Chapter 17

Aidan was still in control of their body as she raced out of town and back towards Andrea's apartment. Nadia didn't try to push her way through. She wasn't ready for that yet; even Aidan knew that much. They were weaving through cars on the highway for a half hour when the silence was shattered around them. A police car sped up as he merged into traffic and saw them; but Aidan paid him no attention, instead she turned the throttle harder and widened the gap between them. The lights disappeared as the cars swallowed his chase attempt; a car (even one with falshign lights) in California traffic was no match for a motorcycle.

She had all but forgotten the encounter when a line of police cars spread out into an intimidating line and sped up behind her. The sudden circle of light that flashed onto the road surprised her and nearly caused her to fish-tail into the center barricade. Perfect she thought to herself.

The atmosphere of Aidan's thought finally broke through Nadia's sickening haze, "What is it?"

Aidan glanced towards the sky, we have company.

Nadia forced herself to take in their surroundings and Aidan flashed the memory of the first police car in front of her and she realized what was happening. "Perfect."

Been there, done that. What now?

"How anything ever gets done with you at the helm, I have no idea... Do you think you can affect them all?"

Aidan immediately understood her meaning, I don't know. They are still pretty far away...not to mention the bird...

"Back in Motana I stopped that truck before we hit that intersection and it hit us. Just concentrate on making the cops change their mind or chase someone else."

Or stop and cause a gigantic pile-up? Aidan's words had an air of fierce temptation.

"No one else dies tonight. Not because of us."

Fine. My heart wasn't really in it anyway; I can feel you too strongly.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

I feel what you feel remember? I can feel all the guilt and disgust and overwhelming self-loathing that you're feeling. And it's all manifesting itself into the urge to throw up.

"I wonder why that is..." Nadia thought.

This is neither the time nor the place for this conversation.

"Right. Sorry."

Aidan focused on the cars behind her but struggled to do so without completely taking her mind from the road ahead of her. We're gonna die trying to do this, she fumed. She thought some more as she raced to the right and held her breath as she squeezed the bike between a car and the cement barricade along side of the highway. The police cars were gaining on her and she needed to think of something fast. I can't do the cars and the helicopter all at once...at least not by myself. She waited for Nadia to respond with a, "I'll help or something," but she heard nothing. For a split second she thought she was gone; but as she searched in their shared mind for her, Aidan stumbled over her presence and was shocked when she heard the thoughts going through Nadia's mind. Hey! Knock it off! We did not just kill all those people back there to be thrown in prison for a traffic violation! Naida's figuarative head snapped up as she realized what Aidan had heard but she didn't respond any further, so Aidan continued with the only thing she knew was garaunteed to get a reaction from her. We get caught and there goes your deal. We go to hell and you never see Dean again.

Nadia flinched as if Aidan had slapped her and she threw all those thoughts from her mind. Now that her head was clear she focused on the problem at hand, "Then take care of one thing at a time."

In a couple of seconds Aidan and Nadia threw together a plan and searched for the thing that would allow them to exacute it. Finally an off ramp came into view and Aidan pulled the bike onto it at the last possible second. The cars that had been closest blew past the ramp and had no choice but to either continue to the next ramp or try to turn around. The three cars that had been further back barely made the turn and continued after her. Aidan and Nadia focused every bit of attention they could spare (while still keeping the bike upright) and threw their command up into the sky. They had no idea if it had worked until the light that had been trained on them from above moved away to the northeast and was soon shut off all together as the heilcopter continued towards Las Vegas. Aidan smiled, Have fun boys...

Nadia snapped Aidan's attention back to the road and they both refocused their efforts to the cars behind them. I can almost hear their confused radio calls to our boys in the bird, Aidan smiled again.

"Concentrate," Nadia snapped in frustration.

Aidan made some childish mocking noises before doing what she was told. With the combined efforts of them both, the police cars all started slow and eventually come to a safe stop behind them. In a matter of seconds they were out of sight and Aidan pulled the bike back onto the highway. Without the chopper to tell them where to go once the haze had worn off, the police cars would have no choice but to limp around the city with bruised egos in a fruitless effort to restart the chase.

Nadia couldn't help but be uplifted by the relief of their escape and, for the moment at least, the atmosphere in her head changed to one of jubulation and pride. That was until Aidan opened her big mouth, "Are we really going back to Andrea's? That doesn't seem like the smartest thing to do."

"All our stuff is there," she was surprised by how easily she suddenly thought of her stuff as "ours." "Besides, I...."

You need her, Aidan sneered; but Nadia immediately picked up on how her sneer lacked its usual sincerity. Nadia didn't have to say anything for Aidan to know that what she'd said was exactly what Nadia was trying to say; so she resolved herself into pointing the bike back to San Diego.

After a long time of silence, Aidan thought, I wonder if we've made the news yet... We must have, right? I mean over 600 inmates being killed in a prison by someone from the outside and no one has the slightest idea what or who did it? We must be every where.

"We had better not be anywhere," Nadia replied.

Aidan rolled her eyes, You know what I mean. What we did must be all over the news... As if to answer her question, Nadia's cell phone viberated in her pocket and Aidan fished it out. Andrea.

"Guess that answers your question," Nadia mumbled and Aidan smirked.

After ten unanswered calls, Aidan finally pulled the bike up in front of Andrea's apartment. Aidan turned it off and stretched her arms and back, "Are you ready to take over now or do I have to worry about you passing out?"

Nadia bit back a sharp remark she was about to make, "I'm fine."

"You're not gonna go jump off a bridge or something are you?" Aidan asked as she took off her helmet and shook out her hair.

"I think that would be a little counter-intuative to what I am trying to do," Nadia huffed.

Aidan sighed, "Alright... Nadia Bella, come on down..."

Taking your body back over from someone else is a strange experience to say the least. The only way Nadia could think to describe it was by comparing it to the feeling one would get when being thrusted from the background of play to the lead when you only knew half the words. Uncomfortable and nerve racking; which she knew was stupid, it was her role to begin with. Once the disorientation passed, she was able to remember how to make her body move again and she climbed off the bike. She walked around to the sidewalk and toward the front door when everything hit her again; only it was much, much stronger this time. Not only could she feel the guilt and self-loathing Aidan had mentioned, but she felt it all through her body as well. When she was locked away in that little corner of her mind she was protected from the violent rejection her physical body was having to what she had done; and now she had to face it head on. The crushing surprise of it made her knees give out and fell to all fours gasping for air. She tried to blink away the relentless tears that ran down her face so she could see where she was going but it was a waste of effort. Before being able to crawl even a step, the nausea become too much and leaned on one hand so she could pull her hair out of the way. Her entire body ached from the dry heaves that contracted throughout her body and she rested her forehead on the cool cement sidewalk waiting for them to pass. After several successful minutes, she managed to pull herself weakly to her feet and stumble to the door.

She had barely knocked when Andrea jerked the door open and the color drained from her face. Nadia was ghostly pale, drenched in sweat, and barely holding herself upright when she looked up at Andrea. Andrea was unable to move as she took in her best friend's appearance. Her eyes were red from the tears that seemed to pour from them and her hair was a tangled mess that stuck to the sweat on her face. Nadia started to slump back to the ground, but Andrea caught her and helped her inside; where she collapsed on the couch. Even Aidan was silent as Nadia let go and sank into the welcome darkness around her.