"You hungry?"

"Yeah." Eric checked his watch – seven forty-one. A little over three hours had passed since Elizabeth had no doubt alerted Peter that their troublesome charge had gone AWOL. Eric imagined that when he hadn't returned after about twenty minutes, she'd ushered Scott-Allen out the door after shoving his stupid 'shoe-poddies' onto his feet and throwing a warm jacket around his shoulder and when she spotted Satchmo sitting outside Kwan's, she probably had a moment of extreme relief. Relief that was squashed into the ground and washed away by the flood of adrenaline that engulfed her body when her eyes set upon the oregano bottle sitting ominously beside the secured pet. At that point Peter would have received a phone call, which in all honesty, he had to have been expecting at some point. Upon deciphering the panicked message, orders would have been issued and a current photo of Alexandra Hunter and her eleven-year-old son dispatched through fibre optic cables to every law-enforcement center in the country. "I could really use a bathroom break. Is it safe to stop?"

"Yes. But I'll go in by myself to get the food. They'll be looking for a single woman travelling alone with a boy. We can't afford to be seen anywhere together, you understand?"

"Yeah, of course I do," Eric was quick to snap. "I've been living with the Burkes, not in some mental hospital having my brain drained."

Alex laughed. "Sorry, Eri. It's just been so long since we've done this together, it's going to take a little while for me to get used to working with a partner once again."

"And whose fault is that?" the boy questioned in a challenging tone that Alex had been expecting from the outset, but the joy of seeing his mom had kept his emotions in check for the past two hundred miles and the conversation had been completely amicable as Eric stated over and over how happy he was that they were finally together again and wanted to know where she'd been hiding out and how she'd been able to run surveillance on his comings and goings without alerting the FBI to her presence. Now it seemed, the amnesty period had expired and the moral interrogation was about to proceed.

"I explained to you Eri, when I first escaped from the hospital, I was in pretty bad shape so I needed the better part of six weeks to recuperate. The bullet cut through the brachial artery and I lost a lot of blood. I was very weak for a long time."

"That's six weeks, you were gone for six months, Mom. You didn't think maybe you better come back and see how I was getting along living with a bunch of strangers and being forced to bond with a father I had never known."

"Look, I understand you being upset, Eric, but how about we get some food before I tackle the really hard questions."

"Whatever," Eric grumbled. "But before that even, any chance we can make that pit stop soon? My bladder isn't going to hold out much longer."

Alex grinned. "There's a small shopping mall about three miles ahead. Change into that shirt I brought along for you on the backseat and wear-"

"The cap pulled down low…I know Mom. I've done all this before, many times over. It seems like if anyone's forgotten anything, it's you."

# # #

Eric crumpled up the empty French fries packaging and tossed it over his shoulder onto the back seat before taking a slurp of his giant frozen raspberry soda. When his mouth was finally freed of obstacles he asked, "So how'd you get out of the hospital? When I last saw you, you had machines hooked up to you and a guy with a gun standing guard at your door."

"As it turned out, getting away was quite simple. They sent me down for another x-ray on my shoulder and while I was behind the curtain supposedly stripping down, I changed into some civvies and slipped away through a back door. It was amateur hour as far as NYPD was concerned cause I had no trouble jumping on the first bus heading out and from there I slowly made my way down the coast and crossed over to Venezuela."

Eric spun around to face his mom. "Did you see-"

"Yep. Luisana and Manuel helped nurse me back to health."

"What about Yessi?"

"She's calmed down a lot now that she's a proud mommy."

"Yessi had puppies?"

"Yes. Three little cuties all with black patches over their eyes," Alex conveyed with delight. "I have some photos I can show you when we stop."

"Or you could just show me the puppies. Is that where we're headed?"

"Just for a short stop over. We can't stay for too long."

"Why can't we? You did," Eric cracked. "You went and stayed there for as long as you felt like!"

"Listen, Eric. Before you go off all hot headed let me explain-"

"Whatever." Eric slumped in his seat and pulled the cap down over his eyes.

"While I was getting better at Luisana and Manny's," Alex continued despite the silent protest, "I started tracking down leads on the third Spindle Neuron Jade and…well, I found it."

Eric pushed back his cap and looked up with disbelieving eyes, "The elephant?"

"Yes, my prince," Alex confirmed excitedly. "I found it."

"Where?"

"Well, I got some Intel that lead me at first to Sri Lanka and Malaysia."

"Why didn't you come back and get me and take me with you?"

"It wasn't safe, Eri. I was struggling myself and I didn't feel I could watch over both of us and go after the Jade at the same time…it just wouldn't have worked out."

"I could have been a big help to you but instead you made an executive decision to dump your partner and go it alone?"

"It was the best for everyone all round."

"Says you."

"Says the mother who didn't want her put her son in harm's way, especially in light of what we went through in Dubrovnik."

"You could have sent me a message, telling me what was going on. I didn't have a clue."

"And how would that have worked? Me sending you a postcard postmarked with Anuradhapura and saying, 'Hey, my Prince. Just letting you know I'm fine and I'm on my way to Caotang Bay. C U Soon. Luv Ma'ma…P.S. Don't let Peter see this.' You know the first rule of a successful secret?"

"Don't tell anyone…Yes, don't you think I remember – they were the first three words I ever spoke."

"Look, no matter what you think," Alex shrugged, "it was just a decision I had to make. It wasn't easy for me either you know? A number of times I almost gave up and headed back to collect you."

"But you didn't."

"And fortunately for both of us, I didn't accept defeat. My last night in Bangkok, I met up with this fascinating Rigaudon dancer who pointed me in the direction of a casino owner in Macau."

"So let me get this straight," Eric fixed his mother with an unimpressed scowl. "While I was subjected to six months of playing happy families with the Cunninghams and made to sit through tediously mundane classes at Archaic Academy, you were off gallivanting around the South China Sea playing cards with the well-to-do. Do you realise how much effort it took on my part not to hop on the first bus out of the city myself and find some secluded beach to squander my days away?"

"Listen partner, it wasn't all fun and games for me you know. Most days I was in fairly excruciating pain with my shoulder and I had to rough it more times than I'd care to remember as I travelled through some seriously impoverished and dangerous parts of Asia."

"And yet you did it anyways. You didn't think at some point that enough was enough and you should call it a day?"

"No. I didn't. And before you ask why, you already know why so please save us both the effort by not having to speak of all over again."

"Whatever," Eric grumbled and this time when he pulled his hat down over his head, he shut his eyes and tried to imagine what Peter and Elizabeth or even Scottie for that matter, would be doing right about now.