Two days after Christmas, Betty and Daniel were in Manhattan catching some boxing week sales. Betty generally wasn't a big shopper – she had to be in the mood for it. But sales – particularly boxing week sales – put her in the mood. She was carrying a handful of bags. Daniel hadn't done too badly either. It was approaching lunch time and Daniel was meeting Alexis and his mom for lunch.

Daniel was acting weird and over protective – like he didn't want to leave her shopping in Manhattan in the middle of the day.

"I'll be fine." Betty insisted. "I did grow up in New York, remember? And I used to work and live in Manhattan too..." Her tone was of slight frustration. What was with him today? It was like he didn't want to leave her on her own.

"Are you sure you don't want me to call a cab for you, so you can go home?"

"Daniel…stop already." She was getting slightly annoyed that he was treating her like a child. "You're doing that obsessive thing you do sometimes. I'm from Queens – New York is my "crib"." She made a fist with her baby finger and thumb sticking out.

Daniel shook his head at her. "Don't do that."

She continued. "I just want to hit a few more stores. Then I'll take the subway home. Go…Meet your mom and Alexis. Stop worrying."

"I'll call you tonight." He said, kissing her good-bye. He was staying in Manhattan tonight.

He walked the few blocks to the restaurant where he was meeting Alexis and his mom. He knew Betty was right – he was doing his obsessive thing – but he couldn't help it. He couldn't shake this feeling of dread that had come over him. Perhaps it was because he was spending the day with Alexis…dread and Alexis kind of went hand in hand.

They were meeting at an elegant restaurant in mid-town. Alexis just wasn't the sandwich shop type.

Daniel walked in and noticed them sitting at a table near the front of the restaurant.

"Hi Mom." He kissed his mother on the cheek. "Alexis." He gave her a half hug.

"It's about time you arrived, Danny. We were beginning to think maybe you wouldn't show."

Daniel ignored her tone. "Yeah…sorry about that. Betty and I were doing a bit of shopping."

"How is Betty, darling?" Claire Meade asked.

"She's great." Daniel smiled.

"How many butterfly belts and sequined broaches did you find in all the Boxing Day sales?" Alexis was in fine form today. Daniel gave her a threatening look but didn't say anything.

Alexis continued. "You know I really can't stop thinking about how ironic your relationship with Betty is. Dad hired her because he figured she was the last woman on earth you would sleep with. And by now you've probably slept with her more than all the other assistants combined." She smirked. "Dad would be rolling in his grave."

Daniel wasn't sure if her smirk was because she thought her comment had been particularly witty and biting or whether she was amused at the image of Bradford rolling in his grave. Either way, he was starting to get annoyed.

"Alexis…" Daniel started, but Claire placed a hand on her son's arm.

"Alexis, that's quite enough." Claire interjected. "I thought the three of us could have a nice day together."

"Have you been drinking again, Mom?" Alexis asked.

The rest of the meal was at least civil. As long as they stayed in neutral territory, Alexis was polite. Daniel assumed she was particularly moody because she had come to New York without D.J. He was staying in France with his grandparents this Christmas.

After lunch they went to the theater to see a show that Claire had been wanting to see for months. She was particularly nostalgic – they hadn't done that together since Daniel and Alexis were kids.

Daniel survived the day and when they got back to the mansion he decided to give Betty a call.

"Hello?" Ignacio answered the phone.

"Hi Mr….uh…Ignacio. Is Betty there?" Daniel asked.

"Oh…hello Daniel. No, she's not home yet. Can I get her to call you when she gets in?"

"She's not home?" Daniel questioned. He'd left her hours ago and she said she only wanted to pick up a few more things before she went home.

Ignacio heard the worry in Daniel's voice. "Don't worry, Daniel. Betty's very used to New York City; she grew up here. I'm sure she's fine. She probably went over to Hilda's or maybe Marc and Amanda's."

"Yeah…of course." Daniel felt a little relieved. "Just tell her I called when she gets home."

"Certainly." Ignacio replied.

Daniel decided to try Betty on her cell. There was no answer. Maybe her cell was dead; but it wasn't like Betty to let that happen – she had a routine. Daniel went back downstairs. His mom was in the living room reading. She looked up when he approached and could tell that something was bothering him.

"What's wrong Daniel?" She asked.

"Hmm?" he was lost in thought.

"What's wrong, dear? Your frown lines are going to become trenches if you keep that face."

"Betty isn't home yet."

