Disclaimer: see chapter 1

They both tossed and turned all night. Neither one slept very well, but they held onto each other like the other was the only thing holding them to the ground. Kendall would hold Zach while he dreamed and Zach held Kendall while she cried for her son, both wondering when this was going to end, hoping whoever had him at least was caring for him so that he didn't feel lost and alone.

Jackson was stirred by a knock at the door. He and Erica had slept in the living room that night, right by the phone, just in case. Erica had spent most of the night crying for the little boy and making promises to God about her family and how things would be if he returned the little boy to them unharmed and healthy.

Jackson extracted himself from Erica, who was finally sleeping soundly, and looked at the clock on the wall as he walked to the front door – it was 8:30 and Will had been gone for a gut-wrenching 18 hours. He opened the door to Myrtle and Beverly.

"Is there any news?" Myrtle asked.

"No, not yet. Come on in." Jackson held the door for them as Myrtle and Beverly walked into the house. Beverly stopped short and Jackson could see the tears forming in her eyes.

"Hey, hey, hey" he said, putting his hands on her shoulders. "Beverly, no one blames you here. We know you love him just as much as the rest of us do. So, no more tears."

Beverly smiled at him. "I know. I'm sorry. It's just… I didn't get much sleep last night."

Jackson returned the smile. "I don't think anyone did." He finally noticed the bags in Myrtle and Beverly's hands. "Whatcha got there?"

Beverly looked down. "We thought you all might be hungry so we bought… but I wasn't sure what everyone would want so I think we bought one of everything."

"Food would probably be a good idea. C'mon" he said, taking the bags from her and walking toward the kitchen. Myrtle, Jackson, and Beverly started putting the groceries away and Myrtle started to warm up some pans.

"Where are Zach and Kendall?" Myrtle inquired.

Jackson looked upstairs. "Zach took her upstairs to bed a little after midnight. I don't know if they got any sleep or night, but I figured they would emerge when they were ready."

Beverly and Myrtle just nodded, not really sure what else to say.

Kendall was thrashing in her sleep again. Zach held onto her, whispering in her ear. "Kendall. Kendall. C'mon Kendall, you need to wake up." Her eyes shot open and she sat straight up, dropping in head into her hands.

"It wasn't a dream, was it?" she choked out.

She looked over at him with sad eyes and it broke his heart. He ran his hand over her hair. "I'm afraid not, my love." She didn't know how she still had tears to shed, but she did. Zach pulled her to his chest and let her cry her heart out. She pulled back when her tears finally subsided.

"What time is it?"

He looked over at the clock. "It's about 9:30. I think there is food downstairs – I'm pretty sure the smell of bacon and eggs woke me up about 20 minutes ago. Do you want…"

Kendall made a face and waved her hand. "I don't really think I could eat anything."

"Kendall, starving yourself isn't going to bring Will back any sooner."

"I KNOW THAT" she screamed at him, with pure rage in her eyes. It was a look he had never seen before and it surprised him. She took a deep breath and looked back at him, that look of rage suddenly gone. "Zach, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to… I'm just so worried and…" she couldn't even get the last of the words out. She turned to look out the window and Zach came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

He pressed a kiss into her temple. "I know, my love, I know. It's alright. OK, you go take a shower and I'm going to come downstairs. When you are ready, please just come down and try to eat a little something, even if it is just toast."

She gave her husband a sad smile. "Yeah, that's a good idea. I just need some time to decompress without Jackson and Erica hovering."

He leaned in and gave her a quick kiss and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him. As he walked down the hall, he stopped in front of the door to Will's room and ran his hand down the frame, sending up a quick prayer that his son was safe. He took a deep breath and headed down the steps.

The doorbell rang as Zach hit the bottom step. He went to the door and opened it to an exhausted looking Simone and Ethan. She smiled up at him, as brightly as she could behind the unshed tears.

"Hi Zach. We just… we don't want to bug you guys but we were just wondering if there was…"

"Nothing yet, but…"

The entire house went silent as the phone rang. Zach, Simone and Ethan sprinted into the kitchen as Jackson picked up the phone.

"Hello? Yeah, ok… no we're all here. That's fine."

Jackson hung up the phone and looked at Zach. "That was Derek. I think he might have some news – he's on his way over here and wanted to make sure that everyone was around."

Zach just nodded and let out the breathe he had been holding. He smiled at Jackson who just nodded and returned to his seat at the table. Zach looked over at Simone and Ethan, who looked lost just standing there. "Well, Simone, Ethan, are you two joining us for breakfast? It looks like there is enough food to feed an army?"

