I know I know, I'm still alive!? I know I haven't written in like, a bazillion years. But I'm feeling like I wanna write again. So stay tuned for a few more chapters, coming sooner rather than later!

EDIT: There's supposed to be a scene break midway when it goes from the first scene, so a TOTALLY different scene of Maisie, Zia, Owen, and Claire. For some reason, the scene break isn't working. Sorry. Just an FYI.

Chapter 7

"HELP!"

"It's no use. No one can hear you."

She looked into the icy cold blue eyes of who she could only assume was her capturer from behind the barred cage she'd been thrown in like an animal.

"Let me out of here! Please!"

"Shut up." He snarled, wrinkling his nose up in disgust.

"HELP!" The young girl cried again.

"Don't make me come in there, I said shut up!" He threatened.

"Devon, that's enough."

The scared young girl watched as Devon's anger quickly turned into surprise as he turned away from her to face the new person who just entered…wherever she was.

"Oh. Dr. Wu, I hadn't heard you come in."

"Clearly. You were having too much fun intimidating our guest."

"Guest?" Devon squeaked.

"Yes, you imbecile. Our guest. She is not like the others." Dr. Wu chastised; his voice cold as he shot daggers at Devon.

"She's not? Why not, sir?"

"That is above your pay grade. Now, step aside."

Devon quickly moved out of Dr. Wu's way, and he watched silently as the doctor took a key to unlock the door.

The young girl, who had been listening all along, pulled her feet close to her chest and tried to shrink away from the approaching man who called himself Dr. Wu.

"Please do not be afraid. If I wanted to harm you already, you would have been heavily sedated by now."

Although he had meant this to have a calming effect, the realization of what he was saying hit the young girl like a ton of bricks, and she began to scream at the top of her lungs.

For a brief moment, Devon debated on stepping in. He didn't want to be on the doc's bad side. Before he could intervene, he watched as the man pulled out something thin and shiny from his pants coat pocket.

"Ah, I see we're going to have to do this the hard way. Very well."

In a swift motion, he jammed the liquid filled needle syringe into the girls neck. She was out instantly. Her body went limp and she slumped over to her side.

"Take her to my lab. Remove her clothes and put her in a gown. Restrain her, so that when she wakes up, she'll be immobile. This sedative will only last about an hour. Make space in an available room."

Without saying another word, he turn on his heel and left the room.

XXX

"Why is Zia watching me, again?" Maisie asked with her arms folded. Claire and Owen had arranged for Zia to take Maisie to the park & out for ice cream as a distraction while the Government agents came to talk. They figured it'd be best for Maisie to be gone when they were present.
"You don't want ice cream?" Claire asked, deflecting.

"Yes. I always want ice cream. I just don't get why you or Owen can't take me." Maisie responded, giving her a look.

"Owen & I have to take care of a few things first. We'll see you soon, it'll be done before you know it."

She thought Maisie would fight her on it some more, but was pleasantly relieved when she let it go. "Okay."

"Alright. So we're ready to go?" Zia asked, as she'd been silently watching the exchange.

"Wait." Maisie said. "I'll only go if I can get three scoops of ice cream instead of one."

Zia glanced at Claire, who frowned. "Absolutely not, Mais."

"Come on, Claire." Owen said as he entered the room, catching the tail end of the conversation. "I'm beginning for her. Let's bargain. How about two?"

Claire laughed, and pretended to think about it before finally nodding. "Deal."

"Yes!" Maisie fisted the air. "Come on, Zia!"

"Bye Guys, I guess?" Zia laughed as she followed Maisie outside. Good Luck she mouthed quietly.

"Thanks." Claire mouthed back, before closing the door.

"Hey." Owen said, coming up stand next to her. "Don't worry. Everything's going to be okay."

"What if it's not, Owen? What if we're making a huge mistake? We could be the reason they take Maisie away from us!"

"Relax. I've been thinking about that. We are going to say that we recently learned about this. And that because the adoption has already been finalized, we didn't want to jeopardize anything. We are will be fully cooperative with the government and helping to uncover anything we find about Wu—under the condition that Maisie remains with us."

"Do you think that's actually going to work?"

"I hope so. I'm not sure, but we've got to try. It's all we've got." Owen offered.

"Okay." Claire said, squaring her shoulders, she repeated herself, a little more confidently. "Okay."

"We got this." Owen said, lacing his fingers in-between hers.

"Yeah, we do." She nodded.

Before either of them could say anything more, there was a knock at the door.

Owen gently squeezed Claire's hand before moving to go open it.

"Ms. Dearing, Mr. Grady. If you could please follow me to the town car parked outside, we will escort you to site 3b-h52 for debriefing." A man in a black and white suit said.

"Ready?" Owen asked Claire.

"Ready." She sighed, squeezing his hand back, and together they walked out.

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