Kendall climbed gratefully into her bed. Her mother's wedding day had gone off without a hitch and her boys had both had a great night. Ian was so exhausted he had fallen asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. Spike had gone to bed still bouncing along to the music in his head. Kendall hadn't realised he was such a good dancer. Griffin had teased that she had a young Fred Astaire in the making. Maybe it was because of his deafness that she never considered him developing an interest in music and rhythm. Therefore she was quite surprised when, before she tucked him in and kissed him goodnight, he asked eagerly if he could go to dance classes, with Emma and Miranda. Kendall couldn't think of a reason to say no.

That night Kendall closed her eyes and was dreaming lightly of her Spike tap dancing across the stage, his cute smile wide and bright. The audience was applauding and shouting enthusiastically… but in the dream the cheering morphed into a mechanical roar…

Kendall opened her eyes in alarm when she felt herself shook awake.

"Something's going on out there." said Griffin urgently.

Kendall realised she could hear the loud thrum of an engine and there was shouting outside.

Before they could move there was a loud crash which sounded like a door splintering open. They scrambled from the bed as one. Kendall's desperation added to when she heard Ian scream for her.

She dashed out into the corridor but skidded to a halt when she saw a grim stranger with a rifle standing in the doorway of her boy's room.

"Get away from my babies." she screamed charging at the man and pushing him aside. They was a second man actually in her boy's room. He had Ian under one arm and was pulling a startled Spike from his bed. Kendall reacted without a thought. She grabbed a lamp from the side and struck the man on the head. The lamp smashed and the man dropped to his knees.

Her boys released, Kendall scrambled to pull them into her arms.

Her plan went no further than getting to her boys and the men took no time to recover from her assault. As she hugged her boys desperately she felt the cold weight of a gun barrel pressed to the back of her head. Griffin was struggling in the hall with other two other men and they were winning.

There was no one to help her.

And then a voice called out for him to stop.

There was a frantic conversation going on behind her in a language she couldn't follow. The gun held unwaveringly at the back of her head belonged to the man she had struck and the second man, who was clearly in charge, was trying to persuade him not to pull the trigger. Kendall prayed and prayed that this wasn't the end… prayed that her boys wouldn't see her die.

Slowly the gun barrel was pulled away from her skull. She closed her eyes in relief.

Then there was a sharp pain on the back of her head and everything went dark.

…

Kendall opened her eyes to a world that was suddenly too bright and too loud.

"Hey, it's okay. Take your time." whispered Griffin in her ear.

Her head was throbbing but she sat up just the same, searching for her boys. Spike and Ian were huddled by her side, watching her with nervous eyes.

She hugged them fiercely, even though the action made the world spin. She felt nothing but gratitude when she felt Griffin's hand on her back helping to steady her.

It took her a moment to get her bearings. They were now in the dinning lodge, where the wedding reception had been held moments before, and they weren't alone.

Jackson and Erica were sitting nearby, under gun point. Reggie, Camilla and Ayesha were there too. Reggie was nursing a black eye and bleeding lip and there were three men pointing a gun at him. He had clearly put up a fight.

Cautiously Kendall reached back to touch the back of her own sore head, she came away with blood on her fingers.

"What happened?"

"You were pistol whipped." said Griffin. "You are lucky you be alive. How is you head? Are you experiencing any dizziness, nausea, blurred vision?"

Kendall smiled; his doctor's concern was coming to the fore.

"Yes to all but the blurred vision."

"You probably have concussion. But if it gets worse…"

Kendall's eyes took in the guns and their captors.

"How can it get any worse?" she whispered.

There was suddenly excitement from outside and a new troop of men entered with more prisoners. One man had a screaming Gabby under one arm, AJ was there valiantly trying to pull her away from him but was only being dragged along in the process. Opal followed; a traumatised Miranda clinging to her side. Finally a man entered dragging Francois, the nanny, along by her arm and holding the page of a magazine aloft.

There was the creak of a chair and for the first time Kendall noticed a young man in a business suit flanked by two muscular goon.

The man rose from his chair and stepped forward.

The mercenary holding Francois and the magazine page, thrust them towards him.

"Found her." he said in a heavy accent.

The young man snatched the page from the man and threw it aside and shook his head with a slow despair.

"Jesus…" cursed the business suited man. "Why do I hire these idiots? Bianca… has… an… injured… leg... comprende." he explained in exaggerated slowness.

Kendall's ear's pricked up when she heard her sister's name mentioned. The magazine page had landed on the floor near her feet and she could see it was a picture of Bianca. The full page photograph from the Vogue article when the Erica film was first released. Francois did have dark hair and dark eyes but there was not much else similar between her and Bianca. The mercenary pirates obviously didn't know who they were looking for.

"Not her?" the raggedly dressed solder asked.

"No!" said the young man. He grabbed Francois from the man's grasp and shoved her towards the wall of the other hostages. "Keep looking…" he said, dismissing them with a patronising wave. He turned to one of his goons. "Go with them and make sure they do this properly!"

The business suited man then turned on his heel and smiled arrogantly at the hostages.

"… Unless anyone here would like to tell me where Bianca Montgomery is hiding. I mean there are only so many places a cripple can hide…"

There was silence.

"If you won't cooperate," the man said with relish, "People will start getting hurt… Littlest first, maybe..."

…