Getting The Hell Outta Dodge

Who: Marlowe & Lucius
When: Around 2 P.M.
Where: Marlowe's House

After saying goodbye to Hannah and leaving Beacon House, Lucius made his way back to Marlowe's. Getting out of town for a while was starting to sound better and better the closer he got to her home. Spending some time with his girlfriend and for once not having any battles or paranormal activities would be nice. A little normalcy was in order and he wanted it so badly he could almost taste it. He pulled into the drive and left his bags in the car, seeing no point in unloading just to load again. He made his way up to the front door and knocked lightly.

Marlowe had been sitting on the couch with her boys when the knock came, packed bag, or rather overstuffed travel bag, at her feet. Seeing the way the sides bulged outward one might think she was going away for almost a week instead of a couple days.

They had arrived home early that morning after coming to the conclusion that the shadow things were no longer a danger. They wouldn't have left Ivan alone if the things were still roaming and attacking in Marquette. And nearing dawn when she found herself waking Marlowe also discovered that the rips in her shoulder had split open leaving the borrowed shirt she wore stained with blood. The last thing they had done before leaving the hospital grounds was to have her wounds patched up properly. It was still bandaged now beneath the tye dye tee of various shades of blue she now wore.

Making a slow rise to her feet Marlowe made the short walk to the door, trailed by Rogue and Roarke. Keeping herself between the beasts and the door Marlowe cracked it open, a smile spreading when she glimpsed the person on the other side. The door then swung open wide before she made a reach to grab the collars of the two shepards.

"Was starting to wonder when you'd get back." She smiled.

He smiled as he made his way into the house, closing the door behind him so she could release the dogs. "Yeah... sorry it took so long. I ran into Hannah. She apparently tried to text me sometime this morning, but phone being dead it didn't go through. She was verbally assaulting the guy in the lobby by the time I got there." he laughed. He gave her a quick kiss and ran his fingers across her cheek. Pulling away his usual smile took up residence on his face. "Ready to get the hell outta Dodge?" he questioned.

"Ready as I ever will be." She smiled in return. "You wanna drive?" Seeing as he was the current possessor of her car keys that seemed the most logical thing. Riding shot gun suited her just fine. It would give Lucius a chance to become more familiar with the area since he was staying in the town for an indefinite length of time.

"Sure, I can do that." he told her. Spotting her extremely stuffed bag by the couch, he walked over and hefted it over his shoulder. "Planning on being out of town long?" he questioned with a playful grin. "Feels like you have bricks in here."

"I don't know how the weather will be or what type of mood I will be in. Better to be prepared then go on a trip lacking." She informed him with a smile. "And it's not that heavy. But if you don't think you can manage it." She added making a playful reach for her bag.

He moved the bag just out of her reach. "I can manage it just fine, thanks." he told her with a smirk. "Come on, let's get out of here before something else crazy happens."

"You know talk like that is just going to jinx us." She tossed out playfully. And she would have knocked wood to cover that little tease, but there wasn't any within her general vicinity. "You boys be good, ok?" Marlowe said to her dogs, almost like a mother speaking to her young children, as she knelt down before the pair of shepards. Each was giving a good scratching behind the ears. Though she was a bit hesitant in leaving them behind, Marlowe knew they'd be in good hands as she made arrangements during Lucius' absence with a trusted neighbor to keep an eye on them.

"Ready." A side glance sent to Lucius as she took to her feet once more and started for the door.

"Bye guys." he told the dogs as they left the house. He loaded Marlowe's bag alongside his in the back of the car. "Ya know, my bag is like 1/5th of yours." he teased as he shut the door. Walking around to the drivers side he climbed in and buckled his belt. "So where exactly are you having me take you?" he questioned as he started the car and gave her a quick glance.

Saying a second, somewhat saddened, goobye to her boys Marlowe locked the place up and followed Lucius out to the red element. "I'd say it was a surprise, but seeing as you're the pilot on this little flight, can't very well do that." A sweet little ole smile given as Marlowe buckled herself in after climbing in on the passengers side. "It's about an hours drive." She told him while fishing a folded up sheet of paper out of the pocket of her faded jeans. "I mapquested it." She grinned handing over the printed sheet of paper with directions to the cabin she had rented for them.

He took the paper and skimmed over it. "You're taking me out into the woods?" he questioned, giving her a smirk. "Are you going to kill me and hide my body out in the trees for the scavengers to find?" he teased. "That's your plan right?" He chuckled and after getting the first few directions committed to memory he slid the paper over the sun visor. Putting the car in gear and pulling away from her house, he reached over and took her hand in his squeezing it lightly.

"Actually I had other plans for your body, and they in no way included hiding you out in the woods for scavengers to get at." She grinned. And when he caught her hand within his, Marlowe laced her fingers through his, keeping his hand within hers for as long as he'd allow.

"Is that so?" he questioned, looking over at her with a smile forming at the corners of his mouth. "And what exactly do you have planned for my body?" he questioned, turning his attention back to the road.

"Patience, Baby, patience." She grinned back with a gentle squeeze to his hand.

