Hyde woke to the sound of pounding in his head.

When he opened his eyes and sat up, he realized the pounding was going on over his head. To be more specific, it was coming from the kitchen upstairs. Who the hell was running up and down the kitchen and living room at ten in the morning?!

Groaning and shoving his sunglasses on, Hyde trumped up the stairs and entered the kitchen to find a frantic Kitty Forman.

"Steven!" she cried without greeting. "Is Eric with you?"

"No, why? he asked groggily, not bothering to quip that it was obvious Eric was not with him.

"He didn't come home last night. His bed is still made and he's missing."

Hyde was instantly wide awake. Panic drifted into the edges of his thoughts, as he remembered Eric's erratic behavior the night before. All that was visible was the raised eyebrows that emerged from behind the sunglasses.

The sliding glass door opened and Red appeared. Steven wondered if that was fear that flashed across Mr. Forman's face.

"Anything?"

"No. I drove everywhere, not a sign of him. Steven, you're up. Good. Come on, we're going back out there. Maybe you'll know where the dumbass went."

The curt tone and name calling was doing a poor job of masking Red's worry.

"Red, you've been out there for over almost an hour now. If you haven't found him yourself, I think its time we called the police," Kitty said quietly, tears forming in her eyes.

The head of the Forman household stood there for a moment, then sighed.

"Steven," he said. "Do you remember what Eric was wearing last time you saw him?"

"Uh…" Hyde thought back. "Brown pants, belt, and that button up shirt."

"Oh that's right," Kitty agreed. "The colored plaid shirt."

Red nodded as he dialed the kitchen phone. He only had to wait a moment before he was saying, "Yes, hello Officer. This is Red Forman. My son Eric is missing."

...

Eric awoke feeling more refreshed than he had in a long time. He had slept hard all through the day, not stirring even once- it was that rare kind rest that ended with a feeling of heaviness, from having been immobile so long. That, coupled with a pattern of blanket imprints on his skin, gave him a feeling of satisfaction. He hadn't even taken his shoes off or emptied his pockets before tumbling into bed the previous night. Or was it the previous morning? A look at his watch told him it was close to six in the evening. He had slept for twelve hours.

And since he couldn't recall his last meal, it was probably time for the next one.

A quick walk down the block found Eric at a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant, where he ordered some food and sat alone, finally coming to grips with what he had done.

He ran away from home. Successfully. He was in a totally different state.

"Wait a minute. I'm in a totally different state!"

Regret once again crept into his emotions. Kitty always woke up no later than 9:30, and when he didn't come down for breakfast, she probably sent Red up there to drag him down. He could see his mother's panic when they finally realized that he wasn't home. He could see her horror when Red searched high and low over Point Place and found no trace of their son. He wondered whether or not Red would be truly worried. But perhaps most of all, the young runaway felt bad that he'd left Hyde there alone, after making his friend believe that he was just going out on a stroll. Hyde liked to pretend he was impervious to sentiment or emotions, but he didn't react well to people leaving him out of the blue. Who could blame him?

Eric looked down at his plate and finished off the last of his hamburger and fries, then paid and left.

Now what?

He hated to admit it, but this whole situation suddenly seemed very stupid. He was alone in a strange city, with limited funds and no plan. During the whole trip to Chicago he repeatedly turned over the answers to the why and the where. He never once thought about what or how.

For how long was he staying? How would he go about using this city to the fullest? If he stayed for too long, he would have to get a job to support himself, which didn't bother him, but where would he work?

He was jarred from his worries as a young man with long hair skateboarded past him, almost knocking Eric over.

"Hey, wake up, Mick Jagger!" the guy called in annoyance without stopping to look back.

Eric just stood there in confusion. Had the guy just called him Mick Jagger?

"Its because you're skinny," a new voice called.

The Point Place teen looked around until his eyes rested on a young couple, both with cigarettes in hand. They looked to be about two or three years older than him; the young woman was the speaker.

"What?" he managed to ask as he stepped out of the way of more oncoming pedestrian traffic.

"You're skinny like Mick Jagger. That's why he called you that. You looked confused."

"Oh…." he wasn't sure if he should be offended or flattered. He opted for flattered. "Thanks, I guess."

He looked up and saw that they were standing in front of a record store. Fliers for upcoming concerts, big and small, were hanging up in the window.

He could tell that the couple was watching him curiously.

"Hey man, you on something? Not that I'm judging, but you probably shouldn't be walking around outside," the guy called. He was dressed very similarly to Eric in modern street clothes, but he wore a fringed suede jacket, the likes of which Eric had only seen in movies and TV.

