2017

A/N: First off, I would like to say "please don't hurt me!" I've been so busy with school and then I just haven't been able to stay up on the weekends (night-time is my favorite time to write) because I have just been so tired. So I am terribly sorry. On a completely random note, if you are a total sappy movie lover (don't pretend you aren't…you watch Secret Life for God's sake) you should go see The Vow. Like now. It is amazing. Now, on to the story we go!

"The only introduction to this story is a slight warning," Ricky began as he cleared his throat for his best imitation of a side-effects reader, "for anybody that gets stressed out really easily, is about to have a baby, is thinking about having a baby, or does not think the idea of a baby Em is something that is cute, yet terrible exhausting—these feelings do not display my feelings, by the way—please take this moment to go do something else. John Underwood, that does not mean you are your friends can go look at the thing parked in the driveway right now! That was supposed to be a joke! Haha! Sorry everyone else—now that we have that cleared up, let's just get on with the story."

John woke up pretty quickly that morning at his usual time. For about the past seven weeks, John had developed a very specific routine. This routine was not only used so John could keep his sanity—as his house had been a completely disaster scene since shewas born—but was also used to ensure that John steered clear from Emily as much as possible. The routine was simple: get up from bed, find some suitable clothes to wear—he would usually wear jeans and t-shirt—find something to eat for breakfast while both of his parents were upstairs, and then spend the rest of the morning until it was a suitable time to go to Mina or Tony's house reading in his bed. Since its only 7:00 now, Mom and Dad may not even be up yet. Maybe I could go downstairs now, but then I may have to see Mom and Dad and they didn't even ask about my game yesterday. And it was so important! John willed himself not to be angry at everyone in his family, for his grandpa had come to the game and watched him play. But, of course, Grandpa hadn't seemed to understand important of the game was.

After several minutes of contemplating what he wanted to do for breakfast, John decided that it would just be best to have some breakfast now. Taking the steps downstairs two-at-a-time—yet very, very quietly—John made his way down to the kitchen for a quiet breakfast; however, as John neared the kitchen, he began to hear the voice he dreaded most: Dad is up. Shoot.

"Here, come to Grandpa little girlie. She looks a lot like Amy doesn't she?" John's grandfather George asked. George, after things just got to crazy and complicated in California, decided that since Ricky, Amy, and John were happy in New York maybe he should try New England out as well, and ever since their wedding, he has lived no more than a two hour drive away.

"I know; she's gorgeous. Anne sent us some pictures of Amy when she was little, and Em is getting more and more alike to Ames. Except, Em already has hair and Amy didn't grow any 'till she was like twenty to twenty-two months," Ricky responded, laughing quietly as he handed Emily over.

"Yea, she's almost as cute as John was. Now thatwas one adorable little guy. By the way, where is my favorite grandson? I thought about checking to see if he is still asleep, but then I remembered that he likes to wake up early in the morning," George asked while he kissed Emily's forehead.

"John? I don't know where he is…Hey George? Can I talk to you about something? It's just that Amy and I have been really worried about him with the new baby and I've gone back to work and so Amy is still here all day—which is different for him because I'm usually the one picking him up and everything—and we just hope that he's doing ok. We haven't been able to talk much to him: we've both been so tired," Ricky started. So Dad doesn't even care how I did in the game! I was right: they don't care about me anymore. John had had enough Taking the steps two at a time—but just as quietly as before—as he rushed to get to his bedroom. Maybe I could move to Toby's house: he is one of my best friends. But maybe Mina's would be better—I've always been welcome at her house.

"Amy and I just want him to know that we still love him very much even though it may seem…" Ricky continued before he was cut off by George.

"Did you hear that?" George asked.

"Hear what?" Ricky answered, a look of exhaustion taking over his features as he watched Emily.

"I thought I—never mind. Look Ricky, you look completely exhausted, why don't you go back to bed? I can take of her for half an hour. And you could deserve some alone time, I would assume that the amount of alone time you and Amy have had these past weeks has been slim to none," George spoke as he gave a knowing smile.

"Yea, I think I may," yawn, "go back to sleep. I was up with her for a fair amount of the night," Ricky finished as he left the kitchen. He slowly trudged up the stairs, only to find Amy walking down the hallway. "Good morning gorgeous." He spoke softly, giving her a good morning hug and a loving kiss on the forehead, "Your dad said that he would be able to watch Em for a little while so the two of us could go back to sleep" Ricky finished, subconsciously moving his gaze from her face to her tank top and shorts that weren't giving much to the imagination.

"What are you staring at?" Amy questioned while she smirked at him.

"No…nothing. I wasn't staring at anything," Ricky said as he brought his gaze back up to her face.

