Coming Full Circle {2/8}

[shadowcat]

Title: Coming Full Circle {2/8}
Author: enochiansigils and not_from_stars
Artist: azarsuerte
Fandom: Primeval
Pairing/Characters (if no pairing): Kahlil Pierce/Niki Becker
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Completely AU and makes mention of things that happened in the past for Niki's family. Some events made up or embellished for explanations of attitudes.
Word Count: 26,403
Summary: Being in love with the daughter of Captain Becker, Abby Maitland and Connor Temple isn't easy. It's even harder when you're the exact image of your uncle -- a man who hurt them more than anyone else ever has. However, Kahlil Pierce hasn't let that deter him -- especially when he knows that Niki Becker loves him just as much. When Niki doesn't return with the rest of her team after an excursion through an anomaly, Kahlil doesn't stop to think before he goes in to look for her. Finding his injured girlfriend was the easy part. Trapped on the wrong side of anomaly with no way to get home, Kahlil has to use all of his skills to keep Niki safe while at the same time having faith that her family will find a way to bring them home.
Notes: Written for oc_bigbang 2011. We do not own Primeval or the concepts, but Kahlil and Niki are all ours.






He took a minute to get his bearings, such as they were, and then yelled again. "Niki! Talk to me, Nik!"

Niki groaned softly as she opened her eyes, not exactly sure what had happened or where she was at first. Her leg hurt and her head did, too. "Hello? Help!"

Kahlil tilted his head, trying to place where the voice was coming from. "Keep talking, Niki, I'm coming!"

Niki was confused. What the hell was Kahlil doing here? Civilians weren't allowed to go through the anomalies. "Kahlil?" She wasn't far from him.

It only took him a minute to find her. "Oh love," he said, dropping to his knees next to her and setting his gun aside. "What happened?"

"Earthquake, I think. The ground started shaking so we started to head back to the anomaly."

"That fits what they said, that you were with them when everything started happening."

"Did the men get through safely?"

"They did," he said with a nod.

She closed her eyes, relief crossing her features for a moment. She sudden opened her eyes, realizing something. "Wait, they let you come out here?"

"Not so much," he said, quirking a smile. "I kind of pushed my way through. I wasn't going to leave you here alone."

"Alone? What happened?"

"The team got through but there wasn't time for them to come back for you. The anomaly was closing."

Niki nodded and then winced. "Ow."

"Don't move," Kahlil said. "What hurts?"

"Leg and head."

"I'm going to check you out, okay? Make sure nothing's broken."

"Ok," she said in a soft voice.

Kahlil did his best to be gentle as he checked her out. "Okay, good news is, nothing in your leg is broken."

"Just sprained?"

"I think so, yes."

"Good," she murmured, closing her eyes.

"Don't know if you have a concussion or not, though," he said, as he took her hand in his.

"Head injuries are the worst," she said in agreement.

"How does your head feel now?"

"It hurts, but it will be all right."

"Good." Because they needed to start assessing the situation and he couldn't do that on his own. She was the tactical one.

"By now, Dani knows I'm missing and is chewing everyone out while Henry is grilling them."

"And Lester will be simultaneously helping Henry and wondering how long they can keep from having to tell my uncle about this." Because while Kahlil was a grown man who answered to himself, there were just some things you didn't keep from Phillip Burton. Especially since God only knew what his reaction would be anyway; his reaction if the news were kept from him would likely be even worse.

"Mom and Dads will be outside the original opening right about now."

"I hope they come up with something soon." Otherwise their outlook was pretty grim.

"They will," she murmured, closing her eyes. "My family won't just let us stay trapped out here. Not after what they've been through."

"They'll worry about you," he agreed. Not that he thought they'd leave him out there, but he knew that Niki's safety would be first and foremost to them.

"They'll worry about you, too."

"Because I'm with you, love," he said gently. "They'll want to get me back, yes, but you're the one they'll worry about. I have no delusions that your family likes me."

"Dani likes you," she murmured groggily. "She just thinks you're dangerous."

"Your sister's very perceptive."

"You're not dangerous to us."

"No, I'm not."

"I told her that."

"And she didn't believe you, did she?"

"She knows you're not a danger to me or the people I love," she refuted.

"Knowing something and believing it are often two different things entirely, love." Arguing with Niki kept her thinking, kept her mind working. If she did have a head injury, he wanted her as with it as possible.

"She believes you would never hurt me."

