While Martin and Danny were at the school and DYFS, Sam, along with Special Agent Vivian Johnson, was searching Stephen Parker's house. Vivian was the senior agent on the team below their boss Jack Malone. A short black woman, approaching 40, Vivian had a no-nonsense style about her work. And with a 13 year old son she was also the unofficial den mother of the group.

Both women were wearing latex gloves as they went through Stephen Parker's home. "This guy is incredibly organized." Viv said looking at his files. "He's got records going back to 1980." Sam was looking at the photos on the walls and mantel piece.

"There's not one photo of his daughter here." Sam said to Vivian "or his wife. I'm guessing these have been his foster sons." She indicated photo's of several young boys. "What did you find?" she asked Vivian.

Vivian was looking at an old file from one of the cabinets. The name on it was 'Danny Alvarez'. Vivian smiled at Sam. "Just one of his files, I don't think it's relevant." She quickly tucked the file back into the drawer. Sam nodded and continued to go through the desk; as the agents from tech support came in to take the computer. Vivian kept going through the files. "But this might be."

"What is it?" Sam asked walking over to the desk.

Vivian pulled out a file with newspaper clippings. "They are all about an accident on the Brooklyn Expressway." She flipped through them. "A head on collision between two cars… three people died, a man and woman from one car and the woman driver of the second… The woman was Louisa Parker… it's his wife." Vivian looked at the clippings as Sam moved around the room. Vivian noticed in one the driver of the other car was named as Javier Alvarez. She quietly looked at Danny's file again. As she suspected, his father's name was Javier.

Vivian knew about Danny's troubled past. She knew about his name change as well, he'd left Danny Alvarez behind and made a fresh start as an FBI agent named Danny Taylor. She knew better than anyone, the one person you can't outrun is yourself, a fact Danny often struggled to deal with. She checked to see if Sam was watching her before pulling out Danny's file again. When Sam's back was turned she surreptitiously put the file on "Danny Alvarez" in her folio as well. She'd look at them alone before talking to Danny privately first.

Sam and Vivian moved on to Mikey's room. It was a typical teenaged boy's bedroom complete with posters of bikini clad women on the walls, and a few of various athletes and musicians. "Not much here" Sam said to Vivian as they went through the bureau and nightstand.

Vivian was smiling, "you need to think like a teenaged boy."

"Uhm Viv I've never been a teenaged boy!" Sam grinned.

"Do you wanna try living with one? I'll loan you Reggie, if you like!" Viv laughed. Sam giggled with her. "I love him to bits but he can be really hard work!" Viv shook her head. Together they searched the room as another agent removed the computer. "Here we go." Viv said as she pulled a small duffel bag out of the closet. She set it on the bed and opened it up. "What is this?" she held up a blood stained shirt with a gloved hand. The two women looked at each other.

"Let's get this back to the lab." Sam said quietly.

Viv nodded. "You go on with that, I'll finish up here." She said to Sam, who nodded and went to deal with the evidence. Vivian made sure that she was gone before going back downstairs to the office. She skimmed the house again and searched for anything that might be connected to Danny.

The only thing she found was an old photo of him and Amelia in a box of photos. They both looked to be about 14; Danny might have been a little older. They were standing close together on the pier at Coney Island. Danny had his arm around her and she was holding a stuffed teddy bear. Obviously a prize won at one of the games behind them. Vivian smiled. "He still has that smile." She said to herself. She gathered her things and headed back to the office.

Amelia sat on the floor of her bedroom. She hadn't been to work all week. She couldn't focus on anything. Since she'd left the FBI's offices, she'd spent the day waiting, wondering and worrying. She pulled her "Happy box" out of her closet. It was a small trunk her mother had given her when she was 5. "You can put all of your happy memories in here Mia." Her mother had told her "So whenever you are sad or feeling bad you can open it up and find something to make you feel better."