"And you're worried about her? She did grow up in New York, Daniel." He wondered why everyone kept reminding him of that. "She has a lot of friends. Hilda lives in Manhattan now doesn't she?"

"I know Mom…but her cell phone is off or dead too which is very odd for Betty."

"I think you're being a little paranoid, dear. Betty is a grown woman – born and raised in Queens. She can handle herself in the city. Why don't you relax a little bit – watch some television or something?"

Daniel figured he might as well distract himself for what it was worth.

Two and a half hours later, Betty still hadn't called. He wanted to call her house again. Maybe Ignacio had forgotten to give her the message, or maybe she had just for gotten to call. He was just about to pick up the phone when his cell phone rang. He looked at the display – it was Betty's house. He sighed, relieved.

"Hey Betty." He answered.

"Daniel?" It was Hilda.

"Hilda?" Daniel was confused.

"Betty's still not home. Is she with you?" There was a rising panic in Hilda's tone.

"No Hilda…what do you mean she's not home?" It was getting pretty late. Daniel felt all the dread he'd been feeling earlier in the day return with a vengeance.

"I mean she hasn't come home yet." Hilda didn't think she was speaking a foreign language.

"Maybe she's with Marc and Amanda?" Daniel suggested.

"We called them. Marc said he had a date over and Amanda is out with Tyler.

"What do you want me to do Hilda?" Daniel was really worried now.

"Can you come over?"

"Of course. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"What's going on, darling?" Claire asked, concerned. She had overheard Daniel's half of the conversation.

"Betty's not home yet. I'm going over there."

"Do you want me to come with you, dear?" Claire was worried too.

"No…you should stay Mom, in case Betty calls here or something."

When Daniel arrived at the house Hilda was almost on the verge of frantic but Bobby was managing to keep her sane.

"It's all right Hilda. I'm sure she's fine. She probably ran into friends and lost track of the time." Daniel noticed that Bobby had the ability to remain calm in a crisis – something he was very grateful for right about now.

"Daniel!" Hilda rushed over to him as soon as she saw him at the door.

Ignacio was in the kitchen. He came out when he heard Hilda say Daniel's name.

"Have you heard from her?" Ignacio asked, oven mitts on his hands and his apron around his waist. Daniel thought it was a strange sight especially considering the circumstances.

"Grandpa cooks when he's upset." Justin explained, noticing Daniel's expression.

Daniel nodded his head, understanding. "No…I haven't heard from her, and I've tried calling her cell but it's either off or the battery is dead."

"That's not like Aunt Betty at all." Justin commented, shaking his head slowly. "Well it's not!" he said when everyone looked at him.

"I'm going to call the police." Daniel said. He went into the kitchen.

"Maybe I can go out and look for her." Bobby suggested. "I'll take Daniel when he gets off the phone."

Hilda nodded. They heard Daniel on the phone, his voice getting louder.

"…what do you mean there's nothing you can do? …don't tell me to calm down." He was very agitated. "yes…yes…thank you." He hung up the phone and walked into the living room, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.

"They're sending someone over to ask some questions. They can't issue an official missing person report but they can get the word out among the officers on the street."

Half an hour later a young police officer arrived. He looked like he was fresh out of the academy. He was ushered into the living room and Ignacio went into the kitchen to get him a coffee.

"So who was the last person to see…"

"Betty." Hilda filled in the name for him.

"Right…who was the last person to see Betty?"

"I guess that was me." Daniel said. He felt like he was sitting still but the world was spinning all around him. It was making him nauseated.

"I left her at the corner of Madison and 51st Street. We were shopping and I had to go meet someone for lunch."

"How was Betty's state of mind when you left her? Had you been fighting?"

Daniel rubbed his forehead. "No…no she was fine. I asked her if she wanted me to get her a cab but she wanted to shop more before she went home." He paused, tears of worry and guilt pooling in his eyes. He spoke softly, as if to himself "I should have gotten her a cab." He was feeling physically ill. If anything happened to Betty he would never be able to forgive himself.

Ignacio spoke, placing his hand on Daniel's shoulder. "It's not your fault, son."

The officer spoke again. "Is it like Betty to behave spontaneously or to go somewhere…say…out of town without telling anyone?"

"Are you kidding?" Justin spoke up.

"No." Ignacio interjected. "Betty's not like that."

"Has anything strange happened in the past few days – odd encounters, strange behaviours – anything like that?"

Hilda, Justin and Ignacio looked at each other shaking their heads like they couldn't think of anything.

