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7. Sacrifice

Melody's second disappearance seemed to have taken all of Morgan's energy. She could hardly get herself to drive her car back to CSI and once there, her legs felt even heavier as she walked to the breakroom to find Greg and Dylan. How could she tell the boy they hadn't found his Mum? Before she entered the breakroom, she took a few deep breaths. Carefully, she looked inside. To her relief Dylan was fast asleep on the couch.

"Oh, Greg…" Without caring if anyone could see them, she fell into his arms and started crying. Greg immediately wrapped his arms tightly around her. "What happened?"

With a lot of sobs and stutters Morgan told him about the empty room and the guy they had arrested. She also told them Finn was on her way to process the room and officers were checking the perimeter for a sign of Melody and / or Damian.

"Neither of them are going to show themselves!" she sobbed. "How are we going to find her?"

Greg was still trying to comfort Morgan when Russell walked in. Hesitantly, Greg let go of his girlfriend. Unsure of what to say he just remained silent. Next to him, Morgan wiped away her tears.

"I'm sorry, Russell," she said. "I just…"

"I heard Melody escaped," Russell said. "Does Dylan know yet?"

As if he heard Russell say his name, the little boy slowly woke up.

"Where's my Mum?" he asked right away.

"Hey, Dylan, why don't you take Morgan to my office and ask her about that great big jar filled with… What is it again? Candy?" Russell smiled.

"Okay…" Far from enthusiastic Dylan slid of the couch and followed Morgan out of the breakroom. As soon as they were gone, Russell looked directly at Greg. "Okay, what's going on between you two? And don't give me that look like 'I don't know what you're talking about', because I'm not buying that. What's going on?"

Before Greg could think of an answer, Russell's phone started ringing. Greg couldn't hear the person on the other end of the line, but from Russell's talking, he understood it was Brass.

"Brass thinks it's a good idea for Dylan to see the guy they arrested," Russell told Greg after he had ended the phone call. "From our side of the glass mirror, of course, so the guy can't see Dylan. He wants to know if Dylan recognizes him."

"I'll go and get him!" Greg quickly offered, but Russell already shook his head. "You're staying here, I'm not done with you yet!"

He left the breakroom to find Morgan and Dylan. Immediately after he left, Greg rushed off as well. No way he was gonna stay here and wait for Russell to tell him off about his relationship with Morgan!

In Russell's office Morgan had just told Dylan his Mum had escaped when Russell himself walked in.

"Dylan, I have a really big question for you," he started. "Has Morgan already told you we've arrested someone?"

Dylan shook his head.

"Well, we have," Russell told him. "Captain Brass is going to question him to see if he knows anything about your Mum, but what we would like to know, is if you know who he is. He's in one of our interrogation rooms now, you can see him. He won't be able to see you, though, so don't worry about that! Do you want to help us by seeing if you recognize him?"

"Can Morgan come?" Dylan asked. Russell nodded. "Sure!"

"Alright then…"

Holding on to Morgan's hand tightly, Dylan followed Russell and Morgan to the interrogation room where he saw Brass talking to a man. It really was Brass talking to the man as the suspect refused to talk. Dylan carefully looked at the man, tilting his head a little.

"I know him!" he then said. "That's the guy who makes our fake IDs!"

Slowly, the pieces started to fit together in Morgan's head. She remembered how Melody had told her she had used a fake ID for her rental car here in Vegas and before that, how she had always used another fake ID to buy her plane tickets or to show at the reception of a hotel where she and Dylan would hide out. She hardly ever used her own passport, only if she had no other choice. And every time Damian found them, she took off to another city and asked for another fake ID.

Morgan shook her head. All that time the maker of the IDs had been telling Damian where Melody was. Maybe he had even been with Damian all the time, smiling at him when Melody called him to ask for a new ID. Damian was probably already on his way to find Melody before the guy had even finished the IDs!

"Put him away," Morgan said to Russell. "I don't care what you charge him with, as long as you lock him up and make sure he never gets out again!"

