It was a challenging Sunday morning at Maria Malone's home. Hannah and Kate were constantly arguing about frivolous things and Hannah was trying particularly hard lately to irritate her mother. Ever since Maria and the girls moved to Chicago Hannah had been really upset most of the time. Maria had tried to talk to her, but as girls know, when you are in the eighth grade, no parent seems to do anything right, and Maria had been taking it very personally since she was now pretty much a single parent.
This morning's argument was about a party that Hannah wanted to go to with some kids at her new school.
"I want to meet these kids and their parents first, Hannah." Maria said, not completely denying her daughter.
"Why Mom? We won't be doing anything wrong, we'll just be hanging out!" Hanna replied immediately getting very defensive.
Maria and the girls hadn't lived in Chicago very long and Maria knew all too well what kind of trouble kids could easily get into. Her ex-husband, Jack, works in the Missing Persons Unit of the FBI. She knew the percentage of kids that were involved in his cases. She's seen her fair share of tragic endings and she wasn't about to let her daughter become one of them.
"Hannah, I said, not until I meet these kids and their parents, I'm just trying to look out for you." Maria said, trying to stay calm.
"No you aren't Mom, you are trying to make sure I don't have any friends or any fun. I hate this city, I hate this apartment and I hate you Mom!" Hannah yelled back.
"If you are going to get that attitude, you can just stay home this weekend!" Maria shouted back, unable to control her frustration any longer. All the while Kate was taunting her sister and looked immediately content that her sister had been punished.
"You are such a bitch…" Hannah murmured under her breath.
"What!" Maria asked.
"She said the B word Mom!" Kate exclaimed.
"Hanna, I can't deal with you right now, go to your room!" Maria ordered.
Hannah got up and shoved her chair into the table. She grabbed her soda from the table and stormed off to her room. A few seconds later, Kate and Maria shuddered a bit when they heard Hanna's bedroom door slam.
Hanna, almost unable to control her tears, plopped down on her bed and vanished…
In New York at the FBI headquarters, it was a very sleepy Monday morning. Jack, Danny and Martin were tossing a small blue football back and forth between them. They were having a debate of the best looking celebrity.
"Jennifer Nottingham, by far, the hottest…" Martin said tossing the ball to Danny.
"I must disagree partner, it has to be Angelina Hemmingway. What do you think Jack?" Danny inquired tossing the ball to Jack.
"Hmm, I would have to say, Deidre Autumn." Jack said referring to a known older actress as he tossed the ball to Martin.
"You would!" Danny and Martin said in unison.
Jack just scoffed as if totally defeated by the younger generation as he noticed Samantha, Elena and Vivian walking into the bullpen.
"Working hard gentlemen?" Samantha asked.
The guys continued tossing the ball.
"Oh yes, very important discussion…" Danny replied sarcastically, "Okay, how about Diana Autumn then?" he continued.
"Oh yea, like mother like daughter." Jack agreed with a chuckle as he tossed the ball on to Martin. Just as Jack tossed the ball, his cell phone rang. He casually reached in his pocket for it as Martin and Danny continued their game.
"Malone." Jack answered.
"Hi Maria, what's up?" he continued, all the while rolling his eyes because he was sure his ex-wife was just calling to complain about something. Martin and Danny noticed his lack of seriousness so they tossed the ball back to Jack who caught it and tossed it in his own hand a couple of times listening to what his ex-wife was telling him. All of a sudden, Jacks' face seemed to turn to stone. Fear and uncertainty were obvious in his eyes as the rest of his team looked on.
"Are you serious? Maria, are you sure she just didn't go to a friends house?" Jack asked.
"Okay…. let me make some calls and I will call you back. Bye." Jack finished on the phone.
"Jack, what's the matter?" Samantha asked.
"Is something wrong with one of the girls?" Vivian added.
"It seems, Hanna and her mother had an argument yesterday morning and Hanna was sent to her room. When Maria went in to check on her and talk about the fight, Hanna was gone."
