It was late afternoon on Wednesday. The sunlight danced through the window shades in the Matthews' apartment. The sounds of children laughing and sometimes fighting drifted down the stairs. Cory sat at the dining room table staring at the front door. Behind him, his wife cleaned an already spotless kitchen. They were both waiting expectantly and somewhat anxiously. A few minutes later, the apartment door opened, and their former English teacher entered with a grim look on his face.

He studied them for a long moment, then shook his head. "I've looked everywhere I can think of," a despondent Turner sighed heavily, taking a seat across from the younger man. "I don't think he's in the City anymore."

"He is," Cory assured him with more confidence than he felt. "His photography stuff is still in Auggie's room. I've been checking."

The corner of Jon's mouth turned up and he raised an eyebrow. "Every five minutes?"

"Every five minutes."

Jon smiled his gratitude for the cup of coffee Topanga set in front of him. "He could leave without it, you know."

Cory shook his head resolutely. "I've also got his wallet." To prove it, he took a well-worn wallet out of his back pocket and laid it on the table.

Turner looked at him in disbelief. "You stole his wallet?"

"I did not," the social studies teacher countered. "It fell out of his pocket; I found it on the couch."

"I can't believe you stole his wallet!" Topanga smacked his shoulder as she sat down next to him.

"I didn't steal it. I found it." Cory insisted indignantly. "Anyway, finder's keepers." He made a face at his wife who made one back at him.

"Hey, Daddy." Jon felt a pair of slim arms enclosed around his shoulders. "Where've you been?" He turned his head slightly to see his fifteen-year-old daughter, Julia.

"Out lookin' for Shawn."

Her blue-gray eyes lit up. "Shawn? The Shawn? Shawn Hunter?"

Her reaction made him smile slightly. "Yeah, the one and only."

"Oh, cool! So what happened?"

When her father didn't answer she looked to Cory for an answer. He sheepishly stared at his hands. Topanga rapidly tapped her fingers against the tabletop and finally said, "Your uncle insisted on reintroducing your father and Shawn with the nurse joke."

"Oh, no!" Julia groaned. She wrinkled her nose in disdain. "That joke's the worst! Even Mom hates it!"

"I know, I know," Jon lifted his hands in surrender. "Consider it permanently retired!"

"So," Julia dug her chin into her dad's shoulder as she pulled her dark hair over her shoulder and his. "Am l ever gonna get to meet him?"

Jon sighed. She'd been asking that same question since she was three. "I don't know, Jules. I can't get him to meet with me."

The brunette looked up. "Aunt Topanga, can't you do anything about this?"

Topanga appreciated Julia's faith in her ability to make everything better and hated letting her down. She regretfully shook her head. "I would if I could, honey. But it's just not that easy. Your brother's going through a hard time right now."

Julia frowned in annoyance. Shawn was always going through a hard time it seemed to her. She had been told about her older brother since birth. The brother her dad had done so much for. He never missed a gallery showing her brother did no matter the location. He would drop everything to take a call from Shawn; a call that always ended up with him frustrated and sad. He always sent birthday and Christmas cards and gifts to his last address or would just leave them with Uncle Cory since Shawn would visit him. This brother who couldn't be bothered to see her dad even once when he was in the City but made time for everyone else it seemed. Intense dislike bubbled up within Julia. Some brother.

"I don't get this thing with Shawn," she groused with teenage irritation. "You and dad and Uncle Cory always talk about how great Shawn is, but I don't think he so wonderful. He's a jerk if you ask me."

"Hey!" Jon interjected brusquely. His daughter's comment stung. "Julia, I don't want to hear you talk about him like that" His countenance softened as he caught the hurt look on her face. "He's been through an awful lot in life. I know you don't understand and I'm sorry about that. I really am."

"Fine." Sulkily, she let go of her dad and flounced down in the seat next to him. She changed the subject, but only slightly. "So at least tell me why he dislikes me so much? Did I do something', or does he just hate kids?" She was determined to get in a final dig at her absentee brother.

Jon was about to reprimand her when Cory rescued her. "Jules," he said sympathetically. "It isn't you personally. Or Grayson or Jamie or Bella or Riley or Auggie. It's what you all represent. When Shawn sees you kids he sees what he's missed out on. He sees what he doesn't have- a family of his own."

Julia wasn't impressed. She looked at her father. "We're his family," she stated flatly.

"Yes, we are," Jon responded with a small smile, grateful that she recognized that much. He didn't want her to be resentful of this peculiar situation. "I just don't know that Shawn believes that."

There was a lull in the conversation as everyone was lost in their own thoughts. Topanga chewed on her bottom lip before breaking the silence with what she knew needed to be said.

"It's more than that," She caught Jon's gaze. He regarded her inquisitively.

"What else is there?" Cory asked, curious himself.

"I've been trying to tell you this all along." She placed her hand on top of her husband's. "Shawn always believed that somehow he and Angela would end up together no matter how much time went by. It just had to be him and Angela. It's a devastating blow to him to find out she's married to someone else."

She looked at the men to see if they were following her; their attention was fastened on her. She continued, "He doesn't want to lose the last," she raised her hands like she was trying to catch the words she wanted to use. "...the last hope he has for things to work out the way he believes they should. That's his safe place; his place of hope. That hope would be destroyed if two of the most important people in his life also didn't end up together."

