Once again thank-you everyone! it's truly amazing how much support you readers give me. it really keeps me going. I hope and trust everyone has had a happy and safe new year! Please don't stop the reviews I love the feedback I want to know what everyone is thinking and feeling :) Please enjoy this chapter :)
Michael was walking through the park when spotted agent Pearce. It had been 3 weeks since Michael had told Pearce that there was something going on. He walked faster and caught up to her. They both sat down at one of the many local bars.
"So….. Michael. Have you got anything from the documents I gave to you?
"Well, like I said over the phone…. I've been a little distracted lately. That's what I came here to talk to you about. Fiona's….. well um…. Fiona's sort of….. Pregnant" Michael took his sunglasses off and placed them on the table.
"Wow…. I guess congratulations are in order.
"Thank-you but I need to ask you for a favour" Michael breathed out heavily. "I guess I kinda need to get some work closer to Miami. Fi really needs me close to home."
"Michael, that's pushing it. You know if I could pick and choose where your jobs are I would but I just can't. Do you understand how hard I am trying to get you these jobs already? So many people are against me helping you Michael, if the agency thinks you are starting to get fussy about what we get you; then they might just start cutting their losses." Pearce could see where Michael was coming from but there wasn't much she could do.
"There has to be something the agency can do? Pearce…. Please!" Michael was begging he wasn't leaving until he had made a new arrangement.
"Look Michael, the best I can do is tell them you aren't available for the next few months, but I guess now you have to decide what's more important. Your family? Or you work with the agency"
"Pearce, once the baby is born, I can go back to the way things were, I just need to be 'closer' to home"
"Michael! I've told you, this goes beyond me….. I'll try everything I can but I don't like the sound of it. Do you really think that you will want to go back to the job when you have a kid? I mean seriously Michael your life is about to change.
"What happens if I don't I come?"
"What do you mean Michael?"
"I mean what if you call and I don't show up? What happens?"
"Michael….. you answer when I call and you show up when I tell you too. It's not just your head on the chopping board here. I'll let you know what happens in a few weeks"
"Fine. I'll come by the office with the files. I'm sorry I couldn't find anything from them" He put his glasses on before Pearce pushed the document back towards him.
"Hold on to them, you never know when you'll be up to some late night reading." She laughed as she stood up and walked away. Michael stood there for a few minutes then he walked away and drove back to the loft.
"Hey Fi. I'm home." Michael dropped the shopping bags in the kitchen and hopped onto the bed next to Fiona. He positioned his left hand completely covering Fiona's slightly showing belly. He kissed her on the lips before he put his head on his pillow.
"You feeling alright Fi?" Michael questioned her and he moved his hand and rested his head on it so he was facing her.
"I'm fine, we're fine." She stated as she placed her hand over her growing baby. "How did it go with Pearce?"
"Yeah it went ….. fine." Michael didn't want to tell her that there was nothing she could do. Last thing she needed was the added stress of worrying when he would be getting the phone call to leave.
"That's good honey! Oh your mother called, said it was important and she needed you to go round to her place. She sounded pretty worried" Fiona turned to her side and Michael put his hand around her waist as she nestled her head against his chest.
"Was she ok? I didn't get any calls on my-…. Argh! My cell! I left it here didn't I?" Michael rushed to the table and picked up the phone. "Fi, I gotta go see if she is alright….. stay in bed….. I'll be back soon." Michael was overly protective of Fiona. He figured that if she stayed in bed then nothing could go wrong. He drove as fast as he could until he got to his mothers house.
He rushed into the house slamming the back door. "Mom! You ok?" he scanned the house until he saw his mom sitting in her chair with another woman. "Ruth? Where's Charlie? Is he ok?" Michael hadn't seen Ruth since before Nate died.
"Michael, I need your help. Please they took Charlie!" A scared and nervous was plastered all over Ruth's face. "I didn't know where else to go…. I know we haven't always gotten along, but it's Charlie. His part of your family. Please just help me get my boy home.
"They took Charlie! Mom call Sam and Jesse and tell them to meet here. I'll call Fi. Ruth everything's gonna be alright. I'm going to get Charlie back. I promise." Michael placed his hand on Ruth's shoulder. She was a mess, but Michael couldn't blame her….. they had taken her child from her….. if anyone was to know what that felt like, Michael was the guy.
"Fi, I know I told you stay in bed, but I need you to come to my Mom's place. Something's happened to Charlie, I need you to get here as quickly as you can." Fiona agreed and got in her car.
