"Okay, I'm really starting to freak out now. I've been calling every place I can think of where Ellie might be and no one has seen her," Jo stated with a worried sigh.

"Is there a tracking device on her phone?" Lindsay asked.

Jo nodded. "Of course but I already checked and her phone is at home. Tyler said she left it there this morning when she left for school."

"Okay, well did she leave school?" Sheldon asked.

"Yeah I called and they said she left right after her last class like she always does. Oh my God what if something happened to her? She could've gotten hit by a car or-"

"Hey, don't think that. We're going to find her, okay?" Lindsay said, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Hey," Flack greeted them as he walked into her office. "I've got some uniforms out looking for her. Now when you talked to her last, do you remember her saying anything about going somewhere after school today?"

With tears building up in her eyes, Jo shook her head. "No. She actually told me she was inviting a couple friends over tonight for a sleep over. Something is wrong I just know it. She wouldn't just dissapear without telling me where she was going."

For a moment, no one spoke a single word as they all stood there deep in thought. First Mac goes missing and now Ellie? What on earth was going on? Was it connected or was it just some freak coincidence? No matter what it was, they knew they had to act fast, and find both of them before it was too late.

Flack's cellphone suddenly broke the silence with a loud ring, making everyone tense up as he answered it. "Yeah…Are you sure?…Alright, keep them there til I get there…Yeah thanks."

"What?" Jo asked. "Was it about Ellie?"

With hesitation, Flack sighed and looked at Jo. "Yeah. We just had someone come in and make a report of witnessing a kidnapping. They were looking out of their window, and saw a young girl screaming and being forced into a car. And the girl matched Ellie's description."

Feeling like the wind had just been knocked out of her, Jo sat down slowly in her chair as tears streamed down her face. "Oh God…I knew I shouldn't have started letting her walk home by herself. I knew it!"

"Jo, don't worry. If it is Ellie, then we're going to do everything we can to find her," Lindsay tried reassuring her.

Without a word, Jo looked up at Flack, her face full of worry and expressionless at the same time. "I want to go with you to talk to the witness."

Knowing it would be a losing battle to argue with a worried mother, Flack just nodded. "Sure. Come on."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Ellie? Can you hear me? It's Mac."

For a moment, Mac stared at her as she slowly opened her eyes and looked around the room. She didn't speak a word, but lifted her head with a look of confusion written on her face. Then as if the situation finally registered, she sat up like a shot, her look of confusion soon turning into a look of fright.

"Where am I?!" she shouted frantically.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Just calm down. It's okay. I'm not sure where we are. But it's okay, I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

As he spoke his words, he knew the second after that it was an empty promise. How was he going to protect her when he didn't know who kidnapped them or where they were? Still, he knew how scared she must've been, and needed to try and reassure her. After all, he was a grown man and was terrified to his core, so he could only imagine how a fifteen year old would feel.

"I want my mom! Where's my mom?!" she screamed, as she started to cry.

Mac sighed, as he tried to hold back his emotions. Now that was a question he would love to know. Hopefully for both their sakes, she would be showing up soon. "I don't know, Ellie. She probably doesn't know where we are. But I promise you she's looking really hard for us. She'll find us soon."

"I'm scared," she replied, suddenly hugging her knees.

"I know you are. But at least we're here together. We can help each other," Mac pointed out.

Turning her head towards him, she shrugged her shoulders. "How?"

"Well, first of all, maybe you could untie me," Mac said, directing his head towards the back of his chair.

Looking hesitant, Ellie cocked her head to one side, just staring at him.

"What? Is something wrong?" Mac asked, confused.

"What happened to you?"

Realizing she noticed the blood on different parts of his body and clothes, he closed his eyes for a minute and then proceeded with an answer. "Whoever took us caused me to crash my car, and then…well he decided to do some more things to me once he got me in here."

"Why?"

Mac shook his head. "I don't know. I wish I knew. Apparently he blames me for something I did to him, but I don't know what."

Looking down at the hard cement floor, Ellie just stared at it as she spoke. "Why did he take me?"

