Beyond Sight.

Chapter Five:

Cassidy grabbed her back pack as she rushed up to the roof where she pulled out the clothes stuffed inside and changed into her pleated micro mini, hooded top, thigh high socks, heeled shoes and her newest accessory of a visor that Jessica suggested to hide her identity. She'd got one that covered half her face, it was pink tinted but not so that she couldn't see. She followed the airowing as it made its way to the trouble and split off form it as it arrived to see what she could do to help. The ducks immediately went to tackle the robots and as she felt her disguise may not be quite enough to fool her friends she flew around and helped out It was a long night and although the ducks made short work of the robots they'd caused a lot of havoc and both Light Sphere and the ducks had their work cut out helping the civilians. By the end of the night Light sphere had halted three serious fires, save a whole bunch of kids on a school trip, and eight cats all of which belonged to one little old lady who was just so panicked and every time she managed to save one the 'old dear' would tell her another one was missing and she had to go back into the burning building to find another fuzz ball.

It was 6am when she finally got back to the apartment. Cassie pulled off her clothes and stuffed them under the bed making a mental note to wash them later on, and then she had a nice long shower and washed all the smoke and debris out of her hair before changing into her bed clothes of a pink vest top and shorts. She went to check Jessica got back okay and saw the bed was already made but thought nothing of it whilst slipping into her nice cosy bed.

"Wait!" Cass sat up suddenly wide awake, "No where's open where would she be!" She threw off the covers and slipped her feet into some trainers and pulled on a cardigan, then she flew as fast as she could making sure she landed in an alley close to the pond where she wouldn't be seen and ran over to the pond hoping the ducks would have made it back by now.

"Oof," Canard said as Cassie ran into him, "where's the fire?"

"Jessdincomehomeanithoughshemi . . ."

"Whoa hey calm down!" He held her shoulders, "Take a deep breath and this time tell me slowly."

"Jess didn't come home last night," Cassie said more slowly then he'd meant, "her bed's not been slept in so I thought she might be here but you weren't back so I fl . . . ran over here to find out for my self."

"Wait a minute you ran all the way here from your place dressed like that!" Canard asked finally noticing the barely decent clothes she was wearing.

"Canard!" She gave him a murderous look.

"Alright, she probably just fell asleep in the rec room or something don't panic." Canard led her along the corridor grabbing a black jacket he'd left on a bench to wrap around her shoulders as they went. They made their way down to the rec room where they found Duke and Tanya getting close but no Jessica, "Uh guys you seen Jessica?"

"Nope." Duke said trying to get Tanya to ignore the spectators.

"I think Wildwing said she left a note saying she'd gone home." Tanya told Canard swatting Duke's beak and glaring at him then rolling her eyes at the puppy dog look he gave her.

"Maybe she's in with Wing!" Canard said at the panicked look Cass gave him and walked off in the direction of the bedrooms. They found Wildwing coming out of Dive's room with a smirk on his face.

"Uh hey Wing," Canard gulped nervously, "um you seen jess yet?"

"No she went home why?" Wildwing eyed Cassie and raised an eyebrow at her clothing.

"See I told you she's missing and I should have made sure she was okay but I didn't and now she's probably in a ditch somewhere and. . "

"And you need to calm down." Canard said sternly just as Dive's door opened and the young duck stood sleepily in the doorway.

"What do you mean missing?" Wing asked feeling sick, "What's going on?"

"I got home this morning and her bed wasn't slept in so I thought where would she be? I knew you guy's were . . . probably not back yet so I ran over to check if she was here and she's not so now I have to go look for her cause she's not as good a fighter now she's blind no matter how much she denies it and . . ."

"Where were you?" Dive asked before she went off on a tangent.

"Me? Huh?"

"If you just got back this morning where were you?" Dive asked again and yawned.

"I . . . was out partying."

"I'm going to look for her." Wildwing declared and walked off not waiting for anyone.

"Me too . . . hey!" Cassie was grabbed by the wrist by Canard who began pulling her further down the corridor.