"Jack, you know kids at that age, she probably just went to a friends house to let off some steam." Vivian reassured.
"Yea, but she said this was yesterday…she figured the same thing so she just waited and now it's nine AM and she still hasn't come home and she didn't go to school. I just have a bad feeling in my gut." Jack replied.
Jack sat silently for a few moments and said, "I'll be right back."
He got up from the corner of the desk he was sitting on and the team watched him go toward Paula VanDoren's office.
Jack knocked on the doorframe to get her attention. She was sitting at her desk doing paperwork. When she heard the knock she quickly looked up and saw Jack standing there looking extremely troubled.
"What's going on Jack?" Paula asked.
"It's my daughter, she's missing.", he stated.
"No Jack, are you sure she didn't just…" she tried to comfort him.
"No, she's been gone all night, I have to go to Chicago and see what I can do." Jack said.
"Oh sure, no problem, we'll take care of everything here, Go.", she urged.
"There's one more thing, I would like to have our offices cooperate with the Chicago offices. I would like to take my agents with me." Jack said.
"I don't think that's a good idea Jack, I was hoping when you said you were going to Chicago, you would let the Chicago PD take care of everything. We don't even know the area." Paula resisted.
"Please, let me and my team work on this." Jack begged looking very desperate.
"Fine." Paula stated cautiously, "But you are to keep your distance Jack, you are too emotionally charged to be objective in this case."
"That's fine, but I don't trust anyone except my team, if I were missing, I would want them looking for me" Jack said, "Thank you, I'll keep you posted…or someone will." He corrected.
Jack turned from VanDoren's office and approached the team all huddled in a small circle. Danny noticed Jack coming closer and disbanded the group as he motioned to the return of Jack to the room.
"Jack, we want to help." Danny offered. Jack gave him a somewhat relieved look, knowing that he hadn't yet asked for their help.
"Thank you guys, I appreciate it. How do you feel about going to Chicago?" Jack asked.
"We'll get our stuff and meet you at the airport, Viv has already handled all the details." Martin said.
The entire flight to Chicago was silent. When the plane finally touched down at O'Hare International Airport, the team immediately came to life. Vivian had already arranged for a van to pick the team up and take them all to the FBI headquarters in Chicago. On the way there, Jack called Maria and told her and Kate to meet him there. They would discuss the details when they all met.
Jack paced like a caged tiger until he saw his ex-wife and daughter, Kate get off the elevator. His face softened as he quickly walked down the corridor to meet them. Kate immediately ran to her father and jumped into his arms. He hugged her tight, and put an arm around Maria so show that he wasn't blaming her for what was happening.
By this time, it had been almost 24 hours since Hannah had been seen last. Her mother informed the group of FBI agents that she knew Hannah had to have slipped out the fire escape of their apartment building, as her window was left open a crack and it wasn't locked. That was the only way she could have left because otherwise Kate or Maria would have seen her. Maria was then instructed to write down the names and numbers of all the kids that she knew Hanna had been spending time with. The list was going to be short and maybe of no help at all. The whole team knew that. They all looked nervously around to each other. This might be more difficult than they thought.
Two agents from the Chicago office were assigned to assist with the case. The first agent was Special Agent Hilary Neil. The second was Special Agent Derek Young.
Agents Neil and Young motioned for the rest of the New York team to come and sit around a long conference table. They all needed to get briefed on the case thus far.
"So what do we know?" Danny asked.
"Not much…Hanna Malone, fourteen, almost 15 years old, dark brown hair down to the middle of her back. Last scene wearing blue jeans and a lime-green peasant top shirt. Had a fight with her mother concerning a party that she was told she couldn't go to. Sounds like she is hanging out with a pretty shady group of kids. Older kids her mother was thinking." Agent Neil reported.
"Okay, Mrs. Malone is working on a list of kids she does know, Agent Young and Agents Taylor, and Delgado, I want you three looking into the list and visiting her school. Agent Spade, Fitzgerald and I will go search her bedroom for anything we can find. I'm going to go give Jack a heads up." Ordered Vivian.
