Hope someone is still reading this and enjoying it.
Chapter 12 – Missing Persons
A direct carry on from the last chapter.
Grace lay awake, it was late, very late. Boyd was sleeping peacefully next to her, with one arm around her, and her head resting gently on his shoulder. She sighed, not sure if this was all a mistake, it felt comfortable, and there was a time when all she wanted was what she had right now. To be back in his arms, and him back to the man he was when they had first got together. But what if she was just leaving herself open to heartbreak again, and what of their son, he had been so confused when Boyd had left home. He was still too young to understand the complications involved in an adult relationship, and if things went sour between them again, how would he cope.
She gently pulled herself away from him, and sat on the edge of the bed, trying to locate her clothes without putting the light on and waking him up, she was doing okay, until she knocked his phone off the bedside table. She felt the bed move as he rolled onto his side.
"What you doing?" He asked whilst trying to stifle a yawn. He switched the bedside lamp on, and reached for the glass of water on the side.
"I'm getting dressed."
"Why?"
"I don't think it's a good idea for Christopher to find me still here when he wakes up."
"Grace it's 3am, come back to bed?" He sat up behind her and began to kiss her neck. "Don't leave, we'll tell Christopher it was late and you stayed over, he won't think anything of it, he's only four."
"He's Five in a couple of weeks, and he picks up on everything."
"But if we're getting back together it won't matter." He continued to kiss her neck and down her back.
"Nothings definite Boyd."
"We made love Grace, surely that's a good start." His hand wandered around her stomach and slowly worked it's way up finding her breast. He pulled her back on to the bed and started to kiss her, he eventually got her back into bed, where he made love to her again.
"Twice in one night at your age Boyd, what can I say?"
"I have a lot of catching up to do, we've spent too long apart."
"Well you've not exactly been celibate."
"Sarah was the only one, and that only happened once, and it wasn't memorable for either of us."
"Boyd you don't have to say that, we were apart, it's not exactly cheating."
"I'm saying it because it's true, it was just sex, and it only happened the once. What about you, have you been with anyone else?"
"No, there hasn't been anyone else, not in any sense of the word."
"I'm sorry I shouldn't have asked that, it's none of my business."
"It's okay. I've missed you." She replied looking deep into his eyes.
"I've missed you too, and I'm sorry."
"What are you sorry for?"
"For refusing to deal with Mel's death, for treating you badly, for walking away, and for Sarah."
"I love you, and all I wanted to do was love you and help you. I never wanted you to leave, I know how you felt after Mel died, I felt the same. I sat and cried, I attended the funeral, talked about her and dealt with my grief, you couldn't deal with it, and everything became so destructive."
His features saddened at the thought of the young woman he was so fond of, the memory of her body hitting his car and laying broken and lifeless on the ground, her beautiful features lost forever amidst the crumpled mess that lay on the concrete on that fateful day.
"What are you thinking about?"
He was about to say nothing, when he thought again, "I was thinking of Mel, I can't think of her any more without seeing the image of her body on that day, it's almost as if that's the only way I can remember her."
"I know, I think of it too, she was so young and beautiful, she deserved so much more."
"I let her down Grace."
"No you didn't, you're not to blame for what happened, a mentally unstable woman pushed her from the roof of a building, you were and are in no way responsible for that. I know you thought of her like a daughter, but she was a police officer, sadly the risks came with the job, just like when you were stabbed, and when Spence was shot."
"If she'd have been my daughter I'd have never let her join the police force."
"Would you have liked a daughter?"
"No! Too much trouble!"
"Oh and boys are trouble free are they?"
"A lot less trouble. Do you want to know what I would have liked?"
"What?"
"I'd liked to have met you about thirty years ago, so we could have had more kids together, I wish Christopher wasn't an only child, and I wish we'd been younger when we had him."
"Christopher's very happy, and he's not an only child really, not if we count Luke and Juliet, and regardless of age, you're a good Dad, you spend time with him, you take him out, you sit on the floor and play with his cars, you give him your time and your love, nothing is more important than that."
"Would you have liked more kids?"
"Only if I could have had them with you."
"Getting old is a bugger isn't it?"
"Oh I don't know, some thing's get better with age." She ran her hand down his stomach until it disappeared under the duvet.
"Behave yourself woman, two times in one night was pushing it, I haven't been three times in a very long time."
"You won't know if you don't try."
Boyd looked at her and then moved across kissing her. His hands skimming over her stomach, tickling her skin.
"Daddy? Daddy?" A voice called.
"Saved by the bell." She said to him.
