(Flashing scenes of the Enterprise E screaming through the space, just escaping the explosion of an enemy starship. Jean-Luc Picard gives the command to 'Make it so.' Enemy starships fire blazing streaks of phasers towards an innocent planet and then a close-up of Data deadpanning, "Lock and load." Dramatic music swells with the words, "Coming soon to a theater near you" against a black screen and then they fade out.)

"DAD!!" Daryl screams as he sits upright in the bed. Breathing heavily, he looks about the strange room, not recognizing anything. Where is he? Is he still on the boat? It doesn't feel like the beds rocking. Why did he have that terrible dream? His Dad was just standing there watching him and shaking his head as the goons from the boat start dragging him away. "Sorry, son. We have to protect Blair," was the last thing he heard before he woke up. The door to the room suddenly opens. Daryl just sees the shadow of someone there. "Are you all right?" The shadow asks. "Where am I? Where's my dad? I want to go home, please." Daryl's voice trembles and tears threaten to spill out of his eyes. "You're safe now, son, but only because we had to hide you here. Don't worry, you'll be seeing your dad real soon." The shadow moved back out of the doorway and the door shut quietly. Jumping out of the bed, Daryl races to the door but just stops short of banging on it. Carefully he reaches up and tests the door handle. It's not locked! Confused, he stumbles back to the bed and crawls into the middle. Pulling his knees up to his chest he hugs them with his arms and starts rocking. "Everything's all right. I'm gonna see my dad soon. Everything's all right. I'm gonna see my dad soon." Daryl chants this calming mantra with his eyes tightly closed and tears slowly streaming down his face.

(Opening credits flash across the screen beginning with the title of the show, CASCADE. Standard opening flashes of previous action scenes give the views an idea of what they have missed. Cut to commercial about bleach bottles laughing over inept man unable to get his clothes cleaned properly. Another commercial about big Ford trucks with some has been country singer belting out how the truck is for manly men.)

Naomi Sandburg mixes in a group of women in June Cleaver outfits pushing baby carriages and then quickly shifts back and through the men in business suits tossing and juggling their briefcases. "Like I really blend in with this crowd," she mumbles to herself as she barely misses being smacked by a man trying to toss is briefcase into the air. He gives her a dirty look as she jumps out of the way and then quickly moves further back into the parade line. Dodging around another group of high school baton twirlers, Naomi quickly races around to the back of the float following close behind. Walking carefully with the flatbed that covered with yellow and pink tissue flowers and carrying clowns, she looks for anyone following her. Not seeing anyone, she moves off into the crowd cheering along the sidewalk, side stepping the children scrambling for the candy being tossed into the crowd. Pretending the nonchalance that she doesn't really feel, she casually walks away from the parade and around the next corner she comes to waving her hand towards a sitting taxi. The vehicle starts and pulls up to where she's waiting. "Take me to the Federal building as fast as you can." The driver just nods his head and pulls the vehicle into a U-turn to find another way around the parade. Just as the taxi takes off, two men race around the corner and come to a stumbling halt when they see their quarry getting away. "You get to call it in this time. I'm tired of that woman yelling at me." One of the men tells the other.

The taxi makes a sharp right at the first corner it came to and then raced down three more blocks and pulled into an alley behind a mattress warehouse. "What are you doing, cabbie? I wanted to go to the Federal building." Naomi yells at the man and then looks at the identification panel on the back of the front seat. The picture is of a ruddy-faced guy wearing something white and bulky on his heard The driver slowly turns around and points a 9mm pistol at his passenger. His skin is so pale, it's almost translucent and his eyes are a very pale blue. "Where's your son, Ms. Saunders?"

(Tasty scenes of the show to be following after CASCADE: happy lovers in a dimly lit room kissing, angry woman slapping face of stately, well-dressed man and telling him to 'Go to hell.' Sad couple staring at an infant through a glass window of a hospital room. Tears flow freely down the woman's face and she then buries it into the mans chest. Cut to another commercial on the Reader's Digest Sweepstake claiming you could be the one. Couple gives wooden smiles as they hold up an oversized card board check in the amount of $100,000)

Lee Brackett slowly raises his head and shakes it carefully. He realizes that he's tied tightly to an uncomfortable chair sitting in the middle of a bare room that smells of meat and smoke. The lamp hanging overhead only gives off enough light to see a foot or two around the room. "Good morning, Brackett," a voice spoke from somewhere behind him. "Thought we might have hit you too hard." "What's going on here? Where am I?" Brackett struggled against the ropes holding him but they were bound tight. Resigned, he quit struggling. "Who are you working for, Brackett?" The voice asked. "Ellison? Are you listening?" Lee called out to the darkness around him. "We can make a deal!" "Detective Ellison and his partner are about 50 miles from here by now, Brackett. Who are you working for?" The voice asked again. Lee just sat quietly facing the darkness in front of him. He then heard footsteps behind him walking away and a door shutting. With slow, almost imperceptible movements, he starting working at the ropes tying his hands to the sides of the chair.

Outside the smokehouse behind Oneida's cabin, Rafe walked up to the rest of the group from the Major Crimes unit. "You heard. It may take a long time before he decides to break." "What should we do now, Jim?" Blair asked, watching the angry build in his Sentinel's eyes. He knew that Jim really wanted to get persuasive with Brackett the old fashion way because of their past history. "I think it's time we find your mother and start getting answers on why she had to hide you away, Chief. You still have his cell, Rafe?" The tall detective asked the younger man. Rafe nodded and held the instrument up. "Okay, he received a call before he came into the cave and maybe whoever it was will try to call again. You stay here and watch Brackett. Brown, I want you to head back to the precinct and start searching around that officer Pomeroy's stuff and see if you can find anything that indicates who he was working for." "And I'll try to find Simon and see if I can talk to him without that Burton woman around." Taggert offered. "I'll stay here and back up, Rafe," Serena offered quickly and then noticed the quick blush that appeared on the young detective's face. "Fine. But be ready to cut and run if any of his friends show up. Let's go, Chief." The group broke up, each going their separate way. Serena smiles sweetly at Rafe. "Why don't we go into the cabin and relax for a while. Let Brackett stew about what might happen to him." Sauntering over to the cabin door, she looks back at Rafe innocently and then steps through the door. Confused, he follows her into the cabin.

Brackett continues to shift and twist his bound hands. The areas around the ropes are an angry red and there is some blood. A slow, satisfied grin suddenly appears on his face as he starts to pull one wrist out of the rope, inch by painful inch.

(Commercial trying to tell you how their ALL detergent is the best detergent to "Get the dirt out." Then it fades into the Purina Chow cat commercial and comical kittens bound all over the screen only to morph into full-grown, lazy adult cats.)

Simon struggles against the hand against his mouth and the arm wrapped around his throat. "Shhhh!" His mysterious attacker hissed quietly into his ear. "You want that woman to find you?" Becoming still, Simon felt the arm around his neck loosen and then drop away. Raising his hand, he yanks away the one covering his mouth. "What's this all about? Who are you?" He whispers angrily. "You don't need to know. Your son is safe and hidden away. Do you want to go see him now?" Catching is breath sharply, Simon looks at the stranger in disbelief.


Will Simon and Daryl be reunited? Will Naomi be found dead in an alley, shot by the albino cabbie? Will Jim and Blair be able to find out why Naomi had to hide Blair? Will Lee Brackett interrupt Serena and Rafe in the cabin? Find out in the next episode of CASCADE.

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