This story was a wonderful prompt given to me on by the lovely LeaDegrande. Thank you so much for this idea I have really enjoyed writing it and I hope that you and everyone else reading this enjoy it too. Sorry, it too me so long to actually get it posted.
The call came in at what must have been almost midnight. Owen had been busy sleeping of a long and tiring 24 hour shift and at first it had just been so tempting to ignore the call and stay asleep.
But for the last eight years of his life he had lived with this sinking feeling in his stomach that every call would be the call he was dreading.
See Eight years ago completely out of the blue his wife had left and taken his son with her. Owen hadn't seen it come. Well he had seen his wife leaving him coming, he and Gwen were on a one way trip to divorce, but her leaving the way she did and taking their son with her. That had definitely not been something he had seen.
Gwen had made one phone call to him after her departure, to tell him they were alive but that she couldn't take living with him anymore and she had to leave. She had taken TK with her because she felt he needed more attention Owen could ever give him. Something that had only proven to confuse Owen as she had been distant with their youngest son since he was almost three.
Gwen had left him with their eldest son though, Judd. Just fifteen at the time and more than a little confused about what was going on with his mother.
Owen had been left to pick up the pieces while trying to search for the son that had been taken from him.
There had been nothing the police could do for him to track Gwen down. She was an adult and she had made contact with him. She was alive and doing well by all looks of things and they wouldn't do much to help as Tk was with his mother.
Owen had hired private investigator after private investigator to try and find his son but none of them had found anything concrete over the last eight years.
And as more time past Owen had started to lose hope that they would ever find him, he hated himself a little for it but he couldn't live forever holding onto that tiny string of hope that they would find him when they hadn't gotten any closer in over eight years. It would destroy him.
But there was always this worry that a phone call would come telling him son was dead, TK the first one he worried about but the worry that it would be about his reckless eldest son was always there at the back of his mind.
So when a phone call came in at midnight Owen couldn't help but worry that it was finally that call, well once he was actually awake enough for his brain to work that you at least.
Owen had full on been expecting for the call to be from someone telling him his son was hurt or dead, either one but TK was at the top of his list. What he hadn't been expecting was for the person to be telling him that his wife was dead and his son was badly injured.
Owen was quick to get up after those words, Gwen was dead but TK was alive, out there somewhere and badly injured. He needed someone there for him and from the sounds of things Owen was the only person able to. Not that he would want anyone else to. TK was his son and his son needed him.
Once the call with the police officer was over the first thing Owen did was call his eldest son.
Judd was a lot quicker to answer then Owen thought he would be, his son had not long gotten off of the same 24 hour shift as Owen had and with the way his son slept Owen had half been considering just going over there and not even bothering with calling.
"Dad?" Was the first thing Judd said when he answered the phone and Owen could tell he had woken his son up.
"They found TK." The words were out of Owens mouth before he could even stop them, he hadn't been planning on saying them straight away, Judd sounded half asleep still and this didn't seem like the sort of thing to tell him on the phone.
"What?" Judd asked in shock and Owen could tell that the words had shocked Judd awake as any trace of sleep still in his voice was now gone. "What do you mean they found TK? Like his body?"
"No, no, no, TK's alive." Owen quickly assured him. "Look it's a long story, I'm gonna come round yours and fill you in so we can work out what to do from here okay kid?" Owen wanted nothing more than to straight away head on a flight to get his son but Judd had spent the last eight years right beside him trying to find TK and Owen couldn't leave him out of this now that they finally had.
"Okay, dad, okay." Judd agreed and Owen could almost picture his son nodding his head quickly as he spoke. "Come round and tell me. But he's alive, you're sure?"
"I'm sure kid." Owen confirmed with a small nod as he started to move around his room to pack a bag. He may want to have Judd's opinions on things before he made a set in stone plan on how to handle this but there was one thing that was happening no matter what, he was going to get his son and he would need a bag for that and the last thing Owen really wanted to do was waist even more of his time with coming all the way back home. Especially when Judd lived closer to the airport then he did.
"Okay, come round now dad, I'll have a pot of coffee ready for when you get here."
"Good, I'll be there in twenty." Owen said before the two of them hung up the phone and Owen continued to rush around his room in his hast to get everything ready as quickly as he possibly could.
It was only a little over twenty minutes later when Owen found himself standing outside of Judd's house waiting for his son to open the door.
But instead of his son on the other side when the door was pulled open a beautiful young lady, about the same age as his son but probably at least a year or two younger, was what greeted him.
"Hi, Owen?" The women said a little note to her voice that made it sound almost like a question, but also like she knew who he was but was trying to make sure or seem polite. Owen couldn't work out what one it was though.
"Yeah, is Judd here?" Owen asked trying to get a look around her, he knew his son lived her, he had for the last five years almost. So this meant that the lady standing in front of him was either a one night stand for his son or a relationship. The fact that Judd had let her open the door to him was telling Owen that the girl in front of him was his son's girlfriend.
"Yeah dad I'm here." Judd said as he almost appeared behind the lady. "Come in."
