A/N: Hey, sorry its been a few since I updated but I'm back! YAY! Alright, I had to work Friday Saturday and tonight and I have to work again on Thursday night until 12:15am. Plus school I'm gonna be so tired this week. That's ok because I don't work next weekend so I can make up for it then. Anyway enough about me cuz that's not why you're reading this. Here you go!

Ch. 29 Light and Shadow

Jason stood in the doorway, with his gun pointing into the dark room. Hardly able to see his own hand in front of him, he slowly inched into the room.

A noise rose from the shadows and grabbed his attention. Not very loud but his keen ears hardly missed anything. It didn't even take a second to recognize it. A muffled voice. Hers. It came again, this time it was loud enough that Sonny heard it as well. To Jason it sounded almost forceful. Like she was trying to warn him. But they didn't matter right now.

"Courtney." he called into the darkness and took a few more steps forward. Sonny came up behind him and spoke into his ear.

"I'm going to find the light. We can't do a damn thing if we can't see." Even though he couldn't see him, he knew that Jason nodded.

Blindly, he felt along the wall. Keeping a firm hold on his weapon in the opposite hand. He had heard the same as Jason and he knew that his sister was in the room. But he had a bad feeling. These things were never this easy. Something was going on.

Jason continued to creep step-by-step in her direction.

"Courtney. Keep talking, I can't see you." she answered in the same type of panicked tone she had earlier. However, this time another noise caught him and he froze mid-step.

'It's not what you think it is. Don't worry.' he tried to convince himself but knew it was a wasted effort. He'd heard that sound enough in his line of work to last ten lifetimes. That click told him two very important things. They definitely weren't alone and their company was armed.

"Who's there? Ric? Show yourself!" Jason was near shouting. If it weren't for the fact that he couldn't see where his wife was and he could hit her, he might have just shot blindly into the dark.

After what seemed like forever of searching, the dark haired man felt his fingers brush against the light switch.

"Found it." Sonny whispered.

He flipped the switch and the room filled with light.

'This is taking too long.' Carly thought from the backseat of the car.

She had been waiting in the backseat of the car for God knows how long, and she hated it. She hated waiting, twiddling her thumbs when so much was at stake. Sonny had told her to stay and she was doing all she could to keep her promise and do that.

'What if something went wrong?' she thought. After playing the 'What If...' game for a few more seconds she sighed and opened the door.

'Screw it. I have to know what's going on. Sonny will understand.'

Remembering the interior layout of the house, she tried to match it to the outside. If she could just find the window, she could take a peak. Carly found the window after stumbling around outside like an idiot for a while. Carefully looking inside, she was there just in time to see the lights come on.

'This is not good.'

Courtney couldn't see what was happening through the blindfold but she could tell the lights had come on. She didn't understand the point of the blindfold, like she knew hadn't seen the room already. Then again, she didn't understand anything that these psychos did.

Whatever their plan was, both Ric and Faith had guns and would probably use them. Who was she kidding 'probably', of course they would use them. Courtney reminded herself of the gun she could feel against the back of her skull at that very moment.

She had tried to warn Jason to leave. Though it seemed pointless seeing as she was gagged, but she'd hoped that their connection was strong enough he would get what she was trying to tell him. One of her greatest fears was not just that he would die, but that he would die because of her.

All her thoughts halted when she heard words begin to be exchanged. She listened carefully to what was being said, knowing that her life, and everyone else's most likely depended on what would be said.

"Hello gentlemen." Ric spoke from his place beside Faith who was holding her gun to his sister's head.

Sonny was in a state of disbelief at the sight before them. The light had turned on to reveal his flesh and blood, well-the one that mattered, on her knees with her hands bound in front of her and her eyes and mouth covered.

"What the hell do you want Ric?" his words dripped with contempt and disgust at the man who shared his mother.

"I don't think you should be so short with the man who holds your sister's life in his hands." Jason raised his gun and aimed directly at Ric's heart.

"Let her go!" he demanded.

"I plan to. Unless you decide to make this more complicated then it has to be."

"We're listening." Sonny replied and gestured to Jason to lower his weapon. Reluctantly he did so.

"Put your guns on the ground and kick them over." The two men did as they were told.

"Good." he grabbed Courtney's upper arm and raised her to her feet. "Now, we are going to go, when I'm sure we're not being followed I'll drop the Mrs off somewhere. Then I'll give you a call and tell you where to go."

"If we follow?"

"Come on Sonny. You know as well as I do that Faith has no problem with shooting your sister."

'This is really, really not good.' Though she hadn't heard the words that were spoken Carly had seen everything happen and got the gist of it all.

She could also tell by the look on her husbands face that he was in a corner. They needed some sort of help. A distraction. Something that could giver her family a chance to take advantage.

Carly bent over and grabbed a good sized rock up off the ground. Luckily for her, Ric and Faith had their backs to the window and to her. For a split second, Sonny's chocolate brown eyes locked on to hers and seemed to understand and accept what she was going to do. Pulling back she silently prayed that it didn't make things any worse then they already were. Using all her strength she heaved the rock at the window pane and watched.

Ric and Faith were caught off guard as the window behind them shattered into countless shards. In reflex they fell forward to the ground, knocking their hostage down in the process.

Not sure what was happening, Courtney heard the glass break and found herself falling towards the ground. On instinct she held her hands out in front of her and realized how fortunate it was that her hands were in front of her and she was able to break her fall.

Once she was against the wood floor she raised her still cuffed hands to her face and pulled off her gag and blind fold. She winced as her eyes adjusted to the bright light. Courtney scanned the room frantically until she found him.

"Jason." she whispered.

It happened in a flash. The glass had shattered and he protectively threw his hand in front of his face. When he looked back the three that were in front of him were on the floor . Sonny seemed not at all surprised by what happened. Jason wondered about it for a split second before deciding to take advantage. Kneeling down he grabbed his back up gun from his ankle holster and look up just in time to see Ric getting to his feet.

As soon as the other man got up to his feet, Jason fired.