Chapter 1

Sunday, December 25th, 2005

The moment she opened her eyes Sam felt miserable, like she hadn't slept at all. And that wasn't even too far from the truth because after working on a case until late last night she had come home and stumbled into her bed, exhausted, at about one a.m. It was now 6.30 a.m., and less than six hours of sleep really didn't do it for her.

And her throat was hurting. Well, not really hurting but it felt like there was a lump in it and it was making it almost impossible for her to swallow. With a groan Sam turned off her alarm and considered for a moment calling in sick.

But then today was Christmas Day so she wouldn't be going to the office; that was unless Jack called because there was a case.

Of course she could still call Jack to tell him that she was sick and not able to work but that would spoil all her plans.

Of course there was never a guarantee that someone would go missing on Christmas Day, but Sam knew from past experience that they usually got a call at some point during the day and so she had told Jack that he could count on her if anything should come up.

So she was going to spend the day waiting for Jack to call.

Like every year.

There were several reasons why Sam liked to work through Christmas, the most important of which was that it meant she avoided spending Christmas with her family, or what was left of it. A close second was the extra money they were paid if they worked a holiday and finally, as she didn't have children and Vivian and Elena did, she thought it was fairer if they had the time off.

But today was Christmas Day, and Sam felt miserable. She forced herself to get up and after a shower she tried to eat breakfast. She considered calling in sick again, when she realised that she couldn't drink her coffee because it tasted horrible to her.

But Sam had a plan for Christmas – working, working, working – and she wasn't going to let anything get in the way.

The call from Jack came not long after Sam had got up: A six year old boy was missing – probably kidnapped – and even if Sam did feel sorry for the family she was thankful for the call.

"The kid has cancer", Jack told her. "And this might be his last Christmas. We'll have to find him quickly. "

"I'll be there in half an hour", Sam told her boss relieved she had something to do.

"No, I want you to go to the office and work from there", Jack said. "I'll have Danny and Martin meet me at the boy's home." He hesitated for a moment then Sam heard him clear his throat and ask: "Sam? Are you okay?"

"Yes, why?"

"You sound like you have caught a cold."

"No, I'm fine", Sam lied. "It's just the telephone connection…"

………………

Danny arrived at the scene in a bad mood. For the first time in years he felt like he had something better to do on Christmas Day than finding a missing person; he had his new family, and although it still felt a bit strange to him; it felt good, too and that was the most important thing to him.

He still felt tired – despite the two cups of coffee he had drunk earlier and it had started to snow again. The streets were almost empty at this time on Christmas Day, but even so the drive to the house where the missing boy lived with his father had been a real challenge.

"Hey!"

Danny looked up to see Martin coming towards him, his mood somewhat better than Danny's. "So sorry I had to pull you out of bed today of all days, man", Martin said, as he held out his hand to Danny, who took it, confused, and was promptly pulled into a short manly hug by Martin: "Merry Christmas, anyway."

Danny was so surprised that he was paralysed for a moment and before he could recover enough to return the gesture Martin had let him go and was, reaching into his pocket for his notebook.

"Robert Lucas, six years old, lives here with his dad. Jack and I just spoke to the father; he claims that last night he put Robert to bed at the usual time. He woke up some time after midnight and thought he'd heard something. He went to check on his son, but he was gone. Mr. Lucas called the police right away, and some time this morning they called us."

Danny bit back a yawn and wondered how Martin could be so energetic. Normally it would be the other way round; Martin the miserable one and Danny the one with lots of energy. However, there was no time to wonder about that, now; the kid was missing.

As the two agents walked up the path back to the house, Danny asked: "Where's Jack?"

"Still inside, speaking to the father. He is wealthy so it is possible we'll get a ransom demand. Although I can't understand what bastard can do this to a family on Christmas Day."

Danny shrugged. "There's all kinds of sick bastards out there. Maybe he thinks that at Christmas people will do anything to get their loved ones back, so…"

"That's really sick, man", Martin said. He opened the door and walked into the house ahead of Danny.

They found Jack in the living-room with the father and a FBI technician who was busy setting up the trap and trace in case they received a ransom demand.

