"Footprints"
Episode #431

Previously ...
- Sarah and Matt clashed over whether to add another child to their family.
- Ryan proposed marriage to Claire.
- Tim showed up late for a dinner with Jason and was distressed to hear of his brother's new business relationship with Ryan.
- Brent, perturbed that Lola missed her appointment to come in for questioning, went to find her--and when he did, she was lying dead on the floor of Nick's house.

MATT & SARAH GRAY'S APARTMENT

As Sarah Gray turns the key and opens the door, she attempts to make the mental transition from work to home. There are a lot of things that she appreciates about her job situation--that she can pick and choose her cases, that she doesn't have to hold down regular working hours. The downside, however, is that she isn't able to leave an office at the end of the day and put work out of her head. It is always with her, waiting in the corners of her mind should anything arise.

Tonight, her work gets pushed far into those corners as soon as she steps into the apartment. Matt sits in the middle of the living room amidst the pieces and limbs of what Sarah suspects might be a desk.

"What happened here?" she asks as she sets down her things.

"I decided to bite the bullet and replace the computer desk." He wipes his forehead. "Tori's spending the night at Fee's house, so I figured it was a good time."

She steps closer and surveys the scattered pieces.

"Looks like a fun evening," she says, not at all upset that she doesn't have to be a part of this.

"Yeah, well..." Matt sets aside the screwdriver and springs to his feet. "I can think of a couple more fun things we could do."

He leans in for a kiss. Heat radiates from his body.

"You're gross!" Sarah squeals, letting him kiss her anyway.

"You don't usually seem to think so."

"Sweaty, I mean."

"Sorry, ma'am. But I've been doing, you know, manual labor. That's what we men do."

Sarah laughs. She hasn't seen him in such a playful mood in a while, and his energy is infectious.

"Maybe you should take a shower first," she says.

"Maybe you should take a shower with me."

He strips off his t-shirt and throws it aside. Taking her by the hand, he leads her down the hallway and into their bathroom.

He reaches for his belt, but Sarah puts her hands over his.

"Let me get that," she says. Her hands go to work as she kisses him.

"Maybe tonight's the night," Matt whispers as he helps her out of her clothes.

"What do you mean?"

"The night we make a little brother or sister for Tori."

Sarah's hands freeze over his unbuttoned jeans.

MORIANI HOME

The crime scene appears so similar to one of just a few weeks ago, but to Brent Taylor, it feels like a different creature entirely. To his experienced eye, the disparate element is apparent: a lack of urgency.

It is not that the discovery of Lola Bouvier lying in a pool of blood in the living room did not spur Brent and the rest of the police force into action. Quite the contrary. There is a new energy to the way that the officers buzz around the scene, revitalized after weeks of grasping at straws. Something pivotal has happened, and with any luck, it will lead them down a promising path and allow them to solve this puzzle.

What is different, disturbingly so, is the paramedics' lack of urgency. When Nick was shot, the emergency crew rushed in, got him into the ambulance, and had him en route to the hospital in a matter of minutes. Even for a man who--as far as Brent is concerned--hardly deserved to be saved, the medical attention was swift. This evening, however, things are much slower. There is no immediacy to the way that the paramedics remove Lola from the scene, no rush to get her out of here and off to be saved.

Because there is no saving her. Brent knew it, instinctively, the instant that he saw her sprawled on the living room floor. Whoever wanted to take care of Lola made sure that he or she completed the job.

Brent waits while the medics close the back doors of the van. One of them, a woman whom he recognizes from previous crime scenes even though he cannot recall her name, joins him in the driveway.

"Right in the aorta," she reports, knowing that he has been waiting for this information. "There was massive internal bleeding. Even if we'd been here as soon as she got shot, I doubt we'd have been able to do much."

Brent accepts this news with a grim nod. He thanks her for her efforts and wanders, dazed by the unexpected death of a woman whom he barely knew, over to check with the officers who have been scouring the house for anything resembling a clue.

"Certainly didn't see this coming," he says as he steps up beside Detective Diaz, who accompanied him here in search of Lola and discovered her body first.

"You think somebody wanted her dead?" Diaz asks. "Or she just got in the way?"

"I don't know what to think."

Officer Kelley, a younger member of the force, approaches them. Brent's attention goes immediately to the plastic bag in his hand.

"I found this on the dining room floor," Kelley reports. He holds up the bag, and Brent takes it from him. He examines the object inside, though its exterior reveals little.

"It isn't hers?"

"She had one on her," Kelley says. "I don't know who this belongs to, but it doesn't seem like a maid would be running around with two."

Brent nods in agreement. Whoever owns this could be the key to this case.

RYAN MORIANI'S LOFT

Claire Fisher stares at the diamonds, trying to grasp the reality of this moment. Ryan Moriani hovers in front of her, anticipation--perhaps anxiety--emanating from his being.

"That's gorgeous," she says, and she manages to look Ryan in the eyes. He smiles, pleased.

"It really is gorgeous," she repeats, as if trying to walk herself through the situation in a logical manner. The ring is beyond perfect. It is just the two of them, alone in the home that they are making together, sharing a private moment away from the world. And all that aside, it is Ryan, the man who has fought so long and hard to be with her and for whom she has done the same. So why does she feel such uncertainty in her gut?

"This just seems so fast," she says. "The divorce won't be final for another few weeks, and even then--"

"It isn't like we're hiding this from everyone," Ryan says. "Everyone has gotten used to us being together. Even Tim. He's with Diane now, and they're..."

He trails off, but there is no need for him to finish the statement.

