Thank you for the reviews.

Now, this chapter is carrying on from chapter 23. So Michael is out and going to report to Sally...

...

Shall we try and get Rachel home now?

Michael's Gone

Eddie was jumpy. And even though Michael had said he would be going to see Sally, he still expected a call off his son, just to let him know that he was okay. Maybe it didn't help that he had heard most of Michael's conversation with Danny. He hoped that Michael wouldn't put himself in danger just to find Rachel just to get rid of Danny.

So when his phone rang, he jumped at it and swiped the phone off the table, not even looking at who was calling him.

"Michael?"

"Well, I was hoping he was with you."

"What do you mean?"

He heard Alison huffed. "I mean that it is nearly ten and he isn't home and he isn't answering his phone. He was like this last night, coming in just before two. I get that everything is difficult with Rachel missing but this year is important for him if he wants to go to university. This is not the year for him to go off the rails."

"I am sure that he is just out with friends." Eddie tried.

"This late Eddie. Plus I have just called Jamie's mum and he isn't there with him. If he was anywhere, he would be there or at yours." Alison paused. "You don't think that the bully has got to him."

"Michael can handle himself."

"Eddie! What do you know?"

"Before I say anything, you put the idea in his head."

"What idea?"

"He… he is currently out… watching Adam. Because we believe that he has Rachel and Adam doesn't know Michael."

"And you agreed to this?"

"Reluctantly."

"Why the hell would you agree to it? He is an 18-year-old boy. Not the police or anything like that."

"Because he is right. Rachel would be doing everything she could if it was the other way around. Look… we know Danny hasn't got her anymore."

"How?"

"Because I have spent the last week or so trying not to punch his head in."

"Danny is with you? You have a known criminal in your house!"

"Believe me, Alison, I am not happy with it. Jane doesn't want to hand him over just yet. I think… they are reliving their… youth. When Jane was 'one of them', so to speak."

"Eddie Lawson, you have done some outrageous things in the past but this takes the biscuit. What the hell are you thinking?"

"I wouldn't like to say I am. But I will explain everything later. I'll give Sally a call to see if she knows where he is."

"You definitely owe me an explanation."

"Alison, it isn't like I understand this all myself."

He sighed as he hung up and found Sally's number and pressed the button to call her before he raised the phone to his ear.

"What's going on?" Jane asked as she joined him.

"Michael isn't answering his phone."

"Oh, God."

"And I have Alison on the warpath now." Eddie sighed. "Sally, have you heard from Michael?"

"No. I did think he would be here by now. Adam was apparently on the lunch shift. So he would have left before the dinner shift started."

"Alison is going to kill me."

"Look, I'll pull a few strings and get tracking. We aren't going to lose him as well, Eddie."

That did nothing to reassure him and it was even worse that Alison was calling him again before he could even put the phone down on the table.

"I've just had some woman call me on Michael's phone because she found it on the pavement and thought that she would ring me to try and get the phone returned. Eddie, what have you done?"

Eddie was asking himself the same question.

Rachel hated the fact that she could hear the key in the lock. She didn't want Adam to be back after what happened the night before. Actually, she wished that she had never said that they could pick up Kiera and Jacob. Because what if they couldn't get away from Adam before they got to France. She definitely didn't want that type of life for her children.

So it was a rather pleasant surprise when Adam wasn't alone, dragging Michael in by the hood of his hoodie. She had never been so happy to see her step-son.

"One of yours?" Adam asked as Michael calmed down after seeing her.

"Close enough." She said, keeping her vision on Michael and being able to give him a small smile after he gives her one.

"Close enough?"

"Son in all but blood."

Adam let go of Michael at that point, pushing him into the room, further away from her.

"Get ready," Adam said. "We will be leaving soon. And we won't be picking up your other two. There isn't time."

The door slammed shut and Rachel knew that she was swallowing down quite a few emotions. It was the only time that she was glad that there wasn't a lot of room in the bedsit as it didn't take her long to be in Michael's arms, finally feeling a sense of comfort. She tried to stop the events of the night before playing in her head. She was with Michael. Michael would never do that to her.

"You don't know how happy I am to see you." She said as they pulled back and she cupped his face, finally letting the tears of relief stream down her face.

"The feeling is definitely mutual."

She could tell that he was looking down her body, to make sure that she hadn't been physically hurt. He pulled her hands away from his face and she knew that he must have seen bruises on her wrists. If anything, she was trying not to concentrate on that. She was trying to concentrate on how much of Eddie she could see in Michael and the fact that she finally was with a family member. Although the worry in Michael's eyes just made her think that Michael was definitely his father's son.

"Danny or Adam?" He asked.

"Adam."

"Did Danny hurt you?"

"No."

"Adam?"

"Sort of."

"Dad's going to be furious."

"Wait, how do you know about Danny?"

"After Adam took you, he hoped that you had made your own way home. Jacob has got a list of questions."

"I expect he does."

"Now I wished that… maybe I had left it and you went to pick Kiera and Jacob up with Adam from Jane's. As much as I hate Danny, he could have given Adam what for. He could be the next one tied to a chair in Jane and Sally's living room."

"How are Kiera and Jacob?"

"They want you. That is why I have done this. To find you. Kiera knows a hell of a lot more so she might have some questions for you as well."

"If I ever see them again."

"Don't worry, we have a plan."

"Michael, he is going to move me."

She watched as Michael reached into his coat and pulled out a phone and what looked like two buttons.

"Put this somewhere he won't find it. I don't care where." He said as he handed her one of the buttons and slightly turned away from her, looking at the phone.

Rachel looked at the button and realised there was a clip on the back, where she slipped it onto her bra strap, not really knowing where else to put it.

"Sally, I think I have someone who would want to speak to you," Michael said as he turned back, handed her the phone.

"Sally." Rachel said as she placed the phone to her ear.

"Rachel! Oh for the love of God, it is so good to hear your voice. Fuck! Sorry, we are going to get you out of this."

"Adam is going to be back soon."

"Fuck. Okay, I just need to get something signed off. Fuck, shit, fuck. Give the phone back to Michael. We hope to be with you as soon as possible."

Rachel handed the phone back and Michael smiled at her as he listened to what Sally had to say before he replaced the phone in his coat.

"This is it, Rachel. This is going to be this part over."

She was actually rather happy to hear that.

Sally was sure that she had sworn more in the last half an hour than she had done in her entire life, but getting the tracking signed off by the Superintendent meant that she was closer to getting Rachel back. It was why she was repeating 'shit' under her breath as she ran from the Superintendent's office to where she could get the trackers, that she had given Michael, tracked.

In one hand she had the phone that was still on the call to Michael, hoping to get that tracked as well. She was glad that they didn't actually read the paperwork that Sally pretty much threw at them and just got on with tracking the number and the trackers.

"Inspector Allen, all three trackers are on the move."

"Shit," Sally said as she pulled out her actual phone from her pocket, pressing Eddie's number. "You better get ready. Rachel and Michael are on the move."