Carey finally bid the bar a good night and headed back to her suite to get a couple hours of sleep before the police gave her their morning briefing. She opened the door and stepped inside to see two small forms under a blanket on the couch. Her mind lurched and she stifled a cry as she went from euphoria to reality in a split second. She sighed as she set her purse down on the kitchen counter, wishing she'd taken the bartender's offer of a bottle of liquid dream instead of turning it down since she was pretty sure it would be a while before she fell asleep. If she did at all.
The muted television was broadcasting as much snow as was falling outside and filled the room with its soft glow.
Carey walked over to her son and his friend and tucked the blanket around them a little tighter. She walked back into the kitchen, having decided that caffeine was in order, when the balcony door opened and Kurt stepped in. He wiped the snow off his shoulders and took off his boots before he joined her in the kitchen. He smelled like cigarettes.
"Any news while I was gone?" Carey asked.
"Not much. I called about an hour ago and they told me that they were sifting through the hard drive on his computer in their lab now. The lieutenant said they think they found the person Zack was chatting with over the last few days but they're waiting for the ISP to give them an address.
"Why are they waiting?" Carey said as her mouth turned into a frown. "They're the police. They shouldn't have to wait."
"I don't know, Carey. I'm sure they're doing the best they can."
"You know, Kurt, I'm already getting tired of hearing that. I don't want the best they can do, I want my son back," she told him, her voice much more forceful than she intended.
"You and me both, Carey. I'd give everything to have him back here right now."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you. I'm tired. And worried."
"I was going to make some coffee since I'm not seeing very much sleeping happening tonight. Want some?"
"Yeah, but I'll make it, Kurt. Your coffee always tastes like water."
She was digging the bag of coffee out of the cabinet when a can of chow mein noodles fell out and clattered on the floor with a tinny thonk. Carey cursed and bent down to snatch the can when Zack loves Chinese food. He'd eat this whole can if I'd let him raced through her head. She set the can back on the shelf and leaned against the counter and bit her knuckle.
Kurt put his arm around her. "They'll find him."
"I know. It's just...I keep thinking these random thoughts about him. I'll see something and it'll remind me that he's not here. It's not fair." Kurt filled the pot while Carey started measuring scoops of grounds into the filter before she simply dumped in half the bag.
"Are you making mud or coffee there, Carey?" Kurt asked as he set the water beside the machine.
"I don't know about you but I'm not planning on sleeping any so I think it needs a kick or two."
"Fair enough," Kurt told her. Carey set up the machine and hit the button and they fell quiet as the machine began to gurgle. "So when is the next official briefing?" Kurt asked after the silence became too thick to stand any longer.
"Around nine. Unless they have a development or whatever the lieutenant called it."
Kurt checked his watch. "Five hours."
"I'm half-tempted to go down there right now and stand over their shoulders," Carey said as the black water started dripping down into the pot.
"I don't think that would help much, Carey."
"No, but it would give me something to do instead of sitting around here and waiting."
Zack was in the twilight between wakefulness and sleep when he rolled over. His arm came to rest on another warm body and his groggy brain tried to process this odd information. "Why are you sleeping in my bed, Cody?" He mumbled as he felt the form beside him. He opened one eye just enough to see and poked at where he figured his brother's ribs would be. "Get back in your own bed already." He heard a small whine that didn't much sound like Cody. Did one of his brother's friends sleep over last night? Why the hell was he in Zack's bed? And why did his face hurt? He poked the kid again and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, wincing at what felt like a giant bruise under his eye. He glanced around and nothing seemed familiar. Did they sleep over at someone else's house last night? That would explain the lumpy and unfamiliar bed and probably the kid, too.
He looked back at his bed mate and saw a mousey-haired kid staring at him. "Who are you?"
"I'm Danny. Your name is Zack, right?"
"Yeah, that's me. Where are—oh no." Zack's sleep-fuzzed brain suddenly woke up and everything snapped into focus and he wished it hadn't. Memories of his abduction flooded through his mind. He tried to fight it but he felt his eyes start to well up with tears.
"Don't cry," Danny told him as he moved in to wrap Zack up in a hug. "It'll be okay."
"No, I don't think it will at all," Zack said as he let himself be embraced. He continued to sob silently until he fell back into a restless sleep.
It was ten til seven when Lieutenant Hamilton returned to the Martin's suite. Carey opened the door almost as soon as his knuckle first touched the wood. She ushered him in and, as soon as the door was closed behind him, sent a withering glance between him and the sleeping boys on the couch. He nodded, message received.
"Ms. Martin, as I told Mr. Martin earlier this morning, we found chat logs between your son and someone else in the immediate area. Once we obtained a warrant for the physical address of the computer, we passed the information along to the FBI and they executed the warrant and went to the location."
"And?" Carey interrupted before the man could continue.
"They found a mother and her frightened boy, but no sign of your son."
"Was he ever there?"
"No, ma'am, as far as we can tell, the boy, Kevin, had been chatting with your son while they were both home from school sick..."
"That's right, he mentioned Kevin a few times while he was home," Carey said.
