Disclaimer: Alas, I do not own Cold Case and I don't own the FBI or the Witness Protection Act (just so you know lol).

Chapter Seventeen: Time

Seventeen-year-old Jonathan Adams was cycling down the street faster than he ever had before in his life. He had to be back at the house in thirty minutes or they'd think something was up. And there was no telling what they would do to him if they knew what he was about to do.

All he had wanted was acceptance. He had wanted someone to be proud of him; someone to give a damn about him. So what if it involved being a runner for drug dealers, he had proved he was trustworthy and they had let him in on their secrets, let him into their lives. He had felt accepted. But killing someone? That hadn't been in the job description. It was probably another test of his faith but this was one he was not willing take. He had seen her down in the basement; he had even talked to her. He could tell by looking in her eyes that she was just as afraid of where she was as he was but that she would rather die than let that fear show through.

He knew that they were angry with her, especially the guys she'd hit when they'd taken her from her house. They had wanted to teach her a lesson. But Frankie had told them not too and they had listened. They knew better than to mess with him. Except for Dennis that is. Dennis didn't like it that their boss had left Frankie in charge of this job and that he had had to do more time when they had been in jail.

Time. That was something that was running out here. Frankie had left, said he would be back later that night, that he was leaving Dennis in charge. Stupid mistake. Dennis had told the guys that had been hit by Lilly that she was their 'responsibility' for the afternoon. Jonathan had arrived back just after those men had left the basement. He stopped himself from smirking at them when he saw that they were both bleeding and nursing injuries. That was however until he saw Lilly. She had been hit a few times, the cut on her lip was bleeding again and she had more bruises and cuts than before. They hadn't caused her any injuries that would be life threatening; even they were smarter than that, but they had given her something to 'remember' or so they said before she decided to take them on again.

Jonathan had comforted her when he had seen what they had done, told her not to worry, that he would get someone to help. That's when she had told him whom to ring. Scotty Valens at PPD. So that's what he was doing. He knew that killing her was supposed to be his task, but that was something he could never do. He wasn't going to commit a murder. But if he made this phone call he knew damn well that he could become the victim of one.

Scotty stormed around the interrogation room. He was furious that the man sitting in front of him could have someone had something to do with Lilly's disappearance.

" Haven't you heard the rules of the Witness Protection Program?" he said, trying to control his anger.

The man in front of him, Craig Walter didn't answer. He had refused his right to an attorney, which had been the only thing in the last couple of hours to please Scotty at all.

"Section 11, paragraph 1 states that 'Subject to this section, no person shall knowingly disclose, directly or indirectly, information about the location or a change of identity of a protectee or former protectee,'" he read off the sheet of paper. "Now tell me what part of that don't you understand?"

Craig shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He hadn't meant for any of this too happen. But it had.

"It's not my fault," he tried saying, but the look given to him by the cop was enough to make him stop there.

"Okay well it is. But I didn't mean for anything bad to happen, especially not to Lilly."

"What about Sharon Gallagher. Or should I say Stacie Geldon. You told someone who she was and where she was. And I want to know who you told."

"Look, I swear to you that I don't know. A guy rang up, said he had my daughter and that he would kill her if I didn't tell him what he wanted."

"Why didn't you tell somebody, you work for the friggin' FBI?"

"I just wanted her back and safe, and after it all, I was too afraid of losing my job."

"Well why did you contact them again after we had requested the files on Sharon Gallagher's case?"

"They told me before that if anyone ever was too want access to those files I had to call them or this time it wouldn't just be my daughter they would take."

Someone knocking frantically on the door interrupted them. Scotty almost laughed when he saw Nick panting and cursing; he was desperately out of breath. But all that changed when he heard what Nick said.

"There's someone of the phone for you, he knows where Lilly is."

Scotty ran out of the room and into the main part of the office where is phone was lying on his desk. He picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Your Scotty Valens?" asked a voice on the other end.

"Yeah that's me, you said you know where Lilly is?" Oh please, he thought to himself, let her be alive.

"Yeah I do and you have to hurry." He told Scotty the address of the old house.

"Is she alright, have you seen her?"

"She's a bit bruised but apart from that she's alright."

He breathed a sigh of relief. "Is there anything else?"

"Yeah. She told me to tell you she's sorry."

"What for?"

"I don't know, she just said tell Scotty I'm sorry."

Shortly after that Scotty hung up the phone and made another call, summoning all available units and a couple of ambulances to the address he had been given. He just hoped that they wouldn't be too late.

A/N: Yeah it's a bit of a cliffhanger, but it shouldn't be too long before the next chapters up.