* * * * * * * *

Kunzite, Zoisite, and Jadeite sat in a nondescript car across the street from the entrance to the library. It was Naru's study day with Mizuno Ami, three to six o'clock in the afternoon. For the last four weeks, they had been following Naru everywhere, trying to catch the break in her routine, the moment when, despite all of Nephrite's precautions, she would be left alone. The whole thing was becoming increasingly boring and frustrating, but Jasper insisted they keep at it until they had her. All other operations were suspended until they had captured Naru. At least Jasper had started giving them a little more energy, enough that they could make themselves invisible, as they were now, and do some disguises if it became necessary.

The red Ferrari screeched to a halt in front of the library. "Two minutes late," Zoisite said, looking at his new watch. He had paid Jasper back for his stubbornness by charging a Rolex to him. "Now they'll spend, what is it, five minutes kissing each other goodbye." But after about thirty seconds, Naru hopped out of the car and ran up the steps to the library doors. "Hmm, that's different," Jadeite said as the sports car sped away.

"Trouble in Paradise, I wonder," Zoisite said.

"Now we sit here for the next three hours," Jadeite said. "Makes me miss the good old days. Plots, youmas, good old-fashioned battles with the Senshi --"

"Which we always lost," Kunzite grumbled. "Don't remind me."

The three Lords sulked in silence for a few minutes. Then Naru reappeared outside the library. "Whoa, wait a minute," Jadeite said. Being the designated driver (unlike the other two, he had actually had some experience in functioning in this world and was thus considered the one most qualified to learn how to drive), he started the car, then remembered to become uninvisible.

Naru stood at the curb, arm outstretched to hail a taxi. One soon pulled up, and she hopped in. The taxi drove away, followed closely but discreetly by the Lords. It stopped at a block of medical offices three miles away from the library, and Naru bounced out. She paused a moment to look at the directory next to the door of the building.

"How can anyone stand to be so cute?" Zoisite asked. Naru was wearing pink bike shorts, a short white knit dress printed with pink flowers, slouchy white socks, pink high-tops tied with long strips of lace instead of shoestrings, and a big pink bow in her hair. Her big white tote bag featured a Hello Kitty design. "She probably wears Hello Kitty jammies to bed. I always thought Nephrite preferred the sultry type."

"Just because you couldn't be cute to save your life, Zoi," Jadeite said. "I wonder what she's seeing a doctor about?"

"I wonder why she doesn't want Nephrite to know about it," Kunzite said. All three of them looked at each other. "He doesn't know she isn't at the library," Kunzite grinned. "She's probably going to want another taxi when she comes out of there. Our lucky day has finally come."

An hour passed, but the Lords didn't mind because they knew that success would be theirs at last. Finally, Naru came out the front door of the medical building, clutching a handful of papers and pamphlets. While she paused to look at her watch, Jadeite transformed the car into a taxicab. "Disappear, you two." Kunzite and Zoisite obliged by fading into invisibility. Naru leaned out over the curb to look for a taxi, and Jadeite pulled up beside her. She opened the back door and hopped in. "Main library, please," she said, closing the door. She was smiling broadly as she stuffed the papers she was holding into her book-laden tote bag. The smile disappeared when Zoisite and Kunzite shimmered into view.

"Gotcha, Naru-chan," Zoisite grinned.

"No! Oh, no!" Naru struggled with the door, but Jadeite had made sure it wouldn't open from the inside. Failing to escape, she lashed out at Zoisite with her fists. "Let me go, you -- you monsters!"

One of Naru's fists connected hard with Zoisite's nose. With a cry of pain, Zoisite clapped a hand over his nose. Blood trickled out from beneath his hand. "You miserable little tramp, you'll pay for that!" He pushed the thumb of his other hand against Naru's forehead. Naru gave a yelp of pain, then collapsed, unconscious.

* * * * * * * *

The Senshi were meeting at the Hikawa Shrine, at six o'clock that evening. Nephrite arrived about twenty minutes late -- he'd spent the whole afternoon trying to figure out what had happened to a shipment of Native American pottery. He walked into Rei's living quarters, saying, "Hi, everyone, hey, Naru," just as everyone was saying, "Hi, Nephrite, hi, Naru."

Nephrite stared at the group. "Naru isn't here?" He looked at Ami. "I thought she came with you."