"Come on." That familiar, charming smile lights up his face, and he sinks to one knee. "I have waited so, so long to be able to do this. I know you've waited for it, too."

Claire's head spins. She has spent so much time and so much energy longing to be with Ryan, and it seems almost impossible that the path is finally clear for them. Even Travis seems to have adjusted to the current arrangement, at least enough that Claire does not feel guilty considering Ryan's proposal.

"You saved me," Ryan says, "plain and simple. If not for you coming back into my life... I'd have been lost, following Nick while I tried to find something to grab onto. You've given me that something and so much more, Claire."

A serene warmth floods through her. The feeling is distantly familiar and so powerful that she feels tears strike up in her eyes, out of nowhere.

Ryan takes her hand in his. "Please. Let's have that happy ending we've fought so hard for. Marry me."

She tries to fight back the tears, to no avail. As they dribble out of the corners of her eyes, she leans closer to Ryan.

"Yes," she says, and then stronger, more decisively: "Of course I'll marry you."

As Ryan slips the ring onto her finger, as he rises to his feet and takes her into his arms, her head never stops spinning.

MATT & SARAH GRAY'S APARTMENT

Sarah drops her hands from the button of Matt's jeans. She can tell from his expression that he knows exactly what went wrong, but for a lengthy moment, neither of them speaks.

She takes a tentative step backward, away from him.

"Would that really be the worst thing in the world?" he asks. There is a surprising bite to his voice, an edge that makes Sarah back even further away.

"To be pregnant when I don't want to be? I don't think it would be something good."

Suddenly she is aware of how naked she is. She gathers her clothes, which are strewn over the bathroom floor. Matt watches her.

"Fine," he says at last. "I take it back. This doesn't have to ruin our night."

"So we should just keep pretending it isn't an issue?"

She dumps her clothes on the bed and hastily pulls some more comfortable items from her dresser. Matt remains in the bathroom, out of her line of sight.

She dresses in silence, and when Matt finally emerges, he is buttoning his jeans. The sight of him walking away from her, so dejected, gets to her.

"Matt--"

"Sorry. I have a desk to finish putting together," he snaps as he leaves the room.

She watches him go and then curls up on the bed. She turns on the TV, but the images and sounds are little more than a blur to her.

DIANE BISHOP'S CONDOMINIUM

Diane Bishop sits on the couch with her laptop, sending out a few e-mails left over from the workday, when the front door of her condo opens. All the tension that has been building in her body over the last few hours surges together and focuses on Tim like a laser beam.

She doesn't need to say anything. She simply stares him down.

"What?" he asks. She has to admit, he does an excellent job of playing genuinely oblivious.

"How was your dinner?"

Tim pauses mid-motion, ready to set his keys on the table. "Fine? How was yours?"

"Oh, fine." She hits 'send' on her e-mail and waits for the message to be whisked away. "Just waiting for you to get home."

"Is everything okay?"

She makes him wait while she sets her laptop aside.

"Were you just so caught up in bonding with your brother that you couldn't bother to answer the phone?"

"No! Did you call? I didn't even hear my--" He pats his pants pockets and seems surprised. "I must've dropped my phone."

Diane is about to call him on the lie, except he appears sufficiently confused by the phone's absence.

"When did you call me?"

"An hour ago. An hour and fifteen minutes ago. An hour and a half ago..."

Tim risks an uneasy grin. "Sorry."

"Did you have it at dinner?"

"Not if you called... I would've noticed it." He pauses to think. "The last time I remember having it was in the car, maybe."

"On the way to the restaurant?"

Tim shakes his head, but there is a slowness to the movement that catches Diane off-guard--as if he isn't quite able to commit to his answer.

Diane's annoyance begins to return, and she doesn't much much effort to keep it from her voice. "Where else did you go?"

"It must be at work," he says suddenly. Just like that, he snaps out of whatever trance he was in. "Where's Sam? In her room?"

"Yeah. She's been waiting to see you." Diane folds her arms and watches Tim pass out of the room. For the thousandth time, she wonders if the wall between them is a creation of her mind.

But it isn't. Tim is the one who pulls away, who gets distant for days at a time, and she isn't going to take it anymore.

KING'S BAY POLICE DEPARTMENT

Brent balances the phone between his shoulder and his ear. "I don't know. It'll be a while... Just go to bed. I'll see you in the morning... Love you, too."

He ends the call with Molly but holds onto the phone for a moment. With all the action surrounding Lola's death, he still has not had time to address what he considers a matter of equal or greater importance: whatever is going on with Molly. It'll have to wait until morning, he reasons as he focuses on getting back to work.

He steps out of his office and crosses the floor. A number of officers have gathered around Diaz's desk, and Brent joins them. He can tell from the way the group is buzzing that something is going on.

"What's up?" he asks, glancing around for some hint.

"Just got word back from the lab," Diaz says. "It's the same gun."

"That shot Nick?"

"Yep."

Brent knew it, but the confirmation chills him. Whoever shot Nick went after Lola, too. But why? Was she in on it from the beginning? Was the shooter concerned that she would spill the beans?

"Now all we need is to find that gun," Brent says as he trails off into thought.

"Why don't we start with this?" Diaz asks. He holds up the plastic bag from the crime scene.

Brent takes the bag. "Did we get prints off it?"

"Yeah. They're being run now."

Brent turns over the bag, studying the cell phone from all angles.

END OF EPISODE #431

What does the discovery of the cell phone mean for Tim?
How will others react to Claire and Ryan's engagement?
Will Sarah and Matt find a way to compromise?
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