-:- My Autistic Brother -:-

Author: deunan4eva

Summary: At his young age, Nate River was mis-diagnosed. Bored, Mihael Keehl wants nothing to do with the boy who screams and bangs his head on the wall. But slowly, through a poetry journal Roger forces him to keep, Mello begins to see that Near may need more help then he lets on…

BeforeNote:

INCREDIBLY LONG CHAPTER RIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS!

Just for you sweethearts ^_^

SERIOUSLY! I LOVE you guys so much! just WRITING this chapter in two days was awesome enough – I hope it's up to scratch and yes, it IS about 11 pages long in my Word Document processor. THAT'S WHY I HOPE YOU LIKE IT!

It's okay people. You can come out from under your rocks now. Mello and Near get reunited at the end of this chapter. =D

Also, bonus points go to the person who can get the gag about Guinness the horse in this chapter. SPOILER! There is a horse going by the name of Guinness, and anyone who can guess the link between his name and his breed (which IS mentioned), leave a review and you get bonus marks for being awesome!
it's just a fun little quiz thing I popped in here for giggles. I'll explain it in the BeforeNote of the next chapter for those of you who're confused. ^_^ but if you know it, PLEASE! Drop me a line and say!

- Mercy

…

PS – I'm still going to be to the Questions and Answers on the Writing of My Autistic Brother, so if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask! ^_^

Mello's Journal Entry #37/38

7/-/97

-:-

Not much has happened when I first tried to write this journal entry, so I'm going to combine two journal entries into one again.
Well, when I say nothing much has happened, I meant before I woke up in hospital after the most incredible night of my life. In short, I was out, I was rescued, and all the other kids were safe, too. But I think I'll start from where I left off, so that you're not confused.

Yes. The box. They left me in there for half a day, before dragging me out and tying me to a chair. I heard one of them mutter something in English, something about not trusting me if they put back in the pen with the other kids. So for the next four hours, I was sitting on the cold concrete floor of the garage, surrounded by the mafia guys who'd kidnapped us, listening to their conversations, mostly in Russian. I guessed that if I was supposed to be other Russian descent, I'd at least have something of an idea of what they were saying, but I had no memory or clue of how long I'd been with my birth parents before I ended up in foster care – or even why I ended up in foster care, if I still HAD birth parents, but L said he's going to explain it all to me when he gets here later this afternoon.

But with no clue what they were saying, only that they were saying somethings about me, I had no idea of what their next move was, so I couldn't add the possibility that Near had figured out my riddle yet or not. It was a simple word game – something we liked to do often. I'd write a term or phrase on a piece of paper, but I'd rephrase it and make the words different, but similar to the original phrase. Then, Near would go through it, word by word, and change each word with similes until he got back to the original phrase. So I was able to tell him 'Headsworth Lane', but changing 'Head' to 'Top', 'Worth' was changed with 'Quality' and 'Lane' was replaced by 'Path'.
With that in mind, I knew he'd be able to solve it, but I didn't want it to be solved immediately, I knew I needed more time before anyone back at Wammy's came up with some sort of rescue plan. That's why I didn't tell Mrs Potts exactly where I was – because if they'd come charging in, the mafia would have undoubtedly either run, or killed the other kids, or fought back, and no one at home knew that they were dealing with the Russian mafia. I didn't want to endanger anyone if they rushed in. See, if I made the message cryptic, Beyond would probably guess that I was in a dangerous situation.
I was, of course, assuming that Beyond was still there. That he'd hung around.

Anyway.
At around three o'clock the next morning, one of them rolled up the big roller door in the garage to reveal a large van outside – it had it's own back rolled door open, and two of the men went and started bringing out kids from the pen. They were loading us up, I realized, and something went cold inside me. We were going to be moved – and now, if Near hadn't solved the puzzle and no one had come up with a plan, we'd be gone by the time anyone got here to help us.

'Hey,' Sarah said softly as she was plonked beside me by one of the men. They left two other kids with us, and one man stayed with us, too, standing guard.

