Chapter 1: Taken

Detective Joss Carter's car slid to a stop in front of the house John and Zoe shared together with their twins. Auntie Joss was excited for the upcoming girls weekend she was going to have with the twins. A sense of foreboding emerged when she saw the front door standing wide open and the inside of the house was completely pitch black. This was odd, the front gate was completely locked up, she had to key in the access code before she could even enter their fortress of a home.

Scarcely having time to turn off the car's engine, Joss immediately pulled out her sidearm and held it close. Quickly making her way up the front steps, she cleared the ground floor making sure no threats were present. Cautiously making her way up the stairs, her heart was beating fast in her chest.

Adjusting her eyes to the low level of light, she could see that the doors to the bedrooms of the Reese home were wide open. She flicked the light switch on in the first of the rooms; her namesake little Jossie's room, and winced at both the stab of bright light as well as the sight of a neatly made but empty bed. "Jossie!" she yelled, then backed up and entered the other room through the adjoining bathroom. She flicked on the light in little Gracie's room and was met by the same neatly made, but empty bed. "Gracie?" she called out, hoping against hope that the girls were just playing hide and seek, but dreading the worst.

Where was Zoe? When she called and talked to her an hour ago, Zoe had said that she wasn't feeling well and that she would probably take a nap before Joss got there to pick up the girls. Their housekeeper, Rosa, had been around and could keep an eye on them while they waited. She could see each of the girl's bags packed and ready to go in their respective bedrooms.

Entering the master bedroom, Joss saw Zoe laying in bed seemingly asleep, yet at the sight of a piece of cloth abandoned on the floor by the bed, Joss knew that it wasn't a self induced nap. She picked up the cloth and sniffed it – then held it at arm's length when the odor of chloroform almost immediately made her dizzy.

Dropping the cloth back onto the floor, she dug out her cell phone from her pocket. She punched a button and waited for the voice to answer on the other end. "John, you need to get back home right now."

"Joss, I'm finishing up a few things . . . what's going on?" John asked, immediately alerted to the concern he heard in his friend's voice.

As Joss told him about what she found when she arrived at their home, she heard John start up his car. "I'll be there in half an hour. . . "

Joss ended the call and pocketed it again and re-holstered her gun as Zoe began to moan very softly and stir. "Wake up, Zoe," Joss called gently, sitting down next to her on the bed and patting softly on her face to try to bring her around again. "C'mon..."

Zoe's lashes fluttered, and then her eyelids slid back showing very bewildered and unclear brown eyes. "Joss?" she moaned, a hand moving slowly to her forehead and then rubbing her eyes. "Are you here already?" She blinked again several times and worked on focusing on the woman seated at the edge of her bed.

Joss looked down at her with a combination of remorse and frustration. "It's been an hour since I talked to you, Zoe. Your door was wide open when I got here and I think the girls were taken."

"Taken?" Zoe struggled to sit up, and then blinked again as her muddled brain began to register small details of her bedroom.

"I'm sorry." Joss didn't know how else to explain to her what she feared had happened.

Zoe looked at Joss long and hard, clearly working at overcoming her fogged up mental state, and then she stared out into the hallway. "Jossie? Gracie?" she called, softly at first, and then a little louder and more desperately - "Jocelyn Elizabeth Reese, Grace Morgan Reese, you girls answer me!" Only when her calls were met by silence did she turn a terrified look at her friend. "Oh God, Joss, no-no-no ..."

Joss could hear the heavy thumping coming from downstairs. Although she had cleared the living room and the other rooms on the main floor, she could have missed something. As much as she wanted to stay and offer her support to her friend, she had a job to do. She rubbed a hand down Zoe's arm and gave Zoe a comforting look. "Stay here, I have to check downstairs again."

Joss un-holstered her gun once more and rose from the bed. As left the bedroom and quietly made her way downstairs, the thumps started up again. They got louder as she made her way through the kitchen and to the laundry room. Taking a deep breath, readying her gun, she pushed the door open.

Poor Rosa, the housekeeper was bound and gagged. Her eyes were huge as Joss came through the door. "Oh Rosa, honey, " Joss exclaimed as she quickly re-holstered her gun and took Rosa's gag off.

