Author's Notes: Whoot, more stuff! New characters this chapter are Selphie Tilmitt, attorney at law and the defense attorney for Mister Nida Nomura. Quistus shall also have a short cameo as an ICU doctor at the hospital where the evil Rei is… currently. Unfortunately it's only a very short cameo. She was supposed to be there for a little bit at the end of last chapter, but that kinda fell through. But this chapter we do get a better look at Squall and his role. Maybe too close of one for Seifer's comfort, but so what?

Chapter 4: Captivated

To put it simply, he was very good at what he did. So good, in fact, that he had awoken here in this hospital a few hours ago, and the nurses were still yet to figure this out. It was almost amusing to him, to watch them move about them, hoping to awaken the patient they thought comatose. Man, they must have put some newbie nurses on call, because if they couldn't figure it out yet. Still, there was one person here he had to be wary of as he planned his escape. Once or twice he'd seen her pass by through the small slivers that one could constitute as open eyes. She was taller for a woman, with what he assumed was golden hair. That was as much as he could see though without 'waking' or without the woman coming closer, two things he didn't want.

Except it was less his bad luck and more hers when she finally did come close enough to notice that he was awake despite the appearances. It was late, nearly midnight, and thus the room was barely lit aside from the many monitors around him. She had come in, he heard from the way she called over her shoulder to someone, to check upon him one last time before she headed out for the night. He knew that were she to figure out that he was awake she would summon the police officers waiting for him to awaken for questioning, and he did not desire to be questioned. So once she got close enough that he could read her name tag, once she was close enough to let out a gasp of shock, his hand flashed out and grabbed her around her neck.

"Listen up Quistus," he said, saying the name off of the card, "Make a sound and I WILL kill you. If you behave you might just live long enough to care for another patient."

Nervously the blue eyed woman nodded, and he was amused how similar she was to Nida with that terrified look in her eyes and the way her slender throat felt under his hands.

"You're going to get me out of here without being questioned, got it?" he whispered in her ears. "Now… take all of these lines and monitors off of me."

The woman quickly went about the task, knowing that she had to help him or risk her own life, but never once knowing that she had no hope of survival anyway.

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Another day had passed, something they had to allow to happen. Ellone had been adamant about not interrupting her brother as he worked upon his finals. This had irritated the blonde detective to no end, but he had agreed, if only because it would allow that Nida guy another day to stew in the slammer and another day for Rei to potentially awaken. Yet when the call came, he knew it was time.

Almasy sighed as he hung up the phone. This was the last thing that he had needed. Sure, a serial killer loose in his city had been bad, but a witness gone, a doctor abducted, and the suspect swearing on his life that it was the fault of that witness…

"Seifer, you look tense," Ellone said as she came to his desk, holding out a cup of coffee. This was a peace offer and a bribe all wrapped up in one. She was asking him to stay calm considering the disappearance of the head of ICU at Mercy General, one Miss Quistus Trepe, and bribing him to behave when they went to talk today with one of their witnesses.

"How can I not be Ellone? I've got a missing doctor, Rei Yamamoto on the loose and potentially homicidal, and instead of fixing that I've got to interrogate your brother."

"No interrogating, he is not a hostile witness Seifer," she pointed out, sitting across from him.

"Still, he might be covering for Nomura."

She rolled her eyes, "Are you serious? You know Squall wouldn't do that, even to make you mad."

"You never know. We've never gotten along."

"All your fault," she said, standing and lifting his keys off of his desk. "Come on, I'm driving."

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The storm of the century was brewing at the front door of his apartment, and the cause of it was a blonde man hiding behind his badge and with his own sister at the man's side.

"Detective Almasy," spoke the younger male, his voice cold and hard.

It was quite uncommon for Squall to become so negative to people, but Seifer had always brought out the best in him.

"Mister Loire," the blonde growled back, glaring just as hard.

"Um, can we come in brother?" Ellone asked, hesitant to come between the two.

"Of course," the brunette male said after a moment, stepping inside to allow the duo entrance. "I assume this is not a casual visit."

"Sadly it is not. Please, sit down. We'd like to ask you a few questions about a Mister Nida Nomura…"

Instantly Squall perked up, and despite the bit of fear in him about his sister knowing of his significant other, the fear of why they would question him about the asian male.

"What is it that you would like to know Detective," Squall said, speaking pointedly to Seifer. He had never approved of his sister's job.

"He claims that three nights ago you spent part of the evening in his residence…"

"It was our anniversary, and he hasn't called me since. I assume you know more of why that is than I do."

