Out of Time

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious

A/N:


Chapter 12 (Panicked)

Jade ran into Gary's office, her heart was racing to the point she was close to dropping and her skin was clammy with sweat. Gary, Sam and Beck were currently discussing the events of their most recent investigation and while Jade wanted to know how that went, she was beside herself with grief and terror.

"I fucked up," she exclaimed at the top of her lungs. She dropped to her knees, screaming as her hands flew to her head. "I don't know what happened, but I think I screwed up!" Beck raced over to her side, placing his hands on her shoulders.

"Jade, Jade look at me." Trembling, she tried to take as many deep breaths as she could before looking Beck in the eyes. Her quivering breath came out as a whimper and her tears stained her face. "Jade, what's wrong?"

"T-Tori ran away." His mouth fell open and Gary instantly shot up from his desk. Sam walked forward, saying nothing as her widening eyes studied Jade. "I don't know if it was because of me or not, I-I invited Tori to hang out and then she took off."

Beck wrapped his arms around her as she rocked from left to right. "It's okay," he whispered, "It's okay." She clenched her eyes shut, stifling a sob and struggling to stop the tremors in her body. "Take a minute, relax."

Sam grabbed a cup of water from the water dispenser and hurried over, holding the cup to Jade's quivering lips. "Here, take a sip." Jade placed her lips on the rim of the cup and tried to slurp the water into her mouth. The cool liquid coated her tongue and slid down her burning throat as though drenching a fire.

Closing her eyes, she tried to slow her breathing, breathing in deep and long. Beck guided her over to one of the desks and helped her into the leather chair. "Jade it's okay. Tell us what happened." She shook her head, unable to muster any words.

"C-Can you tell me how your investigation went first?" She thought it might help her to calm down. Beck nodded slowly, his hand gently brushed her hair back and his gaze held with hers. "Please? How did it go?" She took another sip from the cup Sam had given he.r

"We went to the place my dad had gone. We were worried about running into Andre there, but didn't. Yet, we did find out that it was a kind of brothel of some type. It looks like his grandmother may be involved somehow."

"What?"

"Yeah, we asked a girl there about Andre and she said his grandmother got him a job. According to this woman, who we're placing in protective custody, his grandmother is one of the people in charge of the facility."

Jade cupped her hands over her mouth, groaning into them. "What does that mean?"

"It means if Andre's father's not involved, it's the grandmother. There's another problem that we have, and that's the LAPD; but we already know this….we're trying to figure out how the hell to get the police to work with us, but you know, Mr. Vega being in control…"

"You guys wanted to try to focus more on the whole organization and less on the Vegas, but maybe we have to focus on the Vegas?" It was something she'd been thinking about, since if the LAPD was under David's thumb at this point, they needed to somehow get them out of his control. "We already have something implicating them in something, right? I mean…Ian saying he found something in his office."

"We'd still need to be able to find that document, Jade."

"Right, yeah, without that it's hard. I get it."

"You're not wrong though. If we can discredit him somehow, we might be able to get the LAPD on our side." Beck let out a heavy sigh before glancing over his shoulder. "So…you said Tori ran away?" He looked back, raising an eyebrow. Jade extended her phone to him, letting him review the text Tori had sent. He started to pale before taking a step back. "Okay, so she's running away from home. What exactly happened?"

"I invited her to hang out, just the two of us." Sam and Gary approached, each standing on one either side of Beck. Jade wrung her hands between her knees. "She was acting so strange, different than usual." Beck curled a finger over his chin and narrowed his eyes.

"How different?"

"I don't know, it was like she was depressed or something. She was quiet, she wasn't as involved in conversation like her thoughts were elsewhere." Beck nodded as Sam and Gary exchanged a nervous glance. "We played a video game and then went to the kitchen and she saw my notebook on the table so I had to start talking about getting into science-"

"What did she see?" Sam inquired.

"Ian's contact information." The trio froze and the silence was deafening. "Then she was receiving calls she didn't want to answer. Andre called her, Robbie called her, and she said she 'wanted space' from them. Cat called and she finally answered, sounding chipper like usual but telling her she was busy." Sam's brow furrowed a bit and Beck started to nod.

