February 5^th, 2017. 8:34pm.

It had been almost two weeks and still no solid leads. Katy had gone in front of the press, talked to the media, but none of the leads had panned out. Nothing had been found since the photo. It was almost torturous, especially on Alex’s side. She wanted to be out there doing something, talking to people, but she had to keep an eye on Katy’s safety.

Not that it was entirely a bad thing, Alex had to admit. She was currently standing in the middle of the ER, out of the way, watching Katy do the work she enjoyed. Alex was privately grateful that there were fewer pediatric patients there. She wasn’t certain she could have dealt with one, had they showed up.

Every so often she wandered out to the waiting room, looking all the world like a family member waiting for someone to get out of surgery or to arrive, and not the FBI agent she was (she hoped). There was a chance that the kidnapper would take a shot at Katy, or try and get close to her through her work.

Despite the police’s best efforts, the media knew where Katy worked. Greg was getting more irritated, Alex alongside him. It didn’t confirm a leak, but it raised their suspicions. And the media had printed the hospital’s address.

Of course they had.

Mentally Alex grumbled. That was why they had media-specific liaisons on the full CARD teams, and not just someone like Alex who knew how to handle the media on a more basic level. Sparring with them took a lot more training than Alex had.

She watched as Katy switched to a new room, an adult who had fallen off their bike and broke their arm.

“Aren’t you…?” The man seemed astonished, staring at Katy with his lips open.

“Let’s get you settled so we can set your arm,” Katy said warmly, deflecting his attention back to himself. “How does that feel?”

“Like it should hurt more.” The man’s eyes were curious in a way that Alex didn’t like. It wasn’t jealousy, nope. It was just professional concern for a friend.

Or something.

There was far too much going on for it to be jealousy. And jealousy was irrational, anyway.

Then the doctor came in, the cast was set, and Katy moved onto the next patient. It was incredible how well she multitasked, handling four to six patients at a time without missing a beat.

The doors opened to the back of the hospital, and Katy appeared, her face grim. Something had happened, something Alex had missed. Crap. She was supposed to be paying attention.

“Pediatric victim, 7yo boy, car rollover.” The paramedics were shouting as they wheeled the kid in.

“Why is he here?” Katy asked loudly.

“Not stable enough to make it to the peds hospital, so let’s get him stabilized.” Nurses and doctors appeared out of nowhere, crowding around the stretcher and starting to work.

Alex felt queasy, her stomach tightening, and a sheen of sweat broke out on her forehead.

The little boy, his eyes glassy.

His father laughing.

Alex being just a few minutes too late. If she had been smarter, if she had figured it out, if she had broken rules and gone after him, she may have been able to save the little boy.

But instead he was dead.

The world was starting to spin rapidly around her, lost in a flashback she couldn’t throw herself out of.

“Follow me.” This time it was Katy who took her arm, led her out of the ER through a back door that Alex hadn’t seen before, and out into the cool air of the evening.

“You aren’t needed in there?” Alex asked, aware once she finished speaking that it was a foolish question. She already knew why Katy wasn’t working that case.

“I’m getting better,” Katy answered, and she sounded thoughtful and not annoyed. “But the trauma cases are still too hard.”

Alex could understand. Even when she was out and about, sometimes she still saw the little boy’s face on other kids. It was jolting, it was terrifying, and it was something she couldn’t really talk about.

Katy wrapped her arms around Alex and pulled her into a hug, putting her chin on Alex’s shoulder.

Forgetting her bad-ass FBI image, Alex wrapped her arms around Katy and clung tightly, trying to get the images out of her head. Not that it would succeed forever, but she would have been content simply with another hour or two. Nightmares she could deal with, even if they were in Katy’s house.

“You must see a lot of bad things,” Katy said, her voice soft and somewhat detached. Alex recognized it as the voice that she used with her ER patients. Caring, but not taking their problems on as her own. It was the tone of someone who knew how to cope with trauma and get through the other side.

