Revised on September 29, 2008
"She likes to play in here. And my second guess would be that she's hiding behind this couch." Joana's sixteen year old daughter led them into a fairly large living room area and crossed the room swiftly, peering behind the couch before stepping aside. Softly she gestured to them that she was in there.
Colby knelt to her level, surrendering to let her know that she safe. "Charlee, my name is Colby and my partner David. We're police officers." He identified the two of them "Charlee are you hurt?"
Charlee shook her head abruptly, eyes widening. "No."
David knelt beside Colby on the ground. Kathryn heard her name being called upstairs and she left the two to talk to Charlee. "How old are you Charlee?"
She hesitated, holding up her hand, five fingers uncurling from the tight fist she had made. "Five." She mumbled, knees tightly up against her chest. Arms wrapped around her knees, she rocked slightly. Her face suddenly scrunched up as if she had just remembered. "Mommy? Not. here." Her brown eyes scurried around as far as they could go. Both Colby and David exchanged glances as the little girl buried her face.
"Charlee, we need your help." David put in one last attempt to try to coax her out of her place behind the couch. The way her small body was situated, looked uncomfortable and there was little room to move around.
It took a moment before she propped her chin on top of her knees and gazed up at him quizzically. "Help?"
David nodded back promptly. "That's right. We need your help to figure out what happened today." Immediately Charlee's body began to shake as she recoiled back even further shifting so her left shoulder was now touching the green couch, while her right was just grazing the wall.
"No. No. Nooooo. No." Charlee chanted quietly, rocking to comfort herself.
David stood up knowing that he was probably not going to get any further and exchanged a glance with Colby, thinking of his own inspiration. Colby however got to a conclusion before he did. "David, call Megan." He gestured over to him as David pulled his phone out from it's place on his hip and walked out of earshot.
Flipping open the phone, his finger quickly pushed the speed dial button and placed the receiver up to his ear. All the while, Charlee was gazing up at them curiosity slightly peaked to who Megan was.
"Reeves."
"Hey Megan, we found the little girl sitting on the porch of the neighbor who originally found Andrea. We're trying to get Charlee out from behind the couch but she seems pretty spooked and could end up being our main lead on this case."
"If we can place her in that house at the same time her mother was being shot, it's most possible that she saw it happen and might be able to fill in some of the blanks."
"Well that shouldn't be too hard. We already know from the next neighbor that her daughter and Charlee were talking on the phone just around the time that Andrea was upstairs being shot. We'll go take a look around the house and talk to the neighbor's daughter, Mikayla, as soon as we take Charlee to the hospital and then back over at the office. She might be more wiling to open up and talk to you than any of us."
"Don and I will be heading back soon, we're not getting much from any one of the neighbors. They're either not willing to open up, or they're not there. But why don't you put Charlee on and I'll see what I can do."
David nodded silently and walked back across the room, gesturing over to Colby as he covered the receiver with his hand before handing the phone over to Charlee. "I have somebody that wants to talk to you."
Her little lips pursed hesitantly as she put the phone up to her ear. She took a couple breaths before working up the courage to talk. "Hello?"
"Hi Charlee, my name is Megan. I hear that you're pretty scared right now--can you tell me what you're afraid of?"
Shrugging Charlee looked up carefully at them, inquiring in a quiet voice. "Where is my mommy? She okay?"
Megan formulated an answer between the fact that either Charlee had seen what had happened but didn't know whether her mommy was okay, or somehow she knew that her mother was now dead. "No, Charlee. I'm afraid your mommy is not okay."
Charlee took in two sobbing breaths as she tried to keep it together. "No? Where...is she? I want her." She ended sadly, sniffling and almost in tears.
"I know that you miss her, but right now we need to figure out what happened. And we need your help. Think you can do that for us?"
Rubbing the tears from her eyes, Charlee nodded. "I guess. Are you a officer?""
"I am. Do you know why I would want to talk to you?"
"Cause' you want to help? You find bad people?"
"I sure do. And so do my friends. The two people that are standing beside you are David and Colby. I need you to trust me and go with them, they're going to make sure that you're not hurt. I also hear that you've been sick and we're going to make sure that you're okay."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that If you go with my friends and make sure that you're okay, then you can come and visit."
"Promise?"
"I promise Charlee."
--
"David and Colby found Charlee standing on the porch of the neighbor's front steps. They're going to take her to the hospital to get checked out and make sure that she's not hurt and then they'll bring her back to the office and see what else we can find out."
"Have to admit. You were pretty good just now." He nodded, offering as they made their way back over to the car, both stepping in and buckling their seat belts. Slipping the key into the ignition he started the car and backed out of their parking space. "I can see why now you're considering motherhood."
"Really, it's been an on and off again moment." Megan admitted, "There were times where I never thought that I could get this close again; to finding someone to spend my life with."
"So you and Larry thinking about the next step?"
She smiled genuinely. "Actually he proposed to me last week." Turning her gaze to the window, her chin rested in the palm of her hand, then let her hands rest in her lap. "In the middle of the airport as he was about to board the plane. I would have loved to truly see the expression on my face when he proposed because I really wasn't expecting him to do it for at least another few months.
Don smiled, glancing down at her left ring finger, teasing briefly as he focused back on the road. "This is definitely one large leap for Fleinhardt. I mean he's taking my girl and running."
"Your girl? Now that I was never aware of." She raised her eyebrows, rolling her eyes teasingly back towards the window as she took in the passing scenery. "Really, have you ever considered getting your own girl?"
"I'm sure my father would be thrilled nonetheless if one of his son's at least settled. He's been hinting about grandchildren for at least the last decade of both mine and Charlie's lives. I would have thought eventually that he would get the point and stop asking."
"Ah, I don't think that's going to happen until you stop bringing home the girls and start showing him that you're serious about at least finding somebody to spend your life with."
"Yeah at least he'll be proud of one of his kids. Although you're not biologically inclined to be his, I know how much he cares about everybody on the team and would proud to know that at least one of us are moving forward." He half teased, while making a turn onto the highway.
Megan glanced over at the car beside them. "You know that he's be proud of you no matter what. At least you knew that he was proud for what you accomplished. He may not have liked some of your decisions but at least he respected what you were doing."
He glanced back towards the road, everything silent between them. "So besides getting engaged, everything worked out between you and your father?"
"Maybe as good as it'll ever be. I went back to New York, my father and I talked for the first time in ten years."
"Well that's definitely a start." Agreeing, they were back into familiar territory and etching closer towards their office building.
"So that dinner on Wednesday, what's on the menu?"
The corner of his lips etched in tight amusement as he shook his head, "I have no idea. I just know that Charlie is getting nowhere near the oven this time around, so we're definitely not having pancakes for dinner."
Megan smiled as they pulled into the office parking lot. As they were getting out she called back. "Good to know. Just make sure your father sticks with the cider for the celebration." Pulling to a stop, Don pulled the keys out of the ignition and sat back in his seat.
"Wait, cider? What am I missing here? I mean when does a person not drink champagne when there's a celebration?"
Stepping around the corner of the car, she waited to answer until they were walking side by side back to the office. "When that person finds herself expecting a child and would do anything to not to mess it up, even if either parent is not exactly ready to become a mother or a father. Larry and I, we've got a lot to talk about. I've been thinking a lot about it and I feel even if I haven't gotten use to the fact that I've been given another chance to carry another child inside of me, I can't help wondering this time if everything's going to work out."