Brother Mine

by Blackstar1979

"Brother Mine" Mark is preparing to retire from wrestling so he can keep a promise he made to Nina his dead first wife in a drug-induced dream. The bonds that were forged and those that were almost broken play a part in book three. This is a partial summary see Chapter 1 for full.

2. Chapter 2 Immaculate Deception

Yes, I know I missed doing this in chapter one, but I wanted to get the story up and forgot and didn't want to take it down and change it. So here is the disclaimer: WWE superstars belong to the company not me. Also, any mention of musical professionals, whether it is a single entertainer, or a band are the sole property of their company or entertainer classification. I'm just letting them play in my mental sand box I promise that I will return them when I'm finished... The other names are mine- all mine /\_/\

Chapter 2

Immaculate Deception

The next morning in a hotel gym Mark lifts weights; he had a meeting with creative this was going to be his last year in the company as a wrestler. He had given it much thought. John Cena and Randy Orton were both serving time for a lot of crimes including extortion, John Cena had a drug trafficking charge. Nikki Bella's trial was coming up next. Though she hadn't used the mushrooms that John and Randy had used, on him she had drugged his Travel Liaison with a knock out drug in her liquor. Mark finishes his work out.

At the meeting, many of the guys he suggested or even thought of Vince didn't like for this reason or that one. Vince then suggested another round with Shawn Michaels then quickly apologized at the look Mark through him. When the rest of the creative team cleared the room at Vince's request Mark says "Shawn's lucky to be alive, after what he, Rachal, and Alberto did to my child." Vince asks how Janet was. Mark said nothing. Vince suggested his son Shane. "You don't even talk to your boy and you want to throw him in the ring with me? There is only so many times I can make his windmill style of punching look authentic. I tell you what, why don't I do an open challenge? I am the champ. There are a lot of hungry new talents on the roster you know I'll make them earn it, but it will give one of them a huge push." Vince says he would think about it.

Alex and Salvatore pull up to the hide out. "I thought you were shitting me when you said he'd invite us to the kitchen table." Sal tells him that's why he should trust him and not be ready to rat him out every chance he gets. "I guess you're right that was short sighted and wrong of me. Is our team back from Florida yet?" Sal nods. "Great, now all that is there is Deon's team. To keep a watch and make sure that woman's car doesn't move. I told them if she leaves to follow her, if she heads toward the police station or towards the border, to run her off the road. So far she hasn't left the house." Looking at the zip tied person in the backseat with a blanket over his head Alex asks was the doctor comfortable. A muffled sound comes from the blanket. Sal raises an eyebrow at him. "Your right stupid question. I forgot that quick that we gagged him." This afternoon they used a tactic that almost never failed, they'd disabled the good doctor's cell phone and car on a scenic backroad leading away from his country club, they drove up offer to help, he accepted and that's when they put a gun in his face, zip tied his hands at his back, and gagged him before putting the blanket over his head and setting him in the back seat.

Up at Ivey Mansion, Angel is feeding JC when Luke dashes through the living room out the front door. Thinking something was wrong with Sophie she calls her sister. "Sophie, are you ok?" Sophie says she's fine and asked had Angel heard anything. "No but Luke just ran pass me. He ran out of here so fast it was more than his I'm a doctor urgency. He literally tore through here like someone in was in behind him. He didn't even say hello, goodbye or anything." Luke must have called Sophie because she says she'd call Angel back.

Luke was about to leave Sophie a message when she answered. "Hey, I'm on my way to my dad's country club. We've called the club and they said dad left hours ago. It's 2pm and he was supposed to meet mom for lunch at noon. She's called his phone and just gets his voicemail. She read about Joshua missing, and has it in her head that dad is missing too. I keep telling myself that there is a logical explanation…" As he followed the curve of the winding road that lead to his father's country club, he sees his father's Bentley facing him on the side of the road. "I'll call you back." Sophie says for him not to hang up. She says his father didn't own the only black Bentley in town. Luke gets out of his car and rounds the back of the other car and looks at the license plate and that is when his anxiety grew. In an anxious tone he says, "But he is the only one with DOCT3N on the plate. It was a play on words since he got a speeding ticket the year he became a doctor and he has had this plate name ever since." Luke walked to the partly down window. His dad used the ac but still liked to have the window down a little. "Nothing seems to be..." Sophie cut him off and says for him not to touch anything, get back in his car, and to call the police. As if on autopilot he followed the physical instructions, "Okay I'm getting back in the car now." He closes the door and stares at his father's car for a time until Sophie breaks into his spiraling thoughts. Denial and fear warred within Luke as he numbly says "Maybe he went for a walk, Sophie he is not in his car. He wouldn't just leave it here on the side of the road with his window down. He likes that car."

She dialed into his onboard camera, that sat above his radio on his center console, and told him to look at her. Sophie didn't need Luke coming undone right now. He'd been doing so good, but impulse control issues went two ways and she didn't need his sliding too far in either direction right now. If he closed out the world now, the longer he stayed in that numb space, was like watching a timer because if his emotional grid collapsed, it would be explosive, and that could be dangerous in many ways. She tells him in a calm tone to end the call on his phone and call the police. He tells her he's afraid to make that call because what if it was true that someone took his father? What if they didn't care and told him to call back in 24. Sophie thought better of having him call the police, because if the dispatch asked "Why you let him wander off?" Or some variation of stupid questions they were famous for, she knew Luke may lose it. Sophie then suggested he call Joy. "Joy will care. Call Joy." Luke dials Joy's number holds up the phone. Sophie hated watching the raw emotion run over his features as he answered Joy's questions.

Joy: On my way onto Perry Court road by the Grandville Country Club. Talking to Luke. He sounds off, when I get there, I'm going to suggest he go home. Will assess if I should bring him home. I've heard that tone just not from anyone like him before. This may be related to Joshua's case.

Sophie: Yeah that's another reason I told him to call you. So, you hear it too?

Soon Joy arrives with a few of her team to do and on scene. She has Luke come and sit in the car with her. When one of her men walks to her car. He says that the power to the car was interrupted like the Cherry Lake Hill cars. Since Luke's was one of the Cherry Lake Hill cars that stalled and nearly got sent back down the hill into the lake, he turns to Joy his eyes were clearing of the partly fugue state he was in. His voice sounded more like him when he tells her how his mechanic solved the problem. The officer at her door asked Luke had he drove by the car or had he stopped where his car was now.

Though scared out of his mind, he wanted to ask what difference it made, but something in the way Joy was looking at him cooled that impulse and he answers the question. The officer points out the drive pattern to Joy. "It makes no sense Joy. He doesn't carry cash on him, and he has roadside assistance what the hell would make him go off with someone. He could have just called Ivey Transit or hell he could called me damnit." Seeing her flinch at his tone, he sighs. "Sorry." Joy tells him to tell her again what his mechanic said when his Hummer stalled out. He explains about his radio and the message system and how it was just enough frequency to be tagged and interrupted from a remote, but the person had to be within 20 feet. Joy looks at the bushes that lined the street and sent her man to see if there were any new tire treads in the bush line.

Over at the hideout, Vivian drives away the next mid-morning with lots on her mind. At first, she'd had it in her head that Joshua wouldn't agree to her kiss, but he had, which told her how desperate and scared he was. She really wasn't expecting to see him so trashed. She'd cleaned him up and convinced Niles to let her get him to the restroom. It was only a room away, she'd bet her life on Joshua not attacking her, and she'd helped him out of the room. He was very weak and sore. He'd kissed her but unlike on his birthday when she went in with a lusty trick and kissed him and figured he'd just been mad because his girl was there. Last night his wife wasn't around, and he had no way of getting caught, but when he'd kissed her there was no heat, when she tried to lengthen it he tried to pull away, which again proved that her assumption of any of the little fantasies in her head would end in the same ashes as when she'd launched herself at him. After the kiss, she moved around trying to prolong the time before Deon would return to the room for good and put her out. It turned out that Deon had let her stay so long because he'd passed out shortly after leaving the room. His main man Niles had told her that. She wished she could find a guy that wasn't taken that would love her like Josh loved his wife. He'd asked her to please tell his wife where he was, Vivian was prepared to not do that, but when she'd rechained Joshua to the table after helping him to the restroom. The fact that he didn't head butt her or try to hurt her spoke volumes, though she had not given him many or any reason to do so, he was trusting her. That was further proven when she got him to at the very least drink a bottled water. She'd cleared the hall and was about to walk out of the house when Deon spoke to her. He asked did she have fun playing doctor. She could tell he'd already got himself baked for the morning. Her decision was made when Deon tried to suggest she give him some head for the career he was going to give her on a silver platter. She'd claimed that she had a good time and told him that fucking him wasn't a part of her contract. He got mad and said so she'd rather fuck his captive and then yelled at her asking how she could still like the guy that got her sent to jail. She'd said the Producer was the one that got her sent to jail not Joshua. Deon had then told Niles to make her leave. If she was truthful with herself, though she would never repeat it out loud she deserved to get locked up and it was probably safer inside than in LEGNA that day after she sent the wrong red head into the wall. Jonathon's whispered threat still reminded her that he was dangerous and those stories she heard may have been true about the producer's past. Deon had allowed her to stay the whole night with Joshua and in that time frame Joshua became more than the object of her sordid little fan crush. She'd watched him as he'd fell asleep from pure exhaustion. She woke him with a small kick to his foot when the door opened, and Deon asked her out into the hall she'd woke Joshua because she didn't want Deon to hurt him in his sleep. He was in real trouble and she wouldn't be able to forgive herself if she didn't at least try to get word to Joshua's wife. Deon did way more drugs now than he did when they were a band that was for sure. She at first thought of weighing her career against doing the right thing, but it wasn't as much a sure thing as when she first got out and came to stay with Deon. He changed the rules almost daily and she wasn't going to fuck him.

Deon was furious and paced in front of Niles screaming his displeasure. When he'd had Vivian put out, he came back and watched what went on, his audio wasn't as good as he thought considering the sound was too low for him to hear, most of the time. He'd turned up the sound in the playback to max and still the sound didn't raise. Frustrated, he watches the nearly silent exchanges he'd missed. They didn't do much she mostly stuck close to him he was surprised by Joshua kissing her but that's when she came out and asked Niles could she take Josh to the restroom next door. Niles told her that if Davenport clobbered her that it would be her life in danger along with his. Deon was asleep by that time last night. According to Niles, he'd passed out in his den. He'd hit rewind and parts where he was beating on Joshua and yelling it was crystal clear. He wanted to know what had happened to his audio. Niles says maybe the female had something on her that interfered with the audio. As Deon was about to call Vivian his house manager came and told him his guest had arrived.

