Chapter Thirty-six

..

"Please wake up," Jane whispered. Tears trickled unnoticed down her cheeks and her voice was a croak from a tightening throat. "Please?"

She'd thought for sure when she woke up in the morning, Aunt Esme and Lauren would be awake already, looking around at their surroundings with bewildered expressions, or maybe brewing themselves a cup of joe in the little crappy two-cup coffee maker.

Jane's eyes had flown open and she'd sat up eagerly, only to see Lauren and Aunt Esme laying in the same positions she'd placed them last night. Dave hopped on her lap, wiggling in his I-gotta-go dance and Jane walked numbly to the door to open it for him.

"You need me to come with you?" she asked, but he trotted straight to the strip of grass between the door and the parking lot. Jane left the door open and went to sit back down on her bed.

She'd hoped there would be a grown-up to take over this morning and she could go back to being someone who let older, wiser people make the decisions. That there would be a grown-up who knew exactly what they should do next and how to contact Bella and Edward. (She'd even settle for being able to talk to that creepy Amun guy.)

She never expected them to still be asleep. "You've got to wake up," Jane told them. "You've got to. I don't want to do this any more. I want ... I want my Mom." Jane hung her head and sobbed into her hands.

Dave came back inside and put a paw on her leg. She picked him up and shut the door before resuming her spot on the bed. He gently licked her hand and bumped his head beneath it, urging her to pet him. She did, but tears still rolled down her face and her breath came in hitches.

What was she going to do now? Jane had no idea. After she'd cried for a while, she forced herself to stop because it wasn't helping. She didn't feel any better after getting the tears out, either. And she'd cried herself into a whopping case of the hiccups.

She went into the bathroom and blew her nose on a piece of toilet paper. She washed her face and stared into the mirror. She looked awful, her eyes red and puffy and her hair like a crow's nest. She combed it with her fingers the best she could and caught sight of the friendly little sign beside the sink: "Forget Something? We Want Your Stay To Be As Comfortable As Possible, So If You've Left A Basic Toiletry Item At Home, Ask At Our Front Desk For a Complimentary Replacement."

There, at least, was something that she could do. Jane sniffled and straightened her rumpled pajamas. She turned to Dave, who sat on the end of her bed, watching her. Her eyes met his and his little tail began to swish across the polyester bedspread. "I'll be right back," she told him. "Please watch over them. I know you're not a pro at peopletalk but Edward said you do understand some stuff. Guard them, okay? Guard."

Dave seemed to get what she was saying. He trotted over and sat at the foot of the bed. He seemed to be very proud to have been given the assignment.

She got her note from the night before and drew a line through "DITCHING THE CAR" and replaced it with "AM AT THE FRONT DESK". She felt in her pocket and found the other hundred dollar bill she'd taken from the duffel in there, back when she hadn't known how much a hotel room cost for the night.

She'd have to rent it again for tonight so they'd have somewhere to stay during the daylight hours. She couldn't drive around during the day. Someone would call the cops if they saw a kid who looked as young as she did driving a car and she really didn't want to have to use her power on a police officer.

She took the room key and put it into her pocket. She opened the door a crack and peeked outside. There was only one car in the parking lot, parked right next to the office. Jane watched the treeline on the other side of the road for a moment, half-expecting to see guys with binoculars watching their room. She stepped outside, and used her foot to gently nudge Dave back inside when he would have followed her.

"Don't guard me," she told him. "Guard them." She shut the door firmly and walked to the front desk.

The place looked even more dismal in daylight. The paint was peeling and all of the doors were scuffed. The sidewalk in front of the rooms was heaved and cracked. If Bella was here, she'd trip for sure. Edward always held her arm over rough terrain like this because Bella's feet seemed to seek out things to trip over. The thought made Jane smile a little.

The door knob was surrounded by a patch of grime. Jane pulled open the door with a mental reminder to wash her hands after she got back to the room. The door screeched on unoiled hinges and she heard that bing bong tone she remembered from last night. A plump, middle-aged woman emerged from the back. She had the smoothest, most perfect skin Jane had ever seen, a rich chocolate color, and wide-spaced eyes that surveyed Jane with suspicion. Her nametag read "BECKY" in crooked letters.

"Hi. My mom sent me up to see if we could stay for another night." Jane took the hundred dollar bill from her pocket.

