~ 100 Days ~

Sunlight filtered through the curtains, brushing lightly against her face to rouse her from her rest. Her eyes barely cracked open, her mind begging her to go back to sleep, even if it was just for five minutes.

Sleep. What a joke.

Sleep was a thing of the past. How could she sleep when her baby boy was somewhere out there with no-one to protect him? They had no leads. No suspects. No significant evidence. They had been labeled as suspects, thoroughly interrogated and investigated, and cleared again, but the police were still doing their best to pin Henry's disappearance on them.

Days had turned to weeks, which had turned to months. Every day felt like they were just going through the motions of living, hoping that that day would be the day when someone burst into the room and yelled that they had found Henry.

But that moment never came.

JJ had never been religious, not even as a child. But every night since Henry had vanished, she had prayed through tears for the safe return of her firstborn. Every day was just a repeat of the last, and she felt like she was in a constant daze. While Will spent the hours making phone calls, meeting with investigators, doing everything he thought possible to try and find some shred of evidence as to what happened, she spent the hours watching Michael grow up without his brother. She had tried to throw herself into helping Will, and at first, she had wholeheartedly been behind him. But as the days wore on, the heartache grew even worse. They were still in Spain, but their little boy could've been anywhere. Despite canvassing efforts at all European airports, JJ knew how easy it was to change a child's appearance, put together fake documents, and smuggle them out of the country. She herself had seen firsthand how easy it was for criminals to keep children hidden even within the same country… and the freedom of movement across borders within the European Union was definitely not going to work to their advantage.

Rolling onto her back, JJ turned her head towards Will's side of the bed. It was empty, as it was every morning. Will hardly slept, and when he did, he came to bed after JJ and got up before the sun.

She looked back towards the ceiling, letting out a heavy breath as her eyes itched with exhaustion, her body ached with pain.

One hundred days. It had been one hundred days since that awful night that so horribly felt like yesterday. They had been the worst one hundred days of her life. Her heart ached non-stop, but she had to keep functioning for the little boy they still had. Even when it felt like she was going to crack in two from the pain.

Michael's cries began to echo through the little apartment, forcing JJ into action. She slowly pulled herself up from the bed, her joints aching as she moved across the cold tiled floor. The t-shirt she had slept in hung off her thin frame, reminding her how much weight she had lost since their ordeal had started.

"Mama, mama, mama," Michael babbled through his tears as he sat up in his crib when she walked into the room. Reaching in, JJ lifted him out, cuddling him close to her as she carried him out into the kitchen to fix him a bottle. It hadn't taken long for her to lose the ability to breastfeed after Henry had gone missing. The stress had done a complete number on her body.

In the kitchen and dining area, she found Will sitting motionless at the table, poring over notes. He looked up as she came in, absently reaching out to take Michael while she set about making a bottle.

"You get any sleep?" Will asked as JJ pulled the tin of formula towards her and grabbed a clean bottle off the dish drainer. She shrugged, popping the lid off the tin. A couple of minutes later, she was taking Michael back out of Will's arms, carrying him silently over to the couch to feed him.

Will waited until she was situated and Michael was settled with his bottle before turning to face her in his chair.

"JJ… I… I think it's time we go back home"

JJ snapped her head up to look at him, her eyes wide and bright as her heart pounded in her chest. "What? Why?"

"We're not getting any closer. We're driving ourselves into the ground. Every day we spend here, I feel like I'm winding myself tighter and tighter around the same pole. We're just… not getting anywhere"

"I'm not leaving him," JJ said in a tear filled whisper. "This is the last place we were with our son… I can't… I can't just go back without him"

Will swallowed hard, getting up from his chair and crossing the room. Slowly, he knelt down in front of JJ, bringing a hand to Michael's downy little head.

"Going home doesn't mean we give up. It means we get a new perspective… it means we fight to find Henry from the familiarity of our own surroundings," he said gently. "We don't have Henry right now… but we still have Michael. And he needs us to be the best parents we can be for him right now… and right now, I think what Michael deserves is for us to be back home with our family, with the people who can help us"

Tears tracked down JJ's cheeks as she clutched Michael even closer. "What does Henry deserve?"

"He deserves for us to fight to bring him home," Will said in a thick voice. "And I just don't think we can keep that fight going from here anymore. He's not getting the investigation he deserves"

Closing her eyes, JJ nodded once.

As much as it killed her to do it, she knew Will was right. Here, they were viewed as suspects. Here, they weren't getting the help and support they needed to find their son. At home, they would be with their loved ones who would bring the full force of every authority imaginable to locate Henry. At home, Michael would grow and learn as he deserved to.

Her heart ached at the thought of getting on a plane and leaving Spain, leaving the last place she had seen her precious first born. But her husband was right.

It was time to go home.