A/N: I have recently become obsessed with Elaine Maynard and I genuinely have no idea why, but I just adore her and she is so precious and I have no idea why she has such little screen time. I would fully watch a spin-off of just her and Athena solving crime together because they are such a dynamic duo and just iconic together. Anyway, from my obsession with her came the idea to do this fic because I wanted to do something centred around her. There will be plenty of Bathena because I just adore them and with her being in charge of this investigation pretty much, I feel she would need all the support she can get from him. Apologies for rambling. I really hope you like this!
"Mom, do you know where my backpack is?"
Standing at the kitchen counter as she pours the coffee she has just brewed into her thermos, Elaine rolls her eyes when her youngest daughter, Abigail, shouts to her from where she is searching in the living room across the hall.
"Given I don't have a crystal ball, Abs, no." She replies.
Honestly, every morning is the same in this household. Abigail can never remember where she left her backpack, her husband can never find his tie, and she doesn't doubt Olivia is going to be asking where her car keys are next.
"Mom, have you seen my keys anywhere?"
See? She knows her family.
"Dining room table," She tells her, turning her head and watching her walk past the kitchen on her way to go get them. "You know, why we have a dish next to the front door for those things is lost on me. No one ever uses it."
Her husband chuckling under his breath from where he leans against the kitchen island, morning coffee in hand, catches her attention and she glances over her shoulder at him as she puts the lid back on her thermos. Reaching behind him to set his mug down, Sam pushes away from the kitchen island and makes his way up behind her, an arm circling her waist before he pulls her back against him. "Ah, wouldn't be a Maynard morning if you weren't grumbling about something or other, would it?" He comments before brushing a gentle kiss against her shoulder.
"I just wanna know when I went from being a mom to being a lost and found." She says.
Shaking his head good-naturedly, the arm he has around her tightens its hold and he brings his other hand up to move her long brown hair away from her neck. "You need to relax a little, Lainey…" He smirks as he kisses her there, knowing she has always hated him calling her that for some reason. She groans in response and he chuckles against her skin, kissing her again as his thumb strokes against her stomach through the thin material of her shirt.
"Sam…" She breathes as he kisses a trail up her neck. "You need to stop."
He does as she says with a pout, settling his chin on her shoulder. "You used to be so much more fun, y'know."
Hearing the playfulness in his voice, she soon decides two can play at this game and turns around to look at him. "Mmm, that's not what you said last night," Her eyes hold a mischievous twinkle and she can't help but laugh at the look on his face as those words leave her mouth. "I was under the impression you quite enjoyed the evening."
"Bit of an understatement there, love." He admits, chuckling, his arms making their way around her once again.
In all honesty, she still has no idea what got into them both when their girls took themselves up to bed last night. It began as a normal evening really, the two of them cuddled up on the couch with a bottle of wine as they talked about their day, but then he started getting handsy for some reason or other and that only led to kissing. A lot of kissing. She can't remember who made the choice to move things from the couch to the bedroom, though it was most probably herself given she actually considers these thing, but things just escalated between them from there.
They were together three times and getting to share that with him was just…it was just incredible.
Both of them are always so worn out by the time Abi and Olivia go up to bed, both from work and from dealing with whatever the girls brought home with them from school, so nights like last night are something of a rarity.
She misses it, them having the time to be together like that, but it only makes it more special when they do.
"Last night was incredible," Sam pulls her from her thoughts again when he speaks and she looks him in the eye, running her hands down his arms through his jacket as he pulls her against him. "Maybe…" She barely has time to process anything before he lifts her to sit on the kitchen counter, the two of them chuckling as her arms wind around his neck while he brings her legs to wrap around his middle. "We could try and recreate it again tonight."
"I'm not nineteen anymore, you know." She teases, letting her fingers comb through his greying hair.
"You sure about that? Could have fooled me."
"You're such an idiot."
"I know," He leans in to steal a kiss from her. "I mean it though. I miss you."
"Me too, baby…" She assures him, grazing her nose against his own. "Hopefully, I should have a bit more time once we get this abduction case closed. We just need a breakthrough and we're so close to one now, I can feel it, Ransone said the same. I really wish he would just mess up so I can stop having to see Justin's parents every day."
He sighs. "They still coming to the station?"
"Oh yeah," She nods. "They want their kid back, I get that and I can't imagine what they must be going through, but they keep telling me I need to do more and that I don't care enough when I have my best guys working this case nonstop. I hate that it gets to me so much. Normally I don't let it, but when there's a kid involved it just…"
"No, I get it," He shakes his head. "Baby, you're doing the best you can. You can't do any more than that."
His words make her smile as she stops messing with his hair and allows her hands to move around to the sides of his neck, her thumbs running over the rough stubble on his jaw. "What would I do without you?" She asks him.
