Hello readers. I have the next chapter for you and I hope you enjoy.

TenorSax93: I hope this chapter satisfies you a little. Thank you.

Twilight Warrior 627: The plot threads are coming together then they'll start being one by one concluded. That insight though could easily be a red herring even if the information was true. Yeah, Tori finally admitted something is up and to Amanda of all people. You could believe Dusty when he says that it isn't necessarily helping Beck for Beck's benefit, but because it emotionally affects Jade. I don't think I've stressed it enough in the series after the bombshell that Beck and Carly had been talking for months behind their backs, but she and Beck are good. She does care about him.

Kidnapper dead? You think the person will get off that easily?

Fanfic-Reader-88: Heather will have to face that transition from being just a model to perhaps something more. A certain model whose character you're writing is literally doing the same thing with her upcoming movies, but of course Emily was never shy about her image.

Dusty is a pragmatist. If Beck and Tori deteriorate, it affects Jade, Freddie and the others. Some of the others aren't his favorite, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have compassion for them.

No spoilers about what would happen to the kidnapper other than what I told Twilight.

Challenge King: Jonathan has been dancing around (denying reality) the issue long enough, so he had to do something. I wouldn't bet on whoever kidnapped Ian having a pleasant ending.

xemtlenc: Answered personally, but still wanted to personally acknowledge the review.

Rating: T Language, serious Jade has a mouth on her in this one, Violence

Chapter 23: SuperPsycho Part 1

Kerckhoff Coffee House
Kerckhoff Hall
308 Westwood Plaza
UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
Friday, October 25, 2013

Jade was relaxing back in a secluded spot in the group's favorite coffee house, lazily scribbling on her pad as the lyrics came to mind while waiting for Freddie's class to finish up. As many times that Freddie, her mother and Cat watched her writing down lyrics, one would think that she had enough for several more albums instead of just for her next one that she would put out next year. In reality, she did have more than just enough for the next album. She recalled all the songs she had heard from her trip to her 'It's a Wonderful Life' future and had written down as much of the lyrics as she could remember. She was spending more time trying to either finish a partially remembered lyric or reworking it to reflect her mind and heart.

However, her thoughts were interrupted with feeling her phone vibrate in her pocket. She ignored the first buzz, but the second then third buzz only seconds later grabbed her attention. She thought it better have been important for interrupting her writing.

She pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket and looked down at the message from Cat. She read it and what little color her face contained was drained away. She shoved the phone back into her pocket then shoved her pad into her bag before dashing out of the coffeehouse as fast as she could move.

The pale singer pulled her phone back out of her pocket as she made her way down the stairs. She tapped for her address book and called Cat. The other end rang once just as she was exiting the coffeehouse before it picked up. She shouted in outrage, "Cat? What happened? Why did you send me that text message? It isn't funny."

"Oh thank God you answered! It's not a joke. Ian's been kidnapped."

"This isn't funny Cat!"

The unseen former redhead let out a cry, "I'm not joking!" She calmed her breathing and continued, "Tori's dad's here and they started looking for him. They've already put on an Amber Alert for him. They're bringing in the FBI."

Jade just stopped and looked out at nothing. Her stomach tightened and the muscles in her neck constricted and her chest squeezed, threatening to cut off her breath. She thought she was going to heave up her last meal on the spot, but she maintained enough self-control.

She must have been that way for several seconds as Cat called out on the other end, "Jade? Jade?"

Jade blinked several times then answered, "I'm here… what… what happened?"

Cat started, "I was out with Robbie and Sam was watching him—"

Jade pressed the end call button, hearing all she needed to hear.

UCLA Computer Science Department
4732 Boelter Hall
UCLA Campus
Los Angeles, CA

Freddie's computer class was fairly boring for the young man as he worked ahead on the assignment for the week before the professor had even began his lecture on the subject. In order to pass the time to finish up his last class of the day and meet up

The class was interrupted with a young man, perhaps a junior or senior, sticking his head in the door. "Hey, is Freddie Benson here?"

The professor stopped in the middle of his lecture and curtly questioned, "Excuse me young man, but what do you think you're doing?"

The young man ignored the professor and spotted Freddie. "Hey, your girlfriend's brother has been kidnapped."

Freddie glared at the unknown student and snapped in disgust, "That's not funny."

The spiky blonde haired raised his hand in surrender and snorted out a submissive laugh, "I'm not joking man; check the news."

The professor demanded, "Young man, leave my class before I call campus police."

The student reiterated, "Dude, just check the news. It's going nuts."

Freddie knotted his brow and against his better judgment in humoring some joker, clicked to open up a web-browser and brought up a news sight. His heart gripped in fear as he read over the headline.

"Oh my God…"

The professor called out in concern, "Mister Benson?"

Freddie grabbed his stuff and shoved it into his book bag. "Ian really has been kidnapped. I got to go." He got up from his seat and pulled out his phone, speed dialing Jade's number as he dashed out the door, leaving a shocked class.

