CHAPTER SEVEN

Brian had no choice but to phone the police. He had gotten everyone looking for his brother but everybody came back empty handed. He was worried sick that something bad had happened he hoped that Josh was just upset and wanted to be on his own for a while, but Brian wanted to find him nonetheless.

"Where could he be?" Brian said as he sat on his bed. The other guys were all there as well as most of security.

"I don't know Bri. But we'll find him." Howie said.

They all looked up when someone pushed the door open, everyone hoping it was Josh but saw that it was two police officers.

"Hello, is Brian Littrell here?" One of the officers asked.

Brian stood up and walked over to the officers. "Yes that's me." Brian said.

"Okay, so did you say that it's your brother that's missing." He said.

"Yeah, I left to go and do the concert and when I came back he wasn't here." Brian said.

"Did anything happen that could've made Josh to run away?" The officer said.

"Well kinda. We just got into an argument and I stormed out." Brian said feeling incredibly guilty that their argument could have caused his brother to run away.

"Okay. Well how long has he been missing?" He asked.

"About five hours." Brian answered.

"Only five hours?" One of the officers said. "I'm sorry but until a person has been missing for over twenty four hours we can't do anything." He said.

"What, my brother's missing and you can't do anything for another nineteen hours." Brian shouted.

"Brian calm down." Kevin said going over to his visibly upset cousin.

"Calm down, Josh is God knows where and I'm supposed to calm down." Brian yelled putting his hands over his face.

"Mr Richardson is right. Josh could have just left the hotel for a while to let off some steam." One of the officers said.

"But what if he hasn't, what if he's really gone. It's all my fault, I should've brought him with me." Brian said.

"Brian you can't change the past, what's happened has happened. We're just gonna have to wait and see if he comes back." AJ said.

"Even if he does come back he won't be coming back with me." Brian said sadly.

"Why not?" Nick said.

"Because this has happened before and his social worker warned me that if it happened again the Josh would be taken out of my care." Brian explained.

All four boys were silent. They didn't know that Josh had ran away before, they realised how hard it must be for Brian at the moment. They all knew how much Brian and Josh argued but they also knew that to Brian it was definitely a love/hate relationship.

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CHAPTER EIGHT

Brian nervously paced in his hotel room, it had now been fifteen hours since Brian had seen his brother and now he was more nervous than ever.

Somehow Josh's social worker had found out about Josh's disappearance and was on her way so that when and if Josh came back she could take him away.

To Brian this made him feel like a failure. If he couldn't even look after his 12 year old brother how was he supposed to look after his own kids when the time came to have them.

The other guys had gone out with their security to try and find Josh except Kevin who had opted to stay with his cousin. The police officers had left and they said that if Josh hadn't returned in twenty four hours then to call them again.

"Brian will you sit down you're making me feel dizzy." Kevin said.

Brian walked over to the bed and sat down and put his head in his hands.

Kevin saw how upset Brian was, he could read him like a book and he also knew that he was feeling very bad right now that maybe he felt like a failure.

Kevin got up from the chair he was sitting in and moved over next to Brian. He felt Brian jump when he put his arm around his cousin's shoulder.

"Brian its gonna be okay." Kevin said trying to comfort Brian.

"How is it gonna be okay. As soon as Josh walks back through that door he's gonna be taken away again. I feel like I failed him or something. Its like we come from the same family but I got the chance to have a better life than he did and then his mom...our mom was taken away from him and it was like my duty to have to look after him because after all he is still a part of me. But now he's gonna be taken away and put with some other family who he has no connection with whatsoever. I don't know whether he did this purposely or not but its like when he's around I get a part of what's real to me." Brian confessed.

Kevin could understand where Brian was coming from, he knew that his 'cousin' had found it very difficult being told he was adopted and with Josh in his life he knew that the truth was with him but with him gone then Brian would be left with his inner turmoil.

Both boys looked up when they heard the door open and in walked in a very calm ad collected Josh.

"Josh where have you been? I've been so worried. Why didn't you call? Do you know how many people are looking for you?" Brian said getting up and rushing over to his brother.

"I've been thinking that's all." Josh replied as he sat down on the bed.

"I'll leave you two alone. I'll call the others and tell them he's back." Kevin said as he left the room.

"What were you thinking about?" Brian asked moving closer to Josh.

"Just abut stuff. You know like everything that's going on right now." Josh said.

"Like what?" Brian asked.

"Nothing. You wouldn't care anyway." Josh said.