"You need to get some decent clothes on," Canard knocked on Mallory's door, "Dive will you go after your brother make sure he doesn't do something stupid," Dive nodded, grabbed his shoes and ran after his older sibling, Canard turned when the door opened, "Mallory could you find something for Cassidy to wear then meet me in the ready room?"

"Sure why?"

"I'll explain when we're all together." Canard then ran off to gather the others and Phil.

"We need to search wherever it is she normally goes and we need to check all of her possible routes home," Canard explained to the rest of his team, along with Phil and Cassie once they'd all gathered, "I've tried the comm. Wildwing gave her but I can't get an answer. Tanya can you work on tracking the signal?"

"Sure."

"Keep in contact; if any of us find anything then we all need to know." They all went their separate ways and started their search. Tanya found Jessica's comm. in an alley not far from the pond but no Jessica. After four hours of searching Canard called everybody back, although Wildwing and Dive opted to keep searching and asking around. By six that evening Wildwing and Nosedive finally gave up and got back to the pond to find Cleghorn and a few other officers just leaving.

"We'll find her." Cleghorn said to them as they got into their cars and drove off. Wildwing clenched his fists and held back the tears that were threatening to fall and went straight to his room. Nosedive made his way to find the others.

"How is Wildwing?" Grin asked him as he entered the rec room to find everybody on the couches.

"Exhausted and scared," Nosedive said sitting next to Mallory, "so what'd Cleghorn say?"

"Seems it ain't just her." Duke said grimly.

"What?"

"Cleghorn told us she's the third girl this week to just vanish," Mallory said staring at the floor, "some kids too."

"They're not sure but there's supposed to be a rumour on the street about some big mob boss offering cash rewards for bringing him good looking girls of all ages." Canard looked down at Cassidy who'd fallen asleep with her head in his lap and got an image of her looking scared and alone with some pervert advancing on her.

"So what do we do now?" Dive asked.

"We wait." Grin said calmly.

Nearly four days had passed since Jessica had vanished and barely anyone had had any sleep, nothing restful anyway. Wildwing was a wreck and was constantly blaming himself despite the fact that everyone was telling him there was nothing anyone could have done about it. Cassie was barely seen as she spent every waking minute searching the streets for any information about Jessica's whereabouts. Hitome had returned from Japan to help in anyway she could which seemed to be working with Phil dealing with the press who'd found out that one of the missing girls was dating Wildwing. Wildwing was currently watching a newscast covering the subject and his heart broke when he saw the picture flash up of Jessica looking so happy and pictures of all the other girls. One can't have been more then ten, he didn't even want to think about what might be happening to Jessica let alone what might be happening to that little girl. He jumped when the phone rang and walked over to it expecting it to be another journalist wanting to ask about his relationship with Jessica.

"Hello?"

"Wildwing, its Cleghorn," the captain said down the line, "get down to the City General hospital we've found you're girl, I'll meet you there." Wildwing didn't reply he simply put the phone down and stared at it for a few moments until he came to his senses and rushed off to find a duck cycle.

"Where is she!" Wing shouted as he tried to get past Cleghorn's officers, "Jessica!"

"Calm down kid," Cleghorn said approaching him, "listen take it nice and slow with her all of the girls have been . . . well abused. With her being blind an all she's a little more jumpy than most of them. So just make sure she knows you're there and so on okay?"

"Please I need to see her." Wildwing pleaded.

"Fifth room on the right." The officers barring his way moved and he ran to the room. She sat on the bed with her knees pulled up to her chin, he unseeing eyes were wide and she rocked slightly, the covers were on the floor. Wildwing could easily see the painful looking bruises on her face and arms and he noticed quite a few on her legs. There was a large cut on her right cheek which had been stitched and another on her left arm.

"Jessica?" He approached slowly but stopped as she started to hyperventilate and was trying to make herself even smaller. "Hey baby it's me Wildwing." He said resuming his approach.

"Wing?" Her voice was barely audible.

"It's just me," he said placing a gentle hand on her face and allowing her to feel his feathers and she lunged at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and began sobbing, "shh it's okay honey it's okay, you're safe now." He rocked her gently until her breathing evened out and she fell asleep, only then did he cry himself.

Hope you liked it, please review. Toodles Angel xxx.