"I'll hold down the fort here, I'll let you know if I learn anything." Informed Agent Neil.
"Great, lets go then." Vivian ordered.
Vivian walked down the hall to the waiting room Jack, Maria and Kate were in. They were looking over the list of friends or acquaintances when Vivian entered the room.
"Jack, do you have that list? We are ready to go." Vivian requested.
"Yea, right here." Jack said as he handed her the paper, "We better get going then."
"Jack, I was given orders that you are to stay with your family and if we need you, we will contact you."
"Viv, come on! This is my little girl, I can't just sit here!"
"Sorry Jack, this comes from VanDoren. Stay here with your family, they need you." Vivian said as she glanced over towards Kate, sitting next to her mother.
"Daddy, stay here with us, puh-lease?" Kate begged.
Jack nodded to Vivian in agreement and Vivian turned and headed down the hallway. Jack turned to his daughter and immediately realized how much Kate and her sister looked alike when they were the same age. Jack exhaled deeply, trying to calm his mind of all the wandering it was doing. As Jack was going to rejoin his family, Samantha entered the room. Jack snapped around to face her.
"Jack, we are going to take you back to your family's apartment, we need to look around Hanna's room. Is that okay?" Samantha said softly, feeling the tension in the room. Samantha still blamed herself for the break up of Jack and Maria. Jack looked over to Maria with a questioning look on his face.
"Sure, that will be fine." Maria said softly. She was missing her daughter, feeling guilty because she blamed herself for Hanna running away. She also felt some tension with Samantha. Maria knew that it wasn't Samantha that had broken up her marriage. It was a combination of things, but Maria couldn't help but still be upset.
"Okay then, lets get going." Samantha said softly holding eye contact with Jack. She wanted him to know how much she was there for him, and he could read her messages loud and clear.
Jack went to help Kate and Maria with their things and followed Samantha, Martin and Vivian to the elevators.
Meanwhile, Agent Young, Danny and Elena were arriving at the school. They were headed for the school office because they had a few kids they needed to talk to; they also wanted to interview some of Hanna's teachers. Elena held the office door open for the other two agents. They entered the office and Danny approached the secretary sitting at the desk.
"Good Morning, can I help you?" the secretary asked, looking somewhat nervous.
"Yes, you can, I'm with the FBI, this is Agent Delgado, Agent Young and I'm Agent Taylor, we need to speak with the dean of students or the principal." Danny stated.
"What is this regarding?" asked the secretary.
"A student here, Hanna Malone." Danny answered.
"Okay, one moment please." The secretary said.
The secretary picked up her phone and pressed a button on her speed dial.
"Ma'am, the FBI is here to see you regarding Hanna Malone…okay, I'll send them in." The secretary put the phone down. "You may all go right in.," said the secretary as she pointed to a closed door a few feet from where they were standing. Danny led the way. He softly knocked on the door a few times before going ahead and opening it. A heavier set lady stood up from her chair. Her hair was pulled tightly back in a low bun, and she looked very professional.
"Hi, I'm Charlotte Thomas, the dean of students. Please sit down." The dean requested.
"Thanks, I'm Agent Danny Taylor, this is Agent Elena Delgado and Agent Derek Young, thanks for meeting with us." Danny replied.
"Ms. Thomas, can you tell us about Hanna? What was her attendance like? Did she seem troubled? Anything you can tell us would be helpful." Elena asked.
"She has been troubled. She didn't start here very long ago, but since she came here she didn't seem as though she was trying to connect to anyone. But last week I did see her in the hall with a group of our more, difficult students. I would have never thought she would find a home in that group, but who am I to criticize." The dean answered.
"We are going to need the names of those 'difficult' students." Agent Young said.
"Yes, certainly. If I can do anything to help you further, please let us know." The dean pleaded.
"We will be in touch, but for now, if I can get those students and this list of students pulled from class so we can talk to them, that would be great." Danny handed her the list.
"Right away Agent Taylor." Said the dean.