"I would rather die than hurt you, love." He reached out to touch her face gently.

"I know that," she assured him, turning her face towards his hand. "I have no doubt of that."

"I'm going to keep you safe," he promised. "Whatever I have to do here, I'll do."

She nodded, trying to fight the wince of pain. "I know you will, Kahlil. I love you."

"I hate seeing you in pain," he whispered, his fingers stroking her cheek tenderly. "Even moreso when there's precious little I can do for you."

"You're here. That's plenty."

"Because now you don't have to face the dangers alone." Kahlil was looking around as he spoke.

She nodded slightly, closing her eyes.

"No, love. Don't go to sleep. Not yet."

"I'm so sleepy, love."

"But we have to find a decent shelter," he reasoned. "You can't go to sleep out here."

"Shelter," she repeated. "Yeah. I should know that."

"Come on, love. Let's get up and get moving. Find shelter. Then you can rest while I scout."

"Need a cave or something."

"Do you remember seeing one?" he asked as he slowly helped her to her feet. Asking her to think was asking a lot at the moment, he knew, but he was trying to keep her mind working.

"Possibly. It may have been nothing, but about two miles south of here there were mountains and cliffs. Some of the shadows were strange so they could have been caves."

"We'll have to take a chance," he said, wrapping an arm around her to help her walk. "I know it's not going to be comfortable, love, and I'm sorry."

"You didn't cause the earthquake, love," Niki murmured as she leaned on him. "And you came for me."

"They tried stopping me," he said softly as they walked. "I wasn't about to let them do that."

"That was foolish of them."

"I wasn't going to let them stop me," he said. "Not when you would be here alone." Of course, now they were both trapped, but at least she wasn't alone.

"We'll get back home," she said with a soft confidence. "They'll find us."

"And if they don't, at least we're together."

"Together is very good."

"This is not how I envisioned getting time alone with you tonight, though, I have to admit," he joked, trying to keep the mood up a little.

Niki laughed softly. "Yeah, this wasn't my idea of a good date, either."

"Your idea of a good date is the shooting range," he teased. "Or shagging at my flat. We really don't have a lot of variety, do we?"

Niki managed to laugh, though it hurt like hell to do so. "We know what we like."

"I manage to keep up with you pretty well for an old man." The age difference was a joke between them because really, they didn't care about it.

Niki smiled at him. "You're my old man."

"Damn right I am."

"Caves," Niki gestured, sagging against his side.

Kahlil scooped Niki up in his arms at that, carrying her towards the caves. Thankfully one of them was easy enough to get to even with her in his arms.

"Tired, so tired, Kahlil."

"You'll be able to rest in a few minutes, love," he promised as he made his way towards the back of the cave.

"Dani. Dani will find us."

"Of course she will," Kahlil said, setting Niki down gently on the floor of the cave. "She won't let anything happen to you."

Niki didn't respond, closing her eyes.

"You just rest," Kahlil said, taking a seat next to her. He'd been planning to scout around, but if she was going to possibly sleep, then he wasn't leaving her alone.

"Trying not to be a hindrance to you."

"You need to rest," he said, pulling her close so she could rest her head in his lap. "I'll scout in a little bit, once you've had a chance to rest a little."

"You can scout while I'm sleeping," she murmured. "I should still have my guns."

"If you have head trauma, I don't want you sleeping by yourself."

"If I have head trauma, I'm not going to be in any condition to scout."

Kahlil was torn. He needed to scout, he knew that, but... at the same time, he didn't want to leave her alone in her condition.

"I'll be all right, love."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure. You've put me far enough away from the opening that I can shoot anything before it gets the drop on me."

He leaned in to kiss her. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Love you."

"Love you, too." He looked at her grimly. "Anything comes into this cave, shoot it."

She smiled and brought one of the guns to lay across her chest.

"That's my girl." His expression softened slightly; he looked at her for another moment before standing and heading for the mouth of the cave.

Niki watched him leave, fighting to keep her eyes open.



Kahlil was back roughly an hour later; he hadn't wanted to be gone too long for fear of something happening to Niki. Once they knew her condition a little better, he'd make a more exhaustive exploration of the area. This little sojourn had been enough to tell him the answers to the basic questions.

"Niki!" he called as he approached the cave, remembering telling her to shoot anything that came in. "I'm back!" Startling her and getting shot would be rather unpleasant.

"I'm here," she murmured, relaxing her hand on the gun.

He moved to her side quickly. "How're you feeling?"

