A/N: ILuvPurple16
Hiya everybody. I know this is a very slow update but most of you probably know our situation. Anyways, I just finished up my exams for the semester (Hopefully, I'll get all A's ^_^)
Anyways, I'm still writing for you guys, just make sure you…
THANK SUICUNE FOR BEING PATIENT WITH PURPLE
And
Wish me Luck on my next grade report
Gary was sitting in his chair facing away from his desk. Instead of working on the massive amount of paperwork on his desk, he was just staring at the nice view of the field outside of the CIA station. The sky outside was clear that day and the small trees slightly swayed from a light breeze. Gary pressed one hand to his forehead to ward off an oncoming headache while his other clutched a piece of paper that currently captivated his attention. On the corner of the paper, ICPO was printed in clear, black letters in the corner of the page.
Paul was completely shocked. Yes, that was the only word to describe what he was feeling when he woke up. He was absolutely shocked. When he woke up Dawn wasn't in bed with him. This was very unusual because she almost always slept late ever since the twins were kidnapped.
Okay calm down Paul, He thought to himself as he began to furiously pace the length of their hotel room, she probably just went out to get coffee, yeah that's probably it.
Just as he finished the thought, Paul's foot hit something and it skidded under one of the plush hotel chairs. When he bent over to retrieve it, he discovered that it was a ring full of keys.
Okay her keys are still here, why are her keys still here? Doesn't the world just love to prove me wrong? Where could she have gone then? Paul thought frantically. It's okay… Misty or May probably picked her up for a girl's day or something like that.
Satisfied with his explanation, Paul began to continue getting ready to go to work. He was about half way through his morning shower when he smacked his head in frustration.
Damn it Misty is working today and May is still in the hospital! He pressed his head against the wall of the shower. So this leaves me with two options. Either my wife is with someone else… Unlikely. Or she's been somehow kidnapped right out from under me.
He jumped immediately from his shower and got dressed again. Paul then made a beeline for his cellphone and dialed the number for the FBI.
"Hello this is Cassie Johans, FBI speaking. How may I help you?" Cassie stated automatically as she picked up the phone in her office.
"Hello, this is Paul Shinji," The voice replied shakily.
Cassie was currently copying some notes from her notebook, but her hand slowed to a stop when she heard who was on the phone. "Mr. Shinji, what can I do for you?" She asked politely.
"I think my wife has been kidnapped"
Cassie dropped everything she was doing and tried to calmly compose herself. "I'll need you to come down to answer some questions for us then, okay?"
Misty already knew that she was late for the briefing but May had called her and told her about Dawn's sudden disappearance. Misty walked into the briefing and quietly took a seat so nobody could notice her. Cassie was up at the front of the room showing evidence that the New York CSIs found. Misty was still angry with Cassie but she was the least of her worries now.
Cassie said "As you can see, the epithelial cells show that there was a match found between the Shinji twins being kidnapped and the recent Blunette murders. We need to take into consideration that these crimes could be linked. Some news was also received that Mrs. Dawn Shinji was also missing this morning and the Shinji's accountant also notified us of a recently large transaction of cashed money being withdrawn from their bank. Dawn's husband, Paul, is currently with us to explain all that he knows about Dawn's disappearance. We have also matched financial and phone records to the man behind all this."
Cassie wasn't being as annoying as she usually was that day. Misty decided to write it off as another one of her weird days that she should forget. She was listening carefully to the information being presented in front of her and she was really surprised to hear that the recent case and Phil and Portia's kidnapping had actually been crimes done by the same person. Misty really prayed that the children were safe. After all, 90% of missing children are killed in the first 48 hours. She just hoped that those numbers didn't apply to Phil and Portia, and that they would be okay. Hopefully, Dawn would be found safely along with them.
Cassie walked off of the slight stage as Gary took his place in front of the microphone. He cleared his voice and announced "CIA officials, FBI officials and our cooperative NYPD, we have a dangerous killer on the loose who has killed eight women, and kidnapped two children along with their mother. We may not completely know what we're facing. We need to be prepared for the worst. The FBI unit chief and I have set up squads for you to investigate certain areas of interest. Report back every bit of information that you find and report anything unusual. Your groups are listed on the clear board as you exit. Thank you."
"Looks like someone's got it out for his family" Paul heard one of the men joking as they walked out of the conference room. He just glared from his waiting place outside the room in their general direction and headed off to the interrogation room to relay everything he knew.
Gary and Misty hung back awhile after the meeting to avoid the crowd.
"Well, at least we have another lead now," Misty said, "I just wish it wasn't someone I was close to."
"… At least Cassie has started dressing like she's actually going to work now?" Gary put in awkwardly, knowing how much Misty hated Cassie.
