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who: Elizabeth Bennet and Richard Strand
what: Finding Alex's recording
when: Thursday afternoon
where: The university
warnings: TBD

She knew this was serious when she saw Alex's phone, recorder..her things just outside the coffee shop. In the time she had known her, she knew Ms Regan had her moments, especially if she were sleep deprived, but she had been reassured that her friend was getting the sleep she'd needed. Besides, even at her worst, Elizabeth knew she wouldn't be so careless as to leave even her things outside, where they might be stolen. Had she done so outside, she might have given her something as a benefit of a doubt, possibly to consider the courtesy of the other patrons, but not here-not outside.

There had been reports of kidnapping in the city. Elizabeth had always been careful even without the warnings, and supposedly Alex had received some training, but she wondered now if it was enough.

The temptation to hunt down and track her kidnappers was strong, so much so that Elizabeth nearly reached for her dagger soon after packing her things into the dropped bag. All that stopped her was the note on the recording device, informing her to take it all to Dr. Strand, and of all that could be said about her, betraying a promise to a friend was never one of those traits.

Elizabeth all but ran towards the university. She was all the more grateful that the building was easy to recognize; the sooner they might be able to save Alex and get to the bottom of this. She only stopped long enough to skim the directory to find where his room might be. Then it was another matter of rushing to find it.

"Dr. Strand." She didn't shout, but there was an urgency to her voice as she knocked on the door. For reasons she couldn't put her finger on, something inside told her not to draw attention to herself. "It is Ms. Bennet. Please, may I come in?"

She hoped so; kicking down the door would definitely attract attention to herself.

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Richard was sitting in his office reviewing materials for his next few classes. Consulting hours were often dull as many of the students either didn't need help or were intimidated by him. The thought brought out a smile. He'd honed his intimidating persona well, and, since then, it'd been paying off immensely. Except in the case of Alex, of course. From the start, that woman wouldn't be deterred.

He'd been mainly focused on his current lesson involving Socrates and his contemporaries. It wasn't so much that the information wasn't fascinating, to him, but the students seemed to feel that he was forcing them to process too much information too fast. It was asinine, of course, but he'd been instructed to consider the matter by those in his department who had more sway than him. The door had served as a sudden distraction, and he assumed Alex had decided to make another attempt at wearing lingerie in his office. While he was in no real hurry to open the door, it was probably best to not leave her outside in nothing but her coat and flats.

Seeing Elizabeth was, surprising, and her body language easily explained that there was an urgency to whatever had brought her here. Then his eyes fell to what she had in her hands. Those were Alex's, not only that, but they were things that the woman would never leave out of her sight. Without a word, he moved aside for her to come in.

"What happened?"

She hadn't bothered to wait till he invited her in-there were more important things at the moment then worrying about protocol. Instead, she strode past him, not wanting to speak until they were inside and he'd shut the door.

"Alex was kidnapped." Elizabeth set the bag ontop of his desk, only taking a slight moment to make sure it was clear of papers. "I found this just outside one of the coffee shops, but no sign of Alex. Her phone and recording device were on the ground next to the bag, like they were dropped and by some miracle none of them appear broken." She had only remained there long enough to make sure both were functioning. "There was also a note requesting that I hand them over to you, or else I would've searched for her myself."

His frown deepened as something seemed to take hold in his chest. Fear, no, dread. This whole scenario was far too familiar for him not to feel that same gut-wrenching panic that had overtaken him when Coralee went missing. Logically he knew that Alex wasn't Coralee, that Warren hadn't gotten hold of her and she wasn't trying to run away to 'keep him safe.' Even so, he couldn't stop the drop of his stomach that received complete and logic reducing panic.

The first thing he did was pick up the recorder, looking it over for any damage. Elizabeth had, she'd said she did, but it was never a bad thing to be careful. Once he was sure everything was intact, he rewound it and turned it on, listening carefully to the accidentally recorded message, frown deepening as he did. This, wasn't good, at at least Alex had kept her head long enough to give him a description. Next, he picked up her phone and searched through, nothing but the usual.

"We need to see if there were any witnesses at the coffee shop." He was already moving for his coat. This was Alex, native children and others weren't a big deal to him, but Alex was Alex. He would do anything to make sure she came back unharmed.

Elizabeth listened to the tape, her hands clenched to fists as the sounds of an attack are clear enough from the speaker. Of course,she had heard the message from the network and knew Alex was investigating, knew that carried some risks, but that didn't make it any easy to here. She was only glad, in some small way, that she didn't go easy or quietly.

She took a deep breath and looked back up at him. "I am aware this is how investigations go, but you know well enough no one would say anything, even if they did see anything."

They had no idea what sort of group they were dealing with after all, only that people were disappearing. There was little chance people would want to get involved for fear of their own.

At her comment he paused, hand reaching for his coat before looking at her with a frown so thick it seemed like it would stay there forever. Was that really what she thought? Did she really know Alex, know exactly how much pull the woman had over people? Alex was a force and people couldn't help but want to help her, help when she was in trouble. She could get people to do almost anything for her, and he suspected that they would do anything to help her as well.

"That's hardly a quantifiable fact, and this is Alex, she has a way of breaking the norm." He grabbed his coat, carefully rewinding the tape again, pressing the button and listening to the last part again. "And if that doesn't work, I'll play the tape. It'll flush them out, or I'll talk to Peter about a location spell." The whole idea of spells and magic still dropped the pit out of his stomach, and even worse when he thought about talking to Peter. The man was annoying during the best of investigating times, but he would do anything to find Alex, even if it mirrored his search for Coralee.

To say that she had forgotten about Peter and his magic wouldn't have been entirely correct; rather, her concern for Alex's safety only had her overlook the fact.

He would have a point about the tape. People might deny seeing anything, but they wouldn't be able to lie so easily if there was proof. "I'll come with you. These people attack in groups. It will be safer to search as a group rather than going off on your own."

Two white men was hardly going to narrow the search, but if and when they suspected of being followed, then Richard would just as like be in danger.

Richard leaves a long pause as he thinks about what she's saying. She's offering to help, and, after his thoughts about how Alex was the sort of person that people wanted to help, he shouldn't be surprised. Still, he was surprised. People didn't offer to help him, to go along or watch his back like this. It was a strange feeling, and without fully realizing it, words were escaping his mouth.

"Thank you." Even with the thank you, his brows were drawn in confusion. The idea was still inconceivable if not, again, appreciated. Without thinking he started pulling on his coat, making plans. "I'll have to stop by the house and get Apo." Alex would kill him if he forgot about the dog. So there were some preparations, things he couldn't leave to Ruby this time. He didn't realize just how much he relied on the woman until right this moment.