DISCLAIMER: I do not own Ranger's Apprentice or any of the places or characters mentioned, which were created by John Flanagan. I also do not own the song lyrics at the beginning of each chapter. Credit will be given to all of the artists who do.

~~~PROLOGUE~~~

Carry on my wayward son,
There'll be peace when you are done,
Lay your weary head to rest,
Don't you cry no more.

~Kansas

The dishes had all been cleaned and put away. The fire was crackling merrily from the stone fireplace in the corner, and there was plenty of wood stacked next to the hearth for later. It was storming outside, but the doors and windows were all closed and the atmosphere inside was warm and cozy. For once, everything was right with the world.

It didn't happen often, Gilan thought to himself, but sometimes, you think and think and think and just can't find anything wrong with the world. He was inside and warm and full of good food, sitting on a comfortable couch with his best friend next to him and his mentor reading reports in his favorite chair across the room. There were no tasks that needed doing, no places that needed traveling to, no dangerous battles that needed fighting. Just him and the two people he considered his family, sitting quietly and enjoying each other's company.

Things weren't always this way. Now, they were three grown Rangers: a former teacher who still found himself teaching and his once-upon-a-time students, who were still being taught years later. But when their story began—really began—things had been different. They had been three people: a boy, Will, frightened and kidnapped by slave traders; his close friend and protector, Gilan, who had been captured alongside him; and their desperate former and current mentor, whose only thought had been to find his boys and bring them home.

If he thought about it, Gilan could still easily feel the ice cold of metal shackles fastened around his ankles. He knew that, if asked, Will could do the same—perhaps with even more ease than himself. As per usual, the thought made him feel vaguely sick to his stomach, and he sighed.

Halt glanced up at him. "Thinking about Skandia again?" he asked casually, looking over his former apprentice with a practiced eye. Gilan started.

"How did you know?"

"It's the only time you're not smiling," Halt said dryly, and Gilan sighed again.

"Yes, well, there's not much to smile about," he muttered, tone dark. Halt watched him, concerned, but saying nothing. If Gilan wanted to talk, he knew that he would. As things were, however, the young Ranger did nothing but shift slightly in his seat and turn to watch his younger friend sleeping beside him.

Halt's eyes followed Gilan's, and a smile crossed his face. A corner of Gilan's mouth twitched upwards. "You know you're going to have to get him back to bed eventually," Halt said, indicating Will with a nod of his head. Gilan fondly glanced at Will.

"I suppose he's too grown up to piggyback now," he mused, half to himself, and Halt snorted, both at the statement and the memories it brought back.

"He's been too grown up for that since before you met him."

Gilan sighed again and lightly carded a hand through Will's dark hair, smoothing it away from his eyes. Halt raised an eyebrow, amused. "If you leave him to sleep out here, Gilan…" He left the threat hanging, but Gilan knew it was empty. He also knew that, if Will had been alone with any two other people, he would have woken at the touch instantly. Halt and Gilan, however, were different. Will's sleeping brain was telling him that here, he was safe… Here, nothing could harm him.

Gilan felt honored to have someone trust him so highly.

"Why do you still call him that, anyways?" he asked his teacher, deciding to leave Will's unruly hair to itself for the moment and retracting his hand. "He's hardly your apprentice any more, after all." Halt looked up at him briefly before returning to the papers in front of him.

"The same reason you still introduce him as your 'little brother,' when you go on missions," his mentor replied easily. Then he parroted, "After all, he's hardly little any more."

Gilan grinned and gave a half-shrug as he nodded, acquiescing the point. "No matter how old he gets," he mused, "I'm always going to see the part of him that's still that innocent kid with the bright eyes who jumped out of that tree on the way to the Gathering." He ruffled Will's hair affectionately, and Will shifted in his sleep, involuntarily resting his head on Gilan's shoulder. The older Ranger smiled.

"That never gets old," he said to himself. He gave Will's shoulder a gentle shake. At Halt's inquiring glance, he said, "If I can't carry him, I at least have to wake him up. He'll never forgive me if I let him sleep out here."

Will's eyelids fluttered, opening slowly, lazily. Gilan smiled again. "Wake up," he said softly. The youngest Ranger in the room groaned before pulling himself into an upright position. Will grimaced.

"I was sleeping," he grumbled, but both Gilan and Halt knew he didn't truly mean it in annoyance.

"And now you're not," Halt said evenly. "Now up you get. It's high time the both of you got to sleep. In a bed," he added, seeing Will's mouth open to protest. "Now get."

Reluctantly, both young Rangers stood up. Gilan placed a hand on Will's shoulder, steadying him as he almost pitched forwards. He squeezed lightly in response to the mumbled, barely audible "Thanks, Gil."

The older Ranger guided Will over to their mentor with a half-smile. Halt smiled back—a rare occurrence. "Good night, Halt."

Will looked up somewhat blearily. "G'night, Halt." He paused. "Dad." Halt's smile grew just a tiny bit wider at the word that acknowledged the close bond between them, and he replied fondly as he always did.

"Good night, you two. Sleep well." Gilan nodded, and began walking towards the bedroom he and Will typically shared when Gilan visited. "I'll be out here, finishing reports."

Gilan nodded. Even after all the years that had passed since their experiences as slaves, the horrific things the younger men had suffered were enough to leave them waking repeatedly in a cold sweat, thrashing about and shouting. The nightmares tended to resurface after someone got hurt—and though Will's knock on the head after their most recent mission barely even counted as an injury, the words were reassuring to both apprentices.

"We know."

Once they were inside the bedroom, Gilan practically shoved Will towards the bed. "If you don't get under those blankets now, you'll fall asleep standing up," he said with a raised eyebrow. Will yawned as a response, and Gilan rolled his eyes.

"I saw that," Will protested indignantly, but he still allowed Gilan to straighten the covers once he was finally under them. They never called it tucking in, because that sounded immature and childish, but Gilan had been doing it ever since their return from Skandia and he certainly wasn't about to stop now.

"You're like a great big overprotective brother bear," Will mumbled. Gilan snorted at him, amused.

"Oh yes? And what does that make Halt, then?"

"The mother."

Gilan laughed—a real, true laugh, as he finished with the blankets on Will's bed. "You'd best not tell him that." Will yawned again, exhaustion evident in his voice when he replied.

"He wouldn't mind."

Gilan smiled gently. "You and I both know that's a blatant lie," he whispered. "Though he'd probably let you live. Sleep well."

But Will was already asleep.

A/N: All right, so I'm going to do something different with this story. Every chapter title will be based off of a song lyric. I'll give shoutouts at the end of each chapter to reviewers who correctly guessed the artist and song title from the previous chapter. I really love music, so I figured this might be a fun way to combine it with my love of writing :) So for this chapter, we'll just use the story title (this is an easy one for Supernatural fans): The song "Carry On Wayward Son" was written/performed by what band?

A/N 04/08/2017: Thanks to everyone who's given this story a second shot! I was blown away by the number of reviews I received within 12 hours of announcing I was going to continue. You guys really make my world. I decided that with each chapter I rewrite and replace, I'll add a second author's note just to keep people updated. I'll also be going back and changing some of the songs I used for chapter titles and lyrics, so if that changes don't be alarmed. Finally, in an attempt to make reading as simple as possible, after each song/artist is revealed, I'm going to go back and add that band or artist to the previous chapter to keep copyright things nice and tidy. I have four main focuses in rewriting: keeping things more in character, improving Evanlyn's characterization, varying my sentence structure, and adding Horace :) so now you know what to watch for!