"You don't have to think about that, trust me." He brings a hand up, stroking a curl from her face and tucking it behind her ear before resting that same hand on her cheek and using it to pull her into a kiss. He feels more than hears the hum she lets out as she sinks into him, her arms sliding around him again so she can curl her hands into his jacket. Feeling the urge to deepen the kiss start growing within him, he touches his tongue to her bottom lip, but before things have the chance to go much further he hears the familiar sound of shoes coming down the hall.
"You gotta be kidding me."
Unable to keep from laughing at the undeniable disgust of their eldest daughter, they decide to bring their kiss to an end and turn their heads to see both their daughters stood in the doorway to the kitchen, completely appalled.
"Gross. Could have at least waited until we were out of the house, guys." Abigail tells them.
"Oh, come on," Sam jokes. "Neither of you would even be here if it weren't for this."
Neither of their girls, clearly, can believe those words actually just left his mouth given the way their mouths fall open. "Yeah, I think we'll skip breakfast," Olivia reaches into her jacket pocket for her car keys. "We're leaving."
"Half-an-hour early?" Elaine calls after them as they walk down the hall.
"We'll take the long route!" Comes Liv's response, soon followed by the sound of the front door closing loudly.
Alone once again, Elaine turns her attention back to her husband and shakes her head with both amusement and disbelief. "You know; I think you did it. I think you actually just scarred our girls for life." She admits, smirking.
"It got them out of the house, didn't it?" He shrugs, leaning in to capture her in a long and soft kiss.
"Mmm, yes," She hums before they part again. "Your turn now. You have that big meeting this morning, right?"
He groans. "Don't remind me. I've been looking for a way to get out of it all week."
"Sooner you go, sooner it'll be over." She kisses him on the cheek before taking her arms from around him, the two of them sharing a smile when her legs fall from around his middle and he helps her down from the counter. She grabs her thermos then and carries it over to the kitchen island to put it in her bag, looking over at him with a smile as he takes his own thermos from one of the cupboards before filling it up with the coffee still in the pot.
Yeah, mornings in the Maynard household are nothing less than chaos, but she can't say she really minds.
Her family is her family and she genuinely wouldn't change them for the world.
She makes it to the station earlier than normal, pulling into the parking spot out front and removing her seatbelt, and she gives herself a minute to just breathe as she leans back in her seat. She can already tell that today is going to be another long one. No doubt, Justin's mom and dad are going to be here soon and she'll be telling them the same thing she has been telling them for almost a month now. She has her best guys on the case and they are all doing everything they can to locate their son and bring him home. No one is going to stop searching until Justin is found. She has said those words so many times now that she has them memorized, but they never seem to help much. In his parents' minds, it doesn't matter that they are doing everything they can since their boy is still gone.
She understands completely, really she does.
She would be the same if she was the one looking for her abducted child, she knows she would, but that doesn't change the fact that she is doing all she can and there is very little else she can do at this moment in time. When the breakthrough she is waiting for occurs, things will hopefully be made clearer and they will all have something more to go on. Until then though, they can only work with the evidence in front of them which truly isn't much.
At the moment, this whole case is really like finding a needle in a haystack.
Sighing to herself, she pushes a hand through her hair and takes her purse from the passenger seat before getting out of the car and locking it. She makes her way through the parking lot and into the station then, saying a brief good morning to Tasha before heading through to the locker room so that she can get changed into her uniform. It takes her little time to do so and, soon enough, she is shoving her clothes in her locker and grabbing her brush so she can put her hair up in a high pony. She just can't stand her hair being in her face all day, it irks her greatly.
She picks up her purse and heads out of the locker room again once she is ready to face the day, making her way to her office before entering and closing the door behind her. Genuinely, this is the only second of peace she gets in a whole day. Once everyone has clocked on, it is pure chaos all day and she is lucky if she gets two minutes to herself. She walks over to her desk and sets her purse down, taking her thermos out and opening it so she can sip at her coffee, and then she leaves the room again and heads for the meeting room to glance at the evidence board.
It still astounds her how little they have.
They have photographs from the abduction site, one being of a footprint found that they determined belongs to the abductor himself, and a toy car Justin must have let go of when he was grabbed and thrown into the back of the vehicle. A little girl at the park witnessed the abduction taking place and they were delighted to find that out, hoping she would be able to aid them in their investigation, but all she could really tell them was that the car was white and the man was wearing all black clothing. Without a clear description of what the man in question looks like and with such a generic description of the car they are searching for, they really have very little to work with.
What they really need is to locate that vehicle.
They locate that vehicle, there is no doubt in her mind they will be able to track down the man that did this.
She just hopes they manage it in time to save Justin because time is something that is not on their side right now.
"Didn't expect to see you in so early."
