River woke up in his bed later that day not remembering how he got home. He did however remember the pain that he experienced and the image of his daughter that he got right before he started his run. Strange, he thought to himself, that's never happened before.
He remembered while growing up, his mother would often get headaches that came out of nowhere and laid her up for a few days. Maybe it was a genetic thing that was just now showing up. It still did not explain the sudden flash of images he got of Raivyn being held in a room somewhere, scared and alone. She was only three, who would do that to a child?
River figured that taking a shower would make his head feel a bit better. Just moving made him a little queasy, but he had things to do today. He had to figure out a way to find Angelica, and now that Mr. Donavan was making him go to the charity event at the end of the month, he had to find another time and another way.
He had hired a private investigator to find them, but so far, no information had been turned up. Then there was that image of Raivyn he had this morning. That scared him. Was it just his imagination? He had to know what caused the painful episode. He wished that he could speak to his parents, but they were gone and never coming back.
Standing under the hot spray of water he let the tears come. The tears that he had held back for so long now, the tears that he refused to shed. Tears for the loss of his parents, tears for the loss of his daughter, tears of anger and sorrow.
He let them mingle with the spray of the shower. He had hoped that Angelica would come back with his little girl. That she would realize she was wrong. Wrong about leaving and wrong about taking Raivyn away from him.
Raivyn was his world, she became the center of his life the day she was born and he held her in his arms that first time and looked in her eyes. They created a bond at that moment, father and daughter, that no one would ever be able to destroy.
That night, River sat down and made another list of any and all people that could possibly know where Angelica and Raivyn had gone. He had been down this road already once, 6 months ago when she first took off. Every lead he got was a dead end though. Not even her family knew where she was. Like they cared anyways, after tossing her out when she got pregnant with Raivyn. Screw them and their money.
He worked late into the night, racking his brain for anything that he could remember of their lives together. The four years that he thought they were happy. All he managed to do was make his headache worse. He stood up and turned to head to the bedroom when he was struck with the blinding pain again. This time he collapsed to the floor in a heap, the pain was worse. He got more flashes of an image, of his Raivyn. She was crying out for her daddy, the lady that held onto her was being too rough. The last image he saw before passing out made it appear that Raivyn was looking right at him.
******
Eithen pulled in to the drive of his parents place and was greeted at the door by his mother. "Hey Ma, how are you feeling today?"
"Won't complain dear. You really need to stop by more often young man, we don't get to see you nearly enough."
"I know Ma, I need to make more time for you and pops. Is he available? I really need to talk to him?"
From the look of desperation on her son's face she could tell that something was wrong. Taking hold of Eithen's hand she led him through the house and into the kitchen where she left him to sit at the table while she went to retrieve his father. A few minutes went by before they returned. She decided to let them talk while she made some lunch.
"Hey pops, I'm really sorry to have to call you in on this, but it is...." Eithen was cut off from explaining by his father who simply held up a hand for silence.
"I know that Eithen. I'm always your last resort. Now.... tell me what has been happening and who it is that I need to help you find."
Eithen gave a sigh of relief, he never doubted that his pops would help. He just didn't like the thought of having to put him back out there in the field after all this time. "Well pops...." And for the next 3 hours Eithen filled his parents in on the events of the last week, his reasons for doing what he had done and then finally getting to the reason for asking his father for help.
"Oh that poor child, you have to find her Devon."
Eithen smiled, his Ma was always there to nudge his father along.
"You know I will my dear." Turning his attention back to Eithen he asked, "What all do we know about the people that this Angelica person left her daughter with?"
The rest of the night involved numerous phone calls and people coming and going from the house. Plans were being made and set into motion. They knew that they needed to find this little girl before it was too late and Eithen needed to find her for River's sake. He needed to keep him sane and emotionally stable.
He knew the only way to do that was to reunite him with his daughter. So now, his first priority was to the safety of Raivyn, his second was to River's well being. He wasn't sure why he felt the need to keep him close and happy, he just knew that it had to be done.
******
