...35...

Six Months Later

It has been a rough six months for us. After the kids found out that Brent was home and Clay was not, we started having a lot of problems with them, especially with Mikey. He started disappearing on me and would not listen to me for anything. He would listen to Brent a little bit better but it took a lot to get through to him. Instead of Hannah acting out, she just withdrew herself from everything. The once happy nine year old I had, was now this little girl who was more gloomy than anything. She use to talk about Clay all the time but now, we are lucky if we get complete sentences from her.

As soon as Brent was released from the hospital, he did not hesitate to move right into the house with me. I talked to the kids and they agreed that they would be okay with him setting a room up in what was Caroline's room. He promised that he would not change anything and everything would remain the same until they were uncomfortable with it. Brent really surprised me though because as much as I thought that he would not be able to fall into a fatherly figure, he did.

Today was my birthday and I was in my last year of being a teenager and two weeks ago was Clay's twenty-third birthday, we even had a little thing for him.

"Happy birthday, Legs," Brent said, coming into the kitchen and giving me a big hug. Just than, the back door opens and Mikey walks in.

"Yeah right," he mumbled under his breath.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"You have done nothing but lied to us."

"Mikey," Brent said.

"What? She tells us everyday that she loves Clay, only wants to be with Clay. I walk in and she's rubbing all over you."

"Mikey, I came in to give her a hug. It's her birthday," Brent said.

"Whatever," he said and then looked me in the eye. "You're a bitch."

"Michael Redden, get your ass upstairs. Now!" Brent yelled and Mikey listened to him.

I just looked after him, feeling the worst smack in the face than I ever experienced from Jessica in high school. I have been nothing but faithful to Clay on every matter. Sure, I give Brent hugs but I did even while they were here. Clay never thought that I would stray away from him and no matter what, I wasn't going to. After Brent got out of the hospital and moved in with us, we sat down almost every night and talked about Clay. The more we talked, the more I felt his presence. I really now believed that when two people loved each other as much as Clay and I did, we could feel each other no matter the distance.

"He didn't mean that, Claire."

"Yes, he did."

"Claire..."

"It's okay, Brent. He wants to hate both of us but he can't hate you because you've always been a part of his life. He's got a lot of anger bottled up and I'm just an easy target," I said, trying to take up for him.

"It doesn't give him a right to call you a bitch. He needs to realize what would have happened to him if you had not taken them," he said.

"I need to go for a walk," I said and left through the kitchen to the front door.

I just needed the air. While I was in the house, I felt like I was suffocating. I knew that the kids would eventually turn on me but in all honesty, I never expected it to happen so soon. Mikey bottled up his feelings except when it came to telling me off and Hannah just would not talk about anything. There was a very noticeable weight change in her and it started making people wonder if I was cable of taking proper care of the Redden kids. If the state came in and took them away from me, I would not know how to act. They were my kids now and I would be lost without them.

I was gone for a couple of hours and I just walked around town. I walked to the park where I opened up to Clay about breaking up with Duncan. I sat down at the same table I was sitting aat when he came up to me while out running. That was also the night that he knew who I was and how he kept the biggest secret of his life away from me. Back than, I was mad at him because he knew how much I missed my father and the moment he figured it out, he should have told me. That was than, this is now and as I look back on it, it was such a petty thing to be upset about. I had more to worry about now like if he waas ever going to get found and brought home safely.

When I walked through the door to the house, I immediately realized that it was completely empty. That was fine by me though because I didn't want to explain why I was gone for so long or have to deal with Mikey's mood swings. I knew as soon as I left, Brent would have had a conversation with him and he would be on my side. I felt that would only give Mike another reason to hate me. I finally turned my phone back on and saw a missed call from both my mom and Brent. Brent was telling me that he dropped the kids off over at my moms and mom was telling me that she would watch them for the weekend so I could get a little bit of a break. Normally I would not agree to that after having a disagreement with Mikey but if Brent thought it was a good idea, I wasn't going to argue.

I went upstairs and grabbed on of the many shirts of Clay's and a pair of sweatpants and went to the bathroom. I ran the water and added some lavender bubble bath to it. After stripping from my clothes, I sunk down into the hot water and just let everything try to melt away. I knew that once I got out, all of my problems would still be there but for the time being it was nice to relax.

