Chapter 8
"They had gotten a big dose of freedom after being chased from Cairnholm and their time in the Acre. . . They had grown up more in the past few months than they had in the past half century." {Jacob Portman, pg 202 book 4}
Aurora woke to a pair of blue eyes with slits for pupils looking very closely at her face. She chuckled. "Good morning Mira."
She pet the kitten's head as she cringed at the sound of her own voice, it was raw and strained. Crying herself to sleep last night hadn't led to the best rest she'd ever gotten and she could still feel the tear trails staining her cheeks. Looking at the clock on the nightstand the glowing numbers that read eight forty-five a.m. mocked her. Everyone would be downstairs, how many would be leaving with Jake and Emma? Millard she was fairly certain would be going, she couldn't see him staying given how tense the air between them would be. What would be the point of him staying behind just for them to ignore each other?
She sighed and sat up rubbing her eyes. She dressed slowly and for a moment contemplated going into the bathroom and splashing cold water on her face. In the end she didn't bother, having no doubt in her mind that once the group left she'd be sobbing in her room again.
Downstairs there was already a handful of her friends sitting in the living room. The television was off and they were all eating directly out of boxes of cereal with bright colors on the front, some with cartoon characters. She noticed Claire, Horace, Olive and the twins were all still in their robes and pajamas while Bronwyn and Enoch were dressed and had bags waiting by their feet. Hugh, Millard, Jacob and Emma were nowhere in sight.
"Yeah we don't know where they are either." Enoch told her blandly, noticing her looking around the room. He was standing in the doorway between the living room and kitchen while Olive rested her head on his shoulder with her arms circling his waist. Enoch's hand was rubbing up and down her back but they didn't look like they'd had a disagreement nearly as big as the one she'd had with Millard. At least one couple could be amicable.
"And Miss Peregrine returned about an hour ago." Olive added making Aurora snap her attention to the redhead.
"How did that go?"
"She didn't say anything. Just went straight to her room and collapsed on the bed. She looked exhausted."
There was a dull roar of a car engine pulling up outside and Horace leaned back in his chair and pulled the curtain away from the window. "It's them."
A moment later the key was turning in the front door and Jake, Emma and Millard entered. Aurora felt something fuzzy at her ankle and noticed Mira had followed her downstairs. She sat on the floor beside her using scratching behind her ears as an excuse to not look up at anyone.
"Alright, show of hands. Who's in?" Jacob asked.
Enoch, Olive and Millard all raised their hands.
"Missions make me nervous." Horace muttered.
"We already have missions." Claire said with a scrunched up angry face. There was even a small growl coming from her backmouth. "Elise needs us to help distribute lunch and dessert to all the loop reconstruction teams."
"That's not a mission Claire, that's a job." Emma corrected.
"You're delivering packages! How is that a mission?"
"The mission is helping a peculiar in danger." Millard reasoned, "After the packages are delivered."
"Bronwyn what about you? In or out?" Jacob asked. She was dressed and packed but hadn't raised her hand.
"Lying to Miss Peregrine makes me uncomfortable. Shouldn't we tell her about this?"
"NO." everyone but Claire and Aurora said in unison.
"Why not?"
"It makes me uncomfortable too, but she'll stop us from going. So we can't." Jacob explained.
"If we really want to help peculiarkind this is how." Emma spoke up, "By becoming the next generation of fighters, not posing for photo opportunities in the Acre."
"Or asking permission every time we want to do anything." Enoch added.
"Exactly!" Millard agreed, "The headmistress still treats us like children. We're all nearly a century old for Bird's sake, and it's about time we started acting our age. Or half our age anyway. We've got to start making decisions for ourselves."
"Just what I've been saying for years." Enoch remarked.
Bronwyn sighed, "I don't like lying. But if we're really out to help a peculiar child whose life is in danger, and lying is the only way to do that, then it would be immoral not to lie wouldn't it?"
"Welcome aboard." Emma smiled.
"I want to help." Olive piped up, "But think it's best I stay here. Maybe I can cover for you with the Bird, buy you some time. Besides." Her eyes glanced to the car out the window, "You have limited room."
"And what shall the rest of us do while you're gone?" Horace asked.
"Just do your assignments in the Acre and act like nothing's wrong. You don't know anything about us or what we're up to." Jacob explained.
"But we do." Claire protested, "And if Miss Peregrine asks I'm telling her."
"Well you can't until she wakes up anyway." Enoch griped.
Emma then looked confused, "She really just. . . went to sleep?"
Millard cleared his throat, "I may have blown just a pinch of dust into the room before we left."
"Millard!" Horace cried, "You scoundrel!"
"Well that will certainly buy us some time." Emma said with a smile, "With any luck, she won't notice we're gone until tonight."