He smiled softly and continued on their way towards the cabin. He was glad to be rid of Marquette by the time they left the city limits. He let out a breath. "Ya know, I'm actually pretty glad I stuck around town... despite the shadowy battles."

"Just pretty glad?" She questioned with a playfulness to her voice. Her view out the window momentarily distracted with a brief flick of chocolate browns to the driver.

"So glad that there isn't even a word to describe how happy I am I stayed." he told her with a smirk. He came to a red light and leaned over, cupping her chin in his hand and pulling her lips to his. "Really glad..." he told her, placing a soft kiss against her mouth and returning his hand to the steering wheel.

"Ditto." She returned with the light brush of her lips against his. And when the light switched back to green Marlowe scooted over a little in her seat to lean lightly against him, her head settling gently on his shoulder.

He draped his free arm over her, rubbing her arm lightly. "How's your shoulder?" he questioned. "Still sore?"

"Not so much at the moment. Took a couple of pills for the pain." Which had helped greatly, and had been the reason behind her tucking the small bottle into her bag for any "just in case" moments.

"Well you better not be too drugged up." he teased. "Can't have you passing out on me. Especially if we end up in another game of 'who can stay up the longest'." He let his fingers trail across her arm, making little circles across her flesh.

"Nah. No chance of that." She said in return with a light chuckle. "Though I don't know if I think this game anymore. You've become quite an expert at winning." She smiled softly snuggling a bit further into his side, though not so much where it would interfere with his driving.

He chuckled. "Well either you have to come up with a secret weapon, or we have to come up with a new game." The warmth of her closeness was nice, sending a soothing sensation throughout his body. His hand he had draped over her ran along the length of her arm, finding her hand again and letting his envelope it. "You know you've got some tiny hands." he teased.

"Would you rather I be bigger, stronger and taller then you with the ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound?" She teased back chuckling softly. She liked the way her hand felt in his. The smallness fitting almost perfectly into the larger of their two hands.

He shook his head and intertwined their fingers. "Nah, I'm perfectly satisfied with you being smaller that me." he told her. "I like having the ability to..." he paused and cocked an eyebrow slightly. "Move you around as I please."

"That's only because I let you. You think you could really move me around so easily if I didn't want it to be so." She teased back.

"Well at least now I know that you like it when I move you around..." he teased. "I'll have to start making a list of things you like so I'll know what needs to be done." he smirked at that.

"There are a lot of things you do that I happen to like." She informed him "Might even be able to fill a whole book with em." She teased.

"Is that so?" he questioned. "Well you must divulge some of these things to me. Lets start at the beginning... What's the first thing I did that you liked?" he questioned. "Like immediately after we met, first thing that... attracted you to me."

"Immediately after we met?" Marlowe sat up a bit straight with a light arching of her brow to him. "There was really nothing that had actually attracted me to you. Though I did appreciate the twenty you left behind for me." She grinned softly. "I did think you a bit odd though."

"Well jeez, you coulda thought I was hot. Thanks a lot." he teased. "Okay, what about at the laundry mat?" he questioned. "Anything attract you to me then?"

"It just so happened I did. Thought you were a good looking guy, but then they do happen into the diner on a daily basis. Hmmm...at the laundry-mat. Now that's a tough one too." She teased with a playful grin before leaning over to give a soft kiss to his cheek. "Your looks, definitely." She smiled. "The way you laughed at my preoccupancy with my music. Ummm...how easy it seemed to be able to talk to you. And the way you had some feelings creeping up slowly within me when you got too close. Your eyes, the way you smiled." Not all of that had been clearly evident back at that second meeting, but know that she was thinking back on things, there was a lot she was finding that had held an attraction for her where Lucius was concerned.

"You felt it too?" he questioned softly. "The feeling... when I was close...?" he knew he'd felt the feeling, but hearing her talk about it now the thought of the feeling came rushing back to him.

"Baby," she started lifting a hand to run it gently through his hair as she looked over to him, "it was undeniable, no matter how much either of us tried to fight it." She told him

He nodded. "Yeah..." he agreed. "It was, wasn't it?" She was right, the feeling was there... maybe it'd been there from the beginning. Maybe it was there in the diner and he'd run away before it had the chance to flame up, but seeing her again in the laundry-mat... he couldn't fight it. Couldn't change the course of fate. "I talked to Ivan last night..." he said softly. "After you went back to sleep. About my mom... and about you." he told her.

"What did you say to him?" She asked. She pretty much knew what would have been said about his mother, unless there had been something he had refrained from telling her. But where she was concerned, it left her wondering what talk about her had circled around.

"I told him I felt guilty about being alive... when she didn't make it. And I told him that that I didn't understand why I was here..." he sighed. "But I realized something last night when I talked to him. I told him that I was a jerk for thinking that just because of some scars I felt that you'd just write me off. I didn't think that you'd stick around. I didn't think that you'd want to stay with me after all that..." He frowned slightly and let out a breath. "But the fact that you did stick around was so... confusing and... I don't even know how to explain it. Then Ivan said that the reason I lived through the fire... was for you..." He squeezed her hand then. "I've done some stupid things in my life. Some things that I'm not proud of, some things that I wish I could take back. But coming into Marquette will never be one of them."

