Chapter 5: Welcome to Neptune

At eight years old, Anna Mars was finally going to have a sleepover away from home. Well, it wasn't exactly a sleepover, she was spending the night with her neighbor, Mrs. Moore, but for the first time ever, she was going to be away from her mother overnight, like a big girl. And, Mrs. Moore was so much fun, she always had good food at her house, fun games and really good movies (plus, Anna was pretty sure that Mrs. Moore would allow her to stay up late!). Mrs. Moore had become a stand-in grandmother to Anna over the past 8 years. Because she had no family of her own (Mr. Moore had passed away some years earlier, and she had not been able to have children), Mrs. Moore accepted Veronica and Anna into her family as soon as an expecting Veronica moved in next door. She watched Anna from the time she got home form school every day until Veronica came home from work, sometimes very late at night.

Veronica had never left Anna alone overnight before, all of the sleepovers Anna partook in occurred in the Mars apartment. Call her overprotective, but as an FBI agent, Veronica had seen too many tragic cases to allow Anna to be away from her for too long. Veronica finally had a lead on a case she had been working on for years, her suspect looked as though he was going to flee to Canada, and from there to another country, he had well known connections to Cuba. Veronica and her team had to act quickly, even though that meant an overnight trip.

Veronica assured Mrs. Moore and Anna that if they needed anything, at all, to call her, she would have her cell phone at all times. With one last kiss on the head, Veronica said goodbye to her daughter and was off to catch a suspect.

Anna and Mrs. Moore had a wonderful time, they baked cookies, played board games and watched movies until Anna fell asleep. Mrs. Moore decided to let Anna sleep on the couch instead of the guest bedroom, as she did not want to wake the sleeping child. She ensured that the door was locked, turned the lights off and went to bed.


7:00 the next morning (Mrs. Moore's apartment)

Mrs. Moore had never been a late sleeper, upon waking up that morning, she decided she would prepare a big breakfast for Anna. On her way to the kitchen, Mrs. Moore decided to stop in the living room and check on Anna.

The couch looked like it had been slept in, but it was empty. Mrs. Moore didn't see Anna anywhere in the living room, nor was she in the bathroom or the kitchen, "Anna" Mrs. Moore called, concerned. She tried again, "Anna!" this time it was louder, but she still did not get a response. She went to the door to see if Anna had gone outside, and noticed something strange. The lock did not look quite right. "Anna" Mrs. Moore called once more, sticking her head out the door to look for the child. Still, there was no sign of Anna, fearing the worst, Mrs. Moore dialed 911 to report Anna's disappearance.

The police arrived and confirmed that there had been forced entry into the apartment sometime during the night. After this confirmation, Mrs. Moore called Veronica, who did not answer her phone, forcing Mrs. Moore to leave a message, instructing Veronica to call when she could.

The police took a statement form Mrs. Moore, asking about her relationship with the Mars family, and why anyone would target Anna. As a federal agent, Veronica had made quite a few enemies during her career. The officers called in the FBI and Mrs. Moore's apartment was soon full of officers dusting for fingerprints and collecting other evidence.


Somewhere on Highway 5, southbound (Anna's POV):

What is going on? Am I in a car? I'm so tired, and a little dizzy. Where did I fall asleep? Am I in Mrs. Moore's living room? I guess I could open my eyes. As soon as I opened my eyes, I regretted that decision. I was in the back seat of an old car, being driven by a man I had never seen before. What is going on? This must be a nightmare, I ate too much junk food last night and fell asleep watching a scary movie!

Have I been kidnapped, surely not, My mother always warned me about getting into cars with strangers and getting to close to people I didn't know. I hadn't broken any of her rules, the last thing I remember was watching a movie on Mrs. Moore's couch.

The driver of the car notices that I have woken up, for a second he looks nervous, but his emotion quickly fades and he warns me "stay down, and don't try anything." I have never been more scared in my life.

How long have I been gone, has Mrs. Moore noticed that I am missing, does my mom know?

My mom will find me, she is an amazing FBI agent. I start to doze again (I must have been drugged or something), thinking about my mom coming to my rescue.


