A/N: Thanks for all the reviews everyone! I'm sure it goes without saying, but they really mean a lot.

It was hours before Blossom opened her eyes. Butch was gone and all was silent save for the soft typing coming from Brick's desk. Brick hadn't noticed her wake up, too absorbed in his project.

"What are you working on?" Blossom asked, simply curious.

"You slept through lunch," Brick replied, ignoring her question. "I left some food on the table for you."

Blossom looked next to her to see a warm pink crape sitting there. It looked just like the ones Bubbles used to make for her. It was even pink. Bubbles would add strawberries to the batter to get it this color just for her, something she thought no one else did. Despite her every instinct telling her not to, she bit into the delicious looking meal. To her shock, it tasted exactly like her lost sister's crapes.

"Where did you get this?" Blossom asked with her mouth full.

Brick looked at her. "Do you like it? The school chefs are geniuses."

"It tastes just like the ones Bubbles' used to make."

"You really miss her, don't you?"

Blossom put down her crape, thinking of her youngest sister. "I think about her all the time. You must feel the same way about Boomer."

"It's different. I know where Boomer is."

"You do? Where is he?" Blossom rushed the words. She had tried to be subtle, but she hadn't heard anything about Boomer since she had last seen him at the dance. She had wanted to know so badly what had happened to him, but refused to voluntarily speak to Brick and Butch wasn't any more approachable.

Brick noticed the concern in her voice. He had hoped Boomer's disappearance would lessen Blossom's feelings for him, however it was obvious it hadn't. He toyed with the idea of telling her nothing at all, but decided against it. "He's out of town," was his only response.

"So you've spoken to him then? He's ok?" Blossom asked, relieved.

"Yes, he's fine," Brick said, getting annoyed.

"Good." Blossom went back to eating her crape. "Um, Brick?" She said after a while. It was uncharacteristically meager of her.

"What is it?" Brick asked, although it was pretty obvious what it was.

"Boomer didn't…uh…Did Boomer say anything about me? Or uh…tell you to tell me anything?" Blossom knew Brick wasn't too fond of her and Boomer's affection for each other, but she had to ask.

"No," Brick replied quickly.

"Oh." Blossom looked down in disappointment.

"Shouldn't you be more concerned about your sister?"

Blossom flushed with anger. How dare he question her concern for Bubbles? "Every moment I'm not in school or sleeping, I'm looking for her."

"It's been eleven days since the dance. Why haven't you found her yet? She could be in China by now for all you know."

Blossom rose to her feet, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. She had asked herself that very question every day since the day Bubbles went missing. "I'm doing everything I can. I don't know where else to look."

"It's not enough. If you don't find her soon, it may be too late."

Blossom quickly wiped away a few stray tears. "Don't you think I know that? Why rub salt in my wounds? Every time I think your being nice, you ruin it." Blossom bit her lip, trying to stop the tears.

Brick sighed. "That's not what I'm trying to do." He got out of his chair and walked toward Blossom.

"Don't come near me!" She shouted, backing towards the door.

"You're acting this way because you know I'm right. I can help you," Brick said, still walking toward her.

"Help me how?"

"I'll find her for you. I can do it before your father leaves. I know it's important to you."

He was right. She would do anything to find Bubbles before their father left on that fishing boat. Hope sparked momentarily in Blossom. She just wasn't sure if she could trust him. "You really want to help me?" Blossom asked, incredulously.

She allowed him to walk up to her. "There is one condition," Brick said.

Blossom crossed her arms. "I knew it. I'm not dropping out of this school. It would crush Bubbles."

"That's not it," Brick said, moving even closer to Blossom.

"I don't have anything to give you," Blossom stammered. She was growing more and more unsettled from the piercing look in his eye.

"There is one thing you have that I want." Brick gently placed a loose piece of hair behind Blossom's ear, sending shivers down her spine.

"Wha…what is it?" Blossom asked after a long silence. Brick was staring so intensely at her, goose bumps were slowly making their way up her arm.

"I want you to be my girlfriend."

…

Buttercup shivered in the cold water. She had searched the entire pond four times already, making slow sweeps back and forth. Her keychain was nowhere to be found. She sat on the edge of the pond, taking her feet out of the water. They were numb from the knee down.

"Maybe it wasn't even my keychain," Buttercup wondered out loud. The water was murky. It could just as easily have been a quarter or a small rock. She sighed, searching for a watch in her school bag. It was almost 3:00pm. Classes would be over soon and Blossom would surely throw a fit if she kept searching the whole night. She needed to find this keychain before either her 72 hours were up, Blossom tells her dad or her toes freeze off.

…

"What did you just say?" Blossom asked slowly, sure she misheard him.

"I said I want you to be my girlfriend," Brick repeated, slower this time.

