FicWad

A/N: Thank you all for reading my story, and especially those who have rated or left a review, it really means a lot. I love the feedback.
And, I just thought I should say that I do realize that this story progresses extremely slowly, and for that I apologize. I know it’s frustrating, just bear with me, please.

Chapter 24: When nothing goes right, go left

The two policemen that were sent weren’t exactly convincing. The other one obviously was very fond of doughnuts, his large stomach was a clear sign of that, while the other cop was a young man, just starting as a police, with too much pride in what he does.

Lucky for Gerard, the older cop talked to him.

“And what seems to be the problem?” the cop, who had introduced himself as officer Smith, asked with a pen and a notepad in his hands, ready to write.

Gerard stared at the cop in disbelief. “My daughter ran away. You’re supposed to find her.”

“Right, right...” Officer Smith muttered, scribbling something on his little notebook. “And how long has she been gone?”

“Since last night.”

“Right. Well, we don’t start to look for missing people until they’ve been missing for more than 24 hours, in case they turn up somewhere. Don’t you think your daughter might just be at school?”

“I called, she’s not there”, Gerard growled. This cop was getting on his nerves.

To save the situation from getting out of hand, Mikey handed the police man the note Gia left. “She left this.”
Officer Smith read the note and sighed. “Right. Well, why don’t we just have some lunch first and wait for further information about your daughter. Who knows, maybe she’ll come back. No need to worry.”

Now Gerard wasn’t the only confused one. The other four were just as baffled as he was. “Oh come on!” Gerard shouted, standing up. “There’s not gonna be any ‘further information’ unless you go looking for her! You have to do something!”

“Now now, let’s all just calm down and –“

After telling the cop to fuck off, Gerard stormed out of the room. Mikey quickly ran out after him to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid. Gerard went straight to his car, but didn’t expect Mikey to follow and get on too.

“What are you doing?” Mikey asked when Gerard started the car and drove off of the driveway.

“I’m going to go look for her.”

“What?! Are you crazy? You can’t find her like this, it’s useless! You think she’s just going to be wandering around on the streets?”

“Well it’s more than anyone else seems to be doing! I should have done this the minute I found she had gone.”

Gerard’s comment made Mikey shut up. He wanted to say something so badly, but Gerard would just get more upset and drive the car straight into a wall or something, just to take his anger out on something.

_____________________________

Gia took a swig from her water bottle and frowned. The water was already warm. “Are we there yet?” she whined.

“Where?” Lucas asked. He was walking a few steps ahead of her. His physical condition was apparently much better than hers. They had been walking for at least ten hours now, with a couple of breaks here and there.

“Anywhere!” the girl shrieked. “I’m tired of walking, my legs hurt, I stink and I haven’t washed my hair in two days. And my bag is heavy.”

Lucas rolled his eyes. Sure, he was glad he wasn’t alone, but if Gia didn’t stop whining soon, he would have to smack her. “If you want, we can stop to go sleep somewhere.”

“Like on the ground? No, I’m not sleeping on the ground again!”

“Well I’m sorry! What do you want me to do? Turn into a five-star hotel so you can take a nice bubble bath?!”

“Yes please! If there was even a motel somewhere, but no, we haven’t even seen a house or a car for hours! Are you sure we’re going in the right direction?”

Lucas had full confidence in his map-reading abilities. And to prove it, he threw his bag on the ground and dug the map out of it. On their first day as runaways they bought a tourist map of the states. Lucas unfolded the paper and put it on the concrete road. No cars would drive on it anyway. During the ten hour walk, they had only seen a few cars, and because they were going the wrong way, it was no use hitching a ride.

“We’re now somewhere in here”, Lucas said, pointing at a spot on the map. “And since we’re going to California, which is here, I’d say we’re going to the right direction.”

Gia frowned. She couldn’t believe that they were still so close to New Jersey. Or at least that’s what it seemed like. They were only in Indina, so it was still a long way to California.

She kept the annoyed look on her face, but nodded. “Fine.”

“Fine.”

