Danny, dressed in a white lab coat, peered into a microscope, his glasses pushed up onto his forehead. He adjusted the focus and maneuvered the slide to a better position as he tried to figure out what he was looking at.

Then his cell phone rang.

"Who the hell is that?" he muttered pulling it from his pocket. The caller ID displayed a number from Eastside High School. Had something happened to Dantrell? A thousand horrible scenarios raced through his head. He quickly answered. "Miss Parrish? Is everything okay?"

Realizing she had alarmed him, she instantly felt bad. "Everything's fine, Detective," she assured him. "I just called to ask you a question. Do you have a minute?"

He glanced down at the microscope and debated. He really needed to get that substance identified, but he had told her if her students needed anything…

His pause was longer than he intended it to be and Maddie began to feel like she was disturbing him. "Listen, if this is a bad time, I can call you back…"

Danny shook his head even though she couldn't see him. "No no no, I gotta minute. Fire away."

She smiled on the other end of the line. "I have a favor to ask," she said. "My chemistry students have sort of hit a wall…we've gotten into a bio-chem section, and they're, well, they're kinda bored with it. I was thinking I might get someone to come talk to them about something exciting that's related to it to get them interested…you know, show them a real world application for this stuff. I noticed on the card you gave me that you're a Crime Scene Investigator…" she paused. "How do you feel about public speaking?"

Danny was a little surprised. "You want me to talk to your classes?"

"Well, crime is something these kids can relate to, unfortunately, and I'd like to show them something positive that's associated with it. Solving crimes and catching the bad guy is the only positive thing I can think of…"

"That makes sense," he agreed, "but are you sure you want me? I'm the one who tried to put Dantrell in prison, remember."

"You're also the one who put a protective detail on him," she reminded him. "And I think the kids will respond well to you. They'll listen."

He mulled that over for a moment. "When would you need me to come in?"

"Sometime in the next two weeks," she replied. Then, feeling like she was asking a lot of him she added, "Look, Detective, if you can't do it, it's okay…"

The case he was working on was an especially tough one, and he really couldn't afford any time away from it, but he found it impossible to say no. He knew Eastside High was a rough school with little money, and the kids that went there needed every break and helping hand they could get. "I can do it," he told her.

"That's great!" she grinned. "Our class periods are 54 minutes, and you can have as much or as little of that as you want."

He wondered how on earth he was going to keep a bunch of high school students entertained for an hour. "Okay."

"I don't want to keep you any longer, so why don't you think over what you want to do with 'em and what day you can come in, and give me a call in the next couple of days?"

"Sounds like a good plan," he said. "I've got the number here on my caller ID...is it okay if I call you at school?"

"Sure, but let me give you my home number, too. Got something to write with?"

He scrounged around for some paper and a pen, and wrote down the number she gave him. "Okay, I got it. I'll call you soon."

"Thanks Detective."

"Anytime," he smiled.

Later that night he arrived home, turning the evidence from his case over in his mind. He pushed up his glasses and rubbed his eyes, knowing he needed sleep badly and knowing it wouldn't come unless he found a way to clear his head. He dropped his keys on the kitchen table and pulled his wallet and cell phone out of his pocket, noticing the slip of paper stuck to the wallet.

"I wonder if she's still up," he thought aloud as he glanced at the clock. Nine-thirty wasn't too late on a school night, was it? And it would help him focus on something other than that double homicide. He picked up the phone and dialed the number Maddie had given him. A moment later he heard her sleepy voice.

"Hello?"

"Miss Parrish?"

Maddie shook the cobwebs from her brain. "Detective Messer?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry, did I wake you up?"

She looked at the clock. "Yeah, but you did me a favor. I fell asleep on the couch in the middle of working on my lesson plans. So what's up?"

"I was thinkin' 'bout that talk you asked me to give to your classes…is next Friday okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, next Friday's fine," she told him penciling it in on a square in her lesson plan book. "Any idea what you want to say or do?"

Danny frowned. "Actually, I was hoping you could help me with that part. I don't know what to say—the only teenagers I talk to are suspects and witnesses."

Maddie laughed. "Well, if you want to drop by after school sometime this week I can show you what they kids are learning. Maybe you can relate their material to things you do on the job."

"That might work. I'm in the middle of a big case right now, so I don't know when I'll be able to come over…can we just play it by ear?"

"Not a problem," she assured him. "Just give me a call when you have some time to come by."

"Okay, I'll do that."

There was silence between them for a moment before Maddie spoke again.

"I owe you big time for this. I know you're busy, and I know how hard it can be to get away from work. I really appreciate you doing this, Detective."

"I'm glad to do it," he smiled. "I do have one favor to ask, though."

"Name it."

"If we're going to be spending time together working on this, you gotta stop calling me Detective." She laughed a little and he continued, "Call me Danny."

"I think I can manage that, as long as you don't call me Miss Parrish anymore."

It was his turn to laugh. "Okay, then what's your first name?"

"It's Madeline," she told him, "but my friends call me Maddie."

"So we're friends now?" he teased.

"Oh yeah, you're stuck with me now," she grinned. "I think Dantrell made sure of that."

Danny's smile softened. "I'm glad he did."

"Me too," Maddie told him. "Well, I should get back to these lesson plans."

"Okay, I'll see you this week then."

"Thanks Danny," she said, "for everything."

He smiled into the phone. "What're friends for?"