Over inside his hotel room, Andrew had found that Niles had done him a favor one of the text messages that was from an unknown sender said for him to open the envelope that he received from Niles. When he looked in, he saw the money took it out but caught a glimpse of writing on the top of a 20-dollar bill.

Will do what I can but here are some ears for your trouble.

It was an access code, that much Andrew was sure of. But who else but Niles would send him a message? The Irish sounding man that started this was a different number. Andrew couldn't very well login to his system, so he hacked the hotel and made it so that his signal would be split by how ever many lonely souls resided here. He put in the code and password and was rewarded with the image of the inside of where they were keeping Joshua. Closing his eyes, he berated himself he'd done it again he'd referred to Davenport as Joshua in his head, he couldn't afford to be undetached now. Watching Deon work over Davenport was hard enough, when Deon choked Joshua out and then slapped him awake Andrew was on the edge of his seat. When Vivian entered he heard what she said and at the very least Deon wasn't beating Davenport up anymore. Sitting back, Andrew watched the exchange and heard the deal. He fiddled around with the buttons on the screen and found he could watch the inside of the house. He wondered if she would hold up her end. Watching her support Davenport as she helped him to the restroom and the fact that she didn't clamp the cuffs back as tight as they were before, Andrew had more hope than he should that she would hold up her end. Since he'd seen Deon leave and glance at the wall where the screen would be and then walk away, he didn't want Deon to come back and be able to hear the possible plan in playback. He knew the system they were using and hacked the master control and turned down the audio. He'd woke this morning and slid back out of the data stream and left the hotel room. This location would be on the map for irregular activity now. One thing was true he wasn't as good as Bobby at cloaking his work.

After getting the disturbing call from Sophie about Luke's dad missing, Angel stayed up In JC's room with him. Their baby must have picked up on her mood, or just missed his daddy, because he was extra whiney, and if she put him down, he would literally make her regret it, because the minute he noticed he wasn't in her arms he'd break out crying. She held him and rocked him, and at one point tried to sing to him, but couldn't. She'd tried to sing the Johnny-Chase song and ended up crying her damn self. Janet poked her head in and asked could she hang out with JC for a while. "Where?" Janet says here. Just as Angel was about to make another excuse to just stay up here, her phone rings. Looking up at her cousin she says, "Okay, just don't take him out of the house." Janet says she wasn't leaving the house she just wanted to help her cuzo anyway she could. "Thanks Jan." Angel hands JC to Janet and looked at her phone. She heads into her bedroom. After all the messages she'd sent she almost didn't believe the ring tone was really Andrew. "Hello?"

"Angel don't talk just listen." Well that didn't work. She asked him why he did this and where is her husband, and why he would do this to them. "STOP damn it, that's not important right now. Look, Davenport is at a place called Rose Manner or at least he said it used to be called that. Deon has him." She was so quiet he wanted to explain but he couldn't risk her trying to trace his location. "Bye Angel." Andrew hangs up.

At the hideout Deon comes from the room he had Joshua in since the place wasn't sound proof and his house manager didn't say who his guest was, he'd laid down a few mind fucks to Joshua and left him to stew over whether he was telling the truth. He walks into the kitchen and met with Alex, and Salvatore "Well I hope you have better news than I do." Alex asked what he meant and said for Deon please to not tell him that his kid escaped or something. "Oh no it's purely an electronic thing, my audio was screwy on a few parts of my surveillance recording in playback. Here is the money for your men's work you will see it is all there." Alex asks to see his son before he went any further.

Inside the room Joshua pulled at the cuffs he didn't want to think that Angel would come here with only Bradley as back up, but he'd done a lot of shit himself in the past to help or try to save people he loved. Niles came in he looked up at the guy as he approached and leans on the table. He gets close enough to Joshua's face not to be head butted and says in a low tone, "I know you have no reason to believe me, but your wife nor brother is here." Niles stands back up and walks out of the room.

Inside the car under the blanket Dr. Lucas Sheldon Sr. tries to pull his hands out of the zip tie. He tried not to think of what he was doing to his wrists, but he had to get the fuck out of here. He stops and listens he could hear crunching of gravel. The door opens, and hands grab him. He tries to fight them off it was bad enough he had been moved from where he was captured. They grab ahold of his feet and drag him out of the car. Though he was gagged he didn't let up on trying to curse them out. That is until the blanket came off and he looked up at the man that had offered to help him with his car that then put a gun to his head. They guy says he knows that this was a lot to take in, so he wanted his guest of honor to be rested. Felling the prick of a needle Lucas's world slides in to fog and then to black.

Alex is assured that the drug would wear off in a little under an hour. They carry the doctor to the room Deon had his son in. Alex looked at the screen and wanted to blow Deon's head off his shoulders. He couldn't show any emotion. If Sal thought for a second, he cared about Boy other than to cure his blood he'd have given the den something to use to keep him in line. Deon asks what now. "Now we wait for the doctor to wake up from his nap." Alex has Deon's men lay the doctor on the floor and put the blanket that had been obscuring his identity from Joshua under his head and leave them in the room together. The look that stole over Boy's face when he realized that he knew his roommate made Alex want to know what other than recognition that was in his son's gaze. They walk back to the kitchen with Sal watching the screen to make sure that when the doctor was done with his nap, they could start this thing. Sal had first balked at the idea of watching the captives but then shrugged and said Alex was running this. Alex had stayed out of the room on purpose he didn't want Boy to know he was here yet. As he sat at the table with Deon. Deon rolled a few and asked him did he want to join the party. "No, it would be kind of stupid for me to come to all this trouble just to fuck up my own procedure. Thanks for having all this set up."

Deon says "You did most of the work. You trained my newer men to do a job they won't soon forget. I had a blast paying Josh back for most of the shit he has put me through. I can't wait until he gives you what you need then I will have his wife and my ex come get him and capture them but, you might want to say goodbye to him after the doctor works his magic, because unlike our arrangement I won't let them live." Deon takes a drag from his cigar filled with drugs and starts coughing. He looks at it and says "That's, excellent."

Back at Ivey Mansion, Angel tells the first person she thinks can help that she sees. As she runs down the stairs, she sees Chase. "Dad, Andrew called, he says that Joshua is at what used to be Rose Manner. I don't know if it's a trick but it's more than we have." As Chase is about to speak her phone rings again. This time she didn't want to answer but so many things didn't make sense right now, that anything was possible. "Hello Vivian, I really don't have time to set up your home coming party."

"Cute. Angel I spent the night with Joshua. He's hurt and afraid and rightfully so, because Deon has lost what is left of his drugged-out mind. The only reason I'm talking to you is because I am holding up my end of our deal. Get him out of there because even though he doesn't want me, I don't want him dead either. He in a house across the lake from your place, you can see the top of the house it has a wraparound balcony on two levels. The address is." Angel says the address with her. "So, you knew, and didn't care enough to send in help for him damn you're a cold-hearted bitch." Angel tells her that Andrew called her and said Joshua was at what used to be Rose Manner minutes before Viv called. "Wow so from what Joshua told me, after the agent double crossed him, told him it wasn't personal, Andrew admitted to still being stuck on you, I'm surprised he didn't just come back there and try to help you through the pain of missing your mate and make a move on you." Angel starts to say something. Vivian cuts her off "Anyway did Andrew tell you that, Joshua is in a room on the first floor towards the back of the house the room has no exterior windows. There are 8 guards, that always patrol the property. Deon has three people inside that works for him maybe adding Andrew to that mix, so Angel get him out of there before your bodyguard kills your husband. Oh, and if you do get him back please tell Joshua that his kiss was repaid." Vivian smiles as she'd heard Angel say his what right before she hung up.

As Angel hung up, she wasn't going to think about the last part. Right now, she had two people that has told her where Joshua is that she didn't expect to hear from. She doubted they were working together either way she had to try. She tells Chase everything because she feared filtering of her words could get something important lost in translation. Chase called Joy and at the same time as he was inviting her over, he pulled his Blackberry and texted something and put it back in his pocket. Angel had no idea the older phone was still active.

Angel went to the third floor and looks out at where her husband is. Rose Manner or what used to be called Rose Manner. Victor Rose was a wealthy married man that loved throwing Halloween galas, his wife was a part of the GSSEC. Angel remembers the first year Joshua and she met, she went to his house for his birthday but was bummed that she would not be having her own party at her place, so she could invite him. She told Joshua that her mother was making her go to the party in Rose Manner. She tried to get Chase to change Sophia's mind, but it was a social thing and Sophia had won that argument. What her mother wasn't expecting was that Angel would for once have someone there with her that she wanted to be with, and that boy was Joshua Davenport. Oh, Sophia raged and threatened, but Chase had told her that if she was making Angel go to these god-awful galas on her own birthday, then she should at least get to bring someone she got along with as her plus one. Joshua had dressed as the Phantom of the Opera complete with an old fashion tux. Later in life Joshua told her how he came about that costume. As small a smile touches Angel's lips as she thought of Sally hard at work with her sewing machine. Josh said that Michael had Sally tailor an old tux of his and found a mask from the year Sally went to a mascaraed party and altered it. It worked perfectly that was one of the best birthdays at a GSSEC gala Angel would ever have. Joshua as the Phantom and she of all people, dressed as Wonder Woman, sat on the steps, drinking punch, looking down at the party and making fun of everyone. The next year, Mr. Rose and his wife suddenly moved out of not only Grandville South Proper, but out of Texas all together. Getting up she had to do something Joshua was now so far away yet so very close if he was in there, she could see the outline of the huge Georgian style home that sat across the massive Cherry Lake from their home. Jonathon surprised her as he said he wondered where she'd run off to. When he stayed the night, he now stayed up here on the third floor across for this room. She explains about the calls she received once again not leaving anything out. She points at the center of the skyline. "If it's at all true all this time Joshua has been somewhere in that house over across the lake. If it's not true Andrew and now Vivian are working together, and Deon has been mentioned both times. Whatever part of this is true, one thing is certain, we have to get Joshua away from Deon."

Jonathon tells her he had to make a call and walks back across the hall into his bedroom. "Yes, may I speak to Joseph please?" Joey comes on the line. "I may have found a solution to what I'm paying you for. Deon Baza the new don of the Vargo family I have the location, but I also have a problem. My son is there, and I don't want him hurt. No, he's not a part of their family, he was captured. I don't know why, every time we think we have an answer someone comes along and changes the question." Joey asks for the address. Jonathon tells him. Joey says it was very helpful of him to have called he was starting to think things about Jonathon and was glad his story matched someone else's. Joey then hangs up.

