A/N: Hey! I'm so so so so sorry it's been so long since I have updated! Things have been so hectic for me at university and I'm going to America for an exchange and to be honest I had writers block for the longest time… still kind of do but I powered through! I know this chapter in kind of short but that is because I had no idea what to write for Zoro, since what can the partner of someone who was kidnapped really do?

Anyway enjoy what I wrote! :P I'll have another note at the bottom!

Chapter Thirteen

Zoro wasn't sure how long it had been and it was frustrating just how powerless he really was in the situation. The bastard, Ruyi had disappeared with the love of his life, yet he realised it way too late, in situations like this there are no do overs. He needed more time with her. Yet that time he was promised was now uncertain. He needed the time that he casually thought was his by right, to find out if they were destined to be together, to do human things and feel human emotions. Now that she was gone, it was now or never. This wasn't something you just come back from and pretend your relationship hasn't changed. He was sure he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her now, otherwise it wouldn't have been so painful to lose her. In a normal situation he probably wouldn't have realised how amazing she was just yet.

He wanted to believe everything was still fine, that she would come back to him, but the longer it took the more the police warned the family to prepare themselves for the worst possible outcome. Something he just couldn't let himself feel or think.

Every time they thought they were getting closing to finding Hancock… it always just ended up being a dead end, somewhere she might or might not have been before being moved. It was so frustrating for him and he believed he was going to go insane. With fear for the worst but also that even if they do find her… would she be the same girl, would she want to continue living? Or would he have finally destroyed that human half of hers that attempted to cling to the hope Ruyi always failed to destroy. Would she still want to be with Zoro? Or would he remind her of the horrible trauma she was currently living?

Was it selfish to fear the rejection? He wasn't so sure. He of course would understand why she would no longer want to be with him but still, it wasn't exactly an outcome he preferred. There was something special between them and when Zoro found her, he would prove it to her.

She no longer had a reason to let him do anything, her sisters were safe, her only reason now was to preserve her own life but what scared Zoro the most was that he wasn't so sure what she would pick. The sweet release of death, or would she hang on to life with the small chance that Zoro might actually save her from that monster. But the chance wasn't small, Zoro would always continue looking.

Was she still alive? And if so, for how long? Why was the fucking police so incompetent?! Thought Zoro every day. He helped as much as he could in the search but they didn't exactly let him and consoling Hancock's family was already hard enough, especially consoling her mother.

Her mother blamed herself mostly for everything that happened. She stated she had no idea about what was happening under her roof and would have stopped it if she did know. Zoro believed her, she was a kind hearted woman who obviously loved Hancock and her sisters dearly. What was happening right now was mentally and physically killing her. The strong woman Hancock described in the past was falling apart. Her sister's didn't really know what they were to do either. They also clearly did not know what was going on with Hancock, she kept to herself so often and hid it so well… Zoro knew that if he had never stumbled upon it by accident, he would never have known. Hancock was strong and independent like her mother and burdened her own shames, but right now her mother was not strong and she needed the family to help keep her together through the undeserved guilt she had.

Going to school was impossible. They couldn't keep up with the questions to why she went missing, and eventually the whole abuse story went public and everyone's accusing glare followed them down the hall, no, school right now was impossible. Zoro still went to the Dojo every once in a while when he really needed to blow off some steam, but no one really asked him anything out of fear he would snap. The sisters were going crazy with boredom and sometimes tagged along just to get some normalcy back into their lives but it was going to take time. They all wanted to keep that hope alive that she would return but with the police telling them not to, it was hard for them all. When was it time to move on? No one really gives an amount of time that is needed for that.

A couple of weeks after the kidnapping, the media started turning up on their door step and to make things worse, one reporter in particular, a bright faced new girl on the job had to go sticking her nose into their business by asking Hancock's mother if at least deep down she did know and just let it go on because she was jealous of her daughter's beauty. If Zoro had not held her back, the bright faced girl wouldn't be so bright anymore without any teeth.

After that the papers each printed something different and eventually after a month of nothing, the media started giving up one by one and eventually the whole town acted like she never existed in the first place. It was heart breaking.

Zoro tried to keep himself occupied so he had as little time to think about it all as possible. The media was giving up but that wasn't his problem because he really believed that eventually she would be back. Instead he kept himself busy but helping Hancock's mother through the ordeal which she was too weak to fight against alone. Mrs Lori Boa was barely making it through.

"Mrs Boa, please don't cry, we will find her I promise" Zoro told Hancock's mother for the hundredth time.

He had been visiting every day because her mother had taken a shining to him. Zoro was the connection to the side of Hancock she was sad to have never seen. She knew in her heart if Hancock had told her, they would have been able to save themselves and gotten away from Ruyi but she understood why she didn't. If only she had paid more attention.

