A/N: This chapter womps D: Plot line and emotionally scary stuff isn't my forte.

Disclaimer: Capcom doesn't suck as much as I do. At all.

Calling the Shots

It wasn't butterflies earlier. It wasn't stress or the hormone cortisol, it wasn't a change in her diet and it wasn't love, much as she'd hoped it had been.

Trucy gingerly held the small white stick in her left hand while her right reached frantically for the box on the sink she'd somehow missed until now. Grabbing it she confirmed what Ema already knew.

"Two lines."

Clear as day. Butterfly kicks.

"...Positive."

...

"Is this good news or bad news?" Trucy asked, hopeful that it wasn't the latter.

Ema calmed down her crying to think it through for a second. She didn't know.

"It's news."

"Well... what does Mr Gavin think?"

Ema forced herself to look up and looked at Trucy for the first time since coming into the bathroom and saw the kindest eyes she'd ever laid eyes on.

"How did you know?" She asked, defeated.

"Well, you seemed to really hate each other recently. Like if I was with Polly or Daddy and we bumped into you or you were both here but you never seemed really into it, like you used to. Which tipped me off that something was different between you and sometimes at court you'd turn up smelling of his deodorant which I didn't really think was a coincidence. That and we saw you kissing outside Tres Bien that one time."

"You- You saw that? WE?"

"Yep, me, Daddy and Polly. You did it right outside the window we were sat at; it was hard not to notice. But don't worry, nobody else knows."

"Do Mr Wright and Apollo know?

"Well, actually, it was Apollo who tipped me off first. He noticed the deodorant thing before I did, and Daddy does because I told him by accident. I don't know if he already knew... I don't think he really thinks about stuff like that." She said, trailing off sadly.

"So... what does Mr Gavin think? You never answered..."

"He doesn't know." Ema said back finally, tears threatening to fall again as she thought about how this would affect him. "I came here hoping to get some advice from Mr Wright because he has you and he always seems so cool and calm." She said leaning and bumping shoulders with Trucy carefully.

"I mean, he did tell me just this morning that he would love me even when I'm old and fat... so..."

She was interrupted by Trucy's elongated expression of 'awwwww'.

"So he sees a future with you then? He practically told you. That must include babies and awww you didn't tell us you were in love!" She said excitedly.

"We haven't even told anyone we're together, let alone in love... Oh God, I'm going to get fired! And his reputation is going to be ruined and I don't even know if he's ready or if I am or-"

"Calm down Ema!" Trucy yelled quickly as Ema got worked up again. "You might not be pregnant."

"What? It says I am right there!" She said pointing to the stick Trucy still held.

"Well it might be a food baby... that happens right?"

A false positive! Ema stood up instantly and felt the blood pounding in her ears as dizziness set in.

"You should probably let Mr Gavin know."

"What? Oh- right." Ema got out her phone and sent him a message telling him she'd be home in about an hour, two hours tops. And put her phone away, wanting to tell him in person so she could see his reaction herself.. Then she groaned when she realised she'd left her car at the store.

"What's up?"

"I walked here. I left my car at the shop." Ema said, defeated in that she had to walk back.

"Well at least then you can buy another test and make sure, so you both know." Trucy said to her which caused Ema to turn around and eye her up. How had this girl become so wise and calm about things like this? Surely at her age she should be excited or crazy or something? Ema supposed it came with being Mr Wright's daughter, who let nothing bother him these days.

"Thanks." Ema said quietly, truly meaning it.

"No problem!" Trucy responded, winking and tilting her head to one side as she did.

"Oh, one more thing... don't tell anyone I was here OK? Not till I sort this out."

Trucy nodded, of course; your secret is safe.

...

Klavier skipped excitedly from his kitchen to the dining room and wouldn't have cared if anyone had seen him. He missed Ema already. He'd missed her touch and her warmth as soon as she'd left, and now she was coming home to him earlier! He was over the moon in love and the fact that she'd told him not once but twice that she'd be 'home' only heightened his positive nature. He had in his pocket a small velvet box and felt it nervously.

