I have to say, the closer I got towards my real parents' house, the antsier I got. Not to mention my senses were on high alert, trying to determine if this was a trap or not. We didn't face a single Eraser or robot during our rides to D.C. The second bus we boarded I nearly clocked the driver in the face due to his excessive facial hair. He dodged and yelled at me, so I fibbed and told him I just killed a mosquito buzzing around his head before he could call police. He glared at me through his rear-view mirror throughout the entire ride. Every second we got closer, every time the door opened to let a new person on, my heart rate kicked up and I readied myself to bolt without hesitation.

It also didn't help that Speck wanted to stop and see everything. All I wanted was to just get there and get it over with, despite my nervousness, but stopping to go check out a cool place every few blocks? I was ready to strangle her. But it made her happy, at ease, and not as worried as I was. Every so often she would shoot me a smile and my hands would stop clenching the seat in front of me. At least she aided in easing my stress.

With a nudge, Speck walked towards the back of the semi-busy bus with a smoothie in hand as I dished out the last bit of our change in my pockets. The driver raised an eyebrow as I put in fifteen dollars with pennies and dimes. I brushed my pants and joined Speck in the back, who pulled out the laptop as soon as I sat down.

"What are you looking up?" I asked as she typed into the search engine something.

"Shh," she caught me, leaning over it as she continued to type. I had to lean in to hear her better. "Getting more money." She hit enter and started going at it; her fingers flew across the keyboard as she keyed in information for another credit card.

I stared out the window as she did so, seeing the sun start to reach the horizon on our day of bus hopping. We were close, I could feel it, as well as see it. The sky line was starting to morph into tree lines, and more residential houses popped up. Would they be living in a fancy house? A two story? Were they rich? Poor? Did they have a dog? Were they stuck up? Did they have a housekeeper? Did they miss me?

Trying to imagine them brought my attention back to our dine and dash. I glanced at the computer screen. How did our card stop working? Was it because we were making ridiculous purchases? Was it because we kept moving from state to state? Did they think we stole the card? I watched Speck and the horrible thought came to me again. I shook my head to not think of it. It wasn't possible... right? Speck told me she set up firewalls; she made sure that they wouldn't be able to track us. I trusted her on that, but what if they planted one in us? We were treated like animals, merchandise, wouldn't they want to be able to find us if we got lost? Or, in our case, ran away?

"There." I jumped as she closed the laptop and stretched her skinny arms behind her head. "We should be able to pick it up at the next bank we reach." I looked at my legs and felt Speck's eyes turn to me. I didn't want to tell her, nor even bring up the possibility, because what if it was true? That they planted a tracker in us? What would we do then? Cut it out?

"Don't worry!" I looked at her and she gently smiled, squeezing my hand. "You'll be fine, I'll be right there with you."

"R-Right," I gulped and nodded. Thank god she couldn't read minds, otherwise I'd be in deep trouble. I pulled her into a light hug as she continued to slurp her smoothie until it was empty, making that loud, annoying sound. I slapped it out of her hand and she giggled, then leaned against me and yawned, letting her head press against my shoulder. Resting my chin on her head, I looked outside again, thinking, "What if it's a bust?" What if they didn't want me?

"Then we'll find some other place to live," she said again, her eyes closed and leaned more against me.

"Where? The bus?" I chuckled as she moved to lay across the seats, head in my lap and yawning again. Her knees were brought in close as she kicked her smoothie to the ground. I picked it up and set it under my seat.

"No," she groaned, clearly wanting to nap.

I smiled and brushed some hair out of her face, taking in her cute cheeks and pretty skin. If she were normal- no, she's beautiful the way she was. I couldn't see her as anything else. Without ITex she wouldn't even be here, and without me, she wouldn't even be alive. I had to stop thinking like that. If things were different, I would've never found out I was adopted, or had a twin brother, or met this wonderful little girl. Her personality lightened up every moment I've been alive.

"Why are you petting me," she mumbled, batting at my hand on her head.

I withdrew and smiled, "Sorry, just thinking."

She rolled over to turn her body towards me and looked up, eyes droopy from our day of travelling. She yawned, "About what?"

"Nothing," I tucked some hair behind her ear. "Just happy; happy you're with me."

