The Corrupter - Hey you, you caught me just in time - you can't tell me I made you wait ages now. I am wrapping some things up, mainly because I think that they've been lingering for a little too long now. But I'm unfortunately(?) far from being finished. Gus belongs to Madison Bellows, not me, but I'm hoping she will be back. Soon! And Cory will be around, on and off for a while now too!

Trizzy - don't tell me Valens has left Cold Case, because I don't think I'll be able to handle that one. I know which one you're talking about - I had it reccomended to me a while back and I did start reading it. I just got to the point where I wasn't reading FF at all anymore! I definately want the wedding to happen too! Happy New Year to you, too!

Madison Bellows - I got a little obsessed with that show, so I had to use it, but I do plan on sending them to Philly in the future!

sparkyCSI - I've said it to you before, and I'll say it again, but I can't wait for them all to be friends. They've done something with Mac's character in season 3 and I'm not sure it's recovered! Don't worry about the chapters - I know I bombarded you with them!!

Thoren, Abby and Kilana - hey guys! Glad you liked! Don't have a sugar rush, lol! I know what you mean about the episode - I've been watching all the old seasons when I can.

ambercsiny - I can't believe you started it all over again! I've actually been very busy swamping my beta down with chapters - I think I may be wearing my fingers away to stubs on my keyboard at the minute, so there's plenty more to come!

Laplandgurl - I never know where my muse is going to take me, which is cometimes fun. But with this one, I think things will be alright! And Stella's gonna be fine too - I promise!

demolished-soul - Yeah, Valens will be back. I love his character in Cold Case and I really don't think they did it justice in the CSI. Not that I think I can do, but I'm gonna have fun trying!

meadow567 - well, I was trying to get 'Shag' downloading, but I'm having fun trying to find sources. So I think i will have to admit defeat and go rent it!

Big thanks to my beta - sparky!

And we still have spoilers for Cold Reveal, and ... Comes Around!

What The Eyes Can't See

Chapter 198: You have to show them that you're really not scared

Taylor was already out of the house before Flack had hit the shower, having never gone to bed. Hyped up on Red Bull, she'd dropped Cordelia off at the pre-school club (probably one of the few times Cordy had ever turned up to school on time) made a detour to her paper, and gone straight to the lab, her arms laden with sheets of papers and folders, and a box.

'You haven't slept, have you?' Danny asked taking one look at her.

Taylor shook her head. 'Too much to do.'

'You do realize you have done my job, haven't you?' he asked her, taking the items out of her hands and putting them on his desk.

'Yeah, but I also realize that not only does Stella not need this stress whilst pregnant, that this is the only way I can do anything remotely useful, and even then it doesn't begin to pay her back for the amount of times she's helped me over the years,' she informed him before going over what she had. She had just about finished when Stella walked in, Valens right behind her, also looking like she hadn't slept much either.

'What you got?' Stella asked, giving them both bright smiles.

Taylor held up a paper. 'I found a photo expose on the sorrowful wall at the Museum du Barrio, March 30th 1997.'

'That's the day after the bloody clothes were found,' Valens noted.

'The photo byline was Erin Yates,' explained Danny. 'And get this, after she handed in the film on the exhibit, the paper never heard from her again.'

Stella turned to Valens. 'Could she be your vic?' she asked.

Valens shrugged. 'Could be.'

Taylor motioned to the box. 'That paper was at the New York Daily. I stopped in and grabbed her box of belongings that she left behind. There's water damage. From the hose pipes and burst pipes in the explosion,' she added.

Valens leant over and looked in the box, plucking out one of the items. 'Press pass.' He handed it over to Stella.

'I don't know her.'

There's a bunch of films, and the last one is dated march 27th 1997, which is two days before you found the bloody clothes,' said Danny, pulling the items out.

Taylor glanced over. 'I wonder why she never developed the films?'

Stella shrugged. 'Maybe Erin took photographs of something she shouldn't.'

'So let's develop them and see what's on them,' Taylor said, making for the films.

Danny slapped her hand away. 'You have to be in court.'

Taylor glanced down at her watch and swore. 'Sorry Stella,' she yelled over her shoulder as she ran out of the door.

Valens turned to the two New York detectives. 'Is she always like that?'

Stella nodded. 'You get used to it.'

---

'Where the hell have you been?' Flack asked as Taylor got out of the taxi and dashed up the steps to the courtroom.

'I had to stop by the lab,' she explained as she paused to examine her reflection in a window.

'You're cutting it fine,' Flack told her, ushering her on. 'They're starting to call people up. And you're first on that list.'

It wasn't long before Taylor was seated and waiting expectantly for the departmental investigator to question her. 'So, Miss Turner. Could you just state, for the record, your name and profession.'