"I thought she was with you," Ami said.

"No. I dropped her off at the library at three o'clock, same as always."

Ami bit her lip. "She called me this morning and said she couldn't meet me until four-thirty. She never showed up, so I called your house and no one answered, then I tried her phone and didn't get an answer, and yours was busy all afternoon."

All of a sudden, Nephrite felt dreadfully cold. He pressed the palms of his hands together in front of his face, his old focusing gesture, and tried not to panic. Okay, this was exactly the sort of circumstance he'd bought her the cell phone for. He took out his own cell phone and dialed her number. He let it ring about thirty times, without an answer.

Everyone was just sitting there, looking pale and scared, watching him. Makoto walked over, took the phone from Nephrite's hand, and switched it off. "You'd better leave this free," she said gently, "in case Naru's trying to call you."

"Good thinking," he said weakly.

"Look," Rei said, "here's my phone. It's got a speaker, in case there's something we all need to hear, and Ami knows how to connect to it with her computer to trace a cell phone's location, in case you do get an answer on Naru's phone."

"Thanks. Okay. Maybe she's at her mother's." Nephrite felt as though, mentally, he were swimming through mud. Drinking too much last night hadn't helped his clarity of thought today, and his efforts to not give in to panic were only making things worse. But panicking wouldn't help Naru, if she was in trouble. He dialed Osaka Midori's number, and switched Rei's phone to the speaker. He needed the others to hear what he was hearing, because he didn't trust his own ability to think. "Hello?" said Naru's mother.

"Midori, it's Nephrite. Would Naru be there, by any chance?" He fought to keep his voice normal. No point in upsetting her.

"No, I haven't seen her all day. I wasn't expecting to. Is something wrong?"

"No, everything's ok. We just got our signals crossed about when we were supposed to meet somewhere. Thanks."

"Sure, Nephrite. Bye."

He dialed Naru's cell phone again and let it ring for about three minutes. He was afraid he would run the battery down if he kept doing that. Why didn't she answer? He didn't want to think about it.

"Usagi, what's the number at your house? Maybe she went there to look for you." It was a stretch, but he had to try every possibility. Usagi rattled off the number, and Nephrite dialed. "Yes?" Usagi's father said.

"Mr. Tsukino? Sanjouin Masato here. I'm Usagi's friend Naru's husband."

"Of course. Nephrite."

Good. Usagi had told her parents the whole story. "That's right. Has Naru been by there this afternoon? We got our signals crossed about when and where we were supposed to meet this evening."

"I don't think so. Let me ask my wife." Silence for a moment, then, "No. No sign of Naru here today. I hope everything's all right."

"It is. We'll meet up eventually. Thanks."

It was getting harder to fight back the panic. He dialed Naru's phone again; again there was no answer. Maybe she had forgotten to put it in her bag this afternoon, he tried to tell himself, but he wasn't buying these innocent explanations any more. They had her -- Jasper and the Dark Kingdom Lords. He just knew it. Sometime between three o'clock, when he had dropped her off at the library, and four-thirty, when she had said she would meet Ami, they had gotten to her. What in the world was she doing during that hour and a half? He wanted to scream at her, for breaking the rules. He wanted to scream at himself, for not sticking by her side every minute of the day. He wanted to scream at Ami, for not trying harder to find her when she failed to show up. He looked at the dark-haired girl, and realized he didn't need to berate her. She was nearly in tears from guilt and distress. "I'm sorry, Nephrite. I should have tried harder. Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!"

"It isn't your fault, Ami. Naru knows the rules, and she didn't follow them." He tried to think of anyone else he could call, who might have seen Naru. He finally came up with a name. He hated to do it, but he had to cover all the possibilities. "Does anyone know Umino's number?"

Rei pulled out the phone book and looked it up. Nephrite dialed. "Hello?" said Umino's distinctive voice. Nephrite wondered if the boy would ever get through puberty.

"Umino? This is Sanjouin Masato."

"Masato! Good to hear from you, my man!" Nephrite winced, at the familiarity as well as at the voice, and the girls giggled despite their fear for Naru. Yuuichirou and Mamoru rolled their eyes at each other. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

No more b.s., Nephrite decided. "Umino, have you seen Naru anywhere this afternoon? We were supposed to meet --" he looked at his watch "-- an hour ago, and I'm getting worried about her. She was supposed to meet Ami at the library at three -- that's what I thought, but she told Ami four-thirty, and she didn't show. No one has seen her since I dropped her off at the library."

