"Vincent, I understand you are worried for Ryan. I understand that you want to protect him," Logan was sitting across from the boy and leaning close with a gentle voice. "Friends have to do what's best for each other to keep the person out of danger. I understand that." He put his hand on Vincent's shoulder. "But I'm telling you, we need to talk to him."

"I haven't-"

"Okay, you say he hasn't contacted you and I believe you. If by chance he does contact you, or if you can reach him on his cell phone, tell him to turn himself in. We've been calling him and he's turned his phone off. Maybe he doesn't have it on him, I don't know."

"If he calls me I'm not going to tell him anything. You don't know what his dad..."

"Tell us, then," Carolyn said. The boy looked at her, then back at Mike.

"Like I said, Ryan didn't tell me much. But I know his dad got angry a lot, and I know..." Vincent got up and walked around his room a bit. He stood by the window and turned to them. "Bridgette, his 11 year old sister...she asked Ryan why her dad was mean. Ryan asked her what she meant, asked her if it was because their dad would hit their mom, and Bridge said 'no, why does..." Vincent's voice started shaking. "She asked Ryan why her dad comes in her room at night. And Ryan flipped. He never stayed the night here anymore and he tried talking to both his sisters but they wouldn't tell him anything, and Bridge said she was kidding. I told him. I told Ryan he had to tell someone, but he said he couldn't. He couldn't let his mom know about it," he wiped his eyes. "Whatever Ryan did, he had to do it. He had to."

"Which is why we want to talk to him," Mike said. "We understand that Ryan probably didn't want to hurt anyone. We think he did it out of self-defense...and if he did, then we can work things out for him." Mike stood. "You have my card, Vincent. If you hear from him, give him my message okay? Kelsey is probably very scared right now. We want to help both of them."

Vincent nodded and turned to the wall. Mike and Carolyn let themselves out and sat in the car for awhile.

"So dad was abusing the girls," Carolyn said.

"Looks that way. But I think even Ryan's counselor suspected that." He turned the car on to drive away, but there was a knock on his window. They looked out and saw Vincent. Mike rolled his window down.

"I know where he is," Vincent said, looking torn up inside.

"Where?" The boy said nothing. "Just tell us where."

"There's an empty apartment at the building down the street. We broke in last month and sometimes hang there."

"Thank you, Vincent. You're doing the right thing," Mike responded.

"He's never going to talk to me again."

"He will...he'll see that you were only helping him." Vincent shook his head and walked away. Mike rolled up his window. "Okay...I say we leave the car here. Ryan probably knows we'd be here talking to Vincent."

"Right. I'll call back up, he's probably armed."

"Tell them to stand by, I don't want too many people jumping in on him or someone could get hurt. We don't need to scare him more than he is."

Mike and Carolyn stood outside the door to the apartment and stood out of view. Mike knocked but didn't say anything. He heard movement inside, but no one came to the door. He knocked again, but nothing. "Power company," he called.

"Bullshit!" A voice yelled back from inside. "Don't come in!"

"Ryan, we just want to talk," Carolyn said.

"I won't let you take her!"

"We won't take her."

"You will!" They heard more shuffling and Carolyn nodded to Mike. He broke the door in and they slid inside with their guns drawn.

"We're not here to hurt you, Ryan," Mike said. They looked around, then saw a window wide open. "Ahhh, not this!" He jumped out the window onto the fire escape and saw the boy jumping down the rungs with his little sister in his arms. "Ryan! Wait!" He climbed down with Carolyn behind him. They hit the ground and ran off down the alley after the kids. Ryan was fast and already around the corner. Mike and Carolyn split up and went after him from different sides. Before long they rounded a corner and ran into each other. "Shit! You okay?" He asked her.

She nodded. "Where'd they go?"

He bent over and leaned on his knees to catch his breath. He shook his head. "He couldn't have lost us that easy. What is he a track runner?"

Carolyn looked around them, trying to figure out where they went. She pointed to a fence leading out of the alley, the fence door was wide open and swinging. They ran off through the gate and down another alley. It emptied into a dirt lot that was all flat and taped off. A construction site. And there was Ryan standing in the middle of the empty lot. Kelsey was on the ground in front of him and he was on his knees talking to her. Mike and Carolyn started for him, but he saw them. He snatched his sister up and kept running.

"Stop! Ryan!" Mike yelled. "We just want to talk!" He and Carolyn had both put their guns away so they could run better and hopefully scare the kids less. Several feet up was a tall metal structure, the beginnings of a building. It was at least 20 stories tall. Ryan was heading right for it. He found the ladder that went up the middle and shot up it, his sister gripped tight in his arms. Mike and Carolyn went after him without a moments pause. He jumped off the ladder and walked down one of the narrow beams. All there was to it was beams. Ryan crept across it carefully. Mike stopped on the ladder at the beam. "Don't do this, Ryan. Come back down before you get hurt."

"Leave us alone. Just leave us alone," the boy said.

"Let me up," Carolyn said to Mike. Mike moved over as much he could on the ladder and let her brush past him. He held her side as she climbed up onto the beam. She eased towards Ryan, and stopped when the kid stepped back further away from them. "Ryan. Look at what you're doing. Please. Come down with us." She stepped forward again, and held out her hand to gain stability. Mike wished they'd had backup with them after all, and quickly called for it. Then he climbed onto the beam behind Carolyn and held her shoulder with one hand and had the other up in the air to show Ryan it was empty.

"You can't take her!" Ryan screamed. "I won't let you!" Kelsey was crying. "I have to protect her!" Ryan went on. "I promised."

"We get that. We aren't going to-," Carolyn said, inching forward. "Don't do this Ryan. Give me your sister and we'll all get down and talk."

"Talk! We'll talk!" He shrieked. "I killed my father! What is there to talk about!"

"You were defending yourself and your family. We-,"

He cut her off again, this time pulling a gun out and aiming it at them. "No! Shut up!"

Carolyn pulled her own gun out. "Drop the gun!" She shouted.

"Shoot two cops and you will never get your sister back," Mike warned. He wasn't about to reach for his gun and have Ryan shoot him. "Right now, you have a chance."

Ryan shook his head. "Do you know what he did to them! He...he broke them...and it'll happen again!" His face was red and tear-drenched and his hand was shaking. "I've seen the news! I know what those foster dads do! She's better off with me." He stepped backwards again.

"Ryan, please don't do this. Look at her. Look at your sister," Carolyn said. "Look how young she is. She can grow to forget this. Do you want to rob her of her life? Like your father almost did?"

Ryan looked down at Kelsey, who looked back up at him. "I wanna go with them," she whined. He looked at Carolyn and Mike, then back at his sister. He kissed her face and slowly set her down on the beam. Carolyn took a step forward and reached out, still holding her gun up. Mike held the scruff of her jacket. When her fingers met the child's, she pulled her forward.

"I got you," she comforted, holding the girl to her chest. "Okay Ryan, you too. Come on." She was ready to hand the girl off to Mike and help Ryan across.

"I can't," he said quietly. He set the gun to his temple and before anyone could do anything, he pulled the trigger.

"No!" Carolyn shouted, as Ryan fell over the edge. Mike held Kelsey's cheek and held her still so that she wouldn't turn around and look after her brother. "Down, go down," Carolyn told Mike. "Where's the back up!" Mike slowly turned for the ladder, planning on getting onto it safely and taking Kelsey from his partner. As he started to step onto it, Carolyn slowly turned to the ladder as well.

Mike didn't see it. But he heard. Carolyn's foot slipped. The beam shook. Kelsey screamed. Mike whipped around just in time to see them fall.