A/N: So I revamped this chapter. It's a lot better. I promise!

Chapter One

Emily

I walk into the precinct on my first day. I follow Mac Taylor, a detective and a scientist, to my new partner's desk.

"Flack." He looks up and our eyes lock. Damn his eyes are blue. He's got short black hair and broad shoulders. "Meet your new partner, Emily Porter." He stands. Wow he's tall.

"Pleased to meet you. Don Flack." He holds out his hand and I grasp it. We shake once and let go.

"Emily."

"I specifically requested that she be put on this staff and be your new partner," Mac tells him.

I can tell that sparked his curiosity. "Angell not good enough?"

"No, she's getting transfered. That's her own decision. She's going into vice." Don nods. He wanders around the desk facing the side of his and taps it.

"This will be your desk for the time being. My old partner used to love it this way but it could be time for a change. Just let me know if you want to move anything around and I'll help by moving mine." I nod. I'm a shy person unless I'm working in the field or coming up with solutions to homicides. "All right Mac, I've got it from here." Mac Taylor nods and walks away to go to the crime lab. "So where are you transferring from?"

"Seattle PD."

"Oh really? Seattle is like the coffee capital."

"Of the U.S. at least. We kind of had our own starbucks around the corner of almost every precinct." Don smiles. Damn his smile is so pretty.

"How old are you?"

"Twenty-eight. What's with the interrogation, Detective Flack? I thought I was in the clear," I say smiling, knowing it's a joke and so does he.

"Just trying to figure you out."

"And listen to my west coast accent. It's so different from here."

"Don't worry, you'll be talking like a New Yorker soon enough."

"Wonderful, just what my family wants to hear when I call them at Christmas; is this a prank call?" I say imitating their voices. Don laughs. "How old are you?"

Instead of his answer to my question, we hear his phone go off and assign him, us, a case. "Here's your first case in homicide."

"Yipee."

Turns out the murdered is a deaf girl and she was shot. Don and I walk outside of the house. We talked to first responders while we waited for Mac and his team to get down here.

"Anybody been inside?"

"Yeah, us and first on scene," Don replies.

"Radio said there was a gun shot victim."

"Yeah, Allison Mitchum. She's nineteen. The mother is overthere in the back of the bus with the baby, a neighbor told us that the husband was out of town on business. No witnesses," I tell Stella Bonasera.

"We've got unis and plain clothes combing the neighborhood and K-9 is on their way up to see if they can pick up a scent."

"Were there signs of a robbery?"

"Aside from Allison's life, nothing was taken."

Don and I go back to the precinct for a long night ahead of us. I brew the coffee and we go over paper work. He teaches me how this precinct like things to go and I learn a lot after that on my own. I take my first sip of the coffee here and I spit it back out into the cup.

"Hot?"

"A bit. But it's disgusting."

"Well we don't have the luxury you used to. You'll get used to it. It's not like you can go out and buy coffee every few hours here. It's just not possible on a cop's salary."

"I know, they discounted stuff all the time for us because we are cops and then they would save our coffees if we were called out unexpectedly. They memorized our badge numbers."

"What's your badge number?"

"8019. It was my dad's."

"My old partner's badge was her father's as well."

"I wear it because it honors my dad. He died in the field. He was shot and the vests weren't as great back then and he died when I was a teenager. It's been at least ten years."

"Em, I'm sorry."

"It's fine. I'm sad again but I'm not going to act like I did when the cops came to the school and told me."

Flashback

"Right, he's so cute. I wonder what he looks like with his shirt off," I say to a friend about our teacher. We were the typical teenage girls. I watch someone with a note come in and hand it to our teacher. His eyes scan over it and he looks at me and gets up. He hands it to me and it says to go to the office immediately. "I've got to go. My dad must be off work and must be ready to take me home."

"Bye, Emily!"

"Bye, Allie!" I walk to the office texting some friends. When I walk in I see a couple detectives that work with my dad and our families are really close. My eyes go wide. "What are you two doing here?"

"Emily, your dad. He, he was shot. On the way to the hospital, on the bus, he, he didn't make it." I drop to ground, feeling my stomach drop to the deepest parts of the abyss that is my soul. The one that was quiet the whole time bends and sits next to me, hugging me to himself.

"No!" I shout into his shoulder, hysterical. He even called me in the car to tell me he was going to a dangerous bust.

"His last words to me were, 'Em, I love you'. I was very worried when he called and I was anxious and a friend of mine knew what was going down so she distracted me by talking about our teacher at the time. He was very attractive." Don smirks. "Hey so what do you want me to call you? Don? Flack? Don Flack?" I laugh.

"Either one. If you call me by my full name, I'm going to think you're mad at me."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Thirty-one."

"What?"

"That's how old I am."

"Well thanks for answering my question, Detective. What grade are you? First?"

"Yeah."

"That's what I thought. I'm second. Almost to first. Then I got transfered."

"You'll get there," I smile at his enthusiasm.

I go home that night around one in the morning to an empty apartment. I lay my purse down on the counter. I live, surprisingly, in a one bedroom apartment. It's nice. I like it.