"Tired. Cold." She looked up at him. "What did you find out?"

"We've found about the best spot we could to hide out in," Kahlil replied as he sat. "We're well and truly stuck here, but we should be able to forage well enough to get by."

"That's good to know."

"I'll make another sweep later," he said, setting his weapons aside. "I didn't want to leave you alone for too long right now, just in case."

"I'm so tired, Kahlil."

"I know, love. I know." Kahlil smiled encouragingly. "Do you feel any of the signs of a concussion? Because if you don't, I think then we can let you sleep."

"Hurts, but that's it." She was pretty sure that she didn't have a concussion.

"Then I think you can sleep for a little while," he said. "I'm still going to keep an eye on you, though. Just to make me feel better."

"Don't stress yourself out over me, love."

"If I don't worry about you a little now, I'll be too stressed to properly help keep us safe."

She frowned, but then nodded slightly. "Like I would if it was reversed."

"Exactly," he said with a nod.

"You'll wake me up if anything happens?"

"Of course I will," he promised.

"They'll find us," she murmured, finally giving in to sleep.

Kahlil could only hope that she was right. He sat there with her for a while, watching her sleep, until finally he had to get up and move; he started pacing, every so often looking back to his sleeping girlfriend.



"What do you mean, the anomaly closed!" Abby shouted at the men who had come to report to Becker about the latest anomaly. "Where is my daughter?!"

"On the other side," said a particularly brave -- or stupid -- soldier. "With Mr. Pierce."

"You left them on the other side of an anomaly?" Abby's blue eyes had turned almost black with fury.

"We didn't realize she wasn't with us until it was nearly too late," another soldier said. "Before we could do anything, Mr. Pierce took off through the anomaly -- and then it closed."

"Open the damn thing back up, then!"

"We tried, ma'am. It... failed."

Abby's voice turned cold and quiet. "What do you mean it failed?"

"It wouldn't open," the soldier replied. "We tried several times and each time, it didn't open."

Becker was just as upset as Abby, but he was forcing himself to stay calm. They couldn't get Niki -- and Kahlil -- back if he let himself fall apart.

"Well, we'll just have to figure out why it failed, then, won't we?"

Abby was trying not to show her panic at the idea of her daughter and Kahlil going through the same thing that she and Connor had gone through.

"Connor and Jess," she said, forcing herself to speak. "Where are Connor and Jess?"

"Last I heard, Connor was helping Jess repair what she did to the systems," Becker said. "We... we should tell him about this ourselves, Abby."

Abby nodded, but she felt like she was watching everything from far away. "Yes. I don't want him to find out from someone else."

"Let's go find him, then," Becker said, standing. It was a clear dismissal of his men.

Abby clutched at his arm after the men were gone. "Hilary!" Her whispered voice was full of shock and fear.

"It's going to be all right," he soothed. "We'll get her back, I promise."

"The last time," her voice broke. "The last time someone was trapped... we were gone a year."

"That's not going to happen this time," Becker said, pulling her into his arms and hugging her tightly. "We've made advances in understanding the anomalies. I'm sure they'll be able to get her back."

Abby hugged him back, fear evident in every move she made. "Niki and Kahlil are out there..."

"We'll get them back," he promised before pulling away. "Let's go talk to Conn."

"T-trapped." Abby wasn't aware of how cold she had suddenly gotten. "Hil..."

Becker wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her against his side.

"We have to help them." Abby was clutching at him.

"We will," he said softly. "But first we need to tell Connor what happened."

She nodded, fighting back tears as they went looking for Connor.

They found him in a side room, working with Jess on one of the computers. He looked up when they came in and immediately knew something was wrong. "What happened?" he asked, knowing it couldn't possibly be anything good.

"Connor... Niki..." Abby swallowed, trying to get the words past her throat.

Jess knew this was a family matter; she was family of a sort, yes, but this wasn't for her to hear. "I'm going to take a break for a couple minutes," she said before standing and slipping out of the room.

Abby tried to tell Connor what happened, but she couldn't seem to say it. Her eyes filled with tears as she looked at him helplessly.

"There's a problem, Conn." Becker took a deep breath. "Niki didn't make it back through the anomaly. And they couldn't get it open again."

Connor went pale. "No, that... that can't be right."

"She's trapped," Abby whispered, her eyes haunted.

"She's alone!"

"No," Becker said with a quick shake of his head. "Kahlil's with her. Apparently he went through just before the anomaly closed."

