A/N: If you're still following, thank you – I'm working on mapping out more now. Also, if I get any of my information on America wrong, please let me know.
Spencer and Hanna are settled into something that passes for a routine in Louisville when Hanna cracks. One day when Spencer is working, mopping floors and Hanna is baby-sitting, she makes her excuses to the kid she's looking after. Stammers a story about train timetables and jumps on the family computer, logs on to Facebook and scrolls through.
Dozens of notifications pop up and she skims over the list of people currently online, clicks open a name to start a chat.
Realises what she's doing and stops cold.
That afternoon when Spencer comes back to the motel, she twists her fingers around each other, watches as the blood flow to her hands alters with each rhythm. She tells her what happened, how she just wanted one quick peek, just to see what was going on, and Spencer's eyes darken until she looks like a storm cloud.
Hanna can almost hear Spencer's mind whirring over this, running through the implications of a new sign-in email being generated to her account, triggering something in her emails that could find her. She remembers on occasion, signing into her emails from a new device – sometimes they include physical, geographical, location.
Spencer turns away and whips through packing her bag, and Hanna does the same in silence. She wonders if Spencer still wants to travel with her.
"Let's go, now," is all that Spencer says, and Hanna follows quietly as they hurry out the motel.
(they've perfected the art of hurrying without looking like it)
She slips the roll of cash from baby-sitting into Spencer's bag and hangs back as she studies the departures board. The train station is mainly deserted at this time of day, people still in work or school and not needing to be anywhere else just yet. At the sight of the cash, Spencer seems to relax a bit, and she buys two tickets to Wyoming, adds a third that will go from Philadelphia to Wyoming.
They sit on the train and Spencer deliberately doesn't reprimand Hanna. They're already running, already wrenching apart their routines to get out before A lands.
Both girls keep a vigilant watch for anyone with a hoodie, and they relax when they don't see any.
(Hanna wishes she'd deleted the account when she had the chance)
Spencer withdraws an envelope from her bag, writes Emily's name and address, and begins the note to bring her away from Philadelphia. It'll be harder to do, Emily is the most loyal. She'll want to stick around just for the sake of not leaving Aria on her own, Spencer thinks, but she turns over in her head what she's going to say.
They take it in turns to nap, Hanna's head on Spencer's shoulder and Spencer's head leaning against the cold glass. Neither girl makes mention of the discomfort, though Spencer is tempted to mention how she used to do this when she was traveling alone – used to curl herself up as small as possible, trying to fit her body under a coat or jumper that didn't quite have the length for it. She's tempted to fill this in as a story for Hanna, a piece of her history that she doesn't share with anyone else – changes her mind, because it's not going to do any good.
She writes on the paper, Hanna's safe. I'm safe. We miss you. I'm planning to bring Aria away soon. Meet us at the –
And she cuts off there because she doesn't know where yet. Doesn't know much about Wyoming beyond there's a university and museums and libraries.
She leaves the rest of the line blank and carries on writing. We'll be there at midday, you don't need to bring much more than a backpack. Cash, if you want to bring it. Destroy this letter. Wraps the ticket in the page and secures it in a book.
At the train station, she shakes Hanna awake and grabs a handful of tourist brochures from the stand, sifting through to find a good neutral meeting place. The National Museum of Wildlife Art jumps out at her, and she writes it into the space with a couple of notes that there should be a bus or something nearby.
The quiet that surrounds her and Hanna is a bit awkward. They've only had each other to rely on for days now, no-one else to buffer them when they clash. On any other day she might have chosen to call Aria first, make use of how well the girl can lie when needed, but she's working in some kind of reverse system. Aria's lying abilities are better served at home, where she can convince people that everything is just fine, pretend to not know what's going on around her, ignore the whispers as she disappears into another book.
Hanna doesn't have that ability, and Emily has always been the more neutral liar. It made sense when Spencer was thinking about it, but now her mind feels scrambled. She locates a post box and drops the letter in, jittery with sudden nerves. Maybe she should have created a dummy email, scrambled the trail five or six cities away, but then she's reminded that she isn't that good at technology.
Their cash is already running thin, and she hopes Emily will come.
(Emily is kind of a wildcard, in this case. Spencer is testing her loyalties, poking and prodding and asking which one matters most)
Already, Hanna has migrated to be a few paces away while Spencer breathes in and out, trying to calm her nerves. There's a community corkboard, so she guesses the town they have landed in is pretty small, and Hanna tears a strip off a flier seeking a baby-sitter. It's actually less casual baby-sitter and more short-term nanny, and Spencer finds a waitress spot. All cash-in-hand, all discreetly off the books, but dodging financial records is just one more thing to add to their list of misdeeds.
They walk in companionable silence to a youth hostel, invent a story about taking time off college for a road-trip, and pay extra for a room that they don't have to share with six others. Spencer counts through the money, shaky fingers and furrowed brows giving away her worry at what's left. In one situation it might be a lot, but if they don't get the cash jobs they need it's going to be very little very soon.
They'll need two rooms, once Emily arrives – that's not going to be for another week though, and she slouches on the bed, wanting to just go to sleep. Opposite her, Hanna is surprisingly bright-eyed and talking on a borrowed phone to the woman hiring the nanny. Spencer shuts her eyes and lets Hanna's voice drift over her, going in one ear and out the other.
She thinks about bookstores, and good coffee, and watching documentaries when she feels like it. I'll lie down just for a few minutes, she promises herself.
When she wakes up there's a note on the pillow and it seems that Hanna's already gone off to earn some cash. There's a hum of noise in the background, but the hostel itself is generally empty. Her head feels fuzzy, cotton-wool light, and she realizes she's been running on adrenaline since Hanna joined her, hasn't slept in days trying to force herself to adapt to new, new, new surroundings that much quicker.
Hanna will understand if she sleeps, takes this time out for herself.
(she double-checks the locks and tries to trap the window before sleep takes her)
Sleep comes quickly but restlessly. When Spencer wakes five and a half hours later she's unrested, eyes raw and gritty with sleep in the corners. It feels like she's spent the past days staring into computer screens with no rest, and when she looks in the mirror she can see how worn she looks.
(worn out, worn down, it's all the same)
She feels like a zombie version of herself.
(she gets up anyway, pushes herself to move, steals some makeup from Hanna's bag and pretends she doesn't feel ghoulish)
Maybe it's time for new identities.