Derek

Yawning, I pushed my glasses up to my forehead, and rubbed my hand over my face. Humphrey, my boss, had left this case on my desk last night, and I had been here ever since trying to work through it. With my eidetic memory, I had already memorized it, but having the hard copy helped.

I had gotten pretty far, and I was just waiting on Justin to get back to me on some details.

My phone started ringing where it was beside me, and I looked down to see that Layna was calling. There as a pain in my chest as I declined the call, and pushed the phone away. It wasn't the first time I had done this, but it still hurt the same every time.

My phone dinged, notifying me that I had a new voicemail from Layna. I looked down at the framed picture on my desk, a small sigh escaping my lips. In the picture, I was holding her in my arms, and she was grinning like crazy, her hazel eyes sparkling in the sunlight. My cheek was resting on her forehead, cushioned by her curly red hair.

I ran my thumb over her face, overcome with a deep feeling of longing. I missed her like crazy every single day I was here. Leaving her was the only decision I regretted about moving to Florida.

I should have swallowed my pride, and begged her to come with me. But being the coward that I was, I couldn't tell her how I felt about her.

But even when the perfect moment came, I couldn't spit the goddamn words out. Instead I had run, like the idiot that I was.

Justin chose that moment to burst into my office, a crazy, shit-eating grin on his face. "We got it!"

And with that, any thought of voicemails and redheads disappeared from my mind as I grabbed my suit jacket off the back of my chair, and ran out of my office.

***

I didn't get home until the following morning, and all I wanted to do was collapse on my bed and sleep until next week. As I undressed, I played through my voicemail, freezing when Layna's voice filtered through the speaker on my phone. The fear in her tone was palpable, and I wanted to kick myself for ignoring her call. I nearly fell over trying to grab my phone to redial her and make sure she was okay.

Just as I was about to click the enter and call, my phone started ringing. It was Steve. I sank down to the floor, my knees like jelly as I answered.

"Hello?" I whispered, my heart banging against my chest because I knew. I knew. Something had gone terribly wrong.

"Derek, its Steve," Layna's dads voice broke, and my heart stopped. He had been crying.

"What happened?" I asked my voice barely above a whisper.

Please be okay, Layna. Please, please, please, please, please, please. Not my angel, please God, let her be okay.

"She's missing," he said, "Someone took her."

***

It was only a three-hour plane ride from Florida to Toronto, where Layna lived. My flight got in at noon, and as soon as I landed I grabbed my luggage and rushed straight to the police station.

When I walked in, I was directed to the detective that was in charge of Layna's case by the guy working at the front desk. When I knocked on the door of his office, a large man opened the door. He was huge, his height along with the muscles that were present all over his body. His brown eyes looked over me like he was seeing everything about me, unravelling all my secrets. It was a bit unnerving; usually I was the one giving that look to others.

"How can I help you?" he asked.

Before I could answer, Tom called out from behind me.

"Derek," He hugged me quickly, and ruffled my hair. "I thought you were in Florida?"

"Steve called about Layna; I came on the first flight," I said absentmindedly. I wasn't in the mood for idle chit chat; I needed to find Layna as soon as possible.

I turned back to Detective Greene, getting straight to business. "You're the one in charge of Layna's case?"

He nodded his head, "Why don't we talk inside my office?"

Tom and I followed him inside, where Steve was already sitting at his desk. He didn't look surprised to see like he had assumed that I would come as soon as I heard Layna was in trouble.

Tom took the seat beside his husband, but I chose to stand, leaning against the close door.

"I'm assuming you're a close friend of Layna's?" I nodded my head at Greene's statement. "Alright, well my name is Allan Greene, and like you said, I am in charge of her case. We don't have a lot of evidence so far, as she was kidnapped last night, but I am going to do everything I can to find Layna, and bring her home safe, I promise you."

"Do you have any idea who could have kidnapped her? Does the way she was kidnapped match any previous cases?"

Greene looked at me steadily from across his desk, "Unfortunately, I can't go into the specifics of an ongoing investigation. What I can tell you is that whoever took her is also the one that's been stalking her for the past month."

"What do you mean, stalking her?" I asked, my voice harder then I intended it to be.

"Someone was sending her stuff in the mail; just notes and pictures at the beginning but then he came to the house where she was babysitting, and sent her a finger." Steve said.

"And you fucking wait until after she gets kidnapped to call me? Are you all sane?" I started pacing the room, trying to control the anger that was building inside of me. A whole month! We could have avoided this whole situation if they would have had the sense to call me earlier.

"Its not like you answered any of her phone calls anyways," Tom snapped, standing up to face me. "Maybe she did call you, and you ignored it."

"Yeah why the fuck would we call you after you have been MIA for the past six months," Steve said, standing to back up his husband.

"Why don't we all take a breather," Allan suggested, standing up from his spot behind the desk. "Tom, Steve, why don't you go wait in the waiting room for a bit, grab a coffee while I speak to Derek. Then we can continue together once we have all settled down."

Tom and Steve left without saying a word, but made sure to glare at me as they walked out. I sat down in one of the now vacated chairs.

"I sense some hostility between the three of you. Want to explain what that's about? And then maybe you can tell me where you were last night?" Greene said once the door had closed.

I started laughing, and Greene just looked at me with raised eyebrows. I'm sure I looked crazy at this moment, laughing hysterically with dark circles under my eyes, my beard growing in and in the rumpled clothes from yesterday. That, paired with the tattoos that were visible on my arms now that I had rolled up my shirt sleeves, made me seem like a viable suspect. I couldn't blame the guy; anybody in his position would assume the same thing.

"No, you're not going to interrogate me. But you are going to give me the case file, and everything that you have on Layna's stalking and kidnapping, and then we will go from there."

"Like I said, its confidential. Unfortunately, I can't disclose that information, and I can only tell you what you already know. I don't know what you mean to Layna, but Dere-"

I cut him off before he could continue, "That's Dr. Jackson to you, thank you very much. And I'm sure right now you can't disclose that information, but I'm going to put a call in with my supervisor, and we will talk from there. Or actually, maybe you can give him a call; Humphrey loves talking to new people."

I pulled out my badge from my pocket, tossing it on the desk in front of him, then grabbed a post-it note and a pen from his desk, and wrote Humphrey's number down. Then, I leaned back on the chair, watching as he picked up the objects I had given him, and his jaw dropped slightly.

"You're Derek Jackson? As in the one that finished his Ph. D when he was twenty-two and started working for the FBI a couple years after?"

"Yep." I said, smiling a little. I always loved to see the reactions I got from people when they found out.

"Oh my god. I called your supervisor a couple of days ago to get you to consult on this case! I never got a call back yet!"

A tightness entered my chest when he said that; if I had known, I would have dropped everything to come here. Suddenly I felt anger at Humphrey. Why wouldn't he tell me about this?

But then again, that's when we had gotten the other case, where a kidnapping had already occurred, so I could understand why Humphrey had prioritized. And he couldn't have any idea about who Layna was to me, as I had never talked to him about my life before I joined his division.

I slumped against the chair, "Well it's a good thing I'm here now then," I replied listlessly. The pain in my chest was starting to get unbearable, and I just really wanted Layna back, safe and sound.

"Yeah, I'm just not sure if you're in the right state of mind to be helping on her case."

I snapped up instantly at his words. "I'm fine, and I'm going to help her. Give me the case file."

Greene looked warily at me, before reaching down into his desk to retrieve the file. "Fine, but until I get authorization from my boss, you're not allowed to leave this room with it."

I nodded my head, eagerly grabbing it from his hand. I was going to do this; I was going to find Layna if it was the last thing I did.