March 17^th, 2017. 1:02pm.

The rocks were sharp on Katy’s bare feet as she was led out of the car and up the hill, Tally stumbling next to her. Katy’s heart was racing, her hands practically aching with the need to pick her daughter up and hold her close. The hands that were bound tightly behind her, the hands that were useless to provide comfort.

It broke her heart a million times over to see Tally walking mutely, her head down, her hands loosely tied in front of her. She didn’t protest, she didn’t even look up. She was defeated. She was broken.

And one of Katy’s best friends was responsible for it.

The thought made her grit her teeth, move forward more carefully. Lucia had taken their socks and shoes. So they couldn’t run, she said. And that wasn’t entirely unreasonable. They were out in the middle of nowhere Arizona, and who knew where the nearest water source was? When the rocks would run out? Whatever Lucia was planning was hopefully better than death by dehydration.

Maybe.

“Why are you doing this?” Katy asked in a rush, her eyes flickering up to Lucia even as she kept her gaze on where she was going.

“You know why,” Lucia said without looking back at her. Tally was walking steadily next to her, and there was no way Katy was leaving her behind. It was an effective way of keeping her moving without a need to keep an eye on her. She wouldn’t leave her daughter behind.

“I didn’t do anything to your daughter,” Katy gritted out. “The nurse did.”

“Yes,” Lucia said amiably. She stopped, and both Tally and Katy stopped with her. She seemed to consult her phone, consult the landscape. She was looking for something, although hell if Katy knew what it was. “But you could have stopped it.”

Katy clenched her hands into fists, closed her eyes for a split second. Yes, she could have. If she hadn’t been exhausted, if she hadn’t been distracted, if she’d double-checked everything like she would have done with her own child. She’d carried around the guilt for years, which had only eased when she started therapy after Tally had disappeared.

She’d spent a long time learning how not to blame herself. But she always would, to some extent. There would be flashes, there would be bad days and bad hours and bad minutes. But one day, the good days, hours, minutes, started outnumbering the bad. And maybe good was the wrong word, but if she wasn’t crying, she counted it as a win.

If she was able to get out of bed, she counted that as a win too.

“I’ve never forgotten her, you know,” Lucia said offhandedly, starting to move forward again, tugging on Tally’s bound hands.

Katy blinked, caught off guard, half her attention on her daughter and the rest on trying not to trip and fall. “What?”

“Iris.” Lucia’s words burned into her. “You know. My daughter. The one you murdered.”

“I didn’t —” At Lucia’s laugh, Katy took a deep breath, reminding herself that the truth didn’t necessarily matter as much at the moment. What mattered was getting her and Tally out of there safely, away from the person who had been her friend.

“That was why I took her, you know.” Lucia sighed. “You took my daughter, so I had to take yours.” There was a pause, the tension ratcheting up a notch and a shiver going down Katy’s spine. “Yet you forgot your own daughter.” Lucia’s head turned to the side, so Katy could see her looking at Tally. “I saw you.”

Pain lanced through Katy’s heart. “I never forgot her,” she said immediately. She didn’t say the words just for her sake, or for Tally’s. It was because they were true. Was that why Tally had screamed? Had Lucia told her over and over again, that Katy never loved her? That Katy had moved on?

Tears threatened to blind her, but she stomped them back with the ruthlessness of the desperate.

“That was when I knew I had to step in.” Lucia tsked softly, but there was something akin to pleasure in her voice. Whether it was satisfaction with what she was saying or because she’d seen what she was looking for, Katy didn’t know.

Anxiety seized her, making her doubt herself. Maybe she had forgotten Tally. Maybe she had been doing the wrong thing by trying to move on. Not that she would have ever stopped looking, ever stopped searching for her baby, but she wanted to have days where she got out of bed. She wanted to have days where she could smile without feeling like she’d been stabbed.

And that was, apparently, what had sent Lucia after her.

“You sent the photos,” Katy said, suddenly understanding.

“Of course.” Lucia looked (and sounded) amused. “You had to be reminded of what you were missing.” There was the pleased, satisfied smirk on her face. “Which you’re going to lose now, not that it matters.” She hummed. “Such a tragedy, they’ll say.”

Katy swallowed thickly. “You won’t get away with it.”