Inside that box was the key to his house. He decided that she needed her own key if she were to move in, not the spare one. Not that he knew if she even wanted to move in with him, he hadn't been joking when he had asked her why she hadn't brought some clothes to keep at his yet, but he took the forever present pink toothbrush of hers that kept his company in his bathroom as a good sign that part of her wanted this too. He placed the candles he had brought from the kitchen into the dining room and started preparing himself to officially ask her, seven hours earlier than he expected to.

...

An hour had rolled by and Klavier started to worry, he knew she had said up to two hours, but she hadn't responded when he asked if she was on her way yet and she usually responded quite quickly to direct questions. He sat at his dining table and felt a stab of loneliness. Normally being in his house alone didn't bother him, but he was used to seeing Ema at this table now. He smiled as he remembered with fondness the first time she sat down to eat with him here, when their secret relationship was still new- well, newer than it was now. She had sat opposite him on the table which was quite far away from where he usually sat, so he had grabbed his plate in one hand after balancing his knife and fork on it, grabbed his chair with his other hand and dragged it around the table till he was sat on the corner next to her, their knees touching. He had asked her why she had chosen to sit so far away from him, and smiled in adoration at her when she responded that it was where she assumed she was supposed to sit at a table like this.

He had told her that there were no rules like that in his house, not when it came to her.

His musings had left him staring at the flames flickering from the candles but not really seeing them. Feeling sad that such beauty was being wasted on only him, who wasn't really paying attention to them anyway, blew them out when two hours had gone by.

By this point he started to worry slightly and decided to ring her. No answer.

Telling himself that this was normal didn't help his nerves at all and decided to ring Gumshoe who had delivered the call that took her away from him this morning. Not bothering to think of an excuse why he would be checking up on Ema's whereabouts had been a mistake but assumed that Gumshoe would in turn make the assumption that Klavier wanted to mess with her some more.

Gumshoe told him that the last he'd seen of her was when she went to the station to check on forensics and their victim's ID which was a couple of hours ago. He hadn't heard from her since. Klavier said a quick thanks to him before ringing off and standing up.

"She must have been held up in the precinct then." He said to no one in particular but the candles liked to think that after dancing for him for hours that it was directed at them. They didn't respond.

Klavier told himself to wait another hour before calling the precinct if she still wasn't back and was still not answering her phone. Then he thought perhaps it was him. Perhaps she was ignoring him. He shook the thought out of his mind but a nagging voice in his head told him he had done something to upset her. He had asked her why she hadn't moved anything in yet. Maybe that was too quick for her; maybe... maybe she wasn't ready for anything as serious as he was yet. In all the court hearings and all the rock concerts he'd performed in his life, he'd never felt more nervous than he did about her coming home today.

He stared unblinking at the clock, eventually zoning out after counting minutes until she was home.

Unfortunately another hour had rolled by without her coming home, so he opened his cell phone and called the precinct. He waited impatiently while the girl answering the phone stopped giggling and asking if she could do anything for him before he told her that yes, she could do something for him.

"Go and find Detective Skye, tell her I need to speak with her urgently."

"Certainly sir." The girl said back to him who was in comparison to herself just sixty seconds ago much less vivacious now.

He waited painstakingly a few minutes before her voice returned and told him that sorry, she wasn't in the precinct, and could she take a message?

"Has she just left? Did anyone see her?"

"No sir, I spoke to Officer Meekins, he told me that she hadn't been here all day."

"What!"

"He said 'No sir! She hasn't been here all day, sir!' that's it." She said while impersonating Officer Meekins' enthusiasm.

"Oh..." Klavier almost gave away how panicked he was until he caught himself and as cheerily as he could thanked her for her help and hung up before he could hear her giggle after saying "Anytime."

