"Yeah...excited to get back to Detroit more, though."

A word he had said was stuck in her head, and she was turning it over and over, wondering what he meant. How could dizzy spells be psychological? She bit her lip, studying his face as he drove. It was still marked by a few rivulets of sweat. Lily touched his arm gently as he pulled up next to the cathedral, right behind a large covered truck.

"When you said...your problems are psychological...what do you mean?"

"I hear ya there, personally I can't wait to get back to familiar territory." Abbie smiled and ran the thousand possible answers to Lily's question through his head. He could go ahead and tell her what he thought was the real reason, but that could lead to an uncomfortable trip.

Looking up at the truck, Abbie shut the car off and snickered, "Couldn't be any more conspicuous, could we?" Abbie got out of the car, walking around to Lily and opening the door for her. She thanked him with a light punch to the arm, kidding, "Abbot, I can open a door for myself."

Walking up to the truck, lighting a cigarette, Abbie hopped in the passengers seat, patting the drivers seat for Lily. He didn't think it would be wise to drive in his current condition. Besides, if they got pulled over, Lily and her looks would be more likely to charm them out of getting arrested.

Lily slid into the driver's seat and adjusted the rearview mirror. In her reflection, she noticed her face was drawn into lines of irritation. Abbie had avoided her question again. She slid the key into the ignition and began to turn it, then paused. She laughed slightly and opened the door again, slipping out. Before closing the door again, Lily leaned over the seat and spoke to Abbot in a stage whisper.

"I might want to make sure everything's back there. I'll be back in just a minute."

She slammed the door and made her way around to the back of the truck, glancing about the street. It was deserted and silent. She lifted the tarp on the back of the truck, peering into the shadowy depths beneath it. She saw, as predicted, the outline of piles of pelts, bags filled with delicate feathers, mounds of horns, and various other animal parts. She did a quick count--looked like everything she'd paid for was there. She dropped the tarp once more and made her way back to the cab of the truck, hopping inside and quickly closing the door behind her. She revved the engine and smiled over to Abbot. She'd inquire further into what was bothering him as the trip wore on.

"Everything's there, we're ready to go. We just have to drop by the train station for our trunks and then we'll be off for Mo-town."

Abbie laughed openly as Lily went and checked the cargo. It would be just their luck to get halfway there and realize they'd left the merchandise. Rolling down his window a little bit, Abbie reached into his pocket and grabbed a cigarette. Fumbling with his lighter, Abbie drew his eyebrows together in a moment of frustration. 

"How long until we get to the train station? I'll feel much more comfortable when I can get my clothes and change into some normal attire."

Abbie leaned back and settled into the seat, preparing for a long trip. It would seem even longer if Lily planned on questioning him the whole way.

Abbie slid his lighter back into his pocket, trying to blow the smoke from his cigarette out of the window. Lily never did quite approve of his smoking, even though she occasionally smoked herself.

As Lily drove down the bumpy roads of the small city, she sat straight up in her seat primly. She turned over the morning's events in her head, dwelling in particular on Abbot's behavior. When she told him that they'd have to go to services on Saturday, he had blanched visibly and tried his best to wiggle out of it. Lily had thought it was mere laziness or a distaste for religion that had made him want to elude this, so she had stamped her foot down about the matter. She'd expected him to simply sulk like a schoolboy through the sermon...certainly not the panicked display he had provided. There was certainly something more to his dislike for the synagogue...she just didn't know what it was. She pulled into the train station and parked the truck, handing the locker box keys to Abbie and telling him to go get their trunks and change.

As he doffed his yarmulke in an exaggerated way, Lily rolled her eyes and leaned against the back of the seat, carefully watching the back of the truck in the side mirrors. There was no way some punk or policeman was going to find out what she had in the back on her watch.

Abbie grabbed their belongings quickly, walking back to Lily and handing over her bag. Heading towards the bathroom, Abbie looked around in what seemed like a normal way. Or, it seemed normal. In reality he was scanning the area for any cops. They'd made it this far, there was no way Abbie was going to let it go awry at this stage.

