Chapter Seven:
Rachael walked into the precinct with Don by her side to be met with the very stony face of Mac Taylor. The nervousness began to rise as she was lead past the desks in the bull ring, feeling the stares and hearing the whispers passing between the officers who filled the room, she noticed the familiar face of Jessica Angell as they passed her desk Rachael glanced over in her direction and felt the knots tighten in her stomach as Jessica gave her an uneasy smile.
At the very furthest end of the room stood Mac Taylor; all business. They walked completely in silence, with Rachael feeling astoundingly vulnerable. She had never, in all her twenty-seven years, been as exposed as she felt right at that moment. Flack glanced down at her, compelled to take her and pull her into his arms. And then he stopped, and checked himself. He was after all, most importantly, a detective. He had to be professional about all this.
Don opened the door to one of the interrogation rooms at the back of the precinct and let Mac and Rachael inside before stepping in himself and closing the door behind. Mac's look never faulted, as he signaled for Rachael to sit opposite the seat he had placed himself in.
Not knowing what was going on, Rachael felt sick. She sat, just as Mac had instructed, waiting to be informed of the situation, completely unaware to the onslaught she was about to receive.
"Why didn't you tell us that you spoke to Lucas last night?" Mac questioned, trying his best to stay calm. He liked Rachael, everyone did; she was great at her job, one of the best in his lab and was beginning to fit in well with the rest of the team. He had even noticed the friendship that was forming between her and Stella. It was hard not to like her and seeing her so vulnerable earlier in the day when she had seen her brother come to his death on the video footage, his heart went out to her. But now, feeling deceived, he was struggling not to lose his patience with her.
Rachael frowned; she wasn't sure where this was going and what it had to do with Lucas's death. "I don't know why that's important."
Feeling the heat rise through his body, Mac raised his voice very slightly, but spoke evenly and calmly. "How is it not important Rachael? I checked his phone records; you were the last person he spoke to. For over three minutes, right before he walked into that alleyway. Right before he died."
She had flinched at the tone in Mac's voice and was completely shocked at what she had felt Mac had been insinuating. They thought she had something to do with this. Looking over to Don who was stood out of the way at the back of the room, she was met with a sympathetic smile.
She cleared her throat and composed herself. "What are you trying to say, Mac?"
"I'm trying to say that I want to know what's going on. Did you have something to do with this?" The scary thing about a pissed off Mac Taylor was that his voice never once wavered, he just stayed entirely calm. He was frowning, leaning over the table.
Don stepped forward as Rachael felt the tears welling in her eyes. "Come on, Mac, we should-" He began to speak only to be cut off by Rachael.
"He...he called me last night, saying he was in trouble." Both of the other occupants in the room fell completely silent as they listened intently to Rachael speak of the previous night's events.
XOXOXOX
(Flashback)
The conversation with her mother had drained the last bit of energy that Rachael had in her body. The shopping with Stella had been great fun and she'd decided to treat herself to a few nice items for her apartment, a huge vase which she had put on her kitchen table along with a few other bits to add some life to the dull rooms. She was putting her own stamp on the place. She still couldn't quite believe how Stella had talked her into buying a gorgeous little black dress, even though she didn't really need it and would probably never wear it.
Even though she was exhausted, Rachael decided to unpack the last few remaining boxes full of the belongings she had transported from Miami. Pulling out things she thought that she'd decided not to pack Rachael sighed, realising as she glanced around the room it looked even more of a mess that it did before she decided to take a break.
Rachael couldn't help but think about what her mother had said over the phone. Lucas. She'd had just about enough of his ridiculous antics, and he was supposed to be the older of the two. Well, he certainly didn't act like it.
She had been more than surprised when he'd turned up on her doorstep in Miami eighteen months ago. Why hadn't she just turned him away when he said he needed her help, again? At the end of it all, he was still her brother. She couldn't just not help him. But when he had her bailing him out on a regular basis, putting her job on the line, things began to look a little different.
It had been hard enough to gel with the team as it was when she'd arrived and then with them beginning to question her she had felt shut off completely from her friends.
And then there was the final straw, he'd somehow gotten her involved with his misdoings; and she'd had to rely on Horatio Caine and the team to help out. Something that she hadn't taken to kindly to doing. She knew that H had been disappointed; not with her but with the entire situation.
