Finding You Always

Whatever It Takes

Chapter 159: Whatever It Takes

He pressed his forehead against hers, as their lips parted briefly and they breathed together in ragged, impassioned gasps.

"I can't believe I'm kissing you again...I thought you were lost to me forever," he cried.

"I was lost...you found me," she breathed, as he kissed her again.

"Do I still call you Mary? Or Margaret? Or Snow..." he questioned, as he kept his forehead against hers. She giggled.

"I'd love to say Snow...but that might be too much for some people. But if it makes you feel any better...I was Mary Margaret during the first curse," she said. He smiled.

"So that's where that came from...Mary Margaret," he muttered.

"Mmm...I can't tell if they were being clever or lazy," she joked, as she pecked him on the lips again. He kissed her again, but a scream pulled them apart and they gasped.

"Iris..." David cried, as he took her hand and they flew up the stairs. Her scream rang out again, as David burst into her room.

"IRIS!" he cried, only to find his daughter being held hostage by a man wearing a ski mask and holding a knife. David had his gun locked up, per usual, but it wouldn't have done him any good if he had it, for this man had a knife to his little girl's throat.

"Daddy..." Iris whimpered, as David put his hands up in surrender.

"Let her go..." he pleaded.

"Not one step further...because I'll think nothing of slitting her throat," the man growled. His voice was garbled too, like the mask he was wearing had a device of some short to disguise it.

"I'm not moving...just let her go and you can leave here free and clear," David promised.

"Except I'm here with a warning for you, Detective," he retorted, as he put his lips to Iris' ear.

"Your Daddy causes a lot of trouble, pretty one...it's too bad you have to pay for that," he growled, as Iris cried.

"If this is about me...then you can take it out on me. Just let her go..." David pleaded.

"I don't think so...because this is the only meddlesome detectives like you learn. Attacking you would do nothing...but her...that's how you learn your lesson," the man threatened.

"Who hired you? Stavros?" David questioned. The man chuckled.

"Perhaps...or maybe it was someone close to many of the people you've put away in the last two years, Detective," he hissed.

"Hyperion Heights used to be a safe haven for people like me...until you arrived and put a lot of my friends away. You don't cross people like us and get away with it," he said.

"Nice try...but I know this is Stavros. He's the biggest fish I've gone after so far and if he thinks coming after my family will get me to back off, then he's deluding himself," David retorted. The man chuckled.

"Are you sure?" he asked, as he put the blade closer to Iris' throat. Snow gasped and clutched his arm in fear for her. Her eyes met her daughter's and she saw her eyes searching. Snow nodded to her, trying to convey what she wanted her to do and she put her hands up.

"Please...I'd make a better hostage if that's what you need. I'm the reason Clayton is so upset," Snow tried to reason with him. He withdrew the knife and pointed it out at her.

"Shut up..." he snapped and Iris took the opportunity to bite his hand. He cried out and David rushed him, as Snow pulled their daughter out of the way. He tackled the thug and toppled him to the floor, before punching him in the face. The perpetrator fought back and rolled David onto his back, trying to get his hands around David's neck. Snow crept to the bedside table and grabbed the lamp, breaking it over his head. He collapsed unconscious to the floor and David pushed him off. He stood up and they both dove into his arms with fierce hugs. He kissed Iris' head and then found himself also pressing a kiss to Mary's head. And somewhere in his mind, he knew he had held them both like this before and done the same thing. He pulled away briefly, as Mary soothed Iris and hurried downstairs for his phone and cuffs. He returned and cuffed the man, before pulling his mask off. He didn't recognize him and figured he was just a hired thug, before he dialed the station to send a unit to pick him up. His next call was to Weaver and Rogers both to explain what had happened.