“Dakota Ann, are you crazy?” Sarah hissed when her sister and Josh returned and she noticed Bella in her arms sound asleep against her chest.


“You may have been quick to leave her Sarah, but I wasn’t going to! She’s our sister even if it isn’t official yet!”


“It’s not that I wanted to leave her, you know I didn’t. But it was just too risky we didn’t have the time! And you and Josh could’ve gotten yourself caught by going back down there!”


“It was a risk I was willing to take,” Dakota insisted and despite being incredulous with her sister at the moment Sarah couldn’t help but watch in amusement as she kissed Bella’s head softly and sat there letting her fingers cascade gently through her curly hair.


“Just answer me one thing,” Sarah said softly after a moment very much needing to know the answer and Dakota looked up at her curiously.


“If this had happened back in the day when you didn’t like me very much, would you have risked your life and gone back down there for me too?”


“Are you jealous of a baby Sarah?” Dakota asked teasingly even though she was well aware how serious she is being right now.


“Maybe a little bit – more envious then anything. I’m entitled to have my jealous streaks…you aren’t going to see me acting on them in cruel ways though like you had done. I love Bella.”


“If you asked me this question back in the day…I don’t know what my answer would be. But I’ve changed lots Sarah…you mean a lot to me now. You are to me like sugar is to cookies – the key ingredient in my life. My big sister…”


“In other words,” Ryan spoke up for the first time. “Leave the past in the past. You know she’d run back down there for you in a heartbeat just as she’d done for Bella.”


“Julie did you gets Doctor J on the walkie talkie yet?” Dakota asked after casting Ryan a weird glance. She isn’t used to him being so nice. Ellie however, was looking at him with stars in her eyes and Spencer had suddenly decided he liked the spot between them a lot better than sitting next to Chris and casually squeezed right in.


“Not yet he hasn’t replied to me. He’s working,” Julie answered softly as she stared at her walkie talkie longingly. She misses her Stevie so much.


“We’ll go to him then,” Josh insisted after thinking things through. He looked at Dakota then who knows the way better than he does. “Lead the way Batgirl,” he told her with so much affection in his voice that it was hard for Dakota not to swoon and Sarah rolled her eyes amusedly. When she saw that Dakota looked like she might go as far as kiss him she grabbed her hand interrupting the moment.


“Yes Batgirl, lead the way. Save the mushy gushy romance for The Beauty and The Beast play okay?”


“If there is ever going to be a play after this…” Dakota said softly, and she cast a glance through the nearest air vent in the direction she now knows that her ‘mommy’ is in and she willed her tears not to flood her eyes. Sarah squeezed her hand gently.


“There is going to be a play sis, I promise.” she reassured her firmly. “I’m going to make sure of it. We just need to go get Doctor Johnson so he can call Detective Stabler an’ get him to save them. Okay?”


“Kay,” Dakota sniffled and Sarah kissed her cheek.


“You’ll have your big moment, I promise.”


“I don’ts care about that,” Dakota insisted. “The big moment won’t be worth it anymore if Ashee isn’t there to see it’s.”


“She’ll be there,” Josh spoke up again and he squeezed her other hand and brought it up and kissed the back of it. “Even if your Batman has to make sure of it himself. Doctor Johnson is going to stop Sean from hurting her,” He told her while casting a glance at Ellie who shrunk into Spencer guiltily and feeling very small at the look her cousin had given her. Dakota who’d seen the look Josh had given her gave him a look right back.


“Stop it Josh,” She pleaded.


“What? I didn’t do anything” Josh shrugged innocently.


“Ellie can’t help who her daddy is. It’s hard for her…let her be.”


“As hard as it is for her, she knows she is going to have to do the right thing in the end whether she likes it or not.”


“Yes so let’s not put any more pressure on her all right?” Ryan spoke up in a tone that held so much authority. “She is well aware of what she is going to have to do.”


“Obviously she isn’t!” Josh snapped. “She could’ve told us he was there!”


“I didn’t know that he was Joshy!” Elenore wailed.


“Correction, you weren’t sure if he was there!” Josh demanded. “But everybody knows you can feel him and you did deep down inside and you know it! You promised Kevin you’d tell us!”


“Fine, I made a mistake but I’m just five years old Joshy! I didn’t know he was going to do this!”


“And then when he showed up you ran up to him like he was nominated for daddy of the year or something! Even when he was here to hurt all of us!” Josh continued. “After all he’s done!”


“He’s my daddy an’ I loves him! An’ I know he loves me too even if he doesn’t like to show it! Anyone would run up to their daddy at first sight – on impulse!”


“I guess I wouldn’t know what that’s like,” Josh told her begrudgingly and he looked away from her.


