Mac picks up a hitchhiker on the way home.

So the title and idea for this chapter came from someone I work with (I'm a nurse). One day at work I was discussing religion, and my friend turned to me and said, "Remember Krissy, the devil is a gentleman." Well, if that doesn't describe Mac, at least in this story, although I feel like it's all my stories. To me, he is a seducer and very seductive so this chapter title fits. :)Also, when I first wrote it, it was just a few paragraphs that I didn't even like too much, but as usual Magenta talked some sense into me and said it has to be its own chapter. So thank you girl :)

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Chapter Text

The drive back to Utah was not nearly as horrible as the drive to California, and there were a lot of reasons for that. For one thing, Mac was much less wired up and tense, he and Lucy had spent two days together holed up in the hotel room, eating takeout and never even got out of bed.

That was his kind of weekend for sure, Chinese food, reading, and dirty sex had improved his mood twenty fold at least. He didn't like fighting with her, never had, even when they were kids. But, sometimes he and Lucy were like oil and water, and they always had been. Maybe it was the close bloodline, that was always on his mind, they both had so many of the same traits. Their tolerance for each other's bullshit was low. She was the only girl in his history that gave it right back to him.

Both of them were stubborn and if they thought they were right about something they would never let it go. It seemed also that they would never let go of each other, that was both comforting and disturbing at the same time. They were bound by more than blood now and blood would always bind them too.

He had taught her how to walk, how to drive a car, how to fuck. I always loved you more.

Mac drove along the long stretch of highway thinking about her, the way she accepted him, and accepted what he could give her. In his mind, it wasn't much, and she deserved better, a better man who she could marry one day and have children with. As much as he tried to push her away, because he did do that sometimes unknowingly by not returning calls and ignoring texts, she just kept coming back. Lucy really loved him and maybe it wasn't up to him to decide for her what she wanted.

If she wanted a tweaked up nut job, who was he to argue with her? He just found out where arguing got him, and he didn't like that feeling at all. The thought of losing her for good was why he drove to beat the devil to get to her. Being with Lucy like this now as lovers, was amazing, even fighting with her was an exhilarating free fall and he was in this with her; wherever it went he was going.

She didn't complain about what he could not give her, fidelity or a straight life with children someday, she concentrated on the good things about him. He didn't get it at all but maybe he wasn't supposed to, as a man who struggled to find answers to so many questions about himself this might be a question he would be stumped on forever.

They could never even hold hands in public at home, but the next time he went to visit her he planned to take her out and do that. No one would know them, they would just be another couple among the crowd with their hands intertwined. He could hold her hand and kiss her and no one would bat an eye, and no one would tuck the knowledge away to use against him, or judge her.

He didn't trust any of those jerk offs at home not to hassle her because of him, they all knew they were close anyway. If anyone suspected how close it would be hell for her. Most people already knew the way to get to him was her, they couldn't know just how easy it would be.

Just as he arrived in Carson City, he saw a girl with dark braids standing by the side of the dusty road with her thumb out. He shook his head as he slowed down next to her. Didn't girls know not to do that? Had she never heard of Ted Bundy? Mac picked her up and drove her all the way to the border of Utah, a place where Ted Bundy actually hunted. His crimes were in Washington State, Colorado, Utah, and Florida. Mac had read about him years ago, when he was still in school, searching for himself in the pages of a book on serial killers.

The girl was friendly and sweet; they talked some and she told him she was on her way to Salt Lake City for a new job. He told her he was returning home from visiting a friend, his best friend actually and that was true.

The girl reminded him of Lucy, all dark haired girls did really, he would never put his hands on a girl with dark hair because of her. They were all Lucy in his eyes, he could never hurt them.

The girl named Jenny Ridgeway talked with excitement about her new job and Mac told her about Lucy. He left out certain facts of course, like the fact that they were closely related, but it felt good to talk to someone about her. He never got to say she was his and it felt good to say it out loud, to say her name out loud, and to claim her, even to a stranger.

"You got a girl, Mac?" She had asked after they made small talk as much as they could.

"Yeah, just on my way back from seeing her," He answered.

"What's her name?"

"Lucy," He answered.

"Lucy in the sky with diamonds, I like it." She grinned, "Sweet Lucy was a dancer, but none of us would chance her..." She sang an old Deep Purple song that he knew, thanks to Walter and he cracked a slight smile.