Abby nodded. "He ran through the anomaly before it closed."

Connor was still pale. "We have to get her back," he said numbly. "We have to. I can't apologize to her if we don't."

"Apologize for what?"

"Kahlil made a joke about something, I told him I know how to handle my family, Niki tried to calm me down, and I just... walked away from her."

"Kahlil... they said that when he realized Niki hadn't come back, he shoved through the security team to go look for her," Abby whispered. She reached out to pull Connor to her and Becker and clung to him a little.

Connor buried his face against Abby's hair. "He... oh God, he really loves her, doesn't he?" He'd long suspected Kahlil of just using Niki. Now he was confronted with evidence that it wasn't the case.

"I think... I think maybe he does," Abby said slowly. "Why else would he have run into a situation like that?" She swallowed hard. "His... his uncle never would have endangered himself for anyone -- much less one of us."

"He'll keep her safe," Becker soothed the two of them. "He's got the training for it."

"How could this have happened?" Abby whispered. "How could she have been left behind?!"

"I don't know, love," Becker said. "But I'll find out. I promise I'll find out."

Abby nodded, trying to get her emotions under control. It wasn't working so well.

Connor was busy trying not to fall apart. "What if the last conversation I ever had with my daughter is one where I walked away from her?"

That made Abby's tears start. "It won't be. It can't be."

Becker hugged them both close. "We're going to get them back. I won't let it be any other way."

"Dani," Abby whispered against his chest. "Dani. We have to tell her and Henry what happened."

"We do," Connor said. "I... God, I'm too scared to tell them."

"We have to. They need to hear it form us." Abby was already dreading the temper tantrum that her daughter was going to throw all over the ARC about this.

He sighed heavily. "I know," he said, pulling back to rake his fingers through his hair. "I know."

"Henry... maybe Henry can help keep her from killing someone." Because if there was one thing Abby had learned a long time ago, her daughters were violently protective of each other.

"I hope so."

Abby sniffled, trying to pull herself together. Then something occurred to her and her face paled. "Oh God."

"What? Abby, what is it?" Connor looked at her worriedly.

"If Burton finds out that Kahlil is out there, he may show up here."

Becker swore. "That's the last damn thing we need."

"I can't," she whimpered. "I can't deal with him. I can't handle seeing that... him." The idea of having to see Burton again brought up all of the painful memories of how she had been hurt by him and how she had almost lost the two men that meant more than her own life.

"If he shows up, I'll deal with him," Connor promised. "I didn't take care of you the first time; I'm going to take care of you now."

Abby nodded, but her hands were shaking as she reached out to Connor. "Be careful around him, please."

"I will," he said, taking her hands in his. "I promise, love. I will."

She nodded, believing him. However the fear for her daughter and now the panic of Burton probably showing up was almost more than even someone as tough as Abby could take.

"Okay, first we're going to go talk to Dani and Henry," Becker said, cutting in gently. "Which means that first, we need to find them."

She nodded. "Probably in the main room with all of the monitors or in Lester's office."

"Let's try the main room," Connor said. "Dani's probably trying to make sure we really have fixed everything."

Abby nodded. She'd follow Connor and Becker's lead on this.

They found their daughter in the main room, sitting at one of the consoles. Henry stood behind her, resting his hands lightly on her shoulders as he watched her work.

Dani heard footsteps and turned slightly. "What's wrong?" she asked instantly, because her parents wouldn't look like that if everything was okay.

Abby swallowed and then swallowed again. She couldn't seem to get the words out and she looked at Connor and Becker helplessly.

"There was an... incident," Becker said. "Your sister's team didn't realize that she wasn't with them until it was too late."

"Too late?" Dani repeated. "What do you mean by too late?"

"The anomaly closed," Abby whispered. "Niki... Niki didn't come back before that happened."

"No!" Dani protested, panic in her voice. "Why didn't they open it and go after her? They just left her there?"

"They wouldn't have left her without a reason," Henry soothed, squeezing her shoulders gently as he looked to the adults. "There was a reason, right?"

Abby chewed on her lip. "They couldn't get it open again."

"What?" Dani looked stunned. "That's... what happened to the device?"

"I don't know," Connor said. "I'm going to take a look at it, see if I can figure out the problem."

"I'm going to help," Dani said instantly.

"Kahlil is with her," Abby said, looking at Dani and Henry. "He fought past the security team and went through the anomaly before it closed."

