Bianca looked at a clock. It was 2 o'clock in the morning.

The dream had left her with a certainty that she knew where AJ was. She reached for her phone, and then she remembered her sister had taken it.

She thought of waking Kendall, but something stopped her. What if she was wrong? What if it turned out to be just a dream?

Bianca realised her only option was to investigate for herself.

She strapped on her leg brace with care and reached for her crutches. As she struggled to her feet once more pain shot through her shoulder, she dropped her left crutch and regained her balance using just her right.

She had done it before, hopped around the house using just one crutch. She had never crossed any great distance but she didn't have a choice. She had to find AJ. She couldn't let Marissa go through a second more heart break. Bianca knew all too well the pain of losing a child.

She pulled on a coat over her pyjamas and headed to the door.

…

The taxi dropped her off in the driveway and she asked the driver the wait. The great white columned porch towered over her in the moon light, it had been a long time since she had been near the home she and Marissa had bought for their family.

Bianca followed the gravel path alongside the house; her movement were very ungainly using only one crutch and trying hard not to bend her braced leg in order to protect her swollen joints.

She had wondered if AJ had come to the house the moment he had disappeared and had called the architect, asking her to check. Apparently the builders who were completing the alterations had searched the house and the pool house top to bottom. There was no sign of AJ and Bianca's thoughts had moved on to all the other possibilities were he might have run to.

The dream had brought back to Bianca the memory of another part of the house that AJ had become very attached to that maybe they hadn't searched. She just knew she couldn't rest until she had checked it out for herself.

She struggled with care across the lawn to the swing set at the foot of the garden, the full moon casting long shadows in front of her. Bianca almost laughed with delight at the sight of an erratic flashlight beam shining like a beacon from the window of the tree house just beyond.

She hurried forward, no longer thinking of anything but AJ.

…

Bianca stood at the bottom of the tree, looking up a ladder she had no hope of climbing. It was upsetting to think of AJ so close and yet unreachable.

"AJ!" she called up to the tree house.

The flashlight snapped off.

"AJ, its Bianca. Please come down, We've all been so worried about you!"

There was silence from the top of the ladder.

"AJ I can't come up and get you. But I am going to wait on this bench until you are ready to talk."

Silence.

Bianca moved to the nearby bench, in clear view of the tree house, and waited.

It didn't take long before a she saw AJ's face peering at her cautiously over the edge of the tree house window.

She gave him an encouraging smile which she hoped he could see in the moonlight.

"It's okay AJ." She said, in a reassuring tone.

AJ's head disappeared for the longest time, and then gingerly reappeared.

"I'm not leaving until you talk to me AJ." said Bianca a little more firmly.

AJ ducked down again.

Bianca waited.

AJ peered over the window ledge again. Bianca smiled back.

It was a standoff and in the end AJ admitted defeat.

He climbed down the ladder, his head hung in shame as he walked toward her.

When their eyes met it was like a dam had broken. AJ burst into tears and threw his arms around her.

"I'm soooo sooorrryyy!" he sobbed.

Bianca, crying her own tears, hugged him back.

AJ wept against her chest, seemingly inconsolable. She was alarmed at how cold he felt in her arms. She pulled off her coat and wrapped it around him, hugging him tighter as much to warm him as to comfort him. She planted a kiss onto the top of his head, so thankful to find him safe.

"Am I in trouble?" he asked sorrowfully, when his tears were all spent.

"No." she whispered back. "I'm just so glad you're safe. The whole town has been so worried."

"I'm sorry." He said again in a quiet little voice.

"I think I need to get you home." said Bianca, imagining Marissa's relief at knowing her son was safe.

AJ just clung to her tighter.

"I don't want to go."

"AJ do you have any idea how much you hurt your mommy running away like this. She has been worried sick about you." said Bianca, "Don't you want her to know that you are safe."

"Daddy will be mad at me."

"Your daddy will just be so relieved to see you I promise he won't be cross."

AJ looked at her with sceptical eyes.

"AJ, you can't stay here."

"Can I go home with you?" he asked, tears brimming in his eyes once more. "Mommy can come too."

"Oh buddy, I wish you could come and stay with me but it just isn't possible right now. You have a go home to your mommy and daddy."

AJ flinched when she mentioned his father.

"Look, what if I promised to hold your hand and not let your daddy be mad at you?"

"Can you do that?"

"I will do my very best." said Bianca truthfully.

AJ bit his lip and then slowly nodded his head. He would let her take him home.

Bianca got awkwardly to her feet.

"Are you okay?" AJ asked.

"I'm a little stiff that's all." said Bianca.

"You can lean on me if you like." said AJ, once again becoming the considerate little boy that Bianca had come to know and love.

Bianca put her hand on his shoulder and side by side the headed back across the moonlit lawn to the waiting cab.

…

Bianca borrowed the cab driver's cell phone to call ahead. When the cab pulled in outside the Chandler Mansion everyone was waiting on the doorstep. Despite his earlier apprehension AJ practically leaped from the car into his mother's arms.

It seemed the world suddenly moved in slow motion as Bianca watched Marissa fall to her knees, released from all worry now that her son was in her arms. She covered him with joyful kisses. JR fell to his knees beside them encompassing them both in a hug of his own. Everyone was crying.

Marissa looked back to Bianca and mouthed the words,

"Thank you!"

Bianca smiled back; happy mother and son were reunited once more.

Scott put a hand on her arm.

"Are you alright?"

Bianca turned to him confused.

"Bianca I think you should sit down." said Stuart, taking her other arm.

Bianca could see the concern in his eyes.

"Someone find her a chair!" called Brooke.

"Bianca!" gasped Marissa.

They were all staring at her with worried eyes; even AJ; even JR.

Bianca looked down following their gaze. That's when she noticed the red blood soaking through the left leg of her pale pyjamas.

…