The flight to London had never seemed longer and she had never been more grateful to have been on the BE jet. If she'd had to contend with a commercial plane, with the crying babies and annoying passengers, she might have ended up in jail. All she could think about was her son.

As she leaned back in the seat of the car, she glanced at her cell. It was on, just as it had been the other fifty times she'd checked. It simply hadn't rang….probably because there was no news. No news was good news, she reminded herself—but not today. Not today when she would have given anything for news.

The door opened quickly. "Kevin," she breathed. "Anything? Have you heard anything?"

"No. Not yet, but I'm sure we will, Kel."

She took a shaky breath, walking past the door and handing her bag to Nevil who stood off to the side. "Thank you," she whispered as he headed up the stairs.

"Come on inside. I'll get you a drink." Kevin recognized the worry on her face. It was the same worry that had plagued him for the last 28 hours, 18 of which he'd spent wondering if he should call her.

"Water," she said softly, as she sat down on the sofa. "What the hell happened?"

He turned, handing her the glass and taking a seat beside her. "I don't know exactly. He was at school all week. He hadn't called, but that wasn't unusual…you know that."

Kelly nodded, forcing herself to take a small sip from the glass. Her throat immediately rejected the liquid and she swallowed several times, forcing it down. She hadn't eaten anything since Kevin's call. The thought of her son out there somewhere…upset and angry….and worst of all…alone.

"Anyway, he was coming home for the weekend. Friday night he showed up and he was just really quiet, but I didn't think a whole lot of it. He went upstairs and said he had to work on some stuff for school. When he didn't come down for dinner, I went up there to talk to him and he said he didn't want to talk to me."

Kelly took a deep breath. "I knew we should have told him. I knew it. I can't imagine what he must be thinking right now…to have found out that the man he thought was his father all of his life is really his grandfather….to know that his mother slept his father and his grandfather…not to mention his uncle…we can't forget about that." She paced quickly, back and forth in front of him.

"Don't do that, Kelly. You and I both know that we did what we thought was best for him. We were just trying to protect him."

"Well, we did a hell of a job didn't we? Where is he? Is he safe? Is he protected? We don't have a clue!" She threw the class across the room shuddering slightly as the shards of glass exploded against the stone fireplace. She looked back at Kevin, who stood behind her.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'll get it." She moved towards the fireplace, bending to pick up one of the largest pieces.

"Don't." Kevin knelt down beside her. "It's ok."

Kelly turned her head towards him, her eyes pleading. "What are we supposed to do, Kevin? How do we fix this?"

"I wish to God I knew," he whispered, pulling her closer to him.

"Tell me what he said." Her voice was soft, but still shaky as she slowly pinched bits of bread off the slice and pushed them across her plate.

"Kel, I really don't think that's important right now. What's important right now is that we find him and bring him home."

"I have a right to know what happened, Kevin. I'm his mother."

"I know, but I just think it's best if we focus on…"

"Tell me what he said!" she screamed, stopping suddenly and placing her hands flat on the table. "I'm sorry…I didn't mean to yell."

"It's ok. I just don't think it's going to be easy for you to hear. He was really upset and really, really angry. He said things that he didn't mean and…" Kevin looked at her. She wasn't going to let this go. Kelly never let anything go. That was one of the things he loved about her…when she wanted something, she went for it and nothing made her back down….no matter what.

"Just tell me, Kevin. I'm going to find out sooner or later."

"He said that…."

The knock on the door startled him and both were on their feet almost immediately.

"God, Zane." Kelly threw her arms around him as Kevin opened the door to reveal Zane, an officer, and a social worker standing there.

Kelly pulled Zane inside as Kevin spoke with the officer and social worker outside.

"Thank you. Thank you so much," Kevin responded, stepping inside and closing the door. He watched the officer walked away and took the social workers coat for her.

Zane stood silently.

Kevin reached out, pulling the boy close to him. "We are so glad you ok. We were scared to death." He put his hands on his shoulders. "Don't you ever do anything like that again."

"And you can say that, right? Cause you're my Dad, right?" Zane scoffed and turned away. "I'm going upstairs."

"Zane," Kelly called to him. "Listen to me. We were worried about you. We didn't know where you were or what could have happened to you. We understand that you're upset and you have every right to be, but that doesn't excuse running away and not telling anybody."

