Brooke stared at the girl standing in front of her.

"Wait, what?"

The girl wiped the tears away from her eyes, the shock of what she had said setting in on her face.

"Nothing," she said, backing up and grabbing her backpack, "nothing, just forget I said anything. I was joking, my name is Rachel. I've gotta go, I'll see ya tomorrow." She turned and ran out of the classroom before Brooke could stop her.

What the hell had just happened?

Brooke turned and walked to her desk and logged onto her computer. She didn't know what was going on, but she sure didn't like it.

Once she was logged in, she went straight to Google and typed in the name Lucy Messer. The titles of the articles she found shocked her.

Daughter of 2 NYPD Detectives Missing

Lucy Messer, Age 5, Missing After Day In Central Park

The Daughter of NYPD Detectives Believed To Be Dead

Search For Missing Girl Ends

Brooke's jaw literally dropped as she read the titles. This couldn't be the same girl she had spent the year teaching. It just couldn't be. She clicked on one of the articles and saw a picture of the missing girl.

See, she thought, the girl in the picture has light brownish hair and blue eyes that you wouldn't be able to forget. Rachel has black hair and green eyes. She was just kidding.

She tried convincing herself this, but then she saw a picture that took her breath away. It was a picture of the missing girl and her parents. She focused on the father and his smile. She knew that smile. It was the same smile that she had seen on Rachel's face not even fifteen minutes earlier. There was no denying that it was the same smile.

What the hell was going on?!?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lindsay Messer sat at her kitchen table with a plate of spaghetti sitting in front of her, getting cold. She glanced at the clock on the microwave. 6:30. He was thirty minutes late.

She sighed as she stood up and cleared off the table. She knew why he was late, and it had nothing to do with work. She was crazy to think he would even come home at a normal hour that night. It was May 6th. Lucy's birthday. He would be at the bars that night, getting as drunk as he could until he had to call Flack to give him a ride home.

As Lindsay washed the dishes, she felt anger rising in her. She hated Danny for how selfish he could be. She had lost a daughter too, but he acted as if she hadn't. He acted as though life should go on for her, but for him, it should just come to a complete stop. He didn't realize how hard it was for her to get up in the morning, to realize that she wouldn't see Lucy's smile that day, take her shopping, or listen to her talk about her day at school. She wanted to just break down and cry, but she couldn't. She had to keep going. She just wished Danny would realize that.

Of course, every time she hated Danny, she felt guilty. She knew he blamed himself for what happened that day, even if it wasn't his fault. That day had started out like any other day. It had been Danny's day off, and like many other days off, he decided to spend it with Lucy. He had taken her to the park, and when he had turned his back for just a second and then turned back around, she was gone. Lindsay knew it wasn't his fault, she knew he was the best father to Lucy, but Danny still couldn't stop blaming himself. All he could say after it happened was, "If only I had payed closer attention to her, then she'd still be here."

Lindsay quickly wiped away a tear and tried not to think about that day. It only broke her heart when she did. So instead of thinking about it, she made her way down the hallway to the nursery. She opened up the door and walked over to the crib. She smiled at her 6 month old daughter, Caroline, who was sleeping peacefully. Seeing her almost took away all the pain Lindsay was feeling.

Lindsay's trance-like state while staring at her daughter was soon ended when she heard the front door open and close. She kissed her daughter on the forehead before making her way back out into the living room. She saw Danny throw his keys on the table by the door, ignoring Lindsay's presence in the room.

"Wow, you're actually home before midnight. Congratgulations." Lindsay mumbled as she watched Danny stumble into the kitchen to grab a beer.

"I'm tired." he stated simply.

"You know, I know Caroline's not anything like Lucy, but she's still your daughter and I'm sure she'd love it if you'd come home on time so she could at least get to know you."

Danny sighed and turned around to face his wife.

"Ya know what Lindsay, why don't you do me a favor and save the fucking lecture for someone who cares, aight? In fact, why don't you go tell it to Flack. I'm sure he'd just love to sit there and listen to ya and comfort ya, since apparently that's what you two do. And maybe you can get a little extra somethin' after that?"

Lindsay took a step back, stunned. She felt like someone had slapped her in the face. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Danny smirked.

"You didn't think I knew, did you? Flack told me all about it. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm goin' to bed. You can sleep on the couch."

And with that, Danny walked out of the room, leaving Lindsay by herself to think about how fucked up her life had gotten since Lucy had gone missing. She couldn't even believe that Flack told Danny about what had happened, but then again, she wasn't that suprised. They were best friends, of course he'd tell him.

She hadn't even meant for the kiss between her and Flack to happen. It had been a year since Lucy had disappeared, and Lindsay felt alone. She couldn't talk to Danny about the empty feeling in her stomach, so she turned to Flack. They had talked for a little while. He had comforted her, which was just what she needed, and then it happened. She kissed him. They had both quickly pulled away, with her saying it was a mistake, that she was sorry.

Now Danny knew about it, and it was just one more thing to make Danny Messer hate the world even more.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Danny wanted to slap himself for bringing up Flack to Lindsay. He had known about what happened between the two of them since it happened, but he knew it was a mistake. He of all people knew he couldn't hate Lindsay for what she did, not after what he had done with Rikki all those years ago, which was a thousand times worse. But he couldn't help saying it. He was just pissed off at the world and he wanted to bring somebody down with him, even if that person was Lindsay, the only other person who knew what he was going through.

And she did know what he was going through, even if he never admitted it out loud. She had lost a daugher too. In a way though, Danny was mad at Lindsay for going on with her life. He knew it was stupid, and he knew he had to move on too, but he just didn't know how he was supposed to live without his little girl.

He felt guilty for not being there for Caroline now. He knew this could be like a second chance for him, but every time he looked at her, he saw Lucy. He really did want to be a good father to Caroline, but how could he do that when he couldn't even watch after Lucy without something happening to her?

Danny was thrown out of his thoughts when his phone started to vibrate. He pulled it out of his pocket and glanced down, only to find an unknown area code.

"Messer."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After reading several articles from the internet, Brooke felt like she knew Lucy's entire life story. She had been born in Manhattan to Danny and Lindsay Messer, who were both detectives and CSIs. She had been born on May 6th, which meant she hadn't been lying about her birthday being that day. She had no brothers or sisters. She went missing on April 15th while spending the day in Central Park with her father.

Brooke just couldn't believe what she was reading. The same little girl that she had known as Rachel all year long had a whole other life in New York, with totally different people than the people that Brooke had gotten to know during parent-teacher conferences. It just didn't seem possible, but it did explain why Rachel, or Lucy, had freaked out today. She just didn't understand why she had picked today, of all days, to come clean about this.

At the end of one of the articles, Brooke saw a bunch of phone numbers to call in case anyone had any information about Lucy's disappearance. She was suprised when she saw that the parents had their numbers listed, but then she remembered that they were detectives.

She quickly pulled out her cell and began to dial one of the numbers, hoping it hadn't been changed in the past 3 years.

It rang three times before someone picked up.

"Messer."

Brooke took a deep breath when she heard the man's voice.

"Is this detective Danny Messer?" she asked, even though she knew it was.

"Yeah. Who's this?"

"My name's Brooke Roberts. Well, I could think of about a hundred different ways to tell you, but I'm just going to come out and say it. I know where your daughter is."

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