Author's Note: So, hey guys. Thank you for the reviews and the follows', you're all such lovely people, and you made me so happy! Updates are every Wednesday and remember that although I am taking a break from writing my other Karla and Saul stories, this will feature them quite heavily. The back-story of my characters is completely fictional, I made it up to suit the story and I in no way own these characters or the Savant idea- all rights go to Joss Stirling. This will also be featured on my blog; the link is in my author profile. This is about the boys finding their soulfinders and if you have any questions, then feel free to jump up and down, waving your hands in the air. Thank you for reading and reviewing in advance, I hope you enjoy! xxx
Chapter Two
The Benedict Home, Wrickenridge
By Friday, Anya's fever had cooled off considerably, thanks to a little help from Xav, but Karla didn't feel it was a good idea to send her back to school and rang up the school in the morning to inform them that Anya would not be back until Monday. The youngest Benedict had spent the morning watching cartoons while her mother took her temperature and gave her spoonfuls of soup. Saul was also at home for the day; thanks to a broken bolt in the ski lift, everything was shut down. Upon hearing the news of the majority of his sons buying Anya the Brianna Ballerina doll, and to the relief of Karla, Saul decided not to take up a second job. They would, as Karla said, manage perfectly fine, and although she wasn't too happy about the boys spending that much money on a nine year old, she didn't say too much about it.
Karla began fussing as soon as Zed walked through the door on Friday evening. He'd had the last football practice of the season and as usual had returned home covered in mud and snow. Yves and Xav were at the kitchen table, dutifully helping their sister ice gingerbread men, while their father built up a fire in the living room. Karla had made Zed stand on newspaper while he got out of his kit in the doorway, so he didn't make too much a mess of her pristine kitchen.
"Honestly Zed, I don't see why you have to get so muddy. Surely you were freezing?" Karla exclaimed as she held up the thin shorts and Zed shrugged. She rolled her eyes. "Honestly you boys are just like your father, you don't feel anything." Zed tossed her his top and she wrinkled her nose. "Now go shower- but take your boots off first Zed! Lord, you'd have thought I hadn't brought you up at all! Right now go shower. No leave your boots there; I'll get your father to scrape the mud off! Lord, Zed, no! Just go and shower!"
Zed laughed as he tried to kiss his mother's cheek; she shrieked and pushed him away. He flicked mud at his brothers and ruffled Anya's hair. "You better baby sis?"
"Yes, and if you ruffle my hair again, you won't get any gingerbread!" Anya elbowed him and he left the kitchen, calling a hello to his dad.
Saul entered the kitchen and kissed the top of his daughter's head and stole a broken off piece of gingerbread. Karla laughed at Anya who pouted and announced he wouldn't be allowed any other gingerbread. "You're just like your mother; you wound me baby." He joked and Anya giggled.
He ruffled Xav's curls and clapped Yves on the shoulder and then left his children and made his way to the utility room and kissed his wife gently on the neck, making her shiver and squirm. He slid both arms around her waist and squeezed gently, resting his head on her shoulder as she filled the washing machine with clothes. "You smell good," he murmured and she smiled, resting back against him.
"You smell good to," she looked up at him and smiled. He gave her an upside down kiss and trailed his hands up her sides across her back and onto her shoulders. Karla gave a moan of contentment as he began to massage her shoulders intimately and rolled her head back. "You're so good with your hands." Saul smirked and she prodded him, rolling her wide brown eyes. "You know that's not what I meant, Saul."
"Mm-mm," Saul hummed against her neck and Karla giggled softly as it tickled. "Are you happy?"
"I'm always happy darling," Karla responded, smiling and taking Saul's hand. Together they walked out of the utility room.
"Good," Saul kissed her cheek. "That's all that matters."
The gingerbread had been abandoned for The Incredibles,leaving Karla and Saul to deal with the mess. Karla sighed and picked up the sponge from the sink and began to wipe the table down as Saul carefully tried to clear the gingerbread without breaking it. The cleaning was soon done and Karla started to consider what to have for dinner. Staring at the almost empty freezer, she sighed and turned to Saul, kicking the door shut with her foot. "Take out?" She suggested.
"Take out," Saul confirmed.
