A/N: I apologize for the long time in updating this story. This past semester was insane. Deaths, family getting deployed, homework, papers... I barely had time to sleep, much less write. I think this story has a couple more chapters left before it's finished, so my goal is to get it done this summer. Hopefully ya'll like this chapter... It's a little short, but I had to put in Sofia's mother.

I never could really get over how much Captain Curtis and Sofia look alike. As the elder Curtis woman sat fidgeting in Brass's office, I stood outside the door and studied her. It was perfectly easy to see where Sofia got her looks. Janie Curtis was tall, lithe, and blonde, just like her daughter. The only difference was the eyes. Sofia's eyes were a light blue, like mine. I had seen them flash in anger at a suspect, and I had seen them well up with concern, and I had seen them dance with joy as she laughed at one of Nick's jokes. Captain Curtis's were a deep brown. And at that moment, the only emotion I could read in them was rage.

"They sure look alike, don't they?" Brass's familiar voice startled me.

I chuckled softly. "Yeah, they sure do. Have you ever met her?"

"Once, a while back. She's intense."

"Yeah." I looked back to the woman seated in his office and sighed. "Let's get it over with."

Brass nodded and moved to hold the door open for me. He followed me in, and Captain Curtis practically leapt to her feet. "Janie, this is Cath…"

"What the hell!?" she spat out. "Why didn't you tell me sooner that my daughter had been kidnapped?!"

I glanced at Brass and inhaled deeply. "Captain Curtis, I'm Catherine Willows, and I…"

"Who the hell are you?!" she shouted, her voice getting louder.

I tried to start over again as calmly as possible. "As I said, I'm Catherine Willows with the crime lab. I'm a friend of Sofia's, and I'm working her case."

Captain Curtis's hard eyes softened slightly. "Where is she?"

"We're still working on that," Brass interjected smoothly. I smiled at him gratefully. "Listen, Janie, why don't you calm down and take a seat?"

"I will not calm down until you tell me what is being done to find my daughter." Her voice hardened somewhat, making her familiar clipped accent even more pronounced. She pushed a strand of short blonde hair out of her face and glared at me.

"We're doing everything we can, Captain Curtis," I said as soothingly as possible. "I understand what you're going through…"

"Do you have children, Ms. Willows?" she interrupted again.

I hesitated before answering. "Yes, I do," I whispered. The elder Curtis woman's eyes started to glimmer with her tears. "I know exactly what you're going through. And believe me, I want to see her back as much as you do. She means a lot to us."

Captain Curtis slowly lifted a trembling hand and wiped the corner of one eye. "She means a lot to me too."

"I know she does," Brass interjected again. "But we're going to need your help."

Her brow furrowed. "How?"

"When we processed the scene, we found some hair with the tag still attached, and some blood."

"Not Sofia's," the captain whispered softly, her hand flying to her mouth.

"No, no," I said quickly, shaking my head. "Not Sofia's."

"We ran it through CODIS and came up with a hit," Brass said coolly, motioning to the folder in my hand.

I pulled out the computer printout from Wendy and handed it to the other woman. "What can you tell us about this man?"

Captain Curtis sighed and took the paper from me. "Oh, this guy. He had kidnapped a girl from a local high school and brutally assaulted her. She was in critical condition for three days after we found her in the desert."

"How much did he know about you?"

Her eyes grew wider as she thought. "Oh God. He knew I had Sofia. She showed up at the trial one day to talk to me about… something, I don't even remember what. Oh my God. It's my fault." The tears welled up again in her eyes.

I reached out and gently laid my hand on her arm. "It's not your fault. It's no one's fault but his."

She glanced at me with a grateful look. "Thank you, Ms. Willows."

I smiled briefly. "Can you give us the address of his known hideouts?"

"Guys like this like to go back to places they know," Brass interjected, handing her a pad of paper and pen.

Captain Curtis wiped her eyes and picked up the pen on the table. "Yeah." She looked at the computer printout again. "That address isn't the same as the one eight years ago."

I looked over at Brass, who stiffened slightly. "Do you know the old address?"

"Of course. The school was a couple of blocks away." Her eyes widened again. "Do you think he has Sofia there?"

"We're just covering all the bases," Brass said quickly. "Just write down the addresses, Janie."

Captain Curtis handed him the paper, covered in her strong, flowing handwriting. "Find my daughter, Jim."

He looked at me, then looked back at her. "We will."

I opened my eyes again after what seemed like ages. I guess I had cried myself to sleep, huddled in that little corner of some sort of room.

There are very few things that can make me cry. I cried when I thought I had shot Officer Bell a couple of years ago… and I cried when I found out I didn't actually shoot him. I almost cried when that girl that had been raped by the man posing as a firefighter told me her story.

Come to think of it, I think that was the last time I actually cried.

Before today, that is.

God, I was scared. Scared for my life. There was so much I had to live for. My job. My friends. My mother. Nick.

For some reason, everything kept coming back to him. We were friends, sure. We were colleagues. We laughed, we joked, hell… we even flirted. I couldn't die before I found out how he felt.

That scared me more than being stuck in that damn room.

A thin shaft of orange made its way through a tiny window above my head. It was morning. Or at least, it was awfully close to being morning.

I could finally look around my little prison cell, to see if there was any possible way I could escape. It felt like I was strapped to some sort of stall…

That's when it hit me.

I was in a bathroom. Some sort of bathroom. The green on the walls looked a lot like the green on the station walls at P.D. A faucet on the other wall dripped constantly. So it was that thing that nearly drove me insane last night.

Well, at least I had some sort of idea where I was. I took a minute to assess my situation, calmly and rationally. Calmly and rationally. That was the key.

There was a plastic band around my ankles, tying them together. There was no way I could get out of that. I moved my fingers to my wrist to see what I was tied to the stall with. It was the same kind of plastic band. Maybe… just maybe the metal edge was sharp enough to cut through my bonds.

I slowly moved my hands up and down the metal pole. My shoulders cracked and popped with the stiffness that came from the freezing air blowing from the vents. I kept glancing at the door, expecting my captor to walk in any moment and shoot me. Getting out of here was going to be slow going.

Very slow going.

I only hoped I had enough time to get out of there.