Hello! This is late so, sorry about that. We're down to about 5 more chapters of this =)

Chapter Fourteen

He didn't go to sleep as fast as she did, likely because he had slept so long in the van. That and he couldn't seem to shut off his thoughts. For once in his life, he didn't mind though. She was close, of course, one arm thrown over his midsection, one leg hooked through his like she was afraid that he might try to escape in the middle of the night. No damn chance of that, though. He tried to figure it out, tried to rationalize the impact that one girl could have on him but he just couldn't. Being with her like this should have had him ready to bolt but it didn't. He was absently running his fingers over her back, like it was the most natural thing in the world to do but it wasn't. Not at all. Not for him.

He didn't know how he was going to leave her once this trip was over. The thought of actually staying in a place like LA had his heart trip hammering. The concrete, the crowds, it was so far from his comfort zone. But then again, so was she. He had never met anyone like her, so hell bent on opening him up and forcing himself to see in him what she saw in him. Forcing him to be okay with who he was, where he was. Forcing him to let her in.

Sometimes he felt as though he hated himself. There just hadn't ever seemed to be much there to like about himself because it seemed like he'd always had to try so much harder than anyone else just to keep people from hating him. It was hard going your whole life and simply never feeling good enough. Knowing that there was something wrong with you but not understanding enough about it to actually be able to fix it. So, he shot people down and he shut them out without even trying anymore. It was a lonely place, sure, but at least it was safe. At least he knew that if he kept the door locked, he didn't have to try. Didn't have to feel so let down by himself and by the world.

He turned his head, studying her face for a few long moments. Her brows came together in a frown and then she shifted, turning her back to him. She reached behind her, like she was seeking him out in her sleep until she finally found his hand and tugged lightly. He rolled, letting her pull his arm around her until he was holding on tight and then she sighed, a contented sound.

He smiled and shook his head. It was almost like he had spent his entire life clinging to a ledge, scrambling, slipping, fighting to keep from falling and somehow she had appeared at the top out of nowhere, dragged him onto solid ground and now he was finally standing up. He would never tell her this but in a way, and in such a short time, somehow she had saved him from falling. And now he couldn't bear the thought of losing her and that was a whole new kind of fear. When a guy never had anything good, he knew nothing about the fear of losing it. But he was scared now. He liked who he was becoming. He liked the person that she saw in him and he wanted to continue to strive to be that person. He was better with her. He was different and he was capable and he was just... he was just a normal guy. Without her, he had nightmares, he was too filled with self doubt to even really talk to other people, he was always on the defensive. And he knew he couldn't just depend on her to make all of that go away, but she could be the reason that he finally started working on himself.

He knew that the way he felt about her, and about this... thing that they shared, he would suffer the city. He wouldn't leave her there.

~H~

She woke up before he did, even though that second time around took him a lot longer and she was the one that did all the work. By the time she got out of the shower he was still sound asleep. She took his wallet and quickly grabbed some cash and her camera, scribbled a note about going to get them some breakfast and then left out quietly.

She ran into the girl from the office when she made it to the parking lot. The girl smiled but Carol just breezed past her with a scowl on her face.

"Where's your friend?" The girl asked.

Carol glanced up before opening the van door. "Asleep. He had kind of a long night. Thanks for the attitude yesterday by the way. You did me a huge favor."

The girl's dark eyes grew hard but she smiled. "I didn't know you needed the help."

Carol smiled back. "Trust me, sweetheart, I didn't. Two rooms was my idea but you kind of forced his hand. Turned out to be a hell of a night." She got in and slammed the door shut, not giving the girl a chance to say anything else. She drove until she found one of those Super Centers that sold just about everything.

She pulled the camera onto her lap and went through the photos again, making slight adjustments to a lot of them. It was a strange thing, watching yourself have sex for the first time. But there was no way she was losing these. Not only did she want them because she needed them, needed to have them for after they parted ways, but they were too good to trash. There was just too much that would go wasted if she didn't do this. So she shouldered the camera bag and went straight to the photo center. She tried to stand directly in front of the screen as the photos came up. A lot of them were just fun candid shots but others, the ones from last night, those were racy, even with the new shading. And there were a lot of them. The camera had been set to take a photo every twenty seconds. That was three photos a minute for over sixty minutes. But it was worth every penny they ended up costing her.

