Luckily, they had managed to find a parking spot in a nearby bank parking lot. Together, Peter and Antonio carried the fourteen pizzas from the car to the volunteer food tent.

Elisa and Peter reported to the volunteer coordination tent to see where assistance was needed. Elisa offered to help in the food and drink area, knowing that was pretty much the only place that she could be of any help.

Peter joined one of the bucket relay teams, as Elisa had been with that first night. There were multiple lines of people, passing buckets full of ash, dust and debris from the site of the buildings. The last person in the line emptied the bucket, and tossed it to another line, where it would work its way forward to be filled again. This process would be repeated over and over throughout the day in the hopes of finding more survivors.

Once in a while, there would be calls for silence, and an eerie silence would descend over the entire scene for minutes at a time before the digging would continue. That usually meant one of two things; One of the diggers had thought they heard a voice that could be a survivor, or someone had found the body of a person who had not made it out.

Elisa was far enough from the digs that she couldn't tell the difference in the quiet times anymore. She chose to believe that it was more often than not that they were listening for people. Already, a group of firemen had been found alive, having been protected in an area where the thick walls of a stairwell had protected them.

So there was still hope.

Elisa helped to serve pizza and bottles of water and juice to anyone who came to the tent. It was awkward at first, but soon she came up with a system. She was thankful for Antonio. He had stuck around to actually slice the few pizzas that he had not had time to cut at the restaurant, and after seeing how difficult it was for her to actually hand out the slices without bending her arms, he simply phoned his father and told him that he was needed there as a volunteer.

Antonio had returned, and took over putting the individual slices on the plates. He would hand Elisa a plate or two to distribute to the tables. Elisa thanked him profusely for the help, knowing that without him, she would be of no use to anyone. Antonio just smiled and quietly thanked her for helping his family when he was not there to do so himself, and passed her another plate to hand out.

Grateful that he was not making as big of a deal as his father and sister, Elisa simply smiled and continued her work. Twice more, one of Matteo's kids came by with more pizzas, and twice more the person stayed on to help. There were around a hundred people in the refreshment tent at any given time, and all were thankful for the food and drink. They would eat a slice or two, then go back out to continue their work.

Finally, after being there for most of the day, Peter came to collect Elisa from the tent. He sat with her, making sure that she ate a few slices herself before getting some for himself.

Antonio and his two brothers promised to come back to help more the next night, for as long as Elisa needed the help.

They were joined by Jacqueline Morgan, Officer Morgan's wife. She had been there for most of the day as well, helping at the first aid tent. She had noticed Elisa's arms early that day, and had inquired about the injury. From that point on, she had come over to check on Elisa every few hours or so to check the bandages. Now, however, she was taking a much needed break.

"How are the arms?" She asked.

"They are still there," Elisa said. "I just wish they were a little shorter."

Jacqueline chuckled. "I bet. A little hard to eat with those bandages on?"

"I can't fully bend my arms, so eating is a little hard," Elisa said in frustration.

"But," Peter interjected," She won't let me help her."

"Sorry dad, but having my father hand feed me pizza slices makes me feel like I am a toddler again." Elisa groused.

"I think I can help with that," Jacqueline said, leaning close to Elisa's arms. Carefully, she removed Elisa's outer, waterproof wrapping. "There. You will be able to bend them a little more now, just don't get wet."

Elisa bent her arms at the elbow, bringing the slice of pizza closer to her mouth and actually be able to take a bite. She gave an appreciative hmmm. "Oh my god, thank you."

Jacqueline laughed. "Just promise me that if you are going to be doing any more work for today, that you let me put those wrappings back on."

Elisa shook her head. "I'm finished today. We were just grabbing something quick to eat, them heading home for the night."

"Alright, sweetie." Jacqueline patted the detective on her shoulder. "It's really good to see you, Elisa. Morgan and I were really worried about you."

"Tell Morgan I said Hi, would you?" Elisa asked.

"You bet," She replied. "In fact, I think I just saw him over…"

She was cut off by a radio asking for first aid assistance. She apologized, and took off at a run.

"I wonder what that was for," Elisa said.

Peter shrugged and had just finished his last slice when there was a massive call for help. Peter threw his daughter a warning glance and told her to stay put. He got to his feet and ran with the other volunteers who had been in the tent.

