1. Chapter 1

**Authors Note: A continuation from 'A Step Into The World' and my Christmas present to Brinchen86, I hope you like it Brina.**

**I know this was originally set in 1895 but I was struggling to tell the story and keep it in the time period. So this has jumped forward about half a century, I hope you all still enjoy it and feedback is loved. **

* * *

**What Does Not Kill You**

**Chapter 1**

Danny used to love the smell of pizza, it had been one of his favourite foods growing up but after five years working for his uncle in the pizzeria he was really starting to dislike the smell. The job put money in his pocket though and it kept him out of trouble. He finished cleaning up the kitchen and walked out to the front where his uncle was emptying the cash register, counting it up and organising the money ready to be put away in the safe for the night. His uncle always cashed up himself, in the all the years Danny had worked there he'd never seen anyone else do it, even when his uncle had the day off he would come in at closing time to count up the money they'd made. He'd told Danny that as much as he trusted the majority of his employees he couldn't rest easy knowing he hadn't taken care of the money himself.

"Anything else you need me to do Uncle David?" Danny asked as he walked around the outside of the counter and turned to lean on it.

"No, everything's done, you can go home now, just be careful," David told him and Danny nodded heading back through to the back of the pizzeria to grab his jacket and shouting goodbye to his uncle as he left.

The streets of New York were dark this late at night and even the few street lamps did little to help. He glanced around him for any sign of trouble and back at the pizzeria, he didn't like leaving his uncle alone with so much money in there but he'd almost been done with the cash, another ten minutes and his uncle would be out of there too. He kept his head down as he walked the couple of blocks to his apartment, dodging the looks of several kids gathered on corners and the advances of a couple of half dressed women. It was a relief when he made it back to his apartment, the relief was short lived however when he heard voices coming from inside.

"Where've you been Danny boy?" his brother questioned as he walked into the apartment. Danny glanced at the few friends Louie had brought with him, three of them, all looking like the trouble he knew they were.

"At work," Danny replied taking off his jacket and tossing it on the couch. "What are you doing here; I gave you that key for emergencies?" Danny questioned, he was seriously regretting ever giving that key to his brother, he should have given it to his uncle instead but back then Louie had seemed the logical choice.

"When are you going to pack that place in and earn some real money with us?" Louie questioned. "You're wasting yourself there."

"I'm not wasting anything there Louie, I like working there," Danny replied not wanting to get into the argument again, especially with the others there.

"Whatever man," Louie stated. "We're about to go teach some idiot a lesson about paying his protection money on time, want to roll with us?"

"No thanks, I'm beat from work, I'm just gonna get some sleep," Danny told him, excusing himself quickly and heading through to the bedroom. He closed the door behind him and leaned against it listening to the sounds from the other room.

"You know Louie," one of the guys stated. "I'm not sure your brother is completely committed to our cause."

"Yeah, is he gonna be a problem for us cos you know Mika won't like it?" another questioned.

"He's fine guys, he works a lot of hours at that damn pizzeria, I'll get him out of it and then he'll be one of us," Louie told him and despite the fact that Danny wanted nothing to do with the gang he was grateful to his brother for defending him. That being said though, it was Louie's fault the gang was interested in him anyway. He heard the guys leave and came back out of the room, he felt like some naughty kid who'd been grounded and were waiting for his parents to go to bed so he could sneak out. He was twenty four now and still had the need to hide in his bedroom from his big brother, life was screwed up.

* * *

Helden High School was every bit as terrifying as she'd thought it was going to be after her interview last week. The kids were impossible; most of them seemed to have little to no interest in what they were supposed to be learning. It was a mixed schools, boys and girls sitting in the class room together and the combination was startlingly unhelpful. Hardly anyone was paying attention and those who were couldn't learn anything because of the rest of the class, it was only her first day and she already felt like maybe this was too much. Then her father's smug grin came into her mind and she remembered why she couldn't quit and go home as much she wanted to at that moment.

"Mr Kyber, please get down from the desk and sit down," Lindsay instructed but if the teenager heard her then he wasn't giving any indication of it.

"Relax Miss Monroe," another kid stated as he looked over her with an expression that made Lindsay shiver unpleasantly. "Why don't you come and sit down with me and stop worrying that pretty little head of yours, I bet I can take your mind off all your troubles."

Somewhat sickened Lindsay opened her mouth to respond but was cut off by the sound of the bell ringing to announce lunchtime. The class didn't even wait for her to speak before they were heading out the classroom, a couple of comments being thrown her way as she went. She sighed as she grabbed her few books and looked over the mess her classroom had become in just one morning, she could sort it out when she came back. She left the room and weaved her way through crowds of students, making it to the staff room without trouble.

Many of the teachers were already there, sitting on the couches with coffees and sandwiches talking amongst themselves. The Principle was just on his way out and he gave Lindsay a nod as he passed her by. It was mostly men, Lindsay noticed, it was the first time she'd seen a significant number of the staff and there were only three women other than herself in a group of at least ten men. It didn't surprise her though; despite having earned the right to vote women were still having to fight for every opportunity they could get. A job that required something of an education was much harder for women to get.

"Ah, Miss Monroe," one of the men greeted her. "How is your first day going?"

"How do you think her first day is going?" another of them asked him back. "How was your first day here, a nightmare and you wanted to quit before the bell even rang for lunch."

"Yeah but I stuck around didn't I?" the first man questioned back. One of the women stood up and took her coffee mug and plate to the sink, rinsing them out.

"It's a tough job Miss Monroe," she stated, she looked worn out, tired and Lindsay hoped there was better in store for her than that.

"It's been a difficult morning, the students don't seem to be interested in learning," Lindsay replied as she took a seat at the small table. She was nervous, she didn't want to seem like she was incapable in front of them. "I'm sure it'll get easier though."

"Don't count on it," the woman said as she turned to leave the room. "Let me give you a piece of advice, it's served me well over the years. Don't get attached, don't start to care too much because the majority of these kids already have their future's set, they'll end up in jail or dead and it'll only make things harder for you if you let yourself care. Just show up, teach what you have to and then go home, if they don't listen to you then that's their problem, don't let it be yours."

With that the woman left along with a couple of the other teachers and those that remained went back to their own business. Lindsay suddenly didn't feel quite so good about this job, she wanted to help people, to teach them so they could have better lives, not go through the motions of it and watch these kids fail.

"Don't listen to her," the woman sat the table said to her, putting her coffee down and flicking long dark curls over her shoulder. She didn't look worn down like the other woman, just a little tired. "They're not all lost causes, not unless you give up on them."

Lindsay smiled. "Thanks."

"I'm Jess, Jessica Angell," the woman reached her hand out which Lindsay accepted.

"Lindsay Monroe."

Jess stood up to threw some rubbish in the nearby trash can and turned back to the table. "Welcome to Helden High School Lindsay."

Lindsay watched her leave and smiled to herself, maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all.

* * *

The police station was busy when Don was finally able to return, he'd been out all morning responding to a double homicide that had been one of the messiest scenes he'd seen yet and he'd been doing this job for years. He sat down at his desk, brushing away the crumbs from his breakfast that morning that he'd very suddenly been forced to eat in a couple of seconds and then leave. He didn't like having his breakfast interrupted, or his lunch, or dinner, or any other time that he was eating but sometimes the job didn't care for his lunch hour.

There was a file waiting for him on his desk, a sticky note attached to the front that told him it was related to his double homicide. He opened it up and scanned through the information quickly; skim reading to the end, angry at what he learned. He stood up, taking the file with him as he headed down to the hallway to the captain's office. He knocked on the door and it was a few seconds before the voice at the other side told him to come in.

He opened the door, the captain was on the phone and he glanced up at Don and gave him a nod as he continued to speak to whoever was on the end of the line, the captain didn't seem happy with them though and Don wondered whether he should come back with this later. He finally hung up the phone and gestured for Don to take a seat at the other side of the desk.

"Sorry about that Don," he said as he too sat down. "Where are we on the double homicide?"

"About as far as we usually get, Mac," Don told him, they'd both been working on the gang unit long enough to know that wasn't very far. "Joseph and Maria Sands, looks like they were tortured before they were killed, probably for a couple of hours."

"Definitely gang related?" Mac questioned and Don nodded.

"If there was any doubt, this confirms it," Don replied and handed Mac the file. "They came to us three times over the last nine days asking for help, they claimed they'd overheard a conversation they shouldn't have and had received several threats since then. Nothing was followed up and no help was given."

"Who did they speak to?" Mac questioned as he skimmed through the file just as Don had.

"Ramirez twice and Stackhouse once," Don told him and Mac sighed. "I thought we were going to take care of this problem, get better help for the people that come in here claiming to be under threat."

"We're working on it Don but it's not going to change overnight, a lot of guys are used to recording it, filing it and not thinking about it again until they show up dead," Mac told him. "It used to be the logical approach, we get so many tips and people coming in claiming to be witnesses to something or be under threat for some reason or another, with our current resources it's impossible to follow everything up."

Don knew that, he really did, it didn't make it any better though. "You should have seen the scene Mac, these two people died slowly and painfully and we could have prevented that if someone had taken just one of these reports more seriously."

"I know Don," Mac told him, handing him the file back. "Don't let this get to you too much, you're a good cop and you've lasted longer in this squad than most, I'd hate to see you burn yourself out now, you're the best I've got."

"Thanks Mac," Don said standing up to leave.

"Keep me informed," Mac stated and Don nodded leaving the office and heading back to his desk where yet another file was waiting for him.

* * *

Lindsay was pretty pleased with how her afternoon had gone, after lunch she'd managed to at least get her students into their chairs which considering her morning she thought was a pretty big achievement. They may not have paid any attention to what they were learning but she'd made a step in the right direction and maybe that's what it needed, baby steps. She picked up her purse and books, leaving her classroom and locking the door behind her. The school was mostly empty now, the students had left half an hour ago, many of the teachers not long after that. She made it halfway through the corridor when she saw one of the classroom doors opened and got a glimpse of Jessica Angell sat at her desk with her head in her hands.

She knew it was probably none of her business, she had only met the woman a few hours ago and their conversation had been brief but even though she couldn't see the teacher's face, the posture was more than enough to tell Lindsay she was upset. She walked in and gently knocked on the door watching as Jess sat up straight, her eyes darting to the door meeting Lindsay's with haunted gaze.

"Are you alright Miss Angell?" she questioned.

"Oh, I'm fine," the teacher replied and Lindsay hovered in the doorway, biting her lip. Jess smiled sadly and sighed. "I just found out one of my students was killed last night," she admitted and Lindsay gasped, bringing a hand to her mouth, horrified. She hadn't dwelled on what the other teacher had said about the students ending up dead or in jail, she supposed she'd have to give it more consideration now.

"I'm... very sorry," Lindsay replied, not really knowing what else to say.

"Thanks, he was a good kid, didn't really take up with the gangs, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Jess explained standing up and gathering together her things. "Unfortunately it's not the first time I've lost a student and I doubt it will be the last."

"That's... that's horrible," Lindsay stated.

"It is," Jess agreed "But I meant what I said earlier, they're not all lost causes, some of them are good kids, bright kids with a future ahead of them if they work for it. They're worth the pain sometimes."

Lindsay nodded. "I guess I'll have to keep that in mind."

"How rude of me not to ask," Jess began as she finished locking up her classroom and the two women made their way out of the school. "How was your first day?"

"Tough, but the afternoon was a little better," Lindsay told her.

"It does get easier, you just have to learn to understand them, some of them will be a thorn in your side from now until the day they leave but I think if they all learn something valuable from you, even just one thing, then you've done your job," Jess told her and Lindsay smiled and she nodded her head again. Glancing over at a group of kids, shouting and possibly drinking just down the street, Jess followed her gaze. "Out of school hours just keep your head down and if you can help it try not to be here after dark."

"Got it," Lindsay replied, looking around her, she probably would have stayed away from here after dark anyway.

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

**Authors Note: So next chapter is up, I hope you guys enjoy it. Huge thanks to Brinchen86, afrozenheart412 and lily moonlight for the reviews, you guys are all awesome!**

Chapter 2

Danny left his apartment glancing around him warily as he headed down the street. He saw a couple of Louie's friends hanging about at the end of the road so he sped up his movements hoping to get by unnoticed if he kept his head down and his eyes to himself. It didn't work though, not that he had expected it would.

"Hey Messer," one of the guys shouted. "We're meeting up with your brother to teach a few punks a lesson, you coming with?"

"Not this time, gotta work," Danny replied walking straight passed them and not looking back. It had been a bad move on his young, naive self's part to even getting partly involved with Louie and his gang when he was in high school. It had taken a smack over the back of the head from his uncle and a serious conversation for him to see sense just before his high school graduation. It had been the difference between him working at the pizzeria or being involved in a drive by shooting that left three of the gang members in prison and several dead bodies in its wake. Louie had asked him why he backed out at the last minute and Danny had used every excuse he could that day and every day since then to avoid the gang. It didn't help that his brother was such a dedicated and respected member of it, one who had been intent on bringing Danny back into the fold over the years.

He made his way around the corner, relieved to be out of sight and continued his way to the pizzeria. He spotted a familiar face coming the other way and searched his memory for where he knew her from, locating her quickly.

"Hi, Lindsay Monroe right?" he questioned when he reached her, relieved when she smiled and nodded at the name.

"And you're Danny Messer," she stated. "Thank you for your help last week, I managed to make it to my interview on time."

"It's not a problem, so dare I ask if you got the job?" Danny questioned, impressed with her already, there weren't many women who would take the time to go out and work.

"I did, I'm a teacher," Lindsay told him with a smile that said she was proud of herself. He knew the school, it was only a short distance from there, and he knew the neighbourhood, it couldn't be an easy place to work. He had to admit though; if the teachers had looked like her when he'd been in school he may have turned up for more of the lessons.

"Congratulations then," he replied and she nodded, smile widening.

"I should go, I don't want to be late for class," she told him.

"I'll guess I'll see you around then Miss Monroe," he stated as he stepped aside to let her pass.

"I guess you will Mr Messer," she replied and he screwed up his face.

"I sound like my Uncle, Danny please," he almost begged her and she laughed as she nodded again.

"Danny then, I'll see you around," she said as she turned around and walked away. He watched her go wondering if he could time more of his walks to work to coincide with hers. He shook his head and let that line of thought go remembering his uncle was waiting for him at the pizzeria. The pizzeria was still closed when Danny got there so he figured he wasn't too late and his uncle greeted him with a 'you're late' and a smile when he walked through the door.

"Sorry," Danny muttered as he ran into the back to grab an apron, glad that he had been taught the finer points of making a pizza by the chef, it saved him from constantly being stuck serving the customers out front. His uncle still made him go out there sometimes but at least he could spread his work between there and the kitchen occasionally making delivery runs, it made the job that little bit less boring.

* * *

The precinct was busy as usual; it seemed crime never stopped in New York which meant neither did the police. Don sat at his desk, reading his report from the Forensics department, they'd found no finger prints and nothing else useful at the scene. He'd worked this job long enough to know the value of the forensics department but their usefulness was limited, even when they found fingerprints or some sort of evidence at a scene it could only be used once he had a suspect to match it too, it was no help whatsoever in getting him a suspect, that was all down to detective work.

"Detective Flack," someone called and Don looked up from the report, closing the small file and sliding it into the tray in the corner of his desk. He saw Granger, one of the other detectives in the gang unit sliding through the crowd of officers that were gathered at one of the other desks and in his way. "I got something you might want to see."

Don took the file the guy handed to him opening it up; it was a sketch of the suspect drawn by one of the few artists they had available to them. He'd sat down with a witness, someone who had been friends with Sands and seen someone hanging around their home a few times in the two weeks before their murders.

He recognised the sketch easily, it was someone he'd dealt with before, plenty of times and someone who was well known to the gang unit, someone Mac would want to know about. He thanked Granger and stood up taking the file with him as he found himself once again heading to the captain's office. He knocked on the door and waited for Mac to call him in before he entered and took a seat opposite the captain with a heavy sigh.

"I see you have good news for me," Mac stated as he put down the pen he'd been writing with.

"That depends on what you consider good news," Don told him, handing the file over. "We got a suspect in the Sands murders."

"That's good," Mac replied warily opening the file and Don watched his eyes narrow and his jaw stiffen as he looked over the picture. "That not so much."

"This guy shows up on out radar a little too often, how is it possible we still haven't caught him?" Don questioned with another sigh as Mac put the file down on his desk.

"Because he covers his ass, he's clever and if we bring him in on any of the stuff we know he's done he'll find a way out of it and we'll lose our shot at him. It happened before, plenty of times and we can't afford for it to happen again. When we get this guy we need it to stick otherwise he'll only make it harder for us to get anything on him," Mac told him and Don nodded his head.

"What do you want me to do, I know you told us all to back off him but if he's the killer..." Don trailed off and Mac looked thoughtful for a minute.

"Keep investigating but hold off on this guy for now, I'll see what I can find out for you," Mac said and once again Don nodded, standing up to leave the office, stopping when Mac spoke again. "Don, if this guy is involved you need to be careful, I know I don't have to tell you that but, watch your back on this one."

"I always do Mac," Don replied, he wouldn't still be here if he didn't.

* * *

The school had emptied over an hour ago and Jess was just finishing up some stuff for her classes the next day. She looked at the clock, realising it would be getting dark before long and decided to finish up at home. She picked up the stack of papers on her desk, lesson plans and the homework she'd collected from students that needed to be graded. As usual it wouldn't take long, less than half the class had bothered to do the work at all and most of those who had just gave her a token effort, half a side of scribbled work.

She left her classroom locking the door behind her and walking out of the front of the school. It was a ten minute walk home so she should get there before dark easily but that didn't mean she could relax. She held the files and papers to her chest tightly as she walked, keeping her head down as she made her way along the street.

She stopped when someone stepped in front of her and she glanced up knowing she was in trouble as soon as her eyes met his. She tried to go around him, apologising despite not having done anything wrong and hoping to just get by him. Nothing was ever that simple though and he stepped in front of her again blocking her path. She sighed not allowing her fear to show as she met his eyes again.

"Excuse me," she said in annoyance but he smirked as someone stood by his side and two more men took up positions behind her, cutting her off from any chance of escape. It was not the first time she'd ended up in a position like this, nor she suspected would it be the last. Like every other time, she stood her ground, not allowing them to see that she was intimidated by them but that didn't mean she was stupid enough to not be afraid.

"Miss Angell, I think we need to have ourselves a little talk here," one of the guys stated and Jess held her chin up, refusing to back down or look afraid. If she showed any sign that she was intimidated by them they'd have her.

"I really don't have time," she told them and tried to leave again but they blocked her off.

"Then I suggest you make time," he stated, she stopped and looked at him.

"What do you want?" she questioned and he raised an eyebrow at her.

"I don't think that's the correct way for a woman to address a man," he told her looking at the other guys with a smirk. "We have ourselves a feisty one here," he mocked turning his attention back to her. "Craig Wayson, you're putting ideas in his head, unhelpful ideas and I suggest that you stop."

"If by ideas you mean that I tell him he doesn't have to end up in jail, that he can actually do something with his life then you can forget it, I'm his teacher, it's my job," she replied, keeping her fear out of her expression and her voice. She'd learned how to feign confidence, how to keep from looking intimidated, she lived in a world run by men who had no respect for women and what they could do outside of the kitchen and the bedroom. It was confidence and determination that had gotten her this far in life, it wasn't easy breaking the status quo but she couldn't and wouldn't spend her life making dinner for a man and producing his children.

"Listen woman," the man stated stepping into her personal space trying to intimidate her more, it worked too, but she wasn't going to let him know that. "Craig is ours, if you know what's good for you then you'll be a good little woman and do as you're told."

"I'll do my job, it's what I'm paid for," Jess told them and marched passed them, brushing by the man still standing in her way. They shouted after her, a veiled threat that she did her best to ignore as she walked down the street. She breathed a sigh of relief when she rounded the corner, out of their sight and almost home. She didn't stop walking until she was home, until she was walked into the safety of her father's house. He wasn't home yet but she knew he wouldn't be far behind her so she took her papers up to her room and left them on the desk her father had been kind enough to buy for her when she started working.

She sat down at the desk and leaned back in the chair, closing her eyes and willing her heart beat to slow down. She hated constantly getting in the way of all these gangs that almost seemed to be running New York. She didn't want to keep ending up in these situations but she wasn't going to live her life in fear of them and she wasn't going to let her students do that either, even if it meant the occasional visit from gang members. She'd just have to manage, she always did somehow.

* * *

Mac parked the car in the alleyway, turning off the engine and waiting quietly in the driver's seat. His eyes scanned the alley, looking for any sign of people who shouldn't be there. He knew the risks of something like this, knew them better than most and he'd learned not to take anything lightly, that was when people died. He saw a figure move into view behind the car, a woman entering the alleyway, her head down but her eyes darting in every direction, she knew the risks too and she would pay the higher price.

He got out of the car, closing the door behind him and waiting for her to reach him. She offered him a small smile, genuine but afraid and he felt for her. She'd been doing this a long time and most people would have called it quits long ago, she stuck in there though and she did whatever she could for him.

"Stella," he greeted and she met his eyes.

"Detective Taylor," she said as she looked back down the alley. "I think I was being followed, I'm also pretty sure I lost them a couple of blocks ago."

Mac's eyes automatically darted to the entrance to the alley, then to the wall that blocked any escape and back to the entrance. He knew Stella wouldn't have come down here if she hadn't been sure she was no longer being followed but every other cop instinct in him told him to call this off. Stella stepped forward and put a hand on his arm calling for his attention.

"Nobody saw me come down here Mac, I'm sure of it," she told him and that was good enough for him for now. He would never normally put much faith in his informants, wouldn't rely on them more than he had to and wouldn't trust them as far as he could throw them. Stella was different though, she had been nothing but an asset to him since she'd been brought into the precinct a year ago as a witness. She hadn't known much about the crime he'd been investigating but she had known other things and reluctantly she'd shared that with him. It had led to an arrest n a completely unrelated case and she'd still been in a position to help him, which she had done, every time he'd asked, even at a risk to herself.

"I need your help again," he told her and she nodded her head.

"We wouldn't be here if you didn't," she replied.

"There was a double homicide yesterday," he told her handing her the file he'd had in his hand, the artist sketch of the suspect.

"Frankie," Stella said quietly as she opened the file and looked at the drawing. "The Sands right?"

"So you do know something," Mac stated and she nodded her head.

"Yeah but not much," she replied and he waited for her to continue. "He's been boasting about 'getting rid of the Sands problem' for the last couple of days," she told him, obviously quoting Frankie himself. "You know he doesn't tell me much but I've overheard him with his friends and once they get a couple of drinks down them they'll talk about anything regardless of whether I'm around. He said something about them overhearing Mickey and Jacob talking about the Aldridge shooting and the restaurant fire a few weeks ago. Apparently they overheard information that could have put both men, Frankie and a few other people behind bars. Well, Frankie included himself but I doubt any charges would have stuck, you know what he's like, he can get himself out of anything."

"Not anything Stella, sooner or later we're going to get him, he'll make a mistake," Mac told her and she smiled weakly.

"Anyway, we were at home and couple of the guys were around with him, they were talking about the Sand's having been into the police station a couple of times so the problem had to be dealt with more 'effectively'," Stella stated and sighed.

"So he definitely did it?" Mac questioned.

"Yes, but I can't prove it," Stella told him.

"And someone fitting his description hanging around the apartment isn't going to get me a conviction," Mac sighed.

"I'll see if I can get anything more for you," Stella told him. "But like I said, you know he doesn't tell me much and now he's having me followed because Jake Daniels made a threat against him and what he owns which apparently includes me."

"He's threatening you?" Mac questioned in concern, he didn't want her in more danger than she already was.

"Don't worry about me I'll be fine, Frankie won't let them get to me, it would be bad for his reputation if someone took out his girl," Stella replied with a small laugh but Mac didn't find the situation funny. If he could he would have Stella out of this whole mess, would have had her out a long time ago. "I should get back; he's already going to be pretty mad that I dodged his guys even though I'm not supposed to know they're there. If I reappear pretty quickly and play dumb then it will be the guys in more trouble than me."

Mac smiled. "I'll contact you again soon."

"Alright, I'll see you," she replied turning to leave but Mac grabbed her arm stepping closer to her, probably a little too close.

"Be careful," he said and she smiled.

"I will," she replied and after another moment turned around and left the alleyway. He watched her leave, wishing he could call her back and tell her this was over, he was getting her out. He couldn't though; she was too valuable an asset, as harsh and unfeeling as that sounded. Someday though, someday he'd get her away from all of this, if someone deserved a fresh start it was her and he would make damn sure that she got it.

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

**Authors Note: This chapter is kinda short and it focuses mainly on the girls. Thanks to Brinchen86, CMC3, afrozenheart412 and lily moonlight for the reviews. **

Chapter 3

Jess dismissed the class for their lunch, watching as they all eagerly filed out and she searched the small stack of papers on her desk. It had been a long morning, for once all her class had turned up which was a rare thing and it only made it harder to teach. It just meant more students to not pay attention and have conversations of their own while she tried to speak. She loved her job, she loved teaching and she took pride that at the end of each year there were always students in her class that went on to better things. When she'd started teaching she'd imagined herself in one of those schools where all the students sat quietly at nice desks, dressed nicely and there to learn. What she had gotten was completely different but she was a woman, trying to make it in a man's world and she had to take what she could sometimes.

"Mr Wayson," Jess called looking up to see the boy in question turn around with a look on his face that told her he was expecting this. "Wait a moment please."

"Yes Miss Angell?" she questioned and she held up the piece of paper he'd handed to her at the beginning of the lesson.

"What is this?" she questioned.

"It's my report," Wayson replied and she nodded as she looked at it.

"You've written less than half a side," she stated.

"So have most of the others, the few that actually did it, why aren't they in here?" he questioned sarcastically and Jess sighed inwardly. There was one big disadvantage to being a female teacher and that was the complete lack of respect she got. Most of her students were boys, girls had been creeping into the education system for a while now but it was still mostly boys that got the privilege of being educated. They were raised the same way their parents were raised, to see themselves as better than women, that women had their place and should stay in it. It was a view that was finally beginning to change, it was slow and it would take a long time but she wouldn't be standing in a classroom if the world wasn't getting ready for change.

"You can do better, you have done better, until now you're work as been of a very high standard," she told him. "You're capable of much more than this, I don't know who or what has made you think otherwise but I expect better."

"I don't know what you're talking about Miss," Wayson replied and she handed the paper to him with a stern expression.

"Redo it," she ordered and he looked at her questioningly. "Do it again, I want it on my desk by the end of Friday and I expect a big improvement," she told him and he looked like he was going to protest but she raised an eyebrow at him and he closed his mouth again, taking the piece of paper and leaving the classroom.

In truth she knew what had caused his change in attitude, her mind going back to the threat that had been made to her a couple of days ago when she'd been on her way home. Gangs seemed to rule New York at times, it seemed most people were under the thumb of one gang or another in some way and she refused to be one of those people. She wasn't going to let them intimidate her into not doing her job when she had worked so hard to get it.

Students like Craig Wayson could have such a bright future ahead of them if they didn't get caught up in these gangs at such a young age. She'd seen too many of her students finish school and then hang around the streets waiting for someone to torment, or break into a restaurant at night, rob it, trash it and end up in jail the next day. She wasn't going to let Craig go that way; he was too good for that.

* * *

Most people had gone home hours ago but Lindsay had stayed to mark some work hoping to get it done and out of the way. She sighed as she looked through the papers that her class had turned in, half assed attempts from half the class and nothing at all from the other half. She'd been told to expect this; it didn't make it any less depressing. She wanted to do some good here, to shape the futures of these kids but most of them weren't even interested in learning the proper use of a full stop in their reports.

She glanced at the window, she hadn't realised it was getting so late, she could see it was beginning to get dark outside. Jess's words echoed in her head _'if you can help it, try not to be here after dark'. _She gathered up her things, putting all the papers into a file and locking up her classroom before she left. She nodded to the caretaker who passed her in the corridor and hurried out of the school. There were a few groups of kids hanging around the streets, teenagers that were drinking, listening to loud music or looking menacing.

It wasn't a long walk home; she hurried anyway when the eyes of one of the groups of kids followed her as she passed. This wasn't what she had expected when she told her father she wanted to teach, that she had an opportunity she couldn't miss. It was a start though, at the very least, maybe things would get better with time.

She didn't really relax until she stepped into her father's house, files still clutched to her chest as she walked through to the living room. Her father was sat there already; he'd probably gotten home from work a couple of hours ago. He'd probably expected her to be there already.

"Where have you been?" her father questioned.

"Sorry, I was grading some papers at the school, I hadn't realised it had gotten so late," she apologised and he nodded his head. "How was your day?" she questioned, sitting on the couch beside his chair.

"Long and tiring, the executive board rarely gets along so meetings with them are never enjoyable," her father told her and Lindsay recalled the numerous times he'd complained about those meetings over the years. It was a hard job she expected, owning and running a company and her father had always handled it well. "How about your day?"

The question surprised her a little but maybe it shouldn't have, her father may not like her going out to work but he had never not supported her. "Long and tiring as well," Lindsay told him. "It is a difficult school to teach in, the students have very little interest in learning."

"Its location probably doesn't help," her father replied. "There is a lot of gang related activity in that area."

"There is, but there are kids there too and those kids need to be taught, or at least be given the opportunity to be taught," Lindsay stated reminding herself of the reasons she took the job in the first place. "I've already made some friends though amongst the staff, hopefully it will get easier as I get used to it."

"We will see," her father said and Lindsay nodded.

"I should go and finishing grading these papers, such as they are," Lindsay told him standing up and heading up to her bedroom.

* * *

Stella winced as she caught the side of her finger on the metal pan, putting the small burn into her mouth and walking over to the sink. She ran the water for a moment, putting her finger underneath the cold water for a few seconds until she was forced to go back to preparing dinner. She was about to start putting the food onto plates when there was a knock at the door; she turned the temperature of the oven down and went to answer it finding two of Frankie's friends on the other side.

"Well hello Stella," Mickey greeted giving her his usual once over that she had actually gotten used to by now. "Frankie around."

"This is his apartment so I'd guess so," Stella replied stepping back to allow the two men in.

"Still the feisty one, if you were my girl we woulda taken care of that by now," Mickey told her and she rolled her eyes.

"If I were your girl I would have thrown myself from the roof by now," she returned. She really hated Mickey, had never gotten along with him and probably never would. Frankie would usually stop her from making such remarks at his friends but with Mickey he seemed to allow her some slack which she took full advantage of. "I'll get Frankie."

"That would be appreciated," Mickey stated.

"Frankie," Stella called as she walked through to the bedroom. He was half way through getting dressed having just gotten out of the shower and he turned to her as he pulled his shirt over his head. "Mickey and Thomas are here."

"Alright babe," he replied and she left again going back into the kitchen and ignoring the two men. Frankie came out of the bedroom a moment later and walked out of the apartment with his friends, telling Stella he would be back in a moment. Stella watched them go, the door didn't close properly behind them and after biting her lip in thought for a second she walked over to it. She pulled it open slightly hearing Mickey's voice from just down the corridor.

"He saw something, we're not sure what yet but we know he's definitely seen something," Mickey said, his voice grave.

"Well the find out what," Frankie replied, he sounded spooked.

"We're working on it, I just thought you'd want to know," Mickey stated. "He's nothing but a factory worker, I doubt that he would dare go to the cops."

"You don't know that. Find out what he knows and then take care of it, I mean it, get rid of him if you have to," Frankie said. He sounded more than spooked, he was nervous, agitated, she wished she'd heard more of the conversation. She heard footsteps coming back up the hallway and she closed the door again carefully, running back over to the kitchen. She got the plates out of the cupboard, busying herself with sorting their dinner out as he walked back in.

"Everything okay?" she questioned when she saw him, his demeanour had completely shifted and she knew that meant to tread carefully.

"Its fine, none of your business Stella, stop sticking your nose where it doesn't belong," Frankie practically shouted at her. "Go back to making dinner like a good woman."

Stella nodded her head, going back to her task as Frankie went through to the bedroom. She stopped for a moment, leaning on the counter and closing her eyes. She thought of Mac, the police detective that she had been working with for months now despite knowing the danger she was putting herself in. The image of him brought her peace which she knew was irrational, probably slightly stupid but it calmed her, enough that she would get through dinner and return to her own little apartment.

Without another word she got on with finishing dinner.

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

**Authors Note: Sorry about the wait, exams kinda took over my life but better late than never right? Thanks to Brinchen86, lily moonlight and afrozenheart412 for the reviews. I hope you guys enjoy it!**

Chapter 4

It seemed like every day was a busy one these days, his job had always been tough but in recent years it seemed to have gotten harder. His promotion to captain had been unexpected at the time, there had been other people who had seemed the more likely choices but he'd stepped up all the same. It had been a big adjustment, going from the work of a detective to sitting behind a desk watching others to do the work and keeping the higher ups off their backs and on his. He'd never completely let the job go though, he still worked cases, dabbled in the hands on work of the job that he had loved doing all his life.

He nodded, smiled and greeted the detectives he passed on the way to his office. Don wasn't there and Mac figured he was off working his case somewhere, hopefully keeping out of trouble. This case was a nasty one if Mala was indeed involved, he made a mental note to check in with his detective later, make sure everything was alright. Don was probably his best detective, worked his ass off, made connections other people missed, he knew how to handle himself and his work and he closed more cases than anyone else in the department. Still, it didn't hurt to check in on him, especially on a case like this.

He stepped into his office his eyes immediately falling on the letter on his desk. His name and the address of the precinct written on the front, even from the doorway he recognised the handwriting... Stella.

He closed the door, moving to sit in his chair and opening the letter, worrying about what he might find inside. It was rare she sent him letters, communicating with him at all was dangerous and when she did it was usually bad news. He unfolded the paper, her neat handwriting filling less than half of it.

_Detective Taylor_

_I have been unable to find anything on the Sand's murders, you know how good Frankie is at not getting caught. I think I might be onto something else though, too early to tell, I'll write you again when I know something more._

_Stella._

Mac sighed as he read through the letter again, not only did they have nothing on Don's case but Stella was probably digging pretty deep into Frankie to have found something and that put her in more danger than she was already in by just reporting to him. He locked the letter away in his drawer where it wouldn't be stumbled upon by anybody and stepped out of his office seeing Don arrive. He met the detective at his desk; the man looked less than pleased.

"Tough morning?" Mac questioned.

"Hysterical witnesses, a suspect who thinks he's untouchable but I'm willing to bet those were his prints the forensics guy found and a dead kid," Don replied and Mac nodded. "We're still coming up with nothing on the Sand's case too, other than the sketch of Mala we've got nothing."

"I'm still working on that but it's not looking good," Mac told him. "Keep at it for now but don't go after Mala, not yet."

Don nodded needing no further explanation, at least not for now. "Got it."

* * *

Lindsay was a little later getting out of the house than she would have liked, she was going to have to hurry if she wanted to make it to the school on time. She called goodbye to her father which she knew was going to earn her some stern looks and a talking to about manners when she got home but if it got her there on time she'd put up with the short lecture. She clutched her files to her chest, walking quickly down the street and spotting a familiar face coming the other way.

"One of these days you're going to have to tell me where it is you're going on a morning," Lindsay stated as Danny smiled at her.

"I don't know; could it be work?" he questioned rhetorically.

"Funny, I meant where is that you work?" she asked and he grinned.

"My uncle owns a pizzeria, I work there, not the most impressive of jobs but it pays the bills," Danny told her and she nodded her head.

"I don't see anything wrong with that, it must be nice working with family," Lindsay stated looking down the street as she remembered she was running late.

"It is, my uncle's great," Danny replied, looking at her. "You in a rush?"

"Am I that obvious, I'm sorry, it's just I'm going to be late, I don't mean to be rude," she replied blushing slightly and Danny laughed and shook his head.

"Its fine, I've been there before, my uncle is not a fan of lateness," Danny said and she smiled as she once again looked down the street.

"I should go, the students probably won't notice if I'm not there but the principle might," she said.

"Then by all means go, we wouldn't want you getting sent to the principal's office now would we?" Danny laughed.

"Definitely not, I was there enough as a kid," she replied laughing as well.

"Miss Monroe, were you a handful as a teenager?" Danny questioned humorously and it should probably have seemed inappropriate, a little too personal for someone she'd only run into in the street a few times but somehow it didn't.

"Just a little, I was... more outspoken than most girls," she told him, thinking back to the number of times she'd stood up for herself to one male teacher after another who thought less of her simply because she was a girl. She'd been privileged to go to school, and at a good school, her father had friends in the right places and he'd gotten her the educations she'd wanted. She'd been in a male dominated world though, there had been only a handful of other girls in the school and they'd all gotten more than their fair share of distasteful looks over the years they'd been there.

"I can imagine," Danny replied still smiling.

"I'll see you," Lindsay said, making herself leave before she was anymore late than she already was.

"Bye," Danny called after her and she gave him a small wave over her shoulder, hurrying along the street. By the time she got to the school the kids, those that had turned up, were already in the classroom. As usual no one paid her any attention as she walked in, sorted her things out and called for attention. A few people took their seats, being mostly quiet as she tried to teach the lesson. This job was going to make her hair grey; she wasn't nearly old enough for that.

* * *

Danny took the order of the last person in the queue and handed it over to the kitchen deciding to take his lunch break before someone else could demand his attention. He let the other employees know he was going through to the back and hurried through the door before anything could stop him. It was unusually busy, he'd barely had chance to stop and breathe all morning but it was good for his uncle's business so he couldn't really complain. He saw his uncle sat in the back room taking his own lunch break which Danny knew should be coming to an end.

"It is insanely busy out there," Danny told him slumping into the chair at the other side of the table.

"That's good, we're having a good day, though counting up the money is going to be a nightmare tonight," his uncle told him and Danny smiled.

"Don't worry, I'll stay behind and help," he said, he didn't like leaving his uncle alone with so much money on a normal day. Anyone could see this place was successful and there was almost always money somewhere on the premises.

"That won't be necessary," his uncle replied. "I'm sure you have better things to do. Don't you have a girl yet, you need to get yourself a good girl."

"I've had girls," Danny told him, he'd only finished with Kaitlyn last month.

"But none that lasts Danny," his uncle stressed, his Italian accent become thicker. "You need to get a good girl, one that you can keep around, no more of these airheads you keep bringing me."

"Airheads?" Danny questioned, he wasn't sure he'd ever heard his uncle call someone an airhead, especially women, he was usually a gentleman. "They're not all airheads."

"Danny, I would just like to see my nephew happy. Speaking of nephews, have you seen your brother recently, how's he doing?" his uncle questioned and Danny shrugged.

"Same as always, you know Louie, he's always up to something," Danny told him, trying to sound nonchalant about it but knowing already that his uncle knew better.

"You're a good boy Danny," his uncle told him, standing up. "I'm very proud of you for what you've done. You were heading a bad way back in school but you've turned that around and left it behind. I couldn't be more proud of you and I know your parents would say the same."

