Johnny Blaze rode his motorcycle, Grace, all the way past the Texas border at a high speed. Thoughts of Roxanne and all that he had just left behind circled his mind like an angry swarm of bees. How long would it be before he saw her again? He could almost feel the touch of her soft lips on his at that very moment, and it was then that he began to drive himself crazy. He pulled Grace over at a gas station and called Roxanne's cell phone from his.

It rang a few times, and she finally answered.

"Johnny?"

"I miss you," he said simply

"I miss you, too, Johnny. I long for the day that we can be together again," she said.

Johnny sighed. "You're driving me crazy."

Roxanne laughed and said, "You do realize that you left about an hour ago, right?"

Johnny furrowed his brow and replied, "And so the heartache starts."

"You know, you could have taken me with you," she said. She paused and then said, into the phone, "I feel sick."

Johnny sighed and said, "I'm sorry, but if you honestly thought that I was going to ask you to come, you don't know the real me. I would never put you in any kind of danger, intentionally at least. I don't know where the road is taking me, and if I get into some kind of trouble, I don't want you involved. If anyone dies, it's going to be me."

Roxanne swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to talk without making the sadness in her voice evident to her lover. "Johnny, don't talk like that! That won't happen until we're old and gray and living in a huge house with three kids that have kids of their own."

Johnny laughed for a moment, but then said, "But, what if Mephistopholes were to come back, or send a new Rider after my tail? Who knows what would happen to me? I don't want to put you in any kind of danger. Plus, I would have to put you out of your career, and you've got a really good one at that."

Roxanne couldn't hold it back any longer. Her voice cracked repeatedly as she spoke. "Johnny, you are the most caring person I've ever known... I love you."

Johnny winced and said, "Roxy, please... Don't cry..."

"Johnny, do you really expect me to not cry?" she yelped.

"Well, no... I guess not," he realized. There was a brief silence before he spoke up again. "I love you, Roxanne."

Her voice gave way even more and she said, "I love you too, Johnny."

"I'm gonna go and try to get to where I'm going now... Okay?" he said.

Roxanne calmed herself for a short while, long enough to reply, "Okay... Call me when you're there, so I know that you're safe. Where are you going, anyway?"

"Salt Lake City," he replied. "I'm going to start looking for a job and an apartment, and maybe go out and find some new friends."

"Well, make sure none of them are girls," Roxanne replied, grinning.

"Roxy, you know me. I won't ever stop thinking about you unless we're together. I love you."

"I love you too." She clicked the 'off' button on her cell phone and stared at it, wishing she was still wrapped in his embrace with her lips pressed to his under their tree. She felt even sicker now, and she clutched her stomach and ran to her bathroom. She leaned over the toilet and prepared to throw up, but after waiting a few minutes, she walked out into her living room and turned the television on. A picture of her came on the screen; a re-run of the morning news. She watched it and noticed that her stomach looked a bit bigger than usual. She narrowed her eyes in confusion and stood up to look in the mirror. "God, I'm so fat," she said out loud. "What the hell happened to me?"