Yay! I got my class scheldule today! Only five more days till school, can't wait! Hugs, and Love and Ice Cream for all reviewers, cause I'm really happy now! I could cry! So you want to see me cry? Thank you for all being so kind as to let me catch up to you guy reading, I think Friday's would be a go update date, what do you think? Or shall I keep it to Mondays...
Anyway, this is more a Amy chapter than a Gabe chapter, but Gabe still makes an appearance. I have spell checked this baby like 4 times, and don't be rude, I spell Jerimiah like that, not Jeremiah. Personally, it sounds and looks better Jeri. Well, I need to quit the rambling on and on and on... So enjoy the story...

Okay, quick note. This story is a lot darker than the ones I usually write because of the murder thing... and the other stuff. Just saying, you have been warned.

Tears streaming from her eyes since yesterday, unstoppable, not even in front of complete strangers. Or people she somewhat knew. Or her family, what was left of her family, anyway. Here, where she had ended up-not where she was at the moment- she just couldn't understand, how this could happen. What was it? Was she a bad person? A bad mother? A bad care giver? She had done bad things in her life, before, seen bad things, heard bad things. But she didn't know that it could make her such a bad person to lose her two little boys.

Amy Duncan, as she was, sat in a chair, next to the desk of one Jerimiah Gilbert, who had been at his desk just a moment ago, was dressed in a button up shirt, tie, and pants. He was the first person assigned to her, the first person to actually talk to her, and to actually be nice. And now he was coming back. "Mrs. Duncan? This is Leah McClain, she be take the case along with me, can you tell us what happened?"

Amy was silent, letting the tears flood, falling down her face at a rapid rate. Surely, at this, the whole precinct would be filled. How many other women, and men had sat here before her, and cried their eyes out to total strangers. Had thought that their tears would fill the room, and the entire building? "Yes. It was yesterday..."

Gabe was sitting in the passenger side of the front seat. He looked happy enough, considering that these past few weeks he had seemed a little out of it. As if life wasn't as good as it was. Still, she was worried about him. This mood was good for him, but she was so unsure now a days. "You seem happy. Anything happen at school?"

"Not really." He was quiet for a moment, before he continued to tell his story, and then fished out his slip. "My Science class is going to the aquarium. The one down town. I want to go, but without anyone. By myself, it'll be fun. "He asked as Amy pulled the car in the driveway, and got out. She was already half way to the house by the time Gabe had stuffed the paper in his backpack, and ran to catch up to her. "So what do you say? Can I go?"

Amy looked at him, and saw his face, full of hope. It was hard to tell him, hard to destroy his mood, but she had to do it. "No." She said weakly. And she could tell he was mad.

"Why? Why are you making such a big deal out of this?" He asked, when really it wasn't a real big deal. Her first word on this topic, and she was apparently making a big deal about this. Amy didn't think so.

"Because, I don't want you to go to the aquarium, and what I say goes." Two could play at that game.

"That's just a stupid reason, and you know it."

"I will not be spoken to like that." Now, she was getting mad. He had NEVER spoken to her like this before. What were they teaching him in Jr. High?

And then it started. Just like that, her littlest boy had snapped into a man. And boy did he show it. "No, I won't be spoken to like this! I am fucking sick and tired of your fucking games! I can't take it anymore, the crap you feed me everyday! I couldn't believe it at first, but now I can. Hell, why should I fucking care? Because I do, that's why. Yes I know I'm adopted! Yes, I know that I am not really your kid! And yes, I know who my mother is! So just leave me alone! Leave me the fuck alone, because I'm done here. I'm fucking done here." Amy was sure that Mrs. Dabney was calling the cops now.

She looked at Gabe. Bob, Teddy, even Charlie were looking at Gabe. She could she the shock written on their faces, and on her's as well. Then, Gabe ran upstairs, and slammed his door. What had just happened? "Wow, I didn't even know that Gabe knew the F word. Did you?" Teddy had asked to subside the tension.

"Teddy take Charlie out somewhere. Anywhere." Bob had said after a few seconds worth of starring a Amy's face.

"But I wanna be here..." the rest of the words that were in that sentence died right then and there, when she saw the way Bob was looking at her. "Okay." She said, before gathering Charlie, and walking out the door without a second thought. Amy wasn't worried about Teddy, she could hold her own.