Cat Valentine/Sam Puckett Residence
Apartment 22
Venice, CA
Friday, October 25, 2013

Jade had driven like a mad woman from the campus to Cat and Sam's apartment building. She screeched to a halt in the parking lot, taking up two spaces without care. She practically jumped out of her car and ran to the apartment, barely taking time to shut the door behind her.

Jade's pace sped up further when she saw several uniformed officers loitering about the entrance of Cat's apartment. They attempted to block her path, but her hateful glare actually intimidated them to step aside. She walked through the open door and assessed the situation: She saw Sam sitting on the couch talking to Detective Vega and Mister West. She glanced over to see that Cat was near comatose sitting on one of her bar stools and Robbie gently rocking with her.

Jade shouted, "Where's Ian?!"

The detective and Mister West turned from their conversation to look at the irate rock star. The familiar voice shouting jolted Cat out of her daze.

Mister West stood up and approached his daughter with raised hands, attempting to calm the situation. "Jade, we don't know yet. We're doing all we can in finding him."

She pushed past him to look at Sam as she stood up from the couch.

The pale girl harshly stared at the blonde and roared, "Where is HE?!"

Sam swallowed down in mild feared from the look in the musician's eyes then stood up, "Jade, I'm sorry. Ian was playing one of his games and I just got up to use the bathroom. When I came back, he was gon—"

The former juvenile delinquent didn't finished as Jade charged at the blonde and tackled to the ground. The pale singer rose up after mounting her stomach then wrapped her hands around Sam's neck and squeezed with all her might, sinking her nails into Sam's neck with the intention of ending her life. "You FUCKING CUNT! You left him AGAIN?!"

The others were momentarily stunned from Jade's reaction, but quickly pounced to try to pull her off before she killed Sam. Mister West grabbed one of Jade's arms while the detective grabbed her other arm. They actually struggled to pull her off of Sam before she killed the former juvenile delinquent. They had to yank several times, unsuccessfully at first to pull her off as she had such a grip around the blonde's neck with her nails sinking into her skin.

Mister West shouted, "Stop Jade! Stop!"

They were finally able to pull Jade away while she roared in hatred as she struggled with all her might with wild kicks and jerking of her arms against the grasp of her one time enemy's father and her own father, "Let me go! Let me go! I swear to God I will see you dead SAM PUCKETT! I swear it on Ian's life I will END YOU!"

Sam rolled onto her side and coughed up a storm, trying to fill her lungs with air before attempting to sit up. She brought her hands up to her throat to check to see if she was bleeding while she continued to cough to get back her breath. Her fingertips felt the sticky substance where Jade's nails had penetrated her skin a bit of her blood was being released.

Mister West desperately pleaded with his daughter, "Jade, I need you to calm down—"

She struggled against her father's arms around her stomach, still trying to free herself to lunge at Sam, not caring if Detective Vega was standing in front of her. "I'll calm down after I rip her fucking head off!" She looked past the detective and shouted, "You were supposed to be watching him, not run off!"

The outburst snapped Cat out of her stupor and shouted in a vain attempt to calm her friend, "Please Jade! Calm down!"

Jade refused to listen and continued to struggle, even going so far as trying to swing back and elbow her father in the jaw.

Freddie arrived a moment later behind them and shouted, "What's going on?!"

Roy West turned to look at his daughter's fiancé and pleaded, "Freddie, I could use your help."

Jade bucked in his grip and flung her legs out, hair flinging about with each jerk of her body. "Let me go!"

Freddie rushed around to stand in front of Jade and gently took her shoulders in his hands. "Jade! Calm down!"

The musician only paused a moment to see her love through her fallen hair in her face. She spat out, "I'm going to kill her!"

The former tech-producer glanced over his shoulder to see that Sam was pulling herself onto her feet and a bit of blood on her throat. He snapped his head back to meet his love's eyes and cupped her cheeks to get her to focus on him and whispered, "You can kill her later! Right now we have to find Ian! He's more important! Vengeance later."

Freddie's words cut through the haze of her rage and she suddenly stopped struggling against Mister West's grip. She took several calming breaths and tried to push her rage down, locking eyes with him and using him as an emotional anchor.

Detective Vega looked to Freddie and desperately suggested, "Freddie, I think you should take her outside."

"Yeah, I think that's a good idea. Jade, let's just go outside for a second."

The dark brunette initially hesitated, but conceded to his request.

Mister West let his daughter go once he was satisfied that she wouldn't rush the blonde again. The former tech-producer for a moment believed that she would rush him, but she took a few more calming breaths.

Freddie gently took Jade by the elbow and led her out of the apartment. They walked past the uniformed officers to a secluded place under a set of stairs for some privacy. Jade stopped when they were out of sight of everyone and turned to her fiancé. She paced back and forth in front of him, trying to reign in her anger and hatred. After about another minute, her expression started breaking down as the situation sank in that Ian was gone and they had no idea where he was or who had him or what could be happening to him. She blinked several times and the first moisture started forming. She covered clenched her eyes tightly shut and covered her mouth with a hand. Jade's knees collapsed and Freddie knelt down with her as she clung to him and buried her face into the side of his neck.

