Quarter to Three

Chapter One: Before Self

The condensation built up into miniscule droplets on the silver reflective glass that hung in her bathroom across the shower. Raising her hand to the center of the mirror, she gave it a quick window-wiper motion until she could see her reflection in the glass. She let out an exhausted breath and then a long, much needed yawn quickly followed. She checked in late last night well, 2:32am to be exact as she had to temporarily fulfill in the superior role while he was away.

She grabbed the towel hanging off its designated handle gave it a quick shuffle before taking it up to her wet hair and wrapping it into some sort of swirled formation. Removing another towel from the chest of linens, she quickly dried off the rest of her body. She pulled a few slices of tissue paper from the cardboard box and dabbed off the small streak of deep red that ran down the exterior of her calf. She hissed slightly upon seeing how deeply the razor truly cut her. She let out a pent breath and pulled out a small plastic box from underneath the sink. She quickly bandaged the cut and continued with her regular morning endeavours.

Wrapping the towel tightly around her body, she walked into her bedroom and pulled out two pieces from her lingerie chest. Taking a few steps to her right, she opened her closet and examined her selections closely. She held up some purple shirt that she wore once, studied it and came up with a thesis on what kind of impression it would make. She pressed her lips together and hung it back up in her closet. Instead, she took out a grey-toned blue long sleeve with a V-cut neckline, a new piece she bought a week ago. Moving to her pant selection, she decided upon something regular – black skinnies that matched all of her black, leather boots.

She put on her newly assembled outfit and accompanied the ensemble with touches of her signature silver niches, and of course, her black Timex watch that she never left the house without. As if some routinely procedure that occurred everyday at 7:38am, she quickly moved herself into her bathroom. Blow drying her hair straight and added touches of mascara, eyeliner and a tinted lip balm would have to do for today. She stared into the mirror as she pushed opened her eyelids to place her contacts in. She blinked several times, looked at herself carefully and couldn't decide if it was worth the effort to impress someone who never notices. She guessed her charm had once interested him but she knew that was long ago and everything had changed since. She was now more reserved, subtle and held back as she her past attempts to trifle with him evidently went unnoticed.

She exited her bathroom then her bedroom and closed the door behind her. Making her way out of her corridor, she smiled slightly as she saw the violet-purple room to her right was already empty, cleaned and saw that the bed was made too. To her surprise, she saw that Ellie was by the fridge holding a carton of milk and fully dressed in her school uniform. The corners of her mouth curled up lightly and as she entered the kitchen, she greeted, "Good morning, sweet heart."

"Good…." the young girl started as she stifled out a yawn and then finished with, "morning."

She walked over to the coffee machine, placed a new coffee filter into its proper place and turned it on. She grabbed her travel mug that was in the dishwasher and silver spoon and placed them both on the counter. She watched as the coffee began to drip and took in the smell of Folgers. Mesmerized by the buzzing of the coffee machine, she began to stare at it, watching each drop of brown liquid flow into the glass pot. At a time it seemed so close that if she reached out her finger, she could touch it but with a blink of an eye, it went out of her reach and found residence elsewhere. They say if you dream something more than once, it's sure to come true. But, she has seen him so many times before.

"Mom…" The girl called out but was given no response. "Mom!" Ellie tried again but she continued to look at the brown liquid filling up the pot.

She extrapolated that the only solution was to simply step back and be a bystander. But, she could never find a remedy to suppress the tightening in her chest whenever he called her name, whether it was out of duty or for greeting purposes. All she wanted from life was security. To know that she and those she loved was safe was all she yearned for. For those brief moments when he took her in his arms, she couldn't feel more safe.

"Mom!" Her daughter yelled out loudly in which finally pulled her out of her morning thoughts. She quickly shook her head in confusion and with a raise of her eyebrows she asked, "What?"

"Your phone is ringing!" Ellie said with urgency and pointed in the direction of the counter where the mobile device was trilling.

She quickly turned her head and saw the device buzzing and ringing uncontrollably. She darted towards it and picked it up, almost dropping it on the floor. Clicking the green 'accept' button and stammered, "D-Danville."

"Jo, what took you so long?" He asked with a confused voice. She let out a tight sigh that sounded as if it was almost a gasp. Now, it wouldn't have surprised her as much if it was any other day. However, it was unexpected to hear his voice this morning as he was supposed to be with someone else, somewhere else.

"Sorry, I couldn't find my phone." She explained in attempt to cover up the true reason. She moved back to her where her coffee machine was situated and opened the drawer right under it. She pulled out a spoon and set it on the counter beside her travel mug.

"Jo, listen…" He started as his voice descended from a greeting to a rather worried tone.

"Yeah." She simply said as she placed her phone between her ear and her shoulder, unaware the of the seriousness of his call. She filled her coffee mug and poured a spoonful of sugar in the steaming liquid. She waited for his reply but became bewildered as she garnered no response from him. There was a moment of silence that stretched between them. "What's going on? You sound worried." She asked. Her approach was laced with concern as she held the spoon still in her hand, somewhere between midair and the edge of her travel mug and left the sugar unstirred. Her brows furrowed together and an evident crease crept in the centre of her forehead.

