Midnight Storm

Chapter 11: The Capture

Today Maria and I watched as Hope, Jane and Robert boarded the train and left for another term of school. They waved as their train pulled away from the station as the driver blew the whistle. Maria wiped away proud tears as we left. She dropped me off at the office and went home, when she was leaving I saw a white box on the back seat. 'I wonder what that could be for. Hmm' I thought to myself. I worked extremely hard that day, I did not stop. I was going to find this criminal if it was the last thing I ever did, this was becoming personal and it had gone on far too long. I worked and worked, no breaks, no pauses. I looked up finally and realised it was 5:45pm. Oops. 'Are you still here?!' Booth exclaimed as he came back in. He marched around to my desk, 'I am not going to let you drown yourself in your work, come on, I will take you home' he said shutting the file I was reading and placing it on the pile. I grabbed it as he pulled me away and hid it in my jacket. He drove me home and I got out of the car, 'Thank you Booth. I owe you one' I said with a smile. 'Don't mention it' he said as he pulled away from the curb. I walked up to the door as I fumbled with my keys. I unlocked and opened the door to the overwhelming stench of paint, I hung my keys on the hook, the smell was giving me a headache already as I walked upstairs. I walked into my bedroom and saw the light on in the bathroom. I opened the door to see Maria washing her hands and face, 'Hello beautiful' I said as I looked in. 'Good evening Mark. How was work?' She asked. 'Same as always. Why does the house smell of wet paint?' I asked. 'I will show you, close your eyes' she said cheekily. I did as she instructed and she gently grabbed my hand, she lead me to another room. The smell of paint was so strong I could barely walk in a straight line. 'You can open your eyes now' she said as she peeled her small, soft hands away from my eyes. I looked around shocked, the empty room we had next to our bedroom was now a beautiful nursery. The walls were white with a band of sky blue around the top, there was a rocking chair in the corner, a chest of drawers with nursery books and two stuffed toys, a rocking horse and even a toy chest. 'Maria, this is amazing. Wait a minute are those your paintings?' I asked placing my arm around her waist and pulling her close 'Yes, I painted them for this room. Do you like it?' She asked shyly 'No I don't like it, I love it. Maria this is so amazing, beautiful and creative. It is perfect' I replied looking around. We walked back into our room, I noticed her familiar beige overalls. They were covered in coloured paint. All colours of the rainbow and more. Red through to violet, white and black and all the colours in between. I smiled

'Here we go again' I thought as we pulled away from the office. We had another lead but this time we knew what to expect and hopefully how to catch him off guard. We drove and drove for what seemed like an eternity, we finally reached a little house on the corner of the most quiet street imaginable. We pulled up at the house next door, we all jumped out of the cars and split up. I was part of the front door team with Booth, Phelps, Flinders and my Boss. Flinders knelt down at the door picking the lock as quietly as she could. My boss gave Booth the signal. Booth sounded the bird call, it was our signal to start the countdown. I looked down at my watch, we were going in in 5...4...3...2...1. I heard an earslpitting noise as 4 doors and what sounded like a hundred windows all being slammed in at once. 'FBI!!!' My Boss yelled we went into the kitchen, I breathed in the scent of fresh toast. I crept up the hallway with Booth, our guns drawn. We stood either side of the door, Booth counted down 3...2...1 and we burst into the bedroom. 'ARGHHH!!!' The guy yelled. He looked around frantically. He was surrounded, thank god the other team had come through the window. 'On the ground now with your hands above your head and no one gets hurt.' I said sternly, I gave him my meanest death stare I could muster. He did as he was told 'You have bet me at my own game, my pet.' He said. He must be mentally sick because even now he smiled this crazy smile like he knew exactly what, how and when everything in life was going to happen. 'Hello? Dude, it's over. Now where is she?' Booth said as I kneeled down in the doorway pointing my gun at his guilty face. 'Where is who my pet?' He asked. I was ready to punch the guy. 'Hope and Jane's mother. Where is she?' I said as I put my finger on the trigger. His facial expression went from a crazy smile to a guilty and disappointed frown. 'She is over there, in the closet.' He said staring at the floor. I stood up and ran over to the closet, it was locked. I was not going to let that stop me, so I kicked it down. Sure enough, there she was. She was extremely weak if not dead, I untied her bonds and checked her pulse, She was breathing, just. 'You monster' I muttered under my breath. I turned and gave him the best death stare I have ever been able to muster. He looked shocked, his face was ghostly white. 'You are under arrest, anything you say and do can and will be used against you.' Booth said as he cuffed this lunatics hands behind his back and searched him for any hidden weapons he might have. We locked him in the back of the Boss's car and he drove off. We laid Hope and Jane's mother on a stretcher and carefully wheeled her and put her in the ambulance, Booth looked at me and we both jumped in the back with her. We drove straight to the hospital, sirens sounding loud and clear. Suddenly I heard something on the radio. 'Anyone in the Twinbrook lane region we have a woman here in labour, she needs an ambulance here immediately.' I heard someone say quickly on the radio. 'Maria!' Booth amd I exclaimed simultaneously looking at each other in complete and utter shock. 'I am sorry sir I don't completely understand' one of the ambulance men said. 'She is my partner. She and I have been looking after this ladie's children.' I said to him.

