A/N: Kinda short, but it's finally getting somewhere, so there you have it.

She had lost track of time. Somewhere along the line, she'd developed an awful headache, most likely from being shoved against the headboard so many times. She didn't really care why; she just wanted the pain to go away. At the moment, it didn't appear as if it were going to do that.

"Ah, you're awake."

The voice was enough to make Kathy want to pull the covers over her head, but she hurt too much to move. An unintelligible mumble escaped her, and then there was a cold cloth on her forehead.

"You make it so difficult, Katie. I wish I didn't have to do this to you."

"Go away." Kathy's voice came out barely a whisper, but she continued anyway. "Just leave me alone."

"I wish I could, but you seem to have come down with something," said Sam. "I can hardly leave you on your own."

"You happen to be the reason why I feel like hell. Go away."

"I just told you, I can't do that." There was the sound of a switch being clicked, and then the feeling of cool air coming from overhead. Sam's voice came again. "Though, I must admit you've put quite a wrench in my plans."

Kathy opened her eyes to glare at him. "Heaven forbid anything throw you off schedule," she said acidly. "How will you ever cope?"

"I'll find a way. I still have time, they haven't gotten their warrant yet." Sam reached down to brush her hair out of her face and continued. "But if they do before you're well, I might have to move ahead as planned."

Silence. Kathy found herself wishing that they would not get the warrant until she was on her feet again. There was more of a chance that she'd be able to make it out alive if she was well. This, too, depended on whatever it was that Sam had planned, of which she had no idea.

"What are you going to do?" she asked, closing her eyes again as the light started to make her headache worse. Sam laughed.

"Do you honestly think I'm going to tell you that?" he asked in reply, and made a clicking noise with his tongue. "Katie, love…you know better than that."

"If you're going to kill me, then why shouldn't you tell me?" Kathy said dryly. "It's not as if it's going to matter in the long run; I"ll be dead, won't I?"

"I wouldn't want you to get any ideas," Sam replied. "And speaking of ideas…"

He pulled the covers away from her. The cold air was immediately obvious, and she curled into a ball to try and stay warm. Sam ignored this and reached down again, this time to yank the thin silver chain she wore from around her neck.

"To make sure you don't go anywhere, I think I'll keep your dear detective's rings," he said. "Don't worry, though. I"ll send them back to him."

Kathy turned so that her face was hidden against the pillows, a muffled sob escaping her. Somehow, she felt colder now than she had mere seconds before. At present, the rings were all that she'd had left from New York…all that she'd had in a material sense, but still. It had been those two small objects that she'd held onto every night for two months. Now, there was nothing for her to hold.

The feeling of a hand gently stroking her hair made her eyes open; she turned and pulled away.

"Don't touch me," she said, angry now. "Don't you dare touch me."

"All right then, have it your way, but it won't last long," Sam replied. "Enjoy it while you can."

"You make me sick."

"So you've told me. It makes, however, no difference whatsoever."

"It will when they get that warrant."

"I plan on being long gone before they even realize they're too late." Sam trailed off and sighed. "You make it very difficult when you try to resist, you know."

"I don't exactly enjoy having my legs forced apart whenever you see fit," Kathy replied tartly. "Forgive me for saying that I'd love nothing more than to watch you die."

"It'll be a long time before you or your dear detective get to see that."

"You'd better hope he doesn't find you."

Silence. It lasted for so long that after a while, Kathy was half-tempted to believe that Sam had gone. Only the sound of his breathing told her that he was still there, watching her.

"Why are you still in here?" she asked finally. "There's no point in it; there isn't anything here for you."

"That depends on how you read into it. No matter what you think, Katie, you're not the one running the show here."

"And I suppose you still think you're in control of everything?"

"Seeing as the police haven't managed to get their act together, I'd say I was. They're still busy going around in circles. By the time they get their warrant, this will have all come to an end."

That didn't sound well. She had been expecting him to say it, but at the same time, she'd almost been hoping that he wouldn't. He had been alluding to how this entire thing was going to end for a while now, but until now, she'd had no reason to believe that he'd actually go through with it. There had been plenty of talk over the past two months, but no real move to act on anything.

