Bill looked at Ralph as though he had grown two noses. "She's Aidan?"

Tony also didn't believe her. "And your daughter? Come on, she's too old to be your's and Mrs. H's daughter."

Though she remembered him visiting them a few times and the stories Ralph and Pam told her about Bill's earlier, Aidan still bristled slightly at the comments. "Yes, Mr. Maxwell, that's my name. You used to call me that, not Artie. And Mr. Villacana, as far as age, you shouldn't question it, but I'll tell you anyway. It's 27, and yes, that's longer than they've been married," she said.

Noting the disapproving look on Ralph's face, she softened her tone as she continued. "I'm sorry, I should explain. Ralph and Pam are my godparents. My mom was Ralph's sister. She and dad died in a car wreck when I was nine and Pam and Ralph gained custody of me. A few years before my parents died, they had Pam put in a clause in their will just in case."

Bill's shrugged his shoulders, trying to avoid blushing. "I'm sorry, Artie ... uh Aidan. It's just been a long time since I've seen you."

"OK, but why Artie? Couldn't have been that long," she asked.

"Well... " he said hastily. "It's been a while ... besides, you're an art teacher, and it fits ya better. You look like an arty type of person, especially with the clothes."

Aidan made a face, but remembering Bill call Pam "Counselor" and Ralph "Kid" once, she realized it'd probably be a lost cause to get him to use the proper if he liked the nickname more. And noting the hesitation in his voice when he corrected it, it sounded as though he liked it, and this wasn't the last time she'd be called Artie.

Tony continued. "And, I'm sorry too, Aidan, but please call me Tony. It's just, you know, I've never met any of Mr. H's family except him, the missus and Kevin. And, though you resemble Mr. H a little, it's not enough to put two and two together, if you know what I mean."

She smiled. "No problem, I get that sometimes. Now, how can I help you, uh, Tony?"

"Well, it's about one of your students, a McKenna Lazuli."

"Oh, MK, we're worried about her. Have you got any leads? We've turned up nothing so far."

Tony blinked in confusion. "We got a call saying you knew something about the case."

"No, not since she was abducted. Only thing I've heard since is that her parents are begging her kidnappers to release her. And I'm sure Ralph's told you about the school helping out as much as we can."

As they were talking, Pam was outside the school getting out of the beetle. She walked toward art building when the men in the van got out and followed her. Pam was halfway to the doors when the men grabbed her. ...

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Inside, Ralph held the box containing Pam's ring, and got a holograph of her being grabbed by a couple of men. Bill, seeing the look in his eyes knew something was wrong and nodded. "Uh Artie, is that the only exit to the room?" he asked.

"Yeah, except for the fire exit and quenching tanks in the back... Are you claustrophobic, Mr. Maxwell? Sorry, I sometimes forget the room..." she stopped when she heard a scream come from outside.

"Get down now, Aidan," shouted Tony as he pulled her down, catching on to what Bill was talking about. He thought that someone might be trying to break into the building and Bill was making sure no one could sneak up from behind.

Aidan looked around and didn't see Ralph. "What's going on, where's Ralph," she said.

Tony peeked over the desk and frowned. "I don't know, and Maxwell left. Now, you stay there and don't move, I'm goin' after them, something's not right."

Aidan nodded and waited until the agent left before looking around the corner. For some unknown reason, she felt inside as though she had to help, and picked up a heavy metal ring mandrel to use as a weapon if needed.

-----------------------------------------------------

Outside, Pam struggled to get away from the kidnappers and screamed again, hoping Ralph or someone would hear. Frustrated with the fight, one of the kidnappers struck her over the head with the butt of his pistol and she sagged, unconscious. The man reholstered his gun and picked her up in his arms. He started carrying her to the van with the other man in tow, only to see something in red pop visible right in front of them.

"Hand her over now," said Ralph with growl. He was still wearing his black pants, but had the shirt off, revealing the magic jammies' tunic and cape.

The men laughed at the sight of Ralph in the suit. "No, and if you try to stop us from leaving, we'll kill her," said the second man, drawing his gun. Seeing Bill and Tony behind the men, Ralph pretended to give up and let them go. As they headed toward the van, the two agents walked up behind them and stuck their guns in the kidnapper's backs.