Amelia had searched through the old photos, and birthday cards, ribbons and notes until she found the photo she was looking for. It was a picture her father had taken of her and Danny Alvarez. In the picture, they were at Coney Island and Danny had just given Amelia a Teddy Bear he won shooting basket balls. She set the picture aside and reached into the box. She pulled out the Teddy Bear. It was well loved but not shabby. She ran her fingers over its face and straightened the faded ribbon bow tied at its neck. She sat curled up hugging the bear. Danny had been a great friend for the short time he was in her life. There had been such a strong bond between them she'd never forgotten him.

In the 11 months he was with them Danny became part of the family. He loved hanging out with Amelia. They'd clicked from the start and had gotten really close. They shared the same wicked sense of humor and became fast friends. Rafi, his older brother, used to tease Danny about his rich girlfriend, when Parker would take him to visit Rafi at Riker's Island. Not that she'd have minded Danny being her boyfriend. They would spend hours talking and they'd confide in each other. They helped each other cope with the losses they'd both had to face. Amelia was sorry to see him move out when Rafi was released.

Danny still came to visit. Sometimes after school he'd surprise Amelia and be waiting for her at the gates to her school or he'd spend the weekend with her and her father. She and Danny used to walk together down Battery Park and stroll along the river. It was their place. They could talk. Danny would open up a little. He'd talk about his mom and how much he missed her. He never talked about how she died. He'd listen to Amelia talk about her mom.

On the fourth anniversary of her mother's death, Amelia was glad that Danny was there. He was really down; Amelia thought that since it was her mother's anniversary, Danny was remembering his parents. She could never have guessed what he was thinking. She sat miserably with him late at night, the pair of them curled up under a blanket in the family room. They'd turned the TV down low and Mr. Parker was upstairs and out cold having downed the better part of a bottle of rum. Amelia opened up and told Danny how her mother had died.

"It was a car wreck." She'd said to him quietly and told him about the wreck. "They say the other driver swerved into their lane. The front seat passengers of that car were both killed." She looked at him, tears welling in her eyes. "I hate driving down the Brooklyn Expressway now." She whispered.

Danny had put an arm around her, she felt him tensing "She was killed in a head on, on the Brooklyn Expressway three years ago today." He repeated. She nodded. He looked like he was ready to be physically sick. They sat together the rest of the night. Amelia dosed off with her head on his shoulder but when she woke up he was gone. He'd taken his things and left without a word.

Danny stopped coming to the house, he stopped seeing her father. Her father had just brushed it aside when she asked about Danny. "I told you not to get too attached." He said it over and over along with "It's your own fault you got yourself hurt." Amelia locked herself and her heart away after that. She put Danny into her happy box. She wondered where he was now and hoped that he was happy. It had been so long since she'd seen him, but she still wondered why he left so abruptly. He never said good bye. That's what stunned her the most. She never heard from him again. She always wondered what had happened to him. She'd tried looking for him but it was as if he'd disappeared. Just like her father and Mikey.

Danny was sitting silently at his desk when Sam came into the office. He was staring at the computer screen. "Come on you piece of crap!" he hit the enter key hard a half dozen times before hitting the side of his flat screen monitor.

"That doesn't help" Sam smiled.

"It does with some things!" he gave a half laugh "I had an old Panasonic TV and the only thing it understood was a good slap upside the picture tube!" He turned his frustration back to his keyboard.

"But not with computers, they're a bit more sensitive… Danny! That's not going to help"

"No but it makes me feel better." Danny grumbled and scowled at the computer again. Sam raised an eyebrow at Martin. He just shrugged and looked worriedly at Danny. They'd been back for over an hour and he'd hardly said more than two words.

"Ok where are we so far?" Vivian asked coming in and taking off her jacket. "How did you guys do at the school and with DYFS?" she asked Martin. They gathered at a large conference table in the middle of the office. "Danny?" Vivian called "Are you joining us?"

"Yeah... coming…" he got up and with another poke at his keyboard he said something impolite in Spanish to his computer and joined the others at the table. He was still subdued. They exchanged worried looks. Danny was usually a bit down after going to DYFS but this was different. Something was really getting to him this time and they could all pick up on it.