"Then she'll be fine," Dani said, looking a little calmer -- but not much. "He'll keep her safe." She might not have liked Kahlil, but she believed that he loved her sister.

"She's not alone," Abby said with a small nod. "But we have to get that damn thing open and bring them home."

"Preferably before Burton and his family descend upon us," Henry said, wrinkling his nose.

Abby tried not to react to that, but she could feel her shoulders tense even more.

"Mom, it's gonna be okay," Dani said. "The dads will deal with Burton, Henry and I will worry about Miranda and Elena." Burton's daughter and wife, respectively. "We won't let him get to you again."

Abby nodded. "I'm the mom. I'm supposed to be protecting you guys."

"We protect who needs to be protected, Aunt Abby," Henry said. "And right now, that's you."

He sounded so much like Danny that she gave him a faint smile.

"So you don't worry about a thing," he said to Abby. "And you," he said, pressing a kiss to the top of Dani's head. "You just worry about the anomaly locking device and what might be wrong with it. You know Niki's with someone who can protect her."

Abby was quiet, listening to everything that was going on around her and trying to make sure she stayed on her feet.

"We should get you out of here," Connor said softly to her, reaching out to take her hand in his.

Abby reached her hand so he could take it and she was pretty sure he could feel how badly she was shaking.

He didn't say anything, though, just squeezed her hand in silent reassurance.

"D-Dani? Be careful with those things. I don't want to lose any of you."

"I'll be careful, Mom. I promise."

Abby nodded and then let herself be led away.

Dani watched her mother and father go. "I don't want him to help," she said, looking up at Becker. "If he can't get the device working properly again, he'll blame himself and fall apart. Let me do it. Please?"

"He needs to help, for his own peace of mind," Becker said gently. "He feels guilty. Helping will make him feel better."

"So will worrying about taking care of Mom," Dani pointed out.

"You're not doing it by yourself, Dani," Becker said firmly.

"Then let Aunt Jess help me," Dani bargained.

That would be when Jess poked her head into the room. "Did I hear my name?"

"You did," Dani said, managing a smile she didn't entirely feel. "He won't let me work on the anomaly locking device by myself."

Jess came fully into the room, followed by Matt. "She won't be working on it alone," Jess said. "Let Matt and I work with Henry and you go look after Abby and Connor."

Becker hesitated. "Call me the minute you know anything."

Jess just gave him a look that spoke volumes.

Becker just gave her a look back before giving Dani a slight smile and heading out of the room.

Jess let out a sigh and then looked back at the other three. "We have got to make this work."

"We will," Henry said, his hands resting on Dani's shoulders again protectively, almost possessively.

She nodded, looking at Matt. "I haven't seen Abby look like that in a long time."

"Me, either," Matt said with a shake of his head. "It's... not a good look on her."

"The last time we saw that look was when Burton told her that Connor wanted nothing more to do with her because he had bigger and better things to get him access to at Prospero," Jess muttered. "Not to mention see her start to break when she found out that he was slowly killing her."

Dani bit the inside of her cheek hard. "We can't let my mom break again, Aunt Jess. we just can't."

"We won't Dani," Matt promised. "I made a promise when Abby pulled through the poisoning that I would never let anything happen to her or her family ever again. I mean to keep that promise. We will get your sister back safely."

Dani just nodded, fighting back tears. She couldn't fall apart now. Not when Niki needed her.

Jess looked at Dani. "Where do you want to start?"

"I don't know where to start," Dani admitted, fighting to keep her voice from cracking.

Jess reached over and hugged her. "All right, let's check the data feeds first and see if we can find where the device failed."

Dani simply nodded, more than happy to let Jess take charge.

She gripped Dani's arms gently. "We will get your sister back, all right. I promise you, Danielle. We will get her back."

"Of course we are," Dani said, a bit of her usual subtle fire returning.

"Then keep a hold of that temper of yours and focus it into these damn machines."

"Take a deep breath, Dani girl," Henry murmured. "Take a breath, let it go, and dive right in."

Dani nodded and did as he said. "Okay... let's get to it, then. Let's figure this out and bring my sister home."

Jess looked at Matt, who nodded. "We can do this."

"We're going to do this," Henry said firmly. "Rather, you three are and I'm going to stay out of the way."

"Don't leave," Dani said quietly.

"I won't, love. I'm just going to go do a coffee or tea run for everybody and then sit in the corner with some paperwork." He knew better than to be in the thick of things while the others were working.