Elisa followed behind them all, curious what had happened. She was there, in the background, when two PAPD officers were brought up from the rubble alive. Carefully, two lines of people, one on each side of the back boards, passed them down the line to the waiting ambulances.

She watched as they were loaded into the transport vehicles amidst the cheering of the volunteers.

Soon after, Peter helped her to the car. It was going to be dark soon, and he knew that she needed to be home before dark fell. They drove in silence the short distance to her condo building.

Along the way, she noticed that the sidewalks were lined with people. They were holding candles, flags and signs saying things like "God Bless the NYFD". It was encouraging to Elisa to see the city united as they were. She had heard from the other volunteers that people were coming out in droves, donation food and non-perishable items to the various fire and police stations to help those where were working at The Pile.

Correction, Elisa reflected. Only the people working there were calling it The Pile anymore. It was being called Ground Zero by the media now.

Ground Zero was fitting, she was thinking now. It was the place where an event took place that was going to change… well… everything.

They ran into Patty in the lobby as she was taking Tidbit out for her walk. Tidbit danced and flirted with Peter as Patty showed distress and hovered over Elisa. She offered her help to Elisa in any way that she could help.

"I'm going to pick something up for dinner at Zio across the street for dinner. Can I get you and your father anything?"

"We just had a few slices of pizza," Elisa said.

"Pizza?" Patty scoffed. "Please. Is your husband going to be home soon?"

"Yes," Elisa said. "He won't be here until after dark, though."

"That's good," Patty said. "I will pick you all up something to eat so that you don't have to cook tonight. What do you prefer? Steak or chicken?"

"Patty, you don't have to…"

"I know I don't have to." Patty said briskly. "I want to."

Elisa bowed her head in defeat. She had known Patty for a few years now, and knew when she wasn't going to win an argument. This was one of those times.

"Chicken." She admitted.

"Chicken for me as well." Peter said. "Thank you."

Patty nodded. "And for your son and husband?"

"The ravioli and the steak," Elisa said. "At least let me pay for half of it."

"Nope. Sorry." Patty said breezily. "I will phone in the order while Tidbit and I go for our stroll, and I will pick it up on the way back."

Elisa didn't mind pizza, but it was not her favorite food in the world. She had gone most of the day without eating, and the only things that she had eaten was pizza. At the thought of real food, her stomach growled.

"There," Patty said triumphantly. "That settles that. I'll be back with dinner soon. You go rest." She called the last over her shoulder as she walked with her tiny poodle out the door.

"Just out of curiosity," Peter asked with a smile as they entered the elevator, "Have you ever won an argument with her?"

"Rarely," Elisa admitted. "She's a great lady, and she has kind of adopted Liam as an unofficial grandchild. She likes to take care of people when she can, and it seems that we have hit her radar tonight."

"I, for one, am not going to argue," Peter said. "Something other than fast food sounds amazing. I will make sure that the next time your mother and I are in town, that we treat her and her husband to dinner as a thank you."

"Sounds like a plan, dad." Elisa said. "I'll chip in if you take her somewhere really fancy. She needs it."

"Deal."

As the night before, while she had been as The Pile and had something to do, she was fine. Now that she had stopped, weariness was weighing on her.

"Would you like to go lay down?" Peter asked. "I can keep an ear out for the buzzer and let Patty up with dinner."

Elisa nodded. "I'm not sure if I will be able to sleep, but I would like to at least lay down."

The elevator door opened to the hallway just outside of her door, and Elisa dug her keys out of her pocket. She handed them to her father, and he opened the door for them both. The sun was just beginning to color the sky with the vivid colors of its descent.

Elisa retreated upstairs to her bedroom. She called and left a message with Owen that she had returned home. Her father would be staying with her for a few nights, so she would have help with Liam. If he could pass the message on to Goliath to let him know to bring their son home, she would be appreciative.

Then she laid down. Surprisingly, she actually did fall asleep… Not for long, but she did have a brief nap. When she woke, any trace of the sun had gone from the sky. She looked at her alarm clock, amazed that she had slept for almost an hour.

She felt more rested at that moment than she had in… well… almost a week now.

Knowing that Goliath couldn't be far away now, Elisa walked outside of the sliding doors of her bedroom and down the stone steps there to the courtyard.

And there, she waited for the rest of her family to come home at last.