A week had gone by since Brianna’s capture. No one had heard anything from Brianna or those who had Brianna. Everyone was on tender hooks with each other. Snapping any chance they could. Secretly, whenever they were alone, they would all have their teary moments. It was also Mark’s fourth birthday.
When Nick woke up, rubbed his face to try and wake up some more, stumbled out of bed as he normally did and walked into Mark’s room. Nick could hear Mark awake as the TV was on in his room watching cartoons. “Happy Birthday buddy.” Nick said to Mark as he walked in sitting down on the floor next to him giving him a great big hug.
“Thanks.” Mark replied hugging him back, Mark’s eyes glued to the TV.
“What you watching?” Nick asked, Mark sitting on Nick’s knee.
“Cartoons.” Mark simply replied.
“Oh ha ha ha. Funny.” Nick answered tickling him. Mark just broke out into laughter, his cackle being heard throughout the place. It was infectious.
“I drew this for you.” Mark said to Nick once Nick had let him go, reaching to the little table that was there grabbing a piece of paper and handing it to Nick. It was a drawing of Mark, Brianna and Nick in a great big house. Above the drawing of Nick, Mark wrote Daddy.
Nick was blown away by that. Daddy. He never intended to be a father figure, just a friend. Mark had known that Andrew had died, in heaven but that’s about it. Nick didn’t know what to say.
“Come here kid.” Nick eventually found the words to come out. Nick hugged him one more time.
“I’m 4 today!” Mark exclaimed holding 4 fingers to show Nick.
“Sure are buddy. We got heaps of fun today.” Nick replied.
“Mommy going to be here?” Mark asked.
“Don’t think so kiddo.” Nick replied half honestly. Mark sighed.
“Come on.” Nick said getting off the floor.
By the time they got up and dressed and made their beds and tidied Mark’s room, Brian, Leighanne, Alex, Karen, Aaron, Howie, Leigh and the kids arrived the place and Aaron advised them on the finishing touches which looked incredible inside and out, including help from a couple of police officers finishing their shift. They adored Mark and wanted to help out.
“WOW!” Mark exclaimed. The rooms in the house were a different theme of cartoon and things Mark liked. Nick and Aaron did some of the work before going to bed the night before. Outside there was a jumping castle, and rides for the kids to go on. Nick wanted to make this party an amusement park like without going out.
“Did some great work guys.” Howie told Nick and Aaron as they were watching the kids run around with excitement, little Jason tagging behind.
“It better be good. We were up until 4am.” Aaron replied yawning.
“4am! Geeze, thought you wouldn’t have slept at all.” Leigh added.
“By the time we tidied up, it was 5am.” Nick said.
“You both did excellent. Wanna go in the kids party planning business?” Karen complimented them.
“NO!” Nick and Aaron replied at the same time.
“Guess lil Jason will have to have a regular birthday party then.” Alex sighed coming up to Karen from behind and putting his arms around her.
“See what happens man, see what happens.” Aaron told him.
“How’s he doing?” Brian asked as he Leighanne joined everyone in the kitchen, the main hub of where everything was happening.
“Doing ok. Just keep him distracted with things. See what he drew this morning.” Nick replied getting the drawing off the fridge. Everyone gasped.
“Man, what you say?” Brian asked.
“I couldn’t, I didn’t know what to say.” Nick replied. At that moment, Baylee and Mark ran in the kitchen with swords.
“Hey, hey, you two. Careful now.” Brian warned them.
“Sorry Dad.” Baylee replied. Mark and Baylee stopped playing swords until they walked out of the kitchen then started up again.
The kids eventually crashed out around 3pm after all the running around, the games the guys were doing. One by one, they laid across the spare bed all sound asleep.
“Thought they never stop!” Howie exclaimed as he was the last one to sit down on the lounge from cleaning up.
“We didn’t put out too much did we?” Aaron asked.
“No.” AJ sighed putting his feet up on the coffee table.
“I think you two did a wonderful job. You wouldn’t have even know he were upset or anything.” Leighanne said.
“Tomorrow’s another day.” Brian added.
“Another day without Brianna.” Nick sighed.
“Miracles do happen.” Leigh told him.
“I’ll believe it when I see it.” Nick replied. Leigh placing a hand on his knee.
“She will be back man. I have a feeling.” Aaron encouraged him.
“Yeah. Just wish I knew where she was.” Nick sighed getting up, walking over to the window looking outside.
“She’ll be alright man.” Alex said.
“Guys, we better get going. Been a long day for the kids.” Howie cut in after a few minutes of silence.
“Yeah, they’ll be up all night now.” Alex joked.
“Thanks guys for today. Been great.” Nick said.
“No worries.” They replied as they each hugged them. One by one they eventually left, kids still sound asleep.
Closing the door after everyone left, Nick and Aaron sighed. “What a day!” Aaron remarked as they leaned against the door.
“Yeah. Hey, thanks man for all your help.” Nick replied.
“It’s nothing.” Aaron shrugged it off.
“Come on, I think there’s some leftovers, decent leftovers.” Nick chuckled as they went into the kitchen.
Sitting down in the lounge watching basketball classics, talking about the shots, LA Lakers V San Antonio Spurs, when Detective Mertz came in. “Sorry to disturb you but we have something.” He said. Nick dropped his plate onto the ground.
“What? Is she ok? Where is she?” Nick asked all in a hurry.
“We have a video.” Vince stated.
“Er, Aaron, can you make sure Mark stays upstairs?” Nick asked Aaron.
“Yeah no worries.” Aaron replied and went upstairs. Vince put the video in.
“Where was this? When was this? What you doing?” Nick asked all of a sudden.
“We are doing everything we can. This only arrived today. We have teams working on it now.” Vince replied.
“What do we do? What do I do? They are now basically threatening Mark and me aren’t they?” Nick asked.
“We build up extra security. Everything needs to be screened by us first before even a crumb enters your property. I would try to stay indoors as much as possible. Try and not be seen.” Detective Mertz answered.
“Are Mark and I being threatened?” Nick asked again. Vince couldn’t answer.
“Oh god!” Nick stressed out sitting back down on the sofa again.
“We are doing everything within our power to get her back safely, we’ve got fingerprints trying to establish some kind of identification, technical teams analysing information. You are doing the right thing staying here.” Vince assured him.
“But what about Mark? Wouldn’t I be best to take him away from here?” Nick asked.
“Don’t do nothing yet. Let’s not get that far.” Vince replied.
“That far? You think I should do it anyway?” Nick asked angry.
“We don’t even know where they want Mark to go. They haven’t told us anything.” He replied.
“What about when they do. Do we act on that?” Nick asked.
“They may go through with it, they may not. They may just want you worked up.” Vince replied.
“Don’t let anything happen to Mark or Brianna. Please.” Nick pleaded with Vince.
“We’ll try.” He replied and walked out, leaving Nick on his own to stress out more.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Thanks so much for reading. I am really enjoying this. Please read and review. Thanks again to DelphinaCarter