They ran through the evidence they had so far. "Stephan Brian Parker and his foster son Michael Anthony Cortez have been missing for at least 6 days." Martin read from his notes. "Parker's daughter Amelia reports the last time she had any contact was Saturday evening when she brought them dinner. She reported nothing unusual about the visit. It's normal for her not to have daily contact with her father. She didn't know that they were missing until she was contacted by Michael's school on Monday. She subsequently reported them to NYPD…"

"A waste of time…" Danny snorted quietly.

"Amen brother." Martin couldn't help but smile. "She waited until this morning to come to us."

"Why did she wait so long?" Sam asked her saccharin smile not masking the cynicism in her voice.

"She claims she didn't think we'd help her." Martin looked at his notes. "After the reception I got at NYPD, I didn't think anyone else would help." Martin read Amelia's words from her statement.

"Didn't she say she saw us in the news?" Sam took the notes from Martin.

"She didn't think we'd consider the case to have a high enough profile to warrant our involvement." Martin took his notes back. "She came to us when she didn't know what else to do. She thought she had nothing else to loose."

"Or she's establishing a plausible alibi." Sam tapped her pen on her notepad.

"You're barking up the wrong tree." Danny said firmly. "Mia didn't do anything to her father. Even if they weren't close, he's still all she has left."

"Mia?" Vivian said quietly to Martin with a raised eyebrow. Sam was too interested in running her own theory to pick up on Danny's extremely familiar reference to Amelia.

"And how do you know that?" Sam asked Danny.

"Because if you let Martin finish you'll find out that Parker's wife died." Danny matched Sam's smile with his own equally cynical one.

"Ok kids, play nice!" Vivian stepped in. "What did you find out about the boy?"

Martin flipped through his notes. "Mikey as they call him, seems to be an average student. He keeps his head down at school, no serious problems there… He does have an older brother, Francis 'Frankie' Cortez, who has a pretty long rap sheet, or so we've been told."

"We've been told?" Vivian looked from Martin to Danny.

Before either of them could answer Danny's computer beeped and several pages printed out "Now you decide to work…" he got up and grumbled at his computer in quiet Spanish. Martin and the others couldn't help but smile. "Here it is." Danny sat back down. "He's been in and out of juvy since he was 11. Petty theft, assault, theft, drugs, gangs… the usual crap." He passed the rap sheet to Martin. "He's currently at Riker's awaiting trial" he said.

"What this time?" Vivian asked.

"Grand theft auto and vehicular homicide" Martin read out. "He stole a car and had a head on with another car, the woman driving it was pronounced at the scene…" he stopped seeing the pen in Danny's hand shaking again. Danny put his pen down and leaned back in his chair his arms crossed.

Sam had stepped back to her desk and punched the accident report number into her computer. "According to the report a kid fitting Mikey's description was seen running from the scene after arguing with Frankie, another Hispanic male and an unidentified older white male…" she read out to them. They all looked at each other, understanding the significance.

"Who called it in?" Vivian asked.

"An unidentified male…" Martin was looking at the report Sam had printed out. "…from a cell."

"We need that 911 tape." Vivian said.

"I'm on it." Sam picked up the phone.

"Have the lab come back with anything on the blood yet?" Vivian asked

"So far only one donor and its Mikey's type..." Sam said "They should have DNA confirmation in a couple hours. They're pulling the 911 tape now."

"How about the financials?" Vivian looked at Martin.

"Not much. He'd made a withdrawal on Saturday morning about a hundred dollars at an ATM near St Cecelia's. That's in keeping with his normal patterns, there's no activity since then."

"…And the car?"

"Are you looking for a '98 silver Mazda?" they all turned to see their boss Jack Malone walking up to the table with some papers in his hand. Martin shot a glance at Danny. He'd stiffened in his seat. Martin didn't like to see it. There was an undercurrent of tension between Danny and Jack. There had been for some time. Something had happened between Jack and Danny while Martin was recovering from being shot on duty. Danny skirted the issue whenever he tried to bring it up and he knew better than to try to talk to Jack about it. He smiled and greeted Jack with the rest of them.

