A/N: Hey, I'm back!
What do you think my chances are of using fanfics to get extra credit? Not sure my teachers know what that is...
Oh, just for the record, I've got nothing against lindsay – she just seemed the more appropriate character to use. K? Cool.
Can't be bothered to think up a good disclaimer, you know the basics; NOT MINE.
btw, (if anyone actually noticed) I'm using different scene breaks. Simple reason; ruler doesn't work anymore. No, there was no point in that comment, I just thought I'd point it out. You knew what it was, right?
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'Drive around and see if you can find anything,' Danny grumbled as they pulled away, 'does anyone realize how big this city is?'
'You got a better idea?' Flack asked, heading towards the college to start the search from where they had last been seen.
'No. Imagine if we'd just left her to do this with Josh. Where's he? He took off, just when we found out something went wrong!'
Flack glanced at him as his voice and temper rose.
'Chill, we'll find her, and I'm sure she'll be fine.' he assured him.
'She should've listened to Mac,' Danny grumbled obstinately, 'he told her not to go through with it. Since when does Lindsay Monroe not do what he tells her? I thought she was still scared of him.'
'It was a good idea,' Flack defended her, 'it's not her fault he figured out who she was. And even our plan went wrong – Mac and Stel got stopped, didn't they? It didn't work out either way.'
Danny fell silent and frowned, turning to look out the window, scanning the surroundings for any sign of Paul's car.
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There was one characteristic that the method of the murder didn't always reveal; a quick temper. And Lindsay was finding out that Paul was one of those people.
As he continued to rant, she carefully tried to back away.
'Paul, you misunderstood,' she tried to argue when he paused for a moment, 'I'm not really a cop-'
He didn't wait to hear the rest of her explanation, striking out at her and hitting her forcefully across the face, splitting her lip. The force of the blow made her stumble, and she tripped over a rock, yelping as a sharp pain shot through her ankle. She instinctively tried to scramble backwards, as far away as she could get.
'Where you going, copper?' he smirked, easily following her.
He fell down beside her, kneeling over her on all fours and pinning her with a kind of expertise.
'You wanna know what happened to Marcy? Let me give you a demonstration.'
'No...' she pleaded, wanting to be sick as he looked at her lustfully.
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Stephanie waited until her father had moved out of sight before she turned back to the car and pulled out her tracer, dialling quickly.
'Come on...' she muttered, watching for his return, 'come on Josh, pick up. Pick up, pick up...'
'The number you have dialled is currently unavailable. Please try again later.' the polite voice told her.
The girl swore under her breath as she hung up, at the same time realizing that she didn't know any of the other detective's numbers. Great, now what? I can't just leave, he'd figure out what was going on...
She looked into the car and spotted the keys dangling out of the ignition.
'Kid, do I have to teach you how to use a tracer again?' Mason demanded as he stormed back towards where he expected to find his daughter, having discovered for himself that she had driven them to the wrong place.
He was greeted by the sound of screeching tyres.
'STEPH!' he yelled.
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'What's with you Connelly?' Josh rebuked himself as he excused himself from the others and went out to his car to retrieve his cell phone.
As he picked it up, he checked the screen and saw the missed call message.
'Steph?' he murmured, 'I thought you were at home.'
'Hey Josh, hurry up!' someone called.
'I'm coming,' he answered, turning back inside and slipping the phone into his pocket, the call forgotten. Whatever it is, I'm sure she can handle it.
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Stephanie stopped the car. From her angle, she could see Paul leaning over someone but couldn't even tell for sure whether or not it was Lindsay, let alone if she was conscious or not.
'Doesn't matter,'
She pulled out her gun, and rested her hand on the door handle for a moment. For someone that doesn't want to be like her father, you're going the wrong way about it, she realized. Another look out the window argued that she was doing it to help Lindsay, and this was a situation that she could turn around for once. I'll try Josh one more time. Then I'm going.
'The number you are calling-' she hung up before the automated voice finished the sentence.
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'This is useless,' Stella remarked, 'Danny's right. There are so many places he could have gone, and he's had so long...'
'I know, but I'm not just going to go back to the office and wait for her to be brought in in a body bag,' Mac answered grimly.
