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Disclaimer: Not mine if you've seen them on CSI: NY.

Chapter 9

Flack pulled up outside Lara's building, switched his car engine off and then climbed out of his car. He locked it and made his way casually over to her building. He was smiling as he made his way up to her apartment. He always found himself smiling when he knew he was about to see her. He finally reached her floor and took a step towards her door but when he looked up he suddenly froze.

Her door was open slightly. Immediately he wondered why it would be open. He silently took out his gun and crept over to her door. He tried to look through the small gap but he could see nothing. He shifted right up against the door and nudged it open with his shoulder and ducked through it. His gun was aimed and ready in his steady hands.

From what he could see so far everything looked okay. He looked down and noticed her keys where she usually put them, so she had indeed been home since she had left the lab. He took a few more slow and silent steps forward, he wanted to call out to her but he just knew something wasn't right. His heart was pounding in his chest and the hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end.

He suddenly found himself by the living room. He could see someone slumped on the couch. He knew from the straightened bleach blonde hair that it wasn't Lara but he still moved towards the person with a new found speed. He moved round the front of the couch, his gun aimed still. What he saw made him drop his arms down. He realised one hand from his gun and reached out to check the pulse of the young teen he knew to be Charlotte, Jace's babysitter.

"Fuck…" he muttered.

She had no pulse. "LARA!" he yelled as he stood upright, "LARA!" he yelled louder as he ran to her bedroom and began to search it. It was a mess, everything had been tossed around. Her clothes lay strewn across the floor where the cupboard drawers had been ripped right out. There was one drawer that had a few of his things in and that too lay on the floor among the mess.

He saw that her mattress was hanging off her bed. Flack moved over to it and flipped it over, part of him expecting to find her bloodied underneath it. She wasn't there and he wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing.

He dashed out of her room and towards Jace's bedroom. "JACE!" he called out as he burst into his room. It wasn't as messy as Lara's but it was clear some sort of struggle had occurred here too. His lamp was smashed on the floor. Flack fell to his knees by the bed and looked underneath it, knowing this was the place Lara would tell him to hide if something should happen.

He quickly found that the space was empty. He slapped the palms of his hands down angrily against the floor and yelled "Damn-it!"

He pushed himself up and immediately pulled out his phone. After just a few rings Mac answered. "Mac, I'm at Lara's. She's missing and something really bad has happened here! She gone, Mac. Lara and Jace are both gone and her baby sitters dead. I think her ex finally caught up with her." he said, panic dripping from every word.

~0~0~0~0~

2 hours later, somewhere in Westchester.

Lara was pacing back and forth in the bedroom that she had woken up in. Her head throbbed and ached like hell, it was only made worse by her worry over Jace. Luckily the wound on her head had stopped bleeding but her face was now covered in dried blood. She had caught a quick glimpse of herself in a mirror that was hanging on the wall in the bedroom. To say she looked a mess would have been an understatement.

Her hair was matted with blood, her t-shirt stained with it. Her face seemed one big bloodied bruise and her entire body ached. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't get her body to stop shaking. It made her feel unsteady on her legs but she was too restless to sit down.

All she could think about was Jace. She prayed he was okay, prayed he wasn't hurt or too scared by what was going on. She hoped to God he was here, wherever here was. She doubted Cal would split them up. He'd want them both somewhere safe where he could keep his eye on them both. She wondered where about in this house he was.

She had tried banging on the bedroom door until her hands felt too bruised to carry on. She had screamed at the top of her lungs until her voice had started to go on her. She wanted answers to her worries. She needed to know Jace was okay.

She had tried to convince herself that Cal wouldn't hurt Jace. Her, yes - in a heartbeat, but his son… no. At least that's what she hoped, but he had done in the past. The more she thought about it the more sick she felt. She froze mid thought when she heard the locks in the door turn and then it opened. Her heart skipped a beat as she watched Cal walk into the room.

She pushed her fear aside and stormed over to him. He had the door shut behind him by the time she stepped in front of him. "Where's Jace! Where's my son, Cal!" she yelled at him, despite her throats protests of pain.

Cal placed his hands on her hips and stepped right up to her. She pulled away from him and took a step back, desperate for some space between them. "Cal, please! Tell me where Jace is?" she begged, unable to shout as loud as she wanted to because her throat felt so raw.

"He's fine." Cal told her, closing the gap between them and placing his hand on her cheek. She tried to take another step back but her ass hit the cupboard behind her. She was going nowhere. Cal took another step forward so their bodies were touching and once more reached up and touched her face.

She snapped her head to the side, away from his touch. She couldn't stop the look of disgust that formed on her face.

"Let me see Jace." she said when she was able to turn to face him again.

"Stop worrying about him." Cal told her, his voice eerily calm and steady.

"Cal, let me see him!" she said, her voice raspy.

"I'll let you see him as soon as you say hello to me properly."

Lara just looked at him. She wasn't totally sure what he meant until he placed two of his fingers on his lips. "I can't remember the last time you kissed me properly." he said to her.

Kissing him was the last thing she wanted to do, but she wanted to see Jace. She needed to know he was okay. She swallowed into a dry throat and stretched up on her tip toes, inching her face closer to his, until their lips touched. Revulsion flooded through her body the second they did and she pulled away and couldn't hold in the sound of her disgust.

Thinking of Jace and having to know he was okay she swallowed once more and silenced her revulsion and moved to kiss him again. Her lips touched his and she tried to put some energy behind the kiss but her body refused to co-operate.

Cal's whole hand came up to grab her face before he threw her to the floor with a hard shove. She yelped as she landed awkwardly on her wrist, badly twisting it.

"You bitch!" he spat at her.

He grabbed her hair and pulled her up onto her knees. He let go of her hair only to deliver a hard punch to her face. She fell flat to the floor and immediately brought her hand up to her face. The blow had hit her just below her left eye, not only had it created what would make one hell of an angry bruise, but it had also left behind a nasty gash. Her eye was watering so bad it clouded her vision.

"I can see you need a little longer to come to your senses. I'll come back in a few hours and then maybe you will be ready to say hello properly and maybe then I'll tell you how our son is."

She tried to push herself up as quickly as she could. She tried to catch up to him and grab him, tried to stop him, but he was too quick and had stepped out of the room before she could stop him. She fell against the door, unable to hold in her tears.

"Cal! Cal please, I'm sorry!" she said slapping her hand against the door, "Cal, please, I'll do whatever you want just let me see Jace!" she screamed, surprised her raw throat allowed it.

She got no reply and exhausted and broken she could only slump to the floor by the door. She brought her knees up to her chest and rested her head on her knees as she cried. Wrapping her arms around her legs she wished she could be anywhere but here, with Jace in her arms where she knew he was safe.

TBC

Thanks for reading. Hope you liked it, please review and let me know what you thought.

Hands up if you think Cal's a great guy! NOT!

This story is about to get a whole lot darker so if you're not into that sort of thing then please stop reading now.