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Ellen heard the doorbell, followed by a rapid knocking. when she looked out the peephole, she saw Jack.

He stank of a barroom, of alcohol and cigarettes, but seemed completely sober. That wouldn't be hard. He'd always been able to drink the rest of them under the table.

"I had to come over."

"I told the girls."

Jack leaned against the wall. "Oh, God...how are they?"

"Rebecca is in shock, I think. Lis is crying." She heard the whiskers as Jack passed a hand over his face. "Jack, what happened?"

"I went to a bar...I tied one on...Lennie came in. I called ...her to come get me...she never answered. So I left. Lennie stayed. When She showed up, he was drunk."

Ellen sighed. "Oh God, Jack..."

"She was tgakiong him home, and this guy...just ran through an intersection. He was drunk..." Jack wiped his eyes. "She was leaving me, I know she was, and I went out and got drunk."

"Because she was leaving?"

"No..."

"Jack, you aren't making sense."

"We went to Sing Sing...a man we tried and convicted was sentenced to death. We were witnesses. CLaire and I, Lennie and his partner. After..."

Ellen sighed. "Why, Jack? What was the sense of that?"

"I don't know. Things between me and her weren't good. Not the last few weeks. Or longer." He wiped his eyes again. "She took a sick day yesterday. I don't know what she did. I should have been with her. She was against it, but she went anyway. I should have been with her, not working, then..."

Ellen looked at his bloodshot eyes, his pale skin, the shaking hands. "You can't see the girls like this,."

"I want to see them."

"No."

"They're my girls. I want to see them!"

"No, Jack, you're going to go home, and take a long hot shower, and sober up first."

"No-where's Rebecca-"

"Dad?" Rebecca was in the hallway, staring at her father. "oh God, were you driving?!"

Jack stammered, "No, I wasn't with her-"

"But you're drunk! Where were you when Claire was, when she was killed?"

"I was home," Jack said weakly. "The man who hit her car was drunk. Becky, I swear, he'll pay-I'll make sure he does!"

"Big deal. Look at yourself in the mirror, first! If you weren't driving, how long before you were!" She turned and stomped off into her room.

Jack brushed past Ellen, despite her protest, and followed Rebecca. His daughter beat him to her room, and there was the click of a lock.

Jack pounded on the door. "Becky, please...I'm so sorry..." He laid his hand and cheek on the door, crying. "I know you loved her, Becky. I'll make sure he pays-" He shrugged off Ellen's hand. "Please, let me in!"

"Go away! Go have another drink! I never want to talk to you again!" Rebecca yelled.

"Becky, please-"

"Just get out of my life!"

Ellen pulled Jack away. "Come on. Go home. She'll calm down."

Jack tried the door handle again, then gave up. "I'll call later." He saw Lis, and swallowed.

Lis hugged him, and Jack wrapped his arms around her. "Dad...you'll make that guy who hit her pay?"

"I will."

Lis began to cry again, and Ellen left them alone.

Rebecca held true to her word. She sent back the check he sent, his part of the tuition to NYU, that had been agreed upon in his divorce from Ellen. Lis told her father, that Rebecca had gotten a job working almost fulltime as a waitress in an upscale restaurant, while carrying a full load of courses.

Rebbeca also refused to see him. She managed to ne4ver be there, when Jack came to pick up Lis, so there wasn't even an awkward meeting at the door.

Ellen tried to reason with her, but Rebecca refused to meet with her father.

Lis and her mother kept Jack informed. REbecca managed to pay half her tuition, and also, end up on the Dean's List. She met a young man, and was head over heels in love. She broke up with the boyfriend, after finding out he was dating someone else on the side, and cried for three days. Her last semester, she graduated with highest honors; Ellen gave Jack a ticket for the ceremony, but Rebecca only glared at him, before agreeing to a stiff photo with Jack and Lis. As soon as the photo was taken, Rebecca turned away abruptly and rudely, not introducing her father to some freinds who were near by.

