She nestled against him, pushing her nose into his neck. "I'm just glad you're safe, but what are we going to do with this baby? We should turn him... no, crap." she bit her bottom lip thinking hard. She paused, glancing at the road signs. "Where are we going?" she asked softly.
"We'll just have to keep him." He looked at her, "I'm headed for the boat. I've done it before to Hawaii so I know it'll make it there." He kept well within the speed limit now not wanting to attract any sort of attention and was glad his windows were tinted, "I don't want these men to find me or you." He looked at the kid in her arms and reached over mussing his hair, "Or this little guy." He noted they were almost to the harbor.
"Lucas, no." She said, looking out the passenger window like she was trapped. "I can't leave Trouble." it was the most upset she had sounded the entire night, through it all. She looked back at him, fighting to keep herself strong. "Lucas... Lucas, please..." she completely begged.
He blinked and looked at her, "Are you serious…" He felt annoyance creeping up and flexed his hands on the steering wheel, "You want to go back for your cat?" He closed his eyes so he could roll them without her seeing and made a sudden u turn and headed for their apartment building, "I can't believe I'm going back for a cat." He shook his head and sighed very heavily.
"I hand raised him, Lucas. He's been in my life for years. He's one of the most important things to me." She explained quietly, knowing she had annoyed him and feeling shame for it, but she couldn't leave her cat.
He sighed and held his tongue while he drove. Once they were there he stripped out of his shirt and suit jacket and looked at her, "I'll be right back, stay here." He went to his trunk and pulled out a fresh shirt and put it on before heading to the elevator trying to act normal. He was glad it was the middle of the night still as he stepped out into the hallway and towards their apartments. He eyed his open door and closed it carefully before using the key she had given him a while ago to get into her apartment, "Trouble? Come here you stupid cat." He muttered, he saw the feline and snatched him up quickly, "You're going for a long ride buddy and I'm pretty sure you're not going to like it." He carried the cat out and to the elevator, noting the look of annoyance on the cat's face, "Me too buster, me too." He approached the car and slide back in placing the cat on her lap, "Anything else?" He looked at her before pulling out.
Arleen wrapped an arm around her Trouble, kissing him right behind his ear and settling him down. He obviously was unhappy she was hurt, pushing his nose against her arm and making small meows at her. Edward was completely asleep against Arleen. She, however, was on her Blackberry, making a few calls to smooth out as much as she possibly could, and getting their stuff packed away. Hers by way of her parents, his by way of her cousins cleaning crew, who cleaned up many apartments in Los Angeles and Malibu. She promised she'd let her parents know where she was once she knew. She got out of her job and told them she was going on vacation, and told what few friends she had as well, to avoid going on the missing persons list and having someone desperately trying to find her, and managing to set up the process to make it legal for them to have Edward. Though during that phone call she had mentioned to whoever she was talking to that she knew it was easier when the couple seeking adoption was married, but that it just wasn't the case right now. She leaned into Lucas unconsciously during that call. Her mind moved as fast as his did, though she had every law and loophole memorized.
He quirked a brow at her comment about marriage and kept driving, noting how the idea nagged at him as he pulled into the harbor and turned the car off. He looked at her as they sat there for a moment, "Ready?" He felt nervous and vulnerable… something he hadn't felt before that he could remember that is.
"As ready as I can be." she admitted with a small sigh. She tried to juggle the child and the cat but as soon as she tried to shift the weight of Edward into just her left arm she hissed and tensed a little. She sighed. "You should take him." she whispered, obviously angry at herself. She called up a tow truck friend of hers, and got him to agree to claim he had found Donovan's car by the railroad tracks to throw them off their trail. She asked him if he needed help with anything after she got Trouble and Edward down in the cabin. She was trying to stall from stitching up her wound.
He nodded and took the kid, once they were on the boat; he got it ready to cast off and looked at her, "Can you bring up the first aid kit?" He looked at her as he began to back the boat out slowly and carefully, "We need to take care of that wound properly. Also some fishing line and there should be a sewing kit somewhere down there too." He didn't like the idea of sewing her up himself, but it had to be done…he hoped he could do it.
She gave him a very annoyed look, but gave in almost instantly, moving off to get what he told her to get. She freed her shoulder from her dress shirt and jacket for him, looking dejected but submissive, holding out the needle with the sharp edge between her fingers to ensure he wouldn't poke himself with it.
"Trust me, I don't want to do this, but it needs to be done." He located a lighter and began to handed it to her, "Keep the flame on the point while I clean the wound okay." He cleaned the wound carefully and then used some sort of a mouth pain reliever to try and numb the area around the wound a little, "Do you want a drink of some sort? I think I might have some vodka or rum." He asked her before he would start, anything to try to make this as easy as he could on her.
