Greetings, dear readers. I hope everyone has had a good Easter.

Well, here is my next installment in Owen and Abby's ongoing story.

I apologize if this story is both not as dramatic or romantic as previous ones. I didn't plan it that way, but it's just how the nature of the plot turned out. This is them dealing with a family tragedy and is about how they get through it together.

FYI, Econo-Travel was the forerunner of Econo Lodge. The name wasn't changed to its present incarnation until 1989, in case anyone was wondering if I made up the name of the motel Grandpa Oscar stays at.

Also, I do hope that the relative shortness of the chapters aren't putting anyone off who is used to my longer style. I just found that writing shorter chapters made it easier to write and get a chapter posted.

I won't repeat my usual plea for reviews...Oh wait, I just did. LOL

And awayyyy we go. :-)

Owen opened his eyes. As always, since his induction into the ranks of the undead, the world around him came into sharp focus as soon as he awoke. He took in his surroundings. He was in the trunk, curled up, with Abby lying interconnected with him in the confined space. He looked at her, and saw her blue eyes were also open.

"Hey" She said softly, after giving him a quick kiss.

"Hey" He replied.

"It's dark out?" Abby asked. She figured it had to be, as the dead sleep of the vampire generally only ended with the instinctive knowledge that the sun was now gone again.

Owen twisted his arm in the small area and looked at his wristwatch. It confirmed that it was past time for last of day's light to have fled the sky. "Yeah, it's dark." He said simply.

Abby sighed to herself. Owen was holding it together all too well, she thought.

"I guess we're here. I don't feel like we're moving." Abby said.

"Yeah" Owen replied. "I wonder where we are."

"Huh?"

"I mean, I wonder if we're close to where I lived before."

"There's only one way to find out."

"Yeah…You're right." Owen said as he undid the internal lock and pushed the trunk's lid up a crack. He looked through the opening and saw that they appeared to be in the parking lot of a motel. Owen allowed his enhanced senses to cast about. He couldn't hear or smell any strangers close by. It was safe for him and Abby to get out without anyone seeing them. He pushed the lid all the way up and stood in the trunk, giving Abby his hand to pull herself up. (She didn't need it, but Owen liked doing small, chivalrous things like that for her.)

In a blur of speed, Abby was out of the trunk and standing beside Oscar's parked pick-up truck. In a matching burst of vampire speed, Owen had shut the trunk's lid again and was standing beside Abby on the gravel. He reached into the flatbed and grabbed his sneakers that he'd left there before dawn to try and preserve space. (The trunk was definitely a tight fit. The only things that made it feasible for them was the fact that he and Abby went instantly to sleep as the sun rose and that they didn't move when they slept.) Abby, always, was in her bare feet.

"Where's Grandpa?" Abby asked, looking at the line of motel rooms that faced out onto the parking lot. Owen stood up from lacing his sneakers and turned his head slowly. He stopped and pointed to a door almost directly in line with where the truck was parked.

"There. I can pick up his scent. He's in that room." Owen said with assurance.

"Bravo" Abby commented with a small smile at her mate. She had known full well which room Oscar was in, but she wanted to see how Owen's ability to perceive things with his new senses was progressing. She was impressed with the progress he was making. He had begun to let go of the limitations he had once thought would constrain him and was finding that his new abilities were exceeding anything he had thought they could be.

The two vampires walked up to the heavy motel door and knocked. Within a few seconds, they heard the lock being undone and the door opened to reveal Oscar.

"Hi there" He said in a tired voice. "I was waiting for you two to get up, before I went to get something to eat."

"How long ago did we get here?" Owen asked.

"About forty-five minutes. I made good time all the way down. I had time to take a shower before you knocked." Oscar said stepping back from the door to allow his grandchildren access. Owen and Abby just stood there though, looking at him expectantly. He caught their look.

"What's…? Oh, sorry…I honestly forgot." Oscar said with embarrassment. "Owen, Abby…You can both come in." He'd become so used to them entering the ranch house freely, as they'd both long been invited and it was their home, combined with his fatigue from over fifteen hours of driving, that he'd forgotten about the need to have them be invited before they could cross the threshold into his room.

The two vampires stepped across the threshold and shut the door behind them.

Abby took in the room. It wasn't anything special. It was a cheap –but apparently very clean- motel room. She'd stayed in far more than her share of them during her nomadic years. She looked over into the bathroom and saw that there was a bathtub, rather than a shower stall, so she and Owen could sleep in there the following morning rather than the trunk.

"Where do we go from here?" Owen asked. His face was alarmingly impassive and his voice was tight. His grandfather sat down on one of the room's two chairs consulted a notepad.

"I made a few calls after I took a shower. Tomorrow, I'll go see Johnny and fill out the paperwork. I'll also…I'll also claim your parents." Oscar said; his efforts to stay in control evident in his voice. "They'll be sent home for the funeral. Then I'll go over to where your parents were living and I'll pack up what I can. The rest of their things will have to be shipped back home, or I guess I'll just find someone here to take them."

"That's tomorrow." Owen observed. "What can we do tonight?" He was obviously anxious to keep busy.

"There's not much we can do tonight. Everything is closed now."

"Maybe Abby and I could…We could go to their place and start packing stuff up."

Before Oscar could give his opinion on that, Abby spoke. "I don't think we can. It's a home. We can't enter it." She said simply, deliberately not mentioning that there was no longer anyone to invite them in. In truth, she wasn't sure if the rule for an invitation applied now that the people whose home it was were dead. Johnny was still alive, of course, but he couldn't issue an invitation. However, even if they could enter freely, Abby knew that two kids rummaging around in the middle of the night would attract attention. And, if anyone saw them and saw Owen…There was a very good chance he might be recognized. Not nearly enough time had passed for anyone to expect Owen to look differently. Despite the year of growth and filling out, Owen would still be instantly recognized as Samantha Lindquist's son, the missing boy from the pool massacre. And Abby knew that Owen being seen and recognized would be a sure way to make this situation even worse. (And even if that risk wasn't present, she wasn't sure if Owen packing up his parent's belongings was something that would improve his emotional state.)