Mac shook his head. "I don't know."

"Is he going to kill us?"

Mac stopped dead in his tracks. He already knew he was going to kill him. But why was Ellie there? What was the point this guy was trying to make? And if he took her like Lisa and Matt he already knew that her fate wasn't looking good either.

"I don't know," he lied, as he looked at her with sadness and worry in his eyes.

Without warning, a sudden pain shot through his side. With him having been unconscious a majority of the time he was being held captive, he just now was starting to notice a pain in his side and stomach. He knew the side pain was a broken rib or two, but the stomach pain he wasn't sure about. He had a bad feeling it was internal, and knew that wasn't good. If they weren't found soon, then they would both be dead.

Groaning at the sudden pain, Ellie ran over to him quickly, watching as he doubled over in pain. "What's wrong?!"

Sitting back up as best as he could, Mac managed to look at Ellie, as sweat poured down his face, along with a look of agony. "It's nothing. I'm fine. Just see if you can untie me."

Ellie nodded, and went towards the back of his chair, looking at his bound hands. "It's tied in a knot. I don't know if I can get this undone or not."

"Okay, Ellie, I need you to listen to me. I need you to look around the room and see if there's anything sharp you can use to cut the rope with."

"Okay," she replied as she looked around the room.

"You see anything?" Mac asked between his staggering breaths.

Suddenly, Ellie's eyes lit up as she spotted something. Without hesitation, she ran over to it and then back to Mac.

"I found a piece of a broken bottle," she replied, holding up a brown piece of glass.

Figuring it was from a beer bottle, Mac smiled. "Good girl. Now I need you to use that to cut the rope. Can you do that?"

"Yeah. I'll try," she replied, walking behind him.

But before she could start, they both jumped when they heard the door being unlocked from the outside.

"Quick, give me the glass! Just put it in my hand, and then go back over there and lay down like you were doing," Mac instructed her.

Like a flash, she placed the glass in Mac's hand, and ran over to the spot where the kidnapper had left her. The door soon opened, and footsteps were coming towards their direction. Mac's heart started racing in his chest as they came closer and closer towards him. Was this it? Was he going to kill him?

Pretending like he was unconscious, Mac tried to stay calm as he kept his head lowered and his eyes closed. It was like a nightmare that he hoped was going to end soon.

Suddenly, he felt his hair being pulled, making his head lean back. Before he had time to respond, he lost his breath as water was being dumped on him at a constant rate. After what felt like forever, he stopped, leaving Mac to cough violently and try catch his breath at the same time.

"Thought you could use something to wake you up a bit, Detective."

Finally composing himself, an out of breath Mac looked up and finally came face to face with his captor. For a split second he froze, thinking it was Raymond Harris, due to how much he looked like him. After realizing that was impossible, Mac stared at him, shivers going down his spine as the Raymond look a like stared back at him with hatred and murder in his eyes.

"Didn't your mother teach you that it's not polite to stare?" he asked in a low and scary tone.

"Who are you?" Mac asked, confused.

"Don't tell me the oh so brilliant Dertective Mac Taylor hasn't figured it out yet," he replied, as he started to pace in front of him.

"You look just like-"

"Who? My brother you killed?!"

Mac's eyes suddenly widened. "You're Raymond's brother?!"

"Congratulations, Detective. You fimally figured it out," he replied, clapping his hands together.

"I didn't think he had any family."

"Well you thought wrong. Tell me something, Detective. Did you and your partner get joy out of torturing him?"

"We didn't toture him."

"Oh I see. So killing his fiancee was what, just a contact sport?"

Pressing his lips together, Mac stared straight at him, letting him know that he meant business. "Look, I told him and now I'm telling you, I had nothing to do with Miranda's death. That was my partner. As a matter of fact, I was in the process of arresting him for it when your brother crashed into us and tried to kill us. And he succeeded in killing the guy responsible for it, so what do you want from me?!"

"How about going back in time and you not killing my brother?! How about that?!"

"Look, I wasn't intending on killing your brother. It was self defense."

