"Now make sure the safety is on when you have it in your pocket, you don't want to accidently shoot yourself." Rami warned as he loaded the pistol, and Rana laughed from where she was sitting in the middle of their bed.

"You make me sound like an incompetent fool!"

"Now Rana, I think you are a perfectly competent fool!"

"Hey!" she protested, and he laughed, joining her on the bed, and handing her the gun.

"Sorry, I'm just worried about you is all. If I had my way, Hudayfah and Emma would be here, Jamaal would be locked up in a psych ward, we would all be happy with lots of babies, and you would be very far away from any weapon! But unfortunately we aren't living in the magical world of Candyland, and we have to face reality. "

"Ooh Candyland! I would love to live there!" she exclaimed, and he rolled his eyes.

"I'm bearing my soul here, and you are joking!"

She put her arms around his neck, kissing his cheek.

"You are so sweet for worrying about me, but we need all your energy to go into bringing Emma and Hud home. I promise to be careful."

"That's not good enough."

She laughed, keeping her hold on his neck as he pulled her onto his lap.

"Well what would you have me promise?"

"That you will be extremely, tremendously, enormously careful!"

"Hmm, okay."

He leaned his head against hers, kissing the edge of her jaw.

"Promise it Rana."

"I promise to be extremely, immensely,"

"Actually it was tremendously."

She shook her head in amusement.

"Okay, I promise to be extremely, tremendously, enormously careful! Happy now?"

"Yes. Thank you!"

She laughed before her face took on a somber expression.

"Rami, I want this to be over. I want everything to be magically fixed so that Hudayfah and Emma are back and you don't have to leave me."

He pushed her hair back from her face before kissing her forehead, and putting his arms around her.

"Oh honey. If I could magically fix all of this and I didn't have to leave you I would do it in a heartbeat. I really would."

"I know you would. Maybe if we were at Hogwarts you could." She said with a sigh, and he laughed.

"Would you rather be at Hogwarts than Candyland?"

"That is a hard decision. I'll have to give it some serious thought."

"Okay." He said with a soft laugh, before clasping their hands together, and pulling her tighter against him.

They were quiet for the next few moments, until a knock on the door interrupted their silence.

"Rami, the cars are here!" Omar exclaimed.

"Alright, I'm coming!" Rami called back. "Okay well I should get up." He said, rubbing a hand down her arm.

"Fine." She said with an exaggerated sigh, before she stood up, and he bent on the ground to pull his shoes on.

"Rami! Come on!" Omar shouted again, and he quickly stood, and grabbed her face in his hands, kissing her.

"I love you! Be safe!" he exclaimed before jogging out the door, and he was halfway down the stairs when she came running out of the room.

"Wait! Rami! Wait!"

He came to a halt turning around to look at her.

"What? What's wrong?" he asked, but she was already dashing down the stairs and throwing herself in his arms. "Oof! Oh my God Rana what is it!?"

She gripped his face in her hands.

"I love you too!"

He laughed, bending to kiss her.

"Good. Now I'll see you later InshaAllah."

"Finally! Let's go!" Omar exclaimed as he came into the living room.

"Alright, calm down. Muhsin?" he said, and Muhsin looked up from the television.

"Yes?"

"Watch out for them okay?"

Muhsin gave a mock salute.

"I'm on it chief!"

Rami rolled his eyes, before grabbing his keys, and following Omar outside of the apartment, locking it behind him.

"So how reliable are these guys?" Omar asked as they rode down in the elevator, and Rami shrugged.

"They seem to know what they are doing."

Omar nodded.

"Okay good."

They were silent the rest of the way, before they stepped outside the building, walking towards the row of black cars that were parked at the curb. As the two of them climbed into one of the them, John started the engine, pulling out into the street, and Rami turned around so he could look at the men in the back seat.

"Okay, hi everyone! So we are going to be there soon, so I'm just going to get right into it. We have given this a lot of thought, and we figured that our main priority is getting Emma out of there first. Hudayfah can handle himself, but I think...wait," he paused, sitting forward and peering out of the window. "Hey. Wait where are we going?" he asked, and when John didn't respond, he tapped his shoulder. "Um, excuse me, we just passed the building."

"I am aware of that sir."

"Well are you going to make a U turn?"

John leaned forward, locking the car doors, before looking at Rami.

"No."

***

"Okay, we have our brownies, popcorn, M&M's, pretzels, sugar cookies, gummy bears, Halal of course, and potato chips!" Rana exclaimed, arranging the bowls on the bed, before plopping down, and leaning against the headboard. Jenna, Maria, and Rana were gathered on the bed in one of the guest rooms, surrounded by snacks, and an array of movies.

"Wow Rana, did you leave any junk food for the rest of the word?" Maria asked taking a handful of M&M's, and Rana laughed.

"Well I just wanted to have all of our bases covered! Plus, I was craving a combination of sweet and salty!"

"You're pregnant aren't you?" Maria teased, and Rana shook her head.

"Even if I was, it would be impossible to tell now!"

"So you aren't denying it!?"

Rana rolled her eyes.

"So what are we going to watch? Jenna?"

"You guys, are you sure it's okay to do this with Emma and Hudayfah gone? We shouldn't be having fun while they are in danger." Jenna said quietly from where she sat in the middle of them clutching the bowl of potato chips.

It was not hard to tell that she was not in the best state. She had dark circles under her eyes, her hair was limp and tied messily in a knot at the top of her head, and she was constantly wearing a vacant expression, as if she wasn't fully there.

Rana shook her head, popping a chip into her mouth.

"No, this is a celebration!"

"Of what?" Jenna asked skeptically.

"Of Hud and Emma's homecoming! InshaAllah!"

