"Is the food almost ready? I'm in a hurry," Nathan asked, getting impatient. There were only two other people eating in the restaurant so he didn't understand why his order was taking so long.

"Two more minutes. They're just packing it up," the young man behind the counter said apologetically.

Nathan's phone rang before he could respond and the boy breathed a sigh of relief as Nathan turned away from him.

"Michael," Nathan said when he answered the call.

"Hey, did you find the girls?" Michael asked.

"Yeah I did."

"Good. Listen, I followed the Chief when he left the station in the evening and he went to the Bandieer mansion but then he didn't even get past the door and he drove off again. I tried to follow him but he must have spotted me because I lost him so now I have no idea where he was headed," Michael told him.

"So, what now?" Nathan asked. The boy behind the counter packed his order into a carrier bag and handed it to him and he gave a nod of thanks before turning to exit the restaurant.

"I'm headed home. We're going to have to think of a Plan B," Michael said. "I got the program for the funeral by the way. It starts at 9 a.m."

"Okay. I'll meet you there," Nathan replied then he ended the call and put the phone in his jacket pocket. As he went around the front of the car, he noticed that Natasha was no longer sitting in front. Not wanting to jump to conclusions and panic he opened the back door, hoping she switched to the backseat to lie down or something but again that seat was empty. He set the food on the backseat and shut the door, looking around the dimly lit parking lot and calling out Natasha's name, trying to figure out what direction she could have taken, if indeed she had left the car of her own volition.

A sound coming from somewhere behind the car caught his ears and he called out her name again, heading towards it while readying his gun. He found Natasha on her knees, clutching her stomach and breathing deep, heavy breaths. Putting away his gun, he quickly crouched down next to her and gagged as the smell of vomit wafted up to him.

Natasha seemed barely conscious but when he spoke to her she managed to mumble a response. He lifted her and carried her back to the car, placing her gently on the backseat and moving the food to the passenger seat. He drove off, calling on her occasionally to make sure she was still conscious. Almost half an hour later, he parked outside a house and carried a sleeping Natasha to the door. The lights were still on in the house and after ringing the doorbell a couple of times, the door opened.

"Hi Mum. I need your help."

His mother looked from him to Natasha curled up against his chest before stepping aside to let Nathan through.

"Is she okay?" Catherine asked, as Nathan made his way to the room that used to be his.

"She's really drunk and she was throwing up," Nathan replied setting her down on the bed. "I was hoping you could keep an eye on her and take care of her since you have experience with this..." he trailed off.

Catherine nodded and squeezed his arm as he rushed past her, out of the room. He went to his car and brought in the food that he'd bought and ate a bit of it seated in the kitchen. After cleaning up the mess he'd made, he went to the living room and put all his attention on the t.v screen, trying his best to avoid looking at the pictures framed around the room. Catherine found him staring absentmindedly at the screen and sat next to him on the couch.

"Did Violet find out what Jackiee did?" she asked once she was settled.

Nathan stared at her, confused and she nodded towards the t.v.

"I wasn't really paying attention to the program. Sorry," he said.

"I figured," Catherine said with a smile. "I cleaned her up and put her in pajamas and into bed. She's asleep but she kept calling for you. You'll need to watch her and make sure she's sleeping properly so she won't choke on her vomit if she starts throwing up again."

"Thanks Mum," Nathan said, moving to stand but Catherine stopped him.

"Before you go, are you okay?" she asked, looking up at him worriedly.

"I'm fine," Nathan said.

"Are you sure?" she pressed on.

"If seeing someone drunk would set me off, I would have fallen off the wagon a long time ago from seeing all the drunks we bring into work on a daily basis," Nathan replied, taking her hand. "I'm fine, really."

Catherine finally let him go while she focused on the t.v. When Nathan reached the room, he stood by the open door for a while watching her sleep. She looked peaceful, curled up under the blankets with only the top of her golden head showing. This seemingly sweet girl who was going off the rails because she felt powerless to stop what was happening around her. He knew the feeling well and a few years ago, he was the one throwing up all over the place, leaving his mother to clean up the mess his life had become. 