"It's 5am."
"It's your house, I'm not really here, remember."
"I know, I know." He replied getting out of bed.
"Daddy?" The voice called out again.
"I'm coming." He replied.
"Almost." Grace replied to him with a smirk.
"Don't be immature, it doesn't suit you." He replied, unable to hide the smirk escaping his lips.
"Spoil sport!"
Boyd walked into his son's bedroom to see Christopher sat on the edge of his bed, a look of deep concern on his face.
"Hey what you doing out of bed? It's too early to get up."
"Someone is on my trampoline."
Boyd picked him up and walked to the window that over looked the back garden, "Where? There's no one out th..." Boyd stopped mid sentence as he noticed a light coming from the shed in the back garden.
"I saw someone Daddy."
"Yeah okay, Daddy will sort it out." He walked back to his bedroom carrying him, dropping him onto Grace who was still laying in his bed.
"What are you doing?" She asked him a little shocked.
"There's someone in the back garden, you keep hold of him I'll go and sort it."
"Peter wait, don't go out there, there could be more than one of them."
"I'll be fine, I'm a bloody police officer after all." Boyd rushed down the stairs, grabbing the baseball bat he kept in the hall on the way his back door as quickly as he could, he stepped uneasily into his back garden, the feint light still visible from within his shed. He crept up to the shed door and opened it quickly, the baseball bat in his hand held aloft and poised to strike the intruder should he need to. But the face that looked back at him was almost as shocked as he was, a once young man who looked a lot older than he should, his dark eyes the image of his fathers, neither of them spoke, and in a flash the young man was gone, running at Boyd and knocking him to the floor in his bid to escape.
Boyd got back to his feet, "No wait, please wait." But his shouts were to no avail, the young intruder was gone in a flash, and as he headed back into the house, Boyd wondered if perhaps his mind was playing tricks on him, could it really have been him, after all this time.
Boyd secured his shed and garden before returning to the house, Grace was by now in the kitchen waiting for him, still holding onto Christopher.
"You okay?" She asked him.
"Yeah everything's fine, he ran off. Go back to bed, I'll lock up and join you."
Grace did as he suggested, keeping Christopher with her in bed. As Boyd climbed into bed next to her, she rubbed his arm affectionately, noticing a distinct difference in his mood.
"You sure you're okay?" She asked him again.
"Yeah I'm fine. Why isn't he in his own bed?" He asked her, stroking Christopher's face as he spoke.
"My fault I'm afraid, I've let him get into bad habits since it's been just the two of us."
"Well I guess as bad habits go, it's not too bad." He lent forward and kissed her gently. "Get some sleep."
Grace woke a few hours later to find Christopher still asleep next to her and Boyd no where to be seen, she was wearing his shirt, which she'd grabbed hastily after he dumped Christopher on her in the early hours. She got out of bed gently, careful not to wake her son, he spent precious little time sleeping as it was, so waking him up when he was asleep was not a good idea. He also had his father's bad temper if he was woken up before he was ready.
Boyd was stood in the kitchen, a coffee mug in his hand, staring blankly out of the window that over looked his back garden. She walked up slowly and stood beside him.
"Are you okay?" He didn't speak, just nodded his head and smiled.
"Do you want a coffee?" He asked her.
"Mm please."
"Where's mini me?"
"Still fast asleep, thankfully."
"Was he okay, after last night, he said he saw him, I mean he said he saw someone on his trampoline."
"Yeah I don't think he thought any more of it, he was just worried about his trampoline, was it someone you knew?"
"What makes you ask that?"
"The look on your face when you came back in, it was more than just an intruder wasn't it?"
"I wasn't sure at first, he looked so different, I thought I was just imagining it, seeing what I wanted to see."
"Luke?"
"Yeah, the more I thought about it, the more I was sure it was him, his eyes, dark eyes just like Christopher's, he just looked so different, so much older and thinner."
"If he's been living rough, it will have taken it's toll on him."
"Yeah."
"Do you think he might come back?"
"I don't know what to think, why did he come here? After all this time, and why did he run off when he saw me?"
"I don't know, but he's been away a long time so whatever he wanted, it must have taken a lot for him to come back here. Maybe he was reaching out, maybe he needs your help, and last night was the first step, you said it was always easier to get your attention if he did something wrong."
"But why run if he needs my help. I have no idea where to find him Grace. I spent months trawling through the streets to try and find him when he first went missing, I don't know if I have the energy to do it all over again."
"If he needs you he'll come back, and if you want to find him, you'll find the energy."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Intuition."