"They had plans to meet up at the mall yesterday while Kevin was in town but according to him, Zack never showed up. That goes along with what," he paused and checked his notes, "Momma Rosa told us when we interviewed her."
"So you're back to where you started? No leads?"
"At the moment? No, Ms. Martin, we have none. No credible leads, anyway."
"Any lead that might bring my son home had better be treated as credible, Lieutenant," Carey snarled, nearly poking him in the chest with her finger.
"Ma'am, I assure you, we check out each and every one but the vast majority of them are on par with Elvis sightings. We got a call from Washington state less than five minutes after the alert went out over the news channels. I don't think I need to tell you that him being there that fast is all but an impossibility."
"No, you don't," Kurt said for the two of them.
"We did investigate it anyway, though. We checked every FAA flight plan and came up empty."
"Thank you, Lieutenant. And I'm sorry," Carey admitted. "You're doing everything you can do and I'm scared and exhausted."
"It's perfectly understandable. I can't imagine doing anything else if I was in your position."
"So what do we do now? Wait?"
"On one hand, yes. We hope and pray that someone comes forward with information. On the other hand, we're delving through every DMV registry in the northeast and looking for any car matching Mrs. Rosa's description."
"Only the northeast?" Carey asked.
"To start, yes. It's rather unlikely that a," Lieutenant Hamilton paused just long enough to chose a word other than child molester, "kidnapper would drive much further than that for an abduction. Naturally if nothing pans out in the region we'd expand our search."
"Naturally," Carey parroted.
When Zack woke up again a few hours later he saw Danny sitting cross-legged nearby watching a television that was very likely older than he was. The boy was wearing just a pair of white cotton briefs that had seen better days. Danny noticed him stirring and turned around.
"I guess I wasn't having a really bad dream when I woke up earlier, huh?" Zack said as the fog of sleep cleared and everything fell back into place.
"No, sorry." The boy's face lost a little of the warm smile it had taken on when he noticed Zack was awake.
"So, uh, your name is Danny, right? I think that's what you said."
"Yep, that's me."
Both boys fell silent and looked at each other for a few moments before Danny turned back around to the television. Zack knew what he wanted to ask but couldn't bring himself to do it. Some small part of his mind told him that if he did, any chance of this being one big crazy dream or hallucination would go up in smoke. Danny spared him the question.
"Jerry should be waking up soon. He works long shifts on Sundays and likes to play before he goes in."
"And by play you mean..." Zack trailed off.
"Yeah," Danny said in an oddly noncommittal voice. "It helps if you don't think about it. It doesn't last that long, maybe an hour, and then he goes to work," he told Zack in the same casual tone of voice one would use when talking about waiting for a bus.
Zack was about to say something else but the words died on his tongue as he heard footsteps overhead
"That's Jerry," the boy told him. Zack listened as the creaks in the floor headed to where he figured the head of the stairs had to be. He heard metal on metal and then the door creaked open and then heavy steps on the stairs. Zack began to shiver and he fought for enough control to not piss himself when the man reached the bottom of the steps and walked into the room.
"Good morning, boys. How's everyone doing this fine morning?" Jerry asked with a sinister smile on his face, hands on the hips of his flannel pajama pants.
"Fine, sir," Danny answered meekly.
"That's good. What about you?" He looked at Zack and waited for an answer.
"He just woke up, sir. He's probably fine, too."
"Just what I wanted to hear. You boys set for a little fun before ol' Jerry has to go to work this morning? The bossman wants me to go in a little early today so I don't have all that long but I'm sure we can still have some fun. You boys ready?"
"Sure, Mr. Jerry," Danny said."
"You ready, Zack?"
Zack's eyes flitted around the room, trying to find any way to escape what his mind knew was coming next but he couldn't -wouldn't- believe was possible. He wanted to scream that he should be at home right now but all he could do was look up at the man.
"What's the matter, boy? A little nervous? That's okay. We all are our first time," he laughed. "You'll like it, though. Did Danny tell you about all the fun we have?" Again, Zack couldn't speak. "No? I figured he would have told you all about it."
Jerry seemed to grow taller as he stood before them. "It's a pretty simple concept, Zack. I think you should probably be able to figure it out." He waited a few seconds but Zack couldn't reply. "No? Well it goes a little something like this. He's getting naked, you're getting naked, I'm getting naked...need me to fill in any more of the blanks for you, kid?"
"No sir," Zack said, barely able to keep the tremble of terror out of his voice.
"I thought you were a smart kid when I picked you up. Now strip." He watched as Zack and Danny removed their clothes, taking special interest in his new acquisition. "I have to say, Zackyboy," he said as Zack stood naked before him, "I'm glad I didn't shoot you when you tried to run away from me yesterday." He motioned for Zack to spin around. "I'd have thrown away a nice prize. Even if you are older than I thought you were." Zack completed his pirouette. "Yep, you'll definitely do for now."
author's note
Yeah, I'm back. This story has been eating at me for almost two years and this is the third time I've started to write the second half of it. For whatever reason I sort of fell out of the whole fanfiction thing for a while but I've got the itch to write TSL again. This story will be finished and then I have a few others after this one.