A/N: I have so much planned for this story, so excited to see it play all out :) Enjoy xx Mariah

Another dead body was found, a sixteen-year-old girl, strangled, with teeth marks on her shoulder.

She was the youngest victim yet. Besides the first, who was eighteen.

The lab identified the teeth marks as human. A human bit the woman, literally tore into her flesh.

Ned felt as sick as he looked, his face white, his jaw clenched. But, as LeTrai added another picture to the pinboard and they all tried to find a way to connect this murder to the others, Agent Donald Dawson strolled into the room.

Ned resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he grinned and nodded at everyone. He was FBI, through and through, and might be the most arrogant, obnoxious, idiotic person he'd ever had the misfortune to meet.

The agent's grin didn't last, and he told them that he heard about their case, and he thought he might be able to help. As it turned out, he worked a case like this a few years ago, a case with murdered women, ages twenty to thirty, kidnapped from bars and on the streets, found dead with sick, brutal wounds that suggested rape and torture before being strangled to death.

"And my case mirrored a similar case from four years before that in another county in Maryland," he said.

His case went cold, though, as did the one before it, after thirteen women were found dead.

"It's as twisted as it gets, very personal kills," Donald explained. "I thought my case notes might help you, though."

At this point, Ned would take any help he could get.

Letrai, Jamsion, and Ned talk to everyone who was remotely related to Arrow Lucas, his family, his friends, his neighbors, his co-workers, his old teachers, his college roommates, his ex-girlfriends, everyone.

And no one helped.

Ned took meticulous notes, and he started to spend every second at work he could, reading through his notes and comparing them to Donald's, trying to connect the dots. He'd worked for over two hours on that Wednesday night, eaten too much pizza, and learned nothing when Ned finally put them away.

He glanced at his phone.

No new notifications.

Katie still wasn't talking to him. It'd been a whole four days of silence.

He sighed, setting his phone down as the precinct door swung closed. Something inside him hoped it would be Katie. That she'd bring him dinner or something, even if she didn't say anything to him.

"Still hard at work, Officer Banks?" The small voice made him look up and there was Reiley, in a sweatshirt and cut-off shorts.

"Always," he stood up and picked up the trash off his desk. "What are you doing here?"

"I remembered something from the night…" Reiley trailed off to a whisper as she sat in the chair beside him. "From the night my mother was killed."

"You do?" Ned grabbed his pen from behind his ear. Rieley had been on her own with her mom since was eight. She'd told him that that night. "What do you remember?"

"I think I remember something," she corrected herself, rubbing her eyes and forehead. "I've been thinking on this for a few days to make sure."

"What do you remember?" Ned asked, handing her a box of tissues just in case. "Take your time."

The nineteen-year-old rose her head and looked over at him. "I remember him saying something about it his family. About how it was a tradition for the men in his family to do this sort of thing. But that's crazy right?"

He laughed and shook his head, writing all of this down. "Nothing is too crazy of a theory in this case and it would explain some things," and, a moment later, he looked over and she wiped away a tear. "What's wrong?"

"I miss my mom," the girl whispered. "I just thought… I thought that telling you this would make it a little easier, you know?" She dabbed away her tears with a tissue and crumpled it in her hands. "But it didn't."

"It does get easier. Grief just takes time," he set his pencil down and held her hands.

"Will it ever get better?" Rieley was trying so hard to contain her emotions that her chin shook. "Because I don't know if I can hurt like this forever."

He knew what it was like to lose someone. To not know how to deal with grief in the right ways and held her hands tighter, smiling at her.

"My wife and I… there were some complications with her pregnancy pretty late and we lost our son in the beginning of the year. It pretty much killed us, and a few days late my wife attempted to take her life." He hadn't talked to anyone here about what happened in January. They just knew about it because Ned had taken a pretty significant leave. He could almost see everyone stop to listen in. "She wasn't successful and we're managing. And I'd be lying if I didn't say it still gets pretty rough some days. Katie has more bad days than me, but I have mine and still do, and I can say that it does get better. And If you ever need someone to talk to you about it all. You have my card."

"That's… so sad," Rieley whispered, looking up at him. "I'm really sorry that happened to you and your wife." She sniffled and wiped away another tear. "I saw my mom get strangled to death, but you already knew that. I don't really have anything else to share except that my dad left was twelve for some other woman. I don't know where he is and I don't care all that much anymore." She smiled at him. "But I'm glad I have someone I can talk to. Even if you are just some cop that I just met."

He smiled back at her, squeezing her hand again. Ned just didn't want this girl to feel alone.