Both of them felt bad about fighting, but they couldn’t help it. They were tired and hungry and they had to take the frustration out on something.

“Let’s just keep walking”, Lucas said when he lifted his bag again.

“Wait”, Gia gasped, grabbing his arm before he could take a step.

“What?”

“There’s something there. Lights.”

He tried to see what she saw, and when he did, his eyes widened. They were headlights of a car. And it was going to the same direction they were going. Gia and Lucas both lift their thumbs.

Yeah, they knew they shouldn’t hitchhike, that it was dangerous and blah blah blah. But after ten hours of walking, your mind kind of starts to change.

Thank god, the car stopped in front of them. It was big truck, and the driver was a well-fed man with a beard and a cap on his head. He didn’t look too evil, but Gia still got nervous. Suddenly all those horror stories of hitchhiking kids came back to her.

“Where are you kids heading to?” the man asked, rolling down the window on the car door.

“California.” Lucas answered.

“I can take you as far as Illinois, that’s where I’m going. Hop on.”

“Thanks.”

Lucas dragged the very hesitant Gia to the other side of the truck. He went in first so that Gia wouldn’t have to sit next to the man she was obviously afraid of.

“I’m Robbie”, the man said after he started to drive again.

“I’m –“ Lucas started to say, but then he figured that telling him their real names wouldn’t be the best decision. “I’m Frank and that’s Helena.”

Gia glanced at the boy. Figures that he would choose names like that. What a fanboy. For the first time in almost two days, Gia smiled.

“So what are you going to California for?” the man asked.

“Just for fun.”

“Shouldn’t you two be at school? You look too young to be wandering around on your own.”

“We’re on a vacation. And-“ he stopped to think about a good excuse for a second. “Uh, our families are already there. We got separated and... And we agreed we’d follow and meet them there.”

To their luck, Robbie bought it and didn’t ask any further questions.

For a few hours they were silent, only listening to the car’s engine and the music coming from the radio. Eventually Gia fell asleep, resting her head against Lucas’ shoulder. He would have fallen asleep too, he was tired enough to, but he didn’t fully trust the truck driver. One of them would have to be awake to make sure nothing happens.

Robbie noticed that the girl fell asleep, too. Surprisingly, he turned the radio off so she wouldn’t be bothered by it. Then he asked something that took Lucas off guard.

“Is she your girl?”

“W- what?” Lucas stuttered. Nothing could have made him more baffled.

“You heard me.”

“She’s just a friend.” Lucas glanced at the girl sleeping next to him. For once she looked peaceful. “We’re just friends.”

___________________________________________

“Gerard, let’s go back. You’re not going to find her by just driving around randomly”, Mikey tried to reason with his brother, but his head couldn’t be turned. Mikey knew that, but he still tried.

“I know”, Gerard mumbled. His anger was long gone.

“You do?” Mikey asked, surprised. “Then why are you doing this?”

“Because I have to do something. If I just sat at home and waited for someone else to handle it, I would go crazy.”

“But Gerard- “

“I know. It’s no use. But I can’t just do nothing when I know it was all my fault.”

Mikey didn’t say anything anymore, he didn’t have to. Gerard was finally opening up. For the past two days he had said hardly a word, and the silence was unbearable, because it allowed both of their imaginations to run wild and think about the worst case scenarios.

“I have to find her and bring her back home”, Gerard continued. “She’s the one that’s keeping all this together. My life is a disaster after another, but Gia is the only thing that’s stayed. If she’s gone, everything will fall apart. I realize I haven’t been the best person or parent, but I’m trying. If I had just one more chance to show her that I can do it... That I can be a father, then...”

He trailed off, wallowing back to his thoughts. Mikey pondered his brother’s words and looked out of the car window. It started raining.

“Why did you even get drunk?” Mikey asked after a while. It was a question he had wondered about ever since he found out about it. “You must’ve known nothing good would come of it.”

“I don’t know”, Gerard answered truthfully. Now that he thought about it, he had no reason. It just seemed like a good idea at the moment.

