Forbidden Gardens

23500 Franz Rd.

Katy (Outside Houston), Texas

Day 4 of 7 of the Ransom Time Limit (the next day)

2:10 p.m.

The rain pours onto what is supposed to be a beautiful landmark site for the City of Houston. A small park highlighted by the presence of replica Chinese Terra Cotta warriors are all being soaked in rain water. The rain storm brings the appropriate mood to some of the members of the mourning Tan family. All are taking refuge in what looks like a fully enclosed glass greenhouse, restricted to the public.

Inside, Tom Tan frantically works his computer and cell phone trying to find more answers. He knew that Dad would be calling soon. Dad was one of the first people to find out about Teddy's firefight.

Tom finishes working and gets a message from Dad 'inviting' him to a video conference. Tom, very thankful that he got the information needed in time for his demanding father.

The screen pops up…

(A/N: Outside Sources: Theo's father William Tan, would be played by actor Tzi Ma from the first Rush Hour movie)

And up came Tom and Theo's father,William Tan. A man tall for his ancestry, William Tan had the unmistakable qualities of a traditional Chinese patriarch. Rough, demanding, self centered, and at times insensitive to people. The only way he knew how to relate to people was through demands and expectations. But he is not a particularly unreasonable man, but he is a product of his upbringing. Very traditional, fiercely protective of his family to the exclusion of what he would call 'outsiders' was a trait that came from his traditional roots but were exacerbated because of his crime business. To him it was all about the money and the power. But he deeply cared for his family and was always genuinely concerned for his sons, especially Theo. His ever present hunger and obsession with money and power came from his perceived ever present obsession to provide both to his two sons. He was a man who believed the world was ruled only by the strong ruthless and powerful. He equated love with what things he could provide and leave them. And that was how he showed it. The death of Theo's mother had only strengthen his resolve to gain more and more power. His aspirations was as large as the entire Pacific seaboard of the United States.

"Thomas, what have you found," William asked harshly, enraged at whoever did this to his youngest son.

"Alright Dad, this is what I could find. The bikers and the bombing was nothing compared to this…"

"What do you mean, is this one connected to the bounty we found?" William asked.

"Yes, Dad…"

William is contemplating what happened to his son. He was very impressed that his son Theo had been able to do all this, almost by himself. He loosened his luxurious silk tie as he sits in his fine Tsim Sha Tsui business suit, occasionally looking outside to see the beautiful bright lights of Hong Kong.

"I'm beginning to regret making Theo do this by himself…"

"Dad, I think Theo was a great choice"

"He was, it was but for him to do all this…I guess it's too late to stop the ransom…anyways go on…"

"About the bounty, we all agree that the client had to be someone close to Miley. Really close. Yet it had to be someone capable of getting enough underworld contacts to follow both of them, I mean it was only this morning that we found out that Theo was in Houston."

"Alright…now we took care of the other (Chinese) families and the bikers, right?"

"Right,"

"Fine, now who the hell are they? And how could they have gotten information and how the hell could they have taken the package without drawing attention," William demanded to know.

"Well Dad we had just received word from our sources from the DOJ (U.S. Department of Justice)…"

"Was it a Federal police operation?" William asked in disbelief.

"No, Dad…if it was, we'd be the first to know before any of this went down."

"Then who are they?" William asked getting impatient.

"We got word that their DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration)…"

"You just said they weren't the Federal Police!" William snapped angrily, "and what does the DEA have to do with the package, Theo didn't have anything to do with our deal with the Skinheads."

"They're not Dad! Their former DEA, corrupt DEA…"

"Corrupt?"

"That's right dad…and their a street crew that's gone serious…controlling part of Houston's 'white' sales in certain areas…"

It all made sense to William now. They turned and became bad guys. They rose and got access to unprecedented intelligence from the drug business. They knew as much as we did and as quickly too. The only thing that was giving William any comfort was that they were just a crew, not an organization.

The best criminals were dirty cops. Because they knew as much about the system and the streets as they did. And this proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt.

"Alright, you said former DEA, so what do you know about these men…"

"We'll generally, their fueled by booze and coke, and they've generally given up on life…"

"What about the specifics, I mean who are these men?"

"All were dismissed for a variety of reasons…for instance our feelers out on the streets were able to confirm this particular crew had two previous DEA agents…"

A Rundown tenement

Houston's Red light district

Juxtaposed with the briefing that Tom's giving his father

This scene will jump back and forth, in and out from the briefing to Miley.

In the corner of the dark and dank apartment sits Miley Stewart. Sitting in a urine smelled apartment, she is tied up and literally kept in the dark while three other men go about doing their business.

Miley was mourning. She just knew that Teddy was dead. She couldn't even say goodbye, couldn't even check up on him. Yet because she couldn't check up on him, she had been torn. One side of her was angry at Theo for breaking his promise and leaving her, because that side believed that there was no way that Theo could survive so many bullet wounds. The other side had held on hope because it could not believe Theo could be killed. As Miley gripped Theo's dog tags which she still was wearing, she believed Theo couldn't die as she still had his tags.