'Hey,' I winced as I stretched my stiff hand. My ribs still ached, and if they were broken, I knew that if they started to set on their own, I might have to have them re-broken to set them properly. I was afraid I'd have to have the same thing done with my hand – now, it was in a wonky position and it hurt every time I tried to move it out of that position.

'Are you okay? What did they do to you?' Sarah whispered, looking me over.

'Nothing – they just shoved me in that box over there,' I whispered back, nodding to the crate they'd locked me in. Sarah shivered.

'Oh – they've done it to some us, too. It's horrible being in there. If we were too noisy or we got out and were wandering around, they'd grab us and lock us in there for hours. Are you sure you're okay?'

I nodded, biting my lower lip. I wasn't sure if I was okay, but I'd been a student at Wammy's for four years now, and I'd have many, many lessons with L to develop practical and survival skills. One of them was learning to keep it together whenever you got yourself into trouble. I remember that lesson – L had placed three buttons on the desk between us, and told me that one button would 'ding' if I picked the right button, and the other two would give me electric shocks. L told me that if I picked the wrong one, all the lights would go out and everything would go 'berserk' as he put it. I picked the wrong one, and yes, the lights went out, and suddenly, pop-boards of gangsters and homeless people with guns sprang up from the walls, all with terrifying looks on their faces, and flashlights would flash on and off, giving the scene a horror-movie-style look. I freaked out as alarms started going off, and, after about a minute of it, I had a panic attack. It was only last year, now I thought of it.
L made me do that as many times as it took for me to get over the fear of being out of control of the situation, and as many times as it took for me to press the right button, three times in a row – and the right button was changed each time by L.

What I'd learned from that was that you had to stay calm in situations that you couldn't control, like kidnappings like this, for example. What I'd also learned is to not trust L when he says things will go berserk. Because they do.

I was pulled back to reality when I saw another truck moving through the warehouse yard. It stopped at the opposite end, close to the entrance/exit. The mafia men hadn't seemed to notice, but I nudged Sarah.

'See that?' I nodded towards it, and she nodded, too.

'Perhaps another couple of guards? To make sure we're not attacked by police or anything?' she wondered quietly, but we hushed ourselves as one of the men stomped passed. It was the guard man from the pen – the one I'd tossed water into the eyes of and tripped up. He gave me a murderous look from his great height.

'I don't think so,' I whispered after he'd moved on. The van was moving again – and it disappeared from our line of sight. 'It looked like it was scanning the area. And whoever's driving definitely saw us.'

Sarah didn't reply, and I had a sudden hope in my heart that it was actually someone that L had sent to rescue us. But the van didn't come back, and I heard the low rumble of an engine slowly dying, and the hope faded.

Then, the four of us – me, Sarah, and the two other kids, were hauled up and wrestled towards the van the other men had been loading all the other children.

'Do you have a plan?' Sarah asked as one of the men started the van's own engine.

'No,' I said sadly as we were about to be loaded into the back. Suddenly, the van I'd seen from before came hurtling around the corner of one of the warehouses, and pulled to a jarring halt in front of our van.

I could hear the mafia men swearing and cursing in Russian, and one ushered the last of us back into the shed, pushing us inside and then, in bad English, told us that if we moved, he'd shoot us. Then, he hurried around the other side of the van to see what was going on.

That when I heard Celicia's voice.

'Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I'm taking my lessons and I wasn't sure how fast I was going – ' I couldn't believe my ears – or my eyes. Around the back of the van that had just raced in front of us, Johanna came creeping, and she shot me a grin and a thumbs up as she snuck over while everyone else was preoccupied.

'Hey there kiddo,' she said, and I grinned big. It was so good to see her.

'Jo!' I whispered, throwing myself into her arms, then trying not to cry from the pain. She shushed me and smoothed down my hair.

'It'll be okay, sweetie – I know you're hurt, and it's time to take you home,' she said softly, and I was crying tears of both pain and joy.

'I can't believe it's you, I can't, I can't!' I kept whispering, and Jo just grinned down and me before looking around quickly.