Katie glanced across the square at the Grandview Police station, squinting as though she could see through the brick walls if she did. She had been watching in case she'd saw Ned for most of her shift, but she hasn't seen him.

"Have you talked to him yet?" her mother asked, sliding her arm around her waist.

"No," she muttered, turning around and going back to straightening items on tables and in the displays. "I don't have anything to say to him yet. I'm not ready." Her mother sighed as Katie refolded a pair of jeans and then looked up at her again. "What?"

"Nothing," Melinda smiled and shook her head. Her mother checked her watch and then flipped the open side over and shut the overhead lights off outside. "We're officially closed."

"Just spit it out mom," she sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "You think I should go see him after everything I told you? You're siding with him when I was the one who was forced to be kissed in public by someone who isn't him?"

"I'm not siding with him, Katie. You know I don't agree with the way he handled this situation, but I don't agree with the way you did either. You constantly shut Ned out and hide things from him when he should be the one you are leaning on for support and confiding everything to. That's what a marriage is all about." Melinda reasoned, looking at her daughter. "It's about having a best friend, a partner by your side every single day for whatever may happen. You should let him be there for you with everything this man is doing to you. It's not just affecting you. You're his wife, Katherine."

"I know," she sighed. "I know, mom."

"Obviously you don't if you're hiding things from him," Melinda crossed her arms and sighed.

"I wasn't hiding it, mom! I just wasn't planning on telling him that night," she explained, moving to sit on the couch near the fitting rooms. "You've done that with dad when it comes to ghosts all the damn time, so don't even start scolding me."

"Katie, you were hiding it. You withheld the information until he confronted you about the situation. That's not what you should be doing, and I would never do that with your father. I'm not the same naive woman I was when we were first married. I know your father would never hold me back from something supernatural, even if it could endanger me." Melinda explained, going to sit next to her. She touched her hand, squeezing it. "Baby, I'm not trying to scold or lecture you, but if you keep things with Ned like this you're going to lose him. You know how he's handled these kinds of situations in the past."

Katie sighed, running her hands through her hair as she stared at the floor. She didn't know what to say or how to reply to her mother. She was so angry. Blinded by rage.

"I wasn't ready to talk with him about it, you know? I hadn't even completely processed what had happened. I was so taken back. So humiliated and hurt that Delia happened to see it too. This shop is everything. It's a place I go to when I need a breather from a stressful day because my mom is here. Mason ruined that for me yesterday." She shook her head as she wiped her tears away.

Katie couldn't catch her breath, the crippling panic she'd felt from that day was creeping up her limbs. She tried to fight it off, the way she stilled and just cried. She didn't want to feel like this.

So humiliated and taken advantage of.

Her breathing became more rapid, more shallow. In these moments before her personal hurricane, she just felt her mother's arms wrap around her, trying to soothe her.

"Just think of something happy," Melinda whispered, rubbing her back. "Take in a steady breath for me, okay?"

"I can't," her eyes were squeezed shut as she shook her head. "I can't breathe, mom."

It felt like an invisible hand clasped over her mouth; an equally scary amount of adrenaline pierced her heart, unloading in an instant. She felt her ribs heaving as if bound by ropes, straining to inflate her lungs. Her head was a carousel of fears spinning out of control, each one pushing her mind into blackness. She wanted to run from him, from Mason as he leaned in closer to her in front of her eyes again.

She needed to go. Sounds that were near felt far away, like she was no longer in the body that sat on the couch, paralyzed with fear.

"Katie? I'm going to call your father," her mother's words finally caught in her head, pulling her attention.

She shook her head and stood up quickly, walking toward the counter to grab her purse from underneath it. "I can't be here right now," she said uneasily, trying to regain her breath somehow. "I need air."

"Okay. Do you want me to come with you?" Her mother was already up and following her, walking toward the door with her.

"Delia made this all one hundred times worse by telling Ned before I was ready. She always does, and if you can't see that mom," her tears were present in her voice now as they rolled down her cheeks freely. She looked over her shoulder at her mom, "then I can't keep helping out around here."

"Katie," Melinda reached out to hold her hand and she pulled away, walking out the door and out to the sidewalk. "Oh, no, please don't be like this. I didn't mean to hurt you." Her mother followed her out the doors, grabbing her hand. "Katherine Ann, please listen to me."

"I know you didn't mean to, but you still did. I'm not some eight-year-old you can boss around anymore, and Ned and I will never be like you and dad. We have our own problems and our ways of dealing with them." She gathered her composure and then wiped her tears away as she faced her again. "I'm upset you would ever think that was different. I'm not the same person as you, even if everyone thinks I am."

