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CHAPTER 8

After a night on the couch, Stiles woke up stiff and tired. The first thing he did was call Jackson to see if there was any news. Jackson, with all of the compassion and sympathy he could muster, told him there was none. Stiles slowly moved upstairs to take a very long shower. As soon as he entered the bedroom, he saw a small wrapped box on the bed. As he got closer, he saw that his name was on the card. He opened it slowly.

"This makes it real. I love you, Terri."

Stiles had no idea what to expect as he eagerly tore open the package. Inside the box was a silver picture frame covered with balloons and bears and "daughter" etched at the bottom. Inside the frame was a sonogram with "It's a girl" written across it in Terri's writing. Underneath the frame was a tiny pink bib that read "Daddy's Girl."

Stiles stared at the photo for a long time. It was a grainy black and white photo, but it was a photo of his daughter; the baby that Terri was carrying. The one that he was not sure survived Terri's gunshot. The one that, even if she survived the gunshot, might not survive whatever else would happen to her mother. As Stiles was staring at the picture, wondering what would become of his girls, the doorbell rang. Stiles wiped the tears from his eyes and tried to pull himself together before answering.

"Jackson. Did you hear something?" He asked expectantly.

"No. I'm sorry. I just wanted to check. I heard what happened with Quinn."

"I don't know how I am. How could he, Jackson? He knew. He knew where she was the whole time."

"Actually, I'm not sure he did know." Jackson would never defend Quinn, but he wanted to diffuse the situation as much as possible. Terri was more important than Quinn's and Stiles' egos.

"Even if he didn't know where she was Jackson, he could have done something. He knew who kidnapped her."

Stiles sat down on the couch and looked at his friend. He had no idea what to do with himself. He wasn't good at waiting. "Jackson, what do I do now? He's not even sending the team there for three days. I don't know if I can wait; I'm thinking about going myself."

Jackson felt for his friends, both of them. "Stiles don't do anything rash. They'll find her; they're good agents. I know you want to go, but and I can't believe I'm about to say this, Quinn may be right this time. Do you really think you could search for her like she was any other agent? Can you really be objective? We know that one wrong turn could turn things the wrong direction."

"She was shot Jackson. What if she lost the baby? She'll be devastated. What if I loose her?" Stiles looked up at Jackson as if waiting for him to supply the magic answer.

"I don't know. Let's not even talk about that. She was still alive the last time Joshua saw her. Remember that."

Stiles spent the next four days waiting, pacing. Lex and Jackson took turns checking on house to make sure he didn't fall apart. Carl Reese called him. He wanted to make sure he came back when everything was over. Carl was sure Terri would be found alive. She had to be. A lot of things depended on it.

". . .Stiles, we need you here. You're one of our best agents, you know that."

"Carl, I can't work for him."

To this point, somehow, Carl was still in the dark about Joshua and Quinn.

"Did you know?"

"Know what?"

"About Joshua's and Quinn's little plan."

Carl had no idea what Stiles was talking about and he was afraid to ask.

"Which plan?"

Stiles told him what he knew. Carl was in the dark and he was angry about it.

"Stiles, I'll call you back."

When Carl confronted Quinn, he didn't deny anything. In fact, he was still rather proud of his 12 year operation to control the North Koreans. Carl was sickened by what happened to Terri because of Quinn's deception and he let him know it in uncertain terms.

"What are you going to do Carl, ground me and send me to bed without my supper?"

Carl thought about all of the possible scenarios. At this point, there wasn't much he could do. If he told on Quinn, that would be tantamount to telling on Joshua. If Joshua was arrested he would be hung out to dry and Quinn would find another way to continue. Carl kept his mouth shut.

Stiles had a hard time keeping Terri's disappearance from Helen. She'd already caught on to the fact that Terri never traveled without Stiles so he had to be creative. He wanted to just tell her the truth, but he couldn't. How on earth could he explain all of the deception, Terri's real job, a mole in the CIA, kidnapping, that Terri was shot? She still didn't even know Terri was pregnant.

"A.B., when will Terri be back? I thought you said she never traveled alone? When did that change? I don't like the idea of her going out of the country by herself, not right now. There's too much going on. What color is the terror alert right now? Can you get to her is she's in trouble? I never did like the idea of her working for the CIA." Helen went on like that for several minutes before Stiles finally interrupted.

"HELEN!" Stiles heard Helen gasp when he called her name. He realized he'd yelled, but it was too late.

Helen was shocked at his tone. Stiles had never raised his voice to her.

"Helen, I'm sorry. I didn't mean . . ."

That was all Stiles got to say. The next thing he knew, he was hearing a dial tone. He knew he was in trouble. While he was deciding what to do, his phone rang.

"Helen, I really am sorry, it's just . . ."

But, it wasn't Helen. On his fourth day of misery, Stiles finally got the phone call he'd been waiting for.

"Mr. Stiles, this is Ms. Ayana, Mr. Gage's secretary."

"Oh, I was expecting my mother-in-law. Is there news about Terri?"

Mr. Gage would like to see you in the conference room in one hour. I'm sorry, that is all I know."