25 hours missing

Jess sat on her cream leather couch, her knees against her chest, her arms wrapped around her legs. She stared unseeing at her wooden floor. Her hair was loose around her bare shoulders and her curled toes peeked out from underneath her grey track bottoms.

She could feel it all… her world as she knew it was falling apart. She spent her life working and if she didn't find Lizzy soon she'd find herself without a job. Not that it matter to her; if she didn't find Lizzy and find her alive, nothing would matter anymore. She'd been working with the girl since she was 24-years-old; just two years after she'd completed her training. She started as her bodyguard and in the nearly six years since had slowly climbed to the top of her detail.

She thought about the first time she'd met the teenager. The 11-year-old she had met was very different to the 16-year-old she knew now. Having lost her mother at nine and getting little attention from her busy father, the girl had rebelled younger than most. By the time she was 10, Lizzy had had her ears pierced three times each side, the cartilage on her right ear pierced, her naval pierced and was apparently planning on getting her tongue and labret pierced. How her father had not noticed any of this was beyond Jess's understanding. It didn't take long for Jess long to realise that this little girl was lost and lonely. With her father working so much, the girl was moved from place to place and never had time to put down roots. Anywhere she went she was considered, like all new kids, an outcast. And what she needed the most was to talk to someone about it. So Jess had got close to Lizzy, tried to help her. Finally, after four months, Jess had broken through the walls Lizzy had built around herself to keep herself from being hurt.

It happened during one of their late night chats. The two girls had taken to getting hot chocolate, topped with cream and marshmallows and sitting in Lizzy's room, just talking. One night Lizzy just broke down and everything came out. How she felt isolated, how she thought no-one liked her, how she missed talking to her father, how she missed her mother. Jess had helped her though her problems and spoken to Lord Phillip about his daughters problems. From then everything changed. Lord Phillip requested that the Prime Minister give him a more permanent job; he became the Ambassador for the U.S. and he made more time for his daughter. He tried to catch up on the years he'd lost, explaining to her that he had worked so much to get away from the grief of losing her mother. He promised he would never leave her alone again, and true to his word he made the effort, eventually taking over on some of the late night chats, and of course arguing with her over her many piercings. He let her keep two piercings in each ear and her belly button ring but insisted on the removal on her cartilage piercing and one set in her ears.

Jess and Lizzy remained close and Jess treated her like a younger sister. Jess taught her to wear make-up correctly, so that her foundation wasn't orange as most young teenage girls tend to apply it with a trowel, and was considered the expert on what Lizzy should wear.

Jess was brought to the present by the sound of her doorbell ringing and she found her cheeks were damp from the tears she didn't even know she was crying. She looked in the mirror and realised that the tears she'd been fighting back for a little over a day had released themselves. She tried to stem the flow of hot tears and after a minute was able to wipe her cheeks dry without wetting them again.

"Shit. Dammit Jessica," she yelled at herself quietly, "Don't get involved."

She opened the door tentatively, surprised to find Agent Taylor on her doorstep. "Danny," she murmured his name without thinking. She blinked, silently berating herself, "What can I do for you?"

"I wanted to see how you were doing," Danny replied, concern in his mocha brown eyes as he noticed the swelling and redness around hers, "Obviously I came at a bad time."

"No, no, come in," Jess opened her door further and rubbed at her eyes.

Danny stepped into her hall, "I'm actually here on official business as well."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," Danny handed her a sheet of paper, "We've spoken to everyone on your list, except this guy. We can't seem to find him anywhere."

Jess looked down at the sheet, "Tom Cook. Yeah, he was let go about a year ago. Came onto the detail about 18 months ago, but couldn't handle taking orders from a woman. He thought he knew better and had a tendency to go against what I said. Very argumentative. Anyway, he decided one day that what I had ordered was wrong and did the opposite. Had the potential of getting Lizzy seriously hurt. Needless to say, I wasn't happy. He was let go of secret service completely after that. Seems he had run-ins with a few others as well; didn't like taking orders; thought he should be in charge. Of course, he blamed me for it. Said he'd…" her voice trailed off.

Danny waited.

"Said he'd get me back for 'ruining his career'." Jess looked up at him, "I never understood why anyone would be trying to get to the Ambassador; he's well-liked and for all his grandeur he doesn't actually have that much money."

"Maybe this is about you," Danny finally caught up to Jess's train of thought.

"Maybe…"

"Is there anyone else who holds a grudge against you?"

Jess snorted, "Is there anyone who doesn't?" She thought for a moment, "No, actually, to be fair, only one other person who would hate me that much."

"Who?"

"Jason Craig, my ex. He works for MI5 as well. We split after I got promoted over him. Promoted to Lizzy's bodyguard. He couldn't handle it. But I don't think he would risk his career on it."

"Would you mind coming back to the office and helping follow these up; you could be on to something."

"Hold on," Jess walked through her living room.

"What?" Danny followed her.

"Well, I'm not exactly dressed for it, am I?" Jess looked down at her clothes.

For the first time Danny noticed what she was wearing; baggy track bottoms, sitting low on her hips and trailing the floor, and a clinging vest top, which revealed part of her flat, toned stomach. He realised that with her curves she would have to work out a lot. She came back dressed in black pinstripe trousers and a cream jumper. She looked at him with her intensely blue eyes, waiting for him to say something. He shook his head slightly. 'Bad thoughts, bad thoughts,' he told himself.

"Let's go," he followed her out the door.