Sophie sits in the den with Luke who is laying on her. He'd been like this ever since shortly after Joy drove him back in his car and they had argued. It was one thing for Sophie to hear him slide in and out of his fugue state, but it was quite another to witness it in person. One minute, he'd be silent and the next he'd be ready to go find his father on his own and when she wouldn't let him out of the house they argued. Luke had got it in his head that since they knew where Joshua was that he would go get them both back. The determination in her husband's dark blue gaze reminded her of another blue-eyed person in her family that is in a lot of trouble right now. She'd tried calmly speaking to him. Calm wasn't going to cut it anymore. That evaporated into her screaming at him as she stood in his way and refused to move. He yelled back what was he supposed to do. She yelled she didn't know but she just knew she couldn't let him go out there an end up in the fucking lake trying to get onto a property that was heavily guarded by well-armed fucking mobsters. He'd said he would be watchful. It was dirty, but it was truth when she said "Joshua was paranoid, armed, and watchful, and according to footage that Andrew tried to delete that Joy recovered, none of it helped. You are not a stupid man, you know they would be on high alert expecting someone to show up. This shit terrifies me Luke, as I'm sure it does everyone in this house old enough to understand what's at stake." She remembers the look on his face as the anger was once again replaced by dread. He walked away from where he'd stood mere inches from her at the door and sat on the sofa with his hands up to his face. For long minutes he said little to nothing. Sophie had no doubt that this emotional shift was one of the biggest impulses Luke had to deal with in a long time. She understood, hell they all wanted to storm the castle sort of speak, but it was a stupid impulsive plan that had too many ways to fail. She'd sat next to him and he laid his head in her lap.

Luke thought a long time about what Sophie was saying. She'd been asleep when this nightmare started. Just last year she nearly lost her own life trying to get her father back. She was strong, but he'd seen the cracks. Her family, their family had already been through so much. He yelled at her that she didn't understand, that was a lie because she understood way more than he ever wanted to. He sits up and looks her in the eye and says "I'm sorry Sophie, because you have had to go through this before and are still, and tonight I'm sure my words didn't make it any better. I'm sorry I scared you. You're right, because me running over there and getting shot at more than likely even if I managed to survive, my presence could make things worse." He stands up and Sophie does too, did she think he was going run out of the room? Had he given her a reason not to think along those line? He sighs "I haven't broken a promise to you and don't plan on starting. I'm not going anywhere near that house, but I can't just sit here and do nothing. I'll head to Sheldon Medical here in Grandville South. If this remains the only thing I can think about, I'm going lose it."

Sophie saw the shudder that ran through him. "Ok, I trust you." She walks him to their garage and watched him leave. It was a small comfort that he wasn't slipping in and out of a fugue state anymore, but his mind was still in overdrive.

Outside the room watching Davenport and the sleeping form of the doctor Sal put his other plan into action. He'd made a call to his team. They were scouting to see if there were more ways to do this. He spotted three armed guards when they arrived but knew there had to be more than three. While he thought of how he was going to do this he looked up in time see the doctor move.

"So, my wife was right. The news was so vague. At 6 in the morning you were listed as a local pub owner that had not come home. By noon your name and photo populated most of the channels and you were listed as missing. That was yesterday. Why am I here?"

Joshua looked up when he heard Luke's father talking to him. "I don't know exactly because any time I think it's one person someone else pops up." As if on cue, someone Joshua hadn't seen before walks in and tells him that was enough talking. He then asks Dr. Sheldon where his doctor bag was.

Lucas narrowed his eyes and asked. "You are joking right?" the man that had helped abduct him pulls his gun and points it at Lucas's head saying no he didn't joke. Lucas didn't even own a doctor's bag any longer, let alone carry one to his country club. If his son needed him as consult, he went to the fully upgraded center that bared his surname and used the equipment there. He was retired for Christ sakes. Not wanting to get shot at close range he says, "It's in my trunk in a black case. I didn't have it up front because I was heading home. I haven't done house calls in a long while. I'm retired." His son's brother agrees with him that he is retired.

Alex walks in and the look his son threw him was one he hadn't expected before it was replaced by anger. "So, I think you have figured out why you are here." He turns to Sal "Is the good doctor ready to gets this show on the road?"

"I'm glad he knows your plan, but I haven't the faintest Idea what you want from me." When Alex says what he needed and why, Lucas looks at Mr. Davenport. "Unless you have a sterile environment somewhere in this house it could be deadly for you both." Sal speaks about the doctor's med bag. Alex steps out of the room to ask Deon about the arrangements they had spoken about. Deon says that room was almost finished but he would put a rush on it. Alex asks would they need the doctor's bag. "It all depends on what you have. You are all armed, and I don't have a fatal fantasy so will you please take these things off me?" Sal snips the zip tie "Thank you." Lucas says as he rubs his wrists. Deon waltzed in the room and whispers something at Joshua slaps him in the face then leaves back out.

Sal and Alex follow him. Alex says he wants to see the room. Deon tells Niles to watch their guests. Niles nods and positions himself in front of the viewing screen. The house manager walks with Deon and the guys to a room pass the kitchen and up the stairs. Deon opens the door and Alex grabs Deon. The house manager reached for his weapon, but Sal was quicker and put his gun to Deon's head using him as a shield. "Unless you want his brains all over the floor, you will take you hand from your waist." The house manager looks at Deon. Deon tells him to do what Alex's partner said. The man moves his hand from his waist. Alex asks Deon what he was trying to pull. Deon said he figured they would only need one hospital bed since he was the only one that was going to survive. The set up as Deon called it, was a bunch of needles set on a battered dresser, and one hospital bed with a stained sheet on it. Sal sighs "Ok boys we need that doctor's bag, it's bound to have a hell of a lot more than we have. Let's just calm down and I'll leave and go get the bag and see if I can at this late hour score some real equipment." Alex says yeah because he wasn't leaving he'd come too far to fail. "Fair enough, oh and Deon if you get the idea of killing my coworker here, my boss will open up the gateway to hell at your front door. In short you won't exist anymore, and neither will this beautiful house. You boys play nice." Sal turns and walks back down the stairs and out of the backdoor.

Lucas gets to his feet minutes after the men leave them alone. Joshua says in a subdued voice "Whatever you're thinking don't. They are watching and can hear us." Lucas walks over and sat on the edge of the table and ask what his ex-bass player said to him. "It doesn't matter."

Lucas get up and gets in the younger man's face. "The hell it doesn't. If he told you his plans for us I deserve to know what I'm up against." The younger man looks away from him and says he was safe as far as he knew. Lucas drops his voice to just above a whisper. "I'm not a fool, I saw their faces not that I'd be able to remember them in a line up. Take away their guns, and they don't really have anything about them that is distinctive. Two white males with dark hair. Do you know how much of Texas alone that description covers? Hell, you and I both would fit such a vague description. Mr. Davenport what did he say?" When Davenport looks at him Lucas already knew before the words left his mouth.

When Alex showed up, he'd thought that though he didn't want this to happen Alex would take what he needed and let him go. Joshua looked Luke's dad in the eyes and says in that numb tone he used before. "Deon isn't going to let me out of here alive. All he has to do with you is make sure you don't know where this place is and you're safe. He has no reason to kill you." Lucas gets closer still and says there is a massive search party beyond these walls. "The only people that knows where I am and that can tell my family, works for Deon. One has the hots for my wife, and the other has some weird obsession with me and blames me for ending her music career that Deon has promised to revive for her." Remembering the meeting at the hotel he says "I had a chance to make this right. My hate for him is going to be what gets me killed. I should have just agreed and then he wouldn't have had to do all this. He warned me, and I thought I was being so careful." An auditory illusion assaults him of Angel telling him to "be extra careful" the night all this started. "will do" he says on a choked sob as tears run unchecked from his eyes as he lowers his head onto the table.

Lucas touches the young man's back in a gesture of comfort and was surprised when the young man jerked away from him. He'd seen the visible bruises that peppered the young man's face, and exposed skin, but from the quick indrawn shuddering breath he wondered just how injured his son's brother was. "Mr. Davenport?"

Joshua unclenched his fist and tried to relax. Taking a breath, he says "Dr. Sheldon just call me Joshua, I cut up my back on something. It didn't start bothering me until I woke in my office and got tasered by someone that was supposed to be protecting me."

That explained the leads that were still stuck like fish hooks in Joshua's flesh. "I want you to know that I'm going to try my hardest to get us both out of this mess." At first Joshua looked at him as if he was going to say something then said ok.

At a new hotel Andrew gets a text message telling him to play DJ again. He set up his internet bouncer and watched what was going on in the room, and nearly fell out of his chair when he saw Luke Sheldon's father sitting on the table talking to Joshua. In his head he had dropped the detached routine the moment he heard Angel ask him what he wanted. She'd asked why he did it. He had no answers that'd make any of this go away. He just hoped she believed him when he told her where Joshua is. For the longest time Andrew tried to remain detached, and call Joshua, "Davenport" to help keep that detachment but somewhere in between Angel telling him to wake the fuck up and stop asking her out, and Bobby rolling down that dark street and telling him to do his job and nothing more for fear that he was the rouge agent that was working for April. He'd proven to not only Angel and Joshua but Bobby as well that he could do the job and keep his charges safe, until now. He'd even been invited to events that had enough cover before he was awarded a major boost in rank to a close protection agent. Coming back out of his reverie, Andrew heard what Niles wanted him to turn down the sound on. Any talk of escape and it would trigger Deon's crazy ass to hurt them or even kill them. Andrew hit rewind and saw Alex, so Alex was a part of this. Through a face recognition program, he sent in the still shot of the other man in the room. His system dinged at him telling him he had a message.

Soon after Luke left, Joy called and asked could she bring Sophie's mother in law Ella to the house. Sophie said she'd prefer it. Joy says, "Sophie, Ella almost fainted upon seeing me walk up to the porch. Her house manager let me in and before I opened my mouth she paled, I've seen that look more times than I ever wanted to as a detective. I told her what we know." When Joy leaves Sophie walks to the atrium door and watched Ella as she sat in the living room. She offered her mother in law something to drink. Ella shook her head. She'd seen how Luke was wired to deal with things, but Ella's silent suffering was deafening. Seeing this side of Ella was ripping Sophie apart. Sophie sits near her mother in law and says, "They are going to get them back."

