Twenty minutes later, Steve and Elisabeth entered the hospital together, walking right to the information desk, both flashing their badges at the elderly woman sitting behind the desk. She was wearing white scrubs and her hair was pinned back in a to tight bun that pulled her face a little to tight.

"How can I help you?"

"I need to find out some information on a Luce Maris."

"Let me see." The elderly woman typed something on her computer, running her finger down the screen. "Ah, yes, Ms. Maris is in surgery right now. You should be able to talk to her when she comes out of recovery."

Glancing at each other, they both knew that Luce must have been worse off that anyone thought. They hoped she made it through.

"When will that be?" Elisabeth curiously asked.

"That all depends on her surgery." The woman had replied.

"Here's my card." Steve pulled a card out of his back pocket and handed it to the elderly woman. "When she wakes up, have her give me a call, I need to talk to her about the attack."

"Sure no problem!" The elderly woman nodded. "I will pass it along to the doctors."

"Thank you!" Steve smiled, then he turned to face Elisabeth, "Let's head on over to...the crime scenes."

Taking a deep breath, Elisabeth nodded. She wasn't sure if she was ready to see her sister's dead body, but she knew she had to. It was going to be one of the hardest things she was ever going to have to go through. She was glad she had a friend in Steve! Together, they left the hospital.

***
It didn't take long for Steve and Elisabeth to arrive at the apartment complex. As they walked into the apartment, it was total chaos! The furniture was upturned, pictures knocked off the wall and the TV scattered in pieces on the floor.

There in the center of the room was Sera in a puddle of blood. She'd been beaten so badly that she was almost recognizable – her face black and blue, swollen, marred with cuts along her nose and cheek bones, but that wasn't what caused her to die. There was a cord wrapped around her neck. It looked as though Sera was strangled.

While Kono was taking pictures of the crime scene, Danny was talking to one of the police offers who'd arrived on the scene first, and Chin was gathering evidence while he was kneeling next to the body.

"Hey!" Chin glanced up at Steve and Elisabeth, solemn expression on his face.

"Got anything?" Steve finally asked.

"Nope! Not much in either apartment -whoever did this, was good, covered their tracks." Chin replied as he unwound the cord around Sera's neck carefully and placed in an evidence bag. As he placed the bag away from the body, he noticed marks on her hands, and he gently picked up her hands, looking closely. "She's got defensive wounds."

When Kono snapped a picture, she noticed a foot print in the blood. It didn't appear to be any other police officers or one of their shoes, and she quickly took a picture. "Got something."

Chin leaned over carefully and looked at the foot print. "How did we miss that?" He glanced up at his cousin.

Kono shrugged her shoulders. It was turning into a crazy night. It was pure luck that none of their guys stepped in the blood. "Check her nails...looks like blood..maybe there's some skin..."

Reaching for a pair of tweezers, Chin pulled out the contents out of the finger nail. Kono handed him a little baggy, and he put the sample into it, setting it aside.

While all this was going on, Elisabeth kept staring at the body and all the blood. As a cop, she should be used to this kind of a scene, but this was different. This was personal. This was her sister. Finally, she had to tear her eyes away and looked away, realizing that it was not going to be the same again! Her sister was really gone!

A few years ago, Elisabeth and Sera's great aunt passed and left them her apartment. The sisters were having a tough time and this blessing couldn't have come at a better time. There really wasn't much for them to do but move it. Everything was left for them. As soon as they seen it, they both fell in love with it because it was totally them. Every minute they shared together was memories that Elisabeth would never forget.

Suddenly, the images of her own beating hit her like a ton of bricks and Elisabeth closed her eyes, trying to push them away, but something about her sister's beating reminding her so much of that time. "NO!" Elisabeth whispered when she came to a realization hit her. "No, it can't be! It can't him!" Would Wofat even think to come back here and stir up the past? No he wouldn't be that stupid. It had to be Alec, he's the only one Sera would have let in.

Glancing over at Elisabeth, Steve realized that this was not the best place to bring her. He wanted her away from this place and somewhere safe. "Why don't we go out into the hallway for a few minutes." He held out his hand to her.