Changing as fast as he could, Abbie stowed his previous attire in his suitcase and lit another cigarette. He was almost out, hopefully Lily would allow them to stop somewhere so he could pick up more. Looking into the mirror of the bathroom, Abbie grimaced at what he saw. What was once a bright, youthful face, had turned into a face of a stress filled man. He felt his lip twitch slightly, and splashed some cold water on his face, using his sleeves to wipe it off.

Heading back towards the van, Abbie walked with purpose, clearly wanting to get on the road as soon as possible. Lugging his baggage along, he snuck up on Lily and rested his head on her shoulders from behind.

"Ready for the home stretch?"

Lily started as she felt Abbie's head resting on her shoulder and his voice in her ear. She instinctively twisted around quickly, her hand smacking across his face. She stopped immediately afterward, her eyes and mouth open wide.

"I'm so sorry, Abbot! Oh my God, I'm sorry. I thought you were...You shouldn't sneak up on girls in parking lots like that."

She looked away guiltily, then back at him, a hand reaching up to carefully touch her fingertips to the red mark spreading across his cheek.

"Are you gonna be okay?"

"You... just smacked me." Abbie said in a voice clearly in shock. Abbie reached up and touched the spot where she struck him, feeling heat emit from it. He'd been hit harder before, but holy Christ did Lily know how to swing!

"Yeah I'll be fine," Abbie laughed, "Why have you never told me about that arm of yours?!"

After opening the door for Lily, Abbie flicked his cigarette on the ground and pulled himself up into the passengers seat. Rolling down his window for some fresh air, he smiled at Lily and checked his face in the mirror. Oh yeah, there was definitely going to be a mark.

Abbie suddenly burst out laughing inexplicably, clutching his ribs for lack of air due to laughing so hard. Lily gave him an odd look, but Abbie merely waved it off and continued to laugh.

Lily shrugged her shoulders and started the truck. Whatever the cause of Abbie's hysteria, she could find out the cause once it had died down. She pulled slowly out of the parking lot and looked around carefully before trundling off down the streets.

Once she had gotten out of the city, she glanced over to the still-giggling Abbot with a drawn face.

"Abbot...Abbot! Have you got the maps, Abbot? I don't know which fork in the road to take up here...you didn't leave them in the luggage, did you? Stop laughing and find those maps!"

She scowled slightly to Abbie as he tried to stop up his laughter, fumbling in the glove compartment. Just as he began to pull out the map triumphantly, a multitude of other maps spilled in a multi-colored mess on the floor. Lily glanced between Abbie and the maps before bursting into giggles herself, feeding her companion's laughter, which in turn added fuel to hers until she had to pull over to the side of the road to keep from swerving.

Abbie laughed until his ribs started to hurt, clutching his seat and trying to maintain even breathing, finding it near impossible. Glad that Lily pulled over, Abbie opened his door and waved in some fresh air, slowing down in laughter.

"Know what's the best part about this all Lily?" Abbie said, wiping a tear from his eye, "I barely remember what's so funny." Lily's face all of a sudden became serious as her face plainly said "WHAT?!?!?"

Abbie laughed again and told her, "Oh yeah, I remember now. When you smacked me, it must have continued the image people get from us of being together. I'm sure they thought I said something offensive and you hauled off on me"

Abbie chuckled some more, waving Lily to start the truck. The absolute best part of it, to Abbie, was that in his mind they were all BUT dating. Best friends, shared everything, would die for the other, etc. Abbie sighed to himself as Lily pulled into the road, continuing on their journey.

Lily burst into peals of laughter as she painted the scene from a bystander's point of view. She glanced over to Abbie as her laughter died down, her bright green eyes tracing the red handprint outlined clearly on his cheek. Maybe that would provide a cover story if they got pulled over by some hick cop. She wiped a tear of laughter from her eye before starting the truck up again. As she pulled onto the road once more, she motioned to Abbie.

"Okay, okay, which fork in the road? We're heading toward Springfield. I want to stay near the coast for a bit...try to avoid those tiny hick towns in the mountains."

As she spoke, the road began to emerge into two paths in the distance. She glanced over to Abbie somewhat nervously.

"Um, and I'm gonna need that kind of quick, too."

