Disclaimer:I don't own any of the Without a Trace characters, however, I do own Lacey Smith, Mally Jones and any other characters not from the show.
Authors Note: Hey Everyone! I know I have other stories waiting to be finished but this idea came into my head and I couldn't help but write it down. I hope you all enjoy it and please review!
On with the first chapter………………………
Lacey Smith and Mally Jones
Jack Malone sat at his desk, his thumb and fore finger pinching the bridge of his nose. Maria, his wife had found out about the affair he'd had with one of his agents Samantha Spade, even though it had been over for a while his heartstrings still pulled towards her. Maria hadn't been as angry as what he'd expected, she had just brought a bin bag of his clothes and left them with a note in his office. So here he was spending night and day in his office, the place he now called home…
"Morning Jack," Vivian Johnson said cheerfully, heading for her desk. She'd just dropped her son Reggie at school and headed straight into the office.
Danny Taylor was the next to arrive greeting both Jack and Vivian on his way to the coffee machine. Jack's phone began ringing and he answered on the third. He listened intently before hanging up.
"Danny, Viv, have either of you seen Sam and Martin?" he asked, both shook their heads, no, "ok well we'll have to start without them."
The three of them sat round the long rectangular table, which sat in between four desks; Vivian's, Danny's, Sam's and Martin's.
Just as Jack was about to start the morning brief, Samantha Spade and Martin Fitzgerald walked through the large double doors.
"Sorry we're late Jack, my car broke down luckily Martin was close by to pick me up," Sam said taking a seat at the table with Martin next to her.
"Ok now that you're here we can begin," Jack started, Martin and Sam looked at each other, they'd never seen him this agitated before, "there's been another kidnapping this time we have a ransom, Vivian, Martin I want you guys to talk to the parents. Danny, Sam you guys check out the ransom tape."
They all stood up, looked at each other and then to Jack, he looked up at them, "is there a problem?" he asked casually.
They all shook their heads, no, and went to their assignments. Jack then headed into his office and sat in his chair looking at the picture of his two girls; Hanna and Kate.
Why had he been so stupid and started the affair with Sam?
His phone rang again this time he answered on the second ring.
"Are you picking up the girls after school tonight?" came Maria's voice through the receiver.
"I would, but the case we're working on is high profile, I don't know how long I'll be working," Jack replied.
"Sort something out Jack, your daughters miss you and want to spend time with you," she replied in an annoyed tone.
"Fine I'll work something out," he said giving in; he always did when it came to his girls.
Maria hung up, no goodbye, pick the girls up later, nothing but then it didn't surprise him, nothing did anymore.
Danny and Sam had been watching the ransom tape non-stop trying to find something…anything. So far all they had was a scared little girl reading lines from a sheet of paper.
"This is sick," Sam sighed.
"I know, I mean we get no ransom tape or note from the first kidnapping but the second we get this tape, it's like he wants us to find them," Danny replied, "either that or he likes toying with us."
Sam sighed again and closed her eyes she didn't think she could take much more.
Martin and Vivian also weren't having much luck with leads either, the parents of Mally, the second young girl to be taken were so upset they hardly understood the questions, let alone give the accurate details of what happened that day.
Vivian called Jack to tell him that the parents were too distraught to give any useful details, so Jack asked them to scout the area and look for any evidence. Martin and Vivian did just that, but found nothing of any use.
They all regrouped back at headquarters, Jack however stayed in his office on the phone trying to find a way so that he could pick his girls up form school.
"Viv, do you know what's wrong with Jack?" Sam asked looking at her friend.
"No, he's been distant all morning," she replied.
Jack had stood listening to his team talk about what had happened with him that morning, because of him the team was suffering and those two little girls were still missing.
"Well lets find these girls, preferably alive," he said entering the discussion.
They all looked at him and nodded.
"Let's go back to the first girl who was kidnapped," Jack started taking a seat at the table.
"Her name was Lacey Smith," Viv said looking at the first file.
"Her adoptive parents said that she just ran away form home one night," Danny continued looking at the team.
"Ok, so the second missing child, was she adopted?" Jack asked.
"No Jack, Mally was her parents daughter," Sam said.
"So there's no connection between the girls then?"
"Well, when Viv and I were at Mally's house I noticed a picture on the fireplace, it was of Mally and Lacey, when I asked the parents, they managed to tell us that the girls are best friends," Martin said reading from his note book.
"Ok so maybe we do have a connection," Jack said, everyone nodded.
"Jack, is it possible Lacey found out she was adopted and ran away?" Danny asked looking at her boss.
"Well I guess, if she wanted to find her real parents," Jack said, "right we need to get this together," Jack took out his pad, "ok, Mally and Lacey are best friends, they tell each other everything. So when Lacey tells Mally she's running away to find her real mum and dad, Mally tries to get her to stay."
