Laura had been soundly asleep for around four hours when she was suddenly awoken by the sound of shrill voices in her hallway. Pulling herself from the warm comfort of her bed, she put on the thick winter robe that she had got out for Jack to wear; it still smelt faintly of him. Somehow the comfort and warmth could not be replaced without the feel of his arms around her, and the emptiness of reality was quick to sink in.

"You have no right to be here, young lady!" she heard her mother scolding. "If you hadn't have interfered my daughter wouldn't be in the mess, she is now." Laura hadn't a clue who could be out there, who would be able to rile her mother that way. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and went out to see what was going on.

"I'm sorry about what has happened, but I just wanted to see my father…" the young lady replied assertively.

"Kim?" Laura asked, surprised to see the young blonde on the doorstep of her apartment but not at all angry, like her mother. The young woman nodded a little nervously and Laura looked to her companion and he smiled and gave her his name.

"Hello, Ms Fletcher. I'm Eddie Jerome… I worked with Jack at CTU in LA." Janice stood by pinching her lips together furiously.

"Won't you come in?" Laura asked in a soft and exhausted voice. She stepped back from the door but Janice was reluctant to move until her daughter glared at her with an almost embarrassed expression on her face.

"Laura, I won't have anything to do with this. You know it's her fault… If she hadn't have interfered, little Alfie would still be here safe and sound…"

"Mother!" Laura snapped. "If you are going to talk like that, I don't want you to have anything to do with this. I told you before; this is a horrible situation and just a nasty turn of fate… I don't blame Kim for this… If Marc wanted to find us, he would have done so in the end, whatever information he had."

"She gave him your address!" Janice snapped back.

"Mom, I don't have anyone to help me through this… Jack is gone and you are my only family… I don't need for you to be against every decision I make…"

"Well what if I see you walking into yet another mistake…" she prattled on regardless.

"Mother, you liked Marc when I met him; if I hadn't have come to you when he hurt me and Alfie, you never would have thought badly of him. For that matter you thought Jack was wonderful until this happened… I don't know how you can change your mind so quick… things aren't just black and white you know?"

"Yes well I can admit I've made mistakes and errors of judgement, isn't it time you took notice of your own?" She sounded so cold and hurtful. Laura began to wonder if she really did need her around at all.

"Yes it is. I should have took notice of the way I felt when you hounded Jack out of here on Monday night. I should have trusted my heart and gone after him instead of letting you placate me. You don't know what's best for me mother and you aren't helping me feel any better, when you keep telling me I've lost everything that mattered to me!"

"So you want me to go?" she asked, almost sounding a bit hurt.

"If all you can do is say hurtful things to people I care about; then yes, I want you to go. I have enough to deal with without you making me feel more alone." Well Janice didn't need to be told again; she took up her coat and bag and with a hurt look, she walked from the apartment without looking back.

Well silence prevailed for a long moment and the guests in her house felt very awkward indeed. The quiet moment, gave Kim long enough to look upon and consider the woman who had taken her father's heart and that evoked such jealousy within her. She seemed frail and slight, and Kim wondered if she was always like that or if it was the circumstances that made her appear so weak. Jack never usually went for submissive women… if anything; where relationships were concerned, it was he who was the submissive one.

Laura turned and regarded her lover's daughter for the first time. She was attractive and seemingly considerate and intelligent like her father. She had his slight frown and Laura felt her heart sink a little, as she remembered how much she missed him.

"Has my Dad left then?" Kim asked anxiously. "I went to his apartment, but there was no answer, the super told me to try here and explained what had happened…" Laura nodded and gestured for them to sit down. "Laura I'm really sorry about what happened to Alfie…"

"Kim; like I said to my mother, it's not your fault. You just wanted to find your father. I told him over and over to call you… its just fate. If I'd been more persistent and convinced him to call sooner, then perhaps none of this would have happened."

"I don't think its constructive for either of you to blame yourselves… the only person to blame here is Wagner." Eddie said quite forcefully. Both women nodded their understanding and really did feel a little comforted by his honesty.

"My Dad blames himself though, doesn't he?" Kim said, gazing down at the floor.