"That'll thin my blood. I'll just grit my teeth." she said, shaking her head at him as she kept the flame on the tip, and tried to keep her shoulder relaxed.
He nodded, "Alright then." He threaded the needle and took a deep breath and began, a part of him was disgusted by watching himself stitch the skin slowly, poking the needle in and pulling the line before repeating. He paused a moment, closed his eyes and then opened them and continued, "Almost done, just hang in there okay." One more and he was tying it up and putting a bandage over it carefully before handing her an ice pack for her head after twisting it to activate it, "Do you prefer Tylenol, Ibuprofen?"
She kept her head very well, swallowing hard a few times and looking up during most of it, one hand gripping at his knee while she kept the other arm as slack as possible. "Tylenol is more for fever... ibuprofen is for inflammation and would work better in this situation." she whispered. It was obvious she was in pain by the strained, tight voice replacing her normal calm and quiet one.
He nodded and handed her some ibuprofen and closed the kit up and sat back a little looking at her in the moonlight before going back to the wheel and getting ready to steer the boat towards the proper direction, "Why don't you go down and get some rest?" He was concerned about her and hoped that she'd be okay for a while.
She took the ibuprofen, knowing it wouldn't do too much for her pain, which was incredible. She fixed her shirt and walked over to him, kissing his neck and pushing her nose in the space behind his ear for just a moment before pulling away, going down into the cabin. However there'd be no rest for her as Edward was crying, hungry. She could tell by the tone of his cries. She appeared again, Edward crying against her wounded shoulder, sending sharp jolts of pain down her arm, but she just let him be. "Lucas, what do you have to eat on this boat?" she asked, hoping if he had anything she could mash it up.
He cringed momentarily at the sound of the kid crying and looked at her his face instantly becoming unreadable, "Um…hm." He thought a moment, "There might be some bananas down in the small kitchen, not sure if they're still good or not. Also there should be some tuna, milk, OJ and… not sure what else." He paused the boat for a moment and threw the anchor down and went to look, "Though I have no idea what is still good." He felt in a sense ashamed that he didn't keep the boat better stocked.
She laughed a little. "You have tuna on a boat?" she sobered though and followed after him, hoping the bananas were still good, and the milk, as she didn't trust tuna with the young child, and she knew Trouble would need to eat as well.
"Shush." He gave her a slight embarrassed look and poked around in the galley for a moment or two and produced a couple of bananas, "You're in luck. A few of them are still good." He sat them on the counter and gestured around, "Feel free to make yourself at home and use whatever." He headed for the door and went back up on the deck returning to driving the boat towards their destination.
She mashed up one, and managed to get Edward to eat. She found the tuna and put half of it on a plate for Trouble. She ate the rest a bit begrudgingly, knowing that she needed something in her stomach or else she risked the Motrin hurting her. She was settled on a couch, the baby against her chest, in her arms, her cat behind her knees, her suit jacket their only warmth but she didn't seem too bothered. She was asleep quickly, quicker than she imagined she would be, unaware she was as tired as she was.
He was feeling a little tired as well, but he knew he had to keep driving, he figured within two to three days if he kept the boat going all day and night they'd reach the Hawaiian islands. He managed to get himself some coffee at one point and checked on Arleen, smiling at the picture that was created on the small sofa before heading back up to keep steering as dawn began to slowly lighten the sky.
Arleen woke up in incredible pain, and with Edward crying. She had a bit of a hard time moving him around. She sacrificed her dress shirt sleeve to a makeshift diaper and got him settled down again before wandering up on deck and blinking at Lucas. "Have you been up this whole time?" she asked quietly, stealing his coffee to have a small sip. Her wounded arm was tucked against her and she tried to make it look natural but it was obvious she was keeping it held oddly.
He nodded slowly and eyed the way she was holding her arm, "Take some more pills please." He looked at her sternly and finished off his coffee, "Everything okay down there?"
"It's fine. I still have to wait 2 more hours." she whispered, reciting the small amount of medical knowledge she could remember from one of her long time friends.
He frowned a little, "Uh huh, well keep track then." He blinked as his stomach growled loudly and then ignored it, "I'd estimate we've got a day and a half or so to travel still." He looked at her, worried, "Are you sure you're okay with this?" He didn't want to make her do something she didn't want to do.
"We were back at the apartment complex. I easily could have gotten out and gone home." She whispered, folding her arms to hide her trying to support her arm to make it stop hurting. "You need to go to bed, though. I can take over." she said, looking more firm on that.
He nodded at her reply and focused back on the ocean before them, "Are you sure, with your arm and all?" He looked at her questioningly, "I don't want you to injure it further." He wasn't arguing the fact he needed at least a couple of hours.
