Chapter Twenty-Nine – Reunited

Alex and Fernandez walked through the doors to the hospital. Rebecca was wheeled in on a gurney, her hand clenched inside of her mother's. They had to take her to get checked out by a doctor.

Fernandez saw the other woman glance towards the elevator longingly every few seconds. She wanted to go and make sure Bobby was okay with her own eyes, Fernandez was sure.

"Do you want me to stay with Rebecca while you check on Bobby?" Fernandez asked.

Alex shook her head. "Thanks, but I need to stay with her." Her eyes hardened. "I won't abandon her again."

Fernandez considered telling her that none of this was her fault, but she didn't really know her that well, and she wasn't sure it was her place to say something. She could crack a joke no problem, but talking about one's feelings, that was a different story.

"Well, if you want I can go and check on him," Fernandez offered instead.

Alex smiled gratefully. "Would you?" she asked. "Could you tell him that we're on our way?"

Sure," Fernandez replied. "Then I'll go make sure my partner is still with us."

She turned and walked away, heading to reception to ask where Bobby and Mike were.

Alex turned back to Rebecca. She hadn't released her daughter's hand for the entire ambulance ride. She didn't ever want to let Rebecca out of her reach again.


Alex looked up and saw Fernandez walking back towards them. Rebecca had suffered from smoke inhalation, but she was doing very well. The doctor had taken her off the oxygen, and when she continued to do well it was determined that she didn't need to be admitted to the hospital.

Alex set Rebecca on her hip, thanked the doctor, and went to meet Fernandez. "How is he?" Alex asked. When Fernandez hesitated, Alex felt her heart leap into her throat. Had his situation been worse than she thought?"

"He's okay, physically," Fernandez assured her.

"What do you mean?" Alex asked.

"They… they have him in restraints," Fernandez replied. Alex's eyes widened, and then clouded in anger. "Apparently he attacked one of the nurses, so they sedated him and put him in restraints."

"No," Alex said firmly. "He wouldn't."

"He was really out of it when he came to; they're not sure if he was even fully conscious," Fernandez explained. "His nurse, the one that he hit, said that she could tell he didn't do it on purpose. She said he was in a panic. She sounded really sorry about having to put him in restraints."

"I should have been here," Alex muttered to herself.

"You couldn't have been," Fernandez argued. "You had to be where you were."

Alex sighed, knowing there was no winning situation. She had made the best choice she could, given the circumstances. Looking down at Rebecca, cuddled against her, she knew she had made the right choice. Once Bobby woke again, she would reassure him, they would take the restraints off, and everything would be okay again.

"And what about Mike?" Alex asked.

"He's in surgery, but they assured me he'll make a full recovery," Fernandez replied. Alex nodded, relieved.

"Do you have Carolyn Barek's number?" Fernandez asked. "I think I should probably call her."

"Yes," Alex replied. She gave the number to Fernandez, who went outside to call Carolyn. She then proceeded up the stairs to her husband's room.

"Rebecca," Alex said. Rebecca looked up at her. The little girl's cheeks were still blackened from the smoke, and both she and Alex smelled like fire. "We're going to see Daddy now, but he is sleeping," Alex said. "The doctors gave him medicine to help him sleep and get better, so we're not going to be able to wake him up. There are going to be a lot of machines around him, but I don't want you to worry, okay?"

"Okay, Mommy," Rebecca replied. "I'm glad to just see Daddy." Then she paused, thoughtful. "Mommy?" she asked. Alex nodded to show she heard. "Where is Willow?" Rebecca asked. "Granddad showed me that you and Daddy had her, but she's not with you, and if Daddy's sleeping in the hospital, then she's not with him."

Alex stiffened when she heard Rebecca mention her 'granddad'. "Willow is at the police station waiting for her Mommy to come and get her," she replied.

"Oh, good," Rebecca said. "It's better that she has her real Mommy and I have mine. Better than her stealing my parents and leaving me all by myself."

"Rebecca?" Alex asked. "You didn't think we'd chosen Willow instead of you, did you?"

