'I'm sorry.'

She'd said it so quietly that Scott almost missed it. Mason had pulled him away from Hannah, and he could barely hear her breathing anymore. But the room was silent and the strained, quiet voice carried to him.

'I really am, although I'd understand if you don't believe me.'

He wanted to tell her to stop talking, to save her breath, save her strength. Save her life. But he couldn't. All he could do was listen. So he did.

'Do you know when I first fell in love with you? We were 13, almost 14 I think. I brought my Daddy to school for Career Day, he was insistent. But he was drunk, and everybody laughed at him. Except for you. You sat there in the middle with that serious expression on your face, like you were going to learn something anyway.

'Then Daddy pulled me out of class, and I didn't go back for the rest of the week. When I did I was sporting a nice shiner, and everybody avoided me. Except for you and John. You made me sit with you and you gave me your piece of pie.

'When your Mom came and picked you up, she took one look, sent John home with the others and marched right on up to our house. We sat outside while my Daddy and your Momma screamed at each other.

'I don't know what she did, but he never hit me again. And that's when I first fell in love with you.'

Scott's throat and chest had tightened at the sudden memory. It was the only time he had ever seen his Mom yell at anyone, and it had been an awesome sight. He'd forgotten it was Hannah.

She drew in a wet, ragged breath. Hannah had to tell Scott so that he understood. It was a compulsion, now that she was pretty sure there was no way out of this.

'You never were interested in more than friendship though, and I drifted away from you. Fell in with Todd and his crowd. I loved the attention, thrived on it even. And then, on my 16th birthday, there you were again, all concerned and rescuing me. Todd and I had had a huge fight and he'd left me. I'm not sure you were aware of it, but I'm sitting in the dining hall alone again, and you smiled at me, tossed me your apple and carried on.

'That's when I fell in love with you all over again. Only, now I thought I could actually get you to like me, to love me back. I didn't realise what I was doing, back then. I honestly thought that if I could show you that Alan liked me, that you'd like me too. It never occurred to me that only certain people could take a kid out of school.

'They made me see a psychiatrist, the court did, and she was really good. She helped me with my feelings and actions. I wrote hundreds of letters to you, apologising, and we burnt them all. She helped me so much.

'But then six months ago I get a call. It was all being arranged to get back at you and do I want to help? Do I? I didn't really, I'd come to terms with everything, but then the voice was quite insistent: I needed revenge, I needed closure, and then: I can have you when they were done.

'It's like the intervening years never happened and you and I could finally be together. I can't believe I fell right back into the trap.'

Scott could hear Hannah starting to move, and he shouted at her through the gag to stop. She stilled for a bit, but then started speaking again.

'Todd, he never said that he blamed me. I – I never knew. I thought that he'd forgiven me. How stupid I have been! So many if's, so many if's.' Her voice was failing now, and Scott was not surprised to find he had been crying. For his beautiful, feisty Mom. For Hannah, who's life had been hard and tragic and didn't deserve this ending. For his family and the stress this was putting them through.

For himself, though, for himself there was nothing. He should have read the signs. He should not have come. It had been a perfect set-up and he had fallen straight into it.

TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB

The collective sigh when the video showed Scott was still whole was pretty loud. John was sure that everyone around them could hear it, and the looks of relief were soon replaced with a mixture of anger and concern, maybe even a little guilt – after all, the girl had been shot.

They had arrived in Kansas exactly 27.4 minutes after that video had aired. It had taken John 5.8 minutes to set up his three computers and get straight into the system, EOS in his ear. Virgil calculated that Scott had now been missing 5 hours, 39 minutes and 29 seconds. 30. 31. He shook the timer from his head.

There was less than three and a half hours for them to find and rescue Scott. That countdown had been made very clear. However, Mason had not passed on any information regarding how the payoff was going to occur, so they were expecting another video at any point.

Gordon and Alan were out with Rigby in another office trying to track Robert Denver and Fred Appleton down. Both had been interviewed by the police and released. Virgil had noticed Robert needed help leaving the school hall, and he had queried if he's been taken to hospital. It appeared that Robert had not mentioned it to the police, and neither did the other two, probably assuming he would.