"What kind of game is this? We hate each other and Boomer and I are practically dating."

"But you're not. Are you going to let a guy who could care less about you come between you and finding your sister?"

"Boomer cares about me," Blossom defended.

"He hasn't even tried to contact you since he's been gone."

"Even if that is true, it doesn't change the fact that I don't like you."

Brick frowned. There had to be some part of her that liked him, even if it was just a little. "Complete strangers get married all the time. I'm just asking you to be my girlfriend. You don't have to like me right away. It's a small price to pay for your little sister's safety."

"Let's get this straight. I am never going to like you, but…" Blossom couldn't believe how far her desperation had pushed her. "If you can find Bubbles before my father leaves in three days, then you have a deal."

Brick wanted to hug Blossom, fist pump, and jump in the air at the same time; instead he simply smirked and went back to his desk. "The door is open. You should go; it seems I have work to do."

Blossom picked up her bag and left, wondering what in the world she had gotten herself into.

…

Buttercup stumbled through the water. As time went on she was getting clumsier. It was probably due to the lack of feeling in her feet.

"Buttercup, I can't believe you're still in there."

BC looked up to see her red headed sister with a steaming bowl of food in her hands.

"What are you doing here?" She asked Blossom.

"Get out of that water and have some soup before you turn into an icicle," Blossom scolded.

Buttercup was about to protest, but maybe Blossom was right. She was hungry, tired and starting to doubt she'd ever find her keychain.

Buttercup took the bowl from Blossom. It was hot tomato basil soup. She didn't even wait for the soup to cool down before chugging half the bowl.

"Still haven't found it?"

Buttercup took a breath between gulps. "I'm starting to think some fish swallowed the damn thing."

"You can stop looking. I got Brick to help me look for Bubbles."

"How'd you do that?" Buttercup asked. She found it hard to believe Brick would help her simply out of the kindness of his heart, even if he did have a crush on her.

"I sorta promised him I'd be his girlfriend."

"What!?" Buttercup exclaimed, nearly dropping her bowl of soup. "You don't even like him."

"Tell me about it, but if he can find Bubbles before dad gets on that fishing boat, it'll be worth it."

…

Bubbles closed her drawing pad after completing another portrait. Most of them were of Boomer, some of them were of her captor and the rest were her sisters and father. She missed them terribly.

"Can I see it?" Boomer asked.

He was locked in the room with Bubbles. They were connected to the same chain that ran along the floor and was attached to the wall. If she walked toward Boomer his chain would pull him toward the wall. It was impossible for them to get near each other.

Bubbles didn't answer Boomer. She hadn't said a word to him since her first interrogation. Her captor had been straightforward. It was her fault Boomer was here. She talked too much, he told her. He didn't want her to say another word unless it was answering the one question he asked her every day; what was her connection to Mrs. Jojo?

Bubbles didn't know the answer. Besides fake-dating her son, there was no other connection. Although she tried to explain this to her captor, he would ask the same question every day and every day she was forced to remain silent, unable to answer the question.

Boomer crossed his arms and sighed. "Say something, anything," he pleaded with Bubbles. He had spent nearly two weeks trying to get Bubbles to talk. She wouldn't tell him where their captor kept taking her, or why she wouldn't speak. He even asked her to draw it, but she barely even acknowledged his existence. He missed her voice, the most angelic voice he had ever heard. He missed her smile and her laugh. She was so close, yet she had never felt further away.

Boomer was startled out of his thoughts by the sound of the door slowly opening. Their captor was late; he normally comes for Bubbles in the afternoon. Boomer was about to tell him this when he saw a different person walk through the door.

…

Buttercup was starting to regret asking Blossom to go home. Her auburn-haired sister had put up quite a fight, but relented when Buttercup brought up their dad and how he was probably waiting for her. BC waded through the water, no longer able to feel the cold. She had stopped shivering a while ago, but was starting to feel lonely.

I must be getting used to the cold, Buttercup thought as she glided her hand along the bottom of the pond. The sun was just starting to set and already Buttercup could barely keep her eyes open. Just a little longer. She promised Blossom she would go home tonight, but she felt like she was so close.

Buttercup sat in the water, too tired to stand. She never stopped searching, her hands continuously feeling the bottom of the pond. She finally closed her eyes, no longer able to keep them open.

…

Butch walked through the sliding glass doors leading to the pond. Brick had told him at school that Buttercup was still out here, but he had to see for himself. Could she really still be searching for the keychain? She should have given up by now.

He looked out at the water, but saw no one. I knew it, he thought. Butch turned around, about to walk back when he spotted BC's backpack and shoes. She was still here. Butch scanned the surface of the water before his eyes rested on a human-shaped lump in the pond.

"Buttercup," Butch yelled to her, but she didn't move.

"Buttercup!" he yelled a bit more frantically. Still no motion.

