Chapter Text
To say Jake was one of the more tricky kids in their care was an understatement. First of all, they had to consider whether or not they should even take him in. He'd bullied a kid in their care, and as much as they wanted to help every kid, they didn't want to harm any kids they were currently caring for.
Despite these considerations, they'd still taken him in. His story made his actions make sense. For years his parents had been arguing, his dad would occasionally hit his mum, sometimes the arguments would go on so long, or be so bad, they wouldn't feed him. So it made sense that all of this would build up over time and need an outlet. Not that Goose approved of using violence as an outlet.
It turns out that someone eventually called social services and found out that Jake's mother had walked out months ago as his father slowly drank himself into a stupor. That was a week ago.
He hadn’t been standoffish, if anything he’d been the opposite. There was always a smile on his face, the cocky kind that told him that he thought he was above this place. No, he wasn't standoffish, just smug.
Every time he was polite, it wasn't because he thought he should or was being nice, it was almost like he wanted to rub it in the other kids' faces. It was like he was saying 'Look at me I'm so nice', like he was trying to prove them wrong about the bullying.
"Kids, come on, we've gotta get you to school!" He called.
They thundered down the stairs in various states of disarray. Bradley was half-asleep, Natasha tapped her foot, Bob was rummaging around in his bag, Javy rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and Mickey had his head in some book about birds- he was always consuming and spitting out facts.
"Jake?" He shouted up the stairs again. "You ready, kiddo?"
Still no reply.
He turned to the others, "You guys get in the car, I'm just going to check on him."
Making his way upstairs, he hoped they didn't have another case like Callie, who'd disappeared to shop for Lunar New Year without telling them. But as he knocked on the door, and got no reply again, dread filled his stomach.
"Jake?" He said with more alarm.
Upon opening the door, he didn't see him. There was, in fact, no sign he'd even been here. He couldn’t see his stuff, the bed was made, with new sheets he noted, and shelves cleared. It was like he’d never even stayed with them.
Before he knew it, he was thundering down the stairs. Not again. He knew kids ran away a lot but they’d never had runaways. There had only been Callie and she hadn't even ran away, just didn't realise she could rely on others again.
"Nick!" Carole called to him.
They bumped into each other as he skidded to a halt in the hallway. She was holding her purse as a puzzled look came on her face.
"That money I withdrew yesterday's all gone," she looked at her purse. "And my credit card."
There was a moment of silence. Of clarity.
He wouldn’t, surely?
"Jake's gone." He told her.
"So he-"
"Took the money-"
"-and the card-"
"And ran."
Her hands were shaking. He held them as the world seemed to float away. What was going to happen?
"God, I hope he's safe," she whispered. "What are we going to do?"
He thought for a moment.
"I'll get the kids to school, you tell the school and his social worker, and we'll go and find him when I get back."
She nodded, resting his head against her's and closed her eyes. He touched her cheek gently as a tear rolled down.
After a moment or two, they separated. She wiped her eyes and nodded, opening the door for him as he checked he had the keys.
"You better get going then."
Heading back out to the car, he forced the tears from his eyes and a smile on his face. The kids were in the car, just like they'd been told to, but craned their necks to see where Jake was.
"Where's Jake?" Javy asked.
Nick put the key in the ignition and felt the car rumble on with a start.
"He's not feeling too well, he's gonna stay home today," he said on the fly. "Carole's gonna call the school."
"Huh, so that's why his bedsheets changed?"
Mickey piped up from the back of the minivan, "What's bedsheets gotta do with it?"
"His bedsheets were different this morning, must've thrown up on them or something, that and he didn't get up at all," he said, then added. "Not that I noticed too much, I woke up late."
"Oh! So that's what I heard this morning!" Mickey exclaimed.
Nick darted around and tried not to make his alarm too obvious, they needn't know anything was wrong.
"What?"
"I heard the floorboards creak at some point last night, he must have been sick or something,"
Goose nodded slowly, putting a story together, "Yeah, he's just not feeling well, today," then said, "Right, let's get to school!"
