"This just keeps gettin' better and better," Emma said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes over to Shalimar.

Shalimar sighed angrily and stepped out of the car. She slammed the door behind her and began to inspect for any signs of trouble. Emma whipped her lap with the napkins and stepped out of the car as well.

"So what's wrong?" she asked as she looked the car over.

"I don't know," Shalimar responded. She headed back into the drivers' seat and began to try and start the car again. Emma listened to the unsuccessful sounds of the engine as she looked around her surroundings. She saw nothing except deserted road up ahead and hoped more than anything Shalimar would get the car up and running. She turned as the feral stepped from the door and began to look under the hood. She made her way to stand beside the annoyed feral.
"The battery's dead," Shalimar informed her as she hung her head somewhat in defeat at the hood of the car.

"You don't have a spare do you?" Emma asked dreading the answer.

"Usually," Shalimar replied slowly and regrettably, "but not now. I noticed the guys had taken it out yesterday and I meant to put another one in but I didn't."

"So what do we do now? Stand here and cook under the hot sun?"

"I think we're gonna hafta walk," the feral said in a sigh as she headed back to the cars' side. She opened the back door and removed a bottled water from the cooler and took a drink. Emma sighed and followed her to lean against the drivers' side. Shalimar handed the bottle to Emma and she took a drink.

"Walk where?"

"To the next place I guess, whatever and wherever it is. We can't just sit here it's too hot."

"Maybe we can wait for another car," the psionic suggested.

"I think we have a better chance walking. We can always flag down a car if we see one. This is an unknown road and I've only seen about three cars in the last couple hours. We can't just wait around here."

"We should've brought our links."

"No point in dwelling on what we should've done now, Emma. It's already the afternoon we better get moving," the feral said as she reached into the cooler to remove another bottled water. She turned back to Emma and tugged at her shoulder to get her to follow her. "We better get goin'. Come on."

Emma sighed and followed the feral as the two began to make their way down the deserted road.

"Shal, I don't even see anything up ahead. How far until the next rest stop?"

"I don't know but we have to keep going. Can you pick up the pace a little?" Shalimar turned behind her to gesture with her eyes that Emma was walking a little too slowly. Emma frowned in discomfort as she walked in her wet pants.

"I'm so glad you decided to take me here instead of falling for one of those Paris getaways like some sucker," Emma said in complete sarcasm. Shalimar frowned angrily but didn't allow the psionic to see it.

"Maybe if we'd stopped for directions like I wanted to, we would've noticed there was something wrong with the car then," Emma informed as she walked slightly faster to catch up to only a few steps behind the feral. She took out the map she'd stuffed in her back pocket. "It says there's supposed to be a rest stop here. So does that mean we're not only broke down but also on the wrong road too?"

Emma's words only further annoyed the feral and she ticked and kept walking without looking back.

"Maybe," Shalimar snickered. "And thanks for doubting my directions by the way," she said in a huff of sarcasm.

"You were wrong."

"That's beside the point. The point is that you doubted me."

"You doubted me too," Emma quickly reminded the feral as to not be the only one subjected to the blame game. "You doubted my intuition and refused to stop when I asked you too."

"I just wanted us to get there as soon as possible is that so wrong?"

"No," Emma said in an annoyed sarcasm, "and thanks for making sure all the proper precautions were made." Emma whipped her brow as she felt sweat starting to drip down her forehead from the intense humidity. "You wanted us to do something together. Now we're dying together you happy, hun?" Emma sighed loudly and took another chug from her bottled water.

The two continued walking on in silence for an hour with no signs of anywhere to stop. Emma's annoyance quickly grew with each passing moment and she began to wish she was back home. As her pants had finally dried from the heat beating down on her she looked up to the sky as she began to feel drops falling onto her sweaty arms. Within seconds it began to downpour on the two of them.

"Damn it!" Shalimar bite out as the rain beat down uncontrollably upon her.

"Well," Emma began sarcastically as she walked through the mud that was quickly building up and covering her shoes, "this sure is fun, Shal. How ever are you gonna top this trip? Maybe we could go skydiving without parachutes or something, or am I ruining next months plans?"

"I love the way you always make everything so much better, sweetie," Shalimar said sarcastically as the raindrops dripped down her face to her already soaking wet top. She pushed a strand of her wet hair from her face and looked off further into the distance.

"Hey, look, there's something up there," Shalimar informed her as she pointed into the distance where they could vaguely make out a building.

"Is it a bus full of people on an 'it could be worse tour'?"

"No, it's a building."

"Finally," Emma said in relief.

The two made their way through the mud as they followed the road to the building up ahead. As they got closer they were able to see a large sign on top that told them it was a diner. As the thunder cracked loudly above them they made their way through the doors and inside. Upon entering they began to shake themselves off and looked around. They saw a few couples sitting in some booths by the window and two men sitting separately at the stools up front. They all turned around to inspect the new intruders and then quickly went about their business.

The girls studied the diner some more. They saw a couple dart boards, arcade machines, a soda machine, and a long counter with stools around it. Shalimar gestured with her head for Emma to follow her as the two made their way to the counter. As soon as they approached a tall, dark haired man smiled and came to stand before them on the other side.

"Hey there, what can I get you?" he asked.

"A ticket to Paris and a new outfit," Emma replied as she leaned on a stool, "but for now I'll just settle for a coke."

"Same here," Shalimar agreed.

