Keith came out of the motel office, walking around a ways to where the hearse was parked, nodding towards it and holding up three white cards. This motel was a little bit nicer than the last two had been, though it had been less of a factor in their decision as the fact that, like the motel in Pembroke, it had been close to a variety of stores, restaurants, and a car rental lot, so it would be easy for them to take care of themselves while still maintaining a low profile. Keith had asked for and apparently received three adjoining rooms, so that they would be able to have a little more space and relax more. He got into the front seat of the hearse again. "Only two of the rooms have two beds, the other one is just a single queen."

"That's fine," Batista said, putting the car into reverse and cruising down to their rooms, turning the car around and parking next to them so they could open the door on the back of the vehicle and more or less just step into their rooms. "We can split beds or find places on the floor or whatever. We just need to be able to stretch out and not be all crammed together for a while."

Keith nodded, handing him the keys. "I can go rent us a van or something and bring it back here, I'll leave the hearse in a parking lot someplace near a different hotel so even if anyone finds it and tries to look for us from it, they'll look somewhere else."

"Good idea. Thanks, man."

"Don't mention it. Like I said, I'm with you guys from here on out."

Batista nodded, looking back to see the others already climbing out, and opened his door. "Just be careful, Keith."

"I got it, Dave. Ain't nobody gonna get one over on me through this." He slid across the seat and behind the wheel, watching for a moment as Batista got out and went to join the others, opening the door for one of the room and all of them quickly hurrying inside. Eddie carried the still-sleeping Rey over to the bed as Jeff ran ahead and pulled the blankets back for him, letting Eddie lay Rey down. He pulled Rey's shoes off and undid the button of his jeans to try and make him a little more comfortable, then pulled the covers over him, straightening and watching him quietly.

"So what do we do now?" Jeff asked, looking around at the room. "We left most of our bags back in the van, we don't have our stuff..."

"I can go by myself and get some more clothes for us at one of the stores," Josh said. "And whatever else we might need."

"You sure you good to go alone?" Cena asked.

"I did start out my career as a wrestler, John," Josh said, seeming a little amused. "Besides, like I've said, I'm probably the least recognizable one of us, and some of us could use some toothbrushes."

"Do we still have any of our phones?"

Jeff nodded, reaching into the pocket of his jeans and taking it out. "I still have mine."

Cena took the phone, glancing at the phone and taking a moment to write down the number for it, then typed the number for the hotel room into the phone. "Okay. If there's any trouble, you can get hold of us and we can get hold of you. Are you sure you don't want one of us to go with you?"

"I'll be fine," Josh said again, waving a hand. "Just make me a list."

Chavo moved over to where there was a pad of hotel stationary, starting to write things down. "We need clothes and probably another first aid kit, huh?"

"A lot of stuff we can use to take care of Rey's leg, and Cena, we probably need to treat that burn of your's a little bit, too," Eddie said, gesturing. "Beth, how's your head feeling?"

"I'm fine," Beth said quickly. "I don't even feel anything anymore."

Cena shifted a bit, putting a hand to his side. "Well, I'm hurting a bit. If you can find something stronger than aspirin, I wouldn't mind it."

Beth raised an eyebrow at him, but Chavo wrote it down as well, then tore off the paper and handed it to Josh. "This should be plenty to get us through till tomorrow," he said. "And after that we should be all home free anyway so we won't need anything further." Josh nodded. "How much cash do we still have?"

"I have plenty," Batista said, standing and taking out his wallet, holding it out to Josh. "If you just use that and avoid the plastic, they probably won't be able to track us through that."

"I know, Dave, I've done this before," Josh said, raising an eyebrow, but taking the wallet and turning to head out.

"Let's see what we have in the way of ordering in here," Morrison said, stepping over and pulling open the bedside nightstand, taking out the phonebook and flipping through it.

Cena got to his feet, making a face. "Well, I'm wore out. I think I want to go next door and lay down a while. Beth, wanna come keep me company?"

Beth looked at him, blinking, then shrugged, getting slowly to her feet. "All right..." She followed him out. "Guess we're going next door."

Eddie nodded somewhat, then looked to the others. "Skittles, Johnny, maybe you guys go on down to the single room, relax down there. Dave or Chavito can see about finding somewhere to get food."

"Are you sure?" Morrison asked, looking up from the book, looking over at Jeff.

"I'm sure. You guys go and rest, we'll call you when food's on."

Jeff shrugged, and Morrison stood, handing the phonebook to Dave and following Jeff out. Batista walked over and sat where Morrison had been, staring down at the pages.

"Give them all a little alone time," Eddie said softly, sitting next to Rey and rubbing his shoulder lightly. "We've been all squished together for too long. Tempers are frayed enough as it is."

Chavo sat on the other side of the bed a bit gingerly. "Do you think we've really made it?"

