A/N: So here's all the news that's fit to include: 10 weeks on-call 24/7; broken computer; moved twice; new job; no Internet; new computer, Internet. New chapter! Hurray!

Thanks to all my readers and reviewers! Enjoy!


"This is who we've been chasing all over the tri-state area?"

"Shut up."

"I was just expecting someone more… threatening."

"Listen, you ass, do you want me to take her helmet off and let her lock eyes with you? Be the last dumb-ass thing you ever did."

"Oh, no, I believe you. I saw that baby after the autopsy."

"Then what are you being such a punk about?"

"I just… I thought she was… bigger."

"Bigger than what?"

"Than a skinny, knobby-kneed freak in a hockey helmet!"

Thea stuck one mitted hand up to her helmet's face mask. She wiggled at the mask, fidgeted with the strap holding the helmet to her head. Her wiry fingers couldn't pinch the clip through the canvas.

"We take her to them, we get paid, she can get out of our lives."

There were two men in the van. It was a big van; Thea could tell that by listening to the van as it went over the potholes in the road. She was on the floor of the big van, sprawled out like a snow angel. They'd strapped her feet down, and put a thick strap across her middle, but her hands were free.

Stupid.

Thea shoved the helmet up. It banged against her chin and she breathed out, frustrated.

"You don't care what they're going to do to her?"

"Does it look like I care?"

"Looks like you're driving."

"Nobel Prize for the asshole in the passenger seat!"

"I don't know why I work with you."

"It's because you're my wife's cousin and she feels bad for you because your IQ is in the low double digits."

"Only part of that is true!"

Thea twisted to one side to see what was holding the straps to the floor. A D-ring and a piece of Velcro. She pinched one mitt up so that the canvas was stretched tightly over her fingertips. She listened to the noises of the traffic passing the van, and as the van went over another pothole she grabbed the Velcro and pulled. The noise of the Velcro ripping apart was drowned out by the van's clanking.

"So your IQ isn't 57?"

"I've never had it tested."

The D-ring slid free from the Velcro. The strap across Thea's middle loosened, and she tugged it off. She held her breath as she rolled to one side, closer to the D-ring mounted to the floor. With her helmet right up against the D-ring bracket, she still couldn't see it, but she could feel it. She held it steady with one mitted hand, then twisted and jerked it around, looking for the D-ring's open side.

There!

Where the curve of the D-ring met the straight side, the piece of wire was open-ended. Thea ran her mitted fingers over the gap. It was small, but positively serviceable.

She held the D-ring as steady as the jerking, bumping van would allow. She brought her other mitted hand up to the D-ring's opening. Thea slipped the D-ring into junction between the sleeve of the jacket and the canvas mitten, where the two had been sewn together in an endearing, but semi-sloppily way by one of Thea's foster mothers. Or a psychiatrist. She couldn't remember.

The van's jerky ride proved to be the best weapon after all. As the van jerked back and forth, Thea worked the D-ring at the seam of the jacket and the mitten.

Little by little, as her kidnappers talked and the van rumbled, Thea forced the D-ring's slit into the seam. Back and forth… back and forth… back and forth. First a little hole, then a bigger rip.

Thea nearly cried with relief as the jacket and the mitten parted ways. She reached up with her free hand and undid the helmet.

Unsteadily, she sat up and reached for her feet. They were held in with the same Velcro system. Two quick pulls and they were free.

She got to her feet, crawled towards the front of the van, and popped her head up like a prairie dog.

The air got heavy, filled with electricity, and screams, and honking horns, and then there was no more movement.


\"Got her!" Gary said. "Left at this intersection!"

He twitched his fingers. "Something's up on the police band. A crash on the next block."

"That's got to be them," Rosen said.

Duncan floored it and the van's occupants clung to whatever was handy.

They soared through the intersection and the crash was there – a fifteen-passenger van had jumped the curb and slammed into a light post.

"Here!" Gary said.

Rosen threw open the van door and shoved his way out, Skillet and Duncan and Gary and Skylar following.

Rosen ran towards the van. He found himself praying – Please God, please God, let it be her – but it was all to the tune of the Monkees' theme song.

As he reached the van, one of the back doors swung open hesitantly. The open door was accompanied immediately by a familiar scream, a familiar wail.

Thea half-fell out of the back of the van, sprawling onto the concrete. One of her canvas mittens had been ripped from her protective jacket, and her helmet hung loosely in one hand. Her unprotected head hit the sidewalk and she sobbed.

In her scream Rosen could almost hear words – No, no, no…

"Thea!" flew out of Skylar's mouth before she could stop herself, and she hurried towards the girl.

On the sidewalk Thea curled into a ball, a screaming, sobbing, snotty, bloody ball. "Nah. Nah. Nah!" she screamed.

"She's got the helmet off!" Rosen said to Skylar.

"I can see that, Doc!"

"So how do we get her to come with us without ending up with applesauce brains?"

"Very carefully!" Skylar replied, a bit hysterically. She put her hands up to her ears as though she could block out Thea's screams, and when Rosen turned to look at her he saw tears in the older Alpha's eyes.

He didn't know who to comfort.

Sirens began to fill the air.

"Skillet," Duncan said, "get the girl."

"Getting the girl," the TA said, and without another word he walked towards Thea.

"Don't -!" Rosen exclaimed.

But Skillet merely leaned down and scooped Thea into his arms. Her helmet dangled from her hand, whacking Skillet in the thigh, but he turned and walked back towards Duncan's minivan as smoothly as though his knees had been oiled.

