A/N: Thanks for the reviews! You guys are all awesome. Hope you enjoy this chapter! -Jess

Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own it.

Chapter Five

Later That Day...

It had been a long and grueling day- of course, being a cop meant Flack's days could almost always be described the same way- but through it all, his brief encounter with Casey kept running through his mind- along with about a thousand memories from the years she'd practically been another little sister to him. Though he'd only spent a few minutes with her that afternoon, it had been easy to see the changes in her- not just the physical ones, but she'd seemed... different. The way she held herself, for one thing- she was more confident than she had been as a kid. She'd hugged him right off- that wasn't something the Casey he'd know would have done, even if she had been glad to see him. That Casey would have hung back, maybe given him a shy smile, and waited for him to make the first move, waited for a sign that he was just as happy to see her. And the fact that she'd hugged Danny? Casey never would have done that before- the man was an absolute stranger to her. It wouldn't have mattered that he knew Danny, or that Adam knew him- Adam could have told her a hundred stories about Danny, made it so that she felt like she knew the man when she met him, and she still wouldn't have done something like that.

He was a cop, though- and a damned good one at that- and was trained to notice the things that weren't so close to the surface. Had Casey changed? Definitely. But there were still lingering traces of the little girl she'd been eleven years before- the shadows in her eyes that told of pain she tried to hide, the first moment she'd realized it was him and the fear that had flitted across her features. He knew her well enough, he thought, even after so many years, to know that it hadn't been him she'd been afraid of. If he knew anything at all about Casey, it was that the only thing fearless little Casey was afraid was rejection. And the moment after that fear had flashed in her eyes, only to be replaced with genuine happiness at seeing him again, he'd felt his chest swell with pride for her- she'd pushed her fear aside. She may not have gotten past it- he doubted that she ever truly would, though he hated to think that- but she was brave enough now that it didn't hold her back the way it had in the past.

He didn't realize how wrapped up in his own thoughts he'd become until he heard Danny snickering behind his back. Flack's dark head popped up and he realized that, though his gaze had been directed at the mug he'd been filling with coffee, he hadn't been paying any attention to what he was doing- as evidenced by the fact that the dark liquid was dripping from the counter and forming a puddle at his feet. "Damn it!" he swore, glaring first at the mess and then at Danny, who'd plopped himself into a chair at the break room's table with a smirk. "Shut it, Messer," he growled and his eyes held an unspoken warning.

Danny shook his head and fought the urge to laugh outright at the look on his friend's face. "Somethin' on you're mind, Flack? Or maybe someone?" he asked, the hint of a smile curling his lips, despite the look Flack was giving him.

From behind Danny, in the doorway, Adam cleared his throat. He'd entered the room- or, rather paused just short of actually stepping across the threshold- mere seconds after Danny. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out exactly what- or as Danny had so accurately pointed out, who- was on Flack's mind. And when both detectives turned their heads to face him- with Flack looking like he wanted to spend a couple of hours in an interrogation room with him, grilling him about everything he knew about Casey- he wondered briefly if he should have just kept silent and walked away. But he wasn't afraid of Don Flack- well, he wasn't terrified of the man, at least- and he knew the other man was just curious about his old friend.

"She talks about you a lot," he said, his words as quickly spoken as ever. He had a habit of talking fast anytime he was nervous or uncomfortable- and he found, much to his consternation, that he was both around Flack and Danny more often than not.

Flack's eyebrows shot up at Adam's statement, and he wondered how it could possibly be that Casey had talked about him, but Adam had never thought to get them in the same room together before- or even mentioned knowing Casey, for that matter.

The look on his face must have asked the question for him because Adam hurried to add, "She never said your last name- or, at least, if she did, I didn't catch it. And she always called you Donnie, never just Don- I never once even thought that you might be the same guy."

"Pull up a chair, Ross," Flack instructed, waving an arm in the direction of the one beside Danny. "It's been a long time since I've seen Casey; she's changed a lot. You two seem to be pretty close, maybe you could answer a couple of questions for me."

Adam nodded and said, "I'll tell you whatever you want to know about her, Flack, as long as I'm sure it's something Casey wouldn't mind you knowing."

At that statement, Flack offered a small smile- unspoken acknowledgment that Casey had found herself a good friend. "Good enough for me," he said before continuing on. "She's a lot more confident than she used to be- that's a good thing. Makes me think that maybe her grandparents weren't as horrible as I figured they'd be."

