ILuvPurple16 and Suicune95 present
Defoliation Arc: Mission 002
A/N: Suicune95
Hello everyone, here is another installment of our story, and I bet you were all excited because of our little cliff hanger. Anyways, to keep from a long winded authors note, I'll end it here. Enjoy your readings my friends.
Disclaimer: We own nothing. Would we need to write this fanfic if we did?
After hours of investigation by the police, all of the emergency vehicles finally left the front of Dawn and Paul's house, the police chief assuring a distraught Dawn that they would call if there were any developments in the case. However, Paul and Dawn had to get a hotel room because their house was now roped off by the police.
In the hotel room, Dawn sat in one of the plush hotel chairs, clutching her cell phone like her life depended on it.
"Dawn," Paul said as he walked out of the bathroom, "you really should sleep now."
"But what if they call us?" She questioned frantically, "What if they've found my babies?"
"They're not going to call this late at night, Dawn," Paul replied, pulling the phone gently out of her hand, "now go to sleep."
Dawn moved from her place on the chair to the very soft bed. They both laid down to a disturbed sleep.
The next day Misty barged into Gary's office.
"Is it true?" She questioned, slamming down a newspaper, "Were the twins really taken?"
Gary sighed, "Yes Misty, it is true. The twins were taken yesterday afternoon."
"And May," Misty continued, an angry fire in her eyes, "did she really have a bomb strapped to her?"
"Yes Misty, it's all true. May was rushed to the hospital just as soon as the bomb was deactivated," Gary tiredly replied.
"Who was it? Can we help them find whoever it was?" Misty asked franticly.
"We don't know who it was Misty, and unfortunately we're not able to get involved in it," Gary replied, stopping whatever Misty was about to say dead in its tracks, "Look, I'm doing everything I can, but this is more of the FBI's responsibility. I'm sorry Misty."
Just as Misty was leaving, Cassie walked into Gary's office. They exchanged death glares before going their separate ways.
"So Gary," Cassie started, "I have the incident reports from our latest investigation."
"Great," Gary replied with a bored tone, "just leave the files on the edge of my desk." He was just playing with a pen in his hand. He barely even took a glance at Cassie.
Cassie did as she was told and left the files on the desk. However, as she was walking out she 'dropped' her pen on the ground right in front of his desk. As she bent down to pick it up her belt-skirt rode up just a bit, but enough to tick Gary off.
"My god woman!" Gary yelled, slamming his pen down on the desk, "Get a longer skirt! Don't we have dress codes anymore? Hang the belt up for when you go clubbing, not when you're at work!"
Cassie jumped up, her pen all but forgotten. She looked at Gary with a look of disgust on her face and stormed out.
Gary stared blankly at the door for a moment before realizing what he had just said. Oh sure so it's only sexual harassment if the guy initiates it now? He thought angrily, Oh man if I get fired for this…
At around seven in the morning the shrill beeping of a cell phone rang out in Dawn and Paul's hotel room. Dawn immediately jumped up and tried to find the phone.
"Dawn," Paul moaned, "Relax, it's probably not the police."
"Paul," Dawn started, looking extremely agitated, "I have two lost babies out there right now, and the police know to contact us if anything in found. So find the dang phone!"
Paul put his hands up in surrender and pulled his cell phone from his pocket, "Alright you win."
Paul checked the caller ID, but it was only Drew.
"Well pick it up anyways; it could be information about May!" Dawn yelled at him.
Paul put his hands up again and answered the phone, "Hello? What's up Drew?"
Drew breathed a sigh of relief at being able to relay the news, "It's May, the doctors say she's going to be okay!"
Gary was abruptly pulled out of his sleep by the annoying ringing of his cell phone. Angry at being woken up so early he checked the clock.
Three o'clock in the morning. Who calls at this ungodly hour? Gary thought, bracing his eyes for the glow of the backlight on his cell phone.
"Hello?" He answered grumpily.
"You bastard, I told you to stay away from her!" The voice on the other end yelled, "I'm telling you, you're going to pay for it!"
"Wrong number, thanks for waking me up though," Gary replied, bad temperedly as he hung up.
Gary slammed his head back down on the pillow and unsuccessfully attempted to fall back asleep.
Who keeps calling me? He wondered. Well, Gary didn't pay much attention to the middle-of-the-night calls because he didn't like disturbances when he was half asleep. He had a lot of work anyway.
Paul decided to go back to the hotel for lunch. Half way through his meal, he got another phone call.
Seriously? That's the third one today! He thought, taking an angry bite out of his food.
"Look Mike, we can get back to the business orders later! Would you mind letting me enjoy lunch for once?" Paul angrily said into the phone.
"Who the hell is Mike?" The voice responded.
Paul almost dropped his phone. It was the voice from the other day. "W-what do you want?" Paul replied, shaking with anger.