Last night Gerard had run into an old friend from back when he still got drunk every other day. To catch up, the two decided to go for beers into a close-by bar where they used to hang out a lot. One beer turned into twenty and before he knew it, Gerard’s judgment had already gone down the drain. In his drunken mind, drinking more was only justified. After all, he was an adult in charge of his own life and he should be allowed to do as he wishes. Gia would understand.

Only, if he hadn’t been drunk, Gerard would have realized that Gia wouldn’t be okay with it. Maybe Gerard was allowed to get drunk, sure, but Gia didn’t deserve to take care of him when he’s drunk.

One more chance. That’s all Gerard wanted and needed.

Because if – no, when he finds Gia and brings her back home, he will show her that he can be a good father. That’s the promise he made to himself and to Gia at that moment.

_____________________________________

When they arrived at the stop of the ride, Lucas and Gia thanked Robbie and parted ways with him. The town was small and made Gia nervous. The part of the town where Robbie dropped them off was scary. There were broken windows and trash on the ground. The cars on the streets were either rundown and old, or completely broken.

“What next?” Gia asked. Her whole body was stiff. The car seat wasn’t too comfortable, but at least she had managed to sleep for a few hours. Lucas tried to sleep too, but either he didn’t want to, or he just really couldn’t sleep in a car.

“We could find a cheap motel. I guess we could ask someone for help”, Lucas replied.

They started walking, but neither of them were quite sure where they should be going to. It was dark, and the clock must’ve been nearing midnight.

There weren’t many people on the streets, as it was kind of late, but the few that they saw weren’t the type they would go talk to. The men wore hoods or hats that covered their faces and the women wore really short skirts and shirts that revealed too much cleavage. Gia knew that if her grandma was here, she would have referred to them as ‘those women’ with a very disapproving tone, and if her dad or one of the other guys was there, they would have used the women as an example of a sure and painful death to scare her.

“I have an idea!” Lucas suddenly announced. He was staring at one of those small stores that have everything from food to vacuum cleaners and that stay open from early in the morning to late at night. Gia never understood how so much stuff fit into such a small shop, but still they always seemed to have everything people needed.

“What is it?”

“Do you have sunglasses?” Lucas asked, pulling up the hood of his hoodie.

“No. What do you need them for?” He was starting to confuse her again.

“Just wait here for a second. Don’t talk to anyone. If someone tries anything, scream.”

Lucas ran into the store, leaving Gia in the middle of the street. She started to feel more scared instantly. Nervously she looked around her. She only saw one woman. She was smoking a cigarette, leaning against a wall nonchalantly and staring at Gia. She decided it was best to ignore the woman. Maybe then she would stop staring.

Luckily Lucas didn’t stay at the store for too long. He ran back and grabbed her hand. “I asked, there’s a motel really close from here”, he explained as he started dragging her along the road. He carried a plastic bag, and Gia was curious, dying to know what was in it, but she figured he’d tell her when they get to the motel.

The motel was the same as the rest of the town. To Gia, it didn’t look very sanitary or safe, but Lucas was excited to finally have a real bed to sleep on.

The man behind the desk in the lobby was – in a lack of a better word – dirty. His hair was greasy, thin and long, and it was on a ponytail. He had stubble on his chin and his clothes were old and worn. But his eyes were the worst. They had sunk deep into his head. Gia recognized the red, hollow, tired look in them. Her father looked the same every morning for the past few years.

“How much for a room?” Lucas asked, going straight to the desk.

The old man looked up from the computer screen. It was pointed so that Lucas and Gia could only see half of it, but what they saw made Gia frown and blush. The man was looking at pictures of naked women.

“That depends”, he answered. “What kind of a room do you want?”

“Can we get a room with two beds? And with a bathroom and a shower.”

“No can do”, the man answered. “There’s only one of those and it’s occupied. We only have rooms with one big bed and with one small bed.”

“Then we’ll take one with a big bed”, Lucas said, taking out some money from his bag. “How much?”

“40 for an hour, 65 for a night.” He took the money and then took a key from the wall. “Room number 12. It’s upstairs, the stairs are outside.”