Taylor gave the woman, Natalie, a smile. 'Taylor Turner. Crime writer for the New York Daily.'

Natalie gave her a smile that made Taylor think of a cat who had an unsuspecting mouse within its grasp. 'So, you're a reporter?'

Taylor frowned. 'I prefer the term, columnist.'

'But you write for one of the biggest newspapers in New York, correct?'

Taylor nodded. 'Yes, but-'

'And can you explain why you were there?'

'Where?' Taylor asked carefully.

'Wherever you like,' Natalie shrugged. 'The crime lab, where the detectives found Katie Lawrence, the back of Detective Taylor's car, why you were handcuffed outside the same building that Detective Taylor pushed Truby off of.'

'Mac didn't push him,' Taylor quickly jumped in.

'And you know this for certain, do you?'

'Yes,' Taylor told her firmly.

'But you were handcuffed to the door of Detective Taylor's car?'

Taylor frowned. 'Yes, but-'

'And why were you handcuffed to the car door, Miss Turner?' Natalie asked her politely.

Taylor pursed her lips. 'I, uh. I'm a bit of a klutz?' she offered.

Natalie walked over to her table and looked down at the papers that were laid out over it. 'It says in your statement to IAB that you were, and I quote, "messing around with them".'

'If that's what I said,' Taylor muttered.

'You make it a habit of "messing around" with officer's cuffs?'

'I wouldn't say I make a usual practice of it,' Taylor told her, really not feeling any love for the woman.

'And what about turning up at crime scenes? Do you make a usual practice of that?'

Taylor glared at her. 'With all due respect, that wasn't a crime scene. Or at least it wasn't when I arrived there.'

'But why were you there, Miss Turner?'

Taylor frowned. How the hell was she going to explain this one?! 'Some... one came to see me,' she said, picking her words carefully.

'Someone told you that Detective Taylor was going to kill Truby?'

'No,' Taylor said quickly. 'Someone came to me with information that someone might be in trouble.'

'You're not exactly forthcoming with the details,' Natalie pointed out.

'Look,' Taylor snapped. 'I may not be a police officer, but in my line of work, I still get people coming to me and giving me information in confidence and I'll be damned if I'm going to betray that trust.'

'So you admit that you're not a police officer, and yet you are repeatedly found at crime scenes and in the crime lab?'

Taylor's eyes narrowed as she wished she had the power to kill people with a glance. 'Yes,' Taylor answered wondering where she was going with this.

'And is it true that you have been asked repeatedly to leave said crime scenes?'

'Well it's a little-'

'A simple yes or no will do,' Natalie told her with a patronising smile.

'Yes.'

'So I repeat the question, Miss Turner. Why were you at the crime scene? Or were you there for a story?'

'I don't go to the crime scenes for stories,' Taylor snapped. 'And if you bothered to read anything I've ever written, you'd know that.'

'So why were you there?' Natalie repeated.

'Because I was worried Mac was going to do something stupid,' Taylor yelled at her, regretting it as soon as it left her mouth.

'Thank you, Miss Turner.'

'I didn't mean it like that,' Taylor told her.

'That will be all.'

----

'That woman is a stupid bitch!' Taylor snarled as she stormed out of the courtroom and past Flack who was stood waiting for her.

'What the hell happened?' Flack asked her, chasing after her, outside into the softly falling snow.

'She set me up, Don,' Taylor told him. 'And I fell for it hook, line and sinker.'

Flack let out a long breath. 'What did you say?'

'That I thought that Mac was going to do something stupid.'

Taylor,' Flack sighed, pulling her to one side.

'And to top it off, to stop myself looking crazy, I made myself look stupid. At least if I'd have admitted that I was there because a ghost told me, then looking crazy would have been to Mac's benefit. But no. '

'Detective Flack?'

The pair turned to see a man in a suit calling the detective over. 'That's Mac's Union Rep,' Flack muttered. 'I'm up after lunch. I was gonna suggest getting something to eat, but I think I'm gonna be busy.'

Taylor gave a small sigh. 'I need to go see how Stella's getting on anyway.'

'Taylor, please be careful,' Flack begged as he pressed his lips against her forehead.

---

'How was court?' Danny asked her as Taylor pulled off her jacket and unravelled her scarf.

'The investigator is a bitch,' Taylor told him bluntly.

Danny took one look at Taylor's expression and decided not to push the issue. 'The photographs should be developed about now. Want to come and have a look-see?'

'You're not scared I'm going to write about what I see and put it in the papers?'

Danny arched an eyebrow. 'Okay, maybe you should go and get some sleep.'

