Relocating

***

I sat back, trying to catch my breath as Dorsey teased at my ropes. The car was flying down the highway. We were free! I sucked in the wonderful air of a freed person, feeling my lungs lighten with discarded confinement at every breath. Dorsey started giggling and then was laughing so hard she collapsed in my lap.

"I can't whistle!" she gasped. "I knew it was you, that song? But I couldn't, I can't…" her laughter obliterated her words.

"That guard was giving you the funniest looks!" Henry grinned, sending Dorsey off anew. I smiled ruefully and pulled her hands closer to start work on her ropes while she was incapacitated.

"And what was that with the torch?" Henry groaned, "You didn't think he'd just believe you had a gun, did you?" Dorsey convulsed helplessly. Her ropes were easing through their knots. Soon she could pull free off them and I rubbed at her wrists. I noticed Alex was very quiet.

"Alex?" I asked, "you want to give me your wrists for a second?" He twisted around and rested his wrists between the two front seats. I caught sight of his face.

"Alex!" I gasped, horrified. It was deformed by swellings and bruises. Dorsey quietened down.

"Alex didn't take too kindly to captivity," Henry explained, "Had some fool idea if he was persistent enough they'd let him go."

"He can't speak," Dorsey said softly, "I think there's something wrong with his jaw."

"We have got to get him to a doctor," I said, rummaging around looking for the phone, but the car had been thoroughly stripped. "All our stuff is gone!" I groaned in frustration, "Just drive to the Healing Centre."

"Flame, that's way too risky!" Dorsey said and Alex grunted, shaking his head.

"Our good doctor makes house calls, remember?" Henry said.

"Well call him from the hotel phone then," Dorsey said, "you can't go into a hospital looking like that, they'll never let you leave!"

I traced the bruises round my mouth.

"Fine," I said.

***

When we pulled up outside a hotel I was driving an apparently empty car. It was late and the night receptionist was tired.

"I'm very sorry to bother you so late," I said, hand covering my mouth, "But I wonder if you might have a room? I think I might be coming down with the flu and I just don't think it would be safe to drive any further tonight." I coughed a little for added effect. We were in their last empty room in no time. I was on the phone to the hospital before our door was shut.

"Can you do me a favour?" I asked without introductions as soon I was put through. "I need a doctor's visit."

"Uh, yes… I'm off in an hour and a half," Falling Smoke said. The background sounded busy, lots of people talking.

"An hour and a half?" I whirled and looked at Dorsey, stricken: Alex would be in pain for too long. But Alex touched my arm and nodded.

"Ok fine," I gave him the address of the hotel.

"Have you got your No Pain?" Falling Smoke asked before I could hang up.

"Uh, no," I replied, grimacing.

"Can I ask why?"

"Uh, not really," I replied testily, "We don't have anything."

"Oh, that's ok then. So long as you're not running a blackmarket No Pain smuggling operation, I can rest easy," he said. The background noise quietened considerably. I cringed.

"You've got an audience?" I whispered.

"Don't worry, they're used to my warped sense of humour," he replied easily, and sure enough the back ground noise was back to previous levels.

"See you soon," he said, and hung up.

"Guys, we've got a problem," Henry said softly, face serious, finger on his lips. We gathered closer. Dorsey turned the screen on to a television channel.

"The adjoining room has people in it," Henry whispered, "and the bathroom is shared."

"We can't stay here," Dorsey said, aghast, "we'll have to change rooms."

"We can't," I said, feeling my stomach falling, "this was the last one." We looked around each other's tense and exhausted faces.

"We'll have to go to the valley camp," I said finally. "It's closest, there's no humans there, there won't be any snow… You guys take the car and set up camp, I'll stay here and bring Falling Smoke."

"What camp?" Henry said.

"Ok," I said, thinking furiously, "Ok, we need a camp."

"No we don't," said Dorsey, handing me the phone "Call him back and give him the directions. Just meet him there in the car. He doesn't need to know whether we do or don't have a camp." I paced, listening to the ringing tone.

"You guys will stay low though, right? He's doesn't need to know about everybody," I said. Dorsey and Henry rolled their eyes at each other.

"We're not as thick as some," Dorsey said. Alex didn't even react. That was a bad sign.

Falling Smoke had already gone into surgery, so I left the directions with his secretary.

An hour later, his car was pulling into the campsite, his headlights arcing round and crossing mine.

"We meet again," he said, then he saw my bruises.

"No, that's not the problem," I said, grabbing his hands from my face and pulling him round to the back of the car where Alex was lying in the rear section.

"How did this happen?" he asked quietly, examining his face.

"Disagreement?" I ventured, chewing my lip. Falling Smoke immediately gave Alex a dose of No Pain. I felt myself relaxing as the tension eased out of Alex's body.

"I need to scan his jaw," Falling Smoke said. Alex lifted his shirt, exposing deep purple bruising on his side. Falling Smoke's face tensed. "I'll have to take him in."

"Ok," I replied. Dorsey came barreling out of the bushes.

"No, not ok!" she said.

"Dorsey!"

"No, Flame!" she said between clenched teeth.

"You're supposed to keep hidden! Why can't you keep quiet for a second!" I said, exasperated.

"Because you can't be trusted alone with him," she said, gesturing at Falling Smoke.

I dragged her a few footsteps away and lowered my voice.

"You can not take him into the city," Dorsey hissed.

"He needs proper medical attention," I hissed back.

"He has proper medical attention," she replied.

