AN: I suppose I should point out that the chapter titles and quotes under them will be coming out of songs that I either just feel suit the tone of the chapter or helped inspire the story. The first chapter, since I didn't point it out, was Nothing Could Come Between Us by Theory of a Deadman. This chapter's comes from Drink Me by Anna Nalick. Enjoy.

Lose the Road

By – TempestRaces

Chapter 2 – Head's a Mess

"And she's lost like Alice, in a painted past."

An hour after she'd left work, she was on the road toward Borden, and leg one of her journey. She was actually going to Ontario. She had to run the situation by Angelo before she did anything on her own. He was the expert. Other than stopping for the restroom and caffeine, she didn't stop or slow below one hundred and eighty kilometres per hour. Other than at those rare times when her radar detector told her that she had better slow down, or find herself in a cop situation she couldn't get out of by flashing a little cleavage. She hit the 401 running and didn't stop until she pulled up to the gate of Angelo's house.

He worked from home, so she was betting he was there. He rarely left his house for any amount of time. She buzzed the house from the gate. No one said anything, the gate just slid open. She was betting this meant Angelo had checked the screen himself, seen who was at his gate, and knew without a word being said that if she was showing up at his place out of the blue practically in the middle of the night, it was serious. She pulled up to the front door and got out of her car. The front door of the house opened right after she slammed the door of the Altima.

"Angelo!" The word, said with an Italian accent, sounded totally different than when she said his name. "What are you doing here mia bella?"

"Yesterday I got a phone call from California." Tempest started to explain. And then the tears started and she couldn't stop them. She stood on his front step and sobbed as she tried to find the words to tell him about the phone call. About the worry for Jesse. And about the worry over why Leon and the others took off without so much as a 'fare thee well'.

"Ah, mia angelo, what is wrong?" He took hold of her and rubbed her back. "Tempest, it can't be this bad."

"That bald idiot got Jesse shot!" Tempest answered, her words leaving her chest on halting, shuddering sobs. "And then he took off and now Jesse is in a hospital all alone shot and maybe dying and when Hector called he didn't know anything and I think there's more trouble that Hector didn't tell me about so I couldn't take the Skyline because I'll be seen from ten miles away and I need to go down there but it's gonna take forever and I don't know what's going on! And its Jesse," she finally had to stop for air.

She only rambled on so when she was really upset. Angelo was worried about the whole situation. "Well, there is only one solution my angel. You'll simply have to fly down."

"Uh-uh. I don't want any record of me going into the states. I have to drive and I have to go over at some unmanned crossing too. That's why I'm here." She started to get a hold on herself. "I want you to get me a fake identity and fake papers for the car. I just got a feeling that it's better if no one knows who I am or why I'm there."

"Perhaps you better come inside and tell me exactly what this Hector person told you." With an arm around her shoulders, he led her into the house. They sat together in his den and Tempest relayed all the information she had. "So you drove straight from work to here without a rest?" Angelo asked incredulously.

"Well yeah," Tempest answered as if that answer was the most rational thing she could have said. "I was only at work for a few hours before Hector called. I need to get down there Angelo. You must see that."

"Eight further hours will not change anything. You will go sleep while I gather the documents and information you will need."

"I can't go sleep. I can't take eight hours to sleep while Jesse might be dying all alone Angelo!"

"If you get in a wreck on the way down there because you haven't slept in close to four days, what good will you be to Jesse then?"

"Had to be the voice of fuckin' reason, didn't you?" Tempest grumbled even as she stood up to do what he said.

"It will take me the better part of this time just to organize everything that you will require. So go, sleep. Everything will be ready for you to depart when you wake up."

She reached up to kiss his cheek tiredly. "Thank you for being such a good friend, Angelo. If I didn't have you to turn to, I'd be falling to pieces."

