Disclaimer: I don't own Law and Order: CI, or any other Law and Order. Just having fun!

Sins of the Father

Chapter Ten: Angels and Demons

"Here it is," Alex Eames announced. After reading over the report she decided the outcome wasn't all that damaging. But one look at her partner's face proved to be a different story. She never remembered a time in their five year partnership when he looked so...worn.

"What, what does it say?"

She passed the folder over to him. "She was admitted to Carmel Ridge in '97 for severe clinical depression."

"She was referred by Dr. Elizabeth Rogers," Goren looked up from the file. "That means she must have been in her residency at the morgue. Rodgers said that she noticed cut marks on Grace's arms. The day she referred her, Grace had her right wrist bandaged with bloodied gauze."

"It said she was there for two months. Don't they usually keep depression patients for only one?"

He nodded and continued to read through the file. "Says here that the second day of her stay she tried to slit her wrists with a water glass. She broke it on the bathroom floor and used one of the shards."

"Policy was to keep her for an extra month."

"Her doctors noticed a positive change in her behavior by the end of the first month but they had to keep her one for next month despite the change."

Eames gave him a sidewise grin. "She probably was climbing the walls that second month."

"Maybe that's why she started…"

She waited for Goren to complete his thought but instead he slid the folder into his binder, snapped it shut and stood up.

"Let's head over to Grace's apartment and see if we can find anything there."

It felt odd to him, walking into her apartment, knowing she wasn't going to be there. His gaze immediately fell to the armchair against the back wall of the living room. The memory of that night hit him full force and took the air from his lungs. The way she had clung to him and sobbed showed she had placed her faith in him that night. And he had failed her.

"You okay, Bobby?"

He forced his lungs to work again and took a deep breath. "Yeah, fine."

There was a knock on the door and he turned to see Ed Green leaning halfway into the apartment.

"Hey, I haven't seen Grace for the past day-and-a-half. I know she works long hours sometimes but, seeing you two here, it doesn't look so good."

"You're Dr. Harris' neighbor?" Eames asked. Goren guessed he should have told her that but then he would have to explain how he came by that knowledge.

"Yeah," Green stepped through the door, "we've been living across the hall from each other for the past four years."

Goren looked over at Eames, who merely shrugged her shoulders. Green was a fellow detective, and a good one at that. He had helped them with the spiked pills that one time. He could be trusted with the information that they had.

"We think she may have been kidnapped."

Green didn't look all that surprised. "Found something in an autopsy she wasn't supposed to?"

Goren nodded his head.

"You always keep close tabs on your neighbors, Detective Green?" Eames asked.

"I look out for Grace. She's tough but not invincible."

"What, what do you mean?" Goren asked, wondering if Green had caught him hanging around.

"About a year ago I was coming home from the precinct and I hear shouting coming from Grace's apartment. First time I'd ever heard any kind of noise from her place. I heard a couple things get smashed so I knock on the door. Grace came to the door but didn't open it, said everything was fine. I said ok and stepped back to listen some more.

"Well, the shouting kept going, more things got broke so I broke down the door. This guy, I didn't recognize him, had her up against the wall with his hand wrapped around her throat. Soon as he saw me he took off. I tried to keep up with him but someone picked him up right outside the apartment building. Grace never did tell me who he was. I came back upstairs, she was cleaning up the mess, like nothing had ever happened. Thanked me for helping her out and that was that."

"You never saw him again?" Eames asked.

"Nope. Never heard any noise like that again. She had a shiner and black and blue marks on her neck. Walked with a limp for a week too. I offered to take her to the ER but she just brushed me off. I did talk to her Uncle, who runs the bar across the street. Said it was most likely her ex."

Goren was jotting down the story in shorthand. "Ex-boyfriend?"

Green gave him a curious look. Obviously Green had seen him coming and going from Grace's apartment and wasn't sure if he should reveal this part of Grace to him. With a sigh, he did.

"Ex-husband," Green put his hands in his pockets and look around the apartment. "If I can help in anyway, let me know. Grace is very...special."

The one word was spoken with such reverence that Goren put his pen down and closed the binder. Even Eames had dropped her professional air out of respect for the emotion in Green's voice.

"When I got shot last year, it was two weeks after I kicked down her door. Van Buren got a call from Grace, asking if she could be put on the vigil list while I was in ICU. She told Grace that you had to be an officer to be able to sign the list but if she wanted to visit me, she could. Grace wouldn't have it. She told Van Buren that she had a badge, a ME's badge, and if she could just borrow a gun for the night could she do it. She didn't have the heart to tell Grace no so she set her up to sit with Lennie Briscoe that night and Grace did. Lennie came a total of four times I was told and Grace was with him each time."

