A.N. I have absolutely no excuse for the delay on this chapter lol other than my sudden addiction to reading Xena fanfics which has for some reason taken over most of my time :S I'm really sorry about that, anyways here's chapter 4, enjoy!

Chapter Four - Ransom

The flashing of the camera's was intense, even more so than usual. Miley took a deep breath and walked up to the podium with Lilly firmly clutching her hand. She cleared her voice and spoke much more strongly than she felt.

"Our daughter has been kidnapped." She began, "She has been taken from us and I just wanted to speak to whoever has her. Savannah is a good kid, please just tell us what you want and you can have it. We just want our daughter back" here she paused to let this sink in, "Again, we will do anything, give you anything but please return Savannah to us unharmed" As she finished, there was an explosion of questions from the assembled reporters but Miley simply raised her hand to quell this burst of questions and spoke back into the microphone, "Savannah, if you're listening, we love you, be brave. That's everything, there'll be no questions today" and she and Lilly turned around and walked into the small room of the press room. Oliver was stood talking to another man, obviously not liking what he was being told.

"I don't care Novack, these people are friends of a friend of mine and I will not see them go through this hell without doing everything in my power to help them, I want every possible resource, to hell with what the public will view it as!" he said menacingly.

"Chief, I'm only offering my opinion" he told his superior, obviously not noticing that Hannah and Lola were stood behind him, "And that opinion is that having the chief personally involve himself in an area where he has no expertise will be seen as a famous couple getting special treatment, I think it would be wise to have the missing persons department take over complete control as is usual practice"

"I don't care about usual practice; we know Oliver and we prefer that someone we know is leading the police in charge of finding our daughter!" Miley snapped causing Oliver and Novack to spin around and face them.

"Hannah, Lola!" Oliver exclaimed, "We were just discussing ..." he started.

"It's ok Oliver, we heard what he was saying" Lilly said from her position next to Miley, "And you're right, we don't care if the public thinks we're getting special treatment, we can deal with that as long as we get Savannah back"

"Don't worry, there won't be any more opinions offered" Oliver said, stressing the word 'opinion' and shooting a glare at Novack. "Anyway, this is James Novack, he's the kidnapping expert I was telling you about" he told Hannah and Lola, a little unnecessarily. He then turned to Novack, "Novack, this is Hannah and Lola Montana. I'll give you a piece of advice, tell them the truth and you'll be fine" he warned him. Novack looked a little unsure at this but nodded and politely shook their hands. Just as Miley was about to speak again, her Hannah cell phone started to ring. She looked down at the number before answering it, she didn't recognise it but that wasn't an unusual experience on the Hannahline.

"Hey, you got Hannah" she answered.

"Hannah Montana, we have your daughter." Came a robotic sounding voice, Miley quickly thumbed speaker on her cell so the whole room could hear, "Have $4,000,000 in unmarked bills no larger than $50 bills prepared, you have two days and we will contact you again at 6pm on Tuesday. You will receive proof of life delivered to your manager's home in one hour"

As the sound of dial tone flooded the room, Lilly and Miley embraced as Novack and Oliver looked at each other.

"$4,000,000?" Novack repeated, "Can you get that amount together in time?" he queried looking at Hannah.

She nodded and said, "I'm sure that won't be a problem, I'm gonna call my manager now" and she started dialling her dad but stopped as the door opened and he walked inside. "Dad, we need to get $4,000,000 from the bank, can you arrange it?"

"Sure bud" he said, pulling out his cell phone, "I'll get right onto the manager now" he walked back outside to make his phone call and Miley turned back to Oliver and Novack, allowing her vulnerability to show for the first time since her daughter was taken.

"Do you think we'll get her back?" she asked quietly.

"Yes, we will get her back Hannah, believe it" Oliver stated emphatically, squeezing her hand. He turned to Novack, "Go and start putting together preparations for the handover of the ransom and the safe retrieval of their daughter" he ordered.

"Of course" Novack responded and quickly left the house.

-LILEY-

Sydney finally started feeling hungry when she woke up after an uneasy night of sleep. She picked up the sandwich and opened it. It was a plain cheese one, she and her Momma both loved cheese sandwiches. She smiled sadly as she picked up one half of the sandwich and took a small bite, then she grimaced, it was a horrible sandwich. She picked up the bottle of water instead and took a long drink. She sat back against the wall again and then started as the door was roughly thrown open and the man from last night came marching into the room.

"Do not move!" he snarled. He threw her a newspaper, "Hold that!" Shaking, Sydney picked up the newspaper, "Not that way! So the date and headlines are showing, you stupid girl!" She turned it around and he took a few pictures before storming back over to the door and slamming it shut. Although Sydney was scared by this man, she was starting to feel a little annoyed at the way he treated her, she wasn't stupid and yes she had been kidnapped but he was just like a boy called Alex at her day care. He used to bully kids into giving him their milk and cookies at break. Her Momma had told her that boys like that didn't have any friends and that's why they were so mean and her Mommy had told her to stand up to them and they'll respect you. She shivered at the thought of standing up to that man. He was definitely a big bully, maybe this was one of those times that her Granddaddy told her that she needed to choose her battles carefully. Yeah, she'd just do as she was told, she decided as she straightened her wig again ... for now.

-LILEY-

Almost an hour after the phone call from the kidnappers, there was a knock at the door. Robbie Ray quickly answered it to a young kid stood on the doorstep.

"Yo, I was given $50 to deliver this to Robbie Ray Stewart" he said thrusting forward an envelope. Oliver was out of his seat before he could finish speaking.

"What did he look like?" he asked, flashing his badge to the suddenly frightened kid.

"I don't know man, he had a baseball cap on and glasses, he was a tall dude, that's all I remember, he just told me to take this here and gave me a fifty" he explained. Oliver took the envelope carefully and told the uniformed officer in the room to take him into custody and get his parents to the station so he could make a sworn statement. "Dude I didn't do anything wrong" he protested.

"I know, you're not under arrest, but this is a kidnapping investigation, we just need your evidence" Oliver explained, trying to avoid scaring the boy anymore. The officer led the boy away and they shut the door before all attention was on the envelope. Oliver carefully put on some gloves and opened the envelope and three picture slid across the table, causing a strangled gasp from Lilly and Miley's hold on Lilly's hand to tighten in shock.

There was Sydney, still in her Savannah wig, holding today's paper on a tiny, beaten up looking bed.

Their daughter was still alive.

A.N. I hope that was worth the wait and see, I'm not heartless, little Syd is ok :D, please review, Nicki xoxo