Law man has put an end to my running and I'm so far from my home.

[crashlikethunder]

If he expected to wake up at all, it was in a hospital bed, clinging to life while strapped to a bunch of shit creating a soundtrack of high-pitched beeping that would threaten to send him over the edge, making him even crazier than that trapeze artist who once tricked him into break-up sex only to try to squeeze the breath from him between her impressively toned thighs. Such was his reward for selflessly offering to take the first turn.

Instead, he comes to slumped in the window seat in a fancy train car the likes of which he's only seen in very old movies. He wasn't even sure these things ran anymore except from coast to coast, and sure as hell not departing from anywhere near Schenectady. His best theory is that Robin found him somehow, dragged his ass onto the first train out and they're on the run now, headed away from his son and Ro at fuck-all miles per hour. And if that's the case, he just might shoot Robin this time, 'cause that wasn't his choice to make and it definitely wasn't the one Luke would have made for himself. He almost thinks that looking at the same three walls and sixteen vertical bars in that jail cell for the next however many years might be worth the occasional visit from his son. With his kid in the rearview, there's nothing the west could offer him now. He makes to get up and find that son of a bitch Robin, to see if he can finally drill that into his fucking head, but trying to sit up sends a sharp wave of agony through his right side, reaching deep down someplace where he's never felt more than the occasional pang of hunger. He grunts and collapses back into the seat, gagging and panting like he's just run a 5K.

It takes him what feels like at least half an hour to lift himself onto his feet, then another ten minutes to haul himself the few feet down the aisle to wait by the door. Between then and the time it takes for the train to reach whatever station it finally rolls into, he guesses it's been an hour since he first woke, and he's feeling lightheaded and weak as he stumbles onto the platform, reluctantly beginning to accept that his only option now is to find an emergency room. The front of his coveralls are soaked through with more blood than he knew he had. He starts walking toward the information kiosk at a snail's pace, each step exerting him more than every weight-lifting session he's ever endured, and after only five measly steps he's falling forward onto the ground, wheezing. He realizes, vaguely, how strange it is that the train car was entirely empty, and that there not be another soul on the platform in what looks like the middle of the afternoon. He doesn't know how he got away from that cop and that house, from the whole damn town, but if he makes it through this injury, he might just be home free. The cop couldn't have had any time to make his face, it all happened to fast; if he survives, he could sneak back into town without anyone the wiser. Suddenly, there's nothing else for him to do but to make it out of this alive and get back to Jason and Ro, 'cause if he's getting this second chance, it must be for a reason. For that reason.

Fighting through the blinding pain, Luke makes yet another attempt to climb back onto his feet, grunting as loud as he will since no one's around to hear either way. And if someone is, shit, even he's not pigheaded enough to deny that he could use their help right now.

Comments

[crashlikethunder]

He should say that he's glad she was there, too. It's what anyone who isn't a complete fuckwit would say. Luke isn't sure that it would be true, though, and it doesn't seem right to pay her back for helping him by lying to her face. He almost laughs, wondering he started caring about what's right. Though he's heard it said that a near death experience will change anyone, he doesn't feel very different at all. Same asshole that he's always been, down one reason to live.

"You don't have to stay, you know." He can only imagine that she's still here out of some sense of obligation and that seems, to him, fucking crazy.

[wishesandsmoke]

"I know," Eden says, shrugging. She doesn't know him from Adam; there's nothing to keep her here, not technically. But she doesn't like to leave people in the lurch when they wind up here, and that's just the people who don't show up dangerously close to death. It's a choice, one based on her own vivid memory of how frightening a situation that can be.

Anyway, there's a difference between not having to and not wanting to. Head tipping to the side, she looks at him curiously. "Do you want me to leave?"

[crashlikethunder]

It's a question that he should take time to consider. Instead, he answers immediately, without pause. "I think you should," Luke says, unfocused eyes staring straight ahead. He doesn't think it through, which is nothing new for him. The instant sense of regret greets him like an old friend, one he doesn't particularly like but knows he won't ever be rid of. It will be for the best, anyway. The next dose will knock him out and he'll either wake up from this wild dream or he won't wake up at all. Either way, there's no reason for her to wait around.

[wishesandsmoke]

"Okay," Eden says. She worries, briefly, that she's overstepped her bounds here, but it doesn't matter, she decides. She really should head home anyway, and the staff will keep an eye on him. Either way, he's going to be alright now, or she hopes he will. If he doesn't want her to stick around, well, he has no particular reason to.

Still, as she gathers up her book and slips it into her purse, she stops to find a pen, jotting down her number on a notepad by the bed. "If you need a friend in town," she says, "give me a call. Bye, Luke."