By this point Gavin was feeling thoroughly deflated. She wasn't at the scene, she wasn't at the precinct where she'd said she'd be and she certainly wasn't with him here. He didn't know what to do now except carry on waiting.

Klavier Gavin didn't like playing the waiting game though. To him it wasn't so much waiting but wasting time. He wanted answers. He wanted to know what was so important that she had lied to Gumshoe and hadn't told anyone where she was for four hours now. But he told himself to stop. This was Ema he was talking about, he knew she could look after herself and promised he'd give it one more hour until he really started to panic and lose it.

Gavin, as already mentioned wasn't as patient has he hoped he was and only waited half an hour before he got frustrated and decided to call Mr Wright.

The phone rang once. He felt his blood pressure rise as it rung again. After the third he almost slammed the phone down when a raspy voice sounded on the other end saying hello, Wright Anything Agency.

"Herr Forehead?"

"Mr Gavin? Sorry, my voice is a little raspy, Chords of Steel practise, you know."

"Ja, great-"

"You really think-"

"Herr Forehead! I have a question!" Klavier interrupted, feeling slightly guilty for being rude to someone he liked to imagine was his friend but carried on regardless. "Has anyone there seen Em- I mean Detective Skye today? Has she popped round at all?"

"Er- I haven't, hold on, let me check with the other two. HEY GUYS! EITHER OF YOU SEEN EMA TODAY?"

Klavier held the phone away from his ear appreciating that those 'chords of steel' did come in handy sometimes and wondered briefly if that was really how defence lawyers operate themselves while at the office? He heard the two distant but still recognisable voices of both Mr Wright and the young Trucy Wright yelling just a second out of time with each other "NO!"

"Sorry Mr Gavin, no one here has seen her."

"That's ok Herr Forehead." And hung up while Apollo was half way through asking him why? Was something wrong?

Who was next? He considered calling Lana but then felt a stab of his own idiocy as he recalled that he didn't actually have any of her contact numbers. He was about to ring it in to Gumshoe as a favour to find out which office Lana worked at and her contact information when his phone rang.

He checked the caller ID and felt sweeping relief as it said 'Ema xxx' was calling him. He flipped open his phone and slammed it against his ear as fast as he could.

"Fraulein! Ema! Thank goodness! Where-"

"If you want your pretty 'fraulein' back in one piece you better do as I say." An unrecognisable voice sneered and Klavier felt his heart stammer.

"Wh- what?"

"You have one day to get three million, when I know you've got that I will give you the coordinates to the drop."

"What? Where's Ema? Let me speak to her!" He roared to his phone and almost wept when he heard her voice.

"KLAVIER!" he heard her scream back and started sobbing. "Klavier I-"

"EMA!" He heard a sharp slapping noise and everything was silent on the other end of the call.

"NO! What are you doing to her? Ema? EMA!"

"I call the shots Mr Gavin. Get the money. You don't want to disappoint me; I'd hate to ruin your girlfriend's pretty face."

The phone line went dead.

The silence killed him.

...

Miles away a 1998 Toyota Camry was speeding down a road and silently apologised to the other cars though knew the driver's wouldn't notice. All the drivers felt was irritation as the car weaved in and out and abruptly turned a corner, leaving the drivers to relax now that this erratic driver was no longer their concern.

Driving over a speed bump much quicker than the car thought it should sent everything within the car a couple of inches in the air. Because of this force Ema jolted and forced her eyes open, instantly feeling crushed by darkness. She tried getting up but couldn't move her arms. She fought frantically the free her hands from behind her back and let out a frustrated growl when she couldn't. She tried moving her legs to lie on her back instead of almost face down and found her ankles too tightly bound to move them separately. She fought to roll backwards still and her knees hit something before she could, sending her face down again.

Realising where she was and that she wasn't imagining the feeling of motion she started cry.

And screamed for all she was worth.

Wow. So...yeh. I tried really hard making this not seem like cheesy rubbish. Crikey I hope it affected at least a little bit of you. If not. WOMP. D: