Thirty-seven
Jack walked into the house and set his keys on the desk. He picked up the mail and absentmindedly thumbed through it. The house was quiet as he peered around the living room. Carly's sketch book was lying on the coffee table next to her coffee mug.
"Carly, I'm home." He made his way toward the kitchen. He could smell something. As he turned the corner into the kitchen, he saw smoke spilling out from the stove as it erupted into flames. The smoke stung his eyes and burned his throat, causing him to cough and gag.
"Carly!" Jack yelled as he ran back into the living room. The fire had spread and the whole place was ablaze. Jack noticed Carly's sketch book on the table, now reduced to ash sitting next to the pristine mug.
"Jack! Help me, Jack!" she screamed.
He heard her voice coming from upstairs. "Carly! I'm coming, honey!" He fought his way toward the stairs through the fire. The air was completely filled with the black smoke. It filled his lungs as he ran causing him to cough and choke. He took the first steps two at a time as was about half way up when the floor collapsed. He fell into the darkness.
"Carly… Nooooooooo!" Jack sat up quickly, gasping for air as he coughed. The taste of smoke still fresh in his mouth. His eyes hurt and he squeezed them shut in order to try and stop them from watering. He rubbed them and noticed the blood on his hands. He touched his forehead and grimaced. He had a huge gash and it was still oozing blood. He didn't have time to think about that though. He took a look around. His house was smoking as the firemen stood with the hoses attempting to get it under control. Fear and panic engulfed him.
"Oh my God… Carly!" he choked out as he scrambled to his feet. His left shoulder seared in pain, but he ignored it as he stumbled forward. One of the firemen grabbed him as he began running toward the burning house. "Carly… Carly!"
"Detective! You can't go in there yet," the fireman tried to reason with him.
"My wife is in there," he yelled back, shoving him away. Hopkins appeared next to him and grabbed an arm while the other fireman continued to struggle to hold the other one.
"The building is too unstable and we need to put the fire out," he explained.
However Jack wasn't interested in details. Carly was in there and he was going to get her. He stopped struggling for a moment and the grips on his arms loosened just enough so that Jack was able to push past the men and run toward the house.
Meanwhile…
Julia had thoroughly enjoyed the massive destruction she caused. Unfortunately she wasn't able to admire her handy work for long. During her struggle, Carly had fallen and the impact had caused much discomfort to her. Julia pulled her to her feet and pulled her along through the wooded area. The woman was weak, because she was having to stop every so often.
"Come on!" she yelled at her. "If you don't quit stalling, I'm just going to kill you now and be done with it."
Carly moaned in pain, trying her best to keep moving and not let on to Julia that she was in labor. However, that's exactly what was going on. She tried to keep her mind clear and focus on trying to figure out a way out of this mess. Her mind kept drifting back to Jack and their house, though. Images of him lying unconscious and bloody came to mind when she closed her eyes. With the contraction over, she started walking again and decided to possibly distract Julia by talking to her.
"I thought you loved Jack," she began.
"What?" Julia snarled as she spun around to face her.
"I said, I thought you loved Jack. Why would you do that to him, if you loved him?" she asked breathing hard.
"I do love Jack. More than you could possible know or understand. YOU have never loved anyone but yourself. How dare you question my love for him!" she spat.
"Then why? I don't understand. You're just leaving him," Carly cried.
"Jack has plenty of people to help him right now. Weren't you paying attention. I told Jack that I wanted to take from you what you took from me." She walked closer to Carly. "You took my husband and my baby. Once I take your baby, Jack will be mine for the taking," she said calmly as if it made all the sense in the world.
"I am not letting you have my baby. You will never, ever touch this child."
"You seem to forget that I'm in control here," she sneered. "Now, let's keep moving or it will be a moot point." She yanked Carly along as they continued their trek through the woods.
Milltown…
Jack made it to where the front door used to be. It had been completely blown off it's hinges and all that remained was the door frame. The house was still on fire and the smoke made it nearly impossible to see. Jack started to walk through the door frame when two sets of hands grabbed him and dragged him back to where the paramedics were set up.
"Jack you need to let them do their job," said a familiar voice coming up from behind. Jack turned to see Margo making her way through the crowd.
"Carly is in there, Margo! I heard her call my name right before the first blast. We're wasting time. I've got to get in there and save her," Jack said desperately, still being held by Hopkins and one of the firemen.
"That's not your job, Jack. The fire unit is going to check the house. They just needed to make sure it was safe enough for them to enter."
"We don't have that kind of time," Jack argued. "Carly is in there and she needs me… Now!"
"Look… they're sending people in now," Margo pointed out to Jack.
He turned to look and sure enough 4 of the firemen were entering the house. Jack shook off the arms holding him and took a few small steps in the direction of the house.
