A/N this is probably one of the few stories that are multi-chapter stories that I promise I will finish. The beginnings is kind of slow but is introducing the Ford family so bear with me till the end of this chapter and please give reviews thanks.

Chapter 1 Promise

Nate

I have a wonderful life. I am married to the most beautiful woman in the world, Sophie Deveraux. After two years of wonderful marriage Sophie became pregnant with our first born, Eliot. He was long awaited but he was here and alive. We named him after General Eliot P. Deveraux, Sophie's father.

Eliot is a strong young man who takes after me, if I might say. He has his mother's brown hair that he refuses to cut, and her beautiful brown. Everything else is mine including his instinct to protect. He is a black belt in karate. This is also why nobody would get pass him if they even thought of hurting his little sister. He is a charmer which reminds me of how I was at his age of 14. He had his girls on waiting list but, the one he is most interested in is a blonde girl named Tara. I remember him coming home and telling us about how much he loved her blonde beautiful hair and, voice. He is hooked on her and, even though he could have any girl he wants he holds out for that girl, waiting for her to take his heart away. He is a good boy though, most of the time you only have to ask him once and he will do it, whatever you asked him to do. On other days when he chooses to be hard headed all it takes is giving him a little tap on the back, turning off the football game and remind him to do what he was told. Often enough it always has something to do with his little sister. There is a big age difference seeing as he is 14 and she is just turning 5; he finds her quite annoying while she absolutely adored him. Saying that when it comes to taking his little sister out along with her best friend Alec, who happens to be our next door neighbor that's when he gets his little attitude. None the less he loves his little sister and would do anything for her.

Elizabeth, who liked to be called Parker, was our doorstep child. She had been through a lot over the past five years of her life. Before we adopted her she had gone through a bucket of abuse. You didn't have to be told to know. When we first met her she was afraid of me. Actually she seemed to be afraid of everyone. She was a loner. When we found her she was alone at the playground, with her bunny drawing exquisite pictures into the sand with a stick, by herself, alone. The adoption people did not advertise her like they did the others. Instead they spoke of her with sadness in their voices. She was different. I knew it when I first looked at her picture that she was drawing on the playground. Instead of scribbles and scrabbles that you usually see from four year olds, you saw straight beautiful lines, which formed buildings and flowers. It wasn't a made up picture at all but, of a town something she knew by memory. She was unique, that's why she caught my eye. That's why the minute I saw her I knew she would be my little girl, that I would have her.

Elizabeth is extremely smart for her age. She knows things other kids don't know. Educationally she is a genius. She can solve problems in her mind. She can scout out buildings and remember a specific exit. She can estimate the number of folders in my office. She can count higher than the average second grader, yet personality wise, she is a lost puppy. She was afraid of the people in the outside world, more than the outside world itself. It took her 3 months to warm up to me. Sophie had to be in the same room for me to even touch her. Other than that she did not leave Sophie's side unless she had to go to the bathroom. Not even then sometimes. The room we so carefully prepared was not used for a whole three months. Why you ask. It was because while I was sleeping on the couch Elizabeth was up with Sophie. Elizabeth had nightmares, nightmares that left her in a cold sweat while screaming. So to resolve this problem Sophie sent me to the couch with a hug and a kiss, before lying down with Elizabeth to assure sweet dreams.