"It's what friends are for. Now go, sleep." He watched her quit the room before turning to the bookcase at the far end of the room. He always felt a bit like he was living in a spy novel when he did so, but he pulled on one of the books on the third shelf and a secret door opened in the paneling of the room. It revealed a room with only a simply light and a state of the art computer system.

When the law and government of your country told you that you were no longer permitted to own a computer or use the internet, but being an elite hacker was all you knew, you found a way to have a computer without the law or government knowing about it. In order to safely send his Tempest into the USA, there were a lot of layers to weave into a seamless cloak of shadows.

First, she would need a clean vehicle that could never be traced to her. One that would be fast enough to suit her, and one that would keep her safe enough to suit him. The midnight blue Escalade in his garage would do nicely. After all, she had been the one to improve its performance with various upgrades and modifications. But it would require new serial numbers, licence plates, and registration papers she could use when she arrived in L.A.

A little digging on the internet and his memory had been refreshed. Her cousin had settled in New Mexico originally upon moving to the USA. Angelo's fingers flew over the keys as he worked. There were many scripts and algorithms that many people would have been using, but he preferred to do everything manually. Slowly, he pealed back the layers of security until he was into the main computer system housing the social security numbers of all US citizens. He had to route his connection through many other servers for many businesses in many other countries to hide his tracks fully. All those steps, each one a minor hack on its own, took time. Very few hackers in the world were good enough to be where he was right now, and he knew if any security organization managed to follow his trail back to even Ontario, he was going to have a very hard time convincing his parole officer that he'd had nothing to do with the hack, if it was ever discovered.

There were only a handful of blackhat crackers at the tier one level in the world, let alone in North America. But he hadn't gotten to the level he had because he often got caught. Since the one time he had, and had gone down hard for the trouble, he had become doubly careful. Expertly, he added a record for one Jessica Adams into the system and assigned her a SSN number and past. Immigrated to the USA at six years old with her mother and twin brother Jesse. He was sure that Tempest would appreciate the effort. He hoped she would. Hiding the new identity took a lot of work. Not done carefully and exactly and it was one of the easiest forms of identity theft to find. Of course, he wasn't stealing anyone's identity. He was creating a fresh one. He still felt the weight of Tempest's personal safety weighing heavily on him the whole time he was working over his keyboard.

He buried this identity behind several layers of security hoping that if anyone or any agency started to catch on to Tempest's story not adding up, it would take them that much longer to unravel the truth. With her instinct for trouble, it should give her enough time to make an escape. Deciding it would be too obvious if he set it up as if Jessica also lived in L.A., he registered the Escalade with the DMV of New Mexico. A few keystrokes later and he had fake paperwork for the truck, including fake insurance out of New Mexico in the name of Jessica Adams. A few phone calls later and he had licence plates and VIN placards for it on the way. He easily created fake credit cards in the assumed identity, and added a driver's licence from her new 'home state' to round it out.

Satisfied he was giving her the best chance of not being caught that he could, he shut down his PC and left the room, ensuring it was locked up behind him. In all the whole process had only taken him three hours. He lay down on the couch in his den. Why the subterfuge in the first place? Her cousin was hurt and she was rushing to his side. It didn't require that no one knew she was even there, as she seemed to feel it did. No one would question her presence at her cousin's side when he was sick in the hospital and had no one else.

When things got this hectic in his life, it was then that he really missed being able to load a game of Unreal and frag the shit out of something. But he couldn't waste time on his computer gaming. Not anymore. If anyone came along and by some twist of fate caught him on a computer, it was back to jail for him. And as he still made a very good living with his computer, albeit under the radar with many, many safety and security measures, he wasn't willing to risk losing it all over a video game. He wouldn't be going back to jail any time soon if he could help it. It hadn't agreed with him at all. He kicked back to catch a nap before his friend arrived with the new parts for the Cadillac and he had to get back to work. Leave it to the tempestuous one to show up at eleven o'clock at night, necessitate three hours of computer work, and leave him too worked up to sleep, despite the fact it was two am.

