"Would you hold still?" Leah responded as she placed an ice pack on Gavin's bruised right eye.
"I'm gonna kill that plastic prick when I get my hands on him!" Gavin growled.
"Calm down. Sixty's just being a brat, trying to get you angry enough to go after him." Leah explained, Gavin getting her to move the ice pack off of him and pulling her onto his lap.
"Red, you've been crying. No matter how much concealer you apply under your eyes, I can always tell." Gavin responded.
"It was a bad night… bad being an understatement." Leah replied before she explained everything… and Gavin pulled her closer to him before they hugged, Gavin lightly rubbing her back.
"How about after we all find our Halloween costumes, we play Cards Against Humanity?" Gavin asked, Leah smiling. "Sounds good?" He responded.
"Sounds good. Just don't let Sumo try to eat the cards." Leah replied before Gavin kissed her forehead and they let go.
Back at her desk, Leah heard her scanner go off and picked it up.
"Run that by me again?" Leah asked.
"Attempted murder in Greektown, paramedics are already on their way."
"On it." Leah responded before she stood up, pulling her black trench coat on and buttoning it before she, Connor, Hank, Gavin and Nines left.
In Greektown, the five of them saw Leo on a stretcher with his wrists locked in restraints and he saw Leah and turned pale.
"But… but how?! You were right there with a knife!" Leo responded frantically, Connor shielding Leah as the medics put Leo in the ambulance.
"He's completely lost it this time." Leah replied as Connor pulled her into a hug.
"He's probably just high again. He'll calm down once he crashes." Connor responded before they kissed.
The ambulance left as Leah looked for a knife… and she put latex gloves on and grabbed an evidence bag after seeing the blood stained weapon, putting it in the bag and closing it before she pulled the latex gloves off.
"Forensics is on its way, Red." Gavin responded.
Leah nodded distantly as Connor and Nines ran a reconstruction of the crime… and Connor saw that Leo had pulled some red hair from his attacker.
At the precinct, Leah registered the knife as evidence and typed up the crime scene report as forensics got back to her through the scanner.
"Prints on the knife are inconclusive, blood type on the handle is Rh Null."
"Okay, thanks Natasha." Leah responded through the scanner… and she stood up as Hank walked to her. "Blood type found on the handle of the knife is Rh Null." She explained.
"That's your blood type, that's also a very rare blood type." Hank responded before they heard the scanners going off.
"All units, all units, be advised that a patient escaped from Helping Hand Nursing Service Home."
"Patient description?" Leah asked after picking up her scanner.
"Patient is described as 5'5", mid to late 40s with red hair and blue eyes, having sustained life threatening injuries from a car accident 19 years ago."
Leah dropped her scanner in shock and Connor helped her sit down after running to her as Hank picked up the scanner.
"This is Lieutenant Anderson, where was the patient last seen?" Hank replied.
"Hank? Is that really you?"
"Avery?! It's been forever." Hank responded after hearing his former academy classmate's voice.
"It has, Hank. The patient was last seen at Jimmy's Bar, asking if anyone has seen her little girl."
The three reached Jimmy's Bar and saw a woman in her early 50s that easily looked a decade or so younger with hazel green eyes and long caramel brown hair tied back into a slightly messy bun and wearing black skinny jeans, black boots, a faded grey shirt and a black leather jacket.
Avery stood at about 5'8" and similar to Leah, Avery was on the slender side but curvy… Avery and Hank hugged, having not seen each other since Avery had moved to Novi in 2017.
"I've missed you so damn much, Hank." Avery responded before they let go.
"I've missed you too, Avery. This is my niece, Leah. And her boyfriend, Connor." Hank replied before Avery smiled at them and shook their hands.
"Wow. You look eerily similar to the woman I saw in Jimmy's Bar." Avery responded.
"You saw her?! Did she give a name to anyone?" Leah questioned.
"She did though no one believed her…" Avery responded before she turned around after hearing footsteps. "Find the security footage, Hayes?" She asked before Dianne showed them the security footage on the tablet.
"Right there is where she walks in, goes to the bartender and talks to him. From what the locals in the bar said, the woman gave her name as…" Dianne explained before she saw the looks on Leah's and Hank's faces. "Do you two know her?" She questioned, absentmindedly tucking some of her jaw length raven hair behind her right hair.
Connor caught Leah from falling and helped her sit down in the passenger seat of Hank's car.
"It can't be possible…" Leah responded, Hank resting his right hand on her left shoulder and Leah looking at him. "My mom's alive…" She replied in disbelief.
"She is… I'm trying to process it myself because I remember the doctor taking her to the OR for emergency surgery, her spleen had ruptured in the car crash. When we tried to get any further information, we were stonewalled by staff." Hank responded.
"So Steven just… walked away, left you to care for me… not knowing whether my mom, his own wife was alive or not? Fuck…" Leah replied as Connor lightly rubbed her back and Hank turned to Avery after he and Leah hugged.
"Did they say how Elena escaped the nursing home?" Hank asked.
"She had apparently woken up late last night and when her mom had shown up to visit, Elena had become agitated and started yelling at Valerie about putting her there and taking her away from Leah. She managed to escape with a man a little younger than her." Avery responded before Leah stood up once they heard footsteps and saw someone run into an alleyway.
Leah motioned for the others to stay back as she carefully walked towards the alleyway, not wanting to scare the person.
"It's okay, you're safe. Officer Anderson, DPD… I won't hurt you." Leah explained reassuringly as she walked into the alleyway.
Looking from her hiding place which was an android operated dumpster, Elena walked away from it.
"My little girl is an officer?" Elena asked with a timid smile on her face, Leah returning the timid smile with a gentle one.
"Mom… it's really you." Leah responded before they ran to each other and hugged.
"Oh, my baby girl. You have no idea how much I've missed you." Elena replied as tears ran down their faces. "You are way too thin for my liking, Leah. Who's been taking care of you this entire time?" She responded before they let go and Leah carefully guided Elena out of the alleyway.
Elena saw Hank and they hugged tightly for a few minutes, Hank unbuttoning his coat and putting it on Elena to keep her warm.
"Hank… damn, you got old." Elena replied jokingly.
"Happens to the best of us, Elena. Doesn't help that Leah was a handful to raise." Hank responded.
"Hey, I wasn't that bad." Leah replied before Elena and Avery saw each other and Leah turned to Avery.
"It's been a while, Avery." Elena responded.
"It has. I don't know why I didn't recognize you at first." Avery replied as she quickly bandaged Elena's bleeding right hand. "Don't worry, you're never going back there. But you do need to be checked out at the ER." She explained gently.
Elena nodded in agreement before she and Leah hugged and Gavin got out of his patrol car at the same time the paramedics showed up.
At the Helping Hand Nursing Service Home, Valerie was fuming as her son Tyler walked over to her.
"How the hell could you help Elena escape?!" Valerie demanded.
"She didn't belong here to begin with, you heartless old shrew! She went no contact with you because you tried to force her to abort her own child, she protected her baby from you!" Tyler responded angrily before he turned to one of the staff. "Keep your eyes on her and sound the alarm if she tries to leave." He explained before he turned to leave and Valerie grabbed him by his right arm.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?!" Valerie sneered.
"To go find my sister and hug her. Hopefully my niece is there so she can finally know the truth." Tyler shot back before he walked away.
Valerie was pissed off as she knew her plan was unraveling.