Rebecca frowned. "Granddad said that you and Daddy adopted Willow to replace me, 'cause you didn't love me anymore." Alex felt her anger flare again, but kept silent to allow Rebecca to finish. "But then Emma said that Willow was taken away from her family too, and she said that granddad had lied about the men, and he was really the boss of them. So I thought maybe you and Daddy was rescuing Willow, to take her back to her family 'cause you is the police. But then I was thinking, if Willow's room was right next to mine… why didn't you rescue me too?"

"Oh Becky," Alex whispered around the lump in her throat. "We never saw your room. Someone brought Willow to us. If we had known where you were, we would have come to get you in a heartbeat. Daddy and I love you, Becky. We won't ever stop loving you, and we were never going to stop searching until we found you."

"Okay, Mommy," Rebecca said, sounding more reassured. "I love you and Daddy too."

Alex wrapped her arms around her daughter more tightly. She may have convinced her for the time being, but she knew Rebecca would have a long way to go before she fully trusted her parents again. It would take a lot of reassurance, and time, before she had recovered emotionally from her ordeal. She wondered if their relationship could ever be the same again.

They had reached Bobby's room, and Alex pushed to door open. "Daddy!" Rebecca exclaimed. Alex approached the bed and her daughter surprised her by disregarding all of the medical equipment and launching herself forward to plant a kiss on her father's cheek.

She turned as she heard someone come in. Tessa had come in to check her patient. "Oh, you're finally here," she said coldly.

"I came as soon as I could," Alex replied, also coldly. This woman had no idea what she had gone through in the past couple of hours, and her judgment made Alex angry.

Tessa turned away without answering, and began to assess the patient. "Patrick seems to be doing well," Tessa said, addressing the man's wife grudgingly.

"My Daddy's name is Bobby," Rebecca corrected. Tessa turned to look at the little girl for the first time. She noticed the smoke-stained cheeks right away, along with the heat-frizzed hair, and disheveled appearance. She also noticed the dried blood in the woman's hair. And why was the patient admitted under the wrong name?

She hadn't really looked at them upon entering, convinced as she was that they didn't care. Now she realized that something else was going on. "It's a long story," Alex said, upon seeing Tessa's reaction.

It was obvious that the little girl had been near a fire, and the woman had knocked her head on something too. They had been through some sort of ordeal while the man was in here, and Tessa was sorry for her snap judgment.

"He's going to be out for the next few hours for sure, if you want to go home and get cleaned up," Tessa offered.

Alex nodded. That made sense. It would be better if Bobby woke to them looking a right side better than they did now. She would return right away. Better they were gone while he was asleep anyway.

She turned to go, meeting up with Fernandez on the way out. "They want to see the two of you at the station," Fernandez said. "When I called Carolyn, she told me."

"Right," Alex said. "I wanted to get us cleaned up first."

"Well you can't go back to the house, it's a crime scene," Fernandez told her. Alex immediately felt stupid for not realizing that herself. "I booked Logan and I two rooms in a motel here, just in case," she continued. She passed Alex the passkey to the room, and said, "Here, you can use the shower in my room."

"Thank you," Alex said gratefully. She would take Rebecca back there to get them both cleaned up, and then she would go to the police station. Woe to anyone there who tried to keep her from returning to the hospital before her husband woke up.


Alex had explained the whole story to the law enforcement agents at the police station. She had begun with how she and Bobby had decided to look for their daughter themselves, and ended with the events that had occurred at Jonas Slaughter's house.

They had then wanted to ask her more about Slaughter, but Alex told them to read the file. She wanted to get back to Bobby, and she didn't want Rebecca to hear any more about the case than she had to. Though they had offered, Alex point blank refused to let Rebecca stay with one of the officers in the child-friendly rooms.

She was about to leave again, when Willow caught sight of her. The little girl had been glued to Thompson ever since he interviewed her, but at the sight of Alex she finally released his hand and sprinted over. Willow launched herself at Alex's legs, gripping them tightly.

Rebecca watched her with a sullen expression. She had her Mommy back, and she didn't like Willow coming over to steal her again! But when Willow released Alex's legs and stepped back so that her face was visible, Rebecca changed her mind.

This girl did not look like a threat. She didn't look mean. She looked… broken. And Rebecca's natural sympathy overcame her jealousy. Her resentment faded at the sight of the sad, scared little girl. Tentatively, she reached out to take the other girl's hand.

