A/N I do not own John McBain or any of the other OLTL characters. All others are my own creation. Please don't sue cause I am broke and have nothing to be sued for anyway.

Chapter 6

John made his way down to the small area under the underpass where Shelly's parents said her would be. "Shelly?" he called when he didn't see anyone around. Noticing an earring on the ground he bent down and picked it up. Looking at it he knew that Shelly had been there. She had been wearing these earrings when she had run out of the house.

Taking out his phone he called Gerald hoping she had gone home. When he found out she hadn't he asked for her friend Christina's address. If anyone would know where she was it would be her. After looking around a bit more he headed over to Christina's

Knocking on the door John waited for an answer. He had never met Christina before but he figured he would be able to recognize her. Worried and more concerned then he wanted to admit he was relieved when the door swung open. A young woman about 5'8" tall with reddish blond hair stepped out. She was rail thin and had a ready smile. "Can I help you?'"

"Are you Christina?" John asked her and when she nodded he said, "My name is John McBain. I'm looking for Shelly. Do you know where she is?"

Chris looked at the handsome man in front of her and nodded getting a chill down her spine. She knew that this the man Shelly had told her about and it was a bit surreal that he should be standing right in front of her right now. "I haven't seen her since school. Why? What's the matter? Did something happen?"

John sighed, disappointed and more worried now then ever. "She, ahh, got some up setting news and ran off." He told her. "Do you know where she might go?"

"What news?" Chris demanded, "Shelly is the strongest person I know. What could she have possibly found out that she would run away from it?"

John hesitated to tell her. This really was a family matter and he didn't feel right about telling. "I really can't say but if you have any idea where she might have gone I would really appreciate it." He ran a hand through his hair looking both nervous and determined.

"Look if it's as bad as you say it is and you were a part of it she won't talk to you." Chris said, "I think I should go with you to look for her. Have you been to the underpass about a mile out of town? She goes there some times."

John sighed and agreed, knowing that this might be the only way to get through to Shelly. He wasn't sure she would even talk to him but he needed to make sure she was ok this looked like the only way that he could be sure to know.

3 hours later John pulled into the Falk's driveway with Christina, no closer to finding Shelly then when he first started. It was as if she had dropped of the face of the planet. Even her boyfriend Herbie said he hadn't seen her, though he wasn't sure if he believed him. There was something about the younger man that made him pause and take a closer look. His instincts telling him that there was more to him that met the eye and not all of it good. But there wasn't a whole lot he could do to make the younger man talk.

The fact that Shelly disappeared from sight said two things to John, one she was really upset about this adoption thing and two that she was really good at going underground and that she would make a hell of a FBI agent when she got older. Neither thought was very pleasing to him at the moment.

Parking the car in the driveway John and Christina made their way into the house. Christina wanted to have a look at Shelly's room hoping it would give her a clue where her best friend went. Christina was really worried about Shelly though she tried not to show it. She knew that Shelly would never just run off unless something huge had happened, something that she couldn't handle. And after what had happened with Herbie the other day she was worried that it was something to do with him. No matter what John McBain said Christina knew that Shelly wouldn't just run off and hide because she got some bad news. She would want to be alone with her thoughts for a little while and then confront the issue head on.

John followed Christina up to Shelly's room and watched as she looked around. She was looking for something specific. He watched as Christina opened drawers and looked under the mattress, obviously she wasn't finding what she was looking for. When she went to the corner of the room next to the closet and pulled back the carpet to reveal a hole in the floor he had to ask, "Just what are you looking for?"

Shelly reached her hand into the 8 inch square hole in the floor and felt around for the notebook she prayed was in there. Feeling nothing she cursed in frustration. Shelly had been back and she had taken her dream journal. "You said Shelly just took off and didn't take anything with her?"

"Yeah, she umm, heard something that really upset her and ran out the door." John explained.

"She's been back, then." Christina said and Anna gasped from the doorway.

"How we have been here the whole time we would have seen her. How could she have gotten in with out us seeing her?" Anna said tearfully.

"The roof," both John and Christina said at the same time. They looked at each other and shared a slight smile. They both knew that Shelly snuck out of the house by using the roof.

"The roof?" Gerald questioned.

Christina sighed and said, "Sometimes Shelly would...have a bad dream and need to get out of the house so she would climb out the window and jump off the roof and go for a run."

Looking at John both of the Falks asked, "How did you know that she used the roof?"

John looked down, feeling guilty that he hadn't said anything to them when he had caught Shelly sneaking out, "I, uh, caught her sneaking out the other night. I didn't think it was my place to say anything."

Gerald was mad and blurted out incredulously, "Your sister is climbing off the roof to sneak out and you don't think that you should say anything? What the hell sense does that make?"

"What?" A trio of voices said together. Looking behind him John saw that David and Jerry, Shelly's adopted brothers were standing there looking shocked. They were looking at Mr. and Mrs. Falk like they were strangers. "His sister? What the hell does that mean?" Jerry asked.

Sighing Mr. and Mrs. Falk explained to them that Shelly was adopted and that apparently that adoption had been illegal and that John was in fact Shelly's biological brother. They seemed to take the news pretty well and when the explanation was finished they wanted to know, "So where is Shelly now?"

This is where John decided to jump in, "We don't know. She doesn't know about me but she does know she is adopted. She ran out when we told her."

"Its about more then that." Christina said for the first time since the brothers came in. John looked at her sharply while Gerald asked, "What do you mean?"

"She took her journal, some clothes, and all of her cd's along with her cd player." Christina said as if that should explain everything. When everyone continued to look at her in confusion she sighed and wondered how well they even knew Shelly. "She's not coming back. She wouldn't take her journal unless she was leaving for a while. And she took clothes and her all of her cd's, not just a few she took them all." Christina explained. "She wouldn't do that unless she wasn't planning on coming back for a while."

"So she got really up set and ran away. That's what you're saying?" John asked confused. From what he had noticed and read about Shelly that wasn't like her at all.

"No, what I am saying is that something else is going on here and that we need to find her, and fast." Christina said urgently. She knew her friend and the only way she would just run away was if she was trying to protect someone she loved or if she was in serious trouble.

Two days later John and the Falk's still hadn't heard a word from Shelly. John was following up on some leads that he had gotten from his FBI contacts and thought he was on to something. A woman fitting Shelly's description had stopped at a rundown motel in PA, 20 miles from the PA/NY border and John was on his way there to check it out.

John walked into the manager's office and flashed his badge. Showing the manager a picture of Shelly he asked if she was there. He was told she was there and directed to room 23. So he went, when he got there he knocked on the door.