Megan was worried; she and the college girl had spoken a little bit more on the flight, but the girl had fallen asleep when the plane had landed, she had quickly looked for Kevin while looking out for the others. Mysteriously, neither she nor Kevin saw them, and even their Dad, whom they'd chased to the gate seemed to have vanished.

Hesitantly the two McCallisters stepped out into the terminal.

"Mom? Dad?" Kevin called slowly.

"Linnie? Brooke?" Megan called, looking around in every direction; she was getting worried now. They'd only landed a few minutes ago, and there wasn't enough time for their parents to have just gone to get the luggage yet, and besides they would have seen them.

"I don't get it, they should still be nearby," Megan shook her head.

"Uncle Frank? Buzz?" Kevin tried again, turning back to the gate, just in time to see two of the air stewardesses they'd seen leave. He tugged on Megan's arm to get her attention. "What is it?" She demanded impatiently.

"Look," Kevin nodded his head in the direction of the stewardesses, and Megan glanced back.

"We're the last ones off the plane," one of them said, and the gate was closed behind them.

"Where are those guys?" Kevin whispered.

-8-

"Is this Megan's?" Peter asked, gazing at the latest bag to come off of the luggage carousel, at the same time he cast a worried look at the weather outside. It was appalling; it was raining like mad, and he hoped it eased off later.

Kate glanced at the luggage label, and she shook her head. "No It's Brooke's," she said, turning to a second bag. "Give this to Brooke," she picked up Brooke's bag, passing it down the line, while Peter picked up the second bag. "Give this to Kevin," Peter said.

"Give this to Kevin," Kate instructed as she tried passing it to Frank, rolling her eyes in irritation when Frank shook his head, refusing to touch it, and she passed it to Leslie instead, "Give this to Kevin."

"Give this to Kevin," Leslie passed it to Tracy.

"Give this to Kevin," Tracy passed it to Linnie.

"Kevin," Linnie passed it to Buzz.

"Give this to Kevin," Buzz passed it absently to Rod.

"Give this to Kevin," Rod passed it to Sondra.

"Give this to Kevin," Sondra passed it to Jeff.

"Give this to Kevin," Jeff passed it to Brooke.

"Give this to Kevin," Brooke passed it to Fuller.

Fuller picked up the bag and turned, "Here you go, Kevin," he said, but then he noticed that Kevin was not standing next to him, and instead he was about to pass the bag to two elderly people, who smiled at him. Fuller blinked at them in surprise, his mind racing before he passed the bag back to his sister. "Kevin's not here," Fuller said.

"Kevin's not here," Brooke said, her voice puzzled and worried.

"Kevin's not here," Jeff said as he passed the bag back to Sondra.

"Kevin's not here," Sondra passed the message on to Rod.

"Kevin's not here," Rod said to Linnie.

"Kevin's not here," Linnie passed on to Tracy.

"Kevin's not here," Tracy said automatically to her mother, but she quickly realised what she'd just said, and began to look worried. She looked down the line, and saw the same concern on nearly everyone's faces as they realised what had happened.

"Kevin's not here," Leslie said, processing in a second what her daughter had just told her, and she turned to Kate worriedly.

Sadly, Kate was functioning on automatic as she passed the bag to her husband. "Kevin's not here," she said, barely registering what she had just said as she tried to sort the luggage out.

Peter took the bag in shock, his mind going over what he'd just heard. "What?!" He yelped in disbelief when what his wife so absently said clicked in his brain, and he prayed he had just misheard her.

Kate looked at him, stunned as she went back over what she had just said, and she responded by laughing briefly in hysteria before she shrieked, "KEVIN?!"

All of it was too much, and it went black.

Peter looked down at his wife in horror as she fainted, but then Jeff rushed to him followed by Linnie before he even had a chance to process what had happened, "Dad, we've just realised….Megan's not here either."

