Kyle stared out the window, wondering what Allie was doing. A knot in his stomach formed as they drove by a playground. A man was pushing his daughter on a swing. 'I'll never have that with my baby…I'll never know if I have a daughter or a son…I'll never see Allie's smile again…' The knot of jealousy and anger grew more and more.

Jarod didn't understand. As much as he felt badly for Kyle, Jarod didn't understand him or how he felt. And what made it worse was that his brother seemed to be ignorant of that knowledge.

"Have you been to Minnesota before?" Jarod made an attempt at conversation as they passed a sign that read 'Decorah, Iowa 8 miles.' He waited then frowned when his brother didn't respond. "Do you want to try going to St. Paul, Minnesota?" Again, there was no response. Jarod sighed heavily. "Look Kyle I'm sorry. I got a little bored, it won't happen again."

Kyle sighed, keeping his eyes focussed out the window. "It's fine." He mumbled.

Jarod glanced at his brother uneasily, doubtful that Kyle had forgiven him; but, he didn't exactly know what to do. "So…St. Paul okay then?"

"Yeah whatever."

Jarod sighed tiredly and gave up temporarily. He didn't seem to have the energy to try to convince his brother to forgive and forget. He was more than a little frustrated. It was 2 days since their fight and Kyle was only withdrawing more as the days went on.

He was very disappointed. Very little of his reunion with his brother had been good. He loved his brother but Kyle was so preoccupied with finding his family that he didn't seem to care at all about trying to get have any fun with Jarod. He could feel their relationship crumbling and it terrified him. It wasn't exactly solid to start with.

They were family. What would he do if his family didn't want to be around him?

Jarod drew in a deep breath, focussing on the road again.

It was another half hour before Kyle tore his eyes away from the window. He popped open the computer and started typing.

"What are you doing?"

"Hacking."

"Into the centre?"

Kyle gave a sound similar to a grunt.

Jarod glanced at his brother uneasily. He had the feeling Kyle was doing something stupid. He reminded his brother, "They just upgraded the new tracking system. Are you taking the necessary precautions?"

"No I'm going right through the front door."

"What? Kyle they can track us within thirty seconds that way. You know better than that."

Kyle was typing quickly, his fingers speeding as they hit the buttons. He didn't care if he was captured, he was desperate. He had to throw caution to the wind. He knew there was no other choice.

He would die for Allie any day.

Jarod was right though. There were a few back doors when it came to hacking into the Centre and he was disregarding them all.

"Kyle, turn it off."

"Not until I find her."

"Kyle, we've gone digging through Centre files a thousand times, we can't find her that way."

"We just haven't been successful."

"Put it away, what makes you think there's going to be anything in there?"

"I don't but that didn't stop me yesterday or the day before."

"Kyle it's too easy for them to track us."

The computer started beeping.

Jarod leaned over and saw the flashing red lights, warning them that they were located by the Centre. Someone already found them. "Kyle!" Jarod took a swipe at the computer but Kyle pulled away and kept typing. "They found us…KYLE!"

He ignored his brother and clicked into one file than another, finding no information. "Shit." He muttered as another file he tried to get into suddenly met with an encrypted firewall. He typed quickly, not sure why he suddenly felt possessed. Had he just gone mad? He wasn't just risking his own life here, it was his brother's life as well. Had he finally cracked for good?

"Damnit." He muttered as his attempt to break through the encryption failed. He tried again, then again. Finally, after five tries, he broke through.

A screen popped up on the screen. "I think I've got something."

"Really?" Jarod asked surprised.

"Something just came up…" Kyle blinked in shock. "Oh god."

Jarod pulled the car over, fearing the worst. "What is it? Is she okay?"

"She's in Chicago…Mercy Hospital. She's in labor."

"Hold on." Jarod turned the car around then stepped on the gas. "If we hurry we might get there in time."

"Labor…" Kyle swallowed the lump in his throat. "My baby…something's wrong…she's…she could die."

"Kyle shut off the computer." It didn't really matter now. The Centre would be waiting for them regardless how quick they were to get there.

Kyle turned off the computer slowly, half paying attention. The countryside sped by them as they went as fast as the car could go. He wanted the vehicle to go quicker but that was impossible. It was already going as fast as it could go.

Allie closed the trunk to the SUV and drew in another deep breath. She had one more bag she needed to pack. She pressed the alarm on the keys and started out of the apartment's parking garage. It was 3 blocks from the place she was staying at, which was a precaution on her part.

She wasn't thinking rationally. If she wasn't so emotional, so…scared, she would have easily realized that it would take the Centre very little time to get to Chicago. It had already been a couple hours.

She left the parking garage and started back to her apartment, running a list of everything she had, needed, and options for what city she should move to next. Once she made it to the building she went inside and sighed heavily at the sight of the filthy stairs. It wasn't exactly the best place to live but it could have been a hell of a lot worse.

As for the stairs…there were a lot of them.

Allie grabbed hold of the railing tightly and started her way up the stairs, one slow step at a time. She muttered a curse at the absentee superintendent who kept insisting the elevators would be fixed.

She was getting tired again so she had to stop and take a few deep breaths before continuing her trip.

Allie made it two thirds of the way up the second floor when a familiar voice stopped her.

"Trying to make a speedy getaway?"

She froze. It couldn't be.

Allie gulped and turned around to face a tall dark haired man. A man she last saw almost 7 months ago.

Lyle massaged his thumbless hand. "This was almost too easy."

Allie was 'escorted' to front of the building. She had come in from the back and hadn't seen the black towncars out front. Lyle got into the one with Allie and another sweeper while the other sweepers got into the other car.

She trembled and her mind raced. It was hard to breathe. They had her. She knew what they would do. Make her carry her little boy to full term, have him, then she'd be killed. After that her son would be exploited and tortured just as his father was.

"Please, don't take my baby…please. I'll do anything just don't take my baby." Her pleas were ignored as she was forced into the car.

Any struggling she did was completely useless. The car started moving and Allie knew that was the end. She pleaded some more because that was all she could do.

"You know, you should be grateful. Your baby will be well taken care of. He'll have the best education, his brain will be put to good use, and your son will have access to all the state of the art technology long before most of the country will."

"At the Centre?" She glared at him. "This is what I think of that." Allie spit on him, getting him on the cheek. There wasn't unfortunately much saliva and it wasn't nearly as dramatic as she'd hoped.

Lyle blinked then wiped the spit off his face and faked a smile. "Okay then." He became serious and tried to remember he couldn't kill her…yet.

Note - sorry for another long delay. Too many things to do in life...when I'm done the next chapter I'll post right away. Thanks!