June

The Donalds case was almost coming to an end. Lenny faced charges for assault and rape of his girlfriend. Both Mel and McCall had to give evidence during the trial. Jane was brave and strong enough to testify against him even though she still didn't remember everything that happened.

Everything combined turned out to be enough to put him away for a long time. It didn't take the jury very long to come back with a guilty verdict and the judge sentenced him to 25 years without parole.

A few days later Mel, Dave and McCall went out to celebrate and have a bit of a farewell party. McCall was gonna leave the next day.

Enjoying a nice meal Mel had an announcement for McCall,

"Dave asked me to marry him and I said yes."

"Mel that's' great! I'm so happy for you. Have you set a date yet?"

"We were thinking about August."

"You and Hunter are invited of course," Dave pitched in.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," McCall said to him.

"Have you talked to him today?" Mel wanted to know.

"I called him to tell him what flight I'm gonna be on. And I already said goodbye to the rest at the station house. They gave me a signed NYPD shirt."

"That's nice of them." Mel said trying to keep a straight face.

"Like you didn't know!" McCall answered with a smile.

"I think even Captain Brown was sad to see me go."

At around nine the next morning Mel and Dave drove McCall to the airport. After checking in it was time to say goodbye.

"I'm gonna miss you two but I'm glad to go home," McCall sniffled.

Mel was fighting back her tears too, "We'll see you in August right?"

"Try and keep me away,"

They hugged.

"Give Rick my love."

"I will. Bye Dave take care," McCall gave him a long hug too.

"You too."

Sitting in her seat as the plane took off McCall was feeling sad she was leaving New York and her new friends but the longing for the person waiting for her on the other side of the country was strong.

Hunter had a hard time sleeping that night and got up with the sun. It would be hours before McCall's plane was gonna touch down so he made himself useful by cleaning up his house. They had agreed on her moving in with him, a big step but one they were willing to take.

He couldn't wait for her to come home.

A thick book kept McCall busy during her flight. It was one she had bought in New York on Mel's recommendation but never made the time to start reading it.

"John Grisham, now that's what I call good reading," a voice next to her said.

A voice that sounded awfully familiar. She lowered the book to see the face behind the voice,

"Jim Gordon."

"Dee Dee McCall, how nice to see you again."

"Likewise, another convention?"

"Yeah, they like to keep us salesmen busy. And you, done solving crime in New York?"

"For now. I left it a bit safer."

They both laughed.

"I loved being in New York but I'm glad I'm going home," she said.

"I know how you feel, no place like home."

Talking to Jim made the time fly by, before they knew it the fasten seatbelt sign went on and the plane started it's final approach.

Hunter was already waiting for her.

"Let's meet for lunch sometime," Jim suggested.

"If your fiancée doesn't mind."

"I'd like that and he won't mind," McCall handed Jim her card.

"Here's mine," Jim gave her his.

McCall lost track of him as she went through customs, 'We'll meet again,' she thought.

Hunter wasn't hard to find even though it was pretty crowded in the arrivals hall. Seeing him felt good. McCall could see his face light up as soon as he spotted her. A long hug and kiss followed.

"Welcome home."

"I'm glad to be home."

"New York was great but I really missed this weather," McCall said looking out the window during the drive to Hunter's place.

The sky was grey and it had just started to rain.

"You are kidding, right?" Hunter looked aside for a second.

"No," she answered trying to keep a straight face.

"Oh, we are invited to a wedding in August."

"We are? Who's wedding."

"Mel and Dave's. They told me yesterday."

"That's great news."

Silence fell in the car, McCall looked at her ring and then to Hunter. The look at his face told her a lot,

"Give us some time Rick, let's take it a step at the time."

"I will. I'm glad you are still wearing my ring."

The car pulled into the drive next to Hunter's house, they were home.

"Charlie was released from hospital a few days ago," Hunter handed a cold drink to McCall sitting outside on the deck.

"That's good news, how is he?"

"Fine, It's hard keeping him away from the precinct."

"I bet it is, the squad is his life," she took a sip from her drink.

"I'll be glad when he's back, the replacement Captain reminds me of the good old days with Captain Dolan."

"Why do I get the feeling I'm not gonna like this."

"It's playing by the book for now. You know the only thing missing is Bernie Terwilliger giving us a hard time. Thank god."

"I'll drink to that," McCall laughed and raised her glass.

"And to the speedy return of Charlie," Hunter added.

"I'll go and see Charlie tomorrow as well as my Mom. You know she gave me hell over my decision to stay in New York."

