As planned, time to carry on. Yes, I might be getting a little nicer and posting a bit more frequently but then you also have to do your part and let me know what you think. Also, since this is my last story I am planning on making references and dedications to the faithful readers, meaning those who take some time to share thoughts, opinions and, who knows, even private messages.

Now, this one is dedicated to Eteri, who hasn't been around for a while and whom I miss dearly! HOPE YOU'LL BE BACK SOON!

I know you're all worried about for Gillian, time to find out if with good reason. But joking aside, this and following chapters might be a little sensible for some people so be careful with them.

The lights of the emergency vehicles were visible from a distance despite the fact that it was still daylight, and Cal didn't like what it meant: that there must have been a worrying amount of them where they were heading.

The only reason why he had managed not to crash the car as he drove and kill himself and Emily in the process, was that before leaving the station Gillian had messaged him that they had found something. She hadn't said she was ok but it was thankfully implied, still as he followed the Sheriff's car through the maze of ambulances, fire engines and cop cars randomly parked, he was far more concerned with trying to locate her in that frantic mess than anything else. Next to him, Emily was perched on the edge of seat and doing pretty much the same, having given up on waiting for her father to tell her what was going on. Cal knew, of course, the Sheriff didn't have many details but had shared all of them with him back at the station. He was going to bring Emily up to speed in due time, but first he had to get there, make sure Gillian was ok and only then decide how to play it.

Mostly because, based on what he knew at the moment, he didn't know what to make of it himself.

"Dad!"

Emily yelled out with excited relief as she pointed at something through the windshield, and following her gesture with his eyes Cal spotted Gillian standing by the door of the house, deep in talk with Deputy Larry. He hadn't realised he was holding his breath until he let out a sigh of relief, then started looking around for a place to park and studied the place. They weren't at the orphanage, not anymore. Gillian had been there finishing with her interviews when she had noticed something off in one of the janitors, who had been hovering around where she was set up, seemingly mopping the same few square inches of the floor over and over. She had taken a break, faking innocence, and had approached the janitor asking where the restroom was: the sheer panic on the man's face as she had approached had been indication enough that she had a path to beat. A few questions, repeated mentions of the missing children and the further intimidating presence of the Deputy had done the rest, and after nearly one hour of badgering the janitor had given them a location.

That was where they had just arrived, them and what looked like the entire emergency services of Sedley and the bordering town. It was an old farm in the outskirts of the city, not too far but fairly isolated and, from the outside, looking nearly abandoned: the perfect spot to hide children without drawing attention.

"Stay here, Em," Cal instructed as he finally found a spot where to leave the car.

"But Dad-"

"No arguing, love. You hear me?" Emily swallowed, struck by the intensity of her father's gaze and the seriousness of his voice. "Everything is ok, but I need you to wait here, ok?"

The second part was a bit softer, not much but enough to calm Emily and let her see he must have had some good reason to insist on such instructions. She nodded slowly and Cal smiled, briefly squeezing her shoulder before getting out of the car. Emily watched him meet up with the Sheriff in the mayhem of people running around, they spoke briefly and then made their way towards Gillian still standing by the entrance of the house. Emily had a good view from inside the car but when they moved a little out of her sight she decided that staying by the car was close enough and got out, keeping her eyes on her dad and Gillian. She had no way of knowing what they were saying but she easily understood they looked deadly serious, much like, she started to notice, pretty much all the other people around.

Emily sighed and folded her arms leaning back on the car, feeling increasingly nervous despite the fact that she could see with her very own eyes that her father and Gillian were ok. She wasn't an expert but she wasn't entirely foreign to observing people's behaviour, and it struck her how with so many people around - law enforcement and emergency workers of all people - there was a buzzing stillness with not much happening despite the display of resources. It had to do with the case of course, with the children…perhaps nobody was in a hurry because they had gotten there too late?

She was still trying to get that nefarious idea out of her head when one of the paramedics on the scene went inside the house, soon followed by Cal, Gillian and the Sheriff. Three more people went in, two deputies and one firefighter, and Emily watched as EMTs waiting outside brought stretchers and equipment closer. Holding her breath, scanning the crowd of people and hoping not to spot any blazer or vehicle with the word 'coroner' printed on, Emily took a half step away from the car and stared at the open door of the house. After a few minutes, although it felt like a much longer wait for her, Gillian came out; and she wasn't alone. A little girl, who couldn't be more than four years old, was attached to her left hand while an older boy was on the other side, walking out with clothes and shoes way too big to be his. Right behind them came her dad, a shirtless boy hoisted up on his right arm and his left hand on the shoulder of another kid. Emily was speechless, a millions questions, thoughts and scenarios running through her head when the Sheriff came out carrying another girl, followed by the firefighter with one boy sucking his thumb and comically wearing the helmet.

By the time the paramedic came out carefully holding what looked to be a months old baby, Emily was profoundly glad her father had told her to stay put.