“Well that’s not my fault, Joshy” Ellie whispered. “Forget about your father. What about Brian? What if it were Brian in Sean’s shoes? What if he was a monster sometimes but deep down inside loved you…would you be happy to see him at first too?”


“That’s hard to imagine, because my Brian is an angel” Josh insisted firmly. “He could never be a monster.” Chris scoffed.


“He’s no angel…he makes mistakes. But he still would never be a monster.”


“But suppose he wasn’t the Brian we all knows an’ love. Would you understand then?”



“I don’t know Ellie, like I said it’s hard to imagine. Brian would never-” Josh paused and saw that Chris was about to interrupt him. “Do anything as wrong as this,” He continued pointedly and Chris remained quiet deciding that was an okay comment…just so long as Josh wasn’t putting him on a pedestal or anything. Don’t get him wrong, he’s grown to really love Brian…but he’s seen and experienced firsthand some of the mistakes he’s made and therefore doesn’t see him as the perfect man that Josh has made him out to be. But he does love him very much…for all of his imperfections and he knows he would never be as monstrous as Sean. Not even close. “But the point is,” Josh continued after a moment. “You know what you have to do in the end Ellie – we’re going to go find Doctor Johnson who is going to make sure Sean is stopped and you are going to help him. Do you understand? I will make sure of it.” Ellie opened her mouth to say something and was cut off. “I don’t care what you plan on doing afterward, just so long as the first task gets done. I know you love him, but if you love any of us at all you will do this Ellie. Who does he have to kill for you to fully understand?”


“Josh that’s enough,” Ryan insisted when he saw that he was about to get in her face.


“No its not, I want to make sure she understands!” Josh looked back at Ellie then. “Will it have to be someone Kota loves Ellie? Will it be the cost of your best friend that finally does it?”


“I don’t want Ashee to die!” Ellie sobbed.


“And yet you still protect him!”


“HE’S MY DADDY!”


“AND A MURDERER!”


“Will you two shut up? You are going to wake Bella!” Dakota snapped tearfully.


“We are wasting precious time sitting here watching you two argue,” Sarah added seriously. “Let’s just go find Doctor Johnson and he will get a hold of Detective Stabler for us! Lives depend on us right now Josh! On you Batman.” Josh straightened up then upon being reminded that he was currently playing Batman right now, and he pulled his mask down over his face importantly, making Dakota despite her tears smile slightly. She took his hand and pulled him along and the others followed, Ryan holding Laila’s hand and feeding her M&M’s every few minutes just to keep her cooperating. Josh glanced back at Ellie as they made their way through the vents and when he saw that she was close to stopping where she is at and just sobbing he sighed softly, reached back and took her hand and tugged her so that she was beside him and he squeezed her hand gently.


“You know once he is in jail I’ll be right by your side in your fight to save his life, Ellie.” he told her softly. “I love you and you know it…you’re my favorite cousin. But I love Kota and I’m tired of seeing the people she loves hurt because it hurts her. Aren’t you? Put the fact that he’s your father aside…She’s your best friend. Don’t you love her?”


“Course I do…”


“He’s made too many bad choices Ellie,” He told her, choosing his words carefully. “He’s got to be stopped…even if you don’t like the way it has to be done. He has to be punished.”


“But I loves him Joshy,” Ellie insisted tearfully.


“I know you do,” Josh told her while squeezing her hand. “But look at it this way…Kevin loves you right? You saw that today didn’t you?” Ellie nodded quietly. “An’ when you are bad…when you deserve it, he puts you in time out, or takes your toys away, or grounds you am I right? Because he loves you and wants you to turn out okay – like Brian has explained so many times. Right?” Ellie nodded once more. “Do you love your daddy enough to make sure he turns out okay?”


“Yeah…”


“Well, I think your daddy is long overdue to be put away in time out,” he told her, leaving out the fact that his time out would last forever. “An’ if you love him an’ want him to be better, you should put him there.” Elenore said nothing as she allowed Josh to pull her through the air vents. When they finally arrived over at the hospital wing, Dakota paused abruptly when she heard angry voices being spoken down below. She and Josh quietly peered through the vents in front of them and discovered lots of men down there with guns and hospital patients and doctors all sitting in one room tied up and just as distressed as the people over in the Orphanage are. There was a scary man barking orders at them and no sign of Doctor Johnson anywhere. Dakota looked back at Julie then just on time to see tears building up in her eyes.


“I want Stevie…” Sarah wrapped her arms around her and pulled her into a hug and she rubbed her hand over her back soothingly.


“He isn’t down there,” Dakota told Sarah. “Joshy an’ I didn’t sees him.”