Danny nodded as his uncle left heading back to work. He sighed as he leaned back in his chair thinking about the person he could have ended up being if his uncle hadn't offered him a job here. At the same time though he knew he hadn't completely left the gang behind, they were still after him, still wanted him as one of their own and thanks to Louie he was always getting caught up in one thing or another. It felt like he was letting his uncle down, he should have severed all ties with the gang but he didn't think that was even possible. If he outright told them he wanted nothing more to do with them they'd either continue to pursue him anyway or he'd be on their list, and it wasn't a good list to be on. It would also mean severing all ties with his brother, he wasn't sure he could do that either.

* * *

The class had been dismissed over half an hour ago. Craig had walked out without so much as a look at her and she'd felt disappointed that she hadn't gotten through to him. She hadn't mentioned the essay to him since she'd told him to redo it hoping he would make the effort himself without having to be pushed. It was Friday evening though, school was over, the kids had left and she still had no essay to mark. She packed up her things, putting some of her papers and files away in her desk, locking the drawer and gathering what she needed to take home.

Her father was having some dinner guests at the house and she'd promised not to be late home. It was rare he had guests at the house but when he did she was expected to play the dutiful daughter and put in an appearance. She knew who her father had invited for dinner, two couples he'd known for years and she had never liked either. They didn't think women should be going out to work; as far as they were concerned women should be housewives, raising the children and taking care of the home. She knew she was going to spend the night either defending her work as a teacher or feeling like she needed to.

There was a knock at the door that caught her attention and she looked up quickly to see Craig standing in the doorway. "Miss Angell," he greeted.

"Mr Wayson, what can I do for you?" she questioned.

"I know it's a little later than you were expecting it," he said as he stepped into the room and held out a couple of pieces of paper, paper clipped in the corner and covered in his handwriting.

"You did the essay," she stated as she took it and glanced over the first page, she could already see the improvement.

"I apologise for not putting the effort in the first time around," he told her and she smiled and nodded. It was moments like this that made the job worthwhile, when she managed to make just a little bit of a difference.

"I understand it's hard for you, but you have to know how smart you are. You're a very bright young man, you can really do something with your life but you have to put the work in and you can't let yourself get caught up in something or be intimidated into giving anything but your best effort," she stated and he nodded his head.

"I know that and thanks for believing in me, I'll work hard for you Miss Angell," Craig said and then turned to leave. Angell grabbed her things and left too, remembering all the reasons she took this job in the first place.

TBC


	5. Chapter 5

**Authors Note: I know it's been a while but here's the next chapter. Thanks to Brinchen86, sucker-4-smacked, lily moonlight and afrozenheart12 for the reviews. **

Chapter 5

Lindsay finished laying out the books and files she needed for the lesson, taking a seat at her desk and enjoying the last few minutes of quiet she had before the school day began. The students were all still waiting for the bell to ring, hanging out in the corridors or out in the school yard. She'd been at this job for a few weeks now, she was getting used to the difficult classes and students who didn't care. In her mind she'd listed of the students who wanted to learn, the students who half paid attention and those who didn't care, she concentrated most of her efforts on those that wanted to learn but wasn't entirely prepared to give up on those that weren't interested.

She'd made a good friend in Jessica Angell; her fellow teacher had been the only member of the staff to really welcome her into the school community. The principle had been nice, he'd checked in on her a few times but he seemed to keep himself separate from the rest of the staff. The other teachers had been nice enough, they'd talked to her during breaks, smile to her in the corridors. Lindsay didn't agree with the view some of them had of the job, that as long as they presented the lesson to the class it didn't matter if the students didn't pay attention, that many of them were lost causes. Still, it was good to know she was making friends among that staff, even among the male staff, some of whom clearly didn't like women moving into the working world.

The bell sounded, the noise in the corridors getting louder as students from outside began to file into the building. The classroom door opened, her class making their way in and the sound from the corridor quietening again, students disappearing into class rooms. She waited a few minutes allowing the slower students to get there before she closed the door and started the lesson.

"Alright sit down," she stated out of habit as much as anything else. A couple of students did as they were asked and the rest ignored her like they usually did. She started teaching, occasionally telling those not paying attention to be quiet so those that were there to learn could do so. It felt like forever before the bell sounded for their break and the students left without even being told to. Lindsay watched them go knowing some of them wouldn't bother coming back and a few would show up that hadn't earlier.

She sighed and left the room, locking the door behind her and heading to the staff room. Jess was already there, sat at the table reading through the paper and Lindsay joined her, half heartedly returning the smile Jess gave her.

"Rough morning?" her colleague questioned.

"No more than usual," Lindsay sighed. "I thought I was getting used to the fact that most of the students don't care about learning but it's still frustrating. They're all so young, they've got all this potential and it's going to be wasted. I haven't had one lesson where even half the class pay attention to me."

"It's hard," Jess agreed putting her paper down and turning to Lindsay with a smile. "The trick is to once in a while find something that will catch their attention, something they don't expect, something that will interest them. It doesn't always work but sometimes, it might just get you a quiet class."

Lindsay's mind was already working through the possibilities. "Like what?"

"Like I said, something completely unexpected, I'll leave it to you to figure out what," Jess replied standing up and leaving Lindsay with her thoughts. Mr Carlton took her seat, picking up the paper Jess had discarded.

"Last month she did something with wigs, I don't know what it was but she came in here with a box of wigs, not exactly orthodox teaching," Carlton told her shaking his head. Lindsay ignored him; he was one of the more old fashioned members of staff that didn't even like women working never mind new ways of teaching. Jess's methods might be unorthodox but if they worked then they were something to be considered.

Lindsay left again, wanting to get through the corridor before the rush of students back inside. Her mind was still whirling with possibilities as she sat back at her desk, maybe there was hope for this job yet.

* * *

Don sighed as he made his way back into the precinct after being led to yet another dead end in the Sands case. They still only had one real lead and that led straight to Frankie Mala and Mac didn't want him going down that road, at least not yet. He understood why, Mala was almost untouchable, nothing ever stuck and it had been decided that they needed concrete evidence on him before they brought him in again.

He didn't like the idea that no one was going to pay for what had been done to the Sands. They'd been brutally murdered in their own home and though there'd been plenty of cases like that before where no one was punished this one seemed to be sticking with him. He could already see it landing in the unsolveds with so many other cases. A witness statement and an artist sketch weren't going to be enough, not this time, not against Mala.

"Dead end?" Mac asked walking over and seeing the look on Don's face.

"Yeah," Don replied with another sigh.

"Don't worry about it too much, I'm still working on getting Mala," Mac told him. "You have other cases, concentrate on them."

"These were good people Mac and they came to us for help," Don stated, maybe getting to the route of why he couldn't let this one go so easily. "They asked for help, three times and we wrote down their pleas on a piece of paper, shoved it in a folder and filed it away. Now they're dead and we can't even bring the people that did it to justice."

"I know it's tough Don but you can't let this get to you, don't let it get personal," Mac told him sympathetically. Don knew Mac had been here before, had his own cases that got under his skin; every detective had them at some point in their careers. They were the kind of cases that burned good cops out and Don refused to be one of those cops.

He nodded and Mac put a hand on his shoulder before walking away. Don looked at the file on his desk, photos of the Sands in front of all the paperwork that had already accumulated. He started flicking through the file, going through everything again to make sure he hadn't missed anything.

* * *

Danny headed through to the bedroom after another late night shift at the pizzeria. He was tired, it had been busier than usual and he'd barely managed a five minute break in the madness of it all. It hadn't helped that two people had been off sick and no one had been available to cover for them, it had left the few people working picking up the slack and now he was exhausted.

He was just debating whether or not to get changed or just collapse in his bed as he was when there was a knock at the door. He groaned as he turned around and headed back to the living room, to the door of his apartment. It was his brother, with several of his friends one of whom could barely walk after taking what looked like a nasty beating. Louie pushed passed him, motioning for his friends to help the injured one to the couch before Danny could even say anything.

"What happened?" Danny questioned knowing he couldn't in good conscious kick them out when one of them was hurt.

"We were attacked; they came up to us right in the middle of the street and started laying into us. Fortunately they didn't know who they were messing with and we were able to enlighten them but Greg's new, so they beat him good," Louie offered in explanation and Danny shook his head as he headed through to the kitchen grabbing a cloth and some water before going back into the room and handing them over. He had some bandages in his bathroom, some other stuff to help patch the poor man up; he still kept things like around, remembering their usefulness from his own gang days. He got those as well, giving them to Louie's friends.

"He needs a hospital," Danny stated looking at the state the man was in.

"No he doesn't," Louie stated. "He needs patching up, a few drinks and a good night's sleep, don't you Greg?"

Greg hummed his response and Danny couldn't tell whether it was agreement or a plea for a hospital. Louie and his friends took it as the former, clapping the guy on the shoulder and making him wince. There was another knock at the door and Louie walked over to open it before Danny could protest, he let more of his friends in, all of them making themselves comfortable and planning their retaliation.

"We'll sneak into the place, we know there'll be at least six or seven of them there, they'll never see us coming, they'll be too busy with the women," Louie stated as their plan came together. Break into a run down house owned by the rival gang and occupied by several of the women under their thumb who would have the men distracted, then beat the crap out of the men, at least he hoped it would just be the men that got hurt. He'd prefer it if nobody did but what he preferred and what actually happened were very rarely the same thing.

"You in Danny?" Louie questioned. "With you we'll probably out number them and we know you're good with your fists..."

"I'm not going Louie," Danny cut in and Louie's gaze snapped to Danny's. He held his ground though, he wasn't going to get dragged into this anymore than he already had, he wanted out not deeper in. "Kitchen," Louie ordered him and with a sigh Danny followed him through. "What's your problem, you saw what they did to Greg, you want to let them get away with that?"

"I'm tired Louie, work was rough, I just wanna sleep," Danny stated and Louie shook his head.

"The guys are getting concerned about you, about your commitment to us," Louie told him, lowering his voice.

"Then stop trying to get me involved," Danny replied, leaving the kitchen again. Louie's friends were preparing to leave, some of them armed and the rest about to be. They helped Greg off the couch and started leaving, Louie going last and levelling his brother with a warning glare before he left. Danny let his shoulders sag; his body relax despite knowing that everything with the gang was far from over. He started to clean up the bloody cloth and bandages that had been left behind; he was still far from out of the gang.

* * *

Jess flicked through the few essays she'd been given earlier that day as she ate the sandwich she'd brought from home for lunch. She rolled her eyes at the doodles on one student's work, there were more scribbled drawings that words and she looked at the name, not surprised by whose it was. She continued through them, finding another one that had drawings on it only this time they were the kind that landed a student in detention for at least a week. She looked at the name, again unsurprised by the person it belonged to.

She stood up, knowing he'd be out in the yard and more than happy to take his lunchtimes away from him for the week. It would do little good; he'd continue doing the same things probably for the rest of his time at the school but that didn't mean she couldn't try. Maybe if she had him scrub the classroom clean with a toothbrush he'd think twice about drawing naked interpretations of her on his essays, she was sure the other teachers that had made an appearance in the student's artwork would like to know what he thought they were all hiding under their clothes too. Unfortunately, she was pretty sure she wasn't allowed to have him scrub the classroom with a toothbrush but she could put him in detention and come up with something else while he was in there.

"Hey," Lindsay greeted as she fell in step with her in the corridor. "Where are you off to?"

"To ruin a student's lunch time and drag him in here for detention," Jess told her cheerfully and Lindsay nodded.

"What did they do?" she asked.

"Some rather interesting interpretations of what many member of staff would like without any clothes on," Jess replied and Lindsay raised an eyebrow at her. "You were on there too, do you want to see, it's on my desk?"

"No thanks," Lindsay replied. "You don't seem all that bothered by it. I haven't even seen it and I feel slightly mortified."

"It's not the first time," Jess said with a shrug. "I doubt it will be the last, you'll get it at some point too, it seems to be yet another curse of being a female teacher. You can't let it get to you though, half the reason they do it is because they think it will get us."

"There are moments where I wonder if I'm cut out for this job," Lindsay stated shaking her head.

"I used to think the same thing when I first started here, I still do sometimes," Jess told her. "You care about these kids and that's what matters. Some of them are going to do stupid things, some of them are going to do nasty things because sometimes that's what kids do but then some of them will actually learn and some of them will leave here and go onto do better things because you didn't quit on them."

"You're always so full of advice," Lindsay laughed.

"I just remember what it was like when I first started, it would have been nice to have someone to give me a pep talk every now and again," Jess replied with a smile.

"Well thank you, it really does help," Lindsay said.

Several students came running through the doors up ahead looking slightly panicked. There were screams from outside and both teachers ran for the doors, stepping outside just as gunshots sounded.

TBC


	6. Chapter 6

**Authors Note: Bit of a short chapter here but I wanted to make sure I had something up before the end of my Easter holidays and since I'm gonna be busy for the next few days this might be the last chance I get. Thanks to everyone who has been so patient with me and special thanks to; Brinchen86, lily moonlight, afrozenheart412 and BlueEyedAuthor for the reviews. **

Chapter 6

It wasn't quite the result he'd been wanting but it was something and something was always better than nothing. At least this way someone was paying for it which was more than he'd expected to get for the Sands. Brian Smith had been involved in the murder, his fingerprints matched the one they'd found. The man had screwed up while being questioned, mentioned something about the crime that he shouldn't have known if he hadn't been there. He'd still been cocky though, hadn't believed for a second that he'd left any fingerprints at the scene and he'd given his up willingly, Don had almost wanted to laugh at the stupidity.

He watched as the man was led away, shouting protests of innocence and threats of consequences if they didn't let him go. Don was patted on the shoulder for a job well done, it didn't feel like a job well done, he'd taken out a pawn; the real man behind the murders was still free.

"Don," Mac shouted over the noise of the precinct. "I need you to head over to Haldon High School; there was a drive by shooting a couple of minutes ago."

Don wasted no time in grabbing his jacket and the keys to one of the police cars before heading out of the station. It was a short drive to the school where several police officers had already gathered, parts of the school yard were cut off by police tape. The officer who had taken charge spotted him getting out of the car and walked over, his face grim and Don knew kids had died here.

"Drive by shooting a little over 10 minutes ago, I've got my people searching the immediate area but my guess is they won't find anything," the officer told him.

"How many casualties?" Don asked, dreading the answer.

"Five," the officer replied with a shake of his head, gesturing beyond the police tape to the bodies. "They're all students, four males and one female. It was lunch time so most of the kids were out here, they've been sent back to their class rooms for now but the Principal will be sending them all home shortly. If you want to talk to any of them, it'll need to be soon."

"What about teachers, any of them see anything?" Don asked and the officer nodded.

"Two of them were just stepping outside when the shooting started, they're both over by the entrance," he told him and handed him a piece of paper with a few names hastily scribbled down. "Names of the victims, a couple of the teachers helped us to identify them."

Don thanked the officer and headed over to the police tape, ducking underneath it and taking a quick look around as the forensics unit arrived. His mind was already working through theories, which gang, why a high school, why this school? He'd seen gangs attack all kinds of places and a drive by at a school was not completely unheard of. Teenagers made great recruits for the gangs, young and impressionable, easily manipulated and easy to mould. It was easier to get them while they were young, before they could understand the huge mistake they were making because once you were in, you were in.

He glanced over toward the school, there were a couple of uniforms there, some other people he assumed to be teachers or staff. He glanced at the piece of paper in his hand, the names of the victims and the names of the two adult witnesses. It was only slightly surprising that both were female names and he wondered for a moment of they were going to be in a fit emotional state to help him. He dismissed that line of thought, his own sister being a perfect example of how tough women could be, tougher than the men in some instances; he shouldn't judge them before he'd even met them.

* * *

Jess glanced at the school yard once again; the sight of five student's bodies lying there would probably haunt her for a while. It was still so surreal, she'd been in the vicinity of a drive by once before but not anywhere near as close as she had been to this one, she'd been nowhere near where a bullet could have reached her, she hadn't even seen anything, just heard gunshots in the distance. This time she was standing only a few feet from the police tape that was cordoning off the bodies, having seen the whole thing.

She'd been terrified when she'd heard the shots and her first instinct had been to duck and drag Lindsay down with her, the newer teacher had already been halfway to her knees though. She'd spotted the car on the road just outside of the school, seen the gun fire coming from the partially open windows. It had all happened so fast and within seconds the car had been screeching away down the street and both Jess and Lindsay had been back on their feet, shouting for everyone to get inside. The Principal and a few of the other teachers had come out, Jess telling them only that a car had driven by firing at the school. All of the students had been sent back to their classrooms and the majority of the teachers had gone to keep order.

"Miss Angell, Miss Monroe?" a man asked as he approached the two women and Jess nodded. "I'm Detective Flack, with the NYPD gang unit; I need to ask you a few questions about what happened."

"Ask away," Lindsay replied, her voice a little shaky, much like Jess guessed hers sounded.

"I'm told the two of you were just coming out of the building, why was that?" he asked and Jess wasn't sure of the relevance but figured he was just starting from the beginning, hoping to make them remember as much as possible. She was pretty sure, however, that the events of the day were permanently burned into her brain.

"I was following her," Lindsay pointed to Jess. "That'll teach me, right?"

Jess narrowed her eyes at the joke but knew Lindsay was just trying to lighten the mood, make herself feel better and the blue eyed detective smiled as he turned to Jess expectantly.

"I was coming out to speak to one of my students," she told him.

"For what reason?" he questioned and Jess shared a look with Lindsay, who looked down at the floor.

"He did some rather... creative interpretations of what several members of the staff would look like without their clothes on," Jess told him and watched as the detective blinked a couple of times, searching for a response to that. She took pity on him and continued on. "We heard shouting and screaming, a couple of students came running in, we hurried outside to see what was happening, that's when we heard the shots, we both ducked down."

"Did you see where the shots were coming from?" he asked.

"A black car, on the road just outside of the school, the windows were partially down, they were firing from there," Lindsay replied straightening herself up and Jess could see the woman pulling herself together, forcing a facade of calm forward. "It happened fast, I didn't really get a good look at it but I'm pretty sure the licence plate had 2 and 3 on it. I don't know if that helps you."

"It does, anything you can tell me helps," Flack told them. "Did either of you see any of the people in the car?"

They both shook their heads in response. "I just saw the car, the gunfire. Like Lindsay said, it happened so fast and as soon as the firing stopped we started getting the students inside."

"Why would they do this?" Lindsay questioned, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "Why would they hit a school?"

"That's what I'm here to find out ma'am," Flack replied.

* * *

It was a weekly thing now, every week he'd take go over to his friends house, the man had been sick for months now and wasn't showing any signs of getting better. His wife had been his rock but she was only human, and taking care of two children, a sick husband and working to keep everybody fed was a lot to handle. So once or twice a week he would get a couple of pizza's from the pizzeria, his uncle had started giving them to him for free after the first few weeks, and head over to his friends house. Billy and the kids would happily sit together and eat the pizza and Martha would take an hour for herself, a brief break from the stress of her life. Danny was happy to do it, he'd known Billy since they were kids, had been best man at his wedding.

Danny had been a different person then; he'd still been involved with the gang and had been taking advantage of his youth in every possible way. He hadn't understood why his friend would want to get married and have kids right after school. He'd liked Martha though, she'd dated Billy all through high school and he knew Billy had never once regretted the decision.

He left the house, smiling and once again waving off Martha's gratitude as he did so. It wasn't far to his home and he passed by the school he knew Lindsay worked at, he was surprised to see the huge crowd that gathered. Curiosity getting the better of him he went over to find out what was going on, seeing the cops around and the police tape he knew it couldn't be good.

"What happened here?" Danny questioned the man beside him.

"Drive by," he replied gesturing to the school yard where there were several body bags laid on the floor. He looked around; there were very few people beyond the first line of police tape, only some officers and a few people by the entrance. He spotted Lindsay there with another woman and found himself feeling relieved that she was alright; she hadn't been one of the victims. He knew she must have seen something though, for her to be out here among all the cops instead of wherever all the other teachers were, she must have at least seen something.

He knew Louie's gang didn't operate in this area but he still sent a silent prayer to whatever God was listening that his brother hadn't been involved. These were just kids, just a bunch of high school students who had probably been enjoying their lunch break at the time.

He watched as Lindsay and another woman who had been standing with her were taken inside the building. He waited until she was out of sight before he left, heading back to his apartment to change his clothes for work, he was on the afternoon/evening shift tonight and unless Danny had been in the drive by his uncle wouldn't see it an excuse to be late. He had the morning shift tomorrow, the one that occasionally had him bump into Lindsay on her way to work, he wondered if he'd be able to see her, ask her about the shooting, it would be nice to check that she was alright.

Thinking about it though, with a bunch of students being killed there he doubted the school would be open tomorrow, or for the rest of the week. It was unlikely he'd run into her at all before that but if he asked his Uncle for the morning shifts next week maybe he'd able to see her then... if the school was open by then.

He shook his head, why was he even thinking about this, he'd met the woman a handful of times, not even that. All of a sudden he wanted to arrange his shifts around her schedule? Sure it would be nice to check that she was alright, she had seemed a nice girl but if he ran into then great, that would b lucky, he wasn't going to alter his shifts at work to do it. Not only would that be pathetic but hanging around the area hoping to run into her could possibly be bordering on stalking.

_Get your head together Messer._

* * *

Lindsay walked into the house, it was getting late and as she expected her father was already there. He didn't look pleased with her which considering she was late was not surprising, she knew she would have worried him but things had been crazy at the school with the shooting, the police and the students, she'd only just been able to get away.

"Where have you been?" he asked her and Lindsay closed her eyes with a sigh as she sat on the couch beside his chair.

"There was a drive by shooting at the school today," she told him, she knew he was going to freak out no matter how much she sugar coated it, might as well just get on with it.

"What?" he questioned, sitting up straight in the chair. "Were you hurt?"

"No, some of the students were killed though," she replied, her voice was quite, lacking any kind of life but after the day she'd had she wasn't surprised. "Jess and I stepped outside just as the shooting started, we saw the whole thing."

"You went outside, why would you do that, you should have called for help," her father scolded her and Lindsay shook her head.

"We didn't know there was about to be a shooting, we just heard screaming. There were a lot of students out there, kids; we couldn't just leave them no matter what was happening. While they're at school they're our responsibility," Lindsay explained, the slightest bit of passion edging into her voice but it was gone as soon as it came. "Anyway, that's the reason I'm late. Jess and I had to talk to the police and then we had to help with the students, some of them were pretty shook up. We finally got all of them home though and then we had a staff meeting. The school is going to be closed for the rest of the week."

"As it should be," her father replied. "I'm not sure you should be going back to work there Lindsay."

"What do you mean, of course I'm going back to work there, it's my job and I worked hard to get it," Lindsay protested, she'd been half expecting this.

"I've had my reservations about you taking on work outside the home from the beginning and now this, it's clearly not a safe place for you to work," her father argued but Lindsay shook her head.

"I won't be scared into submission, that's exactly what these gangs want, to frighten people, if I allow them to make me quit then I give them one more victory. I love my work, I won't give it up because of them," she told him but he wasn't convinced, she wasn't sure he would ever be convinced that she should have a job.

"Be reasonable Lindsay," he said. "This is not a time for you to be stubborn. That school is clearly dangerous and you're at a time in your life now where you should be finding a man to settle down with. That will be much harder if you're working; I think it's for the best that you give the job at the school up, concentrate on more important things."

"I'm not quitting," Lindsay stated firmly. "And I'm also too tired to argue with you about this right now. I've had a long day, all I want to do is get some sleep, do you need anything before I go to bed?"

"No," her father answered. She nodded and headed for the stairs, his voice causing her to pause in the doorway. "But we are not done with this discussion. Go and get some sleep but don't think for a moment we won't be revisiting this topic in the near future Lindsay."

Lindsay didn't answer, just continued to her bedroom and threw herself down on the bed. She hoped she could convince her father to let her continue working because she had no intention of quitting. Working at the school was difficult, it was a challenge and sometimes she wondered if she was really cut out for teaching but it was what she wanted to do with her life, she loved her work even when it was causing her nothing but stress. She wasn't going to quit, not because of a gang and not because of her father.

TBC


	7. Chapter 7

**Authors Note: Next chapter, hope you guys enjoy it. Special thanks to; Brinchen86, Blue Eyed Author, CSI4lyfNCIS13, afrozenheart412 and lily moonlight for the reviews. **

**Warning: Small mentions of domestic abuse in this chapter. **

Chapter 7

After the shooting yesterday the school had remained closed and would be closed at least until the end of the week. Lindsay used the day to catch up on grading a few papers and planning lessons. She'd avoided her father that morning, making him breakfast and disappearing upstairs before he could attempt to resurrect their conversation from last night. She'd waited until after he had left for work before venturing out of her bedroom again. He was due home any minute now and Lindsay still wasn't sure she was up to the argument she knew was coming, she hated fighting with him, they were both too stubborn.

Rather than face him now she decided to take a walk, taking her paperwork to her room and leaving it on the desk she grabbed a light jacket and hurriedly scribbled a note to her father that she wouldn't be gone long and not to worry. She locked the door behind her as she left and made quick work of walking down the street, slowing once she had rounded the corner.

Yesterday had shaken her up, she'd be lying if she said otherwise and it definitely hadn't been something she'd contemplated when she'd decided to go into teaching. She could still see the black car driving by, the tiny flashes of light that signalled the gunshots, they were probably images that would stay with her for a while. She wasn't going to let it frighten her into quitting though, it was exactly what they wanted, to scare and intimidate people, if she let them affect her decisions then they were winning.

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts she didn't notice the familiar face coming toward her. "Miss Monroe?"

Lindsay looked up at owner of the voice and smiled slightly. "Mr Messer," she greeted.

"Danny," he corrected sternly.

"Lindsay," she countered her smile widening.

"Now that we've established who we are," Danny laughed. "I heard about the shooting at the school, how are you?"

"A little shook up," she admitted. "Who wouldn't be though?"

"Do you mind if I ask what happened?" he questioned and Lindsay smiled and shook her head.

"Honestly, I'm not completely sure," she told him. "One minute I was walking out of the school and the next I'm ducking down to avoid bullets."

"You were outside?" Danny asked shocked and Lindsay nodded.

"Stepped outside just as the shooting started, they weren't aiming at the doors but I don't take much comfort from that, five students were killed," Lindsay explained, her mind flashing back to the five body bags that had been carried away from the school and the ambulance that had taken away the few that were injured.

"I'm sorry to hear that," he replied genuinely. "Did you know them?"

"No," Lindsay said, not that it made it any more bearable. "Some of them were in my friend's class but I didn't know them personally."

"I suppose that doesn't really make it any better though," Danny stated and Lindsay gave him a sad smile of agreement. "I'm really glad you're alright though."

"Thank you Danny," Lindsay replied.

"I won't keep you any longer," he said. "I hope I see you again soon."

Lindsay smiled. "I'd like that."

* * *

Straight from one bad case into another, drive by shootings weren't uncommon but they were something every detective in the gang unit dreaded. A drive by at a school, again it wasn't uncommon, but they were never any less shocking, any less hard to handle. Don sat at his desk and worked his way through the mountain of files that had appeared on his desk sometime between leaving the station last night and arriving this morning. They were all to with the school shooting, police and witness reports, background on the kids that were killed and injured, background on the school itself. It had been a day of monotonous reading and it showed no signs of ending soon.

He'd already gone through the backgrounds of the kids, a couple of them had records, mostly for gang related trouble but it had been minor and the kids had gotten away with nothing more than a few weeks of community service. One of the kids had a father heavily involved in gang activities; in fact the man was currently serving a sentence for armed robbery. There was a good possibility that one of the kids had been the intended target, that it hadn't been random or aimed at the school itself.

The school for its part was exactly what he'd expected for an establishment in the kind of area it was located in. There were several reports of breaks in, at least three or four every month, sometimes more. Vandalism was another common occurrence; there had been various other incidents in which the police had been called to the school, ranging from students assaulting other students and teachers to high school pranks taken too far. Academically it was nothing special, they had a fairly high number of dropouts, grades were below average and other than a handful of students very few went on to do anything impressive with their lives.

The autopsy reports had been delivered to his desk around noon and they hadn't exactly made for pleasant reading before lunch but he'd wanted to get them out of the way as soon as he'd gotten them. One student had been hit in the head, two of them in the chest, one in the stomach and chest and the fifth had been hit three times, all of them in the chest, only one of them had gone quickly. Reports from the hospital had arrived when he was halfway through the sandwich he'd brought with him for lunch. The kids that had been taken there were all treated for minor injuries, except for one who'd been hit in the shoulder and chest, he was still being treated and likely wouldn't be out of the hospital for a couple of weeks.

Then it had been onto witness reports which had consisted mostly of confused, in some cases overly dramatic, teenage accounts of the events. He knew he couldn't rely on them but they had to be read, had to be taken into consideration just in case one of them contained something useful... they didn't.

Then he got onto the two witness accounts he had some faith in, the two teachers that had been there. Miss Angell's and Miss Monroe's statements matched up perfectly, they were both telling the same story and although they hadn't seen much he felt he could at least rely on what they had said. He was impressed with them both, they'd clearly been shook up but neither had faltered, they'd reacted exactly as they needed to, protecting their students and then helping the police. Some of the other staff he'd spoken to had not been nearly as helpful or pleasant and he felt he'd gotten lucky that it was Angell and Monroe that were his main witnesses and not any of the others.

He hadn't really had a chance to speak to them as much as he would have liked yesterday so he was going to need to have another conversation with them both at some point. He glanced at his watch, it was getting late into the afternoon now but he probably had time speak to one of them. Monroe was still relatively new to the school, she'd only been there a little over a month so her knowledge of the place and the students would likely be limited. Angell had been there a couple of years now though; she was the better option if he wanted information. He'd grab something to eat and the head over to talk to her.

* * *

Jess's father hadn't been pleased when he'd heard about the shooting, not that any father would like knowing their daughter had been in such close proximity to bullets being fired. They'd argued briefly about whether she would be going back to work but at the end of the day her father knew how stubborn she could be and while he still held onto many of his old fashioned beliefs he knew Jess had never and would never share them. She would never tell him about the threats she had received from gangs in the past, the verbal abuse she got from students, it was the price she paid for where she worked but if she was honest she felt like she made far more of a difference than if she worked at some upscale school in a nice neighbourhood.

She was home alone now, bored. As hard as her job could sometimes be and as much as people complained they needed a break, time off, a vacation, she was the kind of person that went crazy stuck at home with nothing to do. She'd been pretty much up to date on paperwork, she'd had a few essays to grade which she'd already done and she drawn up lesson plans.

There was a knock at the door and she went to answer it eagerly, hoping for something to do. She wasn't expecting to find Detective Flack on the other side and part of her wished she could go back to her boredom as he greeted her with a respectful, 'ma'am.

"I just need to ask you a few questions if that's alright?" he questioned and she gave him a small smile and nodded. She stepped back to allow him into the house, closing the door behind him and leading him through to the living room, gesturing for him to sit down.

"Can I get you anything?" she questioned out of a polite habit even though she suspected he would turn down the offer.

"No thank you," he replied and she sat down on the chair next to the couch he had sat on. "Two of the students that were killed were in your class, am I correct?"

"Yes," Jess nodded. "Craig Wayson and Daniel Bentley."

"Can you tell me what they were like?" he asked her and Jess felt a wave of sadness as she thought back to just a few days ago when both students were sat in her class, alive and well.

"Daniel Bentley was a typical teenager, he put a mediocre effort to his work and occasionally paid some attention in class. He was popular, the class loved him, he had them laughing all the time, definitely the class clown," she told the detective knowing that Bentley was going to be missed, that the lack of his presence in class next week was going to be glaringly obvious.

"How about outside class?" Flack questioned.

Jess sighed. "Troubled, I know his mother disappeared when he was young, he was raised by his father after that. He had... gang connections, I don't think he was in very deep but he definitely had some involvement with them."

"And what about Craig Wayson?" he asked her and she smiled sadly.

"The opposite, bright kid, put the work in, he had a bright future ahead of him. He had a few good friends, was liked well enough by the rest of the class. He had a few troubled months, got involved with a gang but he was working really hard to turn his life around, he would have done it too," Jess explained.

"What about the gang he got involved with, was he still involved?" Flack questioned.

"I don't think so; I think he was trying to break away. I'm pretty sure they were trying to keep their hold on him though, he went through a brief period where he seemed to start falling into old patterns, I have a feeling someone was putting pressure on him but I talked to him and he got back on track again," Jess stated and watched as the detective wrote something in the little note book he was holding.

"Do you the names of anyone he hung around with, anyone you think might have been involved in the gang as well?" Flack asked her and she thought for a moment.

"Michael Valet, he's another student in my class, rarely shows up but when he is there Craig was usually with him, or at least he was until recently," Jess told him and then bit her lip. "You think that might be why they did this, because he was trying to walk away from them?"

Flack looked at her sympathetically. "It's a possibility but right now it's just one of many."

Jess nodded. "Craig was a good kid, so was Daniel underneath it all."

"We're doing everything we can to make sure the people who did this are brought to justice," Flack promised her and Jess took only a little comfort from that.

* * *

Mac walked through the doors of the hospital and rushed to the reception desk, the woman there was chatting with one of the doctors, neither seeming to have noticed his presence. Not having the time or patience to wait for them to finish their flirting he pulled out his badge and announced his presence, giving the receptionist a name and getting a location is response. He went to where he had been told to go to find Stella sitting up in a hospital bed, a bandage over her wrist and another over her head.

"Hey," she greeted him with a smile. "I'm sorry, I didn't know who else to call."

"Its fine, I'm glad you called me," he told her as he took the chair beside her bed. "How are you?"

"Sprained wrist, cracked rib and a concussion, not that bad really," she told him and he sighed.

"What happened?" he asked her.

She shook her head and he could see her reluctance to tell him. "Frankie and I got into an argument, he got angry and hit me, I fell down some stairs."

Mac felt his insides twist painfully at just the thought of someone hitting her never mind her boyfriend, someone who should take care of her, love her, cherish her. Domestic cases had never sat well with him and he'd seen more than his fair share of gang members who had taken their attitudes home with them.

"I'm pulling you out," Mac said as he stood up. "I shouldn't have left you in there in the first place."

"You can't Mac," Stella said quickly, sitting up straighter in the bed, her wince as she moved doing nothing to help her case. "You can't pull me out."

"It's too dangerous Stella and now..." he began, prepared with months of arguments he'd gone over in his own mind countless times since he'd allowed her to do this.

"I'm onto something Mac," Stella cut him off. "Something is going on, I'm not sure what but Frankie has been on edge and people have been coming to his apartment, people I don't recognise and he sends me away. He's actually bothered about what I overhear, he's never cared before. I'm telling you, something is going on and I'm in the best position to find out what it is."

"Stella it's..."

"It's my decision," Stella cut in again, determination radiating from her with such force Mac knew it was futile to argue with her.

"He hit you Stella," Mac continued, his protest not holding the strength it had before.

"He's hit me before, I can handle him," Stella stated.

"I've heard that before and it doesn't usually have a happy ending," Mac replied.

"Just give me a little more time Mac, I can do this, I know I can," she said and Mac stared at her a moment, an inner battle being fought even as he agreed to let her go back, even as she smiled and nodded her head, thanking him for letting her try to do this.

"One more time though Stella, if anything else happens I'm pulling you out, even if I have to drag you kicking and screaming," he told her and she nodded again, smiled gratefully. He couldn't bring himself to return the gesture; he could only hope he didn't end up regretting his decision.

TBC


	8. Chapter 8

**Authors Note: Back from Spain, had a great holiday but kinda missed fandom. Here's the next chapter which I had originally planned to have written and posted before my holiday but time was not my friend. I hope it was worth the wait and thanks to; jessicaflack Brinchen86, afrozenheart412, CSI4lyfNCIS13, lily moonlight, BlueEyedAuthor and sg1star for the reviews.**

Chapter 8

The school had finally been reopened and Lindsay was glad to be able to get back to work. She had been sat at home for the last six days with very little to do but dwell on what had happened. She knew it wasn't going to be easy coming back, at least not for the first few days while the school adjusted to what had happened, while students and teachers came to terms with the fact that there were five less students in the school now and a few more still missing with injuries. Lindsay walked up to the entrance, glancing across the concrete yard to where the bodies of the five dead students had been, she could almost hear the gunshots and the screams again. There weren't many students around yet, it was still early but the few that were there seemed to have avoided standing where the bodies had been.

More students were inside, hanging around in the hallway as they waited for the school day to begin; the atmosphere was not the same as it usually was. Most of the teachers were already there, gathered in the staffroom as they too waited for the bell to ring and sound the start of their day. The Principal had asked them to come in early for a brief meeting. Lindsay made her way to the empty chair at the table Jess was sitting at; her head was down as she read the newspaper that was spread on the table in front of her.

She knew this was going to be a hard day for Jess, two of the students had been in her class and Jess was one of the few teachers here who truly cared about every single one of her students, this had hit her hard. Jess looked up as Lindsay slid into the seat, giving her a small smile before going back to her newspaper.

"Anything interesting in there?" Lindsay questioned and Jess shrugged.

"The usual," she replied. "Scandal, money, a murder here and there, gang violence taking over the city."

"Are you going to be alright today?" Lindsay asked her not bothering to dance around it.

Jess gave her another small smile. "Two students are going to be missing from my class this morning, I'm going to feel it, my students are going to feel it, I'm going to about as alright as anyone can be in this situation."

"You shouldn't take it so hard Jessica," one of the other teachers stated. Alan had been teaching here only a little longer than Jess had, he was tall and handsome in his own way but life had obviously taken its toll on him. He always looked tired and there was a bitterness that just seemed to radiate from him all the time. "You know the kind of life many of these students live; you had to have known something like this was a possibility, that it still is a possibility."

"And that means I shouldn't care?" Jess questioned angrily. "Five kids lost their lives here, five young kids with their whole lives ahead of them, what they would have done with their lives is irrelevant, they were kids."

"I'm actually with Jess this time, you know I'm not a supporter of investing too much of myself in these kids, most of them are going to spend their lives dealing drugs and attacking people in dark alleyways but at this point, they're still kids, they didn't deserve to die," another of the teachers said and Lindsay could feel the tension building in the room already.

"I didn't say they deserved to die, just that she shouldn't take it so hard," Alan snapped back. "She needs to harden herself up to this kind of thing, it's not going to be the last time something like this happens."

"Alright, that's enough," the principal's voice came from the doorway, Lindsay hadn't even noticed him come in. "We're going to have enough to deal with this week without all of you bickering. We're all going to be a little on edge, whether you admit it or not what happened last week has affected us all, let's not take it out on each other."

There were murmured apologies from the three people that had been arguing and the principal took a seat, thanking them all for coming in early so they could go through a few things before class.