Claire left the room in a huff while the others began bringing their bags of essentials to the car. Aurora took Mira into the kitchen and fished around seeing if there were any of the French pastries left over from breakfast yesterday. She took a seat at the island and also tore up some chicken for Mira to eat and pondered how this was likely how her mornings were going to be for the foreseeable future. Her and her cat. Left to adapt to her job in the Acre without the one person who was so often her most reliable support beam. She exhaled a ragged breath, refusing to let herself fall back into tears when a thud behind her caught her attention.
She looked over her shoulder to see Hugh standing there, head held high with a bag dropped at his feet. What she found odd though was one of her sweaters sticking out of the top of it.
"Hugh? What are you –"
"You're going." He said without question.
"Now this." Enoch said smiling, "Is a proper road journey car."
"It isn't." Bronwyn replied, "It's too flash, and it's British."
"What's wrong with it being British?" Millard asked.
"It'll break down a lot. That's what they say about British cars anyway."
"Would Abe really have used this for rescue missions if it was mechanically unsound?"
"Abe knew lots about cars, including how to fix them." Enoch chimed in running his hand over the vehicle. Jacob was at the back trying to figure out how to open the boot when Enoch noticed him struggling and rolled his eyes, "Allow me."
He twisted a knob between the taillights that popped the trunk and Jacob quietly thanked him before he started loading their bags.
"Aston Martin." Enoch said looking over the car again and giving a low whistle, "Abe always did have style."
"I thought it was some kind of Mustang." Jake shrugged.
Enoch's head snapped to him, "How dare you. This is a 1979 Aston Martin V8 Vantage. Three hundred ninety horsepower, zero to sixty in five seconds, top speed a hundred seventy miles per hour. A real beast – Britain's first true muscle car."
"Since when do you know so much about cars? Especially ones made after 1940?" Jake asked looking very confused.
"Magazines and manuals via mail order." Millard shrugged, "Delivered to his post office box in present-day Cairnholm."
"Oh, he loves cars." Emma added as she rested on the passenger side door, "Never actually drove one, mind you, but don't get him started on what's under the bonnet."
"I'm fascinated by the mechanical as well as the biomedical. Organs. Engines. Swap oil for blood and they aren't so different. And I can resurrect a dead engine without needing a jar of hearts. Which is a good thing because this car, being British and nearly forty years old, is notoriously unreliable unless religiously maintained. And with Abe being dead and all, I'm fairly certain that I'm the only person within a thousand miles of here qualified to work on this car."
"Oh just get in so we can go already." Emma groaned getting into the passenger side.
"Wha-what?" Aurora stuttered.
"You and him aren't splitting up."
She sighed, "Hugh-"
"You're not making the same mistake I did." He cut her off. She paused surprised by the fire in his eyes, then it dulled and he looked at his shoes. "With loops. . .time resets. . . all that. I thought – I thought I had forever with Fiona."
Her eyes turned sad at the reminder. She took a long look at him, in the past couple of weeks Hugh had already begun to shoot up. He was at that age, and it looked like his first growth spurt had a solid hold on him. If she had to guess she'd say he was at least three inches taller but the look in his eyes showed he'd grown so much more then that – losing Fiona had made him mature faster, and now it looked like his body was playing catch up to his mind.
"When I left her, it hurt, but I kept telling myself we'd see each other again when it was safe, that she'd be safe. That we'd have more time." He looked up from the floor and looked Aurora dead in the eye, "If he goes and you never see him again you'll hate yourself for it, you'll wish you'd been there. When people talk like he's dead it'll be like a fist closing in your chest. Or worse – they'll bring him back after somethin' bad happens and you'll know he's dead."
The image of when they'd found Millard limp and unresponsive flashed through her mind but now her brain closed his eyes and covered him in blood. She shuddered.
Hugh nodded toward the door, "Hurry up before they leave."
She looked down at the bag as she considered what he said. Aurora knew all too well what it felt like to lose Millard, the only reason she still had him now was because of her friend's determination to help her even when she was too distraught to help herself or him. And Hugh was right, if anything happened, even something as minor as scraping his knee, she'd feel horrible guilt for not being there to heal him – any of them, should they run into trouble. And she had a very bad feeling that trouble was inevitable. It wasn't about if she felt worn down, if she felt at her wits end, it was if she could live with herself if she didn't go. And she knew she couldn't. Even if Miss Peregrine caught up with them and was angry beyond all belief Aurora knew even the Bird wouldn't deny her reasoning. Aurora being there could mean the difference between life and death for one of the others.
She looked up from the bag and smiled at Hugh, then crossed the kitchen and gave him a hug.