'Come on – there's no time.' She looked to the kids already in the van. 'Can you close the door from the inside?' They nodded. 'Good. I'm getting you guys out of here.' Then, she turned back to me, Sarah, and the other two kids. 'Listen – go around the back of the warehouse – Beyond is waiting for you. Hurry – Celicia can't keep those guys occupied forever.' She said, before giving me another quick hug and ushering us into the night air. 'Go – I'll see you back at Wammy's!'

I grabbed Sarah's hand and ran, making sure the other two were keeping up, and we sprinted for our lives around to where we found Beyond waiting by the stone wall behind the warehouse.

'Come on, kid,' he didn't say anything else, only caught each of us as we ran at him, and hoisting us up and over the lip of the stone wall. We sat there a moment, breathing hard, and Beyond then took a running jump at the wall, pulling himself expertly up beside us. Then, he scrubbed a hand through my hair.

'Still got that journal?' he asked, and I nodded, patting my shirt, where I kept it tucked into the waistband of my now thoroughly dirty jeans. 'Jo got the others okay?'

'I…I don't know…' I said, only to hear more Russian swearing from the warehouses again, and we saw over the roofs that Johanna had hijacked the van with all the children in it, Celicia riding in the back, trying to pull down the roller door. The mafia men were pulling out guns and chasing after them –

'C!' Beyond screamed suddenly, just as one of the men fired. It was Skinhead. His first three shots flew wide of the van, but the fourth one hit home – and caught Celicia in the shoulder. She cried out and fell back into the van, the roller door coming crashing down. The van was out onto the street and moving fast back towards London. I could see it fairly clearly, but my heart was pounding as I kept seeing Celicia's shoulder spurt blood, and seeing her fall, over and over again in my mind.

'Dammit,' Beyond cursed as the mafia men gave up the chase, only to turn around and immediately see all five of us perched on the wall. They started yelling and running and aiming their guns again. 'Shit – quick! Get over the wall!'

Beyond just about dragged us all over, and we landed hard on the mossy ground at the bottom of the other side, and then, we were up and we were running again, Beyond leading us through a forest of silver birch trees.

I was breathing hard and my lungs were aching, not to mention my ribcage was hurting like you wouldn't believe, but with Sarah still grasping my hand, I was managing to keep up. About three small river crossings, ten rabbit-holes that we stepped in, running into low-hanging branches at least twice each and five minutes later, we all tumbled out onto a road that looked somewhat like a main highway.

'Come on, kids,' Beyond said after a moment of hard breathing and being bent over, hands on knees. He straightened up. 'We gotta get moving.' He checked his bearings, then turned around. 'This way.'

We followed him, and I fell in step beside him.

'Why…' I gasped for air. 'Why did you ask…if I still had the journal?'

'Still writing in it?'

'Yeah – but why?' I asked again. Beyond shrugged.

'Because people have to know what happened here. Someday you're going to be all grown up and people won't know what you're childhood was like. That's the way Wammy's works. But if you can tell people how you were kidnapped, how you sent the only person in the world who could understand you a message to find you so we could rescue you, then that's something to be proud of.' He said. That's probably more than I've ever heard him say in one go.

'Really?' I asked, then, I had a better question. 'Did…Near understand it? Did he solve it?'

'In about three minutes,' Beyond said with a smirk. 'He's not doing so good without you. So we gotta get you back there, and quickly. That's why you're with me – this is actually the road that will lead us back to Wammy's. Weird how main highways' work.'

I blinked in surprise. This was…this was one of the main roads that could get us back home?

'Why didn't you bring a car or something?' I asked. 'Are we going to walk all the way home?'

'I didn't, because…' Beyond trailed off, as the sound of an engine began to roar somewhere behind us. 'Because of that.' He turned in the middle of the road, a mad grin on his face, as the van all the kids were in, the one that Johanna had hijacked, came rumbling towards us. 'Bingo.'

We stepped off the road as Johanna came to a halt next to us and wound down the window.

'You guys better hurry and get in – Celicia's in a bad way and we've got company,' she said quickly, and just as she said that, two large four-wheel drive cars that were definitely not of British make came hurtling around the bend behind us. I didn't need to see their faces to know that it was the mafia men – but from what I could see of them, they were mad.