Before his cell phone rang and announced the arrival of the things for the transformation of his truck—which was what he had assumed would wake him—he was woken by the arrival of Tempest crawling onto the couch with him. He sighed. "It's not Jesse that has you this upset, is it mia angelo?" She didn't answer him, only shook her head no in the dark. "I thought this Hector person told you the others all ran off at the first sign of trouble."

"He did."

"So, you don't need to worry about running into him, then do you?"

She didn't need to ask him to clarify who 'him' was. "No, I guess not."

"But the thoughts of it still worry you."

It wasn't a question. It was a statement of fact so she didn't answer. "Two years later and I'm no more over it now than I was the day after it happened."

He wrapped his arms about her, and pulled her back against him. There was nothing but comfort in the gesture. There was nothing but the comfort of a very long friendship between them. "He's not there my angel," he muttered into her hair. "There is nothing to worry about. The only thing which will be required of you in California is to be there for your Jesse."

"That's worse. It's horrible that they all left him alone and hurting. And I want to see him. I know I should hate him. I know seeing him again is the last thing I should want. But it's not. The chance just to see him again almost made me want this trip, no matter what precipitated it. Just to see what he looks like now. Just to find out what he's like now. To see what changes two years brought. He's two years older now than he was then."

"So are you my angel." He sighed with a frown. "He was a fool to let you go. But men are often fools. He became a stupid fool when he not only let you go but didn't come after you once he came to his senses. You, my angel, can do better than a stupid fool." She started to cry. Great racking sobs that shook her frame against him. "Shush angel."

"What if he's with someone else, and I'm still stuck here, loving him?"

"Mia bella, it hardly matters, does it? He has, as the cowardly fool he is, run off with the rest of his friends. If there was another woman, he left her all alone just as he left you those years ago and just as he has left Jesse now. Angel, you must focus on yourself and your Jesse, yes?" He held her while she sobbed for another few minutes before, with a deep shuddering breath, she composed herself. She simply lay quietly breathing deeply for another few minutes.

"You're right, as per usual," she answered. "You know what's ruined for me now?"

"No, what?" There was laughter barely restrained in her voice as she asked the question. Her rapid change in demeanour didn't bother him. She could be like that while stressed. Having known her since she was fifteen, he was well versed in the many moods of Tempest, and how quickly they shifted.

"AC/DC. I use to love AC/DC. But he's in a band and they play a lot of AC/DC. I can't hear Back in Black without thinking of him playing the guitar for Back in Black. AC/DC is dead to me now."

"That's hardly a loss." He'd never developed a taste for heavy rock. Or her 'hip hop'. It was all musical garbage to him. Lack talent tripe that all sounded the same.

She laughed uproariously. "I'm sorry they're not as refined as Frank Sinatra."

"You, my angel, never had much taste in music. Nothing much has changed."

"This is gonna be ok right? Going down there is the only thing I can do, right?"

"Going to Jesse is the only thing you can do, yes. And I'm sure it will be fine. In fact, I don't understand why you feel the need to cloak yourself so well just to rush to the side of an injured relative."

"I don't understand it either. But something makes me feel like it's the only way to go."

"Ok. So be it."

Before she could answer, the phone rang two short rings, signalling someone was buzzing the gate. "Who'd be here buzzing at this hour?"

"I will go find out." Angelo crawled off the couch, over the prone body of his friend, and turned the TV on to show the camera at his gate. He picked up the phone and buzzed the person in.

"Who's that?"

"That is the friend of mine who's going to help me outfit your ride with the appropriate serial numbers and licence plates. Now, you go back to bed. It's two am. By the time six am comes along, you will be all rested and your vehicle will be all ready for the road. Now go."

"I'll try to get more sleep. But I'll try right here."

Sensing she simply didn't want to be too far away from human companionship, he let it go and headed out to the garage to meet his friend.