"Oh," Josh laughed awkwardly, "you still have my phone, I think."

Mari didn't look up from her own phone as she handed Josh his. "Here."

Josh immediately opened it and went to Matt's contact. "S.O.S.," he typed frantically. "Crisis!!"

"What's going on?" Matt texted back.

"Mari's hitting on me. Hard. Like home-run-Babe-Ruth-million-dollar-strike-sports-metaphor hard."

"Nice," Matt typed with a laugh.

"No, not nice. Making me lose focus. Help."

"Hit on her back."

"What? No! You know what happens when I try to flirt."

"Well, you need to do something. You don't want her to think you aren't interested."

Josh looked up from his phone an quickly caught up with Mari, who was a little further up the never ending driveway. "You uh- you changed your face stuff...since I saw you last. Not that that's bad. It's...it's very symmetrical. You're very symmetrical."

"Thank you," Mari laughed. "I actually did start doing my eyeshadow differently. Catherine says it brings out the color in my eyes."

"It's...different," Josh said, grasping for anything to say, anything at all.

"Do you like it?"

"I like you more?"

"Is that a question or a statement?" Mari asked with a chuckle.

"I like you more than raisins."

"Isn't that a low bar?"

"Yes, but you're above the bar. Raisins are like here and you're like- way above that," Josh replied, making a grand gesture to show how high he meant. He reached up tentatively and rang the doorbell. "And this," he thought to himself, "is when she runs away."

"Thank you," Mari blushed, twirling her hair around her finger.

"Kiss her!" Josh screamed at himself. "No! Not on your dead girlfriend's father's porch! What kind of sick psychopath are you?"

The door opened and a young woman appeared. She looked tired, or maybe it was just the two large white columns that rose up in front of the door that made her look smaller.

She looked the two of them over and gave a little yelp when she saw Mari.

"Sarah Jane?" Jacob's voice called from the sitting room. "Have they arrived?"

"Yes, sir," the girl's small. trembling voice called.

"See them into the parlor."

Sarah Jane nodded and opened the door wider. "Come in."

"Sarah Jane?" Mari whispered to Josh with a laugh. "Where's the Doctor?"

Josh stared blankly. His heart stopped beating for a moment with just a glimmer of hope. "Do you think he's here?!"

Mari gave a little laugh and pushed him inside. Not even a doubt if that old Timelord was real, just if he was there. What went on in that funny head of his?

"Mr. Steele," Josh smiled shaking his hand. "It's good to see you again, sir."

"It's good to see you as well," Jacob nodded. He turned to Mari. "And who might this beautiful, young lady be? We didn't get the chance to get acquainted earlier. I'm Jacob Steele."

"I'm Mariah Gerry. It's nice to meet you, Mr. Steele," she smiled.

"Gerry," he thought. He shook his head and said warmly, "Please, call me Jacob."

"Jacob," Mari said with a soft smile. What a wonderful name, generous and loving just like its owner.

"Please, child, sit down," he said, offering them the sofa. "Have some water."

Josh was dying of thirst and quickly reached for the glass.

"So," Jacob laughed, "how long have you two been together?"

Josh snorted his water and choked slightly, coughing violently.

Mari chuckled. "What Josh is trying to say is that we aren't officially together, but we're going to start dating soon...hopefully."

"Josh, look at her. She's gorgeous. Ask her out already!" Jacob exclaimed with a laugh, making Mariah blush slightly.

"Wait, you want to date?!" Josh stammered, turning to Mari. "Like dating dating? Or like a date?"

"I brought you here," Jacob said with a chuckle, "to discuss my daughter, her finances, and their relationship to you, Isaac."

"Yes, sorry, sir."

"It's quite alright, son," Jacob smiled, unable to pull his gaze from Mari. There was something so oddly familiar about her. "We should get down to business."

"Right," Josh laughed awkwardly. Both him and Mari reached for the paper work at the same time and he found his hand on top of her own. "Sorry," he mumbled as he slowly moved his hand away.

"It's alright," Mari blushed. She turned her attention to Jacob. "So, who are the prime suspects?"

"There's a business owner who's had his head out for me for ages," Jacob sighed. "There's a man who died in one of my production facilities, there's a family...there's hundreds."

"Alright. Then we need to narrow this down. Do we have writing samples? Finger prints?"

"Only Matthew's," Jacob said in dismay. "And a blurry photo of one of Matthew's old car mechanics who loaned out my car."

"Car mechanic? Wait. How do we know that Mel purposely ran that light?" Mari asked suddenly.

"Surveillance shows her not slowing down at all," Jacob sighed. "She had her mind so transfixed on Matthew, on following the ambulance-"

"No, that's exactly my point. Was the car checked? The brakes could have been tampered with."

"They appeared to be fine," Jacob sighed. "I wish Christopher had been there, he would have known."

Mariah's head immediately shot up. "Christopher? Christopher who?"

"The best chauffeur I ever had. He showed up in my doorstep, told me he had girls that he needed to support. Of course, I turned him away, but Melody being my Melody let him inside and interviewed him for three hours straight. Delightful man. Broken one, but always so thoughtful."

"What was his last name?" Mari asked sternly.

"It was a curious name. Diem? Day? Daaé?" His eyes narrowed and he gave a sad old laugh. "Of no relation, I trust."

"Could it have been Christopher Daei?"

"Oh, yes," Mr. Steele chuckled absentmindedly, opening a newspaper. "Yes, that was it. Thank you, darling."

Mariah went pale. "Was he...Did he in any way have anything to do with Mel's death?"

"He left right after," Jacob shrugged. "He was new so there was no inquiry."

"We're too late!" Mari exclaimed in frustration. "He's dead now. We can't question him."

"Wait. How do you know who that is?" Josh asked with suspicion.

"Josh," Mari sighed, "Christopher Daei was Catherine's father."

Josh frowned. "No."

Mari nodded. "Yeah. For her sake, I hope Chris wasn't involved with Mel's accident. If he was...I purge the thought of what it would do to Catherine and Matt's relationship."

"If there's any chance he was," Jacob said, rising to stand, "I want a full investigation into it."

There was a knock on the door. "Sir, that information you requested-"

Jacob's face changed from fierce determination to broken grief. "Has he found anything?!"

"No, sir. But-"

"Tell him to go."

"But, sir, he thinks he has a lead on her, a real one this time."

"I have all I need. Tell him no more," Jacob said sternly

"Sir, they might have found her. She lives here in Paris. She looks almost exactly like your ex wife. I saw her picture with my own eyes. I really think you should meet her," Sarah Jane said, almost pleadingly. "Well, they didn't mention you meeting her. That was my own advice. They haven't done a background check yet, but if you say the word, they'll start immediately."

"Sorry," Josh said slowly. "What-"

"I've seen enough imposters who memorize my family as if it were a textbook," Jacob bitterly stated. "Strangers, that's all they are. What do they expect from me?! No, I've given up hope, but go ahead. But I will not have another con in my home."

Mari was about to ask questions when she received a phone call. "Hello," she greeted.

"Miss Gerry, we have ran an investigation," came a man's voice.

"Oh, thank you for calling me back," she said, stepping out of the room. "Did you come up with anything?"

"We may have found your father," the man reported. "Now, we didn't have much to go on, but we have good reason to believe that you are his daughter. We want to be sure before we give you a name, so I will call you once we've looked into him further."

Mari could feel tears welling in her eyes as she replied, "Okay, thank you."

The man hung up the call and Mari let out a sigh. Was there really hope? After all these years, could they really have found her father?