Baby Magic

Jack stood eating his cookie and listened to the two of them he already agreed to take Brian to St Mungos but he was just as concerned as Brian over Khaat taking Abby to get books. But he had to agree she was capable of looking after Abby.

Finishing the cookie he looked at Brian as Khaat and Marcus left " okay let go." He said moving to Brian's side. Steven chuckled as he walked through the kitchen.

"don't eat all those cookies Jack." he said making Jess chuckle and shake her head.

"why you and I can always work it off on the course." Jack returned and chuckled as he heard Steven laugh as he headed up the stairs to his room.

Brian felt the vibration of the enchanted tie tack alarm that he always wore. He looked at it. The gemstone was flashing. It was Khaat's alarm. Marcus had run into trouble. He stood up and drew his wand awkwardly with his stiff arm.

"Marcus is in trouble," Brian said. "Gotta go. I'm heading for the bookstore. Jack, either come along or send backup, please. I don't know what we'll be into." He apparated out.

He reappeared in front of Flourish and Blotts and went inside. It looked like all business from what he could see. He saw nothing overtly emergent. He made his way upstairs to the section of the store where the children's books were kept. It was more chaotic here. There was a small crowd of people in one aisle, and Brian could see the top of Marcus's head somewhere near the center of the crowd. Around them, older wizards seemed to be searching for something.

Brian tried to gently push through to the center of the crowd but an old cranky wizard used his wand and cracked Brian in his already injured elbow.

"Ministry auror," Brian lied. It had been true once, but not anymore. Oh, well. "Move aside, please. Move along." That did help him somewhat. When he did reach the center of the crowd, he saw Marcus with his arms wrapped around Khaat. She was holing a book of some sort. She didn't seem to be injured.

"Marcus..." Brian started. Without a word, Marcus gently pulled the hair ribbon with the crushed butterfly out of the margin of the crumpled book and handed the ribbon to Brian. Brian looked at the ribbon and then looked at Marcus. The look in Marcus's eyes said it all. Brian felt a sinking sensation swiftly overtaking him. He'd worked for years helping other families get their children back. Now his own was gone--just gone, in much the same manner as the other children he had rescued in the past. His own daughter was now a statistic amongst them.

There were too many people here. If there had been any evidence it was trampled underfoot now.

"Did you search the place? Are you sure?" Brian heard himself ask.

"We've been from bottom to top," an old man replied. "The tot isn't here. We sent a couple outside to try to find a stray child...." The rest of the old man's words seemed to fade in Brian's mind. He admired them for searching the streets, but Abbey wasn't going to be there, Brian already knew.

"Do you know the mother?" The old man was asking Brian. "I feel like I should know here from somewhere. She should be with someone she knows...."

"I'll take care of it. Thank you," Brian said, hoping they might not recognize Khaat and made a bad situation even worse. He took the book from Khaat and looked at its crumpled pages. It looked like they'd been crumpled by small hands. It looked to Brian like she'd been afraid and had gripped the book before it had been either taken from her or dropped. That wouldn't tell him much more. The ribbon, though, had been fastened in a way that wouldn't come out easily at the hands of a 6 year old. That had to have been done by an adult--deliberately. This had been purposeful--and so far, that was the only clue it looked like they had.

Jack felt his medallion hum and looked at Brian he nodded " I'm coming with" he said in more of a statement than an acknowledgement to Brian's question. He apertated out side the building and sniffed the air h caught the faint whiff of Abby, to him she was cinnamon buns and fresh laundry but he cursed as it disappeared in a large crowd.

"shit" he cursed to himself as he looked all around him hoping to catch the faint smell once more but he could not. Heading inside he met up with Steven who seeing the look on Jacks face rubbed his chin. Jack walked over to Brian and gave a quick nod to Marcus.

"Got a scent out back, faint but lost it in a crowd, who ever it was knew we couldn't track in a crowd" He said softly so only he would hear. "its not blood, his scent I know and all I got was hers." his hands balled tight, so tight his knuckles turned white, it was now he felt a soft hand on his and he turned to see Jess stood beside him looking ready for a fight in her black jeans, tee shirt, heeled leather boots and leather jacket.

"Jack,calm" She said softly and nodded as he relaxed his hands. " Marcus please take Khaat home there's sweet tea waiting." Jess knelt in front of her and held her hand " we'll find her and god help who ever has her." her voice strong and serious.

Brian was glad for their arrival. He handed the ribbon with the crushed little butterfly and the paperdoll book to Jack, in case there was anything he could get from it.

"This is all we have to go on," Brian told them. "That and a tall thin woman with dark hair and a walking cane. Said she was her grandmother. Apparated out fast."

"Thank you," he said to them all, glad for Steven, Jess and Jack. "I'll need to get word to her grandfather. I'm sure he got the same alert that we did, but its harder for him to just drop everything and walk away to come. I can't avoid telling him, though."

He listened to Jess suggest to Marcus to take Khaat home. She was right.  He looked at Marcus and nodded.

"Let's leave this to Brian and the others," Marcus said. "Let's go back home and give them room to work. What do you say?"

"I...haven't paid for that," Khaat said looking at the book, her voice soft and lost. "And I can't just leave her here." Marcus knew how she felt. It felt so final, going home without Abbey. As a father, he knew he'd felt the same way when it had been Poppy who had been missing. The fact was that there was nothing she could do here. Before he could speak, Brian intervened and stroked her cheek softly.  

"Look at me," he said to her quietly. She looked at him. All she saw was his fierce anger. There wasn't one stone he wasn't willing to overturn to look for his child. "She's not alone. We're here. We'll find her. We aren't going to stop until we get her back. I promise."

"I shouldn't have taken her out. I should have listened..." Khaat started.

"Stop. That's not going to help," Brian told her quickly. "What I need you to do is to go home and tell Kate. She needs to know. She can get some more help."
Marcus knew what Brian wanted. Brian was counting on Kate summoning Robert. "And, Marcus, tell Owens. He'll know what to do."

Marcus knew that little piece of code too. That meant he wanted the Paris office already searching, doing everything at their disposal to help.

"We have things to do," Marcus told her. "I don't think we should waste time, do you?"  She looked at him blankly for a moment and then shook her head, taking his word for it. He looked at Brian and the others. "We'll be fine. Let us know if there's something we can do." He flicked his wand and took her back home.