Feeling his phone vibrate Greg retrieved it from his pocket and flipped it open, staring at the screen he slowly sat down into the seat behind him trying to make sense of what he was seeing...God this couldn't be happening he repeated over and over.

"Boss what's wrong?" Wordy asked seeing Greg's shocked expression and getting no response to his question he walked the short distance between them and took the phone out of Greg's hand "WTH!"... "That's Clark...how the hell does he have Clark?"

Hearing the mentioned of Clark's name the rest of the team instantly looked up.

"Uhhhh guys what's going on?" Spike asked looking between his boss and his team member really not sure he wanted to hear the answer.

"It's picture of Clark" Greg replied quickly recovering from his initial shock "He's slumped in the back seat of a car, there's a message attached for Ed...asking me to tell him that the game has moved up a level...son of a bitch he also knows about the accident he mentions that Ed's phone would be waterlogged."

"He was at the accident?" Spike shook his head in dis-belief all the time the anger rising inside him, " Wait he must have watched how else would he have known that Ed and Sam ended up in the water?"

Greg heaved an exasperated sign and rose from his chair. "There is nothing we can do about that now Spike." taking back his phone he handed to his young technical whizz kid. "This is all that matters now getting Ed's son back alive, see if you can trace anything from this, Jules go with him".

Spike grabbed the phone and they both headed for the door, the words "We're on it" ringing through the air.

"What are we gonna tell Ed about Clark?" Wordy asked staring at an imaginary spot on the floor trying to workout in his own head how he would feel if one of his girls had been taken by someone they didn't know and who obviously wanted nothing more in this world then the inflict untold harm on him.

"Nothing" Greg absently replied.

"Nothing" Wordy looked up dumbfounded his usually calm composure quickly slipping "How the hell can you not tell Ed his kid is missing what if we can't find him...what if...what if?" he couldn't even bring himself to finish the sentence.

"And tell me what good is it going to do at the moment Wordy you tell me that!" Greg barked "He nearly died himself tonight along with another member of his team and what do we know at this moment in time...nothing... all we can do is wait and see if Spike can find anything out and if not we wait for whoever has Clark to get in contact with us again-"

"That's not right you can't not tell Ed!" Wordy all but shouted anger rolling off him in waves "If anything happens he will never forgive you and I know you Greg you'll never forgive yourself, none of us will"

Greg let out an heavy sigh "And what do we tell him Wordy?" "How do we tell him?"

"How do we tell who what?" asked Sam as he walked towards Greg and Wordy, having been fully checked over, his nose reset and reluctantly discharged the two black eyes and cuts an instant reminder of the life threatening situation he had found himself in.

"Whooo buddy what are you doing?" Greg asked.

"Going home as soon as I know Ed is alright." Not missing the look that passed between Wordy and Greg a feeling of apprehension started to rise in the pit of his stomach. "He is ok isn't he?"

Wordy nodded his head. "Yeah Ed's recovering but we have a situation somebody has taken Clark, they sent Sgt a picture and message...Spike and Jules are working on it now."

"And Ed doesn't know?" Sam asked trying to keep the fear out of his voice.

"No". Greg rubbed his hand over his face the stress all too evident. "That was the discussion they you came in on, I think we should wait before we say anything to Ed, Wordy disagrees."

"I agree with Wordy, it doesn't matter what condition he's in he would want to know, he has a right to know especially with Sophie not being here."

Raising his hands in a gesture of surrender Greg conceded defeat "Ok guys I know you're right...I know you're right, I guess I just didn't want to tell my best friend that his only son has been kidnapped, it nearly killed me when I had to tell him that we thought Sophie and Izzy had been killed in the car bomb." Letting out the breath that he didn't realise he had been holding Greg continued. "You saw what that did to him, how he reached and that was when he hadn't nearly drown what is this going to do to him?"

"Boss I don't know, but we need to do it and then we can work on getting Clark back in one piece." Wordy quietly replied.

