Disclaimer: only the plot and any original characters belong to me!

Still not quite able to believe that his mother was completely gone and maintaining that she was just on some trip, Adrian returned to the penthouse several more times in search of her and Dorian. Toni was at his side, and each time, they found the place in the same condition it had been the time before. And just as empty too.

Finally, he sat down at the kitchen table and tried to call Dexter to ask if any of Lucifer's enemies would have it out for one of his most notorious chaos creators or her husband. But to his surprise, he couldn't get hold of Dexter either, no matter how many times he called his phone. The phone just kept ringing on the other end without an answer, which was very out of character for Dexter. The man never ignored a ringing phone!

"Now do you believe me that something weird is going on?" Toni asked after he hung up. "I told you, didn't I?"

"Yeah, you did, and I'm sorry I didn't believe you," Adrian told her. "But now that we're sure of that, what do we do? Where do we start looking?" Then it hit him. He would call his sister. Maybe Roxie had given their mother a room at the Underground.

He punched in the number, put the phone to his ear, and hoped he would like what he heard.

"You've reached the Underground, this is Roxie. How can I help you?"

"Hey, Champ," Adrian greeted his sister. "It's me. I'm going to ask you a question and I want an honest answer, all right? Are Mom and Dorian at the Underground? Did they party real hard last night and have to take one of the upstairs rooms cause they were too out of it to drive home?"

"Not that I know of," Roxie replied, making his heart sink. "Are you having trouble getting a hold of them? Why don't you try the penthouse?"

"I'm at the penthouse!" Adrian told her through his teeth. "They aren't here and there's no note indicating where they might have gone, and you know that Mom usually leaves notes, so I don't know what to do!"

"Well, I'll have Vince ask around, okay?" Roxie offered. "And Sammy too. Maybe someone's seen her and Dorian and can tell you what I can't."

"Thanks, kid," Adrian told her. "I owe you one."

"Yeah, you do, but I'll give it a pass this time," Roxie said. "Good luck!"

"You too!" Adrian replied. He was about to hang up when Roxie spoke again, sounding very confused.

"You know, it's funny you should call about Mom and Dorian disappearing just now because...because I got a phone call from Christopher not long before you called. He and Hannah were at a barbecue at Dad's, and Chris was all panicky because the meat was burning and they were looking for Dad and Sybil to come deal with it, but it seemed like they disappeared too! I wonder if their disappearance is connected to Mom and Dorian's or if it's just some weird coincidence?"

"Well, to be honest, at first I thought it was just Mom being flighty like usual, but now that you say Dad and Sybil have disappeared without so much as a 'Goodbye' too, I don't think the answer is as simple as we'd like. It could be a coincidence. It could be part of a plot, who knows? But I don't want to come across as a wacky conspiracy theorist until we have more answers. How about you keep looking for Dad and I'll see what I can do about Mom. All right?"

"Sounds good," Roxie told him. "Good luck again!"

"You too," Adrian told her as frustration rose up in his chest. "You too."

He ended the call and Toni came to put her arms around him. "From the look on your face, it seems your sister wasn't able to help much. Or at all."

"No," Adrian sighed. "And not only that, she says Dad and Sybil mysteriously disappeared without so much as a word too."

"Well, that's...weird," Toni remarked. "What should we do now? Where should we look next?"

"I don't know," Adrian said. "Let me think."

Since Roxie didn't give him the news that he wanted, and he couldn't get hold of Dexter, he tried to get hold of the next person on his mental list of people who could know whether or not Lucifer had enemies that might have had it in for his mother: Maeve.

But when he called her house, she was gone too.

"Sorry," Junior told him. "She went to Lucifer's house to see Noah. But I'm sure...I'm sure she'll be back soon. What do you need her for? Maybe I can help."

"Oh, thanks, but...I don't know," Adrian told him. "Mom and Dorian have been gone for a few days. I thought it was just one of her impulsive jaunts but now I think it's something more serious...like maybe an enemy of Lucifer's got a hold of her or something. It's not incredible. She stepped on a lot of toes during her Lonely Heart days."

"Off the top of my head, I don't know what to tell you," Junior said. "Why don't I meet you at Lucifer's and maybe we can come up with a solution."

"Thanks," Adrian told him. "Me and Toni will meet you there. That's not gonna interfere with your work, is it?"

"Oh, no," Junior assured him. "I'm off today."

Junior dropped the girls off at his parents' house (much to Mary's delight, because she loved Lexie and Emma to pieces,) and then headed to Lucifer's to meet Adrian and Toni, and to his surprise, found a house in chaos.

"Something tells me that not everyone is looking for your mother and Dorian," Junior surmised when he saw Adrian. "Who else is missing?"