"Come on," Skillet said in his monotone.

With Thea up from the sidewalk Rosen turned his attention to the van. He could plainly see two men slumped in the front. Blood dripped from both heads onto the van's floor.

He probably would have stayed there for hours, transfixed by the blood, but Gary grabbed his sleeve. "Let's go, Dr. Rosen," he said.

Thea's screams echoed throughout the van as Skillet held her. His face was stoic, revealing no emotion. Her screams could have been little pebbles thrown against an iron wall. Skillet was immovable.


Duncan slammed the van back into motion and they headed away from the crash site as the sirens got closer.

The professor pulled into his driveway and turned around to assess the situation.

Thea was still screaming, the heartbreaking screams that were as close to words as she could get out – "Nah. Nah. Bah. Nah!"

Rosen looked shell-shocked.

Skillet looked as though he was at a golf match. Or watching a pot of water boil. Something innocuous and mildly interesting.

Skylar was sobbing. When she felt Duncan's eyes on her she looked up. "It's the hormones!" she snapped at him, angry through her tears.

"I'm okay," Gary said from the passenger seat.

"You're my rock, Gary," Duncan said. "Skillet, let's get our guests inside."

"Getting our guests inside."

Inside Duncan hurried to flick on lights. Gary moved to the living room, where Duncan's lunchbox collection was stored.

"Is there anything she really likes?" Skillet asked, raising his voice to be heard over Thea.

"The bathtub," Skylar said, tears still dripping down her face. "She loves the bathtub."

"To the bathtub," Skillet said, and he moved down the hallway to Duncan's bathroom.

The professor hurried ahead of him to turn on the water. The bathtub was luckily one of the nicest on the market; large, round, and smooth, with optional bubbling jets. Water rushed into it, filling the tub quickly.

"Doc, you wanna give me a hand here?" Duncan said.

"Of course." Rosen quickly helped Skillet get Thea's ripped jacket, sweat pants, and shoes and socks off. Skillet lifted the girl into the bathtub.

As the water soaked into Thea's undershirt and underpants she almost seemed to relax.

Then she brought one hand up to her mouth and savagely bit her fingers.

"Get the helmet back on!" Rosen said, and grabbed it from the floor. With Skillet restraining Thea's arms he slipped it over her head and snapped it.

This time there was more relaxation. The screams softened, then became hiccups. Thea swished her hands in the bathtub. Blood trailed away from her hands; she couldn't see it and it didn't bother her like it did everyone else in the room.

After another moment Thea put her hand up to the helmet's mask. "Nuh. Nah. Nnn…ohh."

"No?" Rosen asked softly, unsure if she was making the effort to talk or just babbling.

She punched herself fiercely in the chest. "Buh."

Duncan and Skillet quietly left the bathroom. "We'll make some dinner," Duncan said. "Take as long as you need."

Rosen stuck his head out into the hallway. "Skylar, come here," he requested.

She walked towards him hesitantly.

"I think she's trying to talk," Rosen said.

"But she doesn't… talk."

"I know that. But listen."

For a moment they listened, Rosen standing near the tub and Skylar perched on the closed toilet.

"Nnn…ohh," Thea repeated. "Buh."

"No," Rosen translated softly. "Bad."

Thea gripped the helmet's mask tightly. "Thhhhhh…. Buh."

"She thinks she's bad," Rosen translated.

At this Skylar's eyes filled again with tears, which she wiped away fiercely with the back of her hand. "No, Thea, you did the right thing to get away from… whoever those guys were."

"Thhhh… buh. Sahhhhh."

"Sad?" Rosen asked. "You're sad?"

"Thhh… buh. Sk…. Sahhhh."

At that point her words were choked off by a sob, and she slammed her hands into the water as though to avoid dealing with whatever emotion was bubbling up.

"Skylar?" Rosen repeated, trying to hang onto Thea's last words. "Skylar?"

"I'm right here, Thea," Skylar said.

Thea let out a pinched, hiccup of a sob. "Thhh…. Buh. Sk…errr…. Suhhh."

"Thea, bad… Skylar, sad?" Skylar repeated. "No, no, Thea… you did a wonderful job."

"Thh…. Buh!" the girl protested.

"Thea did good," Skylar said. "Skylar's not sad."

She quickly tried to wipe her face, as though forgetting that Thea couldn't see her.

"Damn hormones," Rosen said for Skylar, and she gave him a twisty sad smile.

"Skylar is proud. And Skylar is happy that Thea is safe."

The splashing stopped and Thea tilted her head. "Thhh… Sk…err… sffff?"

"Thea, Skylar, safe," Skylar repeated.

"Thhh… surrrr…. Eee?"

"You don't have to be sorry," Skylar said. "You did the right thing."

"And you're going to be safe," Rosen said. "We will never let anything like that happen to you again."

Thea's breathing became rapid, and after a moment her lips turned upward in a smile.

It looked odd on her face, Rosen thought as he realized the blind girl was laughing, but it looked completely right.

"Thhh… Sk… sfff," Thea repeated. "Hhh…yy."

"Happy," Skylar said.

"Hhhh… eeee," Thea said. "Sfffff."

She stretched her arms out and splashed the water heartily, rapid-breathing laughter in and out.

"I'll go check on dinner," Rosen said.

At the doorway he stopped and looked back at Skylar. Skylar's eyes were on Thea, and the older Alpha was beaming even though she was still crying.

"Hormones," Rosen murmured with a smile, and closed the bathroom door behind him.