Title:  A Skewed View of Happiness:  Part 1

Author:  Tessa Parker

Email:  TGParker01@hotmail.com

Disclaimer:  These characters belong to David E. Kelley and ABC productions

Note:  Bobby and Lindsay are married and they have two daughters, Chloe and
Emma; Mike and Helen are married with a little girl named Bridget.  Nothing
else has changed except that Ellenor never had Zoë.

WARNING:  Please note that there is a disturbing scene in this story.


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“Bobby, there is a delivery guy here that needs you to sign something,”
Lucy told Bobby over the intercom.

“Okay, send him in, Lucy.”

Moments later, a tall man dressed in brown overalls walked into Bobby’s
office.  He handed Bobby an envelope a shoved a clipboard in his face.

“I need you to sign here, sir,” the man told Bobby, pointing to the dotted
line on the bottom of the page.

Bobby did as he was told, and the man was out of Bobby’s office in
minutes.  Tossing the envelope on his desk, Bobby sat back down in his
chair and started to go over the evidence that was in his clients favor.
There wasn’t much, and Bobby was planning another long night in the office
away from his wife and daughters.

Bobby didn’t mind being away from Lindsay, though.  They needed some space,
and they both knew it.  They had been fighting for the past few weeks.  He
couldn’t believe the way she was acting.  All he wanted was for her to work
a little less.  She was the mother of his daughters for Christ’s sake.  It
was her job to take care of them.  Chloe was already three and a half, and
Emma was almost seven months old.  She had to know that their daughters
needed her.  He had told her that, too, and might have added something
along the lines of, “You don’t belong here anymore, Lindsay, your job
should be staying at home.  If you weren’t ready for the responsibilities
of motherhood, maybe you shouldn’t have had children.  You are too selfish
to be a mother.”

Needless to say, Lindsay had gotten her feelings hurt and had spent the
last few nights at Mike and Helen’s house with the girls.  Bobby admitted
to himself that he shouldn’t have said those things to her, but he would
never admit that to her.  He had been an ass that night, but he had been
angry.  Everybody gets angry.

Outside in the lobby, Lucy was trying to squeeze herself a date with the
deliveryman.

“So what are you doing Friday night…Jeff,” she asked, stealing a quick peak
at his nametag.

“Well, I am kind of tied up for the next couple of weeks, actually.  I
mean, I would if I could, ya know?”

“Well, would ya like my number for when your not…tied up?  You are welcomed
to deliver any kind of…packages to my house anytime you’d like.”

“Lucy!” came the embarrassed, yet not shocked, coworkers’ reply.


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Lindsay walked briskly down the stairs of the old building that housed
Donnell, Young, Donnell and Frutt.  She had automatically decided that the
elevator would be too slow and opted for the stairs.  She was running late
for the best lunch break she would have all year.  Exiting the building,
she decided to walk, feeling it would be faster than hailing down a cab to
drive her a few blocks away.

Lindsay was meeting Helen for lunch, along with their two other best
friends, Sarah and Meg.  The four had been inseparable during their years
at Harvard.  They had studied together, partied together, fought over guys,
cried over chick flicks, and laughed over drinks.  The girls had been
popular on campus, well known for their astounding beauty, intellectual
abilities, and distinct personalities.

Meg lived with her husband and her two boys, Bryan and Gavin, in Charlotte,
North Carolina.  Sarah lived with her boyfriend in New York.  Both women,
like Helen and Lindsay were lawyers.  Meg was in civil law and Sarah was a
district attorney like Helen.  The four had seen each other on and off
since college, but they had not been together at the same time since Meg’s
wedding to Caleb in 1996.  Lindsay was elated about seeing her friends
again and could not wait to catch up with them.  She couldn’t wait to talk
to her friends about what a jerk Bobby’s had been lately.

Walking down the street, Lindsay turned the corner to go down the alleyway,
shortening her distance by two blocks.  Glancing at her watch, she saw that
she might actually be on time.  Walking a little faster, she smiled at the
thought of sitting with her friends again.

Looking up, Lindsay came face to face with a tall, disgustingly dirty man.
Drawing in a sharp breath and taking an automatic step back, Lindsay
prepared herself to scream as the man out stretched his hand.

“Help me, lady.  Give me just a little money … I don’t have nothin.’  Just
give me a little, lady.”

“I…I’m sorry.  I can’t help you.”

“Please lady!  Just gi…”

The man was cut off as he fell to the ground, another man behind him.  He
had hit the homeless man over the head with a bottle.  Lindsay’s eyes
widened, not really sure what to do next.

“Thank you,” she managed to get out.

 “Yeah, no problem.  I saw him bothering you, didn’t know if he was
dangerous or something.”

