Thanks for the awesome reviews, I'll answer them all next chapter! With the clocks going forward, and me being busy this weekend, I didn't have a lot of time to write, but I hope you like the new chapter! It's a little short, but I'll make up for it in the next one. Enjoy! (:
"I can't believe we're just supposed to sit tight," Rachel pressed her hands together tightly, interlacing her fingers. "Does he have kids? Does he get it? Our daughter is missing, and he wants us to sit tight."
"Rach," Ross said tentatively, his arm around her shoulders, "we have to be here, in case she-"
"I know, Ross, I know the answer to that question. I just.. I can't sit here and do nothing while they're out trying to find her."
"You're right," Joey had abandoned his sandwich, and was balling it into a napkin, but he tossed it into the coffee table now, and looked up at Rachel. "We should go. We should go and look for her. Look, Officer Vianni didn't tell us we weren't allowed to look, right? He just said that either you or Ross should be at home so they can call you, but he never said some of us couldn't go looking."
"Yeah," Mike stood up, holding Aubrey. "Sure. Me, you, Chandler, Ross?"
"I should stay here," Ross said, rubbing his temples.
"It's okay," Rachel said quietly. "You should go."
"I can stay, I should, I-"
"No, Ross, I want you to go but just.. one thing?"
"Sure."
"Please bring her home," Rachel's voice was little more than a whisper.
Ross had looked relatively calm up until now, but the waves of worry and sadness visibly washed over him as the words of Rachel sunk in. He kissed Rachel's forehead and said, "I.. I'm going to do everything I can."
"Okay."
The four of them left, Ross a little hesitantly and then they could hear the cars pulling out of the driveway.
"I used to watch documentaries about this," Rachel said. "You know, about kids that go missing in the grocery store or at the fair, and.. all it takes is two seconds and you never see them again. And I just.."
"Rach," Monica kissed Erica's head of blond curls, before putting her down on the floor beside Jack. The two of them stared intently at each other for a few seconds, before crawling off to find blocks and monster trucks. Aubrey and Frankie meekly followed. "Rach, they're going to find her. Kids disappear all the time, you know that right? I mean, Ross and I ran away from home like, a hundred times when we were kids and our parents always freaked out, but we came back."
"Because you were scared?" Phoebe asked.
"No. Not really. I always got hungry."
"Emma's only four. She's by herself, she's never even had a sleepover. She won't.. she wouldn't run away," Rachel bit her trembling lip. "I just keep thinking of that litle girl, that beauty pageant kid? She was like six, and she disappeared and then her parents.. they found her in the b-basement."
Monica moved over to the couch. "That.. that was different, because somebody killed her and they never even found out who it was, a lot of people thought it was her parents."
"Maybe somebody did take Emma and maybe.." Rachel shuddered. "I just.. I can't."
"I know Rach," Monica said gently, pulling Rachel towards her. "Everything's going to be fine," she whispered in Rachel's ear, rubbing her back.
Frankie giggled over something, Jack and Emma fought over a block. Rachel wished for her daughter to be okay.
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"Look man," Chandler turned to Ross. The two of them had gone together to look for Emma, while Joey and Mike had gone in the opposite direction. "They're gonna find Emma."
"Yeah."
"This neighbourhood look okay to you?" Ross asked.
"Hm?"
"To look for Emma, does this place look alright?"
"It looks like it's full of drug addicts," Chandler absent mindedly locked his door.
"Good."
"Ross.. usually, I mean, people that are kidnapping kids, they have a tendancy to not hide in obvious places."
"So, what?" Ross's voice retorted to that high, squeaky octive it always reached when he was nervous. "You think we should look in Briarcliff Manor?"
"No."
Chandler was quiet then, and they turned down onto the street, driving slowly past rundown houses with Christmas lights still strung up and beer bellied men sitting in crowds on their front lawns, smoking. "Charming," Chandler muttered as one of the men flipped them off.
"Damn it," Ross muttered. "I can't even think straight, I don't know where to go."
"Okay, Ross, listen, Officer Vianni knows what he's doing. When I was down at the park, he told me he was going to have squad cars all over town, he's going to stop people on their way out of the city. They're going to turn this place upside down until they find her, alright? And this, this us looking for Emma, it's great, because I want to find her so badly, you know I do, but our chances of actually finding her are slim. So what do you say we just go down to the park, see if we can talk to anyone that saw Emma, and then we'll go back to our place?"
"I told Rachel I'd bring her back."
"I know, man. We'll go down to the park, and we'll look. You told her we'd do everything we can and we will."