"Silence doesn't really suit you," Sam remarked, when Kathy didn't say anything. "You've never really been one to take anything lying down, have you?"

The irony of this remark was not at all lost on her. "Not unless I have to," she retorted. "I'm sure you'll forgive me if I don't have much to say to you."

"You used to be quite the little chatterbox, you know. Never could get you to stay quiet for more than a few minutes at a time in class."

"Things change."

"I can see that."

"Well, then, I'm sure you'll find a way to live through it."

Again, silence. This time, Sam got up and shook his head as he walked towards the door of the room they were in.

"I'll be back again later, to check on you," he said. "I suggest you try and sleep. It might help."

The door closed. In all honesty, Kathy highly doubted that sleeping was going to help anything, but she closed her eyes anyway. Moments later, she was asleep.

The neighborhood on the island wasn't nearly as familiar as the one in Queens, but he'd gone out anyway. At five in the morning, it was still dark, and quiet, except for the occasional car going by, most likely headed for one of the other boroughs. The streetlights were still on, casting shadows that had him looking over his shoulder every now and then, but other than that, there was nothing.

He wasn't particularly sure why that was so comforting, but it was, and the last thing he wanted to do was ruin it. So he kept walking, with no specific destination in mind. It was stupid, really, Dickie mused, it was just like being hauled around by the people who'd taken them, only that was different, because then, they'd had no idea where they were going, but they hadn't had any choice in the matter. Now, there was no one telling him where to go or what to do, and what he found incredibly ridiculous about it was that he was almost wishing that there was someone.

When he finally stopped, the house in front of him was another one of those familiar places that he'd been to many times before, and yet it had never really hit him how much it really meant until now. There were no lights on, which didn't particularly surprise him, given the time. Even so, he went around to the backyard, picking up a small rock along the way and throwing it at one of the windows. It bounced off again with a clinking sound. A few seconds later, the window opened and someone leaned out.

"You know, that's a really stupid thing to do," Jamey Deakins remarked, casting a half-annoyed, half-amused look at him. "What if the window broke?"

"That would suck," Dickie replied. "I'm surprised you're awake. Do you know what time it is?"

"Yeah, I know what time it is. Couldn't sleep. I thought you guys were crashing at Erin's place?"

"We are. I just...I had to get away for a while, so I started walking and I ended up here."

"Y'know, I'm starting to think there's a magnet between our place and Erin's, 'cause the exact same thing happened to me last week. I wanted to get away from here, and I ended up there." Jamey trailed off for a moment, and leaned further out the window. "So, why'd you really throw the rock at my window?"

"I wanted to see if you were awake. Didn't think you actually would be." said Dickie, and then, "You want to take a walk with me?"

"It's 5:20 in the morning, according to my clock," said Jamey. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, I'm serious. Now's like the best time to go. There isn't anyone else around to bother you."

"No wonder Lizzie calls you a freak. Who actually gets up this early in the morning to get on a walk?"

"Lots of people do, and Liz has no room to talk about being a freak. D'you wanna come with me or not?"

"Yeah, I'm coming. Give me ten minutes, I gotta get dressed. Just wait out front, will you?"

But Jamey didn't wait for an answer, and instead leaned back inside, closing the window after her. Dickie rolled his eyes but wandered back up towards the front of the house to wait. Sure enough, ten minutes later, she came bouncing out the front door.

"Just so you know, my parents now officially think I'm on crack," she said. "This is the first time in like, ten years that I've been up before them."

"Is that all? How old are you, again?" Dickie asked, following her off of the front porch and down the sidewalk.

"Twelve in December," Jamey replied. "I still can't figure out why you don't find it incredibly weird to hang out with someone three years younger than you. I mean, yeah, you've known me since I was born, but still…"

"That would be why it isn't weird. What am I supposed to do, act like I don't know you?"

"Anyone else might. Once you get past a certain age, you're kinda supposed to ignore the younger kids, y'know."

