Save Me

If I Try Real Hard

Chapter One

“It’s been two months.”

Peter Marks watched the man in front of him look up from the papers he was studying on the desk. The corner office was huge, the two walls composed of mostly glass. On the shelving underneath stood the various degrees the man held and a few pictures, several of which held an image of a certain redhead Peter had come to know and love.

From the last time Peter saw him, Fitzgerald Kennedy looked like he’d aged a couple decades. The lines around his eyes were more prominent and there was a touch of grey in his dark hair at the temples.

“Peter. How did you get in here?”

“I’m your two o’clock.”

“Shouldn’t you be in school?”

“Christmas break.” Peter stepped further into the room and closed the door as gently as possible. “Tell me where she is.”

Fitz’s hands froze over his paperwork, a slight tremor making his fingers shake. He knew full well what Peter was capable of and when it came to her, he’d do just about anything, including setting everything on Fitz’s desk on fire. He knew that on some fundamental level, he had to. Why else was did he keep denying Peter a face-to-face meeting?

“Peter, like I’ve told you before…”

“I know you know where she is. You’re her father, you have to know. So just tell me. Simple as that.”

Fitz folded his hands together, to keep them from shaking, and looked up at him. Peter couldn’t read his mind like he could Cass’s but it wasn’t hard to notice he had struck a nerve.

“Like I told you when you called, every time you call in fact...”

“You’re lying and it’s easier to tell now that we’re in the same room. Tell the truth, Fitz.”

The older man held some sort of dignity by refusing to let his frame sag. “She’s in no condition for visitors.”

“Every detention facility allows visitors. No matter the condition of the detainee. Just tell me where she is.”

“You can’t see her, Peter. Family only.”

“I am family.”

“No you’re not. You’re just a boy who fancies himself in love with my daughter.”

“I don’t fancy anything. I am in love with Cass. In case you’ve forgotten, I’m her boyfriend. I deserve to know where she is.”

“I don’t think so.” Fitz reached for the phone but Peter’s next words stopped him.

“They took her in the middle of the night. They broke into your house and took her. Doesn’t that mean anything to you? Doesn’t that bother you just a little bit?”

“Peter…”

“It’s the 22nd. She’s spending her seventeenth birthday in…wherever she is. Just tell me where she is so I can go see her.”

The room got cold or maybe it was just the air around him. That had been happening a lot lately. Fitz didn’t show any signs of noticing it though.

“You can’t. No one can at the moment.”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s not quite herself.”

“I don’t care if you people have turned her into a pelican. I want to see the girl I love. Don’t make me threaten you.”