"No, Mr. Sanjouin. I haven't seen Naru today. Honest, I haven't. I've been with Miki, my girlfriend, you remember, all afternoon. We've been, um, yeah, studying, all afternoon."

Interesting. That told Nephrite three things. First, maybe Umino had made it to manhood after all, despite the lack of evidence in his voice and appearance. Studying, right. Second, Umino was afraid that Nephrite thought that he and Naru were sneaking around together. Don't flatter yourself, boy, he thought. Third, no one he knew that Naru knew had seen her.

"Mr. Sanjouin?" Umino spoke again, with less bravado this time. "Miki and I are about to go to the library to study. I mean, we were studying --"

"Don't pull that innocent act with me, boy. I know what's what."

"Oh. Well, anyway, we were about to go to the library. We'll ask around there. Maybe the librarians who were there this afternoon are still there, and maybe they saw her."

"Thanks, Umino." Damn. Why hadn't he thought to call the library? He had to stop being so stupid. "Would you also look for her bag there? It's got her cell phone in it. I've been trying to call her and not getting an answer. Maybe she left it behind somewhere. It's a white bag with that really stupid-looking cat on it."

"Will do, Mr. S."

Nephrite sighed. "'Masato' is fine."

"Naru-chan and I never hit it off, going together, but she's a sweet kid and a good friend and I can tell you're really worried about her. I'll do what I can to help. Where can I call you back if I find something out?"

Nephrite recited his cell phone number. "I'm keeping that phone free in case Naru calls. You can get through on that. Thanks, Umino. Thank you."

"No problem, Masato. Don't worry, she'll turn up."

"Right." Nephrite hung up the phone. He fought to hold himself in check another moment, and couldn't do it. His left fist came crashing down on the table. "DAMN it, Naru, where are you?" he shouted.

He was shaking badly. He felt the need to start blasting things, but with the damn brace on his wrist, half-covering his right hand, there was a good chance that an energy blast would blow up his own arm. Then he really would be useless. "Where are you, Naru? Why can't I find you?" He was ashamed to realize that he had said the words out loud, and that he was crying. He couldn't fall apart in front of these kids, the Sailor Senshi and Mamoru and Yuuichirou. They all depended on him, but he was nothing without Naru. He kept his face turned away from the others, grateful for the heavy curtain of his long hair concealing him from their view, and struggled to get himself under control. He couldn't.

"Nephrite." It was Mamoru. He put an arm around his former teacher's shoulders. "Come sit down. You've done everything you can right now. Rei's getting ready to do a Fire Reading. Maybe that will tell us something. We've got hot pizza and cold beer, but if you don't come have some now it'll be cold pizza and warm beer. Bad combination, man."

He let Mamoru, rambling on about nothing, lead him to the table. He chewed pizza and swallowed beer without tasting it. He longed for a large quantity of very expensive whiskey. If a man needed to numb himself with drink, that was the way to go. It had worked last night, giving him the courage he needed to confess to Naru.

A possibility he hadn't considered before suddenly hit him. Maybe she had left him. Sure, she had said last night that she forgave him, and when he had taken her back up to bed she had been even more eager and passionate than ever before, had taken control of their lovemaking in a way she never had before. But maybe it was just a pretense. Maybe it was her way of saying goodbye. The more he thought about it, the more convinced he was that he had found the answer. She hated him for what he had done so long ago, and she had left him. Why else would she have deceived him about when she was supposed to meet Ami? He started shaking again, and thought he was going to be sick.

Still, though, better if she had left him than for her to end up in Jasper's hands....

His cell phone rang. Nephrite dove to the phone table, grabbed his phone, switched it on at the second ring. "Naru!"

Not Naru. "It's me. Umino. I'm at the library."

"Oh. Find anything?"

"I talked to the librarian at the front desk. She was here this afternoon. She saw Naru come in, hang around for a few minutes, and go back out. She had her bag with her when she left, by the way. Anyway, the librarian saw her get into a taxicab. One of those green ones."

"Green taxi. Thanks, Umino." He hung up and asked, "What cab company uses green cars?"

