AN: Thanks to those still reading this story. And as always, thanks to my betas who continue to amaze me with their awesomeness. Any mistakes still around anywhere in this story are wholly and completely my fault. :)

Kaile pushed open the door to the stairwell and began the climb up to Ana's apartment. She really just wanted to go home for a few hours of sleep before jumping back into her case, but apparently Ana and Jack had finally set a date for their wedding and now Ana wanted to talk about bridesmaid dresses and whatnot with Ella, Kaile, Shayna and Carla, all of whom Ana had asked to be her bridesmaids not long after Jack proposed. There was a fifth bridesmaid, a friend of Ana's in the ATF named Christine Burton, but she worked out in California so obviously couldn't be in New York for planning sessions.

Kaile would have begged off except that for all she knew Ana was planning to throw this thing next week. She tended to procrastinate with things like this and then impulsively just do them. Even if the wedding wouldn't be for months, Ana could make a final decision about bridesmaid dresses tonight and Kaile wanted to be around to make sure she didn't end up wearing something truly hideous.

There was also another reason why she was schlepping up the four flights of stairs to the apartment Ana shared with Jack. Ella had been the one to call with the news of the setting of the wedding date (though Ana hadn't actually said what the date was yet, just that she had picked one) and the impromptu planning session, and something had seemed off about her. It wasn't anything she said, but her tone had been a bit cool considering their topic of conversation. Kaile wasn't sure what she had done to tick off her cousin, especially since they had seemed happy with one another just a few days ago when they had lunch, but she didn't press and figured she would ask when she saw Ella face to face.

Finally reaching Ana's door, Kaile knocked briskly. "Just a sec!" she heard from inside. "Kaile!" Ana exclaimed when she opened the door. She leaned forward to hug her older cousin. "I'm so glad you could come."

"I wouldn't miss it," Kaile told her. Their hug ended and Kaile looked around the apartment. "Did you kick Jack out? And where are Shayna and Carla?"

"Oh, Jack is working and the girls aren't coming." Ana said blithely as she opened the closet next to the door and pulled out two jackets. Tossing one to Ella who was leaning against the back of the living room couch, Ana kept the other for herself and began putting it on. "While I have set a date for the wedding, which is in November by the way so that it's after the baseball season, tonight wasn't really about planning. We just needed to get you over here," Ana admitted to her as Ella rounded the couch to the coffee table where there was a laptop computer halfway closed. Ella opened it up to reveal Dominic on the screen.

"What the hell?" This was so not what she wanted to deal with right now.

"You two need to talk, so talk," Ana said matter-of-factly.

"Forget it," Kaile bit out. Nobody liked being ambushed, but Kaile particularly hated it. She turned and opened the door and headed back out into the hallway. Before she could reach the stairs, Ell came out and stopped her.

"You need to talk to him."

Kaile turned with one hand on the door to the stairwell. "I can't believe you were in on this. You hate meddling stuff like this."

"Yeah, I do. But my big brother asked me to help and I can't exactly refuse him when he tells me that he wants to make things right with my cousin who is miserable right now."

Sighing, Kaile ran a hand through her hair. "Fine. Just answer me one thing. Why exactly are you mad at me?" Ella's non-reaction was more of an answer than anything she could have said. "What, did Dominic give you grief about getting that All Star game ticket for you?"

"No," Ell replied. "We talked before you showed up and he didn't hassle me at all, but I told him not to bother sending it since I didn't need it anymore."

"What?" That made no sense whatsoever. "Why? Did Deveraux say he didn't want to go?"

"I never got the chance to ask him." Getting information out of Ella at the moment was like pulling teeth. Times like this called for bluntness.

"Why in the world would you not ask him after going through the hassle of asking me, and me asking Dominic, and now the whole family probably knowing you were planning on asking him?"

"Because family comes first, Kaile," Ella finally burst out with just a hint of anger behind it.

The older woman was flabbergasted. "What does the family have to do with this?"

"Not the rest of the family, K. You. Just you. JD wanted to know what your problem is with Scagnetti since he didn't buy that your issues with his partner stemmed from just an embarrassing teenage incident and I told him to back off. End of story." Ella walked towards the stairs and started to push the door open. "Tell Ana I'll be waiting for her downstairs."

"Hold on a sec," Kaile said desperately, grabbing onto Ell's arm. "I'm…I'm sorry, Ella. I had no idea he would ask you about this."

"Don't worry about it. I can't exactly blame you for having a past you don't want to talk about since I was guilty of that for years and there are still things you all probably don't know about me from the time between when I joined the FBI and now." Ella's face softened just a touch. "You hide it pretty well from most of the family, but some of us know you've had this thing with Scagnetti eating at you for years. Whatever it is, you should really work it out, K. I know better than anyone else what happens when you let unspoken things fester too long." Ella turned then to head down the stairs and Kaile let her go.

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Dominic breathed a sigh of relief as Kaile reentered the apartment and sat down on the couch where he could see her clearly. "Thanks for coming back to talk to me, K."

"Thank your sister. I owe Ella since I've apparently screwed up her life." Dominic forgot about his own problems and sat forward at the incredibly sad and defeated look on the face of the woman he loved.

"What's wrong? How could you have screwed up Ella's life?"

"Because the guy she likes happens to be partnered with my arch-nemesis and apparently she had to choose me over the guy because he chose his partner over her."