'You have been looking after Hope and Jane?' She asked. 'Yes, what is your name miss?' I asked. 'Alice, take care of them for me please' she said, suddenly the heart monitor stopped beaping. 'Punch it we're loosing her!' One of the ambulance guys exclaimed. He was using CPR and I sat back, head in my hands. The ambulance lurched as the driver drove faster, the heart monitor machine started beeping again. I looked up, 'she will be asleep for at least an hour, if she does wake up.' The guy said. We screeched to a stop and about 3 men came running, they detached Alice from the heart monitor and wheeled her into the hospital. 'Go to Maria, I will stay with Alice' Booth said as he jumped out and ran after her. 'Thank you!' I exclaimed, he gave me a thumbs up over his left shoulder as he ran. 'This is A17 we will be responding to the pregnancy, the womans partner is with us' the driver said into the radio. 'Now you seem to know where you are going, come up front you can give me the directions' th driver said to me, I jumped in the front and put the seatbelt on. We arrived at the house and the doctor in the back and I jumped put and ran inside to help Maria. The driver came running with the stretcher, we lifted her onto the stretcher and wheeled her into the ambulance. We drove off as fast as we could, with the sirens on and lights flashing as we sped to the hospital. 'Maria breathe, just breathe. You can do this' I said as I held her hand. She was crushing my hand, I was not going to show any sign of pain but I looked to the doctor across from me and he was quietly laughing. I could not help but smile, Maria and I stared into each others eyes and we knew everything was going to be ok.

I paced up and down the hospital hallway, wishing and hoping everything was ok. The doctor came out, he smiled and nodded at me as he held the door open. I walked in, Maria was lying in the bed holding a white blanket wrapped around something. I walked over to her, it was not twins as we originally thought, it was triplets. 'They are beautiful Maria. Have you named them?' I asked, 'I thought we could do that together' she said, '2 girls and a boy' she said looking down proudly. She held up my son and gave him to me, I held him in my arms. He was so small and delicate, I looked down at him and pulled down the blanket away from his face, he opened his eyes and fell back asleep. 'What do you think?' Maria asked. 'What about Kai?' I asked. 'Perfect' she said smiling. 'What do you think of the names Annabeth and Bekki?' She asked. 'Perfect' I said. 2 days it took before Maria and our little triplets were allowed home, both of those two days I came in from 8:30am till 7:30pm, but while they were in the hospital I put the cots and toys in the nursery ready for when they come home. The cots were amazing, they hung from the roof and had a toy in each of them, each one different to the other. For Kai, a tiger, for Anabeth, a giraffe, and for Bekki, an elephant. As soon as we got home we took the kids upstairs and laid them in their cots. We went to bed exhausted, 'I can just imagine Hope and Jane's reaction when they see them' Maria said as she stared at the ceiling. 'Yeah, now you should get some rest. You have been through a lot the past few days and you deserve a break. If they wake up in the night I will take care of it, you just get some well deserved sleep' I said as I turned off the light. 'Thank you Mark. Good night' she said, she kissed my cheek and laid down. I tucked her in then went around to my side and went to sleep.