I'm sorry this took so long, the next chapter is the last part.

One Witness

As he walked around the studio he was mesmerized by the artwork. Every corner had something different to display, canvases of every size rested against the walls. There was a big cabinet filled with art supplies, a desk littered with papers, and on top of it were pictures.

He easily found her in a cap and gown being squished in the middle by two giant friends who towered over her. Maya, he whispered. He found himself being entranced by her beauty once again. The pictures gave a little more light on who she was.

She appeared to have two best friends, one of them he remembered from the subway. The other blonde popular in other pictures seemed like her mom, but he didn't see a father figure in any of them. Instead, he spotted him.

Tall, brunette, skinny, maybe a little older than her, he wasn't sure. He rested his chin over her head while she laughed with her eyes closed. The man only starred in this picture, a very minor role compared to the other recurring faces he saw.

A noise behind him startled him.

"Don't move!" A woman said behind him, she didn't sound like Maya. "I have a taser in my hand, so put your hands up."

Lucas was not about to test the truth behind her threat so he did as she told him.

"What did you do to Maya?" She asked almost with a broken voice.

"I didn't do anything to her, I'm looking for her." He responded, desperate to tell his captor that they were on the same team.

"Who are you?

"My name is Lucas Friar and I'm going to turn around slowly." He began to move.

"Keep your hands up!" She said on the brink of crying.

"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you. This is going to sound like a crazy story–" He said moving as slowly as he could as to not scare her. "I have Maya's key to this place and her bag."

When he was fully in front of the woman he ignored the actual electric gun because he knew her immediately, it was the pretty brunette from the pictures. He could see behind her tears some recognition until she finally lowered her weapon.

"You're the boy from the train."

"I'm really sorry, I didn't want to scare you." He was stuck in place until the taser was out of sight. "I didn't think I would find anyone else in here."

"I got an alert on my phone, I ran here because I thought it was her." She sighed, finally putting her gun back in her purse, he relaxed his arms. "Who are you?"

"I'm Lucas, I have Maya's purse and I was just looking for her to give it back." He said, pointing to the bag sitting over her desk. "I know I shouldn't have entered like this but I'm worried something happened to her."

She nodded, trying to make sense of the situation. She walked past him to check her friend's purse, she took the keys and put them in her pocket.

"What is your name? Do you know what happened to her?" He stepped closer.

"I'm Maya's best friend, Riley." She extended her arm toward him. He gladly shook it, happy that the confrontation was over. "So you don't work for Josh?"

"Who's Josh?" Lucas asked, confused.

"Her fiance..." She looked shyly at the floor for a second.

"I don't know him, but I'm guessing that's him?" He pointed at his picture.

"Yes, he... He's not a good guy." She told him. Lucas's heart shuddered, if he was worried before now he was terrified that something really bad had happened to her.

"When did you last speak to her?" He asked.

"Four days ago, she called me and said that she found something bad and that she would come find me, but she never made it to my place," Riley explained, with a pained expression. "What about you, how did you get her bag?"

Lucas sighed, he knew he had to tell her everything, the weird subway friendship they had developed, how he read the signs of abuse, and how he interceded and she ran away. He also told her about the little search he went through to find anything, to find her, and how he had ended up at her studio. He told the story in detail right up until the moment she confronted him.

Riley sat silent for a while, he watched patiently, sometimes he would look back at the paintings reminding how Maya...

He only realized then how weird it was, to think about her with a name. His lips tugged into a small smile, how right it fits, all he knew about her somehow clicked within him in a way he could not express with words, he didn't know what that feeling was.

Maya would enter the train with stained hands and he would look at the colors imagining what she could possibly be doing, what she could possibly be creating. This was at that point where he would stare at her with less embarrassment, almost no shame, where he tried to seem confident but would look away immediately if they made even the slightest eye contact, his heart at his throat.

Now he could finally have a look at her art, it was not how he hoped he would, he did not expect to be desperately trying to find her.

"I need to call someone, can you give me one more minute?" She walked closer to the window, her phone pressed against her ear. Whoever she talked to seemed to calm her down, from what he heard she told a condensed story of his version, referring to Lucas as "the guy on the subway".

Lucas had never thought of that, the thought had never crossed his mind that she spent time talking about him to her friends, the same way he did. He felt a punch to the gut, how she had run away from him that day, terrified. He should've known better, he forgot all of his years of training and experience the second his feelings were involved. He lost all of her trust that day and it pained him that while he was truly discovering who she was, she could be hurt thinking all of their encounters were false, nothing but a trick to make her feel safe.

When Riley finished her call, she approached him and said that her boyfriend was going to pick them up, that he'd know what to do. Lucas felt a rush like never before, he was going to find her, and make everything right.

He texted Zay to meet them at the diner where his new acquaintance, Farkle, was driving them and he tried his best to fit most of what happened in a three minute audio. Riley and Farkle weren't sure about bringing another stranger into this mess, but somehow they trusted Lucas when he told them that Zay knew everyone in this city and that without him he wouldn't have made it to the studio.

"So, let me get this straight." Zay began, giving his black coffee a mix. Lucas, on the other hand, rolled his eyes, because this was the fourth time that Zay had to 'get it straight'. "Your uncle is Josh Mathews, who was engaged to your Maya," he pointed at Lucas and his eyes widened as he looked apologetically at Riley. "He owns a transportation company, but you two believe that he was involved in some side business moving stuff around the city and that Maya must have discovered something and that's why she ran away."