Cory frowned, trying to process what she was saying as realization washed over Jon's face. He closed eyes and lowered his head, resting the bridge of his nose against his thumbs. Julia sat up straight looking bewildered.

Cory shook his head, still a bit unclear about what she was saying.

"He doesn't want to know that Jon didn't marry Audrey," she explained gently.

Cory considered this a moment, then grimaced his understanding.

Jon groaned. "I don't know why that never occurred to me before."

"Topanga," Cory paused a moment, frowning, then continued, "are you sure it's not about the kids?"

"That's a part of it," she agreed with him. "But that's not the main thing."

"Is that because..." Realization began to dawn on Cory too. He closed his eyes. "Because if Jon and Audrey aren't married, then the kids aren't theirs."

"Right." Topanga nodded; thankful he finally understood her.

Cory sighed. "I guess I've just taken things for granted all these years. I honestly forgot about how hard Shawn took Audrey's leaving."

"It wasn't just her leavin'," Jon let out a long breath. They stared at him. He had never told Cory and Topanga about that summer trip into the City. He assumed Shawn had, but now it seemed he had not. "I brought him here right after school ended that year with the idea that if we went to see Audrey, she would come back with us. I asked her to marry me then and she said no. I don't think Shawn's ever forgiven her for that." He pressed his lips in a thin line as he furrowed his brow. "Or me for not fightin' harder for her."

The older man smiled morosely and shook his head. "Shawn believed love was all you needed - nothin' else mattered. I tried to tell him life wasn't like that, but thanks to you two..." he gave Cory and Topanga a Look. "...for settin' an impossibly unrealistic standard for relationships, he wouldn't listen. I got his hopes and mine up too much before that trip." The look of intense sadness on his face caused Julia to give a short cry of concern. She threw her arms around her father.

Topanga looked teary-eyed. "You guys, we have to do something to make this right for Shawn."

"How?" Cory asked. "I don't even know where he is or that he would talk to any of us. He's never been this angry with me before."

They sat in silence again trying to come up with some sort of resolution. Suddenly, Jon clapped his hands together, startling the others at the table. His expression was unreadable. "I know who he'll talk to."

Before her aunt or uncle could respond, a deeply worried and confused Julia cut in, "Dad? I don't understand what you guys are talkin' about." She twisted a lock of hair worriedly. "Who are you actually married to?"

Jon laughed. This must be a strange conversation for her to sit through. He put his arm around his daughter and ruffled her hair. "Your mom, kid."

Julia made a face and pulled back from him. Smoothing her hair, she demanded, "What kind of answer is that?!"

For the Matthew's place after dinner, it was quiet and still. From his spot on the couch in the living room, Jon could hear Auggie playing in his room with Julia and her siblings. Riley was in her room with Maya supposedly doing homework but probably not. Cory and Topanga had stepped out to run errands while he watched the kids and waited for an important phone call.

He glanced at the clock.

6:58 P.M.

He let his mind drift to that summer that ended up altering his relationship with Shawn permanently. The years had gone by so swiftly that Jon rarely thought about that trip to City. It's not that it didn't affect him-it did. It just didn't have the impact on him that it had on Shawn. Audrey's refusing to marry him had wounded that teenager far more than he realized. Those wounds incurred in youth had scarred over but had not healed in adulthood.

In hindsight, Shawn had started to push him away immediately after they returned and never stopped until they reached the impasse they were currently at. Jon sighed in resignation. If only Shawn would hear him out just once, just once, without shutting down and let him explain what happened in the subsequent years. Shawn needed to hear why not marrying Audrey then was the right thing to have happened and Jon needed to tell him why.

The clock turned 7 P.M. and a few seconds later, the room was filled with music as the mellifluous strains of the Nutcracker Suite rang out. That ringtone was set for only one person in his contact list. Jon smiled fondly at the name that lit up his screen for a moment before answering the call.

"Hey you."

"Hey yourself," returned a warm female voice.

A warmth crept over him at the sound of her voice. "How's it goin'?"

Laughter rang out on the other end. "Oh, fantastic! This has been the best workshop I've ever been a part of!"

"You say that about every workshop, prima ballerina," he smiled, returning her merriment.

"Okay, maybe I do," she admitted. "What's up? Your text made it sound serious. Are the kids okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. The kids are good. It's Shawn."

He heard her suck in her breath. "What's wrong?"

"Cory made him meet with me."

"I take it that it didn't go well."

"It went about as bad as it possibly could go." He then proceeded to tell her what happened at Topanga's.

"Poor Shawn!" She paused a moment. "No idea where he is?"

"Nope. I think the errand Cory wanted Topanga to run with him is actually lookin' for Shawn. Audrey, is there any way you can come back early?"

"I'm done teaching," she said, "but I'll need to arrange someone to take my place in the exhibition."

Relieved, Jon silently let out a breath he had been unconsciously holding. "I'm sorry to do this, Aud. But Shawn needs you." He paused, considering his words. "And so do I."

There was no hesitation on the other end of the line. "I'm on my way, Jonny. I'll be there tomorrow."