Missing

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N: This is one of those chapters where the supporting character's perspective is shown, because there's still things that affect them going on as well.

A/N: GWEN-Okay, so you've got to insult me in a way I can't explain myself through private message or something... Thanks. I am taking Spanish this semester, so I was trying to utilize my writing as a tool to help study and learn the language. I do know that google translate-as well as every other translator on the fucking internet is a piece of shit, but it's difficult when I cannot find a word or words in the vocabulary in the back of the textbook. So forgive me for trying to use my writing as a tool. *sigh* Anyway, I agree with my friend Mai, of course my writing is no way perfect one of the things I still struggle with-obvious here-is dialogue between children. Probably, also because I don't use children in my stories very much, it isn't something that I practice. I am also not around children, so I haven't observed their interactions or speech patterns enough. That is something that iI would need to practice up on, either that or dumb down every other line they say.

Enjoy the chapter. Right now it's the last chapter I have written, I've been busy and so forth-so I've been trying to hold off on posting it, but here you guys go.

Chapter 39 (A Best Friend's Closure)

"I can't believe my own mother did that…" Jade's fingers tangled with Beck's and her moist gaze fell onto her son as he played his video game on the TV. Her head rested on Beck's shoulder and her heart pounded anxiously. "I'd do the same for Kyle and Amanda, but I didn't think my mom would ever take a bullet for me."

She was taking time off as Tori requested, but that didn't stop her from taking a look at the investigation the Mexicans had reopened. "You also would never have let Holly take you, so don't beat yourself up over that woman having ever considered taking you too." Her heart skipped for a moment, but there was still some doubt in her mind.

"Andre would never have gone willingly." Her eyes darted to her husband and she saw a wave of pain in his eyes. Even she could still smell the blood, and subconsciously she was certain there were drops of blood still on her skin. "I'm sorry to bring him up…" When Beck's hand moved from hers, she dropped her head with a sigh.

"It's fine." He cupped his hand over his mouth. The skin around his eyes tensed and his eyebrows fell together in the middle. "We could have saved him. I know he didn't want to be saved, but damn." Beck's hand fell to his knee and his eyelids closed tight. "Bastard had the gun on safety the whole time. If I knew that…"

"We can run it over as often as we want, it won't change anything." She moved her hand onto his and tried to warm him with a smile. "You know he wanted Cat and Trina out more than anything, so we have to think about that. We gave him what he wanted, and because of him, those two are going to have a chance to live again."

"They were my best friends. Even before I knew you, they were my brothers."

"I know, babe." She pecked his cheek and turned her head to a framed photo on the end table. It was recently placed there, and would remain until this trial was finished. It was a simple picture of a pre-teen Beck standing arm and arm with both Andre and Robbie. "There is something that I do wish."

"What's that?"

"I wish I could offer Robbie's dad some sort of consolation." As an investigator, she could do nothing to help the man. It wasn't her job. The job of an enforcer of the law was only to serve and protect, to catch the criminal and put away the bad guy, they were not the one to cater to the victim's emotional or mental health and well-being. "Thomas is the only one left, save for his own dad, but that man's in the final stages of cancer."

It broke her heart having to return to the Shapiro home after discovering Robbie's and Rebecca's bodies. The man was truly broken, almost as broken as David had been the day he was forced to put his daughter's kidnapping case on the shelf and retire.

Jade would never forget the look in the man's eyes. It was harrowing and mournful, reminiscent of a man who lost everything.

"Just because you're an investigator doesn't mean you can't be of comfort outside your job." Beck rolled his head to the side and peered at her with a smile. "We might be able to offer something. Remember that boy in Amanda's class? The one she brought over to play with?"

"Yes." Jade thought back to the child and started to laugh. Amanda declared him to be her first boyfriend, and while Jade thought it was adorable that the two wanted to play house, it made Beck choke on his coffee. "What about him?"

"You didn't think his last name was strange?"

The boy's last name had been Shapiro, and he looked a great deal like Robbie. "I thought nothing of it." Her nose crinkled and she pulled her head up from Beck's shoulder. "I mean I thought about it, but it's impossible."

"What's impossible?"

"That Robbie could even be the father of a five year old boy. Much less, if he did, that a woman would give her child the same last name."

"I did ask the kid, he said his mother's last name was Quincy. He's never known his dad, and his mother has always lived in Los Angeles. How many people named Shapiro are there in this city? You've ran the search, you tell me."