So it went. Each time Jack saw Lis, he asked about Rebecca, and got details of his daughter's life. She had passed the bar, and falen in love again. Not with a man, but with the entire state of Maine. She had gone there to visit a friend from college, and decided to stay. She took the bar in Maine, and again, passed. She found a job as a junior associate with a small firm in Portland, had a house, and a new boyfriend.

And, a life totally separate from and devoid of, her father.

Connie Rubirosa paused in the doorway. McCoy was placing a file folder in the out box on top of his desk, sighing as he did so.

"Another one for the win box," she said.

"Yup." McCoy smiled at her. "Aren't you going to McGill's?"

"Eventually. Are you?"

"I'm going to skip this one." He opened another file on his desk. "See you Monday."

Connie ventured into the office. "That envelope from The Ledger..."

"Is none of your business."

"Jack, what if its photos of-"

"Its none of your business!" McCoy exclaimed. "Go...go get drunk, will you?"

Connie nodded, after a hesitation. "If you want to talk about it...I'll be at McGill's."

McCoy shook his head. "just go."

Alone, he opened a desk drawer, and looked at the manila envelope sitting beside a bottle of scotch. He was -


"Scared. I swear he's scared of a stupid envelope!" Connie said to her companion. "Whats going on with his daughter?"

Her companion hesitated. "Long story."

"I'm not going anywhere."

Serena Southerlyn smiled at a tall brunette. "Hi Georgia."

The brunette gave a feline smile. "Serena."

Connie rapped her knuckles on the table. "Stop making eyes. Tell me."

"Ok. As I got it from Abbie Carmichael...and don't be telling who told me...Jack had an affair with an assistant, Claire Kincaid."

"I heard he used to be after anything in a skirt."

"Yeah, well, this was no work place conveniance. He was crazy about her, and everyone knew it. She...maybenot so crazy about Jack. He wanted to get married, she didn't. So, they were practically living together. Until...well, she got killed in a car crash. A drunk driver ran an intersection and T-boned her car. Lennie Briscoe was with her-ever meet him?"

"Before my time. Jack has mentioned him from time to time. His ideal of a detective, I think."

"He worked with Anita in the 27th. Anyway, apparently Jack was tying one on, and wanted Claire to come pick him up. He, Claire, Lennie, and Lennie's partner had gone to see an execution of some case they had all worked on. Jack told me it was the dumbest thing he's ever done, but at the time, I just thought he meant the obv ious. I mean, going to see someone die...not for me. Anyway, apparently Jack had a problem the next day, so he did what he usually does when things get too much."

"He tied one on, " Connie said.

Serena nodded, "And it was a good one. And, Jack, being drunk, figured, I guess, that Claire would want to be getting drunk as well. When she didn't show, he left and got a cab. Lennie was there, and when Claire finally showed up, she found Lennie, drunnk, so decided to take him home. On the way there, her car got hit....ironically, by a drunk driver."

"And ever since, Jack has declared war on drunk drivers."

"Because, the guy got a slap on the wrist." Serena sipped at her wine. "Anyway, his daughter, Rebecca, was really close to Claire. Abbie said so close, that Ellen had Claire take Rebecca out shopping for a prom dress, because she had a big case. They took Jack's Mastercard, and did it up right, everything from a facial to new shoes. When Claire died, Rebecca found out her father had been drunk...and they haven't gotten on since. All these years."

"Did Jack ever talk to you about it?"

"ONce. My father and I...went for a time, without speaking. When I came out...and again, when I decided to go to work for the DA's office, and not with his firm. Jack found out. He told me, no matter what, a father still cares about his daughter. I said I didn';t think so...we were both a little drunk...he just kept going on how its differant for fathers and daughters. No matter how long a woman has been out on her own, no matter how successful she is, she's always some man's little girl, and on and on. He finally got me to agree to get in touch with my father,and work it out...and the next Monday, he kept on at me about it. Everyonce in awhile, he still asks how things are between me and my father."

Connie looked at her drink. "I wonder when it was, he began to look on his assistants as daughters, and not possible lovers."

