Chapter Text
Ed watches as the young boy sitting beside him struggles to open the lid on his water bottle, his face screwing up in frustration the longer it went on. He can’t have been older than eight Ed reckoned, yet he didn’t seem to be with a parent that he could see. Maybe it’s one of those situations where the parents have split up and the boy now has to travel alone between countries, he thought. Seeing as no one else was going to help the child, Ed decides he should probably offer his help.
“Can I help you with that?”
The young boy looks up at him, eyes narrowing as if he’s deciding whether Ed can be trusted to open a bottle. He must decide that he is, or he’s just too thirsty to care as he soon passes the bottle over. Ed unscrews the lid and passes it back to him, watching as the boy takes big gulps until the entire bottle is empty.
“Ahh refreshing,” the boy whispers to himself.
Soon the plane starts to taxi down the runway, the young boy catches his attention again as he lets out a small whimper at the movement. By the time the plane is in the sky, the boy’s whimpers have turned into full blown tears. Ed looks around to see if any of the flight attendants were going to come to his aid. When he realises that they aren’t, he decides he better comfort the child himself before he gets any worse.
Ed puts a tentative hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay, mate.”
This doesn’t do anything to comfort the young lad, his cries just get louder as the plane ascends.
Ed pulls out the two Werther’s Originals that his mum had given him for the flight, popping one into his mouth before offering the second to the boy. He feels a little odd offering sweets to a child he doesn’t know but he doesn’t know what else to do.
“My mum always gives me these for when I fly,” Ed says, “she says that sucking on a sweet as the plane goes up stops your ears from popping.”
The young boy gingerly takes the offered sweet and pops it into his mouth, Ed’s sure he even sees a small smile on the boy’s face. The hand that had taken the sweet reaches out again, at first Ed thinks he wants another one before realising that he actually wants to hold his hand. He cautiously takes it, wondering how he even got himself into this situation.
The child grips his hand so tightly that Ed’s worried he’s gonna lose circulation but he doesn’t say anything, he’s just relieved that the kid isn’t loudly sobbing anymore. His grip only loosens when the plane has stabilised in the air.
“My name’s Ed, by the way,” Ed announces, deciding he should probably introduce himself.
“Louis Bonnet,” the boy replies, attempting to shake the hand he’s still holding. Ed finds it quite endearing.
“Nice to meet you, Louis.”
“How can he be lost, Stede?!” Mary asks, pacing the floor of his living room. If it had been any other time, he’d have been mad that she’d left her shoes on.
“Well I went into his room this morning to wake him up for my special pancakes like I do every Saturday, but all I found in his bed was this note.” Stede replies, handing the note to Mary.
She rips it out of his hand, it’s written in red crayon and reads ‘To Dad, Mum, Alma, Doug, and Evelyn, I have gone on an adventure, xoxo Louis Bonnet’.
“His handwriting is really coming along,” Stede praises, earning him a strong glare from Mary that could surely kill.
The soothing circles that Doug’s currently rubbing into her back do absolutely nothing to soothe her, and soon she pushes his hand away.
“How long did the police say they’d be?” She asks.
“Any minute now,” Stede replies.
The three of them jump when the front door slams open, hoping that they’ve found Louis but instead Evelyn comes storming in.
“Where’s my love?” Evelyn shouts as she enters the room. “Oh, sweetie, come here.”
She pulls Mary to her bosom, the smaller woman finally letting out sobs that have been threatening to spill over since she got the call from Stede.
“How could you let this happen?” Evelyn demands, pointing a finger at Stede.
Before he can answer, Alma pads downstairs.
“When’s breakfast?” She asks.
“Alma, your brother is missing,” Stede reminds her.
Alma shrugs. “We can leave him a couple of pancakes.”
“I’ll get you some cereal,” Doug says before heading to the kitchen.
“Are you sure your brother didn’t tell you anything?” Mary asks.
“I didn’t even talk to him last night because he ate my magic stars.” Alma says, pouting at the memory.
“You’re sure you told us everything? It’s very important that you don’t hide anything from us.
“I did tell you everything!” Alma insists before storming off back upstairs.
There’s a knock on the door, indicating that the police have arrived. A couple of them conduct an interview with everyone in the living room, whilst the others search Louis’ room for any clues.
“Approximately what time last night did you last see your son, Mr Bonnet?”
“I put him to bed about ten o’clock,” he answers.
“Ten?” Mary asks, her tone indicating that she wasn’t happy about the late bedtime.
“It was a Friday night,” Stede defends his decision with a huff, crossing his arms.