The little idiot, what was she thinking? Butch kicked off his shoes and ran as best he could through the freezing cold water. He wouldn't have lasted in this cold for more than ten minutes, how could she spend the whole day in this?

When he reached Buttercup, her lips where blue, her breathing faint and she was freezing cold to the touch. He carried her like he had the first day he met her, except this time he held her close. He hadn't meant for this to happen, yet he probably should have known.

When he got out of the water he quickly dialed an ambulance. "I'm so sorry," Butch repeated to the unconscious Buttercup. He brought her to the front of the building, forgetting that there were protesters acting on Buttercup's behalf.

"What's wrong with BC?" one of the girls asked.

"He needs to get to the hospital," Butch replied. He knew it wasn't an explanation, but luckily it was enough. The girls gave him room enough to quickly run to the ambulance that just arrived.

…

"Brick?!" Boomer said in a mix of surprise and relief.

"Shh, do you want the guards to hear you?" Brick whispered harshly.

"How did you find us?" Boomer asked, quieter this time.

"There will be time to explain later," Brick quickly went to Bubbles chain and unlocked her foot with a key. "Before we leave I need to do one thing." Brick brought out a pair of scissors. "Your hair is too obvious, it needs to go."

Bubbles opened her mouth to protest, but nothing came out. Confused, she tried again, but still no sound, not even a squeak. Her complete silence for the last few days must have caused her to lose her voice. Instead, Bubbles shook her head violently. It had taken her years to get her hair all the way down her back. It was finally comparable to Blossom's. There was no way she was going to let him cut it. It didn't seem like Brick understood; he kept moving closer and closer to Bubbles with the scissors.

"She doesn't want you to cut her hair. Isn't there some other way you could disguise her." Boomer said, coming to her rescue.

"None that I could do right now." Brick paused for a second. "There is another way." Brick waited for a response.

"What is it?" Boomer said, agitated that he had to even ask.

"All the guy wants to know is how Bubbles is connected to our mom. Once she tells us we can all go home."

"How do you know this?" Boomer asked his brother.

"The answer to that question isn't going to help us get out of here." Brick turned to Bubbles. "Do you know anything at all?"

Bubbles shook her head and buried her face in her hands. Boomer realized that this must be what their captor was asking her every time he took her away.

"She doesn't know," Boomer told Brick.

"Are you sure?" Brick tried again. "I won't have to cut off your hair if you tell me."

"You're not going to cut off her hair regardless." Boomer said, no longer caring if the guards heard him.

"What are you going to do about it? You're still chained to the wall remember?"

Boomer looked at his foot still shackled to the chain. "That's right. Why didn't you unchain me when you did Bubbles?" he asked, a bit surprised he realized so late.

"I don't have the key to yours. I only came for Bubbles," Brick said as if it were obvious.

"What!" Boomer walked toward Brick, but his chain stopped him from getting too close. "Why would you rescue only one of us? And why Bubbles and not your own brother?"

Brick sighed. "I don't have time for these explanations. The facts are, I'm here, I have one key and that key only opens Bubbles chains."

"You haven't even tried to open mine," Boomer said.

He had a point. Brick tossed him the key then turned to Bubbles. Bubbles quickly grabbed her hair and shook her head, backing up against the wall.

"I have to do it," Brick said. He grabbed her hair while Boomer fumbled with the key.

"Please," Bubbles mouthed.

"You've given me no choice." Brick used his scissors to cut off one of Bubbles pigtails. Bubbles silently cried as she watched her hair fall limp into her hand.

Boomer gave up on the key and looked up in time to see Bubbles crying at the loss of her hair. "You bastard, you didn't have to do it." Boomer yelled.

"Shut up," Brick hissed. "They'll hear…"

"What's going on in here?" A guard interrupted Brick. He had obviously heard the commotion and came rushing inside.

Boomer froze, unable to say anything.

"Where is Bubbles, and who are you two?" The guard asked Brick and Bubbles.

Bubbles slapped her forehead. Did he really not recognize her with short hair? Brick answered for them. "My girlfriend and I wondered in here by accident." He held Bubbles hand as if to prove it.

"Well you're not supposed to be in here. Get out."

Boomer watched as Brick and Bubbles were thrown out the room, unable to believe what just happened.

…

Bubbles looked out the window of Brick's red convertible. She was silent as they drove, not by choice. There were so many questions she wanted to ask. Why had he rescued her and not his brother? How did he get inside the building? How did he know where they were in the first place? But the question burning on her mind the most, where were they going?

They had past any turns that would have taken them back to her house. She looked at Brick, confused. She pointed to the next turn. When he didn't take it, she shook her head and pointed again, more urgently this time.

"I'm not taking you home," Brick finally said. "I promised I'd return you safe and sound. I'm taking you to the hospital so we can fix that voice of yours."

