My Pleasure, Darling

25: It Does Not, in Fact, Go Well

My alarm goes off earlier than first light – much earlier. I pack what little I have in my small bag and check out by credit card.

We agreed to meet a few streets away, where the car could be parked inconspicuously. By the time I get there with the first rays of pink hitting the sky, I am the last one, the loser of the race. The Chancellor's Volkswagen, fully packed, is sitting on the curb. Felix gets out, quietly closing the door behind him.

It's the first time he and I have been away from each other for more than a few hours in over a month. It's funny, how used to somebody you can get. We both move, instinctually, to grip each other by the forearm and gently touch shoulders. It's an old greeting on the Mountain. You find close friends doing it. At graduation, all the Corpsmen are given this show of brotherly affection by the Chancellor before he hands them their diploma.

Never in my life did I think I'd be greeting Felix in this way. But it feels completely natural. I didn't think about it. It was instinctual.

I suppose in a way, he and I are the closest thing to siblings either of us have now.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, you?"

He nods, glances back at the car, and grins. "She was not happy about being woken in the middle of the night, but she fell asleep again when she was in the car. Grumpy girl. Not a morning person."

"I know how she feels." I take a deep breath. "You say bye to Elise?"

"We left before she woke up. Lionel was up, though, just at the last minute. I let him know how we felt. I'm sure he'll give Elise the news."

I nod. I tried to tell Elise, before I left. How much it meant to me. How glad I was to know her. How, someday, I'd like to hear all her stories about her and my father, the ones she didn't like to tell while the mountain was still standing. She stopped me before it could get too sentimental. I can still hear her voice, low, when she hugged me.

"Don't get caught, Lois."

"I won't."

"You, especially. They might catch Felix. And they might catch Andrea. But above all, you can not afford capture. Even if it means sacrificing their lives. You run. Your father would have wanted that."

It's possible that she's right. That, if push came to shove, he would tell me to do that. But the night at the mountain, he told me to smuggle Andrea to safety. That's what I'm going to do, come hell or high water.

Felix leans against the car a moment. "You look tired."

"I feel like I've lived twelve lifetimes," I confess. "And I am so, so close to finishing my last one, and I just want it over and done now."

"It sounds stupid, but I know exactly how you feel."

I knew you would.

"We should take separate routes, so we're not really seen together."

"Agreed. Let me take my big bag though."

"Yeah hey, what do you have in there? It's a ton weight." He opens the trunk for me and I haul the suitcase over my shoulder with ease. That is, it looked like it was with ease. In reality, it was kind of difficult, but I won't give him the satisfaction of knowing that, or I'll be teased for days over it. "My ego," I grin, and he grins back. "See you soon?"

"See you later, Lois."

I turn and head back the way I came. I don't ask how he's going to get a collection of four bags and a small child from here to there in one go, but sometimes I think questioning Felix is just a bad idea.