Simone looked at him with wide eyes. "Oh, no… we don't want to… we just wanted."

Zach walked over and leaned down to whisper in her ear. "Simone, please – I think Kendall needs someone else here besides Erica." He pulled back and Simone just nodded, agreeing to stay without saying a word. The two of them walked over and grabbed a couple of plates.

Zach headed toward the steps when he heard Kendall coming down. He stopped her at the bottom and pulled her into a hug. "Simone is here" he whispered in her ear.

"Thank God. Hopefully she can keep Erica from annoying me too much today" she whispered back.

He pulled back and looked at her. She didn't look great, but she looked much better than when they had woken up. "Derek's on his way – Jack thinks he may have some news." Kendall sighed. "Ok, then."

Zach smiled at his wife and took her hand. He threaded his fingers through hers as they walked into the kitchen to face the day.

Ryan was trying to concentrate on the person on the other end of the line, but was struggling because Will kept crying. Marly had tried everything, but nothing seemed to be working.

"Hold on a second" Ryan said into the phone. He turned and glared at Marly. "Will please shut that damn kid the hell up!"

Marly shot out of her chair and glared at Ryan. "I'm trying! What the hell else do you want me to do? I don't know a damn thing about kids!" The screaming only made a scared Will cry even louder.

Ryan glared back at her and went back to his phone call. "Yeah, sorry, I'm here. That's great – just text me the info. Later." He snapped his phone shut and sat down on the bed as Will kept crying and crying.

"Here, you take him" Marly said, holding Will out to Ryan. Ryan just laughed at her and went back to watching TV.

"Ryan, what the hell are you doing? Whose kid is this?"

Ryan sat up, glaring at the TV as the stock footage of Kendall and Zach arriving home last night aired for the millionth time since last night. 'Their fancy car, their fancy home, their perfect family…' Ryan thought to himself as he shot off the bed and grabbed a glass from the side table and threw it against the wall. Marly recoiled with Will back into the corner, as far away from Ryan as she could.

"DON'T QUESTION MY MOTIVES, BITCH!" he screamed at her. "That's my life" he said, breathing hard and pointing at the TV. "That's my life and they…" The anger boiled over and he grabbed his jacket off the chair. "I'm going for a walk. I need to make one more call and I can't do that here if you can't control that stupid kid."

She stared as he slammed the door shut. Will started to calm down when Ryan left and soon he was starting to fall asleep in her arms. Marly stared down at the boy. "I'm sorry little man, but I need to go!" She left Will asleep on the bed and quickly grabbed her purse and got as far away from the hotel and Ryan Lavery as she could.

Savannah

She walked off the elevator, sipping her coffee and reviewing her latest pitch in her head. As she rounded the corner toward her office, she noticed that most everyone was huddled around the TV's that were on the wall. She walked up and through the group and found her assistant, Carla.

She tapped Carla on the shoulder and Carla turned around and looked at her boss. "What's going on? What are you all doing?"

Carla looked at her boss like she had suddenly sprouted another head. "God, Greenlee, you been under a rock overnight or what? You haven't seen the news?"

Greenlee stared at her assistant. "What are you talking about?"

Carla pointed her attention to the TV and the news banner that currently read "Child Abduction in Pine Valley". Greenlee gasped and dropped her coffee and briefcase on the floor and pushed her way up to one of the TVs and turned the volume up. Her shock turned to horror when the reporter recapped the story – "William Alexander Slater has been missing for just over 18 hours now and no new information has been coming in. William is the only son of Zach and Kendall Slater, a very influential couple…"

Greenlee turned from the TV with tears in her eyes – she may have been mad at Kendall, but she would have never wished this on her or Zach, never. She had talked to Jackson a few times since leaving town and he always relayed information about Will. He even emailed her a picture of him once and it had made her smile. She was sure that Kendall was being a great mom and Jackson told her how in love with Will Zach had fallen. 'I need to do something, call Jack or…' she thought to herself when she heard the phone ring. Carla picked up the call – "Good morning, Hammon and Lancer. This is Carla, how may I help you?" Greenlee watched as her assistant made a face and put the person on hold. "Greenlee, it's for you. It sounds like that guy again."

Greenlee suddenly felt sick as she walked over to a phone across the room. She stared at it for a moment before picking up the call. "This is Greenlee."

"Hey."

She sighed. "Ryan, I told you to never call me here again."

