A Lonely Road

Let's Talk Over Kisses and Bacon

When they returned to the safe house, the crypt like silence hit Jace square in the face. "Where did the others go?" he asked Kaelie in a whisper. She smirked at him, a trait, he noticed, that infuriatingly often meant that she knew something he didn't.

"They're sleeping, Jace," she said, and even her voice sounded like it was smirking at him.

"Seriously?" He'd honestly thought they were like Twilight vampires or something, they couldn't really need things like sleep.

"We're humans, Jace. Genetically engineered, yes, but we still need to sleep. I don't get this pretty by doing nothing. In fact, that's what we're about to do."

"We?" he asked stupidly, an awkward heat crawled up his neck.

"Well," Kaelie started. "We don't exactly have an extra room, clearly we don't get a lot of company. I mean, I could have you room with Michael, except that Sarah is in there too, and-"

"Yeah, let's not," Jace cut her off. "So where do I sleep?"

"With me." He blanched and she laughed.

"A little fast, don't you think?" he asked in an attempt to regain his composure,and he tried to force his mind- and his body- away from just how good the idea sounded.

"Relax, I meant you're going to have to stay in my room, and I've only got the one bed."

"Oh." She tugged him towards her door and handed him some sweats that were on the bed. "I don't think these are going to fit me, somehow," he said.

Kaelie rolled her eyes at him. "They're Michael's, I asked him to leave something out, unless you'd rather sleep in your jeans."

He didn't answer, just raised his eyebrows at her until the light of realization lit her mismatched eyes and she pulled them away from his face.

"Bathroom's down the hall," she said finally. "You can change there. Shower, too, if you want, we've got surprisingly decent water pressure for a place like this." Kaelie shoved him away gently, closing the door nearly entirely, and he could see her tugging the dress over her head before he shook his head and walked away.

When he returned, Kaelie was already asleep, stretched out on her stomach, her taped ribs hidden under a tank top and soft shorts, breathing slowly. He smiled. She looked peaceful, her face- her features were usually sharp, focused, all hard edges, she looked ferocious, but not here. Her makeup was smudged around her eyes, her dark red hair was tangled around her face. Jace gingerly sat next to her, before laying as close to the opposite edge of the bed as he could, and falling into a fitful sleep filled with blue green eyes, soft mouth, low voice, calm.

Kaelie awoke early, several hours before she and the others needed to be on the plane, and though it took several minutes for her to rub the sleep out of her eyes, she was unbothered. The pre-dawn morning was quiet and still, and she reveled in the rare silence.

She spent the next couple of hours cutting and adjusting the wigs she'd bought, a skill picked up from a few months at one part time job as a receptionist at a high end hair salon in New York. Before they'd had to leave, the owner had started to show Kaelie how to do hair after hours. He'd never know it, but he'd probably saved their lives by giving her a skill that didn't generally seem useful to someone in Kaelie's line of work, if you could call it that.

Soon, the smell of eggs and bacon roused the others. As Kaelie set plates full of food on the table, she heard distinct footsteps heading towards her from the hall. It wasn't Michael or even Lilith, she'd learned the pattern of their gait awhile ago. Moments later, Jace wandered in and sat at the table and Kaelie relaxed muscles she didn't even know she'd tensed. The attack a few days ago must have rattled her more than she thought.