A/N: Gerfan, your review got cut off. Have I ever thought of posting...where?

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They both jumped at the shrill sound of Goren's phone ringing. Alex jerked away from him as though whoever was on the phone could see them and looked at him, wide-eyed. "Who's calling you this late at night?"

"Normally, I'd say it was you," he said with a grin, "but in this case, I'm pretty sure you're otherwise occupied."

When she gave him a prim look, he just shrugged and picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Goren," said Deakins's voice, "I know it's late, but I need you up at Empire State."

"Why? What's wrong?" Deakins rarely called them out after their day shift ended. When he did, it was usually something big.

"Two of the offices have been ransacked - Li's and Sara King's."

Already searching for his shoes, he said, "How ransacked?" He noticed that Eames had taken his cue and was already tying her own sneakers. He gave her a grateful smile.

"Ransacked enough for Sara King to have been knocked on the head when the guy did it."

"Is she ok?"

"More or less. I think she'd feel better if we had a female officer here, though - so call Eames, would you?"

"No problem." He jammed his left foot into a shoe, realized it was his right shoe, and kicked it off.

Giving him a knowing look, Alex grabbed the shoe as it went flying by, untied both shoes, which he had simply pulled off earlier that night, checked to see which was which, and put each in front of his correct foot. Thank you, he mouthed as he shoved his foot into the right shoe.

She just shrugged and looked at him expectantly, wanting to know what the call was about.

"Good. Thanks. You remember how to get to the building?"

"Yeah. We'll be there as fast as we can. See you." He disconnected the call and turned to his partner, who was fidgeting impatiently. "Two offices at Empire State were broken into. Whoever did it hit Sara King and knocked her out."

She stared at him for a second. "Damn."

"I'm supposed to call you and ask you to come along so you can comfort her."

Heading for the door without waiting to see if he followed her, she said over her shoulder, "Well, this is one way to save on phone bills."

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Deakins saw Goren's car pull to a stop just outside the tape perimeter and jogged over to get a head start briefing them. "Sorry, guys," he said when two obviously grumpy detectives emerged from the car. "Breakfast is on me, since we'll probably be here until then anyway."

"How generous," Eames remarked, looking past his shoulder toward the open-doored ambulance a few yards away. "It's just as well you only need me for comforting this time; I've had a couple drinks tonight."

Goren frowned, having told her a few minutes ago that he didn't think Deakins needed to know about drinks she'd consumed hours ago. "She's fine to work," he said. "You can tell she's not drunk."

"True," Deakins agreed, taking a close look at her. "But let's play this one safe. Goren, you go do the scene. Eames, the victim's in the back of the bus."

"Right." She turned and walked off, focused on the ambulance's flashing lights.

"I think you're in trouble," Deakins said, elbowing Goren. "Did you see the look on her face when you said that?"

"She'll get over it," he said distractedly. "Who's upstairs?"

"CSU got here a few minutes before you did, they're still setting up up there. The two campus safety officers who took the call, and the two uniforms who took their call are all up there, too.

"Why are the school people still up there?" Goren asked. That was strange; procedure was usually to clear the scene of all non-law-enforcement personnel.

"No idea. As they long as they don't misbehave, I could care less." He looked back at the cluster of people standing in front of the building. "Go. I'm trying to get in touch with the rest of the people we've interviewed and make sure we're not going to spend the rest of the night chasing after dead students."

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"Sara?" Eames said, approaching the blond girl sitting on the edge of the ambulance's floor. "I'm Alex, do you remember me?"

"Yeah," Sara said, almost too quietly to hear.

Eames looked over at the two male EMTs and raised her eyebrows in silent question.

"She's basically ok," one of them said. "She's got a pretty good-sized goose-egg and we want to take her in just to cover all the bases, but her pupils are equal and reactive and she's speaking with no trouble."

"Sounds like you got lucky," Eames said to the girl, sitting down next to her. "How do you feel right now?"

The girl blinked rapidly. "Like I want my mommy, as stupid as that sounds."

Eames smiled, remembering her flashback earlier in the night to Bobby taking care of her. "I know the feeling. I'm thirty-nine and I still want my mommy when I get sick."

A small smile appeared on Sara's face. "Good to know I'm not the only one. What's going on up there?" she asked, staring up at the lone lighted window visible.

