A/N Hello, peoples. Sorry for the wait, I've been swamped with studying for the AP test, it's next Thursday, and once it ends I'll have time to update. I really shouldn't even be updating right now…I have lots of stuff to study if I want to do good on the test, as well as a ten page essay to get started on.

Thanks to all reviewers!

Dedication: To whitetigers, for her awesome review. Speaking of whitetigers I need to catch up on her story (which is completely amazing, you should all go read it.)

Disclaimer: Angelica owns nothing other then (unfortunately) a small mountain of homework.

"I won't hesitate to shoot your brother if you mess this up," Jacob Gustafson, Marion's second in command, informed Joe. Not that he would actually shoot Frank, because at the moment the elder Hardy was still of value to their organization. The younger one was slightly more expendable. However, Gustafson had always known how to read people, and he knew that Joe would not care about danger to his own life. Joe stated coolly back at him without response. Gustafson narrowed his eyes at the blond but made no further comment. Joe and Gustafson along with four other men were currently discussing tactics just outside of view of the nearest security camera. Marion had long since had someone map out the warehouse's blind spots in case Frank couldn't shut them down for some reason. Not that Marion thought it would be a problem, Frank never failed in his assignments…however, Marion did occasionally have to offer him some…incentives. Frank was in the back of the black van they had driven to the warehouse accompanied by two other men in Marion's organization. They were to guard him and make sure he did as he was told, while Joe, Gustafson, and the four other men broke into the warehouse and stole the necessary items. Gustafson fixed one of the four underlings with a hard look and commanded him to report.

"I have just received the expected message from Henrich," The man who was of medium height and build and appeared to be in his early twenties replied. "Hardy has disabled the security, we can head in."

"Alright, let's move out. Richardson and Brooks head in through the front entrance, take out any guards, make sure they're dead, got it? I want no witnesses. Signer and Bradfield take the back, again I want no witnesses. Joseph and I will go in through the side and obtain the necessary items. Meet back at the van in forty minutes. Anyone not there will be left, got it?"

"Yes, sir." All four quickly replied. Joe just continued to glare.

"Excuse me, miss?" Vanessa called to the woman at the cashier's station who was standing with her back toward the three friends.

"Yes?" The woman asked. "If you're here to eat then feel free to seat yourselves. And, if not, I don't have anything to say to you." She replied with a gesture toward the seating area. Clearly, she wasn't a social person. It was painfully clear to Vanessa why Joe had chosen this particular place to work.

"Of course we're here to eat," Tony interjected silencing his friends with a look. "We'll just sit down over there." He finished, leading Vanessa and Phil over to a both near the back of the diner. "She's not going to tell us anything unless we order, and besides were more likely to get information from a waiter or a waitress then her, she's the manager," Tony explained. They were rewarded a few minutes later when a waitress gave them each a glass of water and asked them what they planned on ordering. The three quickly made their orders. When the waitress returned with their food, Tony fixed her with his best smile, and proceeded to question her. "Does a Joe Hardy work here?" He asked. The girl looked at him suspiciously for a moment and hesitated to answer.

"What's it to you?"

"He's an old friend of mine, and we just came into town, and decided to stop by and see him."

"Oh," The waitress eyed him a moment longer before deciding that he was telling the truth. "He used to work here."

"Used to?" Vanessa asked.

"Yeah, she declared him fired when he didn't come in last night for his shift." The woman replied jerking her head toward her boss. "That's why she's in such a bad mood. Not that it really mattered seeing as half the time we have just as much staff as customers. This is the most crowded it's been all week." She added gesturing to the more then half empty restaurant.

"So, Joe didn't come in last night? He didn't even call? That's unlike him." Phil commented.

"Nope, not a word, which is odd, Joe's always been a good worker, a little on the quiet side, but he was polite to the customers, and they seemed to like him." She replied. Vanessa wasn't sure if the idea of a quiet Joe made her want to laugh or cry, she settled for nodding her head absently.

"Do you know where we could find him?" Tony questioned.

"Sorry, I don't really know him that well, he worked the shift before mine, I usually just saw him on my way in." She replied. "Anyway, I need to get back to work, here's your bill, enjoy the rest of your meal." The waitress finished moving away from their table.

"Okay, so we've learned nothing." Vanessa commented.

"That's not true." Tony replied. "We know he didn't come into work, and we also know that is atypical for him, which strengthens the theory that something happened to him, rather then him just wanting to avoid Callie."

"Hopefully, the other's had more success then us." Phil said.

Chet and Liz had located the grocery store quickly. Upon entering it they preceded to question every cashier on duty to no avail, none of them recalled having seen anyone fitting Joe's description. They checked outside the store in both the front and back and found no sign of Joe. Finally, they decided to head back to Joe's department and hope that the others had found greater success.

"Hey, Biff, look at this." Callie said pointing toward something on the ground near an alleyway, just down the street from the grocery store they were headed to. On the ground was the remains of a carton of eggs, a broken gallon of milk, as well as some lunchmeat, which Callie noted with disgust had several bugs crawling on it. "Someone dropped their groceries." She commented scanning the area carefully. Her efforts were rewarded when she spotted a watch on the ground a few feet away from the spilled perishables. "There's an inscription," Not that she needed to read it to know that it was Joe's. She would recognize it anywhere; she had gone with Frank to pick it out. The back of the watch proclaimed 'happy 18th birthday, little brother,' and form some reason Callie felt inexplicably sad as she read it. "Joe was here, this is his." She informed the tall blond haired man next to her passing the watch to him.

Biff nodded in reply to her sentiment. "Look over here," He said gesturing toward the street where there was a medium-sized oil stain marring the asphalt. "A car was waiting here for a while," He said grimly. "It could be the people who took Joe." He mused.

"Let's head over to the grocery store, and see if anyone remembers seeing Joe, we know he went there, judging by this mess, maybe one of the cashiers will have some information for us. After that we can call the others and have them head over here. We'll need to canvas the entire area questioning people as to whether they saw anything." Callie replied.

"Alright, let's go." Biff answered. "And, Cal," He rested a hand briefly on her shoulder. "Don't worry; we'll get him back okay."

A/N Review, peoples, I need one more review until the big 100. lol.