I'm back! After sending War and Peace off to my Beta to edit (Her words. Thanks Di!) I now have a bunch of chapters almost ready for you. Here is the first of them! My computer is currently in purgatory and I am trying to do everything from my iPad until it's either repaired or replaced. You might have the bear with me for a while.

The meeting with Vito ended shortly after he gave them the tip. Morelli and Meagan left to speak to their boss at the FBI, while Ranger and Lester left to pick up Alphonso Abandonato for questioning. I was back in my cube doing the usual day-to-day searches that had piled up over the last few days. Not that anyone would use the information from them anytime soon as everyone in the building had been on this case since the kidnapping, but I needed something productive to do to take my mind off of things for an hour or so.

"So the thing about me…" I jumped in my seat and, once I recovered from my heart attack, I spun my chair and looked up at a grinning Santos Sr, "Really? You work with this bunch and live with Ric and I was able to startle you? You really…"

"Need to be more aware of my surroundings. I know," then groaned followed by a rueful laugh and briefly buried my face in my hands. As I looked back up at him, I asked, "What's the thing about you?"

"Oh yeah," He lost the slightly mocking look and seemed to remember he came to see me with a point, "The thing about me is that I have a very, very good memory and something troubling came up while I was going over what little evidence we have so I'm bringing it to you since the Boss said we should work together. Also Meagan, Ric and Morelli are currently busy and if I don't get this off my chest, it's possible I'll do something stupid to vent my frustrations like kiss Hector in the middle of the office or something just to piss him off."

"I dunno, Hector has been on a bit of dry spell lately; he might enjoy it."

"Of course he would enjoy it. I would enjoy it too; but the thing is we don't cross that particular line. I live in three different cities and I don't have the best reputation when it comes to monogamy and Hector demands it which I would be fine with except that he'd be all insecure with the long distance thing and we'd fight a lot because I'd think he didn't trust me. It would be all bad." That babbling revelation was just so loaded with about absolutely everything that my head almost exploded. About fifty-seven questions went through my mind at once, all fighting to come out at one time. The one that won the fight?

"Honestly is Lester the only one in your family who isn't completely commitment phobic?!" I practically shouted, "I mean come on!"

"Oh, I'm pretty sure the men in my family have turned relationship avoidance into a sport-one at which we excel. We just like to be sure of who we're with and, in this case, well…I'm sure of Hector but I don't know how he'd handle being with me. I need to get more settled before I even think of offering him anything so, for now, we stay friends and leave it that way."

"Does he at least know how you feel?" I asked and he waved me off.

"Of course he does. We've been doing this particular dance for about…" He screwed up his face, "…God 14 years? Really? Maaaan that makes me feel old." I shook my head in disbelief at him. In that time Julio actually got married! Poor Hec, no wonder he was always so sympathetic when Ranger was being an ass.

"All right, tell me what's on your mind," I sighed.

"Yeah, not here. Let's go bug Hector now that we are talking about him." He pulled me to my feet and we took the stairs down to Hector's office on 3. We walked past the conference rooms and the cubes belonging to Hector's minions towards the recluse's lair and heard the click as he unlocked the door at our approach.

We liked to joke about Hector being basically a hermit who resented it every time someone dragged him out of his seclusion. The reality was the Server was in here and Hector didn't trust anyone not to mess up his masterpiece. That and he was actually content to stay in his office all day pretending to be omniscient, whereas the rest of the team got restless if they didn't get active. Hector got out too; he just didn't whine if there was no need for him to leave the building for a few days.

"14 years, Hec?" I asked and he grinned at me.

"We're comfortable with where we are, Angelita. Why are you here disturbing my peace?"

I flopped down in his guest chair and pointed over my shoulder with my thumb at Julio. "I dunno. Ask him."

He turned to Julio, "You're bothering me. Why are you here?" Under normal circumstances, Hector saying that in the menacing tone he used just now would probably have been enough to make me mess myself. Except, now knowing what I know about them, I noticed that while his face and tone said "fuck off or I'll cut you" his eyes were smiling. Julio completely ignored the tone of voice and flopped into the chair next to mine with about all the grace of Joe's dog, Bob, when he's been denied a treat and he's sulking.

He blurted, "I've figured something out!"

"Alert the media." Hector sounded bored and went back to typing something incomprehensible on his computer. Given the smile twitching just beneath the surface it was said like that just to wind Julio up. It worked because I could have sworn that if he weren't 37 and super cool he probably would have stuck his tongue out at Hector. Instead he simply flipped Hector off and then launched into his brain wave.