"Why wouldn't I care?" Brian asked confused.

"Because you're always yelling at me, when I first came to live with you, you were cool you know, but now it seems all you do is shout at me." Josh said sadly. He too did like Brian but was finding it very difficult.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to yell at you all the time but I guess that doesn't matter know does it." Brian said.

"When did my social worker say she'd get here?" Josh asked.

"How do you know about that?" Brian asked.

"I called her, I can't be here anymore. I don't wanna be here anymore." Josh said.

"Why didn't you just tell me that instead of getting me worried and running away?" Brian asked.

"Because I didn't want to have another argument with you, so I knew if I ran away she'd take me away." Josh said. "I didn't want to hurt your feeling or anything."

"Its okay Josh, I understand." Brian said.

Two hours later there was a knock at the door. Brian woke up out of his doze and walked over to the door and saw Josh's social worker.

"Mr Littrell has Josh returned yet?" She asked as she made her way through the door.

"Well hello to you too, and please come in." Brian said quietly to himself. "Yes he's asleep." Brian said.

"You do know what is going to happen now don't you." She said.

"Yes I know." Brian said.

"Good, then if I just wake Josh up then we'll be on our way." She said gathering up Josh's bags.

Brian walked over to his brother's bed and proceeded in trying to wake him up.

"Josh wake up." Brian said while shaking him slightly.

Josh opened his eyes and looked around. His eyes found his social worker and he got out of bed.

"Josh are you ready to go?" She asked.

"Yeah can I speak to Brian first." Josh asked.

"Yes, but be quick we have a return flight in an hour." The social worker said as she stepped outside.

"Brian I want you to know that I'm grateful to you for looking after me, I really do and I'm sorry that things didn't really turn out the way as expected." Josh said.

"Yeah I'm sorry too. You be good, wherever you're going. Try and keep in touch okay and if you ever need me I'll be there okay." Brian said.

"Thanks. I guess I better be going now." Josh said.

Brian watched as Josh picked up the rest of his things and headed towards the door.

"Josh!" Brian shouted as he walked over to his brother. He enveloped Josh in a hug before letting him go.

Brian watched as his brother walked down the corridor of the hotel thing that he knew that what was happening was for the best.

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CHAPTER NINE

2 months later.

Brian and Kevin got out of the car simultaneously and looked at each other. They both felt good to be back in Kentucky, the place they grew up. As Kevin struggled with the bags, Brian hurriedly walked to the front door of his parents house and knocked on the door.

Brian was excited about the prospect of seeing his parents again, he hadn't seen them since the time he was told that he was adopted. He had spoken to them on the phone a few times but he just felt awkward. He still had that nagging feeling in the back of his mind that they had lied to him for so long and that was the main thing he was having difficulty coming to terms with.

Now though, Brian was willing to put it all behind him. He now realised that Jackie and Harold were his real parents, not caring whether or not biologically.

Soon everyone was settled inside as the whole family were sitting in various places in the living room. Brian's mom, dad and Kevin's mom, Ann, were sitting on the couch. His brother and his wife, Tracy, were seated on a large chair in the corner of the room. Kevin's brothers, Jerald and Tim, were the only ones missing as they were both busy with work, but they promised to drop by at some point to say hello to their younger brother and cousin.

Just as everyone was starting to get involved in some heavy conversation, Brian heard the familiar tune to his cell phone. He took it out of his pocket and checked the caller id, when he didn't recognise it he held the phone to his ear so he could find out who it was.

"Hello?" Brian said, as he had a confused element to his voice.

"Brian." A small voice said quietly on the other end of the line.

"Who is this?" Brian asked, thinking that it was a fan, the voice sounded quite young.

"Josh." The quiet voice, now known as his younger brother, said.

"Josh, hey. I wasn't expecting to hear from you. How are you?" Brian said excitedly. This was the first time he had spoken to Josh since his social worker had taken him away.

"Not good." Josh said, still not raising his voice. It was almost as though he was scared of something.

"What do you mean by that?" Brian said, he was starting to worry.

"They hit me." Josh said as quiet as a mouse.

"Who do?" Brian said, now feeling the seriousness of the situation.

"My foster parents."

"Josh I'm so sorry. Have you told your social worker?" Brian asked, hoping he had.

"No, I'm scared Bri, I wanna stay with you again, I don't..." Josh paused. "I gotta go Brian, sorry I bothered you." He said quickly as he hung up the phone.

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