"I'll have to at some point any way, Lucas. I'll be fine. We'll manage." she reassured him gently, kissing his jaw lightly. "Go sleep."
"Okay, but if it gets to be too much for your arm then don't hesitate to wake me up." He'd sleep on alert anyways due to the circumstances, "I love you." He whispered and kissed her gently before heading below deck to curl up where she had slept, the cushions of the sofa still holding her scent.
Arleen knew they had to head west, so she got the compass on the dot of west and tied the wheel with fishing line to keep it there. She settled down in a chair to watch and make sure they wouldn't run into anything. She went as long as she could before taking the pain medication, worried about not being able to eat anything with them. She ended up drinking a few cups of coffee to try and offset any possible harm.
He rested for a couple of hours, but that's all he could handle. He didn't fully sleep either and any little noise or change in the movement of the boat and his eyes were open. He made a new batch of coffee pouring himself a very full mug and wandered back up, "Hows it going up here?"
"Easy." she said, gesturing at the still tied wheel. She knew they'd have to switch to northwest, but it would be quite a bit more of travel before they would need to. She frowned at him. "You sure you got enough sleep?"
He nodded, lying, "Yeah. I'm good to go, how's your arm?" He looked at her, and then eyed the wheel and gave an impressed look, "Never thought of that." He scratched his head a moment and took a long drink of coffee before looking around slowly, "We've made some good progress. Now it' your turn to get some more rest and check on the kid."
"Lucas, I've only been awake..." she glanced at the clock. "not even 6 hours. You should sleep more, not me." she said, frowning at him.
"True, but I'm not nursing an injury." He looked at her and then motioned towards the hull, "I can carry you and I will." He warned, watching her.
She folded her arms again. "Lucas, I can ta-" Edward started crying and she huffed at Lucas. She gave him a look that said he was lucky for now but they would talk later before walking off, her heels clicking on the deck.
They were soon in Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. Arleen had been studying maps the entire time, and had found them a good low key area to go. Haleiwa, a small beach front down on the other side from Honolulu. Once she knew where they were going she was setting up everything so they could segway right into living there, with some assistance from her parents and friends. She got them settled in a small 2 bedroom condo and was impressed to find some of their things already there by the time they were there. Trouble was obviously very happy to be back on solid ground. Arleen poked around in the boxes that were already there, and told Lucas what boxes had his things in them
He never was one for unpacking. It took him six months to unpack what used to be his apartment, but he put himself into it and got going on getting his stuff put up properly. The condo was beginning to look like home with a mixture of his and hers. Oddly most of their stuff fit together, it weirded him out a little bit but he kept that to himself. The next few days he worked on securing himself a job with Hammer, and would be starting that next Monday, "Looks like we both have friends in high places," He commented hanging the phone up, "I just got hired by the current biggest supplier of weapon tech." He smiled, pleased with himself.
She smiled a little at him. "Good." she praised, happy for him. She had been unpacking his things once she realized he wouldn't be doing more than a few boxes of it. She had to corner him about something, though. She had been testy with the level of pain she was in, so she looked a tad confrontational as she asked, "What is the name of that little boy, do you know? And if not, what should we call him?"
He was trying to help, but he of course wasn't doing a very good job at it and after a while he gave up. Her question made him almost spit out the drink of water he had just taken from the glass he had gotten before calling up the one and only Justin Hammer. Recovering quickly, Lucas managed a few coughs and the red eyes of swallowing wrong, "Gah. Hate when that happens, what was your question again, love?"
"What are we to call that child we've been taking care of for almost a week?" she asked again, pursing her lips.
He didn't hesitate at all, "I've always had a soft spot for the name Obadiah. It's a good strong name." He nodded, "He's young enough that it won't matter if he's called something else than whatever his birth name was."
She nodded after a few moments of mulling over the name, cradling her arm a bit. "That sounds fine. I'll get to work on fixing that." She promised.
He felt extremely pleased at the legacy he had just bestowed his former mentor and the pain it would cause his rival should he ever find out. A part of Lucas wanted him to very much, but he knew it wasn't wise and he would refrain from any sort of taunting directed at the man in any way. He was astounded by the woman before him as she worked her own breed of magic to give them all virtually new lives to live.
She worked well at getting them hidden. The papers came for the baby, bearing the name Obadiah Donovan. Arleen had settled them in the island with 75% of the entire population of Hawaii. Donovan wasn't a very rare name, and she in fact found a few other Donovans in Hawaii, so she didn't bother trying to alter that. Within a month they were well settled and her arm wasn't hurting her quite so much and the bruising on her temple was almost completely gone.