"Melanie, how can you be so insensitive?" Ian yelled, "do you have any empathy at all? Look at what you've done to the kid!" Ian's arm swung up and he pointed towards where Tommy had run to after Melanie had told him about Jamie. Tommy was about fifty metres away from them and his knees were pulled tightly into his chest and he was hugging his legs. His head was between his knees and he was facing away from them.

"He asked for the truth!" Melanie yelled back at Ian in defence.

"Did you have to be so blunt and so cruel?" Ian demanded. "Oh, Tom, I'm your aunty, my brother's your father! Oh, Tommy, your mother's a liar she knows exactly where your father is and she didn't want to tell you!"

"I never said that!" Melanie snapped.

"You may as well have!" Ian snapped back. The silence that followed was heavy and unpleasant. Nobody was quite sure what to do. They didn't want to stay out in the open for long now that the sun was well and truly up, but they couldn't just leave Tommy either.

"What happens now?" Rachel asked.

Nate sighed, "we can't bring him on the raid now. Not in the state he's in. We'd have to take him back I guess."

"I don't think he's going to want to see Casey for a while now," Burns sighed.

"Then what do we do with him?" Nate asked Burns.

"Bring him to the caves," Jared stated simply, "what? Is it such a terrible idea?"

"We could get Isla to talk to him," Trudy suggested, "Be nice for the kid to talk to someone close to his age." The other's nodded in agreement. Nobody stepped forward to be the one to talk to Tommy. The group stood avoiding eye contact, praying it would not be them. Finally Jared sighed and began towards Tommy. The sandy gravel crunching beneath Jared's feet was the only sound as he approached the boy. When he was beside Tommy he dropped down to the ground and sat cross-legged beside him. Tommy's eyes darted quickly in the direction of Jared before returning just as quickly to staring straight ahead. Apart from his tiny eye movement and the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed, Tommy was completely still like a statue.

Jared shifted uncomfortably on the spot, "Mel shouldn't have been so abrupt." Tommy didn't respond, "Mel is just Mel, she's like that. She doesn't like holding off on things, you know?" Tommy didn't know first-hand, but he was already getting that kind of vibe. "Are you going to say anything or are we just going to sit here for a while and let the sun burn our necks?"

"Why didn't she tell me the truth?" Tommy whispered.

"Your mum?" Jared asked gently. Tommy nodded and the corners of his lips twitched slightly, not into a smile, but into something that more closely resembled pain.

"You said she was not well?" Jared pried carefully and politely.

"She has her ups and her downs. More downs than ups," Tommy mumbled, he wiped his nose with his hand and sniffed. "I used to wish Rachel was my mum."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," Tommy sighed. "Rachel was more like a mum anyway. She looked after me, loved me, let me be hers; but Mum was always still there, lurking in the background. Don't get me wrong, when she was up she was great, but well, it still wasn't enough." Tommy's fingers slowly drew circles in the dust.

Jared watched his finger s and their slow circular movements and couldn't help the overwhelming feeling of guilt that overtook him. He knew he shouldn't be guilty, yet he was. How could they have not have stopped Casey taking him anyway from his family, from all of that love. He should have gone to retrieve the boy; Jeb should have made Casey stay; Mel should have yelled at him until he went to find Tommy; Jamie should have asked for his son back; they should have visited him. There were so many could haves and should haves, so many things that they could not undo; but now was their chance.

The words flowed from Jared's mouth without any hesitation, "Come to the caves Tommy; come back with me, with Ian and Mel and Trudy. You can meet your dad and everyone there. Ian has a daughter who's only about a year younger than you, you two could talk. How long has it been since you spoke to someone near your own age?"

Tommy shrugged, "Never really. There was this guy, Tristan, who lived with us for a while last year. He was like eighteen and alright to talk to, but he was only with us because he and his girlfriend broke up. He was from another group further west."

"You know about geography?" Jared asked immediately in surprise.