"Aside from Robbie's family? None."

"And why is it so inconceivable?" He snapped his fingers and began to curl them out as he counted out his points. "We know Andre had enough control to take everybody out-even if it was for a short period of time. We know Trina had a 'relationship' for at least two years, and to top it off, she had sex outside of captivity with this same man. Why is it hard to believe that maybe Robbie had opportunity as well?"

"Because he was a scared little…you know." She stopped herself from cursing, considering how close their son was. "Andre would have had to do something, wouldn't he?"

Beck started to smirk, then folded his arms and huffed confidently. "Call Cat. Ask her about my thoughts." Wanting to prove the impossibility in her mind, she smirked back at him and accepted his challenge.

An hour later she was walking to a house with her family, sulking under her husband's proud and cocky grin. Amanda was dancing in front of them, happy to be visiting her classmate, while Kyle was complaining about having to be there.

"We don't have time to hire a babysitter," Jade muttered. She crossed her arms and studied the door. It was difficult for her to feel any particular way about what was coming, because of the many different reasons to be anxious and nervous.

Cat confirmed that Robbie had been leaving the mansion, with Andre, approximately six years ago. They were often short trips, and Gary was the one sanctioning it. These trips lasted for several months until Holly finally put a stop to them, and of course she threatened someone else's life in doing so.

"I'm telling you Beck, this is a coincidence."

"And what if it's not, Sweetie?"

"If it's not, I'll do the cooking for the next month."

"No you won't." His smirk deepened and she glared over her shoulder. Her eyebrow rose as he quickly kissed her left cheek and whispered. "You can't resist my cooking." She huffed, then smiled back at him. Beck was right, she didn't like cooking. The days he didn't cook, she ordered out.

When the door opened, a young boy stepped out and immediately hugged Amanda. Jade felt the air flee her lungs and moved her hand up to her chest when she looked to the child.

He was tall for his age, had dark curly hair and thick brown eyebrows. His mouth seemed to be framed by freckles, and his brown eyes were magnified behind his thick glasses.

"Still a coincidence," she told herself while ignoring the pounding of her heart. She didn't want to think that they could have made a mistake, that Robbie could have had someone out there who would have still been waiting for him. "Has to be."

A tall woman stepped out behind the child. She had short cut brown hair and bright blue eyes. Her hair was feathery and she had no freckles on her, unlike the small amount of freckles that Robbie had. Her eyebrows were thin and her lips small.

It was very likely that her son got his looks from his father, another distinction that made Jade tremble.

"Hi." The woman smiled at them and extended her hand. "You must be Amanda's parents. Mark talks a lot about Amanda, he hasn't always been one to socialize with the other kids." The woman looked over her shoulder and motioned them inside. "Come in, we're letting all the hot air inside. I'm Jenny, by the way."

"I'm Jade, and this is my husband Beck." She then placed her hand on Kyle's shoulder, smiling as he focused on his handheld game device. "This is my son Kyle, and you know Amanda."

"Kyle." Beck's voice grew firm, drawing the boy's attention from the console. "Put the game down, son. We are guests at someone's house, we do not want to be rude."

Kyle sighed, then switched off the game. Her son knew well that if he didn't, Beck was going to take the console from him on the spot after the first time. "Sorry," Kyle muttered.

The family entered the home and Jade started to look around. It was a cheap looking, small house with tiny rooms. The couch was a two-seater, and the television was small as well. There was a pile of clothes on the couch, some of them were already folded. Jade wanted to ask about the woman's income level, but she didn't want to be rude.

"Forgive the clutter," Jenny laughed, "I was doing laundry when you called." Jenny scratched at the back of her neck and raised an eyebrow at the couple. "I'm a little surprised at the visit, to be honest. Mark didn't say anything about his friend wanting to come over."

"We do apologize for the sudden visit." Jade walked with the woman to the clothes and offered to help finish folding. Amanda and Mark hurried off to his bedroom, dragging Kyle along with them. "We um, we received some information that we're following up on…"

Jenny grabbed a shirt from the pile and began folding it. "Mark said you two were police officers, but you're not in uniform?"

"No, I'm off duty right now and my husband works security at the bank." She smiled at the woman and set one of the shirts down in the folded pile. "What do you do for a living?"