While Danny, Derek and Elena were at the school, Samantha, Martin, Vivian, Jack, Maria and Kate went to the apartment. At first glance, it was a clean apartment. Nothing was terribly out of order. The agents scoured the apartment for clues to where Hanna had gone. Maria showed the Agents to Hanna's bedroom. It was very clean, they noticed, decorated in bright, trendy colors of orange and hot pink. There were posters of young male actors and singers on the wall. Samantha smirked a little when she envisioned Hanna sitting on her bed talking to her friends on her phone. She remembered before Jacks' family was torn apart how happy Hanna was. Could this have to do with the affair? No, how could Hannah have learned about that? Samantha shook the idea out of her head and continued to look around the room. Vivian then sat down to Hannah's computer. On the screen there was a file that immediately caught Vivian's eye. It was untitled, so she opened it up. It seemed to be an electronic diary.
"Dad called today, Kate talked to him, but I didn't. I'm still mad at him. He doesn't understand me at all. I'm glad that he's so far away. Sort of. I still miss New York though…"
Vivian read on.
"Today at school, I met this guy, Jaydon. He is so cute. He's in a couple of my classes, and I don't know why I didn't notice him before. Who knows, maybe this school isn't going to be so bad after all."
"Jaydon asked me if I wanted to go to a friends house with him. I don't know his friends. I guess they are all in high school. I can't decide if I want to go. More than that, I don't think mom will let me go. She thinks I am still such a baby. I would love to show her that I can take care of myself!"
"Today I told mom that I was going over to Emilee's house to work on a school project, which I did, so I didn't completely lie, but after that, Jaydon and his friends picked me up from Emilee's house and we went to his friends' house. I was so scared. I didn't know how to act around these older guys. One guy offered me a drink. I wasn't sure but he said it tasted like kool-aid, so I went ahead and drank it. It was actually really good. I've never had any drinks like that before; it made me all warm inside. I only had that one glass though. The older guys were all smoking and drinking. I had a good time. They were nice to me. Jaydon stayed sitting next to me the whole time. We held hands and just talked. It was the first time since I moved here that I actually felt like I had friends."
Vivian shook her head. She knew something had to have been going on with Hannah. It made her think of her own son, Reggie. He was just a year older than Hannah. As if this case wasn't close enough to her heart, she had made a connection to her own home life. They had to find this girl and bring her home to her worried parents.
"Hey you guys, I think I have something." Vivian announced.
The team joined Vivian around the computer, including Jack and Maria.
"Seems Hannah has a new boyfriend." Vivian reported, "She went with him to his friends' house a couple of weeks ago when she was supposed to be working on a school project." She continued.
Jack and Maria looked at each other. They were both completely shocked. Then they accepted that Hannah was in the eighth grade, almost in high school. They supposed it was inevitable.
"Does this boyfriend have a name? We should talk to him." Jack asked.
Samantha looked at him with a raised eyebrow, as if knowing exactly what Jack would say to the boyfriend when Jack met him.
"Uh, I'll call Danny with the name and see if we get any hits." Samantha cut in.
"Good, apparently the kids had a few classes together. Let me know if he finds anything." Vivian instructed.
Jack stood still in awe that his baby girl was interested in boys already. He wasn't ready for this.
Back at the school Elena and Derek were interviewing some kids from Hannah's class while Danny was busy on talking on his cell phone to Samantha. A few seconds later, Danny hung up his phone and joined Elena and Derek talking to a classmate of Hannah's.
"Hey guys, Samantha just gave me a name of a possible boyfriend. His name is Jaydon." Danny said.
"Do you know of a Jaydon that Hannah was spending time with, Emilee?" Derek asked the student.
She started to lower her eyes as if trying to think of an answer.
"Emilee?" Derek asked again, "If you know something, you need to tell us, Hannah's life may depend on it."
"She told me not to say anything…that's why I didn't bring it up." Emilee answered quietly, "Jaydon Gray, she has been seeing him for a few weeks. I don't know his friends, but I know they go to high school. I haven't seen her as happy as she has been since she has been seeing him."
