This is for you reading, and to answer your question, yes I did like the Ben-having-a-crush-on-Margene storyline but I'm glad the writers stopped it where they did. The relationship didn't need to go further.

Barb stood with Ben in the corridor outside Margene's room. Neither one of them were speaking, they were both shaking inside over what they'd just witnessed. They'd seen the colour drain from Margie's face, her whole body go limp, and then the frantic movements of the medial team as they'd moved in to revive her. They were still working on her when someone had hustled them along with the agent out the room.

Now they were standing around waiting for news, waiting to be told it was okay, that they could go back in.

Finally the door opened and the doctor walked out. He gave them a smile before he started speaking his attempt to make the news appear good. "I'm sorry you had to see that." He began. For some reason he felt the need to apologise but neither of them was interested in the apology all they wanted to know was how Margene was.

"Is she okay?" Ben asked cutting the doctor off from saying anymore irrelevant pleasantries.

"She's stable." That wasn't the answer to the question but it was the best the doctor was willing to offer. "We've sedated her again and increased her pain medication."

"What does that mean?" Barb asked, she craved details not vague answers.

"It means we won't know much more until tomorrow." The doctor told her. "She's doing as well as can be expected. What she needs right now is a lot of rest, we need to give her body a chance to heal itself, without the additional stress of what's happening."

"Can we go back in?" Ben didn't want to be in the corridor anymore, not when Margene was alone in that room.

"Of course." The doctor opened the door and stepped aside. Ben took the first step with Barb close behind.

"Barb," The agent called her name. She stopped and turned around. "Can I speak to you for a minute?"

"Go ahead." She nodded to Ben and turned to walk over to the agent. "What is it?" she asked reaching the woman.

"My team want to run the AMBER alerts nationally. We think there is a high probability they're going to leave the state." She began. "Have you managed to get a hold of your husband yet?"

"No." She still hadn't got hold of Bill, she'd left him dozens of messages telling him to phone her but he hadn't. It was a fact which angered her more than anything, they were going through hell and he wasn't there. "Run the alerts." The agent looked at her surprised.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." She was sure, "Finding the people responsible for this, bringing my girl home safely, is more important than my husband's feelings."

"Okay, I'll make it happen." The agent gave her a smile and walked away.

Before she went back in the room Barb tried phoning Bill one more time, he still didn't answer.

-8-8-8-

Bill sat alone in the diner across the road from the hotel he was staying at, in front of him sat a large piece of apple and rhubarb pie. He was slowly eating it while chatting with the waitress. There weren't many people in the diner and she seemed happy to listen to him. He was talking about himself, about his family, about polygamy and what he hoped to achieve by outing his family. He was lamenting about how it wasn't turning out the way he'd hoped and she seemed to be sympathetic to his cause. She would smile at him and he couldn't help but notice how pretty she was. To the right of him up on the wall was a television, it was playing live coverage of some sports match. He wasn't much into sports so he wasn't paying too much attention to it but there were a couple men at a table who were getting right into it. A few times the waitress had even yelled at them to lower their voices.

"Oh what! Come on!" The two men yelled simultaneously, the sound of the game stopped, replaced by the familiar sound of intro music for news headlines.

"We interrupt your scheduled programming to bring you this breaking news." An anchorman's voice projected into the diner. "A national AMBER Alert has just been issued for twenty month old Nell Henrickson." Nell's photo filled the TV screen and the man kept talking. "Nell was abducted at 7pm last night from her home in Sandy, Utah, following a home invasion in which her mother was seriously injured."

Bill's mouth dropped, he stopped talking and just stared at the screen. Nell's picture disappeared and was replaced by police sketches of a man and woman. The anchorman kept talking but Bill was no longer hearing, the words just washed over him. The bulletin finished the sports game resumed; Bill didn't move he just kept staring at the screen.

"Bill?" The waitress said his name but he didn't move. "Bill are you alright?"

He looked away from the screen and at the woman in front of him. "That was my daughter." He said, his voice level but softer than before.

"Oh my God." The waitress whispered and she reached for his hand. He moved it before she could touch him. He reached into his own breast pocket for his phone, he needed to phone home, he needed to find out what on earth was going on, why no one had phoned him. A part of him was hoping this was some sick joke, that it wasn't real. His phone wasn't in his pocket, it wasn't in his pants, he quickly realised he didn't have it.

"Can I use your phone?"

-8-8-8-

Nikki stood in Barb's kitchen making sloppy joe's, she could have done it in her own house but she wanted to keep an eye on the police and FBI camping at their home. She knew they were there to help, that they were their only chance of finding these people and bringing Nell home but she couldn't help not trusting them completely. Her distrust in law enforcement was ingrained but she didn't do anything to stop them, she just watched.

She was watching one of the agents, a young man read one of the letters again, there seemed to be something in it which he was trying to work out, pull out. The phone started ringing and everyone in the room jumped. Nikki walked over to answer it, the agent flicked on a recording device.

"Hello," Nikki said unsure of who was calling.

"Nikki!" Bill's voice filled her ears. "What's happening? Is everything ok?"

She didn't answer his questions, she cut him off with a string of her own. "Where are you? What are you doing? Why haven't you been answering your phone? We've been phoning you all night."

"I'm at the hotel," He told her, "I must have lost my phone." He answered her questions now he wanted her to answer his. "What's going on there? I saw the news bulletin is everyone okay?"

"No!" She was appalled that he could even ask that question. "No one is okay. Margie's in the hospital, she's real bad Bill they don't know if she'll make it. Nell's gone, the boys saw it all happen, they're traumatized. Everyone else is doing their best to hold it together. No one is okay."

She wanted to hang up on him, she thought it would be a fitting end to her rant but she didn't, she held the phone and waited for him to respond. Bill felt his insides twist a little, he was speechless. This was worse than anything he could have thought of or predicted would happen.

"Bill!" Nikki was getting annoyed with him for not speaking, not saying anything.

"I'll be home as soon as I can." He said and he hung up.

He looked across at the waitress in front of him. "Bill are you okay?" She asked him again.

He didn't respond, he just shook his head and stood up. "I have to go." He muttered and he walked out. He walked across the road to the hotel, collected his things, checked out, and took the first cab he could get to the airport.