Chapter One-Missing
"Emma, sweetie. Wake up," Casey cooed, at seven in the morning, pushing open her five-year old daughter's room door.

Casey took a step back, flabbergasted at the sight that was in front of her, letting out a small shriek.

Clothes were all over the room, toys and barbie dolls were thrown all over the room.

But what frightened her most was the fact that there was blood.

Blood trails on the floor, and blood droplets on clothes and dolls.

Casey scrambled from the doorway, and rushed to the phone in the hallway, and called the cops.

"Calm down, madam," the operator said gently, towards the hysterical mother, "Can you tell me your address again."

Casey took a deep breath, and repeated her address.

After the operator finished locating Casey's house and had sent the signal to the emergency crew, she began to ask Casey small little questions.

Casey slowly made her way down the stairs to the front door to wait for the police, as she answered the operator's questions between sobs.

Casey unlocked the front door, as she heard the sirens from the emergency crew's vehicles, and hung up the phone.

But the sirens reminded her that her daughter was missing, and she leaned against the wall beside the stairs and began to sob all over again.

When the first cop arrived, she lifted her head and pointed up the stairs next to her, "First door to your right," then went back to her waterworks.

She could feel the people give her pity glances, as EMS, firefighters, and cops all passed her.

Shoes rushed past her, but one pair stopped in mid-step, and turns around.

"Casey?"

Casey's sobs immediately stop, recongnizing the voice, and she looks up with wide eyes, "...Derek?"

The cop behind him, gives him a light push, "Derek man," he says, pointing up the stairs.

"You can go first," Derek says, and steps out of the line, to let people pass, and kneels beside Casey, leaving his silver suitcase beside him.

"Is she..." Derek starts, pointing up the stairs, as he sits cross-legged.

Casey breaks back into tears, and Derek pulls her into his arms, and on to his lap.

Derek hugs her tightly, rubbing his arm against her back, saying, "Oh my god. I'm so sorry, Casey."

"It's not your fault," Casey hiccups.

Derek burries his face into a familiar scent that missed for a really long time.

They stayed in that position for a few moments.

Then Derek's walkie-talkie began to talk.

"Derek, get you ass up here," a colleague, named Mark said.

Then another colleague named David said, "Language, Mark."

"I have to get to work," Derek said reluctantly, letting Casey go.

"I'll come," Casey said quietly, as she and Derek stood up.

"Are you sure?" Derek asked, picking up his suitcase.

Casey nodded.

Derek wrapped his arms around her, and kissed the top of her head, and held her hand, and the two walked up the stairs.

Derek placed his suitcase on the hallway coffeetable, and opened it.

He pulled out a pair of gloves, that he slipped his hands into; then he looked over at Casey, "Gloves?"

"Sure," Casey said quietly.

Her daughter was missing, and she'd do anything to get her back.

Derek handed her a pair of latex gloves, then snapped his suitcase shut.

The EMS crew left, since no one was hurt, so they left in their ambulance car.

The fire department people, were outside, inspecting the distance from the broken window to the ground.

The TPD's Crime Unit were sweeping for fingerprints, collecting blood samples from each puddle.

A third of the crime unit went outside to see what traces of evidence the kidnapper left for them.

Walkie-talkies talked, pronouncing what they had found.

Derek beckoned Casey out of the room.

"I'm gonna interview you," Derek said, peeling his gloves off his skin, "Mark was suppose to interview you, but his brother's in the hospital and they called. So..." he continued, clapping his hands together softly, to get the powder from the gloves off him, "We are heading back to the station."

"Aren't you suppose to drive a cop car with sirens and all?" Casey asked, as they went under the "police line do not cross" tape wrapped around the perimeter of her house.

"I'm not straight-up cop, I'm a crime investigator. I don't go chasing bad guys and giving people tickets for not parking parallel," Derek said

The two got into Derek's car, surprisingly, it wasn't filled with trash.

"Clean car..." Casey said quietly.

Derek chuckled, then turned on to the main road.

Derek parked in the parking lot of Toronto Police Headquarters.

Derek unlocked the door to one of the cell rooms where they would interview witnesses.

"Okay, so tell me what happened this morning."

Casey bit her bottom lip, holding back tears.

A minute passed by before Casey responded, "So Emma goes to school, right? So I opened her door, and saw what you guys saw. I let out a scream, then dashed for the phone."

"Did you hear anything last night?"

"No."

"You're still a light-sleeper, aren't you?" Derek asked.

"Yeah, but I didn't hear anything," Casey said, biting back a smile. Happy that Derek at least remembered something about her.

"Are you sure?"

Casey nodded.

There was a faint knock on the door, and Derek went to open the door, to see his partner.

Tall, blonde, and thin Sabrina Teller, handed Derek a form and a pen to give to Casey, then beckoned him out of the stuffy room.

"Fill this out, okay?" Derek said softly, laying the stuff in front of her.

Casey nodded.

Derek closed the door gently, then turned his attention to Sabrina.

"A gun was found lying on the grass, right under Emma's window. A knife was found about twelve meters away from the gun. There was a few bullets left in the gun. The knife was spotless: no prints, no blood. The blood was just sent to be checked out.

"A few prints were found inside. A small print, that we believe was Emma's, was on the gun. Three different larger prints were found. Two were on the lamp by Emma's bed. One may be the mother's," Sabrina said, then handed Derek a inkpad, and a small sheet of paper.

Derek took what was given to him, "Didn't you say there were three different prints?"

Sabrina nodded, "One more was found, by the window. Four different prints: the mother, the victim, and two unidentified."

