When we walked in, I started to move around a lot, so Dad put me down. I ran up to Grandpa, and yelled "Grandpa!" and I gave him a huge hug.
"How's my brave little boy? You know, what you did, some of my finest men might not have been able to do. You knew the situation was dangerous, and contacted your uncle and got you out of there safely." I understood the tone of guilt in his voice. I knew that because he and Pop, took Sean and Jack, that he felt responsible for what happened and that if I had gotten hurt, it would have been on him. I was skeptical that I would have been safe either way.
"Yeah, I know Grandpa. But, what would have happened if they had taken me somewhere, and you guys couldn't find me?" I was getting more shook up about it after the fact then I was at the house.
"Oh Joseph, don't you worry about what might have happened. You're here now, and that's all that matters."
I stopped for a minute, and looked up with tears in my eyes. "But what if next time, I'm not? What if next time I get taken, and you guys can't find me? What if I'm not here for Sunday Dinner?"
He bent down and wiped the tears out of my eyes. "Trust me, Joseph. No one that is sitting at that dinner table is going to let that happen," He looked back to the table in the dining room and motioned to everyone setting it. "If you were gone for Sunday dinner, I think we all would, because we would be looking for you. We wouldn't rest until you were found and back home safe. You remember when Sean got knocked off his bike and was in a coma? And you remember how your father was acting when he was told about that. If he was ever told you had been kidnapped, he might be put on leave because he wouldn't let anything happen to you." I was too young and naive to know what everyone meant my dad would have been suspended or gone on "leave". I figured out, that they meant he would lose his temper, and do something stupid like Dad normally did when working on cases.