Here's another chapter, I'm not overally happy with this one but hopefully you'll all still enjoy it :)
Flack knew that cry, he'd heard it many times before, it was Lucy's. Relief rushed through him, he'd found her, she was alive, upset but alive. He used his hand to beckon one of the ESU's to follow him towards the door, once they came over he began to walk down the dark staircase, he trod lightly on each step, hoping that none of the wooden steps squeaked.
He got to the bottom and looked around, it was dark, but not dark enough that he couldn't see. There was a corridor to his right and another smaller one to his left, where the sobbing was coming from. Flack knew he needed to make a decision, did he go after Lucy who was clearly alive or did he try to find Danny, who for all he knew could be dead or dying? He followed his gut instinct and went looking for Danny. He decided to take the right corridor, if his years in the NYPD had taught him anything, it was that hostages weren't normally held together and he was sure Owen would put Lucy as far away from Danny as possible.
Walking quietly down the right hand corridor there were only two doors, Flack had no idea which one Danny would be in. Going over to the first door he twisted the handle slowly and pushed the door open. Walking in he came across a bathroom, it was dingy and dark, a lot darker than what the corridor had been. Flack listened, hoping to hear the sound of someone in the room, but there was nothing apart from the sounds of Lucy's sobs. Coming out of the bathroom he closed the door and crossed the corridor to the second room. This one had a bolt on the door, Flack knew that opening it would make a noise but he needed to make sure Danny wasn't inside. Deciding to take the risk, he slid the metal lock open and was surprised that it made less noise than he thought it would. Pulling the door open, he entered the room, hoping to find his best friend.
Mac took one last look around the master bedroom, everything was in its place, nothing undisturbed. He sighed, this hadn't gone as well as he'd hoped. He was positive that this raid would result in them bringing Lucy and Danny home but it seemed like he was again going to be coming back with nothing. He came out of the bedroom, closing the door behind him and made his way down stairs to find Jo in the sitting room "Find anything?"
Jo shook her head solemnly as she placed a cushion back on the couch "Nothing, it's weird... it's like some sort of show home"
"I was thinking exactly the same thing" Mac replied as they walked through together to find Flack in the kitchen. They walked through to find two EDU's in the kitchen, stood by the open door but no Flack "Where is Fl..."
Hang on" Jo said interrupting him and putting her fingers to her lips "Can you hear that?"
Mac listened, he could hear the faint sound of a child crying "Is that...?"
Jo nodded "I think it's Lucy"
The two of them walked over to the door that the ESU's were standing by and began to walk down the stair case, the reached the bottom and were expecting to find Flack but instead bumped into someone else.
"Ahh, some visitors how nice, just the two of you?" Owen smiled.
Jo guessed that Owen hadn't bumped into Flack so just nodded, agreeing that it was just the two of them.
"Owen Laurence?" Mac asked.
"The one and only"
"Where's Danny and Lucy?" Jo asked outright.
"Lucy? You mean my daughter? She's in her room, just down the end of the corridor. I'm trying to get her to sleep but you know how stubborn children can be"
"And Danny? Where's he?"
"Danny? The idiot claiming to be Lucy's Father?"
"He wasn't claiming, he..." Jo started to say
"Yes, That's the one, where is he?" Mac interrupted.
"He's dead"
"Dead?" Mac asked shocked.
Owen nodded "He tried to fight me for Lucy and of course I couldn't have that, could I? I mean she's my daughter, my flesh and blood. So after a bit of a fight, I ended up... well let's just say he banged his head and never woke up"
"Where's the body?"
"I... it was getting too much... the smell for Lucy, so I had to dispose of it... I did it right though, packaged him up and dropped him outside the local funeral parlour"
"You think that's right?" Jo asked feeling herself getting angry.
"What else was I supposed to do?"
"Report it" Mac told him.
"See, I was going to do that but I've got a flight booked tomorrow for me and Lucy, we're heading back home to Montana and I couldn't have everything delayed because of a dead body."
"You can't take Lucy to Montana with you" Jo exclaimed "She must have family here, a Mother? Friends?"
"Her Mother's dead" Owen spat. "She's got no one else here except me."
Jo looked at Mac and together they both looked at Owen "Who's Lucy's Mother?" Jo asked.
"Some girl I was in love with, Lindsay Monroe. She... she gave birth to Lucy and then ended up cheating on me" he sighed "She soon lived to regret that though"
"You killed her?"
Owen shook his head "No, I didn't... it was an accident"
"An accident?"
Owen nodded. "I don't wanna talk about it though"
"That's fine" Jo told him before trying a different approach. "Can we see Lucy though? Make sure she's okay?"
"No, she's going to sleep, can't have her being disturbed at nap time"
"I know that, but she seems awfully upset, it's not good to let them fall asleep when they're that upset"
"How'd you know?"
"I'm a Mum, Owen. I've got a beautiful little girl as well and I never let her go to sleep upset, it's a rule in our house. If you're upset you talk it about before you sleep. It's what me and my Mama used to do too"
Owen looked her up and down "So you can get her to stop making that noise?"
"I can all but try" Jo smiled
Owen stood, thinking for a moment and then gave Jo a slight nod "Okay, you can see her... but no touching, you talk to her and that's it"
"No touching, that's fine. She's your daughter so I'll play by your rules" Jo replied before Owen led her and Mac off in the direction of Lucy.