The pain never fully went away for good.

Sometimes she thought it did, but it would always creep back in different forms. 

Heiran still found herself shooting up in the middle of the night from nightmares. Being left alone sent her down a spiral where loud noises and darkened rooms had her breathing come out in short panicked breaths. She became accustomed to cold sweats and erratic heart rhythms. 

But it was getting better, she didn’t cry as much in the shower. 

The bruising on her face had recovered and most of the other physical trauma had vanished, it was just what was in her head that was taking longer to heal.  But she took it one day at a time, one step at a time. 

Mark had become increasingly supportive as she tried to figure her pain out, he was a pillar of support that she didn't expect him to be. He was there to listen during the few times she had felt comfortable to talk about what she was feeling, he ran errands for her when she was too anxious to leave the house and he stayed at the house until she fell asleep before driving to his apartment. He was constantly offering her his own advice and experiences and tried to talk her through some of her fear-based panic attacks. He never made her feel like a burden when she put her emotional stress on him, he was just always there whenever she'd find herself searching for help.

They had grown closer since then and she found herself turning to him before anyone else in her life.

Heiran considered as much when she watched as Lucy ran around in the backyard, playing by herself.

“I’ll be fine.” She muttered into the phone as she leaned against the glass sliding doors.

Mark grumbled, “Sorry if I’m a bit skeptical, I’d rather be there and see you with my own two eyes. You’re lucky I haven’t just moved into your place.” 

She smiled to herself, “What are you doing right now?”

“Driving to GOT7’s headquarters, I need to go and get yelled at again.” He said. 

She pursed her lips, “You’re still getting for this?”

“You got hurt. Kidnapped.” He said with a sigh, “I’m never not going to get for it.”

Heiran frowned, her eyes following Lucy as she was blowing bubbles. “But it was DS’s fault, not yours.”

“Well, DS will get his punishment too.” 

She made a face, “I told my dad to lay off you.”

“Aww, you’re defending me now?” He teased. 

Heiran rolled her eyes and turned to get a glass of water, “My father brings out strange tendencies in me, I guess.”

“I appreciate it, duchess, but you don’t need to go fighting my fights for me. Especially against your dad. I’ll manage.” He said. 

“Why does he trust you so much? You can’t be more than a few years older than me, yet he left you and only you to look after me. He called you his right-hand man.”

She could hear his smile but not how bitter it was, “What good is a right-hand man to someone who is left-handed?”

“Poetic. When will you just own up and say you can’t stand him?” She asked blankly. 

He snorted, “Is this your way of flirting? If I hate your dad, do I get hotter?”

“ off.” She laughed.

She turned back to the door and felt her smile falter when she noticed the backyard was empty. Frowning, she stepped towards the glass, pressing her nose against it, “What the ?”

“What’s wrong?” Mark asked.

But she couldn’t hear him as her eyes darted around before she whispered nervously, “Lucy?”

“You don’t know where is she?” Mark asked.

“Lucy?” She called as she slid open the door. She stepped out and looked around before feeling her knees shake. “Lucy? Sunshine?!”

“Where is she?” Mark asked, his voice falling nothing short of tensed, “Heiran…”

She ran out in her bare feet, her eyes searching frantically around her backyard, “Mark, Mark, Mark. Mark.”

Running around the wall of her house to check the corner, but Lucy was nowhere to be found. The world spun as her eyes desperately scanned the entire expanse of her yard, hoping that her sunshine was hiding behind a bush just to jump out and surprise her with that wonderful smile and joyous laugh. 

No.

This is not happening to her, not now, not after all of this.

No.

It was like her entire life had fallen to her feet and her universe, her soul was ripped away from her. Stolen. Threatened. Taken. 

There wasn’t a lot of things that she valued, but for her daughter, she’d give it all up in a second. The success, the money, the career, the connections, none of that meant if Lucy wasn’t there. She did everything for her daughter, without her, none of it mattered. She may as well be dead if she didn't have Lucy.

She could feel her heart in her ears and everything she said came out in agonized screams, “Where is she? Lucy?!”

“Are you sure she didn’t go back inside?” He asked, his voice clipped.

“No, no, no, no. This isn’t real. This isn’t happening. Where is she, Mark? Where did she go? No!” She yelled in sorrow, shaking to the point where even a single step was difficult. This had to be a nightmare, surely she'd wake up in a sweat and Lucy would be safe and sound.  

“Heiran.” Mark said firmly.

“My baby! That ing monster took her!” She screamed as she staggered around her backyard, “What am I going to do? I can’t lose her. Mark! I need to find her!”

“Listen to me, duchess.” He repeated. 

“Mark, she’s gone.” She rasped out, her heart was pounding in her chest, ears ringing faintly as her body began overheating. Tears filled her eyes as she fell to the ground, she winced when something hard pressed into her knee. She lifted her knee and saw Lucy’s bottle of bubbles. A flood of new tears took over, “Oh god, Mark. Someone took her. How am I going to live? How did I let this happen? I looked away for a second."

“No.” He growled. “There’s no way someone took her.” 

She let out a sob before screaming in torment, her head pounding so hard she felt like she could taste blood, “They took her!”