"I'm Rebecca," she offered.

Willow hesitated a moment, and looked back at Alex, who smiled encouragingly. "I'm Willow," she replied softly.

Alex checked her watch. There was still at least an hour before the sedation would wear off. She sat back down to wait with Willow. "Jeffery's gonna get my Mommy," Willow said.

"We'll wait with you," Rebecca assured her. "Right, Mommy?"

"We'll wait," Alex replied.

The parents of all the missing girls had gone on the first flight to California. They were expected to arrive soon. The other four girls were sitting with detectives throughout the squad room. Laura was still in Carolyn's lap, a few desks away from where Alex sat with Rebecca and Willow. Giselle and Taylor were playing two on one tic-tac-toe with Langley. Emma was sitting with Branch and watching the doors for any sign of her family.

The doors burst open, and it was clear to everyone that this was the family of the missing children. All the people that entered had that wild, panicked look until their eyes settled on their no longer missing child. Then there was just overwhelming relief.

The first to enter was a tall man with a crew-cut, whose long stride had allowed him to pull slightly ahead of the others. "Daddy!" Giselle called, abandoning the game. "I did everything you told me, Daddy!" Giselle told him, even as she raced towards him. In four long strides, he had reached her and swept her off the ground into his arms.

"I scratched them all up to get their D and A under my fingernails, and I looked close at everything and everyone so I could tell you, and I checked for police badges, and Daddy I missed you!" A usually gruff man, Agent Vanderburgh was holding back tears as he held his daughter close. Giselle was dwarfed in his arms, but couldn't have been happier.

"I missed you too," he whispered hoarsely.

The next man to enter was Laura's father. He had left straight from work to get on the plane, and he was still wearing his sheriff's uniform. Laura burst into renewed sobs, squealing, "Daddy!"

Carolyn stood up to meet him, and passed Laura over to her father. He held her against his chest and whispered her name over and over. "Laura, Laura, Laura…"

With her head over his shoulder, she had a view of another couple racing towards her. "Mommy; Seth!" she called. Laura leaned sideways in her father's arms to wrap one arm around her mother's neck while keeping the other around her father's. She reached the hand around her mother towards her stepfather, who grasped it tightly.

"That's her, there she is!" a woman screamed. "Emma!"

Emma's hair streamed behind her as she raced towards her mother and was lifted off the ground in an embrace. A man was not far behind, and he folded both Emma and her mother into his arms.

"Mommy, Daddy, I love you," Emma mumbled into her mother's chest.

"We love you too," her mother sobbed.

"We love you too," her father echoed gruffly.

Taylor bounded towards the next two people who burst through the doors, and leapt right into her father's arms. He swept her up, right over his head, and then brought her towards his chest again. "How's my junior detective?" he asked, the familiar greeting catching in his throat.

He passed Taylor over to her mother as she reached them, allowing her to have her own turn to wrap her daughter in a bone-crushing hug. Her mother's own hair fell over Taylor's, and two sets of inky black curls blended together. "We missed you baby," her mother said.

"Missed you guys too," Taylor replied. "I love you."

And last to enter was Carol Kirk. Dark circles ringed her eyes as she scanned the room, looking between all of the happily reunited parents desperately.

"Mommy!" Willow called. Her face broke into a smile of pure joy, and she slid off of Alex's lap to race into her mother's waiting arms. Alex realized with a start that this was the first time she had ever seen Willow smile.

Carol folded Willow into her arms and covered her with kisses. She settled down to sit on the floor of the squad room, still right by the doors, pulling Willow into her lap. "Willow," she whispered. She rocked the little girl back and forth and wept.

Willow had wrapped her arms around her mother, clinging to her tightly. She didn't speak again, but she didn't have to. She was safe in her mother's arms.

Alex tore her gaze away from Carol and Willow to look for Carolyn. They could head to the hospital together now. Hailey's mother had been to take her to stay with her sister. All of the girls were safe.

She spotted Carolyn looking in Emma's direction with unfocussed eyes. The little girl's words echoed in her mind: "Are you going to find big Emma too?"

One girl was still missing.