"What do I want? Hah, how rich," the voice laughed, "you asking me what I want!"
Paul had to resist throwing the phone against the wall, "Just shut up and tell me what you want from me you stupid bastard!" Paul yelled.
"Fine, fine what I want is $500,000 in ransom. Send your wife with it, and I promise the children will be unharmed."
"Wait, why do you want my wife..?" Paul started, but the only thing he heard was dead air. He slammed the phone into the table. He finished his lunch, but everything held a bitter taste. The voice sounded so familiar but the tone of it was unfamiliar. He needed to contact the police about this.
Dawn jumped up at the sound of her cell phone ringing… again.
"Dawn, it's too late for the police station to call!" an already irritated Paul yelled, "When they find them they will call. You don't need to jump up at everything that has a ring tone!"
Dawn sat and pouted, "Well excuse me for actually caring about what happens to our children!"
"What, you think I don't care?" Paul retorted, "You don't think that I hate being this powerless? I hate being such a terrible father!"
"Oh Paul," Dawn whispered, her eyes widening in realization.
"Just leave it alone," Paul muttered leaving the room and slamming the door behind him.
Dawn sat on the soft white sheets and cried. That is, until she heard a beeping noise behind her coming from the phone.
Whoever was calling must have left a voice mail Dawn thought, wiping away her tears. More curious than anything she called the voice mail number.
You have one unheard message, yes, yes, I know that thank you, Dawn thought sarcastically.
The number is restricted, okay that's a bit suspicious, Dawn thought.
First unheard message: Finally! Dawn thought, the anxiety of the call stressing her out.
"Hello again Paul. I see you cannot come to the phone. However, my offer still stands. If you send your wife to the designated location at 11:00 pm tomorrow night I will return the twins to you. If you refuse this offer, certain measures must be taken. Send her alone, and do not tell anyone. If the authorities are notified I will be forced to take action. I'll be waiting."
Dawn dropped the phone as the line went dead. She had a million questions running through her head at once. Should I tell Misty? Who is this strange person anyways? Are the twins still safe? Could I handle this alone?
The only thing that she knew was that the twins were gone, and she just might have a way to help them. The love of a mother is just complicated. Dawn just started thinking irrationally. She quickly picked up the phone and went to the number of the message and hit call.
The person on the other line said "Hello?"
Dawn was shivering with fear. The voice she heard sounded so familiar and she was almost sure that she recently heard it.
She said "Hello. You have my babies…d-don't you?" She was really sweating now. She was scared that this man might hurt Phil and Portia. Her voice was getting very quaky and her breathing turned heavy.
"Ah, Dawn. Well, it's so nice to have a talk with you," replied the person on the other phone.
"Where are my babies?" Dawn accusingly asked. She was angry and scared now.
"I can't tell you that Dawn." The person sounded so calm. He tone just made Dawn fear him even more. With a rush in her voice, she roughly said "H-how do you know my n-n-name?"
The person said "I know a lot of things about you. I especially know that you love your son and your daughter,"
Dawn was crying now and biting her lip. She was trying really hard not to cry because she couldn't show this man any weakness even though he probably already knew it.
She said "Y-y-you left a message to my husband and you said that you would give back the kids if I turned myself into you. I-is…is your deal still open?"
Dawn heard the person on the other end laugh. She hoped that she didn't say anything wrong. Her children's lives were at stake.
The person said, "Yes, it's still open."
Dawn said "I'd like to take it. Are my Phil and Portia still okay?"
There was a sound on the other end that the phone was being moved. Dawn heard the click of a door and she heard the laughing of children. It wasn't just any children. Dawn recognized her babies' voices.
"Okay then Dawn, you'd better write this all down."
Misty was really worried about Phil and Portia too. However, she didn't know how she got into such a weird situation. She went to go see Paul and Dawn's house to see if she could figure out anything about who might've taken the twins. When she got there, because of her luck, MissI'm-too-hot-to-wear-real-clothes-to-work was standing there staring her down. Misty just ignored Cassie and tried to get past her. Police and other government specialists were there. Misty knew that the FBI was investigating a White Collar case, but Misty didn't know that there would be so many people present at the crime or she might have come a little later instead of the whole first-thing-in-the-morning idea.
"What do you think you're doing here?" asked Cassie, very accusingly. Truly though, Misty hadn't even gone into the crime scene.
"Hey look, I've got as much right to be standing here as your group of spectators over there," said Misty as she pointed to a crowd of teenagers and reporters observing the police's work.
"Y'know what? Don't think I don't know why you're here. Look, I don't care if you sit on your high horse up on the CIA but this area is under FBI jurisdiction. You'd be more useful in Afghanistan."
"You didn't have to bring in Afghanistan…" said Misty. She was really angry at Cassie, angrier than usual.
