A/N: Alright, I rewatched the latest episode, Missing, and apparently this is going to have to be a little AU. I'll pretend the first scene never happens, and this just takes place in between Spring Broken and Missing.

Chapter 2

After his sister left for the airport, Justin was…elated. He had expected at least some family members to object to his decision. True, Tommy laughed at him, but that was for a split second when he didn't think Kevin was serious. He knew his mother and Kevin would be supportive. Like Tommy had reacted, Justin feared that Sarah would think he was nuts, so her reaction had definitely been a boost to his fragile ego. All who was left was Kitty, and he was then sure that she would get behind him also.

"This is really good, Mom," Justin complimented as he dug into his huge bowl of elbow macaroni and cheese. He was sitting at the kitchen island with his niece, nephew and mother, and all were enjoying the meal.

Cooper, who didn't notice the bits of orange pasta stuck to his chin, nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Grandma, it's yummy."

"Aw, thanks," Nora replied, then shook her head and went for her grandson's chin with her napkin. "Cooper, turn this way and let me clean you up."

Cooper whined, "But I'm not done yet!" At Nora's insistent look, he turned his chin toward her anyway.

After some silence, Paige spoke up, "I'm glad you're feeling better, Uncle Justin."

"What made you think I wasn't feeling well?" Justin asked in confusion. While he'd been an emotional mess when he'd stayed at Sarah's, he'd tried hard not to let his distress show in front of his niece and nephew.

"Well, when you moved in, Mom said you were because you were too sad to be alone in your apartment," Paige explained.

At that, Justin paused, not sure how to take his sister's explanation. While he didn't think just "sad" was an appropriate word to cover everything he was going through, he had to acknowledge that there was no better way to explain it to a child. And Sarah had to give some explanation for why he was there, especially with Tommy already sleeping on the couch. "Oh," he finally replied, while his mother sat next to him in silence, touched by Paige's words. "I…I guess she was right. Thanks, Paige, I am much better now."

"That's good," Paige continued. "And I'm glad Uncle Tommy decided to stay in Mexico. He looked like he needed a vacation."

Oh. Crap.

Justin almost choked on his macaroni..

Meanwhile, Nora sat there in shock as she worked out her granddaughter's words in her head. "Oh…my…God. Tommy's on the lam!" she whispered when it clicked.

Alarm bells were going off in Justin's head. Get out of the room. Get out of the room now. Don't just stand there you idiot, run!

But his protective instinct took over and he began to rush the kids out of the room instead. "Hey, guys, why don't you finish your dinner upstairs?" he urged as he pulled them off their stools and shoved their bowls of macaroni in their hands.

"What does 'on the lam' mean?" Cooper asked. "And Grandma says we're not allowed to eat upstairs!"

Justin chose to ignore Cooper's first question and instead answered, "It's just for this one time, okay? Grandma and I really need to talk about something."

"Is it because I said Uncle Tommy was in Mexico?" Paige replied, concern in her voice. "I'm sorry, it's just that I heard you and Mommy talking…"

"No, no, everything's fine…but get out of here," Justin urged, as if the place might explode. The comparison wasn't far from truth given his mother's verging temper.

The kids rushed from the room, confused but generally uncaring about the situation, much to Justin's relief. Once they were gone, he took a few deep, calming breaths as he gathered all his courage to face his mother. Alone.

"Well, now that you've 'cleared the area,'" Nora remarked with sarcasm at Justin's perhaps exaggerated precautions. "I'd like an explanation."

After he'd let out one final deep breath, Justin turned around. His mother stood next to the island, her arms crossed. Her face registered a mixture of emotions…anger, disappointment, but mostly concern. Justin knew that while of course she would be angry at Tommy for being so incredibly stupid, he also knew that she would be worried for his physical and emotional well-being.

And that was why Justin was furious at Tommy also. How could his older brother do this, and only leave a couple of notes to excuse his total abandonment of his family and responsibilities?

"He said he was going to take the plea," Justin began. He paused to swallow, to push down the swelling emotions of anger and remorse. "We believed him. The next morning, by the time we went to wake him up, he'd already left."

There was silence, then Nora asked, "Do you have any idea where he could be?"

"No idea, he hasn't been calling," Justin answered. "Kevin said he'd ask around, see who of Tommy's friends might have vacation houses in Mexico. We don't think he'd leave Mexico, but it's a possibility. He has his passport."

"'So you, Kevin…who else knew before I did?" Nora asked as her anger at not being told shifted to the forefront of her emotions.

Uh oh, Justin thought. He'd been hoping, somewhat selfishly, that she would direct her anger at absentee Tommy. "Sarah…and Kitty…" he mumbled. Kitty had stopped by Sarah's during the week to find her three remaining siblings in chaos.

"You all knew?" Nora shrieked, a loud exclamation that made Justin's eyes widen in surprise. "First you don't tell me about Tommy's legal troubles, and now this? I am not a child! I do not need to be shielded from the hardships in this family, do you understand?"

Justin could do nothing else but straighten up and answer, "Yes, ma'am."

"Grandma?"