"Whose brilliant idea was that?"

"Don't know. It just seems like that's what happens. You get older, you start ignoring people."

"So you have been avoiding me."

"What? No. That's not what I meant." Jamey trailed off and sighed. "I was actually gonna go by Erin's the other day, but then Mom said it was probably a better idea if I didn't."

"Why? It's not like Erin's going to care. Aren't you over there all the time anyway?" Dickie asked. Jamey nodded.

"Well, yeah, but not lately, 'cause everyone's kinda…I don't know. It's just been weird lately."

"Trust me, you have no idea how weird it's been lately," said Dickie, an exasperated look crossing his face as he spoke. "It's driving me nuts. Everyone's like…I don't know, tiptoeing around us or whatever. Like we're going to break if they look at us cross-eyed."

"Would you?" Jamey asked. He glared at her.

"Hell no. I mean, we all made it back, didn't we? We're all still standing. Maybe we don't fit with whatever's supposed to happen after something like this, but everyone's got different ways to cope with stuff."

He started walking a little bit faster then, annoyed, partly because she'd gotten to him, and partly because he was starting to regret having asked her along in the first place. She followed after him anyway, determined to keep up.

"Hey, don't start thinking you can ditch me now," she said. "You're the one who asked me to come."

"I'm starting to wish I hadn't."

"Yeah, well, I'm not going back home, so you can deal with it. I was just asking; it doesn't mean you have to get all snippy at me." Jamey reached out and yanked at Dickie's arm, hard enough to make him stop in his tracks. She did, too, and nearly fell straight into him as she continued. "Why don't you talk to Lizzie about this mess, anyway?"

"Like she'd listen. She's got enough crap of her own to deal with, Jamey. She's about to fall to pieces as it is, and Dad's too damn blind to see it."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Dickie pulled away from her and started walking again. "He's on this case, y'know," he said, glancing at her over his shoulder. "He's not supposed to be, but he is, and I know he's trying, but it's like he can't help but look at us like we're just another case file."

"Come off it," said Jamey, a startled expression crossing her face. "Your dad's not like that. You're not just another case file to him. Did you try talking to him about it?"

"What am I supposed to say? That I can't sleep at night, because every time I try to close my eyes, I can hear those voices? That when it gets real quiet and there's no one else around, I can hear my mom and my sisters screaming in the back of my mind, that I can hear myself?"

The last word came out as a yell. It was almost like all of the frustrations from the past couple of weeks was finally coming out, but there wasn't really anywhere for it to go. And there wasn't really anyone to aim it at besides Jamey, who remained where she was, standing there in the middle of the sidewalk, just staring back at him. She said nothing, just waiting, but instead of continuing on where he'd stopped, he turned away from her and took off at a dead run. Footsteps behind him told him that she still hadn't given up on following, but this time, he didn't stop.

"How long are you going to keep running?" Jamey demanded as they went, sounding slightly out of breath as she tried to keep up with him. "This is incredibly stupid and you know it! No one can deal with something like this on their own, Dickie, not even you!"

He did know it, too, and that was the problem. Even so, he ignored her remark, closing his eyes and continuing, faster than he had before. Still, the footsteps behind him didn't fade away, nor did they stop. After a while, a hand reached forward and grabbed him, pulling him backwards, away from something that he could not see. His eyes flew open, and there Jamey was, still behind him, arms around his waist, keeping him from falling straight into the middle of the street. A split second later, a car drove by, going much faster than the actual speed limit, because it was still early morning, and there wasn't anyone around.

"Are you freaking nuts?" she yelled at him, more scared than angry now as she pulled him further back onto the sidewalk. They fell backwards onto the grass that marked the entrance to the neighborhood playground as she lost her balance, but she went on anyway. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Dickie stared out towards the street, stunned by what he'd been about to do, and by what she'd done, unable to find the answer that he knew she was looking for. The color still hadn't returned to Jamey's face; she let go of him, but the minute she did, he sat up and pulled her into a hug as she started to cry.

It took him a moment to realize that she wasn't the only one suddenly in tears.