“We will have to do without him until we can find him,” Ryan insisted and Sarah hugged Julie tighter as she became even more upset upon hearing those words. “We need a way to call Detective Stabler.”


“Didn’t daddy buy Ashee a cell phone Kota?” Sarah asked after a long moment of thinking.


“Yeah, but that would mean me going back down there to gets it from her.”


“Maybe not…” Sarah replied while eyeing Nick’s backpack. “Give me that,” She said after a moment and she snatched the backpack from Dakota, opened it up and began pulling things out as she looked through it. When she reached what she wanted, she pulled out a Samsung phone that slides open.


“Why didn’t you get that out of there before?” Ryan asked exasperatedly.


“Because I only just thought about it, that’s why” Sarah told him matching his tone easily with her own. “Ashee isn’t used to carrying her phone around because she just got it the other day – daddy must’ve thrown it in the bag when he was getting everything together.”


“It doesn’t matter the point is we’ve got it. Call Detective Stabler” Josh insisted. Sarah opened the phone and went to dial the number, but then paused short and looked around.


“Does anybody know his number?” Josh, Dakota, Spencer, Ryan, and Julie all shook their heads but Elenore however, reached into her pocket and everybody looked at her curiously. After a few seconds, she pulled out what looked like a business card and handed it to Sarah.


“He gaves it to me in case I ever wanted to calls him.”



~*~*~*~*~



Meanwhile at the cemetery, the Detectives and Aaron and Conner have dug up every single grave in the place and reburied every single one afterwards when they didn’t find Angel in any of them and when they finished reburying the very last one, Aaron looked at Detective Stabler hopelessly as he sat on his knees in the wet mud with tear-filled eyes and stained cheeks.


“This isn’t the only grave yard in Florida…” Conner reminded them hopefully and Detective Munch shook his head.


“But this is the only one closest. Sean wouldn’t drive so far away when his goal was to be here when the storm starts.”


“Perhaps we’re going about this the wrong way,” Detective Benson spoke up after standing there thinking about Sean. “Angel says there is someone in that grave with her – someone who has been dead for a very long time,” She added giving Detective Stabler a look and he caught on right away. He whirled around and made a run for it to the car, desperate to find Angel and rescue her and as everybody followed he spoke.


“Knowing him and his hatred for his father…he wouldn’t have minded disturbing his grave in the least bit. I bet he was even anxious to do so. He might have put her in with him.”


“Where is he buried?” Aaron wanted to know as they jumped in the car and Detective Stabler drove off.


“In the woods near Sean’s old trailer home,” All three Detectives answered in unison. Aaron hugged his legs to his chest then and he silently tuned into to Angel checking on her, though he was completely aware of Conner watching him. He knows Conner knows when he is talking to her.


Angel are you okay?


Oh yes Aaron, I am great. The Skeleton and I are having a tea party down here and everything! Aaron rolled his eyes and Conner couldn’t help but smile slightly. He knows only Angel’s sarcasm can make Aaron look that irritated. Which means his girlfriend still has some fight left in her.


You know what I meant.


I’m really scared Aaron…I don’t want to die down here.


You aren’t going to die on me, do you hear me? You just hold on…we’re coming to get you.


Where is Nick? She asked for the first time though he knows the question has been on her mind all night. How is he holding up?



He’s being the strong big brother that he’s always been Aaron answered vaguely and he tried his hardest to hide his thoughts about the double hostage situation going on. The last thing he wants is to stress her out even more when he worked so hard on getting her to come back from her state of panic earlier. He’s worried sick about you but he’s doing everything he can to hold it together and put on a brave face for me.

Where is he? Angel asked again knowing perfectly well that he is avoiding part of her question.


Taking care of BJ and Leslie…they are a mess right now.


Where at Aaron? When Aaron grew very silent as he tried his very hardest to close his mind off to her – to no success, she read it on his mind.


No.


Don’t panic Angel it’s being taken care of.


Don’t panic? Our brother is trapped in that building with the bastard who put me down here and you are telling me not to panic?


You have yourself to take care of Angel, we’re taking care of Nick up here. You aren’t going to do him any good by panicking and making things worse for yourself!


But--


--Worry about yourself Angel, otherwise Nick may come out of that building only to find out he’s never going to see his baby sister again. Is that what you want? You know how much you mean to him, you know how much that will kill him. When Angel didn’t reply he continued. Just remain calm…we’ll be there soon. Just then, Detective Stabler’s phone rang interrupting Aaron’s silent conversation. He pulled the phone from his pocket, flipped it open, and placed it to his ear without even bothering to look to see who it is because he is driving.


“Hello?”


“Elliot?” came Ellie’s fragile voice causing the expression on his face to go from serious to concern very quickly.