FBI Headquarters, Denver
"Victor!" Emily called as she darted into the boardroom she and Victor had taken over to work on the case. The boardroom was a mess, already someone had spilt coffee on papers and the remains of a takeout for lunch were spread on another table. Victor looked up from the paper covered desks at Emily and raised his eyebrows, mouth full of cheeseburger. Emily held up a sheet of paper. "Victor we have a problem! The fingerprints found on the telephone used to call the police? No one found anything on the databases back then, but I ran them through again and- well- I don't think you're going to like this."
Victor took the paper from Emily and looked at it, before handing them back again. "Run them through again, there's been a mistake."
"I did, twice; it was the same result every time!"
Victor looked at the remains of his burger in his hand and promptly threw it in the bin. He grabbed his jacket and shrugged it on, picked up the paper and looked at it again. "Fuck," he muttered.
The Benedict Home, Wrickenridge
When Ridley and her posse arrived at the Benedict home, it was a quarter past two exactly. All the lights were off; there was a peaceful silence in the air. Unlike the sleepy residents of the Benedict home, Ridley had been born and bred in Las Vegas a city with pulsing neon lights and people living life at a hundred miles an hour. She was not used to the calm quiet St. Augustine prided itself on.
The house itself was impressive; a large traditional building with two extensions at the back, leaving the front, old style, with a porch and oak front door. It was known to most of the occupants of Wrickenridge, that the Benedict home had been in the family for generations, and that when the time came, Saul had done most of the work on the extensions himself, fitting an extra three bedrooms to give his kids the space they needed and moving up into the attic to make a large open space for his wife and himself. A large pile of firewood sat lazily in the winter moonlight and wind chimes were nailed to the beams of wood, jangling in the cool breeze.
Ridley could feel the faint mental shield prepared by Saul and Karla, pushing her back, away from their home. A red light in the corner meant CCTV. She rolled her eyes and almost snorted. Their attempts at protection were fruitless; or at least they were against her team. Her father hadn't handpicked them for nothing. She turned to Drake and smirked.
"Okay, here's the plan. Jett, you sneak in and turn off the CCTV and let me into the house. Benson, disable the shield and hold out for as long as you can. Let us know as soon as you begin to tire. Igor, you wait under Anya's window, we'll sneak her out; it's down to you to get her in the car. Muskett, your time will come, but for now, wait in the car so we can get away as fast as we can." Ridley finished and eyed the men. "Okay boys, let's go."
Benson disabled the shield quickly, cutting it off. His eyes were closed but he gave Ridley a thumbs up to let her know it was safe for Jett to access the house. He scrambled up to the front door on his stomach, wriggling and squirming. He picked the lock, gently pushed the door open and disappeared into the darkness.
Twenty seconds, thirty seconds, sixty… Ridley began to tap her foot impatiently.
Okay babe, good to go.
That was Jett. Ridley ran up to the house and slid through the front door. Flicking her torch on, Ridley found herself in the kitchen; Karla had expensive taste, modern, clean, wooden floors, marble worktops. The living room proved just as fashionable, copies of vogue on the coffee table, an extensive DVD collection. Photographs cluttered the walls and shelves. Ridley shook her head. She was here for the girl, not to admire Karla Benedict's interior design.
It took Ridley and Jett a while to find Anya's bedroom. They stumbled upon a snoring boy in a bedroom of vivid red, Lego models on his shelves and medical study books on the floor. There were clothes spilling out of the wardrobe and a funny smell lingered in the air. Ridley sniffed disdainfully and they quickly moved on, finding two more empty rooms, then another with a boy in and another empty one. The last room was the one in which they struck gold; Anya. Anya's bedroom was pretty in pink, with castles and clouds on the wall. A large dream catcher hung above her bed and a music box on her bedside table, next to a large glass of water. The floors were wooden and tidy, so both Ridley and Jett had to watch where they stepped, to avoid making noise.
"Knock her out Jett, make sure she's unconscious." Ridley whispered, as Jett inched closer to Anya's head, she shifted in her sleep, murmuring something. "Hurry up-"
"She's fighting it babe!" Jett protested and Ridley rolled her eyes. If you want something doing, always do it yourself. Ridley pulled an injection needle out of her pocket and pushed Jett out the way; he tripped, knocking the glass over, which shattered on floor. In her shock, Ridley stumbled back and dropped the injection needle, which also shattered. Anya woke up, looked at both Ridley and Jett and screamed loudly. Cursing, Ridley and Jett went for Anya, picking the struggling girl up and scrambled for the window.