"We'll call you as soon as we find out something," Eames assured him. Green nodded and quietly left the apartment. "She had more heart to her than I thought."

Goren nodded, trying to picture the veteran cop Briscoe and the youthful looking ME taking up guard positions outside Green's ICU room. "She has a lot of heart in her, she's just been beating it back for so many years."

"Bobby, I don't normally pry into your personal life, but-"

"Yes, I took her out Sunday night," he finished for her. She looked at him with a mix of happiness and concern.

"You care about her."

He couldn't tell if what she said was a statement or a question so he didn't answer. She understood his silence.

"We'll find her, Bobby."

She was not going to let Nicole think that she was scared. So, here she sat, at the table where she first saw the blond haired woman. Grace slept for a handful of hours, showered and watched the path of the full moon across the sky. As the moon disappeared, the sun started making it's way up and over the abandoned warehouses. She heard the locks at the door and leaned back in the chair, propping her head up on her hand.

"Ah, good, you're up." Nicole waltzed into the room, a bag in her hand and two Starbucks cups, grande from the size of them. "I thought you might be hungry."

"I was wondering if you were going to feed me."

"And you showered too. Making yourself right at home then?"

"Trying to. Electrified windows and ten bolts on the front door doesn't really make me feel at home." Grace faked a look of thoughtfulness. "However, I do live in New York City so this should feel more like home."

Nicole laughed. "A sense of humor, finally. I figured you'd have to have one."

Grace reached into the bag and pulled a bagel out. She was starving but tried to hide her shaking hands as she spread the cream cheese. "So, did you call Bobby last night and tell him all about my stint in Carmel Ridge?"

"Yes, I did, as a matter of fact." Nicole sat down across from her and put one of the coffees in front of her. "He was, how should I say, slightly disturbed when I told him about your befriending his mother."

Despite her hunger, Grace stopped the bagel halfway to her mouth. "His mother?"

"Yes, a woman by the name of Francis Goren, don't you remember?"

She did remember. Very well, in fact. She never found out Fran's last name so connecting her with Bobby was impossible. Her red-haired angel.

"That's right," Nicole cooed. "So you do remember her?"

Grace didn't realize she had spoken the name out loud. "I didn't know her last name." Grace took a bite of her bagel but all pleasure had been taken out of it now. "Why am I here?"

"To tell you the truth about Bobby."

Grace took a sip of the coffee. "You could have called me, much like you're doing to Bobby right now. Why did you have to abduct me?"

Nicole gave her a very cunning look. "You are very smart. And unafraid." She cocked her head to the side slightly. "Or you're just very good at hiding it. Either way, you're right. There is another reason you're here. But after we eat. Besides, I want to know if Bobby ever mentioned a woman by the name of Valerie Wagner?"

Grace threw her hands up in the air. "Ex-girlfriend? Ex-wife? I really don't care, Nicole."

"You don't care that Bobby had a child?"

Grace's first reaction was utter shock but she realized who was talking. "He doesn't have a child."

"Not anymore, he doesn't. Valerie Wagner was Bobby's girlfriend in college. She became pregnant, and one of her well-meaning friends happened to tell her about Bobby's mother. Darling girl had an abortion and told Bobby after the fact. Poor Bobby was crushed."

If it were any other time, any other place, Grace would have allowed herself to be moved. She couldn't imagine a person being so naïve as to believe that schizophrenia could be passed down through genes. True, those who have the illness in their family are more prone to suffer from it but there was no scientific fact that it was related to genes. What she knew of Bobby, "crushed" must have been the understatement of the year.

"Why do you look so sad, Grace?"

"How do you gain pleasure from other people's pain? Are you really that sick of a person?"

"You know all about being sick, don't you?"

"It's called depression, Nicole. It's a far cry from depravity."

"There's that intelligence again."

"I don't know what you thought you would gain by telling Bobby and me all our dark little secrets to each other. Is it a control thing, Nicole? Or are you just so obsessed with Bobby that anyone else that steps into his world you see as a threat?"

"I'm just trying to stop a heartache before it happens. Bobby's not as stable as he leads people to believe. He always walks the fine line of genius and insanity. He'll step over that line one day."

"I'll worry about that when it happens. What I am doing here, Nicole?"

"Down to business it is then. My boyfriend and I have a slight problem. We had three people that were suppose to bring us some business products. Unfortunately, all three were unable to make their deliveries. That's where you come in."

Grace groaned. "Let me guess, you and your boyfriend are running drugs. Three people who were bringing them in their stomachs died of overdoses and you want me to retrieve the rest of the drugs that are still in the stomachs of these people."

Surprise actually crossed Nicole's face. "How did you deduce that from what I said?"

"Why else would you need an ME?"

A slow smile crept across her face. "Brilliant."