"Unit is entering the building."
The group shuffled into the building, shields and guns in their hands, vests wrapped around their stomachs. They didn't know what they were looking for, just that it might have been loaded with explosives and it should be cleared.
Three sets of stairs to go.
Two.
One.
"NYPD! Open the door!"
Silence.
"NYPD!"
And then the door went down.
The crew scanned the unseeming living area. It seemed as if everything was put away as if for a vacation.
"Room is clear!"
"Clear!"
"Room is clear!"
They weren't sure what to look for. One of the men started looking through all of the drawers, hoping to find a reason for having come here. He had to drop everything for this mission which they were given no information about...
Drawer with kitchen utensils...
Drawer with silverware...
Drawer with playing cards...
The next drawer he found was completely empty...
Except for a confirmation email for a flight to Chicago ORD...
"Guys! I found something!"
-
"Lizzie! Stop giving up so easily!"
"This must be what it feels like to die. Goodbye world. Goodbye family. Goodbye Jackie!"
Jackie rolled her eyes, standing above Lizzie with one eyebrow raised. "You said you wanted to learn how to fight... you can't do that if you let me win!" Jackie offered a hand to Lizzie and helped her up.
"I know. I just have always let other people dominate me. It's one of my worst traits."
"You're an actress. Didn't you always have to compete for parts?"
"No. I wasn't afraid to sing my heart out for an audition."
"This is basically the same thing. You can't be afraid to fight. If you put up a fight, you have a better chance of winning."
"No guarantee."
"You're right. There is no guarantee. But you have to at least try. If I point a gun at you, what do you do?"
"Act scared until you have convinced them that you are not capable to fighting back. Then fight back."
"And if they knock you to the gro-"
"-swing your legs to knock them over and gain an advantage. Jackie, I am inconfident, not stupid."
"I just don't understand how you can claim to be inconfident." Jackie crossed her arms. "You are an actress, you memorize thousands of lines. Don't you ever forget them on the spot?"
Lizzie frowned. It had happened one time... one time had ruined her whole character...
"Yo Lizzie. I am sure you have slipped up while performing. It is a part of becoming a better performer. You can screw up while we are praticing. It is fine. But one slip up, out there, and you're dead. You say you're inconfident, and yet you shot a guy square. You saved me and yourself."
"Yeah but that was because you shot everyone else first! What if you were not there? Then what would have happened? You would have died, and I would be with Uncle Danny and my mom, wherever they are!"
"Lizzie..." Jackie sighed, walking over to her. "You can't let your emotions ruin you. You have to use them for good. Fight me... think of the guy who took your uncle... how do you feel about him?"
"Like I want to step on his face and squish his eyebrows and crush his skull." Lizzie growled.
"Now, look at me. I am that guy."
Lizzie ran up towards Jackie and swung at her. Jackie responded, and she could see that Lizzie's natural reflex was up at work. Pretty soon though, she had toppled Lizzie to the ground again.
"Better." Jackie agreed.
-
"They found something sir. The suspects had airline tickets to Chicago five days ago."
"That was right around the time that Danny was taken. Now we know they are in the same city. Have you heard from Detective Curatola?"
Baker didn't respond, giving Frank a confirmation on his decision.
"I'm going to Chicago. Baker get my chopper ready."
"Sir... that is a major risk." Baker started. "You need to make sure this city stays in one piece, and you know that there is a chance that whoever has your children wants you."
"Well what am I supposed to do? It has been five days since I heard anything about my son! His children are asking me where their aunt and father are, and we have to lie to their faces and tell them that they are save! What about Erin's only living daughter? Staying at my house with my father, wondering why her mother hasn't called and if she is still safe! What if my daughter isn't safe either? I already lost one child, I am not losing another two!"
Baker sighed. "Sir... I'll go. And I will report to you. Please don't leave the city. The city needs you!"
"My children need me!"
"The eight million people of this city need you to keep them safe, and 35,000 NYPD police officers need a leader."
"Baker... I am the boss here."
"All due respect sir, I am your secretary. And I have enjoyed every moment that I have served under you sir, but I will walk if you don't let me go instead of you."