She looks over her shoulder at hearing Athena's voice and gives her a smile before turning back to the board and letting out a sigh, taking another sip of coffee. "Thought I'd come and another look before the chaos starts." She admits as the sergeant comes to stand beside her, crossing her arms as she too looks at the evidence on the board.
"I take it the search the other day didn't result in much?" Athena asks.
"Nope," She shakes her head. "Getting pretty sick of it too. Justin's parents are always asking me for updates."
"Yeah, uh…" Athena clears her throat.
She turns her head to look at her. "You better not tell me what I think you're about to tell me."
"If you think I'm gonna tell you they're back, you got that right." Athena says.
"Give me strength."
"You want me to go and speak to them?"
"Nah, it should be me, though I doubt there's much point."
Athena nods. "All right. I'll see you at roll call then."
"See you." She echoes.
Athena leaves the room then and she stands there for a couple seconds longer, mentally preparing herself to have the same chat with Justin's parents she has had with them every day since this whole thing began. Eventually, she leaves the room herself and gives the worried couple a smile when they look her way. "Mr and Mrs Abbott," She greets them, making her way over to where they are standing. "If you'd both like to come with me to my office?"
When they give her a nod in response, she starts leading the way to her office and lets them both enter ahead of her before closing the door so they can have some privacy. They are seated when she turns back to them and she walks over to her desk, setting her thermos down before pulling out her chair and sitting down in front of them.
"Have there been any developments?" Evelyn asks immediately.
"None that are ground-breaking, I'm afraid, no," She informs her and her husband, watching both their faces fall at her words. "A tip came through yesterday and, like I said I would, I sent some of my guys out there to follow up on it, but they couldn't find anything relating to your son's case and it really didn't bring forward any further answers. I'm sorry, I know that wasn't what you were hoping to hear, but we all really are doing the best we can."
"I don't want your apologies, Captain, I want you to get out there and find my kid." Kenneth grumbled.
She nods. "Sir, I assure you, that is exactly what we're doing. His face is out there, so people know what he looks like, and we follow up on every tip that comes through. It would be more straightforward, I admit, if our witness could give us a more detailed description of the car and the individual they saw. If we had that information then we could send out an APB of the car and have a composite sketch made up, but that's something we don't have."
"Give me the details of your witness and I'll make them give a detailed description." He tells her.
"I'm afraid I can't do that, that information is classified." She informs him.
"So, you're telling me you're just gonna sit here and do nothing while my son could be getting killed?"
"As I said, Mr Abbott…"
"Yeah, we're done here."
Before she can say anything else, he stands from his chair and storms out of the room, Evelyn shaking her head as she stands from her own. "I'm sorry, Captain, he really isn't normally like this. He just hasn't been the same since Justin went missing and he forgets to think before he speaks sometimes." She explains, Elaine holding up a hand.
"I completely understand," She assures her. "You have my word that I'll be in contact if something turns up."
"I appreciate that, thank you," Evelyn gives her a small smile. "Have a good rest of your day."
"Thank you. You too." She replies before watching her walk out of the room after her husband, her eyes closing as she leans back in her chair with a deep groan. Only when she hears footsteps approaching does she open them.
"That bad, huh?" Athena asks from the doorway.
She scoffs. "What do you think? Too early for a vodka and coke?"
Athena chuckles as she enters the room and makes her way toward the desk, sitting herself down. "You okay?"
"Yeah," She shakes her head. "Just a heavy one, that's all, the kid ones always get to me more than others."
"I feel you," Athena nods. "You still think we're headed for a breakthrough?"
"Something's coming for sure, I can feel it," She admits as she pulls her chair in. "I have no idea what though."
Athena shrugs. "Better than nothing though, right?"
"Right."
"Well, time for roll call. Coming?"
"You say that like I actually have a choice," She rolls her eyes with a smirk, standing from her chair and making her way around to her, the two of them chuckling as they leave the room before she closes the door behind them. It has already been a tough morning and she doubts that things are going to change much over the course of the day, but she hopes throwing herself into her work will help keep her from dwelling too much on things. She has to keep working towards this breakthrough and she is sure as hell gonna. Not only for Justin's sake, but her own.
If anything happens to that little boy, his parents are genuinely going to end up killing her.
And she could really, really do without that.
As much as she hates to admit it, she is beyond annoyed – almost furious, actually – as she storms into her office that evening. So much so that she unintentionally slams the door behind her, heading straight for her desk so she can sit down and just breathe for a second. So many tips have come through today, more than she can count, and nothing came from any of them. A good number of them weren't even legitimate, some imbeciles just decided it would be funny to invent their own tips. It didn't seem to bother them that there was a real eight-year-old boy at the heart of all of this and, while they were making their awful calls, anything could have been happening to him.
