The swatting was nearly a natural response now.

Day and night – and it became harder to tell the difference – the mosquitoes hunted. She had always been among their favorite prey. Here, though, their weapons were more deadly. The same could be said for many things here.

She swatted again.

Mosquitoes couldn't create warm breezes against her cheek. And mosquitoes couldn't whisper questions that made her muscles simultaneously lock and spring to life.

"Are you ready?"

Amanda's eyes shot open, trying to acclimate to the black blanket surrounding her. From behind that blanket, a pale hand emerged. Her screams were muffled against its palm. Her heartbeat was anything but.

Soft shhs slowly quieted hands searching for a target, any target. The not-quite-as-quiet 'ow' told her she'd hit at least one bulls-eye.

"Stop, hon. Stop. It's me."

'Hon' was the magic key. It peeled away a sliver of the darkness, and her husband's face filled the lighted gap. He rubbed his jaw.

"Sorry," she offered.

That brought a grin. "Hey, at least I know you've got a second career lined up if this whole cosmetics thing doesn't work out."

This reminded her that said husband had just put the fear of God into her, and she swatted him again. "You scared the hell out of me. What's going on?"

Jake drew closer, kissing her neck and drawing the sheet around them. Was 'that' why he – The protests died as he nuzzled.

"Just listen, okay?" The words were barely perceptible, and rational thought even less so now. He pulled back, only slightly, pushing them both down onto the bed. "I don't think they've got the place wired, but we can't take any chances."

They were only inches apart, and part of her wanted to forget everything - to make the ruse a reality and just indulge this moment of closeness. She wished it even as he slipped something into her hand…and oh how she wished that were a double entendre.

"When he got sick earlier, he let his guard down. I was alone in his office. It was only a few seconds, but…I got it. I found the thing that can bring this whole operation down. First, though, we've gotta get out of here."

She squeezed the papers, squeezing his hand in the process. "And how do you propose we do that?"

He offered up that goofy grin. That cocky one. That one that could both calm her and send her screaming for the hills. And his reassurance only compounded the paradox.

"I've got a plan."

#

The tension gripping every muscle in Jake's body relented, if only slightly.

Their captor had come without the army. Phase One successful. His greed – his desire to be the sole guardian of his own personal treasure chest – would be his downfall. Jake was banking on it. He had to.

When the small girl appeared, tucked behind the man's leg, Jake's relief doubled. As did his anxiety. One quick glance at Amanda tripled the feeling. They could save this little girl – their little girl – but they could only do that by endangering her life.

Cold comfort, but the girl's presence did confirm the ultimate success of Phase Two. That was one of the trickiest parts. But if their captor truly believed that he needed someone small to navigate the narrow passageways of the water tunnel, then he had to believe that Jake had every intention of leading him to the diamond cavern.

After they left the compound, the minutes crawled by. Jake could have easily disconnected. It had been his salve before, and the relentless black would make the retreat so much easier. The two touchstones of warmth – one fixed on his shoulder, the other wrapped around his leg, kept him anchored. And the one concentrated circle of ice compressed against his back provided extra motivation.

He could adjust to the darkness. Adapt. Hard experience had honed that ability.

It could become his cloak.

When they reached the rippling black sheets that indicated the end of their journey, the dark became his willful blindness.

Jake reached up, rubbing Amanda's back: their signal.

And his affirmation.

# (Pine Valley, Present)

"What happened? How did you?..."

"Make it?" Jake asked, his first small grin bursting through. "Let's just say there was some downtime in the field during DWB. We learned to create our own entertainment, and I became known as the master of the world's smallest homemade rocket." He snapped his fingers, still feeling the ghost of a burn on his thumb. "Easy-peasy, and a handy distraction."

"And that bastard that took you?"

"He'll….be incapacitated for a while."

Amanda rubbed his back in the same spot as he had touched hers one night earlier. Jake drew her closer and nodded. Some things, some details, would forever stay between them.

"Aren't you curious about how we got out of the country in the dead of night?" Jake asked.

Jesse's response was automatic. "A charter for the runners." The chief quickly covered. "Seen 'Blood Diamond," he offered before looking away.

Jake let it drop. They all had their secrets. "Yeah," he said. "We had….collateral to offer."

"So the cavern was real?"

Jake reached into his satchel, removing a small bundle of the diamonds that would now only be worth their weight in evidence. He handed it - along with the stack of paper - to Jesse. And he hoped like hell he never saw another diamond in his life.

Jesse's full attention was on the documents, but not in the official, by-the-book way that Jake had expected. Instead, the chief's deep contemplation was…familiar. When their eyes finally met - and before Jesse cleared his throat and began to speak - Jake understood.

