He awoke to a strange feeling of a piece of fabric sliding across his body and looked down to see Fred clutching a blanket surrounded by his toys, beaming up at him. He sat up, groaned, and rubbed his eyes once more. As he stretched he heard her voice.

"Oh, sleeping beauty finally up then? Come on and help us, Tom has been doing most of the work here." He saw Tom come back inside with a red and sweat-glistened face. "It's alright sweetie, you can have a break now that Cinderella over here has woken up." Tom smiled and walked over to the kitchen where Lucy was with snacks and some lemonade, and Fred followed behind him, leaving the blanket and his toys on the ground.

He chuckled as he got up from the sofa. "That doesn't even make any sense, El."

"Well, come on. We've loaded most of the heavy stuff except for the sofa, and several boxes that need to be packed in my car…" She stopped for a moment like she was trying to remember if she forgot anything, and at the same time he noticed two uniformed men walk through the door behind her.

"Is the sofa ready, ma'am?"

"Yes, thank you." She turned her attention back toward him and the pile of boxes and motioned for him to get to work as the movers removed the sofa from the living room. He picked up a box and was walking toward the door when she stopped him. "You're just going to carry one box at a time then?" He rolled his eyes, sighed, then turned back toward her, and she placed another smaller, lighter box on top of the box he was carrying. "Don't drop anything. And when you come back, be sure to re-pack that blanket you were using for your beauty rest. Don't break anything, and make sure you pack it in as tightly as you can without damaging anything."

"Yes ma'am." They shared a smile and he was out the door.

….

He stared at the last box. It seemed to be staring back at him, taunting him, reflecting both his mind and body in its solitariness.

"Is that the last one?" He was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of her voice and saw her walking toward him with her keys in hand, ready to go.

"Yep, last box. Are you getting ready to go?" He continued to look at the box, hands in his pockets, trying to be as emotionless as possible and wondering why it wasn't as easy as it used to be.

"Yes, and you're coming with me, so stop staring at the box and load it in the car."

"I'm-what?"

"Someone has to help unload. Don't think you're off the hook just because you packed what, like 5 boxes? Come on, let's go." He stood still in place, flabbergasted, and not sure of how to respond or even process this information. She had been quite secretive about where exactly she was moving to, and he thought it was because she didn't want anyone, not even him, to know where she'd end up. Maybe he was just remembering what he did after Sandbrook, though they eventually found him anyway. He couldn't lie low in a small, close-knit town, which before he arrived had virtually no crime at all, that had a murdered child lying on the beach.

He finally noticed that she was staring at him and wondered how long he had been inside his thoughts. He picked up the final box and turned to walk past her, still in place, still staring at him as he made his way to the door. She followed him, much to his relief, and got in the car as he packed the last box.

"I've packed some snacks in case you got hungry, though it's only about an hour away and you don't even seem to eat anyway." He got in the car and let out a half-laugh as she started it and left the driveway as the movers followed.

"We're coming back, right?" he hadn't meant for that thought to surface as actual words, but here they were, hanging in the air, and he had hoped that it was quiet enough that she hadn't heard.

"What is the matter with you?" She heard. He looked over to her and saw her eyebrows scrunched up though her eyes were focused on the road ahead. "Seriously, you've been acting strange all day."

"Oh don't mind me, stupid question, just, I, I mean, of course, you have to get the kids and lock up and-"

"Alec, you're babbling."

"Right. Sorry." He settled down and turned his attention from her to the window. There was a strange sort of feeling in the air and he could sense her staring at him through the corner of her eyes while keeping them focused on the road.

"So, I've been meaning to ask you but it just never really sounded like the right time…why are you still living at the Traders?" She was talking rapidly, as if talking any slower would give her time to change her mind about getting the words out.

"Is this…a conversation for a car ride because I don't-"

"Right-"

"I just don't want to-"

"It'd be distracting."

There was a silence that went on a bit too long, so he started rummaging in the snack bag to fill the air. He found a piece of chocolate and promptly unwrapped and placed it in his mouth while catching a glimpse of Ellie looking at him with a smile on her face. He stared at her for a moment longer, thinking that he had never seen a more beautiful profile of a person than right here, right now, and no sights passing them by through the window could measure up to it. She was so still, so calm, so focused, and he wondered why he was never aware of how stunning she looked while driving. All the times he shared a car with her and he never noticed. He decided to look for a second longer before looking straight forward again, and closed his eyes as he sat back in the seat.