It felt like forever as Madeline, Ruth and Michael waited for the others to come. The three of them sat in silence waiting and waiting until Jesse and Sam pulled up.
"Mike, what's going on?" Jesse stated as she barged through the door. "Maddy said it was something real important. I gave up a little private time with Fi's neighbour… if you get what I mean, this better be something good!"
"Charlies been kidnapped Jesse" Fiona spoke as she walked out from behind the kitchen with a bottle of water and some glasses.
"Wow Fi, look at you. You look good… wait, you said Charlie has been kidnapped? By who?"
"We don't know Jess, that's why I need your help" Michael was writing down notes of anything Ruth could remember.
"From what I could gather, Ruth had been hosting poker games for some rich drug dealer in the VIP room of his club. $250,000 goes missing from this guy…Bruno's safe. Ruth was the last person to see the cash. So we need to find who stole the cash, give the money back and we get Charlie." Michael stood up and walked over to Jesse and Sam. "I need you two to go check out this Bruno guy. I need to see what his security is like, the kind of weapons he uses, god damn I wanna know what brand of whiskey he drinks!" Michael slammed his fist on the table.
"Michael, relax. I know you want to find Charlie, I get that he means a lot to you, but the more worked up you get, the less you can concentrate." Fiona ran her fingers through Michael's hair.
"I'm sorry Fi; I shouldn't have got you involved. Go home, I don't want you hurt."
"Michael! I've always been involved…. Since the day we met I've stood by you, just because I'm pregnant it doesn't mean I stop doing that.
Sam walked towards Mike and Fi "Wait, Fiona, maybe Mikes right….. This could get real ugly. I mean what if something goes wrong. You gotta be more careful now Fi, you of all people can't go in guns blazing ready for action."
"Fi…. It's not just you who's in danger here. I don't wanna lose either of you" Michael spoke softly as he put his hand around her stomach.
"Just let me do something Michael… please." Michael agreed to let her help with finding Charlie.
Michael, Sam, Jesse and Fi stayed up late doing surveillance. It was 2am and Michael and Fi had been watching Bruno's club from down the street.
"Michael?" Fiona asked as she struggled to keep her eyes open and rubbed her back against the seat to get comfortable.
"Yeah Fi?" Michael was sympathetic to her exhaustion. He could see that she just wanted to go to sleep and stay asleep. He turned his head towards her and put his hand over her cheek.
"Can we go home? I gotta use the bathroom!" she laughed as she spoke."
"Sure Fi. It's too dark to see anything anyway. I'll come back later with Sam and Jesse." Michael turned the key in the ignition and drove forward.
The house was a mess, food from the night before everywhere and all different paper work Sam managed to pull on Bruno on the table. Michael didn't get much sleep. He tossed and turned.
"Michael?" Fiona rubbed her eyes as she walked into the living room. "Did you sleep here last night?" she sat down on the seat across from where Michael was sleeping.
"I couldn't sleep and I didn't want to wake you so I came out here and did some things. I guess I fell asleep on the couch" Michael sat up in the chair.
"Michael, you didn't have to do that for me… but thank-you" she leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
Michael and Fiona got all the guns cleaned and ready to take with them to the club. Everyone else woke up pretty early. No one could sleep knowing a little boy was out there, scared and alone.
"Michael! You have to come here quick!" Ruth screamed from the guest room as she pulled the sheets on the bed.
"Ruth! What is it? Are you okay?"
Ruth walked over to Michael and showed him her phone. "I got this message a few minutes ago, Michael, they want the money in 6 hours or…. They're gonna kill Charlie" Ruth began to cry on Michael's shoulder.
"Ruth, we're gonna get him back." He walked into the doorway. "Sam, Jess, Fi…. Lets get to work"
Locating where the money was wasn't a difficult task. Ruth remembered a guy named Abram who had been asking a lot of suspicious and turns out he is well known thief. Sam and Jesse scouted the house. From what they could make out, there were a few men inside. More men then they had.
"Sam, we're gonna need everyone we can get. I ain't going in there just the two of us. We're gonna get our asses blown off." Jesse pointed at the house through the car window. Sam agreed and they both decided to go back to Maddy's house and work out a new plan. Michael, Sam and Jesse had been organising a way around the men. There was only the three of them that could go get the money. Fiona was getting fed up with Michael being so protective of her. She stormed out of the dining room and into the guest room. Michael dropped his shoulders, let out a deep sigh and went to go find her. He closed the bedroom door behind him.
