A/N: WOW. Yeah, hold the shocked stares for a second; I know I haven't updated in MONTHS. And I really don't have a reasonable excuse, except I crossed paths with an unmotivated muse and nearly drowned in my own laziness. So, here I am again. BIG thanks to Susangel, 'cause she pulled me out of a big empty hole called my mind a few weeks back.

In other news, did y'all hear? Yessir, Jared Padalecki and Sandy McCoy are officially engaged, so applause, applause for the almost married.

So, enjoy, 'cause I don't know how much more of this story I'll be writing.

"What'd he say?" The light from the old lamp on the table illuminated his wife's hair, giving it more yellow in the color, and drowning out the white-blond.

"He's at Caleb's." She took a second as he leaned in the doorway, gathering her thoughts. "Did he say anything about staying out tonight?"

"Not that I remember. But it's our son; he's been known to do things like this in the past." He gave a small huff of amusement. Meredith looked up at him from her chair, her brow crinkled as she still sat thinking. "What? What else did Tyler say?"

"He said that Reid told them we were going out tonight. So he told us he wouldn't be coming home." If it hadn't been so dark in that part of the mansion, if the lamp's light had been a little bit brighter, she would have seen her husband's face turn to rage. But she didn't.

"Huh... Well, we'll talk to him about it tomorrow. We need to get some sleep to, Meredith." He watched her stand, old chair creaking, shadows lining her face. "Like I said, its not like Reid hasn't snuck out or lied to us before. We know how to deal with him." Its not like anyone in this house hasn't lied before.

"Yeah, we'll talk tomorrow. Come up to bed when you're done down here." She yawned and headed down the hall to the stairs.

Joseph's eyes followed her, making sure he heard the master bedroom door shut, and turned down the other hall to the front doors.

Ding dong.

Ding dong.

Ding dong ding dong ding dong.

Well, that was enough to wake anyone up. That, and another bout of Reid's retching in a garbage can eight inches from your head.

Ding dong.

Ding do-

"Caleb?" Reid's voice was rougher and deeper than when he'd heard it before he'd gone to sleep. "You gonna get that?"

For a second, he only replied in a low groan. But then he felt a real response was needed. "Yeah. I'll be back in a second. Don't go anywhere." Except, he didn't have to worry, because Reid was once again getting acquainted with the bottom of the can.

Ding dong.

Ding dong ding dong ding dong di-

"What?" He threw open the door, the arm he had slept one really disagreeing with him.

"What? Could you be any slower?" Oh. Tyler. Wait-

"Could I be any slow- What? What are you doing here? You probably woke my mother up!" he hissed through his teeth. It was still raining out, but he really wasn't in the mood for bringing a wet Tyler who had just interrupted his sleep inside for a chat.

"I need to talk to Reid." Yes, because that was a logical thing to do at three in the morning.

"Tyler, I told you to go back to the dorms. He's fine here."

"No, Caleb, just let me talk to him."

"No, Tyler. He's sick, it late, and-"

"I don't care, just let me talk to him!" He's not going to do it, no, he wouldn't dare- oh, he would.

"Okay, don't you pull the 'I'm the youngest, fulfill my requests' look. Its not gonna work. Why do you need to talk to him right now, anyway?"

"I just need to talk to him. I was at the dorms and-- Can I come in? Its getting kind of cold out here."

Caleb sighed. The look was so working.

"Now, what were you saying about the dorms?" They were sitting at the kitchen, sitting across from each other, staring into the tired eyes of one another.

"I talked to Meredith. Back at our room."

"You what?"

"She called me asking for Reid. She said he was supposed to come home, but he hadn't, so they were getting worried." Caleb stared back at Tyler as he emphasized every word, trying to get the point across.

"I thought Reid said they were going out tonight."

"He lied. Meredith and Joseph are both home. She said she had no idea where he got that." Caleb sighed and leaned back in his chair. Tyler mimicked the action, except leaning forward, across the table. "Something's up, Caleb."

He looked up when his Brother stopped talking, meeting Tyler's gaze. "Like what? Reid lies all the time. He's just puking while he does it this time."

"Not to me, he doesn't." Tyler's blue-eyed gaze stared back at him intently.

Caleb leaned forward, back in his original position. "Do you have any idea what's going on? I mean, yeah, he's been acting weird this week, but..."