"After Claire. Abbie said he never came onto her, and he never did me, either. And, when I told him I was a lesbian...I wish my own father had listened to me, half as well as Jack. I always felt...protected, somehow, by Jack. I can't explain it. Put us both in a room at Rikers with the worst killers, and he let me question, and expected me to hold my own. But, I usually felt safe. Just once, I didn't."

"And?"

"Jack was there," Serena said simply.

"So, Jack and his daughters dont talk."

"No, just he and Rebecca. He and Lis get along like thieves. And, she gives him info on her sister. Ellen does too. They basically get along." Serena made a face. "Wish my parents' divorce had been as civil."

"Hard to think of Jack just walking away in a civil manner from a divorce."

"I know. But, because of Claire's death...he and Rebecca don't talk. I wonder if he even tries to get in touch with her now. All I know about her, is that she's a federal prosecutor in Maine. I googled her once. She's damn good, too."

Connie ordered them both another drink. "I didn't want to know because of office gossip. Its just that...I think someone from The Ledger has been keeping tabs on Rebecca too. We had a case...they tried to throw it in Jack's face, that he and Rebecca havenn't talked for 9 years."

"I didn't realize it was that long."

"Yes. And, today, an envelope marked do not bend came for Jack, from The Ledger. Photographs, I think."

"What did Jack say?"

"Nothing. Just stuck the envelope, unopened, into a desk drawer."

Lis looked up as she sensed someone looking at her from the nearly empty waiting room of the legal office she worked at. Her father waved, from where he was sitting.

The receptionist smiled at her. "Your dad is here."

Lis nodded and shifted her coat to her other arm. "See you tomorrow." She went into the waiting room. "Hi. Whats up?" Lis frowned as she sized him up. "You're either hungover, or you'vve got that flu."

"Getting over a nasty cold. Everyone in the office had it. I think Connie gave it to me." Jack stood. "You up for dinner?"

Lis shrugged. "Sure. Where?"

"Your choice."

Lis wondered, given her father's history, just how close he and Connie Rubirosa were. She'd joined them on after win celebrations enough times, to wonder. But, she'd been wrong about Serena Southerlyn...very wrong.

She chose a small Italian restaurant, with a varied menu that went from casual pizzas, to fancy alfredos. They decided to split a pizza. Cheese, pepperoni, onions, banana peppers, hold the mushrooms. Neither of them could abide mushrooms.

Jack steepled his hands, then folded them. Then, laid them on the table, and began to tap the table cloth. He began idly moving silverware.

Lis smiled. "What are you so nervous about?"

Jack folded his hands again, aware of his restlessness. "I need your help." He leaned forward. "I really want to get in contact with Rebecca."

"What brought this about?"

HEr father shrugged. He was silent for a long moment, and Lis was aware that he was stuck for words.

"One thing about lawyers, I've found, is that put them before a jury, a witness, a judge, a cop, a suspect, they are never at a loss for words. Ask them to put feelings into words, we're stuck." Lis waited.

"I...think 9 years is long enough, isn't it?" Jack looked aroun d the restaurant, seeing families, with little kids. He wondered if any of those kids would ever see a parent as nothing more than a drunken murderer. "We had a case. Someone at the Ledger, testified..."

"Yeah, I read that dig at you. Thats what brought this about?"

"Time passes, and you...I...realized what I've missed. This guy...he had photos of Becky. She looks happy."

"She is."

"Maybe I should just let her be."

Their pizza and beers arrived, and they fell silent, as they were served. Lis didn;'t miss the look the waitress gave her father. And why not? He was a good looking man.

"And Sheila thinks what about this?" Lis referred to her father's latest lover, a blonde, brainy member of the mayor's staff.

"Haven't talked about it with her."

Lis took a bite of pizza. "I'll call her. But this hasn't got anything with you possibly being our next DA, does it?"

"Huh?"

"Don't give me that look, dad. Branch is considering a run for the Senate. That leaves only one logical choice to fill out his term as DA. You. After all, you are the reason he had such a high approval rating as DA. You're the one winning cases for him."

"No one's approached me."

"They will." Lis paused. "And BEcky knows that. If you approach her now, thats the first thing she'll think."