A/N I do not own these characters. Oh wait I do own Shelly, Jerry, Mr. and Mrs. Falk, and any other character I might make up on a whim, and all the mob guys except Walter Balsom. I am getting no profit off the use of ABC characters so please refrain from suing me. I have no money anyway.

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Chapter 28

Natalie waited and waited and waited. Hours had passed and still no one had shown up. She was running out of baby supplies and was getting extremely worried. Fear for John consumed her till she thought she would go crazy. Alex, not used to her, had cried most of the night, further stressing her out. But the cries were music to her ears, well the first few anyway.

The love she had for her daughter seemed to swell and grow with each passing hour. As did her anxiety over both John and how she was going to get out of this tiny room. She was still worrying when she heard several people enter the cabin. She prayed that Alex stayed silent and they if they were the bad guys they would go away quickly. After a minute she heard, "Natalie? Where are you?"

"Uncle Bo?" She called through the door. It was Bo! He had found her. That must mean John was ok and had sent him! Relief filled her and she sagged as the tension left her body. Hugging Alex close she placed a gentle kiss on her forehead and thanked God that Bo had found her. A second later the door swung open and she was greeted with the sight of Bo's concerned face.

"Natalie!" Bo said with relief. He looked her over and saw that she looked fine. She was holding a small baby and he stepped up to see her. The baby was adorable. Her bright red hair declaring for all to see that this was Natalie's daughter, as well as the features on the little girls face. She was the spitting image of her mother. "Thank God you're alright!"

"John? Where is John?" Natalie asked straight away. She didn't see him here. "Is he hurt? Tell me where he is Uncle Bo!" Her fear escalated at the look of regret on Bo's face. "Tell me he isn't dead!" she cried out, fearing the worst.

"No, he isn't dead." Bo told her, hoping he wasn't lying. "John has been taken."

"Taken? Where? By who?" Natalie demanded. This had been her biggest fear. Suddenly something occurred to her, "If John is missing then how did you find me?"

"John contacted Shelly somehow and she told me." Bo told her. Seeing her terror for John he was convinced that she was in love with him.

"Shelly sent you?" Natalie asked then realized that Shelly must have had a vision. "Where is Shelly? Is she ok?" Natalie was concerned about her friend she knew that Shelly tended to be impulsive and if she thought she knew where John was she just might... "Bo, did Shelly have any clue where John might be?"

"She said she didn't. She said John didn't even know where he was except that he was in some sort of warehouse." Bo explained as he ushered Natalie and the baby into his car. He was taking her back to Llanfair so she could spend some time with Jess until they found John. The last think he needed was to worry about her too while he had every available person searching for John.

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Mitch smiled to himself. It was time. Everything was coming together perfectly. The Buchanans were distracted and there was no one to guard Jess. Hell they had no clue that he was even there, that Jess was about be discover she couldn't run from fate. He carefully walked thru the woods that were near Llanfair as he studied the house. He knew how to get in undetected, he just had to wait for the right moment.

He heard a commotion in the front of the house and knew that was his moment. He made his move and calmly walked right up to the back door and let himself into the house. Quietly entering he slipped up the stairs and into Jessica's bedroom. Taking out his gun silently in case she resisted he prepared to reclaim his daughter.

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Natalie hugged her mother and showed off her baby to Jess and everyone else. Bo had left to go back to the station and ever since Natalie had been filled with a worried feeling. She was worried about John. Terrified for him actually. Somehow she knew he was in real danger. So as soon as she could she followed Jess to her bedroom, intending to ask her to look after Alex while she went to the station to see if she could help find John. She had her baby, now she needed her man!

"Jess?" she called out, knocking on the door. She heard a muffled noise and assumed that it was Jess calling for her to come in. Opening the door she was shocked to see a man holding her sister with something over her face. "Jess!" Natalie screamed out as the man raised a gun at her. She spun around trying to protect Alex when the gun went off. She felt a sudden, excruciating pain in her head and then crumpled to the floor, still protecting her baby.

Jess used that distraction to wriggle away from Mitch and grab the gun he had just used to shoot her sister. "You bastard!" she screamed in his face as the struggled for the gun.

"Natalie! Jessica!" Vicki screamed as she, Kevin, and Kelly raced into the room. They had heard all the commotion and had run to see what was going on. Kelly saw Natalie and the baby on the floor and immediately went to them. Seeing that Natalie was hurt she hurriedly got out her cell phone and called 911 then gathered the baby in her arms to comfort the crying infant. The baby appeared to be unhurt.

Jessica was still struggling with Mitch Lawrence and suddenly there was a loud BANG! Mitch slumped to the floor dead. He had been killed instantly by the bulled Asa fired from his gun. It was a large caliber gun, a 30/30, and that meant that Mitch was missing half his face. Everyone stared in shock at the blood mess on the floor before racing to Natalie's side.

Natalie was lying on the floor in a heap. Her only thought had been to save her daughter when Mitch had fired at her. She had turned away from him and dodged away. This had caused the bullet to only graze the side of her head. Blood still poured from the wound as head wounds always bled profusely but she hadn't been seriously injured. She moaned in pain as she began to come too. She reached a hand to her head and touched the blood area before passing out again.

"Well, don't anyone thank me for saving the day." Asa told everyone as he put away his gun. He hadn't seen Natalie lying on the floor yet but when he did he paled and began throwing around orders. "Someone call an ambulance. Jessica, get a towel and put it on her head. Kevin don't just stand around, help her." He rushed over and felt for her pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief as he felt the strong pulsing of her blood pumping through her veins. His grandchild, his Natalie, was alive.

As Jessica brought the towel and put pressure on the wound Kevin knelt next to Natalie holding her hand, begging her to wake up and yell at them. The ambulance came and soon Natalie was on her way to the Llanview hospital. Jessica went in the ambulance with her with baby Alexandra.

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Jerry paced the floor of the warehouse. John had made him angry, made him reveal more then he had wanted to. He was furious with himself for falling for his baiting. Well... John would pay for that. He was going to kill his precious Shelly right in front of him. Hell maybe he would rape her! That would cause the other man considerable pain! Precious Shelly...so perfect that everyone loved her. Even his own father, his blood kin, loved her more then him. Oh how he hated her for that!

He hated her more then ever. It seemed that no matter what everyone loved her more than him. People that didn't even know she existed 2 months ago were now willing to die for her! Why was it that no one loved him like that? It was enough to make him want to puke! His own father, his own brother loved her more then him. The McBain's had almost immediately taken her in under their wings and treated her better then the Falks had ever treated him. Hell even the Buchanan's seemed to love her. Was there no one that she didn't fool into loving her?

He thought again of John McBain and how even after being tortured for hours he still hadn't given up Shelly's location. Maybe leaving him hanging there like a side of beef and watching his family be killed one by one would loosen his tongue, if not... Well, if the man wouldn't talk then he was of no use to him. Bodies in this area could be disposed of easily!

To be continued...