Cooper looks out the window, careful not to disturb the curtains. He can see the motel parking lot, which has a few parked cars, flickering lights and little else; even the traffic on the highway is light. It's pretty much automatic now, as soon as they get a room Sam settles Blaine in and Cooper immediately pulls the curtains closed and then starts keeping watch out the windows. It doesn't matter that they haven't seen their pursuers for weeks or that Blaine could tell them if they were close, Cooper needs to keep watch. It's one of the few things he can do.

He sees Sam come out of the bathroom where he led Blaine to earlier. Sam looks exhausted. He doesn't blame him; they've been on the road for almost ten hours. Fortunately he can see from Sam's face that it's only exhaustion. Three months together and he has learned to read the young man really well.

"How is he?" Cooper asks. A variation of the same question he always asks as soon as they settle into whatever motel room, hotel room, barn or shed they find.

"The water is cooling him down," Sam replies. He grabs Blaine's bag and pulls out some clothes: sweat pants and a t-shirt. Gone are the silk pyjamas, the designer clothes, the bowties, even the gel. Life on the run has made them stick to the light and practical. Besides, they have to blend in, not stand out.

Cooper nods and walks towards the beige dinette table that came with their room and starts to lay out their map. He hears Sam walk back into the bathroom, presumably to check on Blaine and to leave him his clothes. Less than a minute later Sam joins him, looking at the map spread out before them. Cooper relaxes some more, if Sam isn't hovering over Blaine, then there isn't anything to worry about.

"We should be there by tomorrow night," Cooper says confidently. "I think we can risk driving there directly. At this point trying to be clever is going to do more harm than good." Cooper looks up at Sam to see if he agrees. It doesn't matter that there is at least a ten-year gap between them, after everything they've been through, as far as Cooper is concerned, Sam and he are equals.

Sam keeps his eyes on the map, mentally tracing their route from Lima, Ohio. He nods thoughtfully, agreeing with Cooper. "Yeah," he says and also adds, "we either lost them by now or they have gotten better at hiding that even Blaine can't sniff them out. If that's the case, I don't want Blaine to suffer any more than he has to."

Cooper looks up concerned, "Has it gotten worse?"

Sam meets Cooper's eyes and smiles at him without humor. "No, but I don't want him to go through it if he doesn't have to."

Cooper looks back down at the map guiltily. "We had to take a round-about route, Sam, they can't know where we are going or they would have cut us off—"

"We know that, Coop." The familiar, tired voice makes Cooper's heart ache. He looks up to see his baby brother standing there in his sweatpants and shirt, his dark curls still wet from his shower. Sam immediately walks to his side, eyes checking him out even though he just left him a few minutes ago. Blaine bears the scrutiny with gentle patience and holds out his hand absently which Sam gratefully takes as soon as he makes himself certain that Blaine is okay.

"We all decided that this was the best way to go," Blaine continues as if nothing interrupted him. "Don't feel bad about it. I prefer feeding on wild things anyway, less human connections, you know?"

Cooper gives Blaine a smile but he knows as soon as Blaine goes through the cravings again and the guilt that follows after he satisfies it, he's going to question that decision; even now, when they are so close to their goal he's wondering if taking the long way was the right choice. Blaine sits down on one of the beds. Seeing him settling down, Sam goes into the bathroom. Cooper absently hears the shower go on.

"The dog was a pet?" Cooper asks. He knows how much Blaine loves dogs and the idea of feeding on them was abhorrent to him, knowing it belonged to someone made it worse—he felt like he killed someone's family. But Cooper felt that a dog that was allowed to run loose, especially at night, was not some loved member of the family. Besides, he would offer a unicorn up to Blaine if it meant his brother wouldn't go through the cravings. Suppressing the frenzy that followed a feeding was hard enough on him, wallowing in needless guilt didn't help. But then if he didn't, he wouldn't be Blaine and after everything that has happened, Cooper has learned to appreciate his younger brother, quirks and all.

Blaine nods and Cooper squeezes his brother's arm in sympathy. The problem was that Blaine formed an empathic connection to his...prey. It didn't make it easier for Blaine—feeling his...targets'...death throes—even though he knew far worse things can happen if he didn't feed at all. It only makes Them all the more monstrous.

"So...tomorrow night?" Blaine asks, changing the subject as he usually does when they lead to his feeding habits.