With his normal scowl the man wrote this information down on a notepad. "You gave to him a sword or something…"

"Wakizashi," Squall corrected quickly. "The term 'sword' is a great generalization and cannot accurately describe the blades common in the island of Japan and surrounding areas. A wakizashi, on the other hand, is curved, a katana style weapon and is far more dangerous. Yes, I gave him a wakizashi for our anniversary. It was a replica of an ancient blade used to assassinate a great man in Japanese history."

"Approximately what time did you leave?" Seifer continued once Squall had finished his rambling.

"Well, I got home at about ten that night, so I'd assume I left about nine, nine-thirty. I had to stop by a friend's house first to get my cut cleaned though. I accidentally cut myself on the weapon mentioned when he was putting it away."

"And was he with you on the night of March 10th this year?"

For a moment the male thought before his eyes went wide. "That is the night that that killer attacked the first boy… You think that Nida is involved?"

"Now Squall," Ellone said, quickly trying to calm her brother, "We didn't say anything about that…"

"They said there was an arrest a few days ago involved in the case. You think Nida did it. He didn't. He was with me that night, and on the night of the third murder. And he was having dinner with his family who was visiting from California on the night of the second. But of course the great Seifer Almasy wouldn't think to check up on that before accusing Nida of such a heinous thing!"

"Just shut up for a minute Loire so I can finish these damn questions!" the blonde shouted back.

"I bet you didn't even look into his past did you?"

Seifer scoffed and glared hard at Squall, "You never really think things out do you? Of course I looked it up. Too bad it's too fucking hard to find anything on the guy. It's like he was invisible before coming to New York."

The fact that Squall quickly stood put both Ellone and Seifer on edge. Squall was never one to act rashly, so the fact that he was this agitated, even in the familiar and quite unwelcome presence of Seifer, was a disturbing sight.

"So this is what he meant," Squall said to himself as he paced back and forth across the room.

"What are you talking about Squall?" Ellone questioned as he stood up.

"Last year, on our last anniversary. We talked for a long time, and he said that if he were ever just to up and leave that I shouldn't look for him. He made me promise, which is why I was so worried that he didn't call me when he promised he would. He also told me that if some weird asian guy were ever to show up at my door claiming to be his friend, to not open the door and call the cops. I never understood why. Just thought it was some jealous ex-boyfriend, or maybe even a family member he thought wouldn't approve of us…"

Between the detective and special agent a look of shock, and possible understanding passed. Both had the same thought.

"Did he ever tell you that this person might threaten you, or why he was running from the person?" Squall's sister pressed.

Once more the brunette male sat, a troubled look upon his face. "You know, for the longest time he seemed to flip out if anyone he didn't know got close to him, always seemed to be looking over his shoulder. I would have just passed it off as paranoia if I didn't know him. He was running from something, no doubt about it. Yet he calmed down a lot in this past year. Still takes all of his self-defense classes and practices every night, which is also kinda odd…"

It wasn't that Squall stopped talking because there was nothing more to say, or because he just couldn't think of how to phrase something. No, it was the sound of Seifer's phone ringing that cut him off. With a sigh the Detective stood and moved to the kitchen to answer it.

"Yo, Almasy here. What ya got?"

"Seifer, we've got news on the whereabouts of Doctor Trepe," the voice said into the phone.

"You found her then? Is she okay?"

There was silence on the line for a while, and then, "She's dead Seifer."

"Shit," the man swore into the phone.

"There is more," the male from the HQ said, "There was a white rose with her. She wasn't cut up in the usual ways either. The characters on her arm are new… We're trying to get a translator now."

Very little made Seifer speechless, and this was not about to be one of them. "I've got a capable translator right here. Send a picture of them to my phone… Except, do me a favor, copy them onto a paper. The guy is a little squeamish."

"Yes sir. I'll get that to you in a few minutes."

Once the phone was hung up Seifer moved to the living room once more. "Squall, you know Japanese Kanji right?"

"Yeah, Nida gave me a whole book of Haiku written in it for practice."

"I need you to translate something for me."

Ellone's eyes went wider than Seifer had ever before seen. "Are you serious? Where from?"

"I'll tell you about it in the car," the blonde said as his cell phone vibrated. The second the sent picture was opened he handed it over to Squall. "What does that say?"

If the pale skinned grad student could be considered frail now, the look that came to his face was worse yet. "This part says 'My Everything' and the other says 'Hands off him'…"

"Is that all?" Seifer asked, sure it couldn't cause that look in Squall's eyes.

"Seifer… It's addressed to me."

The detective blinked in shock. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, before all of the other stuff it says, it reads 'Squally-boy'."

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"What do you mean by 'we're releasing your client'? How dare you? He hasn't paid the bond or anything!" the high voice of a perpetually pale yellow suit clad woman demanded over the phone as his car sped through the streets of New York.

"He's not guilty Selphie. I thought you would be happy with that news."