"Thank you Emilee, you can go back to class now." Derek instructed.
Elena, Derek and Danny turned to each other.
"Looks like a case of puppy love. Frustrated girl ran off with her little boyfriend." Derek predicted.
"Probably, but we need to find this Jaydon character, he probably knows where Hannah is." Danny said seriously.
"I'll check with the dean and find out where he is supposed to be." Informed Elena as she walked towards Ms. Thomas' office. Elena returned a few minutes later with an urgent look on her face.
"Jaydon didn't show up today either. They must be together." Elena said.
"Did you get an address?" Danny asked?
Elena showed him a piece of paper in her hand, "Yep, got it." She said.
The two men quickly followed her out of the office.
Still searching around the apartment for any clues and waiting to hear back from Danny about Hannah's new boyfriend, Jack and Maria were starting to get agitated.
"You haven't heard anything yet? What is going on here? What is taking so long?" Maria protested.
"I'm sorry Maria, we are doing everything we can right now. We just got word that Elena, Danny and Derek are heading over to the boyfriends house because he didn't show up at school today either." Vivian tried to reassure her, "They will call us whenever they know anything."
Derek, Elena and Danny pulled up in front of a rather large house in an obviously upscale neighborhood.
"Nice pile of bricks they have here." Danny noticed as he continued to the door. Derek reached it first and pounded three times. The three stood silently trying to hear anything from behind the door. No answer. Just as Derek was going to pound on the door again, Danny's phone rang. He stepped back to answer it.
"Taylor. Yes, Hilary…. did you get a trace?" Danny asked rather impatiently.
"Great, call the others and have them meet us there." Danny hung up his phone. Elena and Derek were anxiously waiting to hear what Danny had learned.
"There was a call into the Chicago PD from a kid that sounded like he was in all kinds of trouble. He was whispering something about Hannah being in trouble. They managed to keep him on the phone long enough to get a trace to an old auto shop on the outside of the city. We are going to meet the rest of the team there." Danny said as he was walking back to the car.
Both groups pulled up in front of the old auto-body shop at about the same time. A couple of seconds later another car pulled up just a little ways back of the building. It was Jack, Maria and Kate.
"Jack, we told you, you can not be here, and it's not safe for Maria and your daughter either." Martin pleaded to his superior.
"I'll stay out of the way, I just want to be here when you get my baby back. And I want to kick the crap out of this boyfriend who got her into this trouble." Jack said in a very determined tone.
"Okay, just stay back, when we need you, we'll let you know." Martin instructed.
The six agents then surrounded the building with their guns drawn. They were very unsure of what they were going to find inside. Who made the phone call? Is Hannah okay? Is she dead?
Elena and Danny entered the building through a back door. Danny was determined also to find out who had taken Hannah. She was like a little sister to him. He had known Jacks family since the girls were very young. Elena followed Danny down some rickety old steel stairs. Like ones you would find in an abandoned warehouse. Danny and Elena canvassed the area with their flashlights when in the far corner of the building; they saw the body of a young man on the cement floor. He was covered in blood.
"Elena, check his pulse." Danny commanded.
Elena lowered her index and middle fingers to the boy's neck. She sighed in relief and nodded her head to tell Danny that the boy was alive. Danny then radioed for help for the boy. Danny continued ahead with Elena to search the building further.
Samantha and Vivian were entering another side door to the building. It was really dark, as all the windows in the room had been painted over. They heard over their radios that there had been a boy found but he wasn't in such good shape, so they were especially cautious as they continued looking around the building.
Martin and Derek entered another door, which led straight into the basement of the shop. Derek led the way down the cement staircase. They were slippery with condensation so they were being especially cautious not to fall. When they reached the bottom of the stairs they noticed light coming from a crack under a doorway along one of the walls. The two crept closer to the door and tried to listen. They could hear muffled voices in the room; at least two males and one female. The female voice sounded scared and crying. The males still sounded young. Martin moved away from the door so he could radio back to Danny where they were and what they heard.
