Chapter 11 – A Family Worries and A Father Wonders

The weekend went by slowly…at least it did to Frank. His detectives didn't have any updates for him as the days went by. Every other day they seemed to have some lead that they would track down, but it always fizzled out. "William Todd has done a good job at covering his tracks sir, but we're not giving up." Detective Baez had told him that over the phone before he went home Friday night, which happened to be his worst night of sleep, if he could even call it that. He hadn't gotten a good nights sleep since before this nightmare became a reality, but for some reason Friday night seemed to be different…he just couldn't figure out what was bugging him, other than the glaring obvious elephant in the room. Of course he had no idea that that very night was when his youngest had received the beating from his former partner.

Sunday dinner didn't fare any better for the family. Nicky was old enough to know what was going on, being told by her mother after she had got home from school the day her uncles were kidnapped. However Jack and Sean were still pretty young; Linda didn't want them to worry about their dad and uncle, so they were told that they were working on an undercover assignment together and they would be gone for a few days. "I miss dad and Uncle Jamie," whined Sean as he picked at his mashed potatoes.

"Me too. When are they going to be back from being undercover?" Jack asked, looking at his mom and grandpa.

Linda looked at her in-laws, trying to stop the tears that wanted to fall. She had been making excuses all week and was running out of things to tell her boys. But no one seemed to know what to say; they didn't want to tell them the truth but they didn't want to make promises they weren't sure if they could keep either.

"Boys, you know your dad and Uncle Jamie," Nicky finally piped up. "They're not going to stop until the bad guys are arrested and people are safe…just imagine all of the cool stuff they're doing undercover and before you know it, they'll be back home again."

"Yeah, I bet they're doing awesome stuff!" Sean said as he and Jack started speculating about the case. Meanwhile, Linda had looked at her niece, mouthing 'thank you' to her. Erin looked proudly at her daughter and gave her a small smile, with Frank and Henry following suit.

Frank had tried to be his same old self at dinner, mostly for his grandsons' sake, but he didn't realize how harder it was to do than he thought. Every time he looked up at somebody, his eyes darted to one of the two empty chairs at the table, and then he couldn't stop his mind from wandering. Were they getting food? How could he enjoy this homecooked meal while two of his children were God knows where, possibly starving? But he knew he had to eat, to keep his strength up. Plus he knew he'd be hearing it from his father if he didn't. But even with the adults trying to keep it positive, the meal was still a somber one, for all of them.

Now here it was, exactly a week since he had gotten the news about his boys. He couldn't believe it had been that long already…some days it felt longer, some days it felt like it was just yesterday when Baker told him what had happened. Frank sat at his desk, alone in his office. He was still doing his best at keeping up with his regular PC jobs and meetings and press conferences, but he would be the first to admit how hard that was. He had to put on a brave face and a fake smile every time he went out and got in front of other people, people outside of his inner circle. But now that he was alone in his office, his sanctuary, he couldn't help but let the emotions out. His fake smile was no where to be seen; instead in its place was a frown full of worry and guilt…a frown that hasn't truly left for a week. He didn't like being alone because that's when the questions would pop up. The questions Todd told him would haunt him. Were his boys hurt? Were they scared? Were they separated for some reason? And of course the million dollar question: were they even still alive? Frank refused to believe the answer to that was anything but, of course they were. He wasn't sure if it was some sort of paternal feeling, but something was telling him that they were alive and they were fighting…waiting for him and the detectives to find them. He couldn't give up on them; he refused to. That feeling he had is what got him to get up and get going every day, even though what he really wanted was to be out combing every square inch of the city looking for his boys.

He kept replaying the conversation he had with Todd; how he would hold them for 2 weeks. Of course he didn't tell Frank what would happen at the end of those weeks, but Frank knew…he was going to kill them. Todd lost his boys and he wanted his old partner to lose his as well; to step into his shoes, so to speak. How else would he achieve that without having to kill Danny and Jamie? Frank didn't want to imagine what they were going through right now…the constant wonder of how long they were going to be stuck in their prison; how long until rescue finally came. 'Soon boys, soon…I hope…' He had to constantly check himself to not call up Baez, Charles, or Flores for another update at every minute of every hour; the more he called them, the more time he was taking away from their investigation. He just had to trust that he had the best detectives on the case and that they knew what they were doing. Like Detective Baez told him, they weren't going to give up.

He also tried to be there for his daughter-in-law as much as possible; they all did, helping out with the boys as often as they could. But seeing his grandsons interact and play and fight with each other reminded him too much of Danny and Jamie…then he'd get sad again and Jack or Sean would ask if he was okay. He understood why Linda clammed up at dinner; coming up with an excuse every time they asked about their father or uncle was hard. Danny—his oldest, who was a great detective and loving husband and father. And Jamie—his youngest, who reminded Frank a lot of himself in some ways. He was not all that surprised when Jamie told the whole family is plans to go into the academy and pursue a law enforcement career. Even during his law school days, he could see the look on his youngest's face whenever his brothers talked about their jobs and the cases they were on. He was just thankful that Jamie's sudden career change happened after his wife passed…the last thing Mary wanted was her baby following in the family's footsteps. But he also knew his wife well enough to know how proud she'd be of him.

His thoughts were then interrupted when there was a knock on the door. "Come in," he said after he got himself together and composed.

His Primary Aide then opened the door. "Sir, I have the mayor here for your meeting," she told him with sad, but still professional, eyes. She wished that there was something she could do for her boss, but she knew that unless it was the location of his sons, anything would be useless. She just hoped that she would never have to experience the pain that he was going through and prayed that his boys would be found.

Frank gave her a small sad smile. "Thank you Baker, go ahead and send him in," he informed her.

She nodded before opening the door wider for the mayor to come in, who didn't know what was going on and Frank wanted it to stay that way. Not that Frank didn't trust the mayor, but he just didn't want the pity that usually came with being told the news of what was going on, especially from the person he worked for. Instead, Frank plastered on his fake smile again and had his meeting, trying his best to pay attention and engage in the conversation as best as he could.

A/N: Poor Frank...will they find the boys in time? Please keep the reviews coming! :)