Revised September 23, 2008.

--

Two cups of coffee later--or lack of it in her perspective--led them right through the day nonetheless. To her dismay there was no phone call from Dr. Meyers, and although the day was slow it left them to catch up on the growing stack of files that piled up on their desks.

One file after another was sifted through, during the middle of it however her phone finally rang and she quickly pulled it out of her pocket and walked out of earshot from the team.

"Reeves."

All three pairs of eyes shifted with her over to the break room, mostly out of curiosity. Each held questionable glances in some form or another. Colby flipped through another page in the file that he was working on. Don just leaned back in his chair not saying a word, while David shook his head in undeniable frustration.

"Is it just me or is something fishy going on with Reeves?"

Don glanced coarsely in their direction and leaned forward in his chair, his eyebrows raised considerably. "Since when do we wonder?" Colby glanced up first with a wonder of speculation in his eyes before closing the file and sticking it on top of the others.

His eyes flickered from side to side, on whether to disclose the information of which he had seen earlier, only to quickly decide against that since not knowing what the whole cause to her mysterious figure since returning to LA.

"Ever think she might be making a decision?" Don inquired, not looking up.

Colby and David sat up considerably straighter, exchanging a glance. David cut in. "That would make some sort of sense. Although I also remember something about her being considerably upset when she left this building last week. You wouldn't happen to know about that would you?"

Don took in a deep breath, bracing himself as he pushed his chair away from his desk. He really didn't want to talk about last week. Not to mention, embracing the fact that they had seen the whole thing from a distance and were mildly interested on what that meant. They just didn't yet know that whatever her decision was, it either meant that she was staying or that she was leaving. But some how he feels some how they know.

Because despite what they had all been through, whether it was him, David, Colby or her, they were still a team. A family, no matter what. At least deep within, that's what it felt like. Even though everything at the same time, threatened to pull their friendship apart into a darkened hole.

Colby cleared his throat, Don blinked and forced himself to refocus. From a distance he hears Megan's voice and stands up. "Yeah I know everything about last week." He reminded them clearly in a round of authority. "Although I think that is between Megan and whoever else she wants to clue in."

Loyalty. Definite loyalty. In fact Don was half surprised that she had even let him in the slightest degree. The way they had been going at it since she returned from her assignment. It was as if there was a flicker of hope at the end of the tunnel.

Both Colby and David exchanged a glance before Don turned towards his phone that was now going off. "Eppes." He raised the receiver to his ear, his brow furrowing as he looked absently over at them. By his expression they knew that there was another case coming their way, yet not knowing how much this case would change them all in the course of a few days.

While directly getting the information, Megan appeared behind the cubicles as she headed back towards her desk. Although her usual appearance was far from gone, she looked ruffled and had a grim expression of her face, almost like she didn't know what to think. However small the reassurance she was feeling right now as she walked back over, she glided around the corner. Despite it all, it only took one glance for her to counter in their boss' expression, movement, body language--to know that the ashen look on his face was just the beginning of a rising of something deep inside.

Sitting in her chair, she re-pocketed her phone, glancing occasionally up as she straightened items on her desk. All three of them caught words here and there as they listened to the conversation. Little girl. The two words that came up concerning this child that had been stuck in the middle, perhaps kidnapped. Nowhere in sight..broken window. Could have been at the house when her mother was killed. It was enough of a start to begin this case. Or hard enough to realize that one wrong movement could be destroying.

Colby raised his eyebrow, whistling in a low round as he pushed his chair away from his desk, gathering the finished files on his desk and putting them into an empty box. David followed with his own files on his desk and gathered another empty box, placing them in and closing the lid. "This can't be good. Missing child. Murdered woman. Anybody else thinking of a custody battle gone wrong?"

Megan opened a file, fingers sprawled on the edge of the page as her other hand held a pen aimlessly in thought. "Sounds like it. Then again, it could be anything."

David nodded in agreement, sticking the box beside his desk. "As we know without much detail, anything could have happened." He sat back at his desk just as Don closed his phone and clipped it to his belt.

They all glanced up at their boss with some kind of expectancy, to which he answered in a brief grim tone. "Andrea Lucas, found by her neighbor Joanna Burkley around eleven o'clock this morning, with a gunshot to her head. Looks like there was a struggle and it's also possible that whoever was in that house at the time also took Charlee; Andrea's five year old daughter. Time of death for Andrea was put around ten forty-five."

"Anybody in this neighborhood hear anything?" David chimed in, getting the feeling that the information they were receiving would be limited.

Tight lipped, Don leaned back in his chair. "Apparently tight community--although there are those few who aren't and would be willing to give the information." All three of them slowly stood simultaneously, getting ready to head out. "Why don't you and Colby see what you can find out at the crime scene and Megan and I will see if we can find somebody in this tight community that can give us an idea on how this all went down."

--

When David and Colby arrived at the crime scene, an officer lead them over to where a woman in her mid-thirties, hair in a tight ponytail, was leaning against an oak tree. "...Joanna Burkley was the first one to see Andrea, called police from her house." He gestured over at a house with gray siding and a beautiful porch. Not to mention eight pairs of eyes were gazing over in their direction.