In a few moments Samantha, Vivian, Danny, and Elena were all outside the door where the voices were coming from. Derek had left the basement room to go and check on the boy that Danny and Elena had found.
"Can you hear me…. can you hear me son?" Derek asked the boy who was starting to regain consciousness. The boy nodded his head.
"Can you speak? Can you tell me your name?" Derek coaxed.
"Jaydon…Jaydon Gray" The boy said. Derek looked toward Jack. He needed to find out what had happened to this boy before Jack got a hold of him.
"Jaydon, can you tell me what happened? Who is inside the building? Who did this to you?" Derek bombarded him with questions.
"My girlfriend and I wanted to take off together. I guess she was having some trouble at home. So I asked my friends for some help, and they turned on us. They said if I was getting a 'piece' of that pretty little girl, then they wanted one too." Jaydon said quickly yet quietly, "I tried to stop them, but when I did, they beat the hell out of me…I hope they didn't do anything to hurt her, I would never forgive myself." He continued.
"Can you tell me about your 'friends', do they have weapons? How many is there?" Derek asked.
"There are two of them, Erik and Justin. I know Justin has a gun." Jaydon answered.
Derek walked away so he could radio to the others that the suspects were armed.
Danny let the group know that the suspects were armed. Martin and Danny got on each side of the door and counted to each other.
"One…. two…three!" they said in unison. On three, they kicked open the door. "FBI, drop your weapons!"
The two boys that were in the room were completely struck by surprise. They backed away from the girl who the team quickly identified as Hannah.
"Get on the floor!" Martin demanded. The boys didn't dare disagree. Martin and Danny quickly ran over to the boys and put them in handcuffs.
All the while, Hannah sat tied to a chair, obviously beaten pretty badly. As soon as she saw the familiar faces of her dad's team, she started crying. Vivian and Samantha ran to Hannah and comforted her and started working to get her untied.
"Is my Dad here?" Hannah sobbed.
"Of course he is sweetie, we'll get him right away." Samantha reassured.
Samantha walked out of the room and up the stairs to go find Jack. Just before she turned to walk out the door of the building, she stopped, took a deep breath and wiped the tears out of her own eyes. She knew she had seen cases that were way more devastating than this one. It could have been so much worse. She pulled herself together and proceeded out the door to get Jack. She walked quickly to him and told him that everything was fine, Hannah was fine, she was beaten pretty badly, but she was going to be okay.
"Thank you so much Sam, I couldn't have trusted anyone else on this.", Jack noticed she was emotionally drained, so he placed his hand behind her neck and pulled her close. He gently kissed her on the forehead, and then he was off. He ran to the building to find his daughter. Samantha stood outside taking in the fresh air, when Maria came toward her. Samantha was scared to death, afraid that Maria was going to make a scene with Kate being so near.
"Thank you for helping my daughter, Samantha." Maria said.
Samantha's jaw dropped. That was the last thing she expected to hear from her, "You a-are so welcome, Maria." Samantha replied.
"Can you watch Kate for a few minutes, I want to go see my daughter." Maria asked.
"Sure." Samantha accepted. Maria jogged toward the building to be with her daughter. Samantha put her arm around Kate's shoulder and walked back to the cars.
As Jack was going down the stairs, he passed Martin and Danny each with a boy in tow. Martin and Danny each gave Jack a hopeful look. Jack smiled thankfully at them both as he continued down the steps. Jack found the room that had become Hannah's cell. Sickening, it smelled of mildew. It was damp and dirty. Hardly a place that he could ever envision is daughter being. He turned the corner into the room just ask Vivian and Elena were finishing with the ropes that had kept Hannah attached to the chair. Hannah got up weakly, but hurried to her father.
"Daddy, I am so sorry…. I am so sorry that I tried to run away." Hannah sobbed.
"Shhhh Baby…. it's going to be okay…"Jack smoothed her hair and gave her a huge bear hug.
Maria then entered the room and joined her ex-husband and daughter. Jack stepped back and let Maria hug Hannah.