“Oh, but I will.” Lucia looked at her, a pity in her eyes. “When they find you, they’ll confirm it’s a murder-suicide, have all the evidence that shows that you held your child for three years to get the pity of the press and media. Then when they were about to discover your lies, you killed her and then yourself.”

What broke Katy’s heart the most was that Tally didn’t even flinch. She didn’t look around, she didn’t even seem apprehensive. She just seemed empty. Rage burned hotter through Katy, and she tried to let it simmer down. Getting angry wasn’t useful at the moment, not until she had an idea of Lucia’s endgame.

Lucia chuckled. “What a tragedy.”

* * *

Alex stood outside Lucia’s house, her gun drawn and the safety off. She didn’t expect to find Lucia there, not really, but if there was one thing her life in the FBI had taught her, it was to prepare for the unexpected. The last thing she wanted to lose was officers on top of Katy and Tally.

“Ready?” She turned to look at Greg, who was standing next to her. He’d gotten the search warrant signed on the drive over, written it up with a speed that Alex personally found impressive.

He nodded, and led the way up to the front door. His face was stony with determination, something Alex whole-heartedly endorsed. Alex kept both hands on her gun but kept it pointed towards the floor. It was a live weapon, and she didn’t want to risk shooting anyone in the heat of the moment in case something happened.

“Police, we have a warrant to enter!” He knocked loudly, his words loud enough to carry through at least the first floor.

There was no answer. Alex craned her head; there wasn’t a car to be found. “Send a BOLO out on Lucia,” she said, and Greg nodded, then looked back at one of his officers who nodded in return. It’d be done before they were done searching Lucia’s home.

Apparently channeling bad police TV shows, Greg kicked the door open, then led the way in. The SWAT team were on standby, just in case. But the house was empty and eerily quiet.

Alex headed towards the hallway, gun at the ready. She wasn’t touching anything, not yet, until she got to the first door on the right. Carefully, trying to not leave fingerprints, she opened it and shoved it open, the door banging against the wall as she shined her flashlight in there.

Nothing. But something caught her attention. A scrap of paper, poking out from underneath a pile of miscellaneous objects. Heart racing, she stepped closer. Reluctantly she holstered her gun, keeping her back to the wall so she could see the doorway. One of the officers passed by, and she relaxed slightly. It wasn’t perfect, probably wasn’t protocol, but there was something about the paper that she needed to get a better look at.

Snapping on gloves, she gently touched the paper, pulling it out from underneath the pile with minimal resistance.

She gasped and almost dropped it. It was the same photo of Tally that had been put in Katy’s mailbox the first time, but it was three times the size.

There were more, as Katy kept looking. They had to be photos from the years she was held, for they all held the same haunted, empty look.

Alex swallowed thickly. “Greg!” she shouted.

A few seconds later he popped his head in the door. “Cleared the rest of the house.”

“I found where the photo came from.” Her hands were shaking and she forced them to stop. There were more important things to do. She was an FBI agent, she could keep her nerves under control. Even if it was the woman she loved that had been taken.

Because yeah, that was a thing. There’s nothing like someone you care for getting kidnapped by a crazy person to make you realize you love them. It wasn’t necessarily something Alex recommended to others.

A light flickered on above them, causing Alex to cringe and blink away the bright dots, but it made it easier to see what surrounded them. It was a dark room, where Lucia could develop her photos.

There were pictures of Tally on the wall, none of them smiling. There were photos of another little girl, too. Alex had to assume it was Lucia’s daughter, the one mentioned in the files that died of cancer.

Alex tilted her head up, thinking. Could that be related?

“Do you recognize any of these?” Alex asked, pointing to the various landscapes that decorated the ceiling.

Greg studied them, a crease between his brows. “A few,” he admitted. “Although I’d be hard-pressed to point to them on a map.”

“Did we find where she was being held hostage?” Alex looked at him, expectant.

Greg shook his head. “There’s something wrong with the dimensions of the house,” he said instead. “It’s like we’re missing a hidden room or something. We’re going to have to get construction people in here to see through the walls.”

“Because ripping them out isn’t included in the search warrant.” Of course it wasn’t. Judges generally frowned upon the destruction of property. “I’ll go take a look.” Alex took her gloves off as she headed around Greg, tucking them in her pocket and pulling out another pair. She didn’t want to contaminate the living room or other areas with anything she may have picked up in the dark room.