The women moved out of the way to let Owen into the house, the three of them made their way over to the sofa Owen giving the two of them a confused look as they did so.
"Dad, this is Grace." Judd introduced the women once the three of them had taken a seat. "I know this isn't exactly the right time to introduce my new girlfriend but she was staying the night and it didn't feel right making her leave. Especially when she already knows about mum and TK."
Owen couldn't help but to sit there silently for a few long seconds. He agreed with his son, right now probably wasn't the best time to introduce Grace. They didn't know what was going on with TK, they didn't really know what had happened to Gwen. But he also agreed with his son that if she was important enough to him that he had told her about Gwen and TK that it wasn't right to make her leave.
And if having her here made it any easier for his son then Owen would make sure he was okay with her being here.
"Yeah." Where the only words Owen could actually make come out of his lips at first but then he pulled a small smile onto his lips and looked over at grace, hoping it didn't look too forced but knowing that with everything happening right now there was a slim chance of that. "It's nice to meet you Grace and I would love to get the chance to meet you properly, but right now we have to deal with this. After everything's been sorted the three of us can have dinner. Get to know the women my son obviously cares about."
"Of course, whatever's going on with your son is way more important right now." Grace quickly agreed and Owen had a good idea that he was really going to like her, but her words were also what made him realise that he hadn't told Judd what exactly was going on yet.
"Kid I hate to say this but your mum's dead." Owen said as he looked over at Judd softly. It was words he had been dreading having to say for way too long now and to actually have to say them out loud made something almost break in Owen. Gwen may have left in the worst way eight years ago and he may never be able to forgive her but he had loved her for a long time, he had started a family with her and the feelings he felt for her were probably never going to go away fully.
"Shit." Judd said as he reached a hand up to run it through his hair. "How?"
"I'm not exactly sure yet, they said something about a car accident when I spoke to them on the floor but they said they couldn't reveal everything until I was there in person." Owen said and he couldn't stop himself from rubbing his palm over his leg. "TK another person where in the car with him when it happened. The man was driving and he's in pretty bad condition in the hospital right now. TK's in hospital but they said he didn't have anything worse than a broken leg and some bad cuts and bruises."
"Where where they dad?"
"Chicago." Owen said with a long sign as he rubbed a hand over his face and even though things were so bad right now Grace couldn't help but notice how father and son looked a lot alike when they did that. "I don't know how long for or anything, that was just where the crash happened. I told the doctors I would be taking the first flight out."
"I'm coming with you." Judd said and Owen knew from the sound of his voice that he wouldn't be able to stop Judd. Not that he would honestly really want to. He didn't want to have to deal with all of this on his own. "I have to be there dad."
"I know kid, I know." Owen confirmed with a small shake of his head and he wasn't able to stop himself from thinking back to when TK was first born.
Judd had wanted nothing more than a younger a younger sibling since the day he had found out what a sibling was. And while Owen and Glenn had wanted nothing more than to give him that it hadn't been that easy. Conceiving Judd had happened with no problem, he had kind of been an accident. Something that had been planning for in the future defiantly but not planning when Gwen had fallen pregnant.
TK on the other hand had been planned, it took six years of planning, and trying and three rounds of IVF before Gwen feel pregnant with the youngest son. The two of them hadn't been happier about it.
But the pregnancy was more than a little difficult for Gwen and Tk's birth had been even harder. They had spent eight months worried their son wouldn't make it.
But the look on Judd's face when he was shown his little brother had been one of the best things Owen had ever seen. His two kids together for the first time.
Owen had never thought for even a moment that Judd wouldn't want to come with him.
"Go get your things ready kid, I want to leave as soon as possible." Owen told him pointing his head in the direction of Judd's bedroom.
"Got it dad, I'll be out in five tops okay." Judd said as he pushed himself up from the sofa and made his way down the hall.
Grace wasn't really sure there was much she could say to Owen right now. The guy was going through something she couldn't even begin to understand, something she hoped she would never have to understand.
But Owen stopped her from having to come up with anything when he himself spoke. "How long have you been seeing my son?"
"About six month's sir." Grace said softly as she looked over at him with a small smile. "I think Judd was planning on telling you about us when you guys had dinner on Friday."
"Just Owen, no need to use sir." Owen told her with a small smile back, his a lot more forced then Grace's was. "Just know that if my son was planning on telling me about you then you mean a lot to him."
"Thanks Owen." Grace said with a small nod and Owen gave her a genuine not forced smile in return. Grace was looking to be the best person Judd had ever gone out with and Owen hadn't even known her for a half hour.
It was only a little over five minutes later when Judd came back out, dressed and with a bag in his hands. "Gracie, you need us to drop you at yours? Or you can stay here?"
"I'll stay here, get Tommy to pick me up on her way into work tomorrow." Grace said with a small smile as she pushed herself up from the sofa and made her way over to pull Judd into a hug, she could see that he needed it. "I'll be fine okay, let me know what's going on if you have the chance, okay baby?"
"Yeah, I'll call you as soon as I have the chance." Judd assured her as he pulled back enough to lean forward and place a soft kiss on the top of Grace's head. "I love you."