When Teddy was out the door, Amy could hold it in no longer. She burst into tears, something she hadn't done since Teddy was a baby, and they couldn't get her to shut up for three nights straight. She would just cry and cry, and wouldn't stop, no matter what they did. Bob was confused, to say the least. He didn't know what to do, to comfort, or to back away, and give her some space. Of course, they had to talk at some point. Then they heard the music start playing.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Bob asked her.

"No."

Both Jerimiah and Leah were quiet. That fact that they had heard first hand what went on at their house had made both of them a little twitchy, as if it was none of their business. But they were cops, and if every case made them feel like that, then they weren't cut out for the job. "Uh, so why didn't you want Gabe to go to the aquarium." Leah asked, after the moment of silence.

Amy looked at her, and sighed, with a look on her face that screamed understanding. "I'm guessing 15 years ago, you guys were still at the academy?"

Leah nodded, but Jerimiah didn't. He looked at his captain, an older man, who could still hold himself to be, well, captain, and motioned him to come over. "I wasn't" Jerimiah said. He continued with his side of the story. "It was the Blake Philips case, wasn't it?" Amy stiffened at this, but nodded anyway. "I was here in '98, came here after a rough time in Baltimore my first year, so George Stine, he was the captain, suggest I go somewhere less pushing. I ended up here, because my lungs could use the air. It was a few months after the case. Nobody had told me about it, figuring I was a rookie, they wouldn't bother me. My old partner let it slip one day, and I looked up the case file. Blake Philips, 12 year old , white male, was at a school field trip to the aquarium. He was lured out to the back by a employee, and taken. His body was found in a ditch one night in California, off the side of a major highway. Signs of sexual abuse were found. He..." Jerimiah stopped talking, to look down at Amy. She was crying, but he couldn't tell if it was because of the Blake case, or her son. She nodded to continue, as if she had heard the story may times before. "...He was assaulted, and he was battered. Then he was sexually assaulted. He was prisoner to that-" his voice broke, "man, for a month, and we couldn't find him."

Amy took a deep breath. Leah stood there looking like she had just seen a ghost and it had punched her in the face. She shouldn't be acting like this in front of the victim. She shouldn't be acting like this at all. Captain Locke stood at attention behind Amy, thinking over the memory of the case, remembering the most bone chilling facts. Amy decided to talk then, because it would only make the pain worse if she didn't. "Yes. Blake's mother was a... friend of mine. She had been my best friend when I was a freshmen in high school. She had gotten pregnant with Blake after our summer after our first year. Slowly we slipped farther and farther, because my parents didn't want that kind of influence." Amy was reminded of the thoughts of her high school, how cruel people could be. "I graduated high school, got my medical degree, and met Bob, and we got married, and came here. A few years later, I was shopping a store, and I saw her. Teresa was her name. Blake babysat for PJ a few times, and then... well, you heard that story. After Blake, she just... lost it. I would have too if my son had... died. I would come over to her house and she would seem fine, but I knew she was bottling it up... then before I knew it, she had commit suicide. I was ashamed, then, for leaving her in high school, and for not knowing that she would do something so... drastic." Amy finished, and now Leah looked like she had seen, got punched by, a ghost, who turned out to be her mother. Tears threatened to fall fast, and her eyes burned.

"So, did you ever catch h-him?" Leah gulped back the tears, and spoke, with minimal voice cracks.

"Damn right we caught him. Michael Lee Hairo, of Stanislaus County, California. He had been charged with robbery and assault, but used a fake ID and Birth Certificate to get a job at the aquarium. Next thing, he got to Blake. We tried, we really did, but he got another little boy too. His name was-"

"Jake Sanders of Tuba City, Arizona. Traveling with his mother and father, got taken from the pool, while his parents were arguing. He got dumped in the same stretch of road on highway 132." the captain suddenly answered for Jerimiah. He knew that case like a book he had read a million times, knew every last detail like the back of his hand.

"Yeah. Caught the guy though. Found him in Florida, and he's serving 30 to life without parole." Jerimiah ended.

The four of them were extremely silent, and it seemed like the world had stopped. But it hadn't. The squad room was still very active, and it brought Jerimiah back to Earth first. Then the Captain, and Leah, and finally Amy. It was an emotional case, but they had to solve this one laid in front of them. "Mrs. Duncan, how did you find out Gabe was missing?" And Amy was pitching the second strike.

She didn't have to wake up, because she had been up all night. Amy found it hard to sleep with Gabe in the house, after the events of this afternoon, and him not coming down for dinner, even though Bob was sound asleep, right next to her. She knew that Teddy was now asleep, even thought half way through the night, she came down to sit in the kitchen and found Teddy down there, drinking hot chocolate, and contemplating the day she had had. Not when Amy came in did she look up, of when Amy made a cup of hot chocolate, and not even when she sat down next to her. In two minutes, Teddy had come back to reality, and stated to her mother in the calmest voice she could manage, "Mom... we should go to bed. I'll go if you go. Okay?"