The woman shrugged. "Sure. We ain't busy this time of year." She pecked around on the computer. Jane had a moment of panic when she realized she couldn't remember the fake name she'd used last night, but the woman didn't ask.

While she waited, she looked around the room and saw a box of donuts sitting by a coffee urn and her stomach cramped with hunger. "Are these for the guests?" she asked.

"Sure, honey. Go ahead and have one."

Jane grabbed a sugar donut and bit into it ravenously.

"Get some more of them, if you want," the woman said, her eyes still glued to the computer. "Can't buy less than a dozen from our supplier, and you and your mom are our only guests."

Jane took two more and wrapped them in napkins. "Thank you."

"No problem. They'd just go to waste. I can't eat 'em. I gain five pounds if I just look at the box."

Jane chuckled politely. She handed over her money and accepted her change.

"Anything else I can get you, sweetie?"

"Um ... can I get some toothbrushes? And some toothpaste? And a comb? My mom and me ... we left so suddenly we didn't take our stuff with us."

The woman's eyes softened in compassion. "Your dad?" she asked.

Jane nodded and tried to look pitiful, which wasn't very difficult, considering her circumstances. "I'll pay for them," she offered.

The woman clucked her tongue and held up a basket that contained single-packaged toiletries. "Just get what you need, honey. They're free."

Jane grabbed a comb and one of the small tubes of toothpaste. The woman was looking back at her computer screen, so Jane quickly snatched three toothbrushes. "Thanks!" she said.

"Anytime, honey. I hope things work out with your mom and dad."

"Me too," Jane replied, and headed back to the room with her loot. She unlocked the door and laid the donuts on the little table that sat between the beds. Dave looked at them hopefully.

"Sorry, little guy," Jane told him. "Those are for Aunt Esme and Lauren, and besides, I really don't think dogs are supposed to have sugar." An idea occurred to her. "I'll be right back."

She put the donuts on top of the TV, just so Dave wouldn't be tempted, and followed the signs to the vending area. There wasn't much of a selection, but Jane thought that Wheat Thins probably wouldn't be too bad for him. She bought two small bags and headed back to the room.

She'd been right about Dave and temptation. He was seated in front of the television, staring up at the napkin-wrapped donuts with a calculating look in his eye.

"Here, these are better for you," Jane said. She ripped open both bags and flattened one of them to use as a plate for him. He looked at the pile of crackers and then back at the donuts.

"Yeah, I'd rather have a donut, too. Eat your crackers." She took the top off the coffee carafe and soaked a wash cloth under the faucet, then poured a dab of the hotel shampoo on it. With her new impromptu dishcloth, she scrubbed the inside of the glass carafe before rinsing it, filling it with water and setting it on the floor for Dave.

He sniffed it and gave her a bewildered look. He was smelling the ghosts of coffee past, Jane thought. "It's okay. I know it's stinky, but I washed it out." He tentatively lapped at the water, and then decided it was acceptable.

She propped up her pillows against the headboard and leaned back against them. Aunt Esme and Lauren still hadn't moved. By her estimate, it had been twelve hours since they'd been given the shots. How long could one shot last? Were they in trouble? Should she call 911?

Jane leaned over and put her fingers against Aunt Esme's throat. Her pulse was steady and she seemed to be breathing normally. Lauren, too. They weren't in distress, so it didn't seem like an emergency situation, at least not enough of an emergency for her to risk them getting caught at the hospital. From what she'd heard, Bella had been so afraid to go to the hospital, she'd let her finger half rot off rather than risk it. Jane decided that she'd give them a few more hours and continue monitor their pulses and breathing. She just had to hope they'd wake up on their own.

Jane listened to Dave crunch his crackers and closed her eyes. She's never really believed in a god, even after she learned what Edward was, but she now sent up a silent prayer, consisting of the same six words repeated over and over: "Please let them be all right."

Edward circled the house and they both studied the grounds for any sign of people watching. There were tire tracks across Aunt Esme's lawn and through her precious flower beds. Bella's heart sank at the sight.

The garage door was open. Edward flew them inside and landed on the concrete floor. There were black skid marks besmirching the perfect expanse of gray. Aunt Esme actually mopped her garage floor and wouldn't have tolerated such a mark. Bella pinched her lips between her teeth to hold back the whimper that rose in her throat.

