Chapter 4

At six, Jess and Don started their day. Jess slipped into the guest room to find Mac dead to the world. Jess was glad, he needed the sleep. She knew the previous day had been absolutely grueling for him. Aaron's big blue eyes stared up at her from the play pen.

"Do you want breakfast, little Taylor?" she cooed. The little boy kicked his feet. Jess scooped him out of the play pen and carried him off to the kitchen.

"Can I feed him?" Don begged.

"You are as bad as Maeli," Jess laughed.

"Well, it's not everyday we have a baby around here," Don shrugged.

"Fine, you can feed him," Jess gave in.

"Hi Aaron," Don started as he settled the child in his arms. "I got to hand it to you kid, you're a tough sleeper, because you're daddy didn't sleep at all last night and you didn't wake up once," he added.

"How do you know Mac didn't sleep?" Jess asked as she handed her husband a bottle.

"I heard him pacing around the living room. I didn't sleep my best either last night; I was listening for something, anything," Don admitted. Jess reached over and ran a hand through his hair. She watched him feed the baby.

"This feels like old times," she commented. Don met her eyes.

"I like it," he grinned.

"To be honest, I do too," Jess agreed, wanting to add more, but she was interrupted.

"Mommy?" Maeli's groggy voice called from the edge of the kitchen.

"Good morning, sunshine," Jess smiled, lifting her daughter into her arms. Maeli turned to look at her dad with a confused look on her face, as if she was trying to figure out why he was holding a baby."Aaron and Mac are still here, honey," Jess explained. Maeli nodded and buried her head in her mother's shoulder, a sure sign she was not awake yet. Had she been fully awake, she would have been all over the fact that Aaron and Mac were at the apartment.

"Why aren't they with Stella?" the dreaded question finally came out. Jess and Don were thanking their lucky stars that Mac wasn't around to hear it.

"Baby, she's uh, she's on a little trip," Don lied and cringed as he did so, he hated lying to her, but she didn't need to know what was going on.

An hour later, Mac was still sleeping and Maeli was wide awake, playing with Aaron who was in the playpen that had now been moved to the living room. When her dad wasn't looking, she snuck over to the guest room door and peeked in. Unfortunately she lingered too long and her dad caught her.

"Maeli, I told you to leave him alone! He's still sleeping, now go to your room," Don ordered.

"Don!" Jess scolded in turn. Maeli really hadn't done anything wrong and Don wasn't one to fly off the handle for no reason.

"I'm sorry," he sighed. His nerves were absolutely raw.

"Come on, let's go talk," Jess urged, pushing him towards their bedroom. "What is going on with you? You didn't sleep and now you're yelling at Maeli," she asked bluntly.

"I'm scared Jess, if he can take Stella, he can take you and he could very easily get Maeli, and Stella, she's my friend and I've seen what she's been through and I just can't believe this is happening to her again," Don admitted. Jess took a step towards him and wrapped her arms around his midsection.

"I can't do anything about how you feel about what's happened to Stella, we all know how unfair it is, but what if I called Mel and asked her to watch Maeli and Jake at the lab, because if I know Danny, he's probably having a lot of the same feelings you are," Jess suggested.

"We'd have to ok it with Mac," Don mentioned.

"And you think he's going to say no?" Jess challenged.

"No," Don replied, fighting a smile.

"Now, go talk to Maeli please," Jess prodded. Don nodded and followed her out of the bedroom. They walked into the kitchen to find Mac holding Aaron and talking animatedly between his son and Maeli.

"Daddy, I'm sorry, I'll go back to my room," Maeli spit out quickly as she set eyes on her father, trying to scramble out of the chair she was sitting in.

"No, it's ok, honey, I'm sorry about earlier," Don replied.

"Did she wake you up?" Jess wondered, looking at Mac.

"No, I got a phone call from Adam, he has some information at the lab," Mac answered with a grim smile.

"Good news, I hope," Don added.

"He may have put together Stella's hints from the phone call," Mac announced, looking down at Aaron who had taken his father's hand and shoved one large finger into his tiny mouth, drooling happily.

When Stella raised her hand to brush it over her face, she regretted it immediately. The overwhelming pain brought on flash backs from what she assumed to be the night before. The closet was dark, so she really had no idea if morning had rolled around. Before she could further asses her condition or formulate a new plan of action, the closet door slung open. The bright light shining into the rest of the apartment confirmed her suspicions of morning. The man she had spent the previous day with swooped in and had her wrists taped back together before she could even react.

"Can't have you trying to get away," he said with a sickening grin. Stella wanted to fight back, she wanted to spit a snappy retort at him, but she was too busy trying not to vomit in response to the onslaught of pain the duct tape brought on. He slammed the door on her again, only to return seconds later and throw three bottles of water at her. She winced as they hit her body. "Drink up my dear; I can't have you getting dehydrated. I'm going out, I'll be back and we'll call your loving husband later," he mentioned. "And don't even think about breaking out, my brother is standing guard and has orders to drug you if you leave this closet," he added, slamming the door again. Stella groaned and shut her eyes again.

Mac ungracefully plunked Aaron's carrier on Adam's work station as he rushed into the lab.

"What do you have for me Adam?" he asked anxiously, hope welling up in his chest. Today was a new day and they would find Stella.

"So it took me most of the night, but I've narrowed it down to one intersection, Franklin and Georgia. However, after going through all the boroughs to find that, I have yet to determine the situation with the building," Adam informed, almost ashamed of his work. Mac could see the exhaustion etched into the lab tech's face. He didn't have the heart to lay into him, since he had diligently worked through the night, no questions asked.

"You did good Adam, I'll get Danny and Lindsey to start working on the buildings," Mac praised. "There is a surprise for you in the break room," Mac added as he carried Aaron to his office. His curiosity piqued, Adam turned the corner towards the break room. He let out a happy sigh when he saw his fiancé playing with Maeli and Jake.

"Mel," he said softly. Her green eyes met his; she frowned slightly as she noticed how tired he looked. She set Jake on the floor next to Maeli and approached Adam. He wrapped her in a hug and gave her a soft kiss. "What are you doing here?" he wondered.

"Babysitting, no one was comfortable leaving their kids anywhere today, and I was glad to help," Mel shrugged.

"I see boss man still has a firm hand on Aaron," Adam mentioned, noticing Aaron was the only child missing from the faux daycare.

"Aaron needs his daddy right now, he's been passed back and forth a lot in the past day and he's out of sorts with his mom not around," Mel explained. Adam couldn't help but smile.

"You want kids really bad, don't you?" he asked softly. He watched the slight panic fill her expression.

"Uh, can we talk about that later?" she asked nervously.

"Yeah sure, are you ok?" he wondered. He knew he'd been up all night, but he didn't miss her change in demeanor. It concerned him.

"Of course, I'm fine, now you better get back to work, go find Stella," she encouraged with a smile. Adam nodded, trying to brush off the odd interaction like she did.

It only took about another hour for Danny and Lindsey to narrow down the building options. Two of the four corners of the intersection housed warehouses, and the third was a vacant lot so that helped tremendously. They then however faced the problem of which floor, third or above, and which specific apartment. That's where the little fact about a dark colored, full sized, sedan came into play. They cross referenced the DVM records with those of the tenants in the building. They narrowed it down to two tenants. One was a widowed woman in her early nineties, so they were just left with Jerrod Marx. Mind you, they still had no idea who that was and what he wanted from Mac, but they figured they'd save Stella and ask questions later.