They stopped outside the high school and put on the feigned smile they'd been wearing for the entire ride. He turned around, Carole was better than him at keeping a happy face in hard times but he had to try.
"Have a good day, guys," he said, "I may be a bit late for pickup today as we don't know how Jake's gonna be but I'll make sure to call the school, okay?"
"You mean you don't know where he is, not how?" Natasha said
He stopped and stared at her. His eyes widened as he tried to figure out what to say. Yet, his silence must have proved her statement right.
"He's not sick, is he?"
He sighed and shook his head.
"We think he's run away," he said simply. "He wasn't there when Javy woke up, wasn't there when I checked, Mickey heard him get up in the night and Carole's credit card is missing."
"Wait, he took Mom's card?" Bradley exclaimed.
"Yes but-"
"Well now we've gotta find him so we can get it back!"
"Yes but we also need to make sure he's okay-" he started, then realised. "Wait, we? There's no we, you guys are all going to school while Carole and I look for him."
"But-"
"No buts, just school, now go, you don't want to be late," he pointed to the door. "I'll see you all later, okay?"
"Are you sure, Dad?" Bradley asked.
Goose got out of the car to wave them all off. Bradley stopped in front of him, playing with the material of his long sleeve as looking up at his dad.
"Of course, we're the foster parents, not you, you don't need to stress about him, that's our job,"
He kissed him on the forehead. His face went beetroot as he pulled away and rubbed at his head.
"Ew, Dad," Bradley said as he began to walk away.
"What? Worried I'll ruin your street cred?"
"Yeah, it's embarrassing!"
"Love is never embarrassing, chick," he called. "I love you."
After a moment, Bradley rubbed the back of his neck and replied, "Love you, too," before being swallowed up in the crowds of students.
Bradley couldn't stop thinking about Jake as he sat in physics. For once, he couldn't care less about radiation, and he was enjoying this topic. All he could think about was where Jake could be and why he’d ran away?
Everything that had happened lately had been weird. He’d known Jake since middle school and had never expected this to happen. Sure, he’d never been close with him but he never thought that his parents would be at each other's throats like he’d heard, or that he’d had to fend for himself for social services finally stepped in.
He pondered this for a while. There was nothing for him to go back to, so why run?
The bell rang for the end of class and the start of his lunch period. There were two considering there were almost two thousand students at this high school. The questions hurried through his head still as he made his way to his locker, where Natasha was already waiting.
"Where do you think he went?" He asked as he took a big bite out of his sandwich.
She shrugged, "Are you asking me as your friend or as a foster kid?"
"I don't know, will I get a different answer?"
"I mean, as your friend, I don't care, he's a piece of shit," she shook off crumbs from her hand. "But as a foster kid I'd probably say one of his parents."
"How'd you know that?"
"Well, his parents, no matter how shifty, are what he's used to. Now, it's probably not his dad-"
"Yeah, he's done nothing but complain about him-" Bradley interjected.
"But we've heard nothing about his mom."
Bradley pointed a finger as he took another bite of his sandwich, "Apart from the fact that she walked out about a year ago."
"So that's probably where he went, to go and find her."
A light bulb moment occurred within Bradley. He began to pack away his lunch at lightning speed as Natasha watched with a confused look.
"Jake can't drive yet," he said.
"What's that got to do with you packing up?"
"If he's going to his mom, and took my mom's credit card, how is he going to get to her?"
Natasha came to the same realisation.
"By bus."
"So we know where he might be,"
"Or at least where he was last."
She began to pack up too. Upon seeing Bradley's confusion, she stated simple as day.
"I'm coming with you, you know that, right?"
He nodded, "Right," then added. "We better get going then."
And they bolted out of the cafeteria, hoping they could sneak out of school without drawing too much attention.
The bus pulled into the station and they made sure they were the first people off. Jake may be gone by now, but there was still hope.
"You check down that way-" Bradley pointed to the left. "I'll go that way."