Everything made sense when Zoro reluctantly filled in the pieces. To the family, he knew they deserved to know, but to the police is was harder. Necessary of course but harder. It was telling a stranger her darkest of secrets and she wasn't even around to tell him what was allowed to be told and what was not. Though what he hated to admit to others and himself was that in fact he barely knew anything about the situation at all, Hancock wasn't ready to tell him the details and he didn't think he had to know then and there.

The information in the end wasn't vital or anything, it was just helpful. Hancock's mother had more information on Ruyi than expected but even that proved inefficient. He was smart enough to do something nobody expected of him which ended up being bad for Hancock of course and her whole family including Zoro who through all this pain was now considered family.

Zoro already knew that if he could fall in love with that bitch of a woman, he wouldn't easily change his mind.

The thought of how Hancock seemed to him when they first met made him chuckle. The chuckling stopped when he realised the situation she was in. This happened most days, he would remember how radiant she was and then remember what happened and how he was uncertain about the future that was so clear moments before her abduction.

"Zoro!" Hancock's mother sobbed with a tear stained face when her thoughts about her daughter became too much for her once more "What are we going to do if she doesn't come back to us… what if she does but she isn't herself anymore?" her high pitched sobs put into sound all the fears the whole household had.

They had been moved to an unknown house under the guise of a form of witness protection program, moving Zoro in with the family. There were many reasons to why they moved the family. The first reason was an obvious one, Ruyi might come back to cover his tracks or take another victim, of course Zoro knew that was not going to happen, Ruyi would not come back, there was nothing to come back to. Even so the police was watching the house in case he did end up being stupid.

The other reason was that the family could not bear to be in that house. The constant reminder of Hancock missing and the now obvious thought of all the horrible things he did to Hancock in that house. Everything was tainted for that family now. They had no idea what his sick mind made him do to her, but Zoro knew to some degree at least and he made sure not to go into detail about it. Even with all the facts Zoro was told, he knew he didn't know half of the pain Ruyi caused her.

For Zoro, the move wasn't that bad, besides his friends from school, he lived alone and thus suddenly living with a lot of people was hard, especially since before all this, he didn't know them at all. Only what Hancock told him about them and what he saw at school when he met her sisters in the hall, it was bizarre to say it simply. The problem was, because Zoro was Hancock's confidant, he now became the confidant for the whole family and that was a heavy burden to bear. However at the same time, the fact that he had to take care of the family kept his mind off of his deepest fears about Hancock's abduction and thus he threw himself into consoling the family causing him to completely grow on them. Consoling her mother helped him, he would convince her that Hancock would come back safe and eventually he started believing it at the surface. He never went beyond the surface of his feeling because he was not ready to acknowledge his deepest fears.

They all, if Hancock came back safe, really prayed for them to be together forever. Zoro according to them obviously loved Hancock, and if she was able to open up to him, she clearly loved him too.

That thought, for Hancock's family was a thought that kept them going and gave them hope for her for when she came back. She had people waiting for her to help her through the pain.

The house they got put into was a relatively small house but everyone fit comfortably and it wasn't a constant reminder which was a relief, Zoro lived in a shitty house before anyway so he wasn't complaining and Hancock's family were just relieved to be away from the nightmare and at least have a few moments a day that they didn't think about the horrors that might be happening to Hancock. This house was their new beginning regardless of what happened. It was at the end of town, not too far from their entire life, something they needed to be reminded not to give up regardless of the outcome for Hancock but far enough to know whether danger lies at their current house and far enough for Ruyi not to be able to find them. The police wanted to relocate them further but Mrs Boa did not allow that to happen. They needed their connection if they were ever going to move on if the situation turned out bad.

Zoro was going to spend today keeping his mind off things, he hated no being able to do anything but even he had to admit that he would be of no help to anyone. He had planned to go practice at the dojo, he had so much pent up energy and beating the shit out of one of the other members sounded good to him.

Leaving the unfamiliar yet comforting house, Zoro was making his way down the street. However he noticed a familiar car driving towards him. It was a small black car, with tinted windows, a Nissan as he could tell. He remembered it from the many conversations he had with the driver. Agent Lock. She was a driven police officer and he liked her, she was the main person assigned to Hancock's case and he felt that if anyone would find Hancock, Agent Lock would be the one to try her hardest.

Zoro stopped walking and waited for the car to stop. Like expected, the car stopped next to him and the windows automatically rolled down revealing the person he knew was in the car. Her worlds rang out like a bell and Zoro wasn't sure if he heard them or not.

"We found her…"

Zoro's heart thumped loudly in his ears, surely this wasn't another one of his dreams?

A/N: Okay so I actually know where I am headed with this so I should update again soon! But like mentioned I go to America in a month for four months so I can't promise anything! I'll try! Thank you all for still sticking with me and my writing! You are all too too amazing! I could have easily dropped the story but you guys make me want to continue! 3 I love you