Okiedokes, so this is the second chapter everyone has been asking for!
Please review! And a few ideas wouldn't hurt either.
OH! And I'd also like to thank my readers! The reviews always just make my day!
Panic filled him as he frantically pulled out his cell phone and dialed his mother's number.
"Hey, sweetie, I'll be home in a little bit. Mac and I are actually-"
"Mom, I can't find Ellie…" Tyler spoke with fear etched into every inch of his voice.
Part of Tyler expect Ellie to stick her head out of the bathroom or to come running down into the building shivering from the snow. But she didn't, she was gone.
Jo froze, her hand jumping to her chest as though to keep her heart from pounding itself free. "What do you mean you can't find Ellie?" Jo asked earning a concerned look from Mac who also stopped dead in his tracks right along with her.
Any attempt at calming herself was failing, but she had to be strong. Tyler needed to hear something to sooth him.
"Have you checked her room? Or the coffee shop at the end of the block," Jo asked squeezing her eyes shut and praying silently that she would hear Ellie's voice on the other end with her cute 'what cha doin'?' or even a 'Gotcha Mom! Jeeze why do you worry so much?' from Tyler.
"Mom, she's gone and it's all my fault," Tyler cried into her ear making tears swell in her eyes.
No, no, no! This can't be happening! Jo thought as the first tear escaped.
Mac had one hand firmly around Jo's waist while the other was phoning Don. He demanded Don to call the rest of the team to meet up at Jo's apartment. He didn't give him many details other than that.
The tragedy in Jo's eyes as he turned back to her broke his heart. This wasn't playful and flirty Jo, or angry and aggressive Jo, this was scared and vulnerable Jo who wanted nothing more than to know where her daughter was.
Mac stepped out into the street a raised a hand for a taxi. He pulled Jo with him, holding her tight against him as her tears spilled onto his coat.
-Apartment of Jo Danville-
Tyler paced back and forth. He had already been around the block twice looking for her and saw it best to check the apartment again. There was a knot in his chest as the door to the apartment flew open. Tyler jumped up, ready to see Ellie carrying to hot cups of coffee, but when he saw his mother instead, anguish pulsed through him.
Ellie may have been his little sister, but he could never feel the same love for her his mother did and he knew her being gone was his entire fault. In all his life he had never seen his mother look so frightened in his entire life.
That full of life glow that Jo radiated was gone. Her eyes were bloodshot as though she hadn't slept and her hands shook slightly as she pulled her son into a tight embrace. Tyler could feel some of the strength ripped out of mother as he clung to her like he did when he was just a boy.
"Mom, I'm so sorry, I should have made her stay, I told her to hurry because you didn't like her out after dark, but I let her go anyway. Oh Mom this is all my fault!" Tyler cried as his mother's grip on him tightened.
"Tyler, this is not your fault. I need you to calm down, we'll find her." As Jo pulled away she held her son's hand and kissed his forehead before retreating down the hallway.
It didn't look like she was running away or really like anything more than she had to pick up something out of her room, but Mac knew better. He followed Jo, squeezing Tyler's shoulder on the way past.
As he entered her bedroom, there was Jo with her face buried in her hands. She wasn't crying, he could tell that from where he was standing, but he could also tell she was trying to regain some composure.
"Jo…" Mac began sitting next to her on the bed.
"I know the statistics, I know the logic, I know all about kidnappings and what happens to children when they are kidnapped and I have to tell my son everything will be fine. It's not fair, Mac, I don't want to know all this logic and statistics."
When Jo looked up at Mac with only pain build into her eyes he pulled her tight in his chest and half expected her to push away.
He wanted to protect her and tell her everything was going to be okay, but her couldn't. He couldn't like to her about the possibility.
Why was this happening? Mac asked himself as he looked up to heaven for the answer.
Jo was asking herself a similar question. In fact so was Ellie.
-Unknown Location-
As she came to, Ellie quickly realized her hands were bound behind her back and she was laying on a rather musky smelling couch. Her head spun slightly as she sat up and glanced around the room. Where am I? Ellie wondered just as her memory began to fill with images of the hour earlier events.
The back of her head throbbed as she wished badly to rub it. A loud sound came from the next room followed by yelling. She could barely understand most of it, but the one thing that was clear as day was the name "Jo Danville" ringing from the walls.
She clenched her fist and pulled hard, trying desperately to break the zip tie that was holding her tiny wrist together. Quickly, she glanced around the empty room searching for something, anything that could get her free. But there was nothing. There was hardly anything even in the room other than a couple white sheets on the dusty hardwood floor and a couch.
As the volume grew in the next room Ellie became more and more curious as to details of the conversation about her mother. Finally the door burst open sending Ellie deeper in the couch trying to keep herself from view, but it was obvious that she was the entire reason they entered.
"I see you're awake," one man snapped running a hand through his greasy hair.
Ellie immediately made note of both men's every feature. The man who spoke first was mostly likely the man in charge. He was probably in his late thirties, about ten or so years older than his partner. His hair was black and reminded her slightly of a balding Danny from Grease. But the other man seemed much too nervous. He would only glance at Ellie with nearly apologetic expressions, telling her that this wasn't exactly his idea. His fingers would run nervously through his dirty blond hair and his lanky figure would cower when the other man got anywhere near him.
"Mike, I don't know about this," the man spoke cautiously placing his body between Ellie and the other man. "I mean she's just a kid."
Ellie's heart pounded faster as Mike pushed his way towards her and seized her by the arm nearly lifting her up off the couch. "Don't worry kiddo, as long as your mom does exactly what we tell her to, you'll be perfectly fine," Mike hissed before thrusting her back on the couch.
"How do you know Danville will do this?" the other man asked once again glancing nervously at the frighten to silence Ellie.
"A mother would do anything to keep her child alive."
So, I should really be studying for my finals,
but I'm not all that worried about anything except Trig.
I'm considering bringing in Stella, what do you think?