He brushed his hand up and down her back, whispering to reassure her, "It's going to be okay. I swear it's going to be okay."

She cried for several minutes, just letting her rage and fear out into Freddie's embrace. He whispered reassurances and kissed her forehead.

Jade sniffled several time to help gather her wits enough to focus. She looked up from his stained collar. "Who would do this? Is it some pervert that wants to do God knows what to him? Is it because of me? Is it some crazy fan or someone jealous? Quincy has always pushed for more security, but…"

Freddie cupped her right cheek and confidently answered, "I don't know, but what is important right now is to keep calm so we can focus on finding him then we'll worry about making whoever took him will pay and pay dearly." His gaze turned dark and he slowly whispered with steel in his voice, "I swear on all of my being that you will have your vengeance."

The blue streaked hair musician met his eyes and saw that he was practically swearing an oath to her. She nodded and swallowed. She took a deep breath and pushed down the feelings of despair and utter terror at what she could imagine could happen to Ian. She turned to the rage she felt towards Sam and let herself emotionally drown in it, knowing that she would let loose it to whoever took Ian when the time came. A sense of peace came over her as she had a purpose: find Ian then unleash her wrath on those responsible.

Hell have no fury…

Jade stood up and put on a cold, impassive expression then led Freddie back to the apartment. Freddie put on a calm expression to hide his worry not only for Ian, but Jade's emotional wellbeing.

Since the time Jade stormed from the apartment, her mother and Colonel Shay had arrived. Her mother walked to her and pulled her into a hug. The teenager felt stiff in the lovely woman's arms and it sent a shiver of worry through the matriarch.

Jade pulled away and looked to Detective Vega and asked in a fairly detached voice, "What have you been doing to find him?"

The detective took a short breath and glanced to Mister West as if to consult with him with a mere glance about whether he should answer the young woman.

The dark haired former terror of Hollywood Arts caught the glance the hissed out in a cold and venomous tone she hadn't used in a long time, "I asked you a question Vega. I don't need his permission to know what's going on as if I'm a damn child. He hasn't made any of those decisions anyway since I was eight years old."

Mister West squared his jaw and bristled at Jade's dismissive manner towards him.

Detective Vega looked almost embarrassed for being chided in reminding him that she just wasn't a teenager still going to his daughter's high school, but a very successful and famous young woman that hadn't crashed and burned. He decided to be straightforward in his answers, "We put out an Amber Alert and the news that he's your stepbrother has the chief making this a top priority. The FBI is getting involved due to the kidnapping and your celebrity status. They should be here in a few minutes."

"Do you have any idea who could have done this? Some crazy fan? Some… pervert?"

"We're running down any sex offenders that may be living around the area, but the kidnapper actually left a note saying he or she has him. We're rushing to see if we can get any fingerprints or latent DNA off the paper."

Jade questioned with clear surprise in her voice, "They left a note?"

"Yes, he or she taped it to a rock."

"What did it say?"

Detective Vega sighed in frustration by the lack of information. "Just that he or she had him."

"So you have no idea who could have taken him?"

"We were hoping that you might know of anyone that wished to do you harm since the note suggests that this wasn't just a random abduction. It can't be ignored that his kidnapping could be related to your celebrity status. It's my understanding that the paparazzi have snapped a number of photos with you out with him."

Mister West took a deep breath and straightened up his straight posture further, clearly uncomfortable with the news.

Jade's breath hitched with the reminder that in some twisted way that this could be her fault for being so careless on allowing them to take pictures of her while Ian was with her. She pushed that to the side and shook her head, answering, "I haven't had any stalkers or anything like that. Quincy's security is always on the lookout for it with messages on my TwitFlash and fan mail and they haven't informed me of any threats."

"We should contact them anyway to see if something has come up."

Jade reached into her pocket to pull out her phone to bring up Quincy's number. Since her mind had been so occupied with what happened, it hadn't occurred to her that someone from the record company hadn't contacted her.

Colonel Shay finally spoke, "This may have nothing to do with Jade. What about Roy's enemies? A bad business deal and a bitter client might want revenge?"

Detective Vega had been so caught up with the expected connection of Jade's celebrity status, as everyone else had made the same assumption, that no one stopped to think that it wasn't related to Jade at all.

Mister West was quick to point out with a hint of offense showing on his face, "I have no enemies… except for you."

The former Mrs. West sharply admonished her former husband, "Roy."

Shay raised an eyebrow, curious as to the direction Roy would go with his conversation.

Detective Vega passed quick glances to the Colonel before asking Mister West, "Why would you say that?"