“Yeah.” Alex exhaled slowly. She wasn’t going to pass her horrors onto Katy, not when she already had her own. But Alex would be lying if she wasn’t grateful to talk to someone who at least somewhat understood. So many people didn’t, they either thought she was an uncaring monster (for being able to put up with the trauma) or weak (for being affected by it). Her fellow agents were more understanding, but there wasn’t always the time to talk about it.

She had gone through therapy after the last case, but the effects lingered.

Alex’s phone rang, startling both of them.

Katy glanced at her watch. “I should get back inside,” she said, an apology in her voice.

Alex nodded. “I have to take this.” She could tell by the ringtone that it was Greg. She also needed to check in with her supervisor later, and give him an update. He trusted her to work solo, but he was taking a risk putting her back out in the field after what had happened so recently. She wanted to let him know that his faith wasn’t misplaced.

“Hello?” Alex turned slightly away from Katy, holding her phone to her ear.

“We found Devin.” Greg’s voice sounded loudly in her ear.

“Where was he?”

“We had roadblocks set up for another case and the officer tagged his license plate. He was trying to leave town.” Greg sounded annoyed. Alex couldn’t blame him. That wasn’t a good sign.

“When are you talking to him?” Alex’s adrenaline pumped. Was she going to be invited in for this?

“Now. Can you come?”

Alex shifted her gaze to where Katy had gone. “I’ll be there in ten.” No matter what she said, she wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving Katy behind unless she had talked to her and ensured that she was okay. For all that Alex was shaken, Katy was the one with a missing child.

She caught sight of Katy not far inside, talking with another nurse. The commotion had died down, and everyone looked somber. Alex swallowed thickly. She could guess what that meant.

The kid hadn’t made it.

She closed her eyes tightly, ensuring nothing escaped, and headed over to Katy.

Katy caught sight of her, and her eyes were tired. Not sad, but tired beyond belief. Maybe that was a variation of sadness. Alex was getting a bit loopy. That was what trauma did to someone.

She shook her head, mentally. “Hey.”

Katy smiled faintly at her. “Hey.”

The spark that had been there before, when they had first met, flared between them.

Alex decided to ignore it. “Greg called, I’m needed at the station —”

“Go.” Katy didn’t even let her finish. “I’ll be here.”

Alex glanced at the clock. Katy had another three hours left on her shift. Surely Alex would be finished by then. “Thanks.” She smiled, resisted a truly idiotic urge to kiss Katy on the check before she left, and turned and headed towards her SUV.

Where, exactly, had that urge came from? She was a business professional. An FBI agent, of all things. Yet she had let herself get so entrenched with this woman so quickly.

It wasn’t just that Katy was actually eligible, it was that there was something about her that Alex responded to. She was caring and quiet, sweet but stubborn. She knew how to stand up for herself without being stomped on, without being beaten down.

She was a mother who had gone through the worst and come out the other side.

The drive to the station was short and uneventful, just Alex running through everything she remembered about Devin from her files. That was the difficult thing about managing so many cases; it was easy to start blending them together in her mind.

Greg was waiting for her inside the department door, and she quickly followed him towards the back. It wasn’t her first interrogation, but there was something off about this case that Alex didn’t like. Why send that photo after three years? What was the motivation?

Her stomach dropped. Had Katy maybe faked the photo to redraw attention to the case? It wouldn’t have been the weirdest thing that she had ever seen a grieving parent do.

She shook the thought off, taking the file that Greg handed her and skimming it. Devin had been convicted of six counts of sex with underage girls, served a year in prison and had been released the year before Tally disappeared. He had since gone to prison again, for a second (related) offense, and had been released and put on probation about six months ago.

The timing fit. She turned to the crimes he was suspected of committing. Former girlfriends with children. Children he had fathered. Alex felt sick to her stomach. Bastard.

But nothing could be proven. None of the girlfriends would talk, or let their kids talk either. Were they afraid of him, or something else? Why the age range in victimology?

