IN AN OFFICE INSIDE THE de MILO HOSPITAL IN YELLOWLEAF
Shimmer's face was swollen from constant crying. She was sitting between her husband and Iris. Carl stood very close to Roderick, his face clearly showing that he was lost in thoughts. Seated on a chair with both palms covering his face and in great sorrow, was Pete.
"It shall be well, sir," Carl assured Roderick.
"Why are my men taking this long to find him? Do I pay all of you to be this incompetent!" Roderick demanded.
"They're doing their best, sir," Carl comforted him.
Shimmer started to cry again. Iris was offering her a glass of water and even in her crying, she took two huge gulps of the water and slightly pushed the glass away. Iris took out a facial tissue and dabbed the tears off Shimmer's face.
"He will be fine, ma'am. Sir Dylan will be fine." she whispered.
Iris' voice carried forced hope. She knew that she needed to show the hope, for the sake of her employer. Shimmer pointed at her legs and Iris quickly knelt down to remove the former's shoes. She carefully placed a small footrest and Shimmer planted her feet slowly.
"My son! My son! My son is gone!! Who took him? What do they want? If they want money, why are they not just saying so? We can pay them anything they ask for!" she cried bitterly.
Pete raised his head and looked at her. Pete had always viewed Shimmer as his own mother. Considering that his own biological mother died when Pete was only seven years old, Shimmer stood up and played the role of a mother to Pete. She was not always available due to work commitments, but whenever she was available, she treated Pete as her own son. On seeing her wailing like that, Pete's heart broke into pieces.
He knelt besides Shimmer and took her hand, "he will be found, they will find him."
Although Pete uttered those words of hope, he was also not sure of what he was saying. Initially, he was full of hope, but when the hours turned into days, and then weeks, the hope in him began to fade. He began to have his doubts, and although he fought hard to remain positive, it was proving to be very difficult.
"Where is he, Pete? Hmm? Where is your friend? Tell me, Pete! I have waited and waited for him to come back to me! He is probably dead somewhere! My child…my child!" Shimmer cried hysterically.
"Shimmer, try to be strong," Roderick comforted his wife.
Everyone's attention was on Shimmer when one of the many bodyguards came in to announce that someone wanted to see the de Milos.
"Let them in!" Roderick said. Shimmer immediately became quiet and sat up, anxious to see who the person was, and what he or she wanted. Iris carefully wiped off the tears off Shimmer's face, and she took care of the straying hair strands. She handed her more water and Shimmer sipped before shaking her head and fixing her eyes at the entrance.
They all looked at the door when the sister in charge at the hospital walked in with a young lady following closely behind her. It was easy to see that they had been running. They were both breathing heavily, and the nurse waved a paper for all to see.
"Detective, where is the detective? Sir and Mrs de Milo, you need to see this!" she panted.
Due to the urgency and gravity of her voice, everyone stood up and looked at her. Pete was the one to quickly grab the paper that the nurse was holding.
"The pharmacist says there is a man who brought this prescription. See? It has a staff number for one of the de Milos! This number begins with triple zero. It must be doctor Dylan's number."
All heads came together, literally, to look at the paper. Pete said out loud, "that's Dylan's staff number!!"
"What? Who used sir Dylan's number ?" Carl asked.
Roderick grabbed the prescription and studied it. All of them stood around with their eyes glued to the prescription.
"This is his handwriting!!" Shimmer broke into tears of renewed hope. "He's alive! My son is alive!"
Just then Roderick noticed that the prescription was signed Bubbles.
"Look here, Shimmer! It's signed Bubbles! Our son is alive! It's him!! It's Bubbles!"
"Where? Where is it written bubbles?" Shimmer held the paper close and saw the name Bubbles written in Dylan's handwriting.
"He's alive! He is alive!" she cried all the more.
"Carl, call in the detective!"
In a short while, the bodyguards had managed to get in touch with detective Harris, and he came in. It did not take much time because Harris was already in the hospital yard, on his way out to do some more intense searching.
"Where is the man who brought this prescription?" detective Harris inquired from the pharmacist.
"At the pharmacy reception," she answered.
"Go back. Try and keep him for as long as you possibly can" he gave an order.
"Yes sir", she ran out.
The detective pulled out his phone and ordered instructions, "I need backup at the de Milo hospital. Suspect is currently inside the pharmacy. Plain clothes officers on all entrances and exits now! Stick a tracker on him and on his car. He will lead us to where Dylan de Milo is. Make no mistakes!"
"My son is alive, thank you God. Bubbles is alive! Bubbles is alive!," Shimmer cried as her assistant wiped her face, fixed her hair and offered her some water to drink.
"Dylan is alive!" Pete failed to control his joy. "Let's go bring him home!"
"It's best that you stay behind, sir." Harris tried to stop them, but both Roderick and Pete would not hear anything of it. Carl was also going, obviously, for there was no way he would have left Roderick and Pete to go on their own.
"Doctor sir please, let me do this. We can't miss him now!" Harris stamped down his foot. He told the bodyguards to be alert and if possible to increase staff. With that, Harris left the room
Shimmer failed to sit down. "He is alive! He is really alive!" she cried in excitement.
She hugged Roderick and cried into his chest. Roderick rubbed his wife's back. He wanted to smile, yet he was not too sure. The fact that the prescription was written in Dylan's handwriting was enough evidence to show that their son was still alive. But then, he was not sure as to how long the son was going to be alive. What was going to happen if the man found out that the police were after him? Where was Dylan?
"I cannot continue to stand here and do nothing! I want to go and find him!" Pete said.
Detective Harris was always against them going out in the field to look for Dylan. It was too dangerous, he always argued. However, in the past instances, Harris failed to stop them. Roderick, Pete and Carl all went to look for Dylan, leaving Shimmer under the care of Iris.
"We have to go there!" Pete spoke again.
One of the bodyguards reminded them all that it was too dangerous to go out in the field, but Roderick supported Pete's idea. He too wanted to go out and find his own son.
"But sir, you're a man of great dignity and a multi-billionaire. Do you really need to be running and dodging bullets?" the bodyguard tried to reason with them.
"My son is already there. He is my son, I will go find him. If I continue to sit here and wait to hear from Harris, I will soon go mad."
Seeing that his boss was not backing down, Carl quickly divided the team of bodyguards. He ordered for some to come along with them, and for some to remain guarding Shimmer and Iris. Carl gave an instruction for more bodyguards to be brought in to make sure that Shimmer and Iris were safe at any and all costs.
"Please be careful, sweetheart," Shimmer cried and threw her arms around Roderick. Impatient to leave, Roderick hugged her briefly before freeing himself from her hug.
Roderick was about to pull Pete when Shimmer threw herself on to Pete and cried, "be careful, my son. The last thing I want is for us to lose someone while in the process of trying to get back one of us. Take care of each other, Roderick and Pete. Carl, please take care of them both." She cried.
"Yes ma'am," Carl nodded his head.
Roderick was already out of the room when Shimmer held Pete's arm and said hurriedly, "Pete, if the detective tells you something, please follow his commands. He knows better than you. Look out for Roderick. He can be stubborn but if it's too dangerous please make sure to take care of yourselves. Be extra careful, my son!"
"I will," Pete nodded before he disappeared out of the room. The many bodyguards surrounded them.