Dave

Meeting Conner's mother, Barb, angered me I wanted to hit her in an attempt to offer a release for the way I was feeling. Instead I smiled through gritted teeth and shook the woman's hand resisting the temptation to crush it. I sat silently while the detectives talked around why we were all sitting in this woman's kitchen. She said she had a photo that her son had left behind, it was of a young boy and when she showed it to us the detectives had the nerve to think they should see the photo first? The first time I spoke was to tell Jamie to look at the photo, it was her son, she had the right.

Jamie gasped and collapsed into my chest sobbing. My fiancé hugged the photo to her own chest as though it was her son and not just a picture. I held her close and let her sob as Conner's mother finally snapped and demanded that the detectives finally tell her what was going on. I didn't blame her, if it had to do with my children I'd feel the same way. Once everything was finally out in the open the two women turned to each other for comfort.

How dare this woman turn to Jamie for comfort, who did she think she was? She kept begging to know why Jamie hadn't told her about Eli. Finally through gritted teeth I muttered the word that Jamie hated. I wanted to grab the woman and shake her until she stopped breathing. If she had raised her son with better morals and values and respect toward women then we wouldn't be in this mess. It was really her fault. But then I realized that if it wasn't for the way she raised Conner which resulted in him being such a prick then Jamie and he would still be together. I would have never met Eli and fallen in love with the duo.

I was the luckiest guy on Earth and really I had Conner to thank for that. The thought just made my blood boil. Seeing my fiancé finding comfort in the arms of the woman who gave birth to Conner made me sick. She should have been turning to me, not the mother of the enemy. I stood up and began pacing, I couldn't take it anymore.

It was an eternity until we left, when the two women finally stopped sobbing the detectives asked the same question millions of times over. Jamie got frustrated, Conner's mother got frustrated and I was nearly really to throw one of those stupid detectives through the screen door. We spent close to four hours in that woman's kitchen. As the detectives asked more and more questions dating back to Conner's behavior at Eli's age I began to realize that she wasn't all that bad of a woman. She had raised her son alone the best that she could, a lot like my mother.

The news of her son's behavior truly broke her heart and she kept trying to figure out what it was that she had done. Was it not letting him pick his own clothes when he was 3 or taking his toys away when he misbehaved? She didn't know and it was killing her. Every time she blamed herself guilt went through me, I had originally blamed her as well. But she was nothing like her son.

She noticed the drinking though and the occasional drugs but they were a good Christian family and this behavior was completely out of the question. Her heart yearned for her son to return Eli unharmed and promised to do anything she could to help us find him. Even letting us know if and when her son called.

Without fail Conner called his mother every Saturday at 5pm. The woman loved her son's predictability and it gave us hope that maybe she would hear from him in a couple of days and he would divulge his location. The chance of possibly knowing the location of her son made Jamie perk up.

She didn't say anything on the ride home but her eyes were slightly glazed over. I could tell she was thinking about Eli and the man that had taken him. When we arrived back at her house she simply got out of the car and headed upstairs ignoring the questions from her parents.

"How did it go?" Her step-dad asked, turning to me when I entered the kitchen.

"Alright, Conner's mom doesn't know where he is but there is hope. He calls her every Saturday. Plus he had left a photo of Eli behind. It looks like he's been tracking the kid for some time now," I sighed in response.

Then Jamie's mother did something I never expected to happen, she stood up and gave me a hug. "I know this is hard on you. I know you love Eli and Jamie. Thank you for being here for my daughter,"

"It's no problem, I really do love them" I muttered struggling to hold back tears. Jamie's mother had hated me from day one, despite giving her blessing she had never really approved of our relationship. Now she was demonstrating some sort of approval and actually acknowledging my feelings for her daughter and grandson.

"Excuse me," I muttered pulling away and heading downstairs, where the guest room was.

I had to be strong for Jamie and her family but the severity of the situation was seriously starting to sink in. I couldn't take it anymore and while I was alone in the guest room I let the tears fall. It had been a long time since I had last cried. I was a man and men don't cry but, something deep down told me that this time it was alright.

