A/N: Thanks so much for all of the wonderful reviews for chapter 1. I hope you enjoy this story even if you're not a Bernard fan. Happy New Year and I hope you all have a wonderful 2013!

Chapter 2

Branching out

2 weeks later

Bernard and Lupo were at knee height in paperwork and their leads seemed to follow by a lot of dead and even more leads to chase up. The Detectives had the feeling that they would be running around in circles for a while.

Bernard stayed at the 2-7 while Lupo visited the DA's office for assistance with a warrant. He wandered down the corridor and saw that Connie was at her desk, he was about to knock at the window but stopped when he realised she was crying. She swiveled around in her chair to reach for a tissue behind her and caught Lupo standing there.

"Oh." She said, then tried to smile and cover up the fact she was hurting, "I... um."

"I'm sorry, is this a bad time, Connie?"

"No. No. It's just... It's nothing"

"I hope you're alright" He gently said as he walked closer.

"I..am.. I will be. What can I help you with Lupes?" she desperately tried to change the subject. She failed to find a tissue box so she sat back down in her chair again.

Lupo pulled out a tissue and gave it to her.

"It's really not important," he began as he pulled the chair from beside her desk and placed it in front of her and sat down. "As long as you're ok, Connie. You know we're here for you if you ever need us." He reminded her.

"Yeah," She said with a friendly smile, "Thanks."

"I was only going to get your opinion on a warrant I was going to request for our current case."

"Ok. How is the case going, by the way?"

"We're a bit lost at the moment, to be honest. And well the only way we can continue on this lead we have is through, this warrant" He reached in his pocket for the draft.

"Right," she seemed intrigued.

"But the problem is, it's something that might push some ethical boundaries." He added

"Uh. I see," she agreed as she kept reading. Lupo noticed that her mascara had smudged under her puffy eyes that she just wiped with the tissue.

"Oh. You've got a little-"

"Hmm?" she took her eyes off the draft. She wiped her eye again after seeing Lupo point to his eye. But she missed it. She looked into the screen of her computer that was asleep and found where the smudge was. "Oh there it is" she lightly laughed. "Thanks. And your warrant seems to be necessary." She concluded.

"Cool. Thanks for checking it over."

"That's my pleasure. So do you really think the Dad could have killed all of those people and the wife didn't even know about it?" she questioned.

"Yeah, it looks that way. And I'm sure she wouldn't have put her son in danger either on purpose. So the paternity test results will tell us if the disease has passed on to the son."

"Hopefully it hasn't" she sighed.

"Fingers crossed" he added

The current case they were working on involved a victim that had rare genetic disorder passed down through the paternal genes only. The only problem was that the father of the victim doesn't seem to have the disorder.

"So. How is Bernard going, you know, with everything?" she carefully asked.

"Well, I think he's going alright. Considering. I mean it's certainly not the best case that could be handed to us, but we're trying to be objective. I definitely think it was a smart move not to keep pestering him about his son."

"Yeah, you're right. I'm sure, if he wants to talk about it, he'll talk about it."

"Yep" he said. He thought about what would happen if he asked her why she was crying.

"What a shame. I really hope he was up for seeing his son. He could go with me to LA next week" she mentioned.

"You're heading to LA?"

"Yeah, next Thursday. I wish it was on better terms of course but, still, it will be nice to go"

"You're not leaving to become the best Deputy District Attorney of Los Angeles County, are you?" He joked.

"Haha, no of course not."

"Oh.. I'm sorry... is it 'DA Rubirosa', now?" He continued

They both laughed.

"No, actually, it's for family" she corrected him changing the tone to a serious one.

"Oh." He said settling down.

"My Step-dad passed away. I just found out today. That's why you saw me crying before" she said sadly.

"Connie. I'm really sorry to hear that."

"Thank you. It's ok though. We at least knew it was coming. He was sick for while."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"What about your Mum, is she going ok?" He asked

"Yes, I'm looking forward to visiting her. I sure know she could use the company now. My sister moved out a while ago and I don't want her to be too alone. You know?

"Yeah. You're doing the right thing. She's lucky to have you."

Compton

Los Angeles

"Boys! Dinner! " A woman called from the house to the father and son playing basketball out in the yard.

"Just a sec mum! I'm winning," the boy replied.

"Winning can wait, I'm hungry!" the dad said as he raced his son inside. "Beat you there!"

"Oh no you won't" The boy laughed as he elbowed him out of the way.

"Settle down, settle down. There's no racing when it comes to food. Take you're time would you!" the mum smiled as she grabbed the plates ready to serve them.

"Who's saying grace tonight?"

"It's my turn to night," the dad said.

"Thank you Lord for the meal which we are about to receive," he began, "thank you for the beautiful chef Bethany that made it," he peaked one eye open at his wife and she was smirking back at him. "Thank you for my son, the champ with the killer right hook who's going to make it big in the NBA," he continued, the son let out a light giggle. "And thank you for our health, our house and everything you have blessed us with. And thank you for keeping me safe every day on the job. Amen"

"Amen," The others replied.

The three did well to leave no scraps at the end and not long after, Ray J was ready to build his winning streak against his father.

"Raymond?" Bethany asked.

"Yeah?" her husband replied.

"Be careful, we don't want you getting any more injuries" she said.

"Yes, dear. I know. I'll be careful," He smiled and kissed her before he ran out the door again.

They were both too focused on the game of basketball to notice that someone was sitting in a parked car down the street spying on them.