"To say this is a little outside my jurisdiction would be an understatement." In the long gaze, they sealed a silent agreement. "We'll get in touch with the International Criminal Court. We'll go, all of us. Are you up for that?"

Jake turned to the two people who had, against all odds, walked through the fire with him. He smiled at Amanda and Unathi., his family. Turning back, he offered three words: "Without a doubt."

They had no time to make official plans, because the door of the interrogation room quickly opened. Detective Brot Monroe joined their group, but he had no polite greeting to offer. His only words reminded Jake that he was truly home again, for better or worse.

"We cracked the files. Good God Almighty, we know everything now."

####

In that moment, he wishes that she had relapsed; he doesn't even have time to hate himself for the thought. Because Dixie is telling him that it's started again, that worst nightmares can never really be chased away with the dawn of light. Not really.

He shouldn't have yelled at her for cutting her hair. He shouldn't have turned his back to them when they left to 'cool off.' He should have been better: a better father, a better man…

And with just a few frantic words transmitted over a crackled line, she's robbed his chance of making the could's into would's

"Kathy's missing. I think she ran away."

####

Ian wouldn't stop crying, and he told him to stop being a big stupid baby. Spike said it over and over, but he wanted to cry, too. He bit his lip really hard until it hurt, but that just made him want to cry more. "Mommy's not here!" he whispered to his brother, wishing more than all the stars in the sky that he was lying. But he wasn't.

Mommy wasn't here. No grown-ups were here. Just them and Miranda and Gabby and AJ and some other kids. That'd usually be fun, but nobody looked happy, and Spike didn't feel happy.

Gabby was crying like Ian, and Miranda was trying to make her stop. She was hugging Gabby, though. He couldn't do 'that' to Ian. Spike looked over to his brother, but some girl - at least Spike thought she was a girl – was trying to make him feel better. Ian was doing that little baby sniffling thing that Mommy always fell for. Spike knew it meant that his brother was gonna be okay and back to being a big pain.

AJ hit the door and yelled. If anybody could get the door open, AJ could. And he could help.

Spike tip-toed behind AJ. The bigger boy hit the door harder and harder. Sometimes he scared Spike.

"Can I help?" he squeaked.

When AJ looked down, he had to push the hair from his eyes. Spike almost ran away, but he stayed. "Can I?" he asked, and it sounded okay this time.

AJ grabbed his arm and bent down. Maybe this was a stupid idea. But he couldn't run away now.

"Do you know?" he asked.

That confused him. "What?"

"What do you?—" Spike's arm shook, but when he started to pull away, AJ didn't hold his arm as tight. When the bigger boy talked again, he sounded nicer. "Do you know how you got here? Who took you?"

Spike bit his lip again, because now 'it' was starting to shake. Did somebody steal them? "I…I don't know, AJ. Me and Ian woke up, and we was here. I thought it was a scary dream." He stopped, not wanting to sound like a little kid in front of AJ, but maybe… "It's not, is it?"

AJ just shook his head and let Spike's arm go. He scooted up against the door and put his arms around his knees.

Spike did the same, and AJ was looking at him funny, but then he smiled. Spike smiled back.

Then AJ wasn't smiling no more. "The last thing I remember is some old lady coming up and talking to me and Miranda. And then Kathy was there…and then this van… I think somebody grabbed me, but –" He was hitting his head hard. "I don't remember after that, until here. They must've –"

"Must've what?" Spike asked.

AJ shook his head again. "It's not important now. They probably want money from the grown-ups, but they're not gonna get it." AJ's voice got really low then.

Now Spike was even more mixed up. "Why would Mommy and Daddy Zach give people who stealed us money?"

"They want to….well, to sell us back."

"But why?…"

Spike stopped because he could tell that AJ wasn't paying attention to him anymore. He was staring at Miranda, and now he looked sad instead of mad.

"If you want to make Miranda feel better, I'm okay," Spike said, pointing at his cousin.

AJ smiled again and ruffled his hair, like Spike did with Ian sometimes. "You're a pretty cool kid, Spike." That would've make him happy if AJ didn't look so sad again when he looked back at Miranda. "I don't think I'll help. Maybe –"

Somebody opened the door then, and the next few minutes made Spike forget all about his promise not to cry.

By the time it got quiet again, Spike only saw fast pictures in his head, like a cut-up movie. A big girl and a little kid, and the big girl screaming when another boy came in and, and – it was so loud, and then the boy fell and the girl screamed more. And there was so much red stuff…

And he was looking for AJ, but AJ's not there anymore. A scary old witch was dragging him away.

Spike only sees his hand stretching out to Miranda, Gabby, and Ian. But they're getting littler, because the bad man's taking them….

And it's not quiet, because that girl's making funny noises. She won't stop.

Won't stop.

'Cept its not her.

It's him, and no matter how hard he tried not to, Spike never cried more in his life.