A/N: There should be another chapter up in about a week, hopefully sooner!

Chapter Five- Early Start

Lilly was awake early again the next morning, her nightmares still persistently invading her dreams. Maybe being at work would keep her inner demons quiet she thought as she poured coffee into a cup and walked out of the break room. When she had arrived that morning at seven she had been the only person in the homicide room. It was now eight-fifteen and after reading yesterday's reports twice and drinking two cups of coffee (this would be her third), seven more people had entered the room. A couple had said hello and that they were glad she was back, the others had avoided her, probably unsure what to make of her after the gossip that had filled up this station over recent weeks. Scotty had told her on one of his visits some of what was being said and it was sufficient to say that very little of it was the truth. Jeffries had come in a few minutes ago and had told her how glad he was that she was back. Then came Vera and together they filled her in on some of the more colourful aspects of the last couple of weeks. She really hadn't realised how much she had missed this until now. Stillman, or 'boss' as they preferred to call him came in and said a few brief words before heading into his office.

As she returned to her desk with her coffee she noticed that Scotty was now here too. She said good morning to him before sitting down at her desk. She then wondered if he had told Nick or Will that they'd been seeing each other. If sounded ridiculous using the term 'seeing each other' when referring to her and Scotty's relationship. It sounded more like she was talking about a married person stepping out on his partner.

Luckily she was broken from her slightly disturbing thoughts by Stillman's voice calling her into his office. She abandoned her coffee on her desk, aware of all the eyes on her and she crossed to his office. She shut the door behind her and then took a seat in the chair opposite his desk.

"What's up?" she said as she sat down.

"Oh it's nothing really," he replied.

He looked as though he was going to continue but she cut in, "if it's nothing, why are we discussing it in here?"

"I didn't think you would want the whole office knowing that you were being made to see a psychologist."

"Yeah, that's why I'm not seeing the department one."

"Well who are you seeing then? Because you understand that I will need to get in touch with them."

"It's a Dr Bethany. She works downtown." Lilly pulled a card out of her pocket placing it on the desk. "I thought you'd need to speak with her."

"Thanks. Oh, and before you go, when's your appointment with her?"

"Thursday evening." He sported a look of disbelief on his face and so she added, "it was the earliest I could get in. Honestly."

She then left his office and sat down at her desk, drinking her coffee that had definitely gone down a few degrees in temperature during her short absence.

"Hey, you right to go see this security company," Scotty said as he walked towards her desk.

"Yeah I'm good," she said getting her coat and following him out.

The Lewis and Co. security company was run out of the third floor of an office building downtown. They dealt with personal and business security including monitored intruder alarms, CCTV, patrols, card access, intercom systems and fire monitoring according to the research Scotty had carried out that morning.

After going in and presenting ID they were lead to the manager's office. Mr Lewis was short and round, with a fuzzy grey beard and greying dark hair. He sort of reminded Lilly of a garden gnome.

"I'm Detective Valens and this is Detective Rush, we're from homicide. We're here to ask you a few questions about Michael Tager and the buildings he owns that you run security for."

"Oh, alright, just let me get his file," he said walking over to a silver filing cabinet, which was almost as tall as him and searched through one of the draws before making a triumphant sounding noise and returning to his desk. He sat down and indicated that they should do the same before he began thumbing through the pages of the file.

"We've been running security for his property there for almost thirteen years now," he said looking up at the two detectives opposite him.

" So he came in you in 1992?" Lilly asked.

"Not him, his father. You see his father wanted the warehouses to be guarded to prevent teens from breaking in and using the place for parties and stuff like that."

"What sort of security measures did he have?" said Scotty, opening his notebook and taking out a pen.

"Let me see," he said searching through the files pages. "Here we go. He wanted monitored intruder alarms, fire monitoring, CCTV and patrols.

"Fire monitoring?" said Lilly turning to face her partner. He made brief eye contact with her, mirroring her confusion.

"Could we see the CCTV footage from last weekend?" Scotty asked, hoping that they might finally be onto something.

"There hasn't been footage on that place since Michael Tager came into possession of it eight years ago. He thought that it was pointless and a waste of money."

"So what exactly does he hire you for?" asked Lilly impatiently.

"We do patrols on the area every second day, just checking for break-ins, vandalism, that sort of thing."

"I don't suppose you had anyone out there Saturday evening or early Sunday morning?" said Scotty.

"No, we didn't. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Yes actually," said Lilly, "was there ever any vandalism or break-ins?"

"Only once or twice. I can photocopy the reports for you if you would like."

"Yes thankyou," she said. They waited in the reception section until he came back with a folder containing copies of the reports. They thanked him again before heading back towards the elevator.

As they rode down to the ground floor, Scotty turned to Lilly, "So, where to next?"

"Back to the office. We need to find out what happened in that warehouse."