"I know, you aren't baby. You're your own person, an entirely different, unique and beautiful person, Katie. I never said you were any different," Melinda explained, trying to reason with her daughter somehow, her own her tears falling steadily now. "Katie, please don't be like this. Just come and sit. We can talk, okay?"

"I don't want to talk, mom. That's all we've been doing all day and that hasn't gotten us anywhere," she groaned, walking away. "I don't know if I can make it to our lunch for my birthday tomorrow. I'll be at dinner though because I'm not going to disappoint everyone else because of how I feel right now." She looked down at her hands and picked at the chipping nail polish. "Tell everyone at home I love them. Have a good night, mom. I love you."

She walked toward her car off the sidewalk and slid her purse off her shoulder. It was new, a smaller brown purse she'd recently updated to. It had a long strap that went around her shoulder and was only the size of a small square box. She pulled her keys out and glanced at her mother before she opened her car door. "And don't make this difficult and call me all the time because I'm not going to pick up," she whispered. "I love you mom, but I just can't." Her phone buzzed and it was Ned.

We need to talk tonight when I'm off at seven. I can't handle this silence between us.

It was five minutes until seven, her head told her. She closed the car door and started to walk across the square.

She knew she couldn't hide from Ned anymore. Her mother was right about that, and if Ned wanted to talk. She would give him that. They needed to talk.

She walked through the precinct doors to see Ned talking to someone, his eyes meeting hers above a girl's head.

"Um, if you could excuse me, Rieley," he said, standing and walking to meet her by the door. "Hey, I thought we'd just meet at home." He saw the tears lines on her cheeks, stepping off to the side a little more. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

She didn't know what to say.

She didn't answer for a moment, but then she couldn't hold it back anymore.

"I'm ruining our marriage?" The damn had opened and more tears began rolling down her cheeks. "And I'm so scared that I'm gonna lose you that I just told my mom that I basically hated her because she told me what I needed to hear. Even if it really hurt me."

He engulfed her in a hug, one so warm, that she wrapped her arms around him tightly and ran her fingers through his hair. "Baby," he whispered. "You're never gonna lose me. Okay? We're both too damn stubborn to ever let this… us fall apart." He turned to her ear, whispering the next part for only her. "And your mom, she'll understand. She's your mom. She loves you no matter what, just like I do."

"Even with Mason, and the ghosts, and everything else?" She choked into his shoulder.

"Yes," he whispered, pulling back. "Even with all the other stuff, you're all the matters. I love you."

"I love you and I'm sorry for telling you about Mason sooner," she said. "I just wasn't ready yet. I hadn't processed everything."

"I know. I see that now," he sighed. "I shouldn't have confronted you. I was just so angry. I hate that he thinks he can kiss you like that."

"Me too, trust me." She nodded, looking past to see the girl at this desk still. There was a woman standing behind her, watching her. The red marks on her neck were so bright Katie couldn't miss them. "That girl, is that the one you told me about?"

"Yeah, that's Reiley." He said, turning to stand next to her. "She's troubled. Her mom was-"

"I know," she said, rubbing the side of her neck and then looking at him. "She's here. With her daughter. Very dark."

She made eye contact with the woman, who then appeared by her side. "You can see me?"

She nodded and then looked to Reiley, and then back to the redhead's mother. "Do you want me to tell her something for you?"

"Not yet. She's not ready," the woman whispered. "But there's something I need you to have your husband do for me."

She looked to Ned, who was standing there, trying to figure out where the ghost was. "She has a favor of you to ask," she said.

"And what's that?" He asked.

"My necklace," the woman started, smiling. "The one my mother gave me on the day Rieley was born. It was the same one her mother gave her when her first was born."

"Her necklace," she said. "I think she wants you to get it for Rieley." She looked at her. "Were you wearing it when you died?"

"Yes, and she would've gotten it, but the morgue assistant stole it right off my cold neck," the woman muttered. "I've been messing with that bastard ever since, so he doesn't need to arrest him. He lives on 325 Maple Ave in town."

"The morgue assistant stole the necklace," she said to him, her lips turning up in a small smile then. "She says she's messed with the college student enough. You don't need to arrest him, but she wants you to get it for Rieley for her."

"I can do that," he said, leaning in to whisper. "Where is she?"

"She's right here," she motioned to him where the woman was appearing for her and then looked back at him.

"Veronica, you raised a wonderful daughter in the worst of circumstances from what's Rieley has told me and I just wanted to say that I'm sorry I couldn't stop Arrow before he hurt you both." He said softly. "And I'll get your necklace back for her. It's the least I can do."