"Freeze it, FBI, you're busted. Drop your weapon and hand her over," shouted Bill. The kidnappers did as they were told, and Ralph took Pam into his arms. As Ralph ran back to the art building with Pam, the agents started to lead their captives toward a wall to cuff them. Ralph had laid Pam on the floor inside a room when he heard gunfire ring outside. He ran back outside and Bill and Tony behind a set of lockers and one of the kidnappers behind the van.

Unbeknownst to Ralph as he headed toward the melee, Aidan snuck out of the building shortly after he exited and took cover behind a brick gardensill. As she watched, she did a double take when she thought she saw Ralph take three steps and take flight. Tony too was in disbelief at what he saw. Ralph landed near the gunman and took the gun away from him, crushing it. He then picked up the man off the ground with one hand and when the man tried to throw a punch at Ralph, he tapped the gunman's head against the van door, knocking him out. Ralph lowered the man to the ground.

Aidan then saw Bill rush over to Ralph's side. "Tony, you go search for the other creep," hollered Bill as he handcuffed the gunman. "Kid, you OK?"

"Yeah, but I haven't been able to find the other one," said Ralph. "Still it's not like. ..."

As they were talking, Aidan noticed the second gunman take aim from behind a bush right at Ralph.

"Ralph," screamed Aidan as she rushed out from behind the wall and faced him. The man, startled by the commotion, turned and stepped forward in her direction, but slipped on a bottle. He shot his pistol in rapid fire as he fell, but his aim went wild. Aidan felt two sharp pains in her leg and another one across the side of her head before she fell to the ground and everything went black...

Ralph, seeing Aidan get hit and fall, ran to where the second gunman sat a bit dumbfounded at what happened and swiftly knocked him out. Knowing the man shot Aidan and not trusting himself with the man's health, Ralph nodded to Bill to take the gunman into custody. He then ran over to Aidan and checked her vitals. Her breathing was shallow, and her pulse was fast and thready. Ralph took a quick assessment of her injuries and found she had two gunshot wounds to her left leg and a bullet graze across her left temple.

Tony, certain the area was secured, rushed over to Ralph's side and took a long look at Ralph in the jammies. "I know what you're thinking, but I'll explain later," said Ralph, slightly embarrassed. "Tear your shirt so I can make bandages." Tony complied, and kept his muscle shirt underneath untucked in case Ralph needed it too.

After handcuffing the second gunman, Bill also rushed over to check on Aidan. "You Hinkleys sure know how to get into trouble," he grumbled, whistling softly at the injuries. "How is she?"

"She's unconscious, Bill," said Ralph as he wrapped a torn sleeve and another patch of cloth from Tony's shirt around Aidan's head.

Bill kneeled and took a closer examination of Aidan's leg, frowning. "Kid, she'll be worse than that if we don't put a tourniquet on that leg. It looks like one of the bullets might've hit an artery," he said grimly. "Good thing none of them are through holes, or it would be worse. Her being buzzed too doesn't help out either."

Ralph nodded grimly as well and took off the tie from Tony's neck, handing it to Bill. "Tony, go inside and check on Pam. If she's awake, tell her what happened, but make sure she doesn't come out here too soon," said Ralph. "I don't want her to see us do this to Aidan."

As Tony nodded and rushed inside, Aidan started to come to and groaned loudly in pain. Bill grimaced, knowing that putting on the tourniquet would not be as easy on her now. Ralph, catching the look in Bill's eye, decided it'd be best to tell her. "Aidan ... Aidan it's Ralph. Listen, you've been shot, and we've got to put a tourniquet on your leg. It's going to hurt like you know what."

Aidan, not quite awake, only managed to groan and nodded weakly. Holding Aidan's hand in his, Ralph nodded to Bill and he put the tourniquet on. When he tightened it, Aidan cried out in pain and bucked, clenching Ralph's hand so tightly he felt as though she had the jammies. He tried to talk to her to ease the pain when he saw her relax, having passed out again. Worried, Ralph checked her pulse, then picked up her in his arms and turned to Bill. "Lookit, we need to get her to the hospital now," said Ralph. "I don't think we can wait for an ambulance."