The door was unlocked. They went inside the house and through the kitchen. Bella saw a chair wedged under the doorknob of the door which led to the garden behind the house. From there, they proceeded through the dining room and into they foyer. and Bella choked back a scream when she saw the body beside the stairs. The bloody, broken spindles and the gaping hole in his stomach told the tale. Edward put an arm around her shoulders and they walked up the stairs together.

Bella was trying hard not to cry. Her breath came in choked gasps. Edward stopped her on the landing and simply held her in his arms for a few minutes until she had calmed somewhat. She looked up at him and nodded. He stroked his hand over her hair and cupped her cheek. "You can do this," he said.

She nodded again and squared her shoulders. The first room they entered was Aunt Esme's. Bella could smell a faint hint of the White Shoulders perfume that Aunt Esme loved. The covers on her bed were in disarray and that alone would have told Bella that they had left in a hurry. Aunt Esme was militant about having her bed made properly.

Edward bent down and picked up something. An empty syringe. He showed it to her wordlessly, and Bella closed her eyes. They found another in the bedroom beside Aunt Esme's. It was Lauren's room; her shoes were under the edge of the bed.

They crossed the landing into Jane's room, identifiable by her Justin Beiber t-shirt draped over the back of the vanity table's chair. A man's body lay on the floor, face down, his hands still clutching his head. A trickle of bloody fluid had trickled from each ear, a reddish rivulet on both cheeks.

Edward found another syringe, over by the wall, but this one was full. Bella's brow crinkled when he held it up.

"Jane fought back," Bella said slowly. "They weren't able to give her the shot." She looked under the bed, in the small closet and said, "Her shoes aren't here. They wouldn't have stopped to put on her shoes if they took her, and she wouldn't have paused to put them on before she fought the intruders."

She thought about the skid marks in the garage and the tire tracks over the lawn. "One of them drove Aunt Esme's car. At least one of them got away and Jane was with them. But why haven't they called?" Bella looked behind the nightstand beside Jane's bed, where Jane usually laid her phone at night. "Her cell phone cord is still there."

"She wouldn't have taken the phone without the cord," Edward said. He took out his own phone and began to dial. "Jenks? Yes. Ditch the phones. All of them." He listened for a long moment. "Kebi doesn't have a phone of her own or know his number. Tell him to ditch it and do it fast."

Jenks had a bag of backup phones already activated. Edward tore a small bit of paper out of the front page of a book that was lying on the table (Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott) and wrote down a number. "Move the RV to the backup site. I'll call you when we get a new phone," Edward said. He disconnected and pulled apart his phone, then crumbled the SIM card in his hand. He took Bella's phone and gave it the same treatment.

"But Jane won't be able to call us," Bella protested.

Edward shook his head. "She doesn't know the numbers anyway. She mentioned that last week. We change them so fast that all of us rely on our contacts lists to call one another."

"Do you really think they got away?" Bella asked.

He considered. "Yeah, I do.

"But how will we find them?"

"I don't know."

Bella sat down on the bed. She almost hoped the Theta Project was still watching the house and would send in some of their goons. A hot ball of anger burned in her stomach and it seemed to expand and expand ...

She closed her eyes when she head the windows shatter. "Aunt Esme is going to kill me."

"It's not your fault," Edward soothed. He sat down beside her and she laid her head on his shoulder. "You can't help it."

"I've got to get this under control," Bella said. "But first, we have to find our daughter. Do you remember seeing Aunt Esme's car? Do you remember what it looks like?"

Edward shook his head. "I never went into the garage."

"Aunt Esme has a thing for Caddys," Bella said. "But that doesn't narrow it down much when we don't know the model or color."

"They probably would have holed up in a motel," Edward said and snapped his fingers. "So we just start checking nearby hotels, going around in widening circles until we hit on the right one."

Bella hugged him. It was a start, at least. They had some sort of plan, which was better than sitting around doing nothing, hoping an idea or clue would come to them.

Edward held out his hand and he helped her through the window onto the porch roof. Glass crunched under Bella's sneakers and she sent a silent apology to Aunt Esme. He was scanning the treeline.

"Why do you think they left the bodies?" Bella asked.

"Perhaps so that local law enforcement would find them and search for Aunt Esme as a potential victim or suspect?"

