CHAPTER 35
A/N: Thanks for the reviews. This is a short, but important chapter plot wise.
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May 19thMaureen groaned and reached her hand over onto the nightstand. The familiar ring tone of her cell phone was playing annoying loud for ten o' clock in the morning and she wanted nothing more than to toss it out the window. Instead, she sat up and pressed the 'talk' button impatiently.
"Hello?"
"Maureen? Hi, how are you? It's Joanne."
"Oh, wow. Hi." Puzzled, she tucked a strand of curly hair behind her ear. "I've been okay. Yourself?"
"I've been pretty good. Collins phoned me last week and told me about the fire in your apartment building. How are you holding up?"
"Okay. My apartment was completely destroyed. The fire spread to it right away. It's pretty much unsalvageable. I'm getting an insurance check sometime in the next two weeks though to cover the costs."
"Well that's something I guess. Listen, the reason I called is to tell you that I'll be in town on the 23rd to visit my parents and I was wondering if we could get together for lunch. I told you I'm in the process of moving back to the city, right?"
"Yeah, you mentioned it to me when I saw you last. When are you moving back?"
"First week of July. I'm starting to ship a bunch of my things to my parent's house in Staten Island so they can store it there for me. I'm getting a townhouse somewhere near Central Park."
"That sounds great." Maureen heard Mark's voice in the living room, and knew that he was done with his shower. "I better go. I have to start—grocery shopping."
Joanne laughed. "Uh, okay. I'll call you when we get closer to the weekend, sound good?"
"That's fine," Maureen answered. "I'll talk to you then."
"Bye."
"Bye." Maureen ended the call and placed the phone on vibrate. Mark opened the bedroom, walking in with just a pair of boxers on.
"You're up?" he smiled. "Who was on the phone?"
"No one," she lied. "And I'm not up for long. I'm going back to sleep."
He pulled a tee shirt on over his head before sitting down near her feet. "What for? It's nice out."
"It'll still be nice out when I wake up again," she mumbled, pressing her face into the pillow.
"Who was on the phone?"
"God Mark, don't you understand the word sleep?" Maureen shot back, irritated. "Why does it matter?"
"Why don't you just tell me?" he laughed.
"It was Joanne."
There was a temporary silence.
"What did she want?"
Maureen flipped onto her back and rolled her eyes. "See? You always have to get so defensive whenever I talk about her or she calls. She just wanted to meet up with me for lunch this weekend."
"You're going then?"
"It's lunch, Mark! Just lunch."
"What the hell is wrong with you today?" he glared at her. "Maybe you should go back to sleep and wake up in a better mood."
"Whatever. You just need to stop controlling me."
He kicked the pile of dirty laundry aside. "I'm not trying to fucking control you. It's just weird that you're going out to eat with your ex girlfriend again after all this time of not hearing a damn word from her in Seattle."
"See? That's you trying to control me right there."
"Fine. I'm going out."
"Good."
"Yeah, just great." He shut the bedroom door loudly and Maureen groaned once more, burying her head under the sheets.
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Roger yawned and stepped into the living room. He stretched and walked past the couch, where Abby was laying down watching early morning cartoons.
"Morning, kiddo," he grinned. "You're up early."
"You're up late," Abby giggled. "Mommy's sleeping?"
"Yup. She's tired."
"Okay."
He grabbed a glass from the cabinet and poured himself a glass of orange juice. "Is Aunt Mo still sleeping?"
"Nope. Out. Uncle Mark is out too. But not with Aunt Mo."
Not a good sign right there. Roger took a sip of the juice and sat down next to his daughter on the couch. "What are you watching?"
"Scooby," she answered simply. "Mommy watches it with me every morning."
"Cool."
"Where were you going?"
Roger stared down at her and shrugged his shoulders. "What do you mean? I'm right here."
"Before!" she laughed. "Mommy said you had to go away for a lil' while. How come?"
Oh shit. He didn't know where to start, or how to even explain to a four year old that he had made some bad judgment calls in the past and had to pay the consequences for him. It would be setting a great example if he just told her that her father was an ex druggie who had to travel halfway across the country because that was the only way to get "better." Abby was too young to even understand what drugs were still.