"Eight years ago, a week before my wife actually tossed me out, someone broke into my house. Our cleaning lady was hit over the head with something while she was cleaning my office, she was seriously injured and the place was trashed. The whole house was turned upside down but special attention was paid to my office. Considering that I was a trauma surgeon in New York and I dealt with a lot of gang related violence and because of certain uh past affiliations I may have, there was some off the books concern that a rival gang was pissed that I couldn't put one of their homies back together again. Either that or they thought that I didn't try hard enough with someone."

"I remember." Hector said, "Yeah, the cops were concerned about it. We figured they were barking up the wrong tree because there would have been a message and someone would have taken credit. When we mentioned that, the cops decided that it was a crime of opportunity."

"Why opportunity?" I asked.

"My ex and I were a week away from splitting; we fought a lot." Julio said, "When we left the house that night we were distracted and according to the alarm company we didn't set the alarm and the door didn't even latch fully. Someone looking for an easy score might have seen us leaving the house. That's what the police went with anyway and nothing ever came of the investigation. We wrote it off like that, too. The only things of value missing were some of my wife's jewellery and some cash I kept in my desk."

"He has a point somewhere. Don't worry he'll get to it eventually." Hector rolled his eyes, "Sometimes we just have to let him talk himself out."

"Fuck off. So remember how I told Meagan and Ric there was something about the dates? I started looking at all of the significant days that we know about and crossed off all of the ones concerning the trafficking."

"Aaaaand," Hector made a get on with it motion with his hand, still staring at his computer.

"The first murder took place 24 hours after the break in at my place. Estimated time of death was almost exactly 24 hours after my housekeeper managed to hit the panic button in my office. It seemed like a coincidence, but I don't like coincidences, so I checked and found that while Beals was living in New York at the time, he was in Miami the same night as the attack! He flew home the next morning. I thought, 'Two coincidences? Yeah not buying it.' So I thought I'd go through the evidence we have. Meagan grabbed anything she believed was important from the creepy shrine room in Boston and took pictures of the room. I found this in Meagan's cargos." He slapped a photograph in an evidence bag down on Hector's desk. Hector leaned forward and looked at the picture, raised both eyebrows in shock then looked back up at Julio.

I picked up the picture and looked at it. It was an adorable picture if a little sad. Meagan and Ranger were obviously quite young in the photo, and it was an actual photograph not a computer printout. I couldn't help but smile at it even if the source was a little creepy. They looked like two peas in pod.

"What?" Hector asked.

"I asked Meagan what Ranger was like as a teenager and she said, 'Skinnier.' She wasn't kidding." In the picture he clearly hadn't grown into himself but he was still extremely good looking for… I flipped the picture over and saw the date of the picture on the back… he would have been 14 then my eyes snapped up to Hector. "That's your handwriting."

He nodded and grabbed one of the picture frames on his desk and handed it to me. It was the same picture. "I took the picture three days after Ric got out."

"And those dark spots that look like dirt on the photo? That's human blood. We are testing it for DNA now," Julio said excitedly.

"What happened to her arm?" I asked, noting the pink cast.

"That's the question you ask?" Julio looked incredulous. "Creepy stalker, kidnapper dude has a picture of them from when they were kids and you don't ask how he got it or why there is blood on the photo? You ask about the cast?"

"Well, I figured you were going to go there eventually and I was curious about the cast."

"Captain of the football team threw her down a flight of stairs when she wouldn't put out," Hector snarled.

"SHE WAS 12!"

"We know. It's horrible and no justice was served because they wouldn't take her word for it. She hit her head when she fell down the stairs and they told her she was confused, that he was actually there to help her so that's why she remembered him. As sad as that was, it wasn't even the worst thing that happened at that school. Worse still it came on the heels of her parent's death-like within a couple of months. I don't want to sound insensitive, because believe me it still bothers me; but it's not the issue right now," Julio said impatiently.

"I feel like giving the poor girl a hug all of the sudden," I muttered. No wonder she looked so sad in the picture.

"Well, she's not here and she would think you had suddenly lost it if you did give her a random hug. Can we PUHLEASE get on topic?" Julio was getting testy and was going to burst if he didn't tell someone what was on his mind. I looked at Hector who was fighting back his amusement at Julio's irritation. From what I gather Julio is usually a pretty chill guy so part of me was extremely tempted to ask him another stupid question just to see if his head would explode; but I decided to have mercy on him. Also, what he had to say was obviously important.

"How did he get the picture, Julio?" I asked the obvious question.

