After getting a call from Riley the night before, Antonio and Jayden felt a visit to their niece was in order. Their relationship was a tough one for a young girl to understand, but the fact that she had apologized was a huge step forward.

They knocked on the door to Mia and Kevin's house and waited for someone to answer. They knew everyone would be home. Kevin didn't teach on weekends and Mia didn't have a job yet. They didn't need to wait long, as Kevin opened the door.

"I thought you were coming for dinner?"

"We came a little early," Jayden said. Kevin had to check his watch. It wasn't even lunch time yet. Early was an understatement. Still, family was never uninvited, so he opened the door wide to let the boys in. He gave them both a smile.

"Apparently, Riley's teddy bear's been talking to her," Kevin brought the boys into the kitchen, where Riley was sitting at the table and colouring. "She decided to make you two a card."

Riley saw her uncles had stopped by and covered her paper with her hands, "No looking! It's not done!"

"We won't peek," Antonio assured his niece, "We promised. Uncle Jay and I just stopped by to see if you wanted to come to the park with us?"

"The park?" Riley's eyes lit up and she turned to Kevin, "Can I go? Can I go?"

Kevin looked a little uneasy. He had let Riley on her new bike the night before, but she had been wearing a helmet and the training wheels minimized the risk of falling over. Given she was still recovering from being punched in the head, he wasn't too sure a trip to the park was a great idea. Anything could happen. She could go down the slide a little too quickly and go shooting off, or slip on the monkey bars, or trip and hit her head, other kids could push her around, she could fall from the swings… the list went on.

"We'll take extra good care of her," Antonio promised, "No more bruises or bumps, right Riley?"

"I'll be super duper careful," Riley promised her father until Mia came down the stairs. Thinking she would have better luck with her mother she asked her, "Mia, please, please, please."

"Please, please, what?" Mia asked and then saw Antonio and Jayden in her kitchen. She gave them both a smile, "Hey, we weren't expecting you until dinner."

"We want to take Riley to the park for a couple of hours," Jayden said, "We'll be really careful with that hard head of hers."

"I have no more headaches, Mia! I feel better! Super better! Please, can I go? Please, please, please!"

"Please," Antonio begged and gave Mia and Kevin a look very similar to Riley's begging one. Mia and Kevin turned to each other to make a decision.

"Alright. As long as you three are really, very careful. Riley, if you hurt yourself again, it's going to be a lot more painful than last time."

"I promise, I'll be super careful," Riley got down from her chair and then grabbed her card from the table. She folded it and gave it to Antonio and Jayden, "I maked this for you."

"Thank you, Riley," Jayden said as he opened the card and looked inside. Riley had tried to write a message but Jayden couldn't understand a word of it. As expected, the handwriting was sloppy and Riley didn't even know how to write. "I… I think."

"You're the best uncles in the whole wide world," Kevin whispered as he walked by. He had questioned Riley's writing once already and had suffered the wrath of the angry four year old. Apparently, her penmanship and foreign words were perfection and he just didn't know how to read.

"Aw, that deserves an ice-cream," Antonio took Riley in his arms, "We'll bring her home hyped up on sugar, we promise!"

"You'll be putting her to bed tonight!" Mia called back as the uncles and Riley ran to the door to get ready for the park in the wintertime.

-Samurai-

Going to the park wasn't just for uncles and their nieces. Emily had taken a trip to the park, having decided that Storm deserved a little more space than a backyard for her games from time to time. And it was good for Emily to get out of the house. There was nothing stressful about staying home all day, but Emily didn't like being cooped up inside.

Mike had come with her, but was currently looking around for the nearest hot-dog vendor. The always hungry Mike insisted that even in the middle of winter, there was always someone ready to sell food and earn a couple of bucks from their business. Antonio went out to catch and sell fish, so there had to be someone cooking up some hot-dogs.

Emily's mysterious ill-feeling hadn't occurred that morning, but eating pancakes for breakfast had been appalling to her. Normally she liked pancakes, but she hadn't been in the mood and insisted she would vomit if even a bite passed her lips. She was a little concerned it was a pregnancy. She and Mike had fooled around on their honeymoon, and had already gotten pregnant once despite taking precautions. It wasn't ridiculous to believe it would happen again.

But she wouldn't worry about that. She would wait to see if the sickness and the food aversions would go away on their own, without leaving a baby-bump behind. She would take precautions, but there was a chance this was just the flu or a cold or her body's physical responses to knowing Frankie was back in town. It could have been anything and Emily didn't want to jump to the worst/best case scenario right off the bat.

Storm had a habit of getting distracted, so Emily kept her on a long leash as she tossed a couple of balls around. From time to time a squirrel would come out of hiding to search for some food, and Storm would try to chase after it, but she wouldn't leave Emily's side. The leash kept her from running off and getting lost. It was a good thing for the squirrel. If Storm's way of playing with her toys was any indication, her prey would suffer a long, torturous death.

"You're a sick dog," Emily chuckled and tossed another ball passed Storm, who saw the moving toy, dropped the one she was playing with and went after it. She pounced on the ball and started to chew on it softly with her teeth. When she was done with that, she nudged the ball with her foot and jumped on top of it when it rolled too far away.

"Hey, Em!" she heard Mike's voice from behind and turned around. She kept a tight grip on Storm's leash.

