Slowly, he arose from the bed and crossed the room to the windows. Opening the blinds, he peered out at the city. He'd missed sunrise, but the view before him was still impressive enough. Bits of fog still hung in the air, both between and above fellow apartment buildings . The sky was beginning to turn a beautiful spring blue, rather than the oppressive gray of winter. Golden light from the sun that still hung near the horizon danced across the windows of the surrounding buildings, forcing to Frank to squint if he looked for too long. For the past several days, the temperature had dared to touch the fifty degree mark, so not one trace of last week's snow remained. He watched a bird flit by, heading to a nest it had made below the eves of the apartment directly across from Frank. He smiled. Amazing how quickly living creatures managed to adapt when forced to live in habitats of concrete and glass.

Closing the blinds, he crossed the room and flopped back down onto the bed. His smile faded as his mind drifted back to last night's rather odd conversation with Joe, or rather, Joe's new friend Rebecca. He just knew he knew that voice from somewhere. Perhaps someone he'd crossed paths with on a case. Regardless of what Joe thought, that girl had obviously not wanted to talk to him. She was definitely hiding something. The question was, does Joe know what she's hiding?

The child in the background had been begging to speak to her daddy. Frank was worried. What if Joe had gotten mixed up in some kind of custody battle? From what little Joe had said, this woman was a single mother, and apparently estranged from her family. If she was on the run, hiding her child out from a husband or boyfriend, Joe could get seriously hurt if the father ever caught up to her. He'd seen it happen too many times when he was working on patrols.

Frank rose; went into his living room; and pulled a telephone directory from his desk. His mind was made up. Whether Joe realized it or not, he was in trouble. And this time Frank intended to be there for him. If he was going to manage to be on a flight bound for California by nightfall, he had a lot to do. He needed to get a ticket on the first evening flight out that had the fewest layovers. Then he’d have to convince his captain that this was indeed a family emergency and that, yes, he had no choice but to take time off. After all, he hadn’t taken a full vacation in the entire time he’d worked for the NYPD, so he had plenty of leave days built up. After that, he’d have to catch up with Jake; make sure he was ok with working their cases by himself for at least a few days.

***

Joe sat straight up, staring out into the darkness of his living room. The pounding of his heart thundered in his ears and he struggled to catch his breath. Had he screamed aloud? Glancing over at Kevin’s still form, barely moving under the mound of blankets on the sofa bed, he decided that, no, he hadn’t. He attempted to shrug off the remnants of his nightmare. Something about a case, from what he could remember. He’d still been a teenager in the dream, and many of his friends had been there. He remembered faces - Nancy’s, Biff’s, Chet’s, Vanessa’s, Frank’s. And something about Bess. That was the odd part. Bess had a little girl with her in the dream. A little girl that looked like Laurie. And a man in the shadows had shot at them. He could still hear Bess screaming, and the shouts of his friend’s voices. He shook his head. "Shake it off," he whispered to himself. "It was just a nightmare. Nothing more. Nothing..."

He paused, eyes widening as the idea struck. "That’s it!" He glanced at the clock on the VCR. 4:12 a.m. "Not too early," he thought. He knew she now started her days at 5 a.m. He’d even teased her about the long hours, knowing how much she liked to sleep late in the mornings. If he got going now, he could catch her as she was arriving for work. It was perfect.

He slipped into his bedroom and watched Laurie’s even breathing for a moment as she lay curled against her mother. He thought about the threat Nancy had received the night before and, momentarily, white hot anger once more surged through him at the thought of ANYONE threatening this little girl to get at him or Nancy. He knew Laurie wasn’t his, but, he thought, this must be what it feels like to be a parent. To feel so responsible for the well being of one so small and defenseless; to love them enough to be willing to fight for them until one’s last breath. How had Nancy done this alone for so long?

He sat down on the edge of the bed and shook Nancy’s shoulder. "Nan," he whispered. "Wake up."

