After a week of unpacking her apartment and getting settled with work again, Mac and Stella were relieved to see Rebecca walking into the lab with her coat on. "Please tell me I'm working either in the lab or we have a new body," she responded.

"We have a new one. You, Jo and Flack are heading to the scene," Mac answered handing her a folder. She quickly opened it to see what they had. "Rebecca," Mac began and she was about to hit the button before she put a finger up and turned to him.

"I'm fine. You said I had to deal with the mandatory week off with pay. I've had my one week. It's back to work," she answered as she grabbed her kit off the floor and rode down the elevator with Jo and she looked annoyed and Jo gave her a knowing smirk. "The man is like a peacock. Hidden, but so much like one."

"Elaborate?" Jo was curious as she already had that thought once but didn't expect to hear it out of Rebecca's mouth as she highly respected the man. "Don't worry, me and Stella had this conversation before so I want to hear it from you."

"He's territorial. I mean like he does it with Stella, he does it with me. It's creepy. The way he does it is so subtle unless you know the signs, you don't spot it. Should have seen Chief Sinclair when he tried to ask if I wanted to move strictly to the Homicide Division," she chuckled.

"I can only imagine. That man fights hard for you to be with us," Jo answered looking at her. She looked at Jo shocked and she chuckled looking at her. "You are blind at points. You were Mac's top choice for hiring, Sinclair's last choice and everyone else's first choice. On top of that, when other divisions try to get you for a case? The man doesn't let them near you at all."

"Really?"

Jo pulled up a video of him and she watched it. "Detective Manx is not a library book that can be checked out and returned at best convenience. She's a Crime Scene Investigator with her Masters being earned in Forensic Science and Criminology. If she belongs anywhere it's with my team working homicides. It's why she was assigned to the Homicide Division and more importantly my Crime Lab. Her skills can put more people away than you people ticket," he icily warned in the video before Jo looked at her.

"Wow," she responded looking at Jo. "I didn't expect him to be that territorial of me. Especially with other units. I mean he's the Head of the Crime Lab sure. But to go so far as to tell other divisions and precincts they can't borrow me for a case?"

"You have no idea. Over the entire undercover thing, he was the one trying to watch your back. See if we could snag him for something else, but in the end he let you keep going because he knew you could handle it and you were okay," Jo answered as they got in the car. "No offence, I'm driving."

"That's fine. I still need to renew my license. Expired while I was undercover." Jo looked at her shocked and she shrugged. "While I was incompetent I had no use for a car. Damn it. Still need to repair that thing from the accident," she muttered.

"Accident?" Jo looked at her and she sighed annoyed revealing her car's front end was heavily damaged in a picture. "Explains why you don't drive it. So what happened?" Jo remembered the Lab getting a call from the hospital and Mac rushing down to the hospital with Flack when they learned Rebecca was in a car accident and was in the hospital.

"Would you believe that I took the damage to prevent a car behind me from being the victims?" Jo looked at her and she nodded. "I was coming to work and as the light turned green I started to go and as I saw the car coming from the side not slowing down, I slammed on my brakes and braced for the impact. I got one hit in the back and the hardest from the front," she answered.

"Did you tell Mac that? I remember he was pissed with you and reckless driving," she began.

"I didn't. I was okay with him being angry and not knowing the truth. But the family that was in the car behind me, they were also taken to hospital and before they left, came to see me. He was busy chewing me out but paused when they arrived. When he heard from them what happened and Flack took their statements, let's just say they made me tell the whole story over again. No details left out. I don't think heroes take credit. I could see there were kids in the car from my mirror and when I did a quick mental calculation of who it would hit, that's why I slammed on the brakes," she explained climbing into the Avalanche as they signed it out.

"Did the guy who hit you get charged?"

"Oh yeah," she answered looking embarrassed. "Mac was really in his face too. Minute we found him he was slammed into his car and face down. I mean I would have done it myself but he was right there. Also told the guy he hoped when the convicts learned he hurt a woman, that they did what he feared they could. I mean apparently criminals hate hearing women and children were harmed. Who knew?"

