Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of CSI:NY; they belong to Anthony E. Zuiker and CBS.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Flack wanted nothing more than to haul the man sitting across from him in the interrogation room against the wall and beat him senseless until he gave up what they wanted.

Flack had had years of training in knowing when someone was lying. They would sweat. Their eyes would get wide, and they'd look at anyone but you. They would fidget. They would repeat themselves.

Jack Lewis wasn't lying to him. Either that or he was very good at hiding it.

"Seems there's probably a lot you're good at hiding, Jack," Flack cut into his thoughts. "For instance, you don't seem to be lyin' to me. How about you tell me about your cat?"

Lewis frowned. "W-We don't have a cat. Our building doesn't allow pets."

"What about any relatives? Any of Ryan's friends? Any cat lovers in that bunch?"

"Detective...my wife was beaten senseless. My son is in protective custody. And you're asking me about a nonexistent cat?" Lewis spread his hands wide. "I don't understand."

"Your wife had cat hair on her." Flack watched Lewis's face intently. The news meant absolutely nothing to the man in front of him.

"You think whoever killed her had a cat?" Lewis asked curiously.

"You want to trade jobs?" Flack shot back. "'Cause, see, my job is to ask the questions. Your job is to shut up over there unless you're going to help me out."

"Detective, I didn't kill my wife!"

"Then how about you tell me who did!?"

Lewis was silent. Flack tried to read him-to see if he was going to tell him a tall tale or the whole truth. Then Lewis spoke. "Ben does."

"And who's this, now?"

"Ben Balent. Ben...lives across the street. He and my wife work together down at the supermarket. She's known Ben since they were kids. Ben's buildings allow pets, and Ben's got some kind of long-haired furball."

"So he and your wife got along pretty well?" Flack asked, feeling the water.

Lewis nodded. "Really well." He stopped short.

"How well is really well, Jack?" Flack pressed.

"There were a couple of times...I thought the two of them..." Lewis searched for the right words. "They might have...you know."

Flack rolled his eyes. "C'mon, Jack, what is this, the third grade? They had sex. You're a big boy, you can say it."

"I don't know if they did!" Jack burst out. "But I wondered..."

Great. This just got a helluva lot more complicated than it already was. Suddenly, Don Flack was furious with Adam Ross. The damn tech needed to get the kid to talk, already. Part of him hated himself for thinking it. The part of him that was a damn good detective overrode the other.

Kendall stared at the phone in her hand. Never, not in eight years of med school, not in almost six months with the crime lab, had something confused her as much as the text message she was looking at right now.

Stel's office. 5min. –A

"I don't get you," she muttered to her phone.

Was he finally ready to explain everything? And she did mean everything.

It had stung, what he'd said earlier. The whole "I'm not ready to talk to you" thing. Because she wanted him to be. She had no idea, not exactly, what exactly the two of them were. Were they one night at his apartment six months ago...shameless flirting involving chocolate? Were they only just competitors for points when it came to solving cases?

She was pretty sure they were more. But if they were more...then how come he wouldn't open up to her? He'd quizzed her on her entire life's story in the past six months. And yet all she had gathered about him was that he had his master's degree, he was a complete and utter goofball...and every time she would ask him something about when he was a kid, he would respond, "Later," and dodge the question with utter goofballness.

And then, a little over two months ago...his entire life had stopped. Kendall had been on vacation when it happened. Nobody had called, nobody had said anything. But then...nobody knew about her and Adam. If there was a 'her and Adam.'"

She was so confused. And annoyed. And maybe even a little...

Scared.

She looked at her watch. Two minutes had passed. She stepped out of Trace and directly into Sheldon Hawkes. "Dr. Hawkes!" she gasped. "I'm so sorry."

Hawkes brushed it off with an easygoing smile. "No problem. You in a hurry to get somewhere?"

"Uh..." She wasn't sure how much she should say.

He dropped his voice to a whisper. "It's okay. I got the same message. Do you have any idea what's going on? I know you're pretty close."

Kendall shrugged limply as she tagged along behind Hawkes. Then it occurred to her what he'd just said. Huh. So someone had noticed whatever she and Adam had. She wasn't surprised it was Hawkes. Hawkes always seemed to be in tune with everyone. Maybe if someone else noticed there was something...there was something? She let herself enjoy a half-smile as she walked into Stella's office behind Hawkes...and stopped short in surprise as Danny, Lindsay, Mac and Stella looked up. They were all gathered around Stella's speaker phone.

Kendall heard Lindsay ask Danny, "What's going on?"

He shook his head. "I don't know.

Then the red light on Stella's phone toned she had an interoffice call from Mac's office. She pressed the button and waited.

"Hey kiddo. Wake up for a second."

Adam gently shook Ryan Lewis's shoulder. The boy blinked a few times, then opened his green eyes and rubbed a hand over them. "I was sleeping," he complained.

"I know buddy. But you and I...we need to talk."

"I don' wanna," Ryan said.

Adam smiled shortly. Neither do I. "Okay, then, kiddo. You just listen. I'll talk."

Ryan seemed content by that and adjusted himself so he was leaning against Adam's chest. Adam timidly raised a hand and held it a few inches above the boys' hair, then slowly dropped it so it was resting on top of Ryan's head. The boy didn't move.

"Ryan...when I was a kid..." Adam glanced over at the phone, which he knew was on intercom, broadcasting his call to Stella Bonasera's office. There was no turning back now. "My dad..."

'Dad' seemed to be the buzz word around Ryan. Adam felt the boy tense up. To Adam, that was enough evidence that Jack Lewis was guilty of something. "My dad was kind of a jerk. A bully. He would get mad a lot. He lost his job a few times, and he'd always come home and be really upset."

He felt Ryan's heart pick up pace. The boy's voice was quiet when he said, "Your daddy, too?"

"Yeah. Is your daddy like that sometimes?"

A pause. Then, under Adam's hand, a slow nod.

"Sometimes my dad would get really mad at us for things we didn't even do. He said my mom..." How do I phrase this so he can understand?... "My mom would spend a lot of time at her friend's house. Her friend was a boy. My dad thought maybe she loved him more than she loved my dad."

"My daddy said that once, too," Ryan whispered.

Don Flack charged out of the elevator, collaring a tech on his way by. "Mac Taylor," he groused. Jack Lewis had put him in a mood. It was a good thing he had drinks with Danny after shift tonight. It would calm him down.

The tech pointed. "Some kind of meeting in Detective Bonasera's office," he stuttered out. Flack let the kid go and proceeded down the hall to Stella's office. "That guy Lewis-" he began, but stopped midsentence when he saw the crowd inside. And then he heard what they were listening to.

Adam plopped the boy on his lap as he continued. "My dad...he was a mean guy for a long time. Sometimes..." Adam took a breath. He knew his coworkers suspected what he was about to say, ever since the shoplifter case. "Sometimes my dad would get so mad he would hurt me and my mom." He bit his lip. He looked down, directly into Ryan's sharp green eyes.

"Ryan...does your dad ever hurt you?" Then he waited.

Ryan considered the question. And then, to Adam and everyone else's dismay, he shook his head.

"It's okay, you know," Adam tried. "You can tell us."

Ryan shook his head fervently.

Adam leaned his head back against the couch. Just like in the warehouse that day; he'd hit rock bottom. He'd failed.

Author's Note: I apologize for the delay between updates. Writer's block is killing me. This is not the way I wanted this chapter to end. I have scenarios planned out that it needed to happen this way, but I'm not all that happy with it. I hate leaving Adam like that. And trust me, Flack will not be a happy guy. Hope that doesn't deter you from wanting the next chapter. I will try to get the next one up soon.