"I…uh…sorry…"

Without another word, he continued on his way. The concerned couple watched him turn and walk further down the street, tightening his shoulders and shoving his hands into his pockets.

It was still early in the evening when he got back to his hotel room. Eric kicked himself for his stupidity. What the hell had he been thinking coming here alone?

His parents were probably losing their minds with worry. Well, not Red, but Kitty definitely.

"I should call them..."

But despite his regret, he didn't feel so guilty as to head back home. Regardless of his doubts on whether or not he was right to come to Chicago, he felt deep down that he was right to leave Point Place.

Still, his parents deserved to know that he was alive.

Eric picked up his room phone and slowly dialed the number. Sucking in a deep breath, he steadied himself for whatever fresh hell this was going to be.

"Here we go…" he said to the empty room.

...

Police officers had been coming and going all day. Point Place isn't too large of a town, and within hours it had been scoured from the reservoir to the water tower, to the park. No stone was unturned, and yet there was no sign of Eric.

"Is there any reason that your would have for running away?" an officer had asked Kitty some time in the early afternoon.

"Run away? Do seventeen year olds run away?" Kitty had asked in frustration.

Since Hyde was the last person to see Eric before he disappeared, the cops repeatedly asked him the same questions over and over:

"How did he look before you two parted?"

"I don't know, he looked stressed. He'd just had a fight with his ex or something."

"So he was distressed?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Enough to resort to...drastic measures?"

This question sent Kitty into hysterics, and made Red and Hyde both bristle in anger.

"No. He was just going for a walk. Then he was supposed to come home."

"The last time you saw him was on the street in this neighborhood."

"For the hundredth time, yeah. That was the last time."

After an hour of this questioning, the officers had no more information than they'd started with.

By the time five o'clock had rolled around, the officer in charge was standing to leave. "I'll make some calls to other districts tonight. Tomorrow we'll widen the search. But if we haven't found anything by this point, it might be smart to bring in a detective who is familiar with kidnappings. Foul play might have been involved.

"Oh my god," Kitty wailed.

"I'll get in touch with you tomorrow morning. Be sure not to tie up the phone lines. Your son might call, or someone with information on his whereabouts."

With that, the officer bade them goodnight.

"A fat lotta good that does us!" Red said angrily. "Damn cops work for hours, and nothing!"

But noticing Kitty's distress, he moved to give her a hug. "Don't worry, Kitty. Everything's going to be fine."

"You're right," Kitty sniffed. "We need to stay positive."

"That's right."

"I need to bake a cake."

Red sighed and watched as his wife began bustling about the kitchen, but said nothing, knowing that it was how she dealt with stress.

...

Kitty was starting the crust for a second pie when the phone rang. Red and Steven's heads shot up just as Kitty lunged for the little machine, almost ripping the thing out of the wall.

"Hello?" she said urgently.

"Mom?"

"Eric!" she cried out as tears of joy sprang to her eyes. Red and Steven stood and came closer. "Oh honey where are you? Are you alright? What happened?"

"Calm down, Mom," Eric said gently. "I'm fine. I'm sorry for scaring you."

"Where are you?" she asked again.

"I'm…uh….I'm out of town. I'm in a hotel."

The vague answers made his mother nervous. "Eric is someone with you? Is someone making you say these things?" (She'd seen it on TV once, and the idea of her son being held by some maniac was too much.)

"No! Mom, I promise. I'm ok."

"Where is he-" Red began to ask, but he was cut off by a strong shush from his wife.

"I just needed to get away for a while. I had a lot on my mind."

"When are you coming home?" Kitty asked, reigning in her anger that Eric had worried them over seemingly nothing. "Eric if this is about Donna-"

"It isn't about Donna, ok? And I… don't know when I'm coming home."

Anger finally triumphed over relief. "You put us through all of that worry and frustration, because you 'had a lot on your mind,' and you won't tell me where you are or when you're coming back? Eric Forman, you tell me what's going on right now!"

Red reached out for the phone and took it before his wife started getting hysterical again. "Eric?"

"Dad?"

"Are you really ok?"

"Yeah Dad, I…I'm fine."

"Then what the hell is wrong with you?!" he started ranting. "Do you know how much you've upset your mother? We called the police! Steven and I spent hours out looking for you. I swear I will put my foot so far up your ass-"

"Dad," Eric interrupted quietly. Red was stopped by the small plea. Eric always rode out the lectures; rarely ever did he stop them in the middle. Also, the tone of Eric's voice was soft, yet emphatic. There was a small amount of force (or desperation, Red couldn't tell) that had never been in Eric's speech before.