"We're going to have a lot of upset and angry students to deal with, I've spoken to the community centre around the block from here, they've offered counselling services to any students who want to talk about what happened. They'll have people in school for the remainder of the week; they extend their services to any staff who may want to talk to them as well. I also feel it may be a good idea to hold some kind of assembly for the students we lost, a chance for everyone to say goodbye and come to terms with it," the principal informed them, continuing on with the measures that had been put in place to help this week run smoothly.

"What about the police investigation, have you heard anything about that?" one of the teachers questioned.

"Very little," the principal replied. "The investigation is still ongoing which brings me to my last point. There may be police officers in the school throughout the week, they may want to speak with students and staff, they may have other things to do. Be prepared for a little disruption this week, I know it may inconvenience some of you but I'm sure you'll all agree we want the people behind the shooting caught."

The meeting was eventually called to an end and most of the teachers left, making their way towards their class rooms. There were a lot more students in the hall ways now and Lindsay could feel the difference in the atmosphere, the sullen mood of many of the students as they all struggled to understand what had happened, the loss of five of their own. She was actually glad to reach her classroom, to be able to close the door and take a few minutes to brace herself for the day ahead. She got everything ready and heard the bell ring, announcing the beginning of classes and it wasn't long before the first of the students walked in. She remained at her desk for a few more minutes until most of her class was there, the rest were probably not coming at all.

"Alright," she began, standing up and moving around her desk. "Everyone take a seat."

She'd barely gotten the words out before the questions started. "Do you know anything about what happened last week, have the police said anything?"

Lindsay gave them a small smile. "We don't know anything yet, I doubt the police will tell us much while the investigation is ongoing. I promise you though, when I know something, you will. I know this is hard for you all, many of you will have seen the students that were killed around the school every day, some of you will have spoken to them, maybe even have been friends with them. Something like this is always hard to deal with, the school is putting every measure in place than we can to help you all through this. We'll have councillors on hand, staff are more than prepared to lend an ear and we're going to be holding an assembly for the students that we lost, give you all the chance to come to terms with what happened and say goodbye."

There were only a few more questions thrown at her before she was able to get on with the lesson. Most of the students sat quietly, some listening to her and some concentrating on their own thoughts. She thought briefly of Jess and how her class was going since it would be missing two of its students today, two faces that they wouldn't see again.

* * *

Jess rested her elbows on the table and pinched the bridge of her nose in an effort to fight off the oncoming headache. Class had been hard that morning, the lack of Craig Wayson and Daniel Bentley's presence hanging over everyone like a dark cloud. She'd let class out early for lunch, both she and her students had needed the time, a chance to build themselves back up for the afternoon. She'd known this morning was going to be hard, she just hadn't realised exactly how hard.

She vaguely registered the bell sounding out in the hall, signalling the start of lunch break and it was quickly followed by footsteps and voices in the hallways. The door opened and one of her colleagues walked in, giving her a brief nod of acknowledgement as he passed her, heading toward the small kitchen. She fixed her gaze back on the small black mark on the wooden table that she'd been staring at for... however long she'd been sitting there for.

The door opened again and a moment later someone slid into the chair next to her. "I'd ask you how you're doing but it seems like a stupid question."

Jess looked up at Lindsay giving her a small smile. "It's been a rough morning."

"I can imagine," Lindsay replied. "How are your students?"

"As you'd expect, most of them are still trying to come to terms with it, some of them are angry, some are frightened and some don't know what to feel. My entire class was there this morning, I haven't had a full class since the first few days of the school year but they were all at their desks this morning, except for two," Jess explained and Lindsay nodded, putting a hand on Jess's shoulder in a gesture of support.

More teachers came into the room, some looking their usual selves, stern and stoic, others looking stressed and saddened. Jess barely noticed them, her mind on the two faces missing from her class that morning.

"Come on Angell, I know this is tough," one of the other teachers began. Colin Heaney was a balding man in his forties, years of teaching at this school had made him bitter, it was common knowledge that he'd expected to be teaching in some upscale school, where the kids wore uniforms and sat quietly at the desks, soaking up every word he said. He had a high opinion of himself but a very low opinion of this school and everyone in it, staff and students alike. "But this kind of thing is always a possibility here, I've seen things like this happen before and they'll happen again, like Alan said this morning, you need to harden yourself up to it."

"I don't want to harden myself up to it Heaney," Jess replied angrily. "I want to care about my students, I want to feel sad when five kids die and I want to struggle to understand it all. I don't want to end up like you; twisted and bitter because I don't like the hand I was dealt."

There was silence in the room, surprised faces, angry faces; they all felt like a blur to Jess. Heaney was both shocked and angry, no one talked to him that way, most people just left him to his complaining, let him think himself better than everyone else. Jess usually did too, as much as it annoyed her, she was quite happy to ignore him. She was already passed her limit for the day though, her nerves were frayed and she was stressed out and tired, he was just one thing more than she could handle at that moment.

"You can't talk to me like that," he stated. "I was trying to help, to be nice. Teachers don't last very long in this school because they try too hard, invest too much of themselves and let things like this effect them too much. I was merely offering you some sound advice; you have no right to speak to me that way."

Jess stood up and left the room, she needed some air, she needed to get her head together and brace herself for the afternoon, fighting over whether or not she should care was going to do nothing to help her get through the rest of the day.

* * *

It was late, the pizzeria had closed over half an hour ago and Danny had stayed to help his uncle cash up and lock up. There was more cash in the building than usual, it had been a busy night, the place had already been packed when Danny had arrived that afternoon. His uncle was acting strangely, had been for the last couple of days but every time Danny asked him about it he just brushed it off. Maybe he was just tired, the pizzeria had been doing well and his uncle had been working more hours than usual, maybe the man just needed a break, a chance to rest up and recuperate.

"You don't need to walk me home Danny, I know the way," his uncle stated when it became apparent Danny intended to do just that.

"It's late, you shouldn't be out on your own, you know I don't like it," Danny replied, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket.

"I have walked home from here more times than I care to count over the last twelve years, I've never met a problem I couldn't handle," his uncle said stubbornly.

"It only takes one time," Danny countered. "Besides, you're not as young as you used to be Uncle David, and I mean that in the nicest possible way."

David smiled. "This is true."

"It's not that far out of my way anyway," Danny told him with a shrug as they continued to walk along the dark street. There were a couple of youths up ahead; they were gathered in a circle looking at something Danny couldn't see, he kept a wary eye on them as they passed. There was a group of homeless people gathered around a small fire in what looked to be a trash can, a few of them looking drunk, others just looking tired.

The walk to his uncle's place was a short one and Danny bid his uncle goodnight before turning around to head home. He was almost there, the building in sight when someone suddenly stepped in front of him. Danny looked up, not recognising the face, he apologised though he knew he had done nothing wrong and tried to step around the man but he moved and blocked his way.

Four more men appeared, surrounding him, blocking him in and Danny looked around at their faces but he didn't know any of them. The man that had first blocked his path stepped forward, getting into Danny's personal space with a menacing look on his face.

"We've got a message for your brother," the man said his fist landing in Danny's stomach before he'd even had chance to register the movement. Another punch came, this time at his face and then someone from behind him took his legs out from under him before Danny could even move to defend himself. His back collided with the hard pavement only moments before a boot collided with his rib, another with his back and another with his head. A boot came at his ribs again and Danny grabbed it before it could hit him, twisting it and causing one of the men to hit the ground next him.

It did nothing to help his situation, in fact it made it worse, the five men got angrier, he was kicked several more times, harder than before. It felt like forever before it stopped and Danny chanced a look upwards, to the five unfriendly faces looking down at him. One of the men, the one who had spoken before knelt down over him, grabbing a fist full of Danny's shirt and using it to drag his face closer.

"Tell Louie, this is for Andre," the man said and then hit Danny again, his fist coming across his face before he let go of him and stood up. The five men left and Danny laid there on the ground for a few minutes, trying to gather the strength to the get up. Louie's apartment was just around the corner and Danny managed to pull himself up from the ground, his head spinning and his body protesting his every move.

Louie answered the door quicker than Danny had been expecting and he watched his brother's wide eyes take in his appearance.

"Some guy, said this was for Andre," Danny stated, delivering the message as requested before getting to his own. "Stop dragging me into your messes, I want no part of the gang, stop getting me involved."

Danny turned to leave but Louie's voice followed him down the corridor and Danny turned back to him. "It's too late for that Danny, you took the first steps back in school, you don't get to turn around and walk away now."

Danny did just that.

* * *

It was another case that was going nowhere and Don was beginning to feel frustrated. He knew cases took time, he couldn't solve them all over night but after the Sand's case he was already frustrated with the lack of real progress being made to stop the gangs. The crime scene unit had arrived at the school half an hour ago, they'd waited until the students were heading home before coming in, not wanting to disturb them anymore than they had to. They were reconstructing the scene, hoping for some clues, some insights, something that would help him put someone away for this.

They had mannequins set up where the students had been killed or injured were. They had a vague idea of who had been hit when from the statements from some of the students, even if it wasn't a completely reliable timeline. The crime scene guys had a bunch of sticks and string all over the place, marking the paths the bullets had taken as best they could based on the injuries, student statements and where bullets had been found.

"Alright then," Carlos said as he walked over to Don. "This is nowhere near finished yet but it gives us a good indicator of what happened here and it looks to me like most of the bullets were being fired there."

Don followed the man's gesture to where one of the mannequins was stood with two strings attached to it. He read the label that had been attached to the mannequin, the name of the student it represented. Craig Wayson.

"So Craig could have been the target," Don stated.

"Or he was very unfortunate," Carlos replied and went back to adjusting string. Don looked over at the school, he wondered if Miss Angell was still there, Wayson had been her student and it seemed a more in depth discussion of him was needed. He'd speak to the parents again as well but when he'd spoken to them before he'd gotten the distinct impression they knew very little about their son, Miss Angell had known more.

He walked into the school, finding his way to the staff room where a couple of teachers were sat with mugs in their hands and a newspaper in between them. He asked them where he could find Jessica Angell and they directed him to her classroom. He found her sitting behind a desk, she looked nothing like any teacher he'd had in school but then the entire school system was different now and his school had been nothing like this one.

"Miss Angell," he said as he knocked on the door.

She looked up at him and gave him a wary smile. "Detective Flack, what can I do for you?"

"I'd like to ask you a few more questions about Craig Wayson, is now a good time?" he asked her and she nodded her head, standing up and coming around the desk.

"Now's fine," she replied and gestured to one of the student's desks, he took the seat there as she sat at the desk next to him, turning the chair around so she could face him. "I'm not really sure how much more I can help you, he wasn't exactly an open book but what do you need to know?"

"You said he was involved in a gang," Don began. "I need to know more about that."

"I don't know much more than what I told you before, I suspect he started getting involved in a gang but thought better of it and decided to get out again, I don't know any names or anything. It's not really something they talk to their teachers about, all I know is how he behaved in school and I make judgements from that. There was a brief period, a couple of weeks before... before the shooting where he started to let his school work slide. He stopped handing his work in and what he did hand in wasn't up to his usual standard, he didn't focus in class, stopped participating in class discussions. It was a brief period though, I had a talk with him, made him redo an essay and he started to get himself back on track."

"You think he was getting pressured by whatever gang he had been getting involved with?" Don asked her and she nodded, a flicker of something crossing her face but it was gone again as quickly as it had appeared.

"Yes, that's what I think," she said.

"Did he ever have any problems with anyone here in school?" Don asked and Angell shook her head after a moment.

"He was a pretty quiet kid, I'm sure he had issues here and there, this is high school after all but nothing ever big enough for it to come to my attention," she told him and Don nodded. Wayson might have been a good kid but it seemed a likely possibility that he was the intended target of the drive by. "I know he has two brothers, both of them are older and I'm pretty sure they're both involved with the gangs, I can't be completely certain of that though."

"Do you know what his relationship with his brothers was like?" Don asked her and she shook her head.

"I've heard him mention them a couple of times, I know he still sees them but beyond that, I don't know," she told him. "Why all the focus on Craig Wayson, you haven't asked me about Daniel Bentley. Do you think Craig had something to do with this?"

"I'm just looking at all possibilities," Don replied but he could see the wheels already turning in her head, trying to make sense of a puzzle she didn't have all the pieces to. She looked tired; he could only imagine the last couple of days had been rough, for her and the rest of the staff here. "How are the other students?" he found himself asking and she looked surprised by the question.

"Hanging in there, it's amazing how resilient kids can be. They're angry obviously, upset and frightened but they're holding up much better than you'd expect," she replied and there was a hint of pride in her voice. "The school is doing everything we can for them, we're holding an assembly for the students we lost on Friday, give them all a chance to come together and say goodbye."

"That sounds like a good idea," Don replied and she gave him a small smile. Don wondered for a moment what he was still doing there, he had back ground checks to run and a crime scene team to check in with. "Thank you for your time Miss Angell, you've been very helpful."

"Somehow I doubt that but thanks for saying it," she responded, catching Don off guard and he turned back to her with a small smile. "If you have any more questions, you know where to find me."

He nodded his head and left, Carlos was still doing something with the string outside and barking orders at the team. Don gestured to him and to the officers that were watching the crime scene team that he was leaving, Carlos would find him if he came up with anything else. Don wanted to look a little more deeply into Craig Wayson, he'd already run a check on him and found very little but a little extra digging was in order.

TBC


	9. Chapter 9

**Authors Note: This chapter didn't turn out quite as I'd intended it to, mostly because Danny and Lindsay wouldn't go where I wanted them to, stubborn people. I hope you enjoy it anyway, thanks to CSI4lyfNCIS13, jessicaflack, Brinchen86, afrozenheart412 and lily moonlight for the reviews. **

Chapter 9

"Danny," David's voice called to him from the staff room as he passed by. Danny took a step backwards so he could see into the room; his uncle was sitting at the white, plastic table the staff used for their lunch breaks. He had a newspaper folded up next to him, the ring from the bottom of a coffee mug stained into the top of it. "I need you to do something for me."

"Can it wait; I was just heading to the store room to grab some things for Brad?" Danny questioned and his uncle shook his head as he stood up, picking up a brown box from the counter behind him and walking over to Danny.

"I'll take care of Brad, I need you to take this to Bianca," David told him, handing the heavy package over to him. He felt a sharp pain in his rib but it was gone as quickly as it came and he managed not to react outwardly. His uncle didn't know the extent of the beating he had gotten the other night, only that he had been hit, Danny didn't intend for him to know either. "She's helping out with a fundraiser this week and I agreed to give her these supplies, she needed them yesterday but I didn't get the chance to take them down and we've been busy here all day."

"I got it," Danny said, holding his hand up to forestall any further explanation.

"You remember where she lives?" David questioned.

"Vaguely, I'm sure it'll come back to me once I get there," Danny replied, shifting the box in his arms and turning toward the back door of the pizzeria. "You need me to come back after I've dropped it off?"

"No, that's fine, we've got things covered here, I'll see you tomorrow," his uncle said absently as he headed toward the kitchen. Danny sighed and left, Bianca lived near the school, it shouldn't take him long to walk over there. He hadn't seen the woman in well over a year, she was a friend of his uncles and so Danny had seen a lot of her growing up. She was kind and caring, kind of like a grandmother in some ways but she could smother a person with all the fussing she would do over them.

He recognised the street as soon as he was on it, remembered which house it was, it looked the same as it always had. He knocked on the door, waiting patiently for her to open it, giving him the same enthusiastic greeting she always had.

"Daniel, it's been so long, how are you?" she exclaimed when she saw him, pulling him in for a hug and seeming not to notice the box under his arm. He patted her back awkwardly, not one to be impolite.

"I'm fine, you look well," he replied and she nodded her head.

"And you look terrible, what happened to you?" she asked, gesturing to the bruised cut on his head.

"It was a misunderstanding," Danny lied; she didn't need to know the truth.

"What brings you here?" she questioned as she walked through to the kitchen. "Can I get you some tea, maybe something to eat, you're looking a little on the thin side, I hope you're looking after yourself properly?"

"Tea would be great, thank you," he replied with a smile. He knew from experience he wouldn't get out of here peacefully if he didn't accept some form of pampering first. "Uncle David asked me to bring some things down for you, he said you needed them for a fundraiser."

"Oh yes, I was hoping he would get those to me soon," Bianca said seeming to notice the box for the first time. Danny set it on the counter, opening it up and taking things out of it, placing them on the counter so Bianca would be able to use them easily later. The two of them sat down on the couch that seemed to have gathered a few more frilly cushions since he was last there. "How have you been Daniel?"

"Fine, still working for Uncle David," he told her.

"And have you found yourself a lady friend yet, a good, more permanent lady friend?" she asked and Danny raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Oh don't think I don't know all about the ladies that come and go from your life, there isn't much your uncle doesn't tell me. I admit though, he hasn't mentioned any new ones recently."

"No... no lady friend, not at the moment," he stumbled slightly over his words. An image of Lindsay came to mind, unbidden and he quickly shook it away, wondering why she would be jumping into his mind now, he barely knew her.

"How about that brother of yours, is he still causing trouble?" she asked. There was a fondness in her voice, she loved both Danny and Louie as though she really where their grandmother.

"He's been causing trouble for as long as I can remember, why would he stop now?" Danny replied humorously, not wanting to get into the truth of just how much trouble Louie surrounded himself with. He finished his tea and the small cakes she insisted he eat and left, surprised at how little she had smothered him on this visit but leaving before that could change.

"Hello Danny," a familiar voice greeted as he passed the school and he smiled as he turned to see Lindsay walking toward him. She obviously caught sight of the cut on his head, her expression changed to one of concern. "What happened?"

"It was nothing, just a misunderstanding with someone," he replied, brushing it off but she gave him a disbelieving look, he decided to change the subject. "How is everything at the school?"

She gave him another look, this one telling him she knew what he was doing. "Strained, as you can imagine, it's getting better though. We're having an assembly tomorrow, for the students that we lost, hopefully that will help everyone to grieve and really start moving on."

"How about you, how are you handling it?" he asked her and she let out a breath as the two of them resumed walking.

"I'm handling it," she replied. "I don't have a choice though really. I'll be fine; I'll have this weekend to really process everything." She stopped as they reached a corner and brushed her hair behind her ear. "I'm heading this way," she told him nodding her head down the street that led away from his current path. "I'll see you."

"Bye," Danny nodded giving her a smile; she returned it before turning to walk away. Danny watched her for a moment and he thought maybe he knew why she had so easily inserted herself into his thoughts earlier.

* * *

The atmosphere was subdued, a blanket of grief lying over the room. Don studied the sight before him, the students and teachers gathered in the school yard to say their goodbyes to those they had lost. The Principal was standing on a stage that had been thrown together that morning, speaking to the students from behind a small podium. Don listened as he spoke of life and loss, and how everyone there should take a lesson from this, that life was short and everyday should be lived to its fullest.

He had several reasons for being there, the main one being to pay his own respects to the students that had been killed, he wasn't made of stone, and every death he investigated affected him. On top of that he was observing the people present, looking for any sign that someone here knew something or had been involved, their grief would not be the same as everyone else's, if they had any at all.

He looked around at the faces of the students, some of them were tear filled, others were angry, some were indifferent, probably having not known the deceased or not caring. He saw nothing that stood out to him, nothing that suggested anyone's involvement in the shooting. The teachers and staff were spread out throughout the area, many of them were sitting amongst the students, a couple were on the stage with the principal, the rest were stood around the edges.

He spotted Miss Angell; she was stood next to what he assumed to be her class. She kept looking them over in concern, like a mother protecting her children. She glanced over at him and caught his eyes for a moment; she gave him a quick nod and turned her attention back to the Principal. The man finished his speech and introduced a student to the stage; the young woman stood up and walked to the podium, clutching a piece of paper in her hands. She stopped behind the microphone, taking a breath and beginning to talk to about one of the students, sharing memories and laughs with the crowd.

A precession of students followed her; all of them with only good things to say about the dead, today was not a day for bringing up their flaws, their problems. Flowers were laid before large photographs, small gifts and letters among them and the students were all dismissed, sent home early so they could grieve and adjust over the weekend.

"Detective Flack," Miss Angell said as she walked over to him. "I can't say I'm all that surprised to see you here. How is the investigation going?"

"We're looking into several possibilities at the moment," he replied. In truth they were getting nowhere, there was no evidence, no witness that saw more than the car and the longer it took, the less likely he would be to close it. People were moving on, witnesses forgetting what they saw or what they know, evidence, if there was any around, would be disappearing.

"Did you find out anything about Craig Wayson, I know you were looking into him?" Angell asked him and then smiled. "I suppose you can't really tell me that, can you?"

Don shook his head. "No, I'm sorry."

"Whatever else you found out about him, he was a good kid," she stated, as if reaffirming it for herself as much as she was trying to relay it to him.

"I'm sure he was," he replied, catching her eyes again. "I should get back to work."

She nodded. "Thank you for coming today."

He gave her a small smile and then turned to leave. He wished he had more answers for her, for the parents that had lost their children and for the other students who were injured in the shooting. He wished he could tell them the people responsible had been brought to justice. He couldn't though, at least not yet, he just hoped he would be able to soon.

* * *

Jess walked into her classroom. The assembly had been tough but it had been a big help to the kids and that was what mattered. She sat behind her desk, glancing at the two desks that had been empty all week. She leaned back in the chair, her eyes catching sight of a letter on the table addressed to her. Her name was scribbled hastily across the front and she sat forward, picking it up warily. Opening the letter she found more hasty scribble inside but the words were easy to make out.

'_This is what happens to those who defy us. Get in our way again and we'll be coming back for you.'_

Jess's breath caught in her throat, the meaning was obvious and she glanced up at the door as though she expected someone to be there. It had been her fault, the gang had gone after Craig because she had convinced him to leave them behind and concentrate on his school work. They had killed him and four other kids, injured even more because of what she'd done. She felt sick and for a brief moment light headed.

A knock at the door made her jump and she saw Lindsay standing there looking apologetic as she stepped into the class room. "I just thought I'd come and see how you were."

"I'm..." Jess began but her mind couldn't seem to focus on whatever she'd been about to say.

"Are you alright?" Lindsay questioned worriedly, stepping over to the desk. Jess was about to hand her the letter but thought better of it, the police would probably want to dust it for finger prints or something. Instead, she read the words and turned the paper so Lindsay could see it, the woman's face paling slightly.

"That has to be about the drive by right?" Lindsay questioned. "You said you thought Craig was being pressured by a gang but what does that have to do with you?"

"I was convincing him to concentrate on his school work, the gang approached me and told me to leave it alone, I didn't," Jess explained shaking her head.

"Why didn't you tell me, you can't keep something like that to yourself Jess?" Lindsay said her eyes wide and worried.

"It's not the first time a gang has threatened me, it probably won't be the last either and it's something you should brace yourself for if you want to be the kind of teacher I think you do. By getting students to work hard we take them away from the gangs that want them. It's never gotten this far before though," Jess told her and she put the letter down on the desk, burying her face in her hands.

"You have to take this to Detective Flack," Lindsay stated. "I just saw him outside; if you hurry you'll probably catch him before he leaves."

"I'm going to," Jess said, already standing up and heading for the door with the letter.

"Are you going to be alright?" Lindsay asked and Jess paused her movements for a moment.

"I'll be fine."

"If you need to talk, you know where to find me," Lindsay stated.

* * *

"Detective Flack," Don heard Miss Angell call as he was about to get in the car, he turned to see her walking toward him.

"Miss Angell, what can I do for you?" he questioned and she took a piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to him. He quickly read it, glancing up at her with a raised eyebrow and a questioning look. "When did you get this?"

"I found it on my desk just after the assembly," she told him.

"And I'm assuming you know what it means?" he asked her and she nodded.

"Craig Wayson," she stated. "I told you he was getting pressured by someone, probably a gang. I didn't tell you that they'd made a threat against me, they cornered me when I left school a couple of weeks ago and told me to stay out of their way, Craig was theirs and I was to leave him alone. I didn't listen."

"Why didn't you tell me about this before now?" he asked her, a slight bit of anger creeping into his tone.

"I didn't know it was important, I didn't even know Craig was so connected to the drive by until you started asking questions about him the other day. I've had threats like these before Detective, I'll get them again, it, unfortunately, comes with being a good teacher at this school. I didn't realise that it was important," she took a breath, letting it out in a sigh. "I should have told you though, I'm sorry."

"It's alright," he replied, she seemed to be beating herself up enough without him needing to add to it. "How many threats have you gotten?"

"I don't count them," Jess replied and Don nodded. "I keep the letters though, just in case, they're all in my classroom."

"I'll need to take a look at them, see if any of them might be connected, did you get any in the last couple of months?" he questioned gesturing for them to head inside and the two of them began walking back in the direction of the school building.

"Three," she replied "But I think two of them might have been from a student, his parents weren't pleased about the grades he'd been getting."

"I'll need to see them anyway," Don replied. They passed by several students as they entered the building, many of them talking quietly and a couple giving him a hateful look, Don figured they were somehow affiliated with a gang. They reached Miss Angell's classroom and she sat down behind her desk, reaching into the bottom drawer and pulling out a small brown box.

"That's all the threatening letters I've saved, the newer ones are the top," she told him and he took the lid from the box, surprised by the amount of paper inside.

"How long have you been working here again?" he questioned and she gave him a half smile.

"Two years," she told him. "Most of them are empty threats, some of them are probably from the same people and a lot of them are just students who don't like getting bad grades from a woman."

He was surprised at how calm she was, most women, most people, who got this many threats would be... spooked at the very least. She seemed to have shrugged them off for the most part, not letting it interfere with her ability to do her job; he had to respect that in her. At the same time though, he knew it was the reason that she had so many threats in the first place, her determination not to be intimidated into doing anything less than her best would no doubt tread on the wrong people's toes.

"These are the recent ones," she told him, handing him three pieces of paper which he quickly read through. She'd been right, two of them did read like an angry student, probably the same student as well. The other was more threatening, a couple of more specific consequences for her being included in the letter that he found actually made him angry. She shouldn't have to deal with this, not when all she was trying to do was her job, he doubted she'd signed on for this.

She'd written the date she'd gotten each threat on the back in pencil; this one was from seven weeks ago. Some time had elapsed between then and now so the chances were whoever had written it wasn't planning to go any further but it was still recent enough to concern him. He grabbed a chair and pulled it toward the desk, sitting down and putting the letters to one side.

"You said the gang cornered you," he stated and she looked down for a moment before meeting his eyes. "What happened exactly?"

"I was walking home from the school, I'd stayed late to grade some papers. I got down the street and a man stepped out in front of me, I tried to go around him but he blocked my way and then a few other men stepped out, surrounded me," she explained. "They told me I was to leave Craig alone, that he belonged to them and I was to stop interfering, if I knew what was good for me. They didn't elaborate and I managed to get around them, I left, I didn't look back."

"And when was this?" he asked her.

She bit her lip and looked thoughtful for a moment. "Two and a half weeks ago, on the Tuesday."

Don finished asking her questions and left, taking the entire box of threatening letters with him, more out of curiosity than actually needing them. He felt like he had a better idea of where this case was going, what direction to take it in. He was certain now that Craig had been the target of the drive by and the people that had written this letter, that had threatened Miss Angell were the ones behind it.

TBC


	10. Chapter 10

**Authors Note: The long awaited update has arrived, thanks to everyone for their patience and I hope it was worth the wait. Special thanks to; Brinchen86, afrozenheart412, Jessicaflack, lily moonlight, CSI4lyfNCIS13 and BlueEyedAuthor for their reviews. **

Chapter 10

The information Miss Angell had provided him with had given him a renewed resolve to solve this case. He felt like it was finally getting somewhere and at the very least he had a direction to head in, until this point he'd been more or less flying blind. Craig Wayson had only had a couple of run ins with the law and those were minor offences, half hearted attempts to be a part of the gang at best, as though he hadn't really wanted to be a part of it in the first place. There was nothing recent though, in the last few months of his life Craig had remained off the police radar. It matched up with Miss Angell's story that Craig had been trying to get away from the gang life and if she had been a part of the reason for that then he could see how the gang would have gone after her. They never took kindly to outsiders interfering with their young recruits and Craig was at the age where the gang would have wanted him fully committed.

Now that he was able to focus the investigation he'd gone to one of his informants for information, one who knew the gangs in that area well. Timmy Greer was a back stabbing, cowardly little weasel who had quickly agreed to work for Don in return for a reduced sentence when he'd been caught selling drugs in an alleyway. As untrustworthy as he was Don knew the man wasn't stupid enough to not hold up his end of the deal, he wasn't the kind of man that would survive very long in prison which was exactly where he'd end up if he crossed Don.

Timmy had been able to find out which gang Craig had belonged to, the Heldon boys. They were a relatively young gang; most of their members were still in the teens with a few twenty somethings running the show. They got up to the usual public nuisance stuff, graffiti, fighting, criminal damage and intimidating anyone who so much as glanced at them. Then there was the more serious stuff, drugs and murder, these guys had their territory and anyone who crossed them either ended up in a hospital or a grave.

The threats against Jessica Angell carried more weight now, he knew if she continued to get in their way they would make good on their threats against her. He would have to talk to her but he knew there was little that could be done, she had a job to do and as long as she was doing it the way she was she was going to tread on peoples toes. All he could do was make sure she was aware she could come for help with whatever happened and give her his card so she would have someone to call directly in an emergency as well.

"Don," Mac's voice called and Don looked over to see the Captain stood in his office doorway and he walked over, following Mac into the office. "Where are we on the shooting?"

"We've got a lead, one of the students that was killed, Craig Wayson; he'd been running with Heldon Boys and decided he wanted out. His teacher, Jessica Angell, she'd been encouraging him to concentrate on his work and do something better with his life," Don explained as he sat down at one side of Mac's desk while the captain sat opposite him.

"I can't imagine that went down well," Mac stated and Don shook his head.

"She was cornered on the street a couple of weeks ago and threatened, they told her to leave Craig alone, she didn't," Don continued, thinking of the box full of threatening letters she'd shown him a couple of days ago, all threats she had refused to let intimidate her. "She got a letter a couple of days ago that told her the drive by was the consequences of crossing them and if she continued to get in the way she'd be next."

"Sounds like more than any teacher should have to put up with," Mac stated shaking his head.

"You should have seen the box of threatening letters she has in her drawer, a lesser person would have walked away a long time ago," Don told him. "I looked into Craig and my contact informed me he was one of the Heldon boys, I was about to track down Lee Waters, the head of the gang."

"Take a couple of uniforms with you when you find him and be careful, I don't have to tell you you're heading into dangerous territory," Mac instructed and Don stood up with a nod.

"We're always heading into dangerous territory, comes with the job, I do it every other day," Don replied humorously though he knew there was really nothing funny about it. He headed for the door but stopped and turned back as he reached it. "Have you gotten anywhere with Mala?"

Mac looked unsure if he wanted to answer the question for a moment, glancing at the door to make sure it was closed. "I have an informant close to Mala who thinks they may be onto something, I should know more soon."

Don could tell something was bothering the captain, he wasn't happy about something but he knew better than to press the issue right then. "Let me know?"

"Of course," Mac nodded and Don left without another word and returned to his desk, he needed to track down Lee Waters since he already knew for a fact that the man wasn't at his home.

* * *

It had been a few days since Jess had shown her the threatening letter she'd received and if Lindsay was honest she was still a little shaken by it, she could only imagine how Jess must feel. Jess had told her several times since Lindsay had first started working here that being the kind of teacher that she wanted to be would come with a price. Lindsay had known that, she'd understood it in principal but seeing it first hand was something else all together.

She'd dismissed her students for lunch and they'd all eagerly fled the classroom fifteen minutes ago. She should really head to the staff room for her own lunch but she had a few lesson plans she wanted to finish, if she got them done now she could actually head home on time. There was a slight issue with a history lesson, there was too much copying out of a text book and not only did she feel that it was a poor way to learn and an even poorer way to teach she knew the majority of her students wouldn't even bother to skim through the text, never mind copy it. She made the lesson a little more active, increasing the time she would spend talking and listing questions she could pose to the class, those who were listening.

She was about to move onto her next lesson plan when she heard the classroom door open. She looked up to see Billy Wallace standing in the open doorway staring at her. Billy was one of her more difficult students, he didn't pay attention in class, the assignments he bothered to do were half hearted at best and he had a tendency to incite chaos in her classroom for the simple reason that it amused him to do so.

"What is this?" he questioned, there was disgust in his voice that made her raise an eyebrow as he held out a piece of paper she instantly recognised as one of the essays she had given back to the class that morning.

"I believe it's your essay," she replied, putting down her pen and interlacing her fingers on her desk.

"I know it's my essay but what the hell is this grade?" he questioned and she looked at the paper for a moment, quickly recalling the grade she had given it and why.

"You have a problem with it?" she asked him and he took several angry steps toward her, his voice rising as he replied.

"Your damn right I have a problem with it, who do you think you are to give me a grade like this?" he questioned but carried on before Lindsay could offer any response. "You have no right to give me low grades, you're nothing. I demand a higher grade and you had better give it to me."

"Or what?" Lindsay questioned, standing up so that she was closer to his height and he wasn't looking down at her quite so much. She kept her arms by her sides and forced her body to remain relaxed, she would look calm on the outside even if she didn't feel that way on the inside. "You got a low grade because your work deserved one. The spelling, grammar and punctuation were poor, the use of terminology was next to nonexistent, you failed to meet the word count and almost all of the key points were missing. If you want better grades you'll earn them just as everyone else has to, feel free to take a second shot at the essay if you wish but otherwise, your grade will remain the same."

"You can't talk to me like that, you're a woman, you have no right..." he began to protest but was cut off by a voice at the door.

"Mr Wallace," Jess's voice sounded through the room, full of an authority Lindsay was still trying to master. "I think you should go and enjoy what's left of your lunch break and reconsider the way you speak to the members of staff at this school."

Wallace glared at her and then turned his eyes back to Lindsay before he walked out of the classroom, his essay being creased in his fist. Jess waited until he had gone before stepping fully into the room and closing the door behind her. Lindsay sat down, releasing the breath she hadn't been aware she was holding in and allowing herself to visibly deflate now that Wallace was gone. It was not the first time she'd disagreed with a student but it had never been anything like that.

"They can be a little intimidating can't they?" Jess smiled as she pulled a chair over to Lindsay's desk and sat down. "You did well though."

"For a second I could have sworn I sounded like you," Lindsay laughed trying to rid herself of the tension.

"Is that a bad thing?" Jess questioned and Lindsay shook her head.

"No," she replied and then took a breath, letting it out again in a heavy sigh. "Any word from Detective Flack?"

"Nothing so far," Jess told her, her smile quickly falling away.

"He'll get them," Lindsay stated with more confidence than she felt, Jess didn't reply.

* * *

Danny left the warmth of his uncles house and began the walk home, it wasn't far, it seemed everything in Danny's life was close together, his brother, his uncle, the place he lived, the place he worked, he never had to go far to get to any of it. There were times when he considered that a good thing and other times where it seemed like a representation of how far he had come in his life, which wasn't far at all. The house he and Louie had grown up in was only around the corner.

He was set to take over the Pizzeria from his uncle one day and again Danny saw it with a mix of emotion. His uncle was proud of the pizzeria, it was his baby, something he had created and Danny felt honoured that it would be left to him one day, it would give him stability and it already provided him with an honest way to live. At the same time though the pizzeria would be a tie to this place, to the life he was living now, it would trap him here and he'd never go anywhere else.

"Hey, Danny boy," he heard someone shout and looked up to see a group of Louie's friends heading in his direction. He sighed and resigned himself to the fact that he couldn't just turn and walk the other way, he couldn't avoid them. "We're just on our way to meet up with your brother, wanna come with, we got a couple of punks to teach some lessons to?"

"No, I've had a long day, I'm just gonna head home," Danny replied hoping they would just leave it at that but his luck had never been that good.

"You're never around anymore Danny boy," Lucas told him. Lucas was the same age as Louie, they'd gone to school together, as much as they'd ever actually gone to school, and had become involved in the gang together as well. When he'd been younger Danny had looked up to them both, he'd always wanted to go with them everywhere they went, he'd felt left out until he'd been brought into the gang as well. Now he'd do anything to get out, to be able to make a clean break but with Louie still so connected he'd never be able to do that.

"I have to work," Danny replied and then walked passed Lucas and the others, not bothering to look back as he heard one of them ask Lucas whether Danny was going to be a problem. He didn't hear Lucas's reply, wasn't sure he would have wanted to, he just kept his head down and carried on walking. He was going to have to make more of an effort to avoid the gang, he needed to be more careful, if he kept off their radar for a while, maybe they'd leave him alone. Even as he thought it, he knew it wouldn't happen.

* * *

Frankie had called her that morning to say he would have to cancel their lunch plans and instead they would have a late dinner. She'd planned to have a quiet night in but she knew better than to disagree with Frankie, everyone knew better than to disagree with Frankie. She walked up the stairs of his apartment building, recognising most of the faces she passed, either other tenants or a Frankie's goons.

She reached his door to find it slightly open and as she stepped closer she could hear raised voices inside. She knew them both instantly, one was Frankie the other was Mickey. Frankie sounded angry and even though she knew she was taking a risk she waited outside the door, listening in on the conversation and hoping none of Frankie's men came around the corner and caught her there.

"I told you to take care of it Mickey," Frankie shouted and Stella grimaced at the anger in his voice, this wasn't going to be a pleasant evening if this was the mood he was starting it in. Part of her wanted to turn around and go home, she spent so little time there these days, she'd practically been moved into Frankie's place and she knew it was only a matter of time now before he demanded she make it a permanent arrangement. She stayed where she was, listening, hoping that one of them would say something she could use, something she could report to Mac.

"He's disappeared Frankie, he took off, his apartment has been cleaned out, the whole family is gone. I doubt he's going to the police, he's on the run," Mickey babbled out and Stella could hear how nervous he was.

"You can't be sure of that, he has evidence, evidence that could put both you and me behind bars for a long time," Frankie replied and Stella turned around as she heard someone coming up the nearby stairwell but the sound faded away again.

"Hanson is a factory worker, he's spent all of his life working in the back corner of Greenways, never doing anything, he's not the kind of guy who's suddenly going to get brave and go to the cops," Mickey told him and Stella heard a thud which she guessed was Frankie's fist hitting a wall.

"Find him Mickey, find him and take care of him like you should have done right from the start or I'll be taking care of you, do you understand?" Frankie ordered and Stella heard a mumbled acceptance from Mickey and footsteps heading toward the door. She knocked and walked in as though she'd only just gotten there, offering the two men a small smile as she did so.

"Everything alright, the door was open?" she questioned and Mickey pushed passed her and left.

"Everything is fine, why don't you get on with making dinner and stop asking so many damn questions all the time," Frankie said as he left the room. She placed her coat over the back of a chair and walked into the kitchen making a mental note of the entire conversation so she could speak to Mac later.