"Two cokes it is," the man said with a smile as he reached below and handed them each a soda.

The girls placed their empty water bottles on the counter top and opened their cans.

"Excuse me, sir," Shalimar began, "can you tell me where we are?"

"Route twenty two."

"Twenty two?" Shalimar echoed in surprise. "I thought the sign I saw said forty two."

"It used to be forty two," the man explained. "They changed it last year."

"Who would've known that?" Emma asked sarcastically as she set her coke back down, "besides the people at one of the rest stops I wanted to stop for directions at." Emma said as she made an I told you so face at Shalimar.

"Well, the map didn't have it detailed correctly," Shalimar argued in a snippy tone. "I'm sorry ok." She finally said in a confessing huff. "I was wrong. Maybe we should've stopped for directions." She hated having to admit that but realized she might as well as she'd already clearly made a mistake.

"I wish I had thought of that," Emma snickered sarcastically. Shalimar looked over to her with an annoyed look that displayed her obvious discomfort. Emma brought her soda up to take another drink and paused as she brought it back down. "Or maybe if you'd listened to me," she said softly.

"Emma, you won. You don't need to spike the ball too."

Emma shrugged her shoulders and took another sip of her soda. After the two of them finished their sodas they headed into the bathroom to get as cleaned up as they could. Emma whipped the large clumps of mud off her shoes but couldn't get it out of all the holes. When they finished they headed back into the diner.

"Excuse me," Shalimar said loudly as to get the attention of the few people in there, "our car broke down and we were wondering if anyone could give us a lift to a body shop or something so we could buy a new battery?" at first there was a silence following her question.

"I came on that scooter out there," a man on a stool finally replied. "I don't have any room for you two on it. I think your best bet is to call a tow truck. Better hurray though; it'll be dark in about an hour."

"I don't know where there are any body shops," the other man replied, "I'm just passing through."

Shalimar sighed as the two of them headed over to the counter once more.

"Do you have a phone we could use?"

"I'm gonna go sit in one of the booths," Emma said in a sigh as she headed off to let Shalimar deal with the problems some more. She made her way across the diner to a small booth by a window in the front and sat down. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had such a bad day in her whole life. She'd always thought that her worst day with Shalimar was still better than her best day without Shalimar and felt like this was the ultimate test of that theory. She reached down to rub her ankle as she felt the pain from her spraining it beginning to come back again. Regardless of all that had happened she was still happy to be with Shalimar, but that was as far as it went. She'd be very content right now for the Helix to come pick them up and take them home. All she wanted was to take a warm bath and cuddle up inside her soft bed in the arms of Shalimar. A few moments later Shalimar made her way to the booth and stood beside Emma.

"You ok?" she asked the clearly disgruntled psionic.

"No," she answered without hesitation.

"You want some ice for your ankle?" the feral asked as she looked down to see Emma rubbing it.

"Yeah."

"I'll be right back," Shalimar replied and left the table once more. When she returned she handed an ice pack to Emma and placed two cokes down on the table as she slid into the booth across from the psionic.

"Thanks," Emma said as she held the ice pack over her ankle.

"I have some bad news," the feral began. Emma looked up with full eyes that told the feral how she couldn't take anymore.

"What, we're not gonna make the shock therapy treatments in time?" she said in sarcasm to cover up how hurt she was feeling.

"They can't send a tow truck or a mechanic 'til the morning," Shalimar informed her.

"What? Well, what are we gonna do?"

"There's a small inn next door with a couple rooms. There aren't any more rooms but the bartender works there and said for a reduced fee we can sleep on the couches. We can call the auto shop in the morning and have them bring the battery to us then."

Emma let out a sigh at the sound of the ferals' words. Shalimar reached out and held Emma's hand across the table.

"Why don't you get some dinner ok? I'll order you something. What are you in the mood for?"

"Nothing."

"You have to eat something," the feral pleaded with her. Shalimar looked up to see a pretty, young waitress headed over to them.

"You all need to order?" she asked.

"Just a salad will be fine," Emma said unenthused.

"Anything for you?" the girl asked as she turned to Shalimar.

"No, thanks."

"Ok, I'll be back soon," she said as she smiled and left the table.

"Em," Shalimar began as she noticed the distanced look on the psionics' face, "you wanna talk about what happened back there?"

"About your doubting me and getting us lost? No, not really. I think it speaks for itself."

"Emma, we can't continue the rest of the trip like this. Can't we just talk about it a little?"

"Shal, this isn't a good time ok. I'm really not in the mood." Emma's mood was quickly changing from sad to annoyed as the feral tried to open their lines of communication.

"What? What do you mean you're not in the mood?"

Emma made a face as if to say she didn't understand the ferals' question. How could Shalimar not see why she wouldn't be in the mood for a discussion at this time?

"Um, Shal, in case you've forgotten let me remind you, I'm soaking wet, I'm in pain, I'm cold, and somewhere in Paris there's a couple going 'ahhh'," Emma said in a sigh of relaxation to rub it in further to the feral.

"Ok, I can see why you think I deserve that." Shalimar paused as she questioned whether she should just back off and let the psionic be. She wanted to fix their problems but also didn't want to create any more either.

"Em-"

"Shal," Emma cut her off, "can we just talk about it later please. I'm tired enough."

Shalimar stayed silent in agreement and let out a sigh as she leaned back in the booth.