Paper in a File {Brollins}

It had been less than a week, four days, to be exact, since Rebecca's disappearance. But to Colby, it had already felt like a year, an eternity even.

He paced across the first floor, trying to come up with a thought that might've been evading him for the past few days as to where Rebecca was. It was at a point where Colby knew she was in trouble, maybe even in danger, and all signs pointed to Riki.

But that was just the thing. Ever since Rebecca's disappearance, it didn't matter whether Colby was at home, the store, the streets, or at the precinct. Riki was nowhere to be found either, and Colby had a hard time believing Rebecca finally sought out revenge for everything he'd done and hunted him down. Although, that seemed to be the most preferable possibility to him. As long as she was safe.

Chase had been responding the way any baby would be: innocently. He got into his moods of only wanting his mother figure, but other times Colby looked at him, and Chase seemed as though it was any regular day. At that moment, it was more prominent than ever while he was stressing on the couch, leg bouncing up and down, yet the only response Chase could conjure up was a giggle.

Obviously, Colby didn't blame him. He was an infant. But it was still hard to proceed amongst the rest of things, and he didn't like the look of a regular layer in his life, not when potentially the most important piece was missing. It didn't feel right to laugh or smile, even when the group at the precinct was doing it on purpose to help him out.

Chase's short-lived happiness suddenly transformed into a tantrum, and he threw his pacifier across the room. Colby sighed, trudging across the room to find it. He saw it lying by the bottom of the couch and bent down slowly as he let out a tired breath.

When he reached for it, his fingers skimmed another object next to it, yet just hidden out of sight under the couch. He moved off of his knees and sat down next to the couch, ignoring Chase's cries filling the room.

When he grabbed it, his heart sank further than he thought possible, and tears built in his eyes. He ran his thumb against the top of a small box before opening it slowly, to reveal the present he had gotten Rebecca all that time ago, one they had remembered periodically, thinking it was lost somewhere.

Inside lay a silver charm bracelet, untouched, with three charms already attached, ones that he had taken Chase out to get secretly, especially for her. He picked it out of the box and held it in his hands.

The first charm was an Ailm. It was a Celtic symbol that represented strength and was made up of a circle with a perfectly even plus sign in the middle.

It was intertwined with the idea of endurance, resilience, and inner strength. Three things he knew Rebecca had in spades, especially after all they'd been through. Now more than ever, that point was being made to him.

The second charm was a Triskelion. It was another traditional Celtic symbol she had mentioned to him, consisting of interlocked spirals. It represented the endless connection through life, death, and rebirth.

He wanted it to prove to her that he wasn't just in it for the case. He was in it for the relationship they had built and the progress they had made. 

At the time, it wasn't more than platonic, but it in itself, had allured to their friendship blossoming. The case connected them on a level they'd never had before, and Colby wanted to assure her that through everything, their connection would remain untarnished.

The third charm was a Celtic Trinity Knot. It was a circle along with a continuous three-pointed symbol that displayed the endless love of family, each point representing one of them.

Rebecca, Chase, and himself. A family. An unconventional and non-traditional family, but one nonetheless. And with a crucial third of Colby and Chase's family missing, the charm held a certain emptiness.

His grip on the bracelet tightened as he clenched his jaw, placing it back into its box delicately on the table in front of him. He grabbed Chase and his pacifier and immediately moved to head out for the precinct.

"Guys, we need to do more." Colby spoke the moment he pushed open the precinct door. "This isn't cutting it."

"What more can we do?" Pamela questioned, sadness lining the bottom of her eyes as she stared blankly at the wall.

"There has to be something we're missing." Colby reasoned, sitting down and holding Chase in an upright position, in his lap.

"Have we missed any streets?" Joseph offered as he scrolled through his computer. "Looked past any buildings Riki could be in?"

Mercedes sighed, "We don't even have enough information to know if he's the one that took her in the first place."

"You know damn well he did." Colby replied harsher than he expected, but Mercedes knew it wasn't personal, it was just stress.

"Maybe someone he's affiliated with got her?" Jonathan interjected although it wasn't his most confident thought. "Maybe he's not even involved?"

"Sure, maybe others are involved." Colby reasoned, "But I know Riki's involved."

"Well... walk us through everything you guys have spoken about." Joseph leaned back in his seat. "Maybe Rebecca's told you about where he could be without even knowing it."

Colby sure hoped so, because delving into their past, now more than ever, only held pain. He tried to fall into the belief that thinking about their happy moments would lift his spirits, but it was all falling flat. The woman he loved was missing, and he didn't know if there was anything he could do about it.