I desired nothing more than to have my girls with me and know that they were safe. If I couldn't stop Eli from being taken who's to say that the same thing hasn't happened to my girls. I cried as I acknowledged that I was a failure, as a man and as a father. My girls barely knew me and I couldn't even protect the child of the woman I was going to marry. Eli was going to become my son and I let another man come and take him.

It took a while but I finally regained my composure enough that I would be able to be strong for Jamie and her family. When I went back up stairs to face the rest of the world Jamie was still hidden. I had assumed that she was in her room resting but she was nowhere to be seen when I checked. The bathroom was empty so I wandered up the hall knowing that my fiancé had to be upstairs somewhere.

I found Jamie sitting on the floor by the head of Eli's bed. She had her elephant wrapped tightly in her arms and was sobbing. My heart broke as I knelt down in front of her and wrapped a hand around her elephant,

"He'll be okay, he has his elephant too. Remember what he told me?" I asked,

"All you have to do is hug it and everything will be okay," I whispered after gaining no response.

"But no matter how hard I hug it Eli's still not home."

"We'll get him back," I replied pulling Jamie close to me.

"He must be so scared, so alone,"

"He's a tough kid he'll be okay,"

"But he's only four!"

"But he's your son and if there is any four year old in the world that can get through this it's the one you've raised." I sighed, I knew that Eli was the toughest 4-year-old around but wondered if he could really deal with the situation he was in.

I couldn't help but think of the boy's allergies. What if Conner just gave him coke or something, we'd been trying to get Eli to understand the significance of his allergies but when other people had coke or chocolate he wanted it too. I worried about how Conner would respond; would he know what to do in that sort of situation? Would he even care? If Eli went into anaphylactic shock there is no way that he could tell Conner what to do and it would only take 4 minutes and the boy would be brain dead. It wouldn't take much longer for him to be dead.

Not having Eli around was so hard for Jamie; losing him permanently would kill her. I couldn't imagine how she would handle the news. Hell, I couldn't imagine my life without that kid. I couldn't bring up his allergies with Jamie; it would just worry her more, I had to find a way to get word to Conner. I knew that I was probably the last person in the world that Conner would accept advice from but what I was offering could lessen his punishment. Its one thing to be charged for kidnapping but it was completely different to be charged for manslaughter or murder.

While thinking of Eli's allergies I remembered that Jamie's parents didn't know the full story about Conner.

"You need to tell your parents about Eli," I muttered into Jamie's hair.

"They know he's gone," she hissed pulling away from my chest to look at me,

"No I mean about his conception. The media is already all over this and they're going to find out. Do you think that the newspapers will keep that juicy piece of information out of the story just because your parents don't know? Its best they find out from you," I explained reaching up to wipe a tear away from my fiancé's face. Jamie's eyes locked with mine and I saw the pain in her soul, it broke my heart. I also saw the realization in her eyes, she knew what she had to do she was just afraid.

I pulled Jamie up and took her to the living room where her parents were sitting in a cold silence. Looking around I noticed a man I hadn't met before but knew a lot about, Jamie's father had arrived while we were in Eli's room. The woman let go of my hand and raced across the room into his arms. The two never had a very good relationship but I suppose that every girl needs her dad sometimes.

When the two pulled apart the man locked eyes with me,

"So you must be the man going to marry my daughter,"

"Yes sir, but you can call me Dave, it's much shorter and easier to remember," I smiled and reached out a hand. Jamie's father looked at my hand and scoffing slightly shook it.

"You're a bit old aren't you?"

"Age is just a number," I shrugged,
"What's your number?"

"39," I saw the man's face cloud over before his daughter grabbed his hand,

"Daddy, I need to talk to you all and I really wouldn't appreciate you killing Dave right now."

"But…" The man growled attempting to step forward.

"Daddy! This is important, it's about Eli!" Jamie stepped up halting her father from expressing his obvious dislike for me.