Frank sighed, walking over to the window to look at his city. He loved his city more than anything, except his family. The NYPD was also his family though. Baker was one of the best, no, the best secretary he had ever had... and he didn't want to lose her. He didn't, however, understand why Baker was so firm about this. "What does it mean to you, Baker?"
Abigail sighed. "I have seen a lot of things sitting beneath you. I have seen this city almost crumble when you were weakened, I have seen it mourn the loss of its own cops... but I have especially seen it change for the better while you were here. I also know how much it hurt you when you lost your son. And seeing you hurt hurt me as well as every other person in the force. I need to do what I can to help sir, and if that means leaving my desk, then I will surely do it."
Frank took a deep breath, stuck his hands in his pockets, and turned around to face her. He didn't like how everyone else was trying to prevent him from getting his kids back. "Fine. But you are talking the copper and four other detectives."
Baker sighed. "Fine."
Frank motioned to the door. "Well then, go ahead and get ready."
Baker walked out to her desk. She turned off her computer, put her pencils and papers into the drawer, and stepped back. Opening the other drawer, she pulled out the pink sticky note with the phone number on it.
She pulled out her own cell phone, sending a text message to that number.
I am joining full time. Be there in 2.
-
"You know my father's secretary?" Joe asked, sitting next to Jackie and handing her a sandwich and beer.
"The blonde? Heard of her, never met her." Jackie started unwrapping the sandwich, eyeballing Lizzie taking a snooze on the couch.
"I contacted her a few days ago to make sure my father stayed away. Something must have happened for her to suddenly decide to drop everything and come here."
Jackie nodded. "She will probably tell us the whole story when she gets here." The two of them sat in silence, picking at the food they were only eating to keep themselves going.
"How is my niece doing?" Joe asked, watching his niece's stomach rise and fall.
"I don't know. How do you keep going after losing both your parents and watching her real family apart?"
Joe sighed. "I can imagine Linda is trying to stay calm for the kids, Nicky is trying to get my father to tell her what's going on and he won't crack. I don't even want to think about Jamie. He's probably fearing being the only of the four of us left."
"But he's not. He has you, and Danny, and Erin."
"You don't have to lie to my face Jack. I know you're losing hope. I am too. But we need to stay strong- for some people pretending to sleep!"
"Damn it." Lizzie mumbled, turning around to face them. "I thought you needed to take deep breathes to make it believable."
"I am an FBI agent. You nodded off for five minutes and woke up and readjusted yourself. You've been awake since."
"Do you have nothing else better to do than stare at me sleep?"
"It is a big part of being an agent to observe all of your surroundings at once without being caught."
"Uh huh." Lizzie agreed. She would not say what she was really thinking, that she knew she was not a cop and that he did not need to lie to her. But she would never say that one to his face.
"Being inconfident will never help you succeed." He said and she growled at him being able to read her thoughts. It was too crazy for her liking.
"I-"
"Lizzie, you should realize that I know what you're thinking. That you are useless in this situation- but that's not true. You are right here besi-"
Joe's phone rang just then, signaling Baker's arrival. Him and Jackie rose, rising to meet her at a coffee shop down the street, leaving Lizzie to pick at her cuticles...
Again.
-
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO MY SISTER?" Danny screamed. He was more scared than ever now- he had heard her screams... and they were the most terrifying screams he had ever heard.
"Not much. She was just in the moment... she was on fire!" Boss man smiled at him. She had gone dead silent, again.
"Let me see her!" Danny demanded.
"Why should I?" He asked, studying his nails as if he didn't give a shit. And he really didn't.
"Because I will give you what you want."
"And what is it that I want? How would you, the highest rated detective in the NYPD, son of the Commisioner, know what I want?"
"You want to talk to the Commissioner. You want power. You have us. That's your advantage. But he won't give you anything if you kill another one of his children." He gritted that last part, directly accusing him and his people of killing Joe.
He had put the pieces together. They had been planning this stunt for a long time now, they had a large following... they had been the ones to try to lure Joe in to use him as a bait, but had shot him when things had gone wrong.