"Wait..." Bobby said. Everyone looked at him. He continued. "There was that strange car parked across the street for the past couple of days." He turned to Hilda "Remember I mentioned it to you?"

Hilda gave him a look and then addressed the officer. "Don't mind him. My husband notices strange things and sometimes makes them out to be more than they are."

"Hilda…" Bobby was insistent "I'm telling you, I've never seen that car in the neighbourhood before."

"So someone got a new car…" Hilda couldn't believe Bobby thought this was relevant.

Bobby turned to the officer stressing his point. "It's not the type of car you see in this neighbourhood very often."

"It may be nothing." The officer interjected. "But it never hurts to look into these things."

Bobby gave Hilda his "I told you" look. The officer took down all the details Bobby could remember.

"Can anybody think of anything else?"

"Um…" Daniel was hesitant to mention it but seeing as Bobby brought up the strange car, it couldn't hurt…it's not like he was accusing anyone. "There was this guy on the flight." Now everyone was looking at Daniel. "His name was Greg…no Glen…I think it was Glen. He was an investment banker. Apparently he'd had some interesting clients but he wasn't giving any details. Betty was asking him all sorts of questions to see if there was anything interesting she could put in the magazine. You know Betty, always looking for a story. I know it's stupid…but I didn't like the way he was looking at her." Everyone was quiet. "It's probably not relevant." He added at the end.

"Can you think of anything else about this gentleman that might be helpful - maybe a last name or some other details?" The officer asked.

Daniel wished now that he'd paid a little bit more attention to what Betty had been saying about the guy. He took a deep breath. "That's really all I remember. His last name didn't come up. Oh…he was bald and had wire rimmed glasses."

"Great." The officer finished writing down Daniel's details. "I'll go call this in and we can start by checking the hospitals."

Hilda gasped and sat down hard on the couch, her mind reeling. Bobby's thought was: Stupid, insensitive young cop, I'd punch him out if we didn't need his help so badly. At least he had the decency not to mention the morgue. Daniel was thinking that the hospital was actually the better of the many scenarios his mind was conceiving at the moment, and would it be rude to hurl in the planter under the window. Ignacio wanted to go back into the kitchen…at least he could control the empanadas.

"Don't worry…if she'd gone in by ambulance, the hospital would have called you by now. But she may be sitting in an emergency room waiting to be attended to with a less serious injury." It seemed he was trying to ease their minds a bit – that is, until he said the next part. "One more thing: If she was kidnapped for ransom, you will likely hear from the perpetrators in the next twelve hours."

"Kidnapped!" Justin screamed, obviously upset.

"Why would anyone take Betty for money, we don't have any money?" Ignacio was perplexed.

Everyone looked at Daniel. For some weird reason, that explanation made the most sense. Betty wouldn't be lost in New York…she definitely would never have gone somewhere for this long without contacting her family…and if she was in the hospital, unless she had a head injury of some sort, she most certainly would have called them. This time Daniel really was going to be sick; he ran upstairs to the washroom.

After ridding his stomach of his pretentious, overpriced lunch, he sat on the floor with his head against the cold porcelain; the room was spinning. This was his fault…all his fault. Betty's family must hate him…how could they not…he hated himself for this. Whatever the kidnappers wanted he would give them – millions, Mode, the entire Meade shares – he'd give it all.

Ignacio knocked on the door and then pushed it open.

"I'm sorry…Mr. Suarez…I'm so sorry." Daniel just stared blankly at the floor, his stomach writhing again and his head aching from holding back the tears and the screams he wanted to let out.

"Daniel…" Ignacio assumed a spot on the floor across from Daniel. "First of all, we don't know that Betty's been kidnapped. Secondly…even if she has…you have to know: it's not your fault."

"Of course it's my fault. She'd be safe if it wasn't for me."

"We don't know that Daniel. We need to be strong now, son…as a family." Daniel was touched he would consider him like that. Ignacio continued. "We need to figure this out and find Betty. There's no point blaming ourselves or wondering "what if" right now."

Daniel realized Ignacio was right. He couldn't fall apart right now while Betty was…God only knows where. He needed to be strong for Betty's family and for Betty and not become a liability because he was coming unglued. He picked himself up and then helped Ignacio off the floor. Turning to the sink, he ran the cold water, rinsed his mouth and splashed some on his face.

They headed back downstairs. Hilda was still sitting on the sofa but she had started softly crying. Justin and Bobby were sitting on either side of her trying to give her some comfort. They all looked up when the two men came down the stairs. Daniel took one look at Hilda's distraught face and thought he was going to hurl again but managed to get his emotions somewhat under control.