"I haven't been up there, myself," Eames said, "but from what I hear, someone went through your office and Dr. Li's."

"Yeah, I already pretty much knew that. It's weird," the girl replied. "My stuff was all torn apart when I woke up, but Drew's was less messed up. Mostly just open drawers and stuff."

Unobtrusively pulling out her notebook, Eames asked, "Did you have anything in your office anyone would have reason to steal? Valuables, old tests students could use to cheat?"

"No. I left my laptop at home today 'cause it's too heavy to lug around if I don't need it. The rest is just filing cabinets with my graded papers and teaching schedules."

"Any reason anyone could want those?"

"Not really. They're not good for anything except bragging rights - or lack of bragging rights, in my case."

"Would someone be interested enough in your grades to break in to see them?"

"No way. Not when anyone could just wander in any time Drew or I are there during the day and help themselves." Catching Eames's questioning look, she said, "You'd be amazed at the stuff that'll walk out of these offices if you stop paying attention for a second."

"Ah." She flipped the page in her notebook. "What were the events that led up to you getting hit? Why were you in your office so late?"

"Psycholinguistics paper," she said in a tone of voice most people would reserve for roadkill or dog droppings.

Eames winced. "Let me guess: not your favorite class."

"I hate it. Which is probably why I waited until eleven o'clock the night before it's due to start really working on it."

"How long had you been there when things got weird?"

"Maybe an hour, hour and a half. Long enough that I had my journals lined up and was getting into my writing groove. I write my first drafts longhand," she explained at Eames's puzzled look.

"Ok. And what happened then? Were you aware someone had come in?"

"Kind of. I had earphones on, so I don't know if they made any noise, but I didn't sense anything until they came up behind me. I noticed the shadow when they stood behind me and thought maybe Drew had come to surprise me or something. I think I started to say 'hi,' but I don't think I even got it out."

"Before he hit you, you mean?"

"Yeah."

"And you have no clue who it could be? You didn't catch even a glimpse?"

"I got the impression that it was a guy, from the size of the shadow when he stood behind me, but that's the best I can do."

Eames patted her hand. "That's plenty. You're a pretty good witness, Sara. And you know, I bet if you show the professor that lump, you can get out of handing in that paper tomorrow."

"Hey, good point," the girl said, perking up slightly.

"Why don't you let the EMTs do what they need to do now. Has someone called your parents?"

"Yeah. They're supposed to meet me at the hospital." She gave Eames a smile that hardly quivered at all - quite an improvement over ten minutes ago - and held out her hand to shake, saying sincerely, "Thank you. You're good at being sympathetic."

To her surprise, Eames found herself blushing. "Well, thanks," she said as she released Sara's hand. "Good luck on the paper."

"Thanks." One of the EMTs climbed into the box behind Sara and nodded at Eames before slamming the door shut.

Alex wandered back toward Deakins, not sure what to do with herself now. "You done?" he asked, spotting her when she was still ten feet away.

"Yeah. They wanted to get her checked out at the hospital."

"Playing it safe," he said with a nod. "Not a bad idea. Did you get anything useful out of her?"

She shrugged. "Depends on your definition of 'useful.' She was able to give me a pretty complete account of her time there, up to the moment she was knocked out, but she never got a look at the perp."

"Damn." He sighed. "Well, tell me what she did give you."

Eames recounted her conversation with the girl, stopping occasionally to answer a question from Deakins.

"I'm hung up on the different treatment of her stuff and the boy's," Deakins said when she was done. "That sticks out like a sore thumb."

"Agreed. But it almost seems too easy. Has Bobby reported back from upstairs?"

Deakins nodded. "He wasn't there long. Did the sniffing thing, picked up some papers, then asked CSU to keep in touch. Actually, it was kind of weird. Has he been feeling ok?"

She smothered a smile. "As far as I know, he's fine. Maybe he was just hoping to actually get some sleep tonight."

"Point taken. I think he's in his car, waiting for you. Tell him I said you guys can head out and I'll see you in . . ." He looked at his watch. ". . . six hours. Grab your sleep while you can, Detective."

"You don't have to tell me twice!" she said, turning on her heel and heading for the car where Bobby waited.