Giving a slight nod of his head Greg set off in the direction of Ed's room closely followed behind by Wordy and Sam.

Clark slowly started to regain his senses, his felt like he was wadding through mud, his head was full of cotton wool. Slowly opening his eyes he tried to adjust to his surroundings but didn't recognise anything, he was obviously laying on a bed but this wasn't his room and this wasn't his home, it was only when he tried to move and heard the click that he realised that he was handcuffed to the bed by his left wrist. Fear set in and Clark desperately pulled trying to free his wrist but to no avail, he tried to remember what happened but everything after he opened the door to the police officer was a blank. His heart rate soared and beads of sweat formed on his forehead he needed to calm down. He pictured his father face the day he had taught him sniper breathing and started to put that lesson in to practice.

"Finally you're awake" came an unfamiliar voice to his right. "I wondered if I had given you too much sedative, had me worried for a while there Clark."

Clark turned his head in the direction of the voice, his mouth was so dry that he couldn't form a reply.

Seeing Clark's distress Gabriel handed him a cup of water and told him to drink. He watched as Clark greedily drank from the cup "Better?" Clark nodded and handed the cup back.

"Where am I?" Clark whispered trying to sound braver then he felt. "What do you want?"

"Justice."

"Justice?" Clark mumbled as he tried to get a better look at his surrounding and the person at the end of the bed "What does that have to do with me?"

"Nothing really Clark you are a means to an end." Gabriel laughed "And that end is your father, he's the reason you are here."

Clark swallowed the panic starting to raise in his throat "My Dad what do you want with my Dad?"

Gabriel moved into the light giving Clark the chance to see his face. "He needs to pay for his actions, he needs to pay for killing my wife and child."

Hearing the words Clark's eye glistened with tears. "He wouldn't...he didn't kill your family, you're wrong my Dad doesn't kill innocent women or children. That's not true you're lying to me. My Dad never would... he never would" But seeing Gabriel's expression all Clark could think to say was "Would he?"

"Poor, poor Clark you really don't know your father at all do you?" Gabriel replied with an air of certainty as he passed the newspaper article to Clark to read. "See he may not have shot them Clark but he killed them all the same."

Clark's hand shook as the took the cutting. "I remember this...the lady and little girl that died where your family?" Before Gabriel could answer Clark rushed on. "I know who you are, you're the one who has been terrorising my parents, you beat my dad and blew up my mom's car on purpose but this was an accident, my dad and his colleague nearly died too." Still confused as to why Gabriel would think that his father was responsible for this he continued. "My dad isn't to blame for this the courts said so, they said the lady driving wasn't paying attention and there was nothing my dad could have done to avoid hitting them."

"No!" Gabriel screamed as he rushed forward and grabbed Clark by the the throat. "Ed Lane did this and now he has to pay, don't you dare say my wife was to blame EVER!" Clark fought to release himself from the vice like grip and watched as Gabriel's eyes glazed over. "He's gonna die Clark but first he is gonna watch you die it's just the way it has to be."

Tears rolled down Clark's face as Gabriel finally stopped his assault. "I'm sorry but it can't end any other way, and you can thank you father for that."

Clark scrabbled to the back of the bed and as far out of Gabriel's reach as he could his fear now turned to anger. "My dad's gonna kill you when he finds out" he hissed through clenched teeth. "That I do know."

"Maybe, maybe not but in the mean time Clark he is gonna know pain the likes of which he has never felt before." Just before Gabriel left the room he turned back "I forgot to tell you Clark your father was involved in a little car accident this evening I'm sure he survived and I'm sure he's in not fit state to come rescue you any time soon so make yourself comfortable." And with that he slammed the door behind him.

Pushing his back up against the headboard Clark pulled his knees up to his chest and placing his head on them let the tears fall all the time hoping that Gabriel hadn't spoken the truth.