Her eyes were tearing from the smoke that billowed up around her. Her throat was burning and her lungs were beginning to ache from the effort of breathing. She could see Evangeline through the haze struggling to break free. It looked like they really were going to be a united front after all. After her campaign to win back from John from this woman it was a surprising end, them together.

The effort of struggling with her bonds and with consciousness was getting to heavy. Too hard.

She got an extra shot of adrenaline as John burst into the room. Her vision was too blurry to see the expression on his face as the struggle he had played out in the relative safety of his personal life was suddenly and vividly made into a matter of life and death. Despite his claim that he did not love her, that they were not soul mates it was not until that moment that Natalie finally believed what he had said.

The moment when he turned towards Evangeline and away from her.

She felt the flames edged closer, the heat was now searing in her throat and lungs. She had to close her eyes to stop them from burning.

She felt the first fame lick at her fingers. She couldn't move her hands for the bonds. Her sneakers began to melt to her feet. She was slowly burning alive, but she did not have the gift of unconsciousness as each nerve ending was pushed to the limit. She could smell her own flesh charring.

Natalie sat up in bed with a start and struggled to catch her breath. She could feel John's hand on her back and hear him whisper, but she couldn't hear him over the pounding of her heart. She fisted the flimsy motel covers in her hand as she sought to ground herself in reality. The eerie half light caused by the glare of the neon sign around the blinds only made it more difficult for her to convince herself that she was now awake and not in danger.

As her breathing slowed she could feel her body was slicked with sweat. The air conditioner had apparently given its final wheeze sometime after she fell asleep.

"Natalie!" John's worried tone finally penetrated and she turned and looked at him. He was wearing a wife beater tee and boxer shorts. Even in the shadows she could see he was worried. This was their third motel in as many days and each night after Jersey he had refused to sleep in the bed with her and each night she had awakened more than once with nightmares. Each time he was awake – she was sure that he was sleeping more than cat naps – and holding her and asking her about the dreams. Each was different and sometimes she told him, but sometimes she thought it better that she didn't. Like the dreams about Haver or Flynn.

John pressed a glass of water into her hand and began to wipe the tears and perspiration off her face. She hadn't even realized she had been crying in her sleep.

"Hey." John slid behind her on the bed and rubbed her arms to chase away the chills that shook her body.

"Sorry." Natalie put the half empty glass down on the nightstand.

John nuzzled her neck and wrapped her in his body.

"Tell me about it."

"I was back in the gym. With the fire." She turned her head and leaned it against his shoulder. He stroked her hair gently.

"When you went to save Evangeline I was burning alive." Natalie sighed and put her arms around him. They sat silently for a few moments.

"John?" Natalie was stroking the bare skin peeping out between his mussed shirt and boxers.

"Hmm?"

"What happened in the gym? I don't remember anything after you went to get Evangeline down. Did they take me down while you took her outside?"

"No." John's voice was also a vibration against her ear. "I took you down first. put you on the gym floor and when I went to get Evangeline they took you."

"You got me first?" Natalie shifted so that she could face him. "How? You were heading towards her, I remember that."

"I turned around and saw you were unconscious. I went and got you down first."

Natalie processed this for a moment. "Why did you turn around?" she finally asked.

John put his hand on the back of her neck and tilted his head towards hers. "I just had to." He shook his head to convey that it was a mystery to him why he couldn't turn away from her.

"Is that how you hurt your hand?"

John shrugged the comment away, but a small smile touched his lips.

"Will you stay with me the rest of the night?"

"That's not a good idea." John cleared his throat.

"I don't have nightmares when you're near." She acknowledged to herself that it was a bit of a dirty play, but it was also true. The lack of sleep was beginning to wear on her during the day and John knew it. She could see the struggle in his eyes.

"I'll behave. Girl scount's honor." She held up three fingers.

"Were you ever a girl scout?" He teased.

"A brownie, for a while."

John kissed her forehead. "If you behave yourself." Despite his words he pulled her towards him and initiated a passionate kiss.

"No fair," Natalie mumbled against his lips when she pulled away.

He shrugged, completely unrepentant.

"I'm going to go shower." She got up and began to strip off the t-shirt she was sleeping in. She was completely naked before she got to the bathroom. She turned her head and looked at him looking at her before she walked into the dark room, not bothering to close the door.

"No fair."

She heard his complaint right before she turned on the water.

>>>>>>

"Do you really think we still need to run?" she asked as they packed up their few belongings for another day on the roads. "Can't we just stay here for a while?"

"Well." She looked around the crappy room. "Not here exactly, but not drive all day."

"We need to keep moving. Bo says he's been told that it shouldn't be much longer. There was a glitch in the arrests they were counting on, but that should be resolved."

He looked up at her worried expression. "No word on Cristian. Or Agent Kelly."

Natalie nodded and looked down at her knapsack.

John wished there was something he could say to ease her worry, but it would all be lies.

"Hungry?" he asked as she lifted her bag and met him at the door.

She shook her head and walked past him into the early morning light.

>>>>>>

They were just passing out of New Hampshire into Maine when the encrypted phone rang.

Natalie opened it and waited for the other person to speak first as John had instructed days ago. No one spoke, but she could tell the line was open.

She looked worriedly as John. He glanced over and reached out to take the phone.

"Natalie."

"Cristian! Oh my god, where are you? Are you all right?"

"Natalie, Iisten to me. They know where you are."

"Why? How do you know? Where are you?"

"Don't worry about me. Just tell McBain they know where you are and you need to disappear."

"How do they know where we are?"

"They've been following you since the safe house."

"Where are you? Are you safe?"

"I love you, Natalie."

Cristian hung up.

"Cristian!" she cried futilely into the phone.

John pulled off the highway onto a state road and then into a clearing.

"He said they're following us. That they have been since the safe house. Why haven't they tried to get us? He won't tell how he knows or where he is. They must have him. How did he get this number?" The words tumbled off her lips as quickly as the thoughts came through her head.

"Damn." John cursed and hit the steering wheel. He knew they should have ditched the car days ago.

"There's no number on the caller id."

"We need to ditch the car and find another mode of travel."

"I don't see anyone behind us." Natalie craned her neck and watched out the back window. Then she looked out the open window and tried to see if there were any helicopters that could be tracking them.

"What in the hell is going on, John?" Natalie demanded.

John pulled off the road towards a sign that said "Ogunquit, Population 974."

>>>>>

A/N - honest, that's a real place!