"Thanks Hugh." She whispered, "And I'll keep an ear out for anything about Fiona."
"I appreciate that." he replied sounding choked up before he pulled away and pushed her toward the garage.
She overheard Enoch talking about vintage cars and horsepower as she got closer and saw Emma in the passenger seat already looking annoyed with the dead riser.
"Aurora?" Jake called questioningly as he lifted his head out of the trunk. Almost instantly Millard turned, the only way she knew was because he'd decided to wear something and as his shirt turned to her she felt her face blush with embarrassment.
So instead she looked to Jake. "Is it too late to change my mind?"
Four people in the back of the car would be squishy, but Bronwyn was small and Jacob couldn't really say no to having a healer come along.
"Not at all." He smiled as she walked over and handed him her bag. She felt Millard's eyes on her the whole time but it wasn't until Jake took her things and his head disappeared back into the boot to rearrange everything so it would fit, that Millard said anything.
"Aurora." He exhaled almost breathlessly, in a mix of touched and in awe.
She looked up at him bashfully from under her lashes while she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Then she reached out and took his hand and he pulled her toward him and engulfed her in a hug.
"I still don't support this." She whispered against the shell of his ear, "And I don't know. . . about anything. But I didn't want to be apart from you."
His only response was tightening his hug and burying his face into the curve of her neck.
The ones who were staying wished them luck and waved goodbye at them through the living room window. By the time Jacob was pulling them onto a road marked Interstate 75 Aurora found that driving long distances almost instantly dove her mind headfirst into either daydreaming or over analyzing her life. She sat by the right backseat window with Bronwyn nestled next to her. The young girl had been so excited that Aurora was coming she had demanded a spot beside her in the car. Millard was on Bronwyn's other side leaving Enoch next to the left window. The two boys were already falling asleep against one another which was fine by Aurora. Hugh had given her much to think about and she wasn't ready to talk to Millard about it all yet. Especially in a cramped car where Enoch would most certainly overhear. Soft spot or not no one was safe from his taunting, except Olive.
Aurora found respite when she'd listen in to Jacob and Emma talking in the front while they looked over the map, the packages and Olive's copy of Peculiar Planet which she had given Enoch. The first stop was Flaming Man, but they had no way of knowing whether that was a peculiar or a place or something else. But H had apparently indicated on the Mel-O-Dee placemat – with a sly ring of perspiration from his glass – that gave them a clue on where to start looking. That narrowed down their search to about thirty square miles in the swampy middle of the state, a few hundred miles of where they were now.
"From here to the ring on the map it's about three hundred miles." Emma said looking from the cartoon map on the placemat to a real one in an atlas on her lap. "If we don't stop, we could be there in five hours."
"We've got to stop sometime." Bronwyn said turning her attention away from the scenery out the window. "You haven't bought us modern clothes yet."
"We'll stop soon." Jake nodded into the rearview mirror, "I just want to put some distance between us and Miss Peregrine first."
"Where do you think Portal is?" Enoch asked as he jostled awake, yawning through his sentence causing Aurora to yawn as well. "Very far?"
"Could be."
"Will you be able to stand that much driving?" Aurora asked, the new concern coming to mind.
"I'll have to." Jake said with determination. "Just keep me caffeinated."
"I'll help." Enoch offered his eyes glowing at the thought of driving this flashy car, "I'll get us there a lot faster than you could."
"Forget it. You can take a driver's-ed class when we get back, but this is no time to learn."
"I don't need lessons. I already know everything about how cars work."
"It's not the same."
Enoch kicked his seat.
"What was that for?"
"Driving like a granny."
"Reading and doing are two very different things." Aurora defended Jacob softly. How much could Millard read on relationships but still become flustered before her? How many romance novels had she read about being swept off your feet but still felt butterflies on her wedding night when Millard barely touched her bare shoulder? Applying that to the idea of Enoch at the wheel was a new kind of horror all its own.
All those thoughts flew out of her head though when they drove up a ramp and onto the interstate. Jacob sped up and merged so fast Enoch was suddenly shouting at him to slow down while Emma laughed and Millard jolted awake.
"Oooh Aurora look." Bronwyn tapped her before she pressed a button on their door and the window slid down all on its own.
"Music anyone?" Jacob asked.
"Please." Emma replied still smiling.
Jacob hit a few buttons on the dashboard and a moment later they heard guitar and a man's voice started to sing. It was older music, music they all knew, but the sound was so much clearer then any record player they'd seen.
These tapes of Abe's must be high cutting-edge technology.
Emma started to sing along and even Enoch started bopping in his seat as he looked out the window. Bronwyn joined Emma and with the wind from the open window blowing through their hair Aurora felt like a real teenager for the first time in decades.