Taylor's eyes narrowed. 'Daniel Messer, if you think that-'

'Is there something going on here that we should know about?' Valens asked, preventing Taylor from unnecessarily chewing Danny a new one.

Danny quickly shook his head. 'The photographs should be ready.'

Stella looked between the three and frowned. 'So why are we standing out here?' she asked them, manoeuvring around them to grab at the photographs. She frowned as she realised what was on them.

Valens leant over and took the photographs from her hands. 'She was at your academy graduation. Erin Yates, or whoever she is, took that picture of you,' he said as he leafed through them. 'You're the only graduate on that role of film.'

Stella slowly shook her head. 'But I don't know Erin and I have no idea why she took these pictures!'

Valens dipped the papers to stare at the Greek detective. 'Every dot I connect here leads back to you.'

Stella snatched the photographs back off him. 'I don't have the answers you're looking for, Detective Valens. Believe me, I wish I did.'

'What are you hiding, Stella?'

'Nothing!' Stella cried. 'I'm not hiding anything.'

'Valens, if she says she doesn't know, she doesn't know,' Danny told him.

Valens turned to Stella. 'I agreed to let you work this case because you're a cop. I'm trying to go along with the way you guys work, but clearly, that's my mistake,' he told her, his temper rising. 'I'll be back in a couple of hours, but if you still ain't talking, maybe we should do this my way. In Philly,' he added before storming off, photographs clutched firmly in his hands.

Danny glanced at Taylor before the pair turned to Stella. 'What's going on? Stella, look at me. What's going on here?'

Stella slowly shook her head, clearly upset at what was happening. 'I don't know, Danny. That's the problem. I don't know!'

'We'll get to the bottom of this, Stell,' Taylor told her. 'We all know you didn't kill anyone.'

Stella gave her a smile. 'Thank you, Taylor.'

-----

She had been tempted to stay away, but Flack had been waiting outside for her whilst she'd been interrogated by the woman she was now referring to as 'the bitch' (and she wasn't particularly bothered about how mature that was at that point!), so the least that she could do was give Flack the same support. If only she could have managed it without being late and slinking into the room.

'The subsequent arrest and prosecution of Detective Truby resulted in several of his cases being overturned, isn't that right?' the bitch was asking.

Flack nodded. 'Yes. We discuss-'

'And one of those cases was the clay Dobson case?'

'That is correct.'

'Clay Dobson confessed to raping and killing several women,' the bitch said. 'Months after his release, he raped and killed another girl?'

'If it weren't for Detective Taylor-'

The bitch cut Flack of again. 'So as a result of Detective Taylor's actions a serial killer was released and he killed again. I tell you what?' she said quickly, cutting herself off. 'We'll get back to that. When you eventually reached the roof that day, how would you describe Detective Taylor's demeanor?'

Flack stared at the woman, carefully weighing his reply. 'I would say he was shocked more than anything else.'

The bitch was on him in a shot. 'Shocked because he had just dropped a man from the roof?'

Flack shot her a scathing glare. 'Shocked because he had just seen a man jump off the roof,' he corrected her.

'A handcuffed and beaten man. You weren't there detective. Do you know as a fact that Clay Dobson jumped?

'No,' Flack admitted. 'But-'

'Thank you, Detective Flack.'

----

'You're right,' Flack fumed. 'The woman is a bitch.'

'I think I called her a stupid bitch,' Taylor growled. The two were walking home, having decided that maybe the fresh air would clear their minds. Instead, they hadn't done much more than insult the departmental investigator, who, in all fairness, was only doing her job (and pretty well at that), but neither of them were in the mood to admit it. 'I'd like to see her get pushed off a building.'

'He jumped,' Flack pointed out.

'Still doesn't mean I don't want to push her off a building,' Taylor grumbled as she wrapped her arms tightly around herself. 'A tall one.'

'You know, after fifty feet, it doesn't make much difference how far they fall.'

Taylor slowly turned her head to look up at him.

'What?' he shrugged. 'It's true.'

'You spend too much time in that crime lab,' Taylor told him.

Flack stopped and held out his hand. 'Hi Pot, I'm Kettle.'

'Whatever,' Taylor sulked, walking on. Realizing Flack wasn't following, she stopped again and turned. 'Are you coming or-' Taylor spat the snow out of her mouth. 'Oh you didn't!' she cried, lunging for the nearest pile of snow and creating a snowball. Before she could turn to launch it, another was being thrown at her. 'You're going to pay for that!' she yelled, chasing after the laughing detective.

First of all: HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope y'all had a good 'un, and I hope this year is better than the last one!

Secondly, a HUGE thanks to everyone who's reading and reviewing, and to all you lurkers! But don't be afraid of dropping a line and letting me know what you think - I would love to hear from you!