Heroes...And The Rest Of Us.

"What do you mean they're gone?" I ask Daisy, slightly panicked. Adam is looking at the two of us very confused.

"I was on my way up to the bar, and I saw them all like, leaving. Heading for the door. By the time I got through the crowd, they were already gone." She says to me quickly.

"Hold up here a minute. Who's gone? And what does this have to do with Jack?" Adam finally asks.

"Jack's ex and her new boyfriend were in here tonight, and now Jack is apparently with them somewhere. Daisy, what door did they go out of?"

"They were headed towards the back."

"OK. Adam, will you go look for him in like, the bathroom or something? Maybe he just walked them outside or something. Daisy and I will go look in the parking lot." Adam immediately gets up and walks quickly to the bathroom area. Daisy and I run out the back door to the parking lot.

"Jack!" I call out when we get to the parking lot. We look in between all the rows of parked cars, and I look inside of both my car and Adam's.

"Jack Peterson!" I yell and get no response.

"What do you need, Sophie?" I hear Shawn, the bands tour manager call out to me from inside the equiptment trailer that's parked nearby. I walk over to the trailer and see him inside sorting some cables.

"Have you seen Jack out here?" I ask him.

"Uh yeah. I saw him and a guy and a girl out here smoking a few minutes ago."

"That's all they were doing was smoking?"

"He went with the girl in her car. I asked him if he was coming back or not, and he said that he'd be back in a bit and for me not to tell you or Adam that he left. Which, I thought was kind of weird because you guys are all kind of joined at the hip, ya know?"

"Oh my God, I can't believe this. Thanks Shawn." Daisy and I run back into the bar to find Adam and tell him what Shawn just told us.

"Well, Shawn said that Jack said that he would be back, that's a good thing right?" Daisy says to me as we walk.

"Yeah, but he also said not to tell Adam or me that he left. That's not a good sign at all." We find Adam on his cell phone, sitting with the other guys.

"Anything?" I ask him.

"No, you?"

"Shawn said he left with his ex, a few minutes ago. He didn't want you or I to know he left."

"And, why am I just now hearing about his ex being here tonight? If I had known this I would have had you take him home. Now it's all fucked up." He says, sounding a little pissed off.

"He said it wasn't a big deal. He didn't want you to be worried about it, he said that he had it under control."

"Well, it was a big deal. And obviously he didn't have it all under control." He says, and kicks a chair over on it's side.

"Does he have a cell phone?" Neil asks.

"No, we were going to take him to get one this weekend."

"Where's the boyfriend? Shawn said that Jack left with whatshername, the boyfriend must still be here." Daisy says.

"She's right. Where's that asshole?" Adam asks, looking around the bar. I look around the room and spot the guy standing by the front door.

"By the front door, the guy with dyed black hair." I say. Adam looks and starts walking towards the guy. Daisy, all the guys in Adam's band, and I all follow close behind, pushing our way through the crowd. Adam reaches the guy first, pushing his chest forcing him into the wall behind him.

"What the fuck, man?" The guy says to Adam, putting him arms up in the air.

"Call your girlfriend."

"What? What are you talking about. Who the fuck are you?"

"Call your girlfriend, Kari-Ann right? That what her name is, right?" Adam practically spits in the guys face.

"Hey man, who the fuck are you? What do you got with Kari-Ann?"

"She just took off on a drug run, didn't she? Where did she go?"

"Dude, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know anything about any drugs. She went to a friends place with an old friend of ours, that's it."

"What friend? Where do they live?"

"Why should I tell you? I don't even know your crazy ass."

"I have bussiness with the guy she took off out of here with. Now, tell me where they went."

"I don't know where they went, man."

"That's bullshit, you know exactly where they went. I could give a shit about Kari-Ann, so if I call the cops they will find her, and you know, I don't really think they would be as nice about it as I'm being." I'm standing beside Adam, the others are behind us.

"Fine, I'll call her."

"Good, lets go outside."

Adam and I and the other guy all go outside. The boyfriend has his cell out and is dialing. On the third ring, I hear Kari-Ann pick up.

"Hello?" She says to him.

"Where you at?"

"What do you mean where am I at? I'm over at Casey's."

"You still got Jack with you?"

"Yeah, what's the problem, Joe?"

"There's a guy here that wants to know about Jack, and where you guys are."

"Listen to me, Joe. You cannot tell them where I am." Adam snatches the phone away from the guy and puts it up to his ear.

"You listen to me, little girl. You either tell me where the fuck you are, or I call the cops and they hunt your ass down." She hangs up the phone without saying a word.

"Call her back." Adam says to the boyfriend, handing him the phone back. He tries calling twice, but she refuses to answer.

"Son of a bitch." Adam says.

"Dude, I don't know where she went. She said they were going to a friends house and that they would meet me back here to party some more."

"I'm supposed to believe that you let your girlfriend leave this bar with her ex, and you had no idea where they were going or what time they were coming back? And you were just OK with that? Who cares about what they did in between?"

"It's stupid, I know. But she told me to trust her, so I did."

"She is going to call back, and when she does, you need to call us." I tell him. We both give him our cell numbers and our home phone number, and then go back in the bar to tell the other's what's happening. They tell us to go home and wait for Jack, they seem convinced that he'll come home on his own and that we need to be there when he does. Adam and I drive the Tahoe home and Daisy follows us in my Edge. We don't say a word to each other the whole drive home. When we get back to the house, Daisy gets in her own car and goes home. Adam calls Jack's counsler and tells him what's going on.

