Disclaimer: Hmm… cha cha cha, nothing belongs to me, cha cha cha.

A/N: Note time! And we have arrived at the fifth (go ahead, count it), fifth chapter. Whoohoo! And I’d like the boys to do the intro this time.

Luke: -reading from a printer sheet- We’d like to thank AngelofMusic18 and Nickeltjuh for reading and reviewing the last chapter. This story would be left to scatter in the wind without all of your continued support. Oh my God...

Noah: -takes the sheet- We’d also like to thank zcst4eva for being a wonderful person. It means a great deal to us all that you’d take the time out of your life to beta this story. She says this every time...

Luke and Noah: -simultaneously- Now the continuation of Missing!

Chapter 5

Respite in spite

Luke felt warmth on his face as he woke and turned away, burrowing deeper into the covers. Wait, covers? Eyes snapping open, Luke quickly looked around and was satisfied when he found that he was still in the living room. Someone, most likely his father, had thrown a green blanket over him while he was sleeping, and had taken the cordless phone with them. And that’s another thing, why was he sleeping in the first place?

Mind working overtime, he stretched as he tried to remember last night. He had been talking to Maddie, and then he cried for some length of time. Turning red with embarrassment, Luke made a mental note to apologize to her, but it then got more difficult to remember. His body had felt leaden and numb around that time. It had been getting harder to focus on what Maddie was saying. Then… nothing.

“What the hell?” he asked aloud, pushing the blanket away. That wasn’t natural for him; he didn’t go from lucid to lethargic so quickly, even when he was dead tired. Not unless he took a sleeping pill did that happen. But he didn’t… unless… The oatmeal… “Oh Mom, how could you?” It’d been so sweet to cover up the medication she was slipping him. And he didn’t eat the whole thing, so it took longer. She knew he hated pills! This was unbelievable.

Shaking his head, Luke suddenly realized something else. His cell phone wasn’t in his hand. He checked the floor, thinking he’d dropped it. It wasn’t there. He stood up and looked between the cushions, under the cushions, under the couch. He even shook out his covers, several times. But his cell phone was gone. They took it. Oh, this was war.

Intent on getting some answers, Luke stalked into the kitchen where Lily and Holden were eating breakfast quietly. “Hi Luke,” his mother opened brightly. “We’ve got scrambled eggs and French toast f-“

“Where is it?” Luke was seething with anger, and it seemed like the tone of his voice conveyed that, for Holden stopped eating and looked at his son, carefully assessing him.

“What are you talking about, Luke?” He said slowly as though trying not to upset him any more than he already was. ‘Too late for that,’ he thought and a laugh escaped from somewhere within him. It was slightly high pitched and his parents glanced at each other, worried.

“Don’t play dumb with me, I know you have it. Give it back!”

“Luke, I don’t underst-”

“Shut up Mom!” Luke exploded, ignoring the shocked and upset faces in front of him. “I know you drugged me last night so don’t even talk to me!”

A chair scraped loudly against the floor as Holden stood in outrage. “Luke Snyder, control yourself! You never speak to your mother that way! Now apologize. I’m serious, Luke!”

Taking a deep breath, Luke nodded and sat on of the stool wearily. He felt queasy and irritated as he exhaled, not a welcome combination. “I’m sorry, Mom, I really am. You’re both trying to help me and I get that, but I just want my phone back.”

Holden’s eyes were searching Luke’s for any signs of another outburst. When he found none, he reached into his back pocket and took out the familiar item. Before Luke could grab it out of his hand, he pulled it back. “Listen to me. Your mother told me what you’ve been doing. When I give this to you, you cannot call Noah.”

“One more time.”

“Luke…”

“Please… just one more…” Luke’s entire body was begging, pleading with him to understand. This was his only lifeline to Noah, the only way he could hear his voice for a little while. And something was telling him that this was the last chance he had. “Please…”

Not able to bear that look on his son’s face, Holden relented and placed the phone into Luke’s waiting palms. Nervous for some reason, Luke pressed the call button for the final time and placed it on the table, hoping against all hope that something, anything would happen.

“Noah… Noah, wake up…” The voice in his ear was comforting and Noah smiled, not quite ready to get up yet. His bed was a lot harder than usual, but it was okay. Plus, he didn’t feel that well so maybe Luke would let him sleep in today. “Noah, the phone is ringing!” Let it ring, he’ll call them back. He might be getting the flu or something; thirst was killing him right now. He had a hell of a headache and his body was aching, especially his left leg. Well, now that wasn’t right. His leg shouldn’t hurt that much.