"FBI," Jo answered looking at her. "It's true. I mean unless you're a child murderer, child molester, matricide, have no standards? Women and children are still viewed as gold to some convicts," Jo explained looking at her.

She nodded and as they arrived, she saw Flack waiting. "Welcome back Becka," he greeted smiling and hugging her as they approached each other. "It's good to have the Detective I like to work with that's normally with me. Not that Jo and the others are bad. But the one they replaced you with while you were undercover," he began.

"Piece of work?"

"Yes," Jo and Flack answered honestly. She chuckled at that and crouched over the body looking it over for any obvious signs.

"So who do I have here?" As she was checking the body for a sign of a wallet, Jo showed her a wallet. "So you're ahead of me. Who am I dealing with? Depending on a name we might be able to link someone just by the sounds of the name."

"We are dealing with a Terrence Prescott," Jo read off showing the ID. "He's not much older than you," she added as an after thought and Rebecca nodded as she was checking over the body for some signs while she was waiting for Hawkes and the Medical Examiner van to get to them. Rebecca managed to find some shards embedded into the victim's hand and slowly began pulling them out before seeing Hawkes.

"You do know you could come on time," she teased and Hawkes snickered at her. "I've had 6 months away from work. Trust me. I'm looking forward to this case. Especially considering all I've been doing are theory books since I couldn't do much undercover."

"Well let's see you put theory into practice. By a glance, what's the cause of death?" Hawkes knew that she wasn't actually getting rusty, but she felt that way as she hadn't been in the field in a while thanks to the work she had to do with Martin Colic. He still insisted seeing her at the moment once a week but he was waiting out any potential problems.

"Exsanguination via the right carotid artery. There are signs of defensive wounds on his hands as I've pulled shards already that were big, if you find tiny shards contain them. I also found something that's off by his chest just under the shirt," she explained and Hawkes looked. "That looks to be a medical condition of some kind. It's not tinea versicolor, but still," she answered.

"How would you know tinea versicolor isn't the condition?" Jo was curious.

"I have it," she responded and Jo looked shocked at her with Hawkes. "It's gone for now. It's not hot and humid yet," she explained and Hawkes clicked his tongue in realization. "It's a summer thing. That's when it resurfaces. For me at least. But this guy? The markings on him aren't consistent with it. Not flaky dry patches."

"So I'll get him back and I'll look for his record. You should continue to process the scene," he answered and she nodded at that. As Jo watched Rebecca process the scene and mark down things, she saw Mac walk over and she intercepted him.

"How's she doing?"

"She seems to be okay. But I don't think something like what happened? It won't go away. She's faced trauma Mac. The wounds may physically be going away," she began but Mac nodded knowing what she was saying without finishing. "I just wish she'd open up."

"She has reasons for what she does. I got to know some of the CSI that you guys don't know. But I do know she hasn't told me everything either. I'm hoping that when she's ready, she comes to me or Stella. We both told her our doors are open when she needs us."

"She's a child with damage. But sometimes all they need is the right person to get them to open up," Jo answered as they walked over to see Rebecca was done. "I forgot how fast but thorough you are. We finished here?"

"No. I still need to process that vehicle. I saw a satellite spatter pattern. Similar to the case Danny ran in the subway the marks came onto the vehicle at a high speed but that means the vehicle was moving. So I don't think that we're looking at an open and shut case."

"No we're looking at something a little more complicated. Not what you were hoping for on your first case back huh?"

"What are you talking about? I like the challenges you guys give," she answered as she opened the car door and snagged a photo. "We may be looking for another body," she added casually and Mac walked over and she revealed the blood on the inside. "It's pooling meaning no arterial spray as indicated on the vehicle. We have to find this bastard."

"We will. For now, head back to the lab," Mac began and she looked at him. "What? You usually like driving the Avalanche."

"When my license is legal I do," she responded. Mac looked shocked and she revealed her license. "Expired."

