Stranger to Blue Waters

Chapter 1: Highway 82 West

Some days Rey felt like the whole world was on fire.

The southwestern sun in July was unreal. It burnt more than it bronzed, and every cracked patch on the road leaking tar told the story of exactly what this desert could put something through.

Sprawling hills, dust, and baked earth. Distances were long out here, and Rey was all alone. Put all together, it was perfect.

The Land of Enchantment. She had taken a picture of the sign at the border between it and west Texas. As soon as she had seen the faded piece of metal, decorated with a faded chilli pepper and a constellation of bullet holes, Rey knew that she'd fallen in love.

It was there, in southern New Mexico on a straight as a arrow stretch of Highway 82 West between the town of Artesia and the sleepy ski resort of Cloudcroft, that she had first seen him. The Man in Black.

He was a stranger, strange in more ways than one, and he was all by himself in a place that could very well have been under the dictionary for 'middle of nowhere'. He was incredible tall, dressed in head to toe black, and his thumb was in the air.

What in the gods was a hitchhiker doing out here? There hadn't been a village, or small town as she'd been told that 'America doesn't have villages', for… for five hours? Six? Rey hadn't seen a single other car since early morning. Not even any houses, at least not that she could tell.

The Stranger was leaning against a tall rocky spire, cowering in the small patch of shade it cast and scowling at her like he was daring her not to stop for him and see what he needed. Creepy looking guy. He was either in trouble or he was trouble. Rey had slowed down when she first saw him, wondering if he was nothing more than a sun induced mirage reflecting against all the heat off the blacktop. He almost looked exactly like that. A flickering dark shape that was just so out of place here that he couldn't possibly be real.

When Rey drives close enough that she can see him, he's younger than he'd looked like from a distance. He steps out of his shade and closer to the road, standing right next to the white line and waiting for her.

Oh. Kriff. Rey had been slowing down without realizing it. She hadn't meant to lead him on and think that she was actually pulling over for him, because she wasn't. Single women don't pick up hitchhikers. Everyone knows that. Especially single women on the run picking up ridiculously tall, young male hitchhikers. Dressed all in black. In the heat of the New Mexican desert. Out in the middle of nowhere.

No. Sorry buddy, can't do it.

Rey makes a pained expression and waves an apology to him as she swerves into the other lane and speeds up. That was pretty crummy of her. She shouldn't have slowed down like that and gotten his hopes up.

The Stranger watches her, looking pissed but she can't really blame him. When she passes, she can't bring herself to look him in the eyes.

In her rear view mirror she can see him step out into the middle of the road and watch her. No one else around as far as the eye can see, and he simply stands there as they both get smaller on each other's horizons.

Rey tries not to think about him again.

What if he'd needed help? She could have at least asked him if he did. Told him that she would call someone for help. Police of highway patrol maybe, but that could have brought with it it's own set of problems.

Rey had left England six months ago. Her visa had expired in three. When she'd left home her friends had supported her. Told her to go out and see the world. Didn't take them too long to change their mind and start blowing up her phone, begging her to come to her senses before she gets any deeper in trouble.

As much as she was smitten by the landscape, her journey of self discovery hadn't been easy. Her car, a piece of crap junker she'd barely paid a thousand dollars for, kept breaking down, making her feel even more like a target. Every time a police car drove by her blood ran cold. So far they had just stopped her to see if she needed help. Only one of them had asked for her ID and then found her British driver's license to be 'a hell of a thing', whatever that means.

Someday her luck would run out, Rey was sure of it. That's what had brought her here, on the loneliest stretch of road she could find. A day's drive in either direction from any major towns, or longer if her car keeps overheating.

As Rey drives, she finds herself unable to not think about that strange, strange man. He couldn't have needed help, right? He couldn't. If he did, wouldn't he have tried to wave her down or something like that? He was acting like a hitchhiker, not someone who was in trouble and needed a good Samaritan.

The engine warning chimes again, warning her that it's going to start overheating soon. Rey pulls over, giving it time to cool and her mind time to think.

She could have given him some water at least. It's 113 degrees for kriff's sake. He could literally die out here if nobody else comes along and gives him a lift.

It hasn't been too far, five miles back maybe. She's got plenty of water. That morning, in fact, she'd gotten stocked up on supplies. Gone to an oddball little convenience store attached to a gas station and bought a whole 24-pack of water bottles. Plus some gossip mags and junk food and cheap tequila. The essentials.

She has plenty. She could share. Give some water, save a life. Then maybe her conscience would shut up about this whole thing.

