"They're late."
Jay looked at his wristwatch and saw that it was fifteen past midnight. He gripped the large duffle case filled with money tightly. Grabbing a hanker chief from his pocket, Jay wiped off the sweat on his forehead. Looking around, he saw no signs of movement or of any vehicle approaching. He was currently standing in a closed salvage yard.
"Where are they? Why aren't they here!"
"Easy Jay. Stay quiet. You can't tip them off that we're here." Sgt. Voight said over the radio. "Once they're here, my team will move in. No one is getting out of here without my say-so."
Jay swallowed and scratched his ear. The tiny earpiece itched in its place. Looking around, he starts to feel despair. He began believing that the kidnappers had caught on and decided not to show up. Remembering what they said they would do to Alex if the police ended up involved caused Jay's stomach to turn. Gritting his teeth, Jay gasped in surprise at the sound of a vehicle slowly approaching.
"Look sharp. We got company."
Voight's voice caused Jay's heart to race. Gripping the handle of the duffle case, Jay narrowed his eyes and grew a severe expression. The sound of the vehicle became louder, becoming distinguishable.
"That sounds like a motorcycle." One of the members of Voight's team said.
"I got eyes on them… wait a minute." Alvin spoke. "That's!-"
Jay watched as a man on a motorcycle pulled up in front of him. His hoodie and face mask obscured his face. Looking down, Jay saw a pair of arms wrapped tightly around the man's chest. The hooded man then killed the engine on the motorcycle and turned off the headlights. Jay turned his head to see if any more vehicles were pulling in but saw nothing.
"Are you… with them? I got your money!" Jay yelled in anger. "Now, where's my granddaughter!"
The hooded man raised his hand at him in a calming manner. He then turned his head and seemed to whisper something behind his back. Slowly, a young girl got off the bike and walked into the moonlight. Jay's eyes widened; dropping the duffle bag, he took a tentative step forward.
"…Alex? Honey!"
"Grandpa!"
Alex ran up to him and hugged him tightly. Jay had never felt this level of relief before in his entire life. Tears steadily streamed from his eyes as his chest shook with every sob he released. Rocking his granddaughter back and forth, Jay thanked whatever greater being was out there that helped him reunite with his grandchild.
"Oh god, oh my god! Alex, Honey!"
"I'm okay, Grandpa! I'm so happy to see you!" Alex cried into his chest. "I was so scared!"
Jay brushed Alex's hair with his hand as he held her. Finally remembering where he was, he looked up at the hooded figure. He hasn't moved since Alex ran up to him, almost as if giving them time to themselves. Jay looked back at the duffle bag of money.
"Go on. Take it." Jay told the hooded man.
"… I'm not with the kidnappers." The man said in a low, muffled voice.
"What?"
"It's true, Grandpa." Alex told him as she separated slightly from him. She turned back to look at the man. A small smile grew on her lips. "He saved me."
Jay looked up and saw the man nod. With a deep breath, Jay regained control over his emotions and examined the man who saved his grandchild.
"Thank you. Truly."
Immediately after Jay spoke his sentence, Voight's intelligence unit dashed around the hooded man. They all had different types of guns pointed at the man. Jay was initially surprised but suddenly remembered the plan Alvin and Voight set up for when the kidnappers made the exchange.
"FREEZE!"
"DON'T MOVE!"
"HANDS IN THE AIR!"
"OFF THE BIKE!"
With all types of weaponry surrounding him, the hooded man slowly stepped off the motorcycle and raised his hands. Jay noticed Alex run towards the hooded man, reaching out, but he failed to grab her shoulder.
"STOP! Don't shoot him!"
Alex stood in front of the hooded man with her arms spread out. A panicked and determined look was on her face. She stood there without fear as Voight's unit exchanged glances with each other.
"Alex, I need you to step away from him right now. He's a dangerous vigilante." Voight said as he slowly walked forward, pistol in hand.
"No! I won't move!" Alex yelled.
"Alex, Honey. I need you to come over here. It's not safe." Jay tried to reason with her; Alex then turned her head at him.
"You're wrong! I'm safer with him than anyone else here!" Alex declared. "He SAVED me. I wouldn't be here right now if it weren't for him."
"Boss, what should we do?" Officer Atwater questioned.
Jay saw Voight look at Alex's determined face and sighed. "Stand down. Lower your guns."