"Maybe that's why my life was spared instead.....maybe that's why I survived." Marlowe said with a drop in her voice with the aversion of her gaze from Lucius out the windshield of the vehicle. She'd give anything to be able to reverse what had happened. To have the ability to trade places with Eldon. But may fate, if she actually believed in that, had something else in store for her. That something else being the man sitting in the seat beside her.

Her statement confused him slightly. He wasn't sure what she might have 'survived'. Part of him felt as though he shouldn't pry, but his curiosity got the best of him. "Survived?" he questioned. "What are you talking about... spared instead?" The words all rolled together and her sentence just didn't make much sense to him.

"Not too far back a gang of vampires hit Munising, and then found their way to Marquette." Marlowe started keeping her gaze straight and steady. "I had a brother, sister-in-law and infant nephew living there. They were among the casualties the vampire left in their wake before striking here." Marlowe paused briefly taking a deep breath with a light lick of her seemingly dry lips. "Eldon, he flew into town from out of state, and I went to Munising to claim their bodies after things kind of died down there. On the way back. It was raining so hard that night. The car stalled, and even though I tried talking him out of it, he left the car in a downpour of rain to see if he couldn't get the thing started up again. They found us. I watched as they tore him apart. I never understood why it wasn't me they took and Eldon was the one to have survived." Marlowe tilted her head toward Lucius, her eyes filled with tears she had thought she shed the last of a long time back. There was more to tell, but right now she wasn't all that up to giving full disclosure of what happened that night.

He listened as she described her brother's death, surprisingly not reacting much to the word 'vampire'. After everything that had been going on lately with the shadows, paranormal activity wasn't just something he saw in the movies anymore. As she spoke, he heard her words crack slightly and he veered off to the side of the road, parking the car and turning off the engine as she finished. She looked up at him, her chocolate brown eyes clouded with a mist of tears that began to spill over her cheeks. "I'm... I didn't know..." he said softly, reaching down and unsnapping his seat belt. His fingers found hers, undoing it as well and letting it fall away from her body, pulling her close to him in what he hoped was a comforting embrace. He didn't know what to say to her to make things better. He knew that no matter what words he offered it wouldn't bring her brother back, so instead he was silent as he tilted his head enough to kiss the top of hers. His arms holding her body tight against hers, feeling the shudders of her sobs against his chest.

Being pulled into his arms only made the river of tears rush quicker down her cheeks. Her whole body seemed to shudder fiercely against his as her arms wrapped tightly around his neck. Marlowe wept uncontrollably for a good long minute before drawing slowly away from him with a couple soft sniffles and a swipe of fingertips against her cheeks. "I'm sorry." Her voice cracked lightly again with the whisper of words. "This is suppose to be a fun and relaxing getaway, and here I am getting.....sorry." Marlowe smiled lightly toward him, her cheeks still stained from the stream of tears that had fallen.

He shook his head at her, letting his palms move to either side of her face. His thumbs trailed across her cheeks, wiping away the remnants of tears as he opened his mouth to speak. "Hey... No..." he said still shaking his head. "You shouldn't be sorry, I'm not." he assured her. "And this weekend is going to be fun and relaxing because see there's this really amazing girl who actually wants to waste her time on me." he teased, his lips curling into a half-smile smirk. He leaned forward and left a soft kiss against her forehead. He let one hand move away from her, the other trailing down to her chin and raising it slightly, enough to give him the ability to leave a kiss against her lips. As he pulled away, he nudged her chin up slightly. "Chin up gorgeous, if you weren't here... I wouldn't be either, so lets be happy about that okay?"

She smiled weakly at that. "That's another thing I like about you. You always seem to know what to say to try and make me feel better about things." Marlowe leaned toward him, her lips brushing lightly against his. Shifting back around to sit fully in her seat once more, Marlowe buckled herself back in, "Let's get this show back on the road." and when Lucius restarted the engine and had the vehicle back on the road, Marlowe leaned slightly to her left, and laid her head on his shoulder.

He smiled and let his arm drape over her again. "How's it feel to be running away with me?" he questioned softly. To him it was looking more and more like this weekend would be well worth the shadowy peril that they'd been in.

"Got kind of rocky there for a moment, but things seem to be looking better." She returned with a soft smile.

"Babe, compared to the rest of our relationship so far, that wasn't rocky, that was barely a bump" he teased with a smile as he let his fingers trace small circles against her forearm. "But, at least we know if we can make it through the rocky parts... things can only get better..." The thought seemed somewhat funny to him. Things were already amazing, despite the drama and battles and aggravation they'd been through together.

"Yeah." She said with a tentative smile. A slight case of dreading slowly settling in as the thought of the rocky, perhaps the rockiest, part yet to come creased her mind. That was the one part of the weekend getaway Marlowe was in no way looking forward to. It had her snuggling a bit further into his side as the Element continued to cruise down the road toward their destination.