I go to the bathroom and I turn on the hot water for a shower. And thank goodness it's hot. I get undressed and I let the hot water rain down on my sore back.

Being a cop has it's perks but the stress of the job really gets to some people. Some people like the constant chaos of it. I'm one of those people. But at the same time, I like an easy case where we see the killer kill or the robber rob and then we arrest him/her. The case reports are easy.

God, I hate writing case reports. Theyre so tedious. I ususally write them as I'm working the case.

After my shower, I dry myself off and throw on a large, cotton t-shirt and some underwear and I crawl into bed, falling asleep almost as soon as my head hits the pillow.

Mac calls me in to help him question Gina Mitchum, the deaf mother.

"What do you think woke you up?" Mac asks. I sign right after.

"Footsteps. I felt vibrations. I thought maybe it was Allison," I recite back to Mac.

"You recently moved to the North Bronx from the Upper Eastside. Do you have family living there?" I signed the words to Gina.

"My husband and I weren't planning on having any more children. When I got pregnant,my husband and I decided to raise elizabeth outside the city, where it's safe," I say to Mac.

"Your husband's a lawyer. Did he have any enemies or recent problems at work?" She stares at him like hes crazy.

"My husband didn't kill Allison."

"That wasn't my question." I sign.

"You speak with your eyes," I recite. "Dennis wasn't home last night. He was in Hong Kong on business. As soon as I called him, he jumped on the first flight home. He arrives this afternoon. As far as I know, he's never had a problem at work."

"What about Allison? Friends? Boyfriends?" I sign.

"She was seeing a boy. Seth Wolf. And they'd been fighting recently."

"Do you know why?"

"Allison's priorities changed when Elizabeth was born. She started spending a lot of time with her baby sister. And Seth didn't like being in second place."

Mac pulls me out of the room when we are finished and we tell her that she is free to go.

"Wanna experience autopsy?" Mac asks me. "Well to warn you, things aren't good right now."

"Well of course I wanna go but if things aren't good..." I trail. "Can you tell me why?" I ask.

"I'll tell you about it later."

"Emily," I hear. I look up and I see Mac coming towards my desk. I save whatever draft of the report I'm working on right now and I give him my undivided attention. "Mrs. Mitchum is not the baby's mother. Her daughter is."

"Oh Lord. All right do you need me to go back in with you as a translator?"

"If you would." I nod.

"Why didn't you tell me the truth? Why didn't you tell us Allison was the baby's mother?" I sign to Gina.

"You have to understand something. Elizabeth is the reason we moved to the North Bronx. When our daughter got pregnant, we tried to hide it, but it just got way too hard," I recite.

"So, you relocated to avoid the social stigma associated with a teenage pregnancy." I sign his words.

"I love my daughter. I don't want to see her have to deal with that. I supported her decision to have the baby, including making people think the child was my own," I tell Mac. "Mac, it makes sense."

"I know."

Later that day, Mac put Don and I into questioning. He knows I've got a reputation in getting information out of people but I'm not the best observer. That's what Don is here for. He's great at everything he does.

"Do you know why you are here?" I ask. The man shakes his head. "Well Allison Mitchum is dead. Her baby is still alive. We've been told that you're the father." My technique was using the blunt truth.

"My baby? No way."

"Are you telling us that you didn't know Allison was pregnant?" Don asks. I take out a piece of paper and hand it to him. "Is this not your name on Elizabeth's birth certificate?"

"I have no idea how my name got on there." He starts sweating and his face turns a light shade of pink. "Honestly. If this were true she would have told me."

"Seth," Mac starts. "You were expelled from Columbia six months ago. You were caught cheating. 4.0 you got your freshman year was bought and paid for."

"I don't see the point." I get why he brings it up.

"The point is, you're a proven liar," I say. "Why don't you tell us what you were doing in the nursery last night."

"You think I killed Allison?" Seth looks at me.

"'Seth, we're thinking Allison asked you to step up to the plate, man up. But you just weren't ready to settle down so you decided to do something about it," I tell him.

"Wrong. Look, I suppose there is a possibility I could be the father. But I had no idea until you told me. You think I'd marry her? She's deaf." He says chuckling.

"You're a real piece of work," Mac says. I storm out of the room before I hear what Don has to say. I go back to my desk and I sit down before I go back in and hit him in the face.

Don comes back out a few minutes later. He's angry.

"What's up with you, Emily?" He asks when he sits down at his desk.

"I just hate the fact that he made fun of her because she was deaf. A very good friend of mine was deaf. She started talking to me one day and I learned sign language during the time when we were really close. We still talk but we don't see each other. She and I would always talk in class. We used to pass notes all the time. She was new when she started talking to me and it was nice to have a friend I could talk to and no one knew what I was saying. She was very observant."

"So you took this that seriously then?"

"Yes. I did. I feel really shitty about it but I don't care what you or Mac says. It's something that could have happened to anyone." I push my hair out of my face. "Did you get the prints and DNA?"

"Yes. Mac got them and he was out before me."

"I didn't even notice."

Soon I see Stella walking into the precinct, heading straight for me.

"Oh no, did I do something wrong?"

