Ranger and I got up and used the washroom. To be honest, I had been floating through the conversation and, although that conversation had been an important one to have, I was glad that it was over. I really needed to pee.

I brushed my teeth and hair, put it up in another ponytail, and met Eli at the sofa in front of our fireplace. He was staring in bemusement out the window at the snow coming down. I sat down beside him. "I just checked my hair in the mirror. I must have scared you a few minutes ago. I looked like a bed monster."

Eli laughed, and again it sounded like such a joyful, innocent laugh that it made me smile.

Ranger joined us minutes later and we walked out of the bedroom together. I held Eli's hand. It was shaking slightly as we walked through to the kitchen. When we got there, he started to shake harder as he looked at Tracy. "I know I wasn't supposed to wake them up", he said. "I'm sorry."

"That's okay", I said. "It was time for us to wake up anyway."

Tracy gave him a hug. "It's okay, sweetie. In a minute everyone can eat the soup that we made this morning, and fuel up for the evening again."

Eli smiled and calmed down. "Buns too?"

Tracy grinned and turned to us. "I used Ranger's recipe for scones. Every child had a chance to put their love into the dough when we were making them. I hope they turned out as well as when Ranger makes them."

"I'm sure they will be good, Trace", said Ranger with a smile, "and if everybody put their love in them, they should be extra special." He poured me a cup of coffee and fixed it the way that I liked, topped up everyone else's cup, and poured himself one. He brought our cups to the table and sat beside me, and stretched his arm along the back of my chair.

Joe and Nick were sitting at the table. "We got the message that our meeting was postponed until four?" said Joe.

"Yes", said Ranger. "Steph and I have been talking to Eli, and he has a lot of information for you. Roscoe was sexually, verbally and physically abusive, and Eli can give you details on that. There is enough to get Roscoe put in jail for that alone, and he would be an excellent person to get off the streets. Eli also said that he knows where Brett is, and has been concerned that – if he tells us – he will have to go back to Roscoe. However, we have promised that he will never have to go back and, while he can put Roscoe in jail for a little while by letting us use his testimony about the assaults that took place, Roscoe will go to jail for a longer time if we can find Brett and pin his abduction on Roscoe."

Joe turned to Eli. "That is all true", he said. "At this point, we are worried that Brett will die. Because of this, we have two very important things to do. The first is to protect you and, although I will be going to meetings, I will be spending a lot of my time protecting you. The second important thing to do is to find Brett before he dies and get him to the hospital. I know that he considered you a friend, and I am sure that you are equally as worried about him as we are."

"Steph said that maybe you and Tracy could become my parents", said Eli. His voice was hopeful and a little overwhelmed, and you could tell that he could hardly believe it.

Joe smiled softly at Tracy, and I looked at her as well. She looked hopeful, tears in her eyes, and she crossed over the room to Eli and wrapped her arms around him. "There is nothing we'd like better", she said. "We've been looking for a special person to adopt, and we'd be thrilled if we were allowed to adopt you. We'd try to be the best parents that we could be."

"Would I ever have to give you a little diddle?" said Eli.

Joe looked horrified. "No, Eli. That is wrong, and I will never ask you for a diddle or want to give you a diddle, and neither will Tracy."

"Will you hit me or yell at me?"

"I will never hit you however, I have to be honest, sometimes I yell if people I love have put themselves in danger and I have been really scared. I have been working on that though, and in all the time that I have been married to Tracy – so three years – I have never yelled once. I will try not to yell at you no matter what happens. If I ever yelled at you, just walk away until I calm down. It doesn't take long. And if it happens, please understand that it is because I am scared. I will try my best to not yell, but like anyone I could make a mistake no matter how hard I try."

"You only yell when you are scared about another person and whether they are okay?"

"About people I love, yes."

"You don't hit?"

"Never."

He thought about that for a moment. "Okay", he said. "I would like to be your son. Even if you yell sometimes."

Joe smiled, but there were tears in his eyes. "I just pray that this adoption is approved. I can already tell that you are a good person that I will be proud to call our son."

Eli smiled shyly.

Alix ran into the room, tugged on Eli's arm, and with his help climbed onto his lap. She grinned. "Mama, Dada, Ewi fwiend."

I was shocked. Alix was a bit reticent and didn't make friends easily. She needed to watch them and assess them fully first before she'd let them into her circle. She was more of an introvert than her two sisters. "He's a nice person, isn't he?" I said.

"Yeah."

"Lixi and Eli have become fast friends today", said Tracy. "They have spent a lot of time playing together. Lixi taught Eli how to do an army crawl, and they had a lot of fun moving around the apartment doing one."

Ranger smiled. "That's my girl", he said.

"Hooah!" said Nick. He had been another Ranger.

"Isn't that hooyah?" said Joe with a smile. He had been in the Navy.

Ranger groaned.

"Where is Brett?" I said to Eli. He was a lot calmer and more at peace with Alix on his lap and although he had his arm around her loosely, I knew that he would make sure that nothing bad ever happened to her.

Joe hurriedly turned his recorder on and put it on the table.

"Roscoe has several houses", said Eli, "and Richard has several houses. We moved around every few days. Brett isn't at Roscoe's house. I think he's at Richard's house. I had only been going to the house you found me in to give some food to the man in the basement. We had lived there for the last week, but the man was crying so much that Roscoe said we had to leave. I'd had to save some of my own breakfast to give to the man, and I had to run away to give the food to him. Roscoe would have hit me when I returned, but I couldn't leave the man to die. When I took the man food, I also smuggled in some pain relievers to make him feel better."