Thank God, Justin thought at Paige's interruption. He watched in amazement as Nora managed to control her anger and turn to her granddaughter. "Yes, sweetie?" she asked.

Paige stepped into the kitchen with trepidation, her and Cooper's empty bowls in her hands. Even the eleven-year-old noticed the remarkable amount of tenseness in the air. "Cooper and I are done with dinner, and were wondering if we could set up the Wii in the living room."

While it was clear that Nora had no idea what "setting up the Wii" entailed, she took the bowls from Paige and nodded. "Yes, just be careful."

"Are you and Uncle Justin going to play with us?" Paige asked.

Justin knew he could get past the tense moment and play some video games, but he had no idea about his mother's emotional state right then. He wasn't surprised when Nora simply replied, "We'll see. Maybe later."

Disappointed, Paige nodded and left.

When his mother went to put the kids' dinner bowls in the dishwasher, Justin waited for her to finish and continue their discussion from before. But after the dishes had been rinsed off and put in the dishwasher, and she still didn't say anything, he took it as his cue to escape. "I-I'm…I'm going to go watch the kids," he explained as he moved toward the door. She paused at the sink, the only sign she was listening. "Y-you know…video game systems have those wires, so…yeah."

And he left.

Kitty pulled up to the front of her mother's house and parked. When the car had been turned off, she put her head on the steering wheel and sighed, already exhausted at the mere thought of the emotional mayhem that was going on in that house.

While normally on Friday nights she would be with Robert, she had gotten an emergency text from Justin shortly after dinner:

MOM KNOWS

HELP!

COME ASAP!

It was hard to ignore a text like that.

Of course Kitty knew what he meant. Somehow her mother found out that Tommy had gone on the lam.

Crap.

She knew the moment had to come eventually. Kitty had just been hoping it was when she was far, far away. Like another country.

Kitty winced at the thought. That was a little tasteless, wasn't it?

Of course Robert had rolled his eyes at the family drama, but insisted that she go. Kitty had been hesitant since she wanted to stay with Evan, and didn't want to drive at night with him. Robert suggested that she leave him with Evan, to give them some father-son bonding time. Though Kitty was reluctant to leave her baby, she had to admit to herself that Robert could definitely benefit from some alone time with his son.

So here she was, about to go into a war zone while her husband, who was still recovering from a heart attack, attempted to take care of her baby. Great.

This had to be the quickest rescue mission in the history of family rescue missions.

After one more deep sigh, Kitty grabbed her purse and got out of the car. Before she could walk up to the house, however, she saw Kevin running from his parking spot across the street. "Hey, sis," he said as he hugged her in greeting. "I take it you got the APB?"

"Yup. Robert's watching the baby. I'm a nervous wreck," Kitty admitted.

"Well, if it's any comfort," Kevin said as they began to walk up to the front door. "Soon enough you'll be too wrapped up in emotional drama to even worry about Robert."

Kitty gave a half-hearted laugh. "That's supposed to be comforting?"

"It's what I could come up with. I'll think of something better when I'm tuning Mom out. You know, that time when her voice gets too high pitched and only dogs can hear her," Kevin joked.

Though he was kidding, Kitty winced in anticipation. She knew what he was talking about. They all did. "Looking forward to it," she replied.

Then she gathered her courage and rang the doorbell.

Justin opened it a second later. "You're here! You're really here!" he exclaimed, then gave his sister a bone-crushing hug.

"Whoa, hey Justin, glad to see you too," Kitty replied as she glanced sideways at Kevin, who had a look of dread on his face. If Justin was like this, it must be bad.

When Justin finally let her go, Kitty put her hands on his shoulders and asked, "What's going on? How's she taking it?"

"I don't know!" Justin explained. "She's giving me the freeze out! She hasn't spoken a word to me since she found out!"

Kevin put a hand to his forehead. "Oh boy. The silent treatment. That's bad."

"I know!" Justin exclaimed, near-panic.

"How did this happen?" Kitty asked, in an attempt to grasp the situation. Her mother responded to different crisis in different ways If they could figure out what was going on in her head, they had a shot.

"Your favorite niece and mine, Paige," Justin replied, resentment in his voice. "The little blabbermouth spilled it at dinner. After the kids went upstairs, I told her what happened and she went on this rant about how we can't protect her from every bad thing that happens. Paige interrupted, and Mom…didn't pick up where she left off."

After a second, Kevin said, "Oh yeah, I forgot Sarah had that conference this weekend."

"Lucky bitch," Kitty muttered. Kevin and Justin nodded in agreement. "So, what's going on now?"

Justin sighed. "The kids brought over their Nintendo Wii and I helped set it up, and we started playing. They asked Mom to play and…she's been making up excuses to do chores around the house ever since. It's like she doesn't even want to be in the same room with me."

"Don't worry, brother, we're here for you," Kevin said as he put a reassuring hand on Justin's shoulder.

Justin let out deep, steadying breaths. "That's good, that's good."

"Relax. Mom's just in shock right now. She's going to be fine," Kitty tried to assure him. Before they could accuse her of lying through her teeth, Kitty braced herself and headed into the house. "Come on, let's get this over with."