Abducting Avery ( completed )

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** Thank you all for all the lovely comments! I appreciate them very much! **

It was morning. Heather was tired but was able to get out of bed that morning with little hesitation. The only sleep she'd gotten that night was about an hour, and that hour was filled with dreams of  Avery and what could be happening to her. It was a terrible feeling; knowing your baby was out there, scared, cold and alone and there wasn't one damn thing you could do about it.

It was early but when Heather entered her living room the select few FBI agents that had slept there the night before were all awake and working. Rourke smiled up at her as she walked in and sat down.

"Did you find anything?" Heather asked hopefully. Rourke's smile disappeared; so did Heather's hope.

"We need to talk to Avery's father." She said after a few moments of thought.

Heather bit her lip nervously. "Do you think it's him?"

"No. But we think he may know the man who took your daughter."

Heather grabbed the phone, but one of the men in the room stopped her. The tag on his shirt read 'Agent Strife' and he had short black hair and dark brown eyes full of understanding. "We alerted him of your daughter's disappearance yesterday. He promised us he'd come to speak with us today." 

She put the phone down, and just as she did a knock was heard. Heather got up, expecting it to be her ex. Strife peeked out the window and drew his gun, holding an arm out in front of Heather before she could put a hand on the knob. "Back up." He whispered to her. Eyes wide, the woman moved back, far enough away from the door that anyone looking in wouldn't be able to spot her but close enough to see why Strife had been so cautious in opening the door. 

Gonzales joined him at the door and Rourke  moved in front of Heather. She struggled to see passed them, but she was only able to get a glance once Strife bent down and put his gun away, just enough to reveal the top of a young girl's head.

"Avery?" She shouted out, pushing passed Rourke who held her back with a strong arm. 

"It's not her!" She told her. She fell to the ground upon this realization, the grief taking over her body. Rourke caught her, holding her tight as she cried.

Strife pulled the small girl inside the house, slamming closed the door and making a few calls on his phone instructing the surrounding officers and search parties to take cover and be on the look out for the 'unsub'.

"Are you Heather?" The small girl asked, staring straight at her. She nodded, shrugging out of Rourke's grasp as the girl, who couldn't be any older than seven, handed her a piece of paper with her name printed at the top. 

'Your little girl doesn't need you anymore, Heather. She has me to take care of her and that's all she needs. Tell the police it's useless trying to find her now. She's dead. I killed her, along with all the other girls. Maybe now you'll understand what a bad mother you've been.'

Her heart sank and she felt like fainting again, but Rourke put her hands on Heather's shoulders, shaking her reassuringly.

"He's lying, Miss Hayden. He wrote that 'she has him to take care of her', which means she's still alive; he's just trying to scare you." She assured her. She nodded, because the woman had just handed her the last piece of hope she had that her daughter was still alive and she wasn't about to let that go.

Strife slowly took the paper away from her, and as he did she saw a spot of blood on the bottom of the paper. The agent slipped it into a small plastic bag, handing it to Gonzales. 

"That's probably not her blood. We're going to send it to the lab for DNA testing. Don't worry." Rourke explained to her. She nodded again, looking down at the girl standing in front of her. She had straight brown hair and green eyes and looked up at Heather somewhat sadly.

"Honey, did you get to see the man that gave this to you?" Gonzales asked her. 

The little girl nodded. 

"We're going to need you to tell that nice man over there what he looked like and what he was driving, okay?" The girl nodded again, heading over to Strife and another police officer who sat her down on the couch and started asking her a few questions.

"Is this good? Does this mean we'll find him?" Heather asked, turning around to face Rourke.

She shrugged at me and I sighed, somewhat disappointed. "Maybe. We'll be able to find out what he looks like and possibly even his identity, but that doesn't mean we'll be able to locate him easily. He's smart and educated, which means he probably knows how to keep himself hidden from police. This does bring us one step closer to finding him and your daughter." Rourke explained with a small smile. Heather nodded again. "We'll find her, I promise." What more could Heather do except believe her?

-----

The man woke Avery up very early and she barely had any time to register her surroundings before he'd picked her up into his arms and laid her down in the back of his car. Charlotte sat next to her, giving her a gentle smile as Avery sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"Where are we going, Bruno?" Charlotte asked him softly as he got into the driver's seat. He had a hat pulled over his head, so it covered most of his face.

"Nowhere, Charlotte. Be quiet." He replied roughly, seeming to be very agitated.

"But-"

"Charlotte shut up!" He yelled at her suddenly. Both of the girls jumped up, welling with fear. He let out a sigh, starting up the car and turning back around to face the two. 

"I'm sorry, girls. I have to go take care of some business. Both of you get down. I don't want the bad men to look in and see you."

Charlotte nodded, taking Avery's hand and squeezing it gently as she ducked down beneath the seat, instructing Avery to do the same.

It was a semi-long ride, but finally the car stopped and Avery could hear the man speaking.

"Hey Abigail. Could you be an angel for me and go give this to the lady who lives in that house over there? Yes, the one with the policemen. Her name is Heather." Bruno said from the front seat.

"Okay." She heard Abigail respond.

The car trip continued until they finally pulled up somewhere with a lot of trees. 

"I have to go check on the other girls. Charlotte, make sure Avery behaves." He said, getting out of the car and leading both of the girls into a cave-like area where a door had been built into the rocks. He pushed it open, ushering them inside. It was the same dark room Avery was in when he first took her, but this time he lit a few more candles before he left.

As soon as she was sure the car was gone, Charlotte grabbed Avery's hand, pulling her toward the door. Giving Avery a careful look, she shoved open the door.

"He forgot to lock it."