“Go upstairs.” He whispered, breathing heavy, “Go look at the camera footage. I’m coming over now.”

She stood but her knees buckled and she cowered with a whimper, “Mark.”

“I know, baobei, I know. But I need you to go upstairs.” He said coaxingly, his voice melting into the soothing tone he'd use whenever she started to lose it. 

She stood, her steps uneven as she walked through her house, disoriented and dizzy. This had to be fake, a nightmare, there was no way that her baby was taken from her. Not when she was standing right there. She couldn’t keep from the strangled sounds that escaped her as she forced herself up the stairs and to her office.

“Are you there?” He asked. 

She fell in her chair and her hands were shaking so hard that she barely logged into her computer, “I’m here.”

“Pull up the video footage and tell me what you see.” He ordered.

She opened the security camera footage and rolled it back a few minutes until Lucy was back on screen. Tears poured down her face as she watched Lucy blow bubbles and chase after him until her gaze moved to someone off screen. Heiran tried clicking through the other angles but none of them showed what Lucy was looking at. 

Her bottle of bubbles fell out of her hand before she walked towards whatever was off-screen. Heiran let out an anguished scream when a hand came out and grabbed her. “Someone took her. I can’t see who! Mark, who did this?! I’ll kill them!”

“I’m here, I’m coming in.” 

She didn’t say anything and just stared at the screen, frozen on the shot where the hand came out at Lucy. She could hear the front door open and close with a lock before hurried footsteps stormed up the stairs before Mark appeared by her door, panting. She didn’t flinch, she just stared at the computer, tears streaming down her face as he rounded her desk and looked at the screen. He clicked back and watched the video play a few times before shutting his eyes. 

“I’m going to find her.” He said it simply, like if he said it, it would get done. 

She whimpered; her entire body cold and shaking as she leaned her head forward. He knelt down next to her and pulled her chair to him. He pressed his forehead against hers, “I’m going to find her, duchess, but I need you to call your friend, Yugyeom. You need the cops this time.”

“Won’t they hurt her if they know the cops are involved?” She asked, frightened.

He let out a breath, “We need the cops this time. She’s a kid, duchess.”

She nodded, “Okay, I’ll call him. Mark, please find her. Please.”

“I will. Stay home in case she comes back, tell me what Yugyeom is doing and I’m going to drive around to all her favourite places. If anyone calls you about her, you tell me or Yugyeom, okay?”

He touched her cheek gently as she nodded before standing and she quickly grabbed his arm, “Find her and bring me whoever took her. I’m begging you.”

He stared at her before giving her one last look before walking out to his car. He ran out and jumped in before peeling out into the streets. It wasn’t until he was gripping the steering wheel that he realized just how hard his hands were shaking. After barely getting over Heiran’s kidnapping, it clicked that he was already back in the same position, driving recklessly to try to find a missing Seo. One far younger and far more vulnerable. 

He didn’t know what he was going to do if Lucy had to experience the same bruises and pain that Heiran experienced. Hell, he didn’t know what Heiran would do but he knew that he wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop her. 

Mark drove around the park that Heiran would take Lucy to, he drove by her school, the library, her favourite ice cream shop, and couldn’t find her anywhere. Glancing at his phone, he saw Heiran’s text, telling him that Yugyeom was getting an Amber Alert put out and was searching for her. 

But Lucy had barely been gone for 2 hours, there was no way Yugyeom would be able to get the entire police force out looking for her. So, it was probably going to be him and two other uniformed officers. And if DS was behind this, the police wouldn’t be of much help. But it was better to have the cops out there looking than none. 

The sun had long set and Mark had essentially scoured the entire city for the little with a bright smile and crooked pigtails. The image of the little girl, carrying a stuffed dragon toy that was two sizes too big for her, flashed in his mind. He pulled over sharply before stumbling out of his car, He barely got his feet on the ground before bending over and throwing up on the side of the road. Pressing his hands against the car, Mark caught his breath, his heart pounding in his chest to the point where each intake of air was painful. He grabbed a water bottle from his car and washed his mouth out before getting back inside and driving off. 

There was no way Heiran was okay right now but there was nothing he could to help her other than to find Lucy, but darkness was washing over the sky, and time was running out and he had no idea where she was. No ransom call, no angry call from her father, nothing. It was like Heiran being taken.

Mark glanced at his phone. When Heiran was taken, he had no hint of where she’d been taken until DS called to taunt his Boss. If anyone knew where she was, it would be him. Maybe this entire plot was to get him to join DS. 

Reaching for his phone, Mark was ready to walk back into the lion’s den to find her when Jackson’s name flashed on the caller ID. Mark’s brow twitched, his lip hitched in annoyance as he answered the call, “What? Now’s a ty ing time, Jac—“

“I have her.”

Mark nearly rammed into a curb when he jerked his car to a stop, “What the did you say?”

“Her daughter. Lucy, I think? I have her.”

Mark couldn’t even let the relief sink in and just let the rage take over as his body trembled, “Where are you?”

“Han River.”

-----

He spotted Jackson's SUV parked by the river and spot