Bill gave him a grim look, nodded and proceeded to wrangle the two gunmen into his car. As he did that, Pam walked outside assisted by Tony and gasped at the sight before her. "Aidan, Ralph, is she..."

"She'll be fine once we get her to the hospital, Counselor," said Bill as he finished locking the gunmen in his car and called for the police. "Now, everyone, in the van."

Ralph laid Aidan in the back of the van, and after the others got in, Bill sped of toward the hospital. As they were driving, Ralph made Aidan comfortable as he could and glanced at Pam. "Hun, you all right," he asked Pam when she put her hand to her head and winced.

"Fine Ralph, just a little bump on the head. I'll have the doctors check it out to be sure though. Bill, Tony, why were those guys trying to kidnap me?"

"Don't know, Mrs. H, but they might've thought you were a teacher. It might've been the same people who gave us the false lead on Lazuli," said Tony. "She's a student at Whitney, but was kidnapped the other day and we've had no leads until today ... and it was supposedly Aidan seeing the suspect."

"But why say Aidan," she said confused. "I mean, there are a lot of teachers there, and I'm only there to visit Ralph or Aidan."

"Maybe she was targeted for kidnapping, and they grabbed ya by mistake," said Bill, frowning.

Ralph looked at Aidan in time to see her take a breath and let it out, but not take another one. He checked her pulse and found none. "Damn it, Aidan, this is the one time you always need to fight," Ralph half shouted as he began CPR. "How long to the hospital?"

"We're almost there, Ralph," said Bill when suddenly the van stopped. Bill put his foot on the accelerator, but the wheels spun in place and engine died. Shortly thereafter, the doors locked themselves and the windows rolled up. Though Ralph was administering CPR, he knew what was going on. Pam and Bill looked at each other and said "Oh no."

"Whatdaya mean, 'oh no,'" said Tony confused as the van started back to life without Bill turning the key and made a sharp (and very illegal) U-turn. As the van sped off, Tony started to get more concerned. "H-hey, Maxwell, why are we going opposite the hospital? Aidan's dying," he shouted.

"Villacana, this is the one time you can't argue, even with me. When they want you to come, they'll make you come," said Bill.

"They, who's they?"

"You'll see Tony, and knowing Artie's condition, you will see," said the older agent simply, having done this before. He was dreading to meet them again, and didn't want the younger agent to see his greatest fear so not to be teased. Though dissatisfied with Bill's answer, Tony knew he couldn't ask the other two what was going on yet, as they were saving Aidan, so he decided to bide his time... for now.

Pam turned back to Ralph, who was still fighting for Aidan's life and appeared to be growing tired. "Ralph, let me help," she said and took over for Ralph on artificial respiration. After about half a minute, Pam glanced at Ralph and noticed something odd about the suit. It started glowing a reddish orange, reaching all the way to Ralph's fingertips. She looked up and saw Ralph's face turn the same color. "Ralph, you're glowing like a fire," said Pam a bit surprised.

"What the hell," he said, looking at his hands. He wondered. ... "Never mind that now, I'll take back over her breathing too." He put his hands over Aidan's sternum and began compressions again. After breathing into her mouth, he was relieved to hear Aidan gasp and take a breath... then another. Ralph checked her pulse and found it returned as well. "She's back," he said to Pam, smiling, and gave each other a hug. Neither noticed that the glow Ralph had transferred to Aidan, only to fade after a couple of moments.

"Kid, that's terrific," said Bill, "but we're still headed toward Palmdale."

"Ralph, the suit, it's not red anymore..." said Pam as she looked at the tunic.

Ralph looked at the suit and frowned, confused. "Something strange is going on here," he said. "We're going to Palmdale, Aidan's injured and nearly dies, and when I resuscitate her, the suit causes it and me to glow then turns gray. Why?"

"I don't know Ralph, and I hope they will explain," said Pam looking at a road sign. "And, we don't have much longer to wait."