That's it, then. Mind's made up. Rey unlocks her seatbelt and twists halfway into the back seat to go through the shopping bags there. She pulls out two bottles of water and a little sack of fruit and nut mix. She dumps them into a grocery bag, ties it into a bow, ands sets it on the passenger seat next to her.

Then she strums her fingers against the steering wheel and debates if she should really turn around or not. It could be dangerous. The Stranger could be angry that she didn't stop for him before.

But it's also hotter than hot. She's been sitting here long enough that the engine has cooled back into the safe zone, so it's time for her to make a decision.

She should do the right thing. Rey always tries to do the right thing, even if sometimes she doesn't exactly manage to. But gods know that she could use some good karma right now to keep her wheels rolling on the road and her butt out of a detention cell.

That's the thought that settles it for her. Sticks to her sense of morality until she has no choice but to turn around and head back to help a Stranger in need.

Except he's not there when she returns.

She had locked the doors when she'd approached that rock spire. Her plan had been to hand him his survival kit though a half opened window and ask him if he needs her to flag someone down and get him some help. At no point was he going to go to Cloudcroft with her, but she could try to do a little more for him.

All she finds is an empty gravel pull off next to the rock. No Man in Black. Nobody had passed by from the other direction, either.

Confused, Rey pulls over onto the shoulder of the road. In those few short minutes that she had been gone the sun had shifted and now the small amount of shade that here had disappeared.

Maybe he was nearby then? Hiding out from the formidable heat under the shadow of a tree, someplace close where he could still see the road? It's possible, except here it's nothing but short junipers and sagebrush. She would see him, Mr. All Black, sticking out like a sore thumb from this burnt sand-colored landscape.

Rey waits a few minutes, letting her car idle and the engine temperature drop back into the middle of the dial. Just for good measure, so she can sleep soundly that night far from here and really tell herself she did all she could, Rey honks a few times. If he's anywhere, he'd hear her.

Five minutes go by.

Nothing. Maybe there were houses out here after all and she just didn't know about them.

Rey gets out of her car and stretches, feeling how even being in the open for just a few seconds is enough to make her skin start to feel uncomfortable. She walks over to where she had seen him. There are footprints in the gravel, heading off away from the road toward a low, silty hill.

Okay, if Rey was a really, really good person, she'd follow them. Make sure he didn't wander off into the desert in a heat-induced dazed and collapse or something like that.

Rey's not that good of a person. The Stranger was creepy as all hell and she was alone out here. Not a good combination. If she sees a forest ranger or benevolent looking highway patrolman, she'll tell them. That's the best she can offer.

Disquieted but out of acceptable options, Rey gets back in her car and pulls away slowly, heading back on her day's goal of reaching Cloudcroft. As she drives, she scans both near and far on either side of the road. All she can see is brush and junipers and hills rolling on and on for miles.

That rock spire gets smaller in the mirror again. For a second she thinks she can see that dark shape on the horizon and she slams on the breaks,. The shape flickers and melts into the road. This time it really was a mirage.

Another hour and a 2,000ft climb in elevation and the air was still burningly hot and her engine was about to fry itself. It was getting worse, making a knocking sound like it had a gas tank full of water and she has to pull over all the time now to cool it.

This means she has to do the unthinkable and turn off the air conditioning. How inhumane. This desert here is just ludicrous. There's no other place quite like it.

Another miserable hour passes before she reaches a plateau. She's high enough now that there are pine trees and her dashboard tells her its 78 degrees even though it feels much hotter. Here the road splits to the right and left. There's a bigger town called Ruidoso about 40 miles to the north if she picks right, but at the rate her beater car is stalling Rey isn't sure she can make it there before nightfall. That leaves her with the faded sign telling her Cloudcroft is now just six miles away.

Left it is, and then she sees him again.

There he is, the Stranger in Black, his thumb in the air just like before. Same man, same pose, different location and somehow he ended up in front of her even though she'd left him behind literally in her dust.

Despite knowing better and already having this conversation with herself, Rey starts to slow down. She still feels guilty about blowing him off back there and now she's oddly compelled to stop for him and offer her help.

She double then triple checks that her doors are locked before she pulls to a stop in front of him and rolls down the passenger side window a crack.

"Hey?" she calls out lamely.

It's a dumb thing to say. An immature thing, but Rey's got nothing else. She could have gone with hello or something less juvenile, probably.

The Stranger stares at her for a few moments. He pushes away from the pine tree he had been leaning against and walks a bit closer. He looks tired and Rey can see a faint scar running down one side of his face. It makes her feel bad for him. Looking a crazy mess like that must have made getting a ride out ere even harder.

