Author's Notes: I would like to dedicate this chapter to my shingu.

Rose Red: Model 85001

Chapter Nineteen

Van sat in the hanger reading his dad's notes and comparing them with information he'd found on the web about Folken's chopper. Folken told the press that his chopper could go five hundred kilometers per hour. Van scratched his head and messed up his black brown hair even more. From how his father intended Escaflowne to ride with the energist power, his dad thought it could go closer to six hundred. Van let his hands droop while he studied the propellers on Escaflowne. He didn't know if the machinery could stand to move that fast.

Van scowled and started walking. He was going crazy. He had too many problems to weigh.

Ring. Ring.

It was his phone. Sleeping Beauty Inc. was calling him. Even though they were the last people he wanted to talk to, it was probably better to hear what they had to say than not. "Hello," he answered.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Fanel. I'm not sure if you remember me. I was the client coordinator you worked with when you bought Rose Red: Model 85001."

"I remember you, but I'm not sure why you're calling me. I already sent an email to you guys telling you that I have no plans to sell Hitomi."

"Yes. We know. That's why I'm calling you. I thought it only proper to let you know that the party that wanted to purchase her from you was most unhappy when they learned of your unwillingness to sell. A gentleman named Allen Schezar is on his way to your property right now to make you an offer in person."

"How did he get my address?" Van asked – his temper seething.

"Uh …"

"I already know that your agency forwarded Allen my contact information just after her sale. I could sue you for breach of our confidentiality agreement."

"I know," she said tightly on the other end of the line. "That's why I'm also calling to inform you that we're refunding her entire purchase price."

"Are you saying I have to return her?"

"No. I'm saying that we would like to end our agreement with you by refunding the total cost of the model."

Van was supremely relieved, but he kept his voice unyielding. "When will the money be transferred?"

"In less than half a minute. I need your permission before going through with the transaction. Do I have your permission?"

"Yes."

"Thank you." There was a pause. "There. The money has been transferred. Thank you for your business. Please, take care, Mr. Fanel."

"Thanks." He hung up.

He stood there for a second and let the bad news and the good news filter through his processors. The bad news – Allen was coming here. Folken would probably fly him in via chopper, so Van didn't have much time. The good news – he had a full bank account.

He got out his pocket watch and called Hitomi into the hanger.

She came running. Van grinned when he saw her. She was wearing a yellow T-shirt, an old pair of his jeans that she'd cut off during renovations and a blue bandana around her neck. Pink cheeked and out of breath, she panted with a little stamp of her foot. "What's going on?"

"Allen is on his way."

"Here?" she gasped.

"Here." Van came over to her and shoved the keys to his truck into her hand. "I need you to drive to town. I'm going to fly Escaflowne to Dilandau's and meet you there. It's okay if Folken and Allen get into the lab. It sounds like Folken knows what's there already. What I need to do is get Escaflowne, and my father's plans for her out of here. You too. So, get in and drive to town, right now. I'll follow you and make sure you get there safely. Okay?"

Hitomi took the keys from him, planted a swift kiss on his cheek and got in the truck. She unrolled the window and he came over.

"Just start driving. I'll catch up."

She stalled the engine as she tried frantically to start it.

"Are you scared?"

"Nope," she declared, trying again and igniting the engine properly the second time. "I'm just going to do exactly what you tell me to do and I'm sure it will work out all right. After all, how bad could things be if we're not where the killer virus is?"

"Point taken. Drive safely and slowly if you need to. Don't put the truck in the ditch over nerves."

"I won't."

He nodded to her in a friendly sort of way, and then he remembered the peck she gave him. He stepped up so that he was leaning towards her in the cab. He put a hand on her cheek and helped her tilt her head towards her. "What you remembered didn't change how I felt about you. I'm glad we know what we're facing now."

"Each other?" she asked quietly, looking into his eyes.

"Yeah." He smiled. "We're facing each other, but because of you remembering everything, I now know how to deal with those guys. Don't worry about what happened back then with Allen. I'm not angry with you and I'll sort the rest out. Hopefully, we can give Folken something to satisfy him and send him packing."

"Does that mean you're coming back here after we drop off Escaflowne?"

"Probably."