"I don't give a rat's ass. The point is you killed him and now I'm going to make you sufffer the same way you made him suffer all those years. Do you have any idea what it's like to be trapped somewhere and have someone you love being hurt or killed and not being able to do anything about it?"

Mac froze. He wasn't sure what he was getting at, but he couldn't shake the bad feeling that came over him. "No, I don't. But like I said, I wasn't responsible for Miranda's death. Even Raymond knew that in the end."

"I don't care," he said walking around the room. "You know, girlfriends are a nice thing to have. I've had a couple of good ones in my day. And I certainly like blondes," he said, getting within inches of his face. "And the one that you're seeing is a real looker."

Rage filling up inside him, Mac responded with direct anger in his voice, trying to hide the shakiness that wanted to come out with it. "If you go anywhere near her, I will kill you."

"Yeah, I'd love to see how you're going to do that," he said, kicking his bad leg.

Screaming in pain, Mac took a few deep breaths as he tried to compose himself. "Look, your beef is with me, not her. Do whatever you want to me, just leave her alone!"

"Well see, I'm actually going to leave that up to you, Detective. I'm going to give you one hour to decide," he replied, suddenly grabbing Ellie by her hair, resulting in a terrifying scream from her. "You can either choose to let this beautiful young girl live, or your girlfriend. And if you haven't decided by the time I come back, then they both die. Tick Tok, Detective. Time's running out. Chose wisely."

He then threw a terrified Ellie back down to the ground, and watched as he slowly walked up to the door and gave a smirk before walking out the door. He had one hour to figure out a way to esacape. There was no way in hell he was going to let him kill either one of them.

"I don't wanna die," Ellie said, with tears streaming down her face.

"You're not going to die, I promise. No one's going to die. Not on my watch…."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hey, Sheldon. Where's Jo and everyone? Have they found out where Mac is yet?" Christine asked, walking into the lab.

Looking up from his microscope, Sheldon sighed and shook his head. "No. Actually, they have someone else to find now."

"What? Who?"

"Uh…Maybe I shouldn't tell you," he replied, turning to walk away.

Grabbing his arm suddenly, she gave him a pleading look. "Sheldon, come on. If it has to do with Mac, then I have a right to know."

After a moment, Sheldon nodded. "Alright. Well we're not sure yet, but it may or may not have to do with Mac's kidnapping."

"What?! What is it?!"

"Well, Jo's daughter was kidnapped a few hours ago."

"Oh my God…" she replied with her mouth dropping open.

"I know. But we don't know anything for sure yet."

"Oh God, what if he killed Mac already and just wanted a new victim?!" she said hysterically.

"Hey, come on, don't think that. We're going to find him. Mac's tough. He's been in a lot of tough situations before. He's a fighter. I mean come on, most people probably wouldn't have made it through being shot the way Mac was."

As she looked down at the floor, Christine nodded. "I know. I just hope he's okay now."

"Me too. Look, why don't you go to the ladies' room and splash some cold water on your face and I'll order us something to eat?"

"No, I couldn't possibly eat anything now."

"Christine, look, I know you're worried, we all are, but you have to keep your strength up. And you know Mac would agree with me."

With a sniff, Christine looked up at him with a half smile. "I know. Alright, I'll be right back."

Sheldon nodded as she made her way out of the lab, and turned the corner towards the ladies' room as she wiped her tear stained eyes. All she wanted was Mac's arms around her and her lips pressed against his. She finally found a man she loved with all of her heart and now that could be taken away from her in an instant.

Finally, she saw the ladie's room up ahead of her, but before she went in, she was startled by her phone ringing. With a sigh she took it out of her pocket and nearly fainted when she saw the name on the screen- Mac Taylor.

Frantically she answered it, her heart beating a mile a minute. "Mac?! Is this you?! Where are you?!"

"He's a bit tied up at the moment," an unfamiliar voice answered from behind her.

Confused, she turned around, and before she knew what was happening she felt a sudden blow to her face and in the next moment her world went dark.