Mina knew, and Nephrite looked up the number in the directory. He dialed on Rei's phone, and reached the dispatch operator. "Can you tell me if one of your drivers picked up a young woman in front of the main library, a little after three this afternoon? She's small, with red hair, eighteen years old, she was wearing a short white dress, pink shorts, and pink high-tops. Pink bow in her hair. She was carrying a white bag with that really dumb-looking cat on it... that's right, Hello Kitty... She's my wife, and she's missing. I'm trying to retrace her steps.... No, I haven't called the police yet. I think I know who's responsible, and I think it's a matter that would be better settled privately. Sure, I can hold." He waited several minutes, impatiently drumming the tips of his braced right fingers on the table. It was strange; now that he was actually onto something he felt in control of himself again.

"Sir?" The operator came back on the line. "Sorry for the delay. I was checking the logbooks, and then I called the driver to make sure the fare -- the passenger -- matched your description. One of our drivers picked your wife up in front of the library at 3:06 this afternoon and took her to a medical office building at, let's see...." She read off an address, which Nephrite, finding a pen but no paper, scribbled left-handed onto the cloth cover of his arm brace. "Thanks," he said to the operator. "Thank you very much. Can you tell me if one of your drivers picked her up afterwards, probably before 4:30?"

"Sure. Hold on.... No, none of our drivers picked up a fare at that location between three and four-thirty this afternoon. Sorry."

"Thanks anyway. You've been a great help."

"I'm glad to help. Please, if you don't mind, let us know if your wife is ok. The driver was terribly distressed to find out that something might have happened to her after he dropped her off. He said she was one of the sweetest, most pleasant passengers he's had in a long time. A real doll, was what he said."

"Ok, I'll let you know." Nephrite hung up.

"Hacking time," Ami said, taking out her Sailor Mercury blue pocket computer. She frowned, perplexed, at the address scribbled on Nephrite's brace. He interpreted it for her, and she began tapping on the computer. While she was doing this, Nephrite began calling the other cab companies in the city, to see if any of their drivers had picked up Naru from the medical building. "Okay," Ami said after a few minutes, "I've gotten into the central computer files of the medical group." She tapped away for quite a while. Nephrite came up empty in his inquiries with the other cab companies. Maybe she had taken a bus. She could have taken a bus anywhere in the huge city and disappeared from there.

"Okay," Ami finally said. "Today's appointment schedules... Hmm." More tapping, then she smiled. "Here we go. Dr. Hidari Toshiro's office. Sanjouin Naru, 3:30. The appointment was kept. Wait, here's a cross-reference.... A follow-up appointment was scheduled for four weeks from today. So we know she made it to her doctor appointment."

"But why would she be going to see a doctor without telling me? Especially since she knows I don't want her going off on her own." Maybe she was very ill. Maybe she was dying....

"My mom might know Dr. Hidari," Ami said. "In fact, the name seems kind of familiar." She picked up Rei's phone, switched the speaker to off' ("the rules about doctor-patient confidentiality can be very strict," she explained), and dialed her mother. "Mom? Do you know a Dr. Hidari Toshiro? You do? Oh, really... Well, she's missing, and what we know so far is that she had an appointment with him this afternoon. She kept the appointment, and made a follow-up appointment... Yes, four weeks... Don't ask how, you don't want to know. What's Dr. Hidari's field?" Ami's eyebrows went way up. "Really. My goodness. Thanks, Mom. I don't know how late I'll be. We're trying to track down Naru; she seems to have disappeared right after her appointment. Nephrite is really worried, as you might imagine. I don't know if this will make things better or worse. Bye."

"Well," she said, hanging up. "That was enlightening. My mom recommended Dr. Hidari to Naru. Naru made her promise not to tell anyone, and Mom felt it would violate confidentiality if she did tell." She looked around at everyone, including Rei, who had come in in her priestess robes, having finished her Fire Reading. Then she met Nephrite's eyes. "Dr. Hidari's practice is strictly limited to obstetrics."

Amidst the "Oh's" and exclamations, Nephrite asked, "What's obstetrics?"

Ami looked at him, her head cocked slightly. She spoke gently. "Obstetrics is the branch of medicine dealing with pregnancy and childbirth. Since Naru has scheduled the standard four-week follow-up appointment, it would appear, Neph, that she's going to have a baby."