"Happy? Are you kidding me? You're taking a man in danger from the real murderer, whose boyfriend has been threatened because of him, out of the safety of the jail cell? Are you insane Seifer? You might has well wrap him up with a bow and put him on the street with a big sign reading 'Come and get him'!"

The blonde detective glared at the cell phone. Even with the head set being held away from him by Ellone, even with Squall in the back seat looking very panicked, even with him fucking speeding she was giving him a hard way to go.

"We're not just putting him on the fucking streets. You think I'm that stupid Selphie?"

"Honestly? Yes Detective, I do."

"Well I'm not. Squall's being put into witness protection along with Nida. We're sending them somewhere safe until we catch this bitch."

"And why do you think that Rei is going to stay here when he knows you know about him? If he's been stalking my client as long as Nomura says he has, he's just going to ditch until things calm down and he can find him again."

"That isn't happening on my watch Selph."

"Seifer, you're making a very big mistake," she finally gave in with a sigh.

"Yeah, you said the same thing when I graduated with you, but just remember, I'm the detective and you're just the attorney."

"Hello, I make more money than you Seifer. I hold by my opinion of you being the one to make the mistake with this whole thing."

At last Ellone could no longer stand it. "Selphie, just remember you're on speaker phone and my brother is in the back seat."

"Oh? Really? Hey Squall! You gotta come over to my house sometime after we catch this bitch. I'll make you lots of cookies."

Maybe the youth would have protested, but it was shaken out of them as the car before them skidded to a stop. It swerved and spun to eventually rest in such a way that it blocked the police vehicle. Swearing the blonde slammed both feet on the brakes, only to stop just inches from the other car.

"You guys stay here. I'm gonna see what is going on," Ellone said, quickly unbuckling and climbing out of the vehicle. Before Seifer could stop her the woman had rushed to the other vehicle, and thus to the driver.

Everything happened in slow motion now. One second Ellone was looking in the car door of the vehicle, the next a gun was held to her head. For a moment Seifer was stunned, and then the shock was lost as Rei Yamamoto stepped from the car, shirt bloody and arm around the woman's neck. The gun at her head kept him from getting out of the car. But Squall had no such inhibitions. In seconds the youth was out of the car.

"Ellone!" he shouted.

"Careful there kiddo," Rei purred, his voice silken to Seifer's shock. He'd expected the youth to have a rougher voice, for his English to be a little flawed. The man had such a look that it would have been hard to remember he was a native born Californian had Seifer not known that. "Another step and it's curtains for your sis."

"Squall, get back in the car," Seifer growled before hanging up on the shocked and protesting voice of Selphie.

"But he's got Ellone!" the youth protested.

"He's using her to get to you so that he can get to Nida," the blonde pointed out.

"Very good detective, very good indeed," the asian mocked. "But let's get something straight, my problem is with this little boy right here, not with Nida. My love will come around once this boy is out of the way. Now, Squally-boy, if you come here I won't hurt your beloved sister…"

"Don't you even dare Squall!" Ellone shouted before being slapped by her captor.

"When I need your opinion I will ask it," Rei whispered right into the woman's ear. "Now, you tell your brother all nice and calm that you won't be hurt if he just gives himself up."

Seifer had started to reach for his gun now that the attention of the killer was upon Ellone fully. One shot was all he needed to end this madness.

"And detective," the male continued, not even glancing towards the blonde, "Take that gun out and both of them die… And in far less pleasant ways. Now, come out with your hands up and stand by our dear boy…"

"Don't Seifer," Squall said. There was something in the low voice, in the way that a fire Seifer had never seen before burned in the eyes of the brunette, something that made him do just what Squall commanded.

"You win Rei. That is your name isn't it?" the brunette continued.

"Of course little boy. Aren't you scared of me?" the asian asked.

"Not of you, only of how you treat those around you like toys. But I'll make a deal with you anyway. You let Ellone go and you can have me. I can't guarantee that you'll benefit from it, but you can have me."

"Come here then kid."

"Squall, don't," Seifer hissed. "Just don't."

"I've got to Seifer, for Elle. Tell my father not to worry okay? I'll be fine."

"How can you be sure of that?"

Squall just smiled, "He needs me intact to lure Nida to him, isn't that right?"

"You're rather smart for a history buff," Yamamoto laughed. "Now, once you come here I'll release dear Ellone."

With a sigh the youngest of those assembled lowered his head and made his way for the car of the murderer. Not once did he look back, not even when Rei released Ellone and sent her towards Seifer. Nor did he fight back when Rei pushed him into the car and drove off, after shooting out the tires of Seifer's car that is.

So Seifer just held Ellone as she cried. As much as he hated the twerp, he had to admit that the kid had guts…