Well aren't you just lucky! A new chapter. Kinda on the long side, but I thought a bit of comic relief and drama was needed. Hope you like it.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own CSI: NY nor the characters. Just the stuff I made up.

Chapter Five

The next day Flack went to the hotel Alexis was staying at while in town. He saw the hundreds of doctors, nurses, and lab techs walking around the ground floor of the posh hotel and couldn't help but shake his head at the mod of tourists.

"Can I help you sir?" said a voice to his left. He turned and saw a young red head sitting at a welcoming table for the conference.

"I'm looking for Dr. Alexis Madsen," said Flack as he showed her his badge attached to his belt loop.

He watched her green eyes widened like most eyes do when they see an officer. "Oh! Umm…Dr. Madsen is in the Empire Room giving her presentation. If you can wait a few more minutes they are almost done in there."

Flack nodded and thanked the young girl before strolling down the designated hallway. He noticed the artwork and design of the main floor and had to admit that it was a bit interesting. Soon enough he had reached the ballroom that had a poster standing on an easel just outside the double doors. The poster had a picture of Alexis smiling in her lab coat with a large bookcase as the back drop.

The more he looked at the picture, the more he found her slightly attractive. Her bright grey eyes stood out more as part of her light brown hair framed her face. But her hair was too light in his opinion. It needed to be a few shades darker. Her smile was also wrong. It needed to be a bit wider and brighter. A smile that use to greet him almost every morning…his Angell.

At that moment the doors to the ball room opened as the crowd of people left chattering away. Don quickly shook his head to rid his thoughts of Jess from his head.

Once the crowd had diminished, he walked into the ballroom and saw Alexis standing on the stage talking with a few men. He waited off to the side for a moment until she was done with her conversation. As he took in her attire for her presentation, he could understand why a few of the uniforms were checking her out at the crime scene.

She wore a dark grey pant suit with a matching vest. The light purple blouse complimented her skin tone very well. Her hair was done up in a stylish bun that made her look more like a lawyer or wall street business woman than a pediatrician. Though she was a bit curvier than he was use to, she did know how to dress to impress.

When the group of men had left, Flack finally went up to the stage to talk to her. "Quite the place you got going here," he said trying to make light conversation.

Alexis stopped dead in her tracks as she took in Flack's sudden appearance. "Detective Flack. This is a surprise. To what did I do to earn the honor of your presence," she asked.

'Since when the hell do I talk like that?' she thought at the same time. For some reason, seeing him stand before her made her want to either roll her eyes or slap that smirk off his face. Though she held the boys in blue in the highest respects, she also didn't trust them very much. It wasn't so much the officer themselves, it was more their attitude and the way they held themselves. As if they were gods in a savage land. Well at least the ones she had come across in her life.

"I actually came to ask you a few more questions, if you don't mind," said Flack. He tried to keep the conversation fairly friendly since their last meeting didn't go so well. But for some reason he could tell that she wasn't too thrilled to see him again.

"I've already answered everything the other night," sighed Alexis. "My statement hasn't changed. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm a busy woman detective. If you have any more questions to ask me, you can contact my lawyer." With that said she grabbed her stuff and began to walk away from Flack and relax up in her room. That was until he stopped her.

"Hey. Hey. Hey. Hold on a sec there doc," he said once he jumped into her path. "Feisty aren't we?"

Alexis bit her tongue to prevent herself from saying something that would land her in jail for a night. As she looked up into Flack's blue eyes she could tell he was trying to figure out what caused this sudden odium.

"You don't like me very much, do you?" he said out loud. He watched her let out a long breath as she tried to find the right words.

"Look…no offense to you as a person really. I…I just haven't had the best experience with New York's finest. Okay?" she said. When she figured he wouldn't say anything in response, she made to pass him and head for the nearest exit.

"That wouldn't have anything to do with the murders of three girls from your sorority?" he said. Don knew that would get her attention and heard her heals come to an abrupt stop behind him.

Alexis spun around to face his backside and felt as if she had been broad sided. Which to some degree…she had been. Suddenly everything began to make sense as to why he was here now. 'He wants to pump me for more information about that horrible experience. Great! I knew I shouldn't have come back to New York.'

After a few moments of silence, Don finally heard her voice in a low tone. "What exactly do you want with me detective?"

"The real reason why your story was off about what happened when the last two victims were taken. Why you gave the police a hard time back then? Stuff like that," said Flack.

"Am I a suspect," chuckled Alexis dryly. "Or just a person of interest once again? I told the officer back then what happened. I was no where near the house when they were taken. What makes you think I would remember something that happened a decade ago?"

"Oh I think you do remember exactly what happened that night, and what happened to those girls. Now do I think you did it? No. But I think you know who did. But hey, if you don't want to cooperate, that's fine. I'll just get a subpoena for you to come down to the precinct for a formal questioning." With that Flack began to leave the empty ballroom, knowing he would get what he wanted.