"Well," Adrian fidgeted uncomfortably. "Lucifer's gone, along with Dexter. Both your daughter and your granddaughter have locked themselves in their rooms. And..." He avoided Junior's gaze as he continued to speak. "And Maeve...she's gone too."

"What?" Junior asked, his eyes widening. "Are you serious? She can't just be gone! How will my daughters get through things without their mother?"

"Well, where are they now?" Toni asked.

"With my parents," Junior told her. "But I can't just keep them there forever!"

"I'm sure they'd understand, given the circumstances," Toni told him. "Now, your other daughter is a wreck, and I think your granddaughter Valerie is too. Wanna go see if you can do something about it?"

"Yeah," Junior nodded, still feeling shaken. "Sure, all right."

He made his way to Ellie and Lucifer's bedroom and knocked on the closed door. The sobbing from the other side broke his heart. "Ellie Bean?" He called. "You want a hug?"

It went quiet. Junior waited. Then both Ellie and Valerie opened the door and threw their arms around him.

"It'll be okay," he said as all three made their way to the bed and sat down on it. "We'll figure out where they've gone. They couldn't have gone far."

"But what if they did?" Ellie sniffled. "I mean...I've...I've said some things I shouldn't have and acted in ways that could be construed as bratty, so who's to say Lucifer didn't just up and leave because of that and take Dexter and Maeve with him?"

"Why would they just agree to go when Maeve has the girls and Dexter likes Valerie?" Junior questioned. "And I'm sure Lucifer will come back to you. It has to be more than just a simple case of 'He got angry and up and left'."

"Well, I should hope so!" Valerie remarked, no longer crying. "Dexter's getting much better about standing up for himself and I hope he would stand up for us and not just leave me alone!"

"Oh, he wouldn't do that," Ellie reassured her. "Being with you is probably the first thing that's given him any sort of break in years! I don't think he'd purposefully leave that just to be at your dad's beck and call forever!"

"So you agree that wherever it is that they went, they didn't go there on purpose?" Junior asked. "That's something. That's a start."

"Yeah," Ellie took a deep breath and leaned against him. "It would be even more helpful if we knew just where they were and why, though. It would be so much better for my nerves!"

"You know who should be here helping us look?" Valerie asked. "Angelica! I haven't seen her and Sammy at all today! I wonder if they've even left their room since last night! Want me to go wake them up?"

"I'll do it," Ellie told her. "Angelica should be back from talking to the realtor about the new building for her business. That's why you haven't seen her. You just...do something else. It'll be good to have Angelica out here. She plans things and makes them work. She could organize people. That's a good idea for sure." She headed to Angelica and Sammy's room as Junior, though he didn't really want to, called his biological father John's wife to see if the two of them were okay. But no answer. And he tried more than once. That was good to know. And he couldn't say he wasn't relieved and that in his heart of hearts, he hoped John, who'd caused so much trouble, would never come back.

"Oh, do you know how much I love it just being the two of us?" Angelica questioned as she strode through the door of her and Sammy's bedroom at Luci and Ellie's after returning from her meeting with the realtor. He was helping her find office space to start up her own business that would enable her to manage all her projects from a home base and hire staff so that she didn't have to do so much work on her own.

"Oh, I think I do," Sammy replied and took her in his arms, kissing her soundly as they began to undress each other. "I think I know exactly why."

Angelica paused for a moment and then grinned, tearing her gaze away from his mouth for a moment to say, "But just know that I do love you for your mind too!"

"Oh, of course," Sammy nodded. "I feel the same...just not at the moment." They then resumed kissing furiously as they left their clothes in a scattered pile by the door and, in their underwear, made their way to the bed, running their hands over each other's bodies.

But just as he had buried himself inside her, there was a loud knock on the door.

"No!" Angelica groaned. "Why does someone have to bother us now! I'm not answering it!"

But the knocking persisted until finally, Sammy called out, "Who is it?"

"It's Ellie!" Ellie called back. "Is Angelica back yet? I need her to organize people out here!"

"It's your mom," he told Angelica. "I think you should let her in." He backed out of her and crawled beside her on the mattress as Angelica sighed, got up, and got dressed before opening the door.

"What's up, Mom?" She asked, trying not to sound irritated. "Is everything okay? Found Dad yet?"

"Actually, it's not," Ellie told her. "Your father, Maeve, and Dexter are still missing, and now we can add your Aunt Selina and Dorian, and Klaus and Sybil to the list, and it seems like there are more."

"How strange," Angelica replied. "You mean, just gone? Can't find them anywhere, no matter how much you look?"