'Get in!' Beyond hissed, ushering us around to the back of the van, where he pulled open the door just enough for us to squeeze through. He lifted us in, one by one, until just Sarah and I were left.

'Can we trust these people?' she asked, worry written all over her face. I nodded.

'Of course. Jo's one of my best friends sisters, and Beyond and Celicia used to go to Wammy's, the orphanage I'm from.' I reassured her, just as Beyond hoisted her up under the arms and helped her in.

'Come on – no time to talk,' he muttered, reaching back for me just as headlights suddenly blinded us both – we turned to see one of the car headed straight for us – it was going to ram the back of the van.

Beyond launched himself at me and caught me as we rolled off the road and into a ditch out of the way, the car bashing into the back end of the van. We heard Johanna yell, and then, dragging me up, Beyond started running again.

'Go!' he shouted to Johanna as the car backed up to ram the van again. Johanna hit the accelerator just as the car leapt towards the van again, and they shot away down the road. I could hear Sarah calling my name from the back of the van, and I caught a glimpse of her looking out from under the roller door as the van sped away in an attempt to lose the cars.

Beyond grabbed my hand and helped me up, and we started running again, this time on the opposite side of the road and into a field.

'There!' he pointed up ahead, and I saw a farm shed standing out in the field, small paddocks with some horses in them around it. 'That shed…is owned by a man – that I know…' Beyond said as he ran, and I stayed quiet as we kept going. We finally made it to the shelter of the barn, just as we heard the crash of a gate behind us – the roar of an engine told us that one of the cars was still after us, and had just gone straight through the fence.

A farmer emerged from the barn, yawning and leading a tall horse by the reins as we dragged our tired feet into the small holding paddocks.

'Mr…Jacobson!' Beyond wheezed, and the farmer's eyes widened as he saw us. He hurried over.

'Are you boys all right? B – what are you doing here in the middle of the night?' he asked, looking us both up and down. 'What on earth have you been doing?'

'We need…uh…' Beyond staggered for breath. 'Help.'

'Help, boy? Whatever for – hey!' Mr Jacobson the farmer had just seen the destroyed fence, and the car coming our way. 'Are you being chased, B?'

Beyond could only nod, and if I'd been asked to speak, I know I'd only have been able to nod as well, I was breathing hard and holding my stomach – I felt like vomiting after the moments just passed. Everything had happened so fast, and I kept trying to go over it in my head.

'You need a get away?' Mr Jacobson asked, a small smile on his face. Beyond looked up at him, and a small smirk appeared on his face, too.

'Yeah. If – if you wouldn't mind.'

Mr Jacobson held out the horses reins to us as Beyond straightened up.

'I was going to take the bloke out for a morning ride like I usually do, but I think his speed could help you. He'll get you home safely,' he said proudly, and Beyond took the reins.

'Thank you, sir,' he said quickly, then looked down at me. 'Well?'

'We're going to ride home?' I asked sceptically. The car had gotten itself bogged in a small hillside only a few hundred meters from the shed, and Beyond nodded.

'He's the fastest horse I've ever seen,' he said with a quick grin, before reaching down, grabbing one of my legs and then scooping me up into his arms and literally throwing me up and onto the horses broad back. The horse snorted and pranced, and I yelped and grabbed it's mane. I expected it to kick from all the pulling I was doing, but Beyond just chuckled as he swung up in front of me, keeping the leg he swung over the horses back tucked in so that he didn't kick me.

'It's okay, boy, easy,' Beyond seemed so natural in the saddle, it was hard to believe that he knew how to ride. But apparently he did – though it wasn't something I could see him doing on a regular basis.

'Keep them safe, boy,' Mr Jacobson nodded and stroked the horses muzzle, and it snorted softly into his hand. I grabbed Beyond's waist instinctively as he gently pulled on the reins, backing the horse up a little. Then, Mr Jacobson looked up at us. 'And bring my Guinness back in one piece when this over, hear me?'

