When the trunk lid opened even the dim light of the battery operated camp lantern set on the ground hurt Nick's eyes for a moment. He took Maura's hand and climbed out at once, grateful for the chance to stand up. Though his muscles didn't cramp like a mortal's, close confinement was still unpleasant. His eyes adjusted rapidly and he took in their surroundings, realizing they must be in the barn pictured in the realtor's listing. Slivers of light leaked in around the two sets of double barn doors. Shutters covered the few other windows along each side of the building. It was every bit as big as it appeared in the photo. In the shadows at the rear of the space Nick could see large shapes covered by canvas tarps. Vehicles or farm equipment, maybe. Beyond that, a door to what might be another storage area. He looked at Maura without speaking.

"We're there," she announced. "It's a little after 2 in the afternoon. I figured I'd just pull right in the barn and shut us up for the rest of the day. We can go to the house when it gets dark." She reached in the back seat and pulled out a bottle. "Here," she pulled the cork and handed it to him, "you must be starving. At least I could hit a couple drive-thru joints on the way."

He took the bottle and swigged greedily, pausing to gasp "This would probably have been better for you," and then finished the rest in short order.

"More?"

"No, I'm okay for now. We could only bring a case of bottles and it has to last until we can set up another connection."

Maura grinned mischievously. "Ooooh, I feel just like a bootlegger or something."

Nick picked up the lantern to get a better look at her. Her eyes were bloodshot and surrounded by dark circles. "Either you're turning into a raccoon, or you need to get some sleep."

She held up her hands and wiggled her thumbs. "Just give me some food to wash in the stream and I'll be fine." When this didn't raise a smile she turned her back and wiggled her butt instead. "So check out my bushy tail, then."

"As impressed as I am by your bushy tail," he gave it a pat and circled to face her, "how about you check out the inside of your eyelids for a bit." Looking around the dirt floor nearby, he noticed a stack of what looked like quilts used to wrap furniture for storage. "Ah, all the comforts of home."

"I don't think so." Maura nudged them with a toe and ventured uneasily. "They're probably full of, well, things. Like spiders." She hated spiders. This naturally had been a source of great merriment to her vampire friends.

Nick shook out four of the large quilts, revealing nothing but dust. "You're the only living thing within at least fifty feet."

"Ha, ha. It's only afternoon, I don't wanna go to sleep." But he'd already arranged the quilts in what he hoped was a comfortable pile, and fished in one of the duffel bags to pull out a couple of the blankets they'd brought with them. Finally he added the pillow she'd forced upon him in the trunk.

"There you go. Nap time. No whining." He took her hand and steered her to the improvised pallet, and before she could protest he picked her up and put her down in the center of the bedding. "There," he tucked a blanket around her.

"I don't need a nap, Bats," Maura continued to complain, but already the warmth of the cocoon Nick wrapped her in was making her a liar. He lay down next to her.

"Yes you do. And after eight hours locked in the trunk, I crave a little company." He pulled her blanketed form into his arms and settled them both on the pillow. "I promise not to let you oversleep."

"And miss what?" she asked.

He kissed her as her eyes slid shut. "Anything." Not having had a great deal of real rest himself, Nick fell asleep soon after Maura.

When Nick woke the first thing he saw was Maura silhouetted by the moonlight as she stood in the open barn doorway. She was holding it ajar with one hand, apparently looking outside for something.

"Sweet? Where are you going?" When he reached her side the face she turned to him was haunted.

"Vachon. I heard him… I felt him call me. I felt him, somewhere…"

"You had a dream, Maura." He'd never managed to think of a way to reach that part of her that had been so wounded by Vachon's destruction. Logic was an insult, and comfort seemed beyond his reach.

"No," she insisted, " I heard him, I felt him. Nick, Divia was 'destroyed' too and she came back, isn't it possible?"

He reached an arm around her shoulders, letting her continue to scan the moonlit expanse between the barn and the house. "No, that was different. Vachon is gone; Tracy buried him next to Screed." He saw Maura's left fist was clenched tightly, as if protecting the place where Vachon had joined them that one time. He took it gently in his hands and held it between them.

"You feel him because he bound you together by blood, when you were afraid of losing him before we went away. It's a link that lasts even when one of you is gone. In my kind it can take centuries to fade. " He didn't have the heart to tell her it never actually did, but that vampires could tell whether or not the link was a reality or merely the echo of a broken connection. Maura would never share that ability.

It was as if she'd read his mind. "Then I'll always be looking for him, won't I?" She looked desperately into the distance and started to cry. "I'll always feel him calling and wonder why he's not there."

Nick put his arms around her and tried to explain, "No, love, you'll remember who he was to you more clearly than any mortal is able to remember anyone they've loved and lost. It's a gift, doucette, not a curse."

"I don't believe you," she sobbed.

"You don't have to, you'll find out all on your own." He lifted her chin. "You're exhausted, you've driven this 'land yacht' of mine all day and you need to rest. Come back to bed."

"We don't have a bed, Nick." She moved outside and paced nervously. "We left behind everything we've made together, what if we were wrong? We don't know anybody here, we don't have a life, or anything…"

Nick caught up with her and held her still. "We'll meet people here, we'll make a new life. It's why we came. I've done this before, remember? Please, doucette, come back inside. Let me help you sleep, okay? You'll feel better, I promise."

She sighed and let him lead her back to "bed". "I guess if you promise I have to believe you," she told him wearily. "Because you'd never lie to me." Another sigh. "Well, hardly ever."

"Hardly ever," he agreed with a smile. As they sat side by side on the makeshift pallet, Nick wrapped an arm around her shoulders as he leaned closer to catch her eyes. "Now look at me, Sweet. Trust me. It's going to be okay."

She looked deep into the blue eyes that saw everything in her and loved her anyway. But it still wasn't the same. She knew she had Nick, for as long as she lived, but right now she wanted Vachon so badly the pain was almost physical. As he started to reach into her mind Nick saw a bewildered emptiness in her eyes that begged him to explain how the life and people she'd come to love so much could have disappeared so suddenly. There was no wise response to that, no hypnotizing it away, so in the end he didn't try. He wanted Janette back, and Schanke, and Tracy. He knew how desperately pointless it was, and how impossible it was to stop wanting something just because you couldn't have it. And then he pictured Natalie, and shut his eyes as if that could block out the knowledge, and Maura hugged him tight because she understood. They sat there for a long time, not talking, not sleeping, finding solace in the dark and each other as they caught their breath in the small space between leaving behind and moving forward.