After what she'd experienced the last time she was on a plane, the airport was the last place she wanted to be, especially since she felt as if she was in a very fragile mental state. Thankfully, Ally wasn't getting on a plane. There wasn't a force in the world that would make her leave Toronto without Austin, anyways. But that didn't make her feel any better about being at the airport.

Because she was here to meet Austin's parents.

Ally had avoided calling Austin's parents for the first day, and after that… Well, Ally's ashamed to say that she lost track of time, even though it was taking all of her concentration not to sink into her earlier depression. Thankfully, it hadn't effected the timing of Austin's parents finding out what had happened. Apparently, Trish had insisted that the police call the Moons to formally inform them of the situation (Trish hadn't wanted to break the news either). It had taken the Moons time to find replacements to watch their mattress store, and then they'd taken the time to pack for a month. Ally was appalled by this. If Ally had been in their situation, she would've just shut down the store and taken the next plane out of Miami to Toronto. But they were here now, and Ally wasn't one to rebuke her elders.

Ally and Trish were sitting at a little café in the airport, waiting for them to arrive, hoping that they were waiting at the right spot. Neither of them spoke. The emails had hit them all hard. Ally was constantly pushing back tears, and her throat was hurting from the effort. She couldn't believe that Austin had thrown himself into an alligator pit (figuratively speaking) because of a few hollow threats. But no, that's not quite right. It was absolutely believable that Austin would give himself up for empty threats, even though he didn't realise they were hollow. She just really wished he hadn't.

Ally was shaken out of her reverie by Trish, who had waved her hand in front of Ally's face to get her attention. Ally raised her eyebrows at her friend. She just signalled with a glance to a spot behind Ally. She whirled around, desperately trying to put on a mildly pleased expression.

"Ally!" Mrs. Moon was the first to reach the group, and proceeded immediately to pull Ally into a tight hug. Ally hugged her back, the battle against her tears raging within. Ally's mom was basically never around, owing to her research in Africa, and Mrs. Moon had taken on a bit of a motherly role in Ally's life.

"Ally, Trish." Mr. Moon greeted the pair, putting a hand on Trish's shoulder as Mrs. Moon pulled away from Ally. "We are so sorry it took so long to get here. We wanted to be here the second we heard, but we were just so swamped…"

"It's okay, Mr. Moon." Ally interrupted. She could hardly blame them for anything after that spiel, especially since her own father couldn't come out at all because of those exact reasons. "We understand."

"We understand that Austin's… situation" Mrs. Moon choked on the word. "Has been going on for a little longer than we thought?"

Ally had a response ready. She'd even rehearsed it on the way to the airport. But she found that imagining a situation, than actually being in it, was two very different things, and her whole speech got stuck in her throat.

Trish noticed Ally's hesitation, and quickly covered for her. "Yeah." She said. "He'd been receiving some emails… well, I think it would be better if you read them yourselves." Trish pulled out a copy of the transcript from her purse and handed to her. Ally noted dryly that Trish could pull as many things out of her purse as Dez could pull out of his backpack.

The two girls watched quietly as the Moons read the emails. Their faces grew darker and darker as they reached the bottom of the page. When they reached the bottom, Mrs. Moon visibly choked on a sob, putting a hand on her mouth to avoid anything else from escaping. Mr. Moon reacted a bit differently. He crumpled the sheet of paper in his hand, a deadly look on his face. No sobs or tears escaped him. Ally knew that boys tended to react differently than girls in stressful situations, but she'd never actually seen that theory in practice before, until now.

Mr. Moon put a comforting hand on his wife's shaking shoulder. "Now, now Mimi, look at it this way. Remember all those crime shows we used to watch? You know what it means when a victim is staked out like this in advance." The woman quieted her shaking and looked up at her husband with a glimmer of hope. The teenagers simply looked confused. Mr. Moon clarified. "It means there's a very good chance he's still alive." He said, addressing the two girls.

Trish's face froze, and Ally's body made a weird jerky movement. Still alive. Certainly, they'd all been thinking about the alternate possibility… But it wasn't until that moment that someone had openly addressed the topic, and it was having a strange effect on Ally.

Because Austin couldn't be dead. He just couldn't be. Barring the fact that that she'd be losing her closest friend, her career, and basically her life, it would be HER fault. And she just couldn't take that. Finding Austin wasn't a moral issue anymore. Finding him, and finding him alive, was her responsibility. A new resolve flooded her, and finally, Ally felt like she had a purpose. She found that for the first time since Austin vanished, she wasn't fighting back tears.

"The police want to speak with you." Ally said. She could hear the change that just happened within her echoing through her voice, and it didn't surpass Trish. Her friend looked up, shocked, and Ally could tell that she was pleased that she'd finally manage to drag herself out of her funk. The Moons simply nodded, and Ally led the way out of the airport. They hailed a taxi, and soon, they were packed in a cab, on their way to what had now become their base of operations.

"There's a few things that get me." Mrs. Moon said. "For one, what was the package that was refered to in the second email? I figure that it must be something that got Austin to take him seriously. Because our boy is smart. He should've known that those threats were hollow." Ally nodded, urging her to go on. "Secondly, how could he have been watching the four of you so closely without any of you noticing? You didn't happen to notice any stranger hanging around the store a bit too much? Asking strange questions?" Ally shook her head. It did weird her out, but this had to be looked at logically.

"Austin's famous." Ally said. "He could've found out everything he needed to know to pull this off through magazines and articles, stuff you can find online. He didn't really have to be watching us."

Mrs. Moon nodded in apparent disagreement. "No" She said. "I get the sense that whatever it was that he sent to Austin, it must've been something that belonged to one of you three, something that would make Austin truly understand that he was nearby and watching. Also, he couldn't have found out anything about you without firsthand knowledge. You avoid the media whenever it appears. There's next to nothing about you in magazines and articles."

Ally frowned. What she said was true. Ally did avoid publicity, because of her stage fright. She made a point of not being there when a chance of being questioned arises. Her friends respect that, as well, and they talk as little as possible about her when they're interviewed. He had to have been watching her, at least, to know what he did about Ally personally. And that scared her. She didn't even want to think about her earlier statement. The thought of this guy actually being through their stuff, of getting that personal… No, she wouldn't go there.

Before Ally could respond, the taxi pulled up to the police station, and the four of them shot out of the car. Mr. Moon stayed back to pay the driver and grab the luggage. The other three rushed inside, ready to tell the detective everything they'd thought up on the ride there (that's assuming they hadn't already figured it all out themselves).

The group had barely made it five feet, however, when they found themselves face to face with the detective in question.

"Mrs. Moon, I presume?" He said, offering his hand. She shook it. "I'm glad you showed up when you did. There's been a development." Ally hopes soared when the words came out of his mouth, but she fought them back down, once she'd gotten a good look at his grave expression. Her hopes plummeted further when his attention turned to her.

"Ally Dawson." He said. "A letter came for you."

"A letter?" She asked, more confused than ever.

"It's safe." He said, though his expression seemed to suggest otherwise. "Follow me."

The group followed the detective into a back conference room silently, intrigued yet wary. Ally was simply downright confused. Until he handed the letter to her.

There was no name or address on the back, only two words:

Recognise This?

Ally hands were shaking as she reached into the envelope. She felt something soft touch her fingertips and her heart leaped into a throat. Taking a deep breath, she pulled out the object.

It was a lock of blonde hair.