On the drive to the school Martin filled Danny in on the case. "So this Stephen Parker has been fostering and mentoring boys since '80. Michael Cortez is his latest foster son."

"Parker" Danny looked at him "Stephen Brian Parker?" he asked.

"You know him?" Martin was surprised.

"I used to." Danny said quietly and looked out the window. Martin didn't press. He assumed that he had been one of Danny's caseworkers.

Danny sat silently watching the streets of Manhattan roll by but he didn't see them he was remembering...

Danny was just 14 when he walked into the old church hall after school. Father Orlando was there with a group of teenaged boys. They were talking about baseball, one of the boys was extolling the virtues of the New York Yankees. Danny, a die hard Mets fan, had to jump in. "Yeah Ok, Mattingly may be knocking them out of the park, but the rest of the team can't bat for crap!"

The boys turned to see who the new arrival was. Father Orlando stood with a smile. "Daniel, nice of you to join us" He smiled Danny couldn't help but blush, Father Orlando knew he hated being called Daniel.

"You didn't give me much choice Father." Danny said quietly.

"Well I'm sure you'll see it's not so bad here right boys?" He looked at the other boys. They were looking Danny over trying to size him up. "…Boys?" Father Orlando prodded them.

"Yeah right," said one of them.

"It's all cool" nodded another. Danny kept his thoughts to himself.

"Why don't you let me introduce you to Mr. Parker" Father Orlando said. "We can get the paperwork out of the way and then see how well you do on the basketball court?" Danny nodded and let Father Orlando lead him to a small office.

The office was small and cramped. Behind the desk was a man on the phone. Danny guessed it was Mr. Parker. He and Father Orlando nodded to each other. Danny looked the two men over. Both were in their 40's with dark brown hair, Mr. Parker was in a polo shirt and trousers; Father Orlando was wearing his clerics shirt with his white collar and jeans. Mr. Parker, held up his hand, silently telling them to wait a moment.

"Ok" Mr. Parker said to the person on the phone. "No, I'll tell him" he said grimly as he looked at Danny. Instinctively Danny knew that there was something wrong. His stomach knotted and he squared his shoulders, wondering what his brother Rafi had done now.

Mr. Parker hung up the phone. He looked at Danny and smiled reassuringly. "You must be Danny Alvarez" he held out his hand. Danny shook it still wondering what was wrong. "I'm Steve Parker, why don't we sit down I've got some things we need to discuss."

"Rafi's dead isn't he?" Danny asked. He wasn't one to beat around the bush.

"What? No!" Parker shook his head. "He is in trouble."

"Again" Danny shook his head. He knew that the only thing he could depend on Rafi to do with any regularity was either getting high or getting himself arrested, usually while he was high.

"I'm afraid so." Parker said.

"So I've got to go back to the group home." Danny was trying not to let it show how much he hated that place and at that moment how much he hated Rafi.

"Well no," Parker said. "I have been talking to your latest case worker and if you'd like, you can come stay with me. I foster boys from time to time and my last foster son has just left for the army." Parker smiled proudly.

"Why would you want to take me in?" Danny asked him, he'd learned the hard way to be wary of everyone.

He smiled at Danny long used to having to work at gaining a boys trust. "Because I want to help you…"was his honest explanation. Danny could see in the man's eyes he meant what he was saying but there was something else there he couldn't quite make out. It was a sadness that Danny mistook for pity. His pride prickled and he shook his head.

Danny felt Father Orlando's hand on his shoulder. "Danny," he said gently "take this as an opportunity to make some changes." he urged him.

Danny looked down, knowing it was a choice between the group home and a new foster home. Reluctantly he nodded. "Ok" he said softly "I'll go anywhere not to go to that group home again."

Martin broke into Danny's thoughts. "Danny! Hey man, we're here."

Danny looked up at the school startled. If it wasn't for the large sign out front and decoration in the windows, he'd swear they were at prison. He looked over the brick building with the high chain linked fencing that had barbed wire running along the top. Is that to keep people out, or to keep them in? He thought to himself, out loud he said, "So what are we waiting for?" He got out of the car and straightened his suit jacket. "Ya know… I bet you never got sent to the principal's office when you were at school." He tried to tease Martin to take his mind off of his memories.

"You have no idea the kinds of things I got up too in school!" Martin grinned at him, but he could see the emotion lurking in Danny's eyes.

Like always, Danny hid his emotions behind a mask of bravado. He flashed Martin his best smile. "Oh I can guess Martin" he teased him, "I can guess!"

Danny flashed his badge at the security guard standing at the main entrance as they walked in. Inside the school Danny was unusually quiet, letting Martin take the lead as they spoke to the guidance counselor. Mikey was an average student, quiet with a small circle of friends, none of whom had seen or heard from him all week. Danny was still pensive on their way to DYFS. Martin saw his eyes darken as they approached the building. "You OK man?" he finally had to ask.

"Yeah," Danny nodded "But I'll be even better once we're outta here so let's get this over with." He squared his shoulders and led the way. Martin smiled sadly seeing him steeling himself to walk into the building. He couldn't help but put his hand on Danny's shoulder. For one brief moment they looked at each other and a silent understanding passed between them. Danny allowed himself a few seconds of vulnerability before the wall went back up and Martin saw hardness in his eyes that only ever came when he was forced to confront his past.

The Division of Youth and Family Services was in one of those dingy, old federal buildings. The look on Danny's face told the whole story as they climbed the stairs. Jared Hayes was the director of the department. He welcomed Martin and Danny into his small office that was over flowing with files and paperwork.

"Mr. Hayes I'm Special Agent Fitzgerald and this is Special Agent Taylor, we're with the FBI." Martin said automatically and they held up their badges and ID cards.

