A/N: Here is a long awaited update, and I do apologize for the delay, certain life events got in the way. In the meantime, I did do a bit of extra work on a few of the past chapters if you lovely readers would like to go back and check those out. I also made sure to make this chapter a bit longer to make up for the delay. Thank you to aggiefrogger for the review on the previous chapter, and Lyla for the review on chapter 1. That said, onto the story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sing or any of the characters, Illumination does.

...

"We'll need to go shopping soon."

Johnny looked up from the book he was reading to see his grandmother standing in the doorway.

"What for?" he asked, climbing off his bed and walking over to her.

"Your new school things of course," Lucy answered with a smile as she wrapped an arm around Johnny's shoulders. "I know you won't be going back for a while, but I think it would be good to at least make sure you have everything. Just because you'll be starting later than your classmates doesn't mean you can't at least be ready."

"What d'you mean 'startin' later', Gran?" Johnny looked confused. "I'm startin' on Monday like everyone else."

"I wasn't sure if you'd be ready after-"

"Dad says it'd be good for me to get out the house and go back to school," Johnny smiled slightly. "Said it might keep my mind off things, you know?"

"Johnny, your mother's loss will take time to heal from," Lucy explained gently. "You don't have to feel like you're being forced to hide it."

"I'm not hiding anything," the infant frowned. "I still really miss Mum. Uncle Barry said I'm always going to. But I got Dad, Grandad, you, and Stan and Barry. And when I get back to school, I've got my mates James and Liam. I wanna go back to school, I like it and I like seein' my friends."

Lucy sighed. It was clear to her that Johnny was doing what he believed his father, who was always concerned with being seen as tough by the animals around him, wanted. It angered her to think that he would deliberately make his grieving child suppress his feelings just because he didn't want to deal with it.

Megan truly had made a mistake marrying Marcus Bennett and having a child with him. And now that she was gone, that poor child was left to suffer his father's unpredictability.

...

Stan and Barry exchanged slightly amused glances as their brother seemed to hurry through the last of his work before putting away the tools he'd been working with for the day.

"Wanna slow it down there, Marcus?" Stan teased. "Or are you just tryin' ta make the rest of us look bad?"

Marcus snorted in reply.

"You lot don't need any help from me to look bad," he smirked. "You do that all on your own."

Stan shook his head and rolled his eyes before wrinkling his nose.

The trio had worked on cars since they were boys, but to Stan the smell of oil and grease was still less than ideal.

"Guess Johnny's lookin' forward to this afternoon then?" Barry asked, not looking up from a particularly stubborn engine he'd spent the better part of the afternoon working on.

"Yeah, he is," Marcus gave a slight smile.

"Alright in here, gentlemen?"

All three gorillas turned to see their boss, a black bear by the name of Mason, nearly as tall as Marcus.

"Alright, just finishin' up here and then I'm heading out," Marcus answered.

"Glad I caught you then," Mason spoke. "One of the guys just called out and there's a client coming in to pick up their car in about an hour."

"We can handle that one," Stan piped up. "Can't we, Barry?"

Barry, who had just earned a splatter of oil all over the front of his chest for his troubles of finally fixing the engine, looked up and nodded as he slammed the car hood shut.

"Yeah, we could take of care of it, no problem," he said with more enthusiasm than he felt.

Both of the shorter gorillas knew Marcus would be able to handle it too. But truth be told, they both knew it would be better for everyone if Marcus returned home and spent the time with his infant.

Neither one could forget the heartbroken look in the little boy's eyes anytime they'd stopped in and seen his attempts at time with his father ignored. Johnny had always been a sweet kid and he certainly hadn't deserved the treatment he'd had to deal with.

Marcus had known that too, and both of his brothers knew that he wanted to make up for that. And he had every intention of doing so. Just as soon as he was able to clock out for the day.

"No," Mason shook his head. "I need you two for something else. Someone brought their car in, saying it was having engine trouble. Marcus can handle the other task."

He turned to Marcus, a grin on his face.

"Besides, at least this means some overtime for you, yeah?"

Marcus forced himself to nod before snatching up his tools and following his boss, ignoring the looks of sympathy from Stan and Barry.

"Right then, let's go 'ave a look at this other engine, Barry," he heard Stan murmur.

"Hope it's not as bad as the last one," Barry groaned.

