AN:The new chapter is up, hope you like it! Sorry about this long wait for an update, I've been busy.

One ring, two rings, three, four,...

"Hello?"

"Yes, is Madison there? My name is Ephram Brown, I'm an, uh, an old friend of her's."

"Speaking."

"Madison? Sorry, I didn't recognize you. Anyway, I-I needed to tell with you something."

"Ephram... I didn't expect you to call, I mean, I was just heading out to work. I didn't even know you had my number."

"I don't. The white pages and I go way back, though."

She laughed nervously, same old Ephram. Yet she knew that there was an edge to his voice, possibly put there by stress, or maybe he was still hurt was their last meeting at the coffee shop in New York city. She couldn't blame him if he was, nor could she understand why he was talkiing to her in such a civil manner.

"I wanted to tell you that I've decided I want custody of the baby."

Stone scilence.

"I'm going to take a paterinty test next week, and then, from what the lawyer says, I should be free and clear as far as the hearing goes; I thought you should know."

It felt like someone had punched her in the stomach. He wanted custody? She'd never in a million years dreamed that he'd want to raise their son by himself. He was barely even eighteen years old, for god's sake!

She took a deep breath, which sounded more to Ephram like a desperate gasp for air.

"Ephram, I told you, a couple from Califorinia, they adpoted him. He has a good family and people to take care of him. Why do you want to do this?"

"He has someone to take care of him in Everwood, too." He replied, his voice hardening with every word. "He has me. But I guess you never thought of that, seeing as you put on the adoption papers that you didn't know who I was!"

"You have you understand, I wanted him to have a normal life!" She was crying now, and Ephram didn't need to see her face to know that. "Can you at least forgive me?"

"I don't know." He told her truthfully."There's a lot to forgive. Besides, you shouldn't be asking me, wait fifteen or sixteen years, then ask him."

Her final comment came in a strained voice. "Good luck, Ephram."

"Yeah, thanks." He said, half-heartedly, then slammed down the reciver, in what would be the end of his final conversation with Madison Keller, for, after that, he made no effort to contact her again.

He'd been driving Everwood's streets for almost an hour, now, trying to find his distraught son. Turning the steering wheel to the right, down Elmton Road, he scanned the sidewalks for Will, who was nowhere in sight as far as he could tell.

After the argument that took place at his father's house two hours prior, Ephram decided it would be best to the teen cool off for a while, lest he cause another eruption by forcing Will to return home while he was still angry.

As 7:00 approached, Amy began to worry that it was getting dark, and so Ephram climbed into his SUV in search of his very enraged sixteen-year-old son.

Another right turn, this time down Berrymore Drive. Will couldn't have gotten this far on foot, he was sure. However, as he finished the thought, he spotted the back of a sandy-blonde head moving foward on the sidewalk about fifteen feet away from him.

"It's kind of hard to get closer to home when you heading in the opposite direction, isn't it?" Ephram stated, pulling up beside his son.

Obviously a bit startled by his father's sudden appearence, Will only turned slighty with his answer. "You mean I'm still in Colorado? I guess I must've taken a wrong turn somewhere."

"I can see that." With that,Ephram stopped the car and opened the passenger side door. "Get in. Amy's completely out of her mind thinking of all the things that could have happened to you."

Will paused for a moment, and then climbed, regretfully, into the car.

They drove in scilence for the next five minutes, and only as they passed Sam's, formerly known as Mama Joy's, did Ephram speak.

"Do you wanna stop and get a burger to go? You must be pretty hungry, you left before we even had the salad."

Will shook his head without replying, and his father knew better than to push the subject.

When they pulled into the driveway of the Brown home, Will stepped out of the car reluctantly, and slowly followed Ephram toward the house.

"Amy?" The older of the two called as he opened the front door. "I'm home; I found him."

"Thank god!" Will heard Amy Brown's voice from the kitchen, followed by her hurried footsteps toward them.

She looked a wrek, the elegant twist that her hair had been arranged in earlier was now nothing more than a lump on her head, and big chuncks of her hair were falling out of the clasp. Her make-up was running in several different directions down her face, andhe knew she'd been crying.

Amy said nothing when she saw her son, nor did she make any move to embrace him. She simply smiled, as if this was any other day and he was returning home from school.

"I want to talk to both of you."

Amy and Ephram glanced at each other in disbelief, they'd expected the teenager to lock himself in his room, yell at them, or even try to leave the house, but they never would've thought he'd actually want to speak with them after the events that had occured over the past three days.

Both adults nodded and moved to the living room where they sat on the love seat together, Will took the chair opposite them and waited a moment before speaking.

"I'm sorry for what happened at dinner, and I'm sorry for what I said to both of you and to Grandpa. I was really angry, and I sort of still am, I guess. There was a lot of stuff I was thinking about when I was walking around, and I know what I need to say now."

the tick of the clock on the mantle seemed to grow louder as the young man took a breath and continued.

"It's gonna take a while for me to get my head around everything, and to understand it. What I mean is, I want to forgive both of you, but I have to process everything first, and I don't know how long that's gonna take.My point is,I want you to know that I'm grateful for what you guys sacrificed a lot to make my life come out okay, and I have to thank you for that."

He'd said his peice, and he wanted their reaction, yet the couple sitting before him was speechles.

"We'd do it again in a second, I hope you know that." Ephram said after a moment.

"We love you, Will, and we're sorry that you had to find you this way." Amy added, but she didn't get up, nor did her husband, sensing that somthing else was looming on the tip of their son's tounge.

They were right. "There's something I need your help with, though. It's the only way that I'm going to be able to get on with my life."

At this point, Amy and Ephram Brown would've done anything to help Will forget about all the pain this situation had caused him.

"What is it?" Epharm asked, nearly afraid of the answer.

"I need to find her. I need to find my birth mother."