Four

"I ain't lost, just wandering."

- 'Hometown Glory' by Adele

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Harry impatiently sounded his horn at a learner driver who was doing twenty miles per hour in a thirty zone.

"Will you calm down? They're only a learner," Nikki said.

"I don't care. We could be helping look for John by now if we weren't going at five miles an hour," he said angrily.

"Bit of an exaggeration," she muttered quietly, but Harry was too busy drumming his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel to hear her. The rush hour traffic was proving particularly tiresome that morning, especially when he knew that there were much more important things they could be doing.

As if she read his mind, Nikki said, "Besides, what are you planning to do? It's not like there's much we can do. Parks has a whole police force out looking for him, Harry."

"How can you be so blasé?" he growled angrily. "Don't you care about him at all?"

Hurt shone in Nikki's eyes and he immediately regretted his words.

"How can you say that?" she gasped. "Of course I care about him!"

"Sorry," he muttered, just as the traffic finally started moving again. "I didn't sleep much."

"Yes, well ... Neither did I."

They spent the rest of the journey in silence, both too caught up in worry to pay much attention to anything else. Parks was waiting for them in the offices when they arrived, much as she had been the previous evening. Stood beside her was Leo, looking uncharacteristically serious, and Jane the social worker, also looking sombre.

"Have you found him?" Harry asked quickly.

"No, Doctor Cunningham, we haven't," Parks said. "But I've got fifty men out looking, he can't have gone far."

"How did this happen?" Nikki said, setting her handbag down at her desk and shrugging off her jacket.

It was Jane who answered her. "Edna woke up this morning to find his bed empty. The rucksack that I'd packed for him from his house was also missing. The window in the bedroom was wide open and it looks as if he climbed out of it and onto the tree directly outside, which he then climbed down."

Leo said, "Do you have any idea where he might have gone, Harry? Did he mention anything to you?"

Racking his brains, Harry said, "Not really. He mentioned a best friend ... Tommy, I think it was. Said he was in his class at school. Perhaps he went there?"

Nodding, the detective pulled out her mobile phone. "Okay, I'm on it."

Harry ran a hand through his hair. "Well, let me come out and help you find him. I'll drive around, hand out posters or something..."

"No," said Parks immediately, her mobile pressed to her ear. "That's exactly what my guys are doing. I need you to stay here and sit tight. I know it's difficult, but I promise I'll update you with any – Oh, hello? Yes, it's DI Parks. I need details on John Starling's class mates, a boy called Tommy..."

Parks walked from the lab without bidding any of them goodbye, leaving silence in her wake. Harry sank into the chair at his desk, placing his head in his hands. Nikki muttered, "I feel sick. What if something happens to him?"

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Leo said, placing a hand on Nikki's shoulder.

"Professor Dalton's right," Jane said, and Harry couldn't help but notice that she looked a little less well-presented than she had done the day before. "Unfortunately, this kind of event happens often. The child misses their home, their family, wants to get back to them. He's probably just gone somewhere familiar to him, somewhere he considers safe."

Nikki nodded, still looking uncertain, and Leo said, "He'll turn up."

Miserably, Harry muttered, "He doesn't have any family."

The faces of the three other adults in the room fell.

Two hours later and there was still no news. Harry had been calling Parks every twenty minutes until she had finally snapped and told him not to ring again, and that she would call him with updates. He'd then tried calling Jane to see if she knew anything, but she was also busy. Lonely at his desk, for Nikki had been called out to a scene an hour previously, Harry had nothing to distract his mind from the gruesome scenarios it was imagining.

Emerging from his office, Leo came and stood beside him. He knew better than to ask if Harry was going to get any work done, so instead just asked him if he was all right.

"I'm fine, Leo," he replied. "It's not me that we should be worrying about."

"Nikki said that you didn't sleep well last night," Leo continued. "Although how she would know that..."

Even in his despair, Harry could sense Leo's curiosity. Trying to make his expression as serious as possible, he said, "Well, of course she would know. I mean, we were both up all night having wild and passionate sex."

Leo tutted and pulled a face at Harry's distasteful remark. "Harry..."

With a short laugh he said, "Come on, Leo. Yes, she stayed at mine. In my spare room. I told her that I didn't sleep much this morning in the car."