"Oh Detective Carter, Thank God you're here. There were two of them, they buzzed at the gate and said they had a delivery. I didn't think anything of it, Miss Zoe was expecting some furniture this week. They just burst through the front door, forced me into the laundry room and tied me up." What happened after that, Rosa couldn't say. She heard the girls screaming as they were taken away. Joss could tell that Rosa felt guilty that she couldn't protect the girls. She had been with the family since the girls were babies and she treated them like they were her own.

The cell phone in her pocket rang, she punched button. "Fusco, get over here fast, I need you."

"On our way. I got Glasses and the pooch," the man on the other end announced grimly with no preamble at all.

"Good!" Joss disconnected and dropped her hand from her ear in dismay and found herself facing an anxious Zoe.

"Where are my girls, Joss?" she asked.

"We don't know Zoe, Rosa said two men . . . they restrained her and locked her in the laundry room, then took the girls, " she told her, knowing that sugar-coating the truth would do no good whatsoever.

"Rosa?" The brown eyes blinked again in confusion. "Is she okay?"

"I'm fine Miss Zoe, I made you some tea, you haven't been feeling well since you came back from your honeymoon," the housekeeper said as she brought a tray into the living room.

"What about the police, has anyone called them?" Zoe demanded, catching at Joss and nearly losing her balance as the effects of the chloroform still hadn't entirely worn off yet.

"I am the police Zoe, but I wasn't sure if you wanted anyone else involved," Joss replied, slipping arm around her waist leading her to sit on the couch.

Sitting down, Zoe wilted noticeably - she bent forward and covered her face with her hands and struggled with the urge to scream with pain and fear. Joss watched in wonder as Zoe's back straightened and stiffened. She wiped her face to removed all evidence of tears and then stared up into Joss own brown eyes with a strength that was a sight to see. You go girl. Joss thought. She had to admire the strength Zoe was showing right now, she would be doing the same thing. Joss was a mother too and she had been beside herself with worry when the bastard Elias took her Taylor. If it weren't for John, she would have lost Taylor and her world would have fallen apart.

"I need to make myself more presentable. Then I'm going into my office to see if any of my clients past and current could be involved in any of this."

"Yes, ma'am." Joss mocked saluted. The look in Zoe's eye was just this shy of scary. It was as if the last five year's worth of warmth and caring the birth of the twins brought on that had turned her into a woman Joss considered a friend had been obliterated in a blink of an eye. What stood before her now was the pre-John, pre-twins tough as nails, look-out for number one, Fixer.

Once Zoe was alone in her bedroom, her steely facade wavered. Her babies, her little girls. Who would take them from her? Right from under her nose? Bastard. Calling on every ounce of discipline she had, she forced herself to take control of her emotions and change. Now was not the time for sentiment. She was a Crisis Manager, it was time she acted like one.

She made her way down the hall towards her home office. Looking at the pictures on the walls, the girls mostly as John and Zoe were both a bit camera shy, Zoe was amazed. She never would have had pictures up at all in her apartment. Nothing that mattered to her was ever on display. But since the arrival of the twins, she couldn't help but want memories.

Entering her office, she immediately sat at her desk and booted up her laptop. She had very few paper files, most of the information relating to her clients were on her laptop that was backed up every night into a remote server, courtesy of Harold. She pulled out every last memory she had ever had of her clients from the back of her mind. Efficiently sorting through the information, she was further able to distance herself from any emotion.

She could not be an emotional mess right now. Her daughter's lives depended on it. She could allow herself to feel, not yet. Not until she found her girls, not until she knew they weren't harmed, and certainly not until she had a chance to rip out the heart of whomever was responsible for this. The "mommy" hat was safely tucked away in the interior region of her once again frozen heart.

He watched the black female detective go through the front gates and make it up the drive towards Zoe's house. A frequent visitor, he recognized her and knew that she was honorary Aunt to the girls.

He knew this charade was necessary, although it would hurt Zoe. Just for a little while. He smiled as he saw the detective pull out her weapon and entered the home cautiously.

AN: Thanks for reading! I hope you're digging the story so far. Drop me a pm, comment, etc. if you have something to say about it. Constructive criticism is always good, no matter how harsh . . .