Lindsay nodded, keeping her head down and attempted to walk past her
unwelcome hero.  The man moved with Lindsay, blocking her way.  She
attempted the other side, and again her path was blocked.  She sighed and
looked into his eyes

“I need to get by, please.  I am expected for lunch.  And this man needs a
doctor,” she said, pointing to the pitiful heap sprawled out on the street.

“Well, the least you could do was repay me for helping you,” the stated
arrogantly, shrugging his shoulders and staring in her eyes.

“And what exactly do you want,” Lindsay asked annoyed, crossing her arms
and knowing exactly what he wanted.

“I want you,” he said as he licked his lips, looking lustfully at her.

“Oh, do you?  Well I…” Lindsay was cut off as a hand swept over her mouth,
silencing her, and another slipped around her waste to keep her from
moving.  Her eyes widened as her hands automatically reached up to pull her
unknown assailant’s hands away from her body, and yet the more she
struggled, the tighter the hands tightened around her body.  She stared
helplessly at the man in front of her, the man who had so willingly helped
her moments ago, willing him to help her again.  As he stepped forward, she
could feel her panic levels lowering, but he only gripped her face roughly
and smiled, his face so close to hers she could smell the tobacco and
alcohol on his breath.

As if in slow motion, Lindsay saw the man bringing his hand above his head,
and saw a shiny black pipe, just he brought the object down to her head.
As it made powerful contact with her skull, everything went black.


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As the office phone began to ring, Lucy groaned and put her issue of
Seventeen magazine back on her desk.

“Gosh, Lucy,” said Ellenor sarcastically.  “I am so sorry the you have to
do your job.  I know how much it gets in the way of all the important stuff
you have to do.”

Lucy smirked back at Ellenor, and picked up the phone.  “Donnell, Young,
Donnell and Frutt.”

“Lucy, it’s Helen.”

“Oh, hey Helen.  What’s up?”

“Has Lindsay left for our lunch yet,” asked Helen, sounding a little
anxious.

"Yeah, she left about forty-five minutes ago."

“Damn it!”

“What is wrong,” Lucy asked, true concern in her voice.

“Put me through to Bobby, Lucy.”

Lucy did as Helen asked.

“Bobby Donnell,” Bobby said as he picked up the phone.

“Bobby, it’s Helen.  Lindsay never showed up for lunch.  Lucy said she left
forty-five minutes ago.  We are only around the corner, Bobby!  It couldn’t
have taken this long for her to get here!” Helen said, panic seeping into
her voice as she rushed to tell Bobby what was going on.   He was silent
for a while, letting what Helen had told him sink into his head.

“Call Mike and tell him what is going on.  I am going to go pick the girls
up from daycare and I will meet you at my house.”

“Okay,” Helen answered, her shaky voice down to a whisper.

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Bobby pulled up in the parking lot of Lots of Tots Daycare facility.
Lindsay had dropped off their daughters this morning before going to work.
Walking through the doors, he stepping over several toddles and bypassed
the babies, walking over to Leah Jackson, the owner of the daycare.

“Hey Bobby.  What are you doing here?” asked Leah.

“I came to pick up Chloe and Emma.”

“What are you talking about?  Someone already came in here to pick up the
girls.  He said that he was your brother and that you had a family
emergency.  He had a note and everything.  The signature looked exactly
like yours!”

Bobby’s eyes widened, a look of shock passing over his features.

“Are you telling me that you did send him here?  Bobby?  Bobby?”

“Somebody has taken my family,” he whispered, so low that Leah Jackson
could not hear as she watched the shocked father walk out of the building.


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Walking into his house, Bobby was greeted by hugs from Helen, Meg and
Sarah, as well as a handshake from Mike.  Looking behind Bobby, she looked
confused.

“Where are Chloe and Emma?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” replied Bobby, heartbreak apparent in his voice.  “Somebody
picked them up from daycare…said that I sent them – some kind of “family
emergency.”

“Alright guys,” Mike replied calmly, trying to keep an objective, we have
to think about this rationally.  Maybe…”

“Rationally?  How the hell am I supposed to think rationally, Mike?  You
tell me how I am supposed to do that.  Some little prick has come into my
life and taken everything that has ever meant anything to me.  You tell me
how the hell I am supposed to think rationally, because I sure as hell
would love to see you think rationally if somebody just came out of the
blue and kidnapped Helen and Bridget.  Could you think rationally Mike?
Could you?”

At this point Bobby was in Mike’s face, roughly pushing him backwards as he
shouted at the top of his lungs.  Tears were rolling down the faces of all
three of Lindsay’s best friends, as fear came to Helen’s eyes when she saw
Bobby begin to attack her husband.