Cooper nods, allowing the subject change—there really wasn't anything else to say about it that hasn't been said before. "We'll be in Beacon Hills around eight at the earliest. I think we should skip finding a motel. The sooner we get this done, the better."

Blaine nods in agreement and a companionable silence descends; only the sounds of the shower, the whirr of the air-conditioning unit and the odd truck or car on the highway fill the room. Cooper used to hate the quiet. He used to have a need to make some noise, either by playing music or by talking. But now he's learning to enjoy the quiet. It means safety, it means rest, and it also allows him to hear if anyone tries to come close.

"Coop," Blaine says, breaking the silence. Cooper looks up and sees Blaine looking at him, his hazel eyes open and vulnerable in a way he hasn't seen in a long time. "Thank you. I mean it, thank you for doing this," Blaine's voice breaks as tears start to form. Cooper immediately rushes to him and puts his arms around Blaine, hugging him tight. Blaine returns the hug and leaves Cooper breathless, Blaine is usually very good at remembering that his strength has increased since...the change but apparently tonight Blaine's too caught up in his emotions to be careful.

"Shhh...shhh...it's okay," Cooper says, trying to soothe his baby brother.

"You didn't have to do this but you gave everything up for me," Blaine continues, hiccupping through his tears.

"What are you talking about?" Cooper smiles at Blaine. "I didn't give anything up. You're my brother; I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be."

Blaine smiles up at him just as the door of the bathroom swings open revealing a very wet, very naked Sam. Sam quickly looks around the room.

"Are you okay? I felt Blaine's upset, did they find us?"

Blaine mouths a 'sorry' at Cooper but Cooper just rolls his eyes and grins at Blaine. He's too used to moments like this and it doesn't really bother him anymore. Not that it ever did.

"Sam, it's okay," Blaine says calmly, trying to gain control of his emotions. "It's just that we're so near that I let myself go, you know? There's no danger."

Sam turns to face Blaine and kneels in front of him, searching out his face. Blaine puts his hand on Sam's shoulder and meets Sam's eyes, showing him that he just had a brief loss of control. Sam relaxes and nods. He then seems to realize his undressed state but he doesn't blush, between these two he has nothing to hide or be ashamed of.

"I better grab a towel, I'm leaving a puddle," Sam says getting up and heading to the bathroom. "Bathroom's yours, Coop," Sam says as he grabs a towel and dries himself off while bringing out the clothes he was wearing earlier.

Cooper nods and prepares for his own shower. He squeezes Blaine's shoulder and gets up, starting to undress.

Much later, Cooper is on the single bed working on his laptop. On the queen-sized bed beside him, Blaine and Sam are sleeping together with Sam spooning Blaine. Cooper smiles at the peaceful sight but he knows that both would go from deep sleep to wide awake in a split-second if they have cause.

Their bags are already packed as always. They never let their stuff spread out, even if they are staying in a place for more than a day or two, they are always ready to go in an instant. He sighs and goes back to work. He's been spending his nights in the past two weeks this way, making sure that Pamela's journal was scanned and transcribed correctly into a digital format.

They are after two things: Pamela's journal and Blaine. He realized that Pamela's journal may even be worth more to Them than Blaine so he wants to make sure they are free to use it as leverage if they have to but Cooper doesn't want to go without the information in it. It has literally saved their lives, especially Blaine's, on more than one occasion.

Soon after realizing his need to make a copy of the journal, he convinced the other two to stay an extra day in some small town in South Dakota (or was it Nebraska?) where he was able to get high-quality scans of the journal's pages. Not everything in the journal is text. There are illustrations and runes and symbols; and Word doesn't come with a 'magic symbol' font. He's been making sure the digital and the actual journal match up. He figured dealing with magic, he better be exact. Aside from being a back-up (and easier to search for stuff), he wants a digital copy because if he has to, he'll trade the actual journal for help without them losing any advantage giving up the actual journal will cause.

Pamela did say that the druids would give much for it.

Unfortunately, while the journal may be enough to get the druids' help; it isn't the druids he needs to convince. He has to convince the ones whose territory they were going to have to enter; the ones who are the undisputed guardians and keepers of the Nemeton. And they are not happy about beings like Blaine.

He would have to deal with the Hales.