All of his senses were on high alert. The blood pumping through his heart, the vein throbbing in his neck, the feel of cold, merciless steel in his hands. That tiny screeching noise the blades made when they crossed each other. Bird droppings on the ground. Squirrel tracks. The scent of water, probably a pond somewhere nearby, he wasn't sure. Bass hadn't ever had the chance to explore the area around their house, he'd been too busy getting familiar with his family first.
His family. Charlie, his ex-best friend/ex-bother-turned-brother-again's niece, the only person on the planet that had been able to destroy the President inside of him, the woman that had finally given him what he'd always dreamed of, his wife. And Emily, the most perfect little girl in the world, his sole reason for existing, his baby girl.
His family, now in danger.
And just like that it was like the President was back. There were no laws, no rules, no morals, when it came to messing with his family. Many people over the years had tried to use the people he cared about against him. He'd stopped them by simply killing them back then, so why not now?
Because it was different now.
Bass stopped in a small clearing, instantly recognizing the spot. It was the same little clearing Charlie had found him in all those weeks ago. That log was where he'd held his daughter for the very first time.
That was why it was different.
Shaking the murderous rage from his head, Bass backtracked a little bit, having not really paid attention on his way there. As he looked down at the dry ground he realized that his plan was never going to work. He wasn't a tracker! Sure, he could find a squirrel for dinner and follow a drunk in the rain, but tracking down a secretive kidnapper? No, he needed an expert.
As if in answer, Charlie's wails could be heard all the way from their house. Bass' first instinct was to go and comfort his wife, but he held back knowing that the only thing that would truly help her would be the return of their baby, safely in her arms. Yes, Charlie was an excellent tracker, but she was in no shape for this particular job.
He quickly labeled his guilt for not comforting her as 'unnecessary' and shoved it into a little box in the back of his mind to deal with later. That left plenty of room for the anger and determination to take hold.
Good, he would need that in order to deal with whatever incompetent moron thought that they could kidnap a member of his family.
XxX
Miles had seen a lot in his life. Wars, disasters, betrayals... the image of a small child that had been blown into several pieces in the middle of a desert surfaced in his mind. He still had nightmares about headless children attacking him sometimes. He would beg them not to throw rocks at him only to look down and realize that they weren't rocks, but were severed heads.
Even that had never broken him. But this... the sight of his niece, technically his daughter, screaming for her baby and frantically searching the kitchen cabinets as if she thought Emily might be hiding there, just might do it.
"Charlie, please, just clam down," he pleaded.
"Calm down?" She screeched. "She's gone!" Charlie stopped, dropping the diaper bag she'd been looking in, and gave him a helpless look. "How can she be gone?"
Miles moved towards her slowly and gently pulled her into a hug. "Don't worry. If there's anyone that can find Emily, it's Bass."
Charlie clung to him and cried. She cried, and cried, until Gene showed up and jabbed a needle in her neck and she sagged against him. Miles carried her wordlessly to bed and gently covered her with the blanket before turning back to Gene in the kitchen.
"I didn't think word would travel that fast. Have they started the search party yet?"
Gene shook his head sadly.
"Then how did you know that Emily was missing?"
Gene slipped the syringe back into his bag as he wiped his eyes. "I didn't, well, at least not until it was too late." Miles gave him a confused look so he explained. "I went to talk to Rachel about the verdict last night but she wasn't in her room. I didn't think much of it, I figured she was probably trying to drink the whole thing away, but this morning when she still hadn't come home I went upstairs to check her bedroom. And I found... there were a few of Emily's old baby thing's on the bed - you know, the stuff that's too small for her now - and Rachel's pack was gone."
Miles leaned heavily against the kitchen counter, his mind speeding into overdrive. "You don't think... I mean, she wouldn't..." He looked up, desperately searching the older man's face. "Would she?"
Gene had no words in answer, merely a shrug.
Miles shook the shock from his mind, kicked aside his patience for Rachel and her shit, and grabbed his gun. Gene watched silently as the weapon slid into the back of his jeans.
"Please," he pleaded quietly, "save her if you can."