"That was kind of you. What did you bring?"

"I don't know. It's got a flower on it. That's what the girls use when they are in pain. The only other pain reliever that we have is heroin, and somehow I didn't think he would want it."

"Who was he?"

"I don't know his name. He was someone who was trying to shut us down for the mob. That's what Roscoe said. Roscoe said that we were better and stronger than the mob though."

"So Brett is in Richard's house?"

"Yeah. Roscoe is taking care of Richard's houses while Richard is in jail."

"Which house of Richard's is he in? He has four."

Eli thought for a moment.

"Dwaw", said Alix as she looked up and saw his look of confusion. She scrambled off his lap and ran to the family room, retrieved some paper and a pencil and an eraser, and returned to the kitchen with her haul. She handed them to Eli, pulled her chair with her booster seat over, and sat beside him.

"We discovered that Eli is an excellent artist today", said Tracy. "I don't know how much time he had to practice, but he and Alix spent quite a bit of time drawing each other's portraits this morning."

Alix giggled. "Me dwaw dog", she said.

Tracy laughed. "Yes, they agreed to draw each other's portraits, but Alix actually drew a dog instead and told Eli that would be what he would look like if he was a dog. Eli thought that was very funny."

Alix laughed again, and Eli smiled. And that was when I realized that he had a beautiful smile, the kind of smile that transforms an ordinary face into one that was extraordinary – and until that point, I hadn't seen it.

As Alix giggled, she patted his shoulder. "It otay", she said. "You no dog."

"True", said Eli. "I'm a bear." He swiped his claws through the air and grinned.

"Grrr", said Alix and laughed again.

I looked at Ranger, and Ranger looked at me. We smiled. Alix didn't make friends easily but when she did, she was one of the most loyal people I had ever seen. She loved truly and deeply, and the person who was a recipient of her love was a very lucky person. I personally had never seen her make friends as fast as she had with Eli, and I hoped again that Joe and Tracy got a chance to adopt him – if not for his sake, then for Alix's. Judging by her behavior, she would be devastated if she couldn't see him regularly.

Eli worked hard at his picture, and very soon a detailed picture was created. I looked at Joe in amazement. Eli wasn't a very good artist. He was an exceptional artist. As he finished, he handed it over to Joe. "I'm sorry that I don't know the address", he said with embarrassment. "I don't know my numbers or how to read."

Joe looked at the picture and looked at Eli in amazement. "Eli, this is just as good anyway. We know Richard's addresses. We just don't know which of his houses Brett was in and we aren't allowed to enter houses willy-nilly. We have to get approval from a judge, and the judge will only give that approval if there is reasonable belief that the person is there."

"Why do you want Brett so much?"

"Brett is a police officer. He was there to build a case against Roscoe, and to put him in jail. He was the person who first let us know about you, to let us know that you were in trouble, and he worried about you and hoped that you were okay. This morning we were looking for Brett, but we were also looking for you. Based on what Brett said, we were trying to get you away from Roscoe so that we could protect you."

Eli started crying again. Alix climbed in his lap and cuddled in, kissed him on the cheek, and said, "it otay, Ewi. You safe. We wuv you."

"Brett got caught and hurt because of me", said Eli.

"What happened?" said Joe gently.

"Brett was trying to get me away from Roscoe. He said that he would take me someplace where I wouldn't be diddled. We were just about to leave when Roscoe heard and attacked him. Brett is in the top room of the house. He was too hurt to walk down the stairs, and too heavy for Roscoe to move him. He was the only friend that I had, and I got him killed."

"Was he dead when Roscoe was finished with him?"

"No, but he was hurt bad. Roscoe made me move houses, and he said if I went back to see him, he would kill Brett." Tears came to his eyes. "I got him killed."

"Did you go back to see him?"

Eli shook his head. "I was too scared."

Joe reached out and grabbed his hand. "Eli, listen to me. You don't know if he is dead, so don't anticipate things that you don't yet know. We are going to assume that he is alive and, because of your help, we are going to retrieve him today."

"I was thinking", I said.

"Oh oh", said Alix, and looked proud of herself when everyone laughed.

"Hey, missy", I said. I threw her the stink eye, but I could not hold my grumpy face and started laughing as well.

She giggled hard. "Wuv you, Mama."

I grinned. "You're forgiven then."

"What were you thinking, babe?" said Ranger.

"I was thinking of researching Richard's houses again just to make sure that he hasn't added any, and then looking on Google Earth at their pictures to determine which one is the house that he is at. Eli, I will need your help with that to confirm which house it is. When I find it, I can print off a picture of the house for the team to use, as well as the address and an overview shot so that the team can see the environment that they will be working in."

"If Ranger didn't mind me using his computer", said Nick, "I could pull up the houses on Google Earth as you find them, Steph, and perhaps we'd have a location before our four o'clock meeting."

"Great plan", said Ranger. "Steph, can you get Nick set up on the computer? He can get started on the houses that you already know about from your previous research last February. Search the club's houses as well. I'm sure that, if I was six, I wouldn't know the difference as to who owned what. Unless someone told me now, I wouldn't know now either."

Eli looked relieved. "Do you think that you can save him?"

"I don't know", said Ranger. "But I know that we'll try our best."