Matty ran away from Jeff's house. He saw a bus stop. The next bus was to Georgetown. It was just pulling into the bus stop. Matty got on the bus. Once he was in the city. He got off the bus and found the first Metro station entrance and got on the Metro to Dulles airport.

Things were so messed up in his head. He felt so fuzzy and a little bit dizzy. But he needed to power through. If he could get to the airport. He could rest on the plane. He wasn't sure he wanted to sleep though. He didn't want to lose more memories.

He got to the airport and found the lockers. Which one was it? An image flashed in his brain and he found locker 86. He went up to it. He put in the combination which was 021387.
The lock opened and Matty smiled. There was a duffel bag in there. He grabbed the duffel bag. He closed the locker and went to the men's room. He went into a stall and opened the bag. There were three plastic packets of money in there and an envelope full of passports. He opened the first one. It was American money. There had to be at least a couple thousand dollars of American money. Matty grabbed that one. There was another packet of that had about the same amount of money in Euros. The third packet was the same but had British money.

The fourth envelop had a bunch of passports in it. He looked at the first passport. There was a man with long dark hair, a big beard and hazel eyes. This man was the one in his dreams. His father. The passport was Canadian and said, "Michael Winthrope."Matty noticed that the passport had what looked like either dried ketchup or blood on it.

Matty looked at the next passport. This one was an American passport. It was of a pretty woman with the same hair color and eyes as Matty. This must be the woman Jeff said was his mother. Matty thought I do look a little like her. The name on the passport was Amanda Steadman. He thought Jeff had called her Stetson. Maybe he heard it wrong. He was not quite 100% right now. He just wished his brain would start working properly.

Then there was another American passport. This one was his father again except his hair wasn't dark. It was the same hazel eyes but he was clean shaven, and he had short sandy brown hair. It said Lee Steadman. Matty wondered if maybe Amanda Steadman was his stepmother. The next passport was British. This one was another one for his stepmother. There was a British one for his father. Then Matty found another set of American and British passports for a girl her name on the passport was Leann Steadman. Then Matty found a set that said, "James Keane". It was his brother. Why did his brother have a different last name?

The next set of passports was of him. Both the American and British one said Matthew Steadman. He hoped they wouldn't give him any issues. The passport was good until he was 18. The only problem was Matty was not entirely sure how old he actually was. The passport had his birth date as September 24, 1989. So that would make him sixteen. There were a bunch more passports in the packet. Matty looked at one of an older woman that said "Dorothea Weiss" Matty decided that he didn't have time to look at the rest. He needed to get moving.

Matty left the men's room and put the duffel bag back in the locker. There was another empty small backpack in the locker. He took that and put the British and American money in the backpack. He took the British passport and went to the counter and bought a first-class ticket to London Heathrow.

The lady at the ticket counter didn't question him at all. He was over fifteen, so he didn't need to be listed as an unaccompanied minor. Once he had his ticket for the next flight which was leaving in three hours. He walked over to the security line. He got to go through the priority lane because he had bought a first class ticket. He handed the TSA agent his passport. Hoping that it would work. The TSA agent scanned his passport and then gave him a look. Matty knew something was up.

He should fight this and try to get away. But what was the point anymore? Matty was tired and he felt like crap. He was in an airport. It was an airport, so these had to be the real authorities.

"Where are you headed, son?" The TSA agent said.

Matty was. "Um I was just going to see my grandfather in London, sir."

The TSA agent said, "This is a fake passport and you have a backpack full of cash. The passport is a very good quality forgery too. Where did you get it?"

Matty didn't want to tell them about his father although even if he did he couldn't remember much anyway, "I can't say, sir."

The TSA agent nodded, "Well you're in a lot of trouble, son. I'm going to need you to go with these men."

Two really big TSA agents came over and motioned for him to go with them. Matty sighed.

They brought him to a room. Matty wasn't sure what to do now. He needed to get out of there. But he was tired and had been running all day. He was starting to lose his steam. He would just let these men take him so he could hopefully rest for a little bit. Then he would run again. Maybe they would take him to the hospital again. That had been really easy to escape from.

Matty waited in the room for a few minutes by himself. Then some men in suits came in the room. One of them was a middle-aged man with glasses.

The man with the glasses looked at the other men, "It's him. Let Scarecrow know we are bringing him in."

The middle-aged man with the glasses smiled at him, "Hi Matty. Are you alright? You scared a lot of people. Your parents are worried sick about you."