Abbie fumbled around with papers quickly as the fork in the road came upon them faster than he expected. Tracing their route with his finger he found where they were, and where they needed to go. "Left! It's a left," Abbie said just in time, as Lily veered to the left, cutting off a trucker and receiving a rude hand gesture in return. Abbie sighed and said to Lily seriously, "This has been quite the trip, eh?"

Before she could reply, Abbie clutched his head and squinted his eyes, clenching his jaw and gritting his teeth. Lily pulled over immediately and looked at him with worried eyes, screaming "Abbot! What in the hell is wrong with you?!" Abbie put up a finger, riding out his sudden burst of extreme headache. His brow had begun to sweat again, and he opened the door to the truck, and leaned out, allowing the cars passing by him to provide a nice breeze.

Abbie pulled himself all the way back inside the truck, and shut the door, breathing deep. "I... don't know, Lily." Abbie said, clearly still in pain.

Lily sighed and began to dig behind her seat. A slightly musty blanket presented itself, which she pulled out and folded deftly into a small pillow. She handed it over to Abbot with a small smile.

"Why don't you take a nap, hon? I think you need it...I'll get you some aspirin and cigarettes the next store I see, okay?"

As Abbie took the blanket, she studied the lines of his face. This wasn't good...and she had no idea what was causing it. Abbot was a hardy fellow, though. She'd seen him live through infected stab wounds, concussions, broken limbs...he'd get through this. She started up the truck again and pulled onto the road, careful to stay within the speed limit. She looked back over to Abbie. He was gently massaging his head, the makeshift pillow still in his lap. Well...she hoped he would get through this.

As she drove on, she noticed that the places they drove past didn't seem to be those she was expecting. Their surroundings were increasingly rural, and when she pulled into a gas station, she asked the clerk what the town was called.

"This? This 'ere's Pembroke, ma'am."

"...Pardon?"

The man raised an eyebrow.

"Peym-broke. You ain't heard me the furst time?"

"Um...Pembroke...isn't that a type of corgi?"

"Type o' wha?"

"Nothing, nothing..."

Lily quickly grabbed a road map from a nearby rack, unfolding it and perusing it desperately. There...Pembroke...they had been driving toward...no, not Statesboro...

She folded up the map with a frustrated grunt, paid the man for the gas, cigarettes, and aspirin, and made her way toward the truck.

"Abbot...Abbot! Wake up. We took a wrong turn."

Abbie was just nodding off into sleep as Lily's voice rang through his head, exclaiming that they'd made a wrong turn. He mumbled incomprehensibly for a moment and ran the route through his head mentally again, backtracking where they could have gone wrong.

"Not possible." Abbie said simply, picking up the map and handing it to Lily. Abbie looked around and saw the were pulled over at a gas station in some hick town. Surrounding them were fields of grass and beaten down dirt roads, old pickup trucks puttering around on their last smidgens of gas. 

Lighting his last cigarette, Abbie rolled down his window and rested his back against the makeshift pillow once more. Running the trips events through his mind, he came to the conclusion that it had certainly been interesting, to say the least. 

Blowing smoke out of the window, watching it spiral up into the sky to be whipped away by the wind, Abbie looked over to Lily who was frantically scanning the map, her eyes searching for a way out of this town. Abbie couldn't help but to appreciate her beauty, even if she was constantly telling him off for judging people by their looks.

"So, this trip just couldn't have gotten more exciting, could it? I had to go and get us lost."

Lily nervously played with a piece of hair that had fallen away from the ribbon holding the rest of it back. The trip was still salvageable, but she'd just have to go through a large rural area. And they would be more noticeable in a rural area. And it wouldn't be pretty if they broke down out there. Of course, she could just turn around...maybe that would be best. She looked up to see Abbie looking slightly disappointed. She gave him a quick smile.

"It's not your fault, Abbot...I should have noticed something before coming this far. We'll just turn back around and take the right turn...well, actually, we can just take this road and go straight to Springfield. It'll take a bit longer, but it'll be worth it."

She pointed to a spot on the map, her manicured ruby nail tracing out a tiny line there. She nodded toward the car.

"Go ahead and get in. You can sleep while I drive. Oh, and here."

She handed over the bag with the aspirin and cigarettes. As he took it from her, she rested a hand gently on his shoulder.