"Dad, remember when you told me that you came out of Korea a different person than you were when you went in, and how even though Grandma and Grandpa were mad that you joined the army without their permission…even though you saw some bad things…you didn't regret it because it made you who you are now?"

Without waiting for Red to answer, he continued.

"This is just something I have to do."

The eldest Forman was shocked at his son's explanation, but oddly, he understood perfectly.

"Tell mom I'm sorry for scaring her, and that I love her."

"When are you coming home?"

Eric was clearly surprised at how well Red was taking this. He hadn't expected him to understand.

"I'm not sure. But definitely before school starts in September, I promise."

"Where are you?"

Eric paused, then said, "Out of state." Red frowned but didn't push it.

"Take care of yourself, son."

"I will Dad. And thanks….is Hyde there?"

Red handed the phone off to Hyde, then went to comfort a distraught Kitty.

"Forman, man, where are you?"

"Hey Hyde. Sorry for running off like that. I didn't think I was going to be doing anything but walking until I talked to you."

"So what happened?"

"Hyde, you can't tell anyone. Not even my parents, ok?"

"Just spill it, Forman," Hyde said, glad that his friend was alright, but mad that he ran out without explanation.

"I'm in Chicago."

"Why?"

"I just…I needed to get away from everything, and I thought, 'what's the complete opposite of Point Place?' Chicago."

"Fair enough. When are you coming home?"

"Not sure. But before school starts."

Hyde didn't even know to acknowledge his feelings as a mixture of relief and hurt, so he pushed the feelings away entirely. "Take care of yourself, Forman."

"You too, Hyde. And I really am sorry."

With that, the phone call ended, with everyone involved, on both ends of the line, going off to bed. No sleep would be had, because everyone would be too busy digesting their mixed feelings of guilt, sadness, and anger.

Eric laid back and flipped on the TV, then proceeded to ignore an hour's worth of Bonanza reruns.

...

The sun had already been down for a while by the time Eric felt up to going out. Once again, he had no idea what he was doing, but he knew that if he sat in his hotel room long enough, he was either going to chicken out and head back to Point Place, or he was going to go insane thinking about Donna. He still couldn't get her out of his head.

Chicago was a lot like any city in the sense that it didn't ever seem to quiet down or sleep; Eric knew that much from previous visits. What he'd never realized was that the city not only stayed awake when the sun went down, it seemed to come alive with a new energy. More people were out on the sidewalk than he'd seen all day, and traffic sounds and lights were only intensified in the dark and the quiet.

Guilt had plagued him since hanging up on the phone call to his family, though he did feel better that they knew he wasn't dead or kidnapped or something.

He passed a bar, then backtracked and decided to go in. But he paused in the doorway and stepped back out into the street, indecisive.

Realizing they'd probably want some sort of ID, Eric turned away and headed back in the direction he came from. Hyde was the one who always supplied the fake ID when they'd go out for a drink…but then again, Hyde could lie. Eric was a terrible liar. No, better not risk it.

Just as he was beginning to feel particularly depressed, he looked up and saw the tip of the Sears Tower, just a couple of blocks away. The sight of the tower had excited him when he'd seen it the night before, and the youngest Forman had to admit- it sort of gave him chills even now.

He was the last person in the door before visitor hours ended for the night, much to the annoyance of the people who admitted him. Eric boarded an elevator and rode it all the way to Floor 103, where he exited the elevator and stepped into the skydeck.

The view was incredible.

Lights flashed from every angle. The splendor of the city was magnified, and breathtaking from this high up. Eric felt that he'd be able to see every thing and every one. He was in the tallest building in the world. And crazily enough, he was pretty sure he could feel the building ever so slightly swaying in the wind.

As he stared out over Chicago, Eric smiled to himself. He remembered how Point Place had looked from the water tower, and how lame, how dim, how primitive it seemed in comparison to this.

That pressure began to build in his chest once more, but this time, it was a pleasant feeling. It wasn't stress or sadness or anger, but a nice cocktail of adrenaline and dopamine.

He was in the highest building in the world, in the best city of the midwest.

He had gotten himself there.

Even if he didn't know what to do, he could do anything he wanted.

Eric wanted to jump off the top of the building, then run through the city until there were holes in his shoes. For the first time since he'd arrived, he truly felt that he could do anything.

The world was his.

Leaving the Tower, Eric ran down the street, past his hotel, past the record store.

Where to? He didn't know. But that was the best thing about it.

He was, for the first time in over a year, truly alive.

...

a/n: hey everyone! thanks for being so patient. things will start picking up soon, both in the story and in updates. (reviews help me write, they really do!)