"Exactly," Ellie sighed. "But we're not very organized, so I thought that if you'd be willing, you could help with it. That and i wanted you to know what was going on."

"Well, thanks for that!" Angelica told her. "We'll definitely come help look. It won't take us long to get organized here, okay? Bye!"

"What's going on?" Sammy asked her as she strode back to the bed. "Sounds like more people are missing."

"Lots more people, apparently," Angelica told him, rattling off names, even though he'd heard the whole conversation. "Daddy, Maeve, Dexter, Aunt Selina, Dorian, Klaus and Sybil...and no one has any idea where they went. Mom's freaking out of course so I told her I would come organize search efforts. You wanna come and help?"

"Well, of course," Sammy nodded and hopped out of bed to get dressed. "Let's do it!"

With Ellie in such an overwrought state, Lisa thought it would be best for her to take charge of Noah until further notice, something that his mother did not object to.

"Thanks," Ellie sniffled. "I really appreciate that, Lisa."

"No problem," Lisa replied. "You just...you just take care of yourself, okay?" She then left Ellie alone and went in search of Lee, who was taking great pleasure in ordering people about under the guise of making a more organized search. "Why don't you help with Noah instead?" She suggested, using her magic to make him slide up right next to her and away from the people he was "helping" (who actually knew perfectly well what to do without him.)

"What?" He huffed. "I was helping!"

"I have a better way," Lisa suggested. "You can help me with the baby."

"But I don't want to!" Lee said. "Why should I help you?"

"Well, fine, I'll phrase it a bit differently then," Lisa said. "Lucifer did you a big favor by giving you a home here. Now he needs your help, and this is how you could do it. So will you?"

"Oh, fine," Lee huffed. "But you're doing all the things that involve bodily functions. It's what women do!"

"From what I've heard about your mother, I don't think she'd like hearing you talk that way," Lisa told him.

"That's why I'm saying it now," Lee grinned. "Cause she's not here to stop me!"

"You really are screwed up, aren't you?" Lisa asked him.

"I prefer to think of myself as charming," Lee told her. "Now, are we just going to stand here, or are we actually gonna do something? Surely you don't just have to hold the child every second."

"You're right, I don't," Lisa said. "Let's go to his room and play with him!"

"What sort of games can we play with someone so small?" Lee grumbled. "Surely nothing very exciting at all."

"If you're just gonna complain about everything, then you don't have to come if you don't want to," Lisa told him.

But then his eye caught a glimpse of her nicely curved bottom and he changed his mind. "No, never mind," he told her. "I'll come with you."

"What changed your mind?" Lisa asked dryly.

They made their way to Noah's room and as Lee looked at every door, he made notes of which ones had empty rooms behind them. Lisa may be irritating and way too obsessed with children, but she was very attractive and he would be a fool if he didn't do something about that.

They stayed in the room and Lisa played with Noah. She was pleased to be able to be removed from all the panic, at least until Adrian came to tell her that Elijah and Amy had disappeared as well.

"Well, that's not good," she remarked, worry pooling in her stomach, which made her hold Noah close. "And what about Aunt Margot and Uncle Kol? Them too?"

"Yep," Adrian sighed. "Them too."

"I just don't understand how so many people could all disappear at the same time. I don't understand it at all!" Lisa said in frustration as Toni put a hand on her shoulder and even held Noah for a bit.

"Me either, kid," Adrian sighed and shook his head. "Me either."

Sammy and Angelica arrived in the main living room about the same time as her aunt Hannah and Christopher.

"Your mom didn't sound good on the phone," Hannah told her niece. "Did she sound upset when she talked to you too? Now she's saying not only are your dad, Dexter, and Maeve gone, but she got a call from Helene and Malachai is missing too. I don't know why she's upset about him, though. I didn't even think they got along! I mean, her grandparents, yes. And your dad, and everyone else she's close to that's gone. But Malachai, not so much. And there are a ton of other people gone whose names I didn't hear."

"Oh, yeah," Angelica nodded. "I mean, she was trying to control it, but I could hear it anyway. To lose so many people at once with no explanation why...I'm surprised she's holding it together aswell as she is." She then looked at Christopher. "Sorry about your parents. We'll find them."

"Yeah, we will," Christopher nodded. "And even if it takes a while, I think Mom and Dad will manage. They're pretty good at handling stuff like this. Dad's been around. Not as long as your Dad, but he's no spring chicken!"

"You're so positive!" Hannah smiled and squeezed Christopher's hand. "I love that about you!" She paused. "Now I'm gonna go check on my sister. Tell her that I'm here and see what she needs me to do."

"All right," Christopher nodded. "You do that. I will go see if Vincent is doing anything to help or if he's just being broody and staying away from everyone."

