," Jack said, nodding.

Sam shook her head. "That doesn't sound like Danny."

Jack shrugged. "Only other explanation is that she forced him to go." He looked pointedly at Sam, and Martin could see the anger in his eyes. "But that doesn't sound like Danny either."

Martin only partially agreed. Danny wasn't one to be pushed around, but something about Molly made him act differently. Martin had been seeing proof of it all day. Danny could deny it all he wanted, but there was definitely something there. Martin got the feeling that Danny would have done anything Molly asked.

He sucked in air through his teeth, something he knew Sam hated. "So what do we do?"

"We find them, of course," Jack said, as though it were the most obvious solution in the world.

"What about Kate?" Sam asked.

Jack shrugged again, looking at the others in turn. "I have a feeling that if we find Molly, we'll find Kate."

Of all the places Danny had expected Molly to need to go, church was not one of them.

Yet here they were, stepping through the ornately carved oak doors of a large and fairly old gothic cathedral. Molly immediately crossed herself upon entering, and Danny raised an eyebrow at the gesture. He would never have believed that she was a religious person; people in the scientific community generally weren't, and given that her favorite book was basically about debunking the myths of Christianity, he'd half expected her to be an atheist.

She really was a walking contradiction.

Danny hated churches. He wasn't a very religious person – if there was a God, He had long since abandoned Danny – and churches had always made him uneasy. This one was no different. He got a chill as soon as he walked into the sanctuary, and he felt like he was disturbing something sacred just by walking down the aisle, but he kept close to Molly. She seemed to know what she was doing.

She went directly to a stand near the altar, where several rows of candles had been set up. A couple of the candles were lit, but most of them weren't. As he watched, Molly picked up a long, thin match, glanced up at the stained glass window directly above the pulpit, and lit the center candle. Then she blew out the match and bowed her head, as though in prayer. Then she sat down in the front pew and stared at the same stained glass window. Danny joined her.

"Jesus praying at Gethsemane," Molly said quietly, nodding her head at the window. "The night before he was crucified."

Danny also looked at the window, and even he had to admit, it was a thing of beauty. Though it probably would have been more so during the day, with light coming through it.

"I come here when I don't think I can handle it anymore," she said, in that same quiet voice, which was barely a whisper, so that Danny had to scoot closer just to hear her. Not that he was complaining. She'd reapplied her perfume before they'd fled the apartment. "I used to go to meetings, but this helps me more, I think."

Danny turned to look at her. Meetings? "Are you in AA?" Danny asked.

She nodded, not looking at him. "It was part of my probation after the DUI, but I never took it seriously until the fire."

Danny shook his head in disbelief. He had never even considered that that was the reason she didn't drink. He was in such a state of shock that his brain barely registered her comment about the fire. "How long have you been sober?"

"Eight and a half years," she said, resting her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. She focused her gaze on her feet. "You wake up after five days in a quasi-coma, only to find out that you're responsible for starting a fire because you were stumbling around drunk and accidentally knocked over some candles, then passed out, and you'd start to question the path your life has taken, too." She glanced back up at the window. "That's why I come here. It's a reminder."

She looked beautiful the way she was sitting – angelic, almost. Danny found himself mesmerized just by the sound of her voice, and he got the feeling that this was the most she'd confided in anyone for a long time. "A reminder of what?"

She still didn't look at him, her eyes glued to the image on the stained glass window. "I should have died in that fire. I should have died, but I didn't." She finally turned her eyes to him, and he saw that they were filled with tears. "That's got to count for something, right?"

Against his better judgment, Danny draped his arm across her shoulders and pulled her towards him. She acquiesced willingly, wrapping her own arms around his middle and burying her face in his chest. It wasn't until he felt the wet patch on his shirt that he realized she was crying.

A/N: In case you couldn't tell, I don't so much like Jack.

I don't know how Catholic churches work (I'm United Methodist, we're totally different), but when I was in Paris, the cathedrals were open, and you could just walk in and light a candle and sit and pray, and I really liked that idea. And if that's not how things work here in the States, then just suspend your disbelief momentarily, and go with the flow of the story.

I in no way mean any offense towards people with bipolar disorder. Some of my best friends are bipolar, and they are some of the most wonderful people in the world. However, we do know a girl who we think is bipolar and not being treated for it, and she acts much the same way that Kate does, which is kind of the inspiration behind Kate's behavior.

I also don't mean any offense towards Irish people. I like the Irish. I am Irish. (Sort of. Scotch-Irish, though I suppose we don't really count, as we're more Scottish than Irish. Whatever.) But like I said, I don't like Jack, so he's going to be a right big prat for pretty much the rest of the story. Let's see how many people he can offend before the fic's over! (Not really.)

Mudslides rock, but only if I can't taste the alcohol. I was going to have her making martinis, but I liked the idea of too much vodka.

Look for the next chapter to be more Danny/Molly centered, as I'm running out of people they can interview regarding the case. I've been thinking about having them go back to Kate's parents and confronting them with everything they've learned, to see if maybe the parents change their story. But I haven't decided yet.