A/N: Sorry for taking forever to update. School took my time, but now I have a little bit more time on my hands to write some more. Reviews are always welcome.

I would like to thank authorjazmyne for proof reading this chapter. As always, your help was very useful.

Lilly was standing by the window, her nose almost touching it and her eyes staring into the distance. She leaned her forehead against the cool glass and took a deep breath as she heard the door opening. She hoped it wasn't the nurse again, who would put her back in bed like a little child and stick something into her drip that would make her sleepy and groggy.

"Lilly," she heard a soft voice behind her. "It's good to see you out of bed." It was that cop-lady, she realized. She wasn't sure what it was that made her like the woman despite the fact that she was a cop. Sharon walked over to her and put a gentle hand on her healthy shoulder. "I brought you some things that you might need." Lilly turned around to look at her. "I brought some comfy clothes, some food, and a little surprise."

"Surprise? Do I look like a child to you?" Lilly's tone was scornful.

"Before anything else, you should eat. The nurse told me that you've been having trouble with the hospital food." Sharon replied softly, ignoring the girl's tone.

"What did you bring?" Lilly's voice was a little hoarse.

"I brought chicken soup that Rusty made last night. The nurse said that you can't eat solid food at the moment." Sharon sighed. Lilly nodded and Sharon pulled out a round plastic container out of one of the bags she brought and put it on Lilly's bedside table. Lilly grabbed it with her healthy hand and tried to remove the lid. "Easy, easy. Let me help you." Sharon removed the lid and put a plastic spoon in it. Lilly's fingers curled around it and brought the liquid to her mouth, not even caring that the soup wasn't warm or that she was spilling it all over herself. Sharon tried to hide a smile; after refusing to eat hospital food for nearly four days, the girl must have been starving. "The nurse said that your fever is down and the infection is healing." Lilly hummed in response as she shoved a spoonful of soup into her mouth. "It's good news. It means that an amputation might not be necessary. You'll still need a surgery and you will have a long recovery, but you won't lose your arm."

"When can I leave the hospital?" Lilly asked.

"It's gonna take a while. The doctors can't operate on you until the infection heals completely. And even after the surgery, you will need help for some time." Sharon explained.

"I'm not going back to foster care." Lilly declared and scraped the bottom of the soup container with the spoon.

"I'm afraid you won't have much choice," Sharon replied, her eyes examining the slender teen. "You can't go back to the streets," her voice was soft.

"It's better than a foster family." There was something very childish in the girl's eyes, but her voice and tone was mature. Sharon didn't know much about life in the street. Rusty didn't talk about his experiences as a homeless boy with her, but she knew that having to take care of themselves made these children grow up faster than they were supposed to.

"Why did you leave your foster family, Lilly?" Sharon wondered.

"I used to get into fights, you know, with their girl. She used to beat me up and then tell her parents that I stole things from her, but that wasn't true. I never took anything from her. And they used to lock me in the closet, so I wouldn't steal anything from them." Lilly's voice was indifferent, but Sharon knew that the tone was masking pain. "On the weekends, they locked me in there and forgot to let me out. I'd spend a couple of days in the closet. And this one weekend, I felt bad and it was getting hard to breathe, so I made noise and…" Lilly paused and sighed. "The mother took me out and started hitting me with a baseball bat." Tears glistened in her eyes. "So that night, when everyone was sleeping, I packed my things and ran away." Sharon let out a barely-audible sigh. "Anyway, I'd rather sleep on a bench in the park than go back to foster care."

"It's not possible for you to go back to the street, but I will do my best to make sure that you will be placed with a foster family that will treat you well," Sharon promised.

"If I have to go to a foster family, then I want to live with you. Rusty said that you are nice to him," Lilly said.

"We'll see about that. In the meantime, do your best to get better. Okay, honey?" She could see the hopeful glint in the girl's eyes and she knew that the girl saw a promise in her words.

"Do you have more food?" Lilly asked.

"I'm sorry, not at the moment. But I'll drop by later and leave some more food with your nurse." Sharon said. "Anyway, if you are interested, the surprise is in here." She pulled out a small paper bag and put it on the bed. Lilly peeped into the bag and then looked at Sharon.

"Nail polish," she declared.

"Yes. Your nails are a little…" Lilly glanced down at the nails of her uninjured hand. Her old nail polish was peeling off and chipped.

"As long as it's not pink," the girl said with a half-defeated tone.

