Title:  Open Road

Summary:  When Ryan makes a different choice, fate intervenes to set him straight.  Mildly AU. 

Author's Note:  Not mine!  No sue!  Gracias. 

            It was the middle of summer, and it shouldn't have been so cold, but apparently there was an unusual cold spell breezing through California the last few weeks. 

            Maybe it wasn't summer.  Maybe he'd been out here for months and it really was November, the way it felt.  But that was impossible, because he knew he hadn't been out here more than three, maybe four weeks.  He hadn't spent that many nights out here.  Not yet.

            He made a mental note to check a newspaper the next time he saw one. 

            "Yo, Bike."
            He turned automatically.  The nickname had already become his own.  He didn't even have to think about responding to it.

            "Dave."
            Dave didn't get a nickname.  Dave was just too weird to even earn one.  Dave was a walking jewelry display, a skinny kid decked out in clothing he'd designed himself, and Dave had very interesting taste.  Dave was the kind of kid people either looked at for a long time or couldn't bring themselves to look at to begin with.  That was Dave.  Somebody like that, there wasn't even a need for a nickname.

            "I heard you was takin' off?"
            He shrugged, not committing one way or the other.

            "Today?"
            "Maybe."
            Dave shook his head, running a finger through his spiky dreads.  "You know where to?"
            "Maybe."
            "You got money?"
            "Maybe."
            "You got any other answer?"

            "Naw."  Dave cracked up at that.  Dave was okay. 

            "You want a cig?"
            "Oh, hell yeah."  He took it and accepted the light.  When he first met Dave a few weeks ago, he hadn't known whether or not he should accept cigs from Dave, what else Dave might be expecting.  But Dave didn't buy favors, he sold them, and he tended to be generous with the profit, at least to people he liked.  And they got along well enough.  Dave wasn't somebody he would have chosen as a friend, but sometimes you do what you have to do.

            "Ain't kiddin'.  You got somewheres to go?"
            He sighed as he lowered the cigarette.  Dave could be a blessing sometimes.  And a pest at others.  Or both, like right now.  "Yeah.  I think."
            "You sure?"
            He shook his head.  "I don't wanna talk about it, man."
            "Fair enough."  Dave lit his own cigarette then, and the two of them stared off beyond the park, at the middle-class homes just over the median.  Some of the moms in the neighborhood had been stalking around the park lately calling the police on them, which didn't seem right somehow, but it'd meant they had to lay low more than usual.  They'd probably have to find a new place for good sometime soon.  It was a good time to take off.

            "You gonna say goodbye to The Finger?"
            "Why?"

            Dave lowered his cigarette, letting it flop to his side.  "Bike, Bike, Bike.  You gonna just walk out on her?"
            He blinked at him.  "Why not?"
            Dave sighed and shook his head.  "You an asshole, man."
            "I didn't promise her nothing."
            "She don't think that."
            He licked his lips.  "Not my fault."
            Dave lowered himself onto the bench, staring up at him.  "Then how you gonna get there?  You gonna ride?"
            He shrugged.  "Yeah.  Guess so."
            "How far are ya goin', anyway?  C'mon, Bike.  It's me.  Dave."
            He stared down at Dave, Dave with the crazy hair and cut-up leather gloves, Dave who'd just given him a cigarette, who'd introduced him to The Finger in the first place.  He'd probably never know what her real name was, just like she would never know what his was.  But it wasn't meant to be.

            "Texas," he said finally.  "I'm goin' to… Austin."

*

            "Crap, crap, crap."
            Seth dug through his wallet, his fingers tapping over the cards he'd accumulated in it.  Blockbuster, Subway… two more sandwiches to a free one.  No ATM card.

            "Mom!" he bellowed, dropping the wallet next to the packed duffel bag on his bed.  He burst out of the room and dashed down the hallway.  "Mom!"

            Instead, he came face to face with Rosa, who was just making her way out of the study.  "Your mother left," she said.

"Cr-ud," he said, amending his words.  Rosa never liked it when he swore, and she considered 'crap' swearing.  "How long ago?"

"Ten minutes?"

            "Yeah, thanks," he said, trying to at least mean it, before turning to dash back in to his room and grab for the phone.

She answered her cell phone right away.  "Seth, I'm driving, is it an emergency?"

"Yeah.  Totally.  I don't have an ATM card."

He heard the pause and the implied huff.  "Well, where did yours go?"  

He thought about it.  "The only one I had Dad was gonna borrow because you had his, and…"

            "Well, stay put.  I'll be home in a couple of hours.  I just have to run over to the development and work out some stuff."

            "I gotta leave now, Mom."
            "You can come and meet me at the development."
            "Hold on," Seth said, working the words out aloud as he dumped the wallet into his duffel bag.  "I'll call Dad.  Bye, Mom."  He cut off the phone before she could get a word in.  For whatever reason, his mother was driving him nuts lately.  He didn't want to go see the development for the umpteenth time.  Something about that model home gave him the creeps these days, and he couldn't put his finger on why.

             He paced the space between his bed and the wall as he waited for his father to pick up.  "Hello?"
            "Hey, Dad-"

            "Seth!  Hi!  You on the road yet?"
            "No.  Um, listen, I can't find my ATM card."
            He heard the gasp as Sandy realized.  "I never gave that back?"
            "No.  Thanks, Dad.  I gotta leave, like, now."
            "Got any cash?"
            "Yeah, like, eighty."
            There was a small silence.  Seth threw himself backwards on the bed, closing his eyes as he landed with a bounce.  "You need a card."

            "Tell me about it."  He heard his father sighing into the phone. 

            "Look, Seth, I'm in the 909 all day."  Seth wrinkled his nose at the receiver.  His dad trying to use slang was just no use.  But now was not the time to harass him about it.  "I can't come home."
            "Well, you know, I could get more cash if you told me where your secret stash was."
            "Right.  Wrong.  You need a card," Sandy said firmly, and Seth scowled at the phone.

            "Okay.  Look," Seth said.  "It's not that far out of my way.  How about I drop by your office?"
            His father hesitated.  "Oh, your mother's gonna love that."

            "We'll tell her we met at McDonald's or something.  I dunno."
            "Even better."

            Seth had to crack a grin as he grabbed for the notepad on his desk, and his fingers landed on a pen.  "So, tell me how I get to your office again?  C'mon."