Disclaimer: see chapter 1
A/N: Heard the fab news... rumor has it that... MCTAVISH IS OUT! Yes, I swear to you, I've seen it quite a few different places. Hopefully ABC will make an official announcement this week. Thank God is all I can say... after the crap we'll have to put up with this week (especially as a Zen fan... I'm protesting Wed... not watching at all, not even reading recaps!). Just wanted to share the good news. You may commence with the partying now!
Zach rolled his eyes and looked over at Tad, who was staring out the window at the house. They had been sitting in the car for 20 minutes and Zach was about tired of this. If they didn't get a move on, he knew there was no way he would be home in time for dinner and he was in no mood to deal with the wrath of Kendall, especially not over the Martin family. He silently cursed himself for letting Tad talk him into this.
"Tad, let's go."
"Slater, just…"
"No, no more time. Either you go up there or we turn around and go back to the plane because, I swear to you man, if Kendall is pissed at me tonight, I'm sending her to your place."
Tad looked over at Zach. "Fine, alright, I'm ready." Both men opened their doors and walked the path up to the door. Tad took a deep breath and rang the bell. A man answered the door.
"Can I help you?"
Tad looked over at Zach, frozen. Zach looked back at the man. "I'm sorry to bug you, but it would seem that our rental broke down and we're running late and both our cells are dead. Could we use your phone to call the rental agency?"
The man looked them up and down a couple of times before stepping back from the door. "Sure, I'll get the cordless for you." Zach watched the man retreat into the back of the house. Tad strode into the living room and Zach glanced around. As he turned on his heel, he saw Tad standing next the mantle, holding a picture frame. Tad looks up at Zach and turns the picture around. Zach felt like someone had sucked all the air out of his lungs – the girl in the picture looked like a mini-Dixie.
"I brought you guys a…" The man turned the corner and froze. "What the hell are you doing?" he roared at Tad.
"Where is she?" Tad screamed back."
"Who?"
"Her!" he yelled, pointing at the picture. "This is my daughter. Where is she!" Zach could see that Tad was losing it.
The man threw the phone down on a chair and glared at Tad. "I don't know who the hell sent you here, but…" Tad threw the picture down and tore out of the living room and up the steps. "KATE!" he screamed. Zach and this other man ran after him.
Tad threw open the first closed door he found and froze. It was a little girls' dream room, completely a doll house and tons of drawers for clothes. Tad looked around the room. "Kate" he said to himself.
Zach flew up the steps behind the man. Just as he hit the top step, a woman appeared from a room down the hall. "Alan, what is…" She froze as she saw the open door that Tad had just walked through. She walked slowly to the room and stared wide eyed at Tad.
Tad turned and looked at the woman. "Where is she?"
The woman launched herself at Tad, beating him on the chest with her fists. "GET OUT! GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! GET OUT! GET OUT!" She screamed and screamed and screamed, beating on Tad the whole time. Zach was frozen to his spot as Alan grabbed his wife. They collapsed onto the little girls' bed. Alan held his wife as she sobbed and breathed heavily. He shushed her until her cries quieted. Alan looked up at Tad and Zach.
"You have to understand… this was our daughter's room."
"Was?" Zach asked.
Alan nodded. He looked down at his wife, who seemed to have settled down some. "Yes… there was… an accident last summer. Ally drowned in the pool we used to have out back."
Tad's eyes went wide and his back hit the wall. He ran his hand over his face, shocked at the news. "Oh my God… how…" he looked over at Zach. "How am I going to explain this to Dixie?"
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Alan's wife shot straight up, shooting daggers at Tad. Tad shook his head. "Oh… what… it was… nothing… my ex, Dixie…"
"THAT BITCH! IT WAS HER… SHE KILLED MY BABY… THIS IS HER FAULT…" Alan grabbed his wife as she tried to vault across the room again at Tad. Zach and Tad just stared at her as Alan pulled her onto his lap, whispering in her ear. She breathed heavily and stared at Tad, but she seemed to be listening to her husband. They backed out of the room as Alan helped his wife off the bed. He quickly picked her up and carried her out of the room.