Shaking off the morbid thoughts, he opened the closet and picked out a t-shirt and sweatpants from the few clothes he'd left there when he moved out and went to change in the bathroom. When he came back to the room, he briefly debated if he should share a bed with Natasha again. His only other options were the carpet or the wooden chair set by a plain wooden desk and none of those options seemed comfortable so he quietly slipped into bed, trying not to wake Natasha but she felt the movement of the bed and rolled over so she was now facing him. 

She mumbled something in her sleep that sounded a lot like "Max" and frown lines appeared on her forehead. Thinking she was probably having a nightmare about Max, Nathan brushed away a lock of hair from her face before kissing the lines on her forehead lightly. She took a deep breath and her face relaxed, lines smoothing out and to Nathan's relief, she didn't wake up. He checked his phone before setting it on the bedside table and turning off the lamp.

About an hour after he'd finally fallen asleep, the sound of his phone ringing woke him up and he blindly patted the table until he found it then answered it without opening his eyes.

"Yeah?" he said sleepily.

"Detective Henderson? I'm sorry to call you so late but this is urgent and I figured you'd want to know," the voice on the other end said, sounding out of breath and panicky.

"Who's this?" Nathan asked.

"Officer Naomi Jenkins, sir."

"What is it Naomi?"

"I was doing my final rounds before switching shifts tonight when I noticed that he wasn't in his cell. I don't know how he could have escaped, I swear I never left the station Detective. And when I checked the lock, I noticed it wasn't even damaged. It's like he had a key and he just unlocked it and walked out!" Naomi rambled.

"Calm down Naomi," Nathan said finally opening his eyes and sitting up in bed. Natasha snored lightly beside him but slept on. "Who's the prisoner?" he asked.

"Maxwell Bandieer," Naomi replied. "He's gone Detective."

***

After explaining to his mother why he had to leave the house at two a.m, Nathan sped to the police station where he'd told Michael to meet him. He found Michael's car already in the lot when he parked his own and he knew he would walk into an unpleasant scene. Sure enough, when he entered the station, Michael was practically screaming at Naomi.

"What the hell, Jenkins?" Michael shouted at a cowering Naomi. Gone was the flirtatious tone he'd used on her just the day before.

"I...I don't know Detective Carter. He was there when I did my first round and then I did the last one before Lydia took over and he was gone," Naomi stammered looking close to tears.

"Did you help him escape?" Michael asked, narrowing his eyes.

"No!" Naomi yelled, appalled. "I would never do that!"

"You know the rules, right? If a prisoner escapes on your watch, you'll have to serve the rest of their sentence," Michael said in a cold, calculating voice that sent chills down Naomi's spine.

"Before we do something we'll regret," Nathan said, finally stepping into the fight, "let's try and find out what happened."

"I've tried that for the last five minutes and all she can tell me is that she doesn't know," Michael said angrily.

"No. You've been screaming at her for the last five minutes. That's hardly effective. See if you can get anything from the security cameras, I'll talk to her," Nathan said dismissively. Michael looked like he wanted to argue but decided against it and took off.

Once they were alone, Nathan turned to Naomi and gave her a friendly smile. "Do you mind if we sit and talk?"

Naomi nodded, suspecting that he suggested sitting for her benefit because she looked and felt like she was going to fall and break apart.

"When did your shift start?" he asked. She looked momentarily confused by his question before answering.

"At six p.m," she replied.

"But you were here in the morning. You came to our office with the message from Max," Nathan pointed out.

"I had to take a double today. The six a.m shift was actually Officer Davidson's but he asked me to cover for him because his wife went into labor and he had to be with her at the hospital. So I did his shift up to twelve p.m and went home then came back for mine which was supposed to end at twelve a.m," Naomi replied.

"How many other officers were on both those shifts with you?"

