AN: So sorry about how long it took me to update! I just lacked inspiration… Anyway, wanna thank Fran Fig once again, for her support. And wanna tank you guys for reviewing :) Hope you enjoy this one.

Tough Lady (Part 5) –

The two men left Auggie alone while they took care of their business. A billion thoughts racing through his mind, and in that moment he cursed himself for having encrypted his phone so much and making it untraceable.

He blamed himself for never considering he could be abducted and would need to be found. For some reason, he had only imagined the possibility of being stalked or anything like that. So much for security and now he was a victim of his own neurotic protection. Not to mention his measures had no effect at all, considering he was now tied to a column.

He also worried about Annie. But in a slightly selfish way. He knew how hard it used to be for her to compartmentalize her feelings in situations like this, so his biggest worry was that Annie wouldn't get to him in time if she let her emotions get in the way. He knew he shouldn't think like that, but he couldn't help it. Well, he knew Annie had evolved through the years. He definitely should not be worrying about that. He thought to himself and shook his head.

But, at least his kidnappers' sloppiness kept him hopeful that they would keep making mistakes. Auggie's phone was (amazingly) encrypted, but anyone else's wouldn't be, meaning it would be easily tracked down. And he had done his best so that Annie would pick up all the clues she could from their phone call. He just had to be patient.

...

Zarya sat down, frowning, and wrapped her arms around her legs. She kept watching everything through the glass doors. She watched as her mother moved around in the DPD, running from one desk to the other, demanding favors, scolding people.

In the beginning, she tried to read everyone's lips, but they were too far away and she didn't have any practice doing it. So she eventually sank into her own thoughts and made a decision: she was not going to sit down and stay quiet. Her mother, obviously, needed help. Not to mention her father. She couldn't just let everything in the hands of other people.

Damn! She thought to herself. She had inherited her father's control issues. And she had to do something.

...

"Annie!" Barber called her while she talked to the DCI. "Can I have a minute?"

The DCI nodded indicating that he excused her to talk to Barber.

"Hey, Eric. What's up?"

"Eh..." He cleaned his throat. "I'm sorry. Auggie is just a hell of a hacker. I couldn't find a way to track down his phone signal. He built up a wall bigger than China's."

Annie sighed. "Thank you, Eric. We'll have to find other ways to locate him, then. Could you replay our phone call? All of it?"

"That's something I probably can do." He smiled reassuringly. "Will take seven minutes tops. I'm on it."
He ran back to his desk and started working on that.

Annie turned around and saw Zarya leaving her office. She had an angry look on her face that Annie had only seen twice before: when Auggie denied a trip to California seven years ago, and when Annie missed her 14th birthday party, because of "work contretemps".

Zarya had always been a pacific kid. But when she got mad... Whole armies couldn't stop her. She was very much like her mother in more than a few aspects, which made Annie really worried.

As she walked across the DPD, Annie's inexperienced and untrained young operatives admired the scene. None of them ever had the guts to oppose her, but somehow this teenage girl was going for it.

Annie ran in her direction. Her face not very sympathetic either – in fact, even the untrained operatives felt intimidated by her look – and she held Zarya's arm, not very softly.

"Get back inside. Now." She spoke firmly.

"No." Zarya stopped, even though her mother pushed her towards her office.

"I tried to be nice, because I know this is too much to take in, but you gotta help me out."

"That's what I am trying to do since we got here. You won't let me!" She responded aggressively, but not loudly. She didn't want to cause a scene at her parents' workplace.

"That's because I want to keep you out of it!"

"Mom. I heard everything. I know they were coming for me, not for dad. It's too late to keep me out of it, don't you think?"

"What do you suggest?" Annie crossed her arms. She knew Zarya was right, but she was still stubborn as hell.

"Well, I will tell you what I've heard. I'm stunned that no one asked me that in the first place." She rolled her eyes, and Annie shushed her.

"Hey! We didn't know how traumatized you were! I didn't want you to keep replaying that in your head, in case you weren't ready… Honey, I know you want to help, but I don't want you to suffer again."

"Mom. If anything bad happens to dad because I didn't do all that I could, I will suffer ten times more!"

"Alright. You won. Now, let's at least sit down and talk properly." She escorted Zarya back to the couch into her office. "Ok. Tell me everything."

Zarya took a deep breath.

"I was sitting down with dad, on the couch. We heard something weird outside of the apartment, and dad told me to hide. Then the men tried to open the door, and I hid in the fire escape. They said you were trying to destroy them, and that they were looking for me to make you pay. They didn't find me, so they took dad." She sighed.

"How many men?"

"Two. But they sounded really big."

"Did you see them?"

"No. I was afraid they'd see me too."

"Good. Anything else?"

"Well, they said you were sloppy; they hit dad; and they also said they would not kill him because he might have information, or something."

"Oh, God… I just hope your father cooperates, because those men are not very predictable…" Annie sighed and wiped a tear.

Zarya was about to start crying too, when Barber knocked.

"Come in, Barber."

"Annie. I got the call."

"Thank you, Eric." She said as she walked out of her office.

She gathered all the operatives and told them to listen carefully and look for clues in the call, then she played it. And again. And again for a third time, when someone in the back screamed: "There! Did you listen?"

Annie turned around to find Zarya coming in her direction.

"Play it again, mom."

They listened to it one more time and Zarya warned everyone to pay attention to when Auggie stopped talking.

"It's a cow. Mooing." Zarya stated and Annie played it one more time, confirming it.

"It is a cow!" Annie raised an eyebrow, then she remembered something. "Matthews! Come here!" Annie called.

Elisa Matthews ran towards her boss, bumping into fellow operatives in her hurry. "Yes, ma'am."

"Was there something about barns in that old file on N'Kunga? I know I've heard something like that before."

Elisa nodded, picked up that specific file from the huge pile she was carrying in her arms, and started looking for it.

"Here!" She exclaimed. "He used barns to hide his arms stock. Allegedly, but still."

"Oh, my God. We know how to start looking." Annie's expression looked relieved. She knew it was still a shot in the dark, but it was already a lot. "Matthews, I want you to find all the farms that are less than forty minutes away from this address. Forty minutes was the time it took them to call me." Annie handed her a piece of paper with the address of their safe house on it and Elisa started working on that right away. Annie took a deep breath. "Ok,guys! We have four hours to go! Move, move, move!"

"Mom. I'm not entirely sure what's going on, but I think I helped." Zarya said that in a mocking way, but also kind of acidly.

Annie didn't like her tone, but, hell, Zarya did deserve credit for that. "Thank you, honey, you did help. A lot. Dad will be really proud of you. At least I am." She kissed her daughter's forehead.