Paternal Bonds Shattered

Disclaimer: Do I need to say it? I don't own iCarly

A/N:

Chapter 17 (Race for the Patriarch)

Jonah walked over to make sure Viola was okay, she was breathing just fine and looked to be quickly regaining her strength. Vanessa and Vixen made their way over and joined in hugging their mother and their sister. So far so good, everyone was safe. All that was left was Vincent, and he was still at work. Jonah looked over as the officers pulled out a few of the men that were inside, they still hadn't brought Ted out, however.

"Thank you for what you've done, Jonah," Viola said with a subtle smile. Jonah smiled at her and gave her a hug. Veronica looked over just in time for Della to start swabbing her head with a cotton swap and alcohol. She closed her eyes and winced as the alcohol and peroxide burned the scratch above her eye. The final touch was the Band-Aid. If Valerie were there, she'd probably tease Veronica about now looking like a tomboy. "My girls are all safe, but Valerie…" She shook her head and opened her eyes, looking at each of her daughters. Victoria was still seated in Henry's car, trying to adjust to what had been going on. "What's important is that we're all safe and we can wait for Valerie to come back, together."

"Yeah, we can do that Mom," Vanessa said quietly as she held her mother's hand. Jonah folded his arms over and looked at the doorway, frowning when he saw Ted prop himself against the door frame. Vanessa eyed the man and growled, narrowing her eyes. "You think you can scare us? Well you can't! We're a strong family, we don't scare easily!" Ted smirked and reached into his pocket.

"Is that so?" Ted responded sinisterly. Jonah glared at the man, debating if he ought to charge him or not. "Well you saved the Matriarch of the family, that's one strong pillar that remains in place. You saved the oldest sister, the second pillar's in place, but we have the third pillar…" He knew he was referring to Valerie. All the villains believed the strength of the family rested in the two oldest sisters and the parents, they were what kept the family together. "Now what happens when the final pillar is toppled? You have an hour to save Papa Williams before the bomb detonates."

"What!" Everyone pales and Jonah quickly clenched his fists. That's why Vincent told him not to worry about him, he must have known he had a bomb planted on him. It must have been hinted to Vanessa, but she didn't catch it. Jonah started to hurry towards the man, but he froze when he saw Ted pull a lighter from his pocket.

"Let's see what happens when we shake the very foundation." Ted opened the lid of the lighter and closed his eyes, the fear in him was rising to unforeseen heights, but he had no choice now. In his mind, he knew he had to die, or be sent to death row. He opened his eyes and clicked the lighter on, then tossed it into the gaseous fumes. Everyone screamed in panic and terror the house lit up and Ted fell back into the explosion. Jonah yelled out and covered the family with his body, making sure if the explosion reached them, it wouldn't harm them. He lifted his head up as Amy started calling the fire department. Henry hurried over to the group as Michael and Ryan stared in shock at the house.

"You need to hurry to where Mr. Williams's work is. I'll have cops on the way, but I have enough work on my hands at this sight alone!" Jonah nodded and motioned for his father and grandfather to follow him. Viola called out to him and he stopped, holding his hand on the side of the car.

"I believe in you Jonah," Viola said quietly as her daughters knelt and surrounded her, weeping silent tears. "With the police, you saved us all from danger, now go save my husband."

"Yes ma'am." Jonah swung into the driver's seat and started up the car. They had to get there and fast, before that bomb went off. It would be a good twenty minute drive, but they could make it.

In the meanwhile, Victor and Mr. Selano were watching from the window, the man spying on them. Mr. Selano had contacted the employees of the building over, and they were working on carefully subduing the spy. He narrowed his eyes and watched in silence as the man vanished from the window. Moments later, he had been taken down. "I think we can work on the bomb now, Vincent."

"Yeah, we should get started on that." Vincent grabbed his briefcase and placed it on the desk. He opened the briefcase and revealed the bomb, ticking away the minutes. They were in serious hell if they couldn't diffuse it now. "Okay, so any ideas? We could call the bomb squad now, but I don't know if we're not still under watch by someone else." Mr. Selano rubbed his chin and pushed Vincent aside. "Sir?"

"In the Vietnam war, I worked to diffuse bombs. I think I can get this."

"No offense, but it would have been nice to know that earlier."

"I'm sure." Mr. Selano narrowed his eyes and carefully began working at the bomb. There was a code to diffusing it, so he just needed to figure out the system. He found a screwdriver next to the bomb and started to remove the number pad. There should be wires beneath it, and those wires would be a great help for him.

