I do not own any of the characters besides Kaley ... and what is she without her parents?

Hesitation

Chapter 3:

In her gut, Stella thought that the two cases of children were together. Both were brutal, both girls were young, but that's where the similarities ended. The girls looked different; one with brown hair, blue eyes, the other with green eyes and blond hair. The first had been stabbed, the second strangled.

Children.

Stella shuddered. There was still evidence to process, but so very little to go on. She could only hope the ME could find something. She pulled out her phone, called ahead and made sure the girl was placed in Sid's care, as the other girl had been. Then she called Hawkes. She would make sure he was assigned to this case as well. If anyone would take care, it would be the members of her team.

After the medical examiner's staff arrived to transport the body, Stella looked up to find that Lindsay had disappeared. Tugging off her gloves, she walked out the apartment door and found her sitting on the stairs staring at the locket she'd been given for Mother's Day. Stella knew what was in it without looking; a picture of Kaley, her eyes wide with laughter, ball cap on backwards and looking so very much like Lindsay herself. It was easy to see why Danny had picked that picture to put in it and why Lindsay treasured it.

The picture of Kaley was not alone. Lindsay had placed a photo of Danny, wearing a ball cap backwards in the left slot. With the two photos together, Kaley looked even more like Danny. Stella had watched Lindsay pull it place a kiss on the golden cover when things got tense in an investigation or when she was gone a long time from home.

"You okay, kiddo?"

Lindsay smiled softly and nodded slowly, still staring at the picture. "I'm sorry. I couldn't watch them put the little girl in the bag. It was just …"

"Too real?"

"Yeah." She shook her head. "It's not just a job when it's a child."

"No."

"She didn't even look real … maybe I can't make it real." Lindsay shook her head. "When I first got to New York, Danny and I worked a case where a doll doctor was murdered. All those doll faces lying there? Just staring up at you?"

"I remember that case," Stella let out a breath and nodded. "I was never into dolls."

"I don't know that I was either. Except … my grandmother made me this rag doll. Kind of like a Raggedy Anne with brown themed rags for the hair."

"And I bet brown eyes."

"What else? My Monroe clan is a consistent lot," she ran a finger over her own brown eyed beauty. "I've been thinking about that doll all night long. I called it Sue. Raggy Sue. She was so soft and when mama washed her she smelled … so good. Kaley needs a doll like that. Not one that looks real … that looks like that when it's just lying there."

Lindsay looked back into the room and bit her lip, obviously remembering how the little girl had looked, lying there, staring up at the ceiling with blank eyes.

"My gran can't sew like that anymore, but mom probably knows someone. I think I'll call her when … well, later."

Stella slid her arm around Lindsay and looked with her for a few moments at the sweet little girl in the photo. "Why don't you go on home? Get some rest, see your little girl. Call your mom. We're not going to get much more done tonight."

For a moment she looked like she was going to argue. The side of her that was ingrained to her job, to the little girl's case they had just taken on, against the mother inside. Finally, Lindsay looked over at her and smiled. "Thanks, Stella."

As Stella walked away, Linsay sat for another moment, listening to the familiar sounds of the crime scene around her. Then she slapped her hands on her legs and pushed up, gathering her supplied back into her case to go back to the lab with the team. She took it out, tucked it into the truck and nodded toward Stella who was talking to one of the officers, then she turned to head to the subway.

But momentarily, she stopped. The scene still gripped her heart. She needed to take a moment, leave it here at the scene instead of carrying it home. She turned back, walked inside.

She stopped and stared into the room, at the floor marked with crime tape. She waited, letting the moment settle. She didn't want to take it home with her. She breathed in and out, slowly, taking ten seconds to pull herself together.

Then she smelled it, the toxic smell, even as the world slid away.