After decades of mutual dislike, the two of them had finally reached common ground on the subject that was Rachel. "If I can." Miles gripped his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "But I have a feeling it's already too late."
Gene nodded and watched as Miles took off in search of their family.
XxX
How did Charlie always make this look so easy? Tracking was actually really fucking hard!
Bass had no idea how far he'd wandered from the house or even if he was on the right track, but he kept moving anyway. Something deep in his gut told him to keep going. Charlie's cries had faded over an hour ago and so far the only thing he'd found was a broken beer bottle and a small toy car. But still he kept on going.
XxX
Rachel watched as Bass drew closer to her hiding place. The small clearing was surrounded by bushes and trees, one of which was tall enough to see everything in the surrounding area. Through the binoculars, she could see him making his way slowly through the undergrowth. She knew that in just a matter of minutes, he would find the last piece of the puzzle.
Looking down at Emily sleeping blissfully on the ground, Rachel smiled and relished the fact that soon, her granddaughter would live a worry free life.
XxX
Ignoring his aching knee, Bass continued on, stumbling over a tree root and nearly falling on an old rag doll.
Wait.
It was Emily's doll!
Bass picked up the ugly thing and hugged it tightly to his chest, as if the thing itself held all of the answers of his daughter's whereabouts. Pushing away all of those feelings, because emotions made for poor decision making, he followed the small footprints that he found along with the doll. He moved faster than he had all morning, not even noticing that the kidnapper's footprints were so small, or wondering who they may belong to. The only thing he cared about was killing whoever they belonged to.
The trail led him to a group of bushes that were awfully close together. He pulled his swords from his belt silently and then, without stopping to check the perimeter of the area first, burst into the clearing. He brandished his swords menacingly, but was dissapointed by the lack of people he found. Sliding his swords back into his belt, Bass looked around, his breath catching when he saw a small bundle of blankets underneath a tree, partially hidden by a bush. Rushing towards what he had no doubt was his daughter, he missed the threat hanging from the tree above him.
"Stop." A cool, female voice - which was sickeningly familiar - stopped him about three feet from where Emily was still sleeping. He was torn between grabbing for her and trying to deal with the threat against them.
Ultimately, he decided that safety was more important, so he kept still and looked up to find the source of the voice, internally dreading what he knew he would find.
"Rachel," he greeted quietly, using a tone that most people would run away from.
That was the thing though, Rachel wasn't most people.
"Good afternoon, Bass." She looked completely deranged, sitting up in a tree with twigs in her hair and a maniac smile on her face.
Fuck. He didn't have time for this. Frankly, he didn't give a shit about Rachel and whatever melodramatic bull she had going on at the moment. He just wanted Emily back. So ignoring the crazy woman above him, Bass moved towards the little bundle that was Emily again.
"I said, stop." Bass froze, not because of her words, but the telltale click that went with a gun being armed.
Taking a deep breath he looked up again, not particularly surprised to find a gun pointed at his face. "Come on, Rachel, are you really gonna kill me?"
She frowned, as if she thought he might have misunderstood the situation. "Of course. Why else would I have a gun?"
Truthfully, Bass could have thought of a millions reasons for having a gun, but he kept his mouth shut as she descended her tree. He backed up when her feet hit the ground, making her smile as she bent down to pick up Emily. She pointed the gun at him again with a giddy sort of smile.
"Just imagine, I'll take Emily back home to her mother and be the hero of the day. And I'll be Charlie's shoulder to cry on when I tell her that her beloved husband was killed in a heroic attempt to save Emily from her awful kidnappers."
Bass stared at Rachel in disbelief. How could one person be so crazy?
Tired of the conversation, the entire situation, Bass sighed. "Rachel, just... just stop. Ok? Just stop. You're holding Emily in one hand and a loaded gun in the other. You are going to hurt someone."
She arched a single, infuriating eyebrow. "Well, yes. That is the idea."
Bass pulled angrily at his hair and growled. "What is wrong with you! Why can't you just be happy for me and Charlie like a normal person?"
"Because you don't get to be happy," she shouted. "You destroyed my family, now I'm taking yours."