"Standard is five officers per shift in the station but in the morning everyone else was here, yourself included," she said.

"You spoke to Max during your morning shift. What did he say exactly?"

Naomi paused, thinking back. "I was doing the mid-shift round and when I walked past his cell he said he needed to speak to you and when I ignored him, he yelled and said it was really important and a matter of life and death."

"Did he say anything in the evening during the round you last saw him?"

"No. It looked like he was sleeping."

"Who else was here during the evening shift?"

"Detectives Hayes and Crawford and Officers Miller, Moore, Park and Lewis," Naomi counted them off. "Oh and Chief Langdon came in for a few minutes."

The mention of the Chief got Nathan's attention. "Do you remember what time the Chief came in and left?"

"Maybe eleven p.m," Naomi said, sounding doubtful. "I'm not completely sure. I was working on some paperwork from the reception area when he came in. He asked me to call everyone else on duty to go to the boardroom and wait for him there and then he went to his office I assume. I couldn't go because I had to attend to phone calls coming in at the front desk and when it finally let up, it was time for my last round. I didn't see the Chief leave but when I raised the alarm about the escaped prisoner, he wasn't here anymore so I guess he left sometime during my round."

"Was he in the boardroom the whole time he was here?" Nathan asked.

"I don't know," Naomi replied slowly as she finally caught up to what Nathan was implying. "You don't think the Chief let him out, do you?"

Nathan chose his words carefully. "I think calling that meeting may have been a diversion. Ask everyone who attended the meeting how long the Chief was with them and if he left the room at all. See if any of the prisoners saw anything although that might be a dead end considering Max was in an isolated cell. Get any of the officers on call to search every Bandieer property for Max and assign some more at the city limits."

Nathan checked his phone while Naomi got busy making calls. It was almost three a.m. Not a very conventional hour to make calls but he didn't have a choice so he dialed Kimberley's number. To his surprise, she answered on the third ring.

"Nice of you to finally call me back," she said yawning, "At three a.m."

"Sorry about that," Nathan apologized, only just remembering that Natasha had mentioned Kimberley's calls. "And I'm sorry to be calling you so early."

"It's fine." She yawned again and Nathan heard some rustling and a click before she continued. "I had some news that I thought might peek your interest about Margaret."

"I'm listening," Nathan said, his purpose for calling momentarily forgotten.

"From the time Henry Bandieer was running the show, there was a room at the H.B media headquarters where no one was allowed to enter. It was heavily guarded, triple lock safe, motion detectors, you name it."

"Okay?" Nathan said confused.

"People thought he might be hiding tonnes of money in there. Others thought it was a room where he met with his mistresses. I thought that last one was ridiculous. The man was filthy rich, he'd probably hire out a whole hotel or something for that..."

"Kimberly, get to the point. Any point," Nathan said, losing patience.

"You woke me up at three a.m. If anyone has a right to be grumpy, it's me," Kimberly said.

Nathan felt the strong urge to bang his head against a wall but he kept his mouth shut and let her continue.

"Anyway yesterday morning, Margaret came in all flustered and went into that room and when she came out she was pulling a suitcase. One of the messengers said he offered to help her carry it and she nearly bit his head off but he noticed something caught in the zip and he swears it was a bunch of bank notes," Kimberly said.

Nathan was about to dismiss this but then he thought about everything that had happened. Max was gone and Margaret and Chief Langdon had a proven connection that they hadn't yet understood. Was it possible that Chief Langdon had indeed broken Max out of jail and the suitcase possibly filled with money was the payoff for the job?

"Thanks for this. I also have some news for you and I would really appreciate it if you could put this on the earliest broadcast. Max escaped from prison," he finally said.

"Why didn't you lead with that?" Kimberly yelled. "When? What happened?"

"We're still trying to figure it out. How soon can you get this on the news?"

"I'm not sure if I can. This news is about a Bandieer and the news station is owned by the Bandieers," Kimberly said.