Horatio knew, and so did Rachael; that she couldn't be in Miami any longer. It wasn't safe, the gangs that Lucas had been involved with were in jail but they had too many contacts to keep her out of danger. There was no other option but to move, and Horatio knew that without disclosing anything about what had happened, Rachael would be safe in New York, so he had arranged the transfer without a hitch and no-one would question why she was moving.
Lucas on the other hand, he had done another of his disappearing acts. No sign of him since, just an unusual feeling of calm. And here she was; her new home, New York.
Pulled out of her thoughts by her cell phone ringing, she glanced at her phone, not recognising the number. She frowned and glanced at the clock; 11:38. She vaguely wondered who would be calling her at such an hour. Answering with a simple and bright "Hello?" she wasn't prepared to hear the voice on the other end.
"Rachael? It's Luc. I, um, I really need your help."
"Lucas? What are you doing? Why are you calling me?" Rachael was too angry to stay stunned for long. She couldn't – and wouldn't - handle this, not again.
"Please, Rach, I need your help." Lucas pleaded with her, knowing it was a long shot. He'd put her through enough already, but this time, it was much worse. "I know, I shouldn't have called you, but...I'm in trouble. Rachael, its bad; I...I don't know what else to do...you always know what to do, Rach. Please, I have no one else to turn to."
"No, Lucas, No. I...I can't do this, not again." She held her breath, she had to do what was best for her, for once; "I'm sorry, but I can't. You sort this out yourself this time." Pulling the phone away from her ear she flipped it shut, effectively ending the call. Sliding down the wall which she had leant on for support, she held the phone in her hands, shaking. She felt the sobs escape her lips and warm tears fall down her cheeks.
What had she done...?
XOXOXOX
Rubbing his face with his hand, Mac took in all of what Rachael had just told him. Well, at least now he had some indication as to why Horatio Caine insisted that he took her on in his lab. But this matter wasn't concluded; he needed to know the full extent of what had happened in Miami. Right now finding out who killed Lucas was his priority.
Looking across at the broken lab tech sat across from him, he knew that he'd been harsh on her. But the evidence took him to her and now after hearing her side of the story he realised that he had been taken in the wrong direction. "Okay, you should have come to me with this right away, Rachael."
"This is my fault. If only I'd helped him, maybe he'd still be okay." Rachael felt the tears, but she ignored them.
"And maybe if you had helped him, it would have been you down there in the morgue."
A light tap at the door caught their attention, looking over they saw Adam Ross stood awkwardly at the door, only entering when instructed to. "Um...boss? You need to see this..."
Mac stood from his seat and nodded to Adam, before turning back to Rachael with a weak smile. "You know you can't be anywhere near this case. I don't want anything compromised. I need you to take some time, let us figure out who did this."
Rachael sighed and nodded very quietly. "Thanks, Mac."
He disappeared from the room with a nod and headed towards the lab with Adam.
Using the table to support herself, Rachael edged her way out of the seat she had been hunched uncomfortably in. Feeling the weight on her shoulders lifting slightly, she took a moment to compose herself before she left the room. She knew she looked like crap. She'd been crying for some time so there was no doubt that her eyes were all red and puffy and probably had streaks of mascara down her cheeks, but there wasn't much she could do about that right now.
She also knew Mac was right and what she needed was to go home, have a nice hot bath and try to get some sleep though she knew that could prove to be difficult.
Don stepped forward from his space beside the glass window and held the door open for Rachael to leave; when she looked up at him, he gave her a small warming smile. "You gonna be alright?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine." Giving him an unconvincing smile in return, she walked straight ahead of him, this time unfazed by the crowd in the precinct. "I always am."
XOXOXOX
Mary A/N: Hello there, Readers! Dunno about Nikki, but I love this chapter! The Flack part just gets to me. Anywho, thanks again for the alerts/reviews and whatnot, we really appreciate it :)
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Nikki A/N: Hi everyone, so here is chapter 7!! I have to agree with M I do also really like this chapter too so I hope you've all enjoyed reading it! I just really wanted to do Flack being good cop and Mac being bad cop, so I hope it worked and you thought it worked okay too!! Once again thank you so, so much for the reviews, adds and alerts! And pretty please, keep them coming!