Ella looks up at Sophie her daughter and says. "Oh, Sophie, they must. I can't lose Lucas" She paused to take a breath and though she did not say it aloud she thought, "I can't lose him now If I did, my world would fall into an impenetrable darkness." As she looks at her daughter she says "Lucas and I have been married for almost 47 of the best years of my life. This doesn't make sense, in all Lucas's time of practicing medicine, even when he first started in the clinics in underprivileged areas of Glenview, no one ever wanted to hurt him. When the gangs took over that block, they liked and respected my husband enough to leave his clinic alone. To this day Sheldon Clinic is literally the only building that remains unharmed on that block. I find that this is just so hard to wrap my mind around, Lucas is a good man? Why couldn't they take the morally vagrant bitch that is spouting nonsense about my son? Her, they leave alone to continue her lies." At the look of confusion on her daughter's face. Ella realized too late that her hurt and anger may have loosened her tongue a bit too much. She was then saved by the phone in Sophie's hand playing a song that had been played at her son and daughter's wedding. Ella mouths "Tell Luke hello for me. I'm going to go lie down for a bit." Sophie pointed towards the room that Candy used to occupy. Ella nodded and gets up and walks into the room closing the door. She knelt at the end of the bed and prayed for Lucas and Joshua's safe return.

Joy returns home and was surprised at the smell of food cooking. "Bobby?" Angel walks out of the kitchen saying he's in his home office. Her soon to be sister calling her mate's war room an office made her smile at the memory of him telling her that his family really didn't know what he did. "Angel, what are you doing here besides cooking something that smells really good? Thanks, by the way."

"You're welcome. I asked Bobby if he wouldn't mind some company. Bobby texted back sure and that he was ordering takeout for you guys and asked did I want some, I offered to cook. Ella is at the house. So is Sally and Michael. If anyone else ask, have I heard anything new I'm going to scream. Cass and Rapture came over hours after Andrew and Vivian called me. I just needed to get out of there. My dad dropped me off on his way back up to LEGNA." Alarm stole over Joy's expression as she asked where her nephew was. "He's with his grandpa Chase." Joy gets an alert and excuses herself. Angel retuned to the kitchen.

Joy walks to Bobby's war room and knocks. He can be heard moving around and then says come. Joy opens the door and closes it behind her. He was in his element, for a time she just soaked him in. His sleeves rolled up, his hair tied back, out of his strong face. His dark intent gaze on his screen. He looks up at her over his main computer and asks did she get his message. "Yeah, like two minutes after I walked in and thought we'd acquired a cooking and cleaning fairy." Joy says with a smile and approached the rounded desk and sits next to her mate. "So, you think Andrew is moving closer?" Bobby points out something that popped up minutes ago. Joy opens her laptop and logged in. Andrew's tag was using a police database that she had let Bobby and his team use. Joy had helped create the software for the program. "He fucking thinks he can use my damn database and I'm not going to say anything. Fat chance Agent Dumb Ass."

Capt. Wildflower J": Hello Agent Stark care to tell me where Mr. Davenport and Dr. Sheldon are? Don't disconnect or I will take that very personally and send a SWAT team to your location.

She'd hacked his damn laptop which made this all that much worse for him. She'd jumped over his firewall in the few minutes he was on. Even if she didn't have an exact room location, he would be hard pressed to leave this building. She'd have him pinned down the minute he tried to reroute the signal. He responded using the same message program.

Agent Stark A.: Capt. Wildflower I have intel, but I don't have them. They are in a house across the lake from Ivey Mansion. I have the updated blueprints of the location and where target one and target two are being held. Sending share feed please do not rush my location. There is also video surveillance of the location's inside.

Joy accepts the video share request after scanning it for viruses she wouldn't be taken down by something desperate and juvenile. She keeps an eye on the other screen Bobby had opened for her that would still be searching for the exact location. The building he was in had 45 floors including an underground garage. When she sees the other video, she sits closer to the screen, and taps Bobby on the arm telling him to look. He writes on a piece of paper may he join in. She shakes her head and makes a flying motion with her hand this was the most intel they had received since the phone calls and her retrieving the deleted parts of video, and she didn't want Andrew seeing Bobby's user name and running. With the fact that the building was an older one with more steel. The older construction made it harder to locate his exact room location.

As Niles stands watching Joshua Davenport and Dr. Lucas Shelden on the screen, he was running out of time, he'd been in this so long that at times the lines were starting to blur. Strapping on the paramilitary uniform to play the part of a STOP team member to help extract Stark and Davenport from Davenport's club had reminded him of just why he was here. He'd been deep undercover for 5 years now. When Henriette was here, he'd never been able to get where he was in rank within the family. He'd worked hard to gain her trust when she'd brought in Deon, he'd made sure to be the extra good hard worker that accepted the new leader, and it had paid off, he was Deon's number 1 inside and now his outside number one as well with Ben dead. He'd seen way too much to let this continue. He would help Andrew as best he could until he was in position. His superiors weren't interested in a small-time drug dealer they wanted the bigger fish signed, seal, and delivered. When he submitted his extraction request this morning before Deon woke, he was approved to move forward. Andrew sent him a message.

A Stark: Is this live?

KN: Yes, just keep an ear out for anything that we may have to play music on.

Angel knocked on the door. Soon Joy comes out and closes the door behind her. Angel steps back not to be in Joy's face and says that dinner is ready. Bobby walks out with a tablet in one hand and his phone in the other. Joy says "Though we don't have them back. Angel I have at the very least what is called proof of life. I have verified that it is a live feed or moving video surveillance of Joshua and Dr. Sheldon." Angel asks to see it. Joy turns to Bobby. Angel looks up at him as well. Bobby says it was Joy's case. Angel says but it's her husband and the father of her brother in law. "Angel this isn't like a conference call more than likely he knows someone is watching but doesn't know who. We are going to follow the plan of going in tomorrow morning." Angel refocused on Joy and asks to please let her see it. Joy thought about it, and when she'd seen Joshua so beaten up she'd leaned into Bobby who closed his own eyes for a moment. "Okay," Bobby hands the tablet over and Angel's eyes brim with unshed tears as she touches the screen. She looks up and asks isn't there a way they can get them out of there tonight. "No Angel as much as I want to, I can't risk missing an extra crew of guards. I'm not risking their lives and the lives of my team on some information that I can't verify. We have proof of life. We have an address and a blueprint including the new remodeling done in the last 5 years. Are you staying the night, if so I'll let Chase know when I share the newest details with him?" Bobby reaches for the tablet and comments on how good the food smelled.

Angel put the tablet to her chest and pleads with them both to let her keep it just until they finished eating. "I'd like to stay the night. I'm torn because here I can at the very least see him. I know I should be home with my son but last night I laid in JC's room on the floor near his crib on Joshua's air mattress. I'm glad my baby got sleep because every smell or area of our child's room reminds me of our time in there as a family. Our bedroom is…" Joy cuts her off and says she understands. They sit down to eat, and Angel tilts the screen, so she could see.

Alex walked down the hall to check on his son. Niles stood blocking the screen. Alex soon stands next to Deon's number one soldier. "How's he doing?"

Niles looked at Alex. "If you want the bare bones truth your man had better get back here soon. Davenport had less than 6 ounces of water since this party started. He refuses to eat or drink for fear that we are going to poison him. The doctor asked to be able to take the leads out from the taser but my boss likes pulling on them because it brings Davenport pain." Alex walks away. and soon can be heard repeating what he said. Deon called for Niles. He runs into the kitchen what he saw before him was an opportunity. Deon was on his way to pass out land and this time he'd talked the other three house guards including Jamie that was the house manager into partaking. They sat staring at the fridge with blank expressions on their faces. He could take control of the house. He'd only have one shot at this. All he needed was for Deon to pass out. A few times since this operation started, he wished Deon would just pass on into hell. Niles five years ago fucked up a mission and got sent here. Back then, he always balked at desk work, after his debriefing he was taking a long vacation, and would happily return to his office in Washington D.C.

"Help me to my room, I seemed to have forgot that I have a date coming. Vivian won't fuck me so I'm getting keyboardist tail tonight. That's right, Alice formerly of Angelic Impression plays better than the self-taught bitch I used to love," He moves his slight accent into the over exaggerated combination of South African and English. He winks at Niles and says it worked on his first blonde. Niles helps Deon to his room.

"Before I go back down there is it ok for the doctor to take the leads out of Davenport? That could set up infection and blow this deal." Deon turns to him and tells him do whatever just make it hurt, he just wanted his prize tonight and would worry about anything else tomorrow. Alice shows up at the bedroom door. Niles sees she had a key." He congratulates her and walks back down the stairs. As he reenters the kitchen the guards and house manger were passed out. He did a perimeter check. No way in hell that woman would have got in here without someone knowing key or no key. The team guarding the front of the house says they made contact before letting her pass and asked was there a problem on the inside. He radios back, "No problem, just making sure our boss's fun package came alone." That also made him look for Alex. It wasn't hard to find him he stood watching the screen. Niles didn't get the man. He'd seen the flash of anger that passed over the guy's face when he first saw Davenport but hell, he'd ordered this shit. "Have you heard from your partner?" Alex says not yet. "Look I need you to cover me, or I can cover you bottom line, we need to get in there get the doctor to check him out." Niles had seen Sheldon trying to check out Davenport without it being obvious, but it's pointless with nothing to work with. "Davenport catches an infection, and you both are toast." Alex asks is there anymore medical shit around here other than the shit in the room Deon had set up. "I have a kit it's basic, but I did my research, this doctor used to work on 72nd street in Glenview in a clinic back in the day. I don't have anything that would be able to replace all the shit you need, but at least a modified safety kit could get him cleaned up and we'd get to see if the doctor's hands are still steady. Nothing in the research said why he turned over the med centers." Alex nods his head and agreed that he would go in. Niles goes to his private room and picks up his safety kit. When he renters the hall Alex was where he left him.

Inside the room Alex soon walked in with a metal safety kit and set it as his feet. "Dr. Sheldon you are going to check him out, get those fucking hooks out of him? Considering you did remind me many times that you are retired, this is a test to see if you still got it. So, if you got some disorder that isn't on the record that made you give up the medical centers, this would be the time to come clean." Sheldon stood from where he sat on the table. In a way it looked as if he was guarding Boy. What had he missed? Boy wouldn't even meet his gaze. That didn't stop Sheldon from speaking up.

"Over half of my life I've dedicated to my work. Of all things that I will have to do against my will here, helping him isn't one of them. I accept your challenge and ask that you do me a favor. Hand me the key to the cuffs. Think of it this way, he's not going to attack me because I'm not here to harm him. This room is covered by armed men and the last thing I want is someone shooting us through that fucking mirror, so you know that I won't attack you. I'll need to scrub up somewhere, you can watch if you like, you don't seem to be the trusting sort and the feeling is mutual." Alex asked why he needed to uncuff Boy to work on him. Sheldon sighs trying not to show too much in the way of his true feelings. "Sir, I know you're in charge you've proven that, but I do believe he's much older than a boy. You've address me by my title why not address him with some of the same respect? Symbolically, and quite literally his life's blood is what will save your life. A life you value and have proven you will do most anything to preserve."