Matty looked at the man, "My parents? Look you can't fool me. Whatever you do to me. I know what my father looks like."

The man looked at him," Birol did a number on you didn't he? Do you even know who I am?"

Matty thought the man looked familiar, but he wasn't sure, "No, sir. I'm sorry."

He nodded, "That's ok, Matty. My name is Efraim. I've worked with your parents for quite a few years now. I'm friends with your parents. I've known you since you were a baby. My daughter Maya and your sister are good friends. You were teaching my daughter sign language. It's going to be ok, son. I'm going to take you to your parents now. We aren't going to hurt you. You don't have to be scared. You are safe with us. I promise."

Matty almost believed this man. Except for some reason there was a voice in his head going on a tangent on what a complete moron this guy was.

They put him in a car and drove him to a brown building that had a white sign out front that said International Federal Film. They brought him in through the main entrance. Then he followed Efraim into an elevator with coats in it. This all felt really familiar. He had been here before.

They went down a corridor and went into a medical office. There was a woman standing there. The woman from the passport. This must be his stepmother, but she looked an awful lot like the woman that was his mother in his dreams. Matty was so confused.

She went over to him and just grabbed him and hugged him. "Oh my gosh. It is so good to see you, sweet boy. We were so worried about you. What on earth were you thinking? Never take off like that again."

Then a man came in the room. The man from his dreams. The man in the passports. His father. His real father. He looked at Matty with pure emotion. He almost looked like he was holding back tears.

He grabbed Matty and hugged him really tightly and there was a lot of emotion in his voice when he spoke. " Never do that to me again. Please. I can't protect you if you run off like that. Did he hurt you?"

Matty looked at his father, "Your my father. My real father. Michael Winthrope. Everything is all a blur. I remember the creepy man. He was telling me that he was my father. I knew he wasn't but whatever drugs they gave me. It scrambled my brain. He hurt James though. His face is all bruised up. He had bruises all over."

His father spoke, "You were going to go to England? You remember England. You gave that hospital your old name."

Matty looked at him, "My old name or is it my real name?"

His father looked at him, "Your real name is Alexander Matthew Stetson. Everyone calls you by your middle name because you like that. It's a really long story why you were Matthew Winthrope for a few years."

Matty looked at him, "The passport said Steadman. So, your real name is Lee Steadman and that's Amanda Steadman. My stepmother right?."

His mother looked at him, "I'm not your stepmother. I'm your mother. I gave birth to you."

Matty looked at her. He had a real mother, "So you survived the car crash in Canada?"

His mother touched his hair, "Oh sweet boy. What did they do to you? No that is just a story. I'm your only mother and I didn't die in a car crash in Canada."

Matty looked at her, "I have flashes of him being sad. Crying over you."

His father spoke, "It's a long story, Matty. We thought your mother had died in an explosion. We went to London and lived with my grandfather. That estate you wanted to go to. We lived there for a few years when you were younger. I taught you to go to the airport if the trouble was bad enough and come to Washington DC. That must have been so ingrained in you. That when you were scared, and the trouble was bad enough you tried to do it in reverse."

Matty looked at the woman and smiled, "I have a real mother and you are alive?"

She smiled and hugged him, "You do. One who loves you very much. What can you tell us about Jamie? We have surveillance camera footage of you jumping out of the back of a van. Was Jamie with you in that van?"

Matty nodded, "Yeah, he was so nice. They beat him up. His face was all bruised and he had bruises and marks on his chest. I don't know what they are going to do to him."

His father spoke, "They weren't doing the brainwashing process on him too?"

Matty nodded no. "I don't think they had done it yet. Because he was too old. They were planning to do it when we got to our next location, though. James seemed pretty with it. More with it than me. He told me to escape. He knew that we didn't live in a tree. He talked to me with his foot, and I understood."

His dad smiled, "That's good. Ok so Jamie was alright as of last night."

Matty felt tears forming in his eyes, "I left him. He told me to leave him. I did and I got away. I passed out in front of a policeman at a Metro Station. Then I woke up in Parker General. They were nice but I needed to get out of there. I had to get to the address James told me. That other boy Jeff. I got him killed"

His father nodded, "No, Jeff's not dead. The phone at our house is bugged. When Jeff called and said you were at his house. Karbala was listening. They got there before our agents. The freshman agent I had watching his house had fallen asleep on the job. Jeff's going to be alright. Just got shot in the shoulder. Your mom and I went to see him at Gallilee. Nice kid. Was more worried about you than himself. His mother was too."