"You're back." Vivian smiled. "We thought you'd be in DC until at least Monday."

"I couldn't take anymore." Jack smiled with his gravely voice. He had been at Quantico on a training course. "When they put these courses together they should try to get someone who's actually been in the field to run them." He shook his head. "Anyway, I was passing tech and the new kid asked me to bring this to the lady in charge."

Vivian took the papers from him with a grin, the others suppressing their own giggles, "He won't make that mistake again." Vivian couldn't help herself. She had to laugh outright when Jack just smiled and shook his head. "They found the car." She read the report. "NYPD had it impounded on Wednesday. It had been abandoned in the parking lot of Big Daddy's Diner. It's being transferred to the garage and our guys will go over it."

"Someone's going to have to talk to Frankie…" Martin said.

"I'll go." Danny was up. "I'll call you if I find anything." He was out of the door before anyone could blink.

"What's up with him?" Jack asked watching Danny hurry out.

Martin shook his head. "He's been rattled since we came back from DYFS."

Jack nodded. "Keep an eye on him."

"You know we will." Vivian said, she was as worried about Danny too. "Why don't I bring you up to speed on what you've missed?" She said to Jack.

"Ok, I need to have a quick work with Van Doren."

"A quick word, there no such thing with you two!" Vivian smiled knowing that a simple chat between Jack and his boss could escalate into world war three in a matter of minutes.

"I'll play nice." Jack smiled. "Meet me in my office in 15?" he looked at his watch.

"Sure thing" Vivian said to him and she watched him walk off knowing she had at least half an hour. "Maybe one of you should go talk to Miss Parker about her mother's death." She looked from Sam to Martin.

"You go." Sam said to Martin. "You know I just can't resist trawling through phone records." She said with another of her trademark saccharin smiles.

"Right!" Martin laughed; "You just don't want to face the cross town traffic!"

"Well that too." Sam picked up the stack of papers and went to her desk.

"Ok, can I talk to you?" Vivian said quietly to Martin. He nodded knowing that it must be important he guessed it was about Danny. He followed her to her desk where she picked up her folio and they walked around to one of the interrogation rooms.

"What's up Viv?" Martin was worried now.

"I hope it's nothing but before you go to see Miss Parker I thought you should know, Danny's parents were killed in the same car wreck that killed her mother." She said to him. Martin had to sit down. He felt like he'd been hit in the gut. Now he understood why Danny was behaving so oddly. The shaking hands whenever the car wreck was mentioned, the strange silences, walking out of an interview, it all made sense now.

"How much do you know about that wreck?" Martin asked Vivian. He'd spoken to Danny a bit about it, but it was in the confines of an AA meeting. He wouldn't betray that confidence for anything.

"A bit, you know he plays his cards close to the vest." She said quietly. "But I found these today. I didn't think they had any real bearing on the case… but… take a look." she gave him the two folders.

"He was one of Parkers foster sons?" Martin looked at Danny's file. "He never said, and neither did Miss Parker."

"She knows him as Danny Alvarez." Vivian pointed to the file. "He ran away from their house. Check the date, it was four years to the day of the accident." She looked at Martin. "Something happened either that day or that evening for him to run. If you read the reports, it was his happiest and most stable foster home. Why did he run?"

"Do I ask Miss Parker?" Martin looked at Vivian.

"No not until we can prove it's directly related to the case." She shook her head. "There's no point upsetting her if we don't have to. Besides, she obviously doesn't know that Danny has changed his name or that he works here. It's not for us to tell her."

"You're right." Martin nodded "I'd better get going." He stood up and handed the folders back to Vivian. She watched him go hoping he'd find out something to help the case, but also something, that might help Danny. She shook her head and went to find Jack to tell him everything that had been going on while he was in Washington.