Somewhere in a Car | Friday Afternoon

[guardian_god]

As much as Dimitri agreed that there was no other choice, Abe's plan had bothered him from the beginning. It wasn't that he thought the plan wouldn't work, more that Dimitri hated the thought of destroying Rose's already insanely precarious record. There wasn't a lot of precedence for fugitives returning to their positions, innocent or not

Comments

[guardianborn]

Dimitri might be on edge, but Rose was almost too tired to be. Sure, she hadn't done anything all week except sit in a jail cell and get accused of murder, but somehow that was exhausting.

She fiddled with the ugly pink bedazzled Flyers cap in her lap, really wanting to throw it out the window. But it seemed the only disguise she had (and she was not cutting her hair) for now so keeping the horrible thing was the plan.

The plan. Somehow everyone she trusted the most had conspired to make one without bothering to mention it to her. Which was a little annoying. Rose kept reminding herself that without that, she'd still be sitting in that cell, waiting for her trail, but still! Didn't they trust her at least a little?

"Where are we going?" she asked (again) as she stared out at the generally ugly landscape.

[guardian_god]

Dimitri barely glanced her way when she spoke. "You should focus on getting some rest while you can," he answered, totally avoiding her question. Dimitri wasn't sure how he felt about going to Fandom again, let alone how he was supposed to deal with her reaction.

Especially when he'd kidnapped her from there.

[guardianborn]

"Or I could drive, and you could get some rest," she suggested almost reflexively. "You should get some rest too - you've been pretty busy."

Yes, yes, there was the faintest hint of bitterness in her voice at the reminder no one had told her.

[guardian_god]

Like he could help looking her way when she volunteered to take the wheel. "I'm fine. I was prepared for this." Not for her, but for the action taking place. "And it would be better not to draw attention to this vehicle."

[guardianborn]

"What do you mean not draw attention? How would I draw attention?" Rose made a face, drawing her feet up onto her seat. In a very weird way, this felt like they were coming back from that time training in the mountains. Except for everything being completely different. She couldn't quite help adding, "Wonder what it's like to be prepared."

[guardian_god]

"I don't believe Rose and speed limits really go together. And you do understand why no one told you, yes?" Dimitri checked, having failed to recognize how annoyed Rose was that she'd been out of the loop. He supposed normally she was the loop.

He was usually the one on the outside waiting for her to give up the information.

[guardianborn]

"There are tons of people speeding here! You're drawing more attention by going along like a little turtle with everyone passing you," she complained. She looked over at him, still slightly hurt about that. "Because they thought I couldn't keep my mouth shut about it? I mean, for that matter, how did you guys convince Lissa to go along with it. Abe, sure, I'd expect it of him, but you and Lissa are like the most law-abiding people ever."

Sometimes it would be good for Rose to just be happy she escaped, yes?

[guardian_god]

"It wasn't about you keeping quiet," Dimitri said. "God knows you're good at that when you want to be. I believe the fear was that you'd behave differently if you knew and they didn't want to risk more guards being in place around your cell." That last part was probably for Dimitri's sake. He already felt bad enough about all the guardians he'd beaten up in Rose's name earlier in the week, let alone the crew he'd left unconscious today.

"And I'm going with traffic. A turtle would still be in Harrisburg."

[guardianborn]

"A fast turtle then. Like a tortoise." Rose made a face at him but let the argument go. It did sort of make sense, and it sounded like something she'd decide to do. Bet it was Abe who thought of that.

"You guys...didn't break me out cause you think I did it, right?" Rose checked.

[guardian_god]

"If there's anything I know for certain right now, it's that you didn't kill the queen," Dimitri answered, glancing her way and gripping the steering wheel so he wouldn't try to take her hand or anything else stupid.

[guardianborn]

She relaxed just a little, hearing him say it. Lissa didn't believe she did, and if Dimitri did too then - pretty much everyone Rose cared most about believed her. It was good to know.

"So we're going to figure out who really did it," she decided, starting to feel like they might be able to do this. The Queen's note to her was still in her pocket. "And get Lissa her vote on the Council. Probably'll be easier to do when neither of us are locked up, huh."

[guardian_god]

"That's not actually what we're going to do," Dimitri answered, not liking that he had to disappoint her, but it was the truth. "We're going to keep you safe while Abe and Lissa figure out who really did it."

[guardianborn]

"What?" Rose snapped. "What? No! They can't - you think we should just sit around and not do anything? That's insane! You guys broke me out. I mean, I get that Lissa's got a good alibi, but she looks into this too much, and they're not going to be so happy with her. We can't just wait around."

[guardian_god]

"We don't have much of a choice. We have to stay out of sight." And if the car ride was tense for him, Dimitri was only beginning to realize how bad being cooped up in a room with Rose was going to be. Maybe Fandom was a good idea after all.

[guardianborn]

"So we're going to a huge city where there's probably Moroi all over the place?" Rose asked. Which, okay, probably most Moroi were in hiding after the the Strigoi attacks and then the queen's death so that argument wasn't the best ever. "Wait, we're going to DC? Won't that be a little...obvious?"

[guardian_god]

"No," he said, deciding to let her figure it out. "Because we're not going to D.C."