"Those her children?" Colby inquired as they continued to walk over to where Joanna Burkley was still standing with a pot of soup sitting beside her on the ground.

The police officer looked back in the direction of the house. "Yeah, they all came trickling out as soon as we got here." All three of them walked the few remaining steps to where Joanna Burkley with tear stained cheeks and almost in shock, had not moved an inch from where she stood. He led them over and then excused himself promptly as Colby and David approached her.

"We're agents Sinclair and Granger, mind telling us what happened?"

She stared quite detached from everything as tears welled up in her eyes. "How can anybody do something like this?" She asked in disgust, tears now rolling down her cheeks. Shaking her head momentarily, she leveled her eyes to theirs for the first time. "Andrea was an amazing person. A single mom who was working on a new life for raising her child. She struggled, really did, so we befriended her a few months ago when her and Charlee moved into the house next door."

"By we, you mean your kids." Colby chimed in, posed to write in his notebook that he had just pulled out of his pocket.

A brief nod, "And my husband. We were always helping her out, even helped watched Charlee most times when she had to go to work. I'm a stay at home mom and Charlee is a year younger than my youngest daughter Mikaela, so they go to the same school."

Both nodded, David went on asking the next question. "How long have Charlee and Andrea been living in this house?"

Joanna shrugged slightly, thinking back. "A few months. It had just been when my oldest Kathryn had started playing indoor soccer in January. Andrea had said that she was from the Los Angeles area but had been separating herself from her husband who was abusive, and wanted to have some order to protect Charlee. She said that he had been in jail and the week before he was suppose to get out, she took Charlee and ran."

"It sounds as if you and Andrea talked a lot about this." David inquired, looking around the crime scene and then at the pot of soup sitting on the ground beside her. "Did at any point while Andrea was living here, did she mention her husband's name"

"I think she mentioned that his name was Antonio. But I couldn't be for sure." Hesitation in her voice, she wiped the tears from her cheeks. "She didn't really like talk to about him. But some times when she would talk about running, she would let things slip."

"Like her husband's name." Colby offered, quickly writing all the information down that could be used later on this case.

"Right," She said quietly, hesitating. "Like her husband's name. I've never met the guy before but just the way she described him some times gave me chills. She told me that she took a new last name for her and Charlee when she moved here."

"New? So then her last name isn't Lucas."

Joanna shook her head, "No, it's not. I'm not sure what it is. Andrea never mentioned that in any of our conversations. She was careful enough not to mention her last name except for the one that she used." Looking out in the distance, she glanced into a new pair of eager eyes and her own eyes got wide. "I don't believe it--" She took a few steps forward just beyond them as Colby and David followed her gaze to the porch.

It took a moment but soon they too followed with surprised glances. Was that who they thought it was? They had searched all over for Charlee, and when they had looked over there just a few minutes ago that little girl hadn't been there.

"Charlee..." Joanna whispered, gazing at them. "That's Charlee. Andrea's little girl, I know that face from anywhere. But I even saw it, they were looking all over or her and nobody could find her. How did she..."

"That's what we're hoping to find out." David echoed her thoughts, stepping by her side. "Mind if we--"

"No go ahead. I should explain to my kids what's going on." She sniffled, walking beside them as they walked back on the other side of the yellow 'do not cross' tape and over to her house where they saw the little girl cautiously retreating back out of view, following her path was what looked like Joanna's oldest daughter.

"So when is the last time you actually talked or saw Andrea?" Colby asked as they got nearer to the house, all at the same time he was watching carefully to the scene that was unfolding as the front door to the house closed.

"Charlee has always been a bit shy. She made friends with Mikaela, actually found her talking to Charlee on the phone this morning, after I went into her room asked if she wanted to come along to take this soup over she declined and went back to talking on the phone. When I asked who she was talking to, she told me that it was Charlee and I asked if I could talk to Andrea for a minute so Charlee went to go get her."

"Do you remember what time that was at?"

"Around ten thirty?" She answered, not quite sure. "Yeah, it was around ten because the kids and I needed to clean the house before we went on vacation tomorrow. We were going to go visit my husband in Texas for a couple weeks. He's been gone for a few months now and won't be back for at least a couple more."

David and Colby nodded. "That was around the same time that Andrea was in a struggle with whoever was in the house." David assessed the timeline that was forming, turned back to Joanna, "We're going to need to talk to Charlee for a few minutes, but we would like to also talk to your daughter as well. It's possibly that if Charlee and your daughter had been talking and depending on how long, it's possible either one could have seen or heard something that could help us."

"They were still talking when I left. I asked my oldest daughter Kathryn to make sure that Mikaela didn't talk for to long since Charlee was sick. But when I got here the door to Andrea's house was unlocked. I knew something was wrong and opened the door to see Andrea slumped against the wall." She visibly shuddered, tears welling up in her eyes again. "I just about dumped the pot of soup by that tree when I was running back to the house." Pointing back to where they came from, they saw the gray pot still sitting there on the ground.