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