Recovery or misery?
"If you share your pain you cut it in half, if you don't you double it."
Unknown author
"Move it Duncan," a guard said pushing Thomas forward. "Now get in," he said opening the back of a bus. The guard shut the door and walked around the front and hopped in. Thomas was the only prisoner on the bus at the time. There were two police officers and one prison guard aboard. "Go ahead," the guard called out to the driver. "Duncan, you better behave at this next prison because I doubt anyone else will want you."
Thomas had only been in Montana's state prison for three months before having to be transferred to another prison. He had almost killed a man for looking at him the wrong way. He was being moved to Wyoming, where he was would be continuing to serve a life sentence without parole.
After about two hours they began to drive down a dirt road. Thomas began to bang his cuffs against the back of his metal chair. This got the attention of one of the police officers. Thomas gave him a slight grin and slightly moved his head to the left. "Hey Bill," the officer said standing up and holding on to the seats stumbling as the bus went over the bumpy road.
"What?"
"Nothing," he said and pressed his taser up against Bill's side. The officer shook uncontrollably and fell to the floor.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing!" the prison guard said standing up reaching for his gun, but he was too slow. The officer already had his gun out. He pulled the trigger twice and hit the guard twice in the chest. Alarmed the driver turned around, but as he did he was shot in the head. His body fell forward causing to bus to run off the road and crash into a near by tree.
The bus jolted forward as they crashed. The officer didn't hesitate; he made his way over to Thomas and quickly unchained him. He opened the back door of the bus allowing them to jump out. As soon as they did the front of the bus caught on fire. They ran across the road and into the woods.
"It's three o'clock now, if we keep a good pace we will make it to the shopping mall that's just across these woods in two hours. There we can get knew clothes and anything else you need," the officer said.
"Good lets get going," Thomas said leading the way.
"So what's in it for me?"
"What?"
"You told me if I help you I get rewarded, so what is it?"
"Did you have something in mind?"
"Well you know I'm some what in debt so I hoping there would be some money in this."
"Oh I don't know, I might have something better in mind."
"Like what?"
"You'll see."
Two and a half hours later:
"There it is," the officer said as hid behind some trees and looked out into a parking lot.
"Alight you stay here and stay hidden; I'm going to go in and us both some new clothes.
"Get some hair dye for the both of us and you brought the colored contacts right," Thomas asked.
"Yeah I did, be back soon."
Half an hour later he returned with a pair of jeans, boots, plaid shirts, Blond hair dye. "We can change back in the woods," Thomas said leading the way. "We can stop by a motel later and dye our hair there."
After they changed they buried Thomas's orange jumpsuit. "Hey John thanks for getting me out of there, and agreeing to accompany me on my 'journey'," Thomas said.
"Hey I'd do anything to help my big brother out."
11:00pm D.C:
"Emily…" a voice whispered from behind. Emily was in a dark room all by her herself. "Emily…" she heard the voice again and turned around to see were it was coming from. "Emily I've missed you," then she realized whose voice it was.
"Thomas I know that's you," she said trying to stay strong.
"Emily…."
"Leave me alone!" she yelled and fell to the floor. Then she heard JJ scream but she couldn't see her. "JJ!"
"Heh heh heh," he laughed. "There's nothing you can do Emily, she's gone."
Emily's eyes shot open and she sat up. She was shaking as she tried to stand up and walk into the bathroom. She turned the light on and looked into the mirror, and splashed some water on her face. After drying her face she made her way back into her room and just sat on the bed and held her head in her hands. Every time she closed her eyes all she saw was his face. She wiped the tears from her eyes before they had a chance to fall. She knew she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, so she changed into some yoga pants, a tank, and a light jacket. Walking down stairs she grabbed her keys and headed out.
30 minutes later Emily pulled up to a small white house in a small neighborhood. Emily parked on the street and walked up the driveway and onto the sidewalk. The porch light was turned off which meant they were probably asleep but she knocked anyway. A few seconds later a man in a t-shirt and gym shorts answered the door.
"Emily?"