They took the key, grabbed their bags and went outside. Just as they were going up the stairs, a car parked in front of the motel and a man and a very drunken woman came out of it. They went inside.

Gia started to wonder exactly what kind of a motel this is.

“Here, room 12”, Lucas said, opening the door.

The room wasn’t so bad. There was a double bed and in case of a longer stay, a wardrobe for clothes. The bathroom was small, but at least there was a shower. That was pretty much it.

“So what’s in the bag?” Gia asked, plopping down on the bed.

Lucas excitedly dug out two boxes from the plastic bag. “Hair dye.”

Gia’s face paled. “Why?”

“So that we can dye our hair”, Lucas explained. “Look, I figured that soon there might be a country-wide search for us. Therefore, our pictures will be in public. The least we can do to disguise ourselves is to change hair color.”

In horror, Gia twirled a strand of her blonde locks around her finger. “No way! I like my hair the way it is!”

She protested the best she could, but eventually Lucas got through to her. Once she was persuaded, Gia and Lucas both went to the bathroom, wrapped towels around their shoulders to protect their clothes, wet their heads and put the dye on for each other. Lucas put the dye on her first.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Gia asked nervously.

“Um, sure”, Lucas answered, but it wasn’t very convincing and only made Gia feel more unsure about the whole thing.

Over half an hour later, they both washed the dye off of their hair. Gia was afraid to look in the mirror, so she dried her hair with the pillow extremely carefully.

“God damn, I look hot!” Lucas announced cheerfully, posing in front of the mirror. Gia glanced at him. His dark brown hair had turned into dark red, and she had to admit that it fit him. Lucas turned to look at Gia. She still hadn’t removed the towel from her head, and she knew that he was waiting her to do so.

“I can’t”, she shook her head. “It looks horrible.”

“You can’t know that!” Lucas protested. “You haven’t even seen it yet!”

Gia sighed and slowly took off the towel.

“See, it’s not that bad. You look good too! And you look just like your dad.”

Lucas left the bathroom, leaving her to stand there. Gia hadn’t looked in the mirror yet. She was too scared to. When she had gathered enough courage and convinced herself, she glanced at the mirror.

At first she jumped of surprise. She really did look like her dad. With blonde hair the similarity wasn’t so visible, but now that her hair was black, she could see it. The shape of their faces were exactly the same, the lips, too, and apart from the eye color, their eyes had some similarities as well. Gerard’s eyes were hazel color, while Gia’s for some reason were blue.

Gia left the bathroom after she was done staring at herself in the mirror. Lucas was sitting on the bed, looking at the map which was spread in front of him.

Gia now realized that she would have to sleep on the same bed with a boy, and that kind of made her nervous. No reason to be nervous though, since she trusted Lucas. He wasn’t a bad person at all. But it was only after she took a warm shower and Lucas lay down on the bed next to her, she could relax.

Luckily Lucas kept his distance and lay as far as he could. He knew that this all made her a little uncomfortable, and he didn’t want to be too straight-forward. Hanging out with Gia was like hunting for deers. You can’t just run towards her and expect her to not run away of fear. You have to let her come to you.

_______________________________________

After driving for hours and hours, until the morning sun started to come out, Gerard finally started to feel like this was useless. He wanted her home, that was his only goal at the moment, but the world was a big place, and Gia could be anywhere. It’s been days, nearly a week since she disappeared. He just wished he knew what was going on in her head so he’d know where she was. If she would just call…

Gerard used his free hand to rub his tired eyes, and started to head home.

Mikey had fallen asleep during the night, and when he woke up, he finally recognized his surroundings. He realized that Gerard was going back home.

When he glanced at his brother, he saw the most miserable man he had ever seen. Gerard has been depressed before, even tried to take his own life, but never has he looked this crushed.

“Hey, it’ll be okay”, Mikey said sympathetically. “She’s just rebelling. She’ll come back.”

Gerard said nothing, just shook his head and kept his eyes on the road. He hadn’t given up looking yet, but this was not the way to find her.

