When Caitlin reappeared from the bedroom Eliot was already setting two plates down and shovelling food onto both of them. "Ooh, smells good."

"Yeah well I can't trust you to eat well enough for yourself."

"I take insult to that."

He smirked and pushed a plate in her direction and grabbed two forks, handing one over to her. "How did you even get here?"

Caitlin swallowed the lump of food in her mouth and said, "I got a bus. Or two buses really."

He frowned at her. His protective father side came out as he flinched at the idea of Caitlin taking two buses on her own across two states. Anything could have happened to her between there and here and yet, she was fine. A small sigh escaped him and he jabbed his fork in her direction. "You run away again I'll ground you until you're thirty. Got it?"

He saw the guilt in her face and she gave a resigned nod, "Sorry."

"Just don't do it again. Anything could've happened." She nodded in agreement and he nodded back, a disturbed silence settling between them as they carried on with their food. "What are you doing for school anyway? Isn't it the middle of the semester?"

Caitlin shook her head, "Nah, we finished for Spring break three days ago. It's a two week break then back to school."

"Alright," that raised another question in his mind. "What does your mum plan on doing for school in Cali?"

A deep sigh resonated and Eliot rose his brows. "Transfer. Across the friggin' state."

"Hey! Watch your mouth."

"Sorry," she said sheepishly, "But it's just, all of my friends are there and I know my way around."

Eliot shrugged, swallowing another mouthful of food. "Maybe it won't be as bad as you think it will be."

He watched her blanch and couldn't help the twitch at the corner of his mouth, "Surfer boys?"

That comment fully made him laugh and he finished his food off. "You got a point." The next few minutes were spent with clearing and cleaning plates, arguing about going to bed and eventually Caitlin going to bed. Eliot waited an hour before he checked in on her, smiling at the sight of her curled into the covers that half covered her body and legs. He refused to pull them over her; she only kicked them off seconds later, and closed the door. Grabbing a throw, kicking off his shoes and lying down on the couch Eliot finally allowed himself to gain a quick two hour nap.

It was eight in the morning when Nate called him, asking if he wanted a few days away to spend time with Caitlin. "Thanks Nate," he muttered as he cast a glance towards the bedroom. "Appreciate it."

"We'll call you if it's an emergency." Eliot accepted the older man's words and closed his phone, letting himself sink back into the newspaper from that morning. There were a few articles about terrible accidents, about people having great luck with success, a few sob stories; overall there wasn't much that gained his full attention.

He'd already eaten his breakfast and it was turning eleven when Caitlin finally emerged. He offered her a cocked brow and a one sided smirk. "What?"

"It's nearly noon. Seriously?"

"What? I'm a teenager. It's what we do."

He shook his head and moved towards the fridge. "Listen, I hope you got yourself some homework because it's a long week and I won't be around every day."

A yawn sounded and she nodded at him, "Yeah I did. I'll get it done." There was a moment of quiet as Eliot put a glass of orange juice in front of her and put two pieces of bread in the toaster. "So, what's the plan?"

"The plan is for you, to do your homework first. I don't want you to leave it until the last minute."

"I won't!"

"Just so you don't that's all, and then," he shrugged, "I don't know. I didn't expect you to turn up yesterday."

She offered him a sheepish shrug and bit into the toast he put in front of her, "Sorry about that." When she finished her breakfast she grabbed a shower and Eliot flicked the radio on. The rest of the day went by quite peacefully as he listened to the various news reports, a few country songs here and there and read a book whilst Caitlin sat with her laptop on the other end of the couch doing her homework.

Caitlin called it a night before it reached ten and Eliot decided to do a few stretches and exercises once he was sure she'd gone to bed. It was around two AM when Caitlin awoke to Eliot practicing his swing on the punching bag that sat in one corner of his flat. "Do you ever sleep?" she asked, arms folded and body pressed against the doorframe.

Eliot stopped the swinging bag and looked at her with a frown, "Didn't mean to wake you up, go back to bed okay?"

She shook her head and stepped closer to him. "Can we?"

He quirked a brow and said, "It's two AM. Really?"

Caitlin shrugged and unfolded her arms. "Why not?"

He paused, just observing her for a moment before he waved her over. "Come on." It took a few minutes for Caitlin to wake up and in that time Eliot dragged out two mats from the corner and set them down. A regular occurrence when Caitlin stayed for even just a day, was Eliot teaching her some basic self-defence techniques in case she ever got into trouble. His argument for the teaching was that he knew he wouldn't always be there for her when she needs help and he'd rather she be able to defend herself then just suffer some form of punishment.

"Okay," he said, stepping on one side of the mat. "You ready?"

She stood on the other side of the mat, arms up and feet shoulder width apart. With a nod she took a step forward and Eliot responded. The next hour passed with Caitlin landing on her butt an awful lot, but not without some fight. Eliot decided to call it and held a hand out to help her up. She frowned up at him and took his hand. "You're getting better," he said.

"Yeah well, still not as good as you."

Eliot laughed and folded his arms. "You'll get there sweetheart."

"I hope so," she said with a smirk. A yawn escaped her and Eliot nudged her in the direction of the bedroom, telling her to get some sleep. She gave a nod and slinked away. Eliot smiled as he put the mats away and changed into a pair of jogging bottoms and vest. He decided to grab a quick run whilst Caitlin slept through the rest of the morning.

Back at McRory's Nate listened to a man tell him that his brother was missing. His brother had been having troubles from a lawyer and a banking firm that claimed the school for troubled youths he was a part of was sinking. They'd been bribed with thousands of dollars to shut down the centre and now his brother was missing.

"Honestly, a missing person is a job for the Police."

"I know Mr Ford, but these guys have been hounding us for weeks now, trying to get us to sell. These kids can't afford that. Without this centre they'll be prone to run in gangs, skip school, get into trouble and end up in juvie or jail."

Nate nodded and took a glance at the file that he'd been provided with. It contained several notices about discussed failed payments to the bank and such. There were also other pages that contained lists of other people that had been affected by the same people. "How did you get a hold of this list?"

The client; a Mr James Riverton, sighed and held his head in his hands. "I'm a file organiser for the department of building legislation. Any information about a business that close or changes hands comes through my department. The same names for the lawyer and the same bank crosses each of these businesses. I know that this has happened before Mr Ford, please, can you do something?"

Nate took another moment to glance over the file and nodded. "We'll see what we can do."

When their client had left Sophie turned to Nate and said, "Nate, this sounds like we need Eliot. I mean, if a man's been kidnapped."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves Sophie. We might be able to do this without him." With that he called the team together for a meeting to discuss the job.