"Hey Daniel…you wanna go for a ride, man?" Bobby suggested. "Maybe we could go back to where you last saw Betty and see if we can come up with something helpful."

"Uh…" Daniel looked around at everyone, wondering what they might think if he bailed right now, even if it was to try to get some more information. Ignacio nodded at him, indicating he thought it might be a good idea. "Sure."

"Does anyone have a recent picture of Betty?" Bobby asked.

"Yeah…there should be one on my cell phone." Daniel said remembering the pictures he had snapped of her when they went out for dinner in London a couple of weeks ago. Even as he was looking through the photos on his phone for one that might help, he wondered if maybe Bobby had seen a few too many cop shows.

They headed into Manhattan only after Daniel had been assured by Ignacio that he would call Daniel's cell if they heard anything…from anyone. The entire ride there Bobby was calm and reassuring. He didn't chatter aimlessly but spoke often enough to prevent Daniel from falling into the downward negative thought spiral he was accustomed to in times of crisis – the very spiral that Betty had so often rescued him from.

As they were driving, Daniel realized that he probably had very little in common with this man from Queens who grew up not far from Betty's childhood home. Bobby was from a tight knit, loving family where cousins were as close as siblings and distant relatives were considered "aunts" and "uncles". Daniel's own siblings weren't even as close as siblings and he couldn't remember the last time he'd spoken to his actual aunts and uncles. And, although Bobby's family wasn't underprivileged by any stretch, he certainly wouldn't have grown up with the luxuries that Daniel did (few people had). Bobby was tough, streetwise and had barely finished high school. Daniel had manicures, thousand dollar suits and a Harvard education. But he found himself liking Bobby more and more despite how different they were. And he was growing increasingly thankful to have him here tonight with his calm demeanor and his determined attitude; Bobby was definitely someone you wanted on your team.

They parked the car near the area that Daniel had said good-bye to Betty and they started walking down the street. It was Bobby's idea to see if there might be someone around who may have noticed something or who might recognize the photo of Betty. Unfortunately, as it was getting fairly late, many of the shops were closed and most of the street vendors had packed up. There was a coffee shop open so they decided to ask there.

"I won't be much help." The girl behind the counter said, when they approached her. "I just started work a few minutes ago." Daniel felt defeated before they even really got started. The girl continued "But Chris is still here, and he's been here all day." She went into the back for a minute and came back with a co-worker who Daniel assumed was Chris.

Bobby showed him the picture on Daniel's cell phone.

"Yeah…I saw her." Chris said. "She was in here this afternoon. She was very friendly. She said she liked my hat." He was wearing a colourful fedora; it certainly sounded like Betty. "I remember her because one minute she was chatty and friendly and then within just a few minutes she was sick or something. She could barely stand up by herself. Her boyfriend or whoever he was said she was sick and must be having some kind of reaction to her medication. He helped her up and took her out to his car."

Daniel and Bobby looked at each other. Daniel felt sick all over again.

"What kind of car? Did you notice?" Bobby asked him.

"Not really. It was some kind of luxury sedan or something. A nice looking car…"

"What did the…uh…boyfriend look like." Bobby asked.

"Balding…glasses…a pretty tall guy." Chris said.

Daniel knew before Chris had even finished talking that it was the man from the airplane. Bobby called the police immediately.

A few minutes later the police thanked Bobby for the information but warned him that the public shouldn't be doing the job of the police…that it was dangerous. And Bobby thanked the police and reminded them - not so eloquently - that he had to do "their job" because they weren't, as technically Betty hadn't been "missing" long enough to be considered missing even though she damn well was and that he would, most certainly, look for any member of his family regardless of whether it was advisable by the police or not…all of it speckled with a few expletives that Daniel had never even heard before. And for the second, or maybe it was the third time that evening, Daniel was extremely grateful for Bobby Talercio. On top of that, of course, Daniel made a mental note to never, ever incur Bobby's wrath for any reason – he was scarier than Hilda.

They were heading back to the car when Daniel's phone rang. Bobby was still holding it so he gave it back to Daniel. It was Ignacio. They had received a strange phone call. Someone definitely had Betty – this no longer news to Bobby and Daniel. The "someone" wanted money, a lot of it…ten million dollars to be precise. They were not to contact the police. They were to bring the money to an abandoned industrial building in Queens and meet the kidnappers there tomorrow night. Daniel felt like he was in a bad movie.