"I know, we talked a couple of times. She didn't understand either. I haven't told you this but she was pretty angry with me because I hadn't called her before I left for New York after you were shot. I explained to her that I didn't know how you were and wanted to wait until I knew more."

"How did she react?"

"She said I did the right thing."

"She was worried and so were you,"

McCall reached out her hand to him and he took it.

This gesture from her meant something to him, she had dealt with the ghost that haunted her the last couple of months and was ready to let him back into her life.

By the time Hunter had dinner ready McCall had fallen asleep on the couch, exhausted by the day's events. Carefully he lifted her up and took her to the bedroom.

Knowing it would be an early morning he had a light dinner and turned in himself. He watched her sleep for a while, then he turned the light off, wrapped his arm around her and dozed off.

It was around three in the morning when McCall woke up not realizing at first where she was,

'How did I get into bed?' she wondered.

The fact that she was still wearing her sweat pants made her put two and two together.

'Rick must have put me here, I must have fallen asleep at some point.'

She got out of bed, went to the bathroom, undressed herself and crawled back in.

"Getting to warm for you?" a soft voice said from the other side of the bed.

"A little, did I wake you?"

"A little."

"Will this help to make you sleep?" she gently kissed him.

"It might."

McCall continued her kisses from his mouth down to his neck, his chest and back up again. He let her and felt the tension build in the lower part of his body, if she wanted him she could have him.

When she reached his mouth again a long passionate kiss followed.

Now it was his turn.

Still kissing he rolled her on her back and let his hands disappear under the shirt she was wearing to loosen her bra. It took one smooth move to remove both pieces of clothing. Hunter let his hands do the talking, roaming her perfect body, following the curves of her breasts with his fingers.

McCall let out little moans of pleasure.

Swiftly they removed the rest of their clothing,

"Make love to me Rick," she whispered in his ear, but he decided to tease her a little longer.

The gentle kisses he placed all over her body made her crazy. Finally he granted her wish and took her to an ultimate climax.

McCall placed her head on Hunter's chest enjoying the aftermath of their lovemaking,

"You sure make a girl feel welcome," she joked.

"It was good for me too," he smiled.

"Hmmm."

"You know we could just not go to work tomorrow. What do you think."

No answer.

"Dee Dee?"

Carefully he removed a few curls from her face to expose it and saw she had fallen asleep.

The next morning McCall woke up before the alarm clock would go off and slipped out of bed into the shower. When she was done she put on a robe and went back to the bedroom to pick out her clothes for the day. Once she put on her underwear she looked in the full length mirror on one of the wardrobe doors. The scars from the shooting were very visible.

Hunter had woken up by now and saw her standing there, her hand on her belly.

She seemed far away in her thoughts,

"It will happen someday Dee Dee."

"I hope so."

Right on time they stepped off the elevator into the squad room. Kitty was the first one to greet them,

"Welcome back."

"It's good to be back, thanks."

"The boss wants to see you two," Brad told them.

Hunter knocked on the door of the office,

"Come in."

"You wanted to see us, Sir?"

Captain Smythe looked up, "Yes, so this is your partner Sgt. Hunter."

"Nice to meet you, Sir." McCall put out her hand.

Captain Smythe took it, "Same here Sgt. How are you?"

"Fine. Ready to go to work."

"Good. We are gonna need every person available. There's something brewing in a certain part of this city. Some Juliet ended her relationship with her Romeo and now we have two neighborhoods on the verge of a war."

"What's that got to do with us?" Hunter wanted to know.

"Romeo wounded up dead in an alley. His family is accusing her older brother who didn't like the relationship. He denies that he's got anything to do with the death. The detectives handling the case asked for some help and since you two have a reputation of solving a lot of your cases I thought it would be a nice job for you."

"We'll get right on it," Hunter said after he received the casefile.

"One thing Sgt. Try and prevent these people from bashing each others heads in."

"That wasn't do bad," McCall remarked as she sat down at her desk.

Hunter raised his eyebrows, "Except for the finger. Please try and prevent these people from bashing each others heads in. Like we can stop that from happening."

"Maybe we can by solving this case quickly."

"Yeah right McCall."

"Let's read the casefile first okay."

She took it from him and opened it, "Oh boy, I just found the catch. Take a look at the officer handling the case."

She showed Hunter the file, "Johnny Dunn, just what I need."

"You never did tell me what happened between you two."

"Remember the Martinez case we worked on together?"

"Yeah. I was on loan with vice at the time."

"Right, well I did all the work on that case and he took all the credit. He's a manipulative little asshole who always turns things his way on other people's expense."

"It's about time we put a stop to it then," McCall remarked.

