We'll Tell The Saddest Story Of How We Made It Through This Past Year.

The thunder rolled around us as we waited in the pouring rain, not even caring if we were soaked. Jack had his arms wrapped around me from behind, and the rest of the band and crew were scattered around us. It'd been almost 2 hours since Matt had flew out of the bus in a panic, waving a piece of paper at us.

The paper had been clear enough, despite being childishly written with spelling errors. It read: Daddy. If we cnt live wit u, we r runnin way. We r not leving with te mean ladie.

I'd sagged against Jack, all the energy leaving my body. Eveyone around us had been flabbergasted. Even Mrs.Brown's eyes had widened in fear. A wave of panic washed over us all as we looked from one person to another. Everyone's reaction was the same: fear, guilt, panic. It was getting dark already, and we hadn't known what to do.

Eventually, Matt had spoken, forever our voice of logic. "Call the police," he'd said, and we had.

Half an hour ago, I'd called the venue that we were supposed to be playing at the next day, telling them that there was no way we'd be able to play. The woman on the other end had been very rude to me, claiming that it was unprofessional to cancel at the last minute and that we'd be lucky if they ever booked us there again.

"So don't ever book us there again!" I yelled. "My daughers are missing, do you think I care about shows now? Hell, if we don't find them, I'll never play another show again!"

I had collapsed then, crying, my knees scraped on the cold, cement ground. And as if things weren't bad enough, it started to rain then, the storm that had been promising to break finally breaking. I was discouraged, my heart on the floor.

I sighed, and Jack wrapped his arms tighter around me. "It'll be okay, Lex," he said softly. "Please don't lose hope."

I turned, wrapping my arms around his torso. "I'm so glad you're here, Jacko, or I'd be useless. You're the only that's keeping me from breaking down completely."

I felt his breath on my cheek before he kissed me. "You're doing just fine, Lex, I promise. Don't be so hard on yourself."

I whimpered, my throat clogging with tears again. "But none of this would have happened if I hadn't agreed to having Forever The Sickest Kids on the tour. And if I'd been more careful. The girls must have heard me talking, they must have been planning this. They're not stupid. Oh god, this is all my fault," I said, shaking as I tried to breathe.

Jack shook his head. "Alex, no. Stop thinking like that. C'mon, let's go inside for a little bit. We all need to dry off and get warm."

I frowned. "No. The girls are out in this, so I'm staying out in this."

Matt overheard us. "Alex. Please come inside. You won't be any help to the girls if you end up in the hospital with pneumonia. And whether you like it or not, we need to make a statement to the fans ... they're going to be going crazy by now because the venue would have announced our cancellation."

I sighed. I knew they were right. "Okay," I said, heading into the bus. Everyone else followed us. Towels were handed out, warm drinks were made. And then there was a noise at the door. We looked up to see Mrs.Brown, drenched, standing hesitantly on the last step.

"M-may I come in?" she stuttered, looking ashamed to be asking.

"No, you can't," Jack snapped, but I put a hand on his arm.

"Jack, please. If you say this isn't my fault, it's not hers, either. She was just doing her job. Come in, Mrs.Brown. Do you want a drink? Matt, get her a towel."

Matt handed her a towel without saying a word and she dried herself the best she could, not looking at any of us. Finally, she handed the towel back to Matt and looked at me and Jack.

"I've made a terrible mistake, and I am so, so sorry," she said, her eyes watery. "The girls couldn't ask for better people to take care of them. I've not only underestimated the two of you, I also underestimated the rest of you ... you're a family, I can really see that now. I am so sorry. When we find the girls, I'll sign the papers. They're yours."

There was silence for a few moments as we all took in what she just said.

"And if we don't find them?" Jack said, his voice breaking. It was what everyone else in the room was thinking.

And the one thing no one had an answer for.

*****************************************************************

It was almost 3am and somehow I'd managed to fall asleep. I was woken by a pounding on the door, causing me to almost jump out of my skin. I was at the door in seconds, throwing it open. And two little figures, drenched and dirty and shaking, launched themselves into my arms. Two police officers stood behind them, close enough to be watchful but far enough away to let us be reunited in peace.

"Daddy, daddy, we're so sorry," Sammie said, sobbing. "I'll never run away again."