"Hey, Merry Christmas", said Jack, but in a far more subdued tone than Martin had used, "Glad you're here."

"What d'you want me to do?" Danny asked, struggling to keep the annoyed tone out of his voice.

"You can help the NYPD officers question the neighbours."

That's what Jack wanted him to do? That's what he had called Danny out of bed for on Christmas Day? Danny couldn't believe it. He stared at Jack but decided it wasn't worth getting into an argument with his boss over it and turned around and left.

"Oh – Danny", Jack called after him the exact moment he reached the door. "When you're done, I want you to go back to the office and help Sam find the kid's mother; the parents are divorced."

"Got it", Danny replied, then turned to begin his work.

None of the neighbours had anything interesting to tell him and all of them were annoyed by the fact that the police had called them out of bed so early. After thirty minutes of getting no relevant information what-so-ever, Danny started to feel seriously pissed off. Despite wearing gloves and warm shoes his hands and feet felt freezing and he was sick of getting short, uncommunicative answers from unfriendly neighbours.

"Hey, how's it going?"

Danny turned around to see Martin coming towards him. "Great", he said sarcastically. "Nobody has seen or heard anything…"

Martin grinned. "C'mon. I think NYPD's got it covered now. Jack wants us to go back to the office and help Sam, there's a lot of people we will need to speak to." Martin's grin became even broader and Danny felt a sudden urge to punch him in the face. "Lot's of other people we will have to pull out of bed… although… it's after 8.30 – maybe some of them are awake now."

Danny nodded and put his notebook into the pocket of his coat, relieved. He turned to go and was surprise to notice Martin following him to his car.

"You haven't got your own car?"

Martin shook his head. "I came with Jack. I was already at the office when the call came in and so…"

"You were at the office?"

Martin nodded and knitted his brows as he started to explain: "I just had some paperwork to do and I wanted to take that home over Christmas."

"At that time in the morning?" Danny raised an eyebrow, and kept staring at Martin. They were sitting in his car and he had turned the heater on in an effort to get warm and clear the condensation from the windows. He waited to hear Martin's explanation before they went.

He didn't have to wait long:

"Okay, I admit it; I wanted to have an excuse to work over Christmas, because it would save me from this." Martin pulled something from his pocket and thrust it toward Danny

"It's a plane ticket."

"Yeah, to Washington", Martin said. "And I didn't even buy it myself. My father did his best to emotionally blackmail me into coming for a huge family dinner. I can't bear that this year."

"Guess now you won't have to…" Danny grinned. The heater in the car was now on full power; he put the car into gear and started to drive to the office.

………………

Sam was pretty sure that she didn't just have a bad cold and she suspected that she could forget about getting rid of it any time soon. She had tried to drink some coffee again when she had arrived at the office but it still hadn't tasted good, and so she had made herself some tea and sat down at her desk to start doing her work; background checks on both of the missing kid's parents, trying to get a hold of the mother.

The sound of voices made her look up from the computer screen. She was the only person in the office and so it had been silent for the last hour; she was happy to see Danny and Martin approaching; Martin was wearing a big grin all over his face, but Danny was looking rather pissed off.

"Hey, good morning sunshine!" Martin moved to hug her, but Sam raised her hands.

"You'd better not do that – I think I may be contagious. I have a cold", she explained.

Martin was stunned for a moment but then his grin returned and he ruffled her hair, ignoring her glaring at him. "Well, okay then… merry Christmas!"

Sam couldn't help a smile. It was good to be getting along with Martin again; actually they were getting on even better than they used to; before and during the time she had tried to have a relationship with him. Sometimes she thought she should have never let happen – them getting together – but mostly she didn't regret it. If anything they both had learned from that experience.

Her eyes wandered to Danny. He wasn't looking as happy as Martin and Sam wondered why. Over the years the two of them had made it a habit to spend Christmas together even after the working part was done; they would go out to dinner – sometimes in the middle of the night – and would have a long conversation about how nice and relaxing it was to not having to go to annoying family dinners with family members you just saw once a year and you who you didn't have a clue what to say to them.

