A month into the school year, Eric got a call from Ginger one night when Annie was out with friends telling him that Charles has disappeared and she has the police looking for him. He tells her he will let Annie know then a few hours later Annie comes home from the pool hall then Eric takes her in the living room to talk to her as she got the feeling something was really wrong.

"Did you have a good time?"

"Yes I did but what is wrong Eric?" Annie asked her husband who sat on the chair while she sat on the couch that was next to the chair.

"I got a call from Ginger earlier tonight and she told me that Charles left this morning and is missing because he hasn't come home. She called the police and they are looking for him right now."

"Oh no, why didn't you come and get me? Huh? This is my dad we are talking about?!"

"Because you need some time with your friends and well, there is nothing you can do honey. I'm so sorry." Eric says as he gets up as she did then hugs his wife who is crying on his chest.

"Honey, I want to go to Phoenix, I know there is nothing for me to do but I just want to be there."

"Okay. Do you want me to call a family meeting?" Her husband asked.

"Yes."

Eric went upstairs to get Ruthie, Sam, David and Simon to go downstairs then Lucy just happened to come home through the front door when she saw her dad, sister and brothers coming down the stairs then was asked to be at the family meeting. Eric and Annie sat on the couch, Simon was seated on the couch across from his parents as Sam sat next to him with his brother seated next to him, Kevin with his wife next to him were behind Ruthie who was seated next to Simon.

"So what did Simon do?" Ruthie asked.

"I didn't do anything now be quiet." Simon tells his youngest sibling.

"Well, someone is in trouble who did it?"

"Nobody is in trouble, Ruthie." Eric says.

"You don't need heart surgery do you dad?"

"No I don't. Now let me tell you why I've called this meeting." Eric tells his youngest daughter trying not to be angry.

"Are you and mom getting a divorce? Did Serena finally get a hold of you?"

"Ruthie please!" Lucy says sternly to her youngest sister who won't shut up.

"Look.-" Eric starts to explain but is interrupted.

"I'm going to go to bed, I'm tired." Annie says as she goes upstairs then after she shuts her bedroom door, she cries in her pillow.

"I got a call-"

"What did you do to mom, dad?" Ruthie asked.

"Ruthie, be quiet so your dad can tell us since your mom probably just couldn't handle you blabbing off your mouth."

"I give up. You guys figure it yourselves." Eric says exasperated then goes upstairs to see how his wife is.

"Great." Ruthie says as she took the twins upstairs as Kevin and Lucy sat across from Simon.

"I think it's grandpa. It's gotta be." Simon says.

"I can call Det. Micheals and he can call the Phoenix police department to find out if they are doing a search for him."

"Yeah, do it and I'll go talk to Ruthie." Lucy says then Kevin picks up the phone to call his boss then later tells Simon and Lucy that it was Charles.

Simon told Ruthie that the meeting was about Charles and she shouldn't have been interrupting since she knew that Charles was ill and he was very disappointed in his little sister. Simon went to his room where he had the sliding door open so he can watch the twins who were playing while Ruthie went down from the attic as she saw Sam walk out of his room just as Annie did then Sam asked her why she was sad. She took Sam to his room then talked to him and David who sat across from her while she sat on David's bed telling them that her dad is very sick and she may have to leave for awhile so she can be with her dad's wife then Sam and David gave their mom a hug as she put them to bed.

"Mom?"

"Yes Ruthie?" Annie asked not quite sure what her daughter is gonna say.

"I'm sorry about grandpa and I'm sorry that I didn't let dad talk."

"It's okay." Annie told her daughter then told her and Simon she was going back to bed.

Simon heard the conversation then after Annie gave Ruthie a hug, Simon gave her a hug after Ruthie had gone upstairs to her room then Simon went to his room while Annie went back to her room. Few days later Annie went to Phoenix for a few weeks to be with Ginger, before Annie left, she and Eric gave Simon and Ruthie permission to go to a friend's house who had a party and the parents of the friends called to make sure it was okay which it was. Then a week later Ruthie was restricted to her room and couldn't go to a friend's party because she came home really late and didn't call since she was at a friend's house then a few days later Eric tells the kids they found Charles deceased then leaves for Phoenix. The kids stayed home from school cause they were really sad the day later with Lucy's okay but the twins went since they didn't understand death. Then a few days later when Simon was picked up by his friend, Dennis, Lucy told Ruthie that she was going out with Kevin and that she had to watch the twins and was not allowed to go to the party. Ruthie told her okay then at 8:15pm, she got the twins to go to sleep on a Friday night then an hour after they fell asleep she called her friend who's sister would pick her up and she left to party with them, a decision she would regret. About ten minutes after Ruthie left, Sam had a nightmare then went to the rooms to see if Ruthie was home and she was not then David woke up since his brother was crying then they both went downstairs to see noone was home. David opened the back door, they both went out then saw the grill then went in the garage when they saw a grill lighter and got a chair then Sam got it, they both went inside and started fighting over the grill lighter. David ran with the lighter in hand, clicking it into his room as they got to where the window is, with the beds between them then started fighting over it when David clicked the lighter, it caught his bed on fire then they looked at it as Happy started to bark from Simon's room that had the sliding door open as they started to cry after David threw the lighter in the fire.