Yet the more and more time she spent in this stank hell hole, the more she lost hope and soon allowed the belief from the first part of her to take over. She was giving up on Theo and coming to the realization that she had to think for herself. She gave up on Theo. As much as it broke her heart to do it to a man who she believed was no less than absolutely wonderful.

The song that she heard on the radio provides the perfect mood music (not really the words that Miley wanted to say)…

(A/N: Outside Source: In God's Hands by Nelly Furtado. It is extremely important that you listen to this song while reading the following, up to the point 'end song')

(Tom's briefing…)

"Alright…the first guy…the leader, Troy Bolton from Albuquerque, New Mexico. This guy actually had a great future before he pissed it away. High school basketball champ turned college, pressured by his old man to be nothing less than the best meant he would eventually buckle under the pressure when he couldn't deliver, that was until he started using performance enhancing drugs to beef up his performance during the playoffs. Swept up in the infamous NCAA steroid craze, when he was busted for it, the time it took for him to be a candidate for league MVP to a poster child for what was wrong with American sport culture could've been clocked with an egg timer. His athletic career broken, he was hired by the DEA after a stint with the, get this, the Marine Corps (just like Theo) thanks to his father's connection with a supervisory DEA agent. He worked that agency during the day, and worked the bottle during the night. Spent most of his substandard pay on his best friends Jack Daniels, Smirnoff, and baileys, probably helped him relive his glorious past while becoming a boozer."

(Miley's den.)

Miley watched the leader while sitting in the dark. Troy Bolton is trying to concentrate on counting the cash he has on hand for today's sales, not caring one bit that every swig he took of his fresh bottle of vodka between piles, only made it harder, not easier for him to do it. He was a constant drunk. This time the only thing keeping him from drinking too much was that he was anxiously expecting a phone call. Troy was unbathed, unshaven, and reeked of booze and slime.

(The Briefing.)

"So what'd he do to get kicked off, I mean you said he was in for a few years" William asked."

"He was accused of blinding his fiancée with hot lye in a drunken rage…"

"Did he?" William asked wanting to know who he was up against.

"Woman never pressed charges, so the case fell apart. But it was enough to brand him a defective and get him booted from DEA. All they were able to prove was that Troy was drunken and enraged."

"So he did," William confirmed.

Criminals, like people with common sense, could do what the courts and government couldn't. They could put two and two together. The truth was that he did do it and that everyone knew it.

(Miley's Den)

"SHADDUP!" Troy yelled in the next room behind a closed door yet a paper thin wall, loud enough for all including Miley to hear.

"SLAAMMM"

Everyone heard Troy throwing her head and body against the wall. Then after a minute the door to that room opened and out came Troy ready for another drink and more bill counting. Just before and while the door closed, Miley was able to peek in from where he was sitting and see a crumpled girl trying to get up. All she saw was the tears and bruises covering her sweet angelic Latin face before the door closed.

(Outside Source: Vanessa Hudgens as Gabriella Montez)

(Tom's briefing continued…)

Ok the other guy. Ryan Evans, this guy's a real character. Joined DEA after Bolton and they worked the same jurisdiction. He knew Bolton from high school. He was a straight shooter until he was branded defective like Bolton…then turned to coke, out of a sort of nihilist attempt at self destruction, while joining Bolton and his crew.

(Miley's den…)

Ryan was too busy to notice Miley staring at him. Finished rolling up the crisp dollar bill, he began to snort cocaine lines while taking a swig of beer and fondling his own crotch after every line.

(Briefing.)

"Wait, why was he defective?" William asked.

"Night in Vegas, he did something that he wanted to do all his life… he took the only woman he wanted to f—k forever and married her in a drive in chapel, and spent the night consummating that love in his parked car to his favourite blonde…"

"I don't see the problem. What's so bad about that..." William said correctly not believing that PDA could get you fired from a federal agency in disgrace.

"That blonde was his biological sister Sharpay Evans," Tom retorted with a disgusted cringe, while his father made a very audible sigh shook his head in dismay.

(Outside Source: Ashley Tisdale as Sharpay Evans)

'end song'

William had been around these 'characters' so long that while he was definitely disgusted nothing impressed him anymore. He silently felt sorry for Theo, who had to endure character after character this way.

"But weren't there five guys?"

"Yeah the three guys, just some hired goons. Three brothers, usually working Bolton's candy shop. The youngest Nick survived Theo.

Candy shop was a buzzword from criminal slang that all involved knew about.

"Okay, I think we can work the candy shop angle. If we locate that, we can find this Bolton character,"

William Tan knew all too well why Bolton had a candy shop. But he was surprised that something as small as a crew could have their own.

"Hey Dad, why would a guy like Bolton have a candy shop?"

"Same reason we did. If you're a guy who had a debt to pay for getting high on someone else's dime, it's civilized. They just kill you clean. But being in the same position without being blest with a penis means being kept alive so that they can work on you, meaning offering pu-y until you do pay off your debt. But cause that debt would be at some stupidly high interest rate. So if you're gonna owe that much money, its better to be dead.

