Lost Boy

by my own patronus

In September 1999, Pam and James Anderson's world was shattered when their youngest son, Blaine, was abducted from a local park. 12 years later, after pain, healing, and tireless searching, the family is reunited. But the boy who comes home to them isn't the same one they lost so long ago. The Anderson family must learn to change and grow as a lost boy is found once more.

A/N:

This fic came from Blangst Prompt of the Day #689 from way back in 2014. I saw it, thought I'd write a little drabble... seven years, two rewrites, and 84k words later, here we are.

This fic could not be what it is without my two amazing betas, WendyPeters and darrenismydarcy. They provided so much support, encouragement, and much-needed editing which helped me finally pull this together into the complete story that it is today.

I'll be posting on Mondays and Thursdays.

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On the Christmas after Cooper's tenth birthday, his parents told him he would be getting a baby brother or sister. He'd wanted a bike.

The news of the baby had been just about as much of a surprise to James and Pam Anderson, though they were much happier about it than their son was. They'd never planned to only have one child, both having grown up with siblings, but after Cooper, their careers had taken off and there just hadn't been a good time.

Obviously the growing little life had disagreed and made them make time.

By that July, Pam's belly was swollen and Cooper was not any happier about the prospect of getting a little brother that pooped and cried. Sure, his friend Jeremy had an older brother and that was cool. But a baby was useless.

That is, until Cooper met the pink squirmy baby Blaine on July 20, 1995. He looked into his little brother's eyes and decided that even if a baby was useless, this one could stick around. This one would be cool. Cooper would be the best big brother ever, and make sure of that.

Cooper was mesmerized by the little baby. He loved to go in and just watch him sleep, and even as Blaine grew, Cooper kept it up. It was his night-time routine to check on Blaine before he himself went to bed.

Once Blaine was old enough, their parents enrolled him in nursery school so that Pam could go back to work full-time. The school was just down the street from Cooper's middle school, and sometimes he could see the kids playing when he was outside on the field at gym class.

But as much as Cooper loved Blaine, the little guy seemed to idolize Cooper even more. He proudly toddled around the home, trying to do everything Cooper did. Both boys got into trouble over it more than once. And Cooper knew that he should be annoyed, he knew his friends were when they came over and the toddler insisted on playing with them, but then he'd take a look at those big eyes and he just couldn't stay mad.