Nomad'er What

Chapter 3: The survival plan

Aileen's POV

I woke up to the smell of cold dumplings. Pierce smiled next to me.

"Good you're up just in time for dinner."

"What time is it?" I groaned.

"It's just after six. How's your head? You got a pretty bad concussion."

"What?! I've only been out for a few hours." I groaned scratching the back of my neck.

Pierce grinned, "how about a couple of days? You hit your head pretty bad when you fell."

"What?!" I touched my right temple to find it covered in gauze.

"Relax," He handed me a dumpling. "I got all the daily papers for you so you'll be up to date." I bit into my dumpling and realised how hungry I really was.

"Why didn't you take me to a hospital?" If his grin broadened any further it would fall off his face.

"You're lucky you've been out the past days. It hasn't been good here. That kid you stole from is Detective Beuadal's son....."

"Detective Boodal." I mocked him with a very animated expression of fear. Pierce shook his head.

"You're missing the point Detective as in Detective as in police force! We're all over the newspapers right now. We're in hiding. The only food we've got in days is dumplings. Good thing there's such a variety or I might end up turning myself in, at least then I'd get something different." I smiled right back at him and then I frowned as I read the headlines.

"School boy tries to stop freak knife attack? ..Town thief uprise?!....... *cough cough* an eloped couple becomes violent thieves. Wow these... they're about us! Well obviously with a lot of total B.S. but it's us!"I panicked.

"Yeah and here's today's, 'it's not over yet'." I skimmed the page he passed to me. It sent shivers down my spine. It was all about how the police put two and two together and realised the theft and knife attacks were the same people and how they've gone into hiding and there are intense searches for us. I scoffed, geez how hard is it to find a broken bridge overgrown with plants? I mean two uneducated homeless kids found it...

I looked up into Pierce's thoughtful blue eyes.

"What are we supposed to do?"

"Well, for now you need to get better and I'll sort this out." The old fire ignited into me Pierce and I's endless battle, level 9000. He always wants to protect me and keep me from harm, though I'm capable of taking care of myself and I'd much rather take my life into my own hands then sit in the side lines and root for the gorgeous blond beauty that's laying down his life for me. But I'm no damsel in distress, no fair lady I'm in charge of my own life and I can manage my own issues.

"We will sort this out together." I insisted. I must admit though that it feels good to have someone there for you. He smiles as if saying 'that's what I love about you'.

"I know you want to help but," he gestured to my leg, "you're in no condition to." He was right, I hate that. "I need to change your bandages." He said after I didn't comment.

I pulled off my blankets and I realised then I wasn't in my normal clothes. I was in a purple cotton t-shirt and grey short shorts.

"How did I get in these?" Pierce blushed. Instead of adding to his obvious embarrassment, it added a flush to my cheeks, an inner attraction i tried so hard to deny. Damn his hotness!

"Um..... well, by the second day you started smelling like a sewer and I was scared of infection." I raised my eyebrows.

"Short shorts?" His face went from cotton candy pink to strawberry red.

"It makes it easier to clean the wound." He looked away from my face, concentrating now on my wound and I watched as his steady hands cleaned and re-bandaged the deep gash in my leg.

Pierce didn't leave my side all day. I read and slept and drew and wrote, but he just sat there like a statue, a worried expression on his face.

"I probably don't still have a concussion you know?" He looked at me and then went back into his trance.

Finally after the longest ten minutes he said: "I'm going to get lunch I'll be back in 20 minutes ok?"

"Yep."

"If I don't come back, follow the code." We have a code that if one of us is caught or killed and there was little chance of hope, the other was to stay alive and abandon the other, honouring them by living to tell their story and if they did meet in the future it was no hard feelings, strict survival. Although lately I'm starting to believe my life and survival circulates around Pierce.