Beyond nodded and tipped his sunglasses to the farmer, before turning the horse around and giving it a nudge in the side. His feet reached the stirrups, and he had a better grip on the horse. I, however, felt like I was straddling a single bed, the horse was so broad in the back, and even sitting in the back of the saddle behind Beyond, my legs were too short to come anywhere near to his. So as the horse moved from a trot into a canter, I was clinging for dear life.

We raced passed the bogged car, and I heard snatches of Beyond's laugh as we both heard the Russian's swearing after us. Looking back, I could see them shaking their fists and trying to get the car out of the ditch they'd ended up in. We reached the broken gate, and I thought we were going to have to slow, get off the horse and lead it over or around the bashed down gate, but Beyond simply gave it another kick and the horse made the jump over it with hardly any hesitation at all. Beyond rose in the saddle as we went over, and I rose with him, mimicking his movements and guessing that, if I did, I had a better chance of staying on the horse than being thrown.

'Let's get you home, then,' Beyond tilted his head back over his shoulder to me after we'd landed and slowed to a trot on the road. 'There's still a third car out there – we'd better stay on the road for as long as we can before going cross-country, which is going to be a lot bumpier.'

I was getting the hang of sitting to the horses trot, and we moved in mostly silence, apart from the sound of the horses hooves on the tarmac road.

'Where did you learn to ride?' I finally asked, and Beyond jerked a thumb over his shoulder, back at where we'd just come from.

'Mr Jacobson used to let Ada, Celicia and me into his fields to study or do field trips with L,' he said. 'One time, Celicia was so taken by the horses that Mr Jacobson invited her to learn how to ride. Me and A agreed that we might as well learn, too. I learnt on old Guinness here. He's an Irish Draught horse, so he's good at jumping and most endurance riding, especially cross-country.' He reached down and patted the horse, Guinness, on the neck. The horse wasn't even breaking a sweat yet.

I nodded against his back, and went quiet.

'You ever ridden before, kid?'

'No,' I replied, and Beyond nodded, although that could have just been the bobbing of the horses movements.

'Good experience for you, then.'

'Uh…sure…' something made me turn my head, and when I looked over my shoulder, I saw the car tumbling out onto the road from the broken down gate a fair way behind us. 'Um – Beyond?'

'Yeah?' he'd heard the engine, too, and he urged Guinness to go faster. The horse easily complied, breaking into a canter, but the car was gaining and fast.

'Beyond!' The horse burst into a full gallop, and I had to cling to Beyond to stay on. Suddenly, the sun cracked over the hill on the field to our left, casting the first bright rays of light over us and washed the yellows grass in the field in a golden glow. Galloping at full-pelt down an open road at four in the morning is an amazing experience, but at the time my breath was only taken away by the fact of how fast the horse was capable of going, and the fact that there was sun in my eyes and I couldn't see much passed Beyond's elbow.
That and, of course, that we were still being chased.

'Hold on, kid!' Beyond yelled over the wind and his hair that was whipping around his face. 'We're going to turn off and into that field!' He pointed to the field across the road, and I felt my heart pounding faster with every stride that Guinness took. 'Now!'

Beyond jerked back on the reins and Guinness squealed in protest, but the massive horse slowed enough to turn and then leap out right in front of the oncoming car. We dashed across the road and leapt over the ditch to the fence, which Guinness took from almost a complete stand-still.

We landed harder than before but Beyond urged Guinness to keep going, and the brave horse did, cantering up the hill and over the crest, away from the road. We heard another crash behind us, and realized that the car had simply ploughed straight through the fence.

Beyond pulled Guinness to stop at the top of the hill, and we turned back to see the car rumbling into a ditch at the edge of the paddock.

'They keep ploughing through fences like that, their car's not gonna hold out for much longer,' Beyond observed, and I could only nod. Then, Beyond pulled Guinness around and gave him another quick heel in the ribs, and the horse burst into a lively canter. We were headed along the ridge above the car the Russian's were following us in, almost running parallel to them.

'What if they shoot at us?' I yelled above the wind.