"You think I killed your brother? The FBI one?"
Danny scoffed. "Yeah you did! In cold blood too! He never worked for the FBI. You've got your info wrong."
"I am sorry to burst your bubble, but he's alive..."
"That's a sick thing to say man... especially when you were the one to kill him."
Boss man simply growled, stepping back to click a few buttons on his phone. "He has been trying to hunt my group down for years. He is head of the anti me group."
"How do you know this?"
"Cause my wife was working for him."
"Woah... you have a wife? Does she know that you like to rape assistant district attornies in your freetime?"
"As a matter of fact, she does."
"You're sick man."
"Whatever you say. Insulting me won't get you any closer to your sister though..."
Danny took a deep breath. "Please man. She's my baby sister. Give me five minutes."
Boss man nodded. "Fine."
-
"Detective and Secretary to the Commissioner Abigail Baker. It is a pleasure to meet you. I have heard such grest things about you... my condolences to... you?" Baker reached her hand out to the Reagan agent.
"The pleasure is mine. Any friend of my father is a friend of mine."
"Your father is a great man. It is my dedication to him that has brought me here. To get his children back." She glared at Joe. "All of them."
-
Danny growled at the man who untied him from the ceiling, dropping him abruptly. His feet were still tied, so there was not much he could do to help himself stand.
The man simply grabbed him and pulled him upwards and pushed him towards one of the doors. The door opened, revealing a smiling Boss man wearing nothing but a robe. Danny felt the pit in his stomach grow as the urge to launch himself at the bastard grew as well.
"You've got five minutes. Don't try anything smart," He said, clicking the gun in his hand and letting the other man give Danny a shove into the room, leaving him to lose his balance and collapse on the ground.
"What was the purpose of that one, boss?" Ralph asked.
"I am feeling generous. Besides, we won't need him anymore once we get the other one." He chuckled, admiring the gun in his hand.
"Erin?" He questioned, crawling over to the bed, the only object in the gray room. He used the bed to help himself stand, and it was then his heart shattered into a million pieces.
There laid his sister, roped down to a bed, completely naked. There were what seemed like whip marks across her stomach, which in total looked an awful color. There were bruises lining her entire body, and the smell of burning skin filled the air.
His hands were still tied behind his back, he wasn't sure what to do... he used a method he once learned to get his hands out of the rope, involving dislocating his wrist and putting it back in, giving him free use of his hands. He stroked the sweated hair out of his sister's face, feeling her jump at the contact. She opened her eyes, then closed them and he saw her limp her muscles.
"It's me, Er." He whispered. She let out an awful sob. "I am so sorry I couldn't protect you."
"D...d... Dan-" she tried, but he shushed her.
"Don't try to talk. You'll suffocate yourself. Did he..."
"B...b...burned...alive..."
He felt his heart break, right there. This was his baby sister. His only sister. Closest to her in age. The first one to come out after him. The first one he got to pick on and argue with."
"T...t...tell...N..Nicky...I...l..oo-"
"Erin, listen to me, we are going to get out of here. I just don't know how yet. We need to distract them...and.."
"Dying..." she murmured, tugging at the restraints on her hands.
"No... Erin!" He yelled when he noticed her eyes starting to close. "ERIN!" He screamed, grabbing her arm and squeezing it. "Listen to my voice... stay with me now!"
Silence.
The door opened and Ralph and Boss man both walked in.
"What did you do to her?" Boss man asked, giving Danny the dirtiest look a man could give. Cause he was the bad guy here.
"I was not the one who burned her alive!" Danny argued as Ralph grabbed his hands and yanked them behind his back even tighter than before.
"We need to fix her!" Boss man continued, walking over to her. "I cannot give them a dead one!" He worried, rubbing his hands through his little hair.
"Maybe you shouldn't have killed her before you suggested that." Danny spat, Ralph pulling him back.
Boss man just smiled. "I could kill you right now. Because as much as I love having you around, I now have a Reagan of much more value..."
"Who?" Danny asked.
"Your niece."