Adam didn't bother to hide his grimace at the mention of his best friend's grandparents. He'd only met them once, but those two hours he'd spent in their presence had been more than enough to last him a lifetime. "I don't think so," he admitted. "They treat her like dirt anytime they see her- and she's told me a little bit about when she lived with them. As cruel as they are now, they were worse when she was living under their roof," he told Flack, recalling some of the things Casey had told him. "She doesn't like to talk about it, so I don't really know very much- but I can fill in the blanks."

Flack's eyes narrowed at the explanation. "How bad?" he demanded, though he didn't raise his voice.

Adam gulped and wondered if Flack might actually fly off the handle. He'd heard from Casey how over-protective of her and Sam he'd been as a kid, had seen it first-hand with Sam on a couple of occasions. He doubted that Flack's desire to protect Casey could have gone away, especially given the way he was acting now. "You know how bad it was before, right? Of course you do; you lived next-door to her," he said, mostly to himself. "It was... about like that, except worse- way worse. Her dad, he'd hit her sometimes- with her grandfather, it was pretty much daily. And her grandmother was almost worse, with her constant criticism. Casey wished she'd never been born. They- her grandparents and her mother- told her how much better off they'd all be without her in their lives. They told her... they told her they wished she was dead." And then, in a voice Flack and Danny both had to strain to hear, "She believed them."

Flack had felt his blood pressure steadily rising as Adam spoke- and by the time he'd reached what Flack and Danny had both thought was the end, when he'd said that her grandparents- her grandparents and her own mother, for crying out loud!- had told Casey they'd wished was dead, he'd been seeing red. And when Adam had whispered that she'd actually believed them, he knew that if he looked in a mirror at that moment, he would see that he'd turned as white as the lab coat Adam was wearing.

One look at Flack's face, and Adam knew the other man had not only heard his softly-spoken admission, he'd read between the lines and understood what it truly meant. Danny's face told him the same thing and, though he could see the anger written across Danny's features that anyone could push a teenager into believing she was so worthless that she should just die, mostly what he saw was concern for his friend- for how Flack was taking the news.

"After she got out of the hospital, she moved in with a friend- Megan Wheeler. She was seventeen; Meg was eighteen. Her parents were really wealthy, had given her condo for her birthday. And they didn't care if she had a roommate- Casey's family certainly didn't care that she'd moved out. She stayed with Meg until college, then she went to NYU, where she was roommates with Rachael." He didn't remind them that Rachael was his sister; he didn't want to answer any questions about his own past right then. "I met her their last year, a few weeks before they graduated. We hit it off, and we've been friends ever since." He noted with a sigh that the look in Flack's eyes- like he wanted five minutes alone with Casey's grandparents and her mother- hadn't lessened any, and added, "Meg, Rae, and Casey- they're like sisters. They look out for each other. They all have their own horror stories to tell about their childhoods- some are worse than others- and it... it brought them together. They look out for each other- they have ever since they became friends, and they will until the day they die. It's not great, but at least for the past seven years, Casey's had a family who'd move Heaven and Earth for her- and so have I." He wasn't sure what prompted him to add the last bit, about himself- he'd just gotten carried away, he supposed.

Flack nodded and stood up. He surprised Adam by clapping him on the shoulder and saying, "I owe you- and them- for that, then."

He was just about out the door, on his way to go call Casey and find out where he could meet her to talk, when Adam turned and called out, "Hey, Flack." Only when Flack turned around and looked at him did Adam continue. "You know how you said she's more confident than you remember?" At Flack's nod, he went on with a smile. "She says that's thanks to you- thanks to what you told her when she was a kid." He watched as recognition flashed in Flack's eyes before the detective gave a small nod and headed out the door.

"What'd he tell her?" Danny was curious to know, and Adam saw no harm in answering.

"He told her she wasn't a mistake, and not to ever let anyone make her think she was." When Danny raised an eyebrow, Adam added, "Well, she did let them make her think she was a mistake- as you heard- but, when she was in the hospital, she told me that she'd lay in bed and repeat those words to herself over and over again until, one day, she believed them. Even now, when they try they're hardest, her grandparents and her mother- they can't make her think that way again." Adam's gaze fell to the floor for a moment before lifted his head and met Danny's gaze, adding in a hushed tone, "He saved her life, Danny, whether he ever knows it or not- Casey's alive today because of him."

Danny's eyes went thoughtfully to the doorway Flack had stepped through only moments before and wondered what that revelation might do to his friend if he ever found out.