Appleton had been questioned the same as everybody else, and he had been recorded as saying he had not been near Scott all night. This was true and had been supported by the CCTV in the hall.

What the CCTV did show on closer inspection was some of the events as the power went out. It appeared that the cameras had not stopped recording immediately, some form of internal power had kept them recording for almost a full minute. And in that minute Gordon found a clue.

The doors next to the corner where Scott was sitting had opened almost simultaneously to the power cut. In that one minute two people had turned towards Scott's group, but Robert had stood up to stop them, getting clobbered by what looked like an old-fashioned wooden baseball bat. The recording stopped there.

It explained one mystery and created another. Now they knew why Robert had needed to be assisted out by Chad and James. But how did he know what was going to happen? They needed to find him – fast.

John and EOS were a well-oiled machine. John had been lethal with his computer since he was around eleven; but adding the processing power that EOS presented made his brother and his daughter unstoppable. Unfortunately, that did not necessarily equate to fast immediate results, and while John's fingers were flying, time was passing. Whoever that third party was, they were good at computers and covering their tracks. But John and EOS would get them.

The school had opened up the offices at the front of the school, along with six classrooms, and everyone had moved indoors to continue whatever the hell they were doing. The Tracy's had been moved into the reception area, the largest area available, and Val had moved with them, the other offices containing her staff and some police assigned to work with them.

John shouted the same time the next video came in. EOS had found them. They had followed the signal as it bounced and bounced and bounced. There had been multitudes of dead ends and hidden pathways. But between them they had narrowed it down. John set the program he had devised to track the next video; it had a hunter virus attached that would strip away the security and confirm the location. Colonel Casey had been about to leave, but she felt the need to be with her family. Rigby was already gearing up a team.

TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB

Scott didn't know how long it had been since Hannah had spoken last, but it had been a while he had sat listening to her weakening breathing. He was so frustrated with himself. So he set himself a task. Who is the third person?

It was not the Hood – his first fear. No way the Hood would had not been part of the last message, nor would he take orders from Hannah.

Who would benefit from him being here? Who, other than Todd and Hannah, wanted some kind of payback? To his frustration Scott couldn't think of anyone. Hannah had been working alone. Todd had wanted revenge for Hannah switching to him. He wished his head didn't hurt so much.

Then it hit him. The drugs. Where did the drugs come from? Was there someone at the school who lost out to Scott's supposed drug bust? All he could think about was the obvious – someone had been dealing, and the resultant drug search had curtailed their activities. Before he could even consider working out who, the door banged open.

Mason surveyed the room. Hannah had moved slightly from where he had left her, and he couldn't believe she was still breathing. Scott was where he had been left. He had to say he was a little disappointed that Scott hadn't made more of an effort to get free, maybe they really had trussed him up too tightly.

He walked around so that he was again standing behind Scott. It was almost time to send another video. It was one hour since the last, and this time they were going to up the ante. Boss man wanted them to be kept on their toes regarding what they would do, are doing, to their brother. Boss man had a lot of anger, and he had been surprised when he had been contacted to carry this scheme out. It wasn't until after the first video that he found out just what the connection between the four of them was. He just hoped the boss wouldn't shoot him too.

Scott was hyperaware of Todd standing behind him as the sounds of the camera being set up in front of him ceased. He hadn't touched him yet, but Scott knew he would. Mason wouldn't be able to resist. And sure enough he put his hands down heavily, squeezing again. But Scott was ready, and he did not flinch at all. He could almost hear Todd grind his teeth in rage.

This time they left the gag in. Todd was beginning to speak about money and arrangements, but Scott found his focus was fading in and out. He frowned at himself. Something didn't feel quite right about this. He minutely shook his head, hoping that Mason wouldn't notice, but no such luck.

In the middle of telling the family how to arrange the money transfer, Mason was incensed to feel Scott shake his head. Really? He was telling them not to do it? Fisting his hand in Scott's hair and yanking his head back, for a moment Todd thought he had snapped Scott's neck as Scott's head lolled freely rather than the tenseness he had been expecting. Still, it played into what the boss had suggested they should do next.

