A/N: Thanks to some much needed encouragment and comments from Cynically Optimistic, I was inspired to continue and not put it off any longer. I now only have two sections to complete (I appear to have written the end before the next bit but never mind). I also wasn't sure about this next bit, the Alice and her mum thing. Did I do ok with it? Never having been in any situation even remotely similar and never seeing anything like it on the TV I wasn't sure how to handle it. Was Jack sympathetic enough? Would that actually happen? Thoughts anybody? Cynically Optimistic? Anyways Enjoy!

FBI Headquarters

21 hours missing

Jack and Sam were sitting at the conference table waiting for Vivian to bring Alice up. Jack kept checking his watch, he'd have to leave for the airport in a couple of hours. That morning rather than cancel his flight, he'd rescheduled it, that allowed him to be able to sort things out with work today but then be there this evening to help Marie explain things to Kate and Hanna.

"What I don't get is if Tom Douglas is our man, why did Elaine Parker kill herself? There is no doubt that it was suicide right?" Sam checked suddenly, she'd been thinking about it for a while, it just didn't add up. Jack shook his head,

"No doubt at all. I don't know why she committed suicide, that'll be something we'll have to ask Alec, if or when we find him." Sam nodded in agreement, just then Vivian brought Alice in.

"Or maybe Alice knows," Sam thought aloud, Jack winced in distaste at asking that kind of question of a six year old, knowing he'd have to ask it now it had been raised. "Alice, we need to ask you a few more questions ok?" Sam began, Alice nodded looking in awe around the room she was in. "Ok Alice, have you seen your daddy since the night he went out, the one that you told us about earlier?" Alice shook her head.

"Will my mommy be coming soon?" Alice asked innocently looking at Jack, Jack's breath caught in his throat making him feel a little sick. She was only six, she didn't know, she didn't understand that her mother was dead.

"Alice," Jack's voice cracked, suddenly the width of the conference table seemed like a mile. Jack stood up and moved to sit next to Alice, he took her hand between his own and looked her in the eye. "Alice," Jack tried again, he didn't know what to say, how to tell her. Perhaps this was just some perverse way of preparing him for tonight, when he had to tell his daughters that he'd failed, that him and their mom were getting a divorce. "Alice have you ever seen Bambi?" Jack asked, thinking that if he related this situation to something that she already understood, she would comprehend what he was trying to tell her quicker and less painfully. Alice nodded in response. "Well you know in Bambi, you know what happens to Bambi's mother is . ."Jack tailed off unsure of how to continue. Alice however interpreted what he'd said as a question and nodded, relieving Jack greatly. "Ok, well the same thing that happened to Bambi's mom, happened to your mom, more or less," Jack explained, for one glorious moment he thought she understood.

"But when is my mom getting here?" Alice wailed. Jack closed his eyes, she didn't get it. She was only six, how on earth was he meant to explain except through plain-speaking, would she even understand plain-speaking though, he had to try.

"Alice, do you know what death is?" Sam and Vivian exchanged a glance of horror, they hadn't interfered so far because Jack had taken control of the situation, and had seemed to be doing very well. Vivian opened her mouth to object but Alice replied first.

"When yougo to sleep and don't ever wake up again. My daddy told me that." Jack could have sighed with relief, Vivian and Sam smiled at each other, Jack had done it again.

"Ok Alice. Your mom isn't coming at all because she's sleeping, she's sleeping the sleep of the dead. She's not going to ever wake up Alice, I'm sorry," Jack finished, hoping that he hadn't been too honest, the last thing he wanted to do was to upset her.

"Oh," Alice said, her face betraying no emotion. 'She probably didn't understand the ramifications of what had just been said' Jack judged 'She would soon enough though, poor kid.' "When's my daddy coming then?" Jack looked at Sam and Vivian, once again at a loss of how to explain. Vivian nodded at him, indicating that she'd take it from here.

"Alice, I know that your daddy would do anything to be here with you right now, but he can't be. You see a bad man has taken your daddy and he's stopping him from coming to you. We're going to find that bad man and your daddy, but until then you have to be very brave and Mrs Portman," Vivian gestured over to where Mrs Portman was sitting at Martin's desk, Martin had just asked her the standard questions expecting and getting nothing useful. Mrs Portman waved nervously back. "Mrs Portman will look after you ok?" Alice nodded and started sucking her thumb again, Vivian motioned for Mrs Portman to come and get her. They'd discovered nothing useful, but then had they really been expecting too.

FBI Headquarters

22 hours missing

Danny walked into the unit over to the conference table where Vivian, Sam and Martin were sitting. Jack had reluctantly left after they'd finished interviewing Alice, he'd left it as long as he dared, only leaving himself half an hour to get to the airport and check in. He'd only just made it on the flight, his FBI badge being his saving grace.

"Ok I've got the preliminary tech report on the blood here," Danny began sitting down, passing out copies of the report. "The blood is definitely Alec's. The most recent patch of blood is about eight hours old, he was in that car when we were there this morning."

"With that time frame he can't be more than an hour away from there," Martin observed, "Where does Douglas live?"

"Already on it," Danny smiled, "The locals have been over, place is empty."

"It's got to be somewhere deserted. Alec's face has been all over the news, somebody sees him covered in blood getting forced into a building, they'll call it in. Same goes for dumping a body, it's daytime, too easy to get caught," Sam put forward, Martin stood up and walked over to his desk retrieving a map of the area. He then walked back over and pinned it on the whiteboard, drawing a circle around the area that Alec could plausibly be.

"There's hundreds of deserted warehouses, three rivers and a massive park within that area," Martin noted, "Far too many places to check."

"I could get some divers on the bay and the Hudson," Vivian offered, just then a nameless FBI agent came and handed Danny a sheet of paper, Danny silently thanked the man and started scanning the sheet. "If he panicked he could have finished him off and dumped the body."

"The CSI team discovered a load of recent mud on the wheels, probably from last nights rain fall. They're testing it to see if they can narrow down where it came from," Danny reported.

"I'll get the divers on the bay," Vivian decided, her first case as supervisor and already she was finding them dead, "Keep looking for Tom Douglas though, I want that guy."