The Disappearance of Thomas Innes

The Capture: Part 2

He couldn't help but take a large step backward as what he was staring at really processed in his mind. The wall had to have at least two hundred photos of Tommy on the wall. He wasn't sure how he knew that they were of Tommy but he had just known.

The earliest photo was of Tommy when he was a toddler. The man was holding the toddler in his arms. This was probably from when his father was fostering the young boy. Then the photos just seemed to get worse. There were photos of the child in public places throughout his childhood, from angles that made it clear to Techno that Tommy was not aware he was being photographed.

There were photos that had most likely been taken by one of his foster parents for one of his birthdays. He wasn't even sure how he had gotten all of these photos in the first place and yet here they were. He could even begin to describe how this made him feel. Appalled, angry, sad, or maybe all of those at once all wrapped up in a neat bow that made a small part of him happy that he had been right all along not to trust the man that was Dream.

He could hear agent Halo and agent Diamond saying something yet it sounded far away as he took yet another step back and headed towards the stairs, the two now most definitely calling after him. He wasn't even sure where he was heading; he just knew that he needed to go now. As he reached the top of the stairs he heard it.

A scream echoed through the trees.

Techno would like to say later he could remember what he thought in that moment but really he couldn't. He just ran and ran in the direction of where the scream had come from. His lungs burned from the freezing cold air as he ran through the snow. It was so very lucky that he hadn't tripped on a spare branch, ice, or even fallen from hidden drop-offs. It was then that he reached what could almost be called a clearing.

He finally could see both Dream and Tommy. Tommy was on the ground struggling to try and get the man off of him, Dream had his hands wrapped around the child's neck. He wasn't even aware that he started to run but the next thing he knew he had tackled the man to the ground. In the distance, he could hear someone let out a scream.

Dream pushed himself off and tried to get back to where Tommy was. The boy had pushed himself into a sitting position and was staring with wide eyes at the two of them. He grabbed Dream's ankle as the man tried to push himself up, making him fall back down into the snow. Dream turned back around and threw a punch at Techno in the face.

He blinked as pain shot through his face. There was no doubt in his mind that it would leave a mark on his face later. Dream used that distraction to try and get his hands around the man's neck. Techno however was quick and kneed the man in the stomach. While he wasn't able to get him to go down like he had planned he was able to keep the man at bay.

In the whole shuffle Techno and Dream, both were too distracted to hear anyone else coming up behind them. Before Dream or even Techno could make another move there was a loud crack. Techno watched as Dream's eyes rolled back and he fell to the ground and into the snow. He looked up and his eyes were met with wide blue ones.

Tommy was standing there with a large branch in his hands staring at both Techno and Dream. He dropped the branch once he realized that Dream had been knocked out and dropped to his knees. It was at this moment that Techno was able to finally get a good look at the kid in front of him.

He was thin. Much too thin for someone his age. He was only wearing a t-shirt that looked to be stained with dried blood and gods know what else. His arms and face were covered in bruises and under his left eye, it looked to be a black eye that was healing. His hair was oily and sticking to his head. He was wearing a pair of jeans that like his shirt was stained with who knows what.

He checked Dream who was still unconscious and quickly half crawled half walked on his knees over to the now crying boy. He pulled him into his arms and kept mumbling words of comfort into his head, holding him tight.

"You're safe, You're safe, I've got you." He kept mumbling over and over into the child's hair.

It was while holding him in his arms that everything came crashing down. He never realized just how small and young Tommy was. Not really, he could see the number on the file and know but it was so much different holding this small crying child in his arms knowing that they had gone through so much traumatic stuff that no child should go through.

He felt like the world had stopped as he held him in his arms. The cold winter wind hit his back, it was also then that he realized that Tommy wasn't wearing a coat and most likely was freezing. He pulled off his jacket and wrapped it around the young boy before pulling him back in his arms to comfort him. He had since stopped crying and was only sniffling a little bit here and there. Neither said a word and the only noise was that of the wind hitting the trees.

He wasn't sure how long it had been when he heard a footfall in the snow. He looked up and could see the agents as well as Puffy and Jack running towards them. He knew everything would be ok.