Chapter six: Ready to go home

POV: Kim Crawford

"Anything?" Rudy asked, glancing up at me. I shook my head, making a face and turning the page. I was looking in Lauren's diary for any clues as to where she might have taken Jack. So far, I found nothing. "let me see it." Milton stretched out his hand.

I sighed, slapping it into his palm. "I've already looked it over, you're not going to find anything." I told him. He shrugged, taking it and looking at the page I had been scanning. "Maybe we're looking in the wrong place." He said, flipping through the book to close to the beginning.

'But she doesn't start talking about it until recent entries!" I told him, scooting my seat closer so I could peer over his shoulder. "yeah, but we haven't read the whole thing, for all we know, she could have been planning this for years." He told me, scanning the page, then flipping to the next one. "But she's been keeping this diary for like, nine years! There's too much to go over." I told him.

"Not necessarily. You see this? She highlights certain parts that pertain to fantasy. I've noticed that. She will write about all the things about Jack she's seen him do or heard him say, and she highlights the parts where she goes on about what she wants Jack to say or do. I suppose it was just her way of not confusing fantasy with fact." He told me.

I stared at it. He was right! "I think she just made it easier for us." I murmured. Milton merely nodded. "Here! Here's something about Paris, listen to this;

The Jack journal – February 17th 2010

I have been going over all the possible places Jack and I could go after we're married. Paris is an ideal place, it's so romantic! My favorite place to go would be a hotel called 'the romance' I don't know what that is in French, but I'll figure it out when we get there.

"This is it! All we have to do is find a hotel called 'the romance' and that's probably where Jack will be!" Milton cried. "Way to go Milton!" Rudy cried, slapping his shoulder. "Come on, let's go find someone who knows what 'the romance' is in French." We all jumped up and left the breakfast lounge.

"There, how about him?" Milton pointed to someone who looked like a minister. "Excuse me, sir?" Rudy tapped his shoulder. The man turned to us. He smiled. "yes good sir? What is it?" He spoke with a thick French accent. Rudy started to ask something, but Milton cut him off.

"Hang on Rudy, let me ask him first." He opened the folder he was carrying with him. "Have you seen either of these people?" He asked, holding up the pictures of Jack and Lauren we'd had enlarged. The holy man chuckled and pulled out reading glasses and put them on.

He took the pictures and looked at them closely. "Now, that boy looks familiar." He started. I smiled, feeling excited. "Where have you seen him?" I asked. "And it's highly unlikely they are in different places." Rudy added. The minister nodded, looking at Lauren's picture. "Now, she looks familiar too." He said, looking confused.

"Yes, I have seen them, now... where was it…' he thought for a moment. "Ah! Yes, I remember." He handed the pictured back to us. "I married these two just, mmm, maybe two, three days ago." He told us, smiling. Our faces blanked and probably paled. The minister's smile faded. 'Is something wrong?" He asked.

"No, everything's fine, thank you minister." Rudy thanked the minister and started pulling us away. "You know what this means?" he hissed. "Yes! It means Jack and Lauren are married! This is going to be harder than we thought…"

"Guys! I know where they are!" Everyone spun to face Milton to see he was reading Lauren's diary again. "look here!"

POV: Jack Brewer

"Come now, dearest. Why are you so glum? A newlywed couple should be happy on their honeymoon." Lauren told me, smiling and snuggling closer. I nodded slowly, ignoring her roaming hands. "Hold me." She murmured, snuggling up. When I didn't respond, she glared up at me. "Hold me!" She demanded, startling me with the force she put into her words. I quickly put my arms around her and her glare turned back into a flirtatious grin.

I rolled my eyes when she put her head on my chest. "I love you." She told me quietly. When I didn't reply, she poked me, hard. I cringed, but was grateful I was wearing jeans, so she couldn't hit my bare…um, yeah. "lvn ynn..." I mumbled. "Can't hear you…" She poked me gently, then a little harder, teasing me. I cringed. "Love you!" I cried when she jabbed again.

"Good." She hugged me again. "So, Jack…" She started, walking her fingers up my chest. I inwardly groaned. "You remember that night in the dark alley?" She asked. I flinched at the memory, then nodded crustily. "Well, ever since then, there's been something I've been meaning to tell you." She told me, sitting up to look me in the eyes.