"Why?" she wailed. "Just let them pick through what's in the basement and when they're finished we can come back and clean up the mess."

Van didn't answer her. For him, he couldn't even hear what she was saying, he was completely mesmerized by her coral coloured lips and without even thinking – he kissed her. He couldn't help it. This time she didn't fight against him or throw him off and instead she let him kiss her. When he was done and began to pull away, Hitomi followed him until her head was almost out the window. Van jumped down and waved goodbye to her.

He was completely satisfied. Not only had she kissed him back but now he got to watch her fumble with the gear shift. Her cheeks had the darkest rose flush and she was having trouble backing up. He smiled brilliantly as he watched her go around the corner. If that wasn't ecstasy then he didn't know what was. He put his hands in his pockets and strolled over to the drafting boards. He had to pack up.

Then he turned around and stared at Escaflowne. He'd just about made a huge mistake. He turned around and took off at a dead run towards Hitomi and the truck. He'd been thinking about kissing her, not about flying. Damn! Running like a mad man and screaming, she stopped right away.

Poking her head out the window she yelled to him, "What's the matter?"

He was out of breath and panting, but he stopped and rested his hands on his knees. For a second he couldn't bear to tell her his mistake and he just stood there looking and feeling kind of stupid.

She honked the horn. "What's wrong?"

He raised his head and smiled sheepishly. "I need you to pull Escaflowne out of the hanger for me."

Hitomi rolled her eyes and laughed. "Right."

After Hitomi helped drag Escaflowne out of the hanger she was about to head down the long driveway, when she realized that Van wasn't the only one who was forgetting things. She wanted to get a few things from the house. The drive to town wasn't short and she would surely die without a bottle of water and she reflected sadly – the first aid kit. She knew she shouldn't still want it. Van had told her repeatedly that she didn't need to check her PH levels all the time. He said that within a day or two a patient's saliva turned yellowish. Knowing that just made Hitomi spit into the sink ten times a day to see if her spit was yellow. But now that she was going into town, she couldn't help her hyper OCD behavior and ran into the house to get a bottle of water and the first aid kit.

As she pulled the truck out onto the main road, she looked into her rearview mirror to spot Van walking around Escaflowne making final preparations. Well, she'd have to leave him and get a head start just like he said. He would be able to catch up to her lickity-split.

But he didn't.

She kept looking into her side view mirrors, tugging herself forward to look into the sky through the windshield, sticking her head out the window and listening for the chopper blades. Nothing came.

She was calm until she found a chopper hovering in the sky – except that it wasn't the right one. It wasn't silver, but red. That could only mean that Allen and Folken were coming to talk to Van now. If that was them, then there was no way that Van could follow her. That meant that whether he was in the air or not, he had to run. And the only thing Hitomi could do to help was to get to town and be where he told her to be, so she kept driving. The chopper didn't even seem to notice her and flew right over her head.

Then she came to the gravel roads that were never grated, never plowed in the winter time and degenerating to nothing but pounded down dirt. On these, she couldn't even drive a hundred kilometers per hour. Her speedometer was stuck hovering around eighty and even then she knew she was taking a chance. These roads were narrow and some of them had deep irrigation ditches on both sides.

Before long, she had to drop it down to sixty. Her heart was like one of the thumpers in Dune, and it really wouldn't do to go in the ditch. She didn't even have a phone with her – only that damn bracelet that didn't even let her call Van.

Then she was going thirty.

Then zero.

There was a cow on the road.

Hitomi put the truck in park and honked the horn like fifteen times. The stupid thing hardly blinked in her direction. Hitomi didn't get it. Why wasn't it running off scared? Normally, it would. Wouldn't it?

She got out and approached it – really slowly. As she got closer, she saw that it had had a run in with a barbed wire fence and a portion of it was still in the cow's back leg. Hitomi stared up into the sky in wonder.

Out loud she asked the universe, "Why in its back leg? You know that if I make a wrong turn this broad is going to kick me in the ribs – they'll all break, I'll be in intense, ridiculous, profuse pain and Van won't be able to pay for the hospital bill? You know that, right?"

The universe stared back at her with that big blue expanse that it always has and though she didn't hear its words she knew the answer. It went something like, "Yeah, I know."