I don't know how long I had slept in the tub but I was being woken up by someone softly shaking my shoulder. When I opened my eyes, I looked straight into Brent's eyes. He smiled at me and held up a towel for me. He closed his eyes as I stood up from the tub and kept them shut until I said it was okay to look.

"Where were you?" I asked.

"I had some work business to take care of. Nothing to important," he said.

"Still no word about Clay?" I asked.

"I'm sorry, Legs. We would be the first to know when they find him."

"Okay. I'm going to go get dressed."

"Sure sure. Hey, after that, do you want to go out and grab a bite to eat and maybe catch a movie?" he asked.

"Brent, that will just give Mikey more ammo to think that I don't really want to be with Clay."

"Mikey isn't here and today is your birthday. I'm not going to let you hole yourself up in this house and sulk."

"I'm not sulking, Brent."

"And you are not going to start. Get dressed, we are going out," he said, walking out of the bathroom and down the stairs.

I grabbed the clothes that I brought in with me and walked back to Clay's room. I was hoping that soon, I could call it our room but I just couldn't yet. I exchanged the sweats for a pair of fitted blue jeans but kept the shirt out. I was in no mood to dress up and just wanted to feel a little more Clay today. I threw my hair up in a ponytail and skipped the makeup. I didn't want to feel pretty today so I kept everything toned down tonight.

After the movie, we went straight out to the closest Chinese restaurant. Brent left it up to me where to eat and I just chose on the spot. As we sat there, I could tell that Brent wanted to say something to me and it was to the point of driving me insane.

"Will you just tell me what's bothering you, Brent?"

"What? Nothing is bothering me."

"Something is eating away at you and you're keeping it a secret."

"There's nothing wrong, Claire," he said.

"See, right there. I know there is," I exclaimed.

"Why do you say that?"

"You have not hardly called me Claire since you've gotten home."

"Okay," he sighed and took a drink of water. "I didn't want to get your hopes up until we absolutely knew something for sure."

"It's about Clay?"

"Yeah. They thought there was a lead on him a couple of weeks ago and they have been following that lead since. While you were out today, I received a phone call. It was just an update and telling me that the lead had gone sour."

"Oh okay," I said and cleared my throat. "We just got to keep our faith up. They'll find him, I'm sure of it."

When we had our fill, I walked slowly back to Brent's car. We sat in silence as he silently drove us back to the house. After I was back in the house, he told me that he had to go back out for something and instead of questioning him, I just went back upstairs, traded the jeans for the sweats that I wanted in the first place and then went back downstairs. I fixed myself a cup of chamomile tea and started flipping through the channels, finally settling on a marathon of The Big Bang Theory.

An hour later, Brent walked back through the door. He had a couple of bags in his hands and he came to sit down beside me. Without saying anything, he handed me the bags. I said nothing back to him and just dug into the presents. The first one contained a small edible arrangement chocolate dipped bananas, apples and strawberries. The second one was just a jewelry set that had my birthstone in it.

"I can't except this, Brent."

"To bad. No refunds," he said, shrugging his shoulders.

"There's only one thing I want," I said, letting silent tears fall. "If you can bring him back, it will be worth everything."

"I'm trying, Legs. I want him to come home just as much as you do. He's my brother and things need to turn out right. I'm suppose to be his best man in your all's wedding, the god father to your future kids," he said, eyes starting to tear up.

"I never thought that I would have to go through this again. I didn't want to get close to you all because I always knew there would be this risk of neither of you coming home. I about lost my last nerve when I got the news about my father and I didn't want to get close to anyone in the military again because of what we went through."

"I'm not going anywhere now, Legs. No matter what happens, if... if..."

"Please don't say it, Brent."

"Claire, no matter what comes of this situation, I'll always be here for you. I'll support you through any and everything," he said. I knew what his words meant between the lines and I knew he would be there for me. I even, in that split second, thought that I would learn to love Brent had anything happened to Clay and he wasn't coming home. I wrapped my arms around Brent and he pulled me close, just holding me and together we cried on each other.

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OH MY GOSH!!!!!!

I ACTUALLY UPLOADED!!!!!

AND I KNOW YOU ARE SCREAMING!!!!

COME ON WOMAN, GET OFF IT AND TELL US WHAT IS UP WITH CLAY!!!!!

Next chapter will have some answers and surprise, it will be in a new POV!!!!

So, with that said, I'm off to start the chapter and hoping and praying to have it up soon.