"All right, all right," Leo said, holding up his hands defensively. "There was no need to be so crude about it."

"You shouldn't have been so nosey," Harry countered, to which Leo said nothing but threw him a withering glare.

The telephone on Harry's desk trilled loudly, causing Harry to sigh. He really didn't want to go out on a case. He wanted to do nothing other than sit at his desk all day and wait for news on John.

Picking up the receiver, he said shortly, "Doctor Cunningham."

"Hi, it's Nick from security," said a gruff voice on the other end of the line, "We've got a young boy in reception asking for you and an angry taxi driver who wants paying for his fare."

His eyes widening and hope igniting in his stomach, Harry said, "Okay, I'll be right down." He hung up the phone and hurried from the room, Leo close on his heels.

"Harry? What's going on?"

Harry didn't answer him, and once they reached reception he didn't need to. For there was John, looking a little grubby but otherwise unharmed, sitting in a chair and clutching his owl close to his chest. Relief washed over Harry, but he didn't have long to bask in it before a furious-looking, rather portly man with a very red face stepped towards him.

"Oi. You this kid's dad?" he demanded, while Nick from security placed a restraining hand on the taxi driver's arm.

"No. Why?"

"The little brat told me that his dad were waitin' for us in the car park and would bleedin' well pay me when I got there. Was he? No he bloody well was not!" the man shouted.

To impatient to argue with him, Harry took a twenty pound note from his pocket and passed it to the cab driver.

"Now that's more like it," the unpleasant man remarked, snatching the money from Harry's hand, "And I'll be keepin' the change, for me troubles an' all that."

Nick said, "Right, out you," and marched the driver from the building.

Once he was gone, Harry rushed over and knelt before John, who smiled happily. "John, where have you been? You had us all worried!"

"I wanted to see you," John whispered, "I didn't like it with that lady."

Not having the heart to tell him off, Harry said, "Come on." John jumped off the chair, hoisting his bright red rucksack onto his back, tucked his owl under one arm and took Harry's hand with the other. The two of them walked over to where Leo was just hanging up the phone.

"Hello, trouble," he smiled at John, then looked at Harry and said, "I've phoned Parks, she's on her way. So is the social worker."

Half an hour later and Harry and John were once again sitting on the sofa in the lab, whilst Parks sat in Harry's desk chair opposite them and Jane and Leo hovered behind her.

"So, John," smiled Parks. "You've been on quite an adventure this morning, haven't you?"

The little boy nodded, but didn't say anything.

"Do you want to tell us how you got out of Edna's house?" the detective continued.

John was quiet for a moment, then said, "I climbed out of the window and down the tree."

"And how did you get here, to the Lyell Centre?"

"I had the address on the card Harry had gave me last night, so I kept walking until I found that mean taxi man and told him to take me here. He asked me for money but I lied and said that I had a daddy here who would pay him. I would have walked but I didn't know which direction to go in."

Harry had to admire the young boy; it was the sort of thing he himself would have done at that age.

"I just can't believe the cab driver didn't ask any more questions or call the police," Leo said, shaking his head in bemusement.

"I think he'd have taken anyone as long as he got his money out of it at the other end," Jane said shrewdly, then turned to look at John. "What are we going to do with you, eh?"

"Let me stay here," he said immediately.

Harry chuckled softly. "You know we can't do that."

"But why? I like it here!" he pouted, kicking his heels against the sofa in protest.

A sudden, slightly crazy, thought ran through Harry's head. Getting to his feet, he said to Jane, "Can I speak to you a minute?"

She nodded and he led the way into Leo's office, shutting the door behind them so that they would have some privacy.

"What is it?" she asked him curiously.

Harry hesitated and then said, "Is it such a bad idea?"

"Is what such a bad idea?"

"For John to stay here. With me."

Jane gaped at him for a moment and then said, "Doctor Cunningham, what are you suggesting?"

"I'm suggesting that perhaps he stays with me until something more permanent can be sorted out. Until a foster family can be found."

Even he can't quite believe his own words. Twenty-four hours ago, being a father had been the last thing on his mind. In fact, if someone had suggested to him that he'd soon be taking a six-year-old boy under his roof then he would have laughed in their face.