Elisabeth nodded and took Steve, and he led out into the hallway. He stopped, then turned to look at her, intending to see how she was no, he ended up looking deeply into her eyes. The pain was more than he could bear, but he didn't look away. It was in that moment, he realized that she didn't need to be on this case. It would tear her apart. "I want you to sit back on this case – let us take of it – okay?"

"What?" Elisabeth's voice broke, shocked. She very much wanted to be apart of this case. Why was he trying to take her off of it? It was her sister, dammit!

"I know how much you want to get this guy, but you're to close to this. I need you to step back. I need you...safe! I...I can't lose you." It was very difficult for Steve to admit his feelings, hell it was difficult anytime he revealed his feelings. He glanced over his over Sera's body, instead of seeing the pain Elisabeth's eyes.

It was eerily quiet and Elisabeth was worrying about him. What was wrong with him? "Steve?" She touched his cheek and turned him to face her. "Hey!" She said softly. "Is everything okay?" Now she was the one taking care of him.

Instead of seeing Sera on the floor, Steve had pictured Elisabeth on the floor, dead, and it scared him even more than he realized. He blinked a few times and looked into her eyes, he wasn't going to let that happen to her, let alone anyone else! "You're to important to this team to lose." Where did that come from?

What? He just confessed how he feels about me and then spaced out and now he tells me I'm important to the team? What the hell? Elisabeth looked up at Steve confused.

There was to much on the line for all of them if Steve and Elisabeth would get together. It was best that they remained friends and co-workers. At least that's what he was telling himself anyway.

For the longest moment, they did not speak, only stared at each other, their eyes speaking loud and clear!

Unbeknownst to them, Danny had been watching from the doorway, but he nervously he cleared his throat, letting them know he was watching, though not intentionally. "Umm," he said a moment later, knowing he interrupted something personal. "Excuse me. They're getting ready to take the body, I mean, Elisabeth's sister." He gave Elisabeth a small smile.

Letting go of her hand, Steve turned to glance at his partner, and took a deep breath, pushing his feelings aside. He couldn't think of anything else and knew he had to focus on the case "Right!" He nodded. "Update me on everything that happened when you arrived."

"When HPD arrived, it didn't look like forced entry. Who ever the murderer was, the victim knew him."

"What was the boyfriend's name?" Steve turned towards Elisabeth.

It took Elisabeth a moment to recover. All those feelings rushed back at her. Forcing herself to speak, she replied, "Alec Combs."

"Danny bring him in and check on if there were similar cases in the area in the last few weeks."

"On it!" Danny took off down the hallway.

The morgue attendants rolled the body out of the apartment. Elisabeth and Steve stepped aside and watched as her sister disappeared down the hallway. The feeling of loss hit Elisabeth once again and she started crying. Steve threw his caution to the wind, wrapping his arms around her, letting her cry into his chest. Through all the confusion, Elisabeth did not pull away, she needed comfort, and she needed him!

"I am sorry for your loss." Max had said his short, clipped, tone.

Elisabeth stepped back, nodding, with a small smile. "Thank you, Max."

Smiling, Max gave a curt nod. "Excuse us." He and Steve walked down the hallway to talk.

Slowly, Elisabeth entered the apartment once again. The memories of her own beating come to the fore front of her mind once again. If she didn't know any better, this was looking more and more like Wofat's dirty work. The other woman was definitely a set up to make it look like serial killer. If Elisabeth couldn't investigate this with the team, she was definitely going to do this on her own, whether Steve liked it or not.

Looking down at all the blood, Elisabeth's mind returned to her sister. All that blood, it was just to much and she collapsed to her knees, crying once again. She noticed a picture of the two of them and reached for it, and held it out in front of her. "I am so sorry I wasn't here to protect you. I should have done more to protect you from Wofat!" She whispered his name.

From afar, Kono and Chin watched her, feeling sorry for their friend. They would do all they could to protect her and to bring her sisters' murder to justice.

