“Jim! Can you take this suitcase inside please!?”. 

Expectant hands held out the suitcase in question. 

Jimmy sighed out loud, rolling his eyes. 

“Yeah, yeah”. 

A small head bobbled along right past him. 

“Be careful Allie”.

She looked back with a smile.

“Okay”.

He smiled back at her. The one light at the end of the tunnel in these dark times. 

He watched her, laughing to himself as she hopped to the door, pretending to be a bunny. 

Inside the house, he went to put the suitcase by the entrance and went back out to see what else needed to be done.

Allie carried on, saying hello to her big cousins Ivan and Freddy. 

Ivan looked around before shoving something in his armpit and bending down to hand her something discreetly. She gasped upon seeing a brownie and took it, hiding it in her toy purse. 

Freddy scoffed at them from behind his phone.

“Mom needs help?”, Ivan asked. 

She shook her head.

“She got Uncle Jimmy to take in the suitcase”.

The two brothers shared a look before hopping up to go help.

“Make sure you make room for dinner later”, Freddy called over his shoulder.

“Okay”.

She continued down the hall, immediately taking out the brownie and trying to hide it, holding it close to her chest and taking small bites. Small crumbs fell to the floor under her feet. 

Opening the door to her room she shut it quietly behind her and hopped over to her dollhouse tent. She opened the flap in between bites and it took her a moment to realize. She panicked at what was inside. Or rather, what wasn’t.

“My teddy!”. 

Dropping to her knees, she crawled in and picked up all the toys, throwing them over to one side. She threw them over to the other side as she double checked, wiping away tears to see properly. She barely made it through the whole tent the second time before she got up and ran out of her room, sobbing out loud. She barely missed hitting Freddy in the legs.

“Allie!”, he called after her.

“Auntie Ali!”, she ran up the woman throwing her hands up into the air.

She quickly got picked up.

“What’s wrong sweetie?”.

The others dropped what they were doing to see why she was crying.

“My teddy is gone!”. 

She draped her arms around her aunt’s neck and cried into her shoulder.

“Which one? You got a lot of teddys Allie”, she gently patted her niece’s back. 

“The one Daddy gave me!”.

Alina and Jimmy tensed.

Jimmy put a hand on her back to get her attention.

“Baby girl, your Daddy hasn’t given you a teddy since-”.

“The day he came over and Grandpa got hurt! Daddy gave me a teddy and they were fighting over it! Grandpa said Daddy had some bad stuff in it so Grandpa took it and -and then it was in my room and now it’s gone!”.

She threw her head into her aunt’s shoulder, wailing.

Alina looked at Jimmy with a look.

She lowered her voice so none of the kids could hear her, including her sons.

“No one has been here. We all went down to the funeral home”.

Jimmy looked to the house, seeing Ivan heading to the front door. 

“Boy!”.

Ivan stopped in the doorway, spinning around to look at his uncle.

“Get out that house! I’ll check it!”.

He turned to Alina.

“Call the cops”.

“But-”.

“Get in the truck. Call the cops. Then Mom. Then Detective Dumont”, he locked eyes with her, “in that order”.

She opened her mouth to protest but Jimmy was already turning away from her and telling Freddy and Ivan to get in the truck as well, so she bit her tongue and ushered her sons in. She locked the doors as soon as they were all in and texted Cali while dialing the police.

Cali 

Tell my mom, me and Jimmy think Jensen broke in and we’re calling the police.

By the time Ms. Gemma got to her house, it was overflowing with cops. She was frazzled from all the missed calls and fearing the worst as she ran up to the door with Cali right on her heels.

“Ma!”.

She turned her head to see Jimmy waving her over. Alina was next to him, still holding onto Allie with Freddy and Ivan behind her. She ran over.

“Was he here!?”.

Cali reached her arms out to Alina, wanting her daughter back. Though she handed her over without protest, spying eyes could tell there was hesitation in the woman. 

One of those spying eyes belonging to Detective Dumont who bowed his head slightly at Ms. Gemma.

“We aren’t sure Madam. The CSU team is taking fingerprints right now. It looks like the little belle’s*, " he gestures to Allie with his eyes, “room was a bit of a mess. Like someone was looking for something”.

“For what?”, the old lady cried, gently brushing Allie’s hair, “there’s nothing here!”.

Jimmy walks up, wrapping an arm around her.

“It’s okay Ma, we’re fine”.

Ms. Gemma looks at her son, tears in her eyes.

“The last time he was here, he-”. 

She looks at Allie, trying not to break down.

“It’s not okay”.

The detective steps up.

“We’re going to find him Madam”.