TBC


	11. Chapter 11

**Authors Note: Next chapter is here, a little bit sooner than I was expecting to get it done. Special thanks to CSI4lyfNCIS13, lily moonlight, Runner043 and afrozenheart412 for their reviews on the previous chapter. Hope you enjoy!**

Chapter 11

The letter had arrived on his desk that morning and Mac had recognised the hand writing immediately as Stella's. As usual his heart rate had picked up as he'd opened it, he knew Stella would only contact him for one of two reasons, she had found something or she was in danger. He had been only slightly relieved when he had read her words, they'd been written hastily, her handwriting not as neat as usual and he wondered what risks she had taken just by writing the letter. It had been short and to the point, she had found something and needed to meet with him, she gave a location and a time, no doubt a couple of days after she had actually written the letter to be sure it reached him in time. The meeting had been that afternoon and he hadn't been able to concentrate on anything else all day.

Mac looked at his watch; it was a minute until the time the letter had said she would be here. He had parked his car just outside of the alley, across the road so that he wouldn't catch the wrong people's attention. He finally spotted her coming down the street but instead of going into the alleyway she walked into the music store. He waited a moment and spotted two of Frankie's men that had to be following her. He smiled slightly to himself; she was far smarter than Frankie gave her credit for.

He drove the car down the alleyway and waited, if she could get away she would come looking for him, if she couldn't she would get in contact with him again later. It was less than a minute before she came around the corner; casting glances behind her to be sure she wasn't still being followed. Mac didn't get out of the car, it would be best to stay out of sight, in case Frankie's men came around the corner. Instead, he leaned across and opened the passenger door, a gesture for Stella to get in the car, at least then they would be out of sight and if the need arose, they could get away quickly, he hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Stella slipped into the car, closing the door behind her and letting out a heavy sigh. "I've been trying to lose them for the last half an hour. I'd swear Frankie had told them not to take their eyes off me for even half a second."

"Is he suspicious?" Mac questioned worriedly but she shook her head.

"No, but he's nervous, I've never seen him this agitated before," she replied. "We should make this quick, it won't take them long to find me."

"What do you have?" Mac questioned when she looked through the back window of the car nervously, clearly Frankie wasn't the only one on edge, he hadn't seen her this nervous since she had first agreed to be his informant.

"Not much but hopefully enough," Stella told him diverting her attention back to him. "Frankie's been worried, like I've never seen him; he's been on edge, angrier than usual. I overheard him talking to Mickey the other day. Frankie was mad, said that Mickey was supposed to have taken care of something, a man who Frankie says has evidence on him."

"Go on," Mac urged.

"Mickey said the guy had taken off, gone on the run so he must have know Frankie was going to come after him and for Frankie to be this riled up, it has to be something big," Stella continued. "All I got was a name, Hanson, and that he's a factory worker. Mickey said he'd spent his life working in Greenways."

Mac grabbed his notebook and wrote down the details even though he knew he would remember them, they were burned into his brain now. He put the notebook back into his pocket and looked at Stella, she was still looking nervous, once again looking out of the window. He put a hand on her shoulder, bringing her attention back to him.

"This is good work Stella," he told her. "We'll find this guy and bring him in. You're done now."

"No, if this doesn't work out you're still going to need me," she replied and he shook his head.

"You've taken a big risk bringing me this Stella, if I start poking around in this Frankie is going to find out about it and he'll wonder who leaked the information. I'm willing to bet there aren't more than a handful of people who know about this, that's not a long list of suspects for him," Mac explained. "Stella you have done great work, I've gotten more from you than I ever thought I would get when we went into this. It's time to pull you out."

Stella looked hesitant for a moment before she nodded.

* * *

Lindsay had been marking essays for over two hours when she finally decided to call it a night; she could finish the rest tomorrow. She left her room, her father was in his study and she stuck her head through the door to find him sat behind his desk, surrounded by papers.

"I'm going for a walk," she told him and he looked up at her and the clock.

"It'll be dark soon," he replied and she nodded.

"I know but I could do with some fresh air," she stated. "I won't be long; I'll be back before it gets too dark."

"Alright, be careful," he said and she smiled as she left, grabbing her coat from the hallway before venturing out. It was a cold day but she found it refreshing and she knew when she got back the warmth of her house would feel that much nicer. There was a park nearby so she decided to head there, at this time there would still be a few people around but many would be starting to head back to their homes, it would be fairly quiet.

She passed one of the teachers from the school, saying a quick hello and offering a smile as he passed her. The park was as she'd expected, almost empty but she soon spotted a familiar face sitting on one of the benches, she couldn't help but smile as she walked over.

"Hello Danny," she said as she reached him and he looked up at her with a smile. "Mind if I sit down?"

Danny moved to the side to make room for her. "It's nice to see you again Miss..." he began but Lindsay raised an eyebrow at him. "Lindsay."

"See, that wasn't so hard was it?" she questioned and he shook his head and smiled. A woman walked passed them, a small child following behind her with a miserable face complaining that he didn't want to go home yet.

"What brings you here at this time; you know it will be dark soon?" Danny questioned and Lindsay laughed.

"Worried about me?" she asked him, not expecting an answer. "I needed some fresh air; I've been grading papers since I got back from work. How about you?"

"Just wanted to take a walk, clear my mind," he told her and she nodded her head understandingly.

"Walking is good for that," she stated as she watched a couple walk by in a hurry. She caught sight of someone else she recognised, one of the students at the school, not one of hers but she remembered seeing his face around. He was not alone; he was with several others boys of varying ages. She wondered if they were part of a gang or if they were simply boys hanging out in the park, it said a lot about her life now that when she saw a group of boys together she automatically started to wonder if they were a gang.

"Are you alright?" Danny asked her and she turned her attention back to him realising that she had been staring.

"Yes, I'm fine, sorry," she said. "My mind wondered for a minute."

"Anything you want to share with the class?" he questioned and she raised her eyebrow at the bad joke and he shrugged.

"Nothing important," she told him just as the wind began to pick up. She looked up at the sky; dark clouds were moving in, it was probably going to start raining soon. "Looks like it's going to rain, I should probably go home."

"Probably," Danny replied as she stood up. He stood beside her and looked at her for a moment with a thoughtful expression, as though he was trying to decide something. "This may sound a little forward to you but would you like to have dinner with me?"

She was stunned into silence for a moment, not sure if it was a good idea. "I... I'm not sure if... actually yes, I would," she finally decided and Danny smiled.

"Good, erm... how about Saturday, there's this restaurant, Leon's," he told her and she nodded her head.

"I know that place," she told him, she'd been there for dinner with her father a few months ago. "I can meet you there."

They had a quick discussion over what time they would meet before Lindsay smiled and left. It was unlike her, to accept dinner invitations from men she barely knew, she rarely accepted them from me she did know but she couldn't help feeling excited as she left the park and made her way home. Her father came out of his study to greet her as she walked in and she could tell that he had noticed her good mood but didn't say anything. She wasn't sure what he would think of Danny, he wasn't like any of the men her father had introduced to her in the hopes that she would get married and live the life women were expected to. She would just keep the date to herself for now, it might not even go anywhere, no sense in rocking the boat before she even knew what was happening.

* * *

It had been unusually hard to find him, normally when a person wanted to disappear they couldn't help but leave behind a trail, breadcrumbs that would lead others right to them. Hanson had been smarter than that, there had been hardly any breadcrumbs to follow, he'd been careful, very careful. Mac and Don had finally tracked him and his family to a motel, Mac had informed the detective of what Stella had told him almost as soon as he had gotten back to the station. Don had been surprised to learn that Mac had an informant close to Mala though he hadn't told him who it was, not yet.

They knocked on the door of Hanson's motel room and immediately heard people moving around inside, no doubt panicking as to who might be at the door. There was silence then and Mac gestured to the motel owner to open the door. They walked in quickly to find a woman and two children huddled together at the back of the room. Hanson was stood in front of them, shielding them with his own body.

"Please, don't hurt my family, they don't know anything, I'll come with you," Hanson said quickly, holding his hands up when he saw the guns the two detectives were carrying.

"We don't work for Frankie Mr Hanson," Mac stated, if they had worked for Mala the man's pleas wouldn't have done any good, the wife and kids would have been killed as well, no witnesses. "I'm Captain Taylor, this is Detective Flack, NYPD."

Hanson seemed to relax for a moment, relieved that it had not been Frankie that had found them but then he quickly tensed back up again. "I can't help you, I don't know anything."

"We know that's not true, you wouldn't be hiding here if it was," Don stated. "We can protect you, you and your family."

"No you can't, not from him," Hanson backed away from them.

"Frankie will find you, it's just a matter of time, if we can find you then he can as well, you'll be safer with us, we'll take care of you," Mac told him and he could see the man weighing up his options. "Your family will be safer with us Mr Hanson; we can put them where Frankie won't ever find them."

Hanson bit his lip and glanced back at his family for a moment. "Okay, I'll go with you but you have to promise my family will be safe."

"They will be," Mac assured him.

* * *

Hanson's family had been brought to the station along with Hanson and a team of people were already preparing to send them somewhere safe. Don looked through the glass door to the room Hanson's wife and kids were sitting in. They'd been given food and another detective had brought some toys in for the kids to play with, the older of the two looked to the be about four years old, too young to really understand what was happening but both kids would have understood that their parents were terrified.

"They'll be sent out of the city," Mac told him. "They'll be given new names; if we get what we need on Mala they'll be safe."

"What if we don't?" Don questioned.

"Then they'll be as safe as we can make them," Mac replied. "Let's just make sure we get what we need to put Mala away for life, otherwise they're not the only ones in danger."

"You mean your informant, you still haven't told me who it is you know," Don pointed out and Mac smiled.

"I know," he told him and then headed for the interrogation room where they had left Hanson.

The man was clearly still afraid, he was sat in the chair, leaning forward as though trying to make himself as small as possible. He kept glancing at the door, expecting someone to come through it at any second to hurt him. He jumped out of his chair as the two men entered, taking several steps backwards until his back hit the wall.

"Relax Mr Hanson," Mac told him. "We're not here to hurt you."

"Where is my family?" Hanson questioned.

"They're here, they're safe, we're taking care of them," Mac reassured him and Hanson came and sat down again. "If you want them to be really safe, you'll tell me why Frankie Mala is after you."

"Because of this," Hanson took something from his pocket and pushed it across the table. "It was a photograph of Frankie shooting Gregory Wilder, a restaurant owner that had been found dead in his restaurant weeks ago. It had been all over the news papers for days, Wilder's restaurant had been massively successful and he'd been a well known man because of it.

"Where did you get this?" Mac questioned.

"My cousin had a camera, he worked for a newspaper, I always wanted to do that, to do what he did, and he knew it, he teased me about it all the time. Then when he died six months ago, he left the camera to me; I would never have been able to afford one on my own. I started doing the odd job here and there, the night the restaurant owner was killed I was at the restaurant taking pictures for a newspaper article that was being written about Gregory Wilder. After closing, he invited me to take some more pictures without all the customers in them, just the restaurant," Hanson trailed off, looking at the door again, still waiting for Frankie to come through it.

"Keep going," Don encouraged and Hanson looked back at the two detectives.

"I went into the kitchens to take some pictures, it took me a while, I'm not that good with the camera yet. When I finished I went back to the front of the restaurant to tell Gregory I was done. There were men there with guns, I kept out of sight, I knew who they were, everyone knows who Frankie Mala is. I don't know why I did it, maybe I thought it would get me somewhere in the business, that people would pay big money for it, I don't know, but I took a picture, Frankie just happened to shoot Gregory as I took it," Hanson explained, dropping his head into his hands.

"Alright Mr Hanson," Mac stated pushing a piece of paper and a pen across the table. "We need you to write all of that down, and we need you to testify against Frankie."

"He'll kill me," Hanson shook his head.

"No he won't, we won't let him," Mac stated and Don looked at him for a moment, wondering if that was a promise they would be able to keep.

* * *

Stella walked into her apartment, she had mixed feelings as she looked around the place. She'd lived here for years now but she'd spent so little time here. She'd met Frankie within months of moving in and before she knew she'd been spending more time at his place than hers, more time being 'Frankie's girl' than Stella. If everything went well today, if Mac found Hanson and got what he needed then she would never have to be 'Frankie's girl' again, she would be free of him.

At the same time though, once this was over she would probably never see Mac again either. She would no longer be his informant; he would have no further use for her. She had come to consider almost a friend since she had begun working for him; she had never done anything worthwhile with her life until she had met him. When this was over, she would have no one again, the thought terrified her.

Still, it would be a relief when all this was over and a very dangerous man would be off the streets and behind bars where he couldn't hurt anyone else, that was the important thing. She hung her coat up next to the door and walked through to the kitchen to get a glass of water. What would she do with her life now? Frankie could no longer dictate things to her, she could do anything she liked, go anywhere she liked and no one would be following her, no one would be watching her every move.

"Hello Stella," she heard a familiar voice say as she left the kitchen. She dropped the glass of water from her hand, not even paying attention to it as she turned to face the man standing behind her, she had forgotten he had a key to her place, he'd rarely had to use it, she was never here.

"Frankie," she attempted to cover quickly. "You startled me; I didn't hear you come in."

"Then perhaps you should pay more attention," he replied, she could tell he was angry, behind his mask of calm she could see his temper only just being controlled.

"Probably," she replied with a forced smile. "Is everything alright?"

"You tell me," he said as he took a couple of steps closer to her, she could feel her heart thudding in her chest. "I got word a few hours ago that a couple of cops were sticking their noses into my business, looking for someone."

"Who?" Stella questioned as though she didn't know the answer, she was keeping the fear out of her voice but she knew it was showing in her face, in the way she held herself and she tried to relax, to appear as though nothing was wrong. "Frankie the cops are always sticking their noses in your business, it never bothers you like this, what's going on?"

"Don't," Frankie shouted but then got his voice back under control, Stella flinched and stepped back from him, "play games with me Stella."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Stella replied, keeping her voice even.

"I've been wracking my brains trying to figure out who could have told them about Hanson, how they could possibly have found out. The only people who knew were me, Mickey, Damien and Josh, I thought maybe one of them had talked but Josh and Damien are too cowardly to go against me and Mickey would never betray me, he's been with me since we were kids, I couldn't figure it out," Frankie said, he took a few steps closer to her, all but closing the distance between them. "Then I thought to myself, who else knows all my business, who else could have overheard us talking, could have been right there listening and we wouldn't even have noticed."

"Frankie..." Stella began, ready to come up with excuses, believable stories, lies, adamant declarations of loyalty to him but he cut her off before she could say a word of any of it.

"You Stella, you are the only other person that could have known," Frankie shook his head. "That's when I thought about all the times you disappeared, when the men that were supposed to be watching you lost sight of you. They way you would hover around whenever we were talking business, the way you would ask me questions you knew you shouldn't have."

"Frankie, I swear I never..." Stella began only to be cut off by Frankie's increasing anger.

"Don't lie to me Stella," he shouted and she flinched back from him again. "It was you, you went to the cops, you betrayed me."

TBC


	12. Chapter 12

**Authors Note: I'm not doing too badly for updating at the moment, let's hope I can keep it up. Thanks to CSI4lyfNCIS13, Runner043, lily moonlight, afrozenheart412, BlueEyedAuthor and Brinchen86 for their reviews!**

Chapter 12

Stella couldn't move, she could barely breathe, Mac had warned her this would happen but neither of them could have guessed it would happen so fast. Frankie knew, after all this time, all the sneaking around behind his back, he finally knew the truth, if her life wasn't in imminent danger she'd be relieved.

"I want to hear you say it Stella," Frankie said, he'd stopped shouting but that didn't lessen the impact of his words. She could feel the anger radiating from him, she knew how close to the edge she was standing, one wrong move and she'd fall off. She didn't reply, was afraid that as soon as she said it he'd have no reason to keep her alive anymore. "Say it," he shouted and she jumped. "Say it."

"I went to the cops," she said quietly, her breaths coming shakily.

"When?" he asked. "How long have you been giving them dirt on me?"

"A while," she told him and he shook his head, looking at her with so much anger and disgust she couldn't understand why he hadn't killed her already.

"Did you really think that you'd get away with it, I let you into my life Stella, I gave you everything you ever wanted and you betray me like this, I can't let that go," he told her and she resisted the urge to step back from him again, a few more steps and her back would be against the wall, there'd be nowhere left to go then.

"How about my freedom Frankie?" she dared to reply. "You never let me have that; you never let me be anything other than the girl on your arm."

"But I treated you well," he told her and she made a sound somewhere to between a laugh and cry.

"You terrified me," she told him, feeling a little braver now, if he was going to kill her she didn't want him going on to think that the betrayal had been all her, didn't want him thinking that he had been good to her and hadn't deserved this, that she had been the bad guy here. "You took over my life and kept me in line by keeping me afraid. You hit me when I disagreed with you, you knocked me down the stairs, you bullied me Frankie."

"I loved you," he shouted.

"You don't know what that means," she responded forcefully and he finally snapped. He stepped forward and backhanded her across the face so hard she hit the floor. She could taste blood in her mouth as she tried to push herself up only to be grabbed around the arm by Frankie and dragged her to feet.

"I gave you everything," he shouted as he threw her back into the wall, her head colliding with it painfully. "Everything."

He hit her again and she found herself back on the floor, his footsteps were coming closer to her and she turned around as he knelt down next to her. She tried to fight him off, tried to push him away but he was stronger than she was and he pinned her down with his knee on her stomach as his hands went around her neck. She fought for air, her nails digging into his hands and his arms as she tried to get him away from her but her vision started blurring and her body got weaker and weaker until she couldn't even hold her arms up anymore.

Then there was a sudden crashing sound, she heard voices and she saw dark figures move into her vision. She saw them rip Frankie away from her, could hear him shouting angrily and she coughed, her lungs trying desperately to take in all the air they'd been denied.

"Stella," she heard a familiar voice say. She felt hands on her arms again and she flinched away, her vision clearing to reveal that it was Mac and not Frankie. She was caught once again between laughing and crying, instead she allowed him to help her sit up as paramedics came over to them. He tried to stand to let them get to her but she grabbed his arm and he stayed where he was.

* * *

She'd been in with the doctors for a while now but he'd already been assured by a nurse that she was fine. He was pacing through the waiting room; he'd been forced to go there after his constant questioning of anyone passing by Stella's room had begun to get on people's nerves. He couldn't help it, he felt awful, she was here because he'd made her go up against Mala, made her betray him and he'd found out. He should have protected her better, he should have seen this coming, moved her somewhere safe until he had Mala behind bars.

"Mac," Don's voice interrupted his thoughts and he looked toward the detective who was sat reading a newspaper that someone had left behind. "She's fine, I'm sure she'll be out any minute, in the meantime you're upsetting the other patients with your pacing."

Mac looked around the room, a few people were looking at him, some were ignoring him and some looked like they were beginning to get irritated with him walking back and forth in front of them. He sighed and sat next to Don who immediately folded up his newspaper and put it to one side.

"It's not your fault," Don told him. "You couldn't have predicted that Frankie would find out so fast, or that he would immediately suspect Stella."

"I should have," Mac replied. "I should have put her in a hotel or something for a few days, until we had Mala."

"You can't predict the future Mac, you did the best you could, she's fine and Mala is behind bars, that's the best anyone could have hoped for," Don said and then gestured toward the corridor. "And there she is now."

The two men stood up and Don excused himself saying he was going to head over to the police station and check on Mala. Mac walked over to Stella who gave him a small smile. She looked tired, there was a cut on her head and her lip and bruising was beginning to appear around her neck but she seemed to be okay.

"How are you feeling?" he asked her and she shrugged, wincing at the action.

"I'll live," she told him. "It's not that bad, a few cuts and bruises, I'll be fine in a few days."

"Your apartment is still a crime scene but we have you booked into a hotel for the next couple of nights, I'll drop you off," he told her and she nodded her head slowly.

"How did you know?" she asked him as they started walking out of the hospital. "That Frankie had come after me."

"We went to arrest him, we found the man he'd been looking for and he gave us what we needed to bring him in. He wasn't at his apartment but we did spot one of his friends as we were leaving, Joey Ash, he tried to run but we caught up with him and he couldn't stop laughing about how Frankie had known we were coming," Mac explained. "He said Frankie knew who had talked to us and gone to take care of it, said he'd left hours ago and by now you were dead and Frankie had disappeared, we'd never find him."

"Another couple of minutes and he'd have been right," Stella said quietly. "I can't believe Joey told you where he was."

"I think he thought Frankie was already long gone, he just wanted to rub it in our faces," Mac replied as they reached his car and he opened the door for her.

"I went for a walk to clear my head, I didn't get home until about fifteen minutes before you got there, he must have had to wait for me," Stella told him and then got in the car. Mac closed the door and then walked around to the driver's side, keeping an eye on his surroundings. Mala might be in jail but he still had a lot of loyal followers on the outside, men who wouldn't mind getting revenge on the people who had put their boss away. He got in the car and made the drive to the hotel almost in silence. He took Stella to her room and after reassuring himself he was fine and checking in with the police officer he was leaving with her, he headed to the station.

* * *

Jess locked her classroom door as she left, it had been a long day and she was looking forward to going home and relaxing. She had no essays to grade, no lesson planning to do, she'd gotten everything done yesterday so that she'd be able to relax today. She passed by Lindsay's classroom, sticking her head through the door to say goodbye and telling her not to stay there too much longer. She was just about to walk out of the door when she heard voices on the other side, the word 'shootings' reached her ears straight away and she stopped, stepping back slightly and keeping the door only slightly ajar so that she could hear.

"You keep your mouth shut and we'll be fine, the cops have got nothing," one of the voices stated.

"But that detective is still hanging around here and I talked to my cousin, he says he's one of the best, he's the one that put Alders behind bars last year," another voice replied, this one was shaky and worried. Jess stepped closer to the door, looking through the small gap but she couldn't see the people on the other side, she pushed it open a little more, two students coming into view. She made a mental note of their faces, she recognised them both but had never had dealings with either.

"Keep your mouth shut Ben, that's all you gotta do," was the other boys reply and then he looked in the direction of the door and Jess stepped back quickly, closing the door slowly and quietly hoping she hadn't been seen.

She held her breath for a moment and there was complete silence until she heard their voices again, they were leaving. She let out a breath of relief and went back down the corridor to Lindsay's classroom; she walked in and closed the door behind her.

"Hey, I thought you just left," Lindsay smiled but Jess must have been an open book at that moment because her friend's expression quickly became serious. "Jess, are you alright?"

"I just overheard a couple of students talking, I'm not sure but I think they were involved in the shootings," Jess said running a hand through her hair. "I don't think they saw me."

"You seem to have knack for getting caught up in this," Lindsay said with a sigh. "What did you hear?"

"They were worried about the cops finding out, something about Detective Flack being one of the best and they had to keep their mouths shut," Jess replied and Lindsay nodded her head.

"You need to go to Detective Flack, tell him what you heard, he can find out if they're involved," Lindsay told her.

"I know," she replied. "I just didn't want to leave right after them; I didn't want them to see me."

"Smart move, Detective Flack was here earlier, he was looking for Adele, he wanted to ask her some questions about one of the students that were killed," Lindsay informed her. "It was just before school ended, maybe half an hour ago, he might still be here."

"I'll go find him," Jess said and headed for the door.

"Hey Jess," Lindsay called after her. "I'll leave with you when you're done."

Jess nodded and left the classroom. She headed to Adele's class and found Detective Flack walking out of it with the teacher. He thanked her for her help and she smiled politely but Jess could tell she wasn't happy about being held up.

"Hello Adele," Jess greeted the teacher as she passed and received a half hearted acknowledgement in response as the teacher rushed by her. "Detective Flack."

"Miss Angell, what can I do for you?" the detective questioned.

"I just overheard a couple of students talking, I think they might have been involved in the shootings. They were worried about why you were still hanging around here, one of them said you had nothing on them and they just had to keep quiet," Jess explained quickly.

"Do you have names for the students?" he asked her and she shook her head.

"I've seen them around but I don't know them personally, one of them called the other Ben but I don't know anything beyond that. I could point them out to you if I saw them," she told him and he pulled out a notebook from his pocket and wrote something down.

"Alright Miss Angell, I'll come back tomorrow and we'll see if you can spot them, be here early" he told her, tucking the notebook back into his pocket. He seemed more tired than usual and she wondered what other cases he was working at the same time as this one.

"Jess," she heard Lindsay's voice and turned around to see her waiting at the other end of the corridor.

"I have to go," Jess told the detective. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

She turned around and hurried to catch up with Lindsay, informing her of what Flack had told her as they left the school. She was glad when they turned a corner and the school was out of sight, she relaxed a little more, taking a deep breath and forcing herself to forget about the shootings and what she was going to have to do tomorrow.

"On a brighter note, I have a date," Lindsay said and Jess smiled.

"With who?" she questioned, glad for the change in subject.

"His name is Danny, I met him the day I started working at the school, I got a little lost and asked him for directions," Lindsay explained blushing slightly as she did so. "I seem to keep running into since then and he asked me to dinner."

"That's great," Jess told her as they reached a corner where they had to go their separate ways. "Tell me all about it tomorrow."

"I will, I'll see you in the morning," Lindsay replied.

* * *

Don knocked on the door to Angell's classroom and opened it, she was sat behind her desk looking through a file and she looked up at the sound of his entry. She smiled slightly and put the file into a drawer in the desk, locking after she had done so. She stood up and walked over to him, she seemed nervous and he couldn't say he blamed her.

"Are you ready?" he asked her.

"Yes, how is this going to work?" she questioned and he gestured for her to follow him. She locked the classroom door and the two of them made their way out of the building.

"It's still early, only a handful of students have arrived so we'll wait outside in the car, hopefully we'll be able to spot the two students you heard talking yesterday without anyone spotting us," he explained and she once again nodded her head, biting her lip nervously. "No one will know that you're the one who pointed them out to me."

"I know," she replied.

He led her to his car, opened the passenger door for her and closing it once she was in. He got in the driver's side and the two of them began their wait. There was almost an hour before school started, Angell would need to be in her classroom before then whether they had seen the two students or not. If she didn't see them they would have to look for them at lunch time, this was the best bet for her identifying them without being seen though, he would just have to keep his fingers crossed.

"I'll bet you never imagined you'd be on a stake out when you decided to be a teacher," Don stated and Angell smiled slightly.

"No, I didn't, but then I didn't imagine I'd be doing a lot of things when I decided to be a teacher," she replied. "I wanted to make a difference."

"I'm sure that you do," he told her.

"I'd like to think so," she stated as a group of students arrived. Angell looked over at them but didn't give any indication that the two from yesterday were there.

"I have to tell you, you're kind of impressive, most people would buckle under this kind of pressure," he told her honestly and she smiled more genuinely, blushing slightly at the compliment.

"Thank you," she replied. "I just see so much potential in most of the students here; it's such a shame to see it go to waste because they caught up with the wrong kind of people too early in their life to really know better. Many of them are just following the examples set by their parents, their brothers and sisters, their friends. I just want them to see that you don't have bow down to these gangs, that they can make something of themselves and I can't teach them that if I let myself be intimidated into doing what they want."

He felt a whole new level of admiration for her in that moment, she was definitely not like most of the other teacher's he'd spoken to on this case, she wasn't like most people he'd met in his life. "That's very true."

"What about you, why did you become a cop?" she asked him, quickly changing the subject away from herself.

"I wanted to make a difference too," he told her. "My father was a cop, I guess it's in my blood."

"So I guess you see a lot of cases like this one," she said and he nodded.

"Yeah," he replied and noticed something had caught her attention out of the window. He followed her gaze to a group of boys that had just arrived, they were heading toward the entrance to the school.

"That's them," she told him. "The one in the green shirt and the one in the black coat with blonde hair."

"You're sure?" he questioned and after looking over them again she nodded. "Alright, why don't you head inside, you did great."

"Will you let me know what happens?" she questioned.

"I'll keep you informed," he stated and watched as she got out of the car and walked into the school more or less unnoticed. He waited ten minutes, keeping an eye on the two boys who had stopped near the door, before getting out of the car and heading over to the school.

* * *

He'd had to get their names from the teachers as both boys had refused to say anything but insults once they had been brought in. He'd opted to do this at the school, the teachers were present and their parents had been contacted, they were sitting beside their sons now, trying to keep their kids out of trouble.

"A witness overheard you talking yesterday," he told them when they continually refused to tell him anything. "You were talking about the shootings."

"You ain't got no witness," Daniel Harold stated cockily. It was him that was keeping both boys quiet and Don was going to give it another ten minutes before he took them both down to the station and talked to them separately.

"Look, I don't want to have to drag you both down to the station but you can start talking here or I can take you there, if you haven't done anything wrong then what have you got to worry about?" he questioned and the boys exchanged a look, they definitely had something to hide. "It's gonna look much better for whoever talks, now I know you were both involved, so start talking."

"Maybe we should..." Ben Jones began but was cut off by Daniel.

"Shut up Ben," he snapped. "We don't know anything and even if we did, we wouldn't tell you, pig."

"Daniel," his mother admonished, her son ignored her.

Don decided to concentrate on Ben instead. "Is that right Ben, does he speak for the both of you. I don't think you liked what happened to those students, I think the guilt has been eating away at you since they died. Do you know how you can make it up to them? By making sure that they get justice, that the people who did that to them, who took their lives from them, don't get away with it. You tell me what you know, you tell me what happened and I'll take care of you."

Ben looked indecisive, his mouth opening and closing, unsure if he wanted to talk or not. Daniel told him to shut up again but Don held his gaze, keeping his attention on him and not Daniel.

"It was only supposed to be Craig, I didn't know anyone else was going to get killed," Ben admitted. "They told us that we had to get Craig outside, they told us what time and where he needed to be, I didn't know they were going to do a drive by, I didn't know anyone else would die."

"You idiot," Daniel shouted and lunged at his friend. Don and his father dragged him off and once he had him cuffed Don handed him over to the two uniformed officers that had arrived a short while ago and had been standing guard outside the room.

"Take him in," he told them and watched as he was dragged off shouting insults, his parents following. Don returned to the room where Ben was breathing heavily, looking terrified as his parents tried to calm him. "I need you to tell me everything that happened."

TBC


	13. Chapter 13

**Authors Note: Bit of a short chapter here but I wanted to make sure I got something posted. Thanks to; Runner043, J, CSI4lyfNCIS13, afrozenheart412 and Brinchen86 for their reviews. **

Chapter 13

Jess had been called into the school early and she'd run into Lindsay at the school gate. They'd seen several other teachers arriving, some on foot, some in cars and decided it must have been the entire faculty that had been called in. It made her slightly nervous but there was no sense worrying about anything until she knew what was going on. She and Lindsay made their way to the staffroom where the majority of the teachers and support staff had already gathered. They found a place to stand, leaning against a counter in the overcrowded room. There was never normally this many people in here at once, most of the support staff preferred to use the other, smaller staff room, a select group of teachers chose to spend their breaks and lunches separately in one of the classrooms and there were always teachers who chose to work through all or part of their lunches and breaks.

"What's going on?" one of the few female teachers asked them and Jess shrugged.

"I have no idea," she replied just as the principal walked in. His demeanour was serious and he looked worn, that didn't bode well.

"Thank you all for coming," he began. "I know it's early and we're all packed in here pretty tightly so I won't keep you long. Things have been happening since yesterday afternoon that you all need to be made aware of before the students arrive. You are all aware that two of our students were arrested yesterday afternoon in connection with the drive by a few weeks ago. They were questioned at length by the police and have named the other people that were involved, most of them are, were, students at this school."

There were murmurs and whispers around the room but most people weren't surprised, it had almost been a given that students were involved. The principal held up his hand as a sign for everyone to quieten down. He listed off the names of the students that had been arrested, one of whom was in Jess's class, another in Lindsay's.

"It's going to be a difficult day," the principal informed them. "Some students are going to be angry, other's upset. Students have been arrested from most of the classes, they have friends here that aren't going to be pleased and the friends of the students that were killed are going to be unhappy as well. I know we've all been through a lot over the last couple of weeks but we're almost at the end of this now, let's get our students through this so we can get back to life as usual."

He dismissed them then and most people immediately began to leave the room which had grown warm and stuffy in the short time they'd all been in there. Jess and Lindsay waited until the rush on the door had all but ended before they left.

"I can't believe he was in my class, right under my nose the entire time and I would never have guessed, he didn't seem the type," Lindsay said quietly, shaking her head.

"Most of them don't seem the type," Jess replied. "Let's just get through the day, we can go and get something to eat after school if you want."

"That'd be great," Lindsay replied with a smile. "I suppose I should take advantage of this early start and get some papers graded."

"Sounds like a plan, I'm going to get some fresh air and then probably do the same so I'll see you later," Jess stated and Lindsay gave her a small wave as she headed for her classroom. Jess went outside, it was quiet, there were no students around yet and all of the teachers were inside, some of them probably preparing to deal with the day ahead, the rest were probably gossiping in various classrooms.

She felt restless, she needed to walk it off before classes started and she had to stay relatively still and teach. She needed to get her own head around it before she was going to be able to deal with her students trying to get their heads around it. She didn't imagine for one second this was going to be a good day, George Bale had been the student from her class arrested, he was popular, had his circle of very loyal friends. If they all turned up to class today it was going to make her day hell.

"Miss Angell," she heard a voice that was rapidly becoming familiar, she wasn't sure that was a good thing considering the reason his voice was so familiar to her now.

"Detective Flack," she turned and greeted him.

"You heard about the arrests?" he asked her and she nodded. "The principal just informed us, wanted us to be prepared for the student's reactions."

"Yes, he wasn't overjoyed this morning when I informed him that several of the people who had been involved in some way or another were students here," Don told her and she smiled and nodded.

"It's going to make this a difficult day," she told him. "But I'm glad it's over with, thank you."

Don smiled. "I couldn't have done it without you, you've been a big help," he replied and she looked down, feeling a small blush creeping up her neck and wondering why.

"I really didn't do that much but you're welcome," she stated. "I guess you have other crimes to solve now, good luck detective."

She reached out to shake his hand which he quickly accepted. "You as well Miss Angell, it was a pleasure to meet you, even under the circumstances."

"And you," she said. "I should go and get ready for class, goodbye detective."

He nodded and after a moment walked away, getting into a car parked just outside of the school gate. Jess turned and walked back into the school, she didn't feel any less restless than she had before, in fact she was probably more restless now, it was going to be a long day.

* * *

In a way she was glad she was leaving the hotel, she was going stir crazy stuck there and she felt as though she couldn't move beyond this while she was staying there. On the other hand she wasn't sure she wanted to go home, to confront the memories of everything that had happened. Mac had come to the hotel to tell her that forensics had released her apartment and she could go home. Despite her mixed feelings she knew she had to go back, she had to face up to this sooner or later.

"Are you sure about this, you can stay at the hotel a little longer if you need to?" Mac questioned as he opened the car door for her, ever the gentleman he had offered to drive her home.

"I'm sure," she said as she got in the car, he closed the door and she watched him hurry around to his side and slide into the seat beside her. He started the car and then sighed, turning to look at her.

"You don't have to go back there if you're not ready, no one would blame you after what happened," he told her and she smiled, appreciating his concern for her.

"I'll be fine, I'm not going to let him keep me from going home, it would be like letting him keep controlling me even from behind bars, he's not going to control me anymore," she told him adamantly, needing for him to understand why she had to go back now and not tomorrow or the day after. She couldn't let Frankie win, not again, not after she'd spent the last few years giving into his every demand, his every whim.

"Frankie hasn't had control of you for a while Stella," Mac told her. "Not since you started working for me, you've been your own person since then, he and the rest of the world just didn't know it yet."

She smiled gratefully and nodded her head. "I still need to go back."

"Alright," he replied and began the drive to her apartment. She got there to find it in much the same state that it had been in when she'd left. A couple of things were missing, she guessed they'd been taken for evidence, there was still some shattered glass in the corner but her books that had been knocked over were now sitting neatly on the coffee table, right next to the spot Frankie had tried to strangle her.

She could almost feel his hands on her throat, see the murderous look in his eyes, she could still smell him and for a moment she couldn't breathe.

"Stella," Mac's voice broke into her thoughts and she turned to where he was standing in the doorway, waiting to be invited in or sent away. He was so different to Frankie, the complete opposite in fact, a gentleman at all times, always worrying about her, caring what she thought, what she felt. She didn't think anyone in her whole life had treated her like Mac did, like she was worth a damn.

"Come in," she told him, giving him a smile she knew looked forced. "Do you want something to drink, tea, coffee?"

"I'll just have a glass of water if that's alright," he replied and she nodded going into the kitchen and getting two glasses of water. She saw Mac walk to the corner where the broken glass was and start picking it up. She grabbed a tray and a brush and went to kneel beside him, picking up the larger pieces of glass and putting them on the tray.

"You don't have to do that, I can do it..." she trailed off unsure where she should be calling him by his first name or Captain Taylor. She'd called him both before, Captain Taylor when she had first started working for him, Mac later on but things were different now, she wasn't his informant, she wasn't working for him, they had no reason to be around each other anymore. She wondered if this would be the last time she ever saw him, if now that he didn't need her he would simply move on, get on with other cases, with his life. She found the thought was a little bit more painful than it really should have been.

"I don't mind," Mac told her. She smiled and went to get his glass of water from the kitchen while he finished cleaning up the glass. He took it from her gratefully and for several minutes they both stood in the kitchen silently drinking their water.

"Are you going to be alright here?" Mac asked her and she nodded.

"I'll be fine," she promised and he looked at her a moment before putting the glass down.

"I have to get back to the precinct but I'll check in on you at some point," he stated and she smiled again not really believing that he would, he had no reason to come back now, their business was done with, he had what he needed from her. She let him out of the apartment and lingered in the doorway until after he was out of sight.

* * *

She was admittedly a little nervous, this was the first proper date she had been on in a while, at least one that hadn't been set up by her father. He'd asked her where she was going, why she was dressed in a modest but tightly fitted dress and why he'd seen her hair done up five different ways in the space of an hour. She had told him that she was meeting some friends from work; they were all going out to dinner and being the new girl she wanted to make a good impression. She wasn't sure if he'd believed her but the story had been credible enough that he hadn't questioned her.

She walked down the street to where she had agreed to meet Danny, she wasn't ready for her father to know she was going on a date, better to wait and see if this worked out first. He was already there, waiting for her on the corner of the street. He was wearing something like a suit but with a plain t-shirt underneath rather than a shirt and tie like many of her dinner dates had worn, she found she always liked this look better, it made everything seem less formal.

"Hello Danny," she greeted him and he turned, his eyes widening slightly as he saw her and she fought back a blush at the expression on his face.

"You look... beautiful," he told her and she smiled.

"You look pretty good yourself," she replied and he held out an arm for her. "So where are we going for dinner?"

"Alexander's," he told her and she almost stopped walking. She'd been to Alexander's several times, usually with her father, it was classy restaurant, and expensive. She wanted to tell him he didn't need to take her somewhere so expensive, she'd be happy to eat anywhere but at the same time she didn't want to offend him. "Our reservation is in twenty minutes, so we have plenty of time."