Her eyes met Oscar's and a sort of communication passed between them. Her surrogate grandfather rubbed his eyes and reached into his pocket, pulling out some change.

"Owen, can you do me a favour? I'm dying of thirst from the drive. Can you head on over to the vending machine outside and get me a couple of cans of Coke?"

"Sure Grandpa." Owen said absently as he took the change and went out into the darkness. As soon as he left, Oscar gestured for Abby to come close to him. He whispered to her urgently.

"This was a mistake, I think. There's really nothing you two can do here. You can't do anything to help during the daytime and it would look too strange to have you around anyone at night."

"I was thinking the same thing." Abby whispered back. "We'll sleep in the bathtub today. Tomorrow evening, Owen and I will fly back home."

"What about the trunk? Can you make it back in one night?"

"We might. But even if we can't, there are ways to find shelter during the day. I know how to find places. You wouldn't have to worry about that."

"I'm sorry. I really should have thought of this yesterday."

"Don't be sorry. It's all happened so suddenly…" Abby's whisper was caught off by the sound of Owen returning. He pushed the room door open and entered, carrying two red cans of Coca-Cola in one hand and was carrying the trunk in the other.

"Thanks" Oscar said as he took one can and opened it. He glanced down at Abby, who took the hint. She looked over at Owen who was putting the trunk against the wall where it would be out of the way.

"Owen, Grandpa and I were thinking…" Abby started to say, before Owen interjected.

"I heard. You think we should go home tomorrow night."

"Yes. Do you mind that?" Abby asked as Owen sighed wearily.

"I guess not. I wanted…I guess I wanted to see where they were living. What it was like for them. But, you're right. We couldn't enter, so there's not much we could do to help. I guess we could do more at home, by getting things ready there." Owen said quietly. His restrained voice reminded Abby of how he sounded the night they first met.

"I'm sorry Owen. I should've thought of this before." Oscar said. "I do think it would be more of a help if you went back and got stuff ready at home."

"Ok" Owen sighed again. "What're you going to do now?"

"I'm going to go over to the restaurant and get dinner. Then I need to get some sleep. It was a really long drive. Do you two want to use the bathtub in the morning to sleep in? I'll be heading out then to start the arrangements here."

"Yes" Abby replied. "There's no window in the bathroom. It'll be good and dark with the door closed."

"That's fine. Do you two want to watch the television or something while I go to dinner?" Oscar asked. Before Abby could speak up, Owen answered.

"Actually…I want to go look around. I...I'm not going to ever come back here. I need to do some things." He said with a soft intensity.

Oscar nodded in understanding. He knew from what Owen had told him of what his life was like here, that there were many wounds that still ached. He wondered if Owen coming along would help or set back those wounds healing. Owen's grandfather silently wondered again at his daughter's mindset in those times. Had she not realized just how much pain her son was in? Had she been so ensnared by her own demons that she didn't realize how badly neglected Owen had been? More than once since Owen had re-entered his life, Oscar had thought that if he'd known how bad things were in Los Alamos, he might have tried to obtain custody of his grandson. Of course, he realized he likely would have had little chance of prevailing legally. (One of his platoon mates from the war was now a lawyer specializing in family law. During their trip to Normandy, Oscar had asked the man –hypothetically- about such a scenario. His friend had told him that if he had, the odds of him winning would not have been good.) And of course, Oscar realized, if he had somehow gotten Owen away from Los Alamos then, he would have not met Abby. Oscar had long realized that no matter what bad things had happened to Owen during those years of separation, his meeting Abby was –to Owen- what made it all up to him. It was useless, really, to go crazy pondering 'what ifs' and speculating on other fates. (Oscar realized if anyone had just cause to do so, it was Abby; but she'd seemingly accepted the reality of her life. Of course, having someone to share time with likely helped her do so now.) This was the hand they'd all been dealt. The only thing to do was play it out as best they could.

"Ok son…You and Abby go do that. I'll go to dinner. They gave me a spare key so you two take it, in case I'm in bed when you get back."

"Thanks Grandpa. We'll be back later." Owen said, as he and Abby exited the room into the darkened parking lot. The two vampires ducked into the shadows behind the building, and seconds later a pair of shadowy figures lifted off into the night sky of Los Alamos.

Oscar was locking the door to his room as he caught a glimpse of them taking off. In all honesty, some of the things the two of them were capable of was still a hard concept for him to grasp. He hoped Owen was handling all of this as best he could. He suspected his grandson was taking after him in being stoic in the face of tragedy. Oscar rather wished that wasn't so. He was the product of a time when people –men especially- were expected to stay in control. Owen was not. At least, he thought. Owen had Abby with him. He knew that it would be Abby's presence that would see his grandson through this. Oscar checked the lock on the door, and began to walk over to the diner.

In another part of Los Alamos, in an upscale hotel room, a dark haired man in his early forties spoke into the telephone.

"Yes, the Econo-Travel out by the highway coming into town. I'll find it." The man said as he wrote the name and address on a scratch pad. "Thank you…I'll be in touch." The man hung up the phone and stood up. He pulled on a leather jacket and exited his room. As he walked to the elevator, he planned on asking the concierge for the directions that would take him to the motel where Oscar Alfredson was staying at. He figured that his appearance would be a surprise, the man thought as the elevator doors opened and he stepped in.