(A/N: If you still haven't caught on a 'candy shop' refers to a brothel)

"Is that all?"

"Yeah Dad, that's about it…I'm working the feelers to find the brothel, shouldn't be too hard, but it may take a bit. It depends on them…"

"And Teddy too" William finished as he motioned to Tom.

Tom turned and looked behind him, then turned the laptop and its camera towards an incapacitated Teddy on a hospital bed, being hooked up to medical equipment that the family was able to acquire through secret deals over several years previous to today. For obvious reasons, the family couldn't use regular hospital.

"I truly am impressed" William said proudly, "how he could've not died at the scene says something about the strength of this family. I'm really gonna miss him after all this."

William was confident Theo would pull through despite him being in critical condition and able to go either way.

(A/N: Betcha didn't see that coming? Theo actually somehow SURVIVED.)

"Dad, you know Theo's not one of us…" started Tom.

"I know…he misses his mother, we all do, but Theo's seen the most. But whenever we needed him, he hadn't missed a beat."

"Yeah, something's keeping him alive. Something deeper,'

"What do you mean," William asked.

"We've seen the wounds. The fight should've killed him. But it didn't. It must be something else, something…that probably won't let him die"

"What are you saying…" William asked getting the hint that Tom wanted to tell him something, done in a way that Theo couldn't hurt Tom for telling Dad, because after all 'Dad insisted'.

"Dad, I know you said that Theo should stay with Miley because you didn't wanna waste guys"

"It was so that as little attention would be drawn to the fact that we had Miley," William added in correction.

"Well I think that Theo's getting too close…"

"To the package, er Miley, that her name?"

"Well, yeah. I think she's beginning to cloud his normally impeccable judgment, I mean ever since the taking, Theo's been making mistakes over time. Bigger and bigger…"

"Meaning?"

"He's not taking as much care of the little things which keep him and us a step ahead…"

This troubled William. It was two things. First Theo had to stay professional. This was a lesson he made Theo learn by treating him like a worker instead of a son. Theo was wrong if he assumed it was a natural thing for him to do this without being aware of it. He knew it and at times felt it wasn't right, but he felt he had to drill it into him if Theo was to 'survive'. And getting too close could easily escalate and kill the whole thing. And he meant literally 'kill the whole thing'. This kind of thing could be deadly. Secondly, William, being the traditional Chinese man he was, wasn't thrilled to have Miley being brought into Theo's life like that. However unlikely and unrealistic it sounded, it still bothered William for Theo to bring an 'outsider' into his world. Not Theo's world, but William's world, regardless of the fact that Theo was truly Americanized and that Theo wanted to no longer be a part of the family business. William himself had married Theo's mother, a Mainland Chinese peasant girl from a rural village in Fujian province, yet still wasn't sure about Miley, someone who he thought was too 'Gweilo' (A/N: White) for a son of his. This was all idle talk as the whole situation itself would prevent Theo and Miley from formally getting together. Yet his very traditional way of thinking meant that he couldn't understand a love affair(which very likely could happen) froma relationship(which was tragically forbidden). And that's what was preventing William from dismissing it. At the very least William was afraid that the doomed love affair would be guaranteed to hurt Theo anyways regardless of the direction it took.

"Look here's what we'll do…I don't this to be a problem just yet. So since you're the older brother…just remind him of the dangers, but just remind, he's got enough to think about. And yes, I wanna keep him on, so get the info as fast as you can and give it to Theo. Give him access to anything he needs. I'll talk to him later on, if I need to."

And with that William went offline.

Tom then got up for a cigarette break, leaving the room and letting Theo rest. But before leaving, he turned on the radio to Theo's favourite station.

Yet resting was what Theo wasn't doing. He was regenerating. At a phenomenal rate. From recovering from a fight that he shouldn't have survived, his body was under the control of his will. Mind over matter. And his mind was focused on…who else…Miley.

And yet while his mind used this time to continue to heal at an almost supernatural pace, his mind also used this time to reflect. Theo finally had the time to reflect on his life. He had never been able to and never allowed himself to do this, but being unconscious, he couldn't resist. Theo hated to reflect on the pain in his life, and shut it out to make himself stronger, in the name of, what can sometimes be the most idiotic reason, manhood.

Theo was destined for a quick recovery. If his body were to do anything less, his mind would 'kick' it back to work. Subconsciously, he tried to recover as fast as he could. Because at any time, harm could come to Miley. Teddy had to get there fast.

And God help those involved in taking Miley...

Author's note: Theo doesn't know whether Miley is dead or alive. Yet the next chapter will have Miley actually breaking balls, as promised before and Theo showing how just how deadly it is for anyone to mess with a man with nothing to lose.

Again thank you for sticking around. I got the idea of Ryan from all the Rypay stories I end up finding in other fanfictions. They opened the door, and I'm walking in it. Same rule applies if the characters seem distasteful. If it's too distasteful I implore you to look over this factor and keep reading the reviewing. Please forgive if offended and more importantly: Review.

Thanks

GFMarshall