"He got it from my house. We were short-staffed at the hospital so my wife was the one who went through my office with the police to see what was missing. She didn't think anything was missing beyond the couple hundred dollars that was in my desk. We assumed that was the sort of thing they were after.

When they released the room, she cleaned up but a lot of the pictures had to be thrown out and anything that had our housekeeper's blood on it was taken away as evidence. I didn't think anything of the picture being missing and had Hector have another copy made for me; but as it turns out, Beals had it all along!"

"Why would he break into your house?" I asked him. "No offense but he basically ignored the existence of Lester and she's obsessed with Les so why would Beals care about you?"

"Because… Ahh! I can't tell you that! She'd kill me." Julio was getting ready to turn himself inside out with frustration and, of course, a statement like that was enough to make both Hector and I rabid with curiosity. Julio is a smart guy, he knew there is no way he could say something like that without us badgering him. Besides, you could see that he wanted to share his secret. He jumped to his feet and started pacing, running his hands through his hair as indecision tore through him. Finally he stopped, "Fine! If I run my mouth a bit and because of it, you guess, then I technically didn't tell you. Let's start with this. I know for a fact that Meagan lies about having had a crush on me when she was little. Ric…yes, and even Hec for a while; but not me."

"I dunno," I said philosophically, "A hormonal twelve-year-old girl crushing on an older, good-looking soon-to-be doctor with badass friends; it's not that much of a stretch. I'd have a crush on you and as the lady says, she's not dead."

"I KNOW she didn't, okay? Hector, with as much money as Meagan had, did you ever question why I was a co-signer on your apartment lease?"

"I did. I asked her. She said that since neither of us were 18 when we got the place, the landlord wanted an adult's name on the lease. Something about insurance, she said that his insurance company didn't give a shit about her emancipation."

"So why me and not Ella or Luis? There had to be a reason, right? Here's another question to mull over. What is my favorite place in the world?"

"NYC." Hector replied.

"What city can't I stand?"

"Boston."

"Why then, after getting accepted to both Harvard and NYU for med school and going to NYU for a semester, would I suddenly transfer to Harvard?"

"Oh, shit!" I exclaimed. I could feel my eyes go wide as the penny dropped. Julio jumped up triumphantly and pointed at me excitedly. "You weren't Lester's best man…"

"Yes! Exactly!"

"But you couldn't have been more than…" I started doing the math.

"19. I was 19." he finished for me.

"But why you? Why not Ella? Or her Godfather?"

"It's a very long story. Trust me. It's… I'll tell you another time, okay? You understand why Beals would be interested in me and not Lester, right?"

"Oh, yeah," I said. "You're right, he certainly had a motive for breaking in; but would a judge give you a search warrant based on a picture?"

"Me? No. Meagan? It might be enough. We aren't trying to get him on the human trafficking anymore, right? We just need a foot in the door. This is that foot in the door. Anyway, I can't get through to any of them. It's driving me crazy."

"Call Ranger from my phone. Speed dial one." I tossed him my cell, "He always picks up for me." Julio grabbed my face and kissed my cheek with unnecessary loudness and then left the office.

He came back a few seconds later, "Listen Steph, nobody knows. Not even Ric or Les or Ella. We didn't tell anyone, okay. We had good reasons. I'll explain everything later. It's… Meagan is really fucked up and she has very good reason to be the way she is. Yeah…just…I have to call Ric; but we'll talk later. Just don't say anything to Les or Ric until Meagan and I explain, all right?"

"I won't. I promise." I crossed my heart for him. He looked over at Hector. Hector was looking at us as if we'd lost our minds.

"Spell it out for him, okay? Just don't let it leave this room." He left again with the phone.

"Stephanie?" Hector was staring at me now, "Why would Beals be interested in Julio?"

"Meagan is a super-secret-spec-ops-spy type so she's not easy to find, right? Whenever I am trying to find a skip, where do I spend the most time looking?"

"Family." Hector said.

"Specifically, I try to get information from their parents first. Parents always know more than other people do."

"Meagan's parents' death was national news for weeks. She was hounded by the press for ages. Tabloids had a field day with it. The only way Beals talks to Meagan's parents is via séance."

"Hector, you're being dense and I don't know if it's because you are in denial or if you really can't see it. Traditionally who gives the bride away at the wedding?"

"The father of the bride."

"Julio gave Meagan away instead of standing as Lester's best man. Why the hell would he do that? He adores his baby brother, it's only natural that he'd be best man; but he wasn't." I was starting to understand Julio's frustration when Hec still didn't get it, "Hector, he gave her away because he was father of the bride. He adopted her when he was 19."

