Lazy Lizzie

Twenty-Seven

"Home, sweet home!" Leo entered the trailer with an enthusiasm those walls had never seen. "Have to give it to Dale, this bed is very comfortable."

He sat on it like on their wedding day, in that truck stop.

Lizzie smiled, and he added, "Thanks for staying for a few more days. I really didn't want to stay at Sofia's until a got my own place. I don't want her to worry about me being homeless, on top of everything else."

She nodded, then waited. There was nothing to do, they were clean, they were fed, well-rested. Was that how the rest of humanity lived? Was that why they liked it?

Leo looked around, "I'm gonna miss this place."

She approached him, "It's going to miss you, more," she joked. She'd meant his constant appreciation of its quirks, but he looked at her funny.

There was no need for conversation, Lizzie decided, it only led to her saying something she'd regret later, so she just climbed him, helped by how he knew she was going to do that, staying still for the two seconds it took for her to reach him. 

He undid the zipper to the Grim Reaper hoodie, while she pulled up his black T-shirt over his head. The rest of their clothes soon found their way to the floor, and Lizzie followed their lead with aplomb, her descent halted unceremoniously by a knock on the door. A determined one, so she knew it wasn't Dale. Leo jolted up, almost pushing her back.

"El Oso, Ramirez sent me," a man's voice pierced the silence, making Leo reach for his pants. "He says you ghosted him. His feelings are hurt."

The voice joked, but both Lizzie and Leo were too scared, looking at each other, hopeless.

She took a deep breath. What was the worst that could happen? She reached for her dress.

Leo only found time to put some boxers on, he rushed to open the door, meeting a small man, too thin for the variety of his tattoos. Spreading from under his beard all over his face, so Lizzie knew he was trouble. She'd barely finished putting a flimsy robe on. The whole trailer must've smelled like sex, both her and Leo were sweating and the walls melted around them.

"Hard man to find," the man walked in as if he owned the place. He was armed, but none of his guns were in his hands. They didn't need to be.

"I'm out, Vic," Leo tried, unconvincingly.

"I know, Ramirez told me to treat you like a civilian."

Vic kept his bored tone, "So I am here to ask you two, as civilians, if you know anything about the man I am after. Dale Kazinsky," he unnecessarily clarified.

"Before you answer," he added, seeing how already Leo was shaking his head, denying, "I want you to consider the consequences of you lying to me. Because next time I visit, I won't be asking any more questions. Last anyone else has heard of him, he was going to get his girl back."

Leo closed his mouth over what was a definite denial, and Lizzie had to talk, "He followed us to Vegas." She ignored how Leo's head turned to her in shock, she kept her focus on the smile spreading on Vic's face. "I saw him in the parking lot of the motel we were staying at. Leo didn't know," she saw how Vic's stare went to him, colder. "I didn't tell Leo, because Dale wanted us to get back together. And some help, he wasn't very clear on that. I didn't want to have that conversation," she amused Vic further. Her honesty had always entertained Dale's friends, they lived in a world of lying lowlifes, so they liked her, even if reluctantly. "So I never told anyone."

"Dale's either back in Warsa Park or still following us," she tried to be helpful, to have more bargaining room. "He left in a brown Ford truck. Older model, but it might just look that way because it was very used. I'm not good with cars," her apologetic tone made her interrogator full-on smile. 

"I got someone waiting in Warsa Park, he hasn't shown up. Did you see him following you, since that parking lot? How would he do that, without your new boyfriend noticing?"

"He has a tracker on the trailer," Lizzie explained, and now both men were equally shocked, "He told me about it, but I never took it down," she avoided their stares.

"You just let him follow us across the country?" Leo was unable to stay silent, entertaining Vic even more. 

"I'm gonna leave you two to sort this out. Thanks, Miss...?"

That was the moment Lizzie realized who Leo had been imitating, all those times he'd spoken to Dale.  Or to Ramiro. His survival techniques were a lot like Lizzie's: camouflage, deflection, resilience. Survival of the weak.

"Taylor. Lizzie Taylor."

 The man nodded, "Vic. Let me know if you want to change any part of this or if any new information is added to it. Let's all stay friends. You have my number," he winked to Leo.

He took his time to leave, and Leo's stare was still waiting for Lizzie to explain herself.

"What--Why?! What were you thinking?!"

"I can't run anymore, either," she said. It was the complete truth, as usual, she'd just never thought about it in such clear terms. "I think I'm also going to have to fight."

She expected him to be more disappointed, but he got up, "I'm going to help you," his palm warmed her shoulder. "We can take him down. He's done with Ramiro, he has no one. All he has left is how much we fear him."

Lizzie hadn't thought about her being afraid of Dale. If anything, more people should be more afraid of him. She was just lucky she saw him as the dangerous animal that he was.

Worst of all, she didn't fear Dale anymore. She feared what she'd do without him as a reason to fail. The idea that Lana -- and later Leo -- had put into her head was that maybe she didn't deserve to be that unhappy, that without him her life could finally blossom. What would they say if it was revealed it had been untrue, all along. That, like Dale, she also had no way out of her own head. He would've also wanted to do better, be better, if only he understood how happy it made the people around him. He didn't, and Lizzie feared she couldn't, either.

There was only one way to find out.