Alex opens his mouth looks at Boy and says. "He's my kid and I'll call him what I want. You got a problem with that tuff shit doc. I'll ask you one more time, why do you need to uncuff my kid to work on him?" Sheldon points out that his kid had been in that position for at the very least 36 hours. He says he didn't have very good lighting and at the very least if Joshua laid on the table, he'd be able to remove the charge hooks at an easier angle then trying to turn his own mature body into a pretzel. Sheldon steps back and pulls up Joshua's pant leg showing him the dark puffy circles that were above and below the cuff on his ankle. "What the hell is that?"

"That is edema or swelling caused by not only the tightness of the metal but also lack of movement, add in the dehydration and in short you are harming the only person that can help you." Alex says he hadn't noticed that he was cuffed at the feet as well. "I'm sure there's a lot you haven't noticed but that's neither here nor there."

Alex says, "Watch it doc. Hall now." As he walks over and grabs ahold of the doctor.

Hearing the steel in Alex's voice, Joshua lifted his head in time to see Alex move closer toward them and grab Dr. Sheldon by the arm pulling him out of the room. "Dr. Shelden, what I said earlier only applies if you don't make them mad at you in the process."

Alex let's go of the doctor and says. "Whatever he told you earlier, you should listen to him. You wanted to scrub up and the only place you can do that is next door, I'm telling you this isn't the country club you take a swing at me and we will have to bring in another doctor."

Lucas looks from Joshua then back at Alex and says, "I'm sorry that was over the line."

Across the lake at Ivey Mansion, Chase, Amy, Sophie, Paula, Cassandra, and Sally sit in the den listening and watching the video chat screen on Sophie's computer As Joy, Bobby, and Angel appear in two windows at Bobby's home Joy speaks to the people in the house and to her team updating them on what new information they received. Gloria with Jonathon is soon plugged in from LEGNA. Chase asks most of the questions as he typed between his phone and his tablet. At one point he said. "Gloria I am happy that you have managed to keep a lot of the reports as invasive as possible if you can please keep this up. Angel don't feel obligated to come back right now I understand. If you can, please try to get some sleep tonight." Sophie chimes in and agrees. Angel looks at the window with her father in it and back at the live feed on the tablet and says she will try. Bobby says he has that feed on his computer in his, Joy cuts him off and says his home office. Everyone was brought up to speed and Joy asked was there any more questions. They all said no the secure window that Bobby had set up for the conference call was then shut down.

Salvatore spoke to a few people and was able to talk one of the Wolfe's associates into letting him barrow a med vehicle. He heads back and calls Alex who is in a mood. "Look I have a bigger gift than a doctor bag in a car that is being watched by the cops. How you would like a whole med vehicle? Then we can take our little show on the road." Alex says that sounded a lot better than what they had. "I'm on my way." Sal calls his team and says, "I'm 5 blocks from location one on my signal kill the lights and shoot anything that tries to stop me." Just then a police car pulls behind him and hits its lights. Great, G north cops were mostly on the take and would know who he worked for. When the officer pulled in front of him and walked back with his gun drawn. Even better a state cop. Salvatore waited until the guy got to his door asking him to turn off the engine. He says the code word. "DCC" the officer points his already drawn weapon at Sal's head. Was this rookie serious? "You're a little too old to be this stupid do you know who I…" Someone opens his passenger side door and points a gun at his groin. "You have my full attention what is it you boys need?"

"You're not the only one that likes to play dress up. You are going to continue with your little ruse Fenny" At the man's shocked expression the man that now sat in the passenger seat with his gun still pointed at Sal's manhood continues "I am not without resources. When this is over if I still don't like your answers more than your manhood will be dead and on display. If you say anything that is signal based to your team, it will slow me down, but you won't live past the second word of your code. I will not fail in taking down your entire cell. Or I will drop you at Wolfe's doorstep and let him deal with his unruly children. Your move, queen."

Alex watched the doctor scrub up and opened the door back into the room his son was in. He asked for the key. Niles asked what he needed it for. He wanted to see this low life squirm and squirm he did. He tells Niles about how his partner had found everything he would need so all he needed was his son and they could get it done and he could then leave the doc and his so for Deon. "First off, lower your voice, were you raised in a barn?" Alex glared at him. "I promise you'll only get one swing and I'll plant your little ass out back in the garden." Niles hands Alex the key and says he'd have to run the rest of the plan by his boss. Alex runs in the room and soon comes back out. "So how are we getting all this equipment in here tonight?" Alex says his partner found a med truck. Niles says, "You can't bring them back, Deon will kill them and I'm trying to keep my meal ticket out of prison." Alex says he can't keep them if he has to he'll just have to killed them after he gets what he wants because he couldn't risk the doctor or his son getting him arrested. He says that he'll have back up from his own crew this time. This time he would do shit right." Wait so maybe I saw something that wasn't there. When you first got here you looked pissed that Deon had went so far, now you're telling me that you'd kill your kid and some doctor that you don't even know?" Alex yells he fucked up before he wouldn't make that mistake twice.

Inside the room Dr. Sheldon and Joshua listen to the verbal exchange happening right outside the door. Joshua looked up at Dr. Sheldon as he went back to uncuffing him from the table. Joshua felt weighted all over, like he'd just come out of the pool. "I thought Deon would at the very least let you go."

Dr. Sheldon spoke in a lowered tone as he opened the safety kit. "Joshua, I have a question yes or no?" The young man looked at him. "With him and his men moving us, even if by some miracle your ex band member told your wife we will no longer be where she knew you were. We're both dead anyway, why just hand him life? At the very least he will have gone to all this trouble for nothing. If I refuse, he'll kill me, he's planned to do that regardless so what's the point of being fucking compliant?"

Joshua was shaking and couldn't stop. Fear, sorrow, and anger pummeled his emotional grid. He hadn't cried this much since laying on his office floor when he thought Angel had left him. But now though he it wasn't his choice, just when he'd got everything he ever prayed for, a wife and child that loves him, even a stronger bond with his adoptive family, and even in-laws that loved him. Just when everything seemed to come together Alex was going to take him away from all of it, for good. Fear for his son pushed the words from him. "No, do it, I should have done it when he asked the first time. I'm sorry you got pulled into this Dr. Sheldon. I really am. It'll be hard enough leaving my family behind, but Alex has proven that he can get around some of what we thought were the best safety measures. If this don't work, he'll go after my son and my brother your son to do it. At least if he gets what he wants they'll be safe once and for all." Sheldon has him lean back in the chair. The pain of moving from the position he'd been in for almost 2 days was extremely painful. He was having trouble breathing and he was sure crying wasn't helping. Sheldon removes one of the hooks that was shot into his skin by his close protection agent. He barley felt it when Sheldon snagged his skin trying to get the next hook out. He watched the blood stream down his arm and collect over the tattoo he'd had done to cover up his past self-harm. Just like he couldn't see the words anymore he'd never see his family again.

Though his emotions swung like a pendulum from hopeless depression to anger Lucas continued patching up his patient. When he dabs at the blood on the young man's forearm, he felt the scar tissue and he knew the art underneath spoke of a different pain. This young man and his son were around the same age. "I don't accept your apology because none of this is your fault. The man that claims you as his "kid" Lucas snarls "had you captured, he is the only one at fault. That man is no father because there isn't a real father that would do this to their own. You had every right to refuse him. This isn't a sure thing, nothing medical is a sure thing. Even if you are a match. You keep saying that you should have agreed sooner. If you had of went through with it and it failed, he would have been back." As he took the bandage off Joshua's forehead. He worked as he spoke. "Joshua, I made you a promise when I first arrived. I'm the one that is sorry son, because I'm afraid there is nothing, I can do to help either of us out of this situation."

Angel, who'd been watching the live feed jumps from the guest bed and runs down the hall. Yes, they were scheduled to rush the location at 8 a.m. but that would not help Joshua if Alex took them somewhere before then. She knocked on Bobby's home office door. Joy came from the kitchen asking what was wrong. Bobby comes out of his office and ask Joy to come watch something. The words sprung from Angel as if self-propelled. She quickly says that Alex was planning to move Joshua and Dr. Sheldon and that Alex was planning on killing them both. Joy takes the tablet and calls her people asking questions as she heads into Bobby's office. Bobby looks from her to back at the door that had just closed. He says he needs to get back in there. Angel hugs him and just as quickly released him when he winced she says sorry and headed back down the hall. He says, "Angel if I wasn't injured, I'd be out there, you know that right?" She turns around looks at him and nods. Bobby heads back into his war room and sat at his computer. He asks Joy a question and she told him she'd already made contact and for him to speak to Andrew.

Andrew had told them everything Bobby saw a lot of things that he would add later into the report he would send to Harold. Only after interviewing the other agents that were part of Andrew's team that night did he find out how isolated Andrew had kept his team. For the most part since contact was reached Joy had spoken to Andrew for fear that Andrew would bury his head in the sand and go ghost on them. Bobby speaks to Andrew by the end of their short call Andrew agreed to send word to the agent inside the house that was sharing the feed with him. The name and the handle in the picture of their correspondence didn't match any names in their agency even the dark ones but it was clear that whoever Niles is, he was deep undercover. When Andrew described first contact it was clear to Bobby that Niles was trained at a government faciality.

Salvatore drove and tried to figure out who had one-upped him and when. Joey sat in the passenger seat and says, "You might want to give that signal now, we are 20 yards from that entrance." Salvatore hits his lights once, and all hell breaks loose as he rammed the med truck through the gate at an angle that knocked it out both brick posts. Men in army fatigue tried to take on the gunmen on the ground, that were covering the med truck. Joey radios his team and tells them to keep the den in their place. He gets a message and tells Sal to drive to the back of the house. His snipers would keep the den from entering the house.

Inside the room Dr. Sheldon holds out his hand and says to Joshua "Okay son take my hand and I'll help you to your feet. I need to look at your back so all you have to do is stand and I'll help you lay on the table." Joshua says he didn't want Sheldon pulling on his heavy ass and hurting himself. Lucas stood to the side. Joshua pulled himself up to a standing position. The instant pain increase made him dizzy and the breathless weighted feeling that had been subsiding came back stronger than ever. Dr. Sheldon was speaking to him he knew something was wrong when the doctor's voice sounded too far away. His knees buckled, and then suddenly, he felt nothing as his world faded to black.