As he stalked after the black bear, Marcus was unable to suppress a soft huff of frustration, which thankfully was drowned out by an indignant roar from Barry.

"Aw, bollocks!" his youngest brother screeched. "Who the hell puts this much brake fluid in their engine bay?!"

"What're you gonna do? Spills 'appen sometimes."

"Look at this! This wasn't no spill, the stupid sod practically POURED it in here! And I'm never gettin' this smell out of my fur!"

"Probably be an improvement!" Stan snickered.

Marcus snorted and shook his head as the remark drew a swear from Barry. But then just as quickly as it came, the mood passed and the silverback focused on his task.

After all, the sooner he finished, the sooner he could get back home to his son.

...

Lucy frowned as Johnny leaned against the windowsill, glancing out into the street.

Every now and again for the last hour, he would pull away from the spot, pace about the room for a moment or two, and then return to the window and resume his vigil.

Johnny had tried to delay supper, then his bath, and now bedtime.

"Dad'll be in any second," he insisted over and over. "He promised we'd do somethin' together today. I don't wanna keep 'im waitin' when he gets in."

Even when he had been fed, cleaned, and put into his pajamas, the four-year-old gorilla still tried to delay the nightly routine.

And now here he was, staring out the window in an attempt to get a glimpse of his father returning home.

Lucy felt her aggravation grow with each passing hour. It was now nearly eight, almost Johnny's bedtime and nearly four hours after Marcus had promised he would be home.

She could see in the child's eyes that he was becoming tired, but her efforts to coax him to bed had all been futile; Johnny was determined to stay awake until his father returned.

...

Johnny could feel sleep tugging at him, but he refused to let it win. He couldn't sleep yet. Dad still wasn't home.

He stepped away from the windowsill and moved to sit on the sofa.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of his dad's black pick-up pulling into the drive, followed a few moments later by the door slamming and the thud of his work boots on the pavement.

Gran was saying something, but her words faded out as Johnny's attention zeroed in on the front door.

As Johnny jumped to his feet and hurried over, Dad appeared in the doorway. When he saw Johnny, he opened his arms and the smaller gorilla didn't hesitate to run into them, grinning.

The embrace was warm, and his father's big, strong arms protective as they wrapped around Johnny's body. The world around the infant melted away as he squeezed back, not wanting the moment to end.

...

"Alright, we agreed you could stay up until your father came home. Now-"

Lucy's next words were lost as Marcus scooped Johnny up into a bear-hug and made his way over to the sofa, as though he didn't notice, or care, that she was there.

There was a look of contentment on Johnny's face as he, seemingly oblivious to her presence as well, snuggled further into his father's hold and laid his head against his shoulder.

"I bet you're tired," Marcus said, giving the boy a knowing smirk.

"Maybe," the boy muttered through a tiny yawn as his father snorted and shook his head. "I was waitin' for you to come back before I went to sleep. You promised we'd do something together."

Marcus grimaced slightly as his words from that morning came back to him, but Johnny was too tired, and too busy having his head rubbed, to notice.

"Marcus, you really should have-" a sigh exasperation escaped Lucy as she realized her son-in-law wasn't even listening.

"Well, tell you what...I'm taking tomorrow off, so we'll have all day together," Marcus was saying to Johnny, giving the child a slight nudge. "That work for you?"

The infant didn't speak, just barely gave a nod.

Then, as Johnny's eyelids became heavy and drooped and his breathing slowed, Marcus shifted the small frame in his arms so that Johnny was now nestled against his chest, and his expression became grave as his attention locked onto Lucy, as though just now realizing she was there.

"I appreciate you sticking around, but you can go now," he said, all traces of good humor now completely gone.

Lucy stiffened and opened her mouth to respond, only for Marcus to hold up a hand to silence her before continuing.

"I'm takin' tomorrow off, so you won't need to worry about coming here. Johnny'll be perfectly fine with me."

Before Lucy could offer a word of protest, Marcus lifted Johnny into his arms before nodding at the door.

Unable to summon any sound apart from a sigh of annoyance, particularly as Marcus was already walking down the hall, Lucy turned and left the house, determined not to let her son-in-law get away with this.

...

...

Alright, I hope everyone enjoyed that update. And I promise the next one will not take as long to come out as this one did. The next one will be out first thing on the morning of Friday, November 12th. Until then, everyone.