I'm Still Here: He Said, She Said

Pushing a hand through her hair, she trailed back to the entrance of the airport. Suddenly the early mornings and sleepless nights were catching up to her somehow. Not surprising that it was. Feeling quite partial to late nights at the office and taking a load of files home with her, that part felt absent as she had left it all behind when she had left LA.

When she had first started out she hadn't taken that many files home with her, but lately she had just been pushing it-knowing she was growing far worse in some ways than Don. Her thoughts before now had been tuned strategically to work, which caused more then one concern-far outgrowing the small voice in the back of her mind.

Her green eyes caught in the sunlight as she stood on the sidewalk waiting for a clearing. Walking across the crosswalk, keys in hand, she weaved betweeen parked cars until she had got to hers. With a sigh she gazed across the way toward the airport entrance before stepping in, the car slightly breezed with the shadowed parking lot.

Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her phone, the same amount of phone calls the last time that she had looked, were all there-including two messages. That being the fact that she hadn't turned on her phone after reaching New York and there wasn't another way that anybody was going to contact her.

With that thought, maybe she should try calling him back. Opening the phone, fingers pressing the speed dial on the keypad.

Within seconds he had picked up on the second ring, his underlining tone; slightly cautious.

"You do know that I have been trying to reach you all week." Don must have looked at his caller ID as she had half expected for him to say 'Eppes' .

"I have since the moment I turned my phone back on. What's up?" She asked, shoving her keys back into her pocket.

There was a slight pause on the other side. A brief movement and she heard Don converse with David. After another brief pause, Don came back. "We just got a lead on whereabouts of Lenni Demos, and a tip from a store manager that has both Lenni and Marcus together, just last night."

"And you think that either one of them has something to hide." Furrowing her brow, she dug out her keys and stuck them in the ignition.

"He's been pretty incommundo." Don filled her in. "Don't think he's said two words that didn't end in a lie."

"Who doesn't? Your best bet is roping him, and giving him a reason to slip." Starting the engine, she placed one hand on the steering wheel.

"That's what we were thinking also." He spoke for the other members on the team. "But we should know more later after holding him in interrogation. I'll call you in the morning with detail. What time are you flying out?"

"I have to bring the rental car back before I go to the airport, and my flight is at ten." She informed looking at her watch. "I just sent Larry off so he should be back at Charlie's around ten tonight."

"Good, we're just about to take off here so I'll call you some time tomorrow on the details."

"Okay Don?" She inquired as she gazed out the windshield as a thunderous noise of an airplane took off. "Around those known details do I also get to know what's eating you?"

"Is it that obvious?" The door to the elevator opened with a ding and David stepped in. "Tell you what I'll call you later and then we can call it even."

"You know you've just set yourself up for a death trap." She informed him with a small chuckle. And with that she closed her phone.

He paused, then closed his own phone slowly before stepping into the elevator. David looked over at his boss as he pressed the button to the parking lot and let the steel doors close. "Was that Megan?"

Don nodded as the gravitational pull of the elevator leveled downwards. "She just dropped Larry off at the airport." David let a smile slip out as they waited in silence.

"I still can't see Megan being a New York gal." He commented to Don. The elevator slowed then picked up again as another beat of silence took to the grinding motion of the descending elevator. Don rubbed his hand just above his eyebrow and let out a puff of air that bought into the yeah-well-neither-can-I look that he expressed. Another lack of silence, and the slowing motion told both of them that they were about there. Although it seemed like a lot longer than they had really been in there, David decided to pull in the last word. This time it was on something that was tugging on him and he was pretty sure Don was mirroring the same thoughts. "You know when Megan left, it got me thinking." Don looked up at the younger agent, his own realization washing over his expression. The elevator opened and they walked across the parking lot to the issued SVU. They both stepped into the car and snapped on their seatbelts. "Have you talked to her lately?"

"To my knowledge she hasn't really been up for talking." Checking his mirrors Don put the keys in the ignition and started the engine.

David sat back in his seat and absently checked the other mirror as they slowly backed up. "That makes two of us."