Jenny laughed nervously and looked around her living room. "Oh some odd jobs here and there, as you can see. Mainly I'm a waitress Ihop, but I do some babysitting on the side as well. Single mom, so I do what I can to get by."

"You receive no help from Mark's father?"

"None." She watched as the woman started to tear up. Jenny's lips pressed against each other and she wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt. "Forgive me if talking about him gets me emotional, I haven't seen that man since I was pregnant with Mark."

"Have you tried to find him?"

"Yes, of course. I was in love with that man, foolish enough to think we had something-even let my son have his last name. I was waiting for him…" Jenny cleared her throat and sat on the couch with a sigh. "Why are you asking about him all of a sudden? I guess you didn't come to talk about our kids?"

"I…I'm afraid not." Her shoulders fell and she looked up to Beck with a deep frown. This was what she was afraid of, and now it seemed he was right. Beck's face had become ashen and his once confident expression was now that of mourning. "Normally, when I'm on the job, this is the part right here that I hate doing the most."

"Here." Beck removed a photo from his wallet and handed it to Jenny. "Is this him?" Beck's jaw locked in place and Jade watched with a quivering stare as Jenny clutched the photo with her right fingers and threw her left hand over her mouth to muffle the sobs. "I'm sorry. My wife was working a case that he was involved in. Unwillingly…It might explain his disappearance from your life…"

Jenny dropped the photo and fell back against the couch cushions. Jade sat beside her and tried to comfort her by taking the woman's hand into her own. "We met at the place I was working…six or seven years ago. I-I was his waitress, always at the table he was at."

Jade started to nod and kept her mouth closed. She wanted to let the woman speak, to tell her story. Beck remained standing on the other side of the couch, his arms were crossed his face had grown long.

Jenny leaned forward and held her gaze on the photo. "He was often there with this friend of his." Jade glanced up to Beck with a knowing look. He closed his eyes and dropped his shoulders. "I would overhear his friend trying to talk him into asking me on a date, and one day he did. We met up a lot, he didn't say much about himself or what he was doing-or even why his visits seemed so strange…but I didn't care."

"You loved him?"

"I fell for him, yes. God knows I wanted to be with that man. We slept together many times, talked about the possibility of a future together, then one day…he stopped showing up." Jade gave the woman's hand a squeeze and glanced over as Beck placed a caring hand on Jenny's shoulder. "The last time we were together, he said he wasn't going to be able to see me anymore." Jenny pulled her hand away from Jade and brought her hands to her face.

"I thought he was joking."

"Is there anyone that you have to help you grieve?"

"No. Mark has no grandparents on my side, no relatives."

"Robbie was a very close friend of ours," Beck confessed. Jenny pulled her hands from her face and looked up at him with a pout lip. "One of my best friends, and I should have been there for him. I couldn't save him, I couldn't save Andre, but if there's anything that I can do…" Beck closed his hands and looked in the direction the children had gone. "Robbie may not be here any longer, but his father is alive. Perhaps, Mark could know his grandfather?"

"Yes." Jenny's eyes widened and she started to stand up. Jade stood with her, placing a hand to her back to help keep the shaking woman stable. "I…Would the man even want me or Mark around, though?"

"Mr. Shapiro has lost everything. His children, his wife…I think Robbie would want the three of you to be a family. If he knew Mark was alive, I think he would have done everything in his power to make sure you were taken care of. I don't see his father turning you away at this point, either."

If ever there was a point where Jade admired or loved her husband more than she did at this moment, she didn't know when. As the tears fell down her cheeks, she visualized Andre and Robbie both watching on.

This was Beck's way of giving his best friends the release, the freedom and peace that they sought, and she was proud of him. This was their closure, and their family's closure. Or at least today, it was Robbie's.

"Will you take me to this man?" Jenny asked with a tone of endearment. "I want Mark to meet his grandfather. What happened with Robbie, do you know?"

Beck heaved forth a heavy sigh and shook his head. "I think it's better that you remember him as you did when you knew him." He smiled warmly and gave Jenny a simple nod. "We'll take you to meet Tom. You don't have to keep waiting for Robbie to appear, just by raising his son and living your life, you're already doing everything I think he would have wanted you to do…"

Alright, at this point I'm going to have to ask all of you to be patient. Things are getting busy in this semester, I've got multiple written projects I'm working on-plus one story that I'm planning to be perhaps one of my biggest novels yet. So this is the last written chapter I have, I've got to get ahead, so bear with me.