Russell gave her a reassuring nod before he looked at Dylan. "Have you ever met him, Dylan?"

The boy nodded. "Yes. Sometimes he'd mail us our IDs, but other times he came to us himself."

"Do you remember where he came to see you in person?" Russell asked him. Dylan thought for a moment. "Eh… New York… San Francisco… Orlando…"

"All big cities," Russell said to Morgan. "Easy to hide, easy to get away…"

"Did you see him in Grand Teton as well?" Morgan asked Dylan, talking about the last place the two of them had been before coming to Las Vegas.

"No!" Dylan immediately said. "We didn't use any fake IDs there, because the cottages were empty and we could just stay in them."

"And when Damian… your father… showed up, did your Mum call him then?" Russell asked, pointing to the still non-talking man in the interrogation room.

"Yes."

"And then she told him she was going to Vegas," Morgan understood. "And once Damian heard that, he must have figured out she was coming to see me after he had already found out some way I was living here."

"I heard Mummy tell him," Dylan softly said. "On the phone… That she was taking me to see you here, so you could protect me."

"Me?" Morgan repeated. "Did she want me to protect you or both of them?"

"She said she wanted you to protect me," Dylan said, suddenly looking very small in his insecurity. "She never said she wanted you to protect her…"

"Damn it!" The words had left Morgan's mouth before she could stop herself. She turned around and ran out of the room, back to find Greg. He was hiding out in Henry's lab, still afraid to have to continue the conversation with Russell, but he walked out into the hallway when he heard Morgan calling his name.

"Melody is going to find Damian!" Morgan called out when she saw him. "She wants me to protect Dylan, not her! She's going to get herself killed!"

"What?" Greg grabbed Morgan's arms to calm her. Slower, Morgan repeated what Dylan had told her. Greg shook his head. "Why does that mean she is going to find Damian?"

"Because she doesn't care about herself anymore, just about Dylan!" Morgan was too impatient to use her normal voice, she just shouted at Greg. "I know she's going to find Damian and ask him to kill her instead of Dylan! I just know it!"

"Alright, let's back up here," Greg said, trying to sound as calm as possible. "If you're right, then why did she escape? Why didn't she just wait for Damian to show up at that place where she was being kept?"

"Because… she knew Damian was going after Dylan!" Morgan realized. "She escaped to try and stop him, but she didn't succeed. And now…"

"And now I think it's more likely she's going after Damian, not to get herself killed, but…" Greg slowly started, looking directly at Morgan. She closed her eyes as she understood. "She's going to kill him… And she won't care if she gets killed herself, as long as Damian's dead and Dylan is safe…"

And for the second time she threw herself into Greg's arms and started crying.

"Hey…" He pushed her back and looked at her. "We're not going to let that happen! We are going to find Damian first, lock him up and find Melody, you hear me?"

"How?" Morgan softly sobbed. "He can be anywhere in Vegas!"

"Well, while you were with Dylan, I wasn't just hiding out," Greg told her with a little smile. "I made a few phone calls in the meantime: one to a very good friend of ours, who actually has a few friends himself. They all agreed to help us!"

Morgan wiped her tears away and looked up at him. "Which good friend?"

Greg smiled. "Look behind you!"

Morgan turned around and to her surprise, she saw Nick standing in the hallway with his dog Sam. Several other police officers were standing behind him, all with a dog next to them.

"They've each been assigned a specific area where they're going to look for Damian," Greg told Morgan. "Together they can check out the whole city! And as much as Damian loves to hide, he won't be able to hide his scent. This time we're going to find him for sure!"

Very slowly a smile started to appear on Morgan's face. Then she suddenly threw her arms around Greg and kissed him full on his lips, not caring about Nick, the police officers or even the dogs.

"You're the best!" she whispered in Greg's ear. "I love you, Greg Sanders!"

A little surprised he looked back at her as she had never said 'I love you' before. Then he smiled back at her. "I love you too, Morgan Brody!"