Alexis thought for a moment and knew she really had no choice in the matter. She knew she was innocent; however she didn't really want to be hauled in and have her cousin wonder what exactly was going on. She knew that someday what she had told the cops all those years ago would come and bite her in the ass now.

"Detective," she called out when Flack was just in the doorway. Flack turned back and saw her walking toward him rolling her eyes.

"Is this an informal talk or am I going to have to call my lawyer after all? I wouldn't want to be accused of perjury or something like that," Alexis commented. Not knowing if there was a statute of limitations, or if her statement back then would even fall under the terms of perjury.

"Just a chat," said Flack, knowing that he would get a better answer out of her now.

"You like coffee?"

"Depends," he said with a raised eyebrow.

Alexis shook her head at his response. "Okay…what exactly do you want to know?"

The two of them left the hotel and walked down to a bistro just off 51st street, since both found the hotel's café a bit "stuffy" for them. As they both settled into a table off in the back corner, Flack started in on his questions.

"So tell me what happened during that week, Doc."

Alexis took a sip of her latte before answering. "Please, if this is just a chat, call me Alexis."

"Fine."

"Well…I was in my second year at NYU and my second semester as a member of the TKO House. We had planned our little routine for battle. That's what the houses call the competition. Maggie…the first victim…she had died three days before at an underground party," said Alexis as she remembered what it was like back then.

"Underground party?" asked Don.

"Back then the Greeks were really competitive. Scary competitive. They would hold battles all week long until the big performance. Usually it was individual talents just showing off," said Alexis as she rolled her eyes at how stupid the idea was even back then.

"And you were at that party?" asked Flack.

"No. I was back at the TKO house. I was the designated driver that week. I remember I had a paper due the following week that I was working on when I got the call about what had happened," she said as she took another sip of her coffee to try and calm her nerves a bit. "I was usually at the house at night anyway for a few hours to get some work done and to practice 'the routine'," she said with air quotes. Even back then she thought the competition was a bit over dramatized.

"You were in the show?" Don chuckled. For some reason he couldn't really picture the woman before him dressed like a Britney Spears wannabe shaking her ass on a stage in front of a mod of college guys.

"Yes," she said darkly. "All first year members were required to either be in the routine or work on the performance in some way. Choreograph it. Make the costumes. Come up with a lighting design. Stuff like that. I got stuck being a dancer since I joined late the year before. It's a very long and complicated story."

Don couldn't help but chuckle a bit at how silly this whole production sounded and couldn't understand why anyone would want to do something like that. Alexis glared a bit at him as she tried to hold back her own laughter.

"Anyway…" she continued. "For the better part of that week I was either at the House, class, or my apartment. On the night of the show, that's when it happened. Kristy was murdered just outside the front steps of House. She was in the show with me, and…I was supposed to go back to the house with her when it was over. Her boyfriend at the time was going to pick her up and take her to some after party or something. But, I backed out of walking her back at the last minute. So Carly went back with her."

"The third victim," said Flack softly. He could tell that even thinking about what had happened was difficult for her. Knowing that if things had been different, she herself could have been the third victim really did make a person question everything.

Alexis nodded solemnly as she tried to keep the chill that usually ran down her spin whenever she thought of what could have happened.

"Where did you go?" he asked after a moment or two.

"I left the club with a friend. We walked around for a bit before heading to his apartment," said Alexis as she rubbed her eyes.

"His?"

"Are you going to ask a question every time I say a sentence?" Alexis retorted.

"Maybe," he shrugged. He flipped opened his notepad and saw a dictation that he made when he read the case file statements. "There were a couple witness that saw you leaving with your boyfriend at the time. But you said you were with a friend."

"Right," she said simply.

"You've lost me," said Flack shaking his head trying to put it together.

Alexis took in a deep breath before replying. "Dylan and I had been apart for a couple of weeks before Mock Rock."

"Dylan…your boyfriend?"

"Yes."

"Why were you apart?"

"Dylan had a bit of a drinking problem back then and a temper to go with it. One night at his apartment he had been drinking. We had gotten into a fight and the next thing I knew the back of his hand had connected with my face. So, I left him. The next day he tracked me down trying to apologize and tell me it would never happen again."

"And what did you do then?"

"I told him to go to hell and if he ever came near me again I'd really give him something to cry about," she said in a matter of fact tone.

Don silently chuckled at her statement before continuing on. "And the witnesses?"

"He left with someone that looked like me. He thought it would make me jealous or something. Anyways…I left about, oh I don't know, about half hour after he did," finished Lexie.

"So you left with someone else then? Who?" Flack asked, getting a bit interested into the story. "Why didn't you tell the detectives this back then?"