"Yes." Said Riley and Farkle in unison.

"Have you ever heard anything about this Josh from the station?" Lucas asked.

"Yeah, not directly, but I'm pretty sure it was related to this guy." Before he could continue, the waitress came back with their burgers and Zay didn't waste a second to dig in. "So, a few months ago, they busted a guy loading stolen goods on the docks. He worked at a moving company, the detectives said that they couldn't find any relation to his employer but they offered him a reduced sentence if he revealed who he worked for. It was a hell of a deal, but he didn't take it, he accepted his sentence and is doing the time quietly." He took a few fries to his mouth. "I didn't pay much attention to it before, the guys at the station think that he has a better offer after he gets out, it looks like his family is living comfortably while they wait."

"You think he worked for Josh?" Farkle asked.

"I'm 98% sure that if I go and check the guy's file he worked for your uncle at one point in time."

"So, you're saying what I think you're saying?" Lucas raised the question, hoping for the answer that he had hoped for days ago.

"What are you saying?" Riley asked, frowning.

"Transportation of stolen goods, an established crime network, possible kidnapping..."

"Domestic abuse..." Lucas added shyly.

"Domestic abuse." Stated Zay. "This is officially police business. The last time Lucas and I didn't have enough to move forward, but now I can finally take this to the station."

Lucas smiled, Riley reached out for both of Zay's and Lucas' hands and squeezed them thanking them for their help. Farkle refused to let them pay for dinner, they exchanged phone numbers and agreed to reunite the moment Zay had any new leads.

In Lucas' head, the meeting couldn't come close enough, he couldn't focus at work, every time his phone vibrated his heart raced with expectation. Since Zay had put the possibility of a kidnapping on the table, he had thought the worst, that he would never see the blonde mane again, he would never hear his name come out of her mouth. Was he insane? He didn't know if he had become obsessed with a girl he barely knew. Was he crazy for crying over the missed opportunity, crying over losing that moment of the day where he would see this girl and everything else dissolved, all his worries would disappear as they rode the train and for a single moment he didn't feel so utterly alone.

A whole week passed since he had taken her purse when Zay organized a FaceTime call with the other three. He began saying that it wasn't as easy as he thought it would be and that he had practically used every favor he had and then promised some more to get to the bottom of it.

"But did you get to the bottom of it?" Farkle asked, mirroring everyone's thoughts.

"I did, but I'm afraid is not what you'll want to hear," Zay said. "Maya is alive."

"Oh my God, Zay! You should've started with that!" Riley scolded him and Lucas could finally breathe again.

"She is alive, but she is under witness protection, now just by telling you guys I'm risking my neck and hers, so this cannot leave this conversation." They all nodded in understanding. "I owe a big one to my buddy at the FBI and I can't share where she is, because I honestly don't know and it's probably better this way. But she is alive. Apparently, she reached a station a week ago after your subway encounter with sensible information against her fiance, she was then transferred to the FBI offices where it turns out they've been building a case with the DA for months against Josh. At that moment Maya became a key witness and arrangements were made to be put under protection immediately."

"So she is safe?" Riley asked, obviously crying.

"She is as safe as she will ever be. All I know is that she is not in New York and she cannot return until the case with Josh is finished."

Riley asked something else, but Lucas wasn't paying attention anymore. He didn't know how he felt, happy that she was alive, disappointed that he didn't know when he would see her again, sad that she was going through this without her best friend. He didn't even know if she still believed that he was working with Josh and that broke his heart. But at least she was alright and that's all that mattered.

Seven weeks passed for the trial to end, he was out having lunch when he heard a whisper of a familiar name. He asked for someone to raise the volume of the single TV as he forgot about his plate of food and walked closer to the screen. It was footage of the brunette man being escorted out of the courthouse and loaded into a prisoner transportation vehicle as the newscaster commented on the outcome of the trial. He had been found guilty on several charges and had been sentenced to 53 years in prison, thanks to the irrefutable evidence and the testimony of a key witness.

Lucas waited on their usual spot on the train, he knew that it wouldn't be immediate her reinstitution to society but since no cop had reached out for his arrest or brought in for questioning, he assumed that she knew the truth, that Riley had explained everything and that she would look for him here. But she never came, he always searched for her in the crowds, waiting to see a tiny blonde walking towards him, yet she was still gone.

Riley returned his call a bit later than he expected but this case hadn't been easy for her family either.

"Lucas she is not ready to come back yet. Things are still too fresh, so she is staying upstate with her mom and stepdad, at least until the dust settles." He looked at his coffee unsure of what to say, of course, he understood, but he couldn't shake the disappointment away.

"She knows..." Riley added after a short silence. "She knows that you wanted to help, Farkle and I explained everything." Lucas nodded. "She's just... a little embarrassed."

"She has every right, imagine you're trying to run away and a big guy runs after you in the subway. I feel terrible, I should have handled that situation better." Lucas finally said. "Will you make sure she knows? That I'm sorry."

Riley smiled and nodded, taking a sip of her tea. "I'll tell her. You know, she wanted to say thanks for helping us find her and returning her bag."

"It's the least..."

"I told her that she should do it herself, so I gave her your number." Riley interrupted him. "I hope you don't mind."

He didn't. They said goodbye like the new friends they had become and as he walked home he pondered upon the weird road that had led him to that point. His phone now his most valuable possession, he waited for her on the train and for her text to arrive.

But she never sat in front of him and her text never came.