"I need you and the team to..." He stated honestly. She heard him blow out a quick breath and along with a slight pant that rushed from his rubato tone. He gathered his composure and decided what to say next. His heart was pounding in his chest and the pace of his breathing quickened. He clenched his in a tight ball and his knuckles turned a shade of white.

She listened attentively beyond his voice. She heard a few murmurs of busy voices in the background and a rather stark voice calling out familiar locations, the word 'terminal' and a few numbers. Her mouth hung slightly agape and she asked, "Mac, where are you?" Again, she had no response from him. She knew it was not the cellphone reception as she could clearly hear all the background noises and his slight agitated breathing. She put the spoon down and took firmly took hold of the phone with her hand. She stated sternly, "Tell me what's going on, Mac."

"It's Christine." He breathed. She could tell that he was clearly worried, confused, frustrated but she could hear something in his voice that she had never heard before and she tried to pinpoint this emotion.

"What happened?" She asked carefully, unaware of the true circumstance and reason of his call.

"She was kidnapped but she's still in New York" He said in one quick breath. She figured out what he was feeling, a feeling that she rarely saw or heard in a man. She swallowed hard. She closed her eyes slightly and licked her bottom lip, unable to compose herself and scrambled for what she was going to say next.

"I'm flying back. I'll be in New York in five hours" He continued.

"I'll see you then" was all she could say in return. She swallowed again and suddenly she lacked of oxygen as her chest became tighter.

"Jo, we need to find her." He stated in a low, firm voice that was intertwined with urgency. She heard him swallowing hard. The last four words caused a familiar ache at the pit of her stomach. She heard that emotion again in his voice. He was feeling something he probably never felt in a long time. He felt something for Christine that no man had ever felt for her. He was scared, scared for her life. Scared of losing her. Scared of never holding her again.

"We will." She said with a mask of confidence. She hung up her phone and slid it into her pocket. She wondered and thought hard. She had to do it, she had no choice. She had to do it out of duty and she had to push away her feeling of pathetic jealously. She shook her head and cleared her thoughts as she moved towards her bag.

"Ellie…." She said as she rummaged through the interiors of her over the shoulder bag. She took out a crumpled twenty dollar bill and placed it on the counter. "Here. You're gonna have to take the subway to school." She flipped over her wrist and pushed up the sleeve of her blue top. She checked her watch and urged, "you can still make it if you hurry it up."

"Why?" The girl asked and her head immediately darted upwards as she watched her mother's frantic movements across the kitchen.

"I've got an important case." She simply said as she grabbed her leather jacket that was left hanging on the chair. She threw it over herself and quickly tucked her arms in its sleeves. She eyed her coffee that was still left on the counter and decided to leave it but realized that the coffee machine was still on. "El, turn off the coffee machine and dump out my coffee."

"Sure." She replied. She got up from the kitchen table and did as she was told. She could sense the unfamiliar, frantic urgency in her mother's voice and she had to ask what was going on. She started to move towards her mother but faltered when she heard her keys hit the floor with a rather loud clash. "Mom, what's going on? You're usually not..."

"...Mac's girlfriend was kidnapped." Jo immediately cut her off as she bent over to pick up her bundle of keys.

"Mom…"

"It's just another case, Ellie." She exclaimed as swung her bag over her shoulder. She let out a quick breath in which turned into a sigh as she headed towards the door. "I have to do everything I can to find her."

She watched as her mother slipped her feet into her regular leather boots. She crossed her arms and continue to eyed her mother's movements as she went back to her bowl of cereal sitting on the kitchen table. "I'm not going to the movies tonight. I'll be volunteering at the retirement home around the corner from Lacey's." The girl explained as she took a seat. She took the the silver tablespoon and gave her cereal an absent-minded stir.

That got her attention. Her brows furrowed in confusion as she tried to contemplate her daughter's decision of giving up something she loved to volunteer. She stopped for a minute and narrowed her eyes at her daughter. "Ellie, but you've been waiting for this movie for..."

"Service..." Ellie interuppted with a quiet voice but audible enough for her mother to hear. "… Before self."

She looked at her daughter carefully and pressed her lips together. That was what she had taught her daughter; to always serve others before serving herself, to make someone else happy first before making herself happy. She rang that motto through her head again and the derived meaning was all the same when it filtered through her brain. But, when her daughter said it like that, it meant something different and gave the motto a much more powerful, subjective meaning. Ellie was speaking in different terms, and she very well knew it. Her eyes dragged away from the girl and she slowly nodded as she began, "Your lunch is in the fridge." She stepped through the doorway and closed the door behind her.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I apologize if it was too verbose. I'm not quite sure if Ellie was too mature for her age but then again, Ellie and I are very close in age. So, I wrote her a little like me!

I apologize for any spelling mistakes you might see but, I must point out that we Canadians spell things differently. We spell color as 'colour, favorite as 'favourite', center as 'centre' - just a heads up!

Chapter 2 will be up soon! Of course, reviews are always appreciated! Please tell me your thoughts and comments!