Victor watched as his boss worked to diffuse the bomb. He leaned against the wall and frowned, he had been starting to notice some things were a bit off. He looked out the window and started walking about his office. It was a good twenty minutes before Mr. Selano had finally disarmed the volatile device.

"Well nothing to worry about now, Vincent." He closed the briefcase and slowly rose from the desk. Vincent nodded and walked over as Mr. Selano walked to the door, pulling out his cell phone. It had started ringing, so he needed to answer it. Vincent narrowed his eyes and leaned against his desk, folding his arms over.

He investigated his boss with his eyes and frowned, how could he not see it before? Perhaps with all the stress of the bomb, he just had overlooked the details. This man was not Mr. Selano! He frowned as the man closed his phone up and put it in his suit pocket, then carefully locked the door. He turned to face Vincent and smiled slightly.

"Well, it looks like we can go home now."

"You unlock that door sir, then we can leave. Before we do, though…would you mind telling me what your real name is and where Mr. Selano is?" The man chuckled and closed his eyes, so Vincent finally saw through his ruse. He had to hand it to the man, he was an intelligent man.

"Gladly…My real name is Kane, and your boss is currently indisposed right now. Sorry, he had to miss his meeting." Vincent narrowed his eyes as Kane reached into his suit and slowly pulled the gun from his jacket. "I'm sorry I didn't disarm the bomb sooner, but you see…we had to play a little game of terror with you and your family. Now, the game's ended, and it's time for you to die."

"Answer me this. Are you one of the people involved in the abduction of Sam Puckett, and…" Vincent took a slow, steady step forward and a growl escaped his throat. "And my daughter, Valerie…"

"Involved? No. Work for the guy who did take the two girls and beats the living shit out them? Yes." Vincent's rage shot up and he blindly charged for the man.

"I'll kill you before you step foot out of this office! I don't give a damn about what you do to me, but you will leave my family alone!" He grabbed Kane's wrist and started struggling with the gun, while delivering several blows to the man's body.

Outside the building, Jonah parked and started to stare up the large company. He frowned as his phone began to ring, it was Henry calling him. When he answered, he got earth shattering news. "Jonah, we just got a call in from the neighboring employees. They said that a suspicious sounding man claiming to be Vincent's boss was in the room with him and that they were told to subdue someone who had the remote to a bomb. Look into this, I think Vincent may be in greater danger than just that bomb."

"Okay, I got that." Someone else was in that office, so how could he fix this. He rubbed his chin and narrowed his eyes, then looked over at Ryan. "Grandpa, take that sniper and get to the top of that building. Aim carefully and get ready to fire on my call." Ryan nodded and grabbed the sniper from the car as Jonah quickly ran into the building. Michael ran in after him, he had to make sure to stay with his son. They ran into the elevator and rode it up to the fifth floor.

"Dad, we know what office he's in, right?"

"Yeah, follow me." Michael had visited his friend during work hours before, so he knew the layout of the building pretty well. The two ran towards Vincent's door and started trying to open it, but found the door was locked.

"Why do they always think to lock the damn door?"

"I don't know, but we need to get in there." They could hear sounds of a fight inside. Jonah smiled with pride, the final 'pillar' of the Williams family and he wasn't going down without a fight. How appropriate. Valerie would probably love to know that her father was so protective of his family.

Inside, Kane finally managed to gain the upper hand. He kicked Vincent against the desk and wiped the blood from his own mouth. He narrowed his eyes and stepped towards Vincent, wiping off his suit. "You smudged my suit, Mr. Williams."

"You and your suit can burn in hell for all I care." Vincent wiped his mouth as Kane chuckled and pointed the gun above him. He breathed in and his chest heaved out, he went all out. He wasn't down yet, he wouldn't go down yet. "Just answer me this, when will my girls see their sister again? My wife's got a poor heart, but she's the foundation of this family…does all she can…When will she see her baby again?"

"I'm going to make damn sure the answer to your question is never." Suddenly the door swung open and Kane quickly spun around. Jonah sighed frustratingly and carefully stepped inside.

"Why must you lock the doors?" Jonah asked with narrow eyes. "Do you know how much trouble that is for us? We had to go and find a damn janitor who had a key! Do you know how many keys are on a janitor's ring? Do you know? I don't think you have any idea how many keys there are!" Vincent chuckled nervously and Kane smirked. What was this guy doing here, barging into the office and going on about keys. Jonah pulled his knife out and stared at the man, he was done being obsessed about the lock, now he needed to get his, hopefully, future father-in-law out of danger. "I hope you know I'm not letting you do anything more to that man."