Mikey knew what he was thinking. Soon, in a few days or weeks, Gerard will start thinking that there was no point in looking anymore, and then he’ll do something stupid. Mikey knew his brother better than anyone else. And he wasn’t going to let him out of his sight.

Mikey didn’t want Gia to come back home and find that her dad had killed himself.

______________________________

When Gia woke up, the first thing that ran through her head was where she was. When she remembered, her expression darkened. She was far away from home now. She had had a dream where she was at home, having dinner with her father, and they were just talking, laughing, jokingly mocking each other. It had made her happy. But it was just a dream.

Gia tried to get up, but she couldn’t. There was a pair of arms around her middle-body. She tried to wiggle away, but Lucas just mumbled something in his sleep, snored, and tightened his grip. Gia couldn’t help but smile at this.

They were lying so that her back was facing him, and he had managed to get both of the pillows under his head. He looked absolutely ridiculous. There was a big red splotch on his cheek from the pillow and his mouth was slightly open, and every now and then he would say some nonsense and flinch.

Gia slowly parted his arms and was able to get away from him. Only when she got up from the bed, she noticed that they both must’ve moved towards the middle of the bed in their sleep and met in the middle.

After taking another shower (no way to know when she’ll be able to shower again, so it was better to do it now), Gia went to her bag. She was hungry, and she remembered that there was a chocolate bar somewhere in her bag. Unfortunately, while she was rummaging through her bag, Lucas woke up.

“Morning”, Lucas said. His voice was groggy and he couldn’t open his eyes all the way. Because his hair had still been a bit wet when they went to bed, he now had nice bed hair.

“Good morning. Are you hungry?”

“Yeah. What do we have?”

“All I have is this chocolate bar.”

“And I have nothing, so dibs on the chocolate.”

Gia laughed, broke the bar into two pieces and threw him the other half. “Enjoy.”

“Thanks.”

“What day and time is it?”

Lucas checked the watch on his wrist and said: “Saturday, 12:25 AM.”

“It’s been a week,” she said, more to herself than to him.

Lucas sighed. The chocolate was gone and he was still hungry. “Never mind that. We have a bigger problem now.”

“Which is?”

“There’s no food and I’m hungry.”

“Think you could go back to the store and buy us something to eat?”

He shrugged. “I suppose so. But now you can come too. They won’t recognize us. We can buy you one of those fake glasses and I can just wear my hood up.”

“Alright”, Gia said, but she was still a bit unsure. For sure they’ll get caught like this. Different hair color won’t guard them forever.

“Well come on, I’m starving!” Lucas said and hurriedly started to gather his things.

____________________________________

A few hours later Gia and Lucas were on the road again. They were walking again, but this time neither of them complained – yet. Even Gia was in a pretty good mood, considering that her hair was just dyed pretty much against her will. She missed her blonde hair, sure, but not being found was a bit more important.

They talked about things that didn’t matter, laughed and played around, as if nothing was wrong, but both of them were careful to avoid the subject of home. They tried to convince themselves that they didn’t have homes anymore, but they couldn’t help but miss the safe and comforting place.

Still, even if they were feeling down, they didn’t let it show. And everything was going fine, why would they frown?

But as they say, nothing good lasts forever. That’s where things started going downhill.

“Did you hear that?” Gia suddenly asked, stopping walking.

“Hear what?” he asked.

Gia shushed him and they were really quiet for a little while, until they both heard a quiet whimper. And another. They looked at each other. The voice obviously belonged to someone who was hurt. But could they stop to help them?

“Where did it come from?” Lucas asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Hey, whoever you are, if you’re hurt, we can help!” Lucas shouted, looking around.

They didn’t see anyone wounded or dying. They were in an alley, taking a short-cut, and there were some garbage cans on the sides of the walls. They started moving the garbage cans and bags to see if the person was lying under them.

Gia was the one who found them. Well, it. When her hand hit something furry and wet and she heard a growl, she instantly pulled her hand back.

“Lucas, I think I found it”, she said and he ran over to her. They looked down.