Everyone nodded taking notes as Jack spoke.
"So when Lacey doesn't turn up at school the next day Mally decides that she needs to find the one person she can truly trust and goes looking for her friend not realising someone has kidnapped her and now had her as the next intended target," Jack concluded, "right, Vivian, Martin go back to Mally's parents find out anything you can," Jack said as they stood and strode out the door, "Sam, Danny go to Lacey's parents house, do the same as Martin and Vivian, as much information as possible." Sam and Danny nodded and headed out.
Jack pulled out his phone and called in some favours. If there were any calls to 911 he was to know about it immediately.
Mally's parents had told Vivian and Martin that Mally had mentioned that Lacey was adopted but they just told her to stop being silly and to tell Lacey that her mum and dad loved her very much.
When Sam and Danny had arrived at Lacey's house her parents had assumed the worst.
"Mrs Smith, we haven't found your daughter yet but we just wanted to ask you some questions," Sam said placing her hand on the woman's shoulder.
"Did Lacey know that she was adopted?" Danny asked, both parents shook their heads.
"No, she didn't know, we'd spoke about telling her when she was older," Mr Smith replied.
"Could she have overheard that conversation?" Sam asked taking notes.
Just then Danny's phone began ringing, "excuse me," he said before answering the call. When he came back he easily fell back into the conversation, "one of our partners has informed me that Lacey did know she was adopted," Danny informed them.
"Who?" asked Mr Smith placing an arm round his wife.
"Lacey's best friend Mally Jones her, her parents just told our colleagues that they knew, Mally had told them," Danny said.
"Oh god, she ran from us," said Mrs Jones bursting into tears again.
"We'll find her," Sam said, "we'll show ourselves out."
Danny and Sam left Mr Smith comforting his wife.
"Well that was brutal," Danny said, "can you imagine having to go through that?"
Sam just nodded her head silently.
Back at headquarters, Jack had been called into a small computer room where someone had been looking for anything on the ransom tape.
Danny, Sam, Martin and Vivian all came back into headquarters and went to find Jack.
"Jack, while I was looking on the tape I couldn't find anything then it hit me," a young man, the others all entered the room.
"What is it?" Jack asked.
"She's crying," he replied simply.
"Of course she's crying, she's been kidnapped," Sam said looking at the young man.
"Well if you can give me a couple of hours I may be able to pull a picture of your kidnapper from her tears," he said looking at them.
Jack looked at the group, "how long until the ransom has to be paid?"
"In six hours," Martin replied.
Jack looked back at the young man on the computer, "do it and do it fast."
The five of them walked out leaving the young man to his work.
"Ok, what did the parents say?" Jack asked them.
"Lacey's parents never told her she was adopted but they talk about telling her when she was older," Sam started, "Danny and I believe that she overheard this."
"Mally's parents told us that she had told them about Lacey being adopted but told her to stop being silly, they truly believed Mally and Lacey were making up a big story," Vivian told everyone.
"Ok, so Lacey ran away from the people believed to be her parents, her best friend wanted to find her and did the same," Martin said taking more notes.
"Exactly," Jack agreed, "but would Lacey go willingly or not?"
"Well that's one thing we can't answer Jack her state of mind was fragile at the time," Vivian said.
"Not to mention she's only seven years old," Danny added.
"I'd say she went unwillingly," Sam said, "there's nothing in our notes that says otherwise or that she even knew who she's with."
Jack's phone began ringing again, "come on Doug has something."
They all headed to the little computer room again. Doug had printed a fairly clear picture of the kidnapper.
"This picture is what she can see through her eyes, the picture wasn't clear enough through her tears," he said giving them the photo.
"Great work, thanks," Jack said as they all left the room, "Ok, Sam, Danny back to the Smith's, Martin and Vivian you got the Jones. Ask them if they know who he is."
Each team took a copy of the image, neither parents knew who the man was, he was just sick and twisted.
When they called in, Jack told them to come back to the office. When they arrived Jack was on the phone, he rushed past them into an audio room and the others followed confused.
"Let's listen," Jack said as the others closed the door behind them.
They all stood round a computer waiting for Doug to play the tape. Just then a lady started speaking, "991, what's your emergency?" she asked.
"Please help me!" came a little girl's voice, "we managed to get away but he found us, he killed her, he killed my best friend," she sobbed, "he's going to find me please help!"
Then cam a mans voice, "there you are you little brat!"
"Aaahhh! Help!"
The phone went dead and everyone looked at each other.
"The sick asshole, he killed one them because they tried to get home!" Sam shouted leaving and slamming the door behind them.