When You Say Nothing At All
By: AnAmericanMom
Chapter Two: Hanging On
The relatively small room contains a single bathroom, cold cement floors, no windows, and very little furniture. The floors hold unknown stains that she often finds herself turning into images in her head to help pass the time while Jayden sleeps, or turns them into stories for him when he's awake. The bed they spend the majority of their time on is the only major piece of furniture, and the chair that Hunter always occupies when he comes in to harass her.
Their days, of which she is certain she's counted four of already, are spent alone. Each night, late she's certain, Hunter returns to further provoke the fiery temper she's always been known for. He bullies her, tries hard to tear down her confidence that Tommy will save her. After all, he's made clear his intentions. He wants money, yes, but he also wants to make Tommy and Portia suffer for the pain he believes they caused him. Eye for an eye, so she's reasonably certain he plans to either kill them himself or have someone else do it for him before everything is said and done.
She fights, with all the strength she has, to keep up her spirits and put on a brave face for the scared little boy currently asleep beside her. She idly toys with the charm bracelet encircling her wrist, silently recalling the memory behind each of the charms. Jude chuckles to herself, recalling as he tried each time to add the newest charm link to the bracelet only to have to hand it over to her, due to his lack of nails, to add the recent additions. The most recent had actually been from Darius. He had two very special charms made for her, one is a medical alert directly from the national corp. so that if she is ever hurt and unconscious they can look her up in the data base and find out her medical history, allergies, current medications -anything that may save her life. The other, is a circular disk, representing her first platinum record.
As always, turning her thoughts over to Darius starts her thinking of Portia and the situation D and Tommy were in when they were kidnapped in the first place. They had been in a meeting with the lawyers, trying to find out what the h0ld up has been on the paternity test to determine Jayden's father. To be honest, she's beginning not to have any need for the results herself. The more she spends time with the little boy, the more she can see Tommy in him. Then again, it could very easily be simply that he is picking up on the man's behaviors and personality from all the time they spend together. Ever since Jayden was introduced to her in the hospital, the three of them had become nearly inseparable. They had become a family. It no longer matters to her who the father is, it matters what is in Jay's best interest and she, along with everyone else, believes that is to remain with her and Tommy.
The only people who seem to have a problem with this is the legal system. They don't want to award custody to Tommy unless they have to, simply because of his involvement with a minor. It doesn't matter that the relationship, in many ways, is still innocent or that they have her father's blessing. No, the states wish to be difficult over the whole thing.
Jayden begins to stir beside her, whimpering as he always does before waking. This whole ordeal is terrifying, despite having Jude with him throughout it. She doesn't blame him for being frightened, of course, what small child wouldn't be? She begins to stroke his hair, leaning down to kiss his temple as she whispers soothing words to him, coaxing him awake in as peaceful of a manner as possible, given their circumstances.
Four days, sixteen hours, twenty-seven minutes, and thirty-nine seconds. No, make that forty seconds. Tommy counts to himself with his hands pressed between his knees as he sits in the middle of the kitchen, staring at the clock on the microwave. He's only vaguely aware of the others seated around the table, or standing along the counter around him. Kwest is beside him to the right, from there sits Speid, Kyle, Wally, and of course D. Standing behind them against the counter is Kat and even Jamie. No one dares to say a word about the bags beneath Tom's eyes, the fact he's not shaven once since he's returned, or even to the fact that he's not eaten a thing since they were taken. No one breathes a word of Jayden or Jude. Every person is too terrified it will set him off, or that they will fall apart with the mention of it.
Darius returned to Toronto the day following Jude and Jayden's kidnap, with Tommy arriving the day of. He had settled all that needed to be dealt with in regards to his nephew and arranged everything else to be dealt with once they were safely returned. But, that's the problem when dealing with someone who is quite possibly certifiable. What's the safest way to approach someone like that? As influential as Darius is, the many contacts he has, even he has limitations to what he can do, and everyone is just plain out of ideas. So, they wait. All of them gathered in her kitchen, waiting with baited breath for Hunter to call with instructions, demands, anything! All praying and hoping their loved ones will be fine and that neither Sadie nor Stuart will call to check in. No one has had the heart to tell either of them, to worry them.
The sound of a cell phone crying out into the silence breaks the spell over the kitchen, bodies begin to shuffle and change position as Darius' gruff voice answers the phone. "This had better be good news." The entire kitchen watches the dark skinned man as his eyes widen just a fraction, the way his nostrils flare. They all lean in, hoping to catch something, but then with a roll of his dark eyes he sets the phone on speaker and slides it to the center of the table before speaking again. "You're on speaker, say it again, Anderson."
"We've been trying for days to trace the last call, but this guy's exceptionally good. However, we've also been going over all the details everyone's provided us on her medical history, her physical appearance, all the tiny details that might be considered insignificant. That's when it clicked."
"What clicked?" Speid interrupts, as obviously agitated by the man's long winded explanation as the rest, but the only one willing to be rude and force the man to the point.
"In the report Mr. Mills filed with us he mentioned a little charm for a bracelet that he'd provided miss Harrison with shortly after the start of her chemo therapy. He gave her a medical alert charm, which he of course registered with the national database. What we didn't realize until today, and I'm sure Mr. Mills had forgotten this until now as well, but it also has a tracking device imbedded in the code. It is not only linked to the national database with all of her up to date medical information but can also be tracked. It's an extremely new bit of technology that only people in a position like Mr. Mills can even afford to consider when purchasing such little things as the charms or other medical ID tags."
"Does that mean you have found them or just that you can?" This time it's Tom's rough voice that interrupts Anderson on the phone in front of them all, his dull crystal blue eyes shimmering with tears of hope he won't dare shed in the presence of everyone else.
"We're in the process of running the trace right now. We should actually have a satellite location within the next… Ten minutes. From there, we just have to evaluate where they are located and the safest way in which to proceed. As you and Mr. Mills have both indicated, Mr. Quincy, this man is extremely dangerous and we want to approach this with every precaution to ensure their safe return. But, the fact that we can find them, tonight, is good news. We're that much closer to bringing them home to you. Has he made any contact with anyone recently?"
"No. He's drawing this out on purpose, to make sure that I suffer as much as possible. I know his ultimate goal is to kill them both, I know him. I know how his warped mind works, but he wants to try and leave me with some sense of hope for a while, to make it hurt more."
"Well, I will be in touch within the next couple of hours with further information. If you hear from Hunter, please, don't hesitate to call."
"Thank you." Darius, picks up the phone, flipping it shut and placing it back in his breast pocket as he claps a comforting hand on Tom's shoulder briefly. "This is good news, T. We're going to find them and bring them home safe."
AN: To all of the readers who have remained loyal and have anticipated this chapter. I apologize that it has taken me so very long to update! There's been a lot going on here between the holidays, starting a new job, going back to college, and of course being a mom! I hope that as my schedule begins to regulate itself and steady in the next couple of weeks that I will be more able to update! I do hope that this chapter is a start to make it up to all of you! I hope to have another one out, two if I'm lucky, by the middle of next week! I appreciate all of you sticking with me through all this delay!