"Good," she nodded and smiled again.

They made small talk on their walk to the restaurant and they were seated near the window. Lindsay ordered quickly, having eaten here before she knew what she liked and made sure to choose something less expensive than she would normally eat. Danny took a little longer to decide and once he had their order the waiter left them alone.

"I heard they caught the people responsible for the shooting at the school the other day," he stated. "It was students right?"

"Yes, quite a few of them were involved in some way or another, one of them was in my class, I would never have guessed he would do something like that but apparently he wasn't just involved, he was one of the shooters," Lindsay told him, not wanting to get too into the specifics but she'd expected he would ask about the shootings.

"It must be a relief though, knowing they've been caught," he said and she nodded.

"It is, it's more about the closure than anything else. We can put this to rest now and move on, it's just a shame really, they've wasted their lives and taken them from other young students. I can't understand how so many of them can get caught up in that world, how they can't see what it will do to their lives and the lives of everyone around them," Lindsay stated and Danny looked thoughtful for a moment.

"I guess for many of them they're brought up in that environment, to believe that being a part of the gang makes you a part of something, makes you stronger," Danny told her and she cocked her head to the side, wondering why he suddenly seemed so preoccupied with his thoughts. She was about to ask him what was on his mind when their food arrived.

They changed the subject, talking about more pleasant things like Danny's Uncle's restaurant and Lindsay's work at the school, by the time Danny was paying for the food and they were leaving she'd completely forgotten about Danny's wondering thoughts.

"I had a really good time tonight," Lindsay told him. It wasn't like many of the dates she had been on where the talk was all business and politics and if her date wasn't talking about himself he quickly got bored and moved onto something else. Danny had seemed interested in her, in her life and her work and she found it liberating to be able to talk so freely about things in her life. She didn't mention her father, or his likely disapproval of how she had spent her evening, that would be a conversation for another time, if there was another time.

"So did I, we should do this again," he replied and she nodded.

"We should," she said. It was dark so Danny walked her almost to her door and said goodnight, they both lingered for a few moments before Lindsay turned and walked into her house, giving him a wave before she closed the door. She found her father sitting in the living room, obviously he'd been waiting for her and she hoped he hadn't looked out of the window and seen Danny.

"How was dinner?" he asked her.

"It was good, it was fun," she replied warily.

"You didn't walk home alone did you?" he asked her and she realised that he hadn't seen Danny.

"No, one of my colleagues who lives nearby walked with me," she informed him and then made a show of yawning. "I'm very tired, I think I'm going to go and get some sleep."

She kissed her father on the cheek and headed up to her room, falling onto her bed and thinking of her date with Danny.

TBC


	14. Chapter 14

**Authors Note: Little bit of a shorter chapter here but I wanted to get something posted. University has finished for the summer so I should have plenty of free time for updating now. Thanks to everyone for their patience and special thanks to; Runner043, jessicaflack, afrozenheart412, CSI4lyfNCIS13, lily moonlight and brinchen86 for their reviews on the last chapter.**

Chapter 14

Lindsay arrived at work and went straight to the staff room, sitting down with a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper that one of the other teachers had left. There were only two other people in the room besides her so she was able to enjoy the last few moments of peace she had before her day really began. She was half way through an article about a man who was believed to be responsible for the murder of three women in the suburbs when someone slid into the seat beside her.

"So how did Friday night go?" Jess asked and Lindsay lowered the paper to look at her friend.

"It was good, Danny took me to Alexander's," Lindsay told her.

"That's a pricey place, my parents took me there a little while ago, the food is gorgeous," Jess said with a smile.

Lindsay nodded. "I know, I wanted to tell him that he didn't have to take me to expensive places but I thought maybe that would offend him."

"Well, he obviously wanted to make a good impression, he must really like you," Jess stated and Lindsay smiled looking down at the table for a moment.

"I had a really good time," she said as another teacher walked into the room and sat at the table with them. Lindsay changed the subject; she wasn't comfortable talking about her private life around people that she worked with. Jess was different, she was more a friend now than a colleague but she couldn't say the same about the rest of the people she worked with, at least not yet. "How was your weekend?"

"Boring, spent most of it grading papers and putting together lesson plans," Jess replied with a shrug. "I was thinking, there's this new diner just opened up around the corner from where I live, I was thinking we could go and see if it's any good?"

"That sounds great, I really do have to get out of the house more," Lindsay said with a smile and a nod. "When were you thinking of going?"

"I was thinking maybe Thursday, we can go straight from here," Jess told her.

"Thursday it is," Lindsay confirmed and Jess smiled as she looked up at the clock, Lindsay followed her gaze. "I guess it's time to head to class."

They stood up and Lindsay took her cup to the sink, washing it out and leaving it on the side to dry. Jess was waiting for her by the door and the two of them left together. Jess waited until they were out of earshot of the staffroom before resuming her questioning about her date.

"So are you going to see him again?" she asked.

"I think so, I hope so," Lindsay answered and then bit her lip. "My dad won't like it."

"Why not?" Jess questioned.

"He's not the type of man my father usually tries to set me up with. He's a business man and most of the people he's introduced me to have been other businessmen, or sons of businessmen. There's usually some advantage for him in it as well as them having money and education. Danny isn't any of those things, he's smart and funny but as far as I can tell he doesn't have a lot of money behind him or a first class college education," Lindsay explained shaking her head at the stupidity of it. She knew it shouldn't matter how much money a person had or which school they had attended but in her father's world, those were some of the things that mattered the most.

"But you like him," Jess said, "and that should be the most important thing. It's early days yet though, wait and see how things work out with Danny and if it turns into something serious then you can worry about what your father will think about it."

"That's the plan," Lindsay said. "I'd better go and get set up for class, I'll see you later."

"Have a good class," Jess called to her as she began to walk away. Lindsay turned and gave her a smile and wave as she continued toward her classroom.

* * *

Mac knocked on the door a second time before it opened to reveal an anxious looking Stella. She looked surprised to see him but smiled and stepped back gesturing for him to come in. She closed the door behind him and looked at him expectantly; she almost seemed to be bracing herself for bad news.

"What can I do for you today Captain Taylor?" she questioned and Mac frowned at the use of his title. She hadn't called him that for a long time, they had decided early on that it would be best to be on a first name basis when they met so that if anyone was listening in they wouldn't immediately know he was a cop.

"I just came to see how you were doing," he said. She looked surprised again and he wondered, not for the first time, if anyone had ever shown her real kindness at any point in her life, she always seemed stunned whenever he offered her some.

"I'm alright," she told him.

"Really?" he questioned. "Because you looked like you were expecting a psychopath when you opened the door."

She smiled and seemed to relax a little. "I guess I'm still a little on edge, can I get you something to drink, tea, coffee?"

"A coffee would be great thank you," he said as he sat down on the couch and she nodded after a moment and went into the kitchen. It was a few minute before she came back in with two coffees and handed one to him as she sat down beside him. "Have you decided what you're going to do now that you don't have to worry about Frankie?"

"Actually yes, I got a job," she told him and he raised his eyebrow in curiosity. "Working at the women's shelter around the block from here, it's not much and it doesn't pay great but it'll be good work. I start on Monday."

"That's great Stella," Mac replied and she smiled and nodded her head.

"It feels like a good way to give back," she stated and he looked at her confused. "I spent so much time with Frankie, I let him get away with doing horrible things to people for far longer than I should have."

"You were also the person that stopped him," Mac said and she looked down, her expression disbelieving. "You gave me everything I needed to bring Frankie down; I couldn't have done it without your help."

"Maybe," she said, he could tell she wasn't convinced but if this job could help her feel like she was putting things right then he was happy for that at least.

* * *

"Perfect timing," Jess said as she stepped out of her classroom and saw Lindsay walking towards her. She balanced the box full of papers she had on her hip as she locked the door and then dropped her keys into the box.

"How was your class?" Lindsay questioned.

"Same as always," Jess said. "Is that all you have to take home with you, hardly seems fair?"

Lindsay glanced at the folder in her hand that contained the papers she needed to grade for her class and smiled. "For now, I should have done them over the weekend really. I have more papers due in tomorrow so I'm pretty sure I'll have a box just like that one."

"All evens out in the end I guess," Jess said as the two of them began making their way toward the exit. They left the school, ignoring the group of young men that were by the school gates who had a few crude remarks to throw their way but were harmless enough in the end. The streets were relatively quiet considering the time of day and the two women walked along slowly.

"So I take it your only plans for tonight are grading papers," Lindsay said and Jess looked at the box under her arm and sighed.

"Yes, but once these are done I shouldn't have any more to do in the next few days so it'll be worth it if I can get it done tonight," Jess said once again shifting the box as her arm began to ache from carrying it. They reached the crossroads where they had to go their separate ways and after a quick goodbye Jess headed down the street toward her house.

"Jessica, sweetheart, that looks heavy," her mother said as she stepped through the front door.

"It's not as heavy as it looks, just some papers I need to go through," Jess told her putting the box down on the table with a slight thud. "Where's dad?"

"He had meeting this afternoon, he's not going to be back until late," her mother said and Jess nodded.

"Just me and you for dinner then?" she questioned.

"That's right, your father told me not to wait for him, just to have something ready for him when he gets back," her mother said. "It's a good thing you got home when you did, it'll be ready in about twenty minutes."

"I'll just take this upstairs and then I'll come down and set the table," Jess told her, picking up the box again and heading for the stairs.

* * *

David Messer had grown up in a small, house with his older brother and his parents. They'd had very little, to have food on the table three times a day and to keep the roof over their heads was considered an achievement. He could say now that his parents would have been proud of him, even if they weren't here to see what he had made of his life. It wasn't much, a little pizzeria on the corner of a street not too far from the one he had grown up on but it was enough, it was enough for him.

It was a quiet night, he'd had a lot of customers earlier but the place was empty now. There were only two other people working, both of them in the kitchen but he knew they'd be sat by the back door, having a drink and talking while they waited for another order to come in. The door opened and David looked up to see his nephew walking toward him.

"Hello Uncle David, it's been a while," Louie said with a smirk.

"Yes it has, what do you need?" David asked.

"I'm hurt; can't a guy just visit his uncle once in a while?" Louie replied, his hand on his chest as he feigned hurt.

"Yes he can, but you never do unless you need something," David said.

"I'm looking for Danny, he's not as his apartment so I figured he was probably here," Louie told him looking around the front of the pizzeria. "This place looks different, you done something since the last time I was here?"

"Had the walls repainted a while ago," David said and Louie nodded. "Danny isn't here, he's running a delivery for me."

"Great, when you see him tell him I was looking for him," Louie stated turning to leave.

"What do you need him for?" David questioned.

Louie stopped and turned back to him with a shrug. "He's my brother, I don't need a reason to see him, other than wanting to say hello."

"Whatever it is you're up to Louie, leave Danny out of it," David told him and Louie smirked again.

"See you later Uncle David," he said, giving the older man a wave as he walked out of the pizzeria. David stared at the door long after he'd gone, he knew both his nephews well and he'd always been able to tell when they were up to something. Danny had worked so hard to get away from the gang, to live an honest life and he didn't want to see him dragged back by his brother. He'd just have to keep a closer eye on them both from now on.

TBC


	15. Chapter 15

**Authors Note: So I'm home from university for the summer which hopefully means more time for writing. I would have had this chapter up earlier but I just got a new computer game and have been totally immersed in that for the last several days. Thanks to lily moonlight, Runner043, jessicaflack and afrozenheart412 for their reviews on the last chapter. Hope you guys enjoy this one!**

Chapter 15

"Mr Lanning, if I have to tell you one more time not to talk you'll be staying behind after school for the rest of the week to do more tests," Jess warned the young man who had decided that it was his turn to be the centre of attention that afternoon. She was glad there was only fifteen minutes of school left; today had been draining to say the least. The classroom fell silent again aside from the scratching of pens on papers as the students continued with the test paper Jess had given to them half an hour ago. The test didn't count for anything but it gave Jess a chance to see where everyone was in their learning.

She continued to mark the essays they'd handed her at the beginning of the day. She'd had a few days off from grading papers and making lesson plans and she had ended up sitting in her room wondering what to do with herself, she really needed a life.

She finished the essay she was marking, if half a page of rambling that had little do with the actual assignment could be called an essay, and set it aside. She had only gotten through the first line of the next essay when she sighed inwardly, keeping her outward reaction to a minimum. She quickly read through the rest of the paper and put it on the opposite side of her desk from the ones she'd already marked and started work on the next. She had only gotten through another two papers when the bell signalled the end of class and the end of the school day.

"Alright everyone, please hand your tests in on the way out, have a good evening," she called to the class who were already throwing their belongings into their bags and heading for the door. "Mr Granger, could you stay behind please."

There was a snickering coming from the direction of Granger and his friends and she saw Granger high five one of them. She sat back down at her desk as though nothing was out of the ordinary, she never like to give them the satisfaction of seeing their actions affect her. She waited until the classroom had emptied before looking up from the paper she had been pretending to read. Granger was leaning against one of the desks looking smug.

"There a problem Miss?" Granger asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Your essay doesn't cover the topic you were assigned," she told him as she stood up, picking up the essay in question. She was used to this kind of thing from students, this wasn't the first time one of them had thought they could degrade her by handing her a story that included her and various different sexual acts instead of their actual work and she very much doubted it would be the last. What surprised her was that they always thought they were being so original, that no one before them would have come up with the same idea.

"No but I felt this was a more... interesting topic, you didn't like it?" he questioned.

She put the essay down on the desk and picked up another piece of paper and a pen, putting it on one of the desks. "Rewrite your essay; I expect it to be at least a page long and on topic."

"What, now?" Granger asked.

Jess nodded. "Now."

"But I have somewhere to be," Granger complained, standing up straight.

"Well then you should have thought about that before you decided to change the topic of your essay," Jess stated as she headed for the door, stopping to turn back as she reached it. "I'll be back in a moment, I expect you to have made a start on that essay."

She waited until Granger had sat down before she left the classroom and walked around to Lindsay's class. She knocked on the door and walked in finding her friend sitting behind her desk.

"Hey Lindsey, I'm gonna be a little late, I have a student staying behind to rewrite an essay," Jess told her and Lindsay smiled and nodded.

"Alright, I'll wait for you, I have some papers to grade anyway, might as well do them here," she replied. "Actually, why don't I bring them to your classroom?"

"Sure, but this shouldn't take long," Jess replied and then went back to her classroom to find Granger sitting at the desk writing.

"I don't have any of my notes," Granger told her and Jess smiled.

"Then this should be a good test of your knowledge," she told him, sitting down at her desk only moments before Lindsay walked in. She pulled up a chair at Jess's desk and the two of them sat there grading papers while they waited for Granger to finish. Jess glanced over at him, he seemed really agitated, he was definitely in a hurry to leave but she knew it wouldn't take him too long to write the essay. She was right, fifteen minutes later he handed her a piece of paper along with an angry glare.

She skimmed through the essay to make sure it said what it was supposed to and then looked up at him. "See, that wasn't so hard, maybe next time you'll do the essay right the first time and save all the trouble. You can go."

He didn't say anything, just took his glare and all but ran out of the room. Jess and Lindsay both stood to pack up their papers, Jess tucking the off topic essay into the bottom drawer of her desk until she decided whether to throw it out or keep it in a file somewhere just in case.

"So," Lindsay began, "What warranted such punishment?"

"His completely off topic essay," Jess told her and Lindsay looked at her curiously. "He decided he didn't like the subject matter and wrote an essay about me and all of the things he would like to do to me."

Lindsay paled. "And that doesn't bother you?"

"Of course it bothers me but he's a teenage boy growing up in a man's world, it's really not all that surprising that he would think like that," Jess told her. "The trick is not letting them know when they're getting to you; it just encourages them to do it more."

"I'll keep that in mind."

* * *

Don watched as his latest arrest was dragged from the interrogation room in cuffs, shouting threats every step of the way. He rolled his eyes at a few of them and then picked up the file from the table and headed toward his desk. He had barely sat down when Mac called his name and gestured for him to join him in his office.

"Hey," He greeted as he walked in closing the door behind him and sitting down.

"Good work on the Lynch case," Mac praised as he sat down.

"He's a low level minion, and an inexperienced one at that, wasn't exactly hard to connect him to the murder," Don replied with a shrug. "So what did you really call me in here for?"

Mac smiled. "Can't get one passed you can I?"

"Been doing this with you for a long time," Don answered and Mac nodded turning serious.

"We've been getting some chatter, just little bits here and there that have just been dismissed but looking at it all together I think there's something there," Mac told him.

"So are you going to tell me what or are we enjoying talking in riddles?" Don questioned.

"I don't know exactly but something is going on," Mac stated and Don raised an eyebrow at him. "I've been doing this for a long time, I've kind of gotten a feel for it and something is definitely going on, something big."

"And given the nature of our jobs I'm going to guess it's something bad as well," Don stated looking out of the window at the other detectives. "Any thoughts on what it is?"

"I don't know, but I want you to keep your eyes open, you have good instincts too," Mac told him and Don nodded. "Also, I could use the fresh set of eyes, this is what I have so far."

Don took the file Mac handed him and began going through it with him, a bad feeling settling into the pit of his stomach. Mac was right, this job was about instinct and Don had been doing it long enough to get a feel for it too and after talking to Mac and going through the file, he didn't have a good feeling.

* * *

They'd arranged to meet a little earlier than last time and to go watch a movie instead of going for dinner, Danny was admittedly a little nervous again. Their first date had gone well and getting a second date was beyond what Danny had been expecting. He met her at the movie theatre and she smiled when she saw him approaching.

"Hi," she said when he came to a stop in front of her and she held up two tickets that she had already bought.

"I would have paid for them," he told her and her smiled widened.

"I know, that's why I did it before you got here," she replied and then took hold of his arm. "Now let's go watch the movie."

When he had realised she had bought tickets he had expected to be sitting through some romantic story of boy meets girl but that wasn't what he got. It was a science fiction movie, pretty cliché in its story, damsel in distress, ugly monster and a man that ends up being the hero but it was a good movie and he found he actually enjoyed it.

"That thing was actually kind of scary," Lindsay said as they walked out of the theatre.

"Not really," Danny replied and Lindsay looked up and shook her head.

"Well maybe not for you but for those of us with a normal definition of scary, it was pretty scary," she told him. "And don't think I didn't notice you jump when it came out of nowhere behind that girl."

"You noticed that huh?" Danny questioned and Lindsay smiled and nodded.

"Afraid so, but don't worry, I won't tell anyone," she said. The two of them walked in the direction of Lindsay's house, it was dark and getting late so Danny insisted he should walk her home. It hadn't taken much convincing, Lindsay was obviously sensible enough to know not to walk around late at night alone.

"So what are your plans for the rest of the week, besides grading papers?" Danny asked her.

"I'm going for dinner with a friend tomorrow; you know that new place that just opened up?" Lindsay questioned and Danny nodded, wondering who she was going to dinner with and feeling a little bit jealous at the thought that it might be another guy. "We're going to go and see if it's any good, Jess and I have been looking forward to it all week."

He felt a ridiculous amount of relief at knowing it wasn't another guy. "Sounds like fun, you'll have to let me know."

"I will," Lindsay told him. "The next time you take me out."

"Oh, so we're going for a third date then?" he asked with a smile.

"Only if you want one," she teased and he laughed and looked down at the floor for a second.

"I think we can arrange that," he said as he looked back up at her and she gave him another smile before looking up at the sky. Danny was about to follow her gaze when he saw Louie standing nearby with a group of his friends. He said a silent prayer that his brother wouldn't do anything and thankfully it seemed Louie was too busy to do anything more than make eye contact.

"This was fun," Lindsay said as they came to a stop near her house.

"How does dinner next week sound?" Danny questioned in a moment of courage.

"Perfect," Lindsay replied. "I'll let you know when I'm free from the confines of grading papers."

"I'll see you soon then," Danny told her and waited until Lindsay had disappeared into her house before he turned and left.

* * *

Jess was just walking through the front gate of the school when she heard Lindsay's voice calling her from behind. She stopped and waited for her to catch up, the two of them walking into the school together.

"So how did date number two go?" Jess questioned.

"It went really well, the movie was great, I think Danny enjoyed it and then he walked me home, we're going for dinner again next week some time," Lindsay told her and Jess grinned.

"A third date," Jess teased. "I'm happy for you though, from what you said he sounds like a nice guy."

"Yeah," Lindsay said blushing slightly. "How did your paper grading go?"

"It went," Jess replied with a sigh. "I got a lot of it done last night so we can go to that diner today and I can be guilt free about it so..." Jess stopped as they reached the hallway where her classroom was. She'd only been glancing at the door since she was actually going to the staffroom but it had quickly caught her attention. "I locked that," she said gesturing toward her door.

"Caretaker maybe?" Lindsay suggested and Jess bit her lip, she didn't have a good feeling and it only got worse when she took a few steps closer and could see clearly that the door had been kicked open, the wood around the lock was splintered.

"Jess maybe we should go and get..." Lindsay trailed off quietly as Jess pushed the door open. The classroom had been trashed, desks and chairs were overturned, papers were everywhere. The drawers in desk had been forced open and pulled out. There was writing on the wall, written in red paint right behind where her desk should have been.

'_Stay out of our business'_

Jess stood frozen for a moment, she felt Lindsay's hand on her arm, heard her say something but she was too focused on her classroom.

"Jess come on," Lindsay's words finally registered as her friend pulled on her arm. Jess followed her out of the classroom. "I'm going to find the principal, are you going to be okay?"

"I'm fine," Jess said. "Just go and find him."

TBC


	16. Chapter 16

**Authors Note: Another chapter here and I blame the delay for this one on two things, new shows and new ships, apparently I can't help myself. Thanks to; Runner043, afrozenheart412, Brinchen86, lily moonlight, BlueEyedAuthor and CSI4lyfNCIS13 for the reviews, you guys rock as always. Enjoy!**

Chapter 16

Don walked out of the interrogation room and shook hands with Detective Clarke. He'd asked Don to sit in on an interrogation that morning and so Don had come into work early in order to do so. He watched as the suspect was unhappily dragged away in handcuffs, he shook hands with the detective and headed back to his desk. He never made it that far, he heard Mac calling his name and turned to see the captain heading in his direction.

"There's been another incident over at Heldon High School," Mac told him. "I figured since you just worked a case there you might want this one, besides, you already know the people and you have a rapport with them, might make things move along faster."

"Alright," Don said. "What happened?"

"One of the teachers had their classroom broken into and trashed, there was some kind of threat written on the wall," Mac informed him as Don grabbed his jacket from his desk.

"You think this is connected to the shooting?" Don questioned and Mac shrugged.

"No idea," he replied. "Why don't you go and find out."

"Yeah," Don said heading for the door. It wasn't far to the high school and he was relieved to find that outwardly there didn't seem to be much out of the ordinary going on. There were a couple of uniformed officers walking around but other than that it looked like any other day. He entered the building and found that the students were all in their classes, lessons happening as normal and he began to think that maybe this incident was something of nothing.

The Principal met him near the entrance and told him to follow him, the man seemed to be in a hurry but then he had always seemed to be hurrying around. He felt his heart sink a little when he was taken to a familiar classroom, this had been Miss Angell's classroom and he felt bad for her that she had been caught up in something like this again.

The crime scene team were already hard at work and they definitely had their work cut out for them, the classroom was a mess. It didn't take him long to get the rundown of how things were going in the class, they'd barely started searching but they already had what looked like blood on some of the broken glass. He took a quick through the classroom himself before he went in search of Miss Angell. He was informed by one of the uniforms that she was in the main staffroom and remembering where it was from his far too recent time here he headed that way.

* * *

Jess sat on the couch in the staff room trying to get her head back together again. Finding her classroom like that and a message directed at her had given her a bit of a shock to the system but she was going to have to pull herself together if she was going to be of any help to anyone. The police had arrived a little while ago and cordoned off her classroom and she'd been informed that someone would be coming to talk to her soon. The Principal had then brought her to the staffroom and then gone to arrange a substitute teacher to take her classes for the day and sort out a room for them to teach in. Lindsay had stayed for as long as she could but she'd had to leave to teach her own class.

"Miss Angell, how are you doing?" the principal asked as he walked into the room.

"I'm fine," she told him. "What's going on?"

"I've arranged for a substitute teacher to come in, he's on the way now and we're fortunate that we have an empty classroom this year so you don't need to worry about that," he told her and she nodded her head gratefully.

"What do the students know?" she questioned.

"Not much but then we don't know much either," he replied. "I told them there was a break in last night and the classroom was not in any condition for classes. I have to go and make some calls, are you going to be alright, do you need me to get someone to sit with you?"

She knew he meant well but the questioned felt patronising. "No, that's okay, I'll be fine."

The principal gave her a quick nod and then walked out the door, she heard him talking to someone outside just before the door closed but she was too caught up in her own thoughts to hear what was being said. The door opened again a few moments later and she wondered for a brief second if he'd arranged for someone to come and sit with her anyway. She looked up but instead of another teacher she was greeted by Detective Flack.

"We're going to have to stop meeting like this," she joked and forced a smile she really didn't feel.

He returned her smile. "If you feel up to it, I'd like to ask you some questions."

She sat up straight, "Ask away."

He pulled up one of the chairs from the table and sat opposite her, notebook and pen in hand. "What time did you leave the school last night?"

"Around 4pm," she told him and watched as he wrote it down.

"Did you see anyone hanging around, anything unusual?" he asked her.

"There were the usual groups of kids hanging around but nothing out of the ordinary," she replied interlacing her fingers on her lap to keep from fidgeting, she didn't want him to see just how much this had rattled her.

"Have you received any threats?" he questioned. "Other than the ones you showed me the last time I was here."

"No, nothing in the last few week."

"Can you think of any reason someone might do this, anything you've done that might have caught the wrong people's attention?" he asked her and she thought back over the last few weeks. She hadn't done anything other than her job which apparently was enough to make some dangerous people particularly mad at her.

"I don't think so," she replied. "I gave a few people detention, lots of people got low grades on essays, nothing that's not in my job description. Do you think this is connected to the shootings?"

"It's possible but it's too early to say anything for certain," the detective told her. "I'll need the names of the students you gave detention to."

"You don't think someone would break into the school and destroy my classroom over detention do you?" she questioned but even as she said it she could think of a few people who might do just that.

"Maybe, maybe not, either way I'll need to speak to them, even if it's just to rule them out. The fact that they tried to get to you through the school suggests that whatever it was that got their attention happened here so in all likelihood there's a student involved somewhere," Flack replied and she nodded her head, biting her lip. "Don't worry," Flack continued. "We'll find out who's behind this. In the meantime, do you have someone you can walk to and from the school with, it might be best if you weren't here alone since this is where they seem to be focusing?"

"Lindsay will walk with me," she told him.

"I have all I need for now, I might have some more questions for you later though," he said as he stood up.

"I'm sure you know where to find me," she smiled and he nodded as he left. She let out a deep breath and lifted a shaky hand from her lap, allowing herself to be a little shaken now that she was alone and there was no one to see it.

* * *

The knocking at the door was more insistent the second time around and it made Danny wary as he looked through the peephole to check who was on the other side. He was only slightly relieved to see that it was Louie standing there and not some armed gang member, though he supposed that was exactly what his brother was, at least this armed gang member was on his side, sort of. He opened the door and Louie walked into the apartment without so much as a smile or a 'hello'.

"Come in Louie, I'm fine thanks, how are you?" Danny muttered to himself as he watched his brother head through to the bedroom. He sighed and followed after him; Louie pulled out a black backpack from under the bed and looking through it.

"Did I leave my black jacket here, the one with the hood?" Louie questioned without looking up from the bag.

"Yeah, it's in the closet," Danny told him. "Looking for something in particular in there?"

"Just making sure everything is here," Louie told him. "I don't really have time to go home and pick up anything that's missing."

"What's going on?" Danny questioned as he took several steps closer to his brother. He peered into the bag , he saw a flash of metal as Louie continued to search the bag and a second later he could see the gun clearly. "Did you leave a gun in my apartment?" he asked angrily.

"If you don't already have one hidden around here somewhere then you're an idiot," Louie replied as he closed the bag up again and got his jacket out of the closet.

"I don't have a gun here Louie, I got rid of it years ago and I've told you a hundred times to stop leaving crap like this in my apartment," Danny told him and Louie glared at him as he pulled his jacket on and grabbed his backpack. "What's going on?"

"I can't talk about it right now but you'll find out soon enough," Louie replied heading for the door, stopping halfway there with a sigh and turning back to Danny. "You don't get it do you, you made a choice and you don't get to back out of it now. There's no out Danny, once you're in you're in, besides, do you really wanna spend the rest of your life working in Uncle David's pizzeria, delivering pizza's to the neighbourhood?"

"What I don't want is to be a part of this gang life any, I made that clear to you years ago, you seem to have chosen to ignore it," Danny said and Louie shook his head, clearly exasperated.

"And you seem to be choosing to ignore me, there's no out. I've been covering for you Danny but people are taking notice and if you don't step up, they will," Louie stated. He opened the door then, turning back to him one last time. "Something is going down Danny; you're not going to be able to keep hiding in here any longer."

Louie left then and Danny watched him go until he was out of sight. He closed the door leaning back against it and wondering just what the hell was going on. Louie was clearly on edge, something he rarely saw from his brother and that alone was enough to scare him.

* * *

Jess walked into her house, her father hadn't arrived home yet and her mother was in the kitchen preparing dinner. She was exhausted, physically and mentally but the last thing she wanted to do was worry her mother, she already worried enough. She forced a smile to her face, hoping it didn't look as fake as it felt and walked into the kitchen.

"Jessica, dear, how was your day?" Marie Angell questioned glancing up only briefly from her task of chopping vegetables.

"Tiring," Jess replied, not wanting to lie.

"Well, dinner is going to be quite a while yet, why don't you go and sit down for a bit, your father will be home soon," Marie told her and Jess nodded, kissed her mother on the cheek and went to sit down. Her father walked in only minutes later and Jess didn't fail to notice that his return was the same as hers. He walked into the kitchen to greet his wife, she asked how his day was and he kissed her on the cheek before coming to sit down.

"And how was your day?" her father questioned.

Jess glanced in the direction of her mother, she wouldn't be able to hear and she was pretty wrapped up in what she was doing anyway. She looked at her father again, if someone was targeting her then he needed to know, she lived here with them and that put them at risk too.

"Actually, something happened," she told him and he sat up a little straighter, the tone in her voice had obviously given something away because he put aside the newspaper he'd been halfway to opening up. "Someone broke into the school last night and trashed my classroom; they left a message on the wall."

Jess explained the situation to her father, going as far as mentioning previous incident, when she had been cornered on the street on the way home, warned by a gang to stay out of their way. She'd chosen to ignore that warning and it had resulted in the drive by that had killed several students.

"I knew you going to work was a bad idea," her father stated standing up from his chair and pacing the room. "You'll quit, immediately, you'll come back home and do what I should have made you do right from the start, you find a suitable husband, settle down, start a family."

"No, I won't," Jess told him standing up now as well. "The reason you didn't make me do that before is because you know it's not what I want. I love teaching, my job is important to me and I won't quit, not because some gang is trying to frighten me into submission and not because you still believe a woman's place is in the home."

"It's not about that Jessica, it's about your safety," her father told her. It was then Jess realised they had both raised their voices and gotten her mother's attention.

"I'm not quitting," she said more calmly and then walked out of the room. She walked into her bedroom, closing the door behind her and all but throwing herself onto her bed. She needed space to think and so did her parents, she knew they would be talking about her now, deciding how best to deal with her but she had made up her mind, she would not quit.

TBC


	17. Chapter 17

**Authors Note: Just moved back to university so may not have a lot of time for writing but I will try to update as much as I can. Thanks to Runner043, jessicaflack, afrozenheart412, Brinchen86 and BlueEyedAuthor for their reviews on the last chapter!**

Chapter 17

The boy was arrogant, even sitting in an interogation room with his worried mother next to him he was still smirking. At this point Don was fairly sure he didn't have anything to do with the break in at the school yesterday but he couldn't entirely rule the possibility out. There was definitely a gang connection, everything in the guys demeanor told him so, from his body language to the way he talked, he was used to feeling untouchable.

"I'll need names of the people you were with," Don told him and the kid shrugged.

"Whatever man, can I go now?" he questioned.

"As soon as you give me the names and contact details," Don replied sliding a piece of paper and a pen accross the table to him. The kid picked them up and started writing, shrugging off his mothers comforting hand on his shoulder. Don could already see the boy's future laid out in front of him, at some point in the next couple of years he would get caught out, by either the police or a rival gang, his arrogance would see to that. Depending on which one got to him first he would either end up dead or in jail.

"There," the kid said shoving the paper back towads him and dropping the pen on top of it loudly. "Now can I go?"

"Yeah, you can go," Don told him and watched the kid smirk again as he followed his mother out of the room. Don leaned back in his chair with a sigh, he still had two kids he needed to speak to from the list Miss Angell had given him yesterday, the kids she'd given detention to. He'd contacted all of the parents yesterday and arranged for them to come into the station this morning to talk, only one of the kids hadn't shown up yet.

He called in the next person, the only girl in the group, according to his notes from Miss Angell she'd been acting up during class and disrupting lessons for the better part of the day. She seemed nervous now though and she was vainly trying to hide it behind a mask of indifference but he could tell she didn't want to be here. Her father had accompanied her and the two of them sat together in the room, she sat close to him, keeping herself further back from the table than he was as though she was trying to hide behind him.

"Miss Macintire, can you tell me where you were between 6pm las night and 8am this morning?" Don questioned. He'd only been able to to narrow the time the break in had taken place to between those hours. The caretaker had left just after six and had said there was nothing out of the ordinary at the time, he'd been the last one out of the building and no one had noticed the break in until Miss Angell had arrived the next morning.

"I was at home," the girl replied looking at her father for reassurance.

"She came straight home from school, didn't leave until 8:30 in the morning," her father confirmed and Don resisted the urge to point out that she could easily have slipped out while her parents were sleeping, there was no evidence that the girl was involved yet, no sense making an enemy.

"You were given detention last week for disrupting class," Don stated and the girl rolled her eyes and leaned further back in her chair, folding her arms accross her chest, the first display of confidence she'd shown so far.

"That was so stupid, I was asking my friend a question and I got detention, Miss Angell was so out of line," the girl stated and her father gave her a reproachful look.

"According to Miss Angell you had been acting up during classes for most of the day, she gave you plenty of warnings that you chose to ignore," Don explained and the girl huffed in annoyance but otherwise said nothing. "Did you talk to anyone about being given detention?"

"Of course I did, I talked to my friends," the girl told him. "Do you seriously think I would break into the school and trash a classroom because I was kept behind at school for half an hour. I spent the entire time making flirty eyes at the guy at the next desk."

"Elsie," her father chastised but was ignored.

"I didn't have anything to do with the break in, but I wouldn't mind shaking the hand of whoever did," the girl stated. Don finished asking her questions and the interview with the next kid went by in a smiliar fashion. The final student had still not shown up and Don headed to his desk to check his files, if he didn't show up soon he would have to go looking for him.

* * *

Lindsay had felt bad for Jess that morning, it was clear her friend had been nervous coming back into school, she'd stubbornly refused to admit it though. If it had been Lindsay whose classroom had been broken into and trashed, if a message had been left on the wall for her only yesterday she wasn't ashamed to admit she would probably have taken the day off. Jess was too stubborn for that though, she would keep showing up for classes just on principle. Shed been so worried about Jess that morning that she had completely forgotten to pick up the books she needed for her afternoon classes which was why she was now using her lunch hour to run home and get them.

The house was empty, her father would be at work and she was grateful to not have to explain to him why she had forgotten the books. She hadn't told him about Jess's classroom being broken into, the threats that her friend had recieved, she was on thin ice with this job already and she didn't want to end up having to fight him for it again.

The books were in her room, waiting for her on the edge of the desk and she quickly scooped them up and put them into a bag so they would be easier to carry. She hurried back out of the house, checking the time as she went and realising she gotten back here quicker than she thought she would, she could take her time in getting back.

"Lindsay," she smiled as she heard the familiar voice, she'd been so caught up in her thoughts she hadn't seen him walking toward her.

"I'm going to start thinking you're stalking me if we keep meeting like this," she told him and she could tell he was slightly taken aback by her forwardness but he returned her smile.

"I'm on my way to work, what's your excuse, I'm sure you're supposed to be at the school right now," he said with a laugh. "if anything you're stalking me."

She laughed and looked down, he gave as good as he got apparently. "I left some books at home, just had to run back to pick them up."

"How was your dinner, at that place you went to with your friend yesterday?" Danny questioned and it took Lindsay a moment to remember what he was talking about, with all that had happened yesterday she had completely forgotten that she and Jess had been supposed to go for dinner after school.

"We didn't go," she told him and from the curious look on his face she could tell he was about to ask why so she beat him to it. "There was a break in at the school, Jess's classroom was trashed, a threat was written on the wall, kind of put an end to our plans."

"Is she alright?" Danny asked her and she nodded.

"A little more shaken that she's admitting but she's fine," Lindsay told him and then remembered she was supposed to be getting back to the school. "I'm sorry Danny but I have to go."

"That's fine," he replied and she smiled and continued walking, stopping after only a few steps to turn back to him.

"How does Wednesday sound for that dinner?"

Danny smiled. "Sounds perfect."

* * *

They left the school together as planned, they'd decided not to stick around after school had ended, any work they had to do could be done at home. Once the students had cleared out they'd gathered their things and left. Jess hated this, she hated the feeling that she was allowing this gang to rule her life, to make decisions for her. It was better safe than sorry though, she would rather go home earlier than she usually would than stick around out of pride and get herself or someone else hurt.

"I didn't see you come back at lunch," Jess commented as they walked out of the front entrance. Jess looked around her, there was a gang of kids down the street and few other people hanging around the area, nothing she hadn't seen almost everytime she left the school.

"I only just made it back, had to eat my sandwich while I was setting up for my class," Lindsay told her with a smile. "I ran into Danny on the way back."

"Really?" Jess questioned with a smile.

"Yeah, we're going for dinner again on Wednesday," Lindsay said looking down at the ground. Jess had only known the woman beside her less than a couple of months but she was pretty sure Lindsay wasn't the type of person to blush easily. She had to really like this Danny, she was getting curious to meet him.

"That's great, it seems to be going well with him," Jess said and Lindsay nodded.

"He mentioned that place we were supposed to go for dinner yesterday," Lindsay told her and Jess thought back to her plans yesterday.

"I'd completely forgotten Lindsay, I'm sorry," Jess apologised but Lindsay shook her head.

"No, it's fine, I forgot to, didn't even think about it until Danny mentioned it," she said with a shrug. "If you're feeling up to it we could go next week, it'll help to get your mind off everything."

"I think that's a good idea," Jess smiled. "I'm having dinner with my parents on Monday so how about Tuesday, after school?"

"Tuesday afternoon it is," Lindsay replied as they stopped at the corner where they would have to split up. "Will you be alright from here?"