The body was still half-covered with black plastic bags, but the lower body was revealed. It was a gray dog’s body. A big dog.

Lucas, being the braver of the two, went to move the rest of the bags, and so the whole dog was exposed. Gia gasped as soon as she saw him. He had hair missing on various places to the point that he was slightly bleeding here and there. But the worst was its head. There was a bigger puddle of blood next to it. One of the ears was ripped, and there was a big gash going from the other eye to the corner of his mouth. It was obvious this dog had either been in a fight with another dog or been abused. Gia guessed the first one, since no one in their right mind would abuse a dog of this size.

Then again, another dog wouldn’t hide it under trash. The dog could’ve crawled under the trash bags to hide, but the whole thing was a little odd.

The dog was looking at them with his bluish-gray eyes like he was judging if they were a threat or not.

“We have to get it to the vet”, Gia said.

“Yeah, but how? In case you haven’t noticed, this dog is big. And it probably wouldn’t let us carry it. No, wait!” Lucas gasped. “I saw a vet’s office a few blocks away! We can go get the vet here!”

“But we can’t just go and leave dog here! What if someone finds it and kills it?”

Lucas went through all the options quickly. Gia waited for the conclusion patiently, but every now and then she glanced at the dog that was still staring at them.

“Okay, I think it’s best if one of us stays here and the other goes to get the vet”, Lucas finally said.

“I’m not sure if that’s safe.”

“It’s either that or we both go.”

Gia sighed. “Fine. I’ll stay here, you go. I don’t even know where the vet is.”

“Okay. I’ll try to be quick.”

When Lucas was gone, Gia looked back at the dog and sat down on the ground next to him. The dog let out a low growl, revealing his teeth as a warning.

“You’re really hurt, aren’t you?” she, trying to show him that she didn’t try to hurt him. “Who did this to you? Don’t worry, Lucas went to get help. We won’t let you die.”

She continued talking to him in a quiet, soothing voice to calm it down. Eventually it started working and the dog stopped growling at her. He closed its eyes even, and Gia realized that he must have been lying there for a long time. Since he was injured, he had to stay awake to make sure no one got close. He must be so tired.

“Hey, what are you doing there?”

Gia jumped up in surprise when she heard the deep male voice. It clearly wasn’t Lucas. A man was walking towards her, and even if he wasn’t carrying a big shotgun, Gia would have still been intimidated by him.

“Well aren’t you a pretty little thing”, the man laughed when he saw Gia. Then he glanced at the dog. “God damn, you found my dog. I was wondering where he went.” He went to the dog and poked his side with the gun. The spot he touched with it was one of those that were bleeding. The dog flinched and growled.

“He’s your dog?” Gia asked nervously.

“Sure”, the man answered and positioned the gun like he was about to shoot.

“What are you doing?” Gia immediately panicked. “Don’t shoot him!”

“Okay why don’t you just run away, little girl? This doesn’t concern you.”

“Well you can’t just kill it!” Next, Gia did something she never thought she’d have the courage to do. She stood in front of the man so that the gun was pointing at her instead of the dog.

The man obviously didn’t like this, as he looked really irritated. “Why don’t you just go play someplace else.”

“I’m not letting you hurt this dog.”

Before Gia realized what had happened, she was lying on the ground and the side that had collided with the asphalt hurt like hell. The man had pushed her away like she was just an annoying bug or something. But the man wasn’t in such a good condition either.

The dog had risen from the ground, and though standing up was clearly a difficult task for the dog, he still managed to stay up. The dog wasn’t stupid at all; he understood that his owner, the man who put him in this condition, had tried to hurt him again, and then hurt the child that tried to help an injured animal.

Growling and barking, the dog dashed towards the man and sunk his sharp teeth on his leg.

In panic, the man tried to shoot the dog before he loses his own leg, but Gia was too quick. She got up and ripped the gun off of the man’s hands. He was too occupied by the dog to try to get it back.