“Bobby, stop it!  Calm down.  He’s just trying to help.  It’s not his
fault, Bobby.  It’s not your fault either,” Helen told him as she pulled
him off Mike.  Bobby sank to the floor with Helen as she cradled him in her
lap, rubbing his back as she did Bridget when she was trying to get her
daughter to sleep.  Bobby was not crying, however, not saying anything or
giving off any hints as to his emotions.  No longer was he projecting his
anger or his hurt or even his helplessness.  He was only starring off into
space as Helen soothed him.


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Opening her eyes, Lindsay squinted at the bright light that was seeping
through the window at the top of the ceiling, which seemed more like a slit
in the wall because it was so small.  In the distance, she seemed to hear a
familiar sound.  It was fuzzy however, but began to get clearer as her head
began to clear up.  She soon realized that it was the sound of a crying
baby, and there was shouting coming from the same direction.  She could
only hear pieces of the conversation however.

“Shut-up, …little brat…kill...mom and sister...god…crying!”

Lindsay closed her eyes, trying to focus on what the man was saying.  All
of a sudden, as if a light had clicked on in her head, Lindsay remembered
the man in the alleyway, and the pipe in which she had been hit with.
Unconsciously feeling her head, she discovered a large gash that started
above her right eye and stretched across her forehead.  There was dried,
crusty blood that stained her face and the shirt she was wearing.  Again
she heard the baby crying, but it sounded closer than last time.  Within
seconds, the door was opened, a screaming baby and toddler thrust inside.
The door was immediately shut and Lindsay ran to her little girls.

“Chloe!”

She grabbed the little girl and held her in her arms, kissing her all over
her face as tears escaped her eyelids.  She then turned to the baby who was
barley able to keep her balance as she sitting upright.  Grabbing the baby,
the cries were immediately silenced as the baby quieted down and laid her
small head on her mothers shoulder.

“Mommy,” Chloe asked.  “When are we going to get to go home?”

“Soon, baby,” Lindsay told her daughter, as she pulled her into her lap and
hugged her little girls.


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“Bobby,” Mike said, “I need you to answer a couple of questions, okay?”

At the nod of Bobby’s head, Mike continued.

“I think I understand how you found out about Lindsay missing.  Helen
filled me in.  I might ask a couple of questions later, but right now I
want to focus on Emma and Chloe.  Can you do that?  Can you answer a few
questions about them?”

“Yeah,” was the quiet reply.

“Okay, who told you that the girls were not where they were supposed to
be?”

“Leah Jackson,” Bobby replied.  “She runs the girls’ daycare.  It’s called
Lots of Tots.  It’s downtown by the library.”

“Did she have an excuse for letting them go?  They don’t just let them go
with strangers do they?  Do they have a driving list with certain people
the kids can go with?”

“Yeah, they have a driving list, and also a note policy.  Someone can bring
in a note if there is some kind of emergency.  That is what Leah said
happened.  She said a man came in with a note and said that there was some
sort of family emergency and that I had sent him.  She told me that the
signature looked exactly like mine.  It’s a lie though, Mike.  I never sent
anybody.”

Mike was quiet, think about what Bobby had just said.  How the hell would
anybody be able to forge Bobby’s exact signature?  Suddenly, Mike had a
thought.

“Bobby, have you had any special deliveries?  Any packages?”

“No.”

“Are you sure, Bobby?  You can’t think of anything?”

“Yesterday a delivery man brought Bobby a letter!  Remember Bobby?  You had
to sign for that,” Rebecca volunteered.

“Yeah, I bet Lucy could describe him to a sketch artist,” Ellenor told the
group.

“And if we could get Leah Jackson to describe the man who took the girls
from the daycare center, we might get a positive identification.  Think
about it Bobby, we could already have a direction to head in,” Mike told
Bobby, trying to give him hope.  It didn’t seem to work, though.  It seemed
like nothing at this point would give him hope except finding out where
Lindsay, Chloe and Emma had been taken.


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Lucy walked out of the police station.  She was exhausted after staying up
most of the night with the police, answering questions and describing the
deliveryman to the sketch artist.  For some reason, they seemed to think
that Lucy would know more than the others.  God, she had only talked to him
for a minute.  How the hell would she know anything?  The police had seemed
disappointed with the sketch that had come from her description.  She
didn’t know why, though, because it looked exactly like him.

She drove to Bobby and Lindsay’s house, knowing that was where everyone
would be.  Walking into the living room, everyone immediately asked how it
went.

“Fine,” Lucy answered.  “I answered what I could and they have a great
sketch.”