Near the California-Oregon boarder (Veronica's POV):

Our mission was successful, we were able to apprehend our suspect just south of Portland, and after a late night/early morning of sorting out paperwork with the local precinct, my team and I were on our way home. I was able to get a little sleep in the car, but I woke up at about 9 in the morning, as the sun was flooding the SUV and interrupting my sleep.

I grab my phone to see if there is anything from Anna or Mrs. Moore, Anna usually sleeps pretty late on the weekend but I just want to check and make sure they haven't had any problems. Damn Smartphone it can do everything imaginable but hold a charge, I wonder how long it has been dead? Finally, I am able to fish my charger out of my purse and plug into the car's outlet. When it eventually turns on, I have about 20 missed calls from Mrs. Moore, beginning to panic, I wonder if Anna had an allergic reaction to something, or if she decided to go for a bike ride and fell. I was not imagining what actually happened when I picked up the phone to return Mrs. Moore's calls.

As soon as the hysterical older woman answered, she she said "She's missing." I didn't pay any attention to anything she said after that. I was in shock, my baby was gone. Still on the line with Mrs. Moore, who was rambling about locking the doors and the FBI dusting for prints and sending out search teams, I yelled at agent Collins who was driving to drive faster, I needed to get back to Sacramento!

We were still four hours outside of Sacramento but I was busy making phone calls to every connection I had in the state of California. I wanted my daughter to be found!

The FBI wanted to keep Anna's disappearance out of the news because of my position. They feared that releasing her identity as the daughter of a Federal Agent would harm her more than help the search for her, so an Amber Alert was not issued. Instead, federal agents were scouring the state of california and surrounding areas searching for a trace of Anna. Border patrol had been contacted and they were searching every vehicle for signs of Anna.

Collins had us back to Sacramento in record time. I was filled in on the efforts to find my daughter, but because she was my daughter, I was not allowed to help at all. Being the restless person that I am, I went to my personal car and began to drive. I didn't know where I was going, but it felt a lot better than sitting around the office or my apartment not being able to do anything.


Anna's POV:

I began to wake up again as the car I was in exited the highway. I was careful to not let the driver know I was awake, afraid that he would yell at me or drug me more. From my position in the back seat, I noticed a sign "Welcome to Neptune, California!" That's a good sign, at least I am still in California.

The driver pulled into a gas station and turned off the engine. He glanced back to me and assumed I was still asleep. He got out of the car to go into the station, probably to pay cash for the gas and maybe get something to eat, come to think of it, I was very hungry. I remember one of my mother's lessons about what to do if you are taken: don't stay quiet, get to a public place and get lots of attention. A near empty gas station was not exactly the most populated place, but I began to look for someone to help me.

What seemed like an eternity later, but was really probably less than a minute later, a police car turned into the gas station. As soon at the police car pulled up to a pump, I jumped out of the back of the car I was in and ran toward the police car screaming for help. The driver looked startled as I approached, but that did not stop me from clinging to his leg as I began to cry and tell him what happened to me.


Lamb's POV (finally!):

It had been a long morning, Sacks and I were finishing up a patrol shift, which I rarely did but there had been a missing child report overnight and we needed every officer available on duty. I pulled into a gas station to fill up my squad car for the day and to have Sacks get us a couple of cups of coffee.

As soon as I exited the car, I heard screaming coming from one of the pumps, my first instinct was to draw my weapon, then I noticed the noise coming from a little girl, who was running toward me very quickly.

"HE TOOK ME" the girl started, she had a death grip on my leg and tears were flowing from her eyes. Those eyes, they looked very familiar, in fact, she looked very familiar in general. She continued to cry and did not loosen her grip on my leg. Unsure of what to do—I've never been much for children—I squatted down to her eye level to attempt to comfort her. "Shhh, It's ok now. You are safe, I'm Sheriff Lamb and this is Deputy Sacks. What's your name?"

"Anna," She replied through her tears, "Anna Rose Mars."

Holy Shit

"What's your mom's name?" I asked, although I was already sure of the answer.

"Veronica Mars" She replied, "She's an FBI agent." Without another thought, I pulled the small girl into my arms and let her cry on my shoulder.


A/N: Yay! Lamb's back, and he will talk to Veronica in the next chapter as well as spend some time with Anna. I hope to update soon!

Also, I changed the rating to M because Lamb swears and probably will in upcoming chapters, I do not plan to put any other kind of explicit content in the story though.