"It's not quite as simple as that," Jane said, still looking shocked. "We'd have to get character references, do a criminal records check, complete an evaluation on your home, study your day-to-day schedule, your personal life ... everything."

"I know," he nodded, "I know all that. Look, I'm not saying that I adopt him. I'm definitely not ready for that. It will just be for a few days. I'm due some holiday leave off work anyway."

"I don't know..." she muttered.

"But didn't you say your job was to put the child somewhere that they are happy? And John is happy with me."

"Yes, but what happens once your leave is over and we still haven't found John a family?"

"We'll cross that bridge if we come to it."

Jane looked thoughtful for a moment, as if she couldn't really believe what she was hearing, before saying, "Okay. There's a difference between fostering a child and having temporary custody of them. I think what you are after is the latter. Becoming a foster parent takes a long time and a lot of training on your part, whereas the decision of temporary custody is a lot quicker. It's used in emergencies such as this."

"All right, so I'll get temporary custody then," he said simply.

"You'll still have to go through the whole rigmarole of CRB checks and everything else I mentioned earlier," she warned. "And it's not me who makes the final decision. It will be a whole panel of important people."

"Fine by me," he shrugged happily.

"It's all very unorthodox," she added, biting her lip. "Let me ring my boss and run it by her."

Harry exited the office as Jane pulled out her mobile phone, heading back to where Leo, John and Mary Parks were. Leo frowned at him as he approached.

"What was that about?" he muttered as Harry passed.

"I'll tell you later," he replied, aware that John was listening.

Parks got to her feet just as Harry sat down. "Right, hopefully you won't have to see me again now. That is, if you stop running off, young man," she mock-scolded, and Harry could have sworn that her smile was genuine.

"Thanks for all your help," Harry said, standing up again to shake the detectives hand.

"Believe it or not, that's what I'm here for," she said, not unkindly, and after shaking hands with Leo she headed towards the doors, reaching them just as Nikki returned and buzzed them open.

Upon seeing John sitting on the sofa, nothing but shock registered on Nikki's face. She rushed over to them, carelessly dropping her silver field kit onto her desk.

"John! You're safe!" she cried, sitting on the little boy's other side and smiling at him affectionately. "We were all so worried about you."

Laughing slightly as John made his owl peck Nikki's cheek, Harry said, "Leo, do you think you could find John some colouring pencils or something?"

Leo, not missing Harry's hidden agenda of wanting John out of the way so that he could speak to Nikki, looked a little concerned but said, "Of course. Come on, John. I'm sure we've got a cupboard with some games in somewhere."

John jumped off the sofa and took Leo's hand as they walked across the far side of the room.

"What's up?" Nikki asked, shifting closer to Harry.

"I've asked Jane to help me get temporary guardianship of John," he told her, watching as her jaw dropped open.

"What?" she exclaimed. "But, Harry..."

"There are no buts about it," he said quickly, and proceeded to give her the same argument he had given Jane in Leo's office.

When he had finished she had the exact same uncertain expression that Jane had worn, and said, "Are you sure about this?"

"More sure than I've ever been about anything. It's not permanent, and he's such a great kid. I don't want him to get dumped in some care home that he's not happy in," he said, and he could see her softening.

"Is this because I told you that you'd make a good father?" she asked shrewdly.

He laughed. "Partly, I guess. But ... I'm going to need your help."

She looked puzzled. "Help with what?"

"I can't do this alone, Nikki," he confessed, his tone quieter and more serious than before. "I can't be a dad on my own, even if it is only temporary, I don't know how to-"

Cutting him off by placing her hand over his, Nikki said, "It's okay. You know I'm only the other end of the phone if you need me. Anytime; day or night. Although I wouldn't like to say how much use I'll be."

He wanted to hug her, but before he could do anything more than think about it, Jane reappeared. Approaching Harry she made sure that John was out of earshot before saying, "I've pulled some strings and there will be a panel at three this afternoon. But I have a good feeling that they'll decide in your favour. Come four o'clock, I expect you'll be John's legal guardian."

Thank you for all the reviews! I love you all. :)

And to those asking about my results, I'm off to uni to do English Literature and Creative Writing next month. So yay! :D

xxx