Everyone nodded their heads.  Minutes later Mike walked through the door.
Everyone looked at him expectantly.

“Leah Jackson’s sketch didn’t match the sketch that Lucy gave us.  We are
thinking that maybe there are more people involved than we originally
thought.  We are running the sketches through the databases, seeing if we
can come up with a match, but so far we don’t have anything.  I think it
would be best if all of you went home and got some sleep.  It’s already 2am
and you being tired isn’t going to help anybody find Lindsay or the girls.”

Everyone knew Mike was right and stood up to leave.  Everyone gave Bobby
hugs and made their way home, with the exception of Mike and Helen.

“I am really sorry, Bobby.  I know you were hoping to get something more
out of this, but something will come.  We are going to get them back.”

“Thanks, Mike.”

Mike nodded and left Bobby and Helen to go check on Bridget, who was
sleeping in Chloe's bed.

“God, Helen.  This is such a mess.  Lindsay is never going to forgive me.”

“Bobby, how is this your fault?  You can’t blame yourself.  Lindsay
wouldn’t want you to do that, and you know it.”

Bobby was silent for a while, but when he looked up, Helen could see the
tears in his eyes that he was trying desperately to keep at bay.

“Helen, Lindsay wanted to talk to me about separating.  We fight all the
time, and it’s usually my fault.  I haven’t been around much, and I have
been rude to her and argumentative.  But I never mean what I say, and I
certainly didn’t mean it when I said she was a bad mother.  She one of the
best mother’s I have ever seen.  She love’s those girls more than anything
in the world.  I knew didn’t want to separate, Helen.  I love her more than
anything in the world.  She and the girls are my life.  I don’t know what I
will do if I loose them.”

“Your not going to loose them, Bobby.  Mike’s gonna find them.”

“I hope your right.”

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Lindsay sat on the mattress that furnished the small room she and the girls
were locked in.  Her head still hurt like hell from the gash she received
when she was struck with the pipe.  She hoped she didn’t have a concussion

She could here the door to the room being swung open, and remained seated,
trying to will her heart to stop beating so fast.  Chloe looked up from
beside her mother, where she had been sleeping restlessly.  Emma remained
asleep on her mother’s chest.

A man came in and grabbed ripped Emma away from Lindsay’s arms, then
stepping over her and roughly picking up Chloe.  Lindsay watched tearfully
as the man took a wailing Emma, and Chloe, screaming and kicking, out of
the room.  Lindsay screamed at him to bring back her daughters and not to
hurt them, until she could not longer hear his footsteps.

Giving in to her tears, she was soon startled as the man can back into the
room.  She stared defiantly at him, trying to show him that she was not
afraid of him.  He looked at her with lust in his eyes, and she soon looked
away from his hungry gaze.  She saw that the man had carelessly left the
door open, and she tried to calculate her chances at getting out.  She knew
her chances were not good, but she could not let this man hurt her without
giving him a fight, and she knew exactly what he planned to do.

Standing up, she looked at him once again, and pretended to back away,
really only stepping to her left so that she could get around him.  As he
stepped closer, she took off, making it to the door.  She could feel him
grasping at her shirt, but she escaped his clutch until he grabbed her
hair, flinging back her head.  He turned her around, looking at her with
anger, but the lust all the more strong.

“I like it when women put up a fight,” he said, as he slapped her face,
causing her lip to split.  He then roughly slammed her into the wall,
running his hands up and down her body.  Lindsay shut her eyes tightly,
trying to imagine this was Bobby, but she knew that he husband could never
be this rough.  She tried desperately to push him away, but it seemed that
the more she fought, the more determined this man became.

Pushing her onto the mattress, the man pushed up Lindsay’s skirt, roughly
ripping off her hose.  He laughed as tears escaped her eyes and she begged
him to stop.

“You should just be happy that I had the decency to take your daughters out
of the room.  Maybe next time you would like it if Chloe watched me screw
her mother.  Or maybe you would like to watch me screw Chloe.”

“You sick bastard.  You better not lay a finger on either one of my
daughters, or I swear to God, I will kill you.”

The man only laughed once again, as he roughly forced his way inside
Lindsay’s body.  She squeezed her eyes tightly shut as he slammed into her,
making her flinch with each thrust.  Tears rolled silently down her
cheeks.  She could already feel the bruises forming on the inside of her
thighs.  When he came, he gripped her cheek with his fingernails, drawing
blood.  As he eased out of her, putting his pants back on, he threw her a
casual glance as he left the room.

“By the way, I am Jack.  I am Bobby’s brother.”


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I hope that everyone liked it.  I would love feedback – whether good or
otherwise.  I will try to get in the next part as soon as possible.
Lily Carsyn