"Well we have one miracle today" Misty snorted in amusement. She was trying to stay aloof, but she was already shaking with anger.
"Calm down Misty, it'll be alright," Gary commented as they walked into the hall, noticing Misty's shaking.
"Calm down," She mimicked, "You might be able to be calm, then again, last time I checked she wasn't one of your best friends, was she? How can I be calm when this person is trying to get rid of everyone I know and love?"
Gary stopped them both abruptly and put his hands on Misty's shoulders, "Misty, we'll get them back. For now you just need to control your temper," he smirked and put his hands back at his sides, "You're lucky I'm nice, or you would have been kicked out of my division long ago with that tongue."
He walked off leaving Misty to snort to herself, hearing a faint "As if" as he went.
Misty walked into Gary's office. She quietly closed the transparent door behind her and took a seat in front of Gary's desk. "You wanted to see me?" Misty asked. She really hoped it wasn't bad news.
"Yes, you worked at Interpol a long time ago before joining up with the CIA, didn't you?" asked Gary.
"Yes," Misty continued, "shortly after the mission in Afghanistan, my chief suggested that I take a transfer to Interpol. So, I served there for about a year in France."
"Well…" Gary looked at her with a pair of arched eyebrows suggesting that she had more news coming other than Gary knowing about her work at Interpol.
He slid a large envelope across the table to her. The envelope had the letters ICPO boldly printed on it along with the Interpol logo.
Gary sat back and said "I read the letter that they sent me, and they have some offers that they want to make for you. You have time to think over whether you want to leave the CIA or not, but don't worry about us. We don't want to hold you back. Your team agrees and if you decide to go to Interpol, we'll understand."
Misty had just been given a lot of information to process. She had only begun to read her letter. She didn't want to make the decision just yet.
Misty said "I know that this is an opportunity for me but I still have to work on the case here. I'll think about their offer."
"Well, that was all I had to say. You can go now." Said Gary and he took a sip from his coffee. Misty nodded as a thank you as she took her envelope and left.
Misty and Ash sat across from Paul and Dawn in a booth to eat. The two girls chatted along happily, enjoying getting to know each other. Meanwhile Paul sulked in the corner of the booth, once again looking less than happy to be there. Ash seemed to be sending glares his way, but Misty could never glance over long enough to be sure.
"So Ash tells me that you work for United Nations?" Misty commented, glancing over at Ash. There it was again, that millisecond of a glare, just before he schooled his face into a happy mask.
"Yes, I do!" Dawn exclaimed excitedly. "That's how I met Paul here."
Misty glances over again. There it was once more, the barely concealed glare. "Why don't you tell me about it then?" She asked.
"So Ash and I were in Paris for a conference a few years back," Dawn began, "and afterwards, since we both had a few vacation days left, we decided to stay in Paris for a while."
Misty looked up at Dawn curiously, waiting for her to continue her story.
"Well, I was walking back to my hotel room one night after having some dinner with Ash," She started, "and while we were walking back we started reviewing some important files that were given to us earlier that day. As we were walking I, clumsy as ever, accidently dropped one of the papers and it flew away."
Misty nodded with interest at what the girl was saying.
"So of course I go chasing after it," Dawn continued, "only to find that it was being picked up by this handsome man over here." Dawn stopped and pulled Paul closer to her, evoking another glare from Ash. "Just as he was about to throw it away, I ran up and stopped him."
"And then?" Misty added curiously, filling the silence Dawn suddenly created.
"And then he said something along the lines of 'troublesome girl, you're going to get yourself into a lot of trouble if you keep losing things like this'. So I ran off really embarrassed back to my hotel room…" Dawn trailed off, looking through her menu once more.
"And leaving me behind," Ash added bitterly, another glare quickly hidden.
"Sorry about that Ash," Dawn smiled apologetically, "Anyways, so the next afternoon I saw him sitting in a café and realized I never really thanked him. So we sat down and talked for quite a while," Dawn finished.
"Wow that's so… Not romantic…" Misty replied.
Dawn giggled and hugged Paul's arm closer, "Well I know he won't always be the most romantic man on the planet," she said, "but I do know that he'll always love and care for me, even if he doesn't express it well. And that's what counts, right?"
"Misty wake up," Gary muttered as he tried nudging his sleeping passenger awake.
"Five more minutes…" Misty groaned as she turned her head away from Gary's prodding, trying to get comfortable in the passenger's seat of the car.
Gary sighed, "Misty we don't have five minutes, we're at your house now."
Misty sat straight up in her seat and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, "You couldn't have just carried me in?"
"Now, now Misty, how would that have looked to the neighbors?" Gary smirked at Misty's sleepy-eyed attempt at a glare. "Besides, you're the one with the key."