Margo reached out and put an arm on his shoulder. "If she's in there, they'll find her," she told him.
"I heard her, Margo. She called out for me," his voice cracked. He closed his eyes as he heard her voice echoing in his mind. Guilt ate at him. For as long as he lived he would never forget the sound of her calling his name as the house exploded.
"I've got to go in there," he said as he started walking toward the house again.
"You're in no condition to do that. Why don't you let one of the paramedics take a look at you?" Margo suggested.
Jack spun around ignoring the pain shooting through his arm and the throbbing pain in his head. He leveled his eyes at Margo and said, "I'm going in there. Don't try and stop me again." He turned away from her and marched up into the house.
Margo closed her mouth and knew better than to say anything.
Elsewhere…
Carly and Julia made their way on foot to the other side of the woods. Julia walked over to what looked like an abandoned car and proceeded to open the trunk and place the bag that had once held the explosive devices inside. She then unlocked the doors and opened the back one saying,
"Get in."
Carly had felt better about her situation while she was on foot. Their pace was slow and hindered and Carly figured it would give people time to catch up to them. If she got into the car, all that changed. She had to stall somehow. "Can you please untie my hands? My shoulders are aching and I don't think I could sit in the car with them tied behind me."
Julia glared at her. "Why in the world would you think I would care about your comfort?"
"I'm having a hard time breathing… please," Carly said weakly, playing her part for all it was worth. She bent over and grimaced. Then she felt an actual contraction and she doubled over for real. The pain of it took her breath away and she fought like crazy not to let on what was actually happening.
Julia watched her, clearly trying to decide whether or not to untie her. She scowled as she yanked Carly around, pulled out the knife and began to the cut the bindings.
Carly breathed steadily as she battled through the contraction and was grateful that Julia was feeling magnanimous. Once the bindings were off, all the blood rushed back into her arms. It was almost painful, it felt so good. She let out a huge sigh of relief and shook them out gently as the contraction subsided.
"Now give me your hands," Julia ordered.
"What? You just untied them," Carly said looking horrified.
"Do you think I'm crazy?"
Was that a trick question? Carly thought to herself. "What do you mean?" she replied instead.
"I'm not about to leave you untied," she explained.
"What am I going to do? I'm pregnant and unarmed, Julia. I'm pretty sure you still have the upper hand."
"Regardless, I can't afford to make any mistakes. Now, let's get this done so we can get out of here," she said reaching for her arms again.
"At least let me go to the bathroom," Carly thought up quickly.
"You can't be serious. You're just trying to stall and it's not going to work," she yelled. She was getting extremely agitated and Carly knew she was pressing her luck, but she had to try.
"I'm pregnant Julia. I always have to go to the bathroom. Would you rather I went in the back of the car?" she said sarcastically.
"What I want…" Julia said coming up and grabbing the back of her hair and yanking her head back, "… is for you to quit stalling! No one is going to find you. Not Margo, certainly not Daryl and definitely not your precious G-Man!" she sneered.
Carly refused to cry out in pain as she held her head back. She would not give her the satisfaction. "Please, just let me go to the bathroom and then we can go wherever you want to," she pleaded. Carly could see the rage behind her eyes.
"You have two minutes," she said, her voice deadly calm. "Don't even think about trying to trick me or run away, because if you do," she said stepping closer. "I will kill you and your baby first and then I'll hunt down the rest of your kids and do the same to them," she finished.
Carly stared at her as tears fell on her cheeks. She knew how much Julia hated her and blamed her for everything that had gone wrong in her life, but this was the first time she'd mentioned doing harm to Parker, Sage or JJ. "I won't. I promise," she whispered. "Please don't. Please don't hurt my children," she cried. "They're not a part of this. This is between you and me, not them," Carly sobbed as she wiped the tears streaking down her face.
"As long as you keep your word, then they'll have nothing to worry about. For as good as that's worth," Julia added, muttering under her breath. "Now hurry up!"
Carly collected herself and made her way behind a clump of trees not far from the car. She had to act fast. She needed to leave behind something. She pulled off her shoes and socks and then quickly put her shoes back on. She also ripped a part of the hem off her shirt and left it on the ground. She did actually have to go to the bathroom and did so before joining Julia again. On her way back, she nonchalantly dropped one of her socks behind her as she walked toward the car just as Julia was about to come and get her. She'd tucked the other sock in her pocket to try and discard later.
"I was just about to come find you," Julia said as she walked up to her. She had new rope to tie her hands and proceeded to do just that. Once she was satisfied with that she opened the back door and roughly helped Carly into the backseat.
"Where are we going?" Carly asked.
"That's none of your concern. I haven't put that gag back in your mouth, but I can at any moment, so I suggest you keep you mouth shut," she warned her.