"We're almost done here," Chin had begun, "so why don't you take her somewhere, get her away from this place for awhile."

Handing the camera off to Chin, Kono made her way over to Elisabeth and knelt down in front of her friend. "Why don't we get out of here for awhile? Go to my place and hang up."

Elisabeth felt relieved. Was it bad to feel relieved? She didn't know. "Yes, please!" She nodded. "This just reminds me of what Wofat did to me." She held the photo close to her.

Chin was almost certain he hear Elisabeth mention Wofat's name, so he stepped closer. "What did you say? You know Wofat personally?" He would definitely let Steve know.

"It was nothing." Kono said to her cousin, but he just eyed her suspiciously.

After what they went through with Kaye, Chin didn't want to take any chances, and decided to let Steve know.

The women hadn't realized Chin had been so close to hear and glanced at each other and then look over at Chin, surprised. If Steve found out, he was going to put things together very quickly and Elisabeth didn't want him to know about the past. She certainly didn't want him to think she'd been working with Wofat.

"I want to get out of here!" Elisabeth said nervously.

"Come on, Lis." Kono helped Elisabeth to her feet and they left the apartment as Steve was coming back in. He smiled at them and then walked over to Chin.

"Where are they off too?" Steve wondered.

"I think that they are heading back to Kono's place, but there's something that you should know..." Chin replied.

"What?"

Chin hated to hurt his friends like that but he was put in a position where he didn't have a choice. "Elizabeth has a past with Wofat – I overheard her tell Kono that her sister's beating reminded her of her own."

That was something that Steve had not expected to hear, nor was he happy about. He was always taught to be respectful of people, especially woman, and to never ever lay a hand on any woman like that. Being in the marines, that just reinforced that value! Itt burned him more than he realized. He wanted more than anything to get Wofat himself. "What?" He said surprised.

"Yeah! Kono seemed to know about it, too."

Steve didn't like that bit either. He placed his hands on his hips. "Since when?"

"Since the whole Wofat thing, they've become closer, very secretive about it. It's like they're both hiding something more."

Steve nodded, he knew there was something going on, but he just figured they were becoming friends. If Elisabeth knew something, she was just going to have to tell him whether she liked it or not.

***

The next day, Danny was interrogating the boyfriend, though it didn't appear to be going the way he had hoped. Turning away from the guy, Danny ran his hand through his blond hair, sighing. This day was seriously turning out to be the worse day for all of them, especially Elisabeth! "Okay, let's try this again," he said exasperated. "Where were you night?"

"If you did your little cop thing, then you'd know where I was – I was working!" Alec had had enough of this crap and couldn't believe he'd been arrested and interrogated for something he did not do!

The nasty little attitude the punk was giving Danny was the last straw. He grabbed Alec's shirt, pulling the guy toward him. They were nose-to-nose, Danny said, "I'm not in the mood for games. The girl you murdered was the sister of a friend of mine." This was so not Danny and he knew it. This was something that Steve would have done to get answers.

"I may have knocked her around a bit," Alec's voices suddenly got softer, "but I did love her. I wouldn't kill her."

Releasing Alec, Danny snorted. "Knocked her around? You didn't just knock her around, you nearly killed her!"

Taking a deep breath, Alec nodded. "You're right...I'd never done anything like that before, despite what Lis said about me. I lost control and I did something that I will regret. I tell you, I did not kill her. When I was told to stay away, I did. I gave her the space she would need and I was getting help."

Danny almost believed him. Almost!

"He didn't do it..." Chin spoke up as he walked into the room, carrying his Ipad. "At 5, he was pulled over for speeding on his way to work." Chin handed the Ipad over to Danny. "The murder took place about that time, according to Max. He couldn't have had time to rush back over and murder her."

Taking the Ipad, Danny quickly read over the report and sighed. They didn't have enough evidence that would stick. "You're free to go!" Danny handed the Ipad over to Chin, pulled out the key, and reached out and uncuffed Alec.

Alec stood up, stretched, and nodded at both men, before leaving the room.