At that moment her phone rang,

"McCall, homicide. Oh, Hi Mom. No I won't forget about lunch today. Yeah, Sid's at noon. Okay see you then, bye."

"Sounds like someone's worried you're not gonna show," Hunter grinned.

"You know my Mom."

"Okay, we read the file. Where shall we start." Hunter looked at her expectantly.

"I'd like to take a look at the crime scene. Feel the neighborhood atmosphere."

"Fine with me. Let's go Sherlock."

They drove to a hispanic part of town where the guy, who was actually named Romeo, was murdered. Lots of eyes followed the car as it turned into the alley.

The marks of where the body used to be were still there. A large dried bloodstain on the ground, chalk marks indicating where to find evidence.

"Feeling anything yet?" Hunter asked his partner.

"Don't make fun of me Hunter," her tone of voice told him to shut up.

"Romeo Ortiz lived in this apartment building," McCall thought out loud.

"He could have been surprised by his killer when he took out the trash."

"You think the killer was waiting for him?"

"Or on his way to the building when he ran into him. The report said the trash bag was lying next to him."

"He was shot with a .22. The brother of the girl happened to own one according to the registration. I couldn't find anything on the gun in the report though."

"Have you read the file? The guy told them it was stolen."

Hunter looked at her sheepishly, "I guess I read it a little fast and skipped that part."

"Let's go talk to him. I felt enough around here," she said sarcastically.

Michael Hernandez wasn't pleased to see them, "The other cops harassed me enough. I didn't kill the guy."

"Okay, you didn't kill the guy," McCall repeated him.

"Tell me about the gun."

"A .22, registered. It was stolen a week before the murder. I reported it to the police but they didn't do nothing with it as usual."

"Where did you report it?"

"The station two blocks down."

"Any idea who might have done it?" Hunter asked.

"No, but he sure beat me to it."

"Why were you so against the relationship between Mr. Ortiz and your sister?"

"Wrong neighborhood. She deserved better."

"Last question. Where were you during the time of the murder?"

"Right here, talking to my mate Bo on the phone. We talked for about thirty minutes."

"Okay, thanks for your time."

"His statement in the file is the same, only they didn't check his alibi," McCall said as they walked back to the car.

The sound of a clock filled the air in the quiet street, McCall looked at her watch.

"Noon! I gotta get to Sid's, Mom is waiting."

"I'll take you," Hunter said. "And then I'll check Mr. Hernandez's phone records."

Ten minutes later the green Monaco pulled over in front of Sid's café with screeching tires. McCall jumped out and went in,

"Sorry Mom, busy case. I lost track of time." she said catching her breath as she sat down.

"I almost gave up on you." Grace answered.

"I hope you don't mind me ordering for you."

"Thanks."

Karen, the waitress, brought them their order and filled the coffee mugs.

"I'm glad you decided to come back," Grace started.

"When Rick told me what had happened I felt devastated but I think I can understand now why you had to take some time away from everything."

"I just followed my heart. There's no other way I can explain it."

They finished the rest of their lunch in silence.

"I'm just glad you are okay," Grace broke the silence.

"Mom, please drop it. I did what I did for me and it told me a lot about myself. It made me a stronger person and it made me realize I'm blessed to have you and Rick at my side."

"Okay, change of subject. How did you like New York?"

"Hectic, busy, crazy, vibrant, need I go on. I loved it, now I know why Dad dragged you to that city."

"Yeah, kicking and screaming but at the end of the holiday I didn't want to leave."

"I brought you something," McCall reached for her purse and took out a small package.

Grace opened it. The little box contained a set of silver earrings.

"I knew you always wanted to have a pair to match the necklace Dad gave you. So when I saw these I couldn't resist."

"Thank you Honey, they are gorgeous."

At that moment Hunter walked in, looked around to see where they were seated and when he spotted them walked over to the table.

"Hi Grace," he greeted her.

"Hi Rick, how are you?"

"Fine thanks, and you?"

"I'm fine."

"What's up?" McCall asked him.

"Well," he started as he sat down.

"Mr. Hernandez his alibi checks out, he was on the phone during the time of the murder. And he was talking to his mate Bo, also known as Roberto Ortiz."

"Ortiz? Are you saying what I think you're saying."

"Yeah, Romeo's brother. Hernandez called him on his cell and the signal was picked up by an antenna only a block away from Romeo Ortiz's apartment."

"We should pay this Bo a visit."

"My thoughts exactly," he replied and turned to Grace.

"I'm sorry to steal her away from you but it's kinda important."

"I figured that. You two better catch that guy."