'They won't risk harming you,' Beyond yelled back. 'If they shoot Guinness, he'll go down and we both risk serious injury – or even death. If they shoot me, I lose control of the horse, you could fall and be killed. They shoot you – you either die or get seriously injured. Whoever wants you wants you alive, otherwise they wouldn't go to all this trouble to keep pursuing us.'

'Comforting!' I responded, and I heard Beyond chuckled. Then, a whole-hearted whoop came from him, and I could feel him shaking with laughter. 'What are you laughing about?'

'This is fun, Mello!' Beyond hooted back to me.

'This is terrifying!' I cried, wondering if I could shout some sense into him. But Beyond shook his head, not taking his eyes off the grassy land ahead of us for a second.

'This is all part of it! The thrill of the chase, the terror or being pursued with big men with bigger guns – what's not to love about it, when you know I'll get you out of it?' he yelled, and then, he pointed to somewhere ahead of us, but downhill, down to the ditch. 'See those trees?'

'Yeah!'

'See what's behind them?'

I squinted – it was hard to see from the rocking motion of Guinness' canter, and the car was almost matching our speed because of all the rocks and potholes down in the ditch, but I saw what Beyond was talking about. There was a blocked-up drainage pipe set into the middle of the ditch. It's gaping hole that would probably have allowed the car to go straight through it was now blocked up with massive boulders and pieces of old, unused fencing posts and wire. And the trees were blocking the view of the massive concrete pipe.

'They're going to crash!' I cried, and Beyond nodded.

'Yup,' he said bitterly.

'We have to –' I began, but he cut me off.

'No, we don't. It serves them right, and it'll send a clear message to whoever it is they're working for.' He said harshly, before tugging gently on Guinness' reins and steering him away from the edge of the ridge and into the open field.

'You're going to let them die?' I shouted, unable to believe it.

'I'm not letting this happen – ' he was cut off by the loud explosion now far behind us, but we still felt the tremors and we still heard the screams. After it had died down, Beyond continued. 'I had no control over how they chased us. But you don't want them to get you back, do you?'

I hung my head, and just held on.

'No,' I said softly, and I don't think that Beyond heard me. He didn't say anything after that, either.

The field we were in was also home to a rather large flock of sheep, and as we went over the next rise, we discovered just how many there were, and just how scared of horses they were, too. Sheep scattered everywhere, and some of them even ran out ahead of us. Guinness took flying leaps over several of the terrified sheep, landing precariously among them and making me cling harder to Beyond to stay on. Beyond himself was thrown forewords at one point where Guinness had to make a sudden swerve to miss a rather indignant ram, but he managed to reseat himself and regain control of Guinness fairly quickly.

We made it to the opposite side of the field about ten minutes later. The sun was now creeping into the morning sky and the sky itself was lightening to a lighter blue and the stars were beginning to fade. At the other end of the field, Beyond slowed Guinness to a trot, then a walk about a hundred meters away from the gate.

I was trembling. My hands could stay still and I was having a hard time holding onto Beyond, but he reached back and awkwardly patted my hand.

'It's okay, Mello. We're almost home. Wammy's isn't far.'

Beyond dismounted, and pulled his phone from his pocket. He checked it over to make sure it hadn't bee damaged in any way while we'd been riding, running, and dodging cars, then he dialled a number and waited.

'It's me. I have him, yes, yes – look, cool your hat, he's fine. Bashed up and knocked about a bit, but he'll be fine.' He glanced up at me. 'Yeah. Sure. Listen – is she okay? Really? Mhmm. Okay, good. Yeah – yep. I'll keep an eye out for them. Kay. Bye.'

He put away the cell phone.

'Okay. There's a couple of ambulances waiting for us back at Wammy's – Jo got the other kids and Celicia back there no problem, and Celicia's being treated for her bullet wound at the moment,' he said, opening the gate for us, and then he reached and gave the reins a small tug. 'Come on, urge him through.'

I blinked, then realized that he wanted me to ride Guinness through the gate. I picked up the reins where Beyond had left them loose on the horses neck, and mimicked Beyond's movements as I'd seen him riding. I sat forward in the saddle, looked straight ahead, and tried to give the horse a bit of a kick, but my legs were so short it was almost impossible. But Guinness got the idea, and stepped through the gate without hesitation, and stopped when I gave the reins a pull to make him stop.