"Rob has lots of maps and things back out our place. He used to show the map and teach me about the world and all these different countries. He told me stories from the past; about wars and movements, colonisations and witch hunts, ancient worlds, gladiators, and medieval knights," Tommy explained. "I loved the story about Robin Hood."

"He was like a teacher then?"

"Sort of, Rachel taught me to write and about maths. Burns taught me about the souls and all their different worlds," Tommy smiled, "Do you know about all the different planets? All the Bats, and the Spiders and the Dolphins?"

"Yes, Wanda, my friend, told me and all the others in our caves about them. I liked the Bears best." Jared told Tommy.

"I like the Bears too," Tommy agreed, "Though I like the Dragons best." Jared couldn't help but be reminded of Jamie every time the boy spoke. Tommy looked up from the dirt and looked carefully at Jared. He frowned as if something was troubling him. "Do you hate what happened to the world?"

Jared was blown away by the question; years ago he would have known his response immediately; yes. But then he met Mel, he met Jamie and suddenly not everything seemed quite so bad. When Mel was caught all of that crumbled, yet in the end she came back to him. He might not like the situation human were in but he no longer hated the world. Rather than say this though he said one word that answered the question as simply as it was asked: "No."

"Can I go with you?" Tommy whispered. Jared smiled slightly at the boy and nodded. He stood up and brushed the dust and stones from his backside and then offered a hand to Tommy who took it and let Jared help him to his feet. The others had all gone by then; headed off to the safety of the caves and out of the blistering sun.

"Your neck is burnt," Tommy told Jared with a smile.

"So is yours," Jared laughed back at the boy with a smile.


That night Nate, Burns, Rob and Rachel returned to their hideout. They all felt obligated to tell Casey that her son would not be back for a while. They reached their place in the early hours of the morning, before sun rise. It was a large, old homestead that was falling apart in the middle of nowhere. Surprisingly no souls ever came to find out whether the house was occupied or even just to have a look; it was completely untouched. There was a shed that was well-stocked with fuel for the cars and three large water tanks which filled to overflowing during the rainy months. Just a mile away was a small cave that served as a bunker in case of an emergency, but was not large enough for permanent living. They stored the cars in another cave about a mile in the opposite direction.

Before the four even made it inside the house, Casey was standing on the veranda searching the group desperately.

"Casey…" Nate called out to her.

"Where is he?" she shrieked. "Where's my son?"

"He's fine." Rachel said firmly.

"Then where is he?" Casey hissed, "You said you'd look after him! He's all I have"

"He's at Jeb's place," Nate told Casey calmly. Casey's mouth dropped open. It open and closed with no sound coming out as she processed the words she had just heard. Her son was at the caves. He was with Jamie.

He was with Ian.

"I have to go," Casey whispered. She pushed between Rachel and Burns and headed out in the direction of the car's hiding place. Rachel grabbed Casey's arm, Casey ripped her arm free.

"Casey, just give it time. You can go in a few days." Burns whispered rationally.

"No." Casey told Burns firmly, "I'm going now. One of you can drive me or I'll walk." This was not an empty threat, they could see this in Casey's eyes, she was dead serious. The rest of the occupants from the homestead had gathered on the veranda to watch what was happening. Nate took a step closer to Casey.

"Not today," he told her, "It will be light too soon. We'll go tonight, okay."

"Promise me you'll take me tonight," Casey demanded quietly. It wasn't strong; in fact you could barely hear her now. Nate nodded sincerely.

"I promise to take you to the caves tonight."


So that was chapter two. I apologise for taking so long since the first chapter, but I have been so busy. Also kind of annoyed that I can't watch Degrassi because I don't live in the US or Canada. I mean I spent ages on YouTube looking for the clip where Clare kissed Eli in the finale. I will try and get another chapter up before the holidays but no guarantees. I will hopefully update 'Finding Home' before the end of the week and I'm aiming to finish the first part of my Hunger Games story. It's all taking me a while though.

The Black Rosette