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh?" I asked grumpily. She nodded, smiling. "What I've been wanting to tell you is that I-" She stopped, a smile spreading across her face. "You know, I think I'll tell you later." She smiled teasingly. "Whatever." I didn't care. "I'm in the mood for other things." She told me, straddling me. I groaned, suddenly wishing she'd go back to just talking.

She smashed her lips against mine, and I felt her hands slither down my bare chest. I felt the drug kicking in and I fought the desire to go along with what she was doing. I felt her hands trying to undo my belt buckle. She was stopped just in the nick of time by the door suddenly being smashed in. She shrieked, lurching forward. I let out a cry of alarm too, staring at several police officers as they all swarmed in.

"Get off him." An officer held up a gun and pointed it at her. I chose that moment, while her attention was on the officers, to shove her and completely knock her onto the floor. "Jack!" I looked up, hearing the familiar sound of Kim's voice. I saw her running towards me, pushing through the police as they swarmed around Lauren. I blocked out her shrieks and protests as tunnel vision set in. All I could see was Kim, running towards me with a bright, triumphant smile on her face, mixed with deep concern.

I smiled, feeling myself go weak, and everything went black.

POV: Rudy Gillespie

Yes! We finally found him! And there he is, alive and well. Sort of. He had collapsed, but probably from relief. He now lay in an ambulance, Kim sitting next to him, holding his hand.

Lauren, on the other hand, had to be sedated and thrown in the back of a police car. Milton Jerry and I got rides to the hospital.

After a half-hour drive to the hospital, we sat in the hospital room, watching Jack as he lay there, getting his wounds taken care of. He was crying, and I had sent Milton and Jerry out to preserve the dignity the poor boy had left. "It's okay, baby, you're fine." Kim was murmuring.

A doctor pulled me aside and we stepped outside. "We, took a cat-scan, to check for any damage to the brain, or cranium, and, we found none. But, what we did find is very interesting. We found a computerized chip implanted in his cerebral lobe." She spoke with a thick French accent. 'What… do you mean?" I narrowed my eyes in confusion.

"We, scanned it, and it appears to be some kind of devise that freezes the brain, so to speak. It… it causes the brain to safely stop 'thinking' or be able to process what is happening around one's self. It causes one to still be awake, but not aware. She might have installed this into the boy's brain to, perhaps, stop him from resisting, or to safely move him without his knowing it. What it does is it simply causes a 'black out' in the mind." She hesitated.

"It's very hard to explain." She told me. I nodded. "So, basically… it stops you from being able to think properly?" I asked. She nodded. "Oui, yes." She told me. "Okay… is there any way to, like, remove it?" I asked. She shook her head. "Not safely, no. It was scanned into the wall of his cerebral lobe. To safely remove it would be impossible. It is not harming him, and it does not hinder his thoughts unless activated. As of right now, it is inactive." She told me.

"Okay." I nodded. "It is, a work of genius, however." She told me. "only a great scientist would have been able to construct and safely implant it." She stroked her chin thoughtfully. I nodded again. "And, we took a sample of his blood. It seems he has had many drugs pumped into him in the last week or so." She told me. 'What kind of drugs?" I asked.

"Well, one drug in particular we found was a drug that dulls the senses. Another that was strong, was one that appeared to intensify the love hormones." I stared at her, thinking. "We were able to defuse all the drugs and drain them from his system… but one, the love drug was non-diminishable. We can't get it out of his system." She told me. I shook my head slowly, thinking.

"Is that bad?" I asked. She sighed. "Not particularly, no. But it means he will be sexually aroused much faster and more easily than he used to be, and it won't be a bad thing for any future girlfriends. It just means he'll love them with more of a passion." She laughed. I made a face, not thinking it was funny at all.

She shrugged helplessly, sighing. "Well, other than that, he's fine, and he is fit to leave." With that, she walked away, her heels clicking on the floor. I sighed and went back into the room Jack was in to see him sitting on the edge, legs hanging off the side as a nurse unhooked tubes from him and bandaged the needle hole in his arm.

"Ready to go champ?" I asked, smiling and putting a hand on his bare shoulder. He turned to me, offering me a tired, but genuine smile. "Yeah Rudy, I'm ready to go home."

(A/N: I hope you enjoyed! Special thanks to my co-author, Amber Johnston for her amazing writing skills! Please REVIEW!