"What?!" Peter wasn't sure how much more of this he could take; he was barely able to process the fact that, once again, his youngest son wasn't here with them on holiday, and now it looked like his eldest daughter was not here either, and he ran his hand through his hair as he tried to process the nightmare unfolding in his head. "Is she in another part of the airport?" Peter asked, desperately hoping that was the case.

Jeff held up a bag. "This is Megan's," he explained, his voice on the verge of becoming hysterical. "She's not here!"

"No, Dad," Linnie shook her head at the same time Jeff spoke, tears sparkling in her eyes. "She's not here. I haven't seen her."

Peter turned to the others. "Please tell me you've seen Megan!" He snapped at them, his tone making it very clear if any of them even thought of lying or making some stupid joke, then he would tear them to bits.

"No, Dad," Buzz shook his head.

"I haven't seen her," Brooke said, looking around with dawning worry.

"Neither have I," Tracy added.

"You don't think….?" Leslie gazed at Peter in horror, but he was still, silent, horrified and disbelieving. Meanwhile, Peter felt as if he had just fallen off a cliff, straight down into a ravine.

No.

No.

No way.

No, this could not be happening….

Peter felt as if his entire world was exploding; he hoped that Megan had gone off to find a bathroom and would be back soon, but he knew that wasn't the case, and right now he felt like screaming his head off.

Last year had been a horrific nightmare because they'd carelessly left Kevin behind in Chicago, that was bad enough, but to lose the same child as well as a second was smacking of carelessness.

He looked down at his wife; if not having Kevin here was going to make her faint, God only knew what she would do when she woke up and discovered her eldest daughter wasn't here. Peter swallowed and rubbed his face with a shaking hand, wondering what the hell was going on, and what had cursed his family to make this happen.

-8-

They had looked around for the last half an hour but hadn't found even a sign of their family; they'd found people who resembled them, but that was it.

And now Kevin and Megan both walked to a window. They'd spent the last quarter of an hour looking, and failing, to find their family. Megan gaped as she took in the skyline of the massive city. "Hold on," she whispered, thinking she had seen some of the buildings before. "I think I'm going mad….," she said in disbelief.

"Megan," Kevin whispered as he too picked out some of the details, and recognised some buildings, and like his sister, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "I recognise that skyline."

"Me too, Kev, me too," Megan shook her head in denial; her brain was telling her what she was seeing, but she was denying it. "This is impossible," she said, unable to accept what her eyes were telling her brain. "This cannot be happening!"

Kevin suddenly gasped and rushed off, and Megan followed him.

"Kevin, wait for me," she said; she had a horrible feeling inside her, and she hoped it wasn't true. But she knew it was, and she had no intention of losing her brother here.

Fortunately for her sake of mind, Kevin had rushed to an information desk. "Excuse me, this is an emergency!" Kevin gasped urgently at a woman wearing a red waistcoat of an American Airline uniform.

The woman glanced at Kevin, "Yes, sir?"

"What city is that?"

"Yes," Megan interrupted as she joined Kevin, protectively putting a hand on his shoulder to let him know he was not alone, and to tell the woman they were here together. "What is that city? What's its name?"

The woman blinked at them in surprise and concern. "That's New York, sir, ma'am."

Megan gasped, and all of her hopes, all her denials…shattered.

New York?

They were supposed to be in Miami, not in New York. But as she was processing this devastating news.

"Yikes, I did it again!"

"Something wrong, sir?" The woman asked in concern.

That question snapped Kevin out of it. "Er…we'll be fine," he said, dragging the still-stunned Megan to the window seat and he plonked down next to her. "Oh, no," he groaned. "Our family's in Florida and we're in New York."

Something went ding in his head. "Megan….," the still stunned Megan turned to her brother in confusion, but she was still too stunned to make out what he was about to say. "Our family's in Florida? And…we're in... New York?"

He turned to the stunned Megan, and wiggled his eyebrows at her…

Megan knew that look, and she was horrified. She knew what he had in mind. He didn't want to go to Miami, he wanted to stay.