"Yes hello, please come in and sit down," he indicated the two chairs taking up the only free space in his tiny office. "We were all stunned to hear Stephen is missing. How can we help?"

Danny was more involved in the interview this time, but he still let Martin take the lead. Martin was the primary agent on this case after all. They worked well as team anticipating what the other would ask, knowing what information they might be trying to extract. Martin wasn't prepared for Danny to shut down when the subject of Stephen Parker's late wife came up.

"It was such a tragedy." Jared said sadly. "He was never the same after losing Louisa."

"Do you know how she died?" Martin checked his notes.

"In a car accident" Jared said. "It was a head on collision I believe. She was driving, and he always blamed himself even though the other driver had swerved into their lane." Danny was looking down at his note pad. Martin swore he could see his hands shaking. "He was never the same after that, and poor Amelia, he shut down where she was concerned."

"Excuse me." Danny said quietly and got up. Martin watched stunned as he hurried out. Martin carried on alone, fortunately he was early done.

"Do you think we could see his desk?" Martin asked as he closed his notebook and silently cursed Danny for abandoning him in an interview.

"Of course…" Jared said "But you do realize that any of his case files…"

"We've got a warrant on the way." Martin nodded.

"Good" Jared nodded. "I don't mean to be difficult, I want to help you, I do, but our families won't talk to us if they think we will just hand out their files."

"I understand" Martin smiled as he stood.

They met Danny coming out of the men's room. "Sorry…" he said quietly, "I must have had some bad Chinese last night. It's catching up with me." Martin nodded, but he knew better.

"We're just going to check out Parker's desk." Martin said. Danny nodded and followed them into the crowded open plan office area. There were people at almost every desk. Some of them were staring at Danny and Martin as Jared led them to Parker's desk.

"This is it." Jared said. It was a grey metallic government issued desk, piled with files. Martin thanked him and he left them alone. Martin sat behind the desk and looked it over. Danny stood looking at the desk. In his minds eye he could see Parker sitting at the desk going through his case files. He drew a breath and rubbed his neck to bring himself back to focus on Martin sitting at the desk and searching the files

"Here it is…" he'd found Parker's appointment book. "He had a full week booked." He shook his head. Danny was looking around the office, seeing shadows of his past in the families and kids that were there. Martin was looking at him, waiting for his input.

"Yeah well, this job has a pretty high turn over rate." Danny muttered and started looking through a stack of files. "Here we go, Mikey Cortez… he has an older brother." He showed Martin the file.

"This kid's been in and out of foster homes his whole life." Martin said grimly.

"He was lucky to get Mr. P" they heard a quiet voice. Danny turned startled and found himself looking at a young Hispanic boy of about 13. "You guys are looking for him right?"

"Yeah we are." Danny smiled at the boy. "But sometimes people don't want to be found." He said gently, he felt like he was looking into a mirror showing him his past self.

"You need to find him." The boy said "Something happened to him. Mr. P wouldn't just quit."

"We'll do our best." Martin said to the boy.

"Mr. P wouldn't just quit." The boy said again. "He don't give up on you neither." He said quietly and looked down. "…no matter what you do." He almost whispered.

"What happened between you two?" Danny asked him. "You know people get found by the smallest thing. A detail you might think means nothing… what happened?" the boy was reluctant to speak.

Danny leaned closer to him and in quiet Spanish told the boy whatever was said between them would stay between them. The boy nodded. Martin watched Danny talking to the boy, worry, admiration and eagerness warring in his eyes as Danny nodded at the boy again.

"Mr. P. told me to stay away from Luis, my older brother so long as he was dealing for the "O's"… but he's my brother… he's all I got." The boy looked up at Danny his eyes filled with pain. "He called me. He wanted to hang out. I didn't know he was going to be moving drugs." The boy shook his head. Martin was watching Danny's reactions to the boy's words. Danny's eyes alone showed his true emotions. Martin saw the pain deep with in them, the pain Danny could hide from almost everyone else.

"He said we wuz just going for a ride…" the boy went on "Luis got busted when we wuz at a rest stop in Jersey. The cops didn't know I's with him. I hid in the bathroom and called Mr. P. when they wuz gone…" the boy looked down and shook his head. "Mr. P. drove all the way down to Toms River to pick me up. He never said a word but I know he was disappointed in me… Please you've got to find him… I gotta make it up to him… please… find him."

Danny nodded. "We'll do our best." He said quietly. The boy didn't look convinced. "What's your name?" he asked him.

"Antonio Rivera," he said quietly Martin smiled slightly seeing how Danny connected with the boy.

"I promise, we will do our best to find him Antonio." Danny said with quiet earnestness "but, in the meantime…" he pulled one of his business cards out of his pocket. "If you get into another jam, I want you to call me ok?" the boy took the card. "OK? " Danny asked him again "I'm gonna check up on you, if your stepping outta line I'll come down here and kick your butt myself OK?" he smiled and held out his hand his fingers curled into a loose fist.

"Yeah ok" Antonio smiled and touched knuckles with Danny before walking back over to another caseworker's desk.

"You'd be great at this." Martin said without thinking. Danny gave him a look that said he was crossing the line. "Right the warrant's been delivered." He quickly changed the subject. "We can take Mikey's file and his datebook back to the office. I don't think there's anything else relevant here." Danny didn't wait for him to say anything else. He nodded and headed for the door. Martin picked up the file and datebook and followed him.

They rode in uncomfortable silence back to the office. Martin was worried about Danny. He sat silently in the passenger seat toying with his keys. Martin looked at him. He was rubbing an old pressed penny from Coney Island. "Danny, I'm sorry if I was outta line back there… but you were really good with that kid."

"Yeah well we've got a lot in common." Danny said quietly and stared out of the window.