AN: This is not my favorite chapter, but it's a necessary one to get things moving along. I'm not sure when I'll have the next chapter out. My work schedule is changing on Sunday and I'm not sure yet if it will give me more or less time to write. Either way, I do have to take care of a few other things that need to be done before I can work on the next chapter anyway, but I am committed to getting the next chapter out as soon as possible.

No updated warnings on this chapter.

Hope you enjoy!

Audrey tapped her foot impatiently as she looked at her watch for the twelfth time. Where were those boys? The wedding was starting in five minutes and they still weren't at the venue, and Josh wasn't answering his phone. She couldn't even try calling Drake, since her… inquisitive son had elected to see if his cell phone would float in soup. Spoiler alert, it hadn't, and Audrey wasn't going to buy him a new one if he was just going to keep destroying them. He would have to come up with the money himself. It was unlike Josh not to answer his phone, but there was a high chance that Drake had somehow destroyed Josh's phone too, even though he'd just gotten the brand new one after Drake had destroyed his last one. But at this point, Josh should really know better than letting Drake take his phone at any time.

"Why did we think they could handle this?" Audrey muttered to Walter, who sat dutifully next her, his hand on her knee as she bounced her leg in anxiety. "I should've known they were going to mess this up."

"I could've told you that," Megan scoffed as she picked at her nails. "Because of those boobs we're not gonna get the beach house." She shook her head and looked away, all pre-teen angst.

"Megan," Audrey started, but she trailed off. Her daughter was probably right. It was going to be a stretch for them to get the beach house in the first place even if the boys had managed to deliver the cake on time. Without it, there was no way that it was going to happen.

"They still have time," Walter pointed out, but he didn't sound very confident. He sighed. "I'm sorry, I thought Josh at least would be responsible enough to make it happen, but clearly I was wrong."

"It's okay, it's not your fault," Audrey said with a shrug. "We all should've known better."

"I did know better," Megan repeated.

Audrey glared at her, but Megan just shrugged and smoothed out her dress.

The wedding ceremony came and went, and there was still no sign of Drake, Josh, or the cake. Josh still wasn't answering his phone, and the reception was in thirty minutes.

"What could they have possibly gotten themselves into?" Audrey asked, despite knowing that the answer could quite literally be anything when it came to her sons.

"I'm gonna kill them," Megan stated. She crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair at the table. "I only suffered through this stupid wedding for that beach house and now because of them we're not even gonna get it. They're dead."

"No, you're not gonna kill them," Audrey said. "I am."

"They could still get it here," Walter said again, but he sounded even less certain. At both Megan and Audrey's glares, he raised his hands in surrender and wisely said nothing else.

Just like the ceremony had, the reception came and went, and the boys didn't show up. After being berated by Aunt Katherine for a solid ten minutes, Audrey, Walter, and Megan made their way back to the car and climbed in with a sigh.

"So they didn't make it."

"We know," Audrey and Megan responded in unison, both annoyed.

"Let's just go home," Audrey said, pinching the bridge of her nose. She could feel a migraine coming. "They better have a good excuse for this."

The drive home was silent, and all Audrey could do was think about how much she was going to scream at her sons. How could they have messed this up? They both had wanted the beach house too, so why had they messed it up? It wasn't that hard to pick up a cake and drive it somewhere. She hadn't asked a lot of them. They were seventeen, practically adults, and they couldn't even do one simple thing that she had asked of them. Where had she and Walter gone wrong? She knew that Drake had his issues, and they weren't all his fault, but Josh was always at least trying to be responsible. She had figured that Josh would keep them on track and stop Drake from getting distracted, but evidently she'd been wrong.

When Audrey saw her SUV still parked in the driveway, her blood boiled once again. Those boys were about to get it. She stormed into the house before Walter or Megan were even out of the car.

"Drake! Josh!" she shouted, flipping on the lights. She stopped. If the boys were home, why were the lights off? Neither one of them was exactly known for turning off the lights when they went upstairs, so even if they were both up in their bedroom, the lights should've been on as long as they were home. Still, she marched up the stairs with a scowl on her face, heading straight for the boys' room when neither one of them appeared. Audrey slammed the door open without knocking. "Boys!" she shouted, but was greeted with silence once again. She flipped the light on. Neither of her sons were in the room.

Audrey's stomach dropped. Something was wrong.

"Drake! Josh!" she shouted again as she began going through every room in the house. She threw open the door to the bathroom. Nothing. She walked into Megan's room right as her daughter reached the door. Still no sign of them. She went into the master bedroom but still found nothing. "Drake! Josh!" she shouted again.

"What's going on?" Megan asked from the hallway, but Audrey just ran right down the stairs and into the living room.

"Have you seen them?" she asked Walter. "They're not anywhere upstairs."

"No, they're not down here," he hesitantly replied.

"Something's wrong. They're not anywhere in the house, Josh isn't answering his phone, my car is still outside. Walter, what if something happened?" she asked, trying not to panic.

The doorbell rang. Audrey's heart swelled with hope as she ran to the front door, throwing it open without looking through the window to see who it was. Her heart fell upon seeing Josh's nerd friends, Greg and Aaron or something like that.

