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[manicpixiedgoblin]

Nervous Young Inhumans

Masterpost

Chapter Thirty-Two.

Epilogue: El Camino

2004

“What’ll we do when I come back?” Ellie asked.

They were laying face to face in her bed, the light dim and blue from the muted TV in the living room, the low white from the streetlights outside through the thin, white shades.

“Leave,” he scoffed.

“Where?” she asked.

They were both speaking barely above a whisper. He took a strand of hair from across her face and placed it behind her.

“Wherever we want. Where do you wanna go?”

“Anywhere together.”

“Somewhere with trees,” he said.

“And snow,” she added.

He nodded.

“Promise you’ll come back?” he asked.

“Promise you’ll still be here?”

2010

It had been around six months. Months of hiding in bed, watching TV, drinking - mostly at home. She’d driven through the desert multiple times, aimlessly. It wasn’t like she had any idea where to find him.

There was still an out - leaving all of this. Alone, or even with Jimmy. But her heart was full of grief and she couldn’t do anything but watch the sun rise and fall and try not to think.

Like every day, she was chain smoking and drinking wine from the bottle before noon, thinking of maybe popping a Xanax when the doorbell rang.

Which didn’t happen anymore, really.

She clicked on the buzzer.

“Yeah?” she asked.

“Elizabeth Sanders?” a man’s voice asked on the other side.

“Who is this?”

“Detective Jones, with the DEA - can I come in?”

She hesitated.

“What’s this about?”

“Ma’am, probably nothing concerning you, but I’d like to come in.”

Deciding there wasn’t much risk, she buzzed him in.

Quickly she darted to her room, placing her taser underneath her sweater, tucked into the back of her jeans. The money was hidden, the only drugs around were technically prescribed.

The knock came a few seconds later.

She opened, standing there.

“Can I come in?” the detective asked.

“Should I be concerned? Should I call someone?” she asked, feigning innocence.

“Ms. Sanders, we just want to know if you’re here alone.”

She looked behind his shoulder.

“My partner’s downstairs, thought it better not to, uh, overwhelm you. We know your ties to one Jesse Pinkman have been distant in the past few years, but we still had to check.”

She stared at him, confused.

“Check?”

“Make sure he didn’t think to come around, asking for your help in hiding him. Whatever you know of him, Pinkman has become a hardened criminal. You should, at the slightest indication of his presence, call the police.”

She felt dizzy, took a step back and held on to the couch.

“Woah, woah,” the cop said, stepping towards her, “Miss - are you alright?”

“Jesse?”

“Ma’am?”

“I-I-“ I thought he was dead, she was about to say.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand,” she said instead.

“We’re sorry to have disturbed you,” he cleared his throat, taking one look around. “Anyways, uh, if he does show up, be sure to give me a call.”

He handed her his card and left.

After a few moments she started breathing harder, then stood up. She took out her laptop and pulled up the live feed of the cameras she’d installed, back when she’d still been scared of Walter coming back.

She saw Detective Jones speak to someone in another car and then leave, this second car staying parked in front of her building.

She turned her head towards the TV and found the local news. As she heard, she covered her mouth with her palm.

***

Of course he was smart enough not to come here. She sobered up, showered and packed everything. Anywhere she drove they’d follow, right?

Walter was dead. Jesse was alive. Whatever he’d been through, he was alive.

She wondered if her phone was tapped. She found an old burner of Saul’s, but didn’t know who to call, where he’d go. Who wouldn’t they be watching?

He’d probably rather risk it at his friend’s than involve her.

Did he know she was still there?

She checked the cameras again. Only one car. Clearly they didn’t know that much, then. Two suitcases and her backpack. Just enough money for the service, for them to start, a few changes of clothes. Her small wooden memory box. One last look around. Whatever they found after wouldn’t matter much, right?

She called the cab number Jimmy had specifically given her from the burner phone, asking them to meet her at the corner store and left through the back of the building.

When she pulled up at Skinny and Badger’s place, or rather two doors down, she handed the cabby an extra tip and got out. No cars around - yet.

She didn’t knock, trying the handle and getting inside.

“Woah,” Badger rushed to the door before recognizing her, his hands falling to his sides as she shut the door behind her, having wheeled in the suitcases.

“Where is he?” she said softly.

Skinny walked into the living room. “Shower,” he said, his eyes slightly wide.

She nodded.

Everything she had with her she left in the living room and leaned her head against the bathroom door, hearing the sound of running water and closing her eyes.

She didn’t want to scare him.

She didn’t know the details, and maybe one day he’d be ready to tell her, but now? Now she just wanted to make sure he knew it was over. Knew he was safe.

It took a long time after the water stopped running for the door to open. She took a step back when it did to keep from falling towards the toilet. He startled and stared at her.

He looked different than he did on the TV Badger and Petey kept running in the background. Older. Scarred. Her hand wanted to reach towards his face but she stood still.

He was holding a gun dripping wet.

When she glanced at it he finally reacted.

“What are you doing here?”

“We’re leaving, right?”

“El-” he choked.

“I’m already packed,” she smiled softly.

He kept staring, his eyes half absent. Finally, he collapsed towards her, hugging her, face buried in her neck. She held him. He didn’t cry, just stayed there until Skinny walked up behind her.

“Woah, dude, why’d you—“

“Looking sharp, yo,” Badger interrupted him.

Jesse pulled back and looked at all of them.

“I gotta get rid of that car,” he said to them.

***

He called the same guy that had helped them in the past, and Skinny drove off with it.

Even though he didn’t clear much up for them, they understood. They said their goodbyes.

Ellie called the Vacuum Repair shop.

When Ed picked them up he asked her if she was going to Nebraska.

“No,” she shook her head, “we leave together.”

“Where to?”

“Alaska,” Jesse said.

She didn’t say anything, just glanced at his hand and kept herself from taking it. He noticed and reached out, taking her hand.

When Ed put them in the underground room to wait for transport Jesse sat against the wall on the head of the bed, Ellie slowly joining him.

“It’s over,” she wanted to say, but she knew for him it wasn’t. She knew it would take years.

They sat in silence for a long time before he spoke.

“They as bad as I think?” he motioned towards his face.

“They’re kind of hot,” she joked.

***

Ed finally left them in Alaska, almost a week later, next to a pickup truck, with their two suitcases half-full of money, all they had in the world now.

They’d traveled in a cramped compartment, pressed together. Jesse would shake in his sleep. Ellie would stroke his head until it stopped.

They got in their new car, in silence. She looked at him as often as she could, still afraid it would end, it was just another dream.

It would take years for her to breathe normally in the mornings when he got out of bed before her.

Mr. and Mrs. Driscoll, their new identities - a passport and valid ID, a few changes of clothes, a car. Enough money to buy a small cabin in a small town, for Jesse to focus on woodworking, for Ellie to paint, for both of them to slowly build a life that alienated the previous one until it was that which felt like a dream and not this.

In her small wooden box, the ring. She’d forget about the people from the past, until one day at a bar she’d see the news of Jimmy’s arrest. And surprise would overtake her when, after all those years, all that was left was a feeling of tenderness for everyone that had been there.

The kind of tenderness you feel after waking up for someone you’ve met only in a dream.