First Date

These good fellows don't belong to me but I promise when I'm done to pick um up, dust um off and with a kiss on the cheek return them safely home.

"Hunger, love, pain, fear are some of those inner forces which rule the individual's instinct for self preservation." Albert Einstein

Chapter 16

Following several leads Carter and his men were now outside Dr. Adler's house. The garage door was closed and the lights were out. As the S.W.A.T moved in to each of the doors Carter waved the signal and the call went across the HT's. Breaking into the doors they swarmed the house. Moving from room to room they searched for any sign of Adler and the three victims. As Carter waited outside with baited breath the HT squelched. "Negative search sir, no one is here."

"Damn it!" Carter cursed as he made his way into the house. As they moved through the rooms they searched for any possible clues, papers, and old bills, anything that would give a hint as to where he was and hopefully where they were. He walked around the living room looking through papers thrown on the coffee table. Moving around to the mantle he ran his fingers along it as he looked at the pictures. Stopping at one in particular he picked it up, "Well, well, look what we have here." It was a picture of Adler sitting in the house with a couple, the man had a large scar on his face.

"Sir, you might want to see this," one of the officers called out to him.

He trotted up the stairs, taking two at a time and went down the hall to the master bedroom. "Whatcha got Tom?"

The officer pointed to the mirror in the bedroom. It was lined with cut out pictures of Kanda. Pictures of her at work, at the ranch and even at Roy's house. At least they now knew who the kidnapper was for sure.

"What's that?" Tom asked him, pointing to the picture in his hand.

"Remember the truck that picked them up that night, then the man that talked to the little girl at the bus stop?"

Tom nodded, "Yea."

"There he is," Carter said handing him the picture. Now to find him.

Roy guided Chris over to be with Joanne as he stood up. "Hank, thank you for coming tonight. I don't think I could have faced this alone." He knew it was late and Hank had his own family to take care of.

"No problem pally. Are you going to be alright?" He glanced over at Joanne. "I'll stay if you need me too."

Roy noted the concern, "I'll be alright. We'll get Chris to bed and ..." He faltered for a moment in his words. And what? He had no idea what to do next since he just felt numb all over.

Hank knew the depth of grief that Roy could feel and put his hand on his shoulder not even saying anything for a moment. "I'll check on you in the morning but call me if you need something before then."

Again Roy was grateful to his core for his family at the station. "I will." He then walked Hank to the door and locked it. Looking down the hall he saw the police officer walking toward him. He had never been under police protection so he had no idea what he was supposed to do.

"Is there anything I can get for you?" Roy asked not even knowing his name.

He looked like a kid, probably just out of the academy. "No sir. I'll be outside if you need anything. I'm Marc if you need me."

"Thanks," Roy said then watched him go outside. Closing the door once more he decided to leave it unlocked this time. Just in case they needed him. Standing by the door he looked down at the dried pool of blood by the door.

Whose blood was it? Johnny? If Johnny was hurt then how could he protect Kanda and Jenny? But to his profound guilt he couldn't bear the thought of Kanda or Jenny being hurt. Jenny was just a baby. Then there was Kanda. He had just found her in his life and he already loved her more than imaginable. The thought of her being hurt almost made him sick. What kind of friend was he to hope that the blood came from Johnny?

He looked into the living room and saw that Chris was pretty much asleep on his feet at this point and went to pick him up. Chris put his head on his dad's shoulder and his arms around his neck. "I'll put him to bed, be right back." He headed up the stairs but stopped at the second floor and put his son down in the sleigh bed of his room. Pulling the covers over him he pushed the locks of blonde hair from his face. He had been through so much recently with the divorce and all but his children were at the center of his heart. They were the stable core of his daily existence. He had come near to losing them before and he knew he couldn't go through that again.

There were stirrings in his gut and as he sat on the side of the bed he tried to sort them out. What had brought them to this horrible point? Those that he loved so much were gone and how would they find them? He wanted to grab his keys, climb into his car and go get them but he had no idea where to start. The police didn't know either and that almost engulfed him with depression and desolation. Then there was a layer of unease. Something was happening to them, to her that he couldn't push away. As the feeling swelled he suddenly stood up as his stomach lurched forcing him to run across the hall to the bathroom.

Joanne came up behind him as he washed out his mouth and wiped the cold sweat from his face. "Are you alright?"

He stood up and put the towel down as he turned to her. Her eyes were red from all the crying and she looked heartbroken and lost. "Yea, I'm okay." Taking his hand he rubbed her arm to comfort her. She took a step closer to him and ran her fingers along his cheek.

"How are we going to get through this?" She said softly as she took another step closer to him.

He didn't know what to say, she was too close to him and his brain was not working clearly at the moment. "Joanne."

She leaned in and kissed him.

Kanda heard the gunshot and froze with terror as it resounded through the air. Johnny! She stood between the two bedrooms and for a fraction of a second she didn't know where to run to first. Hearing someone hit the floor she ran back to the bedroom. Johnny was on the floor but in the process of trying to get back up. As she grabbed his arm he took the red extinguisher container and swung it at Adler with everything he had catching him in the side of the head and sending him to the ground. Taking Kanda by the arm he yelled through gritted teeth, "Come on."

"Johnny, are you hurt?" She got out as she hobbled down the hall as fast as she could in his grip.

"Johnny!"

His brown eyes were wild and full of adrenaline "We have to get out of here right now!" He reached down and picked up Jennifer and with backpack in hand he headed to the kitchen door ignoring the burning pain in his side.

Once in the garage he took out the car keys from his pocket he had grabbed from the kitchen counter and ran around to the driver's seat. Kanda climbed in and put Jennifer in her lap, the little girl was sleepy, dazed and by now crying. She tried to console her but she herself was utterly terrified as she looked down and saw the blood on Johnny's shirt.

She reached over to touch it, "Oh God Johnny. You've been shot."

He didn't care, "We'll deal with it when we get out of here." He turned the key and got nothing from the engine. The car wouldn't crank. Jumping out of it he ran around to the front and opened up the hood. The distributer cap was gone. Adler was prepared to keep them there.

Johnny then ran to Kanda's door, "Get out." He looked around quickly and his eyes locked on the side garage door. He pointed her to it and took Jenny by the hand. Opening the door they emerged onto a tiny patio with stairs that led straight down to the beach below the house.

"Johnny where are we going?" Her instinct for flight or fight definitely pointed to flight right now but she knew Adler could be coming after them any minute and with Johnny hurt, her hobbling and a little exhausted child her hopes of them escaping was growing very doubtful.

"Just come on," he directed her, more harshly than he meant to but right now was not the time to discuss it. The house phones were turned off, they were in the middle of nowhere and now his plan to leave in the car was destroyed. He only knew they had to put as much distance between them and the house as possible. Since there had been no other visible houses near them being on the road was too dangerous because he knew that if Adler fixed the car he could find them quickly.

The beach was the best option for right now. They could follow it south as far as… His train of thought came to an abrupt halt as he saw the massive outcropping of jagged rocked in his path. Damn it. He turned in the other direction. They would go north and pray for enough beachfront to get them free of that madman. Passing the house and putting it behind them they heard another gunshot but no one looked back.

They didn't dare to miss a step and fall behind.