"Because the guy I was with was on parole, and the battle was held at a nightclub. One the terms of his parole were to stay away out of bars until he was twenty-one. The detective I was dealing with at the time was the type of guy that would have thrown him under the bus. I wasn't going let that happen," said Alexis

"So, you felt the need to lie?"

Alexis inhaled deeply as she tried to control her irritation.

"I felt that the police didn't need to know who I was with, since I wasn't even near the crime scene, nor had I any clue as to who cause all of that to happen. When I left the bar with him, we walked around and talked for a bit. Then we headed back to his place across town, where I stayed the night. It wasn't until the next morning when I turned the T.V. on at his place that I found out what happened to Kristy and Carly."

At that moment, Flack decided that it was probably time for a little break. He gave her a few moments to calm down a bit, since some of the other patron had begun to glance over in their direction more.

"So…"he said slowly while folding his arms. "Are you ever going to give me a name? Or can't you remember?"

Alexis glared at him through her lashes, and had to remember that they were in a public place, and that he was probably carrying cuffs. So instead of using physical actions, she used her most deadly weapons, sarcasm and words.

"I'm sorry I don't really need the attitude detective," she said while copying his actions. "If I remember correctly, I'm here of my own free will and in cooperation with your investigation. So frankly if this is how you treat people at a friendly 'chat', then I'd rather be hauled down to your 'big bad precinct' and finish this little talk there."

"Well, I'm tired of hearing about phantom boyfriends, and your 'sordid' love affairs," replied Flack with as much sarcasm as she was dishing out.

"Boy you really are an impatient guy. And a bit clever as well. Sordid? I don't think I've heard a cop give that kind of a description in thirty years," Alexis retorted.

Flack ran a hand over his face trying to keep his temper in check. This woman before him really knew how to push his buttons, something that was pretty hard to do in his personal opinion. He couldn't remember a time when someone got him so frustrated over a simple conversation.

"But," she started again, causing Flack to cringe a bit at the sound of her voice. "For your information, it wasn't a phantom boyfriend. In fact, I'm betting you probably know him already since you're such good friends with the lab."

"Oh what, you were going out with someone running trace on evidence?" said Flack out of frustration.

"Hmm…he might be doing that. Then again he could possibly be changing a dirty diaper for all I know."

Flack looked up at her as he processed her words. "Huh?"

She sighed in frustration at how thick he was being. "Messer, all right? I was with Danny Messer."

"Yeah right," laughed Flack.

"You don't believe me? Ask him! I met Danny my freshman year at NYU. We had a couple of classes together. He was on parole for getting involved with some dumb scheme his brother Louie got involved in," said Alexis as if it were obvious.

Flack took a moment to process everything and remembered Danny telling him once that he was on probation as a kid for getting caught with Louie.

"You lied to protect Danny?" said Flack as he saw from her point of view.

"Yes. He came to the club that night to see me. We talked, we left, we hung out, and we crashed at his place. It wasn't until the next morning we found out what happened. Danny wouldn't let me out his sight when he found out. My roommate at the time was out of town. So, he made me stay at his place until Mac found out. That day, in which my time table is off, I was at Danny's apartment. When he left to go to one of his baseball meetings, I left to go off to the library and my apartment to pick up a few things. My watch was slow so I really didn't know the time when I got to the library," said Alexis already tired of this conversation.

"Why didn't you just say that you were with him at some point? Why the story?" Flack asked.

"I was young! I was scared. Three of my friends had been murdered, and I had the police down my back every five seconds just because the evidence at the time leaned toward someone with a medical background, and I just so happened to be studying to become a doctor. So forgive me if I was a little freaked at the time," spat Alexis. "If you haven't noticed young people tend to do some pretty stupid things, when the cops are involved."

"Okay! Okay. What happened after you went to library?" asked Flack as he shook his head.

"I went back to Danny's. We went out to get something to eat. The next day I got a call from Claire, saying Mac wanted me to stay with them until the case was solved," said Alexis with a sigh.

"Claire?"

"Mac's wife," said Alexis. "She…"

"Yeah, I know what happened to her," said Flack. "So you stayed with them and…then that was it?"

"Pretty much. The case went cold then. I went back to my apartment. Went to school and graduated. And then…here I am today. That's the whole story. Does that answer all your questions now, Detective Flack?" said Alexis, really hoping that they were through.

"Yeah. That's it, for now. But if you think of anything else, give me a call," said Flack as he handed her his card. Alexis stared at his outstretched hand before sighing in defeat and grabbing a hold of the card. It was then that Don noticed just how bright her eyes really were and saw something behind the almost perfect mixture of blue and grey. But as quickly as he saw it, it was gone again.

"It was a pleasure seeing you again…Detective," sneered Alexis as she got up from her seat and left the table. Don watched her walk out and began rubbing the side of his head.

"And I need an aspirin now," said Don to no one in particular.

Well there you go!

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