"I hope you know you're sticking your nose where it doesn't belong." Jonah shrugged as Kane lifted his arm from the side and pointed the pistol at Jonah. "Goodbye, dumbass. Just another wannabe hero…just like that Benson shit who keeps snooping around the former homes of our bosses."

"Freddie? What does he have to do with all this?"

"Trying to find his girlfriend, that's what…We're getting annoyed, but anytime we try to take him out, he just proves to be further trouble." They've tried shooting him, they've tried breaking into his home, but who knew trying to take out the son of two cops was a living hell. Even when those cops were divorced. Jonah smirked with pride and crossed his arms.

"Hey, you wouldn't believe what people these days would do for love. I guess he's trying to track down where Hector and his lackeys have gone to."

"Yeah we know, Boss man's getting irritated." Hector may have to keep a close eye on Freddie, since it appeared to him, that Freddie was a much greater threat than anyone else. "A threat that great hasn't been seen since…" Jonah raised his eyebrow and smirked dangerously.

"Since me? You're worried about Freddie, but I just helped to take out your men stationed around the rest of the Williams family. Freddie and I both are threats to you, don't overlook either one of us. Believe me, the second you do that…" Jonah had already clicked his radio on previously, so this was basically a show to him. Don't make too much of a mess, grandpa. "Overlook one of us and pay too much attention to one, the other comes out of the shadows…and you die." Kane raised his eyebrow and on a suspicion, looked out the window. There in the same window of the building the spy had been in, rested a sniper. In what seemed almost instantaneous with Jonah's words, a bullet flew from the sniper and crashed into the window.

"Shit." Jonah closed his eyes as blood spattered everywhere. He then hurried over to Vincent and helped the man to his feet, draping his arm around his shoulders.

"Are you okay, Mr. Williams?"

"Yeah, except I've been shot…" Jonah looked down to where Vincent held his side, it was bleeding out immensely. Vincent was starting to pale a little, he could go into shock at any given minute.

"Damn it, let's get you out of here!"

"How are my girls? Are they safe?"

"Everyone is safe, and waiting on you to get off work." Vincent smiled and nodded his head. He was thankful for that, it seemed Jonah really came through.

"So, Index?"

"Yeah, think you can handle an hour drive to work?"

"I might need a new job…"

Soon, they made it to ground level with the paramedics, who had met up with them in the elevator. Jonah was met with the rest of Valerie's family as they watched Vincent be pulled into the ambulance. "Is Daddy going to be okay?" Vixen asked as she clutched Vanessa's pants. Veronica and Victoria watched with wide eyes as the paramedics spoke with the police officers. They had to scope out the building and make sure nobody else was harmed. Of course, they knew they had a big mess to scrape off the walls, floor, and ceiling of Vincent's office.

"He's going to be just fine," Vanessa said surely. Of course he would be okay, he was a strong man. They all had to be strong now, every last one of them. With Valerie gone, and the events of the day, fear was on the rise. "Stay strong."

"I almost drowned," Victoria said with realization and fear. She hated water now. She used to love swimming in the city pool, but now just the sight of water scared her.

"They saved our house," Viola said as she moved over to Jonah. He smiled and nodded his head, they had some really good firefighters in Seattle. "A lot of things were lost, but the house is still in good shape." Of the people remaining in that house, Ted had been the most charred from the fire. It was almost a satisfying feeling to everybody. "We can probably move whatever's left to that house in Index."

"I'll gladly help you all to move, if you want," Jonah suggested. He knew things were going to become very busy very quickly for him. He now needed to help take care of that family and be sure to protect them, while doing the same for his own family.

"That would be great Jonah." At least he had good family values. He watched the ambulance drive away and slowly looked up into the sky. It was beginning to rain, but he couldn't feel it. He usually loved the rain. He was happy to have had a hand in saving the family, but he didn't feel they were all completely rescued. In truth, there was really one left.

"Stay strong Valerie. I'm going to get you out of there somehow, no matter how long it takes. If it costs me my life, I will get you out of there."

Well I'm going to guess Jonah's on pretty good terms with Valerie's family right about now. So everyone's safe, they will be moving to Index, WA. It's a real town, look it up, it's a very small town in the mountains, but it's quaint and enough. Enjoy the next chapter which either deals with Freddie or deals with Sam...Oh wait I think it's the report to Nevel..