A/N: Thanks to Jenne & Lani for volunteering to beta for me. I apologize for taking so long to update. I was planning to complete the story before posting again, but the story got away from me. Just a little too long to let it go that way. So I'll leave you with this.
I've been up all night. I'm so tired, but more than that I'm frustrated. My Calleigh has been abducted and I feel so useless. We have to find her. I don't think I can go on without her.
As I brought H up to speed on Calleigh's situation I felt a mixture of relief and anguish. I was so relieved to turn the case over to H. I know I'm still getting back to normal and I don't want my problems to interfere with finding Calleigh. He has more experience, and it's so good to have the weight of the investigation lifted from my shoulders. But somehow telling him made it more real to me. We've been looking for her all night – she's been gone over 12 hours. I know as well as anyone that the odds of finding her unharmed decrease every hour she's gone.
My cell phone rang. It was Tripp.
"You'd better get over here. We found the Hummer, but no sign of Calleigh." He said.
I told H, and my heart sunk a little lower. Though I knew it was unlikely, a part of me couldn't help hoping we'd find her there and that would be the end of it.
EC - EC - EC - EC - EC - EC - EC - EC - EC - EC - EC - EC
It seemed to take forever, but finally we arrived on the scene. Tripp called to us and I hurried down. At least now there was something I could do to help Calleigh.
Looking inside I could see her cell phone and kit, but my beautiful Bullet Girl wasn't there. No sign of her, just bullets in the door and broken windows. Shots fired. I took comfort in the fact that I saw no blood, but it wasn't much. This man is obviously armed and dangerous. And he has my girl. He can force her to do anything. Please, God! Don't let him hurt her. I cried silently. I've seen far too many kidnapping cases. The men always love the power. I know what could happen. They can just hurt her at whim. Or rape her. No! Not my Calleigh! They can't! I can't bear to think of the man touching her beautiful form and breaking her spirit.
Horatio's words broke into my tormenting thoughts. "Gentlemen, I don't see any skid marks. Do you?" He asked.
I looked. No skid marks. "That means she slowed to a stop before the gunfire. Why? What would make her stop?"
"Ambush" He said.
Frank broke in, "This just isn't sitting right with me. Calleigh was armed. We all know she wouldn't go down without a fight."
He was right. But I saw no sign of a fight. Why? Oh, God, please don't let her be dead. Why wouldn't she fight back? I looked closer and found trace amounts of something. Horatio told me to take it back to the lab. I was grateful. I had something to work on, and it could lead us one step closer to Cal.
EC - EC - EC - EC - EC - EC - EC - EC - EC - EC - EC - EC
As I arrived back at the lab I hurried to trace and found Ryan. He promised to processes Cal's kit and the trace if I'd try to catch a bit of sleep.
"C'mon, Man, you won't be any good to Calleigh if you're dead on your feet." Ryan said.
He was right. I'd been working over 24 hours. We all know our odds of missing something increase when we don't get proper sleep. There was nothing else I could do to help Calleigh, so I headed down to catch a few minutes of sleep. It's not much, but I'll take what I can get. Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll dream of Calleigh safe and sound in my arms.
A/N - Thanks for reading. I'd love to see your thoughts on the story. Would you be so kind as to leave a review? Please? I know this was a shorter chapter, but hopefully the next one will be a bit longer!