That sounded like the underhanded way that the Theta Project operated. Edward scooped her up and leapt from the porch roof, his wings catching the air and lifting them skyward with only a few beats.

Around two o'clock, Lauren moaned. Jane was instantly on her feet. She crawled up on the bed beside Lauren and patted her cheeks. "Lauren? Lauren? Can you hear me."

Lauren pried open her eyes with difficulty. "Jane?"

"Yeah!" Jane felt her eyes brim with tears, but this time it was from happiness. "Are you okay?"

"Thirsty."

"I'll get you some water." Jane hopped off the bed and unwrapped one of the cups by the ice bucket. She filled it from one of the taps and carried it over to where Lauren lay. Lauren was too weak to pull herself to a sitting position, so Jane slid in beside her and supported her shoulders while Lauren gulped from the cup.

"Thank you," she sighed. "Wh- what happened?"

"Theta Project," Jane said. "They found us. They gave you and Aunt Esme a shot to knock you out. I got us away."

"Where ... are we?"

Jane picked up her note and read the town's name off the logo printed at the top.

"Never ... heard of it."

"Me either, and let's hope the Theta Project hasn't."

"Jenks ..." Lauren sighed.

"I lost our phones," Jane confessed. "I was hoping you might know the number."

Lauren shook her head and Jane's hope sank. "Well, maybe Aunt Esme does. She doesn't have a cell phone, so Bella would have had to tell her the number to call in case of an emergency." It was a long-shot, but Jane needed something to hope for or she was going to break down in tears again.

Lauren wasn't in any shape to take over as the grown-up in charge. She was as weak as a newborn kitten, her mind fuzzy from the dope and in no shape to move them on to another location.

Jane ordered a pizza from the only place that delivered to the motel. It was awful, but at least it was food. Dave seemed to enjoy the crusts, anyway. Lauren only picked at hers. She said she was too nauseated to eat, and Jane had no idea how to fix that.

Aunt Esme woke a couple of hours later and she was really sick. She threw up in the trash can that Jane grabbed when she saw her gagging. (Jane was really grossed out by having to rinse it out, but she supposed this was part of the stuff grown-ups had to do. She would be very, very glad to hand off grown-up duty as soon as possible.) It was a while before they could even get her to keep a cup of water down, and she couldn't even look at a slice of the pizza.

Jane considered calling 911 again, but Aunt Esme insisted she'd be fine in a while. Someone had told her once that grown-ups sometimes didn't know they were sick or didn't want all the fuss and bother of seeing a doctor when they really needed one. But Lauren didn't seem all that worried about it, and so Jane decided to trust their judgement.

"Edward will find us," she told Lauren as she helped her walk to the bathroom. "You'll see. He'll be here soon."

Lauren gave her a faint smile before she shut the bathroom door. "I'm sure he will."

Jane resisted the urge to kick the bathroom door and holler at Lauren that she didn't need to be patronized. She had to have faith in something and it might as well be her new dad. He would rescue them. He would know what to do.

She just hoped he would get here soon because she was running out of optimism.

Becky was still working the front desk when the most beautiful man she had ever seen strolled through the door. Her jaw dropped. It was worth it to work overtime (that bitch Cheryl had never showed up for her shift) just to see this guy.

She had never believed people that beautiful really existed. Movies stars and models were all makeup, and those catty articles in the magazines confirmed it when they showed what those people looked like when they ran to the convenience store without painting on their face or having a hairstylist work for hours to achieve the perfect "natural" look. They looked like ordinary people with blemishes and split ends, until Hollywood transformed them with airbrushing and cosmetics.

But this man ... He was perfection, one of God's most glorious creations. She tried to re-boot her brain, which seemed to be stuck on the Blue Screen of Death at the moment. He was saying something to her.

"... my daughter. Please, if you've seen her ..."

"What?" Becky finally managed.

"I'm looking for a woman with a little girl. About thirteen with brown hair, small for her age." He held out his hand to indicate her height.

"Your daughter?" Becky said. Fuckin' figured a guy that looked like that would be married, but what woman in her right mind would ever leave him? "She don't look like you," Becky said.

He gripped the edge of the counter. "You've seen her?"