"Hey Will, I know it's late but I hoping I could talk to JJ.
"Uh yeah come on in, I'll go get her."
"Oh I hope I didn't wake you guys up."
"No its ok were still up," he said a walked up the stairs.
A couple minutes later JJ quietly walked down the stairs to see Emily on the couch. She looked as if she was in a trance as the stared at the wall. Her eyes looked like they wee full of fear and sadness. "Em, are you ok?"
Emily snapped out of her trance and looked up at JJ. "Um… yeah I'm fine," Emily lied.
"Emily, don't lie to me. If you were fine you wouldn't be at my house at 11:45."
She stood there with her hands in her coat pockets and just looked at JJ. Tears started to fill her eyes. She didn't care if JJ saw her cry so she blinked and let them go.
"Em, come here," JJ said with open arms. Emily walked towards her friend and wrapped her arms around her. "He won't leave me alone," she cried.
JJ sat them both down on the couch. She put her hands on Emily's shoulders and pushed her forward. "What happened," JJ asked.
She wiped the tears from her cheeks. "Sorry I hate crying in front of people."
"No it's ok."
"I had gone to bed earlier tonight because I hadn't been sleeping very well lately. I woke up at 11:00 because I had a dream."
"What was the dream about?"
"I was in a dark room and he kept on calling my name, but I couldn't see him and then you screamed. He said that you were dead, and I freaked out because I couldn't find you. I'm sorry I came over so late it's just that when I was in Paris I had no one to talk to. I would wake up every night afraid that Doyle had connected the dots and was coming after me again. But because I have everyone here this time and I have you to relate too… I'm sorry I'll go," she said wiping tears from her eyes.
"Em, wait!" JJ said grabbing her arm as she was standing up. "Stay… we need to talk, and I'm glad you came over." Emily looked at her with sad eyes and sat down.
"Emily you know that we're both not ok, and it will be a long time before we are. Remember on the jet, on the way home?"
Emily nodded.
"And remember how we told each other that we were ok and that our friendship was going to stay the same? Well its not and you know it."
Emily looked down at her hands that rested in her lap.
"Emily every time I look at you a wave of guilt washes over me. I still feel terrible about leaving you there alone with him that night that I escaped. No matter what you tell me or what the team tells me or what my therapist tells me, that feeling will never go away."
"JJ I sort-a kind-a feel the same way. When I was telling you to go you don't know how much I wanted you to stay. I didn't want to be alone with him but I realized that that would be selfish, and that you had to get away and get help. It was my fault that you were taken in the first place. He was interested in me not you, and if I hadn't had the freak out then we could have gone to breakfast with the guys or you could have and left me there so it would have only been me who had been kidnapped."
"Emily don't blame yourself it's not your fault, it's his. He could have left me there tied up in the motel room but no he decided to take me as well. We are going to get through this together no matter what it takes."
"Do some things that didn't bother you before bother you now?"
"Occasionally knives but that's normal. Why, does something bother you?"
"It used to be where I couldn't even go near or in my closet without having a panic attack. I would shake and sometimes break down. Now I can open it and grab something but if I'm in there for too long then I panic and think that someone's going to come up from behind and push me in and I won't be able to get out."
JJ leaned over and hugged her. "I promise you no one is going to put you in a closet like that again."
Emily pulled away. "Thank you for letting me talk to you."
"Of course, I know you'd do the same thing for me."
"I better go; I'll see you at work tomorrow."
"Bye," she said as Emily walked out. "Em try to get some sleep," JJ called out after her.
"I'll try," she replied.
6:00am 'The Blue Star Motel':
"So how do I look," Thomas asked John as he came out of the bathroom with blond hair and blue eyes.
"You look good, it's believable."
"You don't look to bad yourself. If you didn't know me very well would you recognize me?"
"Probably not, you look like a completely different person. Where are we headed to?"
"D.C."
"D.C? That's all the way across the country."
"Yes and that reminds me I'm going to need you to get us a car, it's too risky to fly or take a train."
"Ok I'll have one by tonight."
"We leave at midnight."