“Arguing isn’t going to help find him,” one of the police interjects. “And when you woke up this morning Mr Bonnet, were any of the doors or windows open?”
“No, that’s what I can’t understand. That’s why at first I thought he was just playing hide and seek, but I searched the whole house and he’s definitely not here.”
Stede watches as the police continue to search his house for clues to how Louis managed to escape. He has to continually stop himself from wincing every time they move something and put it back in the wrong place.
“Are you sure you didn’t leave a window open and then close it this morning?” Mary asks.
“No, you know my hayfever plays up if I do that.”
“Then tell me Stede, how could our eight year old son just vanish like this?”
They’re arguing is interrupted by a couple of the police escorting a giggling Alma downstairs.
“I think your daughter has something she needs to say.”
“Alma?” Mary and Stede press her.
“I think I know how Louis escaped.”
“What do you mean he could’ve left through the cat flap?” Mary asks after Alma had shared her theory.
“He’s done it before, I dared him to.”
Mary sighs, watching as the police examine the cat flap for any signs that a small boy could have crawled through it.
“Wait, he couldn’t have,” Stede interrupts, “it only opens to Oscar’s collar.”
Alma rolls her eyes as if he’s just said something completely stupid. “It’s easy dad, you just let Oscar go out first and then follow him.”
She grabs Oscar, who was happily munching his breakfast, and demonstrates. They watch as she urges for Oscar to use the cat flap before catching it with her hand before it closes again, poking her own head out before Stede pulls her back.
“Okay we get the picture, thanks Alma.” He sighs, rubbing his hand over his face. “I knew I should’ve gone for the smaller cat flap, it’s just that Oscar doesn’t like small spaces.”
“Would you or your son like anything from the trolley?” One of the flight attendants asks.
“Oh, he’s not my son,” Ed replies.
“Sorry, your brother?” The flight attendant corrects herself.
“He’s not related to me,”
“But he’s with you, right?”
“No, I don’t know this kid, I was just helping him because I assumed he was flying alone.”
“Right… excuse me, I’ll be right back.”
Ed watches as she hurries off somewhere towards the back of the plane, taking the trolley with her. He’s a little peeved that he’s not going to get his pringles anytime soon.
The boy looks to Ed as if silently asking him what’s going on, he gives a smile in return, hoping to reassure him that everything’s fine. She probably just had to go back for more sandwiches or something.
Soon, she returns with a couple of colleagues, she bends down so she’s level with Louis.
“Hi sweetie, my name’s Melanie. What’s yours?”
“Louis Bonnet,” he replies, holding his hand out for her to shake, like he did with Ed.
“Louis Bonnet,” she repeats, scanning the clipboard she’d brought with her. “I don’t see your name here, darling, do you have a ticket?”
“Nope,” Louis replies with a smile.
“How about a passport?”
Louis just shakes his head.
“Right, okay. Sweetie, how did you get on this plane?”
“I was just walking through the airport, and then I followed this big group of people who all seemed really cool, and they had kids my age, and we all went through these big scan things like robots. But then I asked one of the boys where he was going and he said they were going to Australia, and I didn’t want to go there because my sister told me they have huge spiders, even bigger than our cat!” Louis says, gesturing with his arms. “But then I heard someone say this plane was going to Rome, and I remembered learning about Rome at school, so I got on this plane because I wanted to see the big place where they all fight, I’ve forgotten what it’s called.”
“The colosseum,” Ed helps.
“Yeah that! And I wanted to see them fight, even though my dad said fighting is bad.” Louis says, finally taking a breath.
“But how did you get to the airport honey, were you with a parent?”
“No, I took the bus.”
“Alone?”
Louis nods.
“Do your parents know where you are?”
“I left them a letter.”
“What did your letter say?”
”That I’ve gone on an adventure.”
“Oh god,” Ed whispers to himself, wondering why it’s always him that’s get into these situations.
A couple hours later, Mary and Stede watch some CCTV footage on the police's laptop of Louis getting on the bus, his favourite Bluey backpack strapped to his back.
Despite it being the early hours, the bus driver barely bats an eyelid as the young boy boards behind a couple of other people. They watch as he climbs the steps of the double decker and takes the front seat.
The footage is then fast-forwarded until Louis departs the bus just outside the airport. Stede’s heart clenches slightly as he watches his son move out of view.
“So you think he went to the airport?”
“It’s certainly a possibility, we’ve got officers reviewing footage and doing sweeps of the airport. Don’t worry Mr Bonnet, we will find your son.”