I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play.

Chapter 11

"Hey, Caitlin, your computer is making a weird noise," Dom yelled to Caitlin who was in her bedroom.

Cait came running into the living room area to look at the computer. "It's Skype," she uttered while holding her breath. She immediately hit the key to turn on Skype and saw Hawke holding Nicky on the screen.

She just stood there staring at them without saying a word. Finally, Cait murmured, "Nicky!"

Hawke responded to her comment with, "Cait. It's good to see you. I just need to tell you a few things before we get started. First, I only have two minutes. Second, if you make any attempt to try to track this transmission, they will hurt Nicky. Do you understand?"

Cait shook her head up and down. Finally, she found her voice and asked, "How is Nicky doing?"

"He's doing fine," Hawke told her. "He's got a nice girl looking after him, by the grace of God."

Cait reached out and touched Nicky on the screen. He seemed so real and like he was in the room with her. She couldn't take her eyes off him.

Dom came up behind her and asked, "String, are you both all right?"

Hawke drew his eyes away from Cait's face and focused on Dom. "Yeah, we're both doing all right." He paused for a minute and then went on, "You heard what I told Cait that we only have two minutes and that you can't make any attempt to track the source of this transmission?"

"Yeah. Where are…"

Hawke interrupted Dom, "I can't answer any questions like that, so don't ask them."

"All right."

"Look, our time is just about up but I swear by the grace of God that I will continue to take good care of Nicky. Cait, I won't let anything happen to him," Hawke answered as he pulled Nicky closer.

Cait found her voice and said, "Tell him that I miss him…and kiss him good night for me, please!"

Hawke looked back at Cait. "I will take good care of him and bring him…"

The screen went blank.

"No, no, they can't do that!" she cried out trying to bring Skype back up as she started to cry.

Dom pulled her in for a hug and just held her while she cried.

Finally, she pulled back and ran her hands across her face to try to dry the tears. "You okay now?" Dom asked.

"Yeah. I just needed to cry, but I'll be all right."

"Okay, we need to figure out if he sent us any kind of a message when he was talking," Dom explained.

Cait shook her head and responded, "He just said that they were both all right and that the Skype conversations would only last for two minutes. Then he said something about we couldn't try to find the source of the transmissions."

Dom looked at Cait, "He also said something about someone taking care of Nicky. What did he say?"

Cait thought for a minute before responding, "Something about a girl taking care of him."

"Yeah, but he said something strange after that. What was it? It was a phrase that I'd never heard him use before."

Dom and Cait looked at each other, but couldn't think what Hawke had said. Finally, giving up, Cait said, "I don't remember. I was so focused on Nicky and the fact that he was okay. I'm sorry, Dom."

"That's okay, sweetheart. It will come back to you. Right now we need to call Archangel and tell him about the conversation."

"Okay."

"I'll call him. You stay nearby in case I forget anything."

Dom went over to the phone and dialed Archangel's private number. It was picked up almost immediately. "Hello, Archangel, here."

"Michael, this is Dom. Cait just got a Skype message from String."

"Okay. What did he say?"

"First, String had Nicky with him and we could see that they both were all right. Next, he said he could only talk for two minutes and that if we attempted to track the transmission that Nicky would be hurt. He also said that a young girl was watching Nicky when he wasn't. Cait, do you remember anything else?" Dom asked as he turned to Cait.

"No, I think you pretty much covered everything," Cait answered.

Dom turned back to the telephone and told Archangel, "He said something else when he was talking about the girl that was watching Nicky, but neither of us can remember what it was."

"Okay. Call me back when you remember what he said," Archangel stated.

"All right," Dom said when he hung up the phone. "Cait, we'll remember what he said."

"I just hope that it won't be too late."

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

Hawke turned away from the computer still holding Nicky.

Horn came forward and related, "That was good. Not too long and you didn't say anything suspicious. You can have five more minutes with your son."

'Gee thanks!' Hawke thought. 'Could you spare the time?' But he knew that he wouldn't be seeing Nicky for too much longer so he took him over to a place on the floor and played with him.

Before he knew it, the girl was coming to get Nicky from him. Hawke stood up and kissed Nicky good-bye before handing him to the girl. As he watched Nicky leaving, he just hoped that Dom and Cait had gotten his message and they knew who they were dealing with.