"Michael! You need me; you know you can't do this without me." Fiona yelled as soon as the door was shut
"Fi, it's too dangerous for you to be out there. Just stay here with Ruth and my Mom." Fiona stormed out of the room once more and sat out on the back porch. She was beginning to feel like everyone was taking Michael's side on this.
Michael walked back out to where his mother was sitting. "Mom, could you go talk to her?" he whispered in her ear as he spoke. Without saying a word, Madeline got up and walked outside.
"Fiona? Can we talk?" Madeline sat down beside Fiona who was quite obviously worked up about this whole thing. Fiona nodded her head at her mother in-law to be. "I know you're upset at Michael. But honey, he is just looking after you and his child. He doesn't want anything bad to happen to either of you." She put her arm about Fiona.
"I get that Madeline… I really do, but I don't understand why is has to be such a big deal! I just want Michael and I to stay the same."
"Fiona, things have never stayed the same with you and Michael. That's my son, everything changes….. but you wanna know the one thing that hasn't changed?" She looked Fiona deep in the eye .
"What's that?"
"The one thing that hasn't changed over these past few years is that you are the most important person in Michael's life and you are the best thing in his life. He just wants you safe honey, that's all" Madeline and Fiona continued talking for a little while before Jesse came and got them.
"Hey Fi, you feel like blowing something up?" Michael asked as he picked up one of the detonators from the table.
"Now that's more like it" she grabbed the detonator from his hand. "Michael"
"I'm sorry Fi, you're right…. I do need you" Michael had the cheeky grin that Fiona fell in love with on his face. "Just promise me you're gonna be careful." Michael whispered in her ear as everyone around them began to get everything ready. Michael grabbed the bag and put it over his shoulder. He intertwined his fingers with Fiona's as they walked out the front door.
"Fi, you remember the signal?" Michael questioned her. He had asked her the same thing over and over. "I come from the back, Sam and Jesse from the front…. Hopefully it's gonna be anything too big." Michael turned off the ignition and put the hand-break on. "Fi, if something happens….. I want you to know that you mean everything to me Fi. I know I don't show you enough. I never have been good at those sorts of things but that doesn't mean I love you any less."
"Westen….. Just come back to me okay?" Fiona held onto his face with both hands and kissed him on the forehead. Michael fixed his gun in the front of his suit pants and grabbed everything else he needed.
Michael jumped the back fence and drew his gun ready to go. Before Michael couldn't radio into Fiona or the others he was swarmed by four other men. Michael put his gun in the air and placed in on the ground below him. He couldn't think of anything else but Fiona, he knew that he needed to get this under control.
"Relax….. I don't want to hurt anyone if I don't have to." Michael looked deep into all of the men's eyes. "But…if you don't cooperate….. people will get hurt. I don't wanna do that…. It gets messy and I don't wanna clean it up. The guy Ruth had mentioned Abram signalled the others to drop their weapons.
"Who are you?" Abram questioned Michael
"Trust me…. I'm someone you don't want to make enemies with!" Michael raised his voice as he spoke. He noticed Sam and Jesse coming up behind them.
"Okay, hands up" Sam grabbed the gun from Abram. One of Abram's men fired a shot. Jesse quickly returned the shot in the guy's leg.
"See…. I didn't want to have to do that! Give him your weapons!...Now!"
"I know about the money you stole. I'm here to get it back."
"What money? I don't know what you're talking about." Michael pressed the button to his radio and clicked his fingers. Suddenly an explosion erupted into the air and flames followed closely behind the noise. Thick black smoke vented into the air above them and it became harder to breathe.
"I don't have time for this….. just give me the money!" Michael grabbed Abram by the throat.
He coughed as he tried to answer Michael. "Al….Alright" Michael let him go and grabbed him from his underarm. Sam and Jesse watched the other men as Michael collected the money. Abram wasn't really the smartest guy. He had no other men inside the house guarding anything he owned. The money was just sitting in a bag under the seat cushion. Michael grabbed the bag and took Abram back outside to where the others were.
"Pleasure doing business with you!" Sam walked backwards with his gun in front in case anyone decided that they wanted to fight against them. Michael threw the bag into the trunk of the charger.
"Good job fi" Michael stated as he smiled slightly.
Fiona put her hand on Michael's leg. "Lets go get Charlie."
TBC