"No, we haven't made it yet. But I think we're going to, Chavito. We got the tracker out of Rey's leg, we fled, Keith is covering our tracks from that hearse, and we have somewhere to go for help. We're going to make it. I know we are."

Chavo blew out a breath. "I wish I had your optimism, Eddie. I'm just worried that something else is going to happen. Some of the stuff those guys said when they attacked us was weird. They mentioned something about our 'data', that doesn't make any sense." He looked over at Dave. "Does that mean anything to you?"

"Not to me, man. Unless they were just trying to fuck with our heads, keep us off guard or looking out for something new around every corner."

"It was all about mind games," Eddie said. "And those guys, the paperwork says most of them are ex-cons, they're probably all psycho and crazy, and we know for sure Kane is. They were just trying to scare us."

"Well, they succeeded," Chavo said, leaning back against the headboard. "I'm scared out of my fucking wits right now. I worry something bad is still coming."

"We'll just hope for the best," Eddie said. "Even if they are planning something else, we can't do anything more than what we've already done. We just gotta go with our plan for now and if anything goes down, then we deal with it. We've been coming out on top every time and we'll keep on coming out on top. I mean, we got no other choice, you know?"

Chavo shrugged, looking up at the ceiling, as Dave quietly kept flipping through the pages, marking down places that delivered. Eddie just looked back down to watch Rey sleep, falling silent as well.

( )

Cena held the door for Beth as she followed him, stepping into the room, turning and crossing her arms, waiting as he stepped in. The instant the door was shut, she lit into him. "What the hell is this about, Cena? You haven't said a word about being in pain all this time and all of a sudden you're all painful and want company with me? I already told you that my head is fine so if this is some smarmy little way you have of trying to do me a favor, I don't need anything-,"

Cena just looked down at her, then shook his head, turning and going to one of the two beds, flopping back onto it and kicking off his shoes. "Beth, I don't know what exactly happened to me, but just because I don't say anything doesn't mean I ain't hurting for real. I mean, I have a fucking cattle prod burn in my ribs. This is the first time we've had to just stop and rest and I intend to capitalize on that. I just thought you might want to take the same opportunity."

"Well I don't need your help, I'd be just fine without it."

"Awesome to know. By the way, I'm not offering you help because you're a girl, I'm offering it because you got smashed in the head by a huge bastard and I know that hurts. If you were Eddie or Jeff or any of the guys, I'd make the same offer. So down, girl."

Beth eyeballed him a moment more, then shrugged, going to the other bed and crawling onto it, flopping down and burying her face in the pillow. "Sorry. Force of habit," she muttered.

"Well, knock it off. I know you're holding your own with the rest of us. Hell, any of the other chicks would probably be screaming their head off by now...no dig to them though because Rey's completely gone and Jeff snapped hard already and frankly I halfway want to do that myself. But seriously, can you imagine if we'd brought Michelle McTwiggy or Maryse McNasty with us instead?"

"Mickie or Melina or one of those girls might be able to roll with it," Beth said, rolling her eyes faintly and turning her head enough to look at him.

"Yeah, mentally, maybe, but physically? They'd be in the hospital after that hit. You're the only chick in WWE brutal enough to roll with it."

"You're sweet," Beth said, raising an eyebrow slightly. "You can stop trying to stroke my ego any time now, though, it's starting to come on a little thick."

Cena shrugged. "Just sayin'. You're a badass. I appreciate that."

Beth groaned a little, putting her face back into the pillow. "I need a shower again. I need about ten showers. How hot do you have to get the water before it scalds your brain?"

"Probably hotter than a hotel shower can get. You're welcome to go ahead and go try it though."

"You just wanna see me naked," Beth said, smirking a little.

"Well judging from what you said earlier about the Internet, you've already seen me naked, so it would only be fair."

"I think everyone's seen you naked, John."

Cena snickered. "Oh be honest. You know you went on there specifically looking for pictures of me."

"Actually, I was looking for pictures of Randy Orton and found a whole website full of nothing but next to naked pictures of all you guys."

"You were looking for pictures of Randy Orton? The Voldemort of WWE?"

Beth snorted. "He's not that bad. As long as you're just looking and not having to actually interact with him in any way."

"I wouldn't know. I try not to look at him too much. But yeah, go ahead and grab a shower if you want, I can behave myself. I'm somewhat a gentleman."

"Liar." Beth rolled onto her back, stretching out some. "This is actually a pretty comfortable bed, though. The shower will still be there later. I just wanna lay for now. My back creaks every time I move. Riding in that hearse kicked my ass."

"Mine too. It's like...you know that thing where you lay down, and your back hurts really bad, but at the same time, it feels really good?"

"Oh God, I love that feeling," Beth said with a chuckle. "I always lay on the floor of my hotel room at the end of the night because that makes it feel really awesome."

