Liam didn't have a lot to come home to after work. he couldn't remember a time when police work hadn't been his priority, and the same obsessive dedication that had driven him to success as a Detective tended to drive away any romantic prospects. He didn't need a big place and didn't really have the money to afford one anyways, so his even his apartment was dingy and unwelcoming.

Normally, he didn't mind the barren rooms, but with the Shepherd case on his mind he found himself wishing that he had kept around a few more distractions. He had already read every book he had owned, and he had never given himself the time to get invested in a TV show. He scrolled through his social media accounts until the same content looped back at him and he was forced to confront his own boredom.

He knew he shouldn't do it, but he couldn't help himself. He pulled out his laptop and re-read the article about Derek Shepherd being the perfect father. He grabbed an old notebook off the shelf and took notes as he read the familiar words. He looked for any sign that Shepherd would have been frustrated enough with his son to drink on the road. He didn't find any, and that only drew him in further.

Liam noted the name of the babysitter that gave a testimonial about the kid and the name of the school where the kids had went. If this had been an open investigation instead of a closed case, and he had been on duty rather than lounging on his couch, he would have followed these leads to their source and asked some basic questions to everyone about Paul's character. That wasn't the case though, and Liam tried to remind himself that he was no longer looking into this case as a policeman, but as an interested bystander. The only resources he had were the ones he could get too through a computer screen.

That didn't stop him from diving a bit deeper, researching online until he had contact info for everyone mentioned in the article. He told himself that he wasn't going to contact them. He was just curious.

Liam managed to wile away nearly all of the evening pouring over the available evidence. As the hour grew later, he knew he needed to get some rest for work the next day, but he didn't feel like he could put away the case. Every time he tried to take a break the possibilities swirled through his head at a million miles per hour. In the end, he fell asleep to a reporter speculating on the case.

The next day at work, Liam was careful not to let on that he was still focused on a closed case. He poured himself into his paperwork, blowing through it at a speed more like Kurt than himself. He was constantly thinking over the case, trying to think why Whitmore would have had a drink and where he would have gotten one, but the was doing a fairly good job of hiding it. At least he thuoght he was.

"Alright Chesterfield, what's on your mind?" Kurt asked during lunch. They were both eating at their desk, and Liam had his notebook from home open in front of him.

"Nothing," Liam said, shutting the notebook gently as to avoid raising suspicion. "Why, what's on your mind?"

"There's got to be something," Kurt said, skillfully ignoring Liam's diversionary question. "We haven't even been assigned a new case and you're so deep in thought you look like you're drowning."

Liam tucked his notebook under some work papers, moving slowly and hoping he wasn't acting too suspicious. He didn't want Kurt to find his notebook, because he knew the junior officer wouldn't approve. Kurt was all about the softer side of police work, the kind that swore to help people for the sake of doing good. He would never understand the more obsessive side of police work, where the question itself was the motivation and the facts were the only barrier against insanity.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Liam said, turning his chair to face his partner. "I'm just trying to get a jump on paperwork."

"You never get a jump on paperwork," Kurt contradicted. He wasn't wrong; Liam was in his job for the mystery and the justice, not for the filing.

"Something came up at home," he said, hoping the guise of personal privacy would protect him from any more probing questions. He was met with a long hard stare, but he didn't say anything. He was well versed in interrogation techniques and he knew that Kurt was trying to get him to confess without ever making an accusation. Liam wasn't going to let that happen; if Kurt wanted to call him a liar, he would have to do it directly.

After a moment, Kurt nodded once, acknowledging defeat. "Good luck with that, then."

Kurt turned back around, so Liam did the same. Once he felt certain that Kurt would be occupied with other things, he slipped his notebook out from under the paperwork and opened it to a new page. Across the top, he wrote the word "Motive" in bold block letters. After a moment of thought, he added a question mark.

"That doesn't look like a home problem," came a voice from behind him.

Liam whipped around to see Kurt standing right behind him, looking over his shoulder at the mostly blank page. He had a ball of trash bundled in one hand, as if he was on his way to the trash can, but Liam was sure that was just a prepared alibi. Kurt had been spying on him.

"What do you want with your personal notebook?" Liam accused, crossing his arms.

