Did I need to put a disclaimer in? If so, these guys are not mine. They belong to CBS. Bugger.

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He felt like an old man as he forced his aching body to climb out of the cab. He remembered at the last moment to grab his bag before the swinging door closed and the car sped away from the curb.

He stood, swaying, in front of the small, narrow townhouse, suddenly unsure of what to do next. He hadn't exactly thought it through. On leaving the lab his first thought had been to just go home. Not back to his apartment but home. Now he was here he had no idea what to do next. Before he could force his exhausted brain to do something the front door opened and she stepped forward.

She looked older than he remembered. But then, shit, how many years was it? Her beautiful dark hair was now liberally streaked with grey, though her face remained as unlined as it had ever been, her frame still petite and on the thinner side of slim. Her chocolate brown eyes narrowed as she studied him, then widened as realisation dawned. Her lower lip trembled and her hands hesitantly reached up to cover her mouth.

Danny knew he had finally reached his limit. Whatever happened here, now, he couldn't, physically or emotionally, go any further. His face crumpled. "Mama."

"Oh! Oh my baby! Oh my sweet baby!" She opened her arms and Danny launched himself into them, dropping to his knees and wrapping his arms around her waist, he buried his face in her warmth and sobbed brokenly as if he would never stop.

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The interior of the house was old but clean and tidy. It showed considerable wear but also love in the way it had been sympathetically repaired and mended over the years. The garden, she could see through the kitchen window, bloomed prettily.

Stella turned and looked at the couple sat at the large, scarred kitchen table. Met their eyes and held them for a moment. "I'm not here as a cop but as his friend. All we want to know is that he's safe, that he's okay."

Stella reached across the table to cover the linked hands. "We all love him. We…" her voice broke, "we just want to know he's okay. Please. If you know anything, please say something, anything." She looked earnestly into the older woman's eyes, but the ensuing silence stretched.

It was the older man that finally spoke. His voice was husky and low, and strained, she noted.

"What on earth makes you think he would come here? We haven't seen that boy since he became a cop." He almost spat out the word, surging from his chair and startling Stella enough that she took a few steps backwards.

"Giovanni." Elena Messer reached for her husband's hand to try to calm him. "He left us and we let him." Her carefully blank face cracked a bit, enough for Stella to momentarily see the grief behind it. "It was his decision to become a cop and his decision meant leaving us behind. He never contacted us after that day and," she paused as if to collect herself, "and we never contacted him."

Stella was appalled. "But that was over ten years ago! In all that time… nothing?"

Giovanni rounded on her, "what would you have had us do?! If we had contacted him or… it would have ruined everything for him. It was bad enough…" He broke off knowing he had said too much with even that tiny slip of the tongue.

Stella grabbed onto it with both hands.

"You knew?" The truth slowly dawned. "Everything he went through, has been through would have been ten times worse if he had still been part of this family." She sat down hard next to Elena. "Does he know?" She stopped. "Of course he does."

The older man snorted, turning it into a cough at the look his wife levelled at him.

It was so like Danny it brought tears to Stella's eyes. It didn't go unnoticed by the older couple.

"We've tried everything else." Stella paused. "Please, we just want to know he's okay."

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How was that for a second chapter? Please review, am flying by the seat of my pants here!!