"I can pretend I've just caught him, he fell down some rocks or something…"

"Yeah, on his face?"

"We can make it looked like he escaped. Or died. We can make it work," I insisted.

"And what, you'd just leave us out here, no gun, no food, hell we don't even have a tent!" Dorsey said.

"I promise I'll go get some more gear as soon as the shops open," I said, as inside I screamed for sleep.

"You could stay at my place," Falling Smoke offered neutrally.

"Would you keep out of this?" Dorsey snapped. Henry popped out the bushes.

"We are not going to his place," he said firmly.

"Look at him, guys, he's been through hell-" I started.

"No you look at him, Flame; he's not in any pain, he'd quite happily sleep in the car, and he's safe," Dorsey said. I bit my lip unconsciously. There was a pop, and a grunt from Alex.

"What did you do?" Dorsey demanded.

"His jaw was dislocated, I popped it back in. It's the sort of thing that shouldn't wait," Falling Smoke said. Alex was rubbing his jaw, opening and closing his mouth. He smiled tentatively at us.

"That's better," he whispered.

Dorsey and I both went to hug him at once, but Falling Smoke held us back.

"Please don't squeeze the patient," he remonstrated.

"Alex, how do you feel?" Dorsey asked.

"Ok," he whispered, "considering."

"Falling Smoke wants to take you into the hospital," Dorsey continued. Alex shook his head.

"No," he said, "I'll be alright." I opened my mouth to argue. But combined glares from Dorsey and Henry made me shut it. I couldn't make Alex go against his will. And certainly not against everyone's will. And he wasn't in pain… I looked at him, chewing my lip.

"Alright, let's get some sleep then," Henry said. We made Alex comfortable in the car, and found ourselves places on the ground. Falling Smoke settled down beside me, sitting with his arms around his knees.

"You're staying?" I said, yawning. He nodded.

"Until I can get a scan done, I want to keep an eye on him," he said. I smiled, closing my eyes.

"You really came out here, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, alone, to a person you've met about 3 times that you know associates with humans?" I said, shaking my head, "That's pretty amazing."

"I'm a pretty amazing kinda guy."

"We should take it turns keeping watch," Henry said. We all agreed, then were asleep in seconds.

***

The noise of a car engine and tires crunching gravel roused me.

"It's just me," Falling Smoke called softly, getting of the car and opening the boot.

I blinked in the strong sunlight, trying to get my bearings. The small-leafed bushes all but surrounded us, shaded us from prying eyes, the sky floated bright and endless above. Safe, I thought. Free.

"Made a little trip into town," Falling Smoke went on. He pulled out shopping bags, packs, and blankets out of the boot and threw them over to us.

"Food!" Dorsey said. We grinned at each other and started ripping open packaging.

"Some great bloody guards we'd make," Henry grumbled, grabbing some food, "Didn't even hear you leave."

Falling Smoke tossed me a gun. I caught it, but it was strangely light.

"Where did you get that?" Dorsey asked in amazement. I laughed.

"It's not real!" I said, grinning at Falling Smoke.

"Sure looks real," Henry said, coming over to look at it closer.

"It's a kid's toy," I said, my eyes glowing, "I didn't even think they made these anymore."

"They don't," Falling Smoke said, "It's an antique."

Falling Smoke took some water over to Alex in the car.

"No chips for me?" Alex whispered, sitting up and wincing.

"Not while your belly looks like that," Falling smoke said grimly. Alex pulled up his top; the purple colour had spread along one side. I looked at Dorsey in shock.

"What does that mean?" Henry asked.

"He might be bleeding internally," Falling Smoke said.

"That's serious isn't it?" Henry said. Falling Smoke shrugged.

"It doesn't have to be," Falling Smoke replied, "But sometimes, yeah."

"Ok, now you guys have got to let us take him in," I said firmly, "We can do this. You'll have the gun-" I couldn't hold in a giggle.

"Two guns actually," Henry said, retrieving the guard's shot gun from under a car seat.

"You'll never get in and out without someone noticing," Dorsey said, but her eyes were uncertain, staring at Alex's stomach.

"I can get us in and out," Falling Smoke said. There was a skeptical silence from the others.

"You don't need to see his identification." Falling Smoke intoned, waving his hand mystically.

"We don't need to see his identification," I replied dreamily.

"These aren't the humans you're looking for," he went on.

"These aren't the humans we're looking for," I continued.

"Would you guys quit it!" Dorsey said through clenched teeth.

"The force is strong within you," Falling Smoke whispered to me.

"This is serious! It's not like you can just wheel him in like a Soul patient-" Dorsey said.

"Maybe we can," Henry mused.

"What?" Dorsey said incredulously.

"Flame can pull that trick she did when she got Alex out of Seeker Headquarters." Henry said. Falling Smoke looked at me questioningly.

"I put him on a gurney and wheeled him out like a dead body," I said self consciously.

"You 'knocked me out' with breath freshener first," Alex said. I grinned despite myself. It had been so crazily easy. But I also never wanted to have to try it again.

"You can't just go wheel a 'dead body' round a hospital," Dorsey said, "Why would you be scanning a dead body? Besides, they just need one look at his eyes and he's gone!"

"So we make sure he can't open his eyes," Falling Smoke said, "I believe I have something stronger than breath freshener."

"You'd anaesthetize him?" Dorsey asked.

"That could work," Henry said. Alex was nodding. Dorsey gave up. She took my hands in hers.

"Promise me you'll bring him back," she asked me.

"Dorsey," I said, "do you even have to ask?"