"Joshua!" Dr. Sheldon caught Joshua and at least slowed down his decent. As he is kneeling at Joshua's side Alex charged into the room and reached for Joshua asking what he had done to his kid. Dr. Sheldon snapped, "I didn't do anything to my patient." Alex looks at him for a time and then pushes him away from where he'd intentionally positioned himself in front of Joshua. When Alex grabbed Joshua intent on slapping him. Dr. Sheldon launched himself at Alex and punched him knocking Alex to the floor. "Leave him alone damnit."

Alex pulls his gun; the doctor raised his hands out in front of him. Alex says, "The next time you hit me, will be your last." The door opens, and Niles comes in gun drawn but not at the doc, but at him. Without taking his eyes off the doctor Alex says, "Niles if you shoot me, my boss will hunt and gut you." when Niles spoke Alex looked at him because the person standing less than three feet away from where he sat, sounded way different than the guy had 5 minutes ago in the hall. Gone was the partial southern drawl and the kind of dumb follower persona.

"Mr. Knight that would be unfortunate, too bad for you there are more eyes on the screen than you think, lower your weapon, put it on the floor, first and final warning." Alex lowers his weapon and puts it on the floor. Niles walks over and kicks the gun away from Alex's reach. "Put both hands on your head." Alex complies to the demand and says he could get them all out of here and if Niles needed cash, he was flush with it. The doctor whose expression of fear hadn't changed from when he had pointed the gun at his head. Said he'd do whatever Alex wanted if he didn't kill him or his patient.

Alex speaks, "Sheldon I don't know what his deal is, but I just got a text from my partner. Look right now my team is outside in a med truck help me get my boy in, and if you do what you were brought here to do, I'll spare you. I know where you live so if you or my son tell the cops about this, I'll blow up your house and will make sure you, and your wife, are never found. See Niles, you were worried about me just killing some doctor I just met. If that is your sore spot, I fixed it. After I get what I want they return home, and I have insurance that they won't snitch, problem solved." The doctor looks from him back at Niles with his hands still in the air. "Niles, I meant it about getting you more money. If Deon is making you do this, just say the word."

Lucas asks Deon's man. "Mr. Niles may I check on my patient, you know what's in the safety kit and that I'm an no threat to you?" Niles says yes. Lucas turns around and kneels near Joshua who was still unconscious. The heat coming off the young man told him a lot and whatever they did they were going to have to get him real help soon. Reaching in the kit he cracks a plastic tube on the floor and put is on Joshua's forehead. He unbuttons the shirt and was even more alarmed. He'd seen the blood on the back of the shirt but had not been able to get a look at his front from how he'd been forced to sit. Niles asked what happened. "I don't have a lot of information, but we have to get him help. No matter who either of you work for, if your agenda includes keeping this young man alive no matter your time window or what for, he needs a lot more help than even I can offer him with no equipment." Alex gets a call. Niles walks over and takes the phone out of his pocket, putting it to his ear. Alex speaks to Sal who also didn't sound like himself.

With the door open they could hear when the back door was rammed in and men started heading their way. The words "In here" said from his men, never sounded so good to Nikes. He grabs Alex puts a knee in his back, snatched a pair of the cuffs off the floor that had locked Davenport to the table, and clamps them on Alex. He gets a message on his phone from Andrew. He tells his men of a private security firm working with them and their mission. Niles sends back.

NK: Thanks, I know of his work.

As Niles gets to his feet and pulls Alex up men aggressively come into the room. Niles says, "One injured, one ready for detainment." He points to Dr. Sheldon "he's with me. Did you detain the four in the kitchen?" An affirmative is given as he exits the room in front of Dr. Sheldon and watches as an older man and crew walk past with a gurney. Dr. Sheldon stops and looks at the man helping his son's friend onto the bed.

Joey feels eyes on him and looks up in time to see Lucas senior staring at him. "What you see is what you get doc." Lucas nodded curtly and walked out of the room behind "Niles" Joey had his notes on Niles and the name was a plant. A very good one but a plant none the less. He'd play along for now. "Niles, your boss?" Niles tells him where the bedroom was. "Armed or where you and his dough boys supposed to handle situations like us?"

As the old man pushes the gurney flanked by two people following them outside. Niles responds over his shoulder in the voice that was part of his cover. "He's armed with a doped-up female, the protection comes from our unit. It looks as if I was made to cooperate with law enforcement what's a guy to do?" When they reached the med truck. Niles sees Sal being taken from the driver's seat in handcuffs. He is then deposited in the back of a black windowless van. Joey has his men take Alex and put him inside the van as well. Another man that Niles knew walks pass him with one of his superiors, "Max?"

Maxwell Stalk Wolfe turned at his first name being spoken. The man they called Niles wasn't a stranger and he had no time for reunions. "Later we speak." He'd found out why part of his den was deployed without his knowledge and had promised an upper level dark agency head, that he would deal with his queen position of power which was his second in command Salvatore Fenny-Paradise, and his drug pawn, Alex Knight, internally. The dark agent had agreed, and Maxwell had changed the direction of the operation, and sent word to his den to fire exclusively upon Deon Valentine-Vargo's men to secure entry. Maxwell had offered to help the Vargo family leader on into the last goodnight but was told that position was filled. Maxwell and his den went to the van got in and drove off the property. Being woke at 4:30 this morning irritated Max being informed that his den would be detained if they interfered with the rescue of Chase Ivey's son, and best friend, drew a lot of pieces to an interesting puzzle together. He remained quiet as he watched his number one soldier and what was going to be his drug distributor. "Since I'd say you failed at whatever you were going to do. I'll give you both a time to answer my questions after I wake, until then you are to be put in a holding cell that you helped build Salvatore. I always did like your creative ways of torture."

Inside the hotel room Andrew paced, it had been two hours since he'd sent the last transmission. He hated being in the dark. Joy finally calls him "This is Andrew" Joy tells him to stay in the area and prepare to be picked up because they had a few people for him to see and listen to that could give them the man that supposedly held him at gun point. She hadn't misspoken, she still didn't fully believe him, even with all that he managed to give them. He understood but it still stung, but it stung less that a bullet from a STOP team. "Yes Captain, did they get them out of there ok? I lost signal." Joy confirms that she'd contacted the agent inside the house and cut Andrew's feed. She wasn't going to answer his question. "I'll be downstairs."

Inside the Med truck Niles drove as Joey and his team followed them. Lucas had informed them that they wouldn't be able to drive into the med truck bay of Sheldon Medical Center without prior approval. "Any way for you to get that?" Sheldon asked for his phone. Niles hands his cell to the doctor.

Lucas called his son. "Luke" the one word prompted a barrage of follow up questions from his son that he did not have time to answer right now. "I'm ok I need you to track the vehicle I'm inside with Joshua. He's unconscious and may have some internal injury. This Med truck has the Grandville Memorial emblem on the side, the truck number is Alpha, Foxtrot, 5032047. Yes, please clear us for entry into Underground Bay 5 if there is room. Have a team waiting. This truck is just a shell the equipment doesn't work." Lucas lapses into using medical jargon with his son. He points to the direction path for the truck. When they reach the window, they are waved in. "Thank you, son."

Joey and his men are not permitted entry in to the tunnel in their cars, so they turn around and head to public parking. Joey calls Chase "extraction complete. Will brief you further in person. We are here at Sheldon Med Center Grandville South." Chase says he must go but he will be there as soon as he can. "Willie, what we talked about I accept."

Chase sighs "I'll have the papers drawn up and inform all involved. Thank you, Joseph."

After getting Dr. Sheldon and Mr. Davenport to the hospital, Niles drove the Med truck back to the hideout. Looking at the clock in the dash which according to the doctor was the only "bloody thing" that worked in this dinosaur of medical moving equipment, it was 5am and time for the real fun to start. He'd sent in all video he was able to start transferring back dated video and taped conversations. The night of Mrs. Vargo's arrest he'd smoked with Deon and bugged his phone. Today during the extraction of the captives, he'd been told that Deon's room would be last after they tossed the rest of the house and secured the evidence needed to keep Mrs. Vargo and her husband Deon behind bars for a long time. The local police were getting a piece of this case since some of the crimes happened locally. His superiors were feeling quite generous. He got a call. As he parked, he gets out and is greeted with Deon yelling at him and crying. "Mr. Vargo I'm sorry they got the best of me what was I supposed to do?" Deon was holed up in his room and had taken the female Alice hostage. Which explained the sniper teams gathered on the roof of the building north of the house. Local was being led by a woman with long hair, that looked intense.

Earlier up at Ivey Mansion word travels via the medical system calling Sally as med contact, Cassandra as medical liaison two that Joshua Davenport is in serious condition at Sheldon Medical Grandville South Center and asked for permission to treat. The call clicks off before they can answer. Over at Bobby's house Angel answers her phone listens to the recording listing her as Joshua Davenport's medial liaison one and answers "Yes, please admit." She tears out of her room into Joy who was coming down the hall towards her. Catching Joy before she did a back-flip Angel steadies them both and speaks rapidly telling Joy that Joshua was at the hospital and could she please take her. Joy tells her that was why she was coming. Bobby comes out of his home office and he and Joy argue about if he can go or not. He says he was going whether she drove them, or he ordered an Ivey Transit. Joy conceded and said fine. As they exit the house, they see Rapture's huge vehicle speed down the hill towards the highway. Angel calls her father and tells him, Jonathon says Gloria and he were on their way. Angel hangs up and calls Sally who told her that the system called but clicked off before they could answer. "I answered, that's what may have cut your calls short." Hanging up with Sally, she calls Sophie who told her that she knew that Joshua and her father in law were at the very least out of captivity. "The last part of video I saw Dr. Sheldon looked unharmed but that was hours ago. Even hours ago, Joshua didn't look good, he is now in serious condition, Sophie I'm so afraid." They arrive and are shown to a waiting room. Joy then left saying this wasn't over.

When Luke called her earlier, Sophie had volunteered to stay home and watch JC, the twins, Nikki, and Janet she was also going to be fielding calls that came in. Chase and Amy along with Paula and even Mark who had showed up some time in the night were heading to the hospital. She hated hearing the fear in her sister's voice and says "Angel he's going to be ok, you are going to be ok I'm proud of you, you have been super strong for the both of you. I just need you to keep it up a little longer sis. I'll be here with JC and the kids, call me whenever you need to ok." Angel says ok. "I don't know when he got here last night but Mark is heading up there too. I have to get off here Ella doesn't know yet." Angel says for her to please go tell her. "Yeah, I think we need to have a talk anyway, but I'll tell you more about that later." As Sophie ended their call, Frank called her. "Yes Frank." He says since they were still in lockdown that Candy and Bradley's access card wouldn't work, and they were now at the gate. "No, it's not because of the lockdown, I flagged their access temporarily. Hand her the phone. Hello Candy, Angel, isn't here, Joshua and my father in law are not being held captive any longer." Candy says she couldn't believe that Angel wouldn't let her know something like this and asked to speak to Joshua. Frustration licked Sophie's tone. "Candy you are not to repeat this. Joshua is in the hospital." Candy says the system didn't call her. Not wanting to hear her or Bradley's why me shit, Sophie continues. "Angel is scared and stressed out enough, don't start this shit and make it about you, because, news flash it's not about you." Frank comes back on the line and says that Candy handed him the phone back and they pulled off. "Okay."