Ruby West snapped at her ex-husband before he could answer the detective, "Don't, don't you dare try to suggest that Steven has anything to do with this."

Roy West took a step towards his ex-wife and curtly countered, letting his cool appearance crack for a moment, "It wouldn't be the first time that he's interfered with the affairs of my child. Damn it Ruby, he told me in no uncertain terms that if I tried for full custody of Jade that he'd make you a widow before our divorce was over."

Ruby hitched a breath and looked wide eyed to him.

Mister West looked to Shay with an accusatory expression.

Shay stood impassive as he returned a gaze.

The tension was thick… like the fumes of a room filled with open gasoline just waiting for a spark.

Detective Vega quietly began, "Colonel Shay, may I ask you where you were this—"

Jade cut off any further argument with a near growl as she shouted at her father, "Enough. If you want to refight your battle with Colonel Shay, you do it another time. You damn well know he wouldn't do any such thing. You've been the one playing games with Ian and not wanting me to see him. I was happy to watch him every afternoon I didn't have class, but you and that annoying bitch of a trophy wife you have decided that you wanted the fucking juvenile delinquent with a history of violence longer than my arm." She looked to Detective Vega and finished, "And if take his accusation as anything as the pure joke that it is then you are as janking stupid as your daughters could be back at Hollywood Arts."

Mister West's cheeks flushed with anger and Detective Vega turned a disapproving look to Jade. He could see why Tori could have such problems with the girl while they were in high school.

The former flyer spoke up, "For the record, I was at the VA… the Greater L.A. Center all day volunteering. It's on Wilshire Boulevard."

One of the uniformed officers spoke up, "I know where that's at."

Everyone in the room turned to him.

The police officer quickly explained, "What? My dad was in the first Gulf War?"

Jade shook her head trying to rein in her emotions before dialing the number for RPX. While she was waiting for the other end to pick up, she looked around and saw that Sam was nowhere to be seen. "Where is that bitch anyway?"

Cat spoke up, almost fearful to tell her the truth, "She said she had to take a walk."

Jade opened her eyes wide, unable to comprehend Cat's answer for several seconds, then realized she was telling the truth. She answered with pure hatred in her eyes, "A walk? A walk? She just took off? How do we know she's not in on it with Nora and you let her go?"

The former redhead shouted in outrage in defense of her friend and roommate, "Why would she get involved in this? Why would she want anything to happen to him?"

The taller teenager took a step towards her and hissed out, "Revenge against me. I did beat the shit out of her and scarred her up for a while. Hell, I got Freddie away from her and turned her and Carly's life upside down for months in Seattle. I never forgot how much of a grudge she can hold."

Cat heatedly countered, "You mean the same one you're holding?"

Jade growled at her old and dear friend, "She's an unremorseful piece of shit that used Freddie as her personal punching bag and tormented him for years, so you're damn right I won't forget who and what she is."

The fellow musician had no counter to her point, but attempted to anyway, "Jade, it's not her fault. It's not fair to just say—"

"I don't give one fuck about being fair! Ian is in the hands of a some pervert or something because that waste of flesh couldn't do her damn job and that's being generous. If anything happens to him, I will kill her. I swear that I will end her."

Mister West spoke up, "Jade, it's not wise to make idle threats." He glanced to Detective Vega, worried that he would take what Jade was saying as a serious threat towards Sam and act accordingly.

Jade spat out with all the hatred in her heart, "There is nothing idle about them. I will end that miserable cunt's life and anyone stupid enough to get in my way."

Mister West was quick to attempt to assure Detective Vega, "Detective, as you can see what has happened has put considerably strain on my daughter. She's not speaking rationally."

Ruby West wanted to object to how belittling he was to their daughter, but she could see his motivation behind such a thing because she didn't want Jade arrested, so she remained quiet.

Vega patiently smiled, hopefully one that wouldn't offend Jade or her mother. "I can only imagine the emotional situation that Jade must be going through not knowing what is happening with him."

Colonel Shay countered, "Yes you would. Yerba?"

Vega glanced at the Colonel, the man that had ended the man's life that had done such a thing to his daughters, and grudgingly admitted he was correct.

Jade felt another wave of rage ripple through her in her feelings be dismissed so readily. She wanted to wipe off that politely smug smirk off his face. She instantly realized where Tori had gotten that smile that had irritated her for so long before making peace with the girl.

Freddie picked up the murderous look in his love's eyes and gently rested a hand on her shoulder. His touch was an anchor for the dark haired teenager to calm her nerves. She needed the emotional reservoir to turn on to the one truly deserved her vengeance.

Freddie's phone rung with the default ring tone indicating that the call wasn't from a recognized number with a preset ring tone. He pulled the phone from the pocket and quickly answered it without thinking, "Hello?"

A sweet, but menacing voice answered, "Hi Freddieeee."

Freddie blinked and hesitated in answering for a moment before whispering, "Nora?"