She did her best not to think about it too much, keeping her mind on the case at hand, but she very nearly lost it when Lou got back not long ago from following up on another tip. He told her it had all the makings of another false claim, another wild goose chase, and she reached her breaking point. She feels bad about it now, the way she said nothing and just slammed the file she was looking at down on the table, but thankfully she knows Lou well. He won't have taken it personally and she's glad of that because her deep anger is in no way aimed at these guys.
All of them have thrown all they have at this case and have barely seen their families since Justin was taken.
She couldn't think of a better group of people to be tackling this case.
Resting her head in her hands and massaging her temples as her head starts to pound, she closes her eyes for just a second before the telephone on her desk starts ringing and she fights against the urge to launch it at the wall. In the end, she picks it up and leans back in her chair. "Yeah?" She asks wearily, genuinely dreading what she'll hear.
"Cap, another tip has just come through." Tasha tells her.
"If this…"
"They found a car. Looks like it's been abandoned a good amount of time."
She sits bolt upright in her chair, intrigued. "Description?"
"Uh, a white 4-door sedan." Tasha replies.
She can hardly believe what she's being told.
This is the breakthrough they have all been waiting for, there is no doubt in her mind.
"Tasha, I'm gonna need all available units and Forensics. Get Dispatch to send over the co-ordinates now."
She doesn't even give the girl a second to respond, slamming the receiver down and standing from her chair again before grabbing her coat and nearly forcing it onto her body as she hurries through her office. Heading back out into the main area, she is more than relieved to see that Lou and Rick are still where she left them both not long ago. "You two, with me," She orders while making a beeline for the doors that lead to the parking lot, both men glancing at each other for a split-second before doing as she says and following her. "We got our breakthrough."
Lou looks at her, waiting for her to elaborate.
"Abandoned car, just been called in. White. I'm not sure of the location yet, the co-ordinates are being sent over, but it sounds to me someone wasn't too fond of the idea of it being found," She tells them both as they head for the cars. "I told Tasha to send all available units and to let Forensics know we're gonna need them there as well."
"You sure this is legit?" Rick asks.
"Have I ever been wrong before?" She gives him a look that practically dares him to argue.
"Point taken."
"Yeah, thought so."
She makes the choice to get into the car with Lou while Rick gets into his own and she puts on her seatbelt, her heart racing as she leans back in her seat. She almost feels nauseous. It has been such a long time coming, this tip, and she just hopes this abandoned car gives them the information they need to bring this creep to justice and get Justin home to his parents. Of course, there's the chance…there's the chance this tip came in too late – she's well aware of the time-frame in which to locate an abducted child – but she is refusing to think about that right now.
She can't think about that.
Most of the race to the scene of the abandoned vehicle, apart from when the navigation system tells them where to go, is made in tense silence. She has no idea what she should say and, she guesses, he feels the same exact way. When they eventually make it, they both climb out and see that the other units have all begun to arrive on scene. Forensics beat them there, thankfully, and she breathes a sigh of relief as she watches them close in on the vehicle hidden away. She has been waiting for this very moment to come for a month now and finally, at long last, it has.
She stands there for a second, taking in the scene before her, before starting to make her own way over to the car. She only manages a number of steps before a chill runs down her spine and she sees something out the corner of her eye that makes her stop in her tracks. Unable to really work out what it was from where she is standing, she decides to go and check it out and starts walking in the direction of the trees. Yeah, she knows she ought to take someone with her, but they are all surrounding the car and taking a look around and she dislikes the thought of pulling them away from their work. Especially given this is probably nothing and it's going to lead to a dead end.
She heads deeper into the trees, intent on working out what it is that caught her eye, and that's when she hears it.
Leaves crunching underfoot.
Someone's here for sure, she's not being paranoid.
Admittedly, she is starting to feel a bit uneasy about the whole situation, but she knows she can't turn back now. Her hand gravitates towards the gun in her belt as she continues, reminding herself she has protection on hand if needed, and she takes a breath to force herself to relax. She hears the crunching of the leaves grow louder as she continues her pursuit, so she picks up the pace a little until she is near enough running to catch up with them. It is only when she and the person ahead of her reach a dead end that she realises who it is and her heart just stops.
He has his back to her, but that doesn't matter when his little face has been staring at her for weeks now.
"Justin?"
For a time, he remains motionless, but then he slowly turns around to face her and she gives him a small smile.
"Sorry…" He whispers. "He made me."
Not only does she not have time to speak, she doesn't have the time to form a coherent thought before she feels cool metal against the back of her neck and hears the undeniable cock of a gun. Her blood turns stone cold then.
"Keep your mouth shut and start walking…or he dies."
A/N: Thank you so much for taking the time to read chapter one! I actually had a lot of fun writing this even though I have never written for Elaine before and the ins and outs of policing are far from my area of expertise. I hope you guys liked this opening chapter and I would love to know what you thought if you have the time to leave me a review. Thanks again and I will see you soon.