STOLEN CHANCES - PART TWENTY

PREVIOUSLY

"Tea, aren't you coming?" Ryan asks before leaving.

"Sweetie, I can't. There's no way I could get up to the window. And I definitely couldn't squeeze through it. You have to take care of Starr for me until you find your dad. I have faith in you. I know you won't let anything happen to her," she says, giving a reasurring smile and kissing him on his forehead.

"Buena Suerte, mijos," she whispers as the two little children make their way out the window and on their way to freedom.

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Morning found Llanfair in a more frazzled state than the night before. Todd and Michelle spent the night trying to find as much cash as possible to pay the ransom and didn't get much sleep. The drop was to go down at midnight, which didn't leave them much time. Money was no problem for either of them, but getting their hands on $5 million in cash was more trouble.

Viki wandered around the house most of the night delivering coffee to the variety of cops and FBI agents stationed about. She didn't know what else she could do to help, but just being there for Todd was help enough for him.

They were all startled by the phone ringing at 7 a.m. The FBI agents picked up the phone and handed it to Todd.

"Hello?" he asked warily, anxious to hear the next orders of the kidnapper. Instead, he heard the familiar voice of Andrew Carpenter.

"Todd? It's Andrew. I know it's early, but this is important."

"What is it Andrew. We're sort of in the middle of a crisis around here," Todd snaps, angry that he has to waste his time talking to Andrew.

"Well, there's someone here claiming to be your son. They got here . . ."

"What?" Todd asks, interrupting Andrew midsentence. "Andrew, are you sure? Is he okay? Let me talk to him."

"Dad?", the voice on the other end of the phone says.

"Ryan is that you?"

"Yeah. As soon as we got here, Reverend Carpenter called you for us."

"We? Who's there with you? Starr and Tea?" Todd asks, suddenly elated that his family is safe. The others in the room start hugging each other in relief while Commissioner Sykes gets on his cell phone and send a few units over to the rectory.

"Just Starr. Tea told me I had to take care of her and get her away from that place before the mean man hurt us."

Todd closes his eyes and tries to hold the tears back. Tears of joy that his children are safe mixed with tears of agony as he hears about his wife still being in the clutches of the kidnapper.

"Ryan, let me talk to Reverend Carpenter, okay?" Todd manages to say through is pain.

"Andrew, I'll be there as fast as I can. I know I've never asked you for anything and I don't really have a right to, but please take care of my kids until I get there," he begs the reverend.

"Don't worry, Todd. You can count on me," Andrew says.

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Ten minutes later, Todd is flying through the doors of the rectory, running around trying to find Starr and Ryan. He spots them on the floor playing a game with River. They look up when they see their father and run over to him.

"You found us, daddy! Just like Tee said you would," Starr exclaims.

The reunion is bittersweet for Todd. Tea was still missing and he had to find her before anything happened to her. The kids gave a statement to the police and Sykes put out an APB on Roscoe after hearing his description from Ryan. But that wasn't enough for Todd. He couldn't sit around and wait for Roscoe to make the next move. He had to find Roscoe first.

"Sykes, an APB isn't enough. It's still early. Maybe this Roscoe doesn't know that the kids are gone yet. If Ryan showed us where they were held, we could go get this monster and rescue my wife," Todd says.

"Out of the question, Manning. You need to let the professionals do their job," Sykes replies in an attempt to thwart Todd's rescue mission. When he could see that that wasn't going to happen, he relented under the condition that both Todd and Ryan stayed under police protection the whole time. Todd also had to agree that once they found Tea, he would let the police handle the matter.

They all got into unmarked police cars and headed in the direction Ryan believes he came from. After driving around for an hour, Ryan was finally able to pick out the house in which they were being held. He remembered tying one of Starr's ribbons to a tree near the road to let him know which house it was. They found that marker and knew they had found the right house. They only prayed that Tea was still inside - and still alive.

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Inside the little house, Roscoe looked out of the window and noticed the police surrounding them. They were in unmarked cars, but he knew they were cops. Something was going on. He went to check on his little hostages, shoving the door open. To his surprise, only Tea was still in the room.

"You've been busy, lady. Where are the kids? Did they get out and call the cops? Tea, Tea, Tea. Why did you have to make this so difficult for me? Now, I'm going to have to make things difficult for you." He glares at her and she's able to see the hate and anger in his eyes. She could see that he was running scared and getting desperate. And Tea was pretty sure that wasn't good for her.

"Such a pretty face," he says grabbing her face with his rough hands. She winces at how hard he starts to squeeze her cheeks. The look in his eyes change from one of hate into one of a murder ready to strike. He lets go of her face and reaches for her neck, ready to choke the life out of her. She lets out a blood curdling scream and jumps out of the way before he can get to her.

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"Did you hear that?" Todd yells, jumping out of the car and running towards the house. He makes it a few steps before being tackled to the ground by a group of cops.

"Let us handle this, Mr. Manning. Stay down. We have no idea what this man will do!" one of the officers explains.

"Please go get my wife," Todd cries. "He's hurting her. You can't let him hurt her."

The police rush the house from all sides, kicking down doors and breaking windows. In less than a minute, they have Roscoe trapped in the room with Tea. He looks around in desperation, realizing that his plan has been destroyed. He grabs Tea and holds her in front of him as a shield and opens the door.

