Disclaimer: All I own are DVDs, everything belongs to Rob.

A/N- Sorry it took so long, but this one is longer than my usual updates. Hopefully more to come soon.

Sacks POV:

"Veronica Mars." As soon as the name left her mouth, I saw a side of the sheriff that was reserved for the rarest of occasions, in fact, the only time I can remember him genuinely comforting someone was when Veronica found out that her father had died.

While Lamb was attempting to console the young girl (though he seemed to be a little shaken up himself), I realized there was work to be done. The kidnapper was still in the vicinity, he had yet to exit the convince store and seemed not to notice our presence. I radioed for backup, requesting all available units (in case he attempts to run) and rattled off a description of the offender's vehicle.

With Lamb still busy with Anna, I entered the store alone, confident that if I could approach the subject without his knowledge, I would be able to make an easy arrest. Entering the store I noticed the only patron was at the register, conveniently with his back to the door. Drawing my gun, I slowly approached and yelled "Hands where I can see them!" momentarily stunned, the suspect turned to look at me and attempted to flee. Although he was quick, he was not quick enough; within a second I had him pinned to a magazine rack with a pair of handcuffs slapped on his wrists.

Deputies Davis and Simpson arrived on the scene as I escorted the felon from the store. The deputies helped me shove the arrested man into a squad car (and by shove, there was excessive roughness, he tried to kidnap Veronica Mars' daughter for Christ's sake!).

Davis and Simpson drove the kidnapper back to the station for holding while I notified the FBI that we had apprehended the man who kidnapped Veronica Mars' daughter. It took some convincing to get the agent with whom I spoke to believe me, which is understandable, given the colorful history of Neptune's law enforcement. The Agent agreed to send a team to the station to take over the case, as the kidnapping was possibly related to Veronica's position in the FBI. He also informed me that because the suspect was apprehended in Balboa County all questioning and arrests would need to occur in Balboa County.

"Sheriff, the FBI said we need to keep her here until arrests are made," told my boss, although I wasn't sure he was listening to me—he was still concerned with Anna's mental state. "Federal Agents are on their way to assess the situation, and will probably take over the case."

Lamb's POV:

Sacks just said we have to keep Anna in our custody until federal agents arrive. How long will that take? What about Veronica? She must be worried sick! I should call her. As I pull out my phone, I realize that I don't have Veronica's phone number, she must have changed it a dozen times since leaving Neptune, I couldn't keep up. "Anna, do you know your mom's phone number?" I ask quietly, the child has begun to calm down and I don't want to do anything to upset her, "We should call her and let her know where you are."

"Its 415 555 9206" Anna rattled off without hesitating, "My mom made me learn it as soon as I could talk."

As I dialed, I couldn't help but think that I hadn't talked to Veronica in years it had been close to a decade since I had heard from her. What am I going to say? What is she going to say? Why hasn't she called me, I thought we were beginning to become friends again, then she left, and never came back. I was so lost in my train of thought that I almost didn't notice when she answered the phone.

"Agent Mars, FBI" She didn't sound too flustered with her daughter's disappearance, but I know Veronica, she will always put up a tough exterior, even when she is completely falling apart inside.

"Anna's alright," were the first words out of my mouth, that's all Veronica really wanted to hear, "She's in Neptune."

"Don?"

"She's right next to me, do you want to talk to her?" I asked, already knowing the answer. Without waiting for a response from Veronica, I handed my phone to Anna, who was still crying silently, still visibly shaken from the morning's events.

"Mom!" Anna cried out as soon as she had the phone next to her ear. "I was so scared! I miss you so much!" She talked at he mother nonstop; I doubt that Veronica was able to get a word in. Anna slowed down and they talked over the phone for a few minutes, Veronica was probably trying to reassure herself, as well as her daughter that everything was going to be alright. "She wants to talk to you," Anna extended the phone to me.

"Veronica" I answered the phone.

"Don't let her out of your sight" she said, without any pleasantries, "today has been the scariest day of my life, and I will not lose her again."

"Ok," did I really have a choice of how to respond?

"I'm on my way, depending on traffic it could take me upwards of 8 hours. Don, look out for Anna, she's all I have."

"I will, I'll see you sometime tonight." With that she hung up, I could have sworn I heard her say something as she pressed end, it sounded like "I'm sorry," but I could be mistaken, what does she have to be sorry about?

"Alright," I said as I turned to Anna, "It's going to take your mom a few hours to get here, how about we get some ice cream."