Parker was stubborn, just like every child is; only she was stubborn in different ways. She didn't ask for anything much but when she did she often found a way to get it. She wasn't the child who begged but the trickster. I remember our first 'holiday' together. It was Halloween, her first Halloween. After explaining what Halloween was, we dressed her up as a pumpkin and we started on our way. At first Sophie objected to taking Parker out for Halloween. She feared she would be scared. So instead of doing our fast paced run from house to house with our excited boy Eliot, we took it slow. Each time we told her that each monster wasn't real and that she was OK. To my surprise the only thing she was afraid of was the clown. When she saw the clown she ran behind me like her pants were on fire. After the crying stopped we figured we had enough candy and headed home. After checking the candy like we did every year and, keeping some for ourselves we let the kids pick 5 pieces of candy each. Sophie explained to our pumpkin that she would get 5 pieces of candy every two days until it ran out. Parker objected to her candy being 'stolen' and threw the first tantrum we had seen from her. Haven already being experienced parents we did not feel any remorse and watched until her tantrum fled from her body. Then we simply put the candy in our bedroom closet and sent her to bed. The next morning however we looked into the closet to find that the candy bag was no longer there. We looked deeper into the closet but, found nothing. We then went into Parker's room to see candy wrappers all over the floor. All though we were amazed at the fact that she got in our closet without a trace, we were upset and disappointed in her for stealing from us. Although we were mad we knew she learned her lesson because after that she refused to eat candy for a month, saying it was Evil for making her sick.

Parker loves her big brother. Eliot who was anxiously waiting for Parker quickly warmed up to the little girl and her to him. Since Eliot helped Parker get over her fear of horses they have been closer than a shoe and its shoe strings. Together they were basically untouchable, with Eliot's strength and Parker's flexibility (which we saw when we saw her doing flips off monkey bars in the park and off of swings) they just couldn't be touched, unless you were stronger than the average man of course.

Alec is Parker's best friend. We call them ebony and ivory because they are basically inseparable. He is one of the only people Parker is comfortable with. Sophie calls it puppy love but I like to keep an eye on my girl. Still he stands up for my girl and keeps her strong and even a tiny bit social. Eliot thinks of him as a little brother and even though he wouldn't admit it he cares for the boy and would protect him as if he was Parker. And even though Eliot often picked on the boy Alec couldn't help but say he looked up to Eliot as a big brother.

It took Parker the longest to warm up to me. I didn't figure out the problem until me and my beautiful wife and her best friend Maggie were celebrating a successful con, with wine. Parker saw the wine and responded in an outburst of tears. Sophie tried to calm her but; Parker was having none of that.

She yelled at me looking straight at the cup "Don't drink that! Daddy drunk that and it hurt!" She said screaming at me "Please don't drink that anymore, please" She then whispered.

Then I realized how many times she must have thought I would hurt her. We had a bar in one of the rooms of our big house. She must have been scared of having a repeat with her dad with me. After that I threw out every drop of alcohol out and replaced it with cranberry juice. After that I and Sophie had a long talk with Parker. We sat down and promised we would always protect her and no one would hurt her ever again. Too bad we couldn't keep that promise. Because as Eliot bust through the door in panic I heard the words I prayed I would never hear.

"Pops, Parker is gone! Someone took her." Eliot yelled with tears in his hours.

Sophie immediately sprang into action calming Eliot down but still asking questions.

"Did you do what we taught you to do if someone was following or tried to hurt you" She asked urgently trying not to let the panic come out in her voice or the tears that sprang to her eyes to fall.

Eliot nodded his head as he started to describe the man. "There were two, the first man was about dads size had brown hair blue eyes. He had some type of accent not heavy. He also wore a black suit and looked kind of familiar. The second man had blonde sandy hair and a scruffy but not thick beard. He had blue-gray eyes and he… he kind of looked like Parker."

"El, did they leave anything at all?" I questioned.

He held out his hand nodded once more. There in the note was a com, a phone, and a letter attached.

The letter read: Miss me, didn't you? How does it feel to have your love one taken from you? Put the com in, and have fun while you listen to all the things I am going to do to your princess. My number is in the phone when you want to have your little girl back, after we have some fun of course, call me. I'll be waiting.

-Enjoy, A.M.S.B

I hung on to Sophie as tears sprang from her eyes. "We have to find her." She whispered in my ear.

"We will, even if it is the last thing I do. I promise"

Someone would pay

Every day

Until I found my little girl

My baby

A/n so did you guys like it?