“NOAH!” He jerked awake, blinking rapidly at the sunlight entering his truck. The sudden movement caused pain to shoot trough his entire body and he coughed weakly. It had been better when he was upside down if you could believe it. Now that he was free, the blood was flowing more readily to his leg, his ribcage could actually expand, and his limbs had more movement; but he would be damned before he passed out again so soon. He could see that his hands were stained in sticky crimson fluid that matched the bottom half of his jeans.

But Luke had called him so… wait, Luke… ‘How…’ he thought, staring at the dashboard in a daze. There was no one here to scream him like that. Then he remembered what the voice was shouting at him for.

“-ashed into you
Like a runaway train”

Noah slowly reached over and grasped the small, important object firmly in his grip. It sounded softer than before.

“You will consu-”

Instantly knowing who it was, Noah flipped open the phone with haste. “Luke,” he breathed quietly as he placed it to his ear.

Luke almost fainted when he heard Noah’s voice. He snatched the phone off of the table, gripping it with strength he didn’t know he had. “Noah!”

Lying on the roof, Noah smiled while closing his eyes. “Hi…”

“Don’t ‘Hi’ me! Where are you? What the hell happened?” Behind Luke, Lily had already jumped from her chair and was phoning the police. Holden was on standby, ready to relay the information to her quietly. The line was silent for a while and Luke was worried that he’d lost him. “Noah?”

“I don’t know…” Noah answered to both questions. “I don’t know what happened. And I’m not sure where I am.” He paused to cough again, the taste of copper increasing greatly. “Only that I’m on a hill.”

“A hill?” Groaning, Luke tried a different approach. “Noah, where did you go before the hill?”

Oh, that was easy enough to answer. “Fairview…” he said reaching up to the glove compartment and picking up the small blue box that fell out.

“Fairview! Noah, that’s almost 200 miles away! What the hell were you doing there?”

Noah didn’t like the way Luke was yelling at him. It was giving him another headache and he’d had enough of those, thank you very much. He clutched the box to his chest. “I wanted to… surprise you. I was coming back… with your present…”

Luke felt furious. He had lied on top of everything! “Noah, you told me you already had it! If I knew-”

“Luke, focus!” It was his father. “Ask him how far out of Fairview he is and deal with the petty arguments later!” He was absolutely right. Luke was just too fizzled out to deal with this.

“Noah, how far did you get?”

Noah was getting frustrated to say the least. He couldn’t remember. And now he felt woozy, tired. “Half an hour out, maybe? But I was driving… really fast, so I’m not sure…” The dashboard was looking like a weird shade of green and brown. Oh no, wait that’s a tree…

“Hey,” Luke said gently. “Are you okay? You sound weird.”

Glancing down at a particular place, Noah replied, “I can handle it…”

“So you’ll be home in a few hours, right?” When Noah didn’t say anything, Luke started to get worried all over again. “Noah?” Then the bottom dropped out.

“I can’t really move, Luke. My truck is sort of… upside down right now, and I think my body’s maxed out from getting… not upside down?” That sounded about right. He didn’t really care anymore. So tired… “If you could call an ambulance now that would be great… I just… really need a nap…”

“NOAH!” He slammed back into awareness, jerking his leg again. Wow, déjà vu…

Luke was shaking, with what he didn’t know: grief, fear, madness; maybe a mix of them all. “Don’t you ever, ever fade on me, Noah,” he said softly. “Hear me when I say this, you’ll be okay. You’re gonna be fine. Noah? Noah!”

“Luke?” Noah opened his eyes tiredly and looked at the phone. On the screen, it blinked low battery once, twice and then went blank. ‘He was right…’ he smiled and went into the darkness once more.

Luke was being a bit crazy in the Snyder kitchen. “Come on, come on!”

Let’s play a game shall we? How many times can Luke press the call button before his father takes the cell phone away? One, three, seven, fourt- oh denied! “Dad, no! He was right there!”

“Luke, it’s alright!” Holden stated in a rush. When did he put his jacket on? Why was he holding Luke’s jacket? “Your mother’s already told the police everything. They’ve contacted the Fairview Police Department and sent out search parties, and an ambulance. Now we have to go!” Practically pushing Luke off of the chair, he gave him his jacket and ran around for his keys.

“Dad, where are we go-?”

“Fairview Memorial Hospital.”

A/N YasuJ: -not there-

Luke: -to Noah- Uh, what do we do?

Noah: -shrugs-

Luke: Um, Chapter five is completed! Finally we’re getting somewhere! Apologies... YasuJ was kinda… incapacitated, so you didn’t hear from her for a while. Read and review!

Noah: Ja ne!

Luke: Oh, nice touch!