"Kevin, what are you getting at?" Megan shook her head, her mind racing; she had processed what she'd learnt, and she was about to get up. "Look, we don't have time for your little games," she went on, "We've got to tell someone what's happened-," She was about to stand up, but Kevin, to her shock and horror, grabbed her arm as gently as possible, "Kevin, let me go. We have to tell someone we'd gotten the wrong plane-."

"Megan, listen to me, hear me out," Kevin interrupted her. "Haven't you always wanted to visit New York?"

The question was rhetorical; every McCallister had a list of places they wanted to go, and Megan had always wanted to visit New York.

"Well, yeah, but Kevin, we were supposed to go to Florida-."

"Oh, for that cheapskate Frank?" There was sheer scorn in Kevin's voice that stopped her in her tracks. "We both know anything suggested by him won't be what was advertised. Look, Megan. Don't you wanna see Christmas in New York instead? We can visit Florida some other time; yeah, I admit I was curious about what Christmas was like there, but wouldn't see the Big Apple be better?" Kevin let his question sink in before he added, "Megan, we both know any trip suggested by Uncle Frank is never nice, and I know you and everyone else weren't so enthusiastic about spending time in Florida anyway until we got used to it, so why not have our vacation together, you and me? Here, in New York. We both know New York's bigger than Florida and has so much more to offer. We can both go shopping, we can be lavished on by a great hotel instead of living in a motel for a few days. We can have fun seeing everything here! We can sunbathe some other time, preferably in the summer, when we can have lots of fun! In a bit, we can head home, for Chicago."

Megan wasn't sure if spending time with her youngest brother could be called fun, but she instantly felt ashamed of herself since Kevin could be nice when he wanted to be.

And fun.

At the same time, she had to admit Kevin was putting up a good argument. Like everyone else, Megan had grown up knowing that Uncle Frank was one of the biggest evils in the family, and anything suggested by him like a trip had to be taken with a pinch of salt. Truthfully, none of them wanted to spend much time with Uncle Frank and Aunt Leslie's family; while she got on well with them, even Megan had to agree with their mother they were sometimes a bit much, and Fuller was definitely as obnoxious as Kevin and Buzz.

Actually, Kevin was more tolerable since he didn't act like a baby at times.

And…she had to admit to herself when he wasn't in one of his moods, Kevin could be fun. But right now, she knew what had happened to bring them here was his fault.

She had been looking forward to visiting Florida, though, they all had. A part of Megan, an admittedly small part, wanted nothing more than to raise the alarm, drag Kevin over to someone in authority tell them they'd gotten on the wrong flight from Chicago, and find a way of contacting their parents in Miami… But being here, seeing New York City laid out before her….the temptation was just too great, and it was enough to stop her in her tracks.

Megan had wanted to visit New York for years. Both she and Linnie had fantasised about visiting California and New York so many times before, and while this was not the visit that she'd had in mind, she couldn't deny this was a great opportunity. Even better, she could enjoy some time here shopping to her heart's content, and she could even see this city at its Christmas best.

But at the same time, Megan promised herself, that the moment they had the chance, she was going to make sure they could contact Mum and Dad and let them know they were safe and were on their way to Chicago again.

Megan sighed and facepalmed. "Okay," she said after a moment, and she gave Kevin a big smile. "We'll stay," but she quickly raised a finger to make sure he understood she was not joking, "but the first time we get the chance, we will find a way to contact Mum and Dad. Deal."

Kevin nodded, "Deal," he replied and he even held out his hand with his little finger.

Megan snorted but smirked and they sealed it with a pinky promise. "We're gonna have to find somewhere to stay, Kev," she said, a new worry popping into her brain, as she remembered the story the college girl she'd met on the plane had told her about the botch up with Denver. "I don't want to spend Christmas on the streets." Quickly she told her brother about the girl, and what she'd said about the police throwing runaways into centres.

"We won't, I've got a plan," Kevin smiled.

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Megan rolled her eyes.