"I don't think it was 'nothing', but I'll let it slide. Or," she lowered her voice (John's room is right there), "I could let your mind imagine a whole lot less than what it's imagining right now," Amy finished as she pulled the strings of Ricky's sweatpants towards their bedroom.

"Ricky!" Amy screeched, exasperatedly, "Why would you say something like that in front of all our guests?"

Ricky merely laughed in reply, "What you said was funny! That span of months was almost as bad as the pregnancy hormones* …" Ricky trailed off.

"Mom! Dad! Let's just get back to my part of the story! No one actually wants to hear about how much se…stuff you do," John covered for himself as he looked towards the two young children in close proximity and the other children throughout the yard.

Ricky and Amy both laughed this time before Ricky spoke, "Good save there bud, otherwise we may have had to have a talk about language."

"John is the one that needs a talking to? Because I would definitely say you are the one thatneeds a talking to," Amy returned as she began to flirt openly again.

"Really? Because you…" A smirk grew.

"Parents!" John interjected.

"Right, back to the story…"

Only a few feet from where his parents had been standing, John was frantically packing all the necessities: Underwear? Check! Shirts and Jeans? Check! Books? Check! My favorite blanket? My favorite pillow? Mr. Snuggle? Check, check, and check! Now I just need to go to the bathroom, get my toothbrush, and then I can finally go live with Mina!

After John believed that everything of necessity was packed in his duffel bag, John sent it out his window to be picked up once he got outside. His parents and Grandpa—unsurprisingly in his view—assumed that he was still asleep as he quietly headed down the stairs and out the door. Although George had thought he heard the door close, he thought nothing of it.

"We are now handing the rest of this part of the story to Emily Kennish, who is a very close friend of ours," Amy said as she beaconed to Emily.

"Well, hi everyone. I'm Emily Kennish and I'm Mina's mom—I'm sure you all know who Mina is—and I'm here to talk about the second part of this story. And Mina, you can just be thankful that your mam and pop are smarter than your mom and dad; otherwise, we would be doing this same thing for you. And all of your most embarrassing stories would have to be told," Emily Kennish said in a believable tone and Mina visibly blushed.

"Here here! I'm all for that idea!" John whistled as his Mam began the second part of the story.

"I can't believe that they said 'your mam and pop' in front of everyone," Mina whispered towards John.

"Min, don't pretend that you don't call my mom and dad 'Mam and Pop' everyday. I know I call your parents that. We have ever since we were little, it's ok," John said as he gave Mina a bit of a smirk.

After taking the subway by himself (Mom and Dad do say that I'm mature for my age), John found himself in the Kennish apartment in the city at no later than 8:00 A.M. To put things bluntly, the house was the definition of chaos. Kyle, Mina's older brother by twelve years—Mina's parents were also teenagers in California when they had their first child: this is thought by some to be the reason the four parents have such a special connection with one another—was in town from college and was currently sleeping on the couch; Ella, the youngest addition to the Kennish family, was reeking havoc in the living room (which included sed couch); Adam, the loud middle child, looked like he was about to create World War III in the kitchen; and Mina, the quiet middle child, was no where to be found. Now this is home.

John quickly marched upstairs to Mina's room to avoid having to talk to all the Kennish family members on the first floor and found her reading the book he had recommended to her.

After hearing his entrance, Mina looked up from her reading, "Hi there. Is there a reason you are here at 8:00?" She spoke in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I've decided I'm going to live with you from now on," John returned the tone.

Mina paused for a moment before looking at the top-bunk above her bunk, "I guess your sleepover bed can just become your permanent sleeping spot, since there isn't any other bed in the house. Did you see Kyle? He's back from college for the summer! Isn't that exciting! And by the way, this book you recommended me isn't very good," With a friend at home, Mina started to transform into her usual bubbly, talkative self.

"Why isn't it good? It's my favorite! And yea, I saw Kyle. He was passed out on the couch. Where is Mam and Pop?" John asked after he plopped down onto Mina's bed with her.

"Dad is on a business trip and won't be back until tomorrow night: Mom is at the grocery store. I think she put Kyle in charge, but then he told me to do something quiet and to control his other 'bad-word' siblings and so I just let them take over the first floor and I came up here to read. Is it bad down there? I don't want Kyle in trouble before he even has a chance to find some new thing that is creepy about New York."

"It's not awful," Mina gave him a knowing look, "Ok, it's bad. Has Pop gotten mad at him yet?"

"No, but we all know he is about to pop." They both began to laugh (in a very eight year old way) at the pun when Ella began to cry in the background, "I better go check on her. Look you make yourself comfy on your bed and then I can get you something to eat. Do you want cereal?" Mina asked in her naturally motherly way.

"No, just some milk would be good."