Dominic was at a momentary loss over what to say about that. He knew that Kaile had serious issues with John Scagnetti, Jr. and he even had an idea what they might revolve around. He recalled a night almost twenty years ago when they were fifteen and he had taken a walk with her around her neighborhood and listened as she ranted about Scagnetti who was a beat cop at the time. She hadn't gone into specifics, but that was right around the time the men responsible for her mother's death had finally been caught and Dominic had always thought that her problems with Scagnetti were tied to that somehow. Those times weren't something Kaile or her dad ever liked to talk about and the family never pressed them about it. They had just kept a close eye on Don and Kaile until it seemed like they had dealt with their emotions over the arrest and trial of the men responsible for killing Kaile Maka. And to most of the family that was something in the past that wasn't really talked about, much like Aunt Stella's death.

But Dominic had listened to Kaile's bitter rants about Scagnetti, had let her yell into the darkness about the murderers and how she wished she could shoot that scum just like they shot her mother, and had held her as she finally broke down and sobbed it all out. The only other people in the family he figured knew anything about that time were his father who had kept a close eye on his longtime friend during those days, and Ella because she saw and took in everything.

Searching for words, he finally just said whatever came out. "Kaile, you haven't screwed up her life. She hasn't known the guy that long and I for one say good riddance if he made her choose between him and her family."

Kaile bit her lip, a clear sign that she was holding back tears. "But he's not exactly wrong for backing his partner, Dom." She put her head back against the couch and Dominic's heart ached as he wished he were there with her right now. "Maybe I'm being stubborn and ridiculous. Dad doesn't like Scagnetti either, but he doesn't screw up anyone's life because of it."

"You don't know that, K. You're maybe a little more openly hostile, but if your dad said something to him and JD asked Ella about it she would pick your dad over Deveraux too. It's just what we do. Family comes first."

Kaile sighed heavily and sat up. "Okay, let's forget about that for now and move on to what I got ambushed for. I'm assuming you didn't set this up to talk with me about my Scagnetti issues."

That was just great. Now she was in an even worse mood to talk about this than she was after finding out she had been duped. Well, he might as well bite the bullet and start by saying he was sorry. "I wanted to apologize for our last conversation. I was tired and cranky, but that's no excuse for not answering the phone and then biting your head off. I just…" This was the really hard part for him to admit. "I guess I didn't want to pick up the phone because I didn't want to have to listen to you tell me that you thought that one night was a mistake and you were still sticking to your decision to end our dating relationship."

"Apology accepted, and while I wouldn't have led off the conversation with that, I do still believe that that would be best for both of us, Dom. We don't have a 'dating' relationship because we don't date. When you're in town we hook up and spend the night together at my apartment or your hotel and we hang out at family gatherings and that's pretty much it. You're not even in New York much during your off season. We haven't gone on anything remotely like a date in years."

He had thought through all the possible points she would bring up and he was ready for this one. "Okay, first, I take full responsibility for not making more of an attempt to be in New York to work on our relationship when my seasons are over. I've already taken steps to change that. I told Jerry to say no to anything I haven't committed to yet and not accept any more engagements for the off season and that I would be staying in New York whenever possible." Jerry Mitchell was his agent and he hadn't exactly been happy about Dominic's decisions to do fewer engagements, but he wasn't going to protest too loudly to his biggest client. "Second, it's not like we just screw and nothing else." He paused. Talking about stuff like this didn't exactly come easy to him. In this way like many others, he was definitely his father's son. "I called you all the time, K. You kept me anchored when my head got too big, you listened when I ranted about idiots on the team or in the media or whatever, you kept me up to date about what was happening with the family, and more. You might just say most of that is a product of the friendship we've had forever, but I've known tons of guys over the years whose relationships were based on sex and wining and dining and never had anything half as deep as what we've got."

He watched with bated breath as Kaile digested everything he had said. He didn't know what he was going to do if she outright rejected him.

"I don't know, Dominic." She sat forward, put her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands so he couldn't see her face. "I want to believe you and I want to give this another go, but I don't know if I can handle it not working out yet again."

"Think about it, Kaile. I'll be in town in a few weeks for the All Star game and we can talk more about it then." If he knew one thing about her it was that she hated to be pushed. Backing off and letting her think gave you a much better chance of her coming around to what you wanted her to do. It was a quality that applied to more than one member of their family.

She raised her head and smiled ruefully. "I don't know if you'll want to talk to me after you hear what I had to do today."

This didn't sound good. "And what would that be?"

Kaile wrung her hands. "I had to bring Jim Munson in for questioning."

Dominic tried not to visibly react. His initial gut reaction was angry, stunned disbelief, but that was immediately followed by the knowledge that Kaile too viewed Jimmy as a friend and wouldn't have brought him in if it wasn't absolutely necessary. "Questioning for what?"

Kaile sighed and looked even more miserable than before and once again he wished he was in New York. "I can't say too much about an ongoing investigation, you know that, but since this much will probably get leaked anyway I will say that it was in connection to two murders and that at this time we're not looking at him as a suspect."

As much as he believed in Kaile and was trying to hold onto his cool, he knew how hard Jim Munson had worked to get to where he was and Kaile phrasing that sentence like she was at a press conference touched the wrong buttons. "Don't screw around with him, Kaile. I know you have to do your job, but don't treat him like he's some druggie off the streets. You could kill his career, and worse than that, you could ruin the reputation he's worked hard to build and discredit him within the deaf community."

Kaile stood up, her eyes flashing, and Dominic knew he had crossed a line. "Don't you think I know all of that? I don't want to hurt him! Though I guess it's logical you would assume that considering all the lives I've been screwing up lately."

"That's not what I said, K." But he knew it was too late as she headed around the couch.

"Forget it, Dominic. I'll see you in a few weeks."

"Kaile!" But she was already gone, the sound of the door closing sharply echoing through his speakers. Damnit. Why did everything always go sideways with them?