Without A Trace - Paternity Eternal

Summary: Another day, another case...but its Martin who's missing. Is the team ready for the secrets they will divulge?

Disclaimer: I own nothing...unfortunately

Chapter Three: Second Family

Eight Hours Missing

The interview room was tiny and cramped. The walls were bare and the only furniture was the table and three chairs. Jessie stared at her reflection, knowing that someone was watching from the other side. Suddenly, the door to the room opened and in came two men. One was tall and looked Hispanic, while the other was older and more tired.

"Jessica Lake," introduced the older one. "My name is Special Agent Jack Malone and this is Special Agent Danny Taylor. What is your interest in Martin Fitzgerald?"

"Well, my sister was his daughter's mother, so I guess I'm his unofficial sister-in-law, if that's what you're asking," replied Jessie. The two agents looked surprise.

"Daughter?" asked Danny, eyeing her suspiciously.

"Yeah, Anya," Jessie smiled despite her worry. "You didn't know?"

Jack shook his head looking confused. Both he and his colleague sat down on the chairs opposite her. "Tell us everything."

Jessie shrugged and sighed, trying to remember the whole story. "It was about nine years ago, give or take a few months. My sister Suzie was going through a rough patch, she liked to drink to help. My mom tried to put her into rehab, she thought she was an alcoholic, but she wasn't. Suzie ran away to New York, we didn't hear from her at all. Then about a month later she came back and told us she was pregnant and didn't know who the father was."

It was hurting her to tell her sister's past, the memories were painful. "When Anya was born she contacted all the men she had slept with, that she had numbers for, and offered them all a paternity test. That's when I first met Martin. He wasn't like the others. He actually cared about Suzie. The test came back positive; he was Anya's father."

"That's when he started paying your sister $3,000 a month, it was child support," inserted Jack, beginning to make sense of the financials.

"He did more than that," explained Jessie. "He came and stayed with us every other weekend. Never missed a Birthday or Christmas. He's family, and it doesn't matter how."

"Why did the payments stop three months ago?" asked Danny.

Jessie closed her eyes and struggled with her words. "Because...because my sister...she uh, she died three months ago. She was shot by a couple of thugs who tried to carjack her. She died in front of Anya, the poor girl. In her will Suzie had written that she wanted Martin to look after Anya, She's been living with him for two months now. We still see them every other weekend."

Jack flicked through the file he had in front of him. "It says here that you took a week's leave from duty. Why is that?"

"I had been taken off my sister's case, something about a conflict of interests. No one would tell me anything. I...I wanted to know who had done it for closure or whatever. About a week ago I was told an address in New York. I took my leave as soon as I could. Two days ago I showed up expecting the place to be empty...

*Flashback*

...but it wasn't."

The house was in a nice suburban area though it was slightly more run down than its neighbours. Jessie pulled up in her car across the street. She climbed out and quietly walked up to the front door.

"I was going to knock, but then I heard shouting coming from the inside. I crept round the side and found an open window"

Jessie pressed herself against the wall to prevent being seen and carefully peeked through the glass. Inside she could just see the back of one man and the arm of another. It was too risky to attempt to get a better look so she just listened.

The voices were clearly audible through the open pane. An older sounding gruff voice said; "It had to be done. She was never gonna let you see your daughter!"

The younger more panicked voice replied; "Now I definitely won't will I? She's gone from the house and I don't know where she is!"

"Relax, I know. She's here in New York. She's living with some guy who claims to be the father."

"That's great," the young man retorted sarcastically. "I'll just tell him that I'm the dad and that he should give my kid back. I'm sure he'll just hand her right over."

"We'll just have to get him out of the way then wont we?"

*End Flashback*

"I panicked. I knew they were talking about Anya and Martin. I've been trying to call him since to warn him, but I never got past the answer machine and he didn't call back. Do you know where he is?"

The two agents shared a glance and she knew even before they answered that she had been too late. Jack leant forward and gave her the difficult news. "Martin's been missing for almost nine hours. He was last seen leaving for work at 8:30 this morning."

"Do you know where Anya is?" asked Jessie, fearing for her niece.

"We didn't even know she existed until this conversation. We haven't been looking," Danny answered sadly.

Sam held the hand of the excited little girl as the numbers on the elevator rose. She had managed to convince the nanny to let her look after Anya and they had left for the FBI Offices. She clung to the tapes, hoping that they would help find Martin.