"No, not at all," Stella says. "In fact you're doing wonderful but I need your help. More specifically Lindsay needs your help."

"And Lindsay is?"

"Lindsay Monroe. I'm sure you'll work with her at some point, but she could really use a friend right now. I know you don't know her but she knows about you, in fact we all do."

"We?" I ask, sitting back in my chair.

"The crime lab. Mac is always talking about you. We all feel as if we know you. You and Lindsay are closer to the same age and I'm sure you two would get along a lot better."

"Okay, I can speak with her.

Later in the day, Don and I are talking about the fact that Seth isn't the father and someone else is, Cole Rowen. Mac found his prints at the house and on a shotgun license. I go to the lab and I talk with Allison's parents for Mac.

"What if, now this is just a theory, but what if the killer wasn't there to kill. He must have know that the family is deaf so he probably thought that he could sneak in and steal Elizabeth right out from under the mother's nose," I tell Don.

"Then Alison wakes up and catches him."

"He gets spooked, then maybe starts fighting with Allison, and accidentally shoots her."

"Sounds like a good theory. Lets get a warrent and check out his house."

Don and I go to Mac's office in the crime lab.

"All right, here's the deal. Cole Rowen didn't go to the Mitchum house to kill Allison. He went there to kidnap Elizabeth," I tell Mac.

The shock on his face is evident. "How do you know?"

"We hit Cole's apartment. He wasn't there but we found a lot of brand new baby stuff," Don tells him.

"Crib, diapers, formula. Cole was getting ready to play daddy," I finish. Mac gets on the phone and dials Gina's hotel room number.

"Gina's not at her hotel." We start thinking of possible ways to approach this without anyone getting hurt or someone finding out. Mac's phone rings and he answers.

"I want Elizabeth. My daughter's coming with me. Turn left at the light." He says.

"Call Sheldon. Give him Gina's number, have him trianglulate a cell signal, get us a location. Cole Rowen has Gina and the baby." Don and I follow him out and he gets on the phone immediately.

"This is Flack, give me dispatch." Don explains what is going on and we go downstairs after we talk to Sheldon, who is very nice, and we get in the car. We speed up and turn the lights and siren on. "Repeat, we've got a hostage situation. Notify highway, ESU, and hostage negotiater. Stand by for further instruction." I have Mac's phone and we listen to Cole scream at Gina and the baby crying in the background. Thank goodness she won't remember this.

"Once we get out of the city, I'll let you go. But you have to promise me something. You have to tell the police that I didn't mean to kill Allison. It was an accident."

"Accident my ass," I mumble.

"We were fighting. I'm sorry! It didn't have to come to this, but I deserve to have a say in how my kid is raised."

Don turns to me. "I just got a 911 from Dennis Mitchum, Gina's husband. He reported the abduction. Santucci's on his way to pick him up." His phone rings again. "Flack. Yeah. Great, where?" He hangs up a second later. "We got him." He's so calm through out this entire situation. He must have done this, sadly, a million times before. "North bound, headed toward the bridge at 155."

We catch up and I get out of the vehicle with Don. We have our Kevlar vests on and our guns are at our sides, ready for the draw. Don gives instrunction to some by standing officers and I walk up to the front of the crowd of police cars, observing the scene. I see Mac pass me and continue to walk to the car. He starts talking to Cole.

"What's that?" Don asks as something flies at Mac.

"An external transmitter. Cole can't hear without it," I tell him.

"Come with me," he tells me. "I got an idea." We walk around to the other side of the car and we sneak up and Gina sees us. I tell her to roll the back window down where Elizabeth is. She does. Don reaches in and he picks up baby Elizabeth and hands her to me and I hold her to my chest as I turn away from the car quickly. I wanted to protect this life from as much as possible. I run to the crowd of police with Elizabeth while Don and Mac run into action and arrest Cole.

Walking up to Elizabeth's grandfather, Dennis, I get really close to him as I hand over Elizabeth. I sign that she is a gorgeous baby and he smiles. He pulls me into a hug as a thank you and I smile, glad that the rest of the family is safe. Heartbroken, but safe.

Don walks up to me after everything is over and we are back at the precinct. He starts talking. "We did good tonight. I didn't know how you would do but you're better than I expected."

"I'm glad I'm a good cop."

"You're a good detective."

"Thanks Don."

"You're the only one who ever calls me that."

"I am?"

"Mac does every once in a while. You call me Don all the time. I like it. Everyone else calls me Flack all the time."

"Good, cause I'm going to keep calling you Don. It's your name." He smirks.

"Yes ma'am."

The next morning, I wander up to the crime lab and I quickly find whom I pressume to be Lindsay.

"Excuse me, Lindsay?" I ask.

"Yes?" She asks, looking up.

"I heard you're having a rough time right now with the case you were on. I'm not a therapist, I swear. I'm Don Flack's new partner, Detective Porter."

"Oh, Emily. It's nice to finally meet you. I don't need a shoulder to cry on. Really, I'm-I'm fine."

"I understand. Boy do I understand. Just know, that if you want to talk, I'm here. Just say the word and I'll listen." She struggles with a smile, but one does appear.

"Okay. Thank you."

"Of course."