"Good idea!" Hannah agreed.

"And good luck!" Angelica added. Vincent didn't like talking to people much these days. In fact, Christopher was practically the only person he did talk to.

So Christopher was very pleased when he reached Vincent's door and saw him actually standing in the hallway outside it. "What's the big fuss?" He asked. "I keep hearing all this noise and shouting."

"A bunch of people have disappeared, including my parents and your dad," Christopher said. "We're trying to look for them. I think it would be good if you helped."

"Yeah, sure, okay," Vincent nodded. "It might be nice to have something to do. How would I do that?"

"I don't know," Christopher shrugged. "But I'm sure we could find something for you to do."

"Do you think Lauren's disappeared?" Vincent asked. "Maybe I should go to her apartment and check on her and Nick."

"The sentiment is good," Christopher remarked. "But I don't think you should actually do it. I'll ask Toni for you. I bet she could find out."

"Yeah, would you?" Vincent nodded. "Thanks a lot!"

Though most of the disappearances were met with dismay and a desperate urge to get back the missing, some were seen as a blessing in disguise. The disappearance of Kai, for instance, made the kitchen refrigerators a lot more accessible than they once had been and once that was apparent, people rushed in and took all they could, cause they knew it was a rare opportunity.

Once her aunt Hannah was with her mother, Angelica decided it was time to bring some order to the chaos. She did a spell to give herself a voice that was hard to ignore, then stood on a chair and shouted.

"All right, everyone!" she cried. "I know so far we haven't found Dad or Maeve or anyone, but now I think we need to split up and look other places! Sammy will split you into three groups: one will stay here, another will go to the Underground, and the third will search Dad's office. Is that clear?"

Everyone nodded and then Sammy split up the groups accordingly and sent them off to their assigned places while the group that stayed at the house did another run through.

"Do you really think this is gonna work?" Angelica asked.

"I don't know," Sammy told her. "But at least it's something." He paused. "What do you want me to do? What will you do?"

"I know exactly what I will do!" Angelica told him. "I have a feeling in my gut, a sneaking suspicion of someone who might know what's going on. But I don't want to get Him involved until we're absolutely out of options."

"Are you telling me you think capital 'g' Grandpa had something to do with this?" Sammy asked.

"I don't know," Angelica shrugged. "But it's possible, isn't it?"

"Anything's possible, I guess," Sammy shrugged. "Why don't you go pursue that idea now? I'll manage things here."

"All right," Angelica nodded and kissed him. "Thanks for being so helpful. I mean, I know you lost people too, so of course you want to help, but...thanks."

"You're welcome," Sammy told her. "And be safe!"

She nodded and grabbed her purse, and as she headed to her car, muttered under her breath, "Grandpa, I really hope you didn't have anything to do with this!"

But when she reached the hospital, her suspicions only increased. When she asked to talk to Dr. Smith, she was told he wasn't around anymore.

"He suddenly quit," the nurse said with a shrug. "We don't know why or where he went, which is a real shame because he really was a magnificent doctor."

"Okay, thanks," Angelica told her and turned on her heel.

"Wait just a minute," the nurse told her. "He left something for you."

Angelica turned around and took the small envelope the nurse handed to her, going to sit on the couch a few feet away before she opened it and pulled out a letter. It had just two words on it, neither of which were particularly enlightening or comforting. All the letter said, was: Trust me.

While everyone else panicked about never seeing the ones they loved that had disappeared again, Gwen Hamilton did not (although vowed to summon appropriate distress if any of Mikael or Jeffrey's children asked where they'd run off to.)

Yep, Mikael was gone. And Jeffrey too. And although she was a little put out by Jeffrey's disappearance cause it meant she'd have to sleep alone until he came back from wherever it was he'd gone without so much as a word of explanation, she couldn't deny that she liked the silence of the house. No men fighting with each other or whining because one got more attention than the other. It was really quite exhausting having multiple men want her attention at once. She was coming very close to swearing them off all together. It would have to be a damn special man to grab her attention and hold it now. She was too powerful and awesome a witch to settle for just anyone anymore.

She grinned to herself as she walked through her empty, silent house, pausing to look at herself in the hall mirror. Although she was not what you'd call young, she was still quite attractive, her hair maintaining its natural blonde color, and her eyes a lively blue. She favored tailored dresses and suits in neutral colors, although sometimes she didn't mind wearing red every once in a while. She smiled at her reflection in the mirror, moving a flyaway strand of blonde hair out of her eyes before deciding to go onto the deck and get some sun. It was one of her favorite activities and she'd enjoyed being able to do it for the past several days. She couldn't believe her luck. Someone must really like her.