"It doesn't look all that personal. It looks to me like case notes, which seems like something you would share with your partner."

Liam knew he didn't have a justification for the notebook, and he had to go on the offensive if he wanted to win this argument. "That's no reason to be creeping around, trying to get a look over my shoulder."

"I wasn't exactly creeping around," Kurt defended. "You've got good reflexes but awful peripheral vision. All I did was walk over here and I happened to see that you were working on something case related. The game's up, Chesterfield. What's in the notebook?"

Liam sighed and shut the notebook. "It's just my notes on the Shepherd case."

Kurt was incredulous. "All this was about the Shepherd case? The one we just closed because it was so open and shut it didn't need investigating?"

"I really don't think it's as open and shut-"

"It doesn't matter whether it was open or shut before, because I can tell you with certainty that it's shut right now. I thought we got past this Yesterday."

"Professionally, we did," Liam agreed. "I'm just looking into the case as an interested citizen. It's like watching a true crime documentary, but the documentary is all around you."

"You don't take notes when you're watching a true crime documentary."

Actually, Liam did take notes when he was watching a true crime documentary, but that was besides the point. "It's just a hobby."

"This is all it's gonna be?" Kurt pressed him. "You're just going to take notes in your little book and watch the news and think about it all day?"

"Of course."

"It had better just be that," Kurt threatened. "Because as soon as you start using police resources or reputation to look into a closed case, it's not a hobby anymore. It's a crime."

Liam sighed. "I only ever did that once. I learned my lesson."

"I hope, for your sake that you did," Kurt said, voice still harsh as ever. "But even if it is, I think you need to drop this. Cases like this are a slippery slope for you: one night you're just taking notes on newscasts, the next you're on the wrong side of the law."

"I know where to stop," Liam promised.

"I really hope you do," Kurt agreed, and he walked away to throw his trash away. He didn't say anything at all to Liam for the rest of their lunch break, and he didn't say anything else about the Shepherd case for the rest of the day. Things were tense, and Liam knew better than to bring up the case with him again, but Kurt was a professional, and he would never let it effect their partnership if Liam didn't force it to.

He went home again to an empty apartment. He read through every news report he could find about Shepherd , whether they mentioned kids or not. He printed a few out, and when they started to clutter his desk, he pinned them to his wall. It was just a few papers, and it wasn't as if he had any wall hangings anyways.

One of the articles mentioned Shepherd's height and weight, derek shepherd was 6'3 and weight 180 both of which were fairly similar to Liam himself. He wondered how many drinks it would have taken to get Shepherd drunk enough to swerve off the road, and he thought he'd test it a bit on his own. he had a few bottles of liquor in the kitchen and he brought one out with him, counting the shots he took as he continued his search.

His intentions with the liquor were pure, but drinking alone leaves little in the way of your worst ideas. Liam's worst traits were only amplified, and he forgot quickly about the alcohol in favor of a more interesting lead- one of the article he found had been from a local school newsletter, congratulating Tanner Shepherd and 63 other kids for getting a perfect report card that year. His teacher's name was written next to his own, and Liam still had the address written down in his notebook.

Liam took another shot. What had been ordinary research to his sober self was beginning to look more like an opportunity.

It wasn't as if he was using police resources, he told himself as he pulled up his personal e-mail. He was just going to have a chat with an elementary school teacher. He would be polite, and he wouldn't even tell her the real reason he was there. He didn't have a kid yet, but maybe he would have one in the future. It was just good sense to talk to some of the top educators in the community.

It was with those justifications in mind that Liam sent an email to the teacher, only barely managing to hold onto a coherent train of thought as he typed. He had abandoned shot glasses and measurements in favor of taking big swigs from the bottle, and the computer was still in his lap when he passed out on the couch. In those small hours of the night, Liam dreamed of his life as a well respected detective. It was the same life he already lived, but in his dream he never had to go home to the dark apartment, never had to give up on a case that he cared about. In his dream he was happy and finally felt like more than a sad drunk man.

When he woke up the next morning, his head ached and throbbed. He groaned as he rolled over, disgusted to find that his liquor had spilled and his couch was now wet with the vile liquid. The chart where he had been mapping his intoxication and estimating his blood alcohol content was crumbled up on the floor, and his computer was lying on it's side next to it, the screen dark.