"Okay, so after that?"

"After that, she went outside to make a phone call." Jade bit her lip and leaned forward, then rocked back into the chair. "I was watching her through the window, she seemed distraught. Upset. I went to get a drink, and when I looked back outside, she'd gone out the gate." She sucked in a sharp breath of air. "I ran after her, but she was speeding off in her car. She sent me a text saying she was running away from home and that I shouldn't look for her."

"To be clear," Gary started while raising his hands and holding his index finger and thumb in a circle, "You did not tell her about the investigation?" Jade nodded, it had been the one thing she tried to hold back on.

"I made sure at least she didn't know anything about that. I didn't want to upset her."

"Is there anything she might've said or done that would've given you some idea or inclination that she would be thinking about running away?"

Jade had to think on that for a minute, then she remembered Tori had said something about escaping. "I uh, I may have told her about this iCarly-related thing." Sam raised an eyebrow and Jade quickly bowed her head. "Where Carly's planning a tour of Italy with one of her fans. Tori made a comment at that point that it would be nice to get away for a while, but her parents-and Trina-would never allow it."

"I get why she might say her parents wouldn't be happy with it." Sam crossed her arms and growled. "Probably shouldn't have mentioned something like that, but that's beside the point. I wonder why she'd comment about her sister…"

"There's no way Tori would know anything about the case, right?"

Beck snapped his fingers and turned towards the others. "Remember Ian mentioned that he was dragged outside by Trina?" He looked back to Jade. "Do you remember where Tori's bedroom window is at all?" Jade's nose crinkled and she slowly wiped her clammy palms on her knees.

"I think it faces the backyard." Beck leaned back, sighing slowly as the realization dawned on all in the room. Jade's trembling hand rose over her mouth. "Oh my god, what if…what if she saw what happened to him?"

"And then he pretty much vanishes from her life; but she's still close to Courtney, who is of course still close to him. Courtney, being Sinjin's sister, disappears and Ian's very connected to him."

It didn't take long to piece this together, especially remembering that Ian had told Courtney what he discovered. If there was a chance at all that she told Sinjin anything before disappearing, he could've relayed that information to Tori somehow.

Jade's heartbeat quickened and her hands constricted the arms of the chair. "You don't think…" Her voice trembled and cracked. "You don't think Tori knows something's wrong?"

"Ian got burned by the LAPD," Sam muttered, "He in no way trusts the police or people associated with Hollywood Arts." Sam paced to the right, her index finger tapping her forehead. "This means he probably doesn't trust you or Beck either, and despite giving his statement to us?"

"We're still the police," Gary replied, "He wouldn't trust the police. If Tori has any suspicions whatsoever, why should she trust them?"

"Why would she trust us?" Beck asked as he pointed between himself and Jade. "If for some reason she discovered something about her family, if she thought she was 'being watched' at Hollywood Arts, then who would be the only people she could trust?"

"Courtney. Courtney's missing, however. The next best thing would be her brother, who she's likely grown close to over the years. Then there's Ian, but didn't he say he fell out of touch with her?"

Jade shook her head, she remembered the conversation. "He said they still had minimal contact somewhere, probably like Facebook or something." Beck took a deep breath and swept his hand through his hair.

"Wonderful." His lips pulled away from his bared teeth and he dropped his hand quickly. "He's already had his life, his family threatened. Why the hell would he tell us that he's still in touch with her if he thinks it would mean his death or hers? He's protecting her, he wants to keep her safe…I would almost think they never actually fell out of touch to begin with." He shook his hand in the air. "No, no, otherwise Courtney would never have bothered to investigate on her own. Unless…"

"Unless?"

"Unless she felt the need to get to the bottom of things."

Sam groaned sharply and walked to her desk. "I need to get a hold of Carly, then. If Tori's planning something, and you say you told her about Carly's little Italy project, then we'd better reach out now."

Jade gave a solemn nod and looked to Beck. "I'm sorry," she whispered. He kissed the top of her head.

"It's not your fault Jade, you couldn't have known what would happen. Besides, all of this is speculation…none of us know what's going on with Tori right now."