And just like that she was in her bed, but sleep never came knocking on her door. Instead, doubt... It was hard raising a 13 year old boy who knew he was adopted, and knew he had be lied to his whole life. But she was going to try, and she'd be damned if she didn't. Nothing had changed, Gabe was still her boy, her little man, the black hair beauty of her life that made her proud to be his mother. Even if he wasn't really her, she didn't care. He would still be her boy.

Breakfast was started a six o'clock sharp, even though no one would be up for at least another hour. Amy couldn't help it, besides it kept her mind at work, and her body at work, making sure she wouldn't have to think. She ate by herself, but couldn't stomach eating more than plain, burnt, toast. Teddy was up first, and then Charlie, and then Bob... they all stared at each other as if they had never seen one another before, and didn't know what to do. And it was true. Bob looked so much older for the first time in his life, and he was actually serious. And Teddy looked older too. As if she was ready to start a life that was forced upon her. Like she was going to do this 'thing' whatever it was without backing down. Even Charlie, three years old, looked different.

None of them could eat much of anything, except for Charlie, who hardly knew the tip of the ice burg. But in the middle of breakfast, Charlie looked at everybody, then said, in a small voice, "Why is everyone sad?"

"We aren't sad, Charlie... Things are just hard." Amy told her daughter, trying to keep from crying.

"What things?" Charlie, the curious one, asked.

"Things with your brother."

"Why?"

Amy couldn't answer that one truthfully. Hell, she could hardly answer the other questions that weren't even that much about Gabe. Luckily for Amy, Teddy stepped in, just in time too. A few more seconds and the waterworks would start. "Gabe is in a hard time right now. He can't understand." Teddy told Charlie, unaware of how much Charlie could actually understand this.

"Okay. Can we go see Gabby?"

Together, they all went up to Gabe's room, without even thinking about it. They all knew that when the door opened, they would accept Gabe as their own, just as she should be, just as he always was. Bob put his hand on the door knob, then twisted it. It was jammed. He tried three more times before he pounded on the door. "Gabe? Gabriel Duncan, you open up this door right this second." Bob said, in a somewhat calm voice. "We just wanna talk, we aren't going to punish you." No replied.

"That's it." Bob said, anger rushing through him. He turned the knob and slammed his shoulder into the door, while the girls looked confused. What wouldn't Gabe just open his door? By the sixth attempt, the door practically came off it's hinges, and Bob was able to look inside. A pile of crap laid at the door, a broken chair in pieces, and the window open. But no Gabriel. It wasn't funny, and it couldn't be real. First PJ, now Gabe.

"What do you mean fist PJ?" Leah asked. Apparently she was very oblivious to the Duncan family.

Jerimiah cleared his throat, but Amy smile. "No, it's okay, I can- I should tell her." It was the bottom of then ninth, two outs, the bases loaded, and Amy Duncan was standing at the pitchers mound. The crowd was silent, the city, it was silent, the whole world was silent. Here the pitch.

"My first child, my son, he ended up running away from us, my family and me... in the end. I suppose he just didn't want to be apart of our family anymore, because he sure acted like he didn't. He didn't want to go to college-we always had dreams he would go to college, no matter which one it was-and he hardly finished high school. Then one day he had enough, and I guess we did too, because he warn us he was leaving, and we didn't even try and stop us. None of us. That day was hard for us... he was only 17 at the time, but he turn 18 a few months ago, and well, I know you can't do that much... Still, I know he's okay, all my kids can hold their own." Did you see that! Did you see it? Amazing, probably the best play in history.

It was the thought that changed the whole investigation. An hour and a half into the case, and here it was. The question that could make or break it. "Is there a possibility that, where you can find PJ, you can find Gabe?" Leah asked after a moment.

"You know-" Amy started, but stopped immediately. Of course, it was so simple. How could she have not noticed, figured that would be where he is. "Oh my God." Amy whispered.

"I'll take that as a yes," Jerimiah stated, calling over to Tommy Greens, who immediately got to snooping around. One thing Greens did best was snoop, snoop other people's business. That's what made him one hell of a detective. That's what made him Gabriel Duncan's finder.

I don't know the next time I'll update, because school is starting, so I'll try it soon.