He leant forward and was just about to kiss her, when they both looked up at the sound of small, yet strangely heavy footsteps running upstairs.
"It's awake." He said, with a hint of humour in his voice.
"I thought the peace and quiet was too good to last."
All of a sudden Christopher Boyd, aged four and three quarters ran into the kitchen, wearing his sponge-bob square-pants pyjamas and slippers and carrying his favourite soft dinosaur toy under his arm. From the moment he entered the room he started talking, hardly stopping for breath, he sat on a chair at the table, and then got down and got a different toy and came back again, rubbing his eyes and stretching as he did so. He took absolutely no notice of the fact that Grace had stayed over night, nor the fact that his parents had been sleeping in the same bed. He just wanted his milk and breakfast, and to make sure his trampoline was still where he left it, despite the fact that it was a 14 foot trampoline with a safety net, that couldn't be removed from the garden with out being dismantled first.
Christopher stayed with Boyd for the rest of the week, giving Grace a rest, although she did pop round to see them at some point everyday, and even stayed over a couple of times. Boyd took his son on various day trips, the zoo being Christopher's favourite. He also bought him everything he needed for school, Grace had already bought his new uniform, Boyd bought him a new bag and pencil case, and anything else he might need.
It was a Friday night, and Boyd had put his son to bed, and was in bed alone, Grace had been round for a while, but had decided to go home, making the most of her last night of Christopher free sleep. Boyd, as had been the case in the last few nights, was unable to sleep, the thought of Luke coming back still in the back of his mind. He'd spent the last few nights getting in and out of bed and looking in the back garden for any signs of his absent son. But so far had seen nothing, he was unable to shake the image from his mind, and the thought that maybe Luke needed his help was torturing him, he wanted to help him, wanted to see him, speak to him, and have him back in his life.
He'd spent years coming to terms with the fact that Luke was gone, maybe for good, and even thinking the unthinkable, that he could be dead. Seeing him was such a shock, he didn't have time to think or react, he'd stood and stared, and in an instant he was gone again, almost as though it was a dream. Now all he could do was hope that he would come back, hope that if Grace was right and he needed his fathers help, he would find the courage to come back, to come home.
He wasn't sure when, but at some point he must have drifted off to sleep, because he woke up sharply, a noise startling him, and, as always, he assumed that Christopher was out of bed. He got out of bed and headed to his young son's bedroom to find him still tucked up and fast asleep. It suddenly dawned on him that if Christopher hadn't made a noise, then someone else had, and, that someone else was inside the house. He headed to the stairs and descended as quickly and as quietly as he could. He could see a dim light in the kitchen, and from the angle of the light he could tell that whoever was in his kitchen had the fridge door open. Boyd hit the light switch in the kitchen, causing the intruder to drop what he was holding and head for the back door.
"No wait, please Luke don't go."
Luke stopped and turned slowly towards his father, he didn't speak, just stared at him.
"Please don't run off, talk to me son, please?"
Luke stared at his father, unsure of what to say, he was about to speak when a small, dark haired boy appeared in the kitchen doorway.
"Daddy, who's that?" Christopher asked him.
"Daddy?" Luke eventually said.
Boyd bent down and picked Christopher up, "This is your big brother Luke, Luke this is Christopher, your little brother."
"You have another son?" He said in amazement.
"Yes, he was a bit of a surprise."
"With Mum?"
"No. Look we need to talk, I'll explain everything."
"Nothing to say really is there." Luke opened the back door and walked out, Boyd put Christopher down and went after him, catching up with him at the back gate, and grabbing his arm.
"It's not like that, Luke please stay, Christopher wasn't planned it just happened, he was never meant to replace you, come back inside, please."
"I have to go, there's somewhere I need to be." Luke shook off his father's hand and ran off, this time Boyd didn't chase after him, he knew it was pointless, Luke would never stay anywhere he didn't want to be. He went back into the house and locked up, before taking Christopher back to bed. Tucking him into his little bed, pulling his dinosaur duvet cover around him, and sitting with him until he was asleep.
As he got up from Christopher's bed and kissed him goodnight, he stood watching him sleep for a few minutes, remembering Luke at the same age, and how he longed for his father's attention, and how he failed him. Now he would give anything, do anything, just to have him back in his life, to be able to talk to him, and above all else, to know that he was safe.
He went back to his own bedroom, the loneliness of sleeping alone in a double bed doing nothing to improve his mood. He couldn't help but spend a few minutes looking out of the window, looking at every shadow to see if he could see him, but to no avail.
TBC