"It's not pink." Sharon took the nail polish out of the bag and Lilly was surprised to find out that it was black, just like the one she had on her nails. "I figured that it would be safe to go with what you already have on your nails." Sharon shrugged and took a nail polish remover and cotton pads out of the paper bag. "Give me your hand," she instructed and felt the girl's small hand landing on her palm.

Sharon wasn't sure how she knew that a 'girl thing' would help her gain Lilly's trust a little more. Lilly's eyes were examining her, looking at her inquisitively. She hoped that once Lilly understood that she was not just another child who's been let down by the system, she would cooperate with the police and give them some information that would help them solve the case. For now, she would let Lilly be and wouldn't bother her with questions about what happened in the warehouse.

"You said that you have clothes for me." Lilly said.

"Yes. I hope they fit." Sharon replied and pulled a green T-shirt and dark track pants from a small backpack she brought with her. Lilly touched the fabric of the shirt.

"It feels very soft," she said and sent her healthy hand to the back of her hospital gown collar, trying to untie the knot that kept it closed.

"May I?" Sharon offered and Lilly nodded slowly. "Turn around." Sharon moved Lilly's hair from her neck and quickly untied her hospital gown. "You need to remove the sling," Sharon said and gently released the Velcro strap that held Lilly's sling in place. As soon as her arm was out of the sling, Lilly could feel the sharp pain and she hissed audibly. "I'm sorry, honey. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"It's okay." Lilly replied and pulled her arms out of the hospital gown. Sharon helped the girl into the T-shirt and pants, noticing some deep scars in the crook of Lilly's elbow. She hadn't seen many scars like this as part of her job, but she could tell that they were caused by needles and her heart skipped a bit. So many street kids chose to deal with their problems by using drugs and just the thought of it scared her. Lilly stared at her and Sharon could see that terrified look in the girl's eyes. "I'm sorry," Lilly's voice was barely audible. Once people found out that she was an addict, they never looked at her the same way. Sharon had a million answers at the end of her tongue, but instead she just gave Lilly a little nod and smiled.

"This color looks good on you." She put Lilly's hand back in the sling, tightening the Velcro strap on the girl's shoulder again.

"I don't do this anymore. Heroin, I mean. I stopped a while ago."

"Did you?" Sharon had a hard time believing it.

"I met this guy; he said he would help me out if I stopped using. He took me to his house and locked me in this room for I-don't-know how long; felt like a few weeks. I think he called it detox. Brought me food and water twice a day. He used to come into my room every night and read me these bible stories, said I was a sinner and there's a place for me in Hell. But if I quit drugs and followed him, I could be saved. He said there's salvation for me." Sharon had some questions about this man, but she decided to leave it for now. "Rusty said you're catholic, right?" Sharon hummed in reply. "Do you think I'm going to Hell?"

"No, Lilly. You are not going to Hell. Everyone makes bad choices from time to time. It sounds like you're trying to change your ways, so I think you'll be fine eventually."

"Can you take me outside, like yesterday?" Lilly asked, changing the subject abruptly.

"No, honey. I have to go to work, but I'll try to come and sit with you for a while in the evening." Sharon promised.

"Can you bring Rusty with you? He promised to teach me how to play chess."

"If he doesn't have any homework, I'll bring him along." Sharon promised. Lilly nodded slowly and Sharon patted her healthy shoulder and gave her a comforting smile before leaving the room.

Andy's body landed on the rubber mat with a loud thud that was followed by his deep groan. Sharon grinned and reached her hand out to him, to help him up. She really didn't need him to teach her how to wrestle. She used to teach self defense classes in the academy before she moved to FID, but she enjoyed Andy's company and his offer to wrestle with her was just too tempting to pass. Besides, he was right about using sports in order to channel her negative feelings. Andy grabbed her hand and pulled himself up.

"You're letting me win?" she teased him, even though she knew that he was not.

"What can I say? I'm a gentleman," he grinned. They got into positions in front of each other and Sharon gave him a toothy smile before leaping forward and tackling him. He slid his foot under her calf and brought her down with him. They heard a cracking sound as they hit the rubber mat. "Was that you or me?" he wondered as he sat up.

"That was me." Sharon bent her knee slowly, hissing in pain. She rolled the sleeve of her yoga pants up, above her knee. "Great, that's gonna make one hell of a bruise."

