After It All

Chapter Twenty One

Riley

"Yeah Bud, I know. I'll sort it okay" I heard James before he came out of the boys' room. We'd only recently let them sleep in their own rooms again, I'm still not set on that but everyone was telling us how we couldn't smother them for the rest of their lives 

James came down following me downstairs taking a seat next to me
Ellie went down without a hitch so did Landon, I think the showcase really tired them both out
Zach on the other hand, it's been a battle with him all evening
Something is going on between him and James

"Soooo" I said making James chuckle as he threw his arm across the back of the sofa turning to me

"Our oldest is quite the sleuth, did you know that?" James asked making me look at him confused
"Zach? What did he do?" I questioned 

But before James had the chance to say anything else there was a knock at the front door. One that had it continued, would have easily woken up the kids
I'm pretty sure we'll be joined by Zach any minute now.
James got up from the sofa heading straight over to the front door opening it allowing Officer Jenson and 2 other officers walk into the house joining me in the living room

"Officer Jenson? What are you all doing here?" I asked still as confused as before they walked in
"I called them Ri" James said making me furrow my brows at him 
"Why? I don't-" I started before another voice cut me off 

"You called them Dad!" Zach said overjoyed making us all look at him

"Can someone tell me what is going on" I said looking between Zach and James who had the exact same expression  

"I did it mum, I figured out who took Ellie and Landon" Zach said coming over hugging my waist while I looked over at James
"What?" I mouthed to him, James nodded before turning to the officers while Zach and I sat down on the sofa
"Zach did some detective work for himself and believes it's our old friend Tyler Bennett back in our old town and from what he's told me, I would be inclined to believe him too" James said 

I looked over at Zach to see him having a proud smile on his face while he listened to his Dad tell the officers about what he'd been up to recently
"I did it mum, I protected them" He said looking up at me, I offered him the same smile he had on his face placing a soft kiss on the top of his forehead as we turned back to the others

 This shouldn't be something  a 10 year old had to worry about, this shouldn't have been something that needed to fall onto his shoulders at all..

--

After the officers left, James had put a very happy Zach back to bed allowing him to actually fall asleep this time.

Tyler..

He's someone the boys look up to, someone that Ellie absolutely adores. Someone we let into their lives while he tried to take them out of ours.

How can someone go from being someone we would deem as family, to being the one thing trying to rip the family apart?
He was the kids Uncle Ty, he would always be playing football with Zach, running around with Landon on his shoulders or tickling Ellie 
Was it all an act?

I get he wasn't the most supportive of the move, hell I don't blame him for being a little hurt. He was a big part of our life and we were essentially leaving him behind.. But to go to this extreme?

"Hey" I heard James say before he came taking a seat next to me
"how are you coping" He asked

James knows more then anyone, when I am overloaded with information like I had been the last hour, I get overwhelmed, shut down, lock myself in my head
And I think that is exactly what was happening

"We let him into their lives James" I said looking at him, he sighed nodding
"I know we did Ri, when Zach told me that was the first thought that went through my head. Had I never taken that job, I would have never met him" James rambled
"Had I never made us move James, we wouldn't have met him" I whispered

"I'm glad we moved Riley, it gave us that time we needed to move from being teenagers on A-Troupes to being adults starting the family we have built" he said wrapping an arm around me

"But what if moving away but them in more harms way then it did good?" I asked
"Ri, had we not moved, our kids upstairs wouldn't be the children we love" James said making me tilt my head confused

"They all grew up in that small town, they all picked up things and learnt from the people around us. Had we been living him, they would have turned out so differently" He explained
"I don't think Zach would have found his love for Football, I think he would be dancing and hating every second of it. I think that Landon would have been even more anxious with how many people we tend to surround ourselves with" He continued
"And Ellie, I don't think Ellie would be as close with the boys as she is right now" He finished

"They are the kids they are from the move, just like we are the people we are for how we grew up here and how we grew up there" James said 

"You really think so?" I asked and he nodded with a chuckle
"And like you said the other day, the kids are growing differently here too. Zach is more open to new things, Landon is opening up to more people, Ellie is also not as attached to us" James said 

"I just can't help but think that all of this could have been avoided" I whispered looking down at my hands
"A lot of things in life could have been avoided Ri, but like you used to tell me" he said making me look up at him curiously 

"Everything happens for a reason"