"Sweetie, you scared us to death." Maria wept.
"I'm so sorry Mom…and Dad…. I will never try anything like this again." Hannah promised still sobbing.
Jack put his arm around his daughter comforting her. He knew she was mad at him before, so he didn't want to say the wrong thing. "Lets get you out of here and cleaned up." Jack said as he motioned toward the door.
When Danny and Martin put the two boys in the back of the squad car, Kate ran over to Danny.
"Danny! Thank you for finding my sister." She said.
"You are welcome, kiddo." Danny said lifting her up and giving her a hug.
Samantha, Elena, Vivian, Martin and Danny were all standing together waiting for Jack, Maria and Hannah to come out of the building.
"It's really sad that it took almost losing on of our own to prioritize and bring us back together." Martin thought as he scanned the group of his colleagues.
Vivian looked around at the other members of her team and just smiled. This case ended nicely. A far cry from what their cases usually ended up like. It was a beautiful thing to see everyone working together.
Elena saw Vivian smiling as she also looked around the group. She learned how this team worked. She learned that everyone is one big family. Everyone has each other's backs and she liked that. She felt at home. She then noticed Derek approaching her.
"It was really nice to work with you, Agent Delgado" Derek said.
"Elena." She corrected. "It was really nice to work with you also, Agent Young."
"Derek, please. If you are ever in Chicago again, you know where to find me." Derek replied. Elena grinned.
Danny overheard Derek talking to Elena and when Derek walked away he teased Elena, "Sounds like you have an admirer." Elena just rolled her eyes and grinned at Danny, who was hoping he had gotten a rise out of Elena.
Jack, Maria and Hannah then came out of the building. Jack had his arm around his daughter and Maria was following closely behind them. There was an ambulance waiting to take Jaydon to the hospital and also waiting to check on Hannah.
Jaydon was resting on a cot just outside the ambulance when Hannah and her parents made their way over.
"Jaydon! Thank God you are okay!" Hannah said breaking away from her parents and rushing to his side.
"I'm okay…are you okay?" Jaydon asked.
"I'll be okay. I thought they killed you…" Hannah said as she noticed her parents put their hands on her shoulders, "Oh, gosh, Mom, Dad, this is Jaydon. He's my… good friend." She added bashfully.
"It's nice to meet you Jaydon." Maria said.
"Yea…uh, nice to meet you too Jaydon." Jack said reluctantly.
"Sorry we had to meet this way sir." Jaydon added because he noticed how obviously uneasy Jack was with the whole situation.
"Yea, well, uh, we should let you get to the hospital and get cleaned up." Jack quickly replied. Jack motioned to the paramedics to load Jaydon into the ambulance, "We will probably see you at the hospital."
Hannah touched Jaydon's hand reassuringly and let the paramedics load him up. Maria and Jack looked at each other when they saw the affection their daughter was showing. They both grinned.
Later on that afternoon, Jack invited his whole team with Maria and his girls out for dinner at a local pizzeria. Hannah was sitting next to her father, Kate was next to her and Maria was on the end of large corner booth. Samantha, Danny, Martin, Elena and Vivian were sitting at a nearby table talking amongst themselves. Jack sat back against the booth and took a look around at his friends. Vivian, what a strong woman…Elena, quite the feisty one….Martin, still naïve, but determined….Danny, passionate, loyal….Samantha…beautiful, smart, compassionate. A grin came across Jacks face when he turned to look at his daughters. Picking on each other as usual. It was a wonderful thing. Everything had turned out wonderfully.
"Dad?" Hannah asked.
"Yes Sweetheart?" Jack responded.
"Can you get me a refill of my Coke? Please?" Hannah requested.
"Sure I can." Jack said as he stood up he kissed his daughter on the top of her head.
Jack took her empty glass and walked over to the soda fountain. He hadn't noticed, but Samantha was following him.
"Having a good time?" Samantha asked
"Great…I think I should buy you all that drink now." Jack replied referring to a previous conversation that he had with Samantha.
"Sounds great." Samantha grinned.