Chapter Nineteen: Open Road
It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters in the end.—Ursula K. Le Guin

"April, please don't make me go in there." Roger and April had stopped just outside the door of April's parent's house, Roger giving April a pleading look. "I really don't think this is a good idea."

"Why not?" she asked, knowing full well the answer. She'd asked Roger over to have dinner with her parents and Chris while the twins were spending the night with one of their friends, and she had rather expected some resistance. Actually, she'd anticipated a bit more opposition than this last-minute protest…

"Parents don't usually like me," he said simply, and April grinned.

"Hmm, I wonder why… Oh, don't give me that look, I'm kidding. Besides, you can't back out now. They're expecting you. Now come on." She opened the front door, put her hand flat against his back, and shoved him inside before he could protest. He almost ran into Chris, who had just reached the bottom of the stairs right before April opened the door. The two men just watched each other for a moment, and April grinned upon realizing that Chris stood a couple inches taller than Roger. It wasn't often Roger had to look up to meet someone's eyes.

After a second Roger extended his hand to shake, not quite as outwardly nervous as he had been before, but still a little tense to April's eyes. "Hi, I'm Roger Davis."

"Chris. April's brother. Nice to meet you."

"You too," Roger said, even as he cast April a sideways glance that plainly asked, Can I please leave now? It was all April could do not to dissolve into laughter.

"Now that wasn't so bad, was it?" April asked Roger as the two of them walked out to Roger's car. "You survived."

Roger didn't say anything for a moment, and at last he said, "I think your brother actually threatened me."

"He did not!" April said with a smile, and then hesitated, reconsidering that automatic objection. "Did he?"

"When you were out of the room." Roger glanced over at her, and gave her a wry smile. "The standard older brother warnings, but somehow it's a lot more convincing coming from him."

"Chris isn't scary," April protested.

"Yeah, not to you. You're his sister. He doesn't threaten you with serious bodily harm." As he reached the car, he pulled open the car door, but didn't get in yet, turning to face her. Roger didn't quite want to go back to the cheap hotel room he was renting while he stayed out here, not just yet. He took her hand gently and leaned down to kiss her briefly, meeting her eyes when he stepped back.

"You almost ready to come home? I know the others are probably missing you back there, and I know that you miss them. And the city too. I mean, I miss it, so I'd guess that you..." He fell silent for a moment. "Besides, I miss having you beside me when I wake up. I miss falling asleep next to you. I just… wish you could…"

She nodded. "I know. I think I might be ready to go home soon. Tomorrow, the day after that… Soon." She kissed him, and smiled up at him brightly. "You're going to drive me home, right?"

"Absolutely." He released her hand and got into the car, looking up at her. "Say the word and we'll go, as soon as you want to."

"Do you know the way to Santa Fe?" Roger hummed softly, hands on the wheel, eyes on the road ahead.

April looked up from the map. "You're not going to stop humming that, are you?"

He glanced over at her, grinned. "No. I like the song."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "That's not the song. It's 'Do you know the way to San Jose.'"

"But we're not going to San Jose," he said, looking back to the road, just a path of black pavement and white lines that wound off to the horizon through the red-tinted desert landscape. There weren't any of the familiar cacti along the side of the road, but some cactus-like plants that were close enough to it. Anyway, it didn't look like what Roger would think a desert would, not flat and open straight to the horizon, but dramatic ridges, cliffs, mesas. And there wasn't another car on the highway, just him and April and the open sky.

"We should be there by midnight," April said after a while, staring out the window.

"Huh?"

"Santa Fe. We should be there by midnight. Maybe before."

Roger nodded. "Beautiful. We'll make it before then."

She smiled. "I'm sure we will, with you driving eighty miles an hour..."

"Well, there's no one to catch me all the way out here," he answered with a cocky smirk.

"Just as long as you don't get us both killed."

"Come on, I know better than that."

April just shook her head, still smiling a little, and fell silent, her forehead pressed against the car window as she sat there with her knees pulled up to her chest, arms wrapped around her legs. At last, she commented, "Sunset's pretty over the mountains like that."

"It is," he said quietly. After a minute or two, he said, "Maybe I ought to move out here some time." He saw her questioning look out of the corner of his eye, and half-turned to smile at her. "It's nice out here. And at least it wouldn't be too cold like it is back home. Wouldn't have to spend another winter without heat…"

She didn't say anything for some time, and finally looked over at him, smiling almost shyly. "If you do move out here, eventually… can I come with you?"

Roger returned her smile, taking his eyes from the road to look over at her. "Of course you can, angel. Wouldn't dream of leaving you behind."