Chapter Ten – Hunting

Kirk had been sure that he grabbed all the bullets from the drawer in his desk. He certainly didn't want to run out. He didn't know where Goren was, but he did have an idea of where to start looking.

"So worried for your missing daughter," Kirk muttered to himself. "What fucking bullshit. She was never missing at all! You probably hid her, you fucking bastard. Or maybe you killed her – and that's why you needed a replacement! You thought Willow could take Rebecca's place after you DESTROYED HER you fucking freak? Did you take Willow because she looked like Rebecca, or to distract me? Maybe both of those reasons – two for the price of one." Kirk gave a hollow laugh.

People were glancing at him nervously as he marched down the street. He didn't notice, nor would he care if he had noticed. Kirk waited outside the building for someone to leave in order for him to grab the door before it shut.

He marched up the stairs and walked down the hall until he reached the apartment he was looking for. He reached out and hammered on the door with his fist.

"Yeah, who is it?"

Kirk continued to pound on the door without responding.

"Just a minute!" Kirk heard footsteps coming towards the door. There was a pause as the person on the other side of the door looked through the peephole, then the door opened.

"Detective Kirk?" Mike Logan asked, surprised. "What brings you here?"

"Where's Goren?" Kirk demanded.

"What?" Mike asked. "I don't know."

Kirk pulled out his gun. "I said, where is Goren?"

"Okay man, calm down," Mike said, raising his hands. "Let's just relax and think about this."

"Back up," Kirk instructed. When Mike did he went in and closed the door. "Tell me where Goren is or I swear to God I'll shoot you."

"Why are you so determined to find him anyway?" Mike asked. He hoped if he could get Kirk talking he might get the chance to grab the gun, or something.

"You fucking know why!" Kirk shouted. "You're his friend; you must know where he is, so just tell me!"

"Kirk, I swear, I don't know what you mean," Mike replied. "And I don't know where he is."

"Tell me!" Kirk insisted. "Tell me or I'm going to pull the God damned trigger!"

"All I know is that he and his wife went to search for Rebecca," Mike said as calmly as possible. "He didn't tell me where they went."

"Liar!" Kirk screamed, his eyes wide in a deranged sort of rage. "You know, you must know. Are you into kids too? Did the two of you tag-team his daughter?"

"What?" Mike demanded, forgetting the situation for a moment. He dropped his hands and stared at Kirk in utter confusion. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Like you didn't know your friend was a pedophile!"

"You're insane," Mike said.

"Oh I'm insane?" Kirk demanded, flecks of spit flying from his mouth. "I'm insane for not realizing the connection all along! The most connections were between the first two kidnappings; the two most similar girls were Rebecca and Willow! Tell me, is Rebecca already dead? Is he going to kill Willow when he's done with her?"

"Bobby didn't take your daughter!" Mike exclaimed. "He would never hurt Rebecca!"

"Oh no?" Kirk asked. "Then how do you explain a photograph of Goren and Willow on a website!"

"You're wrong."

"You're wasting my time," Kirk snarled. "Tell me where the fuck Goren is right now."

"Kirk, I'm sorry about your daughter, but you're making a mistake, you're-"

But exactly what Kirk was, Mike didn't say. Kirk had shot him. They both seemed equally shocked at what had happened for a moment, but Kirk had recovered from it quickly.

"Tell me," Kirk said. Mike was still standing, the gunshot wound was to the abdomen, but he had staggered over to the wall. He grabbed the wall to steady himself, and pressed his other hand into the wound to try and stop the bleeding.

"Tell me where Goren is!" Mike slowly lowered himself to the ground. His legs were shaking and he wasn't sure if they would support him for much longer. He thought he might be in shock.

Kirk crouched in front of him and pressed the muzzle of the gun against Mike's forehead. "Tell me where Goren is."

"You're going to have to kill me," Mike told him. "Even if I did know where he was, I wouldn't tell you. You're chasing the wrong person."

They stared at each other for what felt like an eternity before Kirk turned away. Without another word, he left.

"Damn," Mike muttered, looking down at the blood leaking between his fingers. He flopped onto his side and dragged himself towards the phone, since he didn't trust himself to walk. His head was spinning, and now that his adrenaline had stopped pumping so much with Kirk gone, the wound was starting to cause him a great deal of pain.

He called 911 to report being shot by Kirk. "The ambulance is on its way Detective Logan," the 911 operator told him. Mike was holding the phone to his ear with one hand and was pulling himself towards his bedroom with the other. He was also using the elbow of the hand holding the phone to help pull himself across the floor.

Bobby and Alex, he kept thinking. He had to warn them. They had given him a number for emergencies only – basically to call if there was any news on Rebecca's case. The fact that a detective having a psychotic break was hunting Bobby down definitely qualified as an emergency.

He kept the number hidden in his room, where others wouldn't find it. He needed to get there; he had to warn his friends.

