Learning to Fly : 1

She drives like a madwoman.

Breaking speed limits, swerving around cars that are going too slow for her liking and ignoring all the irate shouts and honks that follow her progress, all in desperation to escape the confines of this place that holds nothing but poisoned memories for her.

Once on the open road, still barreling away from the city, does she start to slow back to an acceptable pace. As much as she'd like to speed away as fast as her trusty bug can take her, Emma isn't about to risk any interaction with the cops. In fact, it's already a miracle that red and blue haven't appeared in her rear-view given her mad dash out of city limits.

Refusing to glance behind her, tension starts to bleed from her shoulders as more and more distance is forded between her and the glowing lights of Tallahassee. Tears, unbidden and unwanted, threaten to break through her walls, but she fights them off with a growl and cranking the Rock n Roll station to nearly ear shattering levels.

Drowning out thoughts of Neal, of prison, of the child she will never see again in the angry guitar cords that shake through the frame of the only good thing left in her life, Emma sings along as loudly as she can. Until her voice goes hoarse, and the tears are a distant memory.

Just like Tallahassee in her rear-view. And every piece of her history that it holds.

She will never go back.