"Hello."

His voice is deep and flat in tone.

"I saw you earlier," she tells him. "Like two hours back. I'm sorry I didn't stop for you then."

A long moment of increasingly awkward silence passes as he stares her down. Rey starts to squirm uncomfortably in her seat. Maybe this was a bad idea after all…

"Why didn't you? He finally asks.

"Um..." She probably should lie. Definitely should lie.

"I was having car problems. I didn't want to pick you up only for us to break down in a few minutes."

It's a half truth. Those are the best kind of lies.

The man frowns, then nods and Rey hopes he buys her bullshit.

"We saw you pulled over. I asked him to stop but he didn't want to."

The man tosses his black jacket over his shoulder and looks up the road. He doesn't seem quite as scary now that she's seeing him up close. He still kind of is, but not as much as when she'd first laid eyes on him earlier that afternoon.

"We?" she asks.

He's alone. There's no 'we', is there?

"The guy who gave me a lift here," he explains. "We saw your car pulled over back there and you looked like you were taking a nap. He didn't want to stop and bother you."

Oh. Well, Rey had taken a brief catnap during one of her many engine cooling breaks. It must have been only for a minute or so, but it explains how he could beat her up here.

"So her just dropped you off here? He didn't take you into a town or anything?"

The Stranger shrugs.

"He was going north." The man gestures over his should to the side road to Ruidoso. "I'm heading west. Same direction that you are."

He leaves the words hanging in the air. Rey fidgets with the steering wheel, torn between a selfish act and a profoundly bad idea. It's only six miles to Cloudcroft. Not that she expects Cloudcroft to be much of a town, but since they're both heading there…

"Do you know this area at all?" she asks, eyeing him skeptically.

He shrugs again and sticks his hands in his pockets, a hunch to his shoulders that wasn't there before.

"I need a mechanic," she explains. "Do you know if there's any around here in the next town?"

"Yeah," he says after a moment. "At least there was one the last time I was up here. It's been a few years and the pale was off the main street. You'd have a lot of trouble finding it if you don't know where to look."

And the Stranger's subtle, too. But Rey's GPS hadn't listed any auto-shops anywhere nearby.

She sighs and bites the bullet. Bad idea, here we come.

"Would you like a ride into town?" she finally offers. "I won't be able to take you any further than Cloudcroft but-"

"That's fine," he says quickly, cutting her off. "I mean, thank you, that will be fine."

He hunches over slightly more as he says it, like he's deliberately trying to make himself look smaller and less imposing.

"Maybe you can find someone to give you a lift from there?"

He nods and pulls on the passenger door handle. It snaps and doesn't open. He almost looks offended for a second but quickly hides it.

"Oh, sorry. I forgot." Rey presses the unlock button on the drivers door.

Her stranger turned passenger gives her an odd expression as he gets in. The man is so tall that he has to slouch so his head doesn't brush against the roof.

As they drive he stays very quiet and spends most of the time looking at his shoes. His silence makes Rey even more uncomfortable so she fills it with mindless chatter of her own. Rattles off what she thinks is wrong with the car's engine. All the ways she could fix it herself if she only had the right tools but, of course, she didn't take them with her from back home so now she has to waste her money getting someone else to fix it for her.

The Stranger perks up after a while and starts asking her a few questions. He's curious about her accent and what she's doing way out here by herself. He agrees with her on the middle of nowhere part. Neither of them ask each other's names.

They have to stop again just outside Cloudcroft to cool the engine. He asks if he can have a drink of water and she gives him one of the bottles in the grocery bag by his feet. He doesn't seem so bad now that she's gotten to know him for a few minutes. In fact, she feels kind of sorry for him. It can't be an easy thing to be hitchhiking out here through the desert when you look like he does, no one is ever going to want to stop.

When they make it to town the Stranger directs her to a garage three blocks off from the main street and behind a Family Dollar. She lets him keep both bottles of water and the snack mix "for the road". Then they go their separate ways with a polite thanks and wave goodbye.

No one was in the garage when she knocked at the front office.

Rey eventually asks at the store across the street and a highly disinterested teenager says that's her dad's shop and she calls him up for her.

While she waits, she has a good look around. Cloudcroft is high up, over 8,000 feet in elevation, and it's actually approaching being a pleasant temperature as the afternoon becomes evening. Tall, wide pine trees edge the streets and the buildings have a weathered but charming quality to them. Apparently this place is semi-popular in the winter for skiing, though come summer time it's just the locals and not many of those either.