"Fine," Misty grumbled as she stepped out of the car and onto the hard concrete of her driveway. "But wake me up again and we'll see who is smirking."
Gary chuckled as Misty unlocked her door and stepped inside.
"Where am I?" Dawn mumbled as she sat up. From what she could tell, she was in a rather nicely furnished home. She began to pull her left hand up to rub her throbbing head, and found both of her hands tied together. She looked down, only to find her legs in the same condition. Dawn attempted to tug at the bonds, which were tied tightly. She frowned as she heard the sound of a door opening.
"Hello Dawn," a strangely familiar voice sounded from the door. She couldn't quite identify it, but it sent shivers down her spine.
Dawn scrunched up her face in confusion as the figure stepped into the glow of the ornate table lamps, "Mr. Satoshi?" She asked her strange boss.
"Yes I guess you would know me as that now." He said quietly, reaching towards his eyes with his fingers. He slowly withdrew the two color contacts from his eyes and looked back at Dawn.
Dawn stared into his eyes, which were no longer bright blue, but deep brown, for a moment before sudden realization hit her like a truck. She recoiled so quickly her head snapped back and hit the wooden backing of the couch as she shouted, "Ash?"
Dawn jumped up and down excitedly for the umpteenth time that day.
"Dawn," May said playfully, "you need to stop bouncing so much, you'll mess up your dress!"
"I can't help it, I'm just so excited!" Dawn squealed, settling for twirling instead as May attempted to fix the dress back into place.
"Geez Dawn, you need to calm down, you're so giddy I think you might explode," Misty said, coming into the room.
"I'm getting married Misty! Married! How can I not be ecstatic?" Dawn replied, twirling again, frustrating and amusing May. "Wait why aren't you outside making sure the guys don't peek?"
"Well it's about to start, they're all in their places already. You should probably get ready to walk down the aisle now," Misty replied, "Well what are you waiting for? Go!"
Dawn took off down the hall, stumbling a bit over her high heels with Misty tailing her until finally they reached the beginning of the aisle that would send Dawn to the rest of her life. Just before the white, silky curtains that obscured the rest of the procession from view, Ash looked up and offered his arm to Dawn.
"Thank you, Ash," Dawn said breathlessly, stepping on the fancy white carpet that would lead up to the alter, "for all of this. Especially for walking me down the aisle."
"Hey, somebody's got to do it, and it seems I'm the only candidate," he replied jokingly.
"Yeah, I guess so," Dawn laughed along, shaking a little.
"Dawn, you're shaking. Is our fearless bride having second thoughts?" Ash said, suddenly turning serious, "You know you could always back out."
"Of course not, why would I stop now?" Dawn laughed, though it didn't really feel like a joke anymore.
Misty slowly opened her eyes, only to find her face flat on her desk and her unit officer nudging her awake, yet again.
"Sleeping on the job," Gary scolded teasingly, his cocky smirk firmly in place, "sloppy, sloppy work Miss Kasumi, sloppy work indeed."
Misty shoved his prodding hand away from her face with a sigh, "What do you need Gary?"
"I just decided to warn you that it'll be time to leave in twenty minutes," Gary commented, looking around the room and seeing a mess of papers and files covering every surface of the office, "and a good thing too, what is all this stuff?"
"Financial records," Misty replied shortly.
"Oh and what for?" Gary asked.
"I can't tell you," Misty answered, shoving a few papers back into one of the files.
"Now, now, nothing you need to keep from your unit officer," Gary teasingly pulled one of the files from Misty's hands. A few of the papers slid out and he caught sight of who the files were about before Misty shoved them back into a filing cabinet.
Gary's eyebrows scrunched together and he frowned, "You're still looking for Ash?"
"Yes, I am," Misty replied curtly, turning and facing away from her unit officer.
"Why? Misty you were there, you saw him go down. He's almost certainly dead," Gary replied quietly.
"Almost certain," Misty muttered, "you're almost certain. Did we ever find a body? No, we didn't. That means he still might be out there, and I want to find him."
"Why would you want to try and find someone like that?" Gary asked angrily, "Did he not rip out your heart and stomp on it? How about betray you, and your loved ones? Why would you want to find anyone like that?"
"You don't understand!" Misty shouted angrily, "I want to find him because of that! I want to know why he did it! And I want to get him back!" Misty finished her screaming and tears began to fall down her face.
Oh no don't cry, do. Not. Cry, Gary panicked, how do I calm this girl down?
Gary awkwardly put an arm around Misty and she cried on his shoulder, "It's gonna be okay…" he murmured.
"What are you doing here?" Dawn questioned, the rage on her face growing with every passing second, "You're supposed to be dead!"
Ash just chuckled softly at the accusation, "My dear Dawn, you don't think I'd die that easily, do you?"
