Chapter 37 - Bon Voyage

Not that Jon could have afforded six weeks in Europe. Not even close. He had enough travel savings for maybe a week trip—plane tickets, a stay in a half-decent hotel, food and activities.

But he had a lot of favors to call in, and a good handful of long-distance friends from his old life, people with time shares and vacation houses and cabins. Not to mention a cousin he was still on good terms with, who was a pilot and had his own jet. Jon also got permission to sublet his apartment for the time they were away, so he wouldn't have to pay rent.

In the end, he would only have to pay for food and activities, and he had his travel savings and rent money to do it. A six week trip was in easy reach.

"So, where are we going, exactly?" Shawn asked a few days before their flight. "Wait, no, don't tell me. I want to be surprised. Wait, tell me how long it is. Six weeks, right?"

"Six weeks," Jon told him, taking dinner out of the oven and bringing it to the table where Shawn was sitting.

"So when's Cory coming?"

"Cory's flying out with us. He'll be there for the first two weeks."

"And Ashley? Can she stay longer?"

Jon breathed in to answer, then he frowned. "Shawn, are you still trying to play matchmaker?"

"No! I just like her, man."

"So you're not trying to set us up? Not at all?"

"Is she coming or not?"

"She'll meet us the second week and stay for four weeks." Jon had wanted her to stay until the end, but she insisted it would be good for Jon and Shawn to have some time just the two of them.

"Awesome!" Shawn grinned and started dishing up.

Jon smiled back, but he couldn't help but worry. Shawn hadn't shown a hint of his pain over what had happened with Chet since the day it happened. Jon understood that Shawn didn't want to express himself around Jon, but they'd had Ashley over a few times as well, and Shawn had more or less pretended nothing had ever happened.

The Matthews and Ashley and even Eli advised him to give Shawn his space. When Shawn wanted to talk, if he wanted to talk, he would.

The only consolation was that if Shawn wasn't talking, he wasn't telling Jon about how much he hated him and blamed him for his dad leaving him. That one had been painfully impossible to unhear—it ran through Jon's head, repeating over and over, keeping him up later and later into the night. When he couldn't sleep or focus on the TV or a book, he paced in his apartment, passing by Shawn's room and listening to make sure he was okay. He never made a sound.

If Shawn was crying at night, he was doing it silently.

Jon knew what it was like inside a wealthy man's private jet.

He should have thought about the fact that Cory and Shawn would have no idea.

Jon spent a couple of minutes catching up with his friend while the boys ran around inside. Shawn peeked his head out and interrupted Jon and his friend twice, once to shout, "There's, like, a movie theater in this thing!" and once to ask, "Wait, are all the snacks for us?" Jon's friend told him to knock himself out, and Shawn cheered and ran back into the plane before Jon could tell him not to take that literally.

All things considered, the seven-hour flight could have been a lot worse. Shawn and Cory did eat just about all of the snacks onboard, and they sat down to a movie, only to fall asleep in the first ten minutes. Jon doubted Shawn had slept much the night before, in his excitement.

It felt so good to know that happiness had been what had kept the kid awake.

Jon settled down in his seat to see if he could catch some sleep—they'd probably wake up with double the energy, and Jon needed to be able to keep up—but he couldn't help wonder whether Shawn had talked to Cory about what had happened in the courtroom. Jon figured there was no way he would have kept something like that from his best friend, but Jon couldn't imagine Shawn actually crying to Cory. He'd probably told the story like it was no big deal. Jon wondered if Cory knew the truth. Cory had been so protective when Shawn had first gone back to Jon, Jon couldn't imagine he didn't know. Cory had even given Jon some good advice about Shawn, here and there.

Jon wasn't nuts about Cory on the whole. Cory was a frustrating student at best—Shawn thought of him as a good influence, but it seemed like they were always getting in trouble together, egging each other on, causing each other to learn every lesson the hard way. Still, Jon had to appreciate that Shawn had someone he could be so comfortable with, someone who cared about him so much. The Matthews cared about Shawn quite a bit because of his connection to Cory; Jon figured if their arrangement was going to be permanent, he'd probably have to get used to the idea of being around Cory quite a bit more. It occurred to him that it was going to be a little weird, since he was still teaching at the school. Feeny probably wouldn't be happy to hear that Jon had taken Shawn and Cory to Europe over the summer; originally, he hadn't even been happy when Jon took in Shawn.

One thing at a time. Jon had a lot to get through before he could worry about what would happen next school year. He reclined his seat, turned the TV off, and closed his eyes.

He wasn't sure if he was ever fully asleep. The boys snored, louder but more realistically than they usually did in class, and the seat wasn't exactly made for sleeping. But he was exhausted from so many sleepless nights, and he was at peace knowing Shawn was happy, so he dozed until the plane landed.

The three of them unloaded, thanked the pilot. They grabbed a cab ride to a grocery store, where Jon picked up everything they'd need for breakfasts and dinners—they'd get lunch on the slopes. Then they caught a ride to the cabin where they'd be staying, a place one of Jon's cousins owned—they weren't exactly on each other's Christmas card lists, but she owed him a favor. Jon had been there a couple of times, but this time he was ready for the boys' gasps at the high ceilings, lush furnishings, full kitchens, and three bedrooms with king sized beds. "This place is nicer than my house," Cory said.

Jon smirked and went to get started on dinner.

Jon had nightmares all night about Shawn breaking his arms and legs on the slopes. Between Shawn's refusal to be careful about anything he did, and any lingering weakness from the accident, he just couldn't shake the worry away. By the time he got up the next morning, he was regretting ever agreeing to this.

But the boys woke up before he did, and they were so excited that they even tried to make breakfast for everyone. Jon thanked them for it, though the eggs were runny and the toast was pretty badly burned.

Picking up lift tickets was easy, but it took them a little time to get their skis, boots, and poles from the rental shack. A pretty girl with blond braids beamed at Jon as she got them set up, and the boys snorted under their breaths, though they stopped when Jon gave them his best death glare.

They stopped outside to take a look at the map. "We should do that one." Shawn pointed to one of the ski routes on the map. It was marked as extremely difficult terrain.

Jon winced. "We're going to start with the easiest way down."

"But we all know how to ski," Shawn argued.

"We can work our way up. But we could all use a warmup."

"This isn't PE. Besides, that whole warmup thing just a myth."

"No, it's not." Jon didn't want to put his foot down, but he also really didn't feel good about taking the lift to the highest places on the mountain before Shawn checked to make sure he was okay skiing. He'd been completely normal for the past few weeks, playing basketball and running and walking, but skiing could be dangerous. Jon knew how it would go over if he explained what he was really worried about—Shawn would ask why they'd flown this far to begin with.

Cory cleared his throat. "Come on, Shawn, he's not gonna budge. Let's just get it over with."

Shawn sighed heavily, but he took off toward the smaller ski lift Jon had pointed out.

Cory looked over at Jon. "Better safe than sorry," he said.

Jon suddenly liked Cory a lot more.

He should have known it wouldn't matter anyway. Convinced they were on an easy slope, the boys didn't bother to plow or slalom. They just flew down the hill at breakneck speeds, so they had to wait for Jon at the bottom.

Jon had half a mind to scold them both when he got their. But Shawn was grinning ear to ear, color in his cheeks, eyes alive with joy like Jon had never seen.

"That was awesome! Can we do the next hardest one?" Shawn asked.

Jon felt his own heart swell. "Yeah, okay," he said.