"Yes, I think so." Laura replied. "I should have told him it wasn't his fault… I didn't want him to leave… I should have… he tried so hard to find him and help the police… I don't know what I would have done without him." Laura couldn't fight the tears anymore. She had been holding them back for days; at least to the public view; and now facing up to all that had gone on, hurt too much to hide it.

Eddie was surprised at what he saw before him then. Only a few hours ago in the car, he had been convinced that Kim would steel his gun and blow her step mom-to-be away, as soon as she opened the door. Now he watched as Kim dropped to her knees in front of Laura and hugged her.

"It'll be okay. Dad really cares for your son… he told me on the phone and he'd never let anything happen to him, if he can help it in any way… Dad will get him back and it'll be right again… it's okay Laura; please don't cry."

"I miss him so much…" She sobbed. Kim nodded and was about to say something about it being only natural as a mother; when Laura elaborated on her point.

"I know he is probably the best person to be looking for Alfie, but I just miss him so much… I feel so alone…" After a few more tears, Laura found the strength to get it together in front of these relative strangers. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to break down in front of you two like that… I was trying to… I keep thinking that Marc just wanted a son… and that he wouldn't harm Alfie, but what if… oh God, what if he hurt my son… I couldn't live without him."

"Eddie could you get us all some tea or something?" Kim asked still holding Laura's hand in her own. "Laura, I can't give you the answers you need. He didn't sound nasty on the phone to me, and I looked through the information Dad asked for… for what its worth he doesn't look like… well he doesn't fit the profile of… that kind of person."

"He'd hurt Jack though and… I love him so much, Kim. Jack is the only person since my husband, who made me feel alive inside. Alfie loves him to bits… why do things like this have to happen? He's such a good man, and so many terrible things have happened to him and you… Kim you should know that he loves you very much. He felt so terrible for leaving you; he could never forgive himself for how much he hurt you." Kim shook her head as though it was silly to talk that way.

"I told him it was okay, I told him on the phone I didn't blame him for what happened. I love my father very much, I'd forgive him anything." Laura smiled at how obviously alike they were in some ways, and at how neither of them had cause to worry about their relationship, as she had imagined all along.

"I just hope he is okay… He has his pills but…" Laura began to explain the Jack that she knew, and Kim had missed out on spending so much time with.

"Pills? What's wrong with him? Is it his heart… he seemed hurt when I… the last time I saw him. I've worried about him a lot." His daughter admitted.

"You and me both, Kim. He is taking care of himself better; at least he'd begun to… I had him eating properly again and he wasn't drinking… but…" She was reluctant to state the rest of her news.

"What Laura? Is he sick? Please, he's my Dad I need to know." She pleaded fretfully.

"And I'll tell you all I can, it's just… something my mother said when he came here on Monday night. I was sedated; the detective thought it important for me to rest and… she said he stank of alcohol… I couldn't hear it in his voice but to be honest I felt like I was miles away with the effects of the Valium…"

"Do you think he would hurt himself?" Kim asked as she took the mug of tea from her boyfriend with a trembling hand.

"I don't think so. He seemed determined to get Alfie back; he hadn't got all morbid and suicidal again…" Kim's face went white. It had been her worst fear while he was away; that the only news she would hear would be that he was dead. She had worried that perhaps given the horrendous circumstances lately, he would be driven to something crazy.

"What do you mean again? Was he going to kill himself? Laura, what did he do?"

"Calm down Kim. Its okay, I'm sure he wouldn't do anything like that. When I met him he was very depressed. He was smoking and drinking a lot and I don't think he'd had a proper meal in a few months by the look of him and his apartment. He is much better now, we talked and he opened up about a lot of stuff that was bothering him. He was feeling a lot better and he looked well again… he was taking his medication and got plenty of exercise…" Laura felt the blush in her cheeks as Jack's daughter regarded her a little suspiciously.

"Sounds like you were very good for him." Kim replied with an expression and tone of voice that Laura was unable to gauge. "I guess that was why he wanted to marry you, anyway!"

Laura hadn't taken in that Jack may have got around to telling his daughter of their plans, given the circumstances. She felt awkward having to be the one explaining things to the man's daughter, having just met her for the first time.