Jade snapped her head to his conversation at hearing the familiar name while the flight or fight instincts kicked in for the Colonel.

The former tech-producer turned idly to face Jade and asked, "How did you get this number?"

"I memorized the number when I called on New Year's."

Freddie frowned at having it pointed out that he never had the number changed since that New Year's. "I didn't realize you had phone privileges."

"Oh, I'm not in prison anymore."

"What?"

She answered in a sing-song voice, "I escaped."

"Escaped? How?"

She answered in a sing-song voice, "That's not important right now, what's important is that I have you girlfriend's little stepbrother."

Freddie's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, but quickly turned to seething rage that could rival anything Jade could feel in her heart. "You WHAT?!"

"I have little Ian and I want to talk to Jade."

He turned in place, away from the pale teenager, and harshly hissed out, "I swear Nora, if you've hurt him, I will bury you alive."

Everyone in the room instantly put the pieces together on what happened to the six year old.

Detective Vega reached into his pocket to pull out his phone and quickly dial the precinct. He hissed to the others around and asked, "What's Freddie's number?"

Cat had the attention to reach for her own phone as she was too dependent on her address book to remember numbers off hand.

Nora shouted on the other end of the phone loud enough where he had to take his ear away from it and the others to hear what she was saying, "You don't get to threaten me! You're not in charge here! I am!"

He brought the phone back to his ear and coldly whispered, "I'm not threatening you. I'm telling you how this will end if you hurt him."

The former flyer quietly informed the former Seattle teenager, "Give me the phone Freddie."

Freddie gave Shay a curious expression through the anger.

Colonel Shay motioned with his fingers in his open palm and stated in a stern voice, "I'm not asking you son."

Freddie reluctantly handed the phone to the retired colonel.

Shay brought the phone to his ear and stated, "Nora, this is Steven Shay, Carly and Spencer's father. You remember me don't you?"

"I want to speak with Jade or I'll—"

"You'll do nothing but scream at your end of the phone after I hang up on you if you don't speak with me."

Nora took several deep breaths then reasserted her calmness to softly mock, "Oh, will I? I was willing to turn your son's brains to mush; what do you think I'm willing to do to him?"

"I know what you're willing to do and now that you're out, you'll get one to the brainpan soon enough, but first off… I don't care what you do to the kid. He's not my son. You want to talk then talk to me. If not, don't waste my time or yours."

Mister West looked astonished that Shay would say such a thing. Jade looked as if she was ready to kill her future father-in-law. Ruby looked just as incredulous with his words.

"I want to talk to Jade!"

Shay took the phone away from his ear and pressed the end call.

Roy shouted, "Steven!"

Shay gave him such a cold stare that Roy silenced himself as the others looked on in horror at what the former flyer had just done.

Detective Vega began, clearly upset that the Colonel was interfering with his police investigation, "Mister Shay—"

"I'm the one that got your daughters back from Yerba, so you're going to keep your mouth shut."

Vega closed his mouth, feeling chastised by the combat veteran.

Jade wasn't fearful and shouted, "Why did you hang up on her?!"

Shay patiently smiled to the young woman that may or may not be his daughter. "To remind her that she's not in control of the situation."

The musician hissed, "We're not in control. She has Ian."

The phone started ringing and Shay quickly answered the call to stall from having to answer Jade, "Hello?"

Nora immediately started shouting, "Why the hell did you hang up on—"

Shay pressed the end call button.

Jade's face dropped and she was ready to strangle him, but Freddie kept a calm hand on her shoulder.

The phone rang for a third time, but Shay waited to answer.

Jade attempted to steal the phone away from him, but he gently grabbed her wrist and met her eyes. The set of blue eyes stared at each other for half a second before Shay quietly told her, "You have to trust me."

She didn't want to take the leap of faith. She wanted to talk to Nora. She wanted to tell her how she was going to make her suffer if she harmed Ian, how she would invent new torture methods to use on her before she ended her life, but… that little knot in her heart that debated whether or not he truly was her father asserted itself and allowed her to trust him, at least for the next few minutes. She relaxed so he could answer the phone.

He brought the phone back to his ear and answered, "Hello."

Nora started screaming again, "I'm going to make him scream before I—"

The former flyer hung up on her for the third time.

Roy West looked as if he was ready to jump and finally deal with the man that had been a thorn in his side for decades.

Shay noticed the tension in the man and warned, "Keep your nerve Roy. The one time in your life, you have to be a damn man."

Detective Vega had the butt of his hand on top of the grip of his pistol while he extended his other hand. "Enough Colonel Shay, I insist that you hand me the phone. We're trying to trace the call, but if you keep hanging up on her—"

He glanced over the other officers, some of them looking uncomfortable, and sizing up the situation. "No."

"I will arrest you."

"No, you'll try to arrest me. There are only three of you. What you will do is be quiet and when I can get her calm enough and off balance enough to keep yapping then that will give you enough time for you to trace her."