There were a handful of police officers milling about in the living room. It was simple, tastefully decorated, photos framed on the walls with a very antique feel. “Where’s the discrepancy?” Alex looked at the closest officer, whose uniform read Wiggins. Ah. The rookie. No wonder he looked familiar.

“This far wall.” He led her to the wall opposite where she’d been standing, to the right of the front door. “If you look outside, there’s clearly some more space, we just can’t find where it triggers.”

He walked her through what they’d tried, rapping their knuckles against the wall and using the pads of their fingers to feel for any obvious cracks. Unfortunately, since they were required to wear gloves, that second one wasn’t particularly helpful.

“I’ve watched a lot of spy movies,” Alex muttered, mostly to herself. She took a look at the photographs, the ones framed on the wall. Feeling foolish but figuring she had nothing to lose, she gently rotated each one, testing for anything behind them.

“Shit!” One of the officers shouted, and then Alex heard a clattering noise. She whirled around, then raised her eyebrows. The bookshelf had quite literally tumbled over, almost on top of the officer, revealing the keypad and the door behind it.

“Found it.” Alex twisted her lips into a wry smile. It took one of the techs a few minutes to hack the keypad, and then they were in.

It wasn’t the standard secret basement, as much as it didn’t appear to be a basement at all. Instead it was like a second half of the house, just narrow. The wall separating it from the rest appeared worn, so it’d obviously been around for a while. If Alex had to bet, she’d say it was three years.

There was a small set of stairs that led down to a second room. Not quite a basement, but more like a bunker. It seemed to jut out from the house, as if it’d been built for the sole purpose of keeping someone - a child, by the looks of it - captive.

The walls were white, sparsely decorated. The bed and few chairs were bolted to the floor, except for one that was near the wall. All in all, the child probably had 100 sq ft of room to roam.

“Well shit,” Greg whistled as he walked in. “Get CSI in here, stat.” O’Malley nodded and disappeared, talking into her phone.

“Agreed,” Alex muttered. She put her hands on her hips, surveying it while trying to stand out of the way of the rest of the investigators. “We can’t say for sure it’s Tally, but it’s obvious she was holding someone captive.”

“I’ll call about an arrest warrant.” Greg disappeared again. Alex wandered out of the bunker, back towards the dark room that was no longer dark. She looked at the photos, at the landscapes specifically that dotted the top of the wall. Something looked familiar, something tugged at her mind, but she didn’t know why.

It didn’t make sense, since she wasn’t a local. Unlike Katy, she hadn’t grown up there, so she was unfamiliar with most of the landscape.

She tapped a finger to her chin, thoughtful. “Hey Greg?”

“Awesome, I’ll wait for your call—” Greg hung up his phone once he was in the room.

“Do you recognize these?” Alex pointed towards the ceiling. “There’s something familiar about them.”

Greg looked up, his eyes narrowing slightly. “They feel familiar,” he admitted.

Then it hit Alex. “I think I saw a photo like these in the case file,” she said.

He looked at her, a frown on his face.

“The documented search attempts. I think she has photos of it.” Alex turned on the ball of her foot. “Can we take these back to the department?”

“I’ll get CSI on it right away.” Greg called out to Wiggins, got things moving. “For now, this’ll do.” He pulled out his phone, stretched on his toes, and took several shots of the ceiling. “I’ll text them to you.”

“Awesome.” Alex gave the room another glance, just in case she’d missed something. The forensic team would sweep for fingerprints and DNA, to boost their case, but neither of those would help them now.

“We may have a connection between Lucia and Susan,” Greg said slowly, as if he was still processing the information.

Alex looked at him, startled. “What?”

“Lucia isn’t her real name.” Greg ran a hand through his black hair, until it was standing on end. “Her real name is Erika Ivakov, and she and Susan Heller were in the same foster home back when they were in their late teens.”

“But Katy knew her when she was a teenager.” Alex was somewhat dumbfounded. But then again, one could never underestimate the depths humanity would go to.

“We think she’s been faking her identity to appear younger and keep getting benefits,” Greg said. “It’s possible that Susan had the girl, or Lucia is holding her for them, or…” He shrugged, almost defeated. “We’ve got Susan in custody, so we’ll start talking to her about that.”

“Anything else we can learn here?”

Greg shook his head.

“I’m going to head back.” Alex turned towards the door, glancing back at Greg one last time.

Greg nodded, clearly distracted.

Alex let out a deep breath. They were going to find Katy and Tally. They had to.