Chase sat next to Bobby who sat next to Angel who was writing something on a tablet she'd bought at the gift shop. Mark walks over and sits next to her. "What are you writing little one?" She looked up and for once her curtain of red hair unveiled the tear streaked face of his cousin. She said she was writing a song and then looked back down at her work. Paula came over and handed him a coffee. She says to Angel that they didn't have espresso, but they did have a mocha. Angel took the cup and thanks her then sat it down on the table. Mark put his arm around his cousin and pulled her towards him. "He's as stubborn as you are, he'll be fine." Angel just nodded but didn't look back at him. She mumbles something. Mark leaned in and asked what she said. She told him that he didn't hear the stuff Josh said before he passed out. "You want to talk about it?" She says no and turned from him and laid on Bobby. Mark gets up and walked across the room where Jonathon was sitting with Gloria. The divide was evident, Gloria was the reason they were sitting over here. When they arrived, it was like everyone prepared to move if she sat next to them. Angel had even stated that she'd agreed to work with Gloria, but this was personal. His uncle looked like a tennis ball there for a minute, bouncing from one side of the room to the other. When he walked over Gloria looked up at him and prepared to move, he wanted to sit next to Jonathon but waved her back down. "Uncle Jonathon, can I have a word with you in the hall?" He lifted his gaze from his phone and said sure as he rose. Gloria walked out and said she was going to go grab something to eat. Amy said she'd go with her.

Rapture sat talking to Sally and Cass. "Have you heard from Bradley?" Sally curtly shakes her head at him. "Look Mrs. Davenport I don't agree with what he said but he deserves to know so he can stop driving around town like a pig chasing his tail." Sally says it wasn't up to her, nothing was up to her. Rapture gets up and says he was going to go call Bradley. That earned him grumbles from the other side of the small room. "Look, you all are at the very least are here. Don't he deserve to know what is going on or at least that his little brother is no longer Deon's captive?" Bobby says Bradley deserved a fat lip. Cassandra says her brother was a hot head and got his information wrong and felt horrible about what he said to Angel. Sally tells them to please hush. She'd just got a text from Bradley that said he knew Joshua was in the hospital.

Bobby raises his voice at Sally and says, "You must be talking to them because telling me to shut up isn't a good plan right now ma'am." Chase tells Bobby not to cause a scene, the last thing they needed was a war of words attracting reporter sharks. Cassandra says she resembled that remark and had kept a lid on Joshua's location. Chase says he was glad then speaks to Bobby again saying Joy was going to be fine she was trained and had an entire team with her. "I know It's just that I wish I could do more..."

"Bobby, you are injured, you were winded just getting to that chair. I know it's not what you want to hear but son you would be more of a distraction than my newest future daughter would be able to deal with." Bobby looks over at his dad and says he knew he just had a lot going on in his head right now. Chase gets to his feet "I'm going for a walk."

Joy drove up to the house that had held her brother for 2 fucking days and gets out. Deon's house men were in custody in her patty wagon. The ones that were guarding this big dark monstrosity were either dead or sent to the med center in Grandville North. She didn't want any of them near her little brother. Schooling her face, she looks in the mirror and made sure she'd reapplied her makeup. One of the hardest things she tried to do, was keep her business and personal life separate, sometimes they merged and that made it harder for her to stay detached. It was hard for her not to just stay up at the hospital, driving away, she had to keep telling her self that the job wasn't done. This address was a Grandville South address because of Mayor Jackson's previous year redistricting of the border, she was leading this and would finish it. When the med truck pulled up her men paid little to no attention to it. She'd briefed her team on what had went down before they arrived. The man was 6'4 with dark curly hair in a messy man bun. He had grey eyes in an open face that got out in the sun a lot. He was on the phone was apparently talking to Deon. Joy walks over and holds out her hand. The guy gave her a look she was used to getting and says, "Now that you are finished coming to grips with the fact that I'm not a 6-foot-tall man, hand me the phone please." The man hands her his phone and says he just figured she be taller and wider with a name like Wildflower. "Well with a name like Niles I thought of you as butler type like from that show "The Nanny" So see we both made wrong assumptions based on names. Hello Mr. Baza. Oh, that is right I'm not sorry, Hello Mr. Vargo. I understand that you have another captive with you. You know the drill show me proof of life, or I send a good 15-man team in after you."

Deon was nervous he'd seen the sunlight glint off something and kept away from his window. Alice was freaking out as he ordered her to stay away from the window. "How do you want to play this Joy? You have what you want. Joshua isn't here. You took my team out. I'm impressed, not really, Andrew is going to be so pissed when he finds out his new boss, that would be me, has been detained. I'm sure he's come to his senses by now and knows that I am his best chance at more money than he can count, now that I got him fired. I heard on the news that before he died one of my best men missed the kill shot on Chase due to some impressive work from his close protection agent taking him down. You do know if Bobby was the target, he would be dead now right? If only I had given the order instead of letting Ben go with Mayor Jackson's plan, Ben would've gone for a head shot on Bobby then blew away poppa? How is Bobby?" He'd shaken her he could hear it in her voice as she demanded he show her proof of life. He tells Alice to say cheese and takes a short video of her waving at him. "Are you happy now?" She asks what it is he wants. "Here are my demands. I want a limo driven by my man Andrew. I will trade the woman for Niles or you can come in alone. I'd love to send you to Commander Hawk and the Davenport family in postal boxes." Joy asked was that his attempt at threatening a police officer. "Oh no of course not. Joy, you know how this goes. I'm rather comfortable, I can do this all day. I hear the press have been alerted. I wonder by who. Looking to make a big splashy arrest Captain? I do have an indoor pool. Come on, trade yourself, feel like a hero for once." Deon then pushes end.

Joy's men were watching her. She looks at Niles and he asks what she needed. She takes out her ear piece. Between her men speaking and Deon's words she was going to lose it soon. Niles hands her a pair of aviator sunglasses, she puts them on. He then pulls another pair and put them on himself. "He wants Andrew to drive him. He wants to trade me or you for the woman that seems to be happy to be playing along with him, until he loses his shit and kills her."

Niles looks up at the house. If he screws this up he'd never get back to his desk. "Let me make a call. Not on that phone. I have an extra." He pulls a phone that was in his back pocket and turns away from her. His call to his boss was disconnected before he could ask. He was hoping for such a signal. He'd get a slap on the wrist for what he was about to do but it would be lifted. Unless he failed then he'd die. "Captain Wildflower go home. My agency is tired of watching this and unless you want to explain a lot of deaths leave. My outfit was controlling this op before it was contaminated by local law enforcement in the first place. She looked at him with his sunglasses on and her mouth cut in to a firm line. She tells him to fall back, and points to her car. She touches his chest giving him a shove. Figuring she was fishing for something he steps back takes off his glasses and covers her hand that she had on his chest as he glares at her. "Have you lost your mind?" She halted he whispered, "Don't pause, whatever you were thinking short of shooting me I can handle, I'm big boy, Captain." He wasn't expecting her to judo toss his ass on the ground. Regaining his breath, he waits a beat as she gets in his face and starts telling him her plan. He didn't have to fake outrage. He mutters "do you trust him that much?" She nods and says If she failed, her career was over anyway. Her chief had told her this, on her way over here. She'd told him that if she couldn't end this today, she'd give him her badge and weapon wrapped in a bow. Her chief wasn't a part of the dirty cop clan, far from it, he was old school and had this way of making her accomplishments look small compared to all her fellow male captains. She'd been promoted before Chief Patterson got the job of chief, and he'd tried intimidation, he tried getting her fired. The cases that Bobby had given her credit for assisting with recently, had made Patterson stop trying to get her demoted because he was a kiss ass and loved sniffing the commissioner's ass. She tells Niles that she trusted Andrew just one inch more than she trusted walking into that house. Niles makes an ouch face. She fought to keep the smile from her own face. He reminded her of Bobby. Only not really because she didn't know this man or even his real name. She tries to hand him her gun, he moves his hand and says "Mine's better and concealed already. You going to let me up Captain? I think whoever you were trying to impress is impressed, as they should be." She mouths don't pause. She then pulls him to his feet. When she called Andrew, while waiting for him to answer she looked up at one of her men she puts her earpiece back in "Don't take it if you don't have a kill shot Greene, he is unstable both mentally and physically if you don't take him down, he'll kill her." Greene slid back away from the ledge of the building that faced Deon's bedroom window.

Gloria sits in the café and drinks her tea. She was surprised that Amy, the woman that was attached to Angel's adoptive father Chase had offered to walk with her. Walking in and hearing Angel tell Jonathon that she would work with her at LEGNA or when it dealt with LEGNA business but when it was personal business she wanted nothing to do with her. She'd figured that Angel had started to like her, but John's girl had just been keeping her word Joshua had as well when she thought of the few interactions. She'd mistaken their polite professional tones and willingness to even come down to the 6th floor with her for lunch as a turning point. "I've tried so hard to make things right again. I thought we were making head way, gone were the same looks I received tonight from Angel. I had no clue that she and Joshua could turn it on and off at will. At work they were polite, and even came to my office without me having to send for them. Angel showed me pictures of JC and Joshua even went to a last-minute photoshoot without an attitude. That should have been my clue. That man hated disorder." Amy says she is sure Joshua still hates disorder. "You are absolutely right. Listen at me going on like he's gone?"

Amy put her hand on Gloria's on the table. "Take it from someone that they had to warm up to. It takes time. I don't work with Angel or Joshua I am merely their father's mate, but I have been on her and her sibling's mate's suspect page. It's harder from my position because I wasn't allowed a workplace ice breaker of sort. I commend you for coming at all. First please, I know it's a slip of the tongue, but can you not refer to Joshua as if he is gone. I believe he will be fine, I have to, or I'll lose it again." Amy firms her lips then continues. "You are here in support of your mate in a moment when he wants to share the burden of worry but seems to reject it because of the way you are perceived here."

