Words cannot describe how sorry I am, dear readers. If you're still with me I owe you a heart-felt thanks and an Epilogue. Two Epilogues! Things came up and I forgot about this piece until recently a friend of mine encouraged me to "publish something".

Immediately I thought of the work that I'd BEEN publishing and very rudely abandoned. Here is the next chapter of the story. Again, I'm so sorry, but things will get back running smoothly now that I'm back.

Thank you for everyone who's reading this right now. I don't own these characters, just the story I put them in. Thanks for staying with me.

Ginny's first awareness was just that of pain. Pain in her head, her shoulders, her neck. Pain everywhere. She pressed her eyes together and tried to understand where she was…? How she got here…?

"What are you doing here?" Ginny asked, her voice defeated sounded as she tried to keep it level.

"Aw. Little Ginny's having a hard day of work." Romilda's gaudy red lips pursed in a mock pout. "If I actually cared maybe I'd feel worse for doing this, as it is I really don't." Romilda reached in her pocket and pulled out a gun.

Ginny froze in her chair.

"What are you doing?" Her voice was now cold, and definitely shaking.

"You understand, don't you. This is my opportunity. I've finally got you alone. Without your fucking bodyguards. We're going to leave the building and you're coming with me." Romilda stepped toward the desk and Ginny involuntarily rose, putting her hands up.

"Romilda…just think about this before-" Ginny sputtered.

"You don't think I haven't thought about this?" the woman spat, her voice disturbingly even, like nothing was even happening. "You don't think that I haven't been fantasizing about the day that I could kill Ginny Weasley? THE Ginny Weasley?" Romilda snorted. "Get up. We're leaving."

Ginny rubbed her fingers together where they were tied behind her to try and regain circulation. Romilda had ushered her into the basement and taken her out a side-door in the alley. Ginny's memory blacked out there, and she knew that Romilda had knocked her out once they'd been outside.

At least I haven't been shot…? She thought, checking her body for sticky spots or blood. A clatter from above her made her head shoot up and she winced as the room spun and her temples pounded. Above her were exposed wooden beams and the walls around her were concrete. A glance around to the wall behind her confirmed her suspicions that she was cuffed to some exposed pipes.

She tried to tug at her arms, but the way she was laying she got not traction and winced as she tweaked the shoulder she was lying on. Her sluggish thoughts bounced in her head and she tried to compile them.

Ron had briefed her on emergency situations. Hell, her mother was famous. She'd been briefed on emergency situations every year since she was five. She closed her eyes again and breathed through her nose, trying to remember what she'd learned.

oOo

"…Call the command center up in Manhattan. I want all of the toll roads alerted that we've got a missing person…"

"…Shacklebolt's with the family. The press wants a statement now about what happened…"

"…Ambulance just arrived at St. Mark's. He'll be unconscious before we can know anything…"

"…then the security tapes got to the lab. Analysis is looking over them, but it's just looking like normal activity…"

Harry listened to the chatter around him and breathed through his nose and out his mouth. This was all well and good, but none of it was going to bring Ginny back. He put his hands in front of him on the table and tried not to punch something. He had gotten himself to the police station in under ten minutes. For what?

Nothing. He was doing Nothing. The people around him were doing Nothing. He knew the protocall for missing persons. He knew the press was all but climbing into the bathroom window to figure out what had happened. He knew Snape was unconscious in the hospital.

But in the end, he didn't really know anything. All the dead ends, all the questions, they were just swirling around in his head. If he'd had one more day maybe…

No. Now wasn't the time for that. He needed to get Ginny back. Needed to do it right now. He stood suddenly and the room around him fell silent. Seamus rushed to his side, looking expectantly.

"We're going to case…everywhere. Start with the area around where the call was made and the magazine delivered. Work your way out. I want someone at the office building 24/7. I want those tapes and their findings hand fucking delivered to me when they're done-"

"Agent Potter-" Someone behind him started. Harry whirled around.

"Don't. This is happening and its happening the way I say it will. I know I'm not on the case anymore. Doesn't matter. We find her and we bring her home. If she's not in her apartment in the next three hours, there will be hell."

Harry left it at that. His voice had been hoarse from yelling orders for the past twenty minutes and he knew he still looked like hell from the lack of sleep and food. But damn it he was serious and these idiots had better fucking believe that he would make their lives miserable if this didn't go the way he wanted it. And what he wanted was Ginny Weasley back in his arms in the next three hours. No excuses.

He turned and strode down the hall, eating up carpet. He was going to get his car. He was going to get in his car. Then he was going to track down the Godforsaken bastard that had done this and kill him. Kill him as many times as he needed to. Harry was prepared to go through most of the ammo in the greater New York area to just up and make Swiss cheese out of whoever he found when he got to Ginny.

Finegan was behind him. He heard the younger officer check his gun and nodded in approval.

"Agent Potter! Stop!"

Fuck that. Harry didn't even break stride. Stopping for a minute meant one more minute that he wasn't finding Ginny. Wasn't with Ginny. Nope. Not stopping.

"Agent…Harry!" Gasping, an arm gripped Harry's elbow and whirled him around. Officer Longbottom was out of breath and heaving. Harry stared down at him. He and Longbottom were solid, but that would be over in about three seconds if the guy kept holding him up.