"Just leave me alone." Zane pulled away and headed upstairs.

Kelly moved to head upstairs behind, but Kevin stopped her.

"Just let him go," he said softly.

"Why don't we go have a seat and talk?," the social worker asked quietly, as she looked back and forth between Kevin and Kelly.

The two nodded and headed into the living room.

"So what do you suggest Ms. Ryan," Kevin asked, handing her a cup of tea. "We just want to help Zane get through this as best he can?"

Ms. Ryan looked at him intently. "If you don't mind my asking, what exactly is the nature of your relationship?" She looked over at Kelly.

"Our relationship?" Kelly asked, looking over at Kevin. "Kevin and I are friends….good friends…really good friends."

"Friends?" Ms. Ryan, repeated, writing a note in her book.

"Well, I mean we used to be married, but that didn't work out and now she's kind of seeing my brother, but I don't know if that's serious or not." Kevin looked over at Kelly for confirmation.

"It's not really serious yet. We're taking it slow."

"You're dating his brother?" Ms. Ryan's eyebrows raised as her pen froze on the page.

"Well, yes." Kelly responded. "It's not like I just started dating him though. We were dating first….actually we were married first two, but that didn't work out."

"So you were married to Mr. Buchanan's brother and then you divorced and married Mr. Buchanan and then the two of you divorced and now you're dating Mr. Buchanan's brother again?"

Kevin looked over at Kelly. "Well, when you say it like that it does sound kind of confusing, but really it's not..it's ok. It took some time, but we're all ok now."

Ms. Ryan nodded, and smiled slightly. "Glad to hear it. But," she continued writing, "the situation with Zane isn't related to Mr. Buchanan's brother, correct? This is about Mr. Buchanan's son."

Kelly looked down. "Right, Duke is Zane's biological father, but he passed away before Zane was born."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Ms. Ryan responded. "Ms. Cramer, forgive me for saying so, but have you considered how your unstable relationships may have impacted Zane?"

"Wait a minute," Kevin responded, stepping over to Kelly quickly. "Kelly's been great with Zane. She loves him and she's always been here for him. When Kelly found out she was pregnant with Zane and she told me about it, I was a complete ass. She was willing to take complete responsibility for it…she was going to do it all on her own. Zane has always been the most important thing to her."

"Well, actions say otherwise," Ms. Ryan repeated, standing. "I think I've seen everything I need to see."

"You might think you have," Kevin said, stepping in front of her, "but you haven't heard everything I've got to say yet and you're not leaving her until you do." He paused for a moment, taking a step back. "At least I hope you won't leave until I can give you the full story."

Ms. Ryan sighed. "Alright. Let's hear it, Mr. Buchanan."

Kelly took a seat on the couch beside Kevin.

"I can't thank you enough for all those things you said about me tonight with that social worker," she whispered.

"You don't need to thank me, Kelly," he whispered, placing his arm around her.

"Yes I do," she smiled. "You made me sound incredible and I'll never be able to repay you for that."

Kevin stared at her for a moment. "I didn't need to make you sound incredible, Kelly. You are incredible and those weren't just things I said…they were true. I believe every single thing I said here tonight. You are all those things."

Kelly blinked as she looked at him. She had never seen him so sincere. "I'm not all those things, Kevin," she said softly. "I've ruined everything. That lady is right. My life has probably ruined Zane's. He's never going to have a normal teenage life. His childhood wasn't normal. His life won't be normal."

"What's so great about normal?" Kevin smiled.

Kelly laughed a little. "True." She looked back at him. "You could always do that, you know?"

"What?"

"Make me laugh…even when there was absolutely nothing to laugh about. When the entire world looks like it's falling apart, you can always manage to make me smile. How do you always know exactly what to do and exactly what to say?"

"I don't know," Kevin responded. "I guess you just make it really easy. And," he touched her face, softly, "That smile of yours is a pretty big incentive."

The warmth of his fingertips on her skin reminded her of a moment just like this one. A night many, many years ago—when the circumstances where different, but the feelings were the same. There had been a fire in the fireplace. There had been another man waiting for her and there had been every reason for it not to happen, but the man sitting in front of her, his lips merely inches away from her own, was the only reason she needed to make all the other reasons go away.

She'd never craved stability anyway.