"I don't really care," said Cassie in a squeaky voice, insulting Misty's retort.
"Shut up you stupid whore!" Misty screeched, tears beginning to form in the corners of her eyes, "You don't get it, it wasn't you in that situation, was it?"
That shut Cassie up pretty quickly, but that didn't stop her from giving Misty a rude hand gesture and calling security to take her away from the scene.
Gary knocked on Misty's door… Again.
"Come on Misty, we're going to be late for work," He muttered to himself. He was just about to knock again when he heard a loud crash coming from the other side of her door. So of course he did the gentlemanly thing and threw the door open. He began running toward where he thought the sound was coming from, almost slipping trying to get to the kitchen.
"Misty! Are you okay-" He started as he ran into the kitchen. She was kneeling on the floor in front of a broken coffee mug. She had her head down, with her bangs covering her eyes.
She looked up, tears running down her cheeks, "Oh, Gary, I didn't hear you come in," She muttered, trying to wipe the tears from her eyes.
"Are you alright?" He asked. Okay, that was a stupid question, He thought awkwardly, of course she's not okay!
She burst into tears at that, "Gary, I couldn't save her… Little Nishat,"
Nishat? Gary thought, Oh she's talking about her mission in Afghanistan…
"I almost saved her, but they got to her first!" Misty burst into a fresh round of tears.
"It's alright Misty, that's not your fault," Gary came over to sit next to her on the floor, "There's nothing you could have done, she was being held in one of Al-Qaeda's many hideouts. It was almost impossible to find which one she was being kept in. By the time you found out and went in to get her, it was too late."
Misty looked into his eyes sadly, "Did you know this Gary? They killed her right in front of me. I ran into the room where she was being held, and they shot her. Execution style, instant death."
"There's nothing that could have been done about that!" Gary shouted, making Misty wince.
"I just think," she muttered, "that if I had shot the man first, she might have lived to this day. I feel horrible; she was the sweetest little girl in the world. Her father killed her for associating with the CIA, acting as our spy. She was only eleven years old, and not a day goes by where I wish it had been me instead of her."
Gary grabbed her shoulders and forced her to look at him, "Misty, it didn't play out like that," he wiped a tear from her cheek, "So why don't you stop living in the past and just move on, that's what she would have wanted you to do."
Misty finished wiping the tears from her cheeks, and they both stood up, "If stupid Cassie hadn't brought Afghanistan up…"
"Cassie brought this on?" Gary asked.
"Yeah, I went to inspect Dawn and Paul's house yesterday and we kinda got into a fight," Misty muttered, scratching the back of her head uncomfortably.
I'll deal with her later, Gary thought.
"And, uh," Misty started nervously, "Thanks Gary," She said, giving him a hug.
"Now come one," Gary said after the awkward hug, "Zoey is returning from her mission today,"
Misty perked up at the mention of her friend from college, "Alright then, let's get going!"
"You wanted to see me?" Cassie asked as she walked into Gary's office.
Gary looked up from his mountain of paperwork, "Yes, why don't you take a seat," He said gesturing to a chair in front of his desk.
Cassie sat nervously in front of him, and he noticed that she was actually wearing pants today instead of her belt-skirt.
"I'd like you to stop harassing my agents," Gary blatantly stated.
"I have not been harassing anyone!" Cassie yelled defensively.
"Oh, so you don't count bringing up Afghanistan to Misty is harassment?" Gary questioned, noticing Cassie go pale.
"That's not my fault," she muttered, "she was on a crime scene that was under my jurisdiction."
Gary pulled a file from his desk, "I also have had three complaints from the men in my division about being sexually harassed by you."
Cassie went from pale to beet red in record time, "Well I-"
"You know most of the men in this division are married Cassie!" Gary cut her off, "This is unacceptable behavior. Either stop it or I'll take you off this case, you got me?"
Cassie's mouth gaped open for almost a whole minute before she responded, "You can't take me off this case!"
Gary glared at her, "I can and I will. The FBI asked us to help them, and with that I can be selective about who is working on this case. If you can't do your job, I will have you removed. Now get out of my office."
Cassie stared for a few moments before finally turning and stomping out of Gary's office.
Dawn looked at the clock one more time before leaving.
10:30, She thought, taking one last look at her sleeping husband, Good thing work really tired him out today.
She finished packing the last of the money that she would need into the bag. She quietly opened the door to the hotel room.
I'm sorry Paul, she thought as she closed the door, but I have to get my babies back.
A/N: ILuvPurple16
Hiya.
Well, I don't really have much to say today.
If you keep on reading, you're definitely going to see some big surprises. I can't tell you yet though because Suicune and I are still planning the surprise.
Well, Suicune and I both have less than 9 weeks before summer vacation so our chapter uploads will definitely speed up then. Thank you all and good night.