Gloria says she didn't mean it like that. She speaks about the obvious elephant in the room when it came to Angel and Joshua. "It's not perception, Amy we are not alike. You didn't invite the man that would end up doing all of this into their home. They both loathe me so much. I feel like a fool for even thinking for a second that they could grow to trust me again. We started off so strong. I can't undo any of what I did."

Amy says "Gloria, with everything that has been going on. Did you ever think that maybe Angel and Joshua emotionally couldn't afford to trust you right now? I don't think they loath you. I think especially right now Angel's emotional platform have been battered to the brim for two full days. I've had a taste or two of what she is going through and believe me it is not fun. You have no idea when the next time you will hold your lover, or whether your day will brighten. You hope and pray that all is going to be ok it is all that keeps you from shattering into a pile on the floor. I'm not saying it will never happen but somewhere along the way you lost their trust." Gloria grumbles that Angel was supposed to be the more forgiving of the two. "I think Angel has tried for a long time to please people into not feeling bad about their bad choices. From some of what Chase has shared with me she does trust hard and more than most people, but if you break it that voids even the nicest person's cycle of trust. It makes them examine whether trusting you is worth being hurt again. Trust is a fragile thing. Easy to break, easy to lose and one of the hardest things to ever get back. Now, is not the time to make this about you. Be there for your mate, do your job at your company and just don't try to push them or they never will come around." Amy stands "I think I'm going to go follow some of that advice myself, I came down here because I was losing it. I am going back in there, find my own mate, and be whatever he needs right now."

Over at Ivey Mansion Sophie was putting a sleeping JC down in the portable crib she'd set up in her room. Janet texted her.

Janet: Um Sophie Nikki is watching the twins may I come in, please?

Considering Sophie hadn't heard from Luke yet, she needed a distraction that didn't involve children's lullabies.

Sophie: Sure

Janet walks in and they head to the other side of the huge 60 by 80-foot room. Janet sits on her couch and tucks her hands under her. "I kind of think I was making Angel mad by asking this, but have you heard anything?" Sophie says not yet. "Oh." Janet looks back the carpet as she ran her toes through the thick fibers. "Um Sophie, I have a boyfriend thing, and I really would feel weird asking dad. I mean Nikki says she doesn't see why I'm kind of freaking out about this."

Sophie pulls up her makeup chair sits at her vanity as she brushes her hair. "Oh, do tell." Janet asked could she brush Sophie's hair. Sophie froze and considered it. She usually didn't let untrained people with the exclusion of her husband near her hair. Since Janet's had grown back she was good with keeping her own hair healthy and there were no chemicals involved so Sophie says "ok," Janet gets up and stands behind her running the brush through her hair.

As Janet is brushing, she says. "Sophie, I am scared to meet his parents." Sophie looked at her in the mirror. "Not Tracy, but his other parents he wants them to meet me. They aren't like Tracy you know she's cool, like you, Angel, and Candy. His other parents are super strict. Do you know he has to be off his cell phone at 10 pm? I mean he doesn't even go to school. Like now, he's home and his dad has him help him fix on the cars. They are now pressuring him to go to a school building. He's homeschooled, it works for him. He's got in trouble for doing all his assignments for an entire semester in the three days he was grounded. I go to school but it's not a regular high school. What if they don't like me?" Janet hands her back her brush, and sits on the floor, with her chin resting on her knees. "Or what if they ground him for liking me and then stops him from coming to Grandville South, then not only will he not like me anymore, but Tracy will hate me too." Janet gets up shakes her hands putting them in her hair. She starts pacing. "I can't do this, but then he'll ask why not, or worst he wouldn't say anything else to me about it. I have noticed that he just stops talking, then when I ask him what he was about to say, he says something like no because I'm not trying mess this up. The problem is, I don't know what he'd be about to say so then get I quiet too because I don't want to mess us up either. How did you get Mrs. Ella to like you?"

Sophie watches Janet's nervous energy come off her in waves. It never seemed to stop amazing her at how much this little girl reminded her of Angel when she was 17, and Sophie was 12. The closer Angel got to her 18th birthday the more she planned and plotted to get the hell out of Grandville. Many nights Angel sat on her floor chattering about this contest and this college. Back then Sophie had mostly kept her true want for her sister not to leave to herself, because even at 13 she understood the real reason Angel was leaving, it had nothing really to do with education or music. When she'd been about to move to D.C. for college, she remembered their conversation Angel had told her that Sophie not telling her how she felt kind of made her think sometimes that their mother had got to her. Sophie had got mad and told her how she felt back then, that conversation sitting in Angel's condo had been one hell of a bonding moment for them. Some of these things that she'd kept quiet about reminded her of the part of the conversation that was taking place before her right now. "Janet, the not talking about what you think will upset each other isn't good. If it makes you nervous, you'd rather not hide things that could later manifest into something more hurtful to your relationship. It's lying though not proactively but omission of your true feelings which is kind of hiding a part of who you really are. It becomes a difficult race that no one wins, because the things you love about each other are just parts of your personalities and anything that you think maybe a problem will come back and bite you if not dealt with. As for his parents liking you. He likes you and they really couldn't ask for a better girl for their son to like. You're smart, respectful, funny, and are not a trouble maker. I just hope if I have a son, that he gets someone like you. So tomorrow before 10 pm, call, or vid chat, your boyfriend and talk to him, tell him how you feel. Oh, and please stop thinking that them not liking you for whatever reason is going to bring down some chain reaction that ends in him being held in Houston and Tracey being mad at you. Your mind is working overtime filling with scenarios that are based on nothing but fear. Don't let fear or insecurity stop you from trying to be your best self you both deserve each other's best."

Over at Deon's hideout, Joy called Andrew and waited from him to show up. She looked at her phone for the hundredth time. Niles puts his hand on her hand pushing the phone back down and tells her to stop pacing she looked nervous. "Nervous don't even come close but thanks. You are the one that is going in there, aren't you nervous?"

He drops his already deep tenor a few octaves and brushes baritone slightly as he says, "Never admit what is obvious, it doesn't change the outcome." Andrew pulls up and is kind of shocked to see them standing behind the med truck. "Don't worry Agent she can kick my butt. That's not my type. I want a little woman to think I'm a bad ass with a good job not be ready to clobber my ass when I come home without milk for her coffee." Joy playfully jumps at him Niles stepped back "Oh no you stay away from me I don't like the ground that much. All kidding aside, Captain you want to tell him what the plan is?" Joy explains what is to happen. Andrew looks at the house, Niles, then back at Joy."

Andrew gets in the limo left by Ivey Transit. Joy had asked for one of the older models. Sophie told her not to worry about messing up the one she was sending, it would have to come off the road in a few months because of its year anyway. Joy was relieved and thanked her sis. Taking a moment, she takes a breath and says "Ok guys let's get this going." She looked at the cell phone that she'd taken from Niles closing her eyes she calls Deon. "Okay Deon we are ready, first Niles is going to come to the door, and you are going to send the female down and out of the front door before he is allowed to enter."

Alice had slipped out of the room and came back with some drugs that they shared while waiting for Joy to make the next move. Deon smiled his biggest smile as he spoke into the phone. "Well okay if that is what you want. I thought you were working up the nerve to come in and trade yourself. But Niles is more valuable than a lady cop anyway. He used to work for the government you know. He'd been unfortunate enough to arrest my wife's father Mr. Valentine for embezzlement. Then after who would have been my father in law died in a prison fight, my heartbroken wife ordered her men to take Niles out, they missed and shot his pregnant wife in his driveway. Niles's went rouge, and never showed up to his debriefing. He never did find out how he got exposed, it confuses him to this day. My wife offered him a place to call home, to lick his wounds, and fight back, against the government that wouldn't even let him on the mission that became a closed cold case. Don't tell him it will be our little secret." Deon laughs loud and hard. "I do hope you are better at keeping secrets than Angel. Ask her what secret she was supposed to keep but gave away and nearly got me my… and her best friend killed? Ah here comes my number one soldier now. Captain cheer up you look like you aren't feeling well."

Joy wanted to shout for Niles to stop and order Greene to take the fucking shot. She was so far in over her head. What the fuck was she thinking? This wasn't just Deon the goofy looking bass player that fucked up, this was a different person a person that would marry a person that would kill a pregnant woman because she could have it done. He was married to the mob. Fear made her nauseous at the thought of his wife getting out or hell sending word from inside to deal with her or Bobby for closing them down. She hears a voice in her ear. "Trade is made she's walking out now. Hey Deon thanks for getting me back." It was Niles talking to her in her ear piece attached to the bug she had put on his phone.

Alice walked out towards her and tripped over her own feet. Joy ran to her fearing she had been drugged or something. Andrew got out of the limo she looked back at him and in that instant her life changed forever as she saw Andrew running towards her. She raised her gun and yelled from him not to approach her. He yells something. He's shot by one of her men and goes down, that's when she feels the knife slice into her. She looked down at Alice who had stabbed her. Joy started shaking and fell over. As she is passing out Alice says they wouldn't need her anymore. Her men rush towards her, Alice put her knife under Joy's throat and Joy's world faded to black.

A shot rings out and Alice is hit with such force that her body flies backward away from their downed Captain. When Niles was walking out to the limo one look at Captain Joy Wildflower laying in a growing pool of her own blood gave him a vicious flashback of the day he failed his mate. Memory and the present collided as he rounded on Deon shot him in the head three times. Then charged towards Joy. What he screamed as he crumpled to the ground ripping at her shirt and crying was "Come on Mary Lynn please, please, please not again." Sirens can be heard that was what changed his mental picture into the present as he is pulled off the captain by his superior.

Andrew was lucky he'd been wearing Ivey Armor. When he saw the knife, he ran towards a cop that didn't trust him. The shot put him on his back he was then made to watch her get stabbed by the bitch that they were trying to save. Andrew had called Bobby "She's down Bobby she got stabbed by Alice the former keyboardist of AI. Med crew is on the way I tried to warn her Bobby she was too far away for me to do anything." Then he heard the voice that had spoken in his ear with a gun in his back. The guy that was pulling Niles off Joy, he was the guy that was in the club. The dark agency leader Niles's boss was working for Alex or Deon. They'd all been played. As he tries to tell Bobby what he just discovered Bobby went off on him, telling him he'd better hope that he never found him. "Field Commander Hawk- Ivey, I know who the guy was that had the gun at my back in the club," Bobby yells fuck his title fuck this job and that the guy should have fucking shot Andrew, not stabbed the mother of his child and hung up. Andrew froze "Joy is pregnant? Oh shit."

Author's Note: Well that's one way of telling the world he was going to be a father. Thanks for reading, please if there is any comments questions concerns or anything, I must clarify please feel free to send me a message or leave a comment. :End Note