The phone rang for a fourth time and he quickly answered before the detective could interfere. Shay quietly asked, "Are you done?"

He could only hear her enraged breath. He waited several more seconds then calmly asked, "I said are you done?"

Nora hissed out, "Yes."

"Good, are you ready to talk?"

"Yes."

"First off, I don't pay for damaged merchandise. If he's hurt. If you've done anything to him, you can keep what's left. You're not going to spoil their memory of him. They will remember him how he was, not what you've done to him."

Roy was about to object, along with Jade, but the former colonel glared at him and raised his hand to signal that he shouldn't talk. Jade looked to her future stepfather with a murderous glare.

Nora giggled, "Oh he's fine… for the moment."

"He better stay that way if you want to continue this conversation, but put him on the phone."

"Why?"

"I want proof of life. We only have your word you have him. You could have easily seen on the news about what happened and trying to take credit for it to get our attention."

The other end of the phone remained silent for several seconds until she acquiesced, "Fine."

Shay pressed the speaker button just as Ian could be heard shouting, "Jadey?"

Jade verbally leapt at answering, "I'm here sweetheart, where are you?!"

"I'm in a well—"

Nora interrupted, "That's enough."

Jade began, "Nora, I swear if you—"

The phone went silence.

Jade growled out in frustration, wanting to tear the girl's head off more than she wanted to tear Sam's head off.

Shay rested a hand on her shoulder and reassuringly whispered, "She's throwing a hissy fit in wanting to try to keep up the allusion that she's in control."

Mister West demanded, "She's not? She has my son!"

The former colonel looked the man that had done so much damage to his friend and calmly answered him, "Only if we let her have control. She has him, but to her, he's only a means to an end. She has to realize that if anything happens to him then she'll get nothing out of us."

The phone rang, but Shay waited until the third ring to answer it and put it on speaker.

Nora softly mocked, "Are you ready to talk?"

Shay lazily remarked, "You're the one that hung the phone up or did your signal drop from wherever you're hiding?"

"You're almost as funny as your children."

The colonel answered in a deadpan manner, "No I'm not. My humor's morbid. They get it from their late mother. So what do you want to talk about?"

"So this is a negotiation?"

"I don't usually negotiate with people like you; I simply put them in their graves, which I'll do to you in good time, but for the moment, I'm willing to listen to what you have to say. That was the point of kidnapping him: to get our attention. You have it."

The breathing on the other end became heavy, clearly not used to people challenging her on a regular basis after an initial threatening outburst. "I want Jade publicly to break up with Freddie. I want her to tell the world how a horrible person he is and that she doesn't and has never loved him. I want her to humiliate him. I want her to make him suffer… I want her to put the knife in his heart."

Shay had heard his share of ridiculous demands in his life, but this one really ranked up there. He calmly questioned, "And?"

"And what?"

"If she does that, you're just going to release Ian?"

"I'll drop him off someplace safe, but I need to see it. I need to see it on TMZ, Twitflash, everywhere with all her fans talking about it."

Freddie practically snarled and felt an overwhelming sense of self-loathing that he didn't end her when he had the chance and now Jade and Ian were the ones paying for his mistake. Perhaps he deserved to be publicly humiliated for his failure.

Jade looked shocked then turned in to outrage. She was about to shout an expected string of profanities to tell Nora where she could take her offer, but Nora finished, "I'll be watching the news."

As soon as the words left her lips, she hung up the phone.

The apartment went quiet for a few tense moment before Roy shouted, "Are you insane?!"

Shay passed his old annoyance with a barely patient expression. "I'm a little loco, hence the callsign, but insane? I've always passed my psychological evaluations."

The slightly older gentleman responded with a barely restrained growl, "You're gambling with my son's life."

"Of course I am. It's a game to her, but one where we play by our rules."

Detective Vega was quick to agree with the frustrated father, "I have to agree Mister West. Colonel Shay, I should arrest you for interfering."

"As you said, you can try and I already have the President that wish I was dead for how much I've said, but I have done this before. If you bring in someone else, she'll tell him or her to go do something inappropriate and you can forget any peaceful resolution to this. Were you able to trace the call?"

Mister West interrupted the detective, "When? When were you a hostage negotiator?"

"Afghanistan, Iraq. Hostage taking is big over there and they use it for leverage among the various tribes. You have to incentives them to take care of their hostage or they won't get what they want. They have a habit of not even feeding their prisoners. They did the same things to the Soviets in the Eighties. It buys us time for them to get her."

Vega pointed out, "The US doesn't negotiate with terrorists."

Shay turned a gaze to the detective that seriously questioned the man's intelligence. "You can't be that naïve, especially with this President in office. Hell, I was forced out for disobeying an illegal order when he let Ambassador Stevens die to cover up the fact that they were illegally running guns to Al Qaeda in Syria—I'm sorry, I mean the 'moderate' opposition."

The detective quieted down and even Mister West looked mollified enough to remain quiet.