"I've got something for you." She could hear him opening a door and shutting it behind him.

"I don't want it."

"Oh, c'mon Green – it's a great surprise. You are really going to…" and with that, she heard what sounded like a baby cooing in the background.

"Oh my god" she whispered as she collapsed in a chair. "Ryan, what did you do?"

"I told you, I got you something. I'll be down there in a couple of days with him and…"

Greenlee shot up out of her chair and dropped the phone into her receiver. "CARLA" she screamed from across the room. Carla bolted over to her. "What?"

"I need you to get me on the very next flight to Pine Valley. Call me when you've got it – I need to go home to grab some clothes and I need to call Martin and…"

Carla grabbed her boss by the shoulders. "Greenlee, what is going on?"

Greenlee sighed. "It's a long story, but I know who has that baby and I need to go…" Carla just looked at her. "OK, Carla, you know how I don't like to talk about where I came from, who I was before I showed up here – well, that's it, that's my former life" she said, pointing at the TV. "Kendall Slater – she and I were… and I need to…"

Carla just nodded. "OK, just go. I'll call you when I've got it!"

Greenlee bolted out of the building, knowing that she was the only one that could fix this.

He could see her frustration starting to grow. Derek's news had been good, but not great – the car had been stolen from an impound lot on the outside of town. The night watch man had forgotten to lock the gate and the guy who took Will had his pick of cars. It was last picked up by a traffic camera right before the North Carolina border, but hadn't been seen since. Derek wasn't sure if that meant that the guy had stopped somewhere or saw the news and started driving on back roads.

That last bit of news was just too much for Kendall. She had retreated upstairs a few hours ago and Zach found her sitting in the window seat in Will's room. He sat the sandwich Myrtle had made for her on the changing table and walked over to her. He stood behind her and caught her eyes in the window.

"It's like they aren't even trying, Zach."

"Kendall, Derek has all of his men on this. Tad and Aiden are running down leads. Jackson has called every DA he knows on the eastern seaboard to give them a heads up. Erica is going to make a plea live on her show tomorrow. We just need to…"

She shot off the seat and stood in front of him. "We need to what, be patient? Wait? This is YOUR fault" she screamed, poking him in the chest.

He grabbed her wrist. "And how exactly is this my fault, Kendall?"

"I told you I didn't want to hire a nanny. I told you that we just needed to work it out so that one of us could be with him, but NO – you convinced me that we needed a nanny, that we just had to have someone else taking care of Will. Well, we did and NOW look what happened."

"Kendall, you need to stop right now. We are both worried, everyone in this family is worried, but you can't…"

"I'M HIS MOTHER!"

"AND I'M HIS FATHER!"

"YOU AREN'T HIS FATHER!" Those four words sent him reeling. He dropped her wrist and took a couple of steps back, staring at her. She was breathing hard and he saw a look in her eyes that he had never seen before. Those four words cut through his heart, broke it more than it had already been broken over the last 24 hours. Without a word, he turned on his heel and walked out of the bedroom, slamming the door behind him

Zach bounded down the steps with no regard to anyone else in the house. "Zach?" Jackson said, coming out of the kitchen. Zach grabbed his keys off the table in the entryway and threw open the front door. Simone and Ethan had been sitting on the couch, watching the news, when Zach stormed out of the house. "Go" Ethan whispered to Simone. Simone took the steps two at a time as Ethan chased after Zach.

Zach was to his car by the time Ethan caught up with him. "Zach, where are you going? What happened?"

Zach looked up at Ethan. "I just… she doesn't want me… I'll be at the casino; Simone knows how to get me." Ethan didn't have a chance to get another word out – Zach got in the car and peeled out of the driveway. Ethan turned and saw Jackson and Reggie standing on the porch. Dejected, Ethan walked back up the steps. "What happened?" Reggie asked. "I have no idea" Ethan responded, staring at the spot where Zach's car had been.

Simone threw open the door to Will's room as she heard Zach's tires peel out of the driveway and head down the street. She found Kendall curled up against the wall, sobbing uncontrollably. Simone was next to her friend in a heartbeat.

"Kendall, what happened?" Simone asked as she slid down the wall next to Kendall. Kendall leaned over and wrapped her arms around Simone, sobbing on her shoulder. Simone held onto her friend as tight as she could, trying to get the story out of her, but all Kendall kept repeating between sobs was "I messed up. What did I do? I screwed it all up." They stayed like that until Kendall finally cried herself to sleep.

TBC……