"Abbie...if you remember anything that could be causing your...whatever it is, please tell me."

Lily smiled and, without waiting for a response, began folding up the map and walking toward the cab of the truck.

Abbie's mind was torn as he walked back to the passengers seat, swallowing a few aspiring and packing his cigarette container with his palm, ensuring all the tobacco was tight. Pulling one out he lit it and sighed heavily. Putting on a stoic face and pulling himself up, Abbie looked at Lily and said simply,

"You wouldn't understand."

And how could she? Abbie was almost sure that Lily had no idea what he was going through. In his mind the idea that she could, or would be able to help him was asinine. He himself wasn't completely sure what was wrong with him.

It could have something to do with the fact that one of the synagogue's he'd gone to as a child was burned down by the Ku Klux Klan while he was still inside it. Somehow he'd managed to sneak off during the service and fall asleep in a crook that was sound proof.

In a deep sleep he'd woken up only when the smell of smoke drifted into his nose, his senses instantly alert. After battling his way through the smoke and debris, obtaining many cuts and bruises, as well of course as burns along the way, Abbie had vowed never to step foot in a synagogue again. And he hadn't, until the day him and Lily had picked up the keys.

Of course, Abbie was also convinced that it was his lack of relationships with women. More and more lately he'd been taking Lily's advice not to judge people by their covers, and actually get to know them before sleeping with them. This in turn resulted with Abbie not having sex as much, and making him go crazy.

He had decided long ago that he wasn't going to settle down until he was one hundred percent sure on if he loved the women or not. He was beginning to rethink this, though, as the only person he'd ever truly loved was the women driving the truck. Abbie rested his head on the makeshift pillow, but kept his eyes open, and continued to inhale on his cigarette.

As Lily drove down the road, she found her mind drifting. This certainly was an interesting trip. She'd probably have to call Gabe and tell him she was going to be a little behind with the shipment. She wasn't sure how long this would set her back...but the sun was already beginning to sink below the hills in the distance. She glanced over to Abbie, whose eyelids seemed to be gradually drooping lower.


So Lily didn't notice her foot subconsciously pressing the pedal harder, or have Abbie to point out the fact that everything was whooshing by much faster than the speed limit should allow. She was, then, surprised when she was snapped out of her reverie by a siren blaring behind her. Her eyes flashed emerald as they widened in surprise laced delicately with panic, but she took a deep breath and pulled over dutifully. She rummaged quickly in her purse for her lipstick, reapplying it with surprising perfection just before the cop rapped on her window. She tossed her hair over one shoulder and rolled the window down, spreading her maraschino-colored lips into a smile. Time to play the role of "innocently stunning girl".

"Is there a problem, sir?"

The officer nodded, his flabby cheeks wobbling like a bloodhound's. His round stomach pushed forward insistently against the door of the truck as he craned his neck to see inside. His dull blue eyes glided disinterestedly over the drowsy Abbot before affixing themselves onto Lily's femininity.

"Yes, ma'am, ah'm afraid thar is. You was drivin' at least twenny miles over that 'ur speeeed limut." A short spout of air was released from his throat. "Ah'm afraid ah'm gonna hafta give yer a ticket, lil' lady."

"Oh, shoot. I didn't even realize I was going any kind of fast..."

Lily batted her eyelashes demurely and pushed her lips into a small pout. Her hand rose to her neck, instinctively playing with her necklace. But it wasn't the heart-shaped locket she was used to. Her eyelids flickered slightly as she realized that the policeman had noticed she was wearing a Star of David around her neck. His brain seemed to be trying to place the symbol, miring through the murky depths of his mind.

However, the power of sex seemed to overcome him. After unabashedly looking Lily over, he gave her a smile and tilted his hat back on his head. As he spoke, he reached a hand through the window to rest on the back of Lily's neck, causing goosepimples of disgust to prickle up.

"Well, miss, it shore would be a darn shame to make a purty thing like you pay all that money..." Suddenly, he stopped, a hard glint entering his eyes. He glanced from Lily's face to the necklace she was clasping in her hand. "Now hold up a purty second...ah know what that 'ur necklace means..."

