Another idea I've had forever, but never had time to turn into written words.
And I went for present tense here, not my usual. If I missed any pasts, I apologize. That goes for other typos or dumb word repetitions too :)
Wyatt takes a deep breath and steels himself. Standing there staring at the endless rows and cement of the parking garage isn't going to get him anywhere, so he slips into the car and eases the door closed as gently as possible. He casts a soft glance over to the passenger seat, where Lucy, just as he'd hoped, has already nodded off, her chin drooping to her chest as she leans against the car door. He almost reaches out to brush away the few wavy tendrils of hair that have escaped her loose ponytail and fallen to cover her face, but he refrains. A tiny twinge of guilt gnaws at the pit of his stomach at having feigned a problem with the paperwork from the rental car agency, but he'd needed a little time to allow her to succumb to the combination of a food coma from the burrito she'd scarfed leaving the airport and the persisting effect of the Dramamine she'd taken twice on the flight. And waking her up now because he can't keep his hands to himself could mess up his whole plan.
So instead he slides his seat back a little, adjusts the car's mirrors, and makes sure the bottle of soda he'd procured from the rental agency's vending machine is ready in the cupholder for the caffeine boost he'll inevitably need in a couple of hours. He takes a peek at the directions in Google Maps, but he doesn't dare actually activate the navigation lest the abrasive voice wake Lucy. And with a sigh and rental papers in hand, he backs out of the parking spot and heads for the garage exit.
It's already dark out as he follows the serpentine series of ramps and loops to the highway, which is helpful in the grand scheme of things, but not ideal given the travel fatigue that still always seemed to dog him on any flight, be it halfway around the world to Afghanistan or a few short hours from San Francisco to Dallas. But he'll be fine, he knows, given what he's anticipating at the end of the drive.
He's grateful that traffic ends up pretty thin once they're out of the main metro area; then again, he wasn't exactly expecting it to be bumper-to-bumper on a random Monday night in October in rural Texas anyway.
The nerves start encroaching little by little the longer they drive. He could open the window – back in the days of riding around in Grandpa Sherwin's beat up old truck with no air conditioning, the warm night breezes out in the middle of nowhere, Texas, had always had a calm serenity to them, even when family life proved chaotic. But it would hardly be the same effect speeding along at over 75 miles an hour, and he can't risk the wind noise waking Lucy.
She does wake up for a few minutes just over halfway through the drive and it has Wyatt's stomach twisting from the instant those long lashes of hers start fluttering to life. But thankfully, they're really in the middle of nowhere, so there are no signs for her to notice along the route. And all she really does in the end is shoot him a soft, sleepy smile and then she slips her left hand into his right to lace their fingers together before she nods off again.
Wyatt lets out a shaky breath of his own as Lucy's breathing deepens again. He'll have to forego the rest of his soda, but right now, the feel of her hand in his is worth the small sacrifice. The knots in his gut are doing more to keep him awake than the caffeine would anyway.
It's another two hours or so before he carefully works his hand out of her loose grip to reach for his phone again. He's done this before, thinks he remembers the directions barked from the backseat, thinks he recognizes the different turns down nondescript wooded rural roads, but he's not going to chance being wrong. Google reassures him that he's on the right track, so it's not long before he's easing the car to a stop in the small parking lot that wasn't there the last time they were.
Lucy still barely stirs when he turns off the car. He glances back down at his phone, and he can't help but smirk. It is nearing one in the morning, but that's still only eleven their time, and she's been asleep for almost five hours. He knows as well as anyone that she – and he, and Rufus, and Jiya and the handful of other stand-ins they've had – can manage for days running around the past on little sleep; he's the only one, aside from maybe Amy, that knows quite how talented she is at making up for all that lost sleep at the drop of a hat, especially in the car.
She looks so soft and peaceful and just so damn pretty that he's reluctant to wake her, and he doesn't, for a while. But then he yawns himself, and it's just going to keep getting later, and he knows that he can't use her napping as a cover for his nerves any longer.
So he gingerly reaches over and smooths his hand over her hair, then lets it drift down to cup her jaw. He runs his thumb over her cheek, whispering, "Hey, sleeping beauty. Wake up."
It earns him something between a grunt and a muffled moan when she shifts in the seat to curl away from him. He just chuckles and rubs her back, raising his voice a tiny bit. "Lucy…"
That one sinks in; she blinks awake sluggishly and casts a groggy smile at him over her shoulder. "Mmm, we here?" she asks, her voice heavy with sleep as she looks around.
Wyatt knows she's not recognizing it yet; she's expecting the old family house, once Grandpa Sherwin's, now Wyatt's cousin's.
But it doesn't really matter; she'll figure it out eventually. He takes a deep breath, replying, "We're… somewhere." He unbuckles her seatbelt for her before climbing out of the car himself, urging, "Come on, get out."
TBC...