"So there were two people who took her..." Derek repeated.

Sabrina shrugged, "Possibly."

"Possibly?"

"There were a lot more of prints outside, then inside."

"Were any of them inside too?" Derek said.

"Yeah, all of them. The mother and the victim's prints would be outside because it's their property. So the two unidentified ones where outside. But there's a question. One of the prints were shown a lot more than the other."

"Well maybe one did more work than the other."

"That wouldn't have worked before the yard is really narrow, and it's like a maze. Two prints? Is too little. Unless you know exactly where you're going, you had to touch a lot more," Sabrina told him.

"I'll drop by your desk and give you the form and her fingerprint, then I'll ask her to show me her backyard," Derek planned out out loud.

Sabrina's cell phone rang, and she headed off to answer the call.

Derek pushed open the door, closing it behind him, then sat back down across from his step-sister.

"Did you guys find her?" Casey asked quietly.

Derek couldn't help but let out a chuckled, "My dear step-sister, I'm not a miracle-worker. I wish I was though."

Casey gave a weak smile, then looked back down at the forms.

The black ball-point pen dashed across the paper, quickly and neatly.

Then the pen stopped, and Casey looked up at her daughter's father, "What if she doesn't have a father?"

"Did he pass away?" Derek asked concerned.

Casey looked down, "...When I signed the forms, he didn't sign it."

"Why not?" Derek said worriedly.

"He didn't know," Casey simply said.

"So he doesn't know that he's a father," Derek repeated.

Casey shook her head.

"Um, then just leave that part blank," Derek said, unsure of what to say.

Casey closed the form booklet, and placed the pen on top of it.

Derek opened the inkpad, "We need your fingerprint. So thumb in the ink," he said, placing the paper next to the pad.

When they were done, Derek collected everything on the desk, then they left the room.

"I was wondering if you could show me your backyard after I drop these off," Derek said casually.

"Sure."

They stepped on to the floor of an open room, but with desks all over the room, and a few people working hard at their desk.

They weaved through several desks, before they reached Sabrina's.

Casey noticed that, just like high school, Derek had a high status.

Female workers stared at him with wanting eyes, and guys looked at him with jealousy.

But Casey became aware that one of the females in the room was a lot more competitive for Derek.

Her name tag read "Sabrina Teller".

"Hey Derek," she said in her high-pitched shrilly voice.

"Hey. Here are the forms and the finger print. I'm gonna step out," Derek said, dumping the stuff on her desk.

Sabrina nodded with a wide smile, then called for some girl to pick up the form and file it.

Derek walked away from her desk and towards his, with Casey following behind.

There was a note tapped on his computer.

"Ack, I have to go check up on something. I'll be right back though. Just sit or something," Derek said, tossing the note in the garbage can, then running a hand through his hair, as he walked away.

Casey awkwardly sat in Derek's chair, then stared at his non-messy desk top with a raised eyebrow.

Someone's habits changed a lot.

"Oh my gosh, he's so hot," the girl in the desk next to Derek's gushed.

"I know. When he runs his hand through his hair... It's breath-taking," another girl said.

Casey blushed pink, slightly embarrassed, as the talk about Derek continued.

She knew that no one in the office knew that she had dated him, but she still flushed pink.

There were a few pictures on his desk.

A picture of him and Marti, a picture of the whole VenturiMacdonald family.

But one picture caught her eye.

The picture was hidden in the shadow of the computer, hidden from the view of anyone who passed by.

The frame was designed carefully and beautifully, and held a picture of her and Derek.

The picture was one of her favourite, but had mysteriously disappeared from the box that she kept all their pictures in, hidden deep inside her closet.

It was the day that it was 40 degree Celsius outside, and the air condition was broken.

Nora and George had taken Lizzie, Edwin, and Marti to the waterpark; while Derek took Casey to the ice cream parlour.

They had ended up smashing their cones at each other faces.

Casey had taken out the camera that she always kept in her purse, and snapped a picture of them together.

Casey had chocolate ice cream smeared all over her face, while Derek had mint chocolate ice cream on his face and in his hair.

Casey then realized that the room was quiet, and that Derek was standing beside her.

Casey showed him the picture with a raised eyebrow.

Derek let out a low chuckle, and reached out to take the picture out of her hands.

But she didn't let go.

Derek leaned down so his lips were right beside her right ear, "Not today, Princess."

Knowing that Derek's lips were right beside her ear sent shivers down her spine, and Derek took his chance, and swiftly took the picture out of her grip, and placed it back in the dark shadow.

"Let's go," Derek said, grabbing her hand, then dragging her to the elevator.

As they stood inside the elevator to go down twelve floors, Casey stood there with her arms crossed over her chest, and a pout on her lips.

Derek sighed, "What now, Casey?"

"You stole that picture."

"Hey, I was in that picture too."

"But it was my favourite," Casey said, sticking out her bottom lip more.

"It was my favourite too. Why else do you think I took it?" Derek said.

The elevator doors opened, but no one was there, and they continued down seven more stories.

Derek leaned against a mirrored side of the elevator with closed eyes, "Casey. Stop pouting, before I do something drastic," he warned.

Casey immediately stopped pouting and switched it with wide eyes, freaked out by what Derek could mean.

The elevator let out a soft "ding", and the doors open.

Derek opened his eyes, and stalked out of the elevator, then walked towards his Mercedes.

Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed the first chapter. The wallpaper and banner for this story is in my profile. Be sure to check that out! And don't forget to review!