He opened up the truck door suddenly and hauled Lily out of the cab by the arm. She cried out as she barely managed to get her feet beneath her. The cop yanked her around and pressed her violently against the side of the truck. His face had become a twisted mask out of some theatrical production. In his gaze he had somehow mixed together primal visual desire and pure, unseeing hatred. He breathed close into her face, his spittle-filled lips releasing his vile respirations directly onto her nose.

"We ain't like no Jewry o'er in these here parts. You'se sprung from t' devil, ever' las' one o' ya!" He shook her slightly, grabbing hold of her dress sleeve. "I gotta drive you outter here..." His eyes, before the dull blue of his uniform, had now flashed into the color of an indistinct shadow. They were roving down her body, tracing her curves even as his hand reached out to rub them. Lily gave a savage cry and stomped furiously onto his foot. He yelled and wheeled away for a moment, ripping her dress sleeve in the process.

"Why you kike bitch!"

The officer's hand lunged to her throat, only grabbing hold of her necklace before a gunshot exploded into his gut. As he crashed to the ground, a searing pain burned into Lily's neck. With a delicate "chink", the chain broke off, still clutched by the dead officer as he lay on the ground in his pooling blood.

Abbie nodded off into a deep sleep as they progressed on what he'd hoped was the final stretch towards "home." Of course, they'd be stopping in Detroit before Abbie got to actually arrive home in New York, but Detroit was his home away from home. Anywhere that Lily resided, it was a sure bet to say Abbie was familiar with.

Abbie coughed slightly in his sleep, turning his head and fidgeting to find a more comfortable position. Falling instantly back to sleep, he began to have a dream of the night the synagogue had been set ablaze.

The rabbi was droning on about something or other as Abbie felt his eyes beginning to droop, and sweat begin to form on his brow. Wiping it off with the back of his hand, he decided to skip out on the rest of the sermon. It wasn't anything new, anyway. It always seemed like the same thing, week in and week out. Finding a nice crook in the synagogue next to a window, Abbie rested his head back and closed his eyes, letting the cool breeze from the window play with his hair, and ease the heat inside the building. Cuddling closer to the wall, and not being able to hear a word of the service due to the position of the walls and crooks, he dozed off.

Hours later, long after the service had been done with, Abbie woke up startled, an acrid smell crawling its way up his nostrils. Yawning and coughing as he breathed in the foul air, Abbie listened and could faintly hear sirens outside. Realizing immediately that their must have been a fire, Abbie hopped off his crook and tried waving the smoke out from in front of him, to no avail. The heat emitting from what seemed like the very air was sweltering, enough to make Abbie's entire body perspire. The smoke was black and thick, making it impossible for him to navigate.

Mentally thinking of the scheme of the synagogue, he dropped down to the ground and began to crawl in the direction of what he hoped was the way out. There was a few ways out, the front exit, the side exit, and the one to the rear. Hearing bits and pieces of the ceiling fall down around him, Abbie scurried faster than ever, eventually running headfirst into a pew.

Clutching his head and screaming out in pain, Abbie looked up and saw a disturbing image. A man was standing where the rabbi normally stood, wearing a white robe, and a white hooded mask covering his entire face. Recognizing the man as a member of the Ku Klux Klan, Abbie's heart raced even faster, he was sure that it was audible over the blaring sirens and falling pieces of roof.

Making his way to the robed man, Abbie tried standing up, and fell down again, feeling dizzy due to smoke inhalation. How the man in front of him was still standing, he did not know. Collapsing in front of the man, Abbie craned his neck up and watched as the Klan member pulled off his hood. Abbie's heart stopped in its tracks, freezing for what seemed like an eternity as he identified the man as the synagogues rabbi. He spoke slowly and clearly to Abbie, enunciating very slowly,

"Young son, I want you to do something for me. In a very few moments, I will be giving you a gun. I need you to kill me, and then leave the gun in my hands, making it look like I did it myself. Never trust the system Abbot, never."

And with that, the rabbi handed Abbie a pistol, closing his frail fingers around the butt and nodding. Abbie was so confused. He'd always known that he wanted to be associated with criminals, but not the KKK!