She buries her head in her son’s armpit. 

Dumont locks eyes with Jimmy. 

“What about this Ace boy?”.

Jimmy tenses before his Mom can react. Alina shoots him a I told you so look. Jimmy flinches as his mother tears herself away from him, fixing him with a look.

“You did not bring that innocent boy into this”.

Sighing Jimmy mentally prepares for the fight.

“We’re supposed to be looking out for people who are trying to slime their way into our lives Ma. Anyone who is trying to get too close”.

“Everyone has been trying to get close! We lost a member of our family but it wasn’t just us who knew him”.

“When we met him he was talking to Allie, he said he saw Dad in passing but then he brought an omelet and said Dad showed him how to make one. It was Allie’s room that was messed with Ma!”.

“Because of Jensen! James, I wanted to bury my head into the sand about Jensen and what he was doing, who he became. But I’m not some senile old woman. Ace does not look like someone who would do drugs. He looks like he’s had a hard life himself”.

“You don’t get to adopt a stray for a do over on Jensen or to take Dad’s spot. You have a family already”.

She doesn’t say anything immediately. The two of them have a stare off. 

“I know who my family is, son. I have always known. Just because I pulled away because of Jensen doesn’t mean you’re going to lose me”.

Jimmy looks off to the side, clenching his jaw.  

“Please stop Ma”.

She shakes her head, looking back at Dumont. The man had obviously been listening to the drama unfold but at least turned around to pretend he hadn’t.

“Ace is a kind young man, Detective”.

The man turns back around to give her his full attention.

Jimmy sighs angrily.

“That may be Madam. Or your son might be right. Please, let us do our job and be sure of what kind of person he is”.

Ace stared at the teddy bear laying innocently on his kitchen table, turning his head to finish washing his hands, he mentally readied himself. His phone ringing took him out of his head, he glanced in the direction of it but made no move to pick it up. 

Putting on gloves, he walks over to the bear and picks it up. Slowly and carefully turning it on its side to look at it closer, he found a zipper on the back. He held it out, away from his body and slowly opened it, expecting to get hit in the face with something. 

A small puff of powder flew into the air. 

Ace held his breath and turned his head, dropping the bear onto the table and turning around. After a few minutes had passed, he turned back around and eyed the bear. His phone ringing again caught his attention for a split second but he again ignored it. Picking it up even slower than before, he looked into the small pocket and saw something stuffed in it. 

He patted it gently, feeling for anything sharp. Feeling nothing out of the unordinary, or as unordinary as possible given the situation, he reached in and pulled out what was inside.  

A small sandwich bag slid out, there was some white powder inside it. Ace flinched back like it was going to jump out at him and jumped again when he heard something hit the ground. Snapping his eyes open, he quickly looked down and saw a small bracelet on the floor. He bent down to look at it more closely. 

It had white powder on it as well. Gingerly picking it up, he lifted it more closely to his face to examine it and then felt the bear brush up against him. 

He threw it away from him and quickly lifted his shirt to see if it was dirty. And then panicked more when he realized his glove covered hand was touching the inside of his shirt. 

He tossed the bracelet onto the table and shot to his feet, making sure to keep his shirt pulled out so it wouldn’t touch his stomach. 

His phone echoed in the kitchen but he was too busy hopping into the shower.

In the quiet of his mansion, Mr. Jager stared at his phone with his brows furrowed. 

Behind him, Marks bowed with a straight back, keeping his face trained on the ground. 

“Is the Young Master not answering Sir?”.

“Dieser verdammte Dickschadel*", the man cursed under his breath.

The man pinched the brim of his nose. 

“Call him twice a day from tomorrow until he answers, ja?”.

He turned on his heel, walking out the door without waiting for an answer.

Still bowed, Marks nodded.

“Jawhol”. 

Elsewhere, Dumont sighed, putting away his phone.

“He’s not answering?”.

“No Winnie”, he smiled at his partner, taking the offered coffee.

He lifted it to his nose, taking a light whiff before sipping on it. 

She rolled her eyes, pulling her hair out of the cap she had on.

“I didn’t make it like an american, frenchie”.

He chuckled.

“Are you still hiding from that boy in there?”.

She side eyed him.

“You are wearing a cap”.

“Sometimes it’s good to keep up the status quo. I know he has a record. He doesn’t know I’m a cop. I’m fine with things the way they are. We get good coffee at the expense of having to wear a hat and hide my beautiful locks”.

She tossed her hair over her shoulder for dramatic effect, laughing. 

He laughed with her. 

She started the car. 

“We’ll find him sooner or later”.

“Always so positive, louver*”.