"Thanks Mom, I'll call you tonight." McCall stood up and followed Hunter to the car.

"Be careful," Grace called after them."

The door to the apartment didn't open after several knocks.

"Let's go back to the car and wait for him to show," Hunter suggested.

"And what if he doesn't?" McCall wanted to know.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it okay."

Walking back to the car McCall thought of something, "I'll have to give Charlie a call that I'm not gonna be able to drop by today."

"He'll understand."

After two hours of sitting in the car waiting McCall felt hungry. She took a package of crunchy candy balls out of her purse, opened it and started to eat, loudly. Hunter looked aside, irritated.

"What! I can't eat these silently." she put another one in her mouth.

Hunter doesn't respond.

"Here, you try." she hands him the package.

He takes it from her and emptied it outside the window. Then her returns the now empty package to her still not saying a word.

"Great Hunter, that's gonna cost you $1,75!"

Just as he wanted to respond Roberto Ortiz entered the building.

"Here's our guy, let's go."

The two of them got out of the car and followed him up. When they reached the apartment Hunter knocked on the door. A young man opened the door,

"Roberto Ortiz?" Hunter asked.

"Who wants to know."

They flashed him their badges, "I'm Sgt. Hunter, this is my partner Sgt. McCall. We have a couple of questions for you."

"A couple of questions?" he repeated.

"Can we come in?"

"Sure," he let them in.

"Where were you when your brother was murdered?" Hunter asked while McCall let her eyes go over the living room.

"Talking to my mate Mike Hernandez over the phone. I was on my way to see Romeo and about two blocks away from his place."

"Hernandez is your mate." McCall pitched in.

"Yeah."

"How come you are such good buddies and your brother isn't enough for his sister."

Roberto sat down on the couch, "It wasn't that he wasn't good enough for her. Romeo had some problems, gang related problems. Mike warned him about it."

"Clean up your act or else?"

"Something like that. He wanted to get out of it but it's not that easy you know. I went over to see if I could help him but the murderer beat me to it."

"Okay, that's all we want to know. For now. Thanks."

Roberto showed them out.

"I don't think he has anything to do with his brother's death," McCall said to Hunter on their way back to the car.

"Me neither. It sounds like Mike placed the call to keep him away from his brother and someone else killed him."

"Now all we have to do is find the person who pulled the trigger and tie him to Mike."

"That's gonna be easier said than done." Hunter remarked.

"The one thing I can't understand is why the other detectives didn't come this far. It's pretty straight forward police work," McCall said to Hunter as they drove back to the precinct.

"I bet Johnny Dunn had something to do with that."

"How?"

"I don't know yet but I'll find a way."

When they got off the elevator and walked to their desks Hunter noticed a visitor in the Captain's office.

"Look who's here to check up on us," he said and squinted his eyes.

"Mr. Dunn in person. How nice of him," McCall sarcastically added.

As soon as Captain Smythe saw them he asked them in,

"Sgt. Hunter, Sgt. McCall I believe you know Lt. Dunn," Captain Smythe said sitting down.

"Yeah we do," Hunter answered.

"Would you like to fill us in on what you have found out so far."

"Well we checked out the crime scene, talked to Michael Hernandez, the girl's brother. And to Roberto Ortiz, the victims brother.

Both Mr. Hernandez and Mr. Ortiz have an alibi for the time of the murder, they were talking on the phone to each other. Phone records confirmed this.

We feel Mr. Hernandez placed the call to keep Mr. Ortiz away from his brother so that someone else could kill him. The .22 that was used to kill Romeo Ortiz was stolen from Mr. Hernandez, or so he says."

"Do you have any evidence to back this up?" Lt. Dunn wanted to know.

"Not yet."

"Well, good work so far. Keep it up," Captain Smythe stood up to show them out.

"One more thing," McCall turned to Lt. Dunn.

"You and your team could have found all this, it's pretty straight forward police work."

"We did."

"Why isn't it in the file."

"It isn't? Someone must have forgotten, happens when you are busy with multiple cases," he smiled at her.

Hunter felt a wave of jealousy going through him when he saw this.

"The lead probably went dead or something," Dunn added.

McCall just nodded and left the office followed by Hunter.

"When did he make Lieutenant?" Hunter hissed.

"Or better, what strings did he pull."

McCall grabbed him by the arm and made him look at her,

"Get over it! It will happen to you some day."

"You're right," he sighed.

"What did you make of his explanation?"

"Not much. He's lying and it looks like he's got Captain Smythe wrapped around his little finger."

"Right."

The following weeks the investigation went slow but they got closer to solving it step by step.