'Hey, she knows how to look after herself...' she stopped before her partner had the chance to interrupt for himself. But does she know how to handle someone so dangerous? What do we really know about this guy?
Even knowing that all available police officers were keeping an eye out for them as they did their rounds didn't make them feel any better about the lack of success.
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Paul didn't hear anything until she slammed the door. He looked up and scowled as she confidently strode towards them.
'Get lost kid,' he ordered. 'This ain't none of your business.'
Stephanie glanced Lindsay, who she could now see was awake but evidently in a lot of pain.
'Get away from her,' she ordered, aiming the gun at him with a steady hand.
Lindsay finally raised her head as he got up.
'Steph?' she exclaimed, 'get out of here! What are you doing?'
But as she watched the girl's emotionless face and steady gun hand, finger ready on the trigger, she knew this was not the young girl they had met before. This was Stephanie Mason, and she meant business. Is this because he shot her the other day? She wondered, struggling to stay conscious as blackness threatened to overcome her.
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Stephanie might not have been showing it, but behind her cold exterior she was just as worried as Lindsay, regretting not having taken the time to leave Josh a message, or call the police. It was no secret that Paul didn't like her, and the look he was giving her right now left no doubt in her mind that he wouldn't hesitate to shoot her if she didn't get him first.
'Daddy wouldn't be best pleased if he found out you were sticking up for cops,' Paul smirked, walking towards her instead.
'He wont be best pleased to find out about what you were doing to a cop,' the girl retorted coldly. 'He told you who to go after next, and you disobeyed him.'
'You're wrong,' he chuckled, 'he'll be real happy with a cop.'
'No he wont,' a new voice announced.
They looked round to see Mason himself.
'She's right,' he announced, 'I don't tolerate people that dont listen to me, and this isn't the first time you've done it. Did I or did I not tell you to stay at the apartment? A dozen times I've sent people there to fetch you, and a dozen times they've come back and told me you weren't there. Maybe you'll listen to this.'
Paul's satisfied grin faded as Mason now pointed a gun at him. 'Leave them alone and throw that here.' he demanded, nodding towards his own weapon that had fallen limply to his side.
Paul froze, neither complying nor refusing, and stared at him as if he hadn't comprehended.
'What? - but – I-' he mumbled, his finger sliding towards the trigger. You're not going to stop me.
Father and daughter caught the slight movement an instant before he turned back to shoot his victim, who had been too afraid to move.
Two shots were fired.
Both hit their mark.
Vehicles could be heard approaching, as if the shots were their cue, and the duo disappeared as quickly as they had come, leaving the police with one of their own and a dead body.
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Alyssa looked up at the sound of a knock on her door.
'Hang on,' she called, closing her books.
She opened the door to find a young child, a boy of no more than three or four, dressed in dirty clothes and with unruly blonde hair and dirt across his face.
'Hey,' she said more softly, dropping down to his level. 'Are you lost? What's your name?'
'Max,' he answered quietly, 'are you Alyssa?'
'Yeah. Come on in,' she told him, opening the door wider and offering him something to drink as she tried to figure out who he was.
'Thanks,' he said politely as he perched himself on the chair she indicated. 'Uh... mommy said to give you this if I cant find her. Where is she?'
'Mommy?' the girl repeated, unfolding the paper.
Alyssa,
If you're reading this, it means something's happened to me. Maybe I've disappeared, maybe I'm dead, but I'm not at the college and a young boy has turned up looking for me.
She sat in silence for a moment after she finished the letter, swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat and quickly brushing a tear away from her eye. I never even realized... and this was the girl she had called her best friend.
She refolded the letter, and looked up at the child watching her.
'Max...' she sighed. 'Your mom told you about me? I'm Alyssa, I was her friend. Mommy... had to go somewhere, so I'm going to look after you for a while, okay?' she smiled reassuringly.
Max returned the smile and nodded.
'Now let's get you cleaned up a little,' she suggested as she stood, 'you're filthy. What have you been doing?'
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A/N: Okay, I'm putting myself at your mercy. See that pretty button? It's so cute... just sitting there waiting to be pressed... go on, try it!
Hey, where you going?
"Freeze! Freeze, s'leo! Press that batton sloly... anythin you say can and will be used agenst you in a court o'law!"