"Daddy! Momma!" Anya screamed, fighting the kidnappers for all it was worth. It didn't take long for Saul and Zed to burst into the room, pulling Anya out of the kidnapper's grip and pushing her behind Saul, towards her mother who picked her up and held her tight, murmuring words to her in Spanish. Ridley and Jett had both gotten away, running towards the car with Benson and Igor in tow.
Saul sighed with relief. His little girl was okay. He turned to his wife and daughter and said "you're safe now Anya. We got you babygirl." Anya raised her head off her mother's shoulder, and looked at Saul. She was crying, hysterical sobs that made her breathe funny and choke. It took Saul three strides to reach his daughter, cupping her cheeks and kissing her forehead. "I won't let anything hurt you, angel." He said firmly.
"Daddy, I'm scared." Anya whispered, "what if they come back?"
"They won't little sister," Zed kissed her cheek. "They won't touch you ever again."
Karla was visibly shaken, her hands were trembling, her mouth opening and closing as she hugged Anya's tiny body to her own. Saul put his hand on the small of her back, pushing her out the room and muttering to Zed to shut the window before he went back to bed. Yves and Xav were in the corridor, looking angrier than Saul had ever seen them.
"The bastards turned the CCTV off, dad," Yves said furiously, as soon as Anya and Karla were out of earshot. Saul's heart began to thud. They had been near his wife. Whichever one had turned the cameras off had been near his wife, had possibly touched her or, or God, they'd even possibly planted things in her mind- if they were savants- which they must have been to get through their shield. Saul turned to his youngest sons.
"Back to bed boys," he ordered, the shakiness of the night affecting him now. "We'll talk about it in the morning, when we get your brothers up here." The boys began to leave, but they quickly turned back, and in turn, hugged their father tightly.
The main lights in Saul and Karla's bedroom weren't on, but the lights in the en suite were and the fairy lights in Karla's wardrobe (an anniversary present several years ago) were as well, casting a pink and gold glow across the room. Anya was sat on the bed, Karla running a soft flannel across her tear-stained cheeks.
"You are such as brave girl Anya, I know I wouldn't be as brave as you darling." Karla looked up and met Saul's eyes and bit her lip. "Hang on sweetie; I have to talk to your daddy about something." Karla handed Anya the flannel and stood, beckoning Saul to follow her into the bathroom.
"Saul-"
"They could have touched you." Saul said immediately.
"Saul darling you told me to stay behind you, I did, I-" Saul shook his head, cupping her cheeks and drawing Karla closer.
"No darling, they turned off the CCTV, they could have touched you." Realisation dawned on Karla and she gasped, putting a hand to her mouth.
"Oh, Lord, Saul-"
"They could have taken you darling, they could have hurt you or-or-" Saul's voice wobbled and Karla hugged him fiercely.
"Saul, they could have hurt you," she mumbled into his bare chest. Saul hugged her back gently and kissed the top of her head. Holding her back at arm's length, Saul smiled and touched her cheek.
"Now what did you want to tell me sweetheart?" Karla swallowed.
"I was getting Anya a flannel, and I found this, Saul." Karla turned to the sink and reversed the mirror. Instead of a clean reflective surface, there was a message in scrawled red lipstick.
We're coming for Anya
Be ready
Saul sighed, chest rumbling and Karla leaned back into it for comfort. He rubbed her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. "Okay, doll, we're getting the older boys involved tomorrow, and that'll mean you'll lose your mirror."
Karla sighed. "And my lipstick."
"Mm-hm you look gorgeous without it." Saul told her gently. They reversed the mirror back and re-entered their bedroom. Anya was staring at the French windows, watching the moon through a gap in the curtains.
"Anya, darling," Saul rumbled, pulling back the bed covers as Karla dropped the flannel on her bedside table. Anya turned, "Anya, come here, you're sleeping in here tonight." Anya scrambled on the bed and wriggled under the covers. "Are you still scared baby?"
After a while Anya nodded; Karla tutted as she slid in next to Saul and rested her head on his chest, stretching her hand out to touch Anya's cheek. "You've nothing to be scared of darling," she whispered.
The light flicked off and there was silence once more.