The girl was peculiar to him, but who was he to judge anyone? She had one backpack only and looked like she very recently could have been homeless, but she would be good company. He doubted there was any job in Salt Lake, but that wasn't his business. The drive was better with company, there was no question about that.

Mac had already decided to take her as far as he could, to keep her off the roads and from getting in the car with the wrong person. She said she wasn't afraid, and that she could read people's intentions towards her, but he didn't believe that at all. If she wasn't dark haired his intentions would have been totally different and he would have charmed her into his car. He'd done it before, and probably would again, maybe he wasn't putting out that vibe and that's what she picked up on. But he doubted this girl was as good at reading people as she thought. Jenny chatted happily with him as if she didn't know he had blood on his hands.

When they stopped for coffee and something to eat at some dive truck stop the girl produced a deck of cards and told him she could tell his fortune. Mac asked if that was how she knew about people's intentions and she just smiled.

"Are you some kind of a psychic?"

"I'm Romani, Mac," As if that answered all his questions, and now he had more, curious by nature always, now he wanted to know all about her culture, "With a little psychic twinkle I guess."

As they sipped their coffee and ate their greasy but delicious burgers, he watched her lay down the cards in a gypsy spread. The girl knew what she was doing and he watched in amazement as she pointed to each card laid out on the table in the back of the restaurant where they sat.

As Jenny explained each card to him, he was fascinated by what she told him. He didn't know if he believed in this stuff or not, but he listened to her intently and she had much to say. She reminded him that she could only tell him what she saw and that the gift didn't always reveal everything a person wanted to know.

Obviously, since she had gotten in his truck with him, she didn't know what he was. The gift had failed her on that one in his opinion. As she turned the cards over one by one she told him what she saw for him, then laid them all out in front of him

She said he would have a prosperous life, money would always be available to him and in his pocket when he needed it. She said that he would love one woman for his entire life and they would have no children, and Mac raised his eyebrows a bit to that. That one was probably true. He noticed she scowled slightly as she said that, then she looked back up at him.

Jenny told him that someone close to him was not what they seemed, but couldn't say if it was a man or woman, just that Mac should be careful, and not give his trust to just anyone. She said he would be happy, but that happiness might bring him pain, she couldn't say for sure. He was used to pain, he even expected it, it followed him around like a dark spirit all his life. There were different kinds of pain, his was not physical it was mental and sometimes, most times he wanted to trade. Physical pain ended, eventually.

Then she leaned across the table and looked into his eyes.

"You're conflicted Mac, in a battle with yourself sometimes it seems to me," Jenny leaned forward, "Are you fighting a demon inside of you?"

He nodded, the idea of lying to her never occurred to him, "Sometimes I'm fighting it and sometimes not."

"You know, people need to accept themselves, just as they are. We only get one life Mac, live it the way you want to, with who you want to." She said, "Embrace your demon and make it your friend."

/

At the Utah border, it was time to drop her off and the thought of this girl hitch hiking worried him, it was a dangerous world, full of men like him. She was a woman on the road alone and vulnerable, and he hoped whatever talent for weeding out crazy people she had worked for her. He was continuing east and she was heading north to Salt Lake, he wished her well.

"It was nice meeting you Mac, thank you for your kindness," She leaned in the window and placed a sweet kiss on the side of his lips, "Take care of your Lucy, love her up," She won't be with you for long, she thought to herself and it was better not to tell him, maybe she was wrong, she hoped so, but she usually wasn't, "She loves you true."

"Here, you take this," He reached into the glove box and pushed the gun aside to grab a knife in a sheath and pressed it into her hand, "Be careful out the hitching Jenny."

"Thanks, Mac ."And there was a flash in her eyes for a moment, a sadness like she knew something as he placed the knife in her hand. He could see it plain as day, she was haunted by something, and it was something bad, "Take care," She whispered.

Mac wanted to ask her what was wrong, did she finally see the real him when she touched the knife? Their eyes met and she smiled, kissed him again and turned to go. Jenny walked away and one tear slid down her face for the man in the red truck. Her heart absolutely broke for him, he was so young, at least ten years younger than she was, with a long life ahead of him. His girl would die young, he would never love another woman for the rest of his life. Jenny didn't know how Lucy would die, just that she would and he would never get over it. Whatever conflict she had sensed in him was deep, he was at war with himself and battling his true nature, she hoped one day he would find peace, but she didn't think he would.

"You take care too," He called out to her and she turned, "Remember what they say Jenny you need to be careful out there, the devil is a gentleman."