His neighbors say Devlin had a nasty temper. "Everyone had a conflict with him," says Krista Jones, who lived across from him. "I just thought he was a weirdo." Photo by: BILL GREENBLATT / POLARIS
Home At Last| Ben Ownby, Michael Devlin, Shawn Hornbeck
Experts say Ben and Shawn will likely need counseling, and a gradual return to normalcy, to help them cope. "They will need a sense of routine," says Terri Weaver. "No one can make what happened go away, but they have to integrate what happened, and it will take time." Certainly Shawn has a lot of catching up to do. On his first night home, he spent hours talking with his two older sisters; he also told his parents he's eager to go back to school.

Ben, too, is ready to resume his old life. On his first day back, he asked for a snack of fried chicken and finished it in his bedroom. Early the next morning, "I checked on him," says Doris, "and I was so happy to see him there." An ice storm knocked out the power in the Ownbys' home, allowing them to avoid all television coverage of their son's rescue and focus on getting back to normal. "We're playing it day by day," says Doris, who does want to throw a big party for all the friends and family who searched for Ben.

Hearing that, Ben groans. "I'll be squeezed to death by bruises!" he says. Doris smiles at her son. "He asked me how much longer I'm going to hug him," she says. "And I said, 'Forever.' "

• By Alex Tresniowski and Pam Lambert. Eileen Finan in Beaufort, Pam Grout in Kansas, Cathy Free in Salt Lake City, Lorna Grisby in Chicago, Joanne Fowler in New York City and Macon Morehouse in Washington, D.C