"Jeff?" Tom stepped outside and looked around, expecting to see Jeff sulking out there by himself over what had happened. Matt and Mark were fighting with the others about it but he had chosen to slip away from them to check on Jeff. He had known the younger man for quite awhile now and knew that he wasn't exactly the greatest at handling situations like this. He took things very personally and could hold a grudge for a long time if he saw fit to. "Jeff?"

No answer. Tom frowned and went down the steps of the back porch, looking all around for any sign of Jeff. There was none to be found. "Jeff?" Shit. He must have taken off. He had done that plenty of times before. He would go off and hide out for hours at a time, not answering his phone no matter how many times they called him and very rarely ever disclosing where he was after coming back. It was a rather annoying habit but one they had come to expect and reluctantly accept from him.

With a sigh Tom went back into the house to see how things were going in there. It wasn't any better from when he had gone outside in the first place. Mark and Matt were standing across from James, Cooper and Connor while Glenn tried to stay towards the middle and be neutral. "What the hell did we tell you about eavesdropping?" Mark asked Connor angrily. "We told you NOT to do it! We've told you not to do it like a MILLION times now! Why can't you listen?"

"I do listen!" Connor said with a whine.

"Oh yeah? Since when?" Mark was getting on a roll and not looking to stop now. "When have you started listening because I would REALLY like to know about it! God damn brat you fucking open your big mouth-"

"Would you STOP?" James snapped with narrowed eyes. "Don't fucking yell at him just because Jeff don't have the balls to tell us he's leaving. Maybe if HE had come clean sooner-"

"Don't put this on my brother!" Matt interrupted, stepping up to James with both his fists balled.

"I'll put this on to whoever the fuck I want to!" James shot back. He got up to his feet and got right back in Matt's face. He was nearly a foot taller than Matt was and much stronger. If this broke down into a fist fight Matt didn't have a good chance of winning at all. "The fact that we even have to overhear something like this is complete and total bullshit."

"Fuck yeah it is," Cooper piped in. He patted the pouting Connor on the shoulder. "Aren't we Jeff's friends too? Shouldn't we get to know stuff like this?"

"Maybe he was afraid you guys would react crazy," Tom said, speaking up even though it was against his brain's better judgment. Glenn gave him quite the look when he said something and he knew that he thought he was dumb for doing it as well. His relationship with the Lawsons tended to be volatile at best. "You know, kind of how like you're doing now."

"The only reason we're reacting "crazy" is because someone just can't fucking tell us to our faces shit that we kind of need to know," James snapped, his green eyes narrowing and glaring at Tom now. "We're supposed to be in this shit together and if he can't tell us something as big as this, then we clearly have serious problems."

"Yeah really." Glenn took them all by surprise by agreeing with James but he quickly brushed it aside. "Look, yelling at each other isn't gonna do shit, now is it?" Nobody offered up a way that it would help and he nodded in satisfaction at that before looking at Tom. "Where's Jeff?"

"Gone," Tom replied. "Long gone. He took off."

"Fuck," Matt said with a groan. He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. "We gotta find him."

"Where would we even start to look?" Cooper asked. "We can never find him when he takes off like this. Not when he doesn't want to be found."

"I don't care what he wants right now," Matt said stubbornly. "We can't let him stay out on his own. Not with the fucking Nexus out there."

Tom cringed at that thought. Fuck. He hadn't even thought of that when he had been out there looking for Jeff. "Matt's right. We gotta find him." They couldn't just let him stay out there on his own. Even if there wasn't a way for Nexus to know who they were (that he could think of at the moment), it still wasn't safe for him to be out on his own. He could still end up in pieces if Nexus felt like blowing something else up.

"Cooper, you and Connor stay here in case he comes back." Mark was barking out orders without even waiting for the others to agree with what Matt and Tom were saying. There wasn't time for this to be a democracy. "Glenn, Matt, Tom, you guys are gonna go one way and James and I are gonna go the other." Yes that was actually his plan. Jeff could literally be anywhere so splitting up and looking at every possible place was about the only good plan he had. He would split them up even further but given the state of things, he wasn't going to risk spreading them that thin. The fact that Jeff was by himself was worrisome enough in itself; he wasn't going to add to it.

…

Jeff woke up to ice cold water being poured directly on to his face. He woke up with a start, the frigid water filling his eyes, mouth and nose, making him choke. His head was absolutely killing him but he could hardly focus on that when he was practically drowning.

"There we are," a deep British voice said with an evil chuckle. The owner of the voice let Jeff's hair go and patted him on the back as he coughed and tried to spit up the water that had gone down his throat. "Rise and shine mate."

"Ugh…" Jeff continued to gag and sputter as he blinked his eyes rapidly to get the water out of them. The pain in his head was starting to really hit him and it hurt so bad that it made him sick to his stomach. The cold water was making him shiver and he coughed some more before looking up and seeing that he was surrounded by eight guys. Oh fuck…Nexus. He gulped and tried to bolt, only then realizing that he was tied to a chair. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck this wasn't good. This wasn't good at all.

"Nice to see that you've joined us." The smirk on Wade Barrett's face was getting bigger by the second. The other Nexus members stood around and with the exception of the smallest guy there they were all grinning like idiot henchmen. Jeff gulped again and looked around at them, trying to remain as calm as he could. It was almost impossible though. He was completely fucked and both he and they knew it.

"Wh-what do you want with me?" he finally asked, shrinking back into his chair as much as he possibly could.

"What do we want…" Wade pretended to think that one over carefully. "Oh I don't know. Pint of ale, some beautiful women, you and the rest of the Saints lined up in a row-"

"Saints?" This was worse than Jeff thought. If they knew he was one of them then that probably meant they knew about the others too. "What are you talking about I'm not-"

"Skip," Wade said with a roll of his eyes.

The huge bald man backhanded Jeff so hard across the face that the chair fell over and he hit his head on the floor. He cried out in pain and found himself being yanked back up so hard and fast it made him dizzy.

"Don't play dumb with us," Wade hissed, grabbing Jeff's chin with his thumb and pointer finger and digging his nails into the soft flesh. "We know who you are. We know where you live. We've seen all your little friends." The smirk returned to his face. "I have to say you're an interesting little bunch. You even have a…a special one." He chuckled lightly. "How progressive of you."

Jeff nervously flicked his tongue and licked his bottom lip. "If you know who we are then why didn't you kill us?"

"Oh we were going to," Wade admitted. "But uh…it's not always just about death. It's about making a statement." He pointed his finger on to Jeff's chest. "And your deaths will mean nothing if the entire world doesn't know who you are." He patted Jeff's cheeks a couple of times condescendingly. "And you don't want to die for nothing now do you?"

Jeff responded by spitting in Wade's face. Maybe not the smartest of ideas but he had to show some form of defiance. Wade's face twisted into disgust and he slowly wiped the spittle away with the back of his hand. "Lovely." He whacked Jeff really good across the face before turning his back on him. "We go public within the hour. Until then…have fun boys." He smirked evilly as he walked out the door and Jeff braced himself as he felt six pairs of hands grabbing at him all at once.