Nothing in Devin’s background gave her a clue. Single mother, one older and one younger sister. Maybe there was something there.

“Ready?” Greg looked at her politely.

“How do we want to approach this?” Alex asked. The last thing she wanted was for Devin to lawyer up. That would, essentially, end the interview. He wasn’t technically a suspect in the formal sense, just a person of interest, even if they had had to cuff him to get him to the station.

Not that it stopped anyone.

Greg looked thoughtful. “Go for the hard-ass.” He chuckled, an apology on his lips. “Sorry about the wording.”

Alex just looked at him. She worked with FBI agents and criminals on a frequent basis; she had heard a lot worse.

“All right.” Alex nodded. Greg knew Devin better than she did; the file had pointed out that he had been in charge of Devin’s case as well. How long had Greg been involved in the department?

Greg pushed the door open, stepping aside for Alex to head in first.

The hard-ass was an easy role to play. She straightened up, her eyes going flat and her naturally severe-cut hair framing her face in a way that made her look darker. She kept her lips tight, her expression bored. She was there because she had to be, because she knew he did it and she just wanted the right words for her paperwork.

Greg, however, was warmer, slightly timid. It was interesting how well he worked. Even the way he sat and inched his chair away from her conveyed a character.

Devin looked between the two of them. He looked much like he had in his photo from the file. Grungy, but with a clean enough side that he could probably convince both children and women to do whatever he wanted.

Alex shoved the thoughts aside. She had to keep control of her emotions in order to ensure that they would make it through the questioning session. “Are you aware that you don’t have to talk to us?” She kept her voice controlled, clipped. Playing the FBI agent to the hilt.

Devin looked bored. “Yes.”

“We’d like to talk to you about your whereabouts on January 21^st, 2014.” Greg picked up a timeline and pointed to it.

Devin raised his eyebrows. “This again?”

“Yes. This, again.” Alex enunciated the words. “We’re interested in a missing girl. Tally Sommers. Know anything about her?” Alex picked the original photo to slide across the table.

Something sick and slimy lit up in Devin’s eyes, but Alex wasn’t certain if it was recognition or just him being a scumbag. “Isn’t that the girl on the television?” Devin looked between her and Greg, a faint smile playing on his lips.

“Let’s talk about January 21^st. It was a Tuesday.” Greg redirected his attention. “What did you do that day?”

Devin shrugged. “It was years ago. I don’t remember.”

Alex pointed at the date, finger jabbing at the paper. “It was a Tuesday. Three years ago, what did you do on Tuesdays?”

Devin looked thoughtful now. “Woke up, went to work. Was seen on my side of town taking out the trash.” He winked. “Then I went to the bar.”

The witness who had seen him taking out the trash had died in the three years since, and there was a chance that her statement wouldn’t hold up in court now. Hearsay and law were tricky and not something Alex was an expert in.

She left that to a lawyer.

“The lady at the bar said she may have seen you with someone else,” Greg said mildly. “Did you have anyone with you?”

Devin’s eyes switched and turned lecherous, now blatantly staring at Alex’s boobs.

Sadly, it wasn’t the first time. Nor would it probably be the last. It was interesting, though. If he was after children, why was he staring at her? A predator that truly didn’t care about the age of their victims was rare enough that she’d never seen one.

“I may have,” Devin said cheerfully. “I had lots of women with me.” He winked.

“What about Tuesdays?” Alex pointed to the date again. “Any women you… borrowed regularly on Tuesdays?”

Devin looked amused. “Ooh, girl.” He smiled. “You’re good.”

Alex raised her chin a fraction, staring him down.

“Perhaps,” Devin said thoughtfully. “I don’t remember who it was, though.” He shrugged. “My old brain isn’t what it used to be.”

Greg and Alex exchanged a glance, then Greg jerked his head towards the door.

“We’ll be right back,” Greg told him.

Devin didn't take his eyes off of Alex as the two of them left the room.