When I left Hector's office a few minutes later, Julio was waiting in the hall and Hector was frozen somewhere between disbelief and anger. I wanted the full story but I had a feeling Hector was about to get it first. I can't even begin to imagine what reason they had for keeping something like that secret. No doubt there was a very good reason for it. He handed me my phone back.

"How is he?" Julio asked.

"Pissed," I replied honestly. "Probably he's upset that you didn't trust him enough to tell him a secret like that. Might I suggest that you tell him everything now?"

"Yeah. I was thinking that." He said with a sigh, "He'll be cool when he knows the whole story. It's just a very long story." He rubbed his hand over his face in an action that was reminiscent of Ranger. His pacing had been very Lester-ish and I wondered if Ranger and Lester picked the motions up from Julio.

"I'm sure it's a good one and I wouldn't worry about Ranger or Les. They know about secrets. Though I am surprised she hasn't told Les."

"For all I know she has," he shrugged. "When this is done, I'll tell you everything. I promise."

"Cool." My phone rang in my hand and I jumped again.

"Maybe it's time to switch to decaf, Babe." He chuckled then looked at me oddly, "Actually…you know what…Nah, never mind. Later. We'll talk later" He touched his key fob to Hector's door.

I answered my phone, "Yo."

"Hey, Steph, it's Linda."

"Linda?" I said somewhat surprised. Julio spun around, grabbed my hand and yanked me back into the inner sanctum. Julio then demonstrated that he was carrying around a massive pair, by walking around the desk, grabbing onto the back of Hector's office chair and yanking him away from the computer, mid keystroke. Hector was just as shocked as I was by this as he seemed momentarily frozen in typing position. Julio bent over the keyboard and began typing furiously. He pulled up a screen with a list of phone numbers and clicked on my cell phone number. My Speaker phone activated in my hand and a recording began on the computer. That was just a whole level of creepy I didn't want to contemplate.

"Hello Steph? You still there?"

"Yeah, sorry. I'm here. Bad connection; I was in an elevator."

"No problem! Can you hear me now?"

"Yeah, What's up?"

"So listen, Daddy says he's terminating his contract with you guys," she said. "He didn't really say why…something about Mom not liking your boss. She said she's too full of herself."

"Well, your mom's not wrong there." Hector and Julio nodded their agreement, "She does have a lot of cause to be arrogant though." More nods of agreement.

"Yeah, I think her point is that she shouldn't be. Mom's not comfortable with Security run by a woman who is probably more of a bureaucrat than someone with any real skill."

"Oh. Well she knows that Ranger is…"

"Yeah, but Ranger wasn't the one that did the security at our place and Daddy's asked a couple of times to have someone check the camera placements and nothing's come of it."

"Ahh." I said, "I see." What I saw was that Beals was a big fat liar. I knew everything about this case whether I wanted to or not. If Beals had called to request another security assessment, I would have heard about it.

"Yeah, so anyways. I know it was supposed to be your day off and everything; but…okay…I don't know anyone really yet. I mean there's nobody I want to talk to and, well...I know you and Joe used to… Anyways.. I just need someone to talk to about this. I mean…"

"You need to drink margaritas and bitch about Morelli to a sympathetic ear. Maybe have a girls night."

"Yeah. Exactly."

I looked to Hector and Julio, I mean I couldn't ask Ranger what he thought because he wasn't here. Julio grabbed a pen and scribbled, on a post-it.

-Pretend I'm Ric. Ask if it's okay to go out tonight.

"Just a second, okay? Ranger is right here and I know he hates it when I go out when we have an active case. Hang on." I pretended to muffle the phone but didn't really, "Ranger, Linda wants to go out tonight to bitch about Morelli."

"Go to Pino's, Babe." Julio's Ranger was scarily good, "Just don't stay out too late. Be back by no later than 10:30." Okay, yeah, if tilted my head and squinted, he was Ranger. Sooo creepy. Hector obviously thought so too because his nostrils flared a little as he gave Julio a freaked out side eye and shifted his chair further away from him.

"Yeah, Ranger says it's okay. I just can't stay out too late."

"So Pino's at 7:00 then?"

"Yeah, I'll be bringing friends." I hung up my phone and looked at Julio, "Does Ranger know you can do that?"

"Of course he does. Les, Ric and I can all do each other's voices. Great for fooling parents and grandparents who call to check up on you when you say you are at a friend's house."

"I feel so bad for your parents. Rosa, too. You guys were terrible."

"Says the girl who frequently snuck out of her bathroom windows and jumped off the garage roof, not once, but twice."