"I didn't realise Jack had told you that. I know it might seem very quick but we weren't intending to rush into anything… your father wanted your blessing and for us all to… well, get along okay. I think we are good for each other. I love your Dad very much, Kim. We had become very close and… Kim, I don't want you to think I am trying to take your mother's place… I know I could never…"

"Dad will always love my mother; you know that don't you? You can't replace her for him either!" Kim said angrily. Eddie took her hand and tried to clam her down. Laura noted the worried expression on his face and thought back to what Jack had told her about Kate.

"Kim, I know I can't be Teri; I don't want to be. I will always have a place in my heart for Richard… my husband… the same as Jack will always love your mother. But I love your Dad, I know its quick and we have a long way to go but he loves me too and we want to be together. I know it won't be easy on any of us at first but I hope we can at least be friends."

This was too much to be getting into when her son was missing, and Laura felt wearied by the whole conversation. It had been a while since she was a troubled teen dealing with her mother's replacement father figures; but not too long to remember the resentment and the jealously.

"I'd never do anything to hurt your father, Kim. We have argued once in the whole time we've known each other and I felt terrible..."

"The whole time you have known each other? What's that a couple of weeks… how can you think you know him well enough to stir all this stuff up and wreck my life, when you have only known him five minutes?" Kim interrupted.

Laura wasn't about to be shouted at, particularly in the condition she was. She squared up to Kim and showed that she wasn't the submissive type, she had her pegged as from that first once over.

"I think its time you took a step back Kim and looked at this for what it really is. Whether I've known your Dad for five minutes or five years… I love him and he loves me. We have got each other through a lot of shit over the few weeks we have been together. I lost my father when I was a little girl; I know what its like to have to audition replacements. I lost the man that I loved and my son lost his father when he wasn't even one year old. Don't tell me I'm wrecking your life, when for the last few weeks I've done nothing but try to get you and your father back together."

"How do I know that you did that? How do I know you weren't planning to take him away from me?" Kim was hiding her tears behind a façade of fury by this point and Laura could easily see through this mask.

"You know it because he called you and told you himself that he was happy with me. I'm not playing some game Kimberly. I am straight with you about how I feel and what I want. Jack wanted us to move to LA to be a family, he wanted us to get married and have children and he wanted you to be happy for him." Laura sighed and drank from her sweet tea.

"Though you won't believe me. You need to ask him yourself how he feels and then you alone can decide what you want to happen. If you hate me; so be it. I can't change that. I'm not a nasty person and I'd never do anything to deliberately hurt you, but I will marry your father and I will be a part of your life whether you want to acknowledge it or not."

Eddie was white as a sheet and consciously moved his coat to cover the revolver that was holstered from his belt. Kim looked at Laura with astonishment. The silence remained for what felt like several hours. No one knew what to say and had way too much on their minds to make deciding any simpler.

"If you ever hurt him…" Kim began eventually.

"Don't worry Kim; I'd rather die than see your father in any pain. I know that you could see to that if you really wanted to." She noted the shocked expression befall the young blonde's face. "You see he told me everything that has happened to him and I know what happened to Kate; what's more I can probably guess at why it happened a little better than your Dad will acknowledge."

Kim froze in that moment she could see Kate Warner smiling viciously at her and she felt her blood begin to boil, before she was startled back to reality by Laura's next statement.

"You see, I'd have done the same. I had high morals about the sort of stuff you father does, until I asked myself; what would I do if it was someone I loved. If anything can prove to you how much I love Jack, it's the fact that those morals I held so high, would go right out the window if anyone threatened to harm him. I'd kill Marc if he hurt Jack or my son and I wouldn't regret it for a second."

How could Kim argue with a rationale like that? Laura knew her father pretty well if he'd told her all that stuff he must trust her a great deal. However long they had known each other, Jack had trusted her with the things that he hid from everyone else. Kim had to admit he would never have done a thing like that lightly. She reluctantly agreed to go along with what Laura was saying; at least until she heard what her father had to say on the matter.

"Well at least we know where we both stand." She said finally. "All I want is for my Dad to be happy; if when I get the chance to speak to him properly, he tells me that it's you that makes him happy, then fine…" Laura nodded.

"I guess we'll have to wait this one out then, won't we?"