"Detective Logan, you need to put pressure on the wound," the 911 operator told him.

"In a minute," Mike replied. He cringed as he continued to make his way slowly and painfully to his bedroom. Looking back, he saw a trail of smeared blood leading from the entranceway to where he was now.

"In a minute?" the operator repeated in confusion. "Detective, you need to put pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding."

"I know," Mike gasped. "But first… I need to… I have to… warn them… warn…" He dropped the phone. He tried to pull himself forward again, but there was blackness closing in on the rapidly spinning room. "Wait," he told his body, but the blackness was closing in over his visual field…

Mike's head hit the floor, and he didn't move to lift it. He remained where he was until the EMTs got there.

Alex was putting Willow's hair into two braids. "There," she said when she was finished, "you look beautiful. Come and see, Willow."

Willow allowed Alex to lead her to the mirror. "Don't you look lovely?" Alex asked. Willow raised her eyes to look at the reflection, but she didn't respond. Other than saying 'hi' to Bobby on the first day, Willow hadn't spoken at all. She was complacent in everything, allowing them to lead her around the house, doing what they asked. But she never spoke a word. The toys and books in her room hadn't been touched. She would sit and watch a movie, she would listen if Alex read her a story, but she didn't play. And she didn't speak.

Bobby and Alex thought it would be best if it was mostly Alex who interacted with Willow. She might be more willing to trust a woman. Hopefully she would learn that neither of them was going to hurt her, but she hadn't made a sound in three days.

Alex had mixed feelings every time she looked at Willow. Part of her desperately wanted to leave in order to reunite Willow with her parents. The other part of her knew that she had to stay where she was, for the good of her own daughter and for the other girls as well. Besides, they didn't know where Willow was from. She could have been kidnapped from another continent for all they knew.

Willow's parents would understand, Alex told herself. They would understand that Alex and Bobby were trying to protect the other girls. And Willow was being well cared for; she was protected from the group.

Then again, if someone had found Rebecca, and hadn't returned her to them, how would Alex feel about that? Even if they were keeping her with the best of intentions, could Alex forgive them for not giving her daughter back?

It was such a shade of grey, there was no clear right or wrong answer. Each area had its own benefits and failings. Either way, a sacrifice had to be made. Could Willow's parents ever forgive Bobby and Alex? As parents, how could they not understand the reason behind Bobby and Alex's actions? As parents, how could they ever forgive the people who kept their daughter from them?

Lost in thought, Alex had sunk to the ground. Willow remained standing in front of the mirror, but she was watching Alex's reflection.

Alex just wanted Rebecca back. This whole thing was a nightmare. Rebecca being kidnapped, trying to blend into this community, the situation with Willow – it was all too much. Alex wished she could wake up and find that it had all been a terrible nightmare.

Alex was still sitting on the floor, trying not to cry. She took deep, steadying breaths while trying to force herself to think about something else. Suddenly she looked up, and saw that Willow was right in front of her. The little girl lowered herself to the floor next to Alex and leaned against her. She slipped her little hand into Alex's, still silent, but speaking volumes without words.

Kirk was ripping through files at Peters' home office. He suspected that Peters had helped Goren to escape, and he probably hadn't left that file at work. Kirk had flung the files all over. He had ripped them open, scanned them, and strewn them onto the floor.

Finally, he found the one he was looking for. He scanned the notes that Peters had taken throughout his discussion with Goren, not bothering to really read them, just looking for a location.

"California," Kirk whispered. "I've found you now."

"Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt," Grant Waverly said.

"What is it, Grant?" the man sitting at the desk asked.

"You know how you had said that Kevin Kirk might become a problem, so you asked that someone keep an eye on him?" The man nodded thoughtfully. "Well, my guy said that he tailed Kirk to Mike Logan's apartment, then to Dan Peters' place. One of those guys must have told him where to go, because my guy said he's heading this way."

"Thank you, Grant."

"Sir?" Waverly asked.

"What is it?"

"The O'Donnell's are in danger," Waverly replied. "I don't know if Kirk realizes they have Willow, but if he does, he'll probably go after them."

"I realize that."

"Sir?" Waverly asked again. "Aren't we going to warn them? I'd be happy to go over and get them. I won't give them details; I'll just explain that they need to go into hiding. I'll say that Willow's father was a dangerous criminal and he's after them for revenge or something of the sort."

"Thank you for your assistance Grant, but I will take it from here."

"You're going to warn the O'Donnell's sir?"

"The O'Donnell's will be taken care of."

"Thank you, sir."

Waverly let himself out. The man at the desk sat quietly for a moment, a small smile spreading across his lined face.

"The O'Donnell's are in danger," he whispered to himself. "Of course they are, fool – that was the entire point."

A/N: Just to be clear – Waverly doesn't know that Kirk shot Mike or that he already knows that Bobby and Alex have Willow. Waverly is also unaware of their true identities; he thinks they really are Patrick and Mandy O'Donnell.