Finally, when the dog let go of his leg, the man’s leg was already bloody. He quickly realized that he was in disadvantage, as the girl was pointing the gun at him and the dog was still barking, preparing to jump at him again. He doubted that the girl even knew how to fire a gun, because her hands were shaking like crazy, but he didn’t want to take any unnecessary chances.

Eventually the man limped away. Even though he had just almost killed an innocent dog, Gia still wished that he would go into a hospital and get help.

Her worry over the man disappeared when she heard the dog stop growling and saw the dog fall back down on the ground. Gia rushed to him and this time the dog let her come closer. He looked up at her with pleading eyes when Gia comfortingly touched his fur. It was surprisingly soft.

“Gia!” Lucas yelled, running over to her. Behind him, a van started to turn to the alley. Luckily the alley was wide enough that it fit. When he got to them, his eyes widened. “You’re bleeding!”

“I am?” Gia asked and only now realized that her shoulder was bleeding from when it hit the asphalt.

Lucas would have demanded to know what had happened, but the van had backed to where they were and stopped. A big woman and a very muscular man came out of it. The woman was carrying a needle. Ignoring the dog’s protests, the woman stuck the needle right above his other back leg and then went to help the man with something in the back of the van.

Gia stayed with the dog and Lucas stood behind her. She pet the dog’s head, careful not to hurt it and to avoid to the injured spots. Soon the dog started to look drowsy and tried to resist sleep as long as he could, but eventually his eyes closed and body went limp.

The woman and the man lift the dog into the back of the van and Gia and Lucas followed. The drive to the vet’s office wasn’t long, and the dog was taken fast to a room where Gia and Lucas weren’t allowed to go to. They sat in the waiting room while the dog was being fixed.

“So what happened? And where did you get that gun?” Lucas asked once they were settled in the waiting room.

Gia hadn’t realized that she had taken the shotgun with her and that her fingers were still tightly around it. Careful not to fire it, she set it down on a chair next to hers. Lucas listened with wide eyes when Gia explained to him exactly what happened.

“Wow, that’s cool!” Lucas said after she was done.

“Cool?! You think that’s cool?! You’re sick!” Gia shrieked. She was still a little shaken up about the whole thing. Stuff like that doesn’t happen. Well, maybe in very bad fan fiction it does, but not in reality.

“You know what I mean”, Lucas laughed. “But there is one more problem.”

“What’s that?”

“Money. Since we have to pay for whatever they do to the dog...”

“Can we afford it?”

They dug out all the money they had left from their bags. It was roughly 800$, a little over. Yeah, they could afford it, but they would be bankrupt very soon.

Both of them fell deep into their thoughts, wondering what the hell they were going to do when they run out of money. This was the first time that question came up. And to say the least, they were worried.

They waited for over an hour before the vet came back to them. It was that big woman from before. “He will be fine. He’s still sedated. Is he your dog?”

Gia and Lucas glanced at each other. “Yeah”, Lucas answered. “He’s ours.”

“Well, I don’t know how he got into that condition, but you need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

In the end, they decided that they couldn’t just leave the dog there alone. They returned to the motel to spend the night there, and they would pick up the dog when it gets a little better. They’d just have to spend a little more time in that town before they can keep going, and when they leave, their little ‘gang’ will have a new member.

Almost immediately after getting another room in the motel, Gia fell on the bed. She was dead tired, even though she had slept not too long ago. She had had an eventful day, and that would tire out anyone.

“So are you sure you want to take the dog with us?” Lucas asked, going under the covers as well.

Gia nodded. “Yeah. I’m not leaving him here. He saved me.”

“If he even wants to come with us... Do you know what his name is? He didn't have a collar, did he?”

“No. Should we give him one?”

“Probably.”

They both thought for a moment. Then Gia smiled. “I think he looks just like Jersey.”

“I think so too. Jersey. It’s good.”

In the end, their new companion was more than happy to come with them. Jersey followed them like a hawk, as a friend, but also taking care of them and scaring off anyone who tried to mess with them.

Walking got slower because Jersey was still injured and they had to stop more often, but it was fine. Jersey was a reminder of what they left behind, so that even if they never go back, they remember that they still have their old homes in their memories.