Open Case File [COMPLETED]

The Only Way (Flashback)

Because I wanted to know all the info behind and someone might have wanted this. I can't remember. Whatever, you're here so might as well read.

***********************************

Carter stared at the photo, her hand shaking. It didn't shake from exhaustion or fear, it shook from pure rage. A rage that the contents of the photo didn't merit. In the photo, Donovan knelt in front of a park swing set, pushing a laughing Kennedy on the swing.

Carter's rage came from the fact that the photo was taken from long distance. Part of a bush obscured the father and daughter.

The photo was a threat.

Just like the other ones. Donovan pushing Kennedy in a shopping cart through a grocery store. Kennedy on top of Donovan's shoulders, her smile wide as he bounced down the street. Donovan and Kennedy coming out of a bookstore.

The final one, the worst one, the one that made up Carter's mind: Donovan at the washing machine in the apartment basement, Kennedy sitting in a basket of laundry, hugging her stuffed rabbit.

That one photo said it all. O'Malley's people were not only watching, they were close, they in the apartment building.

Carter looked to the note that had accompanied the photos. Simple but said so much: Drop the case.

That, along with the fact the envelope had appeared on Carter's desk without an address meant someone in the office had left it.

The door to Carter's office opened and Mason poked his head in. He glanced at the photos before her, his face grim.

"Hey," he said, his friendly tone contradicting his expression. "I wanted to see if you got any further on the O'Malley case?"

Carter gently set down the photo. "No. I didn't. It seems we've hit a dead end. I'm going to follow up a lead outside the city tonight, but I don't think it will get me anywhere."

Mason pantomimed driving and held up his hand, indicating five minutes and Carter nodded once.

"Well, let me know if that turns up anything," he said.

"Will do. Night, Mason."

"Night, Carter."

Mason poked to the photos on the desk and mimed bringing them up. Carter nodded, they would be evidence after all. Then he left. The entire conversation was staged and for the ones listening to the bug that had been planted in Carter's office.

She'd found it the previous week and instead of taking it out, decided to use it. The photos had come a day later. That's when she'd gone to Mason and they'd laid out their plan.

Sliding the photos back into the envelope, Carter stood but paused, looking at Donovan's desk. She couldn't leave him with nothing. Just the thought of what she had to do tore at her heart.

Before she could rethink it, she pulled up her messages to him. A simple text felt impersonal, especially knowing what he was about to face. She couldn't call him, he might answer. If he answered she didn't think she could keep it all in. A voice message then.

She swallowed, her words seeming to stick in her throat. She let out a breath.

"Hey, I miss you," she said, putting all her love into her voice. Knowing the bug was listening in, she chose her words carefully.

They couldn't be tipped off for what was about to happen or that it wasn't real.

"I feel like with this case I haven't seen you in ages." She laughed, hoping it sounded genuine. "Seems strange since we share an office. I know how you like to hear it, so I love you, Donovan."