"Uhh," Becky said. She was supposed to protect the privacy of guests. She hadn't said anything to that cop-looking guy who had come in and demanded to see her register for the night. He'd just rubbed her the wrong way. But this man, his beautiful eyes pleaded with her and she couldn't resist him, not at all. "One-oh-two," she said and pointed.

"Thank God," the man said. "And thank you."

"Welcome," Becky murmured. Would you look at that ass? She sighed and watched him gesture to a woman who waited in the shrubs near their road sign. Weird. Maybe the new stepmother or something. The dark haired woman ran over to him and clutched his arm. He pointed and she dashed to the door, hammering on it with her fist. Becky saw it open and the little girl came out and threw her arms around the woman and then the man. They all jumped and laughed and cried and a little puppy (No Pets Allowed, but Becky wasn't going to say anything) bounced around their ankles, yapping with joy.

Becky smiled. It felt good to play a small part in reuniting a family like that. Good thing Cheryl wasn't here. That bitch probably would have told him no and then called the cops, like the girl had been kidnapped or something.

Jane was with Bella in the front of an ancient Ford, which Edward had "borrowed" from the a car lot (Lauren knew how to hotwire) after sliding an envelope with the asking price of the car into their mail slot.

Aunt Esme had made a tiny sound of dismay when she saw the ruins of her beautiful car, which they all agreed was too conspicuous. Thankfully, Aunt Esme had simply given her a kiss and thanked Jane for saving her, rather than make a fuss about it.

The Ford had bench seats. Lauren and Aunt Esme were sleeping in the back, and Jane was seated in the front between Edward and Bella. Bella had let Edward drive after extracting a weird promise that he wouldn't swerve for worms. Jane wondered what that was all about.

Jane had her head laid on Bella's shoulder. Dave was curled up on her lap, sound asleep and Bella was petting him gently.

"Mom?" Jane said.

"Mm?"

"I did something ... Something really awful."

"What?"

"I killed someone." Jane's voice was so soft that it was nearly lost in the sound of the hum of the car's tires on the pavement.

"I know," Bella said simply. She put an arm around Jane's shoulders and Jane scooted closer.

"The first guy was an accident. He just fell over the bannister. But the other guy? I killed him with my Gift." If anyone would understand that, it would be Bella. Jane gnawed on her lower lip. "I ... I hurt him. Over and over. And then he died."

"Jane, you understand the concept of self-defense," Edward said.

Jane shook her head. "It wasn't that. He was already down from the first time that I ... From the first time that I hurt him. And I did it because I was mad. I didn't know he would die ... but I was glad when he did."

"Jane, are you asking me if you're evil, or if you're going to hell for this?" Bella asked.

Jane was shocked. She hadn't been able to put the vaguely uneasy feeling she had into words. Maybe because she was afraid of what the answer might be.

"Do you want to hurt innocent people?" Bella asked.

"No!" Jane said. "I mean, back when I was at the center, it was like I wanted to hurt everyone because I was so angry about what had happened to me, and having to grow up in that shit hole - oops - I mean, that dump. And Victoria, she was the same way, hating everybody for having our lives stolen away. But after I got away from there, and after I was around you guys for a while ... I didn't want to be angry and mean any more. Because it eats at you. It eats a hole right through you that nothing will ever fill."

"And you didn't mean to kill him?" Bella continued.

"No, I didn't. I mean, I didn't even know I could." Jane did not want to tell Bella about the small exhilaration that she had felt at learning that, but she thought that Bella probably already knew.

"You don't think ordinary people ever snap and hit someone?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Jane, you're human, and there's only so much a person can take before they snap. The difference with us is that we have power in our 'fists', and as some-movie-I-can't-remember once said, 'With great power comes great responsibility.' We have to be careful of how we use it to make sure we don't hurt innocent people. You saw what happened at Denny's when I lost control."

"You didn't mean to," Jane protested.

"Intend doesn't matter," Bella sighed. "People got hurt because of me. And I feel awful about it. But that guilt is valuable, Jane. If you were evil, you wouldn't care about who you hurt or why."

Jane thought about it, but she was so weary that the words just seemed to swirl through her mind like a whirlwind. She closed her eyes and was asleep within moments. Her head drooped down and she let out a little snore that made Bella chuckle. She moved Jane to a more comfortable position.

Edward glanced over at Bella. "You might want to take your own advice," he said gently.

She nodded. "I'm trying."