Mac tells Stella to head home, and when she gets there, she sees her neighbor, Connie, dealing with a very unhappy little girl. Connie tells Stella that she promised to take care of her niece overnight and that it wasn't turning out very well. Stella wishes her luck and then heads to her own apartment. Stella wakes up in the middle of the night and realizes that the apartment building is on fire. There is smoke in her bedroom. She rushes out into help get everybody evacuated, banging on apartment doors as everyone heads for the stairs. The sprinkler system doesn't seem to be working. She finds Jason, Connie's son, and risks her life to get him to safety. Once outside, Stella stays with Jason and Connie runs up. Stella asks why she left her son behind, but Connie said she lost track of Jason on the fire escape and the firefighters wouldn't let her get back near the building. Her niece, she says, it with paramedics. Flack arrives--you know Flack.
The fire is clearly arson, and they discover a dead body in the building that makes them think it was meant as a cover-up. A convicted arsonist is their primary suspect, and during the interrogation, Flack points out to him that someone he cares about was in that building and that he's going to make sure the guilty person pays for what happened.