The Legends Live On

The Coalition

10 years later

[Day POV]

I look at June, sitting across from me. We're huddled in the small locker room adjacent to the conference room. She exhales, her shoulders folding over. I can see the pure desperation written on her face, the depression that has hovered over her for ten years. Ten desolate, interminable years now. Ten years today. I heave a sigh myself, running a hand over my own haggard face. John would be- is -fifteen now. It's been ten years, ten years, that I've been without my son. Ten years of constant pain, of constant sorrow. We will never forget.

And we will never stop looking.

-=+=-

I follow June into the conference room, where we take our places at the speaker's podiums.

"As you know," June begins, her voice is clear and strong; only I can hear the undercurrent of sadness, "ten years ago today, Daniel and I awoke to find our own child missing." The crowd before us, blurred in the brightness of the stage lights, murmurs their condolences.

"John," the name is like a dying breath upon June's rosy lips, "was five when he was taken. Every day we keep the hope alive that John is somewhere safe and that one day we will get him back. The disappearance of our son was the very reason we started this coalition. We will fight every day to get your children back. We will-" June was interrupted as the mechanism on her wrist buzzed furiously. She glanced at it, leaned in to the microphone and said, "My apologies. Day will you take over?" June was more flustered than she should have been. I gave her an understanding nod and stepped up to take her place as she hurried away.

"Hello," I said, awkwardly speaking to the crowd. It was June who was good at this- the public speaking.

"What June said was the entire truth. We have an entire team of investigators working on all of your cases-" I stop, hearing the sound of fast approaching boots behind me. June stands there, seeming to be in a state of shock. Her eyes are wider and brighter than I had seen them in years.

"Day," her voice is barely more than a whisper, "it's John." I step away from the podium and place myself in front of June, suddenly unaware of the crowd behind me. I gently place my hands on her shoulders and say comfortingly, "Yes, honey. That's what we're here for."

"No," June insists, shaking me away with more fervor than she'd shown in the last decade.

"Daniel, he's back." The crowd offers a collective gasp. Not hesitating, I grip June's hand fiercely and pull her off the stage.

-=+=-

[June POV]

We arrive at the police station breathless. My lungs are burning from the cold air outside, but I don't care. I'm single minded in purpose. I've learned something, in these past years- from the day John was born, perhaps. As soon as you become a mother, that becomes the first and foremost thing in your life. Forget agent, forget wife, forget anything. I'm a mother. John is my purpose.

Day looks at me, those cerulean eyes conveying his thoughts as they always do. I can tell he's nervous. I'm not. For the first time in a decade, I'm not nervous. We're getting our son back. I barely notice as an officer seats us on a bench, instructing us to wait while he does something-or-another. Of course, I've already calculated the exact dimensions of the room, as well as the material our bench is made out of. Just in case. Time seems all at once too slow and yet also extremely fast. The minutes seem to race by, yet every minute also feels like a day.

It seems simultaneously that it has been days and it has only been seconds when there is someone standing before me. A man- no a boy. He wears all black. He's very tall, just under Day's height. The boy is very lanky, all long legs and arms. He's quite skinny, but seems fairly fit. An agent in training? My eyes skim up to his hair. It's corn blond and pulled back in a ponytail. Long, stringy bangs frame the boy's delicate face. Bangs- like mine. The gears in my brain are just starting to click. My eyes at last shift to meet the boy's own.

Turquoise.

His eyes are bluer than blue.

They are infinite, a sea in and of themselves. Recognition flashes in them.

"John," I breathe, just before clasping my arms around him.

-=+=-

[Day POV]

I watch as June embraces the boy. John. The boy was John. Our son. I hadn't even recognized him. No, I hadn't recognized him at all. I hadn't recognized him because, for an instant, I was nine again and there was John- my brother John -scolding me for making Eden cry. John, our son John, was an exact replica of the man he had been named for. He was gangly with delicate features and long, straight hair.

Those eyes, though. They were my eyes.

After a moment, I wrap my arms around both of them, enclosing two of the people I love most in a protective hug. It seems like hours before we pull apart.

June wipes a tear from her face. "John," she says again.

"Mom," John says and a careful, smirking half smile graces his features.

"You look just like your father," June says, sniffing. With that expression, he did.

"Where have you been all these years?" June asks. I myself am shocked into complete silence.

"I-" John looks down, seeming confused and concerned. "I don't remember."

June places her hands on his cheeks, "That's okay, honey."

"That's okay," she says again, "you don't need to remember." She pulls John into another hug. I cough awkwardly. John's eyes flit to mine, no doubt seeing the resemblance.

"We've, uh, missed you." I say.

June laughs a sad kind of laugh, "That's an understatement." She looks at John, "We never stopped looking for you. You know that, don't you?"

"I know," John says.

"We love you," I tell him. June nods as well.

John smiles, "and I you."

"John," June says after a moment, "what's the last thing you remember?"

"Someone pulling me from my window, at- at home." The word "home" sounds foreign on his lips.

"As for home," June says, "let's go there."

-=+=-

Hours later, after we stayed up talking with John until the moon was nearly half across the sky, June and I sit in bed.

"It's strange, isn't it?" I ask.

"Him turning up like this?" June replies, reading my thoughts.

"Yes. I mean, why now? Why after all these years?"

"I don't know," June shakes her head, "but I'm glad to have him back."

"I am too, it's just- hard. I mean, we don't really know him, we didn't get to raise him."

"But he's still ours," June's voice is soft, "and no one ever said parenting would be easy."

"What do we know of parenting him? We had five years with him and now we have a fifteen year-old."

June sighs, "Day, stop worrying. We have our son back. Let that sink in. A decade of constant worry and stress. And now it's over. We have him back."

"How are we going to explain them to him?" I ask June, whispering.

"I don't know," June blanches. "They can stay at Tess and Eden's for a few more days. We'll explain somehow."

June and I are silent for a minute. What June said- that we have our son back -starts to sink in. Slowly but surely, a glowing ball of pure joy begins to boil in my stomach.

"June!" I exclaim.

"What?" She asks frantically, sitting up in the darkness.

"We have our son back!" June only laughs in response.