All of the intelligence unit members lowered their weapons one by one. Conflicted expressions were on their faces. Alex then lowered her arms but stood in place in front of her savior. The hooded man looked around and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"It's okay. Go to your Grandfather." The man said. "I'll be fine."
"But!-"
"Alex. Go."
Alex looked like she was about to argue. Jay knew the look she made whenever she was about to go on a long argument, but to his surprise, she looked down and nodded. Alex then walked over to him, glancing back at the vigilante several times. Once she was near him, Jay grabbed her shoulders gently.
"Lindsay, Ruzek. Get Jay and Alex out of here. Take them home." Voight ordered.
The two officers stood still for a second but then started to move. Grabbing Jay and Alex, the officers led the two away to a hidden parked vehicle. Jay bent down and grabbed the duffel bag on their way out; with one final look, he looked back and saw a large dried blood stain on the hooded man's thigh. In a similar location, he saw someone else be injured today.
•••
Alex stopped walking and looked at him. Harvey nodded at her. Reluctantly, she nods back. A minute later, the sound of a vehicle leaving informed everyone of their departure.
"It's good to finally meet you, Vengeance." Voight said sarcastically. "I hoped it would've been when I finally put you in handcuffs."
"…Sergeant." Harvey said in a low voice, hoping his face mask muffled him enough to disguise his voice. "How's Halstead?"
"Fine… recovering." Voight said tensely. "You know I can't let you go. I'm grateful you helped one of my men, but I can't just turn a blind eye."
Harvey saw the officers slowly raise their weapons back up at him. Making sure his hands were up in the air, he took a step forward. The action caused a few of the officers to twitch slightly. Harvey knew he could easily escape by becoming The Ghost Rider, but he would prefer not to have to expose that new facet of himself just yet.
"Where are the men that kidnapped Alex?" Voight asked as he, too, stepped forward a step. "Are they tied up somewhere? Crying away apologies like usual? Or did you finally crack and kill them?"
Harvey was impressed by the sergeant's line of questioning. From what little he saw of Jay Halstead's memories when he inspected him with the penance stare, he knew that Hank Voight was a hardened and fearless cop. One didn't become the commander of the city's most effective crime-solving unit by being bad at their job.
"…who knows?" Harvey answered. "Why don't you and your team go find them?"
"Oh, we will. Once we put you behind bars, but before we do. I have to know." Voight looked at him with a curious gaze. "Why'd you do it? Why'd you go out of your way to save Alex Dunphy? It's not part of your M.O."
Harvey stared at the man as he wracked his mind for an answer. He couldn't say that she was his friend, that this was his personal mission to find and save her. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head.
"Saving her was a coincidence. I found the five men moving her around a few hours ago, and I did what I do best." Harvey said coolly. "Bringing her here was just a whim of mine."
"A whim. I see." Voight looked down and nodded. "Just like that? Real generous of you."
"You know what I think? I think that you somehow thought that doing one good deed would have us brush all your acts of vigilantism under the rug." Voight explained as he walked around Harvey. "That we would forgive your crimes. Well, guess what? We won't. I'm going to put you in handcuffs and take you in. Tonight."
Voight then motioned for his team to move in at him. Harvey closed his eyes and cursed mentally. Opening his eyes, he saw three officers slowly approach him. Harvey then focused, reached inside, and grabbed onto a portion of The Rider's power. With a twist of his wrist, Harvey made a fist.
"Hey, keep your hands open-"
A loud burst of fire exploded from his motorcycle, causing all the officers to jump back in shock. Seeing his opportunity, Harvey ran to his bike and hopped on. Revving his engine, he slammed the gas pedal and drove his bike fast. As he was speeding away, Harvey heard Voight yell at his team.
"Don't let him get away!"
Little did Sergeant Hank Voight know that he would never catch up to him. No one could. Jerking his head up, Harvey's head lit up on fire. That was because no one was capable of catching The Ghost Rider.
•••
DING DONG
"Coming!"
Gloria Pritchett Delgado yelled as she slowly walked up to her front door. She was both mentally and physically exhausted. The events from today left her and her family drained, for something terrible happened. One of her beloved grandchildren was abducted earlier today. This occurred more commonly back in her home country of Columbia. She never believed it would happen here and to her new family. It was certainly possible, but she never once wondered about the possibility.
