Author's Note: Thanks to BluCrayons for being my beta. A lot of my friends and family have been sick lately...bad colds going around, so I remind everyone to bundle up, fluids, vitamins and sleep! I have already had one family member taken from us by pneumonia...

Chapter 46: Heading North

Mike woke up early the next morning when Emmett started crying. The sun wasn't even up, but the clock said it was nearing 6 am. Mike groaned and got up out of bed to check on his son. He was half asleep, but it still seemed instinctual. Rose was sitting in the chair, trying to rock and soothe him back to sleep before he woke anyone else up, but she wasn't having much luck.

"I think he's hungry," Rose said. "Grab the bottle over there. I put the powder in it already; just fill it with warm water and mix it up."

"Sure," Mike said as Micky groaned a little and woke up. "Sorry, Micky, I'll try and get him to be quiet so you can go back to sleep."

"Don't worry about it," Micky said rolling over and waking Sarah up. "We need to start getting up anyway."

"Why?" Davy groaned as Mike filled the bottle with warm water from the sink. "The sun's not even up yet."

"We have to get moving again," Micky said as Mike starting shaking the bottle with the water in it. When he was finished, he walked over to Rose and reached out for his son. Rose fed him all day yesterday and he wanted to do it today. He was still terrified, but he knew he had to dive in and try. He couldn't let everyone else raise his son for him.

"Don't forget to hold his head," Rose said as she handed Emmett off to Mike. Mike held his son in his arms and felt overwhelmed by emotion again. Just like the first time he'd held Emmett in the van. He was terrified of dropping his son or otherwise hurting him. But he was also overwhelmed by pride. This was his son. He had a son. And he was beautiful. He smiled and started carefully rocking Emmett as he held the bottle for him to eat.

"We can't sleep for another couple of hours?" Davy asked as Emmett stopped crying.

"No," Micky said getting out of bed. "I know you're tired, but I can drive the van today if you want. But we really can't stay in one place too long."

"I agree with Micky," Rose said. "We don't know how close they were to us. We may not have seen anyone following us, but they could easily have friends who picked up on our tail."

"So is this how it's going to be?" Peter asked.

"Until we can get somewhere we can stay safe and hidden," Micky said.

"Where's that?" Willow asked. "I thought you said you didn't know where you were going."

"We don't," Micky answered. "Not for sure, anyway. But there might be some places up north. In the mountains. Very secluded up there."

"Also very small towny," Rose said. "We'll stick out."

"Maybe," Micky said. "But it's the best we got."

"A cabin in the woods?" Sarah asked. "That could work. We could just say we were tourists."

"That could work," Rose said. "And with small towns, we have a better chance of finding someone not connected to them; not involved in all this."

"I agree," Mike said. "Dad hadn't even touched New Gallifrey. No one there even knew who he was. My mother was a student in Dallas when he took her."

"We still need to lie low," Micky said. "We'll be fugitives."

"How up north are we talking?" Davy asked.

"Montana, Idaho, Washington," Micky said. "Somewhere near the border. Just in case."

"In case what?" Peter asked. "In case we need to leave the country?"

"It'll be harder for them to find us in another country," Micky answered. "Let's get some food and head out."

"I'll get some," Rose said grabbing a little of the cash. "There's a diner across the street. We can get some decent food there."

"Thanks, Rose," Micky said before she carefully left. "How do you feel, Peter?"

"I'm ok," Peter answered. "Leg doesn't really hurt that much anymore."

"We should change your bandages before we hit the road," Sarah said moving to grab a box of bandages. "Davy, can you take care of Peter?"

"Sure," Davy said moving to inspect and change Peter's wound. Mike watched as Micky grudgingly took off his shirt and let Sarah change his bandages. He knew how Micky felt. He didn't like others taking care of him.

"Willow, I don't know how close we can take you to your convent," Micky said as Sarah changed his bandages. "But we'll try and take you as close as possible."

"I don't want to go back," Willow said.

"You don't?" Davy asked curiously. "I thought you wanted to be a nun."

"I was only doing that because it was the father's idea," Willow answered sadly. "We both knew that I couldn't live a normal life. I was legally dead. They issued a death certificate to my family. And the only people that knew about me and wouldn't question my identity were him and Mother Superior. And she passed from a heart attack a year ago."

"And with the father gone…" Mike trailed off feeling terrible they had gotten these two mixed up in everything. They had gotten the priest killed.

"I have nothing left," Willow said. "I have no where to go. He wanted me to become a nun so no one would question why I never left the church. I couldn't leave. If I did, they'd find out I was still alive…"

"And they'd finish what they started," Peter finished for her. Willow nodded solemnly.

"Please let me come with you," Willow said.

"Of course you're welcome to come with us," Micky said. "But I want you to know exactly what it's going to entail. We'll be in seclusion...hidden from the rest of the world."

"How is that going to be any different than the life I've been living for the past several years?" Willow asked.

"I have no idea how long this is going to be like this," Micky said. "It could be just a few months; it could be a few years."

"Years?" Davy squeaked nervously. Mike wasn't really sure what to say; he could see a new sense of fear in Davy's eyes.

"I want to help," Willow said. "I want to put an end to everything they do. I could testify against them. And I have the scars to prove everything they did to me."

"Ok, if you're sure, you can come with us," Micky said before taking a deep breath and turning to Davy. "Davy, if you want, I can give you some of this money and you can go home. And you can take Peter with you."

"Home?" Davy asked.

"To England," Micky said. "To your grandfather. They won't be able to touch either of you there."