"Wait downstairs. I'll be right down." They watched as Alan carried his wife into what they assumed was their bedroom and kicked the door shut. Tad walked down the stairs. Zach glanced into the room one last time before pulling the door shut.
Alan reappeared 10 minutes later. Zach stood up as he walked into the room. "Look, I'm really sorry… it's just we've been looking for his daughter and we got a tip…"
Alan held up his hand. "Please, sit back down." Alan looked over at Tad. "Did she hurt you?"
Tad shook his head. "I'm fine."
Alan nodded and looked down at the floor. "My wife… well, she hasn't been the same since Ally died. We…" Alan looked up at the two men. "We can't have kids, so when we adopted Ally, it was like a blessing."
"Who facilitated the adoption for you?" Zach asked.
"Dr. Greg Madden. Have you heard of him?" Zach just nodded, refusing to make eye contact with Tad. "Yeah, he was the greatest. Ally's biological mother was killed in a car accident overseas and the father was never in the picture – Greg said he never knew who he real father was." Zach could see Tad's face tighten as Alan spoke.
"So" Zach said, "when my friend mentioned the name Dixie…"
Alan just nodded. "Yeah. The day that Ally died… it was a weekday afternoon. I was at work and my wife is… was a teacher, so she was home with Ally. She said she was making lunch for the two of them. Ally loved the pool… spent all summer in it, but my wife was insistent… no swimming without supervision, so I'd imagine that Ally was sitting at the edge of the pool, waiting for my wife to come outside. She answered the door and woman introduced herself at Dixie and that Greg Madden had referred her to us. Something about adoption… I don't really remember. Well, my wife invited her in and offered her lunch. They always ate lunch outside during the summer, so they brought the food out. She said… well, she said that once Dixie got a look at Ally, she froze, wouldn't take her eyes off of her. Said all she kept saying was 'Kate, Kate, Kate'. My wife tried to get her attention. She said she just tapped her shoulder and… well, she went off, apparently. Started screaming about how we stole her daughter."
"My wife was so protective of Ally, so she went to stand between this woman and our daughter. Dixie grabbed her arm from around my wife, trying to drag her away. The one thing we always told our daughter was 'don't ever go with strangers'. So, Ally started to fight her way out of Dixie's grasp, but she was only 4. My wife said she was yelling for her to let go. I guess… I guess she hit a puddle or wet spot or something because she… she cracked her head on the edge of the pool and fell in. Coroner said that she broke her neck when she hit the edge of the pool… died almost immediately. The neighbors said my wife started screaming for help. The people next door said by the time they got over here, this other woman was gone. I never saw her, but my wife said she saw her at the cemetery, way in the back of the crowd. She pointed her out to me, but all I got was a glimpse of a blonde bob walking away from me. She hasn't been back since."
Zach looked over at Tad, who was staring at his lap. Zach looked back at Alan. "I'm so sorry for your loss… we both are. I'm sorry to have interrupted your…"
"Would you show your wife this?" They both looked over at Tad, who had pulled a picture out of his wallet. Zach got up and walked over to Tad. He saw that the picture was one of him and Dixie. Tad pushed himself off the couch and handed the picture. "I just… I just need to know if this was the woman who showed up that day."
Alan took the picture and looked at it. "You know her?"
Tad nodded. "Yeah, if this is that woman who was here that day, things are a lot worse than I thought there were."
Alan nodded and walked up the stairs. 5 minutes later, he returned. "This is her… this is the woman who was here that day, my wife is positive." Tad bolted out of the house. Zach took the picture from Alan and shook his hand. "Thank you for your time."
Tad was leaning against the car by the time Zach walked down the steps. "Are you alright?"
"I don't know, Zach, I really don't know." Zach was about to ask him something else when he heard his cell phone chirp. He dug it out of his pocket. "Zach Slater."
Zach froze. He could hear Kendall in the background, screaming. "Kendall! Kendall!"
"Zach?"
"Ryan? What the hell…"
"You need to get back here now!"
TBC…