I don't know what to do, or who to call. It's not like Jack has any family or friends around here that I can call and ask if he showed up. So I call my parents and my brother, Mike, and they all say that they haven't seen him. Adam and I plunk down at the dining room table and stare at Jack's house keys on their keychain, sitting on the table in front of us. We just look at the keys, and then look at each other without a word.
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Adam and Jack come into the front door on a rainy day a week after Austin and Jackie's wedding in Vegas. They just got home from an NA meeting at some church in Peoria. I'm laying on the couch in the living room, drawing cartoon pictures of Mabel when they come in.

"Hey, babe. What are you doing?" Adam asks me, sitting down by my feet. Jack walks through the living room and goes into his room.

"Drawing pictures of Mabel. How was the meeting?" I hear Jack shut his bedroom door.

"Pretty good. I think it was good for him to go and see that I'm not the only one that knows what he's going through. That's a lot of pressure for me, you know? I mean, I'm trying my damndest every day to stay clean for myself, you know? And now I've got him looking to me for answers too." I nod. He tosses his keyring at me and it lands on my chest. I pick it up and notice the new keychain thats hanging from it. It looks like a poker chip, and on one side it has the logo for rehab on it. On the other side it says "ONE YEAR".

"Does this mean what I think it does?" I ask Adam.

"One year off any kind of drugs."

"Baby! That's great, I'm so proud of you!" I sit up and hug him tight around his neck, kissing his cheek.

"Yeah. Jack got one too. Jack!" He yells for Jack to come out of his room. He peeks his head out of his room and looks out at Adam and I.

"Yeah?" He says.

"Show Sophie your chip." He goes back into the bedroom and comes back a second later. He hands me him set of house keys and I see a chip that says "ONE MONTH".

"I'm so proud of both of you guys. You're doing so great, making good choices for yourselves."

That was only two weeks ago. Adam and Jack had both been so proud of themselves after that meeting.

Adam and I stayed up all night lastnight looking for Jack. Calling everyone we knew, the local hospital's, the jail's. Driving around looking for him around town. We're back at the house now, sitting at the dining room table again. I pick up Jack's poker chip that's hanging from his keys and rub it between my fingers. Adam is watching me touch the chip, he looks completely stressed out and tired.

"He was doing so fucking good. He was so close to two months." He says.

"We don't know for sure that he relapsed."

"It's a pretty safe bet, though."

"I know."

"I should call that Joe guy again, see if he's heard anything from them." There's a knock on our back door, and Adam and I almost knock each other over running to answer it. Barry and his girlfriend, Heather are standing there when we open the door. Barry is holding what looks like a jacket in his hands.

"Hey guys. Any sign of the kid yet?" Barry asks.

"No, not yet."

"Well, Shawn found this on the trailer this morning. He must have took it off lastnight when he was working. We thought we'd bring it over here and see if you needed us to do anything for you guys." He hands me Jack's leather jacket that he wears everywhere. I hold it up to my face and turn away from the door, walking into the kitchen where no one can see me. I can hear Adam saying something to them, but I can't tell what. A second later, I feel a someone hugging me. I look up and see Heather, smiling at me sympathetically.

"It's gonna be OK, Sophie." She says. Barry and Adam are standing in the back entryway watching us.

"Thank you, Heather."

"Thanks a lot guys, for bringing the jacket over here. I, uh, think we just need to be alone right now. There's not a lot that any of us can do, but thanks a lot for just being around, ya know?" Adam says. Barry and Heather both nod. Heather gives me another hug, and Barry pats Adam and I on the shoulder before they leave. He walks them to the door, and I put the jacket back up to my face and cry into it hysterically. Adam comes back in a moment later and wraps his arms around me. I sob hard into his chest, gasping for air.

"Shh, it's not your fault, babe. You couldn't have known that this was going to happen, OK? We're going to find him and make him better again, I promise." He says in my ear. I'm crying so hard that my whole body is shaking against his. He picks me up in a threshold and carries me into our bedroom, and sets me down.

"Why don't you take a shower and change your clothes? I'll make some food. You need to keep your strength for him, right now." I nod my head and go into the bathroom to shower.

When I get out of the shower, I dry off and put on my short black satin robe. I brush my hair and stare at myself in the mirror. I look horrible. I reach into one of the vanity drawers and pull out a black eyeliner pencil, smudging it across my eyes in thick lines. I put some mascara on and decide that I still look horrible, but not quite as bad as before.

I walk out to the bedroom and see Adam laying on the bed smoking a cigarette. He looks up at me and sighs when I walk in, still wearing the robe and my wet hair hanging in my face. He props himself up on his elbow and moves the ashtray that's laying beside him, making room for me to lie down. I lay on my back and stare at the ceiling, close to Adam's body. He takes a hit off of the cigarette, then puts it to my lips and I take a hit, blowing smoke up in the air when I'm done.

"I was never that strong, Adam." He puts the cigarette out in the ashtray that's sitting on my stomach.

"Yes you are. You just weren't ready for this."

"How could anybody ever be ready for this?" He lights another cigarette and we smoke it together in silence until the phone rings. It's closest to me, so I answer it quickly.

"Hello?"

"If you want Jack Peterson, he's in my house right now. Come and get him out of here."