"I love you too." Grace whispered the words back in the same way Judd had whispered them to her before with one last hug the two of them pulled away and after a quick goodbye Judd and Owen where heading out of the door and towards the older man's car.
The two of them headed towards the airport in silence and got lucky that when they finally made it there was a flight leaving first thing in the morning with two spare seats for them.
It was a few hours till the flight so Judd and Owen settled in for the wait in one of the many uncomfortable mettle airport chairs.
"What do you think Mum's been up to all these year?" Judd asked after the father and son had seat in silence for almost half an hour. The thoughts of why his mother could have possibly left, what she could have been doing and why she had taken his little brother over him had always been something that had plagued Judd since the day he realised Gwen wasn't coming back but now that they had found TK, now that his mum was dead the thoughts where a thousand times worse.
"I don't know son." Owen admitted with a small sigh as he turned slightly so that he could look at the younger man. "I don't know. She wasn't in a very good state when she left, she was depressed, distant. Hopefully she got some kind of help. Maybe that's why she left. I don't know any of it kid and I don't know if we'll be able to find out some of it anymore, but once we have TK back we'll get some insights. Where they've been, what they've been up to. Hopefully none of it will be bad. I hate your mum for leaving us the way she did, for leaving us at all. But she took your brother with her and that means I hope she had a good life you know. I don't want to think for even a second that TK might have been out there somewhere suffering this whole time."
"Yeah I know, me too." Judd agreed with a small nod, there had been a big part of him when Gwen had first left that was jealous of TK for being the one she had picked. He couldn't understand why she had chosen him when most of the time Gwen didn't seem like she wanted much to do with her youngest son.
Judd couldn't help but sometimes still feel that way, his mum hadn't picked him and that hurt. It would probably always hurt. But that didn't mean for even a second that he didn't want TK to have a nice, happy life and he hoped that whatever had happened in the last eight years was good, he hoped that TK had the life that Judd knew he deserved.
And he hoped that now they were bridging TK home Owen would continue to be the better father he had become since TK's absence. Owen had been distant before then and Judd knew no matter what had happened to TK he would not a present father in his life, not the one he had been pulled away from.
The two of them fell back into a silence after that, neither sure what to say or even if they could continue talking about that.
They got some food not long before their flight, depending on what had happened it might be a while till they were able to get the chance to find food while in Chicago so they took the chance they had then even if neither man really felt up to eating.
The flight was only short and before either man knew it they were landing in Chicago and making their way in a taxi to the hospital Owen had been told his son was currently in.
"Hey, I'm here to see Tyler Morgan." Owen had been informed on the phone that Gwen had changed both her and Tk's last names to her maiden one and it had stung more than a little to know that she had taken the Strand name away from their son. "I'm his father, I was called early this morning about an accident."
"Of course." The nurse gave him a small sad smile and Owen felt his stomach sink a little at it. "Why don't you wait in the waiting room and I'll call the doctor out to come and speak with you, okay?"
"Okay." Owen agreed with a small nod and he felt as the sinking feeling only got worse.
"What's going on?" Judd asked as Owen walked back over to him where he was standing by the entrance.
"She's calling a doctor out to come talk to us." Owen said as he nodded his head towards the small waiting area off to the side. "Said to wait in there and they would be out soon."
It was only about five minutes till a doctor was walking into the waiting room and calling out TK's name but for both Judd and Owen it had felt like a hell of a lot longer than that.
The doctor suggested that they go and talk in a small private room off to the side and they both followed her with this feeling of dread starting to build up.
"Is my son okay?" Was the first thing out of Owen's mouth once they were all seat down in the small room.
"He only sustained a broken leg and some bruising in the crash." The doctor started off softly as she looked between the two men in front of her. "He got off pretty unscaved, he was lucky especially with the state of not only the other two passengers in his car but the three in the other. What I'm worried about is the withdrawal."
"Withdrawal?" Owen asked starting to get more than a little confused.
"Your ex-wife and her boyfriend where both brought in with high doses of Heroin in their systems, and your son quickly started to show symptoms of heroin withdrawal. We tested him and it came back positive. With how quickly it started we expect he's been using quite heavily for a while now although he hasn't said a word to use about any of it. He's young and he's small, underweight short for his height so the symptoms are hitting him hard. The loss of his mum is only making things harder for him. But our main worry is getting him through the withdrawal safely."
"He's been using Heroin?" Owen asked the words having not quite hit him yet.
"Yes, I suspect for at least six months, probably longer with the state of the other two members in his car."
"He's addicted to Heroin." Owen said the words more to himself then to the doctor this time. Trying to wrap his head around this.
It wasn't something he had ever considered. This wasn't something he had ever thought for even a single second was a possibility.
But here they were.
And truthfully Owen had no idea how to deal with it.
I hope everyone enjoyed the first chapter and I would love to know your thoughts in the comments.
I have the next few chapters already written so my current hope is to get a new chapter up every two weeks but like with all the rest of my stories I really can't promise that will happen.
The current chapter count is not set in stone kind of just a rough guess at how many chapters this will be so I am almost certain it will end up changing the more I write.