Wow, so, yeah, this chapter came about sooner than intended. I can't promise my next update will be this fast. Thank you for reading! And extra special thanks to all my reviewers!

Enjoy!

Chapter 2: Explanations

Wednesday Afternoon

Sharon stood in front of the Murder Board waiting as her team processed her explanation. Tao and Buzz were occasionally trading looks with each other, then staring at her once again. Julio wore a smirk she was doing her best to ignore, but if his eyes went to her legs one more time she might give into the temptation of throwing the dry erase marker she still held in her hand at him. She finally caught his eyes and raised an eyebrow. His smirk grew. Amy's eyebrows were drawn together as she stared at the Captain and her mouth was open slightly in the shape of an 'O'. Flynn wore a similar expression, but with his head tilted to his side, and thankfully with his mouth closed.

"Don't talk all at once, please." Sharon said dryly.

Provenza, the person seemingly the least affected by her revelation, spoke first. "I think, Captain, it would help if you explained to us how you came to this conclusion."

Sharon rubbed her thumbs against the tips of her fingers. She was hoping they wouldn't ask for the details. "I'm familiar with the song 'Rock 'n Roll Radio,' Lieutenant. I recognized the words as part of the lyrics even if they were out of order."

"And the footprints?" Provenza prodded. "How do you know the murderer danced around the body? Perhaps he just panicked or performed some weird psychotic ritual?"

"I recognized the footing."

Provenza's eyes opened a bit more, and he leaned forward gesturing for her to go on.

She barely suppressed an eye roll. "I recognized the footing because I danced to that song three decades ago."

Julio raised his hand.

"Yes, Julio."

"Could you give us a demonstration, ma'am."

She should have known he'd ask that. She didn't take the time to glare at each member of her giggling team. They were worse than a room full of preteen ballerinas.

She really did need to call Emily tonight.

"Just so we can see the footing for ourselves, of course," Flynn added with a smirk of his own.

"Wait," Provenza began, standing and staring at the pictures of the bloody footprints. "Are you telling me that this whacko killed this girl, and then danced around the room in her blood, purposefully leaving footprints in such a way as to outline a dance, and in case we missed that, he put the lyrics to the song he danced to on the walls?"

Sharon nodded.

"Why not put the lyrics in order then, or put all the lyrics on the walls?" Flynn asked, stepping closer to the board. "I mean, if he wanted us to know what he did. then why not make it easier to recognize."

"The captain recognized it," Amy added to the conversation.

"We all thought it sounded familiar, Sykes. The Captain was just able to connect the dots before the rest of us," Tao said.

"The words are in order," Sharon cut in, moving over to point at the pictures of the walls. "They're in the order our murderer would have seen them as he danced to the song. Each word is the cue he would have used to turn towards the wall. Look."

Sharon moved her finger from picture to picture pointing at the words. "He would have started off facing this wall. At this word he'd have turned to face this one. Then with this word back to this wall."

"I don't know a lot about dance," Tao began, "but dancers don't usually use the words of a song to know when to turn. Do they?"

Sharon shook her head. "Not usually. Not good dancers, at least."

"So you don't think our psycho is a good dancer? Just what then? This girl's stalker?" Flynn questioned.

"I'll let you know, Lieutenant, once we catch him," Sharon answered honestly. "To do that we should start by trying to find out if anyone had been stalking or threatening her."

"There are no complaints filled with the LAPD," Julio answered, having gathered some basic background information on their victim already. "She is married. To an accountant named Alan Caine. I already called him. He's coming in once he gets off work in a few hours."

"Very good," Sharon said before turning her attention to Buzz. "Did the owner of the dance school have any security cameras?"

"Just one," Buzz replied. "Pointed directly at the front desk. You can't even see people coming in through the front door."

"Thank you, Buzz."

Provenza asked the next question before she could. "Sykes, did you find out anything about the owner of the dance studio? What was her name again?"

"Margret Sacks. She's squeaky clean. No record of any kind. And Susan Caine, our victim, was a fairly new instructor at the school. She'd only worked there about four months," Amy answered promptly.

"Captain Raydor?"

The unexpected and unknown voice made all the detectives look at the uniformed officer who'd just entered the Murder Room with a girl no more than eight at his side.

"Yes?" Sharon acknowledged him motioning for Buzz to lower the screen over the murder board. No child needed to see that.

"This young lady came to the front desk asking for you." The officer gestured to the young girl.

Sharon smiled at her. "I'm Captain Sharon Raydor. How can I help you?"

"My dance teacher asked me to give this to you." The little girl, dressed in a school uniform with a blue bow in her hair, held out a slim perfectly square white envelope at once recognizable as a CD sleeve. Sharon didn't know how, but she knew that the contents of that envelope where from the killer.

"Thank you," Sharon replied, taking the CD from the girl carefully. "What's your name?"

"Cassidy," the little girl answered. "Are you going to call my mommy now to come pick me up?"

Sharon continued to smile at the little girl even as Tao's gloved hand carefully took the CD from her. It was good to know she wasn't the only one suspicious of the disk's sudden appearance, or its method of delivery. She turned her attention to the officer who came up with the girl. "Thank you. We can take care of things from here."

