Disclaimer: not mine, definitely not mine. It should be though.

Ok, last chapter folks. I hope it meets all expectations. It's pretty long. I hope you all like. Thanks for your reviews, I live for them, and to bring joy to the world.

Chapter 9

"He really must have run away." Virgil said despondently from the back seat of the car. They had just spent nearly two hours searching the viewpoint and the surrounding area, with no sign of John anywhere.

"he could be anywhere if he took one of those bus's last night." Scott agreed. "Anything could have happened."

"He could be beaten up." Gordon suggested.

"Or dead." Alan added.

"Boys stop it!" Jeff snapped. "We don't know. I'm going to call the police when we get home. John will be fine."

"Dad, he's twelve years old! it's like… like…" Virgil trailed off, too exhausted to think of the word. He slumped back. "I hate that we made him run away, I really hate it."

"I know Virgil, but we'll find him." Jeff said, pulling into their street. Though his own worry gnawed at his gut. If john had been on the mountain there were just so many things that could have happened.

"Hey dad, was John's curtains closed when we left?" Scott asked. "I don't think they were closed. I'm pretty sure they were open when I went into his room earlier."

"Which means-" Jeff quickly stopped the car, half in and half out of the drive.

They practically fell out of the car and dashed to the house and inside.

"JOHN!" Gordon and Alan yelled, running upstairs to his room as fast as they could.

Xx

John woke with a start and pulled himself into a sitting position. What were Gordon and Alan doing home, was it after school already? He was about to get up and open the door to find out when Gordon and Alan came barging in and threw themselves on him.

"John, you're here!"

"You didn't run away?"

"Were you hiding?"

"Were you here the whole time?"

"Scott, Virgil and daddy were worried."

"I wasn't, I knew we'd find you."

"You were so worried!"

"I wasn't!"

"Was!"

"Wasn't!"

their words and sentences tumbled over each other as they spoke.

"Johnny?" Vigil said in relief, coming in and pulling john up from the bed and into a hug. "Never, ever do that to me again!"

Scott came next, hugging him tightly. "You have no idea how worried we were. Where were you? Don't you ever do that again Johnny, promise me."

John was stunned, he really didn't know what to say.

Suddenly he was enveloped in a hug by his father. "Thank God you're ok." He pulled away and looked at John intently. "I think we all need to have a little talk, now, then we can sleep."

"I… em… what?" John asked, nervous.

Gordon, Alan and Scott had taken the bed. Virgil was perched on his desk. So Jeff led John to the window seat.

"Alright, firstly John, why did you run away?" he asked.

"I… I didn't run away." John stammered, shocked. "I just needed to think… I didn't think you'd notice…" he mumbled.

"What?" Scott asked, not having heard.

Maybe it was the tiredness, but John's usual self-control vanished and he said, louder and more sharply than he had intended. "I didn't think you'd notice-you never notice!"

"You didn't think we'd notice you were missing? John-" Jeff began.

"But you never notice! You never notice anything!" john insisted. "It was my Science fair last night! Nobody came! And nobody even asked how it went. You just don't care!"

"How'd it go?" Gordon asked after a moment of tense silent.

John sagged back, deflated. "I came first.," he murmured.

"Johnny, believe me when I say we are all really sorry about the science fair-it wasn't fair that we didn't go, especially when you always go to our competitions." Scott said quietly.

"Scott, you and your brothers head to bed. I need to talk to John privately." Jeff said.

Scott nodded. "Come on squirts, bed-now."

Virgil hesitated for a moment. "Sleep tight John." He said before he left. "I'm sorry I didn't go. I should have."

When they were gone Jeff turned to John, to find his son watching him worriedly.

"I'm sorry dad. I shouldn't have left like that. I didn't mean to worry you. But I really thought I'd be back before you'd noticed I was gone. I needed to think. I know I could have just done it here, but the viewpoints just so-"

"So you were up there. Too bad we only thought of it too late." Jeff sighed, cutting his son's rambled short. If he let him Jeff was certain he would hear every reason John had for going up, and why he shouldn't have etc. etc. but it wasn't what he wanted to hear. "John, do you really think that we-I don't care about you?" he asked.

"I know you do dad. I know Scott, Virgil, Gordon and Alan all do too. I know." He trailed off and looked out the window with a sigh. Yes, he knew, but it would be nice to have it shown by them coming to his competitions. "It was a stupid thing to get upset over." He murmured, glancing over at his broken model.

Jeff followed his gaze. "It wasn't stupid to get upset over it. Like Scott said, you go to everything they do. The least they could do is go to yours. And as for me, you've always been far to accommodating if I was busy with work. I should have been there Johnny." He put and arm around John's shoulders. "What was stupid, was disappearing and worrying fifty years off my life. Next time I want you to come talk to me, or Scott or Virgil ok, don't just disappear like that again if your upset." He gave him a half hug. "Promise?"

John nodded slowly.

"Good." He kissed his forehead lightly. "Now go to bed and get some sleep." He ordered.

John nodded again, went over and climbed into bed. "'Night Dad."

"'Night." Jeff smiled, going over to the door. He paused before he closed it. "I love you John." He murmured softly.

John smiled as he buried his head into his pillow and went to sleep.

The End

There you go. Did you like it? I did. Review people. I need reviews! Make me feel loved! Hope you liked.