"I'll be fine, thanks," Jess nodded and the two of them went their seperate ways. The street was relatively quiet, she was far enough from the school that there were no gangs of kids hanging around. It didn't take long though for her to get the feeling she was being watched, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end. She looked around, there was an elderly couple walking down the street at the other side of the road but neither were paying any attention to her and the feeling remained long after there were out of sight.

She heard a noise behind her and turned around only to see the empty street. She picked up her pace, walking as quickly as she could without breaking into a run. She thought she could hear footsteps behind her but instead of turning around again she moved faster, almost running by the time she reached her house. She unlocked the door and opened it, risking a glance down the street as she did so. There was nothing there, there were no footsteps, no people, just the quiet and empty street.

Once she was in the house she closed the door and locked it, taking a moment to lean back against it. She must have been imagining it and she chastised herself inwardly for allowing these people to get into her head like that.

"Jessica, sweetheart is that you?" her mother's voice floated through from the kitchen, her mother appearing a moment later and Jess forced a smile and moved to greet her. "You're home a little earlier than usual, is everything alright?"

She could tell her mother was worried and she regretted for a moment allowing her to find out about everything that was happening. "Everything is fine, I just decided to bring my work home with me," she said, gesturing to the bag that was hanging over her shoulder.

"Well, I was just about to start dinner, why don't you sit down and rest before you get started on all of that, you'll have the whole weekend to do it," her mother said and Jess smiled and nodded, putting the bag down and taking a seat.

* * *

Don was trying to track down Granger, the only one of the kids on Miss Angell's list that he hadn't spoken to. The kid wasn't at his home and he hadn't turned up for school yesterday which according the the principal was not all that unusual for the boy. His mother didn't seem particularly concerned by his absence either, she'd told Don he sometimes went to stay with friends for a few days but would eventually turn up again, she'd been rather disinterested in the whole thing. She'd given Don a few names of kids she thought he might hang out with but hadn't been able to give her much beyond that. He'd spoken to the principal and Miss Angell again breifly yesterday, they'd been able to give him names and addresses for some of Granger's friends.

"Don, come with me," he heard Mac call and looked up from his desk to see the captain heeading for the door. There was an urgency in the way the captain was moving that had Don running to catch up with him.

"What's going on?" he asked as they reached the car.

"There's been a drive by shooting, multiple gangs involved," Mac informed him.

"And by multiple you mean more than one gang shooting another I take it?" Don questioned and Mac nodded.

"Officers on the scene have indentified victims from at least three different gangs. Add to that the gang that did the shooting and we're looking at least four gangs involved," Mac explained.

"That doesn't happen," Don stated knowing that Mac already knew that but feeling the need to say it anyway. "Why would members of three different gangs even be in the same place to get shot at in the first place?"

"That's what we need to find out," Mac said.

The scene was already a busy mess when they arrived. Police tape had corndoned off a huge area and the usual group of spectators had already gathered around it. Mac and Don ducked under the tape and approached the officer that seemed to be in charge.

"We've got seven dead here at the scene and we've just been informed that another died on the way to the hospital. Nine people injured, five of them are critical," the officer explained and Don looked around at the scene, the bodies hadn't been covered yet and he could recognise at least three of the dead. "We've got people here from Hell's Warriors, Heldon Crew and The Glendale Pack."

"What the hell were these three gangs doing in the same place?" Don questioned.

"I don't know, none of them have ever had any connections, in fact the Glandale Pack and Heldon crew have a long standing rivalry. I can't think of any reason they'd all be in the same place," Mac stated just as another officer came over to them.

"Captain Taylor, we have a witness," the man said gesturing to a middle aged woman wearing moth eaten clothes stood just behind the police tape. "She says the men that were shot at were here for about ten minutes before the shooting started, she says there were two cars coming from that direction which fits with what the other witnesses have said. According to her it looked like some kind of meeting and no one looked particularly happy."

"A meeting?" Don questioned. "Why would these three gangs be having a meeting, you don't think they're working together do you?"

"It's not likely, these gangs would never join forces, not unless it was for something big," Mac said with a meaningful glance at Don, they had both gotten the feeling something was going on, it seemed likely this was at least a part of it.

"Captain Taylor," yet another officer called. "The man that died on his way to the hospital, I recognised him, I arrested him a few months ago. He's not affiliated with any of the three gangs that you've identified so far, he's from a different one."

"There's a fourth gang?" Mac asked. "Which one?"

"Tanglewood Boys."

TBC


	18. Chapter 18

**Authors Note: Thanks to Runner043, afrozenheart412 and brinchen86 for their reviews :D**

Chapter 18

Danny walked into his apartment, dropping his keys on the table next to the door. It had been a long day, the pizzeria had been busy all afternoon and his uncle had been forced to call him in on his day off. He'd barely managed to fall backwards onto the couch when there was an insistent knocking on his door.

"Danny, open up," he heard his brother call and there was something in his brother's voice that had him hurrying to open the door. Louie was bleeding, his hand was over his right arm and covered in blood.

"Geez, Louie, what the hell happened?" Danny questioned as he quickly grabbed the first aid kit and sat his brother on the couch. He pulled Louie's hand away from his arm so he could get a better look at the damage. "Louie, this is a gun shot wound."

"I kinda know that Danny," Louie said through gritted teeth as Danny inspected his arm. It could have been worse, the bullet had only grazed him really but he was losing more blood than Danny was comfortable with.

"You need to go to a hospital," Danny informed him but Louie shook his head. "I'm not a doctor Louie, you need a hospital."

"Hospital's ask questions and they'll report me to the cops, I can't risk that," his brother replied and Danny could tell he had lost the argument before it had even begun.

"What happened?" he asked instead.

"We were meeting up with some guys and a couple cars came by, opened up on us, left some bodies behind, the police are all over it. If I go to a hopsital they'll report me and the cops will know I was involved," Louie explained and Danny shook his head.

"I don't know what you want me to do here," Danny told him as he cleaned the wound. "You need stitches and I can't do that."

"Just wrap it up as best you can, I know some place I can go but I'll not get that far if you dont slow down the bleeding," Louie told him and Danny sighed deeply as he did as his brother asked. He knew he should ask exactly what was going on but part of him didn't want to know. As long as he didn't know he wasn't involved, unless you counted helping Louie afterwards, what did that make him, accessory? "I can't let you go wondering off alone like this, I'll go with you."

"Danny, I'm fine, best you're not seen with me for the next couple of days, I'm gonna have to keep my head down," Louie told him wincing as Danny wrapped the bandage tightly around his arm. Louie grabbed his jacket that he'd take off as soon as he'd been safely inside the apartment and put it back on. "I'll come by in a couple of days, I hope you're ready Danny because your time sitting on the sidelines is about to come to an end."

"I told you Louie, I don't wanna be involved," Danny stated and Louie gave him one last loook before heading for the door.

"You don't have a choice."

* * *

Stella knocked on the door of the house at the address she'd been given. The woman she had spoken to about the job last week answered the door and smiled when she saw her, gesturing for her to come in and taking her coat. It was a nice house, nicer than she'd been expecting and bigger too. Amelia led her through to the lounge and told her to take a seat, asking the woman that was reading in there if they could have the room. The woman, who was obviously younger than Stella nodded and left, revealing a large bruise on the side of her face as she did so.

"That's Clara, she's only been here a few days, her husband has been beating her for the last couple of years. This is the third time she's been here, she keeps going back to him," Amelia explained once Clara was gone and the door closed behind her. "What we do here is difficult, women come here looking for help but we can't force them to accept it, one of the hardest parts is watching women like Clara go back to the very situations that drive them here."

"It's good that she can come here at all, I've never heard of a place like this," Stella stated.

"There aren't really many place like it. There's nothing official about it, we don't recieve any funding, the money to run this place comes from donations and from Katelyn Harrows, the woman who started this place," Amelia replied.

"What made her decide to do it, to start this, I mean?" Stella questioned.

"She married young and spent five years living with a man who beat her, she couldn't find a way out, didn't feel like she had anywhere to turn. Then one day her husband lost his temper and the only person within range was their three year old son," Amelia told her and Stella paled considerably. "He's alright, came out of it with a few bruises but it was the wake up call that Katelyn needed, it was one thing for her husband to hit her but another thing entirely if he was going to start hurting their son I guess. She left him the next day, things were rough for her for a while, they got much worse before they got better but she worked hard and managed to make a life for herself and her son."

"So how does she get the money to fund this place?" Stella questioned feeling all of a sudden like her own story was nothing compared to what some of these women must have been through.

Amelia smiled. "That's the happy ending to this story, Katelyn met a wonderful man who loved her and her son. He comes from a wealthy family and when she told him she wanted to be able to do something to help people that were in the same situation she had been in he told her she could have whatever she needed. Mr Harrows is a wonderfully, generous man."

"That is a good ending," Stella agreed.

"As I told you last week, the pay here isn't great but you'll be doing good work helping women who have no where else to turn," Amelia stated and Stella nodded.

"If it keeps a roof over my head and food on the table it's enough for me," she replied.

"That's good to know," Ameila told her. "As you probably saw from the outside this is a fairly big house. We have eight bedrooms, six of which are currently occupied, two of the women here have children with them as well. I live here full time in the ninth bedroom, there's another woman who works here, Ann, you'll meet her later. Your duties here will be looking after these women and their families, helping them come to terms with everything, helping them to start new lives."

"It sounds great, I can't wait to get started," Stella replied.

"Then I'll take you on a quick tour of the house and introduce you to the women, for now you'll be mostly shadowing myself and Ann, learning the ropes but I'm sure you'll pick it all up easily enough," Amelia said as she stood up and Stella followed her out of the room.

* * *

This was the last address he had for Granger and at this point Don was beginning to suspsct that the kid had something to do with the break in at the school. He'd been to all of his friends places and it hadn't been until he got to the end of the list that someone had thought to mention to him that Granger would often go and stay with an Aunt. He really hoped the kid was here because he had nowhere else to look after this, he'd be dragging himself down to missing persons.

It was late in the afternoon, he hadn't intended to come here this late but he'd been caught up interviewing gang members from the four gangs involved in the shoot out all day. He and Mac had talked to twenty eight gang members and not one of them had told them anything. This was going to be a big case, if the fact that four gangs had been in the same place, had been the victims of the same drive by hadn't told him that then the feeling in his gut would have. He was even considering the possibility that the events at the school were somehow connected as well, someone there definitely seemed to have taken a very sudden determination to keep Miss Angell from interfering in gang activities. Granger was also a part of the Glendale Pack, one of the gangs that had been involved in the drive by and the Heldon Crew had been behind the drive by at the school a few weeks ago.

The woman who answered the door was probably in her late fourties, she was a lot shorter than him but that didn't stop her from glaring up at him. "What do you want?"

"I'm sorry to interupt your evening ma'am," Don replied. "I'm Detective Flack, I'm looking for Ben Granger, I was told I might find him here."

"What do you want with him?" she asked and there was a protectiveness in her voice that he hadn't heard in the boy's mothers.

"I just need to ask him a few questions," Don told her and he could tell she was about to become very unco-operative. "He's not in any trouble, right now he's just a name on a list of people I'm trying to rule out."

The woman looked at him a moment, seeming to study him. "Come in."

Don followed her into the house, spotting a very annoyed looking Granger jumping up from the chair he'd been sitting on. He glared at his aunt for a moment but she did't seem bothered by it. Granger took several steps backwards, getting ready to run if he got the chance.

"You're a hard man to find," Don stated, the kid didn't reply. "I'm sure you know about the break in at the school last week."

"Everyone knows about it, so what?" Granger questioned defensively.

"Can you tell me where you were on Thursday night between 6pm and 8am?"

"I was at home, sleeping," Granger told him.

"Your mother said she never saw you that night," Don told the boy who shrugged, attempting to appear indifferent but suceeding only in showing his anger.

"I could march backwards and forwards through that house for hours and she wouldn't notice," Granger replied and although it was clearly an exageration Don didn't doubt that the kids mother could have been completely oblivious to her son's presence in the house.

"You were given detention by Miss Angell because of a problem with your essay," Don told her wondering not for the first time if he should speak to her about exactly what the problem had been. It hadn't seemed like a particularly important detail to begin with but the more he thought about it the more it seemed like something he should know.

"What of it?" Granger asked.

"I'm sure you weren't happy about it," Don pressed and Granger shrugged again.

"Is anyone ever happy about getting detention, doesn't mean they go breaking into schools and trashing classrooms," Granger said and Don noticed him take another step backwards. Granger's posture had unconsiously relaxed throughout the conversation, it was hard to maintain a 'ready to run' stance while being distracted by questions but he adopted the posture once again, his eyes glancing toward the back door. He was clearly getting uncomfortable.

He finished asking him questions and by the time he left he was convinced the kid was somehow involved in the break in.

* * *

After a day spent interviewing unco-operative gang members Mac was glad the day was over. They hadn't really gotten anywhere in the investigation into the drive by but it waas early days yet. There was definitely something big going on and Mac didn't like the feeling he had in his gut. Don had shared his theory that the events at Heldon High School could be connected to the drive by and to whatever was going on behind the scenes. It made sense but there was no real evidence to support that theory yet and no one seemed willing to talk.

He headed up the steps of the apartment building, he wasn't sure when he had decided to come here but thought that perhaps it had subconsiously been his plan all along. He reached the door of the apartmet and knocked, the owner taking only a few seconds to answer, surprise on her face as always.

"Hello Stella," he greated.

"Mac, Captain Taylor," she replied in surprise.

"I just thought I'd stop by and see how your first day at the shelter went," Mac told her and she nodded stepping back to allow him into the apartment. She offered him a drink as usual and then set about making him a coffee. "So how was it?"

"It was good, the house is pretty big, it's nothing special but considering it's being funded entirely by donations and out of the pocket of the woman who started the place it's nice. There's a few women staying there, some of them have children with them. There's three of us that work there and there's so much I need to learn but I think I'll like it," she explained and then handed him a coffee. "We help the women start new lives, theres some very inspiring stories there but there'some awful ones too."

"I imagine it's difficult to hear what drove the women there in the first place," Mac commented. He'd seen his fair share of domestic abuse cases, some worse than others and it never failed to make angry, he couldn't understand how men could hurt the people they were supposed to love.

Stella nodded. "It is and it's hard to see some of the women, there are a couple who have only been there a short while and the signs of the abuse they suffered are still visible. Then you realise that they're out of that situation and at least for the time being they're safe. It feels good, to know that I'll be a part of that."

"What about the husbands, I'm sure there are issues with them coming to get their wives back?" Mac asked in concern.

"There is but Amelia has made a lot of friends in the police, if one of the men show up and start causing trouble she can just call them for help," Stella explained. "It's really amazing what they've managed to build there, they've been doing this for years now and they've built up an entire network to help these women. They have lawyers to help with the legal side of things and employers who come to us with any job vancancies they have, it's incredible."

"It's a shame there aren't more places like it," Mac agreed.

"It really is," Stella said. "But it's funded mostly out of the pocket of one woman, not many people are willing or able to do that."

"Well I'm glad people have somewhere they can go," Mac said "And you know if you ever need anything you can call me."

Stella looked surprised again. "That's... very kind of you, thank you."

"I mean it," he told her getting the impression she didn't quite believe the offer was genuine and he didn't like the thought that if she was in trouble she wouldn't call him. "Anything at all."

Stella looked only a little more convinced. "Thank you."

TBC


	19. Chapter 19

**Authors Note: Long chapter for you here, to make up for the lack of updates recently. I hope you al enjoy it, thanks for your patience and for sticking with me. Special thanks to; Runner043, lily moonlight, Brinchen86 and afrozenheart412 for the reviews.**

* * *

Chapter 19

The meal with Lindsay last night had been just what Jess had needed. They'd gone to the new restaurant that had opened and ordered way more food than either of them had been able to eat. It had been a girl's night and Jess hadn't had one of those in a long time. She'd dedicated herself to her job and unfortunately it had lost her friends. The people she had grown up with were raised with their parent's values, the men worked and women took care of the home. After school they'd all fallen into their stereotypical roles and hadn't been able to understand why Jess hadn't. She'd lost touch with them over the years since they had finished school and her belief that women could do anything they wanted to hadn't won her many more friends since then.

"Miss Angell," a voice called from the doorway of her classroom and she looked up to see Detective Flack standing there. School had ended only ten minutes ago, she had yet to pack up her things and she knew Lindsay was going to come knocking at any moment, ready to remind her that she wasn't supposed to be hanging around after hours, work could be done at home.

"I got your message," he told her and she smiled and nodded.

"You told me to contact you if anything else happened, if I received any other threats," she stated as she opened the drawer of her desk and pulled out the piece of paper she had put in there that morning. It had been waiting for her when she had arrived at school, there to end her brief reprieve from worrying. "I found this when I arrived this morning, someone had slid it under my door."

He took the note and leaned back on one of the student's desk as he read through it. She stood there in silence for a moment, studying him as he studied the letter. The frown lines on his face became deeper as his eyes scanned the paper, emotions passing through his eyes one after another, annoyance, concern, frustration.

"I don't think it's connected to the break in but you told me I should contact you regardless," she said, filling the silence.

"You did the right thing," he told her. "You really shouldn't have to put up with this kind of thing."

"Occupational hazard, for any teacher really," she replied with a shrug.

"I'll bet the male teachers don't have to deal with it as much though," he stated putting the piece of paper down on the desk in between them.

"Possibly not but it does happen," she said.

"Well I agree it doesn't seem likely to be connected to the break in but I'll have it checked for fingerprints, even if it's not connected to the case the person who wrote it should be found," he told her and she smiled gratefully.

"Have you made much progress?" she questioned and the apologetic look that instantly appeared on his face before he was able to cover it up was all the answer she needed.

"We have a few leads we're following up on," he said as he stood up straight. "I wanted to speak to you about one of the students on that list you gave us, Ben Granger?"

Jess nodded her head slowly, she knew Ben was deep into one of the gangs, he wasn't exactly quiet about it. "What do you need to know?"

"To start with I'd like to know what he'd done that got him detention," he told her and she bit her lip.

"He wrote an... off topic essay," she told him hoping he would just leave it at that and knowing he wouldn't.

"And that got him detention?" he questioned and Jess sighed.

"He wrote about all the things he would do to me given the chance," she stated. "Mostly, sexual things."

Jess was sure her face was red, she had been able to explain the reason for Granger's detention to Lindsay with ease but explaining it Detective Flack was leaving a knot in her stomach. She watched a multitude of emotions flicker accross his face again in the brief second it took for him to mask them. She wondered if that was something all cops had to learn to do, hide what they were feeling before anyone could see it. He was clearly angry, more so than she would have expected, this can't have been the first time he'd heard of a teenage boy doing something like this.

"How did he react when you gave him detention?" Flack questioned.

"He wasn't happy, he said he had somewhere to be, I told him he should have thought of that before... writing his essay," she replied. "I made him redo the essay, he scribbled down a couple of paragraphs and then he left. I didn't keep him more than half an hour."

"Did he say where he had to go?" Flack asked.

"No but he was pretty annoyed that I stopped him from getting there," Jess said and then realised where the detective was going with this. "You think it was something to do with the gang he's in, he was supposed to meet them and I stopped him?"

"It's possible," Flack replied. "If they considered whatever he was supposed to do important and he told them you were the reason he hadn't been able to do it then it's conceivable they would break in here as a message to you."

"It's not a very good message when you don't really know what it's about, they really ought to be more specific," Jess said and Flack smirked, his eyes fixing on hers and this time there was an expression there that she couldn't read, amusement, admiration? She wasn't sure but they both just stood there for several moments.

"Jess?" there was a knock at the door that snapped both of them back to reality.

"Lindsay," Jess greeted her friend who was standing there holding several files against her chest. "I just came to see if you were ready to go but I can come back if you're busy."

"That's alright I was about to leave," Flack stated and picked up the piece of paper from the desk. "I'll be in touch if I have any further questions and in the meantime let me know if anything else happens."

"I will, thank you," Jess said as he headed for the door. He nodded to Lindsay as he left and Jess quickly shook of the experience, grabbing her files and the book she needed to take home before picking up her bag and keys.

"What did Detective Flack want?" Lindsay asked as Jess locked her classroom and the two of them made their way out of the school.

"He was here about the letter that I found in my classroom this morning," she explained. "And he was asking about Ben Granger."

"Ben Granger?" Lindsay questioned, not knowing who that was.

"One of my students, the one who wrote that rude essay, you were with me while I made him re-write it," Jess explained. The two of them stepped out of the school and Jess could see Flack getting in his car just outside of the school gates.

"Detective Flack thinks he was involved?" Lindsay questioned.

"He thinks it's possible," Jess told her as she watched Flack's car drive away. She wasn't sure what had happened in the classroom between them but she put it down to the fact that she wasn't letting all these threats get to her, at least far as other people could see, she supposed that was something a police officer could admire in a person.

* * *

She seemed to be constantly coming home from work exhausted at t he moment and with more work that needed doing. She'd sit for dinner with her parents, make idle conversation for a little while and then retreat to her bedroom to mark papers or write lesson plans then collapse into bed. It was worry, she knew her concern over the threats Jess had been getting had been weighing on her mind despite very little happening recently. Jess had quickly become a close friend and it was only natural she would worry about her.

She arrived home only a little later than she usually would have. She could hear voices coming from the lounge, one belonging to her father and two unfamiliar male voices, her father probably had guests so she walked into the kitchen where she could smell dinner cooking and found her mother hard at work chopping vegetables.

"Need some help?" Lindsay questioned as she entered and her mother turned to her with a smile.

"No dear, everything is under control here, why don't you go and say hello to your father in the lounge?" her mother suggested and Lindsay nodded, leaving her bag and the files she had been carrying on the kitchen side. She had never met the two men in the lounge with her father, one was older, grey hair slicked back in the same business style her father wore his. The other was younger, probably a few years older than Lindsay, dark hair once again in that business style she was so accustomed to seeing. They were all stood together by the fire, glasses of something alcoholic in their hands as they spoke.

"Ah, Lindsay, there you are," he father said as he noticed her entering the room. He put his glass down on the mantle and gestured for her to come and stand by his side. "Gentlemen, this is my lovely daughter, Lindsay, this is Harold Mercer and his son, Jeremy."

Lindsay smiled politely and shook both men's hands even as she realised what her father was doing. He had the look in his eyes and the tone in his voice that he always got when he was playing matchmaker, attempting to marry her off to some business man or business man's son that would somehow be of benefit to his own business. She's told him more than once that the only thing she hated more than him trying to marry her off to someone was when he surprised her with it. Now she was caught in a situation where in order to be polite she would have to play along.

She half listened to the conversation, nodding and smiling where she felt it was appropriate, she'd quickly learned that the majority of the men her father introduced her to only wanted her opinion if they asked her for it directly. It seemed like an eternity before her mother called them all into dinner and they sat around the table, Lindsay tactically placed beside Jeremy.

"Your father tells me you work as a teacher Miss Monroe," Harold stated and Lindsay could tell from the sound of his voice she was going to have to defend her life choices again now, these meetings and conversations had become repetitive and predictable over the years.

"That's right, I teach at a high school not far from here," she replied.

"Do you not find it difficult, being in such a male dominated environment?" Jeremy questioned and Lindsay turned to him, plastering on the best fake smile she could manage.

"It has its challenges but it's not an entirely male environment, there are other female teachers and of course the female students," Lindsay told them which seemed to surprise both men, educated women was still something of a strange concept to some people. "And I like to think that I set a good example for the young women in the school, show them they can do and be anything they set their minds to."

"Within reason of course," Harold stated and she saw her father's body stiffen, he knew she would have to respond to such a comment and there was nothing he could do about it.

"I don't believe there are any limits on what women can do, we simply have to work harder for it in as much as we have to force our way passed people who stubbornly cling to the belief that we should be in the kitchen," Lindsay said, sitting up straighter and ensuring that both men understood she would argue the point if she had to.

"That's... an interesting view," Harold stated, looking at his son with a silencing look when he opened his mouth to respond. Her father quickly changed the subject and the rest of the meal went by in a blur of dull conversation. Lindsay retired to her room afterwards, stating that she had work to do and was half way through a pile of essays when there was a knock at her door.

"Come in," she called. Her father walked in, his steps purposeful, his gaze cold. She put her pen down and stood up to face him.

"Must you always do that?" he questioned.

"If you mean state my opinion then yes, I generally do," she told him.

"You can drop that tone right now young lady," her father responded. "I have never stopped you from having an opinion but there is a time and a place for it to be stated. During dinner with a potential business partner and his son are not that time or place, you embarrassed me Lindsay."

"You must have known the moment you decided to surprise me with your matchmaking that I wasn't going to respond well to it, and that if they are the kind of people who think as they clearly do then we were going to clash at some point. I've told you time and again not to surprise me with this, now I'm telling you not to do it at all. I won't be married off to some business man's son who won't appreciate my independence to satisfy whatever business venture you have in mind at that particular moment," Lindsay told him firmly. Danny flashed into her mind for a moment but she quickly pushed him aside, this wasn't about him, it was about her.

"I think you've gotten too many ideas in your head young lady, you may not think you have to answer to anyone but you do, you answer to me. I am your father and you will learn to start doing as you are told, otherwise there will be consequences," her father said, raising his voice and then storming out of the room, her bedroom door slamming behind him. Lindsay let out the breath she'd been holding, that could have gone better.

* * *

One of the first things she'd been told was that these women were not disabled; they were perfectly capable of doing things themselves. It was not her job to make dinner for them, or to clean up after them if they left their things lying around. She was not their maid, she was there to help them, not do everything for them. It was one of the many rules she'd had to wrap her head around, sometimes it felt like it would be easier just to do things for them, like that was a way of helping them but as Amelia had told her, it wouldn't do them any good in the long run.

Ann had been on the phone for several hours, arranging a potential job for one of them women that was currently staying with them. She had a file open in front of her, the list of potential employers than had been put together over the years, people who were in a position to give these women a chance and had shown a willingness to do so. The office was small, just a desk, a few chairs and a shelf full of files that mostly had names and contact details for the people who were a part of the network that had been created to help the women here.

She heard shouting outside the door and Ann glanced at her, covering the mouth piece of the phone. "See what that is please?"

Stella nodded and headed for the door, opening it just in time to be almost knocked over by Clara and her suitcase making their way to the door. "You don't know him, you don't know anything about him, you're not my mother and you can't tell me how to live my life."

Amelia was a few steps behind her, "I'm not trying to, I just think you should give this some more thought, you don't have to move back in with him right away, wait and see how things work out for a little while."

Amelia's voice was quiet, calm, but Clara seemed to think she was defending herself and continued to raise hers. "I've made my choice, I'm going back."

"Then I hope you're right about him," Amelia said with a sad expression as Clara walked out of the house, closing the door behind her. Amelia walked over to the window, pulling back the curtain slightly and Stella moved to stand beside her. Clara was getting in a beat up old car, a middle aged man throwing her suitcase into the trunk before getting in and driving away.

"I told you on your first day that we can't help then when they don't want to be helped and that one of the hardest parts of this job is watching them go back," Amelia told her as she put the curtain straight again and turned to Stella.

"Do you think she'll come back again?" Stella questioned and Amelia looked thoughtful for a moment, judging her answer before she gave it.

"I don't think her husband is the type to change, she's gone back to him several times before with his promise that things will be different, she always ends up back here with more bruises and a broken heart, each time worse than the last," Amelia told her as she walked away. There was a knock at the door and Stella hoped for a moment that Clara had changed her mind and come back but when she opened the door it was a different woman standing there.

"I'm sorry, I don't know if I have the right house," the young woman said trying to hide the bruise around her left eye. "I was given this address by a cop a little while ago and..."

"I think you have the right house, please come inside," Stella suggested when the woman trailed off, unsure of herself and obviously afraid. Amelia seemed to reappear out of nowhere then, probably having heard the knock at the door but she walked into the office to talk to Ann. Stella found herself getting nervous, she'd only been here for a few days and this was the first new arrival she'd seen, was she expected to handle this herself?

"I'm sorry to come here," the woman said, she looked like she was ready to run back out of the door.

"It's alright, why don't we take a seat just through here?" Stella suggested and the woman nodded walking through to the lounge just in front of Stella. "Please, have a seat."

Amelia walked into the room then and Stella breathed a sigh of relief as she took a seat in the room, clearly here to take charge. Stella moved back then, sitting down a little further away so the woman wouldn't be overwhelmed but close enough that she could still watch how Amelia handled the situation. She started by asking her a few easy questions, her name and her age before she moved onto the harder questions, the woman played with the piece of a paper in her hands that had the house's address on it.

Her name was Bethany Hash, she was only nineteen years old. She wasn't married which made her think she wasn't supposed to be here, something Amelia was quick to assure her was not the case. She had been with her boyfriend for almost two years, everything had been fine to begin with but then things had changed. She wouldn't tell them more than that, she tried to leave when Amelia asked her more questions about her boyfriend but was easily convinced to stay. She was afraid, that much Stella could see without the years of experience Amelia had.

"Stella will show you around and take you to a room, you can get settled in and we'll talk more later," Amelia nodded to Stella who smiled, taking the woman's small bag and showing her around the downstairs of the house before taking her to one of the bedrooms. The woman barely said a word the entire time. She finally took her coat and scarf off when they reached the bedroom, revealing more bruising beneath her jaw and around her neck. The long sleeved shirt she was wearing was most likely covering more.

"I'll let you settle in, if you need anything Amelia, Ann and myself are available, please don't hesitate to ask," she told her. Bethany nodded but otherwise didn't respond, just walked over to the window and closed the curtains.

* * *

It had been another long day in a series of long days that didn't show signs of ending any time soon. He had no real leads on the shooting, no one was willing to talk from any of the gangs involved and he was no closer to understanding what these gangs were all doing in the same place to begin with. Mac had been half way out of the office, ready to call it a night and come back with a fresh mind tomorrow and start going through everything they had from the beginning, when he'd got the call. He was almost at the scene now, Detective Green from homicide had told him he would meet him there, didn't want to discuss anything over the phone, that could never mean good things.

He was mentally going through the case in his mind; trying to find the link, the missing piece of the puzzle that would make everything fall into place with so much ease he'd kick himself for not seeing it sooner. He'd devoted most of his time to the drive by, the feeling that had been slowly building in his gut for the last couple of months was telling him this was what it had been warning him about. The department was so busy with their heavy case load though that only so many resources could be expended on it. It was Don he needed on the case though, the younger detective had some of the best instincts he'd ever seen and he'd been working the gang unit long enough to have a feel for it. His attention was divided between multiple cases though, particularly the case at the high school, it seemed to have caught his attention and kept a firm hold of it.

He parked the car outside the crime scene tape that cordoned off an abandoned apartment building, condemned as dangerous but yet to be knocked down and made into something useful. There were a few uniformed officers around keeping the usual group of spectators away from the crime scene. He flashed his badge and stepped under the tape, walking up the few stone steps into the building. It smelled of dirt and damp, he could feel the unclean air filling his lungs as he was handed a torch and pointed up to the second floor by another officer.

The stairs creaked as he walked up them, the wooden hand rail moved as he put his hand on it and he quickly pulled it back. He had to duck under a fallen beam on the second floor, glancing at the ceiling and hoping it wasn't going to fall on his head. He spent too much time in places like this; his job wasn't the type that took him to nice places.

"Captain Taylor," a voice greeted as he reached an open doorway. There was a flash, the crime scene unit taking photographs and dusting for finger prints. He walked into what had once been someone's home. Now it was coated in a thick layer of dust, disturbed by a recent movement of people through the building. Detective Green was stood in the centre of the room, a solemn look on his face even for a cop at a crime scene.

"Detective, what is it you needed to speak to me about?" Mac asked him and the man nodded in the direction of the body. Mac recognised him right away, James Walters, a police officer who had been working undercover in the Hell's Warriors for two years.

"I thought you might recognise him," the detective stated.

"How did you know who he was?" Mac asked.

"One of my guys was in the academy with him, said there was no way that gang tattoo on his arm was for real," the detective stated. "But the important question is how did the Hell's Warriors find out who he was?"

"And why now?" Mac added as the feeling in his gut tied a knot in his stomach.

TBC


	20. Chapter 20

**Authors Note: I know it's been an unforgivably long time since I updated this, RL is my only excuse. I hope the wait was worth it. Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter and to those who have stuck with me. Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 20

Lindsay had been looking forward to this since she had run into Danny on her way home from work a couple of days ago and let slip that her birthday was coming up. She walked down the street from her house to meet him, the sun going down in the distance. She'd been on several dates with Danny now and she was only growing to like him more and more. She was fairly certain he felt the same and if that was the case then this relationship might actually be going somewhere, in which case she was going to have to tell her father about it soon.

He was waiting for her in the usual spot, she had yet to get there before him, he'd told her he didn't want her waiting around for him alone. It was just one of the many little things he did that made her like him more.

"Hey," he greeted when he saw her. "You look beautiful as always."

She smiled and took the arm he offered her. He didn't take her to a restaurant though, instead he took her to an apartment building she assumed he lived in and as he held the door open for her she gave him a wary look.

"My hands will be kept to myself at all times," he told her with an amused smile, "more or less."

She laughed as she walked into the building, trusting him more than she probably should. His apartment was small but cosy and once he had taken her coat and told her to sit down she felt at home quickly. The smell of food filled the air and she realised he'd cooked dinner for her.

"You cook?" she asked with a smile.

"How would I feed myself if I didn't?" he questioned. She hadn't really thought about it but the sight of a man cooking for himself was a new one to her. She was so use to seeing her mother cooking, for her father, for guests, whenever she had visited another person's home it had always been women cooking while the men talked and drank. She wondered if he had cooked for many women and found herself feeling slightly jealous at the thought of it.

He'd already set the table, it was a small wooden table, meant for a single person, two at the most. He'd covered it with a table cloth, placed a candle in the middle and Lindsay didn't think she'd ever felt more special than she had in that moment. He'd gone through all this effort for her and she found herself falling for him that little bit more.

Dinner was amazing; easily as good as her mother's cooking. The two of them talked through the whole meal, the brief silences comfortable rather than awkward. Dessert was chocolate cake which Danny was quick to confess he had bought earlier that day; his skill in the kitchen did not extend to baking cakes.

"Here," Danny said after they had eaten, pulling a small box out of his jacket pocket and handing it to her across the table.

"You didn't have to get me anything," she smiled as she took it from him.

"Of course I did, it's your birthday," Danny replied as though it should have been obvious.

"The amazing food and the chocolate cake was more than enough," she told him with a smile but opened the small black jewellery box. There was a necklace inside, a delicate silver chain, a small silver book hanging from it.

"I don't really know what kind of jewellery you like but I saw it and it made me think of you, being a teacher and all," he began to ramble in nervous explanation but she smiled again and cut him off.

"It's perfect," she told him as she took it out of the box. "Help me put it on?"

Danny returned her smile, full of relief, as he stood up and took the necklace from her hands. She stood as well and turned her back to him to give him easier access. He looped the chain around her neck and she lifted her hair out of his way. It took him a moment to do the clasp but once it was safely secured around her neck she picked up the tiny book and held it between her fingers, looking down at it for a second before she turned around.

"I love it," she told him. Danny hadn't stepped back yet and they found themselves in each other's personal space, their faces only inches apart. She should step back, she knew it but she couldn't seem to make herself do it, she was drawn to him and him to her. When he kissed her it was light and hesitant, seeking permission and almost expecting not to get it. She kissed him back though, her hand moving to his neck to pull him closer and his moved to her waist.

It was Danny that broke the kiss, his forehead rested against hers as they caught their breaths. Lindsay smiled when they fell into an almost awkward silence. She stepped back and offered to help him with the dishes. He wouldn't allow her to help but he told her she could stand and look pretty while he cleaned up, from anyone else she might have been slightly offended but from Danny she took it as what it was, humour.

"I think I can manage that," she told him.

* * *

Stella had just finished cleaning the kitchen when Beth walked in. She was walking slowly, her head was down and she was wearing a thin scarf around her neck in an effort to hide some of her bruises. It broke Stella's heart to see the women here like this but it was something she was going to have to get used to if she wanted to be able to help them.

"Good morning," Stella said.

Beth forced a small smile. "Good morning."

Stella watched as the young woman began to make herself some breakfast, her movements lacking any kind of energy or life. She looked like the whole world was sitting on her shoulders. It was still fairly early in the morning, the other women had yet to come out of their rooms. Amelia had the day off today and Ann had gone to get some groceries, the house was quiet.

"A few days ago, when I arrived," Beth said as Stella was about to leave the room. "I saw a woman leaving, she seemed angry."

Stella wasn't sure how much she was allowed to tell her about another of the woman but she supposed the argument had been loud enough for the rest of the women to hear, someone would no doubt fill her in at some point.

"Her name is Clara, she's been here a few times, she was going back to her husband," Stella informed her.

"But isn't he the reason she comes here, why would she go back?" Beth questioned.

"Sometimes it happens," Stella replied sadly. "I suppose it's harder for some people to break away than others. She loves him and she wants to believe he can change, that things can be better."

"But they don't," Beth said. "They don't change. I'm not going back."

Stella nodded. "How are you settling in?"

"Fine," Beth replied. "The house is nice, everyone has been very... nice."

"It is a beautiful house," Stella said as she looked around the kitchen. "It's bigger than I thought it would be when I first started working here."

"Why do you work here?" Beth questioned, the girl seemed to have given into some of the curiosity that had no doubt been building up since her arrival but there was no enthusiasm in her voice, no life at all. Stella was fairly certain that since her arrival, this was the longest conversation anyone had been able to have with her. She'd barely spoken, barely ventured out of her room.

"I found myself in a difficult position not so long ago, I was fortunate, I had someone who... helped me," Stella replied, thinking of Mac and wondering where she would be now if she hadn't agreed to work with him. It was the push she had needed at the time, to realise the situation she was in, that she could get out before it got worse. "I came here because I wanted to be that person for someone else, that little bit of help they need to break away."

"Where is he now?" Beth asked understandingly, though Stella knew she hadn't told her much. "The man who hurt you?"

"In jail," Stella replied. "For a very long time. I wasn't the only person he hurt."

A strange look appeared on Beth's face as though she was considering something but it was gone as quickly as it appeared and Beth went back to making her breakfast without another word. Stella heard the front door open and Ann's voice calling for her so she went to help her with the groceries.

* * *

Don had spent the majority of his afternoon at the school. He'd spoken to the principal at length about students that might be involved in any of the gangs that had been targeted in the shooting. He was convinced that events here were tied to it somehow. He'd been surprised when the Principal had quickly listed the names of students he believed were involved in the gangs, some of them he knew specifically which gangs, others he just knew were involved in that kind of life. It was more names than Don had been expecting although he knew he shouldn't be all that surprised. Kids were perfect recruits, get them young, make them feel like they were part of something, like they belonged and by the time they were old enough to make their own choices they were already brainwashed into believing the gang was everything.