A baby. He closed his eyes while the world shifted around him. A baby, another chance to do things right. He remembered his visions, while he was dead, of his and Naru's red-haired children, children he had thought would never be born. He thought of his son, who had been murdered after only one day of life by an evil man. According to Naru, that man no longer existed. He hoped, oh how he hoped, she was right. Tears stung his eyes and spilled over. Great, he thought, crying again, just what these kids need, just what Naru needs.

A cool, gentle hand touched his face. "I'm sorry, Nephrite," Ami said. "You should be hearing this from Naru. Not from someone else, not under these circumstances."

"Why didn't she tell me?" It hurt to talk, through the tears choking his throat.

"Sometimes, I understand, the woman doesn't like to say anything until after she sees the doctor, so that her husband won't be disappointed if she's wrong. I'm sure that's what Naru was thinking -- she's told us how anxious the two of you are to have a child. She just didn't want you to be disappointed if she was wrong."

Usagi spoke up. "We'll find her and get her back, Nephrite. We will, I promise."

Rei added, "I couldn't tell much from the fire, only that she isn't in any immediate danger. So we've got some time to keep trying to find her."

Their words of comfort barely registered. He had to find his Naru-chan, and he had to find her now. Though his previous attempts to reach Naru on her cell phone had been futile, Nephrite picked up Rei's phone, turning the speaker back on, to try one more time.

Naru's phone rang twice, then a vaguely familiar male voice said, "Hello, losers."

Ami began tapping frantically on her computer again, trying to trace the location of the voice on the phone. Nephrite had a good idea who he was talking to, but decided to pretend he didn't. Hopefully he could get some information. "This is my wife's phone, so who the hell are you?" he shouted.

"Don't you know? This is Jasper, new King of the Dark Kingdom, soon to be King of the Universe. You must be Nephrite the traitor. I've heard a lot about you, none of it very nice. What'd you do to Zoisite, to get his jockeys in a bunch like that?"

"Cut the crap, Jasper. Where's my wife?"

"Oh, she's here. All in one piece. I didn't have her kidnapped because I want to hurt her. The truth is, we're going to have a lot of fun together, your precious Naru and me. Isn't that right, baby?"

Naru sounding like she was several feet away from the phone, shouted, "Nephrite, be careful! It's a trap!"

"Shut up, bitch!" Jasper growled. There was a sharp popping sound in the phone, and a cry of pain from Naru. Nephrite pictured Jasper hitting Naru on the head with the cell phone. "Listen, King of the Universe, you're already a dead man for taking my Naru, but I know things that are worse than death and that's what'll happen to you if you lay a finger -- or anything else -- on her. Got that?"

Jasper chuckled softly. "I'm so scared, man. You guys have been winning until now, but I win this round and you have no idea what I'm going to do next. See you soon, Neph old buddy." There was a click as the connection was broken.

Nephrite dialed Naru's number again. This time there was no answer. He looked at Ami. "Any luck?"

"I've narrowed it down to this half-block." Nephrite looked over her shoulder at the tiny screen, and Mamoru, Yuuichirou, the Sailor Senshi, and the two cats also crowded around. The blue highlights in Ami's black hair danced as she continued tapping on the computer. "This area is mostly luxury apartment buildings. I can probably get into the leasing records for the buildings, but reviewing them could take all night, at least."

"I recognized that voice," Yuuichirou said. Nephrite, Mamoru, and Usagi all nodded. "Our good friend, Mr. Destrukshun," Mamoru said. "You were right, Nephrite."

"That's good to know," Ami said, keeping her eyes on her computer, "but I doubt very much that the apartment where Jasper and Naru are is leased under the name Mazz Destrukshun."

Nephrite wasn't listening. The newspaper descriptions, the sensational photos, of Mazz Destrukshun's beaten, raped, drugged, and abandoned groupies crowded his mind. He had no doubts about what Jasper meant about having a good time with Naru.

"You don't look so good, Nephrite," Mamoru said. "Come on, I'll drive you home so you can get some sleep."

It took a tremendous effort to speak in any normal way. "I can't go home. Not without my Naru."

"Then come back to my place. I've got beer, video games, and an extra futon. There's nothing else you can do now, and you look like you need some sleep. Let's go, and let Ami get to work."

Nephrite, unprotesting, let himself be led outside to Mamoru's car.

* * * * * * * *