"Well I had hoped so!" Dawn screamed, "You did try to ruin my life, after all!"
"My, my, what a horrible thing to say," Ash commented, sitting right next to her on the luxurious couch.
"Not nearly as horrible as your actions," Dawn retorted angrily, attempting to put space between her and her captor.
"Oh Dawn," Ash muttered while playing with a lock of her hair, "why must you hate me, I've never hated you."
"Well let's see, you put my husband into a drug induced coma, tried killing him for your own gain, and then you tried to make me spend the rest of my life with you! But gee, let's just forget about it and be friends!" Dawn spat out sarcastically.
"You know when I first saw you," Ash continued like Dawn hadn't even spoken, "I was instantly in love with you."
Dawn looked taken aback for a second, "Well then why didn't you do anything about it?" she spat out.
"Because then you met him!" Ash yelled, suddenly angry, "Even though I loved you first! Even though I was always there for you, you chose him and not me!"
"Well why did you never-" Dawn started, but Ash cut her off by abruptly standing.
"Why did I never tell you before your wedding?" Ash chuckled sadistically, "I did if you remember, just before you walked down the aisle! But you rejected me!"
Dawn's mouth formed a neat 'o' as she realized, "But Ash I didn't- I mean I thought you were-"
Ash cut her off again, "You thought I was just joking? Why would I joke about something as important as that?"
"Well I-" She was cut off once again.
"Do you know what I thought the first moment I saw you?" Ash continued, "The second you walked through the door of the United Nations headquarters? I thought, 'Wow, she is so beautiful, if I could just make her mine.'"
"Well I guess I always just saw you as-" Dawn was cut off once more.
"You just kind of saw me as a friend?" Ash finished for her, "Yeah, I think I got that. Especially after you started dating him."
Why do I even bother to continue trying to talk? Dawn thought to herself, Well one more try can't hurt… "Well if you loved me, why did you start dating Misty?" Dawn asked.
Ash chuckled his eerie chuckle once more, "I thought that if I could move on, find someone new, I might just be able to get over you. For a while, it worked. I could forget myself with her, I could forget all about you. You can guess how long that lasted. After some time, it started happening again. I started seeing you everywhere again, and I was madder than ever that he stole you from me."
"He didn't steal me from you!" Dawn screamed, "Paul-"
Ash held up his hand to interrupt her, "Paul, Paul, Paul, is that all you ever talk about? I don't even want to hear his name in this room, or ever!"
Dawn pursed her lips together as she relaxed back on the couch, all the fight gone out of her. What's the use of arguing with someone that won't even let me say more than five words at a time? She reasoned.
After a few moments Ash calmed down and sat back on the couch. He procured a bottle of red wine. "Would you like a drink?"
Dawn inwardly rolled her eyes, "No thanks, I don't want any."
"Would you like anything then?" Ash asked, pouring two glasses anyways.
"I'd like to see my children," Dawn said, distastefully putting the wine down on one of the end tables, "and I know you've got them."
Ash frowned as he swirled the blood red liquid around in his glass, "I'm afraid I can't allow you to do that."
"And why not?" Dawn asked angrily, "I don't see what you have to gain from keeping them from me."
"Classified information," Ash replied, "and I really must be going now, busy days as you know."
"But-" Dawn was cut off once more by the sound of the door slamming, and the subsequent sound of a lock clicking in place.
Misty rubbed her eyes once more, trying to keep her head up and her eyes open. Just one more file, she thought tiredly, one more look in the database and then I'll go home.
"You almost done in here Misty?" Gary asked, coming into her office.
"Yeah, I just want to look through this one last file," Misty replied.
"It's been three days Misty," Gary continued, "are you ever going to give up on this?"
"I'll give up when I run out of files," Misty snapped as she input the information into the computer. Both occupants of the room looked up surprised as a small sound indicated that a result had come up.
"Well, well, looks like this paid off then," Gary said, walking over to the computer, "What'd you search the database for?"
"Credit card numbers," Misty replied, "I thought I could see when the most recent use of the cards was."
"And that was?" Gary asked.
Misty briefly looked at the computer, "At a gas station around here… Five days ago?"
"Only five days ago?" Gary asked puzzled, "But then that means…"
"It means that he could still be alive."
A/N: Suicune95
Happy Ikarishipping day everyone! Least I think its Ikarishipping day… We're just going to pretend the internet is right for now and say it is. Hoped you enjoyed (what I think is) a longer chapter to make up for our lack of updating. Purple wrote this one, though it probably would have come out at the same time anyways. As always, end of May, early June brings way too much stuff to do and not enough time to do it in. Hope you enjoyed and as always, we love reviews so don't forget. Don't hesitate to let us know what needs fixing and I'll get right on that as soon as possible.