He'd written down some names and talked for over an hour with the principal about gang activity in the school and surrounding area. It had been a thoroughly depressing conversation that had left Don wondering whether all the work he had put in over the years had really made any difference. He'd then spoken to several teachers who could give him more information on particular students.

"He's always been trouble and he'll always be trouble," Mrs Hill told him as she spoke about one of the boys in her class. Her attitude had amazed him, she seemed to care very little for the boy and his future, viewed him as a lost cause. She wasn't the first though, two of the other teachers had similar views on their students. He thought of Miss Angell, she had never seemed to look at any of her students as lost causes, even the troublemakers. The threats, the deaths of her students in gang activities, the students who disrespected her because she was a woman, she didn't seem to let any of it get her down, change who she was and why she was here. He respected her even more in that moment.

"And you're quite certain it's the Hell's Warriors he's involved in?" Don questioned and Mrs Hill nodded.

"I am," she told him. "Is that all you need Detective because it's the end of the school day and I have a very short pile of essays from the few students who actually bothered to do them to grade.

She was looking for sympathy, Don could tell. "I'll let you get to that then, if you think of anything please give me a call."

It hadn't been the most productive of days, most of the teachers didn't know much about their students or the gangs, they turned a blind eye to it. He couldn't really blame them, to have it on your doorstep every day was exhausting and unlike him, they hadn't chosen to have it there.

Many of the students had already cleared out, there were a few stragglers still hanging around but the school was much quieter as he left than it had been when he arrived. He was almost at the door when he saw Miss Angell walking towards him. She smiled as she saw him and he felt a strange kind of flutter in his chest that made him feel suddenly awkward but he quickly pushed it aside.

"Detective Flack, I'd heard you were here today," she said as she reached him and he fell in step beside her as they exited the building.

"I had a few questions for some of your colleagues," he told her and then looked curiously.

"Where is your friend, don't the two of you normally leave together?" he asked her. He was probably more concerned with her wellbeing that he really ought to be. They stopped walking near the car park, turning to face each other as they spoke.

"Lindsay had to hurry home as soon as school finished. She has to go to a business meal with her father and apparently the last one didn't go very well so she wants to make up for it. I told her not to wait for me," she explained and then smiled. "Do I detect a note of concern detective?"

"A little," he admitted.

"I'm sure I'll be fine this once," she told him.

"How about I drive you home?" he suggested, the words out before he could stop them. Miss Angell looked surprised and about to decline but he figured since the offer was out he might as well follow it through. "It's no trouble and I'll feel much better if I'm certain you made it home without incident."

She seemed to consider his offer for several moments and just as he thought she was going to decline again she nodded. "Alright, it'll save me the walk."

"This way," he gestured to where he had left his car. He held the door open for her, closing it once she was in the car before running around to his side. "Where to?"

There was a strange tension in the air as they drove, an awkward silence that needed to be filled but he couldn't seem to make small talk, he'd never been very good at it anyway. After a couple of minutes Miss Angell saved him, asking about his work.

"The job isn't quite what I thought it would be when I was growing up," he told her. "My father would take me to the police station when I was younger sometimes and I would sit at his desk while he worked and watch everyone. Some of them would tell me stories about the things he had done, watered down versions appropriate to tell a child but I loved listening to them. My father was like a hero to me, saving people and catching bad guys."

He realised he'd said more than he'd planned to and felt a blush creep up his neck at his openness but a glance to the side told him his passenger was listening with interest.

"Your father must be proud," Jess said and Don shrugged.

"I think he mostly just hopes I'll meet the standards he set," Don replied and then shut himself up quickly. It was a sore subject with him, he loved his father but ever since he'd been a teenager they'd rubbed each other the wrong way, it made their relationship a strained one at times. He stopped the car outside her house and she thanked him, lingering for a moment before getting out. Don watched her walk in to her house before driving away, finally allowing his mind to ponder that strange flutter he'd felt at the school.

He couldn't ponder it for long though, the police radio crackled to life, informing him a burglary was in progress not too far from where he was and requesting nearby units to respond. He grabbed the radio, informing the operator that he was a few minutes away.

* * *

_How many warnings would it take for this woman to get the point? Who did she think she was?_

_He watched as she stood outside the school speaking to the detective that had been sticking his nose in their business. What was she telling him now? _

_They couldn't allow her to keep talking to the cops, to keep putting dents in their plans. She didn't know anything of consequence, none of them did, but her constant interfering was making things difficult, even if she hadn't realised exactly what it was she was doing. She'd made Granger late to an important meeting and it had made the gang look incompetent, it had made things harder. A lot was going to be happening soon, they couldn't allow her little interferences to continue, not when such little setbacks could have big consequences. _

_She clearly wasn't heeding their warnings, she wouldn't be going anywhere near cops if she was. Maybe they were being too subtle, maybe they needed to teach her a lesson, to show her who she was messing with, maybe then she'd get the point. _

TBC


	21. Chapter 21

**Authors Note: Thanks to jessicaflack and lily moonlight for the reviews. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!**

Chapter 21

Tina was one of their success stories, she'd come to the house two years ago with a black eye, bruising around her neck and several more hidden bruises. She'd had two small children clinging to the bottom of her dress, one of them a boy no older than five who looked as though he was trying to be brave but was obviously terrified. The other was a girl, two years old, wearing a little pink dress, clutching a teddy bear and with a bruise on the side of her face.

Tina's husband had been beating her for years, starting just before their son was born and getting worse over the years. Tina had stayed with him through it all; she'd endured every beating and believed that it was her fault her husband acted that way. It could never have been little Amy's fault though and when she had been on the receiving end of her husband's temper Tina couldn't stay with him, couldn't keep her children around him.

She'd come to the home and spent a rocky six months trying to escape from her husband who had pursued her and the children relentlessly for a while but she had finally won her freedom. She had a job as a secretary now, an apartment of her own for her and the children; it was one of their cases with a happy ending.

She had come back to the home with the children to thank Amelia and to see if there was anything she could do to help. She had agreed to stay at the house for the day, be available to talk to the women, to inspire them, to show them that it got better, that there was always a way out. The women had been reluctant to talk to her at first but they had eventually come to the living room and were talking with Tina while their children played with Joseph and Amy.

Beth had stood in the doorway for a while; she had looked as though she wanted to join in but had left the room instead. Stella excused herself, she hadn't known Tina when she was here but she seemed an amazingly strong woman now, eager to help people the way that she was helped, and her children both seemed happy and healthy.

She found Beth in the garden, it wasn't a cold day but it was by no means warm either and Beth was sitting on the bench without a jacket on. Stella grabbed a blanket from the cupboard and went out to join her, handing Beth the blanket and allowing her to wrap it around herself as she sat down.

"Thank you," Beth said quietly, not looking away from the spot on the grass she had fixed her gaze on.

"You're welcome," Stella replied and then sat in silence. She could tell Beth had something to say so she waited until she was ready to talk.

"Tina seems like a nice woman," Beth stated. "Her children are beautiful; you'd never know what they went through."

"Children are resilient," Stella said. "It's a shame we lose some of that as we get older."

"I could certainly do with some of it," Beth said with a sigh. "It's really exhausting being afraid all the time."

"I know," Stella said, "But you're away from him now and you're safe here."

"You don't understand what he's like, he's terrible, he's in a gang and it's like it's the most important thing in his life. He does horrible things and he doesn't ever seem to think he's doing anything wrong," Beth told her, it was the most anyone had gotten out of her about her boyfriend and Stella felt somewhat pleased that it was her Beth had chosen to speak to about it.

"I know more than you think," Stella replied. "Frankie was in a gang too, he was their leader actually and I'd hear him talking about the things he'd done sometimes, I still have nightmares about it," Stella told her and she saw something cross Beth's face, a connection maybe, recognising someone who had been through what she had, someone who could understand. "The worst part was knowing the things he'd done, the things he planned to do and I just allowed him to do it, to get away with it, for a long time."

Beth stared at her for a moment, her expression thoughtful and sad, "but you got away from him."

"I did," Stella smiled thinking of Mac. "I got dragged into the police station by a cop one day, they wanted to know what I knew about something Frankie had done. I didn't know anything about what they wanted but I told them I knew other things that could help them. I sensed my chance to try and make up for all those times I let Frankie get away with what he was doing and I took it."

"Then they arrested him?" Beth questioned. Stella wondered for a moment if she should be talking so much about herself, she was supposed to be helping Beth not telling her how she ended up here herself. Beth was looking at her though, waiting for an answer and she realised that telling Beth her own story was helping her, showing her something, maybe that she could stand up for herself, maybe something else, she wasn't sure but it was helping her.

"Not right away, I was an informant for a while, reporting directly to the man who had recruited me, no one but he and I knew I was working for him," Stella told her and Beth's eyes widened.

"Didn't he found out, Frankie I mean?" Beth asked.

Stella nodded, "I gave the cops information that left Frankie with no way out, he figured out it was me before the police could arrest him. He broke into my apartment but the cop that I'd been working for showed up and arrested him, he's sitting in jail awaiting trial now," Stella told her, leaving out the more unpleasant details of Frankie's attack, as much for her own sake as Beth's, she wasn't ready to relive it in detail.

"I don't know how you could do that, you must be very brave," Beth replied.

"I just did what I had to," Stella told her with a small smile. "You can do the same, you've already taken the most important step by getting away from the man who was hurting you and coming here. Now all you have to do is stick to it and build your own life, you can do anything you want with it now."

* * *

Lindsay was running a little late; she'd had a problem with one of her students and had still been dealing with her when Jess had arrived at the classroom. It had sounded like she was just finishing up so Jess had told her she'd wait for her outside, she could do with the fresh air, it had been a long day. School had finished almost half an hour ago, there weren't many people left in the building now. Teachers were almost as eager as the students to get out of there at the end of the day, some of them packed up and left as soon as their classroom was empty.

It was unusually quiet though, there was normally still a couple of groups of kids hanging around the area, meeting up with friends or just waiting to see what trouble they could cause, she couldn't see anyone today though. She placed the cardboard box that contained her papers on the floor next to the door and leaned back against the wall of the building and closed her eyes for a moment.

The sound of footsteps had her opening her eyes quickly. There was a man walking towards her, early twenties she guessed, she thought she might recognise him but before she could think about it another man arrived, coming toward her from the left. There was someone behind him, she couldn't see who, they looked like they were trying to stay out of sight, he was shorter than the man in front though, a kid at the school maybe. Jess knew a bad situation when she was in one and she seemed to be getting in them a lot these days. She was considering going to her right and running back into the school, there were still a few people inside, the principal would no doubt be in his office, maybe she'd be fine if she got inside. Someone blocked her way before she could even make a move, a glance to her right told her he was definitely a kid, she didn't know him but he couldn't be older than eighteen.

"Don't even think about running, you wouldn't get anywhere," the man in front of her said.

Jess didn't want to appear afraid, she didn't want to show them that their efforts to intimidate her were working. "Who are you?" she questioned, if she could buy some time maybe someone would come outside and they'd be spooked enough by it to leave. "What do you want?"

"We've tried to warn you, we've given you every chance to stop getting in our way," he told her and she glanced at the door, willing it to open, it didn't. Then she realised that Lindsay would be coming out there soon and she hoped her friend was still busy, if it was Lindsay that came out they'd just attack her too, she'd just get caught up in the mess Jess has somehow created for herself. The man walked up close to her, she could feel his breath on her cheek and if the wall hadn't been behind her she would have stepped back, allowed him the victory of seeing her scared.

"Consider this your final warning," he told her and before she could react his fist collided with her stomach. She clutched at her stomach, stepping to the side and then trying to back away from him but the man who had been to her left hit her in the back of the head with something and she fell forward, losing her balance and falling to the ground. She felt a foot hit her back and then her rib, there were several more impacts before it seemed to stop and the man who had been talking to her before knelt down in front of her. He grabbed her hair, pulling her head back roughly.

"You interfere with our plans again, talk to the cops, do anything to upset us and we'll be back to finish this," he told her. "Have we made ourselves clear this time?"

Jess tried to nod but the hold on her hair was too tight for her to move her head enough. "Yes," she managed to choke out and the man released her. She heard them walk away; she didn't dare to get up until after the footsteps had faded.

"Jess," she heard Lindsey's voice call out to her as she tried to push herself up from the floor. She heard the clicking of heals hurrying towards her and then Lindsey knelt down beside her. "My God, what happened, don't try to move, I'm going to get help."

* * *

He'd been sitting at his desk writing reports when he'd gotten the call. An attack at Heldon High School on a member of the staff, no name, but the knot in Don's stomach told him he knew who it was. The area around the front door had been cordoned off and there was already a crowd gathering outside the tape to find out what had happened.

"Detective," one of the officers greeted. "The victim and the witness are both inside. I think they were taken to the principal's office."

"Thanks," Don said as he headed inside. There was an officer standing outside the principal's door and the principal himself was just inside the office, leaning against the open doorway as though guarding it himself. Don liked the man, unlike many of his teachers he seemed to genuinely care about the students and the staff. He nodded to the man as he entered, Miss Monroe was sitting in a chair by the desk, she only glanced at Don as he entered, her attention focused on the woman sitting on the small couch in the corner.

A paramedic was just finishing up with Miss Angell who had a graze on her forehead and an icepack held to the back of her head. At first glance she didn't seem too badly injured but the stiff way she was sitting and the winces every time she tried to shift position gave away the unseen injuries. There was something else though, she looked defeated, he'd never seen her look that way before and it made him even more determined to find the people who did this to her.

"Detective Flack," she acknowledged when she saw him. The paramedic finished what he was doing and left the room.

"Miss Angell," he replied hoping the rapidly building emotions he was battling with stayed out of his voice. "I need to ask you a few questions about what happened, if you feel up to it."

Jess looked at the principal and at Miss Monroe who seemed to sense her reluctance to talk about it in front of so many people. The principal left the room without a word and Lindsay followed after a moment, closing the door behind her. Don pulled over the chair she'd been sitting in and sat opposite Miss Angell.

"I was waiting outside for Lindsay, they walked over to me, told me to stop interfering, that they'd warned me," Jess told him, her voice was distant as though she was reliving it. "He said this was my last chance, then he hit me in the stomach, another man hit me in the back of the head and I fell. They kicked me a few times and asked me if they'd made themselves clear and then they left."

Don wanted to kill them but he quickly pushed that feeling aside to deal with later. "Can you describe what they looked like?"

Jess looked thoughtful for a moment, she bit her lip and for a second he saw fear in her eyes just before she lowered her head. "It happened quickly, I didn't get a good look at any of them really."

She was lying, he could tell and he could also tell that she didn't want to lie, that she was angry with herself for it. They'd scared her, they could have killed her and she knew it, next time she might not be so lucky. He also knew that there would be a next time, she didn't have death threats boxed up in her drawer for no reason. She was a good teacher, refused to give up on any of her students, including those who were involved in gangs, she wouldn't stop doing that and sooner or later she'd end up treading on their toes again.

"Miss Angell..." he began but she looked up at him and cut him off.

"They told me to stop talking to the cops, they said that specifically," she stated. "They told me they'd be back to finish what they started if I did it again." She dropped her head again then. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry," he replied. "I know how frightening these people can be and I understand why you wouldn't want to talk to me. I also know you're not the kind of person who gives up, especially not on your students, including those that they want you to stop interfering with. I won't push you into talking to me but I hope you do."

She looked at him, a battle being fought behind her eyes and for a moment he wanted to put his arms around her, hold her tight and tell her everything would be alright, that he wouldn't let anything happen to her again. He shook himself internally, she was both a witness and a victim, it was unprofessional of him to think that way about her.

"I can't," she sighed, she dropped her head into her hands defeated. She sat up straight again a few moments later, taking a breath as though she was putting a mask into place, putting up a facade to get her through the rest of the day, until she could break down in private. "I'm sorry Detective Flack but that's all I know."

He nodded, he wasn't disappointed, just sad, it felt like the gangs had just taken another victim, and he took this one personally. "That's alright, you should probably go to the hospital."

"I'm fine, it's just scrapes and bruises," she told him. He thanked her for her time, offered to drive her home but she declined so he left, allowing Miss Monroe back into the room as he walked out. There was something going on here, why would these people openly attack a teacher? He was even more convinced now that what was going on here was connected to the drive by he was working with Mac, he just needed to figure out how.

TBC


	22. Chapter 22

**Authors Note: More drama in this chapter for you, I hope you guys are still enjoying the story, things are going to start happening pretty quickly from here. Thanks to jessicaflack and lily moonlight for the reviews**

* * *

Chapter 22

"You should have seen her," Lindsay told Danny as they ate their dinner. They were eating at his place again as she told him of the events the previous day. "I've never seen her look that way before, I know I haven't really known her that long but still, she looked defeated, she's never looked defeated. Tired, disappointed, frustrated but never defeated."

"She's alright though?" Danny asked in concern.

"Physically she's fine, mostly just scrapes and bruises. The attack was just a warning to her, to stop getting in their way, next time I don't think they'll be so gentle," Lindsay shook her head. "It's hard to understand how people can do something like that to a person. I mean, I realise that they grow up surrounded by that kind of thing but you would think that at some point they'd come to a moral line that they know they shouldn't cross."

"It's hard to see the line when you're so close to it," Danny told her and she looked him curiously. "I would guess," he quickly added. "Like you said they're surrounded by people who tell them that this is how it is and when you're young and you hear it often enough, you believe it. You want to be a part of something, to belong to this group of people and you'll do almost anything for it."

"You sound like you're talking from experience," Lindsay said, studying him closely.

"I've seen it happen to people," Danny shrugged.

Lindsay continued to study him, he was hiding something, she could tell and he knew she could tell. "Danny?"

He sighed, "I used to be in a gang," he said and Lindsay looked at him in surprise. She would never have expected it, he didn't seem the type but then she remembered Jess telling her that they often didn't. "When I was kid, my brother was in a gang. He was my big brother, I worshipped him, wanted to be just like him. He started getting me involved and before I knew it I was in. To start with it felt good, to be accepted by him and the gang, for them to think I was worthy of being one of them."

"That changed?" Lindsay asked realising he needed to get this explanation out and that she needed to hear it.

"I knew the gang did bad things, I was involved in some of them but it was always small stuff, the rest of it was just stories that I heard. Then one day I was walking home from school and I saw a couple of people that I knew, people in the gang. They were talking about a man that owed the gang money, a couple of people had gone to his place to collect it and he hadn't been able to pay them. It had turned into an argument, a bad argument and he ended up getting shot, killed," Danny explained. "It was still just a story though, something I heard someone tell me, it wasn't really real to me until they said the man's name. Eli Myles, I knew him, or at least I knew who he was, his son was in my class at school."

Danny paused, taking a breath and glancing up at her fearfully, she couldn't bring herself to reassure him though, at least not yet.

"His son wasn't in class the next day. I remember spending most of the day just staring at his empty desk knowing the reason he wasn't there was because his father was dead, killed, probably my someone I knew, someone I'd spent time with. I felt guilty and I had no idea what to do about it, I had no one I could talk to about it. I went to the funeral, I have no idea why, I stayed out of sight so no one could question why I was there. I saw Eli's son, Christopher. He had his arm around his mom, she was crying and standing just in front of her was a little girl, she was dressed in this little black dress and holding her mother's hand. She couldn't have been more than five years old and she was going to have to grow up without a father."

"Danny..." Lindsay began, she still wasn't ready to give him the reassurance he needed but she suddenly felt the overwhelming need to offer him some kind of comfort.

"That was when it became real to me, the terrible things the gang did, they weren't just stories anymore. I could see it right in front of me, the pain and the suffering they caused. They'd killed someone, took a man's life and left behind a shattered family," Danny told her. "I went to my uncle, I didn't tell him everything but I did tell him that I was in trouble. He gave me a job in the pizzeria the next day, I worked there every weekend and three nights after school and when I wasn't working there I was sat with my uncle at home, doing school work or helping my Uncle, anything that kept me busy and away from trouble."

"Did they ever catch the one that murdered Eli?" Lindsay asked and Danny nodded.

"He didn't do a very good job of getting rid of the gun, they caught him a couple of days after the funeral," Danny told her.

Lindsay nodded and took her time processing what she had been told, letting it sink in and figuring out what she should do about it. They sat there in silence, Danny looking both fearful and hopeful at the same time. Did knowing this piece of his past change things? He was the same person he had been an hour ago only now she knew something different about him.

"You got out of the gang?" Lindsay questioned and Danny took a moment before answering. She could see him having some kind of internal debate with himself over something.

"More or less," he said and then proceeded to elaborate. "My brother is still involved and he sometimes tries to get me involved too but I turn him down every time."

Lindsay looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, thinking it through and realising it didn't change anything after all. He wasn't involved with the gangs, he had been when he was a kid and hadn't known better and as soon as he had realised what he was doing he had gotten himself out. It showed a tremendous amount of strength that he had been able to do that, she didn't think for a second that it had been an easy road. She reached across the table and took his hand in hers.

"Thank you for telling me," she told him and the relief in him was visible as he tightened his hold on her hand.

* * *

The days were going by in a blur, it had been a few days since the attack and it felt as if she was just going through the motions of each day. She was scared, she'd never felt so scared, it was as though she hadn't really understood just how dangerous the territory she was in was. She'd done the best she could to teach the kids, to give them better options in life, treading on the gangs toes constantly and always saying she wouldn't be intimidated into doing anything less. Now she couldn't go to work without looking over her shoulder, she hadn't given anyone detention, even though a couple of her students had more than deserved it. She was afraid, she'd been intimidated and she furious with herself for it.

She had lied to Detective Flack when she had told him she couldn't remember the people who had attacked her. Their faces were burned into her memory; she saw them every time she closed her eyes. She saw the attack again every night as she slept, in great detail, it was like her mind was guiltily trying to hold onto it so that when she finally confessed the truth she would still be able give it in detail.

Flack had known she was lying to, he'd been kind about it, understanding but that just made it worse. She didn't want him to think she was a coward, that she had finally given in to what the gangs wanted, that she'd let them win. She didn't even know why his opinion of her mattered so much, it shouldn't factor into her decision at all. It should be about doing the right thing, about being able to look herself in the mirror and not feel angry.

Her parents weren't happy either, they didn't like her being in danger and she couldn't be mad at them for that. Her father had demanded that she quit her job at the school, had told her that she could either find somewhere else to work or not work at all. They'd agued briefly over it but she hadn't had much fight in her and he seemed to sense it, he'd let it go but she knew they'd be revisiting that conversation at some point, they always did.

Her job wasn't even the biggest thing on her mind, all she could think was that she had lied to the police. The fact that it was Detective Flack that she had lied to seemed to make her feel worse, she didn't have the space in her head to analyse that so she pushed it aside. The gangs had finally won, they'd been trying to interfere in the way she taught, in the way she lived for years and they had finally claimed that victory. Could she let it stay that way? Could she sit in her classroom day after day and not teach the way she knew she should, not give her students everything she had to give? She didn't think so, she knew at some point she'd do something that got their attention again because that was the kind of teacher she wanted to be, the kind of teacher she was. How could she expect her students to rise above the gangs, to take a stand when she couldn't even do it herself, what kind of an example was she setting?

The more she thought about it the more she hated herself for lying to Flack. She lay on her bed and pulled her pillow over her face, resisting the urge to scream into it in frustration. This was eating her up inside, she needed to either get over it or come clean to Flack but she had to make her choice and live with it. She knew which the right choice was, she should talk to Flack, tell him the truth, she'd feel better if she did.

But was it worth risking her life?

* * *

It had been a long day and Stella was glad that in an hour she would be heading home. Two of the women had moved out, one had gotten an apartment and a job, the other was going to live with her mother until she was back on her feet. Another woman had arrived, she hadn't had a visible bruise on her but she'd been scared and quiet as she'd told them in as few words as possible that her husband barely ever hit her. The abuse was rarely physical, it was mental and her sister had finally convinced her that she was just as entitled to help as anyone else.

They'd gotten her settled in along with her two year old son and then made a start on all the paperwork that came with a new arrival, especially one with a child, that always made things more complicated. They'd been busy all day, Stella hadn't even been scheduled to work that day, Amelia had called her and asked for her to come down and help out because they were so rushed of their feet.

Ann had gone home when things had calmed down; she'd been there since early in the morning and had looked exhausted so Stella had volunteered to stay in her place. Amelia had gone out to meet with someone, a business man who had heard about the work they were doing and wanted to know how he could help. He'd had to work all day so the evening was the only time he'd been available to meet with Amelia.

There was a noise outside the house and Stella walked over to the window, unless Amelia had forgotten something it was way too early to be her. It was already dark outside, the sun had set twenty minutes ago which made it harder to make out the shapes she could see on street. There was a car parked on the road and several people stood around it. It looked as though they were talking and Stella got a bad feeling in her stomach, something was wrong.

She went to the front door, checking to make sure Amelia had locked it on her way out. She put the bolt across too and then went to do the same with the back door. She walked around the downstairs quickly to make sure all the windows were closed and was about to go upstairs to check the windows there when there was a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" she called through the door, she could hear at least two men's voices on the other side and she wasn't prepared to open it yet.

"I'm looking for someone," came the reply and the knot that had formed in Stella's stomach tightened. "Are you going to open the door or do I have to shout through it?"

"Who are you looking for?" Stella asked.

"Bethany Hash," the voice replied and Stella felt herself freeze. She'd heard the stories about the husbands and boyfriends who found out where the women were and caused trouble, she'd yet to experience it for herself though. She had a feeling that was about to change. She didn't know what to do, should she lie or just tell him the truth? If he was here then he clearly already knew that Beth was here so lying would probably only make him mad.

"Just a moment," she called. She just needed to buy herself some time. She walked over to the phone and dialled one of the few phone numbers she had ever memorised.

"Taylor," Mac's voice came through the line and had the instant effect of calming her.

"It's Stella," she said quietly, she knew the men outside probably couldn't hear her but she didn't want to take the risk.

"What's wrong?" he asked suddenly sounding concerned.

"I'm at work, there are men outside the house looking for one of the women. I don't know exactly what it is that they want and they haven't started any trouble yet but I think they're going to when they realise I'm not going to give them what they want," she explained, the words making her feel more anxious than she already was.

"How many men?" Mac questioned.

"I saw four," she told him, there was another knock at the door startling her.

"I'm on my way," Mac said immediately. "Keep the doors locked."

He was gone then and she was forced to go back to the front door when there was yet another knock, this one more insistent. She took a breath to calm herself wondering why these men had to turn up when she was here alone. If they'd shown up half and hour ago then Amelia would have been here too and she would no doubt have known what to do.

"I'm sorry but Bethany is sleeping right now," Stella said, hoping to keep the situation as diplomatic as possible for as long as she could.

"Then wake her up," the voice said. "And open this damn door."

He was angry now, that much was obvious and she wondered how long it was going to take for this to turn ugly. He didn't sound like he was planning on going home and trying again tomorrow. He wouldn't have brought three of his friends with him if he'd planned on dealing with the possibility of leaving empty handed.

"I'm sorry but I can't do that, perhaps if you come back in the morning you can speak to her then," she suggested.

"She's not going to let you in man," another male voice said. Stella felt a brief flash of panic when the door handle turned. "It's locked."

"Of course it's locked, you idiot," yet another voice replied.

"What's going on?" Beth's voice came from behind her. Stella turned and saw the woman standing there looking at the door with fear.

"Don't worry," Stella told her. "Please can you go upstairs and tell the other women to stay in their rooms and lock the doors, then go and do the same."

Beth hesitated then went to do as she was told for which Stella breathed a sigh of relief. There was banging on the door, like it was being hit with a fist and Stella had to take yet another deep breath to calm herself, she couldn't panic, the women here were depending on her. Mac was on his way, she just had to prevent the situation from getting out of hand until he got there.

"Open this damn door or I'll break it down," the voice told her, punctuating it with what sounded like a kick.

"I'm sorry but I can't do that," she told the voice. "I'm going to have to ask you to come back tomorrow."

"I'm not going anywhere, open the door and bring me Beth," he yelled. "Do you hear me Beth? I'm not going anywhere until you come out here, don't make me come in there and get you."

There was more kicking, the door shaking with the force of it and Stella took several steps backwards. There was a noise that sounded like wood splitting and she hoped the door was strong enough to hold out a little longer. Then a window smashed, Stella turned toward it in time to see a rock hit the floor along with several shards of glass. She walked towards it just as someone poked a stick through, using it to clear the glass that was still clinging to the sides of the frame.

"You can't come in here," she told them. "The police are already on their way, I suggest you leave now."

She took a few more steps backwards, trying to get her breathing under control but she was terrified, if they came inside there wasn't a thing she could do stop them. A face appeared at the window just as someone started kicking the front door again.

"I told you I'm not going anywhere," the face at the window told her and Stella got her first good look at Beth's boyfriend. He looked younger than she'd expected, dark hair and bright blue eyes. A good looking young man, she could see why Beth would have fallen for him; she doubted he'd ever wanted for female attention.

"The police will be here any minute," she told him but he just smiled at her before turning to his friend who had just appeared behind him.

"Give me a boost," he said and his friend helped him to climb up through the window. Stella resisted the urge to run, she knew she could make it out the back door and since the men were focusing on front she could probably get away. The women upstairs were counting on her though, they'd fled here to escape, they were supposed to be safe here and right now Stella was the only thing standing between them and four men she wasn't entirely sure would be satisfied just taking Beth.

"I gave you a chance," the man told her. "If you had just given me Beth we would have left peacefully, you've turned this into a mess, this is your own fault."

Stella wondered for a moment how many times he'd used those words on Beth, how many times he'd used that tone of voice. She recognised it instantly, Frankie had used it too, only this time the only effect it had was strengthening her resolve. These men would have to deal with her before they got upstairs, she had no doubt they would go straight though her, she was no match for them but she wouldn't make it easy and maybe she would buy the time Mac needed to get there.

"You have no right to be here, get out of this house," Stella told them, keeping her voice strong and even.

The front door flew open and the three other men walked in, she quickly stamped down the urge to run. They actually looked like they were enjoying this whole thing; did they think she was bluffing when she told them the police were on their way?

"Get out," Stella repeated.

"Not happening, now why don't you tell me where Beth is, maybe I'll go easier on you," the man told her with a smirk as he took several steps toward her. Stella held her chin up defiantly and his smile widened. "Fair enough, we can do this the hard way."

He lunged forward, grabbing her arms and forcing her backwards against the wall. She hit it hard, her head colliding with it along with her back. She ignored the pain and the black dots that tried to swim into her vision. She brought her knee up into his crotch and the man hissed and stepped back, releasing her arms. She attempted to move away but one of his friends was quick to intervene, grabbing her arm and pulling it behind her back, yanking it painfully.

"You bitch!" Beth's boyfriend yelled as he recovered himself and advanced on her again, with his friend holding her she couldn't go anywhere. He pulled his fist back, ready to hit her and Stella braced herself for the contact. Then he went flying through air, tackled from the side by a blur. There was shouting as three other men walked into the room, two of them wearing police uniforms.

The man holding onto her let go and tried to run out the back but was grabbed by one of the uniforms and slammed front first into a wall before he was cuffed. She looked at the ground and realised the blur had been Mac and he had Beth's boyfriend on his stomach, spitting curse words into the wooden floors as he struggled against the cuffs Mac had placed around his wrists. Mac stood up and dragged Beth's boyfriend up with him, handing him over to a dark haired man she assumed was another police officer. He looked familiar, he must have been around after the ordeal with Frankie.

"Take him Don, before I do something I regret," Mac told the man. Don headed for the door, walking the cuffed man into the door frame on purpose and then making an obviously fake apology as they left the house. Stella realised the other men were gone now as well, only one of the uniformed officers remained.

"Back up just arrived sir," he said to Mac "We'll take them in now."

Mac nodded and the officer walked out the door, Stella could still hear curse words being shouted from outside. Mac turned to her, concern written on his face as he looked her over. "Are you hurt?"

"No," Stella replied ignoring the throbbing pain in her head where she'd hit it on the wall.

"Really?" Mac raised an eyebrow disbelievingly.

"I hit my head," Stella admitted and saw what looked like a flash of anger in Mac's eyes but it was gone as quickly as it appeared.

There were footsteps behind her and Stella turned to see Beth standing behind her. "I'm sorry, I don't know how Brian could have found me. I had no idea Stella, I'm so sorry."

Stella walked over to the young woman and put a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "It's not your fault and everything is fine, no one got hurt," she told her once again ignoring the pain in her head.

"I shouldn't have come here in the first place, I knew he would come after me eventually, he knows that I..." she trailed off as though realising she was about to say something she wasn't supposed to. She looked panicked for a moment and Stella decided that it wasn't the moment to push her on it so instead she ignored it.

"You did the right thing coming here, and now he's going to jail," she told her.

"And I'll make sure he stays there for a good while," Mac added and Beth looked his way as though only just realising he was there. She looked at him for a moment and then nodded.

"Should I go tell the other women it's safe?" Beth asked.

"That's a good idea, tell them it's safe but to remain in their rooms for now," Stella told her and Beth gave her a small grateful smile before she left.

"What is going on?" Amelia's voice came from the opposite direction and Stella turned to see her standing in the doorway.

"Amelia," Stella replied, beginning to feel nauseous as the pain in her head got worse. "I'm sorry, Beth's boyfriend turned up with his friends to try and take Beth. I called the police and locked the doors but they broke in anyway."

She felt dizzy, the black spots made another attempt to swim into her vision and Stella reached a hand up to her head, stepping back and reaching out to the wall to steady herself. She felt a hand on her arm and raised her head to see Mac looking at her with concern.

"You should go to the hospital," he told her and she tried to wave him off.

"I'm fine, just a little dizzy," she replied.

"He's right Stella, go and get checked out at the hospital, I can handle things from here," Amelia stated and Stella looked at her for a moment before reluctantly nodding, regretting the action immediately as the black dots won a little more ground, she was quickly losing her battle with them.

"I'll take you," Mac stated and she was about to tell him he didn't have to do that when she saw the look on his face, he wasn't going to be deterred so instead she managed a smile, nodding would only give the black spots another opportunity to take more ground. He moved his hand to her waist and guided her out of the house and to his waiting car.

TBC


	23. Chapter 23

**Authors Note: So here's the next chapter, hope you guys enjoy it. Thanks to jessicaflack and lily moonlight for the reviews. **

Chapter 23

She had a mild concussion, it could have been much worse so she considered herself lucky. Mac wasn't taking it quite as well as she was, he'd been silently fuming the whole drive to her apartment. He didn't even speak when he walked her to her front door. When she'd finally located the keys in her bag and opened the door she'd invited him in because she'd gotten the distinct impression he was going to come in anyway.

She got them both a drink and sat down on the couch, watching him pace for a minute before she decided enough was enough.

"Mac, you're going to pace a hole in my floor. I don't have a problem with it personally but the man who lives below me might have a few protests," she told him trying to lighten the mood. He stopped and looked at her, he suddenly looked exhausted and with a sigh he sat down next to her. "I'm fine," she stated and he looked her over once again. "Just a bump to the head, I've had worse."

She realised then that that was the completely wrong thing to say. The anger was back, simmering behind his eyes that were filled with mixed emotions, guilt, concern and something that looked like he was impressed but she wasn't sure.

"You should never have been in the position you were in tonight, not now and not before," he stated as he fixed his gaze on the wall. She resisted the urge to smile, he was so different from the kind of men she was used to dealing with, he still amazed her.

"Frankie is in jail now, that's thanks to you, if you hadn't come along then I'd probably still be putting up with the way he treated me. You changed my life Mac, you gave me the chance to help change others. Before you there was no way I would have been able to stand up to those men tonight, you showed me that I'm stronger than I thought I was," she explained to him, trying to find words to express how grateful she was to him. "And I'm fine; it really is just a bump to the head. I'll have a headache for a little while, that's all."

Mac looked at her again, and this time there was a different emotion in his eyes and she felt her heart beat faster. "You're kind of amazing," he said and she tried to look away, to break the moment but found that she couldn't, her body was apparently making the decisions for itself now. Mac leaned towards her and even though her mind was telling this was a bad idea her body disagreed and moved toward him. His lips brushed against hers, hovering over them for a moment and her mind stopped protesting, it seemed to stop altogether.

The kiss was soft and she could feel him holding back, she didn't like the thought of that so she reached a hand up to the back of his neck pulling him closer. His response was instantaneous; he deepened the kiss, his tongue finding hers and his hand finding her hair.

He pulled back, breathing heavily. "You have a concussion," he said as though that somehow factored in to what they were doing.

"I have a bump to the head," she told him adamantly and moved in to kiss him again. He kissed her back for a moment before pulling away again. She could tell he was having an internal battle, so she just waited and watched as one side won and he kissed her again.

* * *

Danny wondered what it said about his relationship with his brother when his first reaction to seeing Louie outside his apartment was to sigh. He even debated for a moment pretending he wasn't in and not opening the door. He couldn't do that though and he opened the door, forcing a smile onto his face as he greeted Louie.

"Louie," Danny greeted his brother and winced at the coldness in his own voice. He couldn't help it though, every time Louie came around it was with trouble, he was either bringing it with him or trying to get Danny into it. Danny wanted no part of it, he never had but especially now that he was with Lindsay, he didn't want any of this affecting her. He had been worried that she would leave him once she knew the truth about his past. She hadn't walked away though, she had accepted it, and him, and that made him even more determined to stay out of the gangs way.

"Hey, little brother," Louie replied as he walked into the apartment. Danny had never been sure if he called him that out of affection or to emotionally push him into doing whatever it was Louie had come here for, emotional blackmail he'd once heard someone call it.

"What are you here for?" Danny questioned, there was no point in dancing around it, Louie was here for a reason.

"I can't just come and see my little brother?" Louie questioned, a hand over his heart as he feigned hurt.

"You could but you don't," replied Danny, they'd had this conversation before and this was one of the few times he wasn't going to play into it. "Why don't you tell me why you're here?"

Louie sighed, "There's a meeting, I need you to come with me."

"Tanglewood meeting?" Danny questioned.

"Kinda," Louie replied. "It's important, and you need to be there," Louie replied and something in his brother's voice had a knot forming in Danny's stomach.

"I told you Louie, I'm out, whatever it is, you'll have to go without me," Danny told him and Louie sighed again, running a hand though his hair.

"You're not hearing me Danny, you need to come with me. I've told you before there is no out, and there's something big going down. People have noticed you don't show up any more Danny and they're not happy about it. This thing, it's really big and the gang need to know which side you're on, they need to know you're with us," Louie said.

"I'm not with them, I'm not on anyone's side," Danny replied.

Louie shook his head. "Is it that girl?"

Danny was sure his blood had just frozen in his veins. "What are you talking about?"

"I've seen you with her a couple of times, is she the reason for all this?" Louie questioned.

"No, she isn't, Louie. I wanted out of the gang long before I met her, she has nothing to do with any of this, nothing," Danny replied adamantly, being careful not to say her name.