It was only an hour ago when she finally managed to get her sweet son to stop sobbing and condemning himself, but she knew that even after they got Alex back, he would never truly forgive himself. She knew this to be true because, in the end, She knew her son better than anyone. Jay and her would need to find Manny a therapist to help him work through this.
Gloria looked over to see Claire in Phil's arms. Her daughter-in-law was an emotional wreck. Where a once strong-willed and headstrong woman stood now sat a defeated and broken woman. Gloria couldn't blame her; she couldn't imagine the thought of it being Manny that was taken today.
It was then revealed that Manny was the original target of today's abduction. She hated herself for being relieved that Alex was the one who was taken instead of Manny. The feeling of wanting to throw up at the thought that she was happy that one of the girls she learned to love as a daughter was taken instead of her son was so strong that when she had a minute to herself, she emptied her stomach.
Gloria swore tonight that after Alex was brought back home, she would make it up to her and her family for her horrible thoughts. If she didn't, she couldn't face her new family anymore. She swore she would make things right! Finally opening her oversized door, Gloria saw her husband; he was smiling at her. A look that filled her with a wave of relief.
"Jay! Is Alex back!?"
Her shout brought the attention of everyone inside, and instantly, her whole family ran up behind her. Claire was the first one to be at the door. Everyone looked out the door and saw Jay step aside, unveiling Luke as he hugged Alex deeply. Two officers were standing by the front gates of the home, but barely anyone paid attention to them. The two Dunphy siblings cried as they held each other. Alex then turned and saw her whole family look at her, faces filled with surprise and happiness.
Gloria stepped aside because she knew Claire would be the first person to run to Alex. The woman in question stood frozen where she stood. Slowly, her face shifted into dozens of expressions as her emotions fought one another. Finally, Claire's eyes began to cry as she ran over to her daughter and hugged her deeply.
"Alex! Oh my god, my baby! Alex!"
Gloria watched as Clare and Alex cried in each other's embrace. The rest of the family slowly joined in for a tearful family hug. Wiping away tears, Gloria felt her husband wrap his arm around her shoulder. She looked up at him and saw him smile.
"Let's go join them."
Gloria held Jay's hand and nodded tearfully. They walked over and joined the group hug.
•••
Luke stood back as everyone continued to hug his sister and talk to her. He found it funny that everyone kept asking his sister if she was okay even after she had already answered the same question several times.
Luke saw Manny be the last one to walk up to Alex. Manny then had a pained face and asked for forgiveness. Luke knew Manny was beating himself up over what happened. A part of him was upset that this happened, but he never saw it as Manny's fault. The blame fell on the greedy kidnappers. Luke then saw Alex hug Manny and told him she never blamed him for what happened. She decided to step up and get in the kidnapper's way. It was her choice.
The only ones to never let Alex go were his family. His mother and father kept Alex in their arms, almost like she would disappear again if they let her go. Haley also continued hugging Alex; she kept saying how sorry she was that she wasn't a better older sister and that she would treat her better from now on. Luke smiled at them, Happy to have his family back all safe and sound, just like Harvey said.
Luke turned to the sound of footsteps. He smiled when he saw Harvey walk up next to him. His big brother figure wrapped an arm around his shoulder and held him. Harvey smiled at the sight.
"You brought her back, just like you said you would."
"Luke, your grandfather, and the two officers brought her back." Harvey shook his head. "Not me."
Luke chuckled, gaining Harvey's attention. "No, it was you. She told me you rescued her."
"…what did she tell you?"
"Just that you're a crime-fighting superhero." Luke spoke proudly. "When were you gonna tell me your head can catch on fire?"
"…let's talk about that later."
Harvey said with a tired smile. Luke nodded and saw Alex turn in their direction. Her face brightened, and a huge smile grew on her face. After getting their family to agree to let go of her, Alex ran in their direction. Once she was close, she jumped up and hugged Harvey. Luke stepped back and smiled at them.
Sure he was a little grossed out when Haley told him that Alex was in love with Harvey, but he did like the idea of Harvey becoming his actual big brother someday. With that, Luke laughed at the fact Alex caused both her and Harvey to fall to the ground. Soon enough, everyone else giggled at the sight of an embarrassed Alex and a chuckling Harvey.