Tears slipped down my cheeks. "Baby, where were you? Where'd you go?"

"I wanted to go to Lisa," Sammie said sadly. "We knew she'd keep us since you couldn't."

Mrs.Brown appeared behind me. "Who is Lisa?"

"Their godmother," I said. "She lives in Baltimore, and we'd always instructed the girls to get in touch with her in case of emergency back home. They have her address and phone number. I didn't realize that they'd try to get to her when we were this far away, though."

Just then, my cell phone rang. "Hello?"

"Alex! Is everything okay? I have a message from Sammie on my phone and -"

It was Lisa. I cut her off. "Everything's okay now, Lis. I'll call you later and explain everything, okay? We still have some loose things to tie up here. I'll call you in the morning, get some sleep."

She hung up and I turned back, panic momentarily welling in me when I saw that the girls were gone. Jack read my expression.

"They've gone in the back with Danny to get dry clothes," he said, and I starting breathing again.

The police officers stepped forward. I wanted to rush into their arms and hug them, but I knew better. Instead, I held out a hand.

"Thank you so much," I whispered. "You have no idea how much this means to me."

The officer smiled. "I do, actually. I have two little girls myself. I'd move heaven and earth to find them if ever they disappeared." He flipped through some of the papers in his hands. "We found them at a bus stop about an hour from here after getting an anonymous tip. They aren't harmed in any way, just shaken up and cold. Normally,we'd have a lot of questions and security procedures to go through before we could let the girls back into your custody. But we're well aware that the cause of the runaway wasn't family issues - it was because they didn't want to be taken away from you two, am I correct?"

I nodded. "Yes. They love us a lot, we've never had any trouble with them before."

He nodded. "I hope that the issues will be resolved." He looked directly at Mrs.Brown. "Not to tell you how to do your job, ma'am, but I really hope that you won't be considering taking these girls away from their dads anytime soon. They had nothing but praise and love and worry for them. They obviously love them very much, and I doubt that whatever happened to make you consider them unfit can even begin to compare to the love I've seen from all these people. It may sound bound, considering I'm a cop, but sometimes, the rules don't matter as much as stronger forces do. Good day to you all. If there's anything you need, call us right off."

He handed us a card, waved his hand, and walked off the bus, closing the door.

Everyone was silent. Jack wrapped his arms around me, and I melted into his embrace.

"They're safe, Jack, they're safe," I said.

"Now's a bad time to say it, but, I told you so." He kissed me softly.

"How were you so sure?"

He considered it for a minute, and then smiled at me. "Instinct, I guess. I knew from the moment I saw the girls that they were meant to be ours and that we'd do whatever it took to keep them ours and safe. Just like I knew that you and I were meant to be together and that I'd do whatever it took to make you mine and keep you safe. I love you, Alex. I just want us to be a family."

Tears stung my eyes as everyone around us awwww'ed. I hugged him again. "I love you too, Jack. Let's go see our girls."

As I said that, the girls walked back into the front lounge. They were dry and clean, but had teary eyes and sad smiles.

"We're ready," Sammie said sadly. Gabby imitated her. "Ready."

"Ready for what, sweetheart?"

"To leave with her," she said, pointing at Mrs.Brown. "We've been bad, so we're going away. But we're g-going to m-miss y-y-you," she said, tears sliding down her cheeks.

I felt like I'd been slapped. "Baby, no. You're not leaving with anybody. You're coming home with us, back to Baltimore and Baz and Sebastien and Lisa and Isobel and your school friends and everyone else. You're not bad, honey."

She looked at me with tears. "But we ran away."

"I know, and that's a bad thing to do, but that doesn't make YOU bad. You made a mistake, but everyone makes mistakes. The important thing to not do it again."

"I won't," she said. "Do you still love me?"

"Of course we love you," Jack said. "We'll always love you, no matter what." He got to his knees, and I did the same. "C'mere, you guys."

They ran into our arms, and the four of us hugged each other as tightly as we could. There wasn't a dry eye in the room in those 5 minutes. Even Mrs.Brown had tears in her eyes.

I looked at Matt after a few minutes. "Matty, cancel the last few shows. Right now, this family needs to go home."