The front desk officer nodded and left, giving the small girl a friendly smile as he walked away.

Sharon turned her attention to the girl in front of her. "Cassidy, Detective Sykes is going to go with you to call your mother. While we wait for her to come, can you tell Detective Sykes everything your dance teacher said when he asked you to give me that?"

Cassidy nodded. "You're going to call my mommy first though, right?"

"Yep," Sykes answered, smiling and offering her hand to the little girl.

"Use my conference room, Amy."

Amy nodded in understanding, walking with the young girl to the conference room. Once they were both inside and the door closed, the Captain turned to Tao.

"Okay, Mike, let's see what's on that disk," Sharon said, and then noticed all her detectives gathered around his desk already. She walked over to join them.

She heard the music first and almost didn't need to see what was playing across Mike's computer screen. Somehow she already knew. Looking over Provenza's shoulder she sighed, they were never going to let her live this down, "Well, Julio, is that an adequate enough demonstration for you?"

Wednesday Night

"I am well aware of that, yes." Sharon said, smiling into her phone. She was going through a box she'd pulled from the top of her closest, surprised she'd even kept it, while talking to her daughter. Rusty was doing his homework at the table.

"Okay. Love you, too." She took the phone away from her ear and held it in Rusty's general direction. "Emily wants to talk to you, again."

She heard Rusty get up from the table, walk over, and take the phone from her. He leaned forward over the back of the couch peering into the box she was going though.

"Yeah, I know." She heard him say to her daughter, and could easily guess what they were talking about. "Goodnight. Talk to you later."

Rusty hung up the phone, and dropped it beside her on the couch, but didn't move from his spot. "What's that?"

"These are recorded tapes of me from almost thirty years ago." She answered, distractedly.

"They had cameras back then?"

Playfully, she hit him with one of the throw pillows from the couch. "Watch it."

Rusty laughed, and she tried not to smile in response. When he climbed over the back of the couch to sit beside her all she could do was roll her eyes. Teenagers.

"What's on the tapes?" Rusty asked, peering curiously into the box.

"Different things," she answered, picking one up, "this one is of mine and Jack's wedding." She returned it back to the box without thinking about it too much, and picked up another neatly labeled one. "This one is Emily's first ballet recital."

"Why are you going through them now?"

"Rusty," she started, and paused briefly considering how to continue. "I'm very well aware that you heard some of my conversation with Emily, and that the two of you think I'm overreacting."

Rusty shrugged, "you sounded really worried about Emily on the phone."

"And when a case reminds me of Ricky I worry a little more about him. Just like when a case reminds me of you I worry a little more about you as well." She continued searching through the box looking for something specific, "As a mother, I'm entitled to worry about my children even if that extra worry is a little unnecessary."

"Oh."

Sharon smiled a little, "Now, that we have that settled, if you don't mind, to make me feel better, would you stop by the station after school tomorrow?"

Rusty rolled his eyes, and dramatically fell back against the couch, whining. "Sharon…"

She didn't say anything in response, just continued searching through the old video recordings.

"Fine. I'll come by the station tomorrow." Rusty pouted, but gave in for reasons he didn't quit understand. He had no idea how she managed to make him feel horrible about things without saying a word. Things he hadn't actually done even. Only considered. It was completely unfair.

"Thank you, Rusty. I'm sure you had better plans than stopping by the station, but I'm sure everyone will be happy to see you. Maybe Buzz can even help you with your homework. And I very much appreciate the effort."

Sharon's tone was nothing other than…sincere and grateful. Emily had warned him that Sharon would use this tone on him. She hadn't told him how to resist it, however.

"Yeah, you're welcome. What are you looking for, anyway?" Rusty gestured towards the box.

Sharon debated on how much to tell him. Rusty knew some of the horrific things that came through the Murder Room. After all he'd spent the better part of a year and a half there. As horrible as those cases and murders were though it was always "someone else". It was distant, people he didn't know, and only on a few occasions could he actually relate to them. He didn't need to worry about another Philip Stroh. He didn't need to know that someone had recorded her dancing 30 years ago and hung on to the tapes.

"The case we're working on reminded me of when I used to dance, and I couldn't remember if I'd kept any of my recordings."

"You used to dance?"

Sharon nodded making a confirming noise without actually opening her mouth. "Not professionally. It was more like exercise, a hobby."

"You recorded yourself exercising?"

She smiled making a small noise of amusement. "Well, we did have routines that we would work on. Sometimes we would find it beneficial to record ourselves to see where we needed improvement. Normally, we didn't keep the tapes, just record over them, but there's a possibility I may have kept one."

"Oh." Rusty watched her searching through the tapes quietly for a moment, his brow creasing in confusion. "Sharon, how do you plan on watching whatever is on those things? They don't look like they'll fit in the DVD player."

The song lyrics were from The Ramones, Rock 'n Roll Radio.

Did this explain a few things? And cause even more questions? I hope so. :D

Tell me all your thoughts on the first Mothership scene of this story?