Some Little Princesses

Andrea returned with Kellan and dinner, laughing.

The house they entered was filled with silence. "Keaton! Wesley! Izzy! We're home!" she called. She waved the food around in front of her allowing the aroma to drift further into the house. Out of the living room, Keaton peeked his head. His eyes were a little wide and his body tense. "Momma? Izzy's gone. She was screaming. Wesley...he left too. He told me to stay here and wait. He's sorry for smoking today too."

The blood drained from Andrea's face as she spun around to look at Kellan. The man behind her had gone from a man filled with laughter and mirth to a man stoic and hard. "Stay with Keaton and try Wes's cell. Call me if you hear anything." He ordered quickly taking control.

Andrea nodded in compliance watching him leave before she actually pulled out her cell phone and punched in the speed dial that took her to Wesley's cell. Several rings. Standard and long. Painstaking for her to listen to as she paced up and down the hall with Keaton watching her. "This is Wes's cell, clearly I'm not answering it because I either don't give a shite or I can't. Please leave a message at the tone and I might or might not get back to you." Andrea grit her teeth at the sound of the long tone that signaled it was her turn to speak.

There had once been a time when she had found his message rather amusing.

"Dammit Wes pick up your phone. I need to know if you're okay. I swear to God if you don't pick up this phone I'm going to kick your ass," she vowed in a voice that left Keaton cringing. She sent her son an apologetic look as she continued pacing.

Ending the call, she mouthed a few numbers before stabbing the speed dial again. Several rings answered her again, this time dragging themselves out longer than the first ones had dared until she was answered by Wesley's answering machine.

Her hands were starting to shake as she repeated the action of ending the call, mouthing the numbers and stabbing the speed dial. This time she had to wait through only two and a quarter of those tones before she heard something that signified the phone being picked up. "Wesley! Wesley say something goddammit!"

A groan greeted her words. Tears touched her eyes as she paused in her pacing. Her hand fell against the entrance table, the only thing keeping her standing at that moment. "Andy?" Her name came through the Brit's lips more as a groan than as an actual word. "God I'm sorry," he managed. "I fucked up. I fucked up worse than before."

"There's no time for that right now Wes. Where are you?" she begged. Her heart was skipping torn somewhere between relief and fear. She had so many questions to ask him, but she couldn't. She had to keep those questions to herself until Wesley was safe.

There was movement and a slightly distant voice on the other end and she tensed in anxious anticipation waiting for someone to speak to her. She nearly collapsed when Kellan's voice came through to her. "It's alright Andrea. I have him. I'm bringing him home," he promised. She couldn't bring herself to say anything. Instead she simply let the phone fall and slid to the floor with her back pressed against the wall. Andrea buried her face in her hands, her body shaking as she cried in the hall.

A soft hand touched her shoulder and Andrea pulled her son down into a tight hug. Wesley was safe and that meant something, but Izzy was gone and she didn't know where. It was killing her too. She shoulder have told the girl. She should have told any of them, even Kellan so he could understand the pain that she was feeling. Her niece was gone and she wasn't even sure if she was okay.