Matty had another image pop in his head of a dark haired boy laying on a table, "There's another boy. They had another boy. Is he dead?"

His mother looked at Matty, "Joey. That's your cousin. He's in a coma."

Matty looked at his mother. "Joey. I remember. He's not really my cousin. But I call your first husband Uncle Joe. I have an aunt too. Francine, right? Uncle Joe is married to Aunt Francine."

His mother laughed a little, "You do have an Aunt Francine. But your Uncle Joe and her aren't married."

Matty looked and a flash of Joey telling him that his parents were having problems came in his head, "Oh that makes sense. I just had a flash of Joey telling me they were having problems."

His mother spoke," Your Uncle Joe is married to your Aunt Carrie. Your Aunt Francine is one of your father's closest friends. You just call her that because she's really part of our family even though she isn't related to us."

Then Matty spoke, "Our family is more complicated than Love Hospital. God, I remember Love Hospital. I don't really want to remember Love Hospital. Sorry getting sidetracked. Memories are popping in my head but not in any kind of order. Joey, is he going to be alright?"

His dad spoke, "He better be. Doctor McJohn is testing your blood now. The sample they took from Parker General when you were there. You and Joey were both given the same drugs. He's trying to figure out why you are moving around and trying to jump on airplanes while poor Joey is in a coma."

Matty spoke, "My procedures kept getting interrupted because we kept having to move. At least twice. I also was fighting it. I didn't want it. Maybe Joey wasn't fighting as hard. It's coming back to me. Birol captured me in a net with this weird goo on it. That caused me to black out. Then he injected with some kind of truth serum that made me weak."

His mother smiled, "That's good Matty. Can you remember anything else?"

Matty looked at her, "I remember thinking I wanted to kill Birol. He has to be the creepiest man I've ever met in my life. He's not like the other Karbala men. He's smarter and it's not all revenge based with him. Its more about money but he still wanted revenge against dad killing Gregor. He told me he liked me. That's why he left Joey behind. My memory is started to get clearer. Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry. I thought because I took out Lazlo. I thought that maybe if they got me this time. I'm older. Dad's trained me. I thought I could escape or that you and dad would be able to just come rescue us. Dad you always come for me."

His father smiled gently at him, "And I always will, kid. Always."

Matty could feel the love from his father and he knew he loved him back just as much. The floodgates of his mind opened. He remembered everything all at once. His head really hurt. Oh my gosh. He had almost gotten Jeff killed too. His one real friend. It was all so surreal. What had he done?

Matty looked at his parents and the tears just poured out of him, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I made everything worse. Didn't I? Joey's in a coma. Jeff's in the hospital. Jamie's ...god I don't know what they are doing to Jamie. I think they are going to brainwash him now. They weren't going to before because they want the blood of Scarecrow to spill the blood of Scarecrow. Except I think Birol will just move on to doing it to Jamie. Jamie saved me. I left him behind. He told me to leave him and I did. I'm so sorry. I just... was tired of feeling like a victim. I wanted to be brave like dad is. Instead of the little fragile deaf boy that always needs to be protected."

His father looked at him, "Hey its ok, buddy. I'm sorry. I know some of that is my fault. That I'm a little overprotective sometimes. But for your next teenage rebellion. You think maybe you can just get drunk at a party, knock a girl up or steal a car instead of turning yourself over to a known terrorist next time? "

His mother whacked his father in the stomach gently, "Don't tell our son its ok to steal cars and knock up girls."

His Dad looked at her, "Sorry, Amanda. You know what I mean though."

Matty wiped his tears with his hand. "When medical is done with me. You are going to put me in the holding cell next to Lazlo aren't you and throw away the key?"

His dad nodded no, "No, we are going to send you home to be with the other kids. And I'm giving Death Demon to the grandkids."

Matty looked at him, "That's cool. I beat it the other day anyway. I was going to let them take it home anyway."

His dad sighed, "Well when we get out of this. You are grounded. School and then home."

His mother whispered to his father, "That's what he usually does anyway. We want him to socialize with the other kids more. Remember?"

His dad sighed, "You are grounded. Your mother and I will get back to you on how that is going to work with you."

But then the pain in his head got more intense. The memories had come back way too fast. The world started spinning and Matty felt his eyes roll up in the back of his head.
He heard his dad say, "What's happening to him? Oh god, I take it back you're not grounded. Just be alright. That's all I ask. Just be alright. I can't lose you."

Notes:

Next chapter: Matty wakes up because story is all from his perspective and there's still about 10 chapters give or take a couple left.