Liam wrinkled his nose and went to get his morning coffee. There was no way he was dealing with that mess without at least the first of his morning mugs. On his way to the kitchen, he passively grabbed his phone off the counter. There was a missed message and a slew of emails waiting for him, but what stood out was the time. His eyes widened as he realized how late he had slept- a cheery message on his pone informed him that he had missed his alarm more than an hour ago, and again Liam groaned. He tossed his phone back to the counter, tossed back a couple of painkillers and tossed the kitchen towel over his shoulder. He needed a shower before went into work, and it was the only one he owned.

About half an hour later, he was showing up to work. His hair was still a mess, and he hadn't had time to properly iron his uniform, but he thought he looked passable. He had too bad of a headache to really care either way.

"Looks like somebody managed to get the case out of their head," Kurt joked as Liam showed up to his desk. "Makes it easy when you've got a girl in you're bed."

"What?" Liam said, dazed by his hangover. "Oh. Right, yeah, I guess I did forget about the case for a while there."

Only because the alcohol had forced him too. He didn't remember much at all from the night before, case related or not.

"Well it's good to have you back, because we've got a new case to look at."

This was enough to bring Liam mostly back to life. "Really? Can I see the file?"

Kurt tossed a blue folder his way, and Liam spread it open across his desk. It was hard to focus on the words with the way his head was hurting and the lights were shining, but he could manage for something as important as a new case. Unfortunately, the words only further dulled his excitement.

"This is what we got?" Liam groaned. "The bus accident from Maybury?"

"Buses are public owned, so they needed someone who they knew would be thorough about the investigation. Who better than the Detective who forced a widow through an entire exit interview, just to follow protocol?"

"Did you have something to do with this?" Liam asked. He could almost imagine Kurt going to the chief of police and requesting the case, specifically to make his point to Liam.

"No way. Remember that I have to work these cases too, and buses usually mean a heck of a lot of paperwork."

Liam sighed. "Yeah. And a lot of interviews. We're going to be tied up in this case for at least a month, even if it's open and shut."

"I'm sure you'll find some way to spin it into a conspiracy," Kurt jested, slapping him on the back. "If you aren't too busy with the ladies."

Liam was indeed busy with the ladies, or at least one lady. He just didn't know it yet. He sat down at his work computer with every intention of getting the phone numbers for the drivers involved in the bus crashes and actually doing his job. Police work wasn't always glamour, but Liam didn't mind the boring bits as much as some others, and his passions for the more interesting parts outweighed any hesitations easily. He was, generally, a good Detective, even when that meant doing the dirty work.

Unfortunately, the perfectly well-meaning Liam was distracted by a notification from his personal email- he didn't have enough friends for an email to be commonplace, especially not one with a real human name attached to it. Confused, and wary of scams, Liam clicked on teh email.

Dear Mr. Chesterfield,

I'm glad to hear you're thinking about enrolling your son in our school! I assure you we have a top of the line program for kids with any sort of learning disabilities, and we would love to work with your son on managing his ADHD. I am not the school liaison for such issues, but since you seem insistent on meeting with me rather than a school official, I would love to set up a meeting. How does Wednesday afternoon at three sound to you?

Wishing you well,

Tracie Jefferson

At first, Liam was confused. He didn't have a kid, with or without ADHD, and he couldn't think of any reason someone from a school would be contacting him. He was about to dismiss the note as either spam or an incorrectly typed email address when he noticed that this wasn't the first message in the string. He scrolled down the page, and everything from the night before flashed before his eyes as he read over his own drunken words.

He quickly closed the tab before Kurt could pull his favorite trick of reading over his shoulder, and set in on his actual work. He was on edge for the rest of the day, and he felt like he had taken a step backwards. He was supposed to be getting over this case, and here he was in contact with someone who knew the kid. It was a huge invasion of privacy and went directly against Kurt's advice.

But it wasn't a misuse of police resources. It wasn't even really a use of police resources. And Kurt was his junior officers, so his advice could never really make it to the order of a command. He waited until after work, but Liam's curiosity got the better of him, and he emailed the teacher back that the time she had suggested would work perfectly for him. He just needed to make sure that he was ready when that time came.