"The rest of the afternoon went by smoothly and Mam/Mom/Emily Kennish had believed the story that Kyle had told her about John: Ricky had dropped him off before he ran off to his office to pick something up and that he said that John was welcome to stay for dinner. The reply that followed said that John was welcome for as long as he likes. However, when dinner had come and gone and there was no sign that John was being picked up tonight, Emily began to worry.

"John, when are your Mom and Dad coming to pick you up? Usually you aren't allowed to stay over on a school night," Emily asked with the best voice of concern she could find.

"Well…uhh," John began.

"I think that Ricky also said it would be fine if John wanted to stay over tonight, and I'm sure he does," Kyle interjected.

"Oh, ok I guess," Emily spoke in a defeated tone.

About an hour after every young child had had their various showers, baths, stories, and kisses, Emily got a very frightened call. "Hello?"

"Em, this is me—Amy rather. Have you seen John? He went missing this morning and all his favorite stuff is gone and we can't seem to find him and we looked everywhere," Amy sounded as though she was in tears, if not very close to them.

The phone shifted, but tears were still heard, "yea, we noticed he was gone at about 8:30 when he hadn't come down for breakfast yet. We just assumed," sniffle, "that he would have just been upstairs reading or something," sniffle, "and we just don't know what to do. I mean, after twelve hours in New York," sniffle, "there is a pretty likely chance he could," sniffle," be dea," Emily heard what sounded like a choked up sob coming from next to Ricky, which is why she assumed he rephrased: "he could be anywhere. So just—have you seen him?"

Emily was in a slight state of shock. Did my three eldest children—well I guess two eldest and one almost-child—lie to me? I can't believe this! "I don't know what to say."

"So you haven't seen him? Shit. And you," choked up sob, "haven't seen him all day? He wasn't ever at your house?" Ricky asked, sounding very close to hysterics rather than tranquility.

I shouldn't have said that, they got the wrong message. "No, I didn't mean to say that. Look, John is here. At my house. He has been since pretty early this morning. I guess I should have called you when Kyle said that you [Ricky] had said it was cool for John to sleep over tonight—even though it is a school night—but I guess I just trusted what Kyle was saying. But yea, John's been over here all day. He seemed a little…distant. Something was definitely bothering him," Emily finished and she could hear two very loud sighs of relief as the phone was exchanged again.

"OMG thank you so much! You don't understand how freaked out we were. We thought we had lost him and both of us had been out looking for him all day. Oh, thank you so much! We are going to come and get him right now…God, you don't understand how freaked out," Amy began to ramble but was cut off abruptly.

"Actually, as a matter of fact, Dave and I both do. When Mina was born, Kyle got really upset that we were so focused on the new baby—and he was twelve and a little bit better and creating a plan than John is—and so he ran away to my sister's house. In California. He stole some money to buy a bus ticket, and he stopped in a couple of places and he hid in his cousins' room there for about a week and a half. God, we thought that he had been kidnapped or something. In fact, my parents had to come in and take care of Mina because we were both so worried about him. That was definitely the most frightening experience of my life. I guess when you were a teenage parent and then you have a child a few years after that you sort of just forget about how important that first child is to you. So—this is not to prolong your suffering—with that said, I would just let him sleep here tonight. One, he is already asleep; and two, he just wants you to remind yourself that you love him and that he is still important to you. I will tell him that you two were incredibly worried and you can come pick him up from our house tomorrow afternoon. Would that be ok? I think both parties could use some time alone."

A very pregnant pause passed before Ricky spoke up, "Ok. I'll come get him after work tomorrow. Just," slight sniffle, "tell him that we love him? Please?"

"Of course I will."

"And that ladies and gentlemen, is my side of the story of when John ran away," Emily Kennish bowed sarcastically and few select people—including all of her immediate family and all the immediate Underwood family—clapped quite obnoxiously.

"I remember that Amy and I didn't sleep at all that night. We were so upset that he had run away from home. And after that, both of us tried to spend as much time as possible that George had to remind us that we had another child as well and that he had to get back home." Ricky smiled towards George who laughed somewhat loudly.

"Yea, that night is definitely tied for number one on the list of 'Most Scary Experiences I've Had as A Mother' with Leo's birth. But that, ladies and gentlemen, is a story for a couple of years from now."

A/N: I made a little reference to Episode 2x01 ("The Big One") which shouldn't be too difficult to find (if you didn't find it already). Also, since I have no school tomorrow (or today really) because it's President's Day (Thank Baby Jesus!) I will have some time to work on my Outtakes From The Graduation Present, which will now have the reception, the birth of Emily, and a short drabble about a little reference I made (see *). I'm super excited. I'm planning on writing the short drabble and the birth of Emily first, but I want to make it in chronological order, so the story may not be up for a little while; however, you should expect it up sometime tomorrow. Also, any other requests for that set of little oneshots please let me know! Thank you for reading!