Carly shook her head in confirmation and it was just as well, for another contraction started and she winced at the intensity of it. She concentrated on breathing and on keeping her baby safe for as long as possible.
Back at Milltown…
Jack stepped into the rubble that littered what was once his living room. There were still spots where the house was still smoldering, but the main fire had been put out. The upper half of the staircase was gone making it impossible to get up to what little was left of the second floor. Jack stepped over broken glass and wood looking for anything and anyone and dreading what he'd find. Everything was black and gray from the fire and the smoke. Jack walked toward the dinning table which, remarkably, was still intact. Something light caught his eye under the debris in the corner. He quickly stepped around the toppled chairs and pulled it out from underneath a piece of wood. It was the baby blanket that Emma had made when she'd heard he and Carly were going to have another child. Jack couldn't swallow. The emotions of the night caught up with him as he squeezed his eyes shut and gripped the blanket tightly to his chest. Tears fell as he shook his head to clear the images racing through his mind. His chest was tight, he couldn't breath. "No," he said quietly. "No Carly, you're not gone." He opened his eyes and desperation took over. He placed the blanket on the table and began moving everything in his attempt to find her. "Carly!" he shouted and he wildly moved about the room tossing things aside. "Carly, can you hear me?"
One of the fireman quickly came over to try and prevent him from doing more damage to the unstable structure. "Detective! You can't do that. You could send the rest of the structure down, if you're not careful," he warned him.
"My wife is in here. I will take you out if you're not careful," Jack said grabbing him by the jacket and shoving him aside. "Now help me find her!" he ordered.
The search lights were set up outside and directed toward the center of the house. Everyone was also equipped with flashlights as they searched through the wreckage in the dark of night. They dug through the rubble for what seemed like an eternity to Jack. They didn't find anything that led them to believe that Carly had been in the house when the explosion took place.
"Are you sure you heard her voice coming from inside the house?" Margo asked.
Jack sighed heavily as he rubbed his face. He was exhausted emotionally and drained physically. "Yes, Margo. I heard her voice coming from upstairs." He looked up again, for what seemed like the hundredth time. He could see the sky from his living in places. The breeze was picking up and that's when he noticed it. Dangling from the floor above was the blanket from the foot of their bed. It was all tangled up, but it held something with an electronic light. He grabbed a broken beam from the floor and made his way over until he stood underneath it. He swung the beam and knocked whatever it was from the blanket to the floor.
Margo walked over and picked it up. Turning it over and examining it. She tossed it to him. "It's a walkie-talkie. Is it one of the kids'?"
"No," he said looking at it. "I'll bet it was Julia's."
"She wanted you to think Carly was inside," Margo deduced.
"She was with her though. I spoke to Carly right before I entered the house," he said thinking back to the course of events that night. "Has anyone found anything else outside the house?"
"Hopkins has four guys with him and they're combing the outside of your house along with a portion of the wooded area behind it. If something is out there, they'll find it."
"She must have been close by. These things don't have that great of range. Besides, Julia would have wanted to watched the destruction."
"Jack!," yelled one of the officers.
Jack hurried over to where the officer was standing. Fitzpatrick was holding a flashlight in the direction of the ground. Jack looked down and noticed two separate sets of shoe prints in the wet ground leading away from the house. There was no way to be certain that one of them was Carly's, but Jack knew in his heart that it was. For the first time in several hours, Jack felt a glimmer of hope.
"We need to follow these to see where they lead."
"Hopkins, you and Murray can go with Jack. Have Fitzpatrick take this walkie-talkie and the jacket Jack found earlier back to the station. I want this," she said indicating to the walkie-talkie, "… to be dusted for prints. Have the lab run tests on the jacket to see whose blood it is. And have them put a rush on it," she added as officer Hopkins hurried to do this request before joining Jack in following the tracks.
"Margo, can you call Lily and let her know what's going on. Don't give her too much information, though. And whatever you do, make sure to tell her not to let the kids know what's going on. I need to be the one to talk to them about it."
"You got it Jack," she said patting him on the back. "Are you sure you don't want a doctor to check you out? That's a nasty cut on your forehead."
"I'll deal with that later," he said wiping his head with the sleeve of his jacket.
"At least let them check you out to make sure you don't have a concussion," Margo said.
"Why? What if I do? It won't stop me from looking for Carly. The only thing that does is waste time," he said getting angry. "What the hell is taking Hopkins so damn long?"
"He's coming Jack," Margo informed him as she saw Hopkins and Murray heading this way. "Let me know if you find anything."
"I will," Jack said trying to calm down. He knew in the back of his mind that none of this was Margo's fault, but he wasn't able to be rational right now. Once he found Carly and made sure she and the baby were ok, then there would be time for that. Until then, nothing else mattered.