"God, you are so freaking stupid. My family - Charlie and Emily - is your family, too. The only thing you're doing is hurting yourself, again."
Rachel huffed at the accusation, like the thought hadn't even occurred to her. It probably hadn't. She shook her head angrily. "No, it'll be fine. Once you're dead, everything will go back to the way it was."
"Rachel, please don't do this," he begged.
"I don't have a choice."
She levelled the gun at his head and for a moment, Bass really thought that it was all over. He closed his eyes and Emily's smiling face, with her three teeth, flashed in his mind. Charlie, breathless and happy. Miles, laughing with a drink in his hand. Ralph and Opal holding hands, Aaron and Cynthia sharing a piece of apple pie. In that moment he saw all of the people he cared about one last time.
Cliché? Yes.
But absolutely true.
BANG!
His breathing stopped, his heart beating wildly in his chest. His ears ringing from the gunshot and his impending death.
Only he wasn't dead.
Bass stood in the middle of the clearing with a hand over his unbloodied chest, his ears ringing, not so much from the gunshot, but Emily's wailing. He opened his eyes, finding a very bloody Rachel Matheson slumped back on the ground and a crying Emily sitting on her chest. He shook his head, having a hard time comprehending that he was alive and that Rachel was dead.
How the hell had that happened?
Bass turned around to find Miles just at the edge of the clearing with a blank look on his face. He looked from the gun in Miles' hand to the neat hole in Rachel's head.
"Miles," he said weakly.
"You should get Emily." Miles pointed at the still screaming girl, making Bass mentally slap himself as he ran to pick her up off of the dead body. She calmed almost instantly, clinging to the front of his shirt and talking nonsense. He occasionally heard her say 'Mama' or 'Dada' but that was about it. Kissing the top of her little, blonde head, Bass made his way over to his best friend.
"Are you alright?"
Miles shrugged and Bass could already see the man mentally distancing himself from the entire situation. Despite the fact that he didn't understand why, Bass had always known that Miles really loved Rachel. He couldn't even imagine what Miles must be thinking.
"This wasn't your fault, Miles."
"I know."
They stood silently for a moment, Bass never loosening his hold on his baby girl.
"Come on, man, let's go home."
Miles nodded numbly, moving forward to pick up the corpse of the woman he loved before making their way back home.
XxX
As he piled the dirt onto Rachel's grave, Miles silently yelled at her for what she'd done. He had wanted to save all of them. Bring everybody back safe and sound, but after listening to Rachel go on, and on about getting rid of Bass, he knew that it would never end. If he had brought them all back then she would have just tried again, and next time he might not be there to stop her. He couldn't let that happen, so he'd shot her.
He was trying to justify what he'd done. It was harder than you might think.
As he watched Charlie approach him from Gene's back porch with a grinning Emily in her arms, he realized, that that was justice at work. A mother and daughter reunited.
"Hey, booger," he said gently. He poked at Emily's belly and listened to her squeal, it made a him smile.
"Bass told me what happened," Charlie said quietly. She reached out and squeezed his hand. "I'm sorry, Miles."
He shrugged and moved his hand to her shoulder to pull her close, hugging his little girls and kissing both of their heads. "I'll be ok."
Charlie sighed against him. "I know."
The stood there staring at Rachel's grave for a while, his arm around her shoulders and Emily babbling about doggies. Bass came to join them, slipping an arm around Charlie's waist. He bent down to kiss her and tickle Emily. "I love you guys."
Charlie leaned against him with a sad, but genuine smile. "Love you, too." Miles said nothing, though he squeezed Charlie's shoulder which she took to mean 'me too.' As the sun set, the three automatically turned together and walked back to the house, leaving the darkness behind them.
A/N I think that this is the end. Well, besides the epilogue which was actually the original idea for the story anyway, lol. I may write another chapter, I may not, I'm still undecided on that. I will be super busy all next week (understatement of the century there) so don't expect anything until the week after that, unless some miracle happens and I get an ounce of free time that I don't want to use for a nap. Which I doubt will happen. :-D I owe all of you a huge thank you for reading this and being so supportive, you guys really are amazing. Please review!