"You want to see…It's Ginny's boss. He's here. He's got something…" Longbottom waved vaguely towards the interrogation rooms and Harry ran so fast he practically burned rubber.

oOo

"The little Weasley is so cute when she's asleep."

The mocking voice above her jerked Ginny back into consciousness. That and the bucket of water someone had thrown on her. She gasped and tried to ignore the pain again, ignore the fact that her entire right arm was numb where she was lying on it.

She blinked her eyes open and waited for them to adjust to the light and the water. When they did, they brought the image before her into clear focus. She gasped.

"Surprised to see me, sweet thing?" Michael Corner's taunting voice along with his old name for her sent chills through her.

"What…" Ginny couldn't formulate words. The pair in front of her were baffling. Michael and Romilda? It made no sense.

"Oh, sweetie. You really didn't see this coming, did you? Even after two body guards and five people analyzing your mail…you still had no idea that your past was catching up to you. How sweet."

Romilda's silky, sugary voice made Ginny sick. She shifted her eyes between her two kidnappers. Maybe if she could keep them talking… Maybe it would give Harry enough time to…

Above them, a slow rumble began. Michael swung his gun up the short set of stairs to where a door was set in the wall. Romilda laid a hand on his arm and stroked it lovingly.

"You're so jumpy, honey. It's just Colin back from work. Keep her occupied. I'll take care of this." With that, Romilda bounded up the stairs and left Ginny and Michael alone. Michael paused, watching her go, then swung the gun to Ginny.

"She said keep you occupied, not keep you alive." He sneered down at her. Ginny gasped.

"Why are you doing this, Michael? I know we didn't end on the best terms-"

"Best terms?" He shouted, making her wince and her head throb more. "You were fucking everyone around you to get a job! You were making me look like an idiot trying to get into training while you just snapped your fingers and got down on your whore knees and everything fell into place." Michael spit on the ground next to her head.

"I was always to good for you. I was too good for that fucking school, too good for that fucking team. At least I wised up and realized I was too good for the fucking academy before I had one more piece of my life down the toilet."

Ginny shook her head, trying to get his words straight.

"You think I was cheating on you?" Her teeth chattered around the words as the cold from the concrete and the water sunk into her bones. "How…how could you think that?"

Michael spit again. "I knew it! Everyone knew it! I was the laughing stock of the school, damn even the whole country. They'd already figured out what took me so long to get my head around." Michael licked his lips and brandished the gun, making Ginny shrink more into the wall.

"You're a whore! Just a little celebrity slut who couldn't stand not being in the limelight. Not getting her way. I've found Millie now. She understands me." He shook the gun again. "She respects me, unlike you."

"I don't u-understand." Ginny croaked, her frame wracked with shivers. "How do you even kn-know her? Why…why do you want to d-do this to me?" Her voice was raspy. Just keep him talking. She told herself. She needed time. Harry needed time.

Above them, the rumbling started again and he looked up to the ceiling. When he looked back at her, his smile was sinister. The door above them opened and Romilda stepped down.

"Have you two been getting along?" She purred, stepping too close to Michael and running her hands down his arm.

"She was just asking questions." He grunted, his eyes glinting down at the hands on his arm.

"Questions!" Romilda barked, laughing. She looked at Ginny. "I would be, too, if I were you. But then you never were quite as smart as me, were you?" Romilda knelt in front of Ginny and gripped her hair, bringing her head off the floor and a flash of pain to Ginny's skull.

"Draco Malfoy was mine. Mine!" She shook Ginny's head. "I deserved that spot on second string. I deserved the spot in the Flash. You got them all instead." Romilda dropped Ginny's hair and Ginny had to bite her lip to keep from crying out when her head banged on the hard floor.

"You always got what you wanted, didn't you?" Romilda walked back to Michael who smiled at her.

"Told her she was a spoiled bitch. Used to getting her way." He said, looking from Ginny to Romilda and back. Romilda laughed.

"Well, now you're definitely not getting your way, are you?" He asked. "Little whore's all alone with no one to help her. Where's Harry Potter now?" His voice taunted her and her body shook harder. She could feel the edges of her consciousness getting fuzzy. She was so cold…her head was killing her…

She wasn't aware that her eyes had drifted shut until she felt a blinding pain in her ribs. She cried out as a boot connected with her ribs again.

"Am I boring you, little whore?" Michael yelled as Romilda laughed behind him. "You wanna fall asleep, bitch?" He kicked her this time in the stomach and Ginny yelled again. She felt her eyes roll back as her body continued to shake. She was so cold. Everything was getting so dark.

She struggled to keep her focus and tried to lift her head off the floor. Harry needed more time to find her. It hadn't been long enough. She couldn't…not yet. Not like this.

A tear leaked out of her eye as she thought of Harry and the boot landed hard against her body. He told me that he loves me. Harry loves me…Harry…

There was a sharp noise above her and Ginny fought the blackness rolling over her. She kept herself awake just in time to hear the sharp crack of a gun and to blink slowly at the pool of blood forming underneath her.

Another cliff hanger but there will be a new chapter up tomorrow! Let me know what you think! Did anyone see this coming? I know one of you did…