When the mechanic comes, Rey is pretty sure he's half drunk. He's a middle aged man who's friendly enough, though he slurs his words slightly as he looks at the engine.

"This is going to be a big job, miss. You're going to have to come back tomorrow."

Here's the thing about the New Mexican accent: there isn't really one. Unless you're speaking Spanish. Or maybe the distinction between local dialects are just lost on a foreigner like Rey. Regardless, tomorrow is going to be a problem for her.

"Do you think I can make it down to Alamogordo like this?" she asks him.

They're standing in his driveway and she's clinging to the edges of the shade. Despite the thinner, cooler air, Rey can still feel the beginnings of a sunburn start to form on any exposed parts of her skin.

The mechanic pushes away, wiping his hands off on his faded jeans. She kind of likes him, even though he's drunk in the afternoon. He doesn't talk too much and doesn't ask questions. A man who doesn't ask questions can be forgiven for a lot.

"Doubt it," he says, fiddling with one of the hoses. Rey cranes her neck to see what he's doing. "You said the heatings been getting worse?"

Rey nods, feeling her hopes of getting out of here soon start to drop. "Very quickly. Much worse since this morning."

"Then I wouldn't risk it. Alamo's all the way down in the basin. You've got to get off these mountains first and it gets real steep in places. Takes me a few hours, for you'd it'd probably be all day."

"If I even make it there."

"If you even make it there."

Rey sighs. She starts to explain her financial issues to him. Tells him that she can't exactly pay him for fixing her car, but she's really handy with a wrench herself. Maybe she can help him out around here in exchange?

The man laughs, but he nods. They shake on an agreement that she'll come by tomorrow. Help him out with some odd jobs and work he's got lined up, and he'll do what he can for her car. Maybe give her a few hundred more miles on it, but that engine's days are numbered.

Rey's heart falls at the news. She's going to have to figure something out, but first things first.

Before she leaves, he tells her about an affordable hotel nearby. Rey smiles and thanks him, pretending to drive off in the direction he had pointed her to. Then she circles back and heads out towards the national forest on the south side of town. These have been her lifeline during her whole trip. Free public camping and without them she'd have spent the last six months sleeping in her car.

Tomorrow then. Now she just needs to find a quiet little place to spend the night.

Rey meets him again that evening.

It happens outside of the town on a narrow and weathered stretch of road to a place called 'Sunspot' and this time Rey's not happy about it.

She had stopped at the local Ranger Station to get some water. The main office was closed, but they had a blue faucet on the side of the building and she stuck the big 20 gallon water cooler she'd 'obtained' from a Walmart a few weeks back under it and started to fill it up. Then she went to the little information booth and picked up some maps of the area. GPS reception was spotty out here, and she was curious about this very odd observatory she'd been seeing signs for.

By the time she gets back to her car, the Stranger in Black is standing next to it.

Rey freezes mid step, dropping on her maps on the sidewalk. He turns to her and she doesn't pick it up, a sudden sense of fear dawning over her.

"I'm not following you," he says, breaking the silence, "if that's what you're wondering."

That does nothing to convince her. This is starting to go beyond the realm of mere coincidence.

He steps away from her car and her shoulders tighten as he moves sideways, neither closer or further away from her. It takes Rey a moment to find her voice.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were heading west and were going to get another ride out of town."

He looks down at the ground and sticks his hands in his pockets.

"We are out of town."

"Not to the west. What happened to getting a ride?"

Rey grips the water cooler tight. It's not much of a weapon, but it's all she's got on hand. Literally, unless the Stranger is allergic to papercuts.

"Tried to," he says with a shrug. "No one was around anywhere. You're the only one I've seen driving out of town."

That's right. No one was around here. They were alone out in this parking lot together.

"This isn't even the main road out. This goes to some observatory and dead ends."

Rey doesn't want to sound like she accusing him of something, but she kind of is. She's just not sure what, exactly.

He clears his throat, hunching his shoulders down.

"I was going to sleep out tonight. I heard there was a motel in town but I can't afford it so… yeah, I was just going to sleep out."

Rey looks him over quickly. He doesn't have a single piece of luggage with him, just his hoodie and a light jacket.

"Where's your tent?" she asks. "I think it's going to get pretty cold tonight."

He nods then swallows.

"Yeah, it always does in the desert. The low levels of humidity cause big drops in temperature after the sun goes down."

Well thanks for that Mr. Wikipedia. Rey takes a step forward, hoping he moves further away.

"You didn't get your car fixed?" he asks, staying rooted to the spot.

Rey frowns.

"Not yet. The place was closed. I have to come back tomorrow."

"Oh. Okay."

