A/N: this bit is slightly longer than usual; and many thanks to lady_macgyver.

Part 18

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John stood looking at Donna with a shocked expression on his face. Having garnered the courage to phone up Nerys and ask about handing in his notice, the last thing he expected was for her not to answer. "It's still ringing," he observed. "No one is picking up."

"Strange," she noted as the call went to voicemail and he began to leave a message to request they contact him. "Let me try. I've got Nerys' personal number."

She disappeared into the bedroom to grab her mobile phone and emerged having dialled the number. "Well?" he queried as her expression puckered.

"She's not answering that either. That's not like her. I've known her for years! Since we were at school together. She lives and dies on the phone. Do you think she's been rushed to hospital or something?"

"It's possible," he reluctantly agreed. "Would she leave her phone behind if she had?"

"Not a chance," she reasoned. "It'd be all over Facebook and twitter."

"Have you checked them?"

"Yes," she answered with her eyes fixed on the device in her hands. "There's no mention of anything. Absolutely nothing."

"Perhaps the waterpipes have burst," he suggested.

"Or the ceiling has collapsed," she continued. "Whatever it is, they'd need help clearing it up."

"Are you suggesting we drop by to see?" he wondered.

With a tiny shrug of her shoulders, she muttered, "Couldn't hurt, could it? We've got to leave today anyway."

"Come on then," he encouraged her, "Let's get dressed and go see. I know you won't be happy until we double check."

"Thanks," she gasped in relief. "Won't be long."

"Should I come too, just in case?" Jack asked from his bed when John walked back in there to dress. "If a clean up job or humping boxes about is needed, I can help. But if everything's alright, I'll toddle off home."

"You've been listening in. Toddle off?" John teased him with a laugh. "You're sounding more English every day you spend here. By all means cadge a lift with us.

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The cab slowed down as it entered Dean Street, looking for the right establishment to turn off.

"Up here on the left will do, thanks," Donna told the driver. "Doesn't look as though anything is wrong," she commented to John and Jack. "The worst we might get done is some shopping."

"I could do with some breakfast," Jack replied as the taxicab stopped to let them out on to the grey London street. "My treat," he magnanimously offered his companions, who were looking rather anxious.

John was steeling himself to give his speech, again, and the soft touch of Donna's hand was a great consolation. "Here we go."

He led the way to the half-hidden entrance and up the narrow stairs to their agent's office. Normally, Nerys sat behind her cheery receptionist, but as they entered the brightly lit waiting area it was clearly evident no-one was there."

"Weird," Donna said, taking in the silent room. Where was all the clatter of keyboards and phones? "Nerys! Are you in here?" she called out. no answer, so she cautiously moved closer to the back offices. "Nerys! Where are you?" she shouted.

"Nothing. They've gone," John noted as their eyes darted about for clues. "The ceiling's intact. I'll go check the plumbing."

"Wait," Jack hoarsely whispered, halting John's movement with a clasp of his upper arm. "Do you hear that?"

"What?" Donna inevitably asked, but John shushed her.

"I can hear something back there," he quietly informed them, and edged onwards with Jack following close behind.

Donna desperately looked for something to use as a weapon before she followed them. She caught them up as John gingerly opened an office door, and the mumbled sound managed to get louder.

"What the…!" Jack began to exclaim as they adjusted their eyes to the dimmed lighting.

Inside the room was a woman trussed up with cable ties and some sort of cloth as a gag.

"Nerys! What have they done to her?" Donna cried.

"Hhhhhhmmm mmeerrrrnnnf," Nerys tried to explain, jerking about in her seat. "Oh! Thank God for that," she gasped as the gag was removed. "I was beginning to think I'd never be found. He's a raving lunatic!"

Donna frowned. "Who is?"

"My new temp," Nerys spat.

"Temp? Why do you need a temp?"

"Because Kelly takes her holiday once a year. She's gone backpacking in the Himalayas, I ask you. Been gone for a month."

"Never mind the office gossip. This lunatic temp of yours, who is he?"

"Thanks," she aimed at Jack as the last of the cable ties was snipped free of her body, and she shook the life blood back into her hands. "He claimed his name was Peter but his name's really Lance. Lance Bennett. You might have heard of him, the snivelling swine."

Donna instantly paled. "Yes, I remember him," she faintly voiced.

Now concerned even more, John let his protective side take over. "Donna, who is Lance? Why do you remember him?"

Coming out of her daze, she answered, "He used to stalk me, years ago. I had to move home to get away from him."

"So why would he be bothering you now?" John asked. "Nerys, do you know anything?"

Nerys smirked, in the arrogant way she had perfected, and reached down to pull a newspaper from out of the wastepaper bin. "It could have something to do with this," she declared, almost throwing it into his hands.

Rifling through a couple of pages, John came to the entertainment news section. It featured a photo of The Companions joined by John himself, and within the article it mentioned Donna had been found by her son. "It mentions us and Callum," he announced. "How on earth did they get hold of that information?"

"He stated it quite clearly outside the hotel," Donna replied. "Does it say anything about you grabbing him?"

"Fortunately, not." John closed the paper and turned his attention on to Nerys. "He must have asked you something. What did he want to know?"

"Where you were, that sort of thing, but I told him you were moving on today to a new hotel. That he'd have to chase you halfway up the M4 to get anywhere near to you," Nerys supplied. "He wasn't pleased in the slightest. Went on and on about you daring to even look at a bloke that wasn't him.

"Look at a bloke? When did I do that?" Donna queried and corrected herself when John shot her a cheeky smile. "Well, in public, I mean."

He re-opened the newspaper to show her the photo of them on stage, standing quite close together, exchanging a sunny smile. "This could be it."

"Yeah, how dare I smile on stage," she complained. "That was completely innocent."

"And also a bit suggestive," Jack added as he examined their pose. "Don't look at me like that. I thought you two were an item when I first saw you too, remember. Turns out I was right, but that doesn't matter. We need to report this to the police."

Nerys already had the phone in her hand. "What do you mean you're an item?" she accused Donna. "When did that all happen?"

"I erm…" John blushed. "I need to talk to you about that and my position as bodyguard," he coyly spluttered.

"I see," she huffed. "Let's get this police and weirdo business out of the way first, and then I will consider your employment position."

"The thing is," Donna began to reason out, "Lance could have come searching for me to bother again, but instead he went to the trouble of shutting you up and going somewhere else instead. Now where would he have gone?" She glanced around the office and noted, "Your filing cabinet is open."

"He opened it," Nerys remembered. "He grabbed something out of what was probably your file in there. Which means he could be at your house."

"Or," Donna suggested, "he hid that Social Services request Callum mentioned, since you said you hadn't seen it. He could have been deliberately keeping my son away from me."

"And he might be on his way to Callum instead of you," John continued. "Is he capable of doing that?"

"Of course he is," Nerys snapped. "He's a nutjob. All he wants to do is get back at Donna for rejecting his poor, tiny, male pride."

"Then we need to get to Callum as soon as possible," John decided. "Nerys, you deal with the police. We'll go make a citizens' arrest."

"Fine by me," Nerys called out to them as they hastened away. "Just leave me to deal with the trauma of being tied up by a maniac. I'm only your agent, after all."

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