'Good – you're almost a natural,' Beyond said, before closing the gate behind us and then coming up to us. 'Listen, there's still one of those cars circling the area – apparently Jo managed to shake the one tailing her and the kids before she got back to Wammy's, but apparently it started to turn back towards our general direction.'

'So…we just go as fast as we can without being noticed?' I asked as Beyond led Guinness up onto the main road ahead of us.

'Pretty much,' he said, just as something made me turn my head – I wasn't sure what it was, but the feeling that something was behind us just wouldn't go away – until I saw why.

'Beyond! They're behind us!' I hissed, and Beyond whirled as the car burst out into view, and we could both hear the acceleration as it came racing towards us.

'Go – go, go, go!' Beyond cried, throwing his arms into the air, startling Guinness into snorting and backing up a few steps. 'Run!'

'But I – I don't know how to – ' I began to protest, but Beyond had already smacked Guinness on the rump, and the horse surged forwards into a fast canter beneath me, and I was forced to grapple with it's mane and the reins to hang on.

'Keep going til you get home!' I heard Beyond yelling behind me. We reached a bend in the road and I pulled as hard as I could to get the startled horse to come to a stop. Luckily, he did, and I managed to turn him back to see Beyond racing into the middle of the road, waving his arms and shouting like a mad man. The car swerved to miss him, then swerved again as he dashed back into it's path – this time, they were going to hit him. He had a rock in his hand, and he hurled it through the windscreen at the last moment, and the car went sailing off the road and straight into a tree. There was a loud crash and smoke began to emerge from the car, before a spark lit a fire on the front engine. I could hear the terrified shouts of the men, but Beyond was already there, yanking open the car door and hauling them both out, one by one. He tossed them out onto the road, where they stumbled to regain their footing as the car behind them exploded.

Beyond was sent flying, but he managed to knock one of them down with him as he fell. I couldn't do anything but watch as the scene unfolded in front of me – the man Beyond had landed on was obviously either unconscious from the fall or dead, because he didn't get back up, but the second one did. Beyond was also staggering to his feet, but the Russian caught him across the jaw with a heavy punch. Beyond stumbled and staggered back, and I couldn't help but yell for him – as much as I thought he was creepy and all, he'd rescued me and he'd helped me, a lot. I didn't want to see Beyond get hurt by these man, I suddenly realized.

The Russian heard me, and he turned to look in my direction, giving Beyond time to come back with a hard hit of his own, sending the man stumbling over his own feet and landing in a heap on the ground. A smaller, secondary explosion came from the still burning car, which was now just a wreck, but Beyond was far enough away that he wasn't thrown by it again. He raised his head to me, and he took off his sunglasses.

Even from this distance, I could see his eyes. There was anger in them, in those blood red orbs of his, but there was also triumph. We'd done it. We'd won, and we could go home.

But instead of starting towards me, he simply nodded, and waved for me to go on without him. I nodded in return, knowing that, if the two men were knocked out, Beyond would be able to handle them, and hopefully stop any fire from spreading from the burned out vehicle. So I pulled Guinness around again, facing the way that Beyond had said was home, adjusted myself in the saddle so that I wasn't going to fall off, gripped Guinness with my knees as much as I could and took the reins in my hands, steadying myself on the horses neck.
Then, I gave Guinness a pat, a flick of the reins, and we set off back towards Wammy's. Guinness moved at a tired but calmed trot, as the sun was wearing down the dawn and setting itself into the sky. As we rode, I tried to go over all the events of last night in my head – no, the last three days – but it was a blur. Only now that I'm sitting here in hospital, thinking straight and calmly, can I remember that night.

Anyway.

When I reached Wammy's, I could see police cars everywhere, along with two ambulances, and there were adults swarming everywhere. I could see Celicia sitting in the back of an ambulance, a bandage around her upper arm and a black around her shoulders. I could see Roger, and Wendy – and my heart lifted as I did. They were talking with some of the police officers, Roger with a cell phone clenched in his hand.