"I've done that, too," Cena said. "But I'm not patient enough to get back to the hotel, I just flop down in the locker room."

"Not me. God only knows what's been on that floor."

"Like the hotel room floor is any better?"

"Well, yes. I've seen the floor of a hotel room being cleaned once in a great while." She smiled some. "Wow. An actual conversation without any of it involving how fucked we are or how the boogeymen are all out to get us. It's amazing how refreshing that is."

"It is nice. Let's keep doing it. So, why do you hate Tweety Bird?"

"Oh God, that is such a long story. See, I was like, six years old and it was my birthday..."

( )

Morrison hurried down to open the last motel door, stepping in, waiting for Jeff to enter before shutting the door, hesitating a moment before throwing the deadbolt as well. He turned and watched as Jeff stepped out of his shoes, then hopped onto the bed, jumping on it a couple of times before dropping down to sit, nodding. "Good mattress," he said.

"I'm amazed you've never put your head through a ceiling doing that," Morrison said, sliding onto the bed next to him.

"Well, there was this one time in San Francisco. There was alcohol involved...and Shane Helms was egging me on."

Morrison snorted, then laid back, blowing out a breath. "How are you holding up?"

Jeff shrugged a little, turning to lay on his front, hugging the pillow and nestling his head into it carefully. "How are you?"

"I asked first."

"Well I asked second."

"You're incorrigible." Morrison reached out and managed to worm an arm under Jeff and pull him closer, draping his arm around his waist to keep him close, and Jeff draped an arm loosely over his waist as well. "I'll be fine if you're okay."

"I'm okay if you're okay."

Morrison laughed softly. "Wasn't it your brother who said something about two tag team specialists in a relationship becoming desperately codependent?"

"He says a lot of things. And neither of us has been in a proper tag team in years. Hell, I almost got retired last year."

"Glad you didn't."

"I had help with that," Jeff answered, leaning up to kiss the underside of Morrison's chin lightly. "Punk never has stopped yelling about how you robbed him of his biggest moment."

"Well, I owed him a smack in the face. Helping you win the championship was just a bonus that took a few months to pay off."

"Glad it did." Jeff shuddered a little and pulled closer to Morrison. "I'm ready to go home. It's so damn cold here."

"I can turn the heat up over there..."

"Mmm." Jeff just hugged him closer. "Starting to think of taking you up on that offer you made last month."

Morrison looked down at him. "Seriously? I mean, coming to California, you'd be pretty far away from your entire family."

"Yeah...but after all this...I just...you know."

Morrison leaned his head back a moment, then hugged Jeff a little closer. "You won't have to hide from Matt. He isn't going to be mad at you. I think a situation like this somewhat transcends...everything else."

"We've had a lot of tension over things like...stuff...and Angie and the kids, I think...they keep him mellowed out. He and I used to fight more often than we do now, even when he was with Lita or Ashley or any of the other girls he's dated. She's kept him really on the straight and narrow since they've been together...Angie affects him the way I've never seen anyone else affect him, and I'm gonna take her away..."

"Maybe not..."

Jeff looked up at him. "What do you mean?"

"Well...think about it, Jeff. Rey's been through something that no one else in the world, save the others in the program, could ever understand. He's obviously gonna have issues. He's treading the line of crazy already. And once he's free and out in the world, he'll probably go into another hospital at least for a little while for observations, and that could set him off worse...and we don't have any idea what kind of long-term effects there'll be." Morrison sighed. "He's not going to be the same man Angie and the kids remember. He's just not. And if he thinks it's 2007, and the last time he ever really saw his family was in 2005, they won't be what he remembers, either. They've been through losing him and it changed them...and when they go through suddenly having him back, who's ever experienced that? As romantic as the idea is, I think it's almost impossible that he and Angie will be able to pick up where they left off and maintain the relationship they had before."

"That doesn't mean she won't leave Matt..."

Morrison let out a slow breath, just hugging Jeff, laying in silence a while. Finally he spoke again. "I think it's gonna be okay. I don't know how exactly, but I think things are gonna work out for everyone. It'll hurt for a long time, maybe, but it'll get better." He leaned down to kiss the top of Jeff's head. "And if you really want to come stay with me in California for a while, I won't stop you. But let's not make it permanent right away, okay?"

Jeff nodded, cuddling closer, resting his head on Morrison's shoulder, and Morrison laid his head back, keeping his arm around Jeff and closing his eyes. Jeff's breathing evened out quickly, the way it did when he fell asleep. Morrison shifted a bit to get more comfy, but didn't move otherwise, not really wanting to move away from where he was now. He had the thought that he was going to start dozing himself, but didn't resist it. Best way for them both to prove how safe they were...just going for a quick nap without any need to stare over their shoulders.