Hiya people,

Thanks to all of you who take time to read this.

Great many thanks for my first reviewers: fizzleup (I'm glad you liked the idea!), CassandraLee1120, lena and elz! You're the reason that keeps me writing!

Note: we're not into NC-17, in fact, it won't be for a while. I guess this chapter is more PG-15 for language and light sexual reference, but nothing graphic. I may be way out of my leagues, but hey, I'm Swiss and not all that familiar with the American or British rating systems….

Now on with the fic

« I want you to stick with me. »

This time, she really faced him, her mouth open but no sound coming out of it, shellshock. She waited for him to clarify, hell, she half-expected him to tell her he was joking. But he had long ago turned his attention back to the road again, obviously done with his contribution to the discussion, and the guarded expression on his face already told her he was dead serious.

She wondered if she had heard him right. This was certainly not what she had envisioned, the words she had expected to hear more in the lines of "blowjob" or ….whatever sexual preference he had. She was ready for that, or so she told herself. At least, if she had been lucky enough, he wouldn't want anything too sick and she could have …. whatever he wanted and be done with it. She had just never thought this situation would last beyond the trip till the next city. This simple sentence just opened far away horizons she didn't even have the strength to consider. She started to feel fear again coil itself at the pit of her stomach.

As if on cue, even before she could begin to shake, he was suddenly looking at her again and his intense gaze was piercing her soul before he retracted into himself. He seemed to be looking for words, almost talking but not really ready to. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and looking back at her, he finally explained.

"I want you to stick with me. For a while. Travel a lot, mostly to follow the fight circuit to make money. But soon there's gonna be too much snow on the road in that part of the country to go on, so I'm gonna hole up in a small cabin I have up north for the winter. There ain't much there. Hell, there's nobody else but me. I want ya to come with me and spend the winter there."

She slumped against the seat again, her stare lost somewhere in the distance between her and the dashboard. She tried to wrap her mind about what he just said. It just couldn't be….

"What about Bobby? He needs medical help, now!"

"I help you out and your boyfriend there until you can get your little friends to pick him up. But then you stay with me. For the winter. That's the deal, darlin'."

What? Did he want her as his maid or slave or something? She suddenly wanted to get mad. She hadn't escaped the torments of the lab to end up in the clutches of a psycho! She would have yielded if she'd had the energy left, if four days of running and constantly being on the lookout hadn't taken their toll on both her body and her mind. But truth was, she was awfully tired. Or how else could she explain the hint of curiosity among the general turmoil his proposition had caused in her?

Her voice only held sarcasm and disgust –at him or at her own weakness she didn't know.

"And what do you want to do with me there, hmm? Wait, let me guess, you wanted to have small talk on the couch by the fire while seeping your tea."

"No," she had expected him to get angry at her, but his voice was even, "I thought –I thought we get up there, and, ya know, live our life. I toldya, I'm on my own, I've been for as long as I remember."

"Oh, sure, and you've always turned down the women who throw themselves at you." That had been a little bit mad, on top of sarcastic. She didn't want to linger on the undercurrent of sadness she could have felt behind his last words.

"I didn't say that. I ain't no saint."

"So you want me for sex."

"Yeah, I thought about that, too."

Her eyes went wide, and she felt the tears she had fought so hard the last few days finally starting to spill out. She had guessed when the time would come, when she could finally allow herself, once back in the safe haven of the mansion, that she would dissolve into a fit of hysterics. But she wasn't now, the drops rolling down her face holding nothing hysteric, just bitterness. That must have startled him a bit, because she heard him add, in the softest tone of voice he had used so far:

"That's the deal I'm offerin' to ya. You can say yes or no. It's your call."

She let out a small, humourless laugh at that, the tears spilling now freely down her cheeks. "Yeah, right. And if I say no, you're just gonna throw the two of us out at once."

She saw him frown from the corner of her eye. "No, I ain't. Look, you said you're looking for a phone, right? Well, the point is, the whole region is cut from the rest. It was the last storm or somethin'. It's likely you'll need more than a ride till the next town before you can get somewhere where it still works." This piece of information wasn't comforting in the least. After a pause, and a deep breath, he continued: "I'm taking you till Laughlin City –that's the next place. But then you can choose. Either you say yes and I'll help you beyond that, or you say no, and you can ask someone else for help. I ain't gonna lie to you: over there, there are mostly truckers and rednecks. But usually the truckers are pretty decent. I'm sure you can find one who would lean you a hand. In fact, you might even be better off this way. It's up to you."

For a while, his offer was met with silence. But the tears were receding, and the wheels were starting to turn in her head. There was something that was giving her pause in her assessment of the situation, but she couldn't tell what. Something that didn't add up to the image of a sex-driven psycho, kidnapping a girl to have some whenever he wanted to. Something that stopped her from saying no at once, no matter how much it seemed to be the only answer that would at least salvage whatever dignity she still had left.

"Why?"

He didn't turn this time, but she could see an eyebrow arching.

"Why do you help us now? I thought you didn't want to, not without payment of some kind."

"Mmph. Nothing personal. But you said you were followed by guys from a lab, right? And I don't want to take chances with those fuckers." He shot her a quick glance of defiance, cutting short the obvious question that she would inevitably ask. She lowered her head. He continued: "But I'd been driving for a couple of hours before I found you. If they'd known you were hiding back there, they would already have caught up with us. So, until Laughlin, I guess that it's pretty safe. Besides, I would use the fuel anyway, whether I'm alone or with someone in here."

She took a few moments to chew on that. She was feeling less and less threatened, and more and more curious: she knew that reaction couldn't be rational, that it must be the depravation of food and sleep that was turning her inner alarms off. But it was still that very curiosity that had her ask:

"But why me?"

At first, she thought he hadn't heard her as he hadn't let on any notable sign that he might have, and she almost hoped he really hadn't. What a lame question, get to show how much of an idiot she could be at times. But after a while, and a shrug of his shoulders, she heard: "Can't say really. I just had to."

She couldn't help the retort, nor the acid sipping in her voice; she didn't understand the hurt and the disappointment she was feeling when she said it, either. "I was there. I was convenient"

"No, no it's not that. It's just –I don't know."

They rode the last hundred miles that were separating them from Laughlin City in uneasy silence.

Ok, I didn't plan to stop that soon at first, but suddenly it seemed better that way. That also means that part of the next chapter is already up, and that update is coming you way soon, SO BEWARE!!!!!!!