'Nigel! You didn't answer my question! What the hell happened?'

'I've had it up to here with you attitude, Bug!' Nigel cried in fury and exasperation as he strode away and towards the computer room. 'Do you realize what you've done?!'

'What I've done? What I've done? What I've done is allow this relationship to go on t-'

'No, Bug, no! What you've done just now! Know who I was on the phone with? Alexis! And our arguing may have caused her serious physical harm! Know why? Because the guy that took her was in the room, and he heard us yelling and he hit her, Bug. Tyler hit her. I heard him. He hit her because he heard us talking – screaming – whatever. And then he hung up the phone. I was so close to being able to track her to the inch, Bug, and now I don't know. I just don't know.'

Bug stood in a shell shocked silence for a moment, until he croaked out, 'But… but you can find her, can't you? You can track her phone signals? You've done it before, haven't you?'

Nigel nodded grimly, and replied, 'Yeah; but we need to be positively sure, Bug – we can't have any margin of error. If Tyler hears the police coming he's sure to do something to her. So if we can find her while he's looking for a customer, then it'd be a miracle.'

'Customer? I'm afraid to ask what you…' A look of mixed rage, fear, and repulsion crossed Bug's features as he understood, and he asked weakly, 'What can I do?'

'Call Woody and Matt, tell them we've got a general location. The same area we found Jessica in. Tell them to go there and I'll get them more specific directions when I can.' As he spoke, he hacked back in to the Telus service.

Bug nodded demurely, and strode out the room, seeming to find it easier to concentrate when he was not in Nigel's presence.

'Come on, come on…' Nigel muttered as he pounded mercilessly on the keyboard, searching for her signal. It then began to zoom in on her exact location. 'Come on.'

Finally, after almost a quarter of an hour which seemed to stretch over many days, a small white dot appeared, and started blinking over an old, rundown apartment not to far from that diner where he and Alexis had had that first cup of coffee.

He pulled out his phone and dialled Woody's number.

It only rang once.

'Hey, Nige, what's up?'

'I found her, Woody! Where are you? I can send you directions.'

'We're almost there. Send them to the car. ID 040690. When we find her we'll call you. Chances are we'll be bringing her to the hospital, if what Bug said is right – and if you're right about his intentions.' With that, Woody stopped talking to Nigel, to relay the message to Detective Seely, who was, presumably, driving.

Nigel blanched white, and had to force himself back into consciousness to forward the location and directions to the police cruiser. When that was done, he put the phone next to his ear again, and croaked, 'How long?'

'We'll get there as soon as we can, Nigel. Should take us… about six minutes at worst. Stand by. We'll get her. Don't worry. Was Jessica there, do you know?'

'No. No, I didn't hear her voice. I think she was in another room, though. It sounded like he had just finished talking to her. I don't know.'

'Thanks, Nige. I'll call when we find anything.' And with that, Woody hung up.

Nigel flipped his phone shut, sat back in his chair, and rubbed his eyes.

'They're going to find her,' he told himself firmly. 'They're going to find her and she's going to be alright.'

The next twenty minutes were sheer torture. Nigel debated jumping on his bike and going somewhere, anywhere, just to feel useful. He thought of riding downtown to see if he could ride in the ambulance with Alexis when they found her, or down to the hospital where they might take her, but the only thing he could think of was, what if they call while I'm riding and I don't hear the phone ring? He knew that he would want to answer right away, especially if she was awake to talk to him. He knew that she would want to talk to him; no matter how much of an idiot he was, yelling into the phone like that. She wouldn't blame him, no matter how much he blamed himself.

In the end, he contended with pacing the break room, checking the clock every two seconds, wondering what was taking so long.

'Will you stop it?' Bug snapped. He was sitting at the table, nursing a large cup of very strong tea, his eyes flitting back and forth between the surface of his drink and the clock.

Nigel opened his mouth to reply, but stopped as his cell phone – which he had dropped on the table to stop himself from flipping it open every two seconds – rang.

Both he and Bug stared at it until the caller ID lit up. Its shrill cry was now coupled with a red and green light, and the word WOODROW, blinking up at them.

They both dove at it in the same instant. Somehow, Nigel got there first.

'Woodrow?' he gasped, flipping the phone open and pressing it to his ear. Bug stood on his toes beside him and attempted to listen in on the conversation.

Nigel almost fainted when he heard a delicate, feminine voice reply on the other end, 'No. But if you want to talk to him I'll grab him for you.'

'Alexis?'

'Yes?'

'Alexis?'

'Hello.'

'Alexis! Are you – what's going on? Are you okay? Where are you? Can I – I'm coming. Where are you?'

'Which question would you like me to answer first?'

Nigel laughed jovially into the phone. 'Where are you? – I'm coming to see you.'

'I'm right here.'

The voice, however, was not coming from the earpiece. He heard the snap of a cell phone being shut, and he whirled around on the spot. His lips stretched over too many teeth as he saw Alexis Edwards standing meekly in the door.

'Tada.'

Nigel bounded across the room, and in what seemed both to be a moment and an age, he had her held tightly in his grasp. 'Never do that to me again,' he murmured into her hair. 'Never. Never. Never.'

She chuckled, and muttered, 'I'm sorry.' She sniffed, and through audible tears, said quietly, 'Don't let go. Please don't let go.'

With her gentle words, he only clutched her tighter, and told her, 'Never, luv. Never again.'