"Okay," Ross turned the car back around. "Okay."
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"God damn it! Would you just shut up!"
Emma felt like she was going to explode. She always hated small spaces and whenever her and Daddy played hide and seek, she could never hide under the bed covers or in the closet, because she always felt like there wasn't enough air. And now she was in a black bag, like the kind she took to soccer, and there was tape around her mouth, rope around her legs and arms, and she was sweating bad.
She couldn't see anything, just feel the black fabric and the zipper. She tried to say something, yell it out of the duck tape, but no noise would come out. All the fabric and the tape didn't stop the tears that were coming from Emma's eyes.
This was the worst feeling in the entire world, Emma knew for a fact. One time, her and Mommy and Daddy stayed up till 11:11, watching movies or something, so they could all make a wish. Emma had wished for a time machine, and now she wished it would come true. Because she would take that stupid time machine and go back to the park, and she never would have gotten in the car with the man.
Emma should have know, she scolded herself desperately, the tears coming faster and faster. It was the thing her Mommy always told her, because they lived in the biggest (and the best)city in the world. "Emma sweetheart, never, ever, go anywhere with strangers." And Emma had always looked at her Mommy like she was crazy and said, "Mommy, I'm not stupid."
But Emma was stupid, she was really stupid, because she had gotten into the van with the man, and she'd believed his big fat lie about the sandwiches. Emma just wanted her Mommy and Daddy.
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"Look," Officer Vianni held a school picture in his hand, of a little girl with blond hair and blue eyes, smiling up at the camera, wearing a red dress. "You recognize her?"
The woman bounced her toddler on her hip. "She was here, with her parents or something."
"Did you see or hear anything suspicious about this girl?"
"No," she shook her head. "No, I don't think so. She was just playing, and then I took Polly down to the lake to feed the ducks, and when I came back she was gone, and you were here."
"That's her father," Officer Vianni pointed to Ross, who was talking with another officer and a young man. "You recognize him?"
"I don't think so. I might have seen him, on that bench maybe."
"And you say you know Monica and Chandler Bing?"
"Yes sir," the woman rubbed a line of spit from Polly's mouth.
"Can you think of anyone that would want to harm them or their friends in anyway?"
"No. I don't think so.. I mean Monica bugs the hell out of some people, she's kind of crazy, but I like her. And Chandler's nice, he's a funny guy. Nobody would want to seriously hurt them."
"You sure?"
"Positive. Listen, I've gotta get going, I left my ten year old son at home and I have to make dinner. I'm sorry I don't know more, but I'll keep my eye out," the woman exchanged her name (Camilla Fulton) and her number, before leaving.
"Any luck?" Ross asked, leaving the man and coming to stand next to Officer Vianni.
"Not with anybody here. From what we know so far, the only people here were you guys, Camilla, that young man over there and, presumably, whoever is responsible for Emma's disappearance."
"And you said you sent another officer to our house?" Chandler asked.
"Yes," Officer Vianni nodded. "Listen, I have no doubt in my mind that Emma has either wandered off or has been taken by someone. But it's standard procedure, to have everyone that was present at the time of the disapperance be questioned."
"So.. there will be officers that think Rachel or.. or someone else has something to do with Emma gone missing?"
"No, they're not out to accuse them it's just.. they've got to ask them. It's probably wise for you and Chandler to go back to the house as well, and we'll keep you updated, calling you when we find out anything new, okay?"
"Alright," Ross sighed. "You seriously have no leads? Nothing?"
"I'm afraid not. Real life isn't at all like CSI."
"Yeah. I know," Ross extended his hand and shook Officer Vianni's. "Thank you so much."
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When Ross and Chandler walked into the house, Rachel was sitting on the couch, leaning on Monica, a tall police officer sitting across from her with a notepad. Phoebe was kneeling on the ground, talking nonsensically to the four kids, her eyes glued on Rachel and the officer. "Yes, yes, and then they were all happy," she said, in the general direction of Erica, tossing a Beanie Babie at them.
Upon seeing Ross, Rachel stood up. "No?"
Ross took Rachel into his arms. "Not yet."
"Ross," Rachel clung to him tightly, "they think we know something. After he asked me if we saw anything, he asked if any of us had accidentally let Emma wander off, or if maybe we had taken her somewhere."
"Rach," Ross said soothingly, "Oh Rach. They've got to, they have to ask us-"
"But... the bastards should know that. W-we.. why do they think we would do anything.. anything at all to ever hurt her?"
"I don't know," Ross gave in, leading Rachel to the couch. "I don't know."