A/N: Okay, I'm gonna start splitting up who's the central character in each chapter. Different POVs, but still third person. Up until here, it's all been centered around Alice, but now you'll get to see the rest of the gang. It should be obvious who the main character for each chapter is, but I'll put it in the chapter title also, just to be redundant.

Chapter Seven: Alice

The walk down the hallway was perhaps one of the longest of her life, and, for the life of her, Alice couldn't figure out what she'd do if found Michael. Somehow she didn't believe "Get the fuck out of here, Michael" would cut it. And a terrified and slightly hysterical portion of her mind was screaming at Charlie for not stopping her.

Alice stepped outside, pausing a few paces outside of the door, letting her eyes adjust to the harsh California sun. She had barely come to a stop when she felt someone grab her arm and pulled her down the covered walkway.

"Mr. Seed," Alice hissed, trying to pull away.

"Dr. Guinyard," Michael said, low and calm, as if he were speaking to his neighbor rather than dragging an unwilling woman away. "Where's my son?"

"Go to hell."

Michael tightened his grip until his nails started biting into the sensitive flesh of her arm. He increased his speed, pulling her faster along the walkway, and she pulled away, more violently this time. Alice prayed any one of the kids on the campus greens would see her. She opened her mouth to scream for help, when she felt something bite into her side.

"I wouldn't say anything, if I were you, Dr. Guinyard." Michael hissed into her ear.

Alice screwed up her courage and looked down, seeing a knife pressed against her side. A two-inch pocket knife, the kind which seemed so childish in the hands of an eight-year old, but now, as it glittered in the sun, Alice's heart started pounding and she tasted bile. His words yesterday pounded through her head.

I will gut you, the bitch, and anyone who comes in my way.

"What do you want?" Alice asked, willing the fear from her voice and failing.

"I told you to stay away from the boy," he said as they turned a corner, walking further away from the campus greens and the students.

But also away from Charlie, and from Derick. That had to count for something.

She looked at her watch. It was five nineteen. She had three more minutes until Charlie made the call. If he could convince Don it would still take him another ten to get here, if Don had the sirens on. If Alice could keep Michael occupied until then, and if Don could find them, Michael would be arrested, and everyone would be safe. If he didn't decide to kill her now and go looking for his son.

If, if, if. Suddenly Alice hated those two letter.

"I took him to meet one of the foremost physicists in the US, Mr. Seed. You should be thankful." Alice lied. Each lie put her in danger, but it also pulled Michael's attention away from Charlie and Derick in the math department. That meant another minute he'd spend searching for his son, another minute. "Give him someone who recognizes his talent, shapes it? Turns him into the next Einstein. Isn't that what you wanted? I'm helping him..."

"I told you to stay away from him. I warned you." Michael threw Alice hard against the wall, and she cracked her skull against the brick. Her head exploded, and a cry was strangled in her mouth as he grabbed her throat. Between the lack of oxygen to her brain and the blow to the head, Alice felt the world tilt sideways, and she fought against losing consciousness.

Come on, Ali, stay with it, she thought to herself as she felt blood starting to trickle down the back of her skull. You're no good to anyone unconscious.

"The bitch only listens to you. It started with you!" Michael said, throwing her down the corridor.

As she pulled oxygen into her burning lungs, Alice didn't quite feel like bringing up the fact that Emily and Michael were arguing about Derick long before they were ordered into psychiatric help. Somehow she didn't think logic would help her position.

"If you'd gone, when I told you to, I wouldn't have had to do this."

Alice was still gasping and dazed, and only dimly recognized that her chances of getting away now were effectively gone. When she felt him pull her off the ground, and press the knife into her side again, she knew they were. This time, Michael's grasp on the blade was harder, more aggressive, and Alice felt the sharp blade slicing through her blouse, pricking against her skin. Bile rose to her throat, and she cried out, "You don't have to! I swear you don't have to!" She stopped, swallowing hard, forced the hysteria out of her voice. "We can talk about this, okay? We can work this out. What do you want?"

In response, Michael back handed her across the face, and Alice tasted blood. The knife pressed harder against her side; she didn't feel the skin split, but she felt the blood start trickling down.

Between the pain in her head and the fire splitting through her side, Alice knew she didn't have much time, certainly not the dozen minutes that it would take for Don to arrive, for her to be found. Knowing this tactic wasn't working, she shifted gears. Alice knew that if she stopped thinking, she'd start begging, and that wouldn't work to her favor.

Not that this was helping, she thought fatalistically.

"What is it, Mr. Seed, that you hate so much about me? Is it that I keep trying to help him?" she spat as he dragged her around another corner. "Or you can't stand the thought that I know you're trading your child's sanity for some fame?"

"Shut up!" Michael snapped, angered, sliding the blade forward, tearing open skin. Alice bit her lip to stop herself from screaming, she was not going to give him the satisfaction.

"Or what?" she taunted. Alice knew if she stopped speaking, stopped the offensive, she'd start thinking of all the what ifs, and she'd never fight again. "You'll stab me with that little knife? Then you'll go jail, and I promise you, Emily will not let you near that kid! And no court in the land would let you see him. So just leave, Michael. Go, now, while you still have a chance of getting custody back."

He sneered at her as he pushed her into a wall again. Alice bumped the welt forming on the back, and saw stars.

"I'm taking my son!"

"The only thing you'll get is a jail cell," Alice said, swallowing the pain. Charlie may not have been making the call yet, but Alice doubted she'd be up for more of his abuse. "I called a friend before I left the classroom. He works at the FBI! I told him about your little threat yesterday, and how I saw you waiting outside the classroom. He's on his way over here, hot shot. And this, right here, counts as assault, and I could make a case for attempted kidnapping. I guarantee you, I will see you in a jail cell before I leave the state!"

Alice saw a moment of panic in his eyes, but watched in horror as it shifted to something worse.

"Then what incentive do I have, doctor, to keep you alive?"