This year, however, Sam had the feeling that things would be different. She smiled at Danny and he smiled back; wishing each other a merry Christmas without words.

Martin had taken a seat at the conference table and cleared his throat to get his colleagues' attention. When Sam and Danny joined him he started telling them about what he and Jack had found out about the boy and what had happened in the night:

"The father says he heard a noise in the middle of the night that woke him. He didn't think it was in the house, but still decided to check on his son; when he came into his son's room he found the bed empty…" Martin paused and Sam knew him well enough to know that he already had a theory about what had happened and that he was going to share it with them soon: "Sam, were you able to get a hold of the kid's mother?"

"No, I tried to call her and I also had two police officers go to her house but she wasn't at home…"

Martin nodded slowly, the grin was now gone and he had a concerned look on his face. "That makes the mother our main suspect."

"Why?" Danny asked, looking confused. "Just because the parents are divorced?"

Martin shook his head. "No, more because of the reason why they are divorced. And also because the father has told her to stay away, although it could be the kid's last Christmas."

"And what's the reason the parents got divorced?" Sam asked, impatiently.

"He wanted her away from the child. They had disagreements about how to deal with their son's disease. The father told us she was always taking their son to so-called miracle healers; most of them, no, all of them were frauds of course. But Mr Lucas says his ex-wife believed in them and spent a lot of the family's money on them – still, that wasn't the actual problem." Martin paused.

"So?" Sam asked, slightly annoyed by the fact that she had to ask for every little piece of information.

"The problem was that she was always getting the boy's hopes up and then he would be depressed afterwards when it didn't help, and every time it just got worse and worse. Finally the father put an end to it. Now she has to keep away from the child."

"That's pretty hard – separating a mother from her child…" Danny said.

"Well, maybe in this case it was better", Sam said. "For the child I mean. It seems like the mother was really crazy…"

"Crazy or maybe just desperate", Danny replied, looking doubtful.

He was obviously feeling pity for the mother and Sam wasn't really sure why. He was usually the one who would say that anything was okay as long it was the best for a child.

When Danny noticed Sam looking at him he smiled and said: "I know what you're thinking, but then, how can you be sure what's best for the kid in this case?"

Before they got a chance to discuss this any further, Martin said: "However, we need to inform Jack about what we know and that we can't find the mother. He'll decide whether we'll concentrate on finding the mother or if there's anybody else we need to check out."

"Does the father have any enemies?" Sam asked.

Martin shrugged. "None that he could think of, or that he would tell us about… He's a publisher of a political magazine, though, so maybe he has made enemies that he doesn't want to tell us about…"

"Or he doesn't know about", Danny added.

Martin nodded. "Yeah, maybe. Listen, I think we should give Jack a call now and tell him that the mother is missing, too. We'll have to look into the father's life… and we might have to call everybody who works for him…"

"Damn it, not anymore more of this… I can't take anymore people grumbling at me today", Danny said, rolling his eyes surprising Sam again. She moved over, close enough to nudge him, and asked:

"What's wrong with you today?"

He looked at her. "Why?"

"You're so grumpy."

"Sorry", he said and smiled at her.

Sam smiled back. It was only when she noticed Martin looking at her and then at Danny and at her again, that she realised she had been staring. Wondering what was wrong with her, she tried to concentrate on her work.

"Well, I'll take the father's employees then", Martin said, but didn't move. When he got no answer he added: "That means you two can concentrate on finding the mother."

Finally Sam looked up at Martin and gave him a quick smile. "Fine. Good luck."

………………

It was five in the afternoon when Sam's headache came back, and she looked up from the magazines she was reading. Jack had asked her to look through the latest editions of the father's magazines to see what it was about and if there was anything out of the ordinary.

They hadn't found a trace, yet, neither of the mother nor of the child. Danny had interviewed the mother's parents, but they hadn't heard from their daughter, either. Sam felt frustrated, unable to keep herself from thinking about the poor, worried father who was at home, waiting for his son to return. On Christmas Day.