"Jo, go back with her. I'll catch up and finish the scene here," Mac promised. She nodded and followed Rebecca back to the Avalanche. Mac smiled sadly knowing that Rebecca had let a lot slide in her own life since returning back to normal. Stella had arrived at the Lab at the same time as Mac. "She's really slipping up. She hasn't renewed her license yet. Stella, she's not herself."

"But we don't want to violate the trust she has in us," Stella reminded.

"We need the car back at the Lab. I'm going to have a talk with Rebecca before she gets back to work," he answered and Stella looked at Mac. "It's time she realized that someone cares for her. Even if she has little to no regard for her own personal safety? I do." Stella chuckled at that and then helped Mac tarp the car before going back with him to the Lab where he saw Rebecca was already in the trace lab. "Hawkes and Sid done with the autopsy?"

"No. It'll take a bit of time but we'll still catch his killer," she assured as she frowned and then looked at the screen that had her microscope results. "This doesn't make sense. I've never seen a fiber fray like this," she answered. Mac looked at the results through the microscope and then also pursed his lips. "Doesn't help I can't find whatever it came from. All I know is it's cotton with reinforced steel fibers in it," she explained.

"Work gloves," Mac responded and she looked at him confused. "Mentioning the steel," he began as he pointed to one area of the fiber. "Look specifically at that section," he advised and as she did so she realized. "It's not an actual component of the glove. It's solder from a welding job. It's over the fiber, isn't it?"

"Yeah. So we're looking for a welder?"

"That or someone who has the skills. They must not have had the actual gloves. So they might be injured too," he responded. She nodded and then made the notes before putting the evidence into it's bag and sealing it again. "Don't think that if you break the seal on this evidence, you're tampering. It's an open case. I just never want to catch you looking in an old case for evidence and breaking the seals on those," he explained.

"Well yeah because old cases are done with. Opened and closed. So there's no reason to touch them," she responded casually. As she was about to continue, she saw Mac grab her arm since she felt her pager go off. She knew she was being paged by Flack. "What's up?"

"When your shift is over, come to my office," Mac answered. She nodded as she left and when the elevator doors closed he walked back to his office and began thinking up a way to talk about what he wanted to. He knew that she wasn't going to willingly say it but he knew what needed to be agreed upon.

Stella walked in at one point and chuckled at Mac. "You do realize she's probably going to say no. She did it for the undercover position. If she willingly accepts that you want to be a part of her life outside of hours, she'll get skeptical," she mused.

"Which is why we're talking after her shift. She won't expect it to be brought up when she's done for the day," he answered and Stella chuckled at him. "Look this is between me and her. I'll talk to her as I'm the one seeing things. I know you probably are too but," he began.

"Nice save. She is more open with you," Stella admitted. As Stella was about to continue she saw Flack walking over and Mac opened the door. "Where's Detective Manx? She was with you, wasn't she?" Flack nodded and then looked at Mac.

"We have a slight problem. Someone's placed a person at the scene, but to quote Rebecca? We have someone that is easily able to go into the wind," Flack began. Mac stood up looking at Flack before seeing Rebecca and she already slipped down to the Morgue so she didn't have to face him yet.

"Who's the witness?"

"Talon Manx," Flack answered and Mac looked towards the Morgue where Rebecca had went. "She said she isn't going to get too attached to the case, but she knows that she's going to have to think sneaky to find the guy. Though I don't know why."

"Because the last name doesn't lie. Talon Manx is Rebecca's biological brother who hates her," Mac answered looking at Flack. "Or rather has a few different opinions in contrast to her's. Made it clear she's unwelcome on his turf," he added as well.

"So Rebecca has to face the dragon's wrath."

"Practically," Mac answered. He then glanced over at the stairwell. "Flack?"

"Mac don't even ask. You know the answer. She's denying it but she needs someone like you in her life. She needs the stability you and Stella gave her during the undercover bust," Flack answered looking at him. "She just won't admit it as she doesn't want to confess she needs the help."