Saving Cayli

[Jay Carpenter]

Alistair had eight hours to produce the information Jay demanded. It was obvious he had access to the knowledge. The man was able to scrape together what was basically a file copied straight out of Pentagon vaults. This should be nothing. Jay only needed a name. One name. One place. Who ordered their strikes on the Cartel? Where was Andres meant to go? With the answers came leverage; with the leverage came the tools to keep his family out of Zacarias’ reach.

He looked at Alistair’s wallet again. Turned it off and on. Held it up to the light. Eight hours came; and like a flash, eight hours were gone. Thirty-minutes past the deadline, Jay wandered the parking lots when he called it again. His heart was nearly stopped while the call rang unanswered.

Pacing wasn’t good enough of a distraction. The seconds ticked by like dripping syrup. He wrung his hands together. Scrubbed his hair. Tugged on the hem of his shirt. He wanted to run again, just to burn off energy. Instead, he found himself toiling with the Dominion’s power. Turning and twisting the lines into boxes like he had on the plane. He even thought about doing pushups or something. Anything.

The waiting was going to kill him.

At an hour past the deadline. He sent Alistair a message since the calls were ignored.
“You’re late,” he typed out.

To his shock, a response almost immediately arrived.
“When you’ve upheld your end of the bargain, I will uphold mine.”

Jay almost crushed the delicate device in his palm. A slick of oil filmed the inside of his mouth bitter. Dirty.

Instead, he squeezed his eyes shut, biting back the knots twisting his gut. Alistair had him cornered. To get the thing he needed most in the world, he had to give up the thing he wanted more than anything.

He had to find Natalie.

---

Knocking, he leaned on the frame, wondered if she was awake, praying that Cayli didn’t answer it. She must have found Natalie drunk out of her mind, weighed by sins and horrors like a blanket pulled up over her soul. She’d seen Jay that drunk before, also. At a time in his life he wasn’t exactly proud of.

“Natalie?” He called. No sound stirred on the other side. He tried the door knob. His key fob wouldn’t work on hers, and the slow creep of worry darkened his thoughts. “Natalie.” He said, louder.

The power made short work of the lock system. Sparks flared in the short-circuit. Black charred the frame as he shoved it open. Found her room empty. Literally, empty. Even her bag of belongings were missing.

He ran from there, door left ajar, and sprinted to his parents room, pounding on the door. Mom opened it with a huff of surprise, but Jay pushed by her. Cayli was lounged on a bed, knees drawn up, t.v. on.
“What’d you do?” There was harsher accusation in his tone than he meant.

Cayli blinked those big, innocent eyes.
“What’d you do!” She bit back.

They just stared at each other while mom circled around, tugging on his arm. He shoved her off. 
“Natalie is gone. When was the last time you saw her?”

Cayli shot a glare at their mother. Caroline was looking right fearful, maybe a tad guilty. She just brushed her palms together and shrugged. “Jay, it’s for the best. It was time she went home. We don’t need to be taking up any more of her valuable efforts better served elsewhere.”

His jaw dropped. She went back? She went back. She went back.
“No, no, no, no, no…” He muttered, pacing a ravine into the carpet. Mom said something to her that set her off. Alistair wanted Natalie out of the Custody. Jay? Jay had no idea what the hell he wanted.  

“Who’s Alistair?” Cayli interrupted. Jay froze. Not realizing he’d been talking out loud.

Jay swallowed. “Nobody.” He hurried from the room, sweeping in and out of his family’s lives like a storm. His only parting words were, “I have to find her.” Where could she have gone? Its not like there was a subway around the corner to ride to the airport. Des Moines was a 2-hour drive away. No rental cars. No taxi services.

He stopped in his tracks and pulled his regular wallet, the one with the rental car company’s app embedded. She couldn’t? She didn’t even have the key system. A finger’s brush and a holo-map of the state lit the hallway. There was the car. Blinking a nice little dot about a mile from the airport. He was an idiot. A fucking idiot. 

“Jay? What’s wrong?” A gentle voice interrupted. Jay spun, torment twisted his brow low. He didn’t want Jensen to see this.
Since the guy was here, he pointed to the dot. “That’s Natalie,” he said. 
He studied the map quizzically, “She’s in Des Moines?” 
“Yep.” 
“Why?” He asked.

Jay couldn’t even begin to answer that question.

He could report the car stolen and the rental company could disable the engines remotely. That wouldn’t work. She could get a ride-share service to take her the rest of the way. That left one option, and he really, really didn’t want to tell him.

He sent Alistair another message: “Natalie is gone.” 
A response returned quickly: “Seems you’re not as charming as you thought you were, Jay Carpenter. Find my daughter.” 
He swallowed, looked at the map, and responded, hands tense with lies: “I don’t know where she is.”

As it seemed the hallway was a great place to congregate for a nice little family meeting, mom and Cayli joined them. Dad was still missing, but everyone knew where he was.
“I’ll deal with Natalie. We still need someplace safe for the both of you,” he fixed his stare upon Cayli. “I don’t know where to go and how to get you there, but you can’t stay in Iowa.”

That was when Jensen touched him on the arm. Jay blinked as he turned to the preacher.



(With Jensen and Alistair)