"Hmmm," she mumbled and turned onto her side.

He tried again. "Nancy! Wake up!"

She blinked her eyes drowsily as Joe turned on the bedside lamp. For a moment, she appeared disoriented, as if she’d forgotten where she was. Glancing at Laurie curled up next to her, her confusion vanished. Sitting up quickly, she looked at Joe.

"What? What’s happened?"

"I know where to take Laurie," he whispered.

"What?" she asked.

"Laurie," he repeated, gesturing at his sleeping niece. "I know where to take her. Somewhere safe."

"Where?" she whispered.

Joe shook his head. "Can’t tell you just yet. Not until I know for sure just how real this threat is. The fewer people that know where she is, the better. But I guarantee she’ll be safe. She’ll be where there’s lots of people and plenty of security. No one gets through this place."

Nancy stared at Joe in disbelief. "I’m her mother, for crying out loud," she said. "You’re trying to tell me that you can’t tell ME where you want to hide her?"

Joe nodded. "That’s right. Not until we’re sure it’s safe for her. That guy knew way too much about you, Nan. I’ve got a bad feeling about this. We’re talking about someone who preys on teenage girls to take their babies and is willing to kill them to keep it quiet. That’s not just kidnapping, it’s..it’s.." he stammered for a moment, trying to find the right words to convince her to let him do this. "It’s lower than kidnapping, Nan. It’s evil."

"But Joe," she began, "she’s my daughter.."

"Do you trust me?" he asked.

"What?"

"Do you trust me?" Blue eyes met blue eyes in the crossfire of two pale slivers of light - one from the small, bedside lamp; the other from the full moon glowing through the bedroom window.

Nancy paused. What else could she say? She couldn’t think of a time that Joe hadn’t come through for his friends or family. Even when he made mistakes, he managed to find a way to fix them. Even if it meant doing something crazy, like going into burning buildings or jumping out of an airplane onto a racing speedboat.

"Yes."

"Then get her stuff gathered up," Joe said. "I need to take her now if I’m going to get there in time."

Nancy nodded. She didn’t like this, but she’d go along with it - for now. She got up to collect Laurie’s things as Joe grabbed a change of clothes from his closet and slipped into the bathroom. He reappeared momentarily, gathered Laurie’s sleeping form in his arms, and unlocked the door. As they strapped Laurie into the backseat of Joe's car, Nancy's eyes once again met his.

"She's never been away from me for more than 8 or 9 hours," she whispered. "I don't know how she'll handle this."

"She'll be fine," Joe responded. "I know what I'm doing. The question is, can you handle it?"

She took a deep breath. "I guess I'm going to have to, aren't I?"

Joe placed a sympathetic hand on her arm. "We'll get to the bottom of this. By the time we're done, the guy who is behind this whole mess will be behind bars for the rest of his life. You'll see. I'm sorry I got you guys mixed up in this, but I have faith it will work out. You have to have faith too."

Nancy managed a weak smile. "I do," she said. She paused. "But just because I have faith in our sleuthing abilities doesn't mean I have to be happy at the turn this case has taken."

Joe grinned. "I want you to go to work today, as usual. See what you can dig up there on possible suspects. Maybe the person Jennifer met still works there, if we're lucky. I'll see if I can’t have some luck finding Clarissa Carter or her husband Trevor. We'll compare notes when I get back. And Nancy, I know you're not ready, but I think it's time I get Frank out here."

Nancy nodded. "I agree. I don't guess I'm ever going to be ready for this, but we do need Frank. Three heads are better than two."

"Ok," Joe said. "I'll check in with you on my cell by 10 or 11 a.m., and again this afternoon."

"All right," she said. She kissed Laurie gently on the forehead and softly closed the car door. "Be careful," she said to Joe.

"You too," he said. "I don't want to have to explain to Frank how I ended up with his daughter, but lost her mother to a criminal while working on a case." With that, Joe slipped behind the wheel, started the engine, and drove off into the darkness.