Seven

Archer snores louder than anyone Maddy has ever met. With his head back and his mouth hanging open, he sounds like a truck every time he inhales. Solomon is sleeping as well, but his breathing is even and he's completely silent. Maddy looks at Archer as he gurgles through another loud snore. She fears he may kink his neck if he sleeps like that for the entire flight to New York so she reaches over and touches his cheek to fix his head. She starts when he snaps awake and grabs her wrist with alarming strength.

"Archer," she hisses, startled.

He clenches his teeth and looks at her for a few seconds before releasing her wrist. "What are you touching me for?"

"I didn't want you to kink your neck."

He furrows her brow at her as he clicks his tongue.

"I was just looking out for you."

"You do that a lot, huh."

"Well…"

"Stop looking out for me. One of these days I'll actually kill you, huh, then what?"

Maddy frowns. She lowers her voice to continue speaking. "Archer."

"What, Maddy?"

He looks at her and Maddy is instantly reminded of how piercing his eyes are. With clean skin and hair that isn't tinged with dirt, they look bright blue and vibrant. Almost friendly. Maddy loses her train of thought for a moment as he raises his thick brows expectantly.

"What?"

"Why are you so angry with me? I thought this was what you wanted. You didn't have to come back to my tent after you left."

He grunts. "Ja, I know."

"Lighten up, then."

He licks the corners of his lips. "No."

"Stubborn and a cynic," she cracks a smile and Archer's brows only furrow more. "I may have gotten myself in over my head."

The wrinkles in Archer's forehead flatten and his lips twitch into something vaguely similar to a smile. She pats his knee twice before turning her attention back down to the manifest in her lap. Archer doesn't take his eyes off her. He watches her lips stiffen into a line across her face as she narrows her focus to the names on the page. He blinks when her hair comes loose from behind her ear.

"What are you looking at?"

Archer shrugs. "I'm just looking."

"At?"

"I'm looking to look, a'right?"

"Nothing is that simple with you, Archer," she looks back up at him.

His face snaps back into its usual scowl.

"Is there something on my face?"

"Ja, Miss Bowen, your hero complex is showing again."

The comment catches Maddy off guard and she frowns enough to make Archer laugh. Maddy almost doesn't believe what she's hearing and even Solomon rouses to look behind him to make sure what he's hearing is actually real. He smirks before turning back to face forward in his seat. Archer licks his lips again and settles back in his seat with a self-satisfied smile plastered on his face.

"I'm going to sleep again. Keep your hands away from my face, huh?"

"Or else what, you'll break my wrist?"

"Don't test me, Maddy."

"Go to sleep, Archer."

Archer nods a scoff to her. He inhales deeply as he shifts his body in his seat to rest his head back. His eyes close. Maddy tunes the sound of his breathing out while she continues scanning the tiny names in the manifest in her lap. She chews lightly on the inside corner of her bottom lip and focuses on the task at hand until one of Archer's loud, croaking snores breaks her attention.

After an annoyed sigh and a having read over the same line of names four times, Maddy lifts herself from her seat to go and sit in the vacant one beside Solomon. He greets her presence with a broad smile and a bow of his head.

"Mister Archer sounds like a beast."

Maddy nods. "I can barely focus with him breathing right in my ear."

"Have you found the names of my family?" He asks, gesturing to the papers she's holding.

She shakes her head. "Not yet."

"I can help," he says. "I can read."

Maddy smiles and nods. She hands Solomon the pages belonging to one of the camps that was close to his village and he takes the papers with caution. He runs his fingers down the small type before beginning to read each of the names. Some of recognizes and others he doesn't, but none of them are his family. He reads through the pages several times for his own personal closure before he shakes his head and sighs.

"Not in this camp," he tells her.

Maddy scrawls something down on the cover of the stapled package. "There are still several more camp lists to look through," she assures him. He looks devastated. "Are you hungry, Solomon?"

He doesn't respond.

"Let's eat something, Solomon, and then we can continue looking through the lists. There's plenty of food on this plane and I think we've earned a decent meal after the past few days."

Solomon looks at her with gentle eyes and nods twice. Maddy smiles and puts the lists away before getting up to fetch them each a meal from the small kitchenette at the back of the jet. The luxury of flying privately, she thinks to herself as she puts a dish into the microwave.

She returns to her seat and she and Solomon eat together. He tells her more about his family and Maddy is eager to hear. She feels even more strongly about trying to find them and she knows she'll stop at nothing to get him his wife and children back. He thanks Maddy for the food and takes another camp list to look through as she gets up to take their plates back.

She looks at Archer as she passes him. He's still asleep and his head is angled the same way it was earlier. She takes her's and Solomon's plates back to the kitchenette and washes them to put away. She goes back to Archer and leans over her seat to adjust his head — she didn't take his threat to heart. She reaches over to put her hand against his cheek to fix his head.

Her fingers are barely touching him when he speaks. "Miss Bowen," he says warningly.

Maddy can't help it when the corners of her lips curl.

"What did I tell you, huh?" He opens his eyes slowly and looks at her as he sits up straight in his seat. "I'll kill you, Maddy."

She raises her shoulders innocently. They share a smile.