Dropping the gun, Abbie stumbled towards the exit behind the man, hearing a disappointed response in the form of a sullen voice, "I told you to make it look like this... I guess I will have to do it myself. Goodbye Abbot." Abbie tried to look away, knowing full and well what was coming, the collapsing roof around him blocking his path to the door. Turning back as fast as he could, Abbie tried to make his way back around the rabbi, but could not before the rabbi pulled the gun on himself, ending his life.

Abbie woke up suddenly, startled as the gunfire from his dream seemed too loud for a dream. Looking around frantically he could not find Lily, and hopped out of the car, running around to the side, stopping dead in his tracks as Lily stood there shell shocked, a cop laying dead on the ground. Lily's necklace was laying in a pool of blood, her hands seemingly out of their own accord reaching up to touch her neck where it had recently been worn.

Her sleeve was torn, and she was clearly in shock. Abbie put two and two together, surmising that the cop had pulled her over for some reason or another, and tried to physically harm her. This much was obvious from the red mark around Lily's neck where the necklace was torn off, and her ripped sleeve. The blank, stunned look in her eye suggested something more. This was hick town, Abbie remembered... And she was Jewish... Oh, God, Abbie thought, feeling his heart sink... The cop had tried to rape her.

Abbie walked up to her silently and pulled her in close, patting her back and whispering to her that everything would be alright. Feeling his eyes water, Abbie decided that it wasn't wise to stand on an open road with a dead cop next to them. Insisting Lily went into the van, Abbie took the body and stowed it in the back of the truck. They could dump it at a later point in their trip, for now it was important he made sure Lily was going to be ok.

Having had Lily sit in the passenger seat, Abbie hopped in the drivers seat and looked over to his best friend. He reached his hand over and held hers, leaning over and assuring her once again it would be alright, and finally telling her the truth. In those moments pulled over on the side of the road, Abbie confessed his love to her, and told her that no matter how many women he slept with, he had always stayed single because of her. Tears streamed down her face, unable to speak. Abbie's face looked pained, as he clutched his head in pain once more.

"Abbot! Abbot please! What is going on!?" Lily cried, frantically. "Please... Please tell me? You just told me you loved me, if you truly do, please understand that I have to know what's wrong!" She continued, tears still flowing freely down her face.

Abbie's face straightened out and he sighed, admitting defeat. Now that the cat was out of the bag, he figured, he might as well tell her everything. In the following minutes, Abbie told her of the night when he was a child in that burning synagogue, of the suiciding rabbi, who was really a Klan member. He felt his stomach churning, and realized his hand was still wrapped in Lily's. Looking her in the eye he gave a half hearted smile and said weakly,

"So, I bet you think I'm crazy now, huh?"

Lily shook her head, squeezing Abbie's hand. She tried to speak, but her vocal cords seemed to have rusted over as he told his story. All she remembered about the neighborhood synagogue burning down was a vague memory of her mother's letter about it. She wrote that the rabbi's body had been found inside, burnt to a crisp, with a charred gun lying beside him. The police had decided that the rabbi had died trying to defend it from the arsonists. There was a remembrance service held for him every year now. After clearing her throat, Lily managed to speak in a husky whisper, her emeraldine eyes catching hold of his own murky green eyes and holding them fast.

"Of course not, Abbot. It just...explains a lot." She hesitated for half a second before pressing her cool lips to his forehead comfortingly. As she pulled away, she looked back into his eyes with a small smile twitching up her lips. "You're still Abbie to me, hon. I don't think anything could change that. I'm...just a little mad you kept it from me for so long."

As she cast her eyes downward, staring for a moment at the grungy mats on the cab's floor, she felt Abbot's arm reach around her shoulders. She looked back up. He was rather closer than before, his face drawn into undefined lines of shame, guilt, and worry.

"I'm sorry, Lily...but...you're the only person I can tell about this. I didn't want...I don't need to ruin anything for you." His face drooped into a downcast expression. "I probably already have." His eyes flashed up to meet hers as he lifted a hand to cup her cheek. "Goddammit, you're the one thing in my life that's always been there, and I...I can't let you go, Lily. Please don't go."

He bent his neck down to kiss the crown of her head. Lily gave a small, half-nervous laugh before wrapping her arms around Abbie's torso in a tight hug.