Jenna sighed.

"Rana, I'm not going to get my hopes up."

"No! I can feel it in my bones! Tonight is different! I just know it! Right Maria!?" She exclaimed, and Maria nodded.

"Actually yeah. I can feel it too!"

"So we are starting the celebration without them actually being here?" Jenna asked.

"It will serve as a distraction so we don't worry, because in all honesty I'm a minute away from having a complete meltdown. The last time they went out, they came back without Hudayfah. This time, it might be Rami, and with both of them gone, where does that leave us?!" Rana exclaimed, and Jenna put the bowl down, taking Rana's hand.

"Okay, calm down. It's going to be fine InshaAllah. This is great, I could use a distraction from staring at the clock and biting my nails." She extended her hands. "My cuticles are a mess!"

Rana laughed, and pulled both of them into a hug.

"It will be okay InshaAllah, and I'm so grateful I have you two with me right now." After another group hug, she pulled back, dabbing at her eyes, before picking up a few of the DVD's. "Okay, what are we going to watch?!"

After a twenty minute argument, they eventually decided on Elizabethtown, a movie that Rana had never seen and didn't believe that Orlando Bloom could exist without a British accent. Halfway through the movie, Maria fell asleep, and without her attempt at distracting the other two girls, soon the black cloud the both of them had been trying to push away returned, creating such a somber feel about the room, that eventually Rana just paused the movie, and they sat staring at the screen in silence.

"I had a dream about him last night." Jenna whispered, and Rana turned to look at her.

"What was it?"

Jenna shifted so Maria was no longer laying in her lap, and pulled her legs up to her chest.

"It was after our wedding,"

"Which one?" Rana asked eating a handful of chocolate followed by some pretzels, and Jenna laughed.

"The first one, and are you sure you aren't pregnant?"

"I told you already, even if I was it would be impossible to know. We've been married like three weeks!"

"I thought there were pregnancy tests that could tell two weeks after? Aren't you a doctor!?" Jenna teased, and Rana rolled her eyes.

"Be quiet, and finish your dream."

"Ok. So it was after our first wedding, and we were like at some beach, and we were still in our wedding clothes. We were holding hands, and just standing on the edge of the shoreline, the water lapping at our feet, when suddenly Hudayfah started to walk further into the water. At first I was scared to follow him, because for some reason in the dream I didn't know how to swim, but I didn't want him to leave me behind. So I started to follow him, and when I got too deep to stand, I started to sink, and he grabbed my hand, and pulled me towards him, and soon we were standing on the water."

"Oh wow."

Jenna nodded.

"Yeah."

"What happened after that?"

"Well we continued to walk until we were in the middle of the ocean, and when I looked down I could see the fish and everything else, and as I looked up, the sun was just starting to rise. We were so close to it that even though it was impossible, I felt like I could reach out and touch it. So I tried. I stretched as far as I could, accidently dropped his hand, and suddenly he was gone, and I fell into the water and drowned."

"Wow. That's quite a dream."

"Yeah. What do you think it means?"

"Well. You were scared to go into the water until you were holding onto Hudayfah. So it seems like he makes you feel safe. And walking on the water, and almost touching the sun, which are impossible, you could only do them again while holding onto him. So perhaps being with him makes you feel like you can do anything, including the impossible. But now with him gone, you feel helpless, like you're drowning."

Jenna nodded.

"Makes sense. I woke up sobbing. It seems I'm crying every other minute."

"That's understandable considering the situation."

"I cried a lot before Hud was even gone."

"Well you have not had a normal life in months. Living in constant fear like this, and bearing in mind the circumstances of how you had to get married, it's a wonder you don't cry all the time! Plus the added weight of Hudayfah being gone, would definitely make you more emotional."

"I wanted to be strong for him. What good would I be lying in bed all day?" she shook her head. "But it's like my heart is gone, and the worst part is that I feel so utterly helpless. If there was just something I could do, I would in a second. But I can't do anything."

"I think you have been strong. If you didn't have some kind of reaction to Hud being gone, I don't think I would like you very much."

Jenna laughed, and propped her chin up on her arm.

"I just..." suddenly a loud crash was heard from downstairs, and they both froze. "What was that?!" Jenna asked.

"Maybe Muhsin dropped something?"

"Mayb..." suddenly an even bigger crash was heard followed by a thud. "Oh my God! Oh my God Rana, what was that?!" Jenna exclaimed in a panic, but Rana was already up, standing by the door, her ear pressed to it.

"I don't know." She said after a moment of silence, and as she reached into her pocket, and pulled out a black pistol, Jenna gasped.

"Oh my God! Rana, is that a gun!?"

"Yes, now be quiet." She said pressing her ear to the door, and as a loud clanging sound reached their ears, Maria stirred, before opening her eyes.

"What's going on?" she asked groggily, and as she started to sit up, Rana put a hand on the doorknob.

"Nothing go back to sleep. I'll be right back."

"What!?" Jenna exclaimed jumping off of the bed. "You're going to go down there!?"

Rana nodded, wrapping her scarf over her head.

"Yes, stay here."

"No! I'm going with you!" Jenna said, picking up her own scarf, and Rana shook her head.

"No, you're not."

Jenna glared at her, pinning her scarf into place.

"I'm going."

They stared each other down for a few seconds, before Rana sighed in resignation.

"Fine. But stay close and quiet."

They tiptoed down the staircase, crossing slowly across the kitchen and living room, and as they got closer to where the front door was, a figure turned towards them, and Rana raised the gun.

"Don't move!" she shouted, and they heard someone curse, before the light switch was flipped on, and as the room flooded with light, Rana's eyebrow rose slightly.

"Sami?"