Freddie hesitantly questioned, hoping to get the focus back on trying to get Ian back and not to upset the delicate standoff, "What do we do now? The number had to be blocked."

Shay looked down at the phone in his hands and pulled up the last number that called Freddie and sure enough, it was blocked. "What's the point? She would have used a burner phone anyway, but I can have narrow down to at least which cell tower she used. If it has a GPS tracker, perhaps they can turn it on."

Jade eagerly asked, "How?"

"I'll just call in a favor or two with people I may know at the NSA and they'll track the number and location down for us."

A few of them looked at him dumbfounded.

Shay shrugged and nonchalantly answered, "They really are spying on every one of our calls illegally and I met a lot of people in my career. We might as well let it be used for some good."

Detective Vega tightly smiled and diplomatically attempted to turn him down, "Someone from the local FBI should be here in minutes. We'll see what they can do."

The Colonel knew when he was being brushed off and knew how to placate such an individual. He returned the diplomatic smile and answered, "You work your end and I'll work mine."

"You don't believe that you've interfere enough?"

Ruby looked to her ex-husband with a glance that conveyed the demanded that he support Shay with his offer and not let his rivalry with the man short sight him.

Roy got the message and politely smiled to the detective. "Detective Vega, Colonel Shay obviously has additional resources not available to the LAPD. Would it not be prudent to use such resources?"

Vega gave Mister West a dubious look and pointed out, "You just accused him of potentially being involved with your son's kidnapping and now you are suggesting that we allow him to help?"

Mister West maintained a confident smile and easily answered, "I simply allowed my emotions to cloud my thinking for a moment. That shouldn't cause us to simply disregard those resources."

The detective was quite reluctant to agree with such a thing, but if the Colonel did have such contacts, why not use them? They were talking about the life of a young child at stake. He looked to Shay and guardedly answered, "Very well, as long as you do not further hamper the situation."

Shay grinned, trying not to appear too smug that he had won and Roy had to help him do it.

Jade asked what she thought was the obvious question, "What do we do in the meantime?"

Shay answered in a somber tone, "We wait. We wait for her to call back when she sees that you're not announcing to the world what she wants so they can trace the call or my contacts come through. Time is and isn't on our side."

His answer was the last thing she wanted to hear. She couldn't deal with helplessness and that's what she felt with having to depend on others in this case. She couldn't deal with just sitting and waiting, so the frustrated dark brunette turned and headed out of the apartment again in an attempt to calm her nerves.

Freddie was after her in a moment, but took him several more seconds than he expected to catch up with her as she had to jog to get away from the apartment. He caught up with her just as she turned a corner and was sitting down on one of the steps on the stairs to one of the upper units of the apartment. He took a seat next to his distraught fiancée. "We'll get him back. I promi—"

She snapped back, her rage and hatred dripping off every word, "Don't you dare make that promise. You can't make it. You can't guarantee you'll bring him back. You know how batshit insane she is. She could kill him. She threw him in a well…" She trailed off as she suddenly flashed backed to her own play about a girl that died in a well. "Oh God, he's in a well…

He slipped his hand into hers and laced his fingers before giving her a gentle squeeze. "I promise you we'll get him back… I swear on my life I will get him back and that I will make her pay for it."

The musician wasn't sure why she spoke her next words, but she didn't regret speaking them, "Will you kill her?"

Freddie answered with absolute conviction, "Yes."

She saw the look in his eyes, the sheer determination he had to accomplish his pledge. She let go of his hand and threw herself against him, wrapping her arms behind his neck and pulling him close.

He returned her embrace, attempting to comfort her in what little way he know how.

The couple remained silent for several minutes as Jade tried to find some comfort in Freddie's arms. She uttered, just rattling off a phrase she didn't consciously give any real thought, "We need a miracle."

The words triggered an obvious thought to him. He pulled away enough from her and answered, "Then let's get one."

Jade narrowed her bloodshot eyes on him as he reached into her pocket to search for her phone.

Sam sat on her favorite bench a few blocks down from the apartment, the one she had found refuge during her argument about jumping the tuna. She was idly watching people trip over the protrusion from the cracked sidewalk. However, the enjoyment she found from watching such activity was allusive and couldn't even work up a chuckle. Actually, she had to continually brush under her eyes with her thumbs, attributing the brightness of the overhead afternoon sun making her eyes water.

She didn't pay much attention to time or her surroundings and as such, she was caught off guard when she felt a soft hand on her right shoulder. She snapped her head to see who snuck up on her and was about to grab his wrist to throw him over her shoulder, but stopped when she saw Dusty's sympathetic eyes.

He dropped his hand away when he saw the few stray tears having run down her cheeks. He lifted it back up and touched his forefinger and middle-finger to her forehead and after a low volume but high pitch sound, the angry red cuts on her neck where Jade had dug her nails into the flesh were gone.

The blonde took a soft breath then turned her attention back to the broken sidewalk in the hopes of seeing someone else fall, not bothering to even thank him.