I trotted down the road, and when I came closer, I heard a yell from Wammy's boundary wall – there was Matt, sitting on the wall with Lily, Andy, and several of the other Wammy's kids, and they were all cheering as they saw me. I managed a smile, but I didn't dare take my hands off the reins to wave back at them.

Their commotion got the adults attention, and suddenly, everyone was shouting and yelling when they saw me, clambering to get closer and to see me. Despite how tired I was, despite how shaky with adrenaline I was, I was so, so happy to see everyone – Johanna came running with Matt at her side as I slid down from Guinness' back and into Wendy's arms, and suddenly everyone was trying to hug me and check me over all at once. Some of the kids were crying, most of the adults from Wammy's were crying, too, and the policemen were trying to get everyone to stand back and give me some space as we headed into the Wammy House courtyard.

Standing in a small, huddled group, was all the kidnapped kids. They looked terrified of their surroundings, but then Ryan saw me and shouted my name, and they all brightened and came racing over too. I got swarmed again, hugging and holding and crying with the other kids, laughing and suddenly they were all cheering, and then, Sarah came at me and we hugged, big and tight.

'I'm so glad you're okay,' she whispered before standing back. 'What happened to you?'

I laughed giddily, unable to keep the grin from my face now. 'Long story,' I replied, still trembling. There were paramedics bustling over, trying to get me away from the other kids, but Roger and Wendy had them stand back a moment as I looked around before turning to Matt.

'Hey you,' I said, and he ran at me, and I caught him in a hug. There were tears running down his face, and I held him as Johanna came up and knelt next to us, tears in her eyes, too, and she hugged us both together, careful not to squeeze me too tightly because of my injuries. I glanced around again as we parted – I couldn't see the familiar locks of white hair anywhere.

'Hey…' I started. I looked to Johanna. 'Where's…where's Near?'

She smiled, and then pointed through the crowd. Celicia was standing by the doorway to the Wammy's House front entrance, and from around the doorway peeked a small, white sleeve with a small, pale hand attached. Above it came a small face, biting its lip and eyeing the world in front of it with curiosity and caution, hiding it's dark brown eyes with it's white hair.

Near looked around at the crowd, before his eyes fell on me, and they widened. I smiled gently, reaching out a hand towards him.

'Hey, Near,' I said softly, and he stepped out to Celicia's side, and she offered him a hand. He put two fingers into her palm, and she led him down the steps towards us. Then, Near pulled away from her and stepped uncertainly in our direction, before breaking into a run.

He was crying – bawling by the time I caught him in the tightest hug I've ever had. We fell to our knees, holding and hugging and hushing and crying – I stroked his back and his hair and he just kept on weeping into my grotty shirt. Never in my life have I ever been happier, I realized. Reunited, and it felt so good to be back with the one person that needed me, and it felt good to be needed. I rocked him back and forth, whispering into his hair and not letting go.

Now that I think about it, now that he's asleep on the bed next to me and curled into my side, my being apart from him was one of the worst things that could have happened. Right now I'm thinking back to Ruby, sitting in this same hospital as me, rocking herself back and forth as she thinks of her big brother.
Near doesn't know about Ruby. But he knows I'm his brother – his friend – and his guardian. He said so himself.

– Mello.

AfterNote:

ARGH! It's FINALLY WRITTEN! XDDD actually, this didn't take me as long as it probably should have to write. I've had this real buzz to write and make up for what time I wasn't writing throughout the year at the moment, so I hope this is up to scratch for you all, and I wish EVERYONE a very safe, VERY happy Christmas!

-:-

Depending on family and friends coming to stay next week, I may not have another chapter written and ready until the New Year. And I'll just warn you all now, I'm currently trying to stop a friend from committing suicide on New Years, so also depending on that, I may or may not update for a while. Just a heads up, so I don't leave you guys all hanging like I did at the beginning of this year. ^^" thank you ALL, and MERRY CHRISTMAS! I WISH YOU ALL A BRIGHT AND FABULOUS NEW YEAR!

– Mercy