“Ellie honey what’s going on? How are you calling me?”


“My daddy is in serious need of a time out.” Well, that’s a mild way of putting it Detective Stabler thought to himself and he wondered who managed to get her to see it in that perspective.



“Where are you Ellie? What is he doing now? Is he going to catch you on the phone with me any second?”


“Last time I was there he was making Marcus turn cameras on. Turtles an’ I escaped to sewers.” Detective Stabler couldn’t help but smile slightly and he decided he would go into game mode with her for her benefit.


“How are you calling me right now Raphael?”


“Ashee’s phone...Sarah – April, found it in her daddy’s backpack.”


“Okay…that’s good. I need you to tell April to hold onto it okay? And put it on vibrate incase I decide to call you. We don’t want anybody to hear it ringing.”


“Kay.”


“And when I call you, I don’t want you to call me Elliot all right?”


“How come?”


“Detectives Stuff – Detectives often use a code name when they are under cover. If you are near an air vent I don’t want anybody to over hear you talking to me. So call me Master Splinter okay?”


“I want you Master Splinter…” Ellie told him weakly. “Daddy breaks promises…”


“I’m going to try my very best to –“


“--Angel? ANGEL? ELLIOT YOU HAVE TO DRIVE FASTER, SHE’S PASSED OUT AGAIN!”


“Ellie sweetie I have to go. Keep the phone close I will call you as soon as I can okay?”


“But Elliot—“


“—I love you honey it’s going to be okay. I will call you,” he promised and then hung up again.


“What’s going on Aaron?” he asked while speeding up slightly.


“I don’t know I can’t hear her anymore which can only mean she’s passed out again! The loss of air must’ve gotten to be too much!”


“Liv, call Detective Tutuola and inform him that I just got in touch with the kids from inside the building and that as soon as we rescue Angel I’m heading down there to help no matter what Craigen’s orders are!”


“But Elliot –“


“—I don’t care Olivia! Whether I am too close to everybody in the building or not I am going to help! If he has a problem with it he can take it up with the five year old because I am the only one she will co-operate fully with!” When he saw that she was pulling her phone out and doing as he requested of her, he sped up some more, racing to save Angel’s life.


~*~*~*~*~*~


“I just got off of the phone with Olivia,” Detective Tutuola told Captain Craigen as he joined his side as he too had just hung up the phone from talking to Ben from inside the hospital wing. “What did Ben have to say?”


“You first. What did Olivia have to say?” Craigen asked while rubbing his temples stressfully. Detective Tutuola regarded his captain’s mood warily before answering knowing he is not someone to make angry at the moment.


“Well…I’m just the messenger…so don’t kill me.”


“I hate answers that start out like that. What is going on Fin?”


“Elliot says as soon as he rescues Angel he is coming here to help.”


“I told him he wasn’t allowed.”


“Yeah well, with all due respect…I don’t think he gives a rat’s ass at this point.”


“He will give a rat’s ass when he shows up here and finds out he doesn’t have a job anymore,” Craigen threatened. Detective Tutuola ran his fingers through his hair stressfully.


“Yeah well, here’s the thing Captain…Ellie called him from inside the building.” Craigen arched his eyebrow.


“What?”


“Yeah. From Ashley’s cell phone...according to Liv, Ellie and the rest of the ‘turtles’ snuck into the air vents and called him. Ellie is in a fragile state right now which means she is only going to answer to Elliot.” Craigen scowled. He knows there is no arguing with that.


“But if he loses anybody in there while in charge you know what it’s going to do to him! He can’t handle this!”


“We don’t have much of a choice if we’re going to have any hope of having contact from inside the building besides from Ben.”


“I’m still waiting on Sean to call. He has to know we’re out here by now with all of those cameras in there – I don’t think he would let the cameras remain turned off, he would want to be in control and be able to see the whole building.”


“What makes you think he’s going to? He only went in there for one thing – to torture Ashley. What would he want with us?”


“Because with us here he isn’t getting out of there. He’s going to try and negotiate with us soon…they all do…they all want something.”


“What does Ben want?”


“Nothing so far, I haven’t gained his trust yet. But I have a feeling he isn’t there to help Sean…I think he’s double-crossing him.”


“I think I would be more surprised if he was there to help him. We all know the entire baddie nation has turned against him.” Craigen nodded and pulled his hood down further over his head as he nestled into his jacket searching for warmth against the strong wind and rain. What a perfect night for Sean to plan a hostage situation he thought bitterly to himself. Just perfect. Well at least they don’t have to deal with the media like they would on any normal day during a situation like this. Sighing heavily, he walked off to his detectives and began discussing things with them.