The silence comes back. Rey sets her face into an intentional scowl, hoping the Stranger in Black takes the hint. He doesn't.

"I need to get going," she tells him cooly. "Good luck with sleeping out tonight, but I need to be on my way now."

She takes a few steps closer to her car, he stays right where he is, standing forlornly next to the rear door. When she gets to him he still doesn't move, and she throws the driver's door open to get in. He stops her with a light hand to her shoulder.

There's nothing threatening at all about the gesture, at least not beyond the context of the circumstances. Still, Rey's arm jumps under his touch and she has to fight the impulse to recoil. The creepy man just touched her. He shouldn't' have done that. That's too far.

Rey's heart begins to race as she struggles to voice her objection, but suddenly she's having a very hard time thinking clearly. It's like her mind is trapped in a cloud, the space between it and her voice moving further and further apart.

"Hey?" the man says, repeating the first word she ever said to him. "Thanks for giving me a lift into town."

Rey wants to curtly say 'you're welcome' and get in. Drive off and find the best hidden, furthest away little cubby hole in the woods where she can set up her tent.

The man touches her shoulder again. Holds it firmly under his palm as he steers her to face him. He takes the heavy water jug from her hands, never breaking the eye contact between them.

"Why don't you take me with you," he says, his voice having a very strange, hollow ring to it.

It's not a question. Rey's head feels so muggy, like she's having an out of body experience. His suggestion however, actually seems like a good idea. A perfectly normal idea. Maybe she should do exactly that?

"Why don't you come with me?" she asks, her voice sounding strange to her own ears.

"Thank you," he answers. "We can find a place in the woods and camp tonight."

That's an even better idea.

"We can camp together. I have a tent. You'll be really cold in the woods if you don't have one."

The Stranger nods. Rey waits, a loud buzzing ringing in her head.

"I can sleep in the car," he says. "You can have the tent. You won't feel uncomfortable if I do that."

Rey nods. Sure sure.

"You can sleep in my car, if that would make you feel more comfortable?"

Everything makes perfect sense. They can help each other out. The way good people do good things. Logical.

Rey holds her breath as she waits, hoping that the Stranger takes her up on her offer.

"Okay," he finally says, letting go of her shoulder.

Immediately Rey feels dizzy, so lightheaded that she has to lean against the door frame. She must have… not eaten enough today or something. Maybe all the heat and sun got to her after all.

The Stranger walks around her car and gets in the passenger's seat. Rey stares at him, blinking dumbly.

"Let's get going," he tells her, closing his door. "We need to find a campsite before it gets too dark.

Robotically Rey sits down in the driver's seat and draws the seatbelt across her chest, locking it into place like she's done a hundred times before. She puts her hands on the wheel at ten and two, shaking her head to try and clear the fog from it enough that she can drive safely.

"Are you ready to go?" she asks, turning the key in the ignition.

The stranger smiles at her. It makes his scar crinkle. He nods and she puts the car into reverse, slowly easing out of the empty parking lot and driving off down the road as night begins to fall.

Author's note:

Yup yup, as promised I've finally put up Skies 2.0! The original version, now known simply as 'Skies', is still a available on my profile on this site. You're all welcome to check it out if you'd like, but be aware that my writing wasn't the best back then and there might/will be spoilers for this story. Not too many, though. Pretty much everything after ch7 or so of Skies will be totally different than what happens here.

This story I'm also doing as part of a trilogy (or trilogy within a trilogy, perhaps). To avoid some of the burnout I faced with writing a story as long as No Rest for the Wicked, I'm keeping this first part of the trilogy in 3 burst writings of 12 chapters, with each coming in at an estimated 50-60k in total. Then I'll take some time off to recharge and then do another 12 chapters of fic 2 in the series then another break then another 12 etc etc.

Anyhow, I hope you all liked this first chapter! Chapter 2 will be up in early June (I'm taking a vacation until then) so please check it out then and I'll try to have regular updates!

thanks for reading and, if you want to chat, you can drop me a line on tumblr at ava-dalo :)

For fun, I've decided to chart Rey's journey through the southwest by marking it on a map and updating it as she goes. Right now I'm going to stick it on tumblr since I don't have any other place (wordpress maybe later).

Unfortunately for my readers here on fanfiction dot net, I can't directly link to it. That's just… dumb. I can't even link directly to THIS site because it just shows up as

-and yes, that was where the link was!

I wish I could, but the best I can do is tell you how to find it on tumblr

find my profile ava-dalo

go to ava-dalo slash post slash 174235203963

Bless you fanfiction dot net, we're doing it oldschool style here!