He took a seat next to her and rested his forearms on his knees and laced his fingers. He casually asked as he turned his attention to the broken sidewalk, "So… you think sitting here is a productive thing to do?"

Sam snorted out and brushed some hair off of her forehead and muttered, "What am I supposed to do? I don't have a clue where Ian is and Jade's ready to kill me because she thinks I let it happen." She subconsciously moved her hand to her neck and slowly rubbed where the marks once were. "I know I can be an irresponsible gank when watching ki—"

"Bitch."

She snapped her head to meet his eyes.

He replied to the stare in a detached voice, "You know I don't like to sugarcoat things. You're a bitch to practically everyone for no good reason, even to Cat at times and the only thing she does to you is have the nerve to love you. I guess it must be a Dorfman quality that she and Carly share that allows her to put up with you."

The blonde gave him a cold stare, one that was wasted on him because she couldn't intimidate him.

Dusty broke the staring contest with the news, "We know who has Ian."

"Who?"

"Nora."

Sam blinked then questioned, "Nora? Nora?"

"Yes. Apparently she's escaped prison and made it down here. She wants revenge and she's using Ian to make it happen."

"What does she want?"

"To hurt Freddie, specifically to get Jade to publicly humiliate him in exchanged for Ian. She's already hurt you with being able to snatch him from right under your nose. She might be counting on Jade to finish you off. She sure has the motivation for it and she hasn't discounted that you have conspired with Nora just to hurt them."

She rolled her eyes and pift out, "Whatever… but I did not purposely abandon him for Nora to take him—to help that nut in anyway."

"So? This time someone who is completely innocent could pay for it and your soul will pay for it… after Jade put you in your grave if you don't do something about it."

She gave him a stoic gaze.

He thumbed over his shoulder back to the apartment. "She was ready to choke you to death back there. If she doesn't get him back unharmed, she's going to kill you, you know that and there is no power on this Earth that is going to stop her."

Sam cocked her head to the side and attempted to dismiss his point, "You're the one that said we were above the gods one time."

Dusty shook his head. "It won't help you. In her grief… in her madness that she could easily slip into, she would find a way to end you. Even if you were able to kill her first, she'll probably crawl back out of her grave to end you…" He shivered and remarked, "Crows… an angel terminator… Those are some scary things."

"If you're here to rip into me then go wazz off."

"I'm here so I can pull you out of your pity party and come with me to go find him."

"Find him? How? We don't have a clue where she is."

"There are ways to find him and we're going to use them before Freddie or the Colonel finds them."

Sam knotted her brow and questioned, "Why? What does it matter if they find him first? The point is to find him."

The Southern teenager shook his head. "It's not that simple. You know what's going to happen if either of them gets to her: they're going to kill her. The Colonel will kill her for what she did to Carly and Spencer now that she's out and Freddie… I know what he promised Nora if she ever went after anyone he cares about and Ian certainly counts: he will send her to Hell. I'd like to keep the blood off of at least his hands. The Colonel… killing her could kind of derail his White House plans even if he doesn't have them yet."

Sam snorted out dismissively, "Freddie's not going to kill her."

Dusty leaned forward and closed the distance to mere inches between his face and her face. He slowly whispered in a chilly tone, "He would have killed you that night in the hotel if it wasn't for Jade… he would have killed Nevel if it wasn't for the Colonel and if he finds Nora before us… he'll turn her into a smear on the floor. After all this time if you still think of him as the guy you could push around then you are a bigger fool than I have ever taken you for."

The blonde swallowed from the intensity of his eyes.

He leaned back to straighten up and let that information sink into her head.

The former troublemaker glanced back to the broken piece of pavement then remarked, "Fine, if you're so insistent, how are we going to find him?"

"Let's think about this logically. She can't exactly go to a hotel, even a cheap one as that would be the first ones they would search and from her phone call, she has to have access to something like a basement." He rolled his eyes and muttered in disgust, "We can't just randomly search nearby houses and would take too long for even us to search, so we can't track him down…" He smiled as an idea came to mind. "Something else could track him down. We'll need a bloodhound…"

Sam blinked then looked at him as if he had lost his mind. "A bloodhound? Really? You're joking. He's not going to be able to track him when she obviously stuffed him in a car and drove to God knows where."

"Not your typical hound, but…" He knowingly grinned to her, something that annoyed her to no end, before he continued, "I need to get something that belongs to Ian. Something that he's really attached to."

Sam rolled her eyes and muttered, "He's attached to Jade."

Dusty licked his lips then blew out a breath. "True, but was thinking an intimate place for him. Meet me at Mister West's house in half an hour."

"I don't know where he lives."

He got up as he answered, "Look it up on-line. It shouldn't be too hard find for someone like you."

She was about to snap at him but he vanished from sight with an exiting swoosh of air.

Author's Note: And the race is on… stay tuned for the next update.