Gary was pacing, his hand stroked his chin. "I know one thing," he muttered, "If Tori has taken off, David and Holly will be up in arms trying to find her."

Jade's shoulders fell and she dropped her chin towards her chest. "I'm surprised she didn't talk to me." Gary turned, his hand ran down the back of his head and neck.

"Why would she?" Jade glanced up to the man, pursing her lips. "If she didn't trust you and saw that you had Ian's contact information written down…" This was true, especially given how little she or Beck knew who to trust; if Tori found out that her family and even people at Hollywood Arts weren't good people, then how on earth could she trust anybody she met from that school? "Jade, you have to remember that you and Beck met Tori at Hollywood Arts. Her life changed there, her family controlled more of her life after that point. Not to mention the amount of crap you gave her when you first met."

"Right."

"There's a pretty good chance that right now, she's scared, confused, and probably has put herself in an incredibly dangerous position while trying to figure out how to save herself."

"What do we do, then?" She wrung her hands together and a slight whine drifted from her lips. "Are you guys really mad at me right now?" Her eyes drifted to Gary, the one she was truly concerned about.

Gary pushed his hands into his pockets, his elbows flayed his suit jacket outwards and he pushed out a heavy breath. "Why would we be mad at you, Jade? Because you decided to tell her about Carly Shay's Tour of Italy project?" A nervous chuckle fell from her lips and Gary shut his eyes. "From what you've just told us, and based off what we've learned from talking with Ian, it sounds like something's manifested before your recent actions."

"That's right," Sam remarked, "If nothing else, you might have helped give her a means to an end." Her lips parted and the tremors in her body ceased, but she was still anxious. Sam looked her in the eyes. "If, and this is speculation, if she's still been in contact with Sinjin-or Ian for that matter-and has been trying to figure out how to get away from those people, then tell me just what might she be thinking?"

Her gaze drifted momentarily and she drew in a deep breath. "I wanted to try and get her away from them without revealing anything major. I saw an opportunity with Carly's recent thing; but if she's already been planning on an escape of some sort, I just gave her an idea of how she could do that?"

"Yeah, so we need to keep an eye out and I need to call Carly. Not sure what I'm going to tell her, since I can't say anything about the case-"

"We could still use that," Beck remarked while snapping his fingers. The others looked to him curiously and Jade continued to hold her breath. "I think Jade wanted to help, right?" He glanced to her and she quickly nodded. "So, if Carly is coming to California…maybe we can tell her Tori's a big fan and persuade her to let Tori be that person to go to Italy with her?"

"Not a terrible idea." Gary leaned against his desk, he gripped the edge firmly and started to hum. "Only problem is if Tori is running away from home, has let Jade know that and suspects her family and friends are no good, how likely is she to keep using her current cell number? We know Ian's intelligent, we know Sinjin's well versed when it comes to technology, if Tori doesn't want to be found, what do you think is going to happen?"

Jade cringed, already sure of the answer. "She'll get a burner phone or something." Gary closed his eyes and raised his eyebrows. "She's already trying to ignore the others' calls. She wouldn't answer my calls, still won't, so I'm guessing she'd go radio silent on us all."

"There is one thing to say about all of this." Gary pushed himself from the desk. "The Vega family will be looking for her. The police would obviously need to ask questions, no way David would let them treat her like a standard 'runaway teen'. An investigation will have to be underway."

"It'd be better if we had all three of them," Sam replied with annoyance lacing her tone. "Especially if there's something they know, especially Tori, it would help our investigation."

"Yes." Gary smirked. "But remember, this could potentially help us still. Because it's Tori, there are some things David will have trouble keeping secret. Officers will have to do an investigation, they will want to know what has been going on to try and figure out what could have happened to Tori. They'll need to know her past, her associates, where she could've gone and why. Tori deciding to run away from home may actually do more harm to David and Holly than it would help…"


They'll have to keep an eye out, certainly if this can somehow knock David a few pegs and get the LAPD to change loyalties that could be a benefit. Maybe Gary's onto something there. Still, Tori's in an even more dangerous situation, let's see what the gang can do