Jamie's voice had quivered at the mention of Eli and her father was stopped in his tracks, Eli was definitely the key word. Jamie's father, Pete, sat back down and scowled at Jamie's father-in-law, another man he appeared to dislike. Preparing herself to finally tell her parents the truth, Jamie sat cross legged on the floor and I dropped down beside her. I listened as the woman of my dreams told her parents the true story of Eli's conception. More than anything I admired her courage. On more than one occasion Jamie's voice quivered yet when I attempted to comfort her she brushed me off.

"Why didn't you tell us at the time?" Sandy asked, Jamie was still very angry at her mother and I saw a flicker of hatred in her eyes before the answering her mother,
"Because you would have made me get rid of him and I couldn't. There was no way I could give Eli up, no matter the circumstances behind his conception." The look on Sandy's face was devastating, she knew that her daughter was speaking the truth but didn't want to admit it.

The conversation didn't last any longer as the phone rang and everybody bolted into the kitchen where the tracker and police were waiting. Jamie answered the phone putting it on speaker and we all listened as Conner taunted my fiancé.

"Conner, its Dave" I interrupted after a couple of minutes. The second I spoke everybody head's turned to me, I knew that I was taking a risk and that he could get angry and even harm Eli. But, it was a risk that I knew I had to take.

"What do you want?" The man hissed,

"I want to help you," everybody in the room gasped in shock at the fact that I actually wanted to help the man that had taken Eli,

"You want to help me?"

"Yea, I'm on your side. I'm a father too," I knew I would get in a lot of trouble both from Jamie's family and the police for saying that I was on his side.

"Take me off speaker phone then," I did as the man instructed and picked up the phone,

"Why do you want to help me?" Conner asked as soon as he heard the phone go off speaker.

"Like I said I'm on your side. Look you need to know Eli has a severe allergy to caffeine"

"So?"

"I'm not just talking about hives, I'm talking anaphylactic shock. If he has caffeine you have 4 minutes before he's brain dead," Jamie had left the room when I told Conner that I was on his side but everyone who was still in the room realized the reasoning behind letting Conner think that I was on his side.

"Okay, I won't give him caffeine. What do I do if he does get it?" Conner asked, I could tell that he was processing the risk in his mind.

"He has an epi-pen in his bag, you jab it into his leg and get him to hospital."

"Davie!" Eli's voice called out in the background, I figured that Eli had just realized that I was the one speaking.

"Hey Eli," I replied cautiously, which sent Pete racing to find his daughter.

"Dave doesn't want to talk to you Eli, none of them do," Conner hissed giving me an insight into the way he was treating Eli.

"But its Davie, he loves me!"

"No he doesn't. Tell him, Daveyou don't want anything to do with him do you. TELL HIM DAVID or I will make your life a living hell!"

"You've already done that."

"Davie!! It's not true is it?" Eli cried in the background.

"Tell him you don't love him, neither does his mother or I will take your children as well," I looked around and saw that Jamie was back, with her father's arms wrapped around her. I swallowed sharply, what would the boy think if I told him that I didn't love him. What would Jamie think? But, if I didn't play to Conner's tune who knew what he would do to Eli and he said he'd take my children as well. How much did he know about my family?

"What are their names again Dave? Rachel, Hailey and Mel? Beautiful, beautiful young women, they look a lot like you Dave. Except Rachel, but then she's not yours is she? David, I will take them! And you will NEVER see them again."

I closed my eyes and took a breath swallowing hard,

"Eli, I don't love you," I sighed,

"What about Jamie?"

"I won't say it," I hissed,

"Then I'll take your girls! I'm sure they're pure and innocent aren't they David? They won't be if I get my hands on them,"

"Eli, your mother doesn't love you," I sighed struggling to hold back tears. Jamie screamed that I was a monster and bolted out of the room again. When Conner heard her screams he laughed and hung up.

Sitting down I hung up the phone,

"He's in Illinois, but he's on the move." One of the detectives said as everybody else left. They were disappointed in me but no one could have felt as bad as I did at that moment,

"He's threatened me. He said if I didn't say I didn't love Eli and that Jamie didn't either he would take my girls. He knew all about them as well," I muttered before going on the search for Jamie.