She stopped looking then, not wanting to see how many more children were being brought out, and instead tried to keep track of her dad and Gillian. They still had the same serious and grave expression of before entering the house, and while all of that made perfect sense now Emily still hoped to catch something more in their behaviour. They weren't talking much, not to each other at least, far more interested in making sure the kids were getting the necessary attention and care. Emily saw her father leaving one of the two kids to the paramedics and holding onto the other one, making funny faces at him while someone scrambled to get the child something to wear. Not far, Gillian was sitting on the back of one of the ambulances, calmly talking to the girl she had brought out who was clinging onto her for dear life, refusing to go with anybody else. From her observation point, Emily watched the sad smile on Gillian's face for the girl's desperate attention as she tried to fight back tears that would have probably scared the child even more, then moved over to her dad who had finally managed to disentangle the boy from his neck and was looking around the scene with an empty stare. She thought that was his studying glare, the one he often used to zoom in on people and unveil their deepest secrets: what she didn't know, what she couldn't even phantom, was that he was simply and honestly struggling to make a sense of what he was seeing.

It was only more than nearly two hours later that Cal had the time to look over at his car, spotting Emily curled up on the passenger seat with a distant look on her face. Of all the ways he had imagined that 'field trip' could go wrong, that was by far the worst possible one. He had been meaning to get to her sooner but there had been too much to deal with…too many children to keep track of, take care of and securely take away from there. He had been meaning to get to Gillian too, possibly find a quiet spot where to talk even for a second, but much like him she'd been too busy providing help and her very own brand of professional and emotional support to the kids and, not surprisingly, to some of the adults too.

She was doing just that at that moment, listening to one of the paramedics who hadn't been able to fight back tears since they had brought out the first kid, trying to comfort him. Cal watched from a distance, admiring how she could so selflessly help others to deal with something that was likely tearing her apart too, and with a heavy heart decided that his time with her would have to wait. He excused himself from the deputy he had been talking to, then grabbed a bottle of water from one of the ambulances and went back to his car. Emily was sitting inside with the door open, probably to fight off a comprehensible sense of claustrophobia, and he stood in front of her gently putting the bottle in her hands.

"You ok, love?" He asked, knowing it was a dumb question but leaving it up to her to call him out on that. "Em?"

"How many?" She asked in response, her voice just a whisper as her big eyes desperately looked for him. "Dad, how many kids were in there?"

Cal sighed, knowing he couldn't back out of that, then stepped closer and hugged her softly as he spoke.

"Twelve."

Emily had immediately wrapped her arms around him in response and was holding tight, but when she heard the number she squeezed even harder.

"The ones that were missing?"

He pulled back just a little and gave her a small nod, stroking her face with one hand.

"Four of them, yes. One is still unaccounted for, the Reeds' boy."

Emily nodded gravely, as if that piece of information made all the difference in the world, then took a deep breath and looked at the battery of ambulances, the people still swarming the place and the kids who hadn't been taken away yet.

"Are they-" Her voice broke with a pain Cal had never heard before, feeling her need to ask and her fear to get an answer she would not like. "Were they-"

"No, no Em. They are all ok," he urged to tell her, holding her face in his hands and trying his best to smile. "Look at me, love. Nothing was done to them, ok?" It was an immense pleasure and relief to be able to share that truth with her. "They need some medication, food, baths and clean clothes but they are all ok."

"Promise?"

Cal ached for her at that moment, for the way she was so desperate to believe that was the truth that she would have probably accepted to be lied to. But it was the truth, none of the kids had been armed besides malnutrition, poor hygiene and dehydration, and as far a Cal was concerned that was a blessing.

"I wouldn't lie to you about something like this Em, I hope you know that." She didn't even think about it and immediately nodded, before burying her face in his chest and hugging him again. "They are all unarmed, they are going to need a lot of help and care but they will be fine."

"But who are the other kids? What was going on here?"

"We don't know yet." Gillian explained while stepping closer, looking as tired as she'd ever been, drained of physical and emotional energy. "They will have to question the janitor, find out if there was someone else involved. And of course, they will have to identify the other children."

"How about the families? Like the Greys, we thought they had something to do with it, we found the evidence-"

"The Sheriff will look into that, Em." Cal knew he had to stop her from spiralling, because she shouldn't have been worrying about that kind of thing and because, sadly, all they could do was wait for those answers to come through.

"And the other kid, what happened to him? Are you sure he wasn't in there?"

"He wasn't there Emily, he's still missing." Gillian stepped in, providing Cal with much needed support. "There's a chance that his disappearance is not connected to this, but we'll keep looking."

Emily seemed to ponder on that declaration, as it often happened when either of them spoke with her. She knew they would lie to her, with good intentions and reasons most of the time, but that time she could see they were being honest. Maybe they were sugar coating things for her a little, but with her being there it was clear they didn't have much room to hide and had instead embraced the power of truth. It was a nice feeling, after all they had been treating her like an adult since that surreal experience had started…yet, as she glanced at the people looking after the kids, for a moment Emily sort of missed being kept in the dark.

"What do we do now?" She asked then, desperate to feel like the young girl she was again and not wanting to think about anything too serious or complicated.

Cal and Gillian looked at each other, seeing and feeling each other's fatigue and inner turmoil: they might have been the grown ups, but being older didn't make things that much easier for them to deal with.

"We go back to the cabin," Cal announced then, trying to sound as assertive as possible. "There isn't much else we can do now. The Sheriff and her men need to wrap things up here, and the janitor already lawyered up so there is no talking to him for now anyway." He forced himself to smile, a smile that fooled Emily but not Gillian, who still played along and smiled back. "Let's get our staff back from the deputy's car and go, ok?"

There were no objections, not even in the slightest. All they wanted, all of them, was to get out of there and be somewhere where they could pretend none of that was happening, at least for a little while.