Nick sighed as be packed up his duffel. Suspended indefinitely.

"National Security, my ass." He said out loud. If it wasn't for him, no one would have known about John Marin. He tried not to remember the yelling. That didn't bother him, he faced worse. But, how Marin's name was leaked to the press. Nick was very careful, he never wrote it down or mentioned it to anyone. He truly doubted Marco or his lawyer told anyone.

"Knock knock. Sorry, I heard." Maria's voice, the only good thing about his day.

"Hey Maria." He doubled checked that his locker was empty. "I'm surprised to see you here." She didn't care this was a men's locker room.

"Everyone's out, either training or on the field." She sighed. "I heard."

"Yeah." Nick was kicking himself for being so careless.

"I don't care what the bosses says, you helped blow open this case. Because of you, Marin is on Interpol. Every police station in the world will have his picture on their wall." Maria remembered that gossip in SVH. She shuddered, he was at Maria's house at one point when he was dating the twins. Elizabeth, Jessica, she loved them, but both had the worst judgment of men. At least Winston was safe, Brooke was a lucky woman.

"Yea. But I screwed up. I'll be lucky to be hired as a school crossing guard after this." He angrily threw his duffle bag over his shoulder. He was surprised to feel Maria's hand.

Maria smiled.

"You are a damned good cop. You took a huge risk, but because of you, Marin won't be able to hide anymore. Karl, he hides it, but he is sweating. He's good, but he forgot rule number one. Never be too self-confident. He had too much faith in his sons, Marco, he will break. He will want to cut a deal."

Nick gave a small smile. He hated drugs, what happened to Riveria, Jessica her friend Isabella, plus many others, he vowed to take Karl off the streets. He was just one of many crime lords, but he was one of the puzzle pieces. Without him, the ones that are under him will fall. His connections scrambling to fill in their orders. The Cartel, the Sicilians, the Bratva, the Russian Mob, they count on Karl. But not for long. Their conversation was cut short by Maria's phone.

"Santelli. What! When! Uh, uh. Yes sir. Right away." She hung up.

"Maria?"

"Marco. He's dead."

"What? How? When?" Nick couldn't believe it.

"Early this morning. He hung himself in his cell."

"Dammit." Now what? He was the only one that knew about Marin. "What does Karl say?"

"I don't know. But his lawyer is going to milk this as much as she could. The grieving father losing his baby boy. A estranged relationship with his oldest. This trail will get delayed for grieving."

"Nothing to do with me."

"Sorry Fox." Maria knew how important this case was to him.

"Things will work out, Maria, here." He hands her a note. He whispers in her ear. "This is strictly under the table, so to speak."

Maria carefully opens it.

"Shh. Get rid of it. Ahem. Maria, its been fun. Maybe it's time I took that vacation." He smiles sadly at her. "Take care Partner."

"You too Fox." Maria watches as he walked out.

She didn't trust anyone, so she goes to the toilet and rips apart the paper into tiny pieces and flushes them. She had a job to do.