"You've always been reluctant but this whole point blank refusal to get involved is a recent development," Louie said, his expression thoughtful. "Who is she?"

Danny felt a moment of panic, it was quickly joined by anger and Danny found himself grabbing his brother by the front of his shirt and slamming him back against the wall. "You leave her out of this Louie, she has nothing to do with any of it. I mean it, stay away from her."

Louie shoved Danny off him, straightening out his shirt. "Fine Danny, but don't say I didn't try."

Louie stormed out of the apartment, slamming the door behind him and Danny had to step away from the wall to stop himself from hitting it in his anger. He had known he was no good for Lindsay, that he would somehow end up dragging her down with him. She was too good for this, too good for him, he should have listened to his own warnings.

* * *

She had debated with herself for days and had changed her mind more times than she cared to count. She had finally had enough, it was eating away at her and she knew there was only one way she could deal with. She would have to tell the truth and in all honesty, that's what she'd wanted to do right from the start. She'd made sure she couldn't change her mind this time, she had left a message at the police station for Detective Flack saying that she wanted to speak to him when he had the chance, she hadn't heard back from him yet.

She ate the dinner she had prepared for herself, nothing special, she wasn't anywhere near the cook her mother was, she'd never been interested in learning. Her mother had forced her to learn a few things, had made her spend hours in the kitchen teaching her skills she believed were vital for her to have. Jess could throw a meal together, beyond that she didn't care to learn much more, something her mother had said she would regret one day.

She was alone in the house, her father had a business dinner that evening and both her parents had been gone before she had even gotten back from the school. She washed the dishes when she was done and was about to head upstairs to read a book when there was a knock at the door. She looked through the window of the family room and saw Detective Flack standing outside her door. She suddenly wondered if she looked alright and found herself messing with her hair as she moved to the door. She stopped herself, shaking her head at her silliness and opened the door with a smile.

"Detective," she greeted and he returned her smile.

"Miss Angell, I got your message. I'm sorry I didn't call first but I've been busy. I was going to call tomorrow but then I thought it might be better to talk here rather than at the school," he explained apologetically. She smiled waving away his apology as she stepped back to allow him into the house.

"Please take a seat, can I get you anything?" she asked as he sat down on one end of the couch.

"No thank you," he replied, smiling again and she nodded, sitting down on the opposite end of the couch and turning to face him. She felt nervous and she wasn't entirely sure that it was all because she was about to do exactly what the gang had told her not to, though that was part of it, she was sure. He looked at her patiently, he had to know why she had asked to speak to him but he waited for her to talk first.

"I'm sorry," she blurted it out as though it had been trying to get out ever since she had lied to him.

"Sorry?" he asked her, "For what?"

"Lying," she said. "I did see the people who attacked me, their faces are burned into my mind, I can't close my eyes without seeing them in complete detail, seeing the whole thing. I should have told you the truth the first time you asked but they warned me not to and I let them intimidate me, I'm sorry," it came out in a ramble, so fast that she was sure some of them words had merged together. She bit her lip to keep any more from coming out, she hadn't meant to say that much.

"You have nothing to be sorry for," he told her. "I don't blame you for it, I've seen people intimidated by much, much less than what it took before they got any kind of concession from you, and you're speaking to me now anyway. You should be proud of yourself Miss Angell for standing up to them the way you do."

"I just do my job," Jess said, looking down and feeling embarrassed at both her rambled confession and the unexpected compliment.

"You do it well," he told her. "Now, how about you tell me what happened again."

Jess explained the attack to him, in much more detail than she had the first time, giving him descriptions of the people responsible for it. She was suddenly very glad her mind had clung to every detail of it in guilt. When she was done she felt better, like a weight had been lifted from her chest and she could breathe again.

"This is great Miss Angell," Flack told her. "This will help us to identify the people responsible."

"I'm just sorry it took me so long to tell you," she replied and then realised he was looking at her, really looking at her, with an expression she couldn't read. "What?" she asked when she couldn't take it anymore.

"I'm just impressed, you're a very strong woman Miss Angell," Flack told her looking at her thoughtfully.

Jess felt her heart do something acrobatic, she couldn't move. He was still staring at her and she couldn't seem to make herself look away. It was Flack that looked away first, he looked down at his notebook where he'd made note of everything she'd said. He frowned and shook his head slightly as he cleared his throat and stood up.

"Thank you Miss Angell, you've been incredibly helpful," he told her and she stood up to walk to the door with him.

"I'm glad I could help," she said quietly, he stopped in the doorway and looked at her again.

"I'll keep you informed," he said and she nodded as he left, going back inside and closing the door behind her. She shook her head, she needed to get her thoughts straight, now that she had told the truth she felt better, like her usual self. She needed to prepare for school tomorrow, there would be no more timid teacher letting things slide and she needed to prepare for that. Thoughts of Detective Don Flack were hardly going to be helpful.

* * *

Mac had tried to insist that Stella take a couple more days off but she had told him she was fine and wanted to work. She wasn't entirely sure what was happening between them, he'd kissed her, a lot, but then like the damned annoying gentleman he was he had stopped, made something to eat for them both and then headed home. She hadn't heard from him yesterday, which meant one of two things, he regretted it, or he was just really busy. There was no point in panicking over which one it was, not yet anyway, she knew the demands of his job, she could be patient.

Amelia had also tried to tell her she didn't need to come back to work yet, she could take a couple of days off but Stella had insisted. She wanted to work, she needed to, if she sat at home she'd just be bored.

It had been a long day though and she'd spent most of it doing paperwork while Amelia took one of the women to a job interview. She walked out of the office in time to be almost trampled by two small children running by, followed quickly by one of the mothers. She smiled as she watched them go; glad that they had gotten away from what had led them here.

She walked through to the family room and found Beth sitting with a book on the couch. She looked up as Stella entered, a guilty expression on her face when she realised who was there.

"It wasn't your fault," Stella told her firmly, it explained why she had barely caught glimpses of the woman all day. "You couldn't have known he would find you here, or that he'd do what he did."

"I did know though," she replied, "Not that he would find me but that if he did that he would do something like that. He's not the type to let go of things, especially things he thinks are his, and..."

Stella got the impression that whatever she stopped herself from saying was the same thing she had stopped herself from saying the night her ex-boyfriend had shown up. She hadn't pushed her then, had known it wasn't the right time for it, now was different though. "What is it?" Stella asked her.

"I shouldn't..." Beth said after a moment. "He would be so angry if he knew I told you, they all would."

"It's hard to know his secrets and be afraid to tell someone even though you know it's the right things to do, isn't it?" Stella questioned knowingly. She's been there herself, it was part of what drove her to work here, to help others, she'd spent so long keeping Frankie's secrets, even the ones that got people hurt.

"I told you he was in a gang right?" Beth questioned and Stella nodded. "They've been up to something, something really bad."

"And you know what it is?" Stella asked her.

"I would hear them talking, they didn't seem to care if I overheard them, it didn't seem to matter. Sometimes it was like they didn't even notice I was there," Beth explained and Stella nodded again, she remembered telling Mac exactly the same thing about Frankie. "The gang he's in, it's called 'Hell's Warriors' and from what I heard there's some kind of alliance being formed by several gangs. It's been in the works for a while, they've been trying to keep it a secret, they wanted to take out another major gang, a big one, I can't remember the name. Apparently they found out about it and they're making an alliance of their own."

"It sounds like they're planning on starting a war," Stella said.

"It will be a war," Beth agreed. "And no one will be safe."

TBC


	24. Chapter 24

**Authors Note: Another update, thanks for your patience and the reviews. Enjoy :D**

Chapter 24

It had only been a few days since Mac had last been in this house, he'd been called there by Stella then too, only under very different circumstances. She'd called him yesterday asking him to come to the house she worked at today to speak to someone. He knocked on the door and waited, when the door opened it was Amelia who stood there. She looked at him uncertainly, warily, and it was clear whatever Stella was up to the woman in front of him was unsure if she approved. He was even more curious now to know what she had called him for.

Amelia led him through to an office where Stella was sitting with another young woman, the same woman whose boyfriend had attacked Stella.

"Mac," Stella greeted him, she looked unsure of herself all of a sudden and he realised it was probably because this was the first time they'd seen each other since he'd kissed her. He'd meant to go and see her yesterday but he'd been rushed off his feet all day, it had been long after the sun had gone down when he had finally left the office and he had figured she would be asleep or planning on being asleep very soon.

"Hi," he greeted her with a smile that he hoped was at the very least reassuring.

"This is Bethany Hash, it was her ex-boyfriend Brian Anders that came here the other night," Stella explained. Mac greeted the woman with a smile and a nod, she looked nervous, frightened even and Stella stood beside her, a hand on her shoulder.

"She said I can trust you," Bethany said looking at him, studying him.

"You can," Mac assured her.

"She said that you're the one who saved her from Frankie," Bethany stated and Mac looked at Stella in surprise, she'd obviously told this woman at least part of her own story.

"She mostly saved herself," Mac replied and saw Stella smile. "I just helped."

"It's okay," Stella reassured her. "You can trust him, tell him what you told me."

Bethany nodded and took a breath. "I think that part of the reason Brian came after me was because I know something he doesn't want me telling people."

"What do you know?" Mac questioned.

"There's this alliance being formed between some of the gangs, four of them I think but they were trying to get others involved too. They want to take out another gang, I can't remember the name of it but I know it's a big one. The other gang found out about it though, they've been trying to stop them but they've also been creating alliances of their own. Brian says it'll be a war."

Mac stood silently tying to take it all in. It explained so much, the drive by shooting, all the chatter he'd been hearing about something big going down. He had known something was happening, he had never expected this though, maybe he should have, but he hadn't. Brian was right, if this happened, it would be a war.

"I figured you should know," Stella said after several moments. Mac looked at her and took a moment to once again be amazed by her before going straight into professional mode.

"You were right," he said walking further into the room and pulling up a chair to face Bethany. "I need you to tell me anything you know, anything you can think of and if you can, I need you to try and remember names, than names of the gangs or the people involved, anything you can think of."

Bethany looked at him nervously and then up at Stella who gave her a quick nod. She looked back at Mac. "I'll try."

* * *

Louie dropped his cigarette on the ground, placing his foot over it to put it out before going back inside. The house belonged to Andre, he'd been in the gang for longer than Louie and his place had become one of the hang outs for the gang. It was a small house so the number of people that turned up there tended to make things a little cramped. He took a seat next to Andre, he was deep in conversation with a couple of people, his girlfriend was sat on the other side of him, running her hands up and down his chest.

"So Louie," Andre suddenly said, turning toward him. "What happened to Danny, I thought you said he'd come to the meeting?"

"He was busy with work, couldn't get out of it at the last minute," Louie lied; he was getting really tired of covering for Danny. He was quickly running out of lies to tell and he was pretty sure people could see right through them at this point anyway. What else could he do though? Danny refused to accept things for the way they were, he was going to get himself killed.

"Really Louie?" Andre asked. "Your brother is becoming a problem."

"He's not a problem," Louie said quickly. "He just prefers to keep to himself."

"People are worrying about him, where his loyalty is, we told you he needed to show that his loyalty is still with us. We shouldn't have to worry about him, it takes the focus away from more important things," Andre told him. "You said that he would come to the meeting, now you're lying for him, don't make me start questioning your loyalties too."

"I'm loyal," Louie almost shouted. "I've never given you any reason to think otherwise."

"Except that you keep lying to us about Danny, what are you trying to cover up for him?" Andre questioned.

"Nothing," Louie replied, he had a feeling this conversation had been planned, that it was deciding Danny's fate.

"Then why does he never show up, he's been avoiding us for years Louie and we've let it slide because he's your brother but we can't afford that now Louie. We can't afford to have doubts about anybody, if there's a reason he isn't doing what he should be then we need to know what it is. Don't give me a line about work, he works at a pizza place with your uncle, he could get out of that easy, so that's not it. What's his problem Louie?"

"He just," Louie was desperate now, frantically searching for another lie, one convincing enough to keep Danny from getting killed. He couldn't think of anything. "He wants out."

"Out?" Andre laughed. "There is no out, unless it's in a body bag."

Louie's eyes widened. "No, it's not that."

"It's not?" Andre questioned with an amused smile but his eyes said something else. There was no amusement in them, just a dark look. Danny was words away from taking a bullet.

"It's this girl," Louie said desperately, Andre raised an eyebrow. "This girl he's been seeing, she's making him like this, she's the reason he wants out. If she weren't around he'd be here, there'd be no question about his loyalties."

Andre looked thoughtful and then a smile came over his face. "So we take out the girl and there's nothing holding him back. We can make him think it was the Red Dragons, or the Snakes maybe, not only will he come back to us he'll want payback for the girl. Excellent work Louie."

"I... thanks," Louie replied, he seemed to have saved Danny from a bullet, at least for now but he's wasn't sure Danny was going to be much happier about this.

"Who is this girl?" Andre asked.

"I don't know," Louie told him and at the dark look on Andre's face he quickly added. "But I think I know where she works, I saw here there once. I can show her to you."

* * *

Mac sat back in his chair having filled Don in on everything Bethany Hash had told him. The detective sat at the opposite side of his desk, quiet and Mac could see the cogs turning in his head. Bethany had been remarkably helpful, once she'd sat down and started thinking she'd been able to remember a lot, she'd given him the names of the gangs she could remember being involved, the names of some people. Stella had been there the whole time, she's tried to leave at one point to let Mac work but Bethany had grabbed her hand and almost begged her to stay. Mac had allowed it, he had a feeling Bethany would have stopped talking if hadn't.

He'd wanted to talk to Stella but he hadn't had the chance, it wasn't the appropriate time or place. Once he had finished with Bethany and Amelia had taken the woman to her room Stella had walked Mac to his car. He'd thanked her for her help and told he would come by her place as soon as he had the chance so they could talk about the other thing that was hovering between them. She'd smiled and nodded acceptingly and he'd fallen for her just a little bit more.

"This is bad," Don shook his head. "And I think that's the biggest understatement of my career. It'll be a war."

"I know," Mac replied solemnly. There was a knock at his door and a young officer walked in.

"I have the map you requested sir," he said and Mac stood taking it from him, thanking him and waiting until he had left before rolling the map out on his desk. Don put a paperweight on one side while Mac put his box of pencils over the other side to keep it from rolling itself closed. He took out two marker pens, one blue and one red.

"These are the territories of one side," he said drawing around several areas with the blue marker and then picking up the red one to do the same. "These are the territories of the other."

"And these are just the ones we know about, there could be more involved," Don stated as he studied the map, one thing jumped out at him immediately. "The school is smack in the middle of it all."

Mac looked at map. "You're right, it is."

"This would explain everything that's been going on there," Don said shaking his head. "The sudden increase in activity and the attacks on Miss Angell. The last thing they're going to want right now is a teacher constantly treading on their toes."

Mac looked at him for a moment, wondering why he seemed so focused on the one particular teacher and having a feeling he knew the answer. "She was probably interfering in their plans without even realising it. Little setbacks can make a big difference in something like this, like someone being late to a meeting because he was held back at school or having their parents come down on them over a bad grade or being forced to redo some work meaning that you can't be doing something else."

"I know kids from several of these blue gangs that definitely go to that school," Don stated shaking his head.

"Go back to the school tomorrow, see if you can dig anything up, now that we know what's going on maybe we can find something we missed before. We need to stop this Don, before it gets out of control, if this turns into a war there's going to be massive casualties on both sides, not to mention all the innocent bystanders that will get caught up in it."

"I'll head over there first thing in the morning," Don stated and headed for the door.

"And Don," Mac called making Don stop and turn back to him. "Keep this quiet for now, until we know more, need to know basis. This is your priority, if you need to hand some things off to someone else, do it."

"Got it," Don nodded and left.

* * *

Don hadn't been able to get to the school as early as he'd hoped. There had been a robbery on his way there and so he'd been forced to take a little detour, a detour that had taken him several hours to deal with. He had arrived at the school just after lunchtime and had been sitting with the principal in his office ever since. The two of them had talked at length about gang activity in and around the school.

They had a lot of kids involved with the gangs, Don had already known that from his numerous other recent visits. What he hadn't realised what how many gangs were represented by kids at the school and it concerned him to learn that they had kids from gangs on both sides of the impending conflict there.

"There's been an increase in the number of fights we've been having," the principal explained, "the majority involving the kids from various gangs. We've had other incidents as well, two days ago we had to suspend one young man for bringing a knife into the school."

"For that he only gets suspended?" Don questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"You'd be surprised how many of those kinds of incidents we have here. If we expelled every student who did something like that we'd have a much emptier school," the principal explained as he stood to poor himself another cup of coffee only to realise he had none left. "I'll have to go and get some more."

"I can do that," Don said as he stood up. "I think I need to walk for a bit anyway before my legs forget how to work. In the staff room right?"

The principal smiled kindly and went to sit back at his desk as Don left the office. He already knew where the staff room was, he'd been here far too often lately. He purposely avoided Miss Angell's classroom, he didn't want to give anyone the impression she had involved herself with the police again. The longer she could stay out of this the better, and not just for her, he wanted her safely out of this for himself as well.

Fate must have been conspiring against him though because when he walked into the staff room she was just about to walk out of it. He almost walked straight into her and she had to step back to keep from colliding with him. He stepped to the side, allowing the door to close behind him. There was no one else there, he guessed the rest of the staff were teaching classes.

"I'm sorry," he apologised and she shook her head with a smile.

"Don't worry about, I should have been paying more attention to where I was going," she replied. "Are you here about what happened?"

She sounded nervous as she asked as though his investigation would automatically put her back in the gang's sights and it probably would. "Sort of," he told her and wished he could explain what was happening to her. He was pretty certain she would be able to handle it, in fact it would probably help her to know there was more of a reason for everything that had happened recently but Mac had been specific, need to know only.

"Something else happened?" she questioned in concern.

"I'm sorry I can't really go into detail yet," he said. "I've been with the Principal all afternoon; he's been helping me get a clearer picture of the gang activity here."

Jess nodded. "He takes it all very seriously, does his best but the poor man is fighting an uphill battle."

"It does seem that way," Don told her.

"I should go, I have a class in fifteen minutes," she said glancing at the clock on the wall. "Good luck with... whatever you're looking into now."

"Thanks and..." he trailed off. He wanted to say something else, he wanted to tell her everything, he wanted to tell her about the danger so she could be prepared for it, he wanted to wrap her up in his arms and promise to keep her safe. He had to ignore pretty much all of those impulses, the last one in particular. "Be careful, there's some stuff going on and... just be careful.

He shocked them both when he reached out and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and he silently chastised his hand for doing so without permission. She opened her mouth to say something and then closed it again, she looked thoroughly confused and he couldn't blame her, he was confused himself.

"Excuse me, I have to... get back to it," he said awkwardly and then left, walking back to the Principal's office and realising only after he got there that he hadn't got the coffee. "I'm sorry but I have to go, something came up," he told the principal hoping that would explain why he hadn't brought the coffee back with him.

"That's alright, we can pick this up again whenever you need to," the principal replied.

Don thanked him for his help and warned him to keep his eyes open for a while; things were probably going to get worse. He left then and didn't stop until he was sitting safely in his car. He needed to get his head back on straight, Miss Angell was a victim and a witness and these... feelings he was having toward her were inappropriate, he didn't even know exactly what they were but they had no place in his investigation. He took a breath, shaking Miss Angell out of his thoughts and began his drive to the police station. He didn't even make it to the end of the road before he realised he was thinking about her again.

* * *

Danny returned home glad that work was done for day, he felt sorry for whoever had the evening shift at the pizzeria because it looked like it was about to get very busy as he was leaving. He went into his room to change and was just heading to the kitchen to make something to eat when there was a banging on his door. He walked over to it warily, it was only seconds before the banging started again.

"Danny, it's Louie, you had seriously better be in there," he heard his brother's voice and something about it had him opening the door much quicker. He looked over his brother, he didn't seem to be hurt, there were no obvious injuries but Louie was looking at him with something that looked like desperation and guilt.

"What did you do?" Danny asked instinctively, he didn't think he'd ever seen his brother look like this before.

"I'm sorry Danny," Louie said breathlessly, he'd obviously been running. "I didn't mean to tell them, I swear."

"Tell them what?" Danny questioned but Louie continued like he hadn't spoken.

"Andre was asking about you, he was questioning your loyalty, and mine. I could tell what was going on, they were going to kill you Danny, they'd all but decided on it. I couldn't think of anything else to say, anything else to do, I just had to give them a reason, a reason why you were always absent, a reason for them not to kill you. It was all I could think of, it just came out," Louie rambled, talking so fast Danny had to strain to understand him.

"What just came out?" Danny asked in frustration.

"I told them about her?" he said.

If it was possible for a person's heart to stop beating and the person not to die then that had to be what Danny felt at that moment. "Lindsay, you told them about Lindsay?"

"I'm sorry Danny, I couldn't think of anything else. Then they made me show them who she was, I was sure I knew where she worked. I showed them this morning, we waited outside the school and I pointed her out when she got there, they're going to wait for her to leave the school today," Louie told him, he continued talking but Danny was no longer listening. School was about to finish, Lindsay would be on her way home soon, he had to warn her. He ran out of the apartment, Louie behind him, he barely glanced to make sure the door was closed.

"I told you to leave her alone Louie, she has nothing to do with any of this," Danny said angrily as they left the building. He was suddenly very glad he'd run into her so many times before he'd gotten up the courage to ask her out on a date, he knew her route home from work. He was never going to get to the school before she left, he knew she was still leaving with her friend that had been attacked, they both left as soon as the students were gone

"I know man," Louie said. "I'm sorry; I told you I didn't mean to tell them."

"What are they going to do to her?" Danny asked, not breaking his stride as he moved through the street..

"They're going to kill her," Louie said and that did make Danny stop, he turned to his brother, anger bubbling inside him. If he wasn't desperate to get to Lindsay he was worried he might actually kill his brother. He started moving again, if they were going to kill her then they would want to do it with no witnesses, or at least as few as possible, he knew exactly where they were going to do it.

TBC


	25. Chapter 25

**Authors Note: I'm Back! Having finally finished University and being on the hunt for a job I've got some free time. I've had to re-read this before I could continue writing it, I feel bad that I sought of abandoned it for so long. I hope some of you are still with me, please enjoy this chapter and to make up for my abandonment I'll be posting the next chapter in a couple of days. **

**Thanks to Runner043 and afrozenheart412 for their reviews :D**

Chapter 25

"Enjoy your weekend," Lindsay said as she and Jess reached the point where they had to go their separate ways. Jess gave her a smile and a wave as she walked in the opposite direction to Lindsay. She had no papers to grade this weekend, the thought brought a smile to Lindsay's face, a couple of hours of lesson planning tonight and she would be free to enjoy her weekend. She wondered if Danny would be free too or maybe she should take this weekend as an opportunity to talk to her parents about him. She'd been putting it off because she knew her father wasn't going to like it, she didn't want to upset him if it ended up not working out with Danny. It was working out though, more than working out, she had some serious feelings developing for him and that meant a conversation with her father was required.

She didn't want Danny with her when she talked to her father, at least not the first time she spoke to him. She knew his reaction was probably not going to be pretty and she didn't want Danny sat there feeling awkward while his father made his dislike clear. She would talk to him alone first, give him time to let it sink in before she brought Danny into it. Now all she had to do was find the right time to talk to him.

She was just wondering how good a mood her father would need to be in when she heard footsteps behind her. She was about to turn around when those footsteps sped up, whoever was behind her was clearly running. She didn't get chance to run herself, someone stepped out onto the street right in front of her blocking her path.

The man behind her caught up and she turned to look at him only to realise there were two men behind her, not one. She looked at the man in front of her, there was no way she was going to get passed him, even if she did, she'd never outrun them all.

"What do you want?" Lindsay asked and the man in front of her smirked.

"I believe you know Danny Messer," the man said and she felt something tense in her chest.

"What about him?" she asked and hoped he wasn't hurt.

"You really should have left him alone, none of this would have been necessary if you'd just left him alone. He'd be doing what he should be and you wouldn't be standing here with us right now," he told her with an amused smile. So this had something to do with the gangs, he'd told her he was out of it, that he had nothing to do with them anymore and hadn't for years.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said keeping her voice as even as she could.

"Don't play dumb with us girl," the man said angrily. "We know it's because of you, we know you're the reason. Well this should fix that shouldn't it, you'll be out of the way, Danny will do what he's supposed to be doing and since we'll blame it on the Dragons he'll be extra good at doing it."

The man smiled then, producing a gun from his jacket and Lindsay stepped back, straight into one of the men behind her who laughed and pushed her forward. "Can't we have some fun with her first?"

"No, too many people in the houses, we need to be done and get out of here," the man with the gun said looking passed Lindsay to the man behind her. If she was going to be killed she wasn't going to make it easy for them. She sensed her chance when he took his eyes off her, she grabbed for the gun with both hands, throwing herself at the man as she did so and knocking them both to the ground. They struggled there as she desperately tried to get the gun from him but he was stronger than she was. Hands grabbed her arms and yanked her away from him, she fought with them, throwing her limbs wherever she could, making it hard to get a good enough grip to pull her up.

"Bitch," the man with the gun shouted, the men holding her let go and she fell to the floor. She looked up; he was pointing the gun at her now, his hand shaking with rage. She watched his finger tighten on the trigger and closed her eyes.

"Stop," she heard a familiar voice shout and she opened her eyes to see Danny standing there with another man. He looked at her, their eyes meeting for a moment before he looked at the man with the gun. "Andre."

Lindsay looked between the two of them, Danny obviously knew him, he was supposed to be out of all this, what was he doing here, how did he know they were coming for her?

"Hello Danny," Andre said with a smirk, he kept the gun aimed at Lindsay. "So nice of you to finally show up for something, funny that it should be this."

He shook the gun in Lindsay's direction and Danny took a step forward. "Don't, don't hurt her. She has nothing to do with any of this."

"That's not what your brother tells us," Andre replied and Lindsay watched the man behind Danny wince at the words, was this Danny's brother?

"Louie, doesn't know what he's talking about," Danny replied. "I've been out of this for years, I've only known Lindsay for a couple of months. None of this has anything to do with her, just let her go."

"I don't think so," Andre said. "You're clearly no longer playing for our team, you're a problem Messer, now she's a problem too and we can't afford to have problems right now."

Andre looked at Lindsay again, his hand tightening on the weapon, a determined look on her face as he once again began to squeeze the trigger. Danny stepped forward again, Andre 's hand twitched in his direction but he chose to keep the gun aimed at Lindsay.

"Please don't hurt her," Danny said desperately. "Whatever it is you want, I'll do it, just let her go and I'll do whatever you ask."

"It's not that simple Messer, we'll never be able to trust you now," Andre said with a shake of his head. "You brought this on yourself."

Andre once again focused on Lindsay, he was about to pull the trigger when Danny suddenly charged at him. Andre turned the gun on him, she could hear people shouting, a shot rang out and everything suddenly seemed to stand still. It felt like time had frozen and it seemed an eternity before Andre collapsed to the ground, bleeding from a wound in his chest. Then the sound of sirens could be heard and the other two men, guns drawn, ran off down the street.

Danny ran to Lindsay, dropping to his knees beside her and pulling her into his arms. She had questions, so many questions but at that moment she just wanted him to hold her so she kept them to herself. She looked over at Danny's brother, he was still standing there with the gun in his hand when the police car pulled up and two officers jumped out, their own weapons drawn and aimed at Louie.

* * *

Danny didn't think he had ever experienced anything more agonising than the last hour of his life. When Louie had shown up at his apartment and told him Tanglewood was going after Lindsay he'd been so gripped by fear he hadn't stopped to think about what he was going to do about it, he'd just done it. He'd traced Lindsay's route home from Heldon High School and it was a miracle that he'd gotten to her when he had, a few seconds later and Andre would have killed her. He tried not to think about that, he pushed it aside to deal with later, there were more pressing concerns that 'what ifs' to deal with.

Louie had been arrested, he'd still been stood there with the gun in his hand when the police had arrived, apparently one of the residents in that area had taken it upon themselves to call the police when they saw Lindsay being surrounded. He should be grateful for that but the only thing the police had arrived in time for was to arrest his brother, not to save Lindsay. Louie hadn't said a word when police had arrested him, just dropped the gun to the floor and allowed himself to be cuffed and put in the back of the police car. The two officers had looked at Danny like he was next on their agenda but then their eyes had fallen to Lindsay who was shaking and clinging to him like a lifeline and they'd let it go, for now.

Lindsay had been taken to the hospital and Louie had just been driven away in the police car. Danny was being questioned, it was clear they hadn't decided whether or not they were arresting him too yet. He answered the questions as best he could, he hadn't wanted to incriminate Louie more than necessary but at the same time he wasn't going to get arrested himself, he needed to go and find Lindsay. He told them that Louie was involved with the Tanglewood boys, that he'd come to Danny's apartment to warn him about them going after Lindsay and that they had both come to try and stop them. He'd explained that Andre had been about to shoot him, that Louie had only fired his weapon to save Danny.

"That's all for now Mr Messer," the officer said, his tone still full of suspicion. "We'll be in touch, don't go too far."

It seemed to take forever for him to get to the hospital. The nurse directed him to one of the white curtains that were pulled around beds to give the patients a little bit of privacy. He stuck his head in hesitantly, Lindsay was sitting on the bed with a bruise on her head, another on her arm, and it was his fault.

"Danny," she smiled slightly when she saw him. He stepped forward, pulling the curtain closed again behind him.

"How are you doing?" he asked her.

"I'm fine," she said. "I got a few bruises but I'm fine."

"I'm so sorry Lindsay," he said shaking his head.

"It's not your fault," she replied and he felt a wave of anger, at himself, at Louie, Andre, even at her for being so damn nice about it all.

"How can it not be my fault? They came after you to get to me Lindsay, because of me. If you had never met me none of this would have happened," he replied lowering his voice when he realised he was almost shouting. "You deserve better."

"I think that's my choice," Lindsay told him firmly, unaffected by his shouting, he supposed she'd just been through worse than someone raising his voice a little. "And I've been thinking, piecing together what happened from I heard. You've been trying to get out of the gang for years, which is what you already told me. They've been trying to keep you involved and somehow Louie found out about me and assumed that I was the reason you weren't committed to the gang. He told... what was his name... Andre, he told Andre and they decided to kill me, both to get me out of the way and to frame another gang so that you'd be more motivated to do what they wanted. Louie realised what he'd done and came to warn you and you came to help me."

Danny blinked at her in surprise, unable to speak for several moments. "You figured all of that out from what little you heard while there was a gun pointed at your head?"

"More or less, I filled in a few blanks on the way here," she told him with a small smile. He couldn't believe it, she was smiling, she wasn't blaming him, telling him get out of her life, she was just smiling.

"You're taking this all really well," he said warily, narrowing his eyes at her.

"I'm really not," she told him. "I keep feeling like I'm going to burst into tears at any second and I've barely managed to stop myself from shaking , I think whatever the doctor gave me to calm me down has more to do with that than anything else. I might be terrified and shook up but I do know one thing and that is that I don't blame you. You couldn't have known this would happen and you saved my life."

Danny walked over to her and pulled her into his arms, he held her tightly, feeling the beat of her heart against his chest and closing his eyes at the sensation. He could have lost her today, she could actually have died and despite what she said it would have been his fault. She pulled back after a minute and kissed his cheek.

"I really want you to stay with me but the hospital called my parents and I really don't want them to meet you this way," Lindsay said sadly and Danny felt as though his heart had just dropped into his stomach. It must have show on his face because Lindsay was quick to explain. "I'm not ashamed of you Danny, I want you to meet them but not like this, not when I'm sitting in a hospital bed because someone attacked me. I'll explain it all later when we have more time but trust me, this isn't because I don't want them to meet you."

Danny looked at her for several moments and then nodded his head. "I have to go to the police station to check on Louie."

"I'll see you soon," she said with a sad smile.

Danny nodded again, lingering where he was for several seconds, convincing himself to move, to leave, he didn't want to. He looked at her and emotion swelled up in chest, one he'd felt several times in her presence but hadn't been ready to acknowledge, hadn't known if she was ready to acknowledge it. He started walking back to the curtain but then stopped as he was about to open it and turned back to her.

"I love you," he said and watched as surprise covered her beautiful features. He didn't give her chance to react any further, he left before she could say anything, taking a deep breath of fresh air as he stepped out of the hospital.

Now he had to deal with Louie.

* * *

Mac walked into the interrogation room with Don close behind him. Louie Messer was a name he was already familiar with, he'd been involved with Tanglewood boys since he was a kid. He'd been arrested a few times for minor things, he'd never been caught on anything big even though his name was often connected with bigger things. He was definitely involved now though, caught with the gun in his hand. He'd read the arrest report, he'd handed himself over to the officers without any trouble, hadn't said a word since though. He'd also read the witness report from Danny Messer, his younger brother. It was another name Mac was familiar with, he'd been a troubled kid but from what he'd heard the guy had straightened himself out early on.

"Hello Louie," Mac greeted as he and Don took their seats on the opposite side of the table. He kept his voice and face friendly, he needed Louie to talk, he could very well know something about the alliances the gangs were making. Louie looked at him, he looked tired and maybe afraid too, a man who felt utterly defeated. "I'm Captain Taylor, this is Detective Flack, we're going to ask you a few questions if that's alright."

"What happened to Danny, did he get arrested to?" Louie questioned. It was the first thing he'd said to anyone.

"No, should he have been?" Mac asked hoping to use this as his opening, to get Louie talking to him.

"He didn't have anything to do with it, he was just there to save his girl, he didn't even have a gun. I did this, it's all on me," Louie replied, his voice was quiet but firm. He wanted to protect his brother; to keep his own mistakes from coming down on Danny, Mac felt a moment of respect for him.

"Why don't you tell us what happened?" Don questioned, his tone patient, almost understanding.

"I thought she was the reason he was suddenly so adamant about not being involved, he'd always been hesitant, even right at the start but he had never been so blatant about it, so determined, I thought it was because of the girl," Louie replied, shaking his head.

"The girl, the one was attacked today?" Mac questioned.

"Yeah. I was talking to Andre and he was asking about Louie, why he never showed up anymore. They'd been letting it slide for years but he said they couldn't afford to have any question marks over anyone's head right now. They were gonna kill him, they didn't want to have to worry about his loyalty so they were going to kill him if I didn't say something, if I didn't give them a reason not to," Louie told them. "I told them about the girl, said I thought she was the reason and if she weren't around he'd be with us all the way. They decided to kill her instead, I even showed them who she was, I was just trying to keep them from killing Danny."

"That's understandable," Mac replied meeting Louie's gaze. "He's your little brother, it's your job to protect him right?"

"Right," Louie nodded, seemingly glad that someone understood his reasons, he guessed Danny hadn't been quite as accepting. "I thought about it though, the way my brother reacted when I talked to him about her, I think he really cares about her and he probably would never have forgiven me if he'd found out what I'd done and I'd let her die."

"You tried to put it right," Don encouraged.

"I went to his apartment, I told him they were going after her. He ran out of the apartment, I followed him and we found them on the street. Andre and a couple of others were there, he had a gun pointed at her. Danny told them to stop, that she had nothing to do with it, that he would do whatever they wanted if they just let her go."

"Andre wouldn't listen though," Don stated when Louie trailed off, shaking his head.

"He said Danny had become a problem, the girl was a problem, that we couldn't afford to have problems. He was about to shoot her, the girl, Danny tried to stop him, he moved on him and Andre swung the gun around to shoot Danny. I didn't have a choice, he would have killed him," Louie told them and Mac nodded his head.

"You were protecting your brother, that's going to go a long way towards helping you," Mac reassured him and then moved onto the line of questions he was really here for. "You said Andre said you couldn't afford to have problems, couldn't afford to have doubts about people. Why?"

"What?" Louie looked up from the spot on the table he'd fixed his gaze on when he'd stopped talking. His face looked distraught, as though he realised he'd said something he shouldn't have.

"The gang had been letting Danny's lack of participation slide for years, until now, why could they suddenly not afford to have any doubts about him, why did they suddenly need to deal with him?" Mac asked and Louie shook his head, his mouth opening and closing a few times as he tried to think of a lie to cover his mistake.

"You need to talk to us Louie," Don said as he leaned forward a little, keeping his voice calm, reassuring, Louie needed to believe they were on his side. "You killed Andre to protect your brother and that's going to help you out on this one, but we've got you connected to a long list of other crimes. If you help us out here we might be able to make things easier for you. We can protect you Louie."

"And you can protect Danny," Mac added. "Whatever is going on, it's happening whether you're in here or not, whether Andre is dead or not, they could very well go after Danny again."

Louie looked from Mac to Don and back again, his expression thoughtful and desperate. "Alright, I'll talk."

An hour and a half later Mac and Don had a much clearer picture of what was going on out on the street and didn't make either of them feel any better. The information Beth had given them was accurate it just wasn't up to date. There were more gangs involved now, a possible third alliance being formed as more gangs heard about what was happening and sought to protect themselves, to get themselves positioned for the war that was coming.

"Well that just destroyed any chance I had of getting a good night's sleep any time soon," Don said as they sat down in Mac's office. "This just keeps getting worse. How are we supposed to stop something like this?"

"I have no idea," Mac replied.

* * *

Stella opened her door to find Mac standing in the hallway. She looked at him in surprise, she hadn't seen him in a couple of days, not since she'd called him to talk to Beth. Looking at him now though she could see why he hadn't called her, he looked exhausted, he obviously hadn't had a good couple of days.

"Come in," she said as she stepped back. She got them both a drink from the kitchen and sat with him on the couch, waiting for him to speak.

"How's Beth?" he asked her, not what she was expecting.

"She's alright," Stella replied. "She's been a little on edge since she talked to you but at the same time she looks like a huge weight has been lifted. I know how she feels, it's not easy carry around someone's secrets, especially when you know those secrets are hurting people."

Mac looked at her for a moment. "She was right, everything she said was right, we had it all confirmed today. There's a war coming, and I have no idea what I'm going to do about it."

If possible he looked even more exhausted than when she had opened the door. Beth may have had her weight lifted but Mac had just had one put down firmly on his own shoulders and she could already see him straining to hold it.

"I meant to come and talk to you yesterday," he said suddenly. "I'm sorry I didn't get the chance."

"That's alright, you've clearly had a lot going on," she responded. "Don't feel like you're obligated to..."

Her words were cut off by Mac's lips crashing insistently against hers and she couldn't help but respond to him. His hand was in her hair, the other making its way across her hip to the small of her back, pushing her against him, she went willingly. He pulled back suddenly, cursing under his breath in a way that made her smile. He was about to start apologising so she quickly put her fingers to his lips, silencing him before he could even get a word out.

"I don't want apologies," she told him and he raised an eyebrow at her.

"Then what do you want?" he asked her, his voice was low and husky and she surprised herself with the confidence with which she replied.

"You," she stated and couldn't help but smile at the grin that spread across his face as he leaned forward to kiss her.

"That was my answer too," he said against her lips.

TBC


End file.