Hitomi pushed her sweaty bangs out of her face with a frustrated hand. This was worse than feeding it.

Gently, she approached it. Strangely, it seemed used to people and smelled her as she got closer. She patted its back and petted it gently before making it to the back end. She touched the barbed wire with the gentlest tap and the beast staggered sideways. Then without thinking, Hitomi grabbed the fur on the cow's back with one hand and the barbed wire with the other and pulled the two apart.

The cow bellowed and bolted a dozen steps further down the road.

Hitomi shouted a quiet hurray before heading back to the truck to get her water bottle to wash off her hands.

"You'd better thank me, cow! I just saved your life," she said triumphantly as she rinsed the cow stink off her hands.

Then the cow started towards her again, which Hitomi thought was strange. The thorn was out of its paw (figuratively). Shouldn't it have been on its way? But it didn't leave. It came closer and closer, and then Hitomi noticed something that made her guts lurch.

The saliva dripping from its mouth looked like pee.

Without hesitating, Hitomi reached into the cab of the truck through the window and seized the first aid kit. Ripping it open, she scavenged two PH tests. One was for her and one was for the puddle of spit on the ground.

She stuck it in and while she was waiting for it to register she asked herself if she was feeling itchy. She was, but she always felt itchy whenever anyone asked her if she did – even if it was herself that asked.

Then she picked up the tester that was for the cow. It registered two ticks below dangerous for M.T.N.

She stuck her own PH tester in her mouth and studied the cow. Could it see? She moved around and the cow followed her with its eyes. Then she stayed still and made some noises. The cow moved then too. Looking at the cow, she didn't understand what was going on. All its limbs seemed to be holding together. Had it just contracted M.T.N.? Did it not have it?

Her PH test was normal.

She got back in the truck and drove around the cow, back on course towards town.

Well, she didn't care what Van would think of her. She was going to the hospital before she went to Dilandau's. She couldn't risk getting other people sick.

That was what she thought until another horrible thing happened to her. Her bracelet started ringing. It rang incessantly – just like it had that morning when Van couldn't find her and used the bracelet to page her. He had changed the perimeter on her again and now she couldn't even go as far as town.

It rang and rang and rang and rang and rang until Hitomi thought she was going to lose her mind. It was so loud. It wouldn't stop. The sound was ruining her driving. She was going too fast. She wasn't driving in a straight line because she kept trying to put her wrist behind her back to muffle the sound and that didn't even help!

By the time she got into town, she would have been declared a certified mental patient if she'd gone to the hospital. Instead, she drove to Dilandau's. It was closer.

As she drove up, Dilandau was resting in between an ancient Camaro and an old ping pong table nestled within the height of his grass drinking a beer. He heard her alarm going off, put a shirt on to cover his plaster-white chest, and came up to the truck.

"What the Hell is that?" he yelled.

The alarm was too loud, she couldn't even hear him. She could only figure out what he was saying because under the circumstances, there was nothing else to say.

She pointed to the bracelet and threw her hands up in the air in frustration.

Straightway, Dilandau disappeared into his horde of junk and bought out a pair of bolt cutters. Hitomi stuck out her wrist and he cut the thing clean off her. And the infernal noise stopped.

"Dilandau," Hitomi said breathlessly. "You are the wickedest guy I've ever met."

He smiled. "I know."

Author's Notes: Okay kittens! Today is a day for challenges. Here's the challenge. Are you ready? Buckle up! After I finish Rose Red, I plan to release 'Dragon's Moon' under a new title (Mark of the Dragon) on Fictionpress. Do a google search - fiction press. It's the sister site to this site that hosts non-fanfiction/original writing. I will release the first chapter on the same day that I release the last chapter for Rose Red - BUT! Everyone who wants to follow Mark of the Dragon should go make fictionpress accounts TODAY! And then they should go sign up for Author Alerts for me. I have the same pen name with the exact same spelling. The site even looks almost identical to this one except that it is red. It's free - and reading Mark of the Dragon will be 50X better than Dragon's Moon. I dead serious edited this bad boy 10 times. It will be 100% worth your time.

Besides, I've been writing there for years and there are a few good things posted there. Check out 'His Sixteenth Face'.

AND THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO READS AND REVIEWS. I DO THIS FOR YOU!