Finally the doors opened on the twelfth floor and the pair entered the bullpen. Vivian and Elena watched her with curiosity and surprise as they walked towards them. Anya was still smiling with enthusiasm.

"Hi Sam," greeted Elena from her desk, she crouched slightly to get a closer look at Anya. "And who might you be?"

"This is Anya, Martin's daughter," replied Sam matter-of-factly. Elena and Vivian both stared at Anya, then at each other and then back at Anya with matching looks of amazement. "I'm just as surprised as you."

Jack and Danny approached from the interview rooms. They seemed relieved rather than surprised to see the little girl with them, making Sam wonder what they knew.

"Right, Anya, this is Vivian, Danny, Jack and Elena," introduced Sam as she pointed to each colleague. Anya smiled at each one and then looked round.

"Where's my daddy?" she asked confused. "Is he out looking for the missing people? He told me finds people who are lost."

Sam smiled sadly at the young girl. "Right now, you're daddy's lost, and we're trying to find him. You're gonna stay here with us until we do. Is that okay?"

Anya nodded. Elena guided the girl to a chair to sit on near her desk and continued her work just as Vivian did. Sam motioned to Jack and held up the tapes. "From the garage. Maybe we can find out what happened this morning."

Ten Hours Missing

The tech room was almost as small as the interview room, and the feeling of claustrophobia wasn't helped by the mass of equipment that was piled around. Sam and Jack waited patiently while Mack the techie fiddled with the tapes. "Right, I think I got something," he announced. "This is the garage at 8:28 this morning, and that's his car."

Sam watched as Martin appeared on the screen, his image fuzzy and out of focus. Her heart missed a beat as she saw his face as he glanced over his shoulder. He unlocked the car and climbed in. Nothing out of the ordinary seemed to happen, except that the car didn't move. The engine didn't even start. "What's happening?"

"I don't know," replied Mack. He fast forwarded the footage five minutes ahead, and the car still didn't move. "What's he doing?"

Eventually the car started and reversed out of the space and then zoomed up and out the garage. Jack cocked his head thoughtfully. "Something's going on in that car. Rewind the tape."

Mack obliged. The car reappeared on the screen, the door opened. Martin climbed back out and walked comically backwards and off camera. The tape rewound back another half hour of footage, animated figures running across the screen, until they found what they were looking for.

At 7:56 that morning a man had snuck across the garage and up to Martin's idle car. Somehow he managed to unlock the car and climb onto the backseat; closing and locking the doors after. Jack stood back from the screen and stated; "There was someone else in the car."

*Flashback: 8:28am*

Martin walked up to his car, unlocking the door with the remote on his key ring. He tugged on the handle to open the door, none the wiser to the unwanted visitor. He was just about to put his key in the ignition when he froze. The cold metal of gun pressed against the side of his head.

"Don't move," instructed the man. He looked like he was in his forties and his brown hair was tinged with grey. In the mirror Martin could see the man's eyes darting around; he was obviously nervous. "You're gonna do exactly what I say okay, or I'm gonna shoot ya."

Martin kept a close eye on the man's reflection as he agreed to his terms. "So what is this?" he asked. "Kidnap for ransom? Do you know I'm an FBI Agent?"

"FBI?" the nervous gunman murmured. "They never said nothing about no FBI."

"Who are 'they'?" asked Martin, turning slightly to address his kidnapper.

"No questions!" snapped the man. The muzzle of the gun was pressed harder against Martin's temple."You just do as you're told!"

"Alright then," Martin flinched, trying to relieve the pressure from the weapon. "You might want to tell me what to do then."

The gunman glared at him, not appreciating the advice. He lowered the weapon and jabbed it under Martin's ribs so that it was concealed from the outside. No onlookers would notice that Martin was being held hostage. "You're gonna drive this car out of the parking lot and take a left onto Freemont. You're going to follow my directions exactly. Any deviations are gonna result in a lot of blood being spilt on the leather upholstery."

Martin leant forward and slotted the key in the ignition. He started the engine and put the car into drive. He exited from the underground car park and out into the sunshine; all the while well aware of the gun that dared his opposition.

*End Flashback*

What do you think? Is it okay? I don't know if there is a road in New York called Freemont, so sorry if I'm completely wrong :) More is to be revealed!!!