The rest of the ride was not very eventful. When we were about an hour from wherever our Washington destination was, we stopped at a rest stop. There was no snow around here, just muck from the rain. Everything smelled like a muddy swamp.
"Hey," I said to Emma and Jeremy, motioning them to the side. "How are things going?"
Emma made eye contact with me which I counted as a positive sign for improvement.
"She's refusing to take my blood anymore," Jeremy said, shooting down my feeling that she was doing better.
"I can't risk hurting him," Emma said. "I lost control at the factory. I can't do that again."
I totally understood what she meant, how many times had one of us lost control or refused to do something because it put others in danger? It was practically a routine part of life now.
"So how are you getting blood?" I asked.
"She's not," Jeremy said annoyed.
This must have been an argument between them because they exchanged angry glances.
"Emma," I said softly, trying to keep things calm. "It's important for you to drink blood. Avoiding it is only putting Jeremy more at risk for getting hurt. The longer you starve the more control you will lose."
"Thank you," Jeremy threw up his arms.
"How did you get blood when you were imprisoned?" I asked her ignoring Jeremy.
She shrugged, "They either gave me bags or they let me take what was left over from their kills. I've lived on the bare minimum this far, I can keep it up."
I shook my head, "Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Emma, we are getting you some blood now."
"Now?" Her eyes widened in fear.
I took her hand, "Come with me to the bathroom."
We left Jeremy confused and concerned and walked up the sidewalk the rest of the way. We entered the rest area and as we were about to enter the women's restroom, Emma stopped me.
"I can't hurt a stranger," she said.
"I never planned on that," I guided her into the handicapped stall where we would have more space.
"Chloe," she figured it out.
I pulled my hair up into a quick ponytail and yanked down my shirt collar as best as I could.
"You need to hurry, we don't have much time."
"No," she shook her head. "I said no to Jeremy what makes you think I'll say yes to you? I can't hurt you guys."
"Please," I bordered on pleading. "I'll nap in the car and it'll be just fine. Besides, I'm a hybrid. I can handle a lot more than Jeremy can. You won't hurt me."
The women's restroom door opened and Liz's voice called out.
"Chloe? Emma? You in here?"
"Yeah," I answered. "Just give another minute please."
"Ok, but hurry up. Matt wants to hit the road."
The door shut and it was just the two of us again.
"Hurry up before I nick the skin and you can't help yourself," I said.
I wasn't serious, I wouldn't force Emma into drinking my blood. But she was so easily intimidated from her years of torture that she didn't realize I wouldn't really do it. She stepped closer and latched onto my neck. Reverting to being a well behaved captive momentarily.
I waited until my fingertips felt a little cold, at that point I knew she had taken a lot.
"Ok," I said and pushed her off of me.
Emma looked scared of what she had done, tears in the corners of her eyes, but her starvation was gone.
"Clean up. Quickly."
Emma rushed to the sink and started scrubbing her face. I gave healing a shot. I mean scars were kind of dead skin right? So wouldn't I be able to make scars? I had no idea if I was right but it was worth a shot. I imagined my magic stitching the cuts back together into scars and it worked. I came up to the mirror and the cuts were gone. I wiped off remaining blood with a wet paper towel.
Emma looked at me, "I want to hate you and thank you."
"What?" That definitely caught me off guard.
"I want to thank you for doing that for me, that was brave of you and indescribably helpful. But I also want to hate that you put your life in danger like that for me. You shouldn't do that. What if I lost it and you hadn't been able to push me off?"
I smiled at her and started walking towards the door as I threw my paper towel away.
"One thing you will learn if you stick around us, is that 'you shouldn't do that' is practically a catchphrase. We all do things that put us at risk to help each other out. That's what family is all about and you're a part of that now."
Emma was at a total loss for words.
We joined everyone back at the car and climbed in. Derek immediately got suspicious as the smell reached him.
"Why do I smell blood?" He asked.
Emma looked at me scared.
"Derek," I bumped him with my elbow like he needed to quiet down. "Lady problems."
Derek immediately dropped it. Emma's face got dark red and she quickly turned back around.
I leaned against Derek tired and cold and drifted off. He woke me up when we reached our destination of once again a motel parking lot.
"Come on," Derek said. "Let's get inside."
The sky was a grayish purple. The clouds had broken up just enough for us to be able to see the setting sun. A whole day in the car.
I sleepily grabbed my bag from the pile in the trunk and followed them inside to our room. Falling onto the first bed I saw and drifting back off to sleep. My neck was stiff from sleeping in the car so this bed felt like lying on the worlds softest cloud.