"Now really isn't a good time," she said before either of them could get a word out.

"Eric and I are just here to return Josh's laptop," Greg said, holding up a familiar laptop bag.

"And Craig found a set of car keys and Josh's cell phone in there too," Eric said.

Audrey sighed and took the bag from them.

"You haven't heard from either of them, have you?" she asked, looking between the two nerds who were apparently not named Greg and Aaron.

"From Drake and Josh? No," Eric replied, a confused look on his face.

"Thanks," she muttered in reply before slamming the door in their faces and walking back over to her husband.

"Who was that?" Walter asked.

"Just Craig and Eric returning Josh's laptop," she replied, dropping the laptop bag on the couch. "They haven't seen the boys, but my car keys and Josh's phone are both in the bag. So I don't know, maybe they borrowed someone else's car? It's not as if they would've tried to walk that far. But that doesn't explain why they're not home yet. I just don't know where they could be." Audrey collapsed onto the couch, her head in her hands. She was trying to keep it together, but she was starting to panic. Her kids were everything to her, and that included Josh too. He was just as much her son as Drake was.

Audrey lifted her head at the feeling of the couch dipping beside her. Walter began rubbing her back, bare in her dress, and spoke softly in the voice that always calmed her down.

"How about I drive down to the bakery, and then to the wedding venue?" he asked. "The bakery will be closed, but I take the same roads they would've taken, maybe I'll find something."

Audrey sighed and nodded, folding her hands in front of her face and taking deep breaths.

"Okay," she said. She couldn't think of anything else short of calling the police, but she felt like it was too soon for that.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Walter said. He kissed her cheek and ran out the door. Audrey remained where she was as she listened to Walter's car pull out of the driveway and away from the house. She prayed he would find them, but she still wasn't sure where they could be.

"Where did Walter go?" Megan asked from the stairwell. Audrey turned and glanced at her. She'd opted to change out of her dress and into comfortable pajamas. Audrey was too stressed about her boys to do the same.

"He's out looking for your brothers," she said. Audrey waited for Megan to come around the couch and sit next to her before continuing. "Obviously they didn't show up at the wedding, but they're not here either. I have no idea where they are." Audrey shrugged and offered Megan a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Josh's nerd friends dropped by to give back Josh's laptop, which also had my keys and Josh's phone with it, so that's why he's not answering and why my car is still in the driveway, but that doesn't explain where they are."

"I'm sure they're fine," Megan said with a smile and a shrug that did little to assuage Audrey's worries. "They probably just tried to walk or something stupid like that and Drake saw a rabbit and ran after it and Josh ran after him, and they fell down a rabbit hole and now they're in Wonderland with the Mad Hatter and will get back home after getting away from the Queen of Hearts."

Despite herself, Audrey smiled. Obviously that wasn't what actually happened, but it did sound like something her boys would get themselves into.

"You should get to sleep," she said. "It's pretty late."

Megan sighed, but nodded nonetheless.

"Alright. Goodnight, Mom." Megan reached over and briefly hugged Audrey before getting up and making her way back upstairs.

Audrey wished she could be as unbothered as her daughter, truly believing the boys were just up to their usual antics and shenanigans instead of something wrong having happened. She tried not to think about the San Diego Snatcher. It was statistically unlikely, obviously, but she was a mom, and that meant she was going to think of the worst possible scenario, and in this case, the worst possible scenario was that her sons had been abducted by the serial killer and rapist who'd been in the news for the last few months. If she was recalling it correctly, the number of bodies found and connected to the Snatcher was up to at least six.

Audrey took a breath and stood up. She began to pace. Thinking about worst case scenarios when she had no reason to wasn't going to help anything. She needed to do something to get her mind off it.

Despite not wanting to, Audrey forced herself to take a shower.

It didn't help.

Audrey was pacing back and forth by the telephone when it finally rang. She immediately picked up.

"Hello?" she said, hoping against all hope it was her sons.

"Hey, honey."

Audrey fell back onto the couch. It was Walter.

"Did you find anything?"

"I found the cake at least," Walter replied. "There's a wedding cake in the back of Trevor's El Camino on the side of the road, about fifteen miles from the venue. The hood is up, and there's a parking ticket on the windshield. I see some other tire tracks on the side of the road, and Josh's suit jacket torn to pieces, but nothing else. Looks like it got caught in part of the engine, but there's no blood or anything anywhere, so I'm sure he's fine. The door to the car is locked, and I can see the keys inside. There's nothing and no one else around. It's at least another ten miles to a gas station or anything like that, but maybe they tried to walk it? I'll keep driving. Maybe I'll find something."

"Okay," Audrey quietly replied, squeezing her eyes shut to try to control her emotions. She was getting more and more worried by the minute. If the boys had tried walking ten miles, anything could've happened to them. They could've been hit by a car, or attacked by a mountain lion, or kidnapped by the Snatcher-.

Audrey stopped her train of thought. That wasn't going to help.

"I'll call back if I find anything," Walter assured her before saying goodbye and hanging up the phone.

Audrey placed the phone back in the cradle before letting her head fall into her hands once again. Where were her sons?