They were so close to something, anything, and now they were back where they started, Bette thought putting her hands to her head as she felt the warm tears welling up in her eyes.

They were back to square one.

***

Bette starred herself in the bathroom mirro, allowing the cold water she splashed onto her face wash her tears away and calm her nerves.

I let my emotions cloud my judgement, Bette thought to herself, I was too eager to solve this case.

“Gawd, Porter, you need to relax,” she muttered to herself. Wiping her face dry, she took a deep breath and walked out of find Gen standing outside.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, we’ve just got to keep on trying,” she managed with a smile.

◊◊◊

The profilers and forensics team had gathered in the conference room.

“Well,” Helena said, pacing around the large table, “Looks like our primary suspect has an alibi. We need to get this together, our time is running out.”

“I agree,” Shane added, standing up, “Gen? I need you and Dana to work doubly hard to find the cause of the blood coagulation and the blood splatter.”

“Definitely,” Gen replied, “Dana and I will get to it right now.”

“Bette, please go over the case files again with Tasha,” Helena instructed, “I know that you guys have read them over a thousand times now, but maybe we missed something. Now that we know about Jodi Lerner’s relationships with the girls, is there anyone else who might a link to them?”

“You may use the conference room, if needed,” Shane offered.

“Thank you,” Helena replied, “I appreciate that.”

They had been working for seven hours straight, Gen’s eyes were dry and blurry from looking through the microscope and taking down her notes. “I’m so tired,” Dana said, not looking up from the test tubes she was fumbling with, “I think I might head home soon and come back in early tomorrow morning. You?”

“I think I’ll hang back for a bit,” Gen replied, “You go ahead, I’ll catch you tomorrow.”

Gen busied herself with her notes, reading them over and over again, frowning in concentration. She was so engrossed in her own thoughts that she didn’t hear Bette walk in.

“Busy?” she enquired with an eyebrow raised, “Everyone’s already gone home.”

Gen smiled at her, admiring the way her body looked in the dim light of the lab, “I tend to concentrate when I’m working, it’s hard for anything to distract me, well, until you walked in.”

“I have a proposition,” Bette said with a twinkle in her eye, “Tomorrow’s Saturday, we’ve been working so hard on this case, and knowing you, you’ll probably come in tomorrow morning to continue your research.”

“And?”

“And I want to cook dinner for you.” Bette was standing over Gen now, her face glowed with innocent happiness, “I’m not the world’s best chef, but I’m sure I can pull something nice together, what do you say?”

“Ok, I think my stomach is up for the challenge,” Gen teased.

Bette gave her a playful whack on the arm, “Tomorrow at my place, say about 7:30pm? I’ll text you my address.”

“Well, I guess if it’s bad, we can always order in,” Gen called out as Bette walked out of the lab, giving her a wink.