By the time she stopped and picked up breakfast she had been gone for nearly two hours. She was planning on lying about where she had been. He was adamant that she delete the pictures. She had bought a binder with clear plastic folders to store the pictures in. When she finally made it back he wasn't in bed but the bathroom door was cracked and steam was rolling out.

She hurriedly stuffed the binder into the bottom of her bag. She laid out their breakfast on the small table next to the window and started eating without him. When he came out she worried for a second that there would be a replay of the morning before, when they had woken up feeling like idiots for their actions. When his eyes met hers and then turned to the food she realized that that wasn't the case at all.

"Fuck yeah. I'm starvin'," he said as he pulled out the chair and sat down across from her. "What took you so long?"

She shrugged. "I drove around for a little while."

He nodded, like taking his van and his money was okay by him. "You wanna stay another night or you wanna hit the road?"

"Maybe we should hit the road. Find another cheap motel. I ran into the stupid girl down there and she gets on my nerves."

He shook his head. "She woke me up."

Carol's eyes narrowed to slits and when he glanced at her he did a double take. "I told her that you were asleep. Why the hell would she..." her eyes narrowed.

His brows shot up and he took a drink of his coffee, watching her carefully. "You're jealous." He sounded completely amazed by the fact.

"Why was she here?" She asked, feeling her temper rise. It was odd because she wasn't even aware she had a temper at all until that very moment."

"She banged on the door till I got up and then she gave me some towels."

"Did she say anything?"

"She asked if I needed anything else."

"But when she did was like it last night or was she seriously trying to be helpful?"

He shrugged. "Fuck if I know. I just told her no and shut the door. That was it."

She eyed him for a few long moments and then tried to shake the uncharacteristic feeling. "Well, she's a bitch."

He nodded, chewing his food and trying to repress a smile. "I agree."

"So, where should we go?" She asked, needing to change the subject.

"California," he deadpanned.

"But I thought..." her words hung in the air. He wanted to hurry up and get her to California. This wasn't a good sign. Not a good sign at all.

"I know but I was thinkin' this mornin'. It'd be stupid to wait and spend all that money on motels and bullshit. You need to be in California to do what you need to do. If we can put back most of that money, it'll be enough to get you started."

"And what are you going to do once we get there?" She asked hesitantly. She understood where he was coming from but she couldn't help but feel like she was on a runaway train heading straight for heartbreak.

He shrugged. "I can hang out for a while. Figure out a way to get some money to get back on the road."

"Or you could stay," she said quickly, regretting the words as soon as they left her mouth because she didn't want him to know how far gone she was over him. She still barely knew anything about him. Hell, his name may not even be Daryl at all for all she knew. But she knew she was lying to herself. It didn't matter how long they had known each other, she felt like she had known him all her life. She didn't understand it but that was how she felt.

He met her eyes, holding her gaze with an intense look. "Or I could stay," he said, sounding like he was trying to see how the words tasted in his mouth.

"Do you think you would want to?" She asked, keeping her voice even so as not to sound too eager. The last thing she wanted him to think was that she was some clingy psycho.

He looked down at the table. "How the hell do you know you would even want me to? Other than a couple of days of fun, you don't know anything about me. Not anything at all really. I might not be the kind of person you really want around. You ever think of that?"

She scowled. "No. I never thought of that because that wouldn't happen."

They finished their food in silence and when he did speak it had nothing to do with where he would be staying. "Where we heading to now?"

"Roswell New Mexico," she said without hesitating.

He chuckled. "Roswell New Mexico, huh? Why there?"

"Aliens."

"Aliens?" He asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Yes," she said, groaning inwardly and preparing to get made fun of.

He didn't look like he was about to mock her though. He just looked thoughtful, staring off as he leaned back in his chair. "I saw a Chupacabra while I was huntin' once."

Her eyes widened and she leaned into the table. "Seriously," she gasped. "What happened?"

He turned surprised eyes on her and the grin that broke out over his face had her grinning right back.