Chapter Twenty

Claire screamed, clutching John's arm to her chest as the Matterhorn ride gave a sudden drop.

John chuckled, amused that she could be scared of such a silly ride. "Why are you screaming?" He laughed, remembering the car wreck he'd been in a few years back after he, Sid, and Dominic had stolen a car when they were high.

Claire looked up at him as the ride came to a stop. "It's scary." She stated, unbuckling her safety belt. "How are you not afraid on any of these?"

He shrugged, tucking his hands into his pockets as he noticed the families staring at his bare arms. "Not sure." He looked down at her a small smile on his lips. "Maybe it was the car wreck."

Claire stopped dead in her tracks, looking between her boyfriend and the rest of the group. "You were in a car wreck?"

Kaylie nodded, remembering how she, Jim, Tyler and Sam had to pull the three idiots from the car before they caught on fire. "They were high."

"Really high." Dominic breathed, remembering the incredible feeling he could never feel again. "What were we on, again?" He asked looking up at his cousin.

John cocked an eyebrow, knowing exactly what Dominic was thinking. "It was blow. And we are not doing that shit again." He pointed to the scar on his collar bone. "That shit was god awful and my nose still burns when I sneeze."

Dominic chuckled, pushing one of his nostrils closed. "You just didn't grind it right and got too many chunks and not enough powder."

John opened his mouth as if to speak but stopped when Amelia started pulling on his shirt hem. "Can we go see Peter Pan now?" She asked, letting him lift her into the air. "I wanna ride the tea cups too."

He smirked, placing the girl on his shoulders. "Did you know I once defeated a pirate?" He asked, taking Claire's hand as they started toward the Neverland part of the park.

"I wanna hear that story!" Amelia squealed, bouncing on his shoulders.

He winced as her weight pulled on the muscles in his shoulders and neck, noticing for the first time just how bad his pain could get when he was tired and had been jostled around all day. "Alright, but you gotta sit still for a minute." He cleared his throat, thinking up a good opening line for the story. "I was walking along the beach on lake Michigan, when all of a sudden I saw a huge pirate ship on the horizon."

Clarissa shook her head, listening to the story that John seemed to spin out of thin air. "He's something else." She looked between the four other moms, happy that they'd made this decision to help these children. "They all are."

Jan smiled, watching the fourteen kids ahead of them. "It's a real shame that they had to live through what they did."

Mary nodded, remembering how out of it John had been when they'd pulled him off of Brian -who he'd mistaken for a threat to Amelia in his drugged mind. "They're tougher than anyone thought."

Kathrine nudged Tyler forward, trying desperately to keep the group together. "I just hope they can all make something out of their lives."

Ryan Reynolds patted her shoulder, keeping a close eye on the burners, to make sure nothing was wrong with the ones that were suffering from side effects of stronger drugs. "I think they will." His eyes flitted over to Dominic, who seemed to be falling behind the others. "They've all got good hearts in there. They're just not really sure how to show them yet."

Thomas followed Ryan's gaze, noticing Dominic's odd behavior as well. "Think we should check on him?"

Ryan shook his head, keeping careful watch on the teen. "We'll see how he's doing after we get some food into them, they're all a little hungry." He nodded to John, knowing that John still didn't have much of an appetite. "Even old Johnny boy over there's gotta be a little hungry."

The adults all laughed at that, knowing that John was starting to get his appetite back after months of hardly eating anything. "At least he doesn't throw it all up anymore." Vernon chuckled, not knowing that John had just become really skilled at hiding his nausea from them all.

Clarissa nodded, happy that John wasn't miserable anymore (or so she thought). "I'm just happy that he doesn't get seizures as much." She remembered the first few weeks after the withdrawals and how John's frail body would bounce around for what seemed like hours, though it was only minutes. "Those were the worst of it."

The other adults nodded, remembering how most of them used to have nightmares about John's life being taken from them too soon. "That boy is a true fighter." Mary smiled, taking Clarissa's hand as they entered 'Neverland.' "You all are."