Jess gave him a small smile. "Coffee will probably be needed."

"Just let me know what everybody wants and then I'll be off." Henry was very, very good at taking care of people when he needed to be.

Jess and Matt placed their orders and then started loading data feeds.

"Your usual?" Henry looked at Dani.

She nodded. "And Henry? Thanks. For..."

"It's all right." He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. "I know what you mean." He straightened, smiled, and headed out of the room.

"Here's the first feed," Jess said, her fingers running over the keyboard.

Dani leaned forward. "Okay, nothing looks out of the ordinary here yet..."

Matt frowned. "Does that thing look a little less bright than others usually do to you?"

Dani's eyes widened. "You're right, it does!"

Jess frowned. "It looks like it was trying to close even before it was fully open. But Niki's team didn't go through it until someone said it was stable." She looked at Matt. "Who would have given the okay to go through that?"

Matt had to think about it for a second before he came up with an answer and told Jess.

Dani, meanwhile, was trying to figure out why someone would give the okay to go through a not entirely stable anomaly.

Jess was listening to a second data feed. "So they went through a non-stable anomaly and then an earthquake happened."

"Sounds like prime conditions for someone trying to intentionally trap them on the other side, if you ask me," Dani said, a faint growl in her voice.

Matt frowned at the feed, thinking and hating what he was thinking. "Not them, Niki. No one could have expected that Kahlil would go in after her. If Kahlil hadn't been there, no one would have realized she was left behind until it was too late."

"Then who would've been bone-headed enough to try and trap her?" More like Dani wanted to know who she had to rip limb from limb.

"Someone who obviously has no idea who they're messing with when they mess with someone in this family," Jess said, shaking her head.

Dani was too busy seething internally to say anything at the moment, which was probably for the best. Anything she said would've been scary.

"Right then," Matt said way too calmly. "You and Dani will figure out how to get them back, and then Henry and I will deal with the one or ones that caused this."

Dani took a deep breath at Matt's words. She could do that, couldn't she? Of course she could.

"Okay, so..." she said musingly. "Operating on the assumption that the anomaly wasn't stable before they went through to begin with, what does that mean? It means we have to make doubly sure it's stable, for one thing."

Jess nodded. "At least long enough to get in there and find Niki and Kahlil. She couldn't have gotten very far before everyone turned around and came back through."

"The men were talking about an earthquake," Matt reminded them. "If she got caught in an earthquake, she could be further away from the opening than we think."

"Which means she could be hurt." It was a leap, yes, but it was a leap Dani made with good reason. She knew what things could be like on the other side of an anomaly, even if she hadn't been through many of them.

"Because if she wasn't, then she would have come back and Kahlil wouldn't have needed to go looking for her."

"So we can reasonably assume that she's hurt," Dani said, shifting from sister mode to worker mode. "Which means we can equally reasonably assume that Kahlil's going to be the one doing most of the keeping them safe."

Matt let out a breath. "Because he won't let anything more happen to Niki. Even I have to admit that. He'll keep her safe."

"Which means we don't have to focus on that and can move on to the next thing we need to worry about," Dani said, looking to Jess for confirmation.

Jess nodded in agreement. "Getting that damn thing open."

Which was easier said than done, but Dani was clinging to it with her customary tenacity. She didn't have much of a choice.

"We can do this," Jess said calmly. "We'll get her back safely, Dani. I swear to you."

Dani just nodded before turning her attention back to the task at hand.

Jess looked at Matt with worry in her eyes.

Matt sighed heavily. He and Henry were going to be putting someone in a world of hurt. For hurting his family, he would do it. They were the only family he had, after all.

Jess bit her lip as she turned to the computer terminal.

Dani noticed. "It's going to be okay, Aunt Jess," she promised. "I can do this. I can get them back."

"Shouldn't I be telling you that?"

"When have I ever done things the usual way?" Dani pointed out. It was all bravado, all an attempt at playing normal.

"Do you think the guys will let us have those responsible to use as target practice before they take permanent care of them for this?" Jess asked in a teasing voice, trying to lighten Dani's mood. "You know, with the EMDs and not real bullets so we can prolong the pain."

"If they're smart, they will," Dani said, her voice worryingly even despite the faint smile curving her lips. "And if nothing else, the guys are smart."

"They know better than to get in the way of us girls when we're decided on something."

Dani laughed softly, nodding in agreement. "Okay, then. Let's do this."




One || Three