While I was on the phone with Veronica more deputies arrived on the scene, mostly to secure and maintain evidence and the crime scene until federal authorities could arrive. Anna didn't need to be around all of this commotion, and I didn't want to deal with the turf battle that was sure to ensue when FBI arrived, all I cared about was that Anna was safe with her mother.

As we pulled into Amy's ice cream parlor, the tears on Anna's face dried up. When I helped her out of the cruiser, she even began to smile, she is definitely her mother's daughter, ice cream can fix anything.

"What flavor are you going to get?" I asked Anna, realizing that was the first light-hearted thing I said to her. "You can get anything you want."

"Anything?" She asked, and I nodded, "Then I will have three scoops of pistachio ice cream in a cone, with whipped cream and a cherry. " Her order not only surprised me, but also the woman behind the counter who smiled and began to scoop a mountain of ice cream onto a cone for Anna.

"I'll have a single scoop of pistachio, in a cone" I placed my order and moved to the cash register to pay.

"You like pistachio too?" Anna asked, excitedly, "my mom hates it, but it's my favorite."

"Yep. It's my favorite flavor, too." I paid the attendant and she handed over our ice creams. Looking at Anna hold her cone, I came to the conclusion that there was no way she would be able to eat all of the ice cream in her hand.

Half an hour and about ten napkins later Anna proved me wrong as she finished off her cone without slowing down. She wiped off her face and hands, which were covered with melted ice cream.

With all of the ice cream finished, I decided we should probably go to the station; it was a safe place to keep Anna until Veronica showed up and I had a mountain of paperwork to get through.

The car ride from Amy's to the Station was much more enjoyable, Anna asked about what every button in my cruiser did, I even let her play with the lights when we were alone on the road.

"Hey," Anna pointed to a picture as we entered the sheriff's department "that's my grandpa." Ah, yes, the 18x24 photo of Keith that hung in the entrance to the Sheriff Keith Mars Memorial Sheriff's Department. The sheriff's department (myself included) pushed to have Keith recognized for the sacrifice he made, protecting the common good. On the first anniversary of his death, the sheriff's department wing of the courthouse was dedicated to Keith, for his service to Neptune, both with and without a badge.

"Yes it is" I replied to the child, clearly she knew who her grandfather was, through I am not sure if she knows exactly how he died. "He was a good man."

"You knew Grandpa Keith?" She asked, suddenly enthralled with my relationship to her diseased grandfather.

"I did," I replied, not wanting to go into detail about our relationship for the last few years of his life, "he was sheriff here before I was."

"Do you know my mom too?" She asked, for an eight year old, she is pretty bright.

"The first time I met your mom, she was about your age, maybe a couple of years older" I really did not want to describe my relationship with Anna's mother to her, "today was the first time I talked to her since before you were born."

"Why?" Of course she needs to question everything, damn her inquisitive genes.

"I don't really know," which was kind of an honest answer, at least until I met Anna today, I can assume her lack of contact has something to do with not wanting all of Neptune to know she was pregnant, "she probably left because the FBI wanted her and she wanted to work for the FBI." That was a pretty good answer, and mostly honest—to my knowledge. And it seemed to satisfy Anna's curiosity, at least temporarily.

I could feel all of the eyes in the building on me, or more likely my blonde companion, as we walked past Inga's desk to my office, where I authoritatively closed the door, though not quite slamming it.

As soon as the door was closed, it was opened, by Inga, who all but ran in to see Anna. "Oh my goodness! She's gorgeous!" Inga exclaimed, hugging a startled Anna, "You look just like your mother!" "Sheriff," she said turning to me, though still next to Anna, "Isn't she beautiful, just like her mother?"

"Yes," I replied sincerely, then immediately regretted my choice of words and sincerity level. Hopefully Inga didn't notice my willingness to refer to Veronica as beautiful. Who am I kidding, of course she noticed. There was a twinkle in Inga's eye, she knew exactly what I said, and probably realized my feelings better than I did myself.

"Let me know, if you need anything!" She said and left, "I will be right outside."

The door was almost shut when she stuck her head back in, "Anna, is your mother coming here?" Anna nodded yes and Inga turned to me and winked. With that she was out the door.

Outside of Lamb's door:

"I'm in," Inga said, closing the door to Lamb's office, "put me down for $100." Sacks looked at her like she was crazy, he she was talking about the bet on Anna's paternity. The top contender in the Sheriff's department pool was obviously Logan Echolls, given Anna's date of birth, he was very likely the father, a few deputies who had been with the department since Veronica was around put money on Duncan Kane, there were a few bets for Leo D' Amato and even a bet toward Vinnie Van Lowe. None of the other bets had gone over $20. Inga's bet was conditional; she would not reveal her pick until paternity was confirmed, either by Veronica or an appearance of the father himself. She had written a name on a piece of paper and sealed it in an envelope, paper clipped to her $100 bill.