"God, you look rough…"

Sam jumped at Danny's voice coming from behind her. She sighed as she turned around to face him, feeling relieved by his presence. Normally she would have thought of an answer but this time she couldn't.

He looked at her, sceptically. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine", she said, but she knew it wasn't convincing. She wasn't fine at all; and he knew it. She was exhausted and had a headache but she couldn't be sure if it was this or the case that was making her feel so vulnerable and sad.

Being Danny though, he had noticed that she wasn't feeling well, and that she needed a little help. He moved closer and gently laid his hand on her shoulder. "You're tense…" he said.

It took all of Sam's willpower to not move her head closer to his hand, as she suddenly wanted more of his gentle touch; she just wasn't sure if it was such a good idea.

However, Danny didn't seem to mind. He let his hand rest on her shoulder for a while, gently kneading her tense muscles before he bent down until his head was next to hers and suggested in a low tone: "How about you take a short break from this and I will give you a proper massage…"

Her inner voice was screaming no, but Sam couldn't help but nod. A moment later he started to massage her, gently at first, then a little more firmly. She could really feel her muscles begin to relax under his touch, making her feel sleepy… until he stopped.

"Ow… don't stop."

Danny smiled as he took a seat beside her at the conference table. "I had to", he said, a grin spreading across his face. "You were almost falling asleep…"

"Well, it was actually really good, I've never had such a good massage." Sam knew she was probably going to regret this later, praising Danny too much was never a good idea, but she couldn't help it.

And of course he proved her right: "Yeah, well, not many people know how to give a good massage, you know", he told her in a mock serious tone, making Sam laugh.

"And of course, you do."

Danny didn't answer; instead he just grinned. They sat next to each other in silence for a while but neither could concentrate on their work. Sam watched him from the corner of her eye as gradually the grin disappeared from his face and he began to look every bit as stressed as she had felt earlier. She reached out to touch his arm.

"What about you?" she asked.

"Me? What about me?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah…" The grin was back, but half-heartedly this time. "I just… I wanted to spend Christmas with my family this year… you know…"

"Oh", Sam said, feeling suddenly hurt. She had been looking forward to their traditional Christmas dinner together in a cheap restaurant, talking about everything and nothing, but he obviously wasn't.

Danny turned his head and their eyes met and he obviously realised what she was thinking. "Oh, sorry Sam; it's not you, it's just that…"

"You wanted to spend Christmas with your family. I understand that. I really do", Sam said, and it wasn't a lie. Not everybody was happy to use any excuse to stay away from their family. Like she did. Or Martin. Suddenly Sam had to grin.

"What?" Danny asked.

"You realise I'll probably end up celebrating Christmas in McDonalds with Martin", she said and laughed at the thought. "That is – of course – if we find this kid before then…"

"I hope we will", Danny said, in a tired tone that caught Sam's attention

"You're looking pretty bad, too", she said.

"Oh, thanks."

She shook her head. "Sorry. That wasn't what I meant; I just thought… Why don't I give you a massage?"

Danny shook his head. "I don't like getting massages."

"Well, it might do you some good…"

"Can you give a good massage?" Danny asked, clearly doubtfully. "It's a real art, you know… not everybody is good at it."

"Yeah, right, you're just trying to say that nobody is as good at it as you are…" Sam rose from her chair, suddenly determined to do as she had said. She stood behind Danny and laid her hands on his shoulders not surprised to find that it felt good to her. Maybe it was just the feeling of being close to somebody, the friendly touch between two close friends, but as she slowly started kneading his muscles, she was suddenly and shockingly aware that it was something else, something more, something…

"Ouch!"

Sam winced. She had been so lost in thought that she hadn't even realised what she was doing and how rough her kneading had become. Feeling guilty she bent down, mumbling a low: "Sorry", when her mouth was next to Danny's ear, and she wondered what she was doing.

He turned his head and their eyes met. "It's okay. It's just the reason why I don't like getting massages. Not everybody…"

"… is good at it I know", Sam ended the sentence for him. "I am sorry for…" Her voice trailed away, as she was captured by the moment; the look in his eyes telling her to come closer… she leaned in until their lips met in a gentle kiss.