She moved her arms to hug me despite her awkward position, "Me too; I'm happy to be with you."

I draped an arm around her body to pull her close towards me, steadying her as we went over a bump in the road. We embraced each other until I realized that she fell asleep; her eyes closed and all of her body weight on me. Chuckling, I kept her close as the ride progressed towards, hopefully, my home.

"Amber- Amber we're here," my shoulder jostled and my eyes opened to Speck. It was nearly night and the lights in the bus shone brightly. The bus driver had the doors open and eagerly tapping his foot. There was nobody else on the bus either, meaning this was the last stop of the evening.

Blinking, I rubbed my eyes and sat up, then pulled to a stand by Speck. "Did I really fall asleep?" I mumbled as I reached for my bag.

"Yeah, and you snored really loudly," Speck snickered as we walked off the bus and waved the driver goodbye. He sped off as I stretched to try and wake myself up. With a yawn I looked around us.

We were dropped off right in front of a park, where its lights dimly shone along the sidewalk. I only could make out a few people milling around, but none of them seemed suspicious, but I had to keep my guard up. The sun had already set and stars started dotting the sky, which meant we couldn't do much but find a spot to rest until morning. I hitched my bag over my shoulder and reached out for Speck's hand.

"Come on," I told her, and she eagerly gripped my fingers. We began our walk through the park, keeping to the most lit areas while also seeking out somewhere to sleep. There wasn't much, only a small sculpture and several trees, but I doubted that Speck would be okay with sleeping with the squirrels. I saw a figure cross in the distance and I slowed our walking, but it paid no attention to us and continued its way. I let out a soft sigh and felt my fingers squeeze.

"Maybe we could take a bench?" Speck suggested, pointing out a bench not too far away.

I wrinkled my nose, "I don't know. Too open, not enough shelter- would you be opposed to the trees again?" I nodded towards the pretty oak towering over the bench.

"Won't we get in trouble?" her big eyes matched with mine. This seemed like a pretty big park, big enough that I did see a sign in the distance saying to not climb the trees.

"Not if we're careful," I guided her toward the tree and hoisted her up onto one of the branches. Holding on, she inched her way a little to the side so I could join her. We then scurried around to find a couple overlapping branches forming a perfect nook for us to sleep. I took off my pack and hung it on a lower branch as Speck shimmied out of hers while straddling the branch.

"Are you sure?" she shakily peered down to the ground.

I chuckled and pulled her towards me, adjusting myself so I was tucked between the branches so I wouldn't slip. She clung to me as I changed my position so she could lay comfortably with me. Smiling, she nuzzled into me and rested her head on my chest. After a few minutes of getting comfortable, I opened my mouth to say something but was interrupted by her light snoring.

"And you said I snored," I smiled and let my head rest against the branch, my eyes drifting to a close the more I tried to keep them open. But I couldn't fight the tiredness overwhelming me and fell asleep.

I have to say, sleeping in a tree really does a toll on your back, especially when you have a seven-year-old sprawled on top of you. She definitely had a better sleep than me. I woke up barely able to move whereas Speck was yawning and saying, "Good morning" with a smile on her face.

"Morning," I grunted as she shifted her weight to one of the branches so I could sit up. I stretched and twisted my back to the best of my ability and rolled my shoulders. My wings ached tremendously, like I was hiking for days with one of those huge backpacks with everything in them. Great.

"I'm hungry," Speck said as I arched by back again.

"You're always hungry," I huffed as I reached for my bag. All we had left were protein bars, and I knew that wasn't going to be enough. I tossed her one and she eagerly ripped into it. "Let's get the card first and get food before we go find my parents." The thought of them made me pause in the middle of my chewing. My parents. I was going to see them today. What will they think of me? Will they even remember me?

"Okie dokie," she shot me a thumbs up.

I jumped down and glanced around the park to see who was there. Only a few joggers here and there, and a guy trying to tame the ten dogs he was trying to walk, but that was all. I reached up for Speck as she slid off her branch into my arms. Setting her down I looked around again. No officers, no Erasers, nobody to yell at us to not sleep in trees. It was weird. It made me feel antsy. I tightened the straps of my bag and let out a shaky sigh.

"You okay?" Speck glanced up at me and squeezed my hand.

"Yeah," I replied, squeezing back. "Let's go."