"Don't you have some oath that you have to honor?" Nathan asked.

"We're not doctors silly," Kimberly laughed, "but you have a point. Send me the details of what you need me to say and I'll make a breaking news report as soon as I get to H.B media."

"Thanks I'll text you," Nathan said then hung up and went to find Michael.

"Any luck?" he asked once he found him.

Michael shook his head. "Max definitely had help. There's no camera pointing at his cell so I can't see how he got out and he didn't show up on any of the footage from the corridors. Either he somehow learnt magic and disappeared from his cell or he knew all the cameras blind spots and managed to stick to those on his way out."

"That's impossible," Nathan said.

Michael threw his hands up in a gesture of defeat. Nathan told him everything that Naomi and Kimberly had told him and Michael agreed that the events could actually be a tangled web of truth.  After sending Kimberly a basic outline of the news release he needed to be broadcast, Nathan went back to talk to Naomi while Michael headed for the Bandieer mansion. Naomi confirmed that the Chief had only shown up to the meeting almost a quarter of an hour after everyone else had gathered and left a few minutes before her scheduled last round. All attempts to contact him proved fruitless and Michael called him to tell him that neither Max nor Margaret were on any of the Bandieer properties and they hadn't been seen leaving the city from the time Nathan sent out the word to have the city limits surrounded. They were hitting dead ends at every point. Naomi suggested a city wide search but both Nathan and Michael agreed that they didn't have the man power to carry one out properly and the best they could do is keep watch of every exit point out of the city and alert the nearest cities.

At six a.m, Nathan sent Naomi home despite her protests and took over the front desk while Michael went around friends and relatives of the Bandieers. A call from his mother came in while he was watching the news broadcast of Max's escape by Kimberly.

"Hi Mum," he said when he answered the call.

"Hi Nate. We just saw the news," his mother said.

"We?" Nathan asked surprised. "Natasha's up?"

"Yeah she's been up for a while actually with a massive headache so I let her watch t.v while I made her something for her headache and then the news broadcast about some escaped criminal came on and she started freaking out."

"She's probably worried he'll come after her," Nathan said rubbing his hand over his eyes. "Can I talk to her?"

"She knows the escaped convict? Is he dangerous?"

"It's a long story. I'll fill you in later. Just let me talk to her please."

There were a few hushed whispers then Natasha came on the line.

"Hey"

"Hi Natasha. I just want you to know you have nothing to worry about. Max doesn't know where you are and my mum's place is the last..." Nathan began.

"I'm not worried about that," Natasha interrupted before taking a deep breath. "So yesterday I was really drunk..."

"I know. I was the one who had to carry you around," Nathan cut in.

"Nathan, just shut up and listen!" Natasha yelled.

"Everyone's yelling at me today," Nathan complained, thinking back to his conversation with Kimberly.

"I wonder why," Natasha said sarcastically. "Last night when you left me in the car, I started feeling nauseous so I went outside to a dumpster but then I ended up throwing up in an alley and while I was trying to get up and go back to the car, I heard a couple arguing. At first I felt like what they were saying was important but I was way too drunk to care or try to figure out why. Then I called out for help and the man came and helped me to your car but then he recognized me and your car I think and he freaked out and started dragging me away from the car. I tried to scream but I ended up throwing up on him..."

"Wait. You said the man recognized you. Did you know him?" Nathan asked.

"It was Chief Langdon. When I was in the alley I kept hearing them call each other 'Dan' and 'Marge' and they were talking about a son who's in prison and Marge was trying to talk Dan into some plan of hers that was going to make the son a fugitive and there was mention of a Henry somewhere in there. When I saw the news, it finally clicked," Natasha said.

"What are you saying..." Nathan trailed off.

"Nathan, I think Marge is Margaret as in Margaret Bandieer, Max's mother and Chief Langdon was talking to her about their son Max."

***

I had to split this one in half because too much was happening so we're still at 7 chapters to go. As always, thank you for reading and for your patience >3