She nodded at him and darted off to the left. Bradley began to scan each bus stop. He tried to spot him in the swathes of people waiting for various buses but couldn’t see him.
Then, after a few minutes, he spotted a crop of manicured blond hair sitting near the back of a queue. He took a second to figure out whether it was actually him. Yet, when he turned his head, he knew it was him.
"Jake!" He called across the station.
He sat up in his seat, eyes wide, as if he knew he was in trouble just by the call of his name. They met gazes. Jake seemed like he would bolt but Bradley managed to race toward him in just enough time that he stayed where he was.
"What are you doing here?" He spat.
"You ran away."
"I thought you didn't care about me that much? We've never been friends."
"You also stole my mom's credit card." He said simply, hands on his hips.
Jake hummed and took the card out of his pocket. Tracing the bumps on the card, he focused on that rather than on Bradley.
"I was going to mail it back, once I got there."
Bradley sat down on the free chair next to him, "Where's 'there' exactly?"
"San Antonio, it's where my mom settled after she-"
"Walked out?"
Jake nodded. In his hands was a crinkled letter. The handwriting definitely wasn’t his. A few places were splotched and smudged, he realised it must be from tears.
"How long have you been waiting? It says over there that buses leave every hour?"
He didn't get an answer to that question. Bradley could guess what it was. Hesitation. Although he didn't exactly know why.
After a few moments, Jake spoke up again. "You know how they tell kids it's not their fault their parents got divorced?"
Bradley nodded.
"Well, I think it might actually be my fault."
"Why?"
"Well-" Jake sniffed. "They'd argue so damn much, my parents, for years, that's just how it was. Until, one day, my mom just yells 'That's it, I'm done' and walks out the door.
"I get a letter a few weeks later saying she's got a place in San Antonio, that once the divorce has started to go through and she's got a job sorted I can come and stay with her."
He waved the crinkled paper at Bradley.
"That's this letter," he sniffed. "And the last time I heard from her."
Tears began to prickle Jake's cheeks. Bradley peeked at the letter over his shoulder and read about empty promises as Jake composed himself.
"I wrote to her when Dad started drinking, when they took me away and when I came to stay with you Bradshaws and still got no answer." He sniffed again. "So the divorce's got to be my fault because why else wouldn't she respond to my letter?"
"And that’s why you're still here, then?"
Jake nodded.
"Well, from what you've told me, it still doesn’t seem like your fault," Bradley said. "I mean, she's the one not talking to her son going through foster care, seems pretty shitty to me."
"Don't say that about my mom-"
"She walked out on her fifteen year old son, left him with an unstable father and ignored him when he was placed in foster care. So like I said, not your fault."
He shifted about in his seat and spotted Natasha heading toward them from across the crowds of people.
"Look, my parents have been foster parents for over ten years, so that means that I've seen the same kids they've dealt with and I know from experience that it's not your fault."
Natasha reached them and interrupted their conversation.
"You could've told me you found him!" She exclaimed. "I've been walking around asking people like a loon."
Jake and Bradley averted her strong gaze. No matter how fierce either thought they could be, she was somehow even more so.
"Have you called Goose and Carole?" She asked.
Bradley shook his head.
"I'll do it, there's a payphone over there," she said. "Got any change?"
"Here-" Jake rummaged around in his pocket and handed a jingling clump of coins over to her.
She cocked an eyebrow and shrugged. Bradley didn’t think they'd had a good interaction the entire time they'd known each other. He couldn’t really say the same, unless you counted weird arguments after baseball practice.
Natasha rushed back after a moment or two and sat on the free seat next to Bradley.
"Your parents are going to be here in ten minutes," Natasha said, then turned to Jake. "You're giving Carole her card back, right?"
Jake nodded, not looking at them.
"I'm sorry, about being a dick," he said.
Bradley shrugged and looked at him, "Don't, it's like your only character trait."
They burst out laughing. Light tension eased into something a little more casual as they began to pick people out of the crowds and make up stories.
When Goose and Carole arrived, stressed and hurrying, it must have made a nice change to their usual bickering.