"Well…" Roger quickly thought how to explain this to her, simple enough so that she could understand. "I was really sick, so I had to leave for a little bit to get better."
"Couldn't Mommy just give you medicine and chicken noodle soup? And make you stay in bed?" Abby asked, staring up at him with her blue eyes. "She does that for me."
"I was a little too sick for that to work. I had to go somewhere else so the doctors could make me better."
"Did they give you soup and read to you?" she questioned.
"Yeah, they did."
"Oh." Abby focused on the television again, watching the commercials. "You love Mommy?"
"Of course I do," Roger answered. He wasn't sure where this conversation was going. "Why?"
"If you love her a lot—" Abby made a circle with her arms. "Then how come you left her for real long?"
He ran his fingers through his blonde hair and sighed. "I didn't have a choice."
"You're gonna go away again?" Abby crawled into Roger's lap and rested her head on his chest. Roger then ran his fingers through her blonde hair and kissed the top of her head.
"Not right now, no. But one day I'm going to go away again, but it's not your fault. And it's not Mommy's. I love you both so much, okay? It's not gonna be your fault."
"Okay, Daddy."
Roger stood up off the couch then and filtered through a few pieces of mail from yesterday. He realized that the insurance check for the loft had come earlier than expected. He tore into it and knew that it was enough to cover a new place's rent and then some. Perfect. He glanced up at the clock and realized that it was almost twelve. He had practice with the guys at one—the first one since the incident with Jen. Travis was no longer in the band, and instead, Roger's brother Joey had taken over as guitarist.
"You gonna be okay in here for awhile while I take a shower?"
"Yup! Just gonna watch cartoons."
"Okay."
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Forty-five minutes later, Jen stretched and walked out of her bedroom and into the living room. It was eerily quiet. The television wasn't on, which was unusual. She figured that Roger must have left for band practice, Abby was taking a nap, Maureen was out, and Mark was still at work. Empty apartment. Pretty weird these days.
She passed into the kitchen to get a glass of water. It wasn't so weird for Abby to put herself down for a nap lately. She had been doing it for the last few months. She'd watch television, get tired, and go to her bedroom to sleep for an hour or so. Jen was pretty comfortable with it. But still, once she had poured the glass of water she walked over to Abby's bedroom and opened the door. Only Abby wasn't in her bed. It was still unmade from the night before.
Jen spun around and walked over to the bathroom. No Abby there either. "Abby?"
She opened the patio doors and checked the balcony. Sometimes Abby liked to sit outside if it was nice, although Jen didn't allow her to do that too often. However, the four year old lately had a mind of her own.
"Abby, sweetie? Where are you, baby?" Jen set down the water on the coffee table and couldn't help her heart from beating fast. She didn't want to panic, but she didn't see Abby anywhere. "Abby Nicole, this isn't funny. Come out right now or you're in big trouble."
Nothing. "Shit." Jen tore through the whole apartment in a panic, looking everywhere for Abby, even her new hiding spots. Ten minutes later she was back where she started. No sign of Abby anywhere.
"Abby!" Dammit. Maybe Maureen had taken her out? Or Roger had taken Abby to practice with him. Yeah, that could be it. She ran back into the kitchen to look for a note, but didn't see one in the normal places. She glanced around, picking up the phone with one hand, but then saw something out of the corner of her eye. On the floor by the kitchen sink was a white lined piece of paper. Jen picked it up and scanned it briefly, then let out a scream.
I told you if you told anyone I'd kill you and your daughter.
Looks like we got to her first.
Right out from under Roger's nose, too.
I sure hope you take long showers as well.
Stay by the phone. You'll be sure to hear from us.
Revenge is sweet, isn't it?
But so is ransom.
Jen crumpled to the floor and started sobbing. She reached for the phone and dialed Roger's cell phone. His voice came over the line over the second ring.
"Hello?"
"Roger," she sobbed. "Roger…Roger…"
"Jen? What's wrong? What the hell's going on?"
"They took her. He took her. Abby. He took Abby away," she cried hysterically. "Travis has Abby."
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