"I'm not going anywhere," Peter said without a moment's hesitation. Mike felt proud of his friends, but at the same time he almost wanted them to take Micky up on his offer. He hated to have to drag his friends along with them when they had an easy way out. "You guys are my family. Wherever you are is where my home is. I'm not leaving you. Either of you."

"I'm not leaving either of you either," Davy said. "I just didn't know we'd be doing this that long. But it doesn't change how I feel. We're in this together. We're a family. I love you both and that's all that matters."

"Are you guys sure?" Mike asked.

"This is your only chance to get out," Micky said. "To get away from all this."

"We're sure," Peter said.

"We're family," Davy repeated. "We take care of each other. We don't run when things look bad."

"Ok," Micky said. "Then let's work this out. Davy and I can take turns driving during the day and at night, we'll spend a few hours sleeping in a hotel until we get up north."

"I don't think you should drive, Micky," Davy said. "I can handle it. Just let me do it. You need to rest as much as Peter does."

"Are you sure?" Micky asked.

"Stop asking me that," Davy said. "You should know by now I don't say anything I don't mean. Of course I'm sure. I have one question, though."

"What?" Micky asked.

"How are we going to get the evidence against Claire and everyone else if we're that far away?" Davy asked.

"We aren't going to get it," Micky said. "We find a cop or federal agent or someone we can trust and who believes us and we tell him where to find the evidence. That way they can't say we tampered with it."

"What evidence are we talking about?" Peter asked.

"The bodies," Micky answered heavily. "I know where most of them are buried. There's bound to be some forensic evidence that ties my parents to their murder."

"Ok, let's get some food and go," Davy said. Rose came back not much later and had food for all of them; eggs, pancakes, sausages, and milk. Plenty of nutrients for all of them. She also brought the newspaper and they flipped through the sections. Sure enough, there was a mention of them. It wasn't much of a mention, but they were now wanted criminals. There were four small pictures of Micky, Mike, Rose and Sarah. Rose's picture was the only one that was current; the other three were from years ago and they could easily be mistaken and blend in now. Their hair was longer and their faces had filled out. They decided after seeing this that Rose would have to stay away from other people as much as possible.

There was a description of Davy and Peter in the article itself which said they were wanted for escaping a mental institution, kidnapping of a baby and the murder of the priest. Mike expected that they'd become wanted across the country, but he didn't expect that they would be framed for murder. Mike was worried that this would make it harder for them to be believed by any law enforcement officer they found, thereby making it harder to get the evidence they needed to put a stop to all of this.

Once they'd finished eating, they all loaded into the van and Davy got behind the wheel, ready to drive north. They stopped for supplies and food on the way, not knowing where they'd be by nightfall and weren't sure if they'd be able to stop anywhere. They did this for days until they reached Washington. They weren't exactly sure where they were going to stay, but when they got there, Mike asked some of the locals if they knew of any cabins for the "vacationers" to stay. No one really knew much of anything for the first few towns. It wasn't until they reached a small mountain town where they stopped in at a diner that they got any help from a very surprising place.

"You folks looking for a place to stay?" a man in a cowboy hat said as he approached them.

"A nice quiet place," Mike said holding Emmett in his arms who'd fallen asleep after eating. They were in a large booth in the corner with Mike on one end and Micky on the other.

"I think I can help you boys out," the man said. "Quiet, away from everyone. You'll be able to hide just fine."

"Excuse me?" Micky asked cautiously.

"I know who you are," the man said sliding the newspaper article about them being fugitives across the table before sitting down next to Micky. "I read the paper every day."

"So why are you helping us?" Mike asked cautiously.

"Because, my daughter was admitted to that hospital about 15 years ago," the man answered. "We saw her once after she was admitted and she tried to tell us she was being raped, but we didn't believe her. She was admitted to the hospital for paranoid delusions. They told us she killed herself. But when we saw her body...my wife knew…she died in childbirth. We fought to prove our daughter told the truth, but we couldn't. My wife said she got close, but then she disappeared. I haven't seen her in 8 years. I moved up here with my other daughter to keep her away from all that. I know they killed my wife."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Micky said looking desolate. Mike knew Micky was feeling guilty. No matter what anyone said, it was Micky's family responsible for all this. If anyone understood that feeling, it was Mike. They shared blood with these people. And nothing would change that.

"You folks need to stay safe," the man said. "I bought a ski lodge up the mountain and it needs a lot of work. You're welcome to stay there. I can pay you to fix up the place and that'll serve as a better cover story than vacationers anyway. And it'll be big enough to give you space to move around until you figure your next stop."

"We'd really appreciate that," Mike said. "Thank you. But we're staying here for a while. We aren't content with just running and hiding the rest of our lives. We need to put a stop to them."

"That's incredibly dangerous," the man said.

"We know what we're doing," Micky said. "That man who hurt your daughter is my uncle. But we don't want to bring you any more trouble."

"Fine," the man said after thinking a while. "Don't say I didn't warn you, though. If you can manage to stop them, you'll finish what my wife started. And if this is what I have to do to help, so be it. Here's the directions. Good luck."

"Think we can trust him?" Davy asked taking the small slip of paper the man had given them before walking away.

"I think so," Micky said. "But I also don't see how we have any other option."

"We could keep going," Rose said.

"Until when?" Mike asked. "We can't keep running forever. This may be the only chance we get for a place to stay. And he's gonna pay us. It's the best we've got."

"Mike and I will check the place out before we settle in while the rest of you stay in the van," Micky said. "Just in case."