"Back off! Back off now or I'll make Mr. Manning a widower!" Roscoe yells. He still has Tea and is pulling her out of the room, and towards the front door of the house. "BACK OFF!"

The officers make no attempt to move. It was obvious to Roscoe that he wasn't getting out of that house. His plan was ruined. There was nothing left. Nothing but revenge.

"This is my last warning," Roscoe says ominously. "Back off or else you'll all be very sorry."

"No can do, Roscoe. Let Mrs. Manning go and then we'll talk," Sykes replies. The other officers get prepared to shoot Roscoe if he doesn't comply with the orders. "As you can see, you don't have much time. My men are ready to shoot you, Roscoe."

"Alright! You want Mrs. Manning? You can have her," Roscoe says, letting Tea go and reaching into his pocket for a gun with his now free hand.

But Tea doesn't run. She just stands there. She stands there for a few seconds before collapsing to the ground, unable to move. A small empty glass vial falls from her hands and rolls across the floor. This stuns the officers enough for Roscoe to pull his gun and start shooting. He's able to make it out the front door somehow, only to find himself stepping into a storm of bullets from the officers outside, unable to dodge death any longer.

The gunfire stops and Todd runs into the house. He stops in the doorway when he sees his motionless wife on floor.

"What did he do to her, Sykes?" Todd demands to know, running to her side. "Delgado. Can you hear me? Don't leave me. You can't leave me! What's wrong with her?"

"He poisoned her, Todd. Just before all of the gunfire started. Here's the container it came out of," he says, holding the empty bottle with a handkerchief. "I don't know what this stuff is, but we have to get her to the hospital. The ambulance should be here any second." One of the officers look at Sykes, sending him an ominous glare. Things didn't look good for Tea, and he knew it. He suddenly felt very bad for Todd.

"I'll go out and wait for the ambulance. Why don't you just stay here with her, Manning," Sykes offers, unable to make eye contact. He didn't know what Roscoe poisoned her with, but he could tell she was slipping away. The only thing he could do now was allow Todd to spend whatever time she had left with her.

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Viki ran down the corridor of the hospital emergency room. She stopped when she saw a worried Todd pacing nervously back and forth across the room.

"Todd! How is she?" Viki asks, but afraid that she already knows the answer.

"Not good," he whispers through a hoarse voice. "She was poisoned. Right before the cops raided the house, he poisoned her. By the time they could get to her, she was already unconscious. She's been like that since then."

"Poison? What about the baby, Todd?"

"They tried to get her stabalized, but he poison is making everything inside of her to fight and try to kill each other. They have to take to baby before it tries to abort itself."

"That's what they're doing now?"

"Viki, I don't know if the baby can make it. Tea was only seven and a half months along."

Viki sits down with Todd and holds his hand, offering silent support. She couldn't imagine the pain he was going through and just wanted him to know that she was there for him. Several minutes later, a doctor comes into the waiting room.

"Mr. Manning," the doctor says. "As you already know, your wife was poisoned and as a result we had to deliver the baby early."

"How are they, doc? Is the baby okay? Is Tea okay?" Todd asks.

"Congratulations, Mr. Manning. You have a little girl. Your wife and daughter both survived the surgery. But they both have long battles ahead of them. Your baby still has a lot of developing to do. And Tea has to fight the poison until it's out of her system. We're not sure how much damage the poison has already done. Right now, all we can do is wait."

"Is she awake? Can I see her?"

"Your wife is still in recovery, so it'll be a few hours before we know anything. But, you can come with me to the Neonatal ICU to see your daughter if you'd like."

Todd and Viki follow the doctor to a big glass window behind which is a room with a dozen babies hooked up to machines.

"You can't go in just yet, Mr. Manning," the doctor tells him. "We need to see how she does in the next few hours. But I'll have the nurse bring her to the window so you can see her."

A few minutes later, Todd sees a nurse rolling a cart to the window. He looks at the tiny baby laying on the bed. His tiny baby. She had the tubes and wires and machines, but all he saw was his beautiful baby girl laying there. He could count her fingers and toes. He could see the soft, dark brown fuzz just beginning to grow across the top of her head. He wanted to touch her, but knew that he couldn't. He couldn't do anything for her but wait. Wait and pray.

"She's beautiful, Todd," Viki says, admiring her new niece. "What's her name?"

"Her name? Tea and I never talked about names. Should I give her one?" He looked into the window again to see his baby and he realized that this was something he could do for her. Right now, faith was the most important thing in determining how he would get through this all. Giving her a name would show that he has faith and it would remind him of that faith when times got really bad. He stares at her intently, examining every aspect of her little body before finally saying something.

"Ana Marisa," he says quietly after a few minutes. "That's her name."

"Ana was Tea's mother's name, right?" Viki asks.

"And Marisa is Tea's middle name," Todd adds.

"It's nice that you're honoring them both, Todd," Viki says has she puts her arm around her brother. "It's a very nice name."

They both stand there, looking through the window at the baby for awhile, constantly amazed at the new things they discover about her each minute, and even more amazed at how much they grow to love her each second. Todd kisses his fingertip and places it to the window by the baby's cart. "Welcome to the world, Ana Marisa Manning. I love you."

TO BE CONTINUED