"Find those hot-dogs? I told you, I don't want one! My stomach's kind of… iffy."

Mike came over, took the leash from her hand and wrapped it around the bench Emily had been sitting on. Then he reached into his jacket and pulled out a box, "I stopped by the pharmacy. The one right across the street, so I didn't go far."

Emily looked at the box and groaned, "Mike…"

"I know you want to wait, but isn't it better we get this over with now?"

"Over with? That's what…"

"You know what I mean. The waiting game. We need to get this over with now. What if you are sick and it's something serious? What if you're pregnant and we need to start getting ready. There are prenatal vitamins and diets you need to follow and…"

"We're not ready for a kid. We don't even have our own house. We're living in my sister's spare bedroom. I'll take the test soon, but not now."

"Why not? Waiting isn't going to change the outcome. Are you scared because of what happened to Carrie? The Nighlok are gone, you're perfectly healthy."

"I thought I could be sick."

Mike stuck out his tongue, "I said you could be sick or pregnant. If you are pregnant, you're probably healthy."

"Probably."

"I bought a bag of cookies yesterday. Last night, I went down for a midnight snack and…"

"You know how I am with cookies," Emily muttered. "I have a weakness for sugar."

As Mike and Emily spoke, Storm chewed happily on her toy. She loved getting attention from Emily, but she had learned that sometimes the two humans needed to talk without her interfering, and took the time to gnaw on her toy without interruption. Her fun didn't last for long, though, as foot steps approached her. At first she was hesitant and got up to growl and bark, but then the stranger presented her with what smelled like her favourite treats. Anyone who offered her treats had to be nice. She started to eat the little snacks and ignored the person who was carefully walking over to her. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in her head and barely had to time let out a yelp before a big, strong hand wrapped around her snout, unclipped her collar from her leash and tucked her inside a jacket before whisking her drowsy and barely conscious body away.

"I want an answer, Emily, and I don't want us fighting over this like last time," Mike continued his conversation with Emily, not aware of Storm's plight, confident she was safe wherever she was playing because she was supposed to be clipped to the leash. "I got the test so you have it handy. I'm asking you to please consider taking it soon. This might be my baby too. I get a say."

"Then you pee on a stick," Emily said. Mike gave her a look so she rolled her eyes, "Alright, fine. Not today, but soon."

"When?"

"Soon."

"Promise?"

"Pinky promise," Emily smiled. She took the box of tests, stuffed them in her bag so Serena and James wouldn't see them and then turned to find her dog. Though Storm didn't have a habit of bringing the balls back to Emily every time, she did come by with the balls when she felt like Emily wasn't paying attention with her. Her talk with Mike had lasted long enough. Storm should have come by to see what was going on with her humans.

"Storm," Emily called her name. Storm would come when called. Emily had trained her that way. This time she didn't. Emily grabbed her crutches and started to walk around. Mike grabbed the leash, untied it from the bench and followed it to where Storm had last been.

"The leash is perfectly fine," he inspected it carefully. The clasp wasn't broken, so Storm hadn't escaped, but that made everything a little weirder. Storm was a master in many fields, bus escaping her leash was not one of them. Mike tried to look around to see if maybe Storm had left paw prints. The good thing about snow that that it made people and animals easier to track.

Storm's were all around, and then there were two more sets. One matched the bottom of Mike's boot perfectly because they belonged to him. The other set belonged to someone else.

Emily's foot was getting better. The bullet wound had healed and closed up, and she could put more and more weight on her foot as her fibula healed. She still wore the brace and gave her foot as much rest as possible, but from time to time she used it, just to speed up her walks.

But the prints in the snow didn't belong to Emily, even if she had walked on both feet. Emily was small and so were her feet. The prints in the snows were almost as big as Mike's. They walked over to the cluster of Storm's paws and then walked away. Mike followed them to the path that was cleared of snow. That was wear the footprints ended.

Emily had followed the same trail and looked up to Mike in horror, "Someone took Storm."

"Why would they? She must have just…"

"She can't Mike, and she would never leave!"

"You remember when we adopted her? You remember what the guy at the shelter said? When Shibas go chasing after something, that's all they focus on. Many owners lose their dogs that way. Hell, Jayden's that way."

"This isn't funny, Mike!" Emily punched him in the chest, "Storm wouldn't just run away! She couldn't! Her leash was perfectly fine, and it's not like she slipped out of her collar."

"We'll find her, Emily," Mike promised and he rubbed his chest with his hand, "Ow."

"Sorry…"

"Keep calling her name. If she hears your voice she'll come. "I'll try to figure out where these footsteps go. Storm was just here, she can't be too far away."

"Wait!" Emily shook her head as Mike started to leave. He turned around to look at her, "Frankie's in the city, and it's Saturday."

"So?"

"The only time we know where he is, is between eight and four on week days. Today, he could be anywhere."

"I doubt he came to the park, saw you, and only took the dog," Mike said. "Either he's gotten the message and moved on, or he would have stirred up trouble with you."

"But… but what if while we're looking he turns up? If he is still crazy, this is where he and I… kind of met."

"Do you want to come with me?"

"I want my puppy!"

"I'll call Serena and James. They'll have a look around the city, and we'll keep searching the park. Together."