"Ok," Sacks confirmed, "Inga's in for $100 toward a mystery man."

Inside Lamb's office:

"So, Anna, what do you want to do?" Lamb really needed to get through the paperwork that had been piling up on his desk all morning, but he didn't want Anna to be bored out of her mind either. "I have a couple of movies you can watch, or you can flip around on the TV, or…I have an idea." Lamb went to his cabinet, and took a couple of photo albums off the bottom shelf, "you can look at these, they are mostly of your mom and her friends." Keith had kept photo albums in his office when he was Sheriff and didn't take them with him when Lamb took his position.

"Cool" was all Anna replied before diving into the first album. For the next hour, Anna looked through the pictures and asked the sheriff who her mom's friends were. She already knew who Lily was because her mom had a photo of her at home. Random observations, like "mom played soccer?" made Lamb and Anna laugh in memory and realization.

"Anna," Lamb asked, looking up from his desk to the girl enthralled with pictures of her mother's former life, "do you want something to eat?" They had had ice cream before lunchtime and it was now early afternoon and Don was starting to get hungry..

"Sure," Anna replied, "Can we go somewhere, I'm tired of sitting in this office."

"As you wish," Lamb responded, to be honest, he was tired of sitting at his desk too, he could use a mid afternoon break, "Pizza or tacos?"

Anna decided on pizza and Lamb and Anna walked the short distance to a local pizza parlor, Anna and Don split a large pepperoni pizza, with a couple of slices left over, Lamb assumed it would be his dinner and they began walking back to the sheriff's department.

When they reentered the sheriff's department, Anna and Lamb were greeted by a handful of FBI agents, presumably assigned to the case. "There she is" one called out, "Anna Mars, My name is Agent Jones, I need to ask you a couple of questions."

"umm, ok" Anna didn't know who to reply, the man that approached her was big and did not look very friendly.

"Sheriff Lamb, I presume," Agent Jones extended his hand to Lamb, "Do you have somewhere I can speak with Miss Mars privately"

"WE can go into this interrogation room, Lamb said, leading Anna into the room and taking a seat next to her." He had promised Veronica that he would not let Anna out of her sight and he intended to uphold his promise.

Agent Jones was clearly not ok with Lamb's presence but decided not to do anything about it, at least not for now. "Anna, Can you tell me your full name?" The first question was easy enough, she responded. The Second question was also relatively painless, Agent Jones asked for her date of birth. Lamb couldn't help but doing the math in his head. He hadn't considered that possibility until now, but he put it out of his mind, Logan Echolls made the most since with regards to paternity, they were in a relationship for a long while preceding Anna's conception. Speaking of Anna's conception, Agent Jones's third question was not as simple as the first two, he demanded to know who her father was. Anna replied,

"I don't know" She looked down at her hands, clearly upset by the question, "It's always been me and my mom." Agent Jones did not like that answer and decided to press farther, looking for a concrete answer. It was clear Anna did not know who half of her DNA belonged to and the question was upsetting her. Agent Jones asked the question a third time and Lamb had enough. "We're done, you need to wait for her mother before you ask any more questions." With that, he led Anna out of interrogation and back into his office. She quietly sat down on the couch and decided to watch TV. Lamb wanted to say something comforting to the visible upset child, but did not know what would help in this situation. He was just relieved that Agent Jones did not put up a fight when he demanded to end the interview. Lamb's window of opportunity to comfort the child was cut short because he looked up from his desk to discover Anna asleep in her chair. He shifted her into a more comfortable position and draped his jacket over her because he didn't have a blanket in the office. He put a sign on the door that said "QUIET" in all caps and gently shut the door. Anna had had a rough day and she really needed a decent sleep.

How long had it been since Anna fell asleep? A couple of minutes? A few hours? Don had no idea and it didn't really matter, he had managed to finish off all of the paperwork on his desk and get a head start on tomorrow's work (it was definitely going to be a hectic day with the kidnapping investigation going on in his office). He looked at Anna asleep in the oversized chair; she was so peaceful, and oddly familiar. She was a spitting image of her mother, but there was something else about her, an indescribable familiarity. Don smiled as the girl shifted in her sleep, he glanced at his watch, he was beginning to get tired—it had, after all been a very long day. It was nearly 7 in the evening, no wonder he was tired, he never worked this late. He began to wonder when Veronica would arrive, he figured she would be here by now.

As if on queue, there was a light knock on the door and it opened slowly.