"I'm sorry, Captain," Andy said and offered his hand for her.

"Don't be. That was a great move, Andy. Good to know that you're still in shape," she grinned and he helped her up. "But I still won the match."

"Then I guess I owe you dinner," Andy smiled.

"Yeah, but I think we better hit the showers first," Sharon smiled back at him.

"Are you gonna be able to walk?"

"Oh, come on. Do you think a bruised knee could ever stop me?" She gave him a look full of attitude and he couldn't help but chuckle. It was nice to discover that his captain could be playful and funny.

"I'll meet you outside in... 30 minutes?" He asked and Sharon nodded slowly before limping towards the women's locker room.

Andy paid for their dinner at an Italian restaurant that was owned by one of his friends and then offered Sharon help with her jacket. He thought she was beautiful, especially since she looked so relaxed and carefree. It seemed that the time they spent together after work brought out a side of her he'd never seen before.

"Hey, what do you say about taking a walk before I drive you home?" he asked as they went out of the restaurant. Sharon threw a glance at her watch; it was still early and her knee was not hurting too bad for a walk.

"Sure, why not?" she smiled and Andy offered her his arm.

"You know, I have to say, it's nice to see you smiling," he said and the honesty in his voice almost melted her heart into a puddle. "You've been worried a lot lately." She nodded slowly and slid her arm out of his, pushing her palm into the pocket of her jeans.

"Is this a pity thing, lieutenant?" Sharon wondered. She wasn't used to officers being so nice to her, inviting her to a wrestling match at the gym and taking her out to dinner. She was used to a lot of anger and resentment being directed towards her.

"What do you mean?" Andy stopped walking and turned to face her.

"I mean, 'Oh, poor Captain Raydor is having a hard time with a case. Let's take her out and make sure she has some fun time so we can all feel better about ourselves' thing. Is this what this whole evening is about?" She wasn't angry, but it was hard for her to grasp why someone from work would want to spend time with her outside of work.

"No, not really." Andy had a good idea why his captain would think this and he was not sure that he could convince her that she was wrong about it. If he was truly honest with himself, he did pity her a little. He could only imagine how hard it could be coming from a purely bureaucratic job into actual field work. Things always looked better in theory than in reality. "It probably looks this way because of everything that's been going on, but I really thought that we could bond outside of work. It could help us work better together, you know. And I felt bad for pissing you off this week."

"A-Ha!" Sharon rebuked and resumed her walking.

"I had good intentions." Andy followed her, surprised by how fast she could walk. "I'm sorry if you are offended." He caught up with her and stopped her again. "I am."

"You know, I found out today that Lilly is a drug addict," she changed the subject. It took Andy a moment to realize that it was the captain's way to say that she wasn't angry with him, but would not continue to discuss her feelings about their professional or outside-of-work relationship with him.

"I wouldn't be surprised," he said. "So many of these homeless kids start using." He was aware of the fact that his captain was probably a little naïve about what happened to homeless teens in the streets of LA.

"The thing is, she says she doesn't do drugs anymore. I looked at her chart and she didn't have any drugs in her system when she was brought in."

"Sharon," he said softly. "Don't fool yourself just because you want to help her. She can say that she doesn't do drugs, but she probably does."

"She doesn't look high or seem to have any withdrawal symptoms," Sharon insisted.

"They are probably pumping so much morphine into her that it has the same effect." Andy argued.

"I don't think so," Sharon replied and he could see the contemplative look in her eyes.

"Oh, no; you're one of those, aren't you?" Andy let out an amused sigh.

"One of what?"

"One of those people who believe that everyone can change their ways," he explained.

"God, no! I know that not everyone is capable of changing, lieutenant." Sharon said, "I just said that I think Lilly is telling the truth."

"I know you want to help her, but maybe you need to keep some professional distance, you know." Andy suggested.

"No, listen. She said this guy put her through detox and then tried to impose his religious agenda upon her." Sharon explained.

"So, what? She could have gotten high as soon as she got out of there."

"No, I don't think so. I don't think she got out of there at all," Sharon said.

"What are you saying, Captain?" Andy wondered, trying to follow his captain's train of thought.

"I am saying that we need to find this man because at this moment, he is our main suspect in the murder of five girls and the attempted murder of one." Andy could feel a chill going down his spine as the words came out of the captain's mouth. If she was right, and she usually was, there was a serial killer on the loose in the streets of LA, looking for his next victim.