Pulling out a knife that he'd brought for the occasion, he laid the length of the blade against Scott's throat and made a show of pulling it along until only the tip was touching. He applied just enough pressure for a thin line and a bead of blood to appear before removing it and letting go, pushing Scott away as he did. He looked to the boss, wondering if they had done enough, and the boss nodded.

There was a small snake of a concern over Scott's reaction to him. It had changed in seconds, going from tense and prepared when he had clasped Scott's shoulders to barely there when he had grabbed his head. Then Todd dismissed it. So what if something was wrong – it's not like they would do anything.

TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB

The video had been greeted with more fury and anger by all except Grandma and Virgil. They had not failed to notice the abrupt change in how Scott had reacted to Mason. As the connection was cut, all four boys along with Rigby, Kayo and Penny had ran to Two. They needed to get to Scott NOW.

Virgil's hands were shaking on the yoke. While he was preparing the launch sequence he was running over in his head what could be wrong with his big brother. What could cause such a sudden change in demeanour? Scott didn't seem to have any visible injuries except his shoulder and the bruising to his face that had not been present before. He must have a hidden one, something else was going on.

Fortunately, they were only fifteen minutes away from the landing site and then only a further five before they would be rescuing Scott. He only hoped that, whatever this hidden injury was, that it would be quick enough.

Two was buzzing. They were finally going to rescue Scott. They all had their parts to play, and Virgil would be first in line. EOS had provided schematics of the building, on the edge of an industrial estate full of warehouses, and the exact room where Scott was being held had been marked. EOS had not discovered any counter measures to prevent their entry – it seemed the kidnappers were supremely confident that they simply would not be found.

TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB

As soon as Mason had let his hair go, Scott's head had rolled forward onto his chest. If he had not been blindfolded he was pretty sure he would be blinking his eyes to clear the fuzzy headedness he was feeling. He didn't even have the energy to lift his head up any more. In some remote area of his brain he could hear someone that sounded like Virgil shouting at him that something was very wrong, but he just couldn't bring himself to do anything.

The door slamming surprised him, and he wondered briefly if he had lost consciousness for a couple of minutes. Even when, a couple of minutes later, he felt a sticky hand on his ankle he did not, could not respond.

Hannah had decided. There was little left she could do, but she had been watching the scene play out in front of her, and she had also noticed the change in Scott. There was only one thing she could do to help him now, and it took a colossal effort to crawl over to where he was sitting.

Grabbing his ankle in one bloody hand, she attempted to unlock the cuff. It wasn't easy – she had little strength left and the movement from the angle she was in was difficult. It took almost five minutes for each foot, and by that time she was spent, laying down behind the chair. She didn't have the energy to reach up to his hands.

It was the faint sounds of commotion that roused Scott. He had not been aware at all that his ankles had been uncuffed, and in his current unfocused state he was unsure what to do about it. There was a nagging in the back of his mind that something was important, but he couldn't work out what it was. After he had gotten hold of Gordon and Alan and told them off for tying him up he would spend some time trying to work it out. Right now he was going back to bed.

Virgil burst through the door followed closely by John, Gordon and Alan. They had not time to think about anything other than get Scott to safety. Gordon and Alan went straight to Hannah while John helped Virgil free Scott's wrists. They shared concern that Scott had not responded to them at all. Virgil set the scanner to work while John gently held Scott still in the chair. He looked over to Gordon and Gordon shook his head. They were just that little bit too late.

The scanner showed up badly bruised ankles, wrists, shoulder, chin and nose, and then alarms were sounding. Virgil was yelling for the stretcher and Scott was quickly but gently strapped in and they were running.

They may have rescued their brother, but the scan had revealed a hidden wound.

Not only did Scott have a head injury, he had a subdural haematoma. Time was of the essence if they were to not only save his life, but also to prevent any long-term effects.

The timer was running.

NOTE:

For LMC25 and her idea of 'on a timer' - here are three countdowns for you!