He contemplated walking in and making the young couple uncomfortable. After all, he needed to be in control of something. Fine, all of his girls had done something behind his back and only one had fessed up before met with disaster. Amazingly enough it had been Maxie. Georgie had only spilled the beans in order to be allowed to sit with Steven while she waited for him to recover fully. He could logically remind that stupid little voice in the back of his mind that Georgie had been planning on telling him everything the night of Steven's accident, that they had planned on telling him together. Looking into the room, he felt something pull painfully in his chest. Georgie had climbed into Steven's bed and they were whispering lovingly to each other. Every so often she would giggle and swat his arm. Mac considered breaking it, and then decided to save that until after the daughter stealing punk was out of the hospital.

Out of the corner of her eye, Georgie spotted her father's frame in the doorway. It was as if she had been hurled back in time to high school as she felt her body immediately straighten up and pull just slightly away from Steven's. Which was ridiculous. She wasn't fifteen and getting caught kissing her boyfriend goodnight. She was a married woman. "Daddy." She managed. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard Steven woke up." Mac explained, not ready to acknowledge the young man himself.

"Yeah. Isn't it great?"

"I can only think of a few better things." Mac responded vaguely. Yeah, like hanging from a tree by his neck.

"Look," Georgie twisted her hands nervously around Steven's. "I know we have a lot to talk about."

"And here I thought Steven and I could have a talk first." Mac tried to look sincere, but his smile turned to a grimace.

"Sir," Steven gulped finally finding his voice. He had only been slightly kidding when he had asked Georgie if her father was a big man. Right now Mac Scorpio was ten feet tall and bulletproof. "I'm sure you have some questions for us."

"And we'll answer them. Together." Georgie answered, squeezing Steven's hand tightly with her own.

"Careful." Steven winced slightly. "Still healing."

"Sorry. Sorry." Georgie whispered.

"Okay, you want to be included?" Mac asked Georgie. "Fine. Exactly how long after meeting did you two start sleeping together?"

"Daddy!" Georgie protested, her face turning bright red.

Mac enjoyed Steven's silent discomfort. "I just want to make sure I'm covering all my bases. Make sure there is only one surprise baby."

"No. We only decided to get married after we found out I wasn't pregnant." Georgie tossed off flippantly, with a toss of her hair that would have made her sister proud.

"Excuse me?" Mac stared hard at Steven.

"Georgie." Steven managed in a strangled tone. What the hell was going on with his wife? Did she want to become a widow before she turned twenty-five?

"That's the second time someone has asked if me being pregnant is the reason we got married. It's not, but I'm a little annoyed at the implication." Georgie continued.

"Well excuse me for questioning you after you've been so forthcoming." Mac snarled.

"What would you have rather me do? Tell you I was dating someone ten years older than me? Tell you I was falling in love in Paris? Tell you I met the one and I didn't really care if it was too soon I was going to marry him?" Georgie shot back. "Dad you didn't like guys I dated who you watched grow up."

"So it's all my fault? I made you lie?" Mac challenged.

"No. But you don't exactly make it easy on any of us to tell you the truth."

He wanted to yell until his voice was hoarse and his throat was dry, but what good would that do? What would it accomplish? He turned to Steven. "The night of your accident...when you two were going to tell me the truth...do you remember anything about the car? The driver?"

"I only saw the headlights. After that..." Steven gestured towards the rest of his body still bandaged and bruised. "I don't remember much."

"If you remember anything, please let me know." He was having a hard time forming the words. Audrey's grandson, he reminded himself. Elizabeth's brother. Best to not think of him in a more immediate title. "I'd like to wrap this up as soon as possible."

"You're the first person I'll call." Steven promised. There was no way he was going to give this man any more reason to hate him.

"You do that." Mac left the room as silently as he had entered it.

Georgie held her face in her hands watching him walk away. Regret for flippant words to him flooded her immediately. "I shouldn't have said all that to him."

"I think it went relatively well. We're both still alive. What were you so worried about?" Steven teased.

"I've never seen him so angry with me. With Maxie sure but not with me."

"I'm sure the world will turn up on its axis soon enough. Until then, let's just take this one day at a time, okay?"

"Hold my hand?"

"Thought you'd never ask." Steven reached over and intertwined their hands. "It's going to work out. I promise. I love you."

"I love you too."

*****

Staring down at the file he had concealed on his desk, Harper debated the wisdom of his latest plan. It was one thing to keep his skills up to speed by doing background checks on punks like his current roommate. But somehow running checks on the background of the DA and fiancé of the Commissioner had the scent of career suicide all around it. If Alexis Davis ever caught wind of this, his career as a police officer was blown, not to mention what it would do to his "side business".

Of course it was Ms. Davis's own fault he rationalized. If her check hadn't come back so confusing and incomplete he would have been passed this days ago and been able to fully concentrate on finding the person who ran Steven Webber off the road. It was probably a sad comment on his social life that puzzling over the scant details he could find was consuming his every spare moment, but there it was.

If he was reading the file correctly, and Harper was confident he was, Alexis Davis simply did not exist before she entered Yale Law School. He couldn't find a single mention of her anywhere prior to that. The way the DA carried herself screamed privileged and old money, yet none of the traditional Richie Rich prep schools had her listed as an alumna. While he had doubted she was a scholarship kid like he would have been, he had checked public high schools as well. It probably wouldn't have been so hard if he had been able to hack into her actual Yale application, but that was a computer skill far beyond what he had. And there were only so many hours in a day and spending them with barely socially acceptable nerds did not sound like his idea of fun.

Smiling to himself, he dialed the familiar number before he could talk himself out of it. Yes she might still be pissed off with him, but Samantha could still read people with the best of them. If there was something off with Alexis Davis, Harper would bet even money she could sniff it out.

"Hello." Sam's irritation was clear as she spoke into the phone. She had gotten maybe three hours of sleep the night before and now someone was calling her. Only one person had her number besides Maxie. Please be Maxie, she begged silently.

"Hello Samantha."

"Damn." Sam grumbled and sat up.

He chuckled at the annoyance in her voice. "Did I catch you at a busy time?"

"I was asleep." Sam explained.

Any other time he would have made a joke about catching her in bed. But not right now. For one thing he was at work and that would mean exposing her existence in his life, which he didn't want to do just yet. Not because he was ashamed of her, which he knew instinctively she would claim, but merely because he wanted to be sure what exactly they were first. "I have a question for you."

"Do I want to hear this?" Sam whined.

"I'll be quick I promise."

"Now that I believe."

He ignored her attempt to goad him into responding. "You've met Alexis Davis right?"

Sam didn't respond immediately. "Yes."

"What's your impression?"

"Old money."

"Yeah me too." He sighed. "Did you get the feeling anything was off?"

"Off?" Sam repeated. "Like what?"

"I don't know." Harper admitted. "Maybe I'm just reading too much into things."

"Not you." Sam remarked dryly.

"It's just...I don't something has been hitting me funny about her lately. I'm not sure what it is and I wanted to see what you thought about it."

"Since when do you care about my opinion on anything?" Sam inquired.

"I told you before. You're the best partner I've got." The sound of high heels clicking on the squad room floor shot Harper's head up. Alexis was walking towards his desk right now, either looking for the Commissioner or looking for an update on Steven's case. Either way catching him discussing her sketchy background wasn't a good idea. "I got to go, but thanks. We'll talk later."

"Wait!"

"Bye." He said quickly as he hung up the phone.

"I think she's running from a shady past." Sam informed the dial tone.

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She'd go. Ric smiled as he closed his phone and started to make his way towards his car. Surprise was always the way to go.