"No. He hasn't said anything about it to me."

"Can we cut the lying, Ty? You were with him the night before he got sick." He watched Tyler's eyes shift away for a second, to somewhere over his shoulder, before returning to Caleb's. "Come to think of it, you guys are always together." He said it like it hadn't been that way all their lives, and gave Tyler an mock expectant look.

"Can we cut the sarcasm, Caleb? I'm just saying, something's not right. He was pretty beat up when I found him at--" Tyler clamped a hand over his mouth, eyes going wide like a kid who just told everybody about the surprise party. Come to think of it, he had done that before...

"Thank you! You've always had that problem with lying to your Brothers, Tyler." He was rewarded with a cold glare for his quiet victory shout. "Just tell me what happened that night."

He listened to the story, trying to take it all in, pay attention, and still keep Tyler on track, because the kid could have told you about every drop of rain out there, he was just that big on details and that easily distracted.

"Do you know if he was in a fight before then?" he asked when it was all over.

"Don't think so. We all saw him at school before he left for home. Besides, a fights never worth it to him if he has to go home to his mother just after." They both left out a huff of laughter.

"That woman coddles him too much." He tried to meet Tyler's gaze again, but it was once again held somewhere over his shoulder. "Ty, I'm worried, too, but we need to wait for Reid. Or at least until he can get a sentence out without his stomach coming up too."

"I know. I just..."

"Yeah."

"If something was wrong, he'd tell us, right? That's what we've always done."

"Yeah... Well, I mean, he'd tell you, at least." He smirked. "The you'd just blurt it out to Pogue and I later."

"That's not funny," his Brother said, even though he was grinning. Tyler paused for a second. "Can I at least see him? I know he's okay here, I just wanna check up on him, you know?"

Caleb knew. "Yeah. Just no talking, okay? He's probably not coherent enough for a police investigation from his best friend."

They headed up the stairs, soft breathes floating through the door to his mother's room told Caleb she was indeed asleep. He led the way down the hall a bit farther to Reid's room and opened the door.

"What?..." Caleb's makeshift bed was still on the floor a few feet from the door, exactly as he'd left it. But Reid's bed seemed almost stripped, sheets hanging off the sides and blankets on the floor on the opposite side of the bed. The opposite side where Reid had gotten out... where the window was wide open, rain pounding in the opening, soaking everything in its path.

Caleb heard Tyler give a small gasp as they headed to window, stepping over the wet bedspread and floor.

"Caleb." They were staring down, their heads poking outside, the dark ground looking right back.

"Yeah, Ty." He turned his head, trying to get different angles to see the yard below. Nothing. "Reid!" Heavy rain answered his call. "Reid!"

"Caleb, he's gone."

"Yeah." He stepped back in the room, wiping a hand down his wet face, Tyler's wide eyes staring back through the dark.

"Caleb, we--"

"Here." He gave Tyler his cell phone from the nightstand, already stepping over the mess on the floor to the stairs again. "Call Pogue. We all need to talk, and, and we need to look for Reid. Do you know where he would've gone?" He turned to Tyler before they headed out the front door.

"Caleb, he's sick! He shouldn't have been going anywhere!"

"I know that! We just need to--"

"Can we talk about this somewhere else? Like in the car, looking?"

Caleb huffed. He just needed to calm down... Reid was there a few minutes ago, he couldn't have gone far. Well, he could've, because Caleb was trying to stop Tyler from barging in the room and trying to get him to talk the whole time, so he could've just ran right then and--

"Caleb! Move your ass!" Tyler was hanging up the phone without a goodbye to Pogue. How long had he been freaking out? "Hey! Caleb, he's out there right now!"

"Yeah, I know!" They headed out to his car, Tyler was telling him something about meeting up with Pogue later, but Caleb was trying to tone down the blood pounding in his ears.

"Caleb?" They were almost out of the driveway, getting ready to floor it down the road.

"What?" he asked, turning onto the street. Tyler slammed back slightly in the seat with an "oomph".

"Do youstillthink Reid would tell us if something was up?"

Caleb turned his head, once again meeting his Brother's bright gaze. "We all lie sometimes."

A/N: Okay... so, I don't know about this one. I kind of had less actual content, it seemed like to me. It went from Tyler freaking out and Caleb calm, to total opposite. Tell me what you think, reviews are love!