"Oh, God, Abbot. I'm not going to leave. You haven't ruined anything for me. Plus, you need someone to knock some common sense into you now and then."

Abbie cracked a smile, letting his hand slip beneath her chin and tilt her head upward. He kissed her quickly. His kiss held a passion that tingled her lips and made butterflies flap uncomfortably in her choked-up stomach. She placed a hand on his chest, gently pushing her friend away.

"Abbot...I love you--" She saw the beginnings of a transformation in his face: a sudden lightning in his eyes, the de-creasing of tiny wrinkles--and then she said the words that sent this barely bloomed light crashing in on itself with a roll of silent thunder behind his eyes. "--but...not like...not like you love me."

Abbie gulped, wounded. He pulled away from her with a soft sigh of disappointment. Lily gave a short, almost scoffing release of breath.

"Look...I think it's all just...it's all too much for me right now. Let's...let's get rid of this cop. I don't think we'll be stopping at a hotel until we're in or near North Carolina, or else we might catch some heat. And then we'll start heading Northwest."

He gave a slow nod and started the truck. Lily the sensible. Already back into business mode. As he drove quickly away from the scene of the crime, Abbie vaguely wondered if she ever really got out of it. Maybe that was why she didn't...he shook his head. He'd probably just fucked up somewhere. She was right, it was all too much for her. Too damn much...a childish part of his brain bleated into his thoughts. "That's ridiculous. Nothing is too much for Lily. She can do anything." But when he looked over to her, she was huddled against the door of the truck, tears streaming silently down her face once more. He sighed before reaching over to place his hand on her arm, rubbing her skin gently.

"Hey, it's gonna be fine, okay, Lil? Everything'll be great once we get to Detroit."

She hastily wiped her eyes on the backs of her hands before giving him a damp smile.

"I know, Abbot. It's...I was scared for a minute there. He was just...such a...a pig!" She spat the last word out like a cobra shooting venom, then slowly looked over to Abbie. "Where are we dumping him? "

Abbie shrugged and looked out at the twilight-lit road before him. Suddenly, he pulled over with a grin, pointing to a faint glimmer on the ground about fifty feet away in a field. Lily peered at it for a moment, then smiled as she realized it was a large pond. The farmhouse on the property was a vague dark lump on a hill. If they were quick about it, no one would see anything. Lily nodded and opened her door. She broke into a fit of coughing as the rankness of the pond rolled over her. Even as she held her handkerchief to her mouth, she thought the smell was convenient--the smell of a rotting corpse would go unnoticed beneath this.

She and Abbie made their ways around to the back of the truck. Lily pulled back the tarp and peered at the officer's shocked, lifeless face. A soft gleam caught her eye, and she snatched it away from his stiffening hands, muttering. "Get your filthy hands off that. That was my mother's." She avoided Abbot's glance and instead reached in to help him pull the body out. After weighing it down with tools from a kit they found in the truck, the pair quickly made their way to the pond and tossed the huge body in. It slowly sank to the bottom, sending waves of vomitous odor up to them. Lily and Abbie ran up to the truck, hopping in quickly and driving off. Thankfully, it was a deserted road and no one had driven by.

They drove in silence for some time, occasionally expressing gratitude to have taken care of the cop or that his blood hadn't stained the merchandise in the back. After several miles of passing silently by fields and over streams, Lily's voice slid forth gently into the cab.

"Abbot?"

"Yeah?"

"...I want you to have this."

He looked over to her, surprised, as she held up the necklace by its broken chain. Then he laughed and looked back at the road, waving vaguely in her direction.

"No, no, Lily. Keep it. It was your mother's."

"Please, Abbie?" She placed her hand on his arm with a small smile. "We're not all bad, you know."

Abbie gave a short snort of laughter as he glanced over to her. He took her hand in his and gave it a squeeze.

"I know, Lily. It's not my bag to carry around something that's so...you know."

Lily was silent for a moment, then leaned over and kissed his cheek.

"Well if you change your mind, let me know."

Abbie laughed again, feeling her lipstick sticking to his skin where she had kissed him.

"And the same to you, Lily."

She shook her head slightly and leaned back against the door, clutching her mother's necklace and silently mouthing a prayer for a safe journey.