"He shouldn't carry so much guilt," Veronica shook her head. "He's not the one committing any crimes after all."

"That's what I tell him," she said to the spirit, eyeing the man she loved out of the corner of her eye. "But he's stubborn and doesn't listen very well."

"Hey," he furrowed his brow at her, but not for long before he smiled at her. "That's not very nice to say when I don't know the context."

"He loves you," Veronica laughed, smiling. "It's nice to see. Just tell him to focus on that when things get tough at work. The good things he gets to go home to. That's what got me through working at the strip club," she whispered, looking over at Rieley. "I had my daughter to come home to."

Katie nodded and the woman went back to her daughter, and Ned looked at her husband. "She says you need to focus on the good things in your life when things get tough at work. You carry too much guilt on your shoulders, Ned."

"Yeah," he sighed. "I know. I'm working on it."

She nodded, leaning up to kiss him briefly before starting to walk toward the exit nearby. "I'll see you at home. I have some stuff I have to do."

"Okay," he smiled, pulling her back in for another kiss. He'd missed that. Even in four days. When he pulled back, she opened her eyes slowly, smiling. "I missed that."

"Me too," Katie whispered, leaning for another brief, punctual kiss. She waved as she pushed the door open. "I love you."

"I love you," he said, stepping back toward his desk. He saw Rieley look up at him, and wondered if her mother was still around. "Hey, sorry. My wife, she needed me."

"That was her?" Rieley turned around, hoping Katie was still there, to see the mysterious person she'd learned about today from him. But she wasn't. "She has a nice voice. Kind of like my mom's. But, it's fine," Rieley laughed. "I just picked at my nail polish until it was gone."

"My wife does that too. It's a terrible habit," he laughed, running his hands through his hair. "Is there anything else you needed to tell me?"

"Uh, I don't think so," Rieley said, standing. "I don't want to take any more of your time."

"Well, I'm off the clock as of," he glanced at his watch and leaned on his desk. "Twelve minutes ago."

"Exactly. I better get going," she nodded. "Your wife will want you home. Plus the doors close at the Salvation Army at nine and that's where I'm staying at the still," Rieley said. "It's clean and has a working AC, but the curfew sucks. I've lived a lot worse before, so I try not to dwell."

Ned nodded, grabbing his keys as he pushed up off his desk. "Just take care of yourself, Rieley. I wish I could say it's safe, but it's not. Especially not for you when Arrow is still out there."

She nodded, backing up as he did. "I can take care of myself." She smiled. "I used to be a homeless person in New York, remember?"

He laughed, nodding. "Just be careful. Keep an eye out for everything," he sighed.

"Ok, I will, dad." She said sarcastically and then started for the door.

"I better get used to hearing that," Letrai sighed, pulling his attention.

"Why's that Captian?" Ned asked, grabbing his keys off his desk and turning off his monitor.

"My twelve-year-old daughter Samantha, she's coming to stay with me for two weeks. Her mom is dropping her off tomorrow morning at my house," Letrai sighed. "I haven't seen her since she was nine. I'm worried."

Ned didn't react at first, just nodded, until he'd registered what his boss had said.

Daughter. Twelve years old.

How old was he, again? He didn't look that old.

"I see your face is confused," Letrai laughed. "Did you not know about Sam? There's a picture on my desk. I just thought everyone knew."

"I thought that was your sister," he shrugged. "You don't look old enough to have a twelve year old."

The older man laughed, walking with Ned as he started to leave as well. It was odd to see him leaving, but not so much now that he knew his daughter was coming into town.

"She was planned by any means," Letrai chuckled. "I had a fling with her mother when we were twenty-one. Spring Break. End of story."

"That sounds like it's gotta be a fun story," Ned shoved his hands in his pockets as they walked to the backlot of cars behind the police station.

Letrai punched in his code, as did Ned and they both entered.

"Did I ask you how you came to be with Katie?" Letrai unlocked his SUV and his trunk started to open. He threw his briefcase in the back and closed it. "Didn't think so."

"I was her childhood crush," he winked, hoping his buddy and boss would spill the details on his spring break fling in college that resulted in a child. "We got together after she luckily broke up with her New York boyfriend. There. Now spill."

"Of course you were," Letrai laughed. "And Holly was love at first sight on the beaches of Cancun and not some drunken hookup at a frat party, three nights in a row."

"No, dead serious," he said, unlocking his truck as he walked toward it.

"Oh save it, Banks. I'll just ask Katie the next time I see her," Letrai shook his head and turned to get in his SUV.