Bubbles was frustrated. She didn't care that she couldn't talk. She preferred to see her family first, but Brick seemed determined to take her to the hospital.

They arrived quickly. Before they got out of the car Brick placed his hat on Bubbles. He pulled the brim low, just above her eyes. "Keep your head down," he instructed.

They went to the front desk. Brick explained who he was and they immediately led Bubbles to a room. Brick stayed behind in the waiting area, having spotted someone he knew.

"What are you doing here?" Brick asked his dark-haired brother.

"They won't let me see her."

"What's Buttercup gotten herself into now?" Brick asked. He knew there was no other reason Butch would be waiting for someone.

"I found her passed out in the pond."

Brick sat down next to his brother. "She was still looking for that keychain?"

"I feel bad enough without you rubbing it in." Butch looked away from his brother to stare at the door that led where the patients stayed. Buttercup was in one of those rooms, probably hooked up to some machine and it was all his fault. "What are you doing here anyway?" Butch turned back to his brother.

"Looking for you," Brick lied. "Mom was wondering where you went?"

Butch looked at him, confused. "Mom never wonders where I am."

"That's because she usually knows."

Butch was about to reply when a nurse walked up to them. "Mr. Jojo?"

"Yes?" Both brothers responded. Brick cursed under his breath. If this was about Bubbles his lies were about to be revealed.

"Buttercup is still unconscious, but she's stable. Would you like to see her?"

Butch stood up to go with the nurse. "Cover for me bro," he said before leaving.

Brick walked over to the front desk, happy it hadn't been about Bubbles. He dropped his business card and a hundred dollar bill on the counter. "Contact me directly when Bubbles is cleared to leave. Do not allow her to see, contact, or leave with anyone but me. Understand?"

The young woman looked confused. Brick rolled his eyes and dropped an extra fifty dollars. The woman took it and smiled. "Understood."

…

Butch sat beside Buttercup with the keychain in his hand. He had never seen her look so weak. The first time he had brought her here she was beaten, but not weak. What was it about hospitals that made a person look so close to death?

He looked down at the keychain. He should have never bought the damn thing in the first place. He placed the keychain in her hand and pressed his head to her shoulder, silently wishing for her to wake up.

"What time is it?" He heard a weak voice whisper. Butch quickly looked up. Buttercup hadn't opened her eyes, but he was certain it was her voice. "The time?" she asked again, impatiently frowning.

Butch looked at his phone. "It's after nine. You've been out for more than six hours."

Buttercup slowly opened her eyes and smiled. "I found it in time," she said, holding the keychain tightly in her hand. "I must have found it in my sleep."

Butch grabbed her by her shoulders. "You could have died and you're still talking about that keychain?" He hugged her tightly, warming Buttercup from the inside out.

She felt tired and weak, but tried her best to hug him back. Her tiny squeeze stirred something in Butch's heart. "I'm sorry Buttercup," Butch whispered into her neck. She bit her lip realizing this was the first time he had called her by her real name.

"I'm the one who should be sorry," Buttercup whispered back, releasing Butch from the hug.

"I never threw the keychain into the water."

Anger sparked inside Buttercup. All that searching in the pond, the biting pain of the freezing cold water threatening to put her in an early grave and it wasn't even there in the first place? She breathed deeply for a moment, allowing herself to calm down. She had put Butch through more, she realized. "It's ok, I deserved it."

"No you didn't," Butch said, placing his hand over hers. "You felt like you had no choice. I lied to you to hurt you. I was a jerk and I'm sorry for that."

"Butch." Buttercup leaned in to kiss him, but he pulled away.

"Wait," Butch interrupted. "I'm not done." He stood up and backed away from the hospital bed. "As promised, I forgive you for lying to me, you can return to work tomorrow and I'll do my best to find your sister, but that doesn't mean things will go back to the way they were."

…

Brick sat in his mother's office, waiting for her to arrive. He hadn't called ahead so she wasn't expecting him. When she arrived, she immediately walked to her desk and sat down, treating Brick more like a client then a son.

"I assume this was too important to wait until I got home."

Before Brick said anything he made sure to walk to every camera in the room and turn them off one by one. It didn't take his mother long to realize what he was doing.

"What is this about?" she asked as Brick locked the door and returned to his seat.

"You remember Bubbles, don't you?"

Pricilla stiffened for a moment, before relaxing. She hoped Brick hadn't caught it, but he had.

"I remember she dated Boomer for a time. What about her?" Pricilla said slowly. She crossed her legs, uncomfortable with this topic.

"She's been kidnapped." Brick stated, watching for her reaction.

"If you're implying that I had something to do with her disappearance, then you're wrong." Pricilla's blank expression turned into a smug one.

"I know you didn't take her." Brick said calmly. "Because I did."