Chapter 263: Her Bear Was Not Off Duty

DOVE’S POV

Dove was still smiling when the diner clerk stopped them beside the van. He had recommended the motel across the road, then asked whether the recovery crew had found her.

Her smile went. Edrik put down the bag he had been loading.

"They offered to carry a message north," the clerk said. "Knew you were trying to reach an injured panther."

Dove had spent years wanting customers to stop talking about her. Apparently the apocalypse had decided to make the problem much worse.

"Who told them about Thorne?" she asked the clerk.

He rubbed his mouth. "People heard the clinic name. The cook knew a message was waiting. I don’t know who repeated what."

That was an answer, even if it wasn’t one she liked. They hadn’t shouted their history across the diner, but she couldn’t put everybody’s ears away in storage just because it would make her day easier.

Edrik listened without interrupting. When the clerk offered to call the recovery crew back, both of them said no.

Dove asked for the radio operator instead. She gave him a simple message to pass to the clinic: they hadn’t hired a transport crew, and nobody else had permission to collect them. Their next stop would be confirmed directly. Then she asked him not to repeat her route to anyone who smiled nicely and claimed to be helping.

"I’ve met my share of helpful assholes," she added. "They rarely come labeled."

The operator nodded and wrote it down. He didn’t act offended that she wanted him to be careful. Dove liked him more for that.

They crossed to the motel before sunset. It was a low brick building wrapped around a parking lot, with an office at the front and a laundry room at the far end. The keeper gave them a room beside the laundry after Edrik checked the back passage. Their van sat outside the window. A second door through the laundry led to a fenced yard, and the keeper showed them how its gate opened.

Dove could picture how to leave. That let her think about staying.

The room had two narrow beds pushed together, a dresser with a chipped corner, and curtains that almost met in the middle. She closed the gap with a bright yellow clothespin from her own supplies, then turned on one of their earned fans.

"Look at that," she said. "Luxury. A breeze and nobody asking to inspect my thighs."

Edrik set down the bags. "I could ask, if you’re feeling neglected."

"You can start by finding the plates."

He did, which was unfairly attractive for a man who had threatened to tear somebody’s arm off that morning.

They ate warmed meal packs with extra meat from the diner, sitting on the edge of the bed while the fan moved the hot air around. Dove asked what he would have chosen from the clothing bundle if she’d let him pick for her.

"Something you could run in," he said. "And something you wouldn’t wear outside."

"Very responsible of you."

"I can want you comfortable and still want a good look, sweetheart."

She gave him a look until he laughed and admitted he’d wanted to see whether she would throw a fork at him. Dove kept the fork, but she stole the last piece of his bread on principle.

Dove checked the next day’s route once, then folded the map and put it away. There was nothing new to learn from staring at the same line until her eyes hurt. She asked Edrik whether he would have liked her old apartment, and he said he would have liked being invited into it. The answer caught her off guard. She had expected a joke about the size of the bed, not the quiet pleasure of being wanted somewhere.

After dinner she took her time washing. Her body stayed in the room while she briefly reached the pool in her mind, Edrik seated beside her until she opened her eyes again. She brought out water in a container, used it with a cloth behind the bathroom door, rinsing the grit from behind her ears. She pressed the cool cloth against her neck before changing into clean shorts and a loose shirt. The dirty road felt a little farther away.

Edrik was sitting with his back against the headboard, checking the radio’s batteries. He had changed into one of the new shirts. It fit his shoulders so well that she stopped in the doorway.

He noticed, of course he noticed. "Was it the shirt or the batteries?"

"Don’t get excited. I was wondering if I should have ordered a larger size."

"You can come check."

She crossed the room and took the radio from his hands. Then she climbed onto the bed beside him and rested her head on his shoulder. For once she didn’t need him to stand between her and anything. She wanted him there because he was Edrik, because he knew when to make her laugh and when to shut up, because he had listened when she said she was scared without making her feel smaller.

"Can we have tonight?" she asked. "Just a little of it. I don’t want every good thing to wait until we’re safe forever."

He put his hand over hers. "Tell me what you want."

She did, quietly enough that the answer belonged to them. He listened without teasing until she kissed him, and then his smile returned against her mouth.

they lay together with the fan humming and the radio within reach. Dove had asked him to hold her, and he hadn’t made it complicated. His arm rested across her waist, his fingers moving slowly whenever she stirred.

She thought about Thorne in another bed, with another ceiling above him. Missing him didn’t make this comfort wrong. It only made her want a room big enough for all the people she needed.

"When we find him," she murmured, "I want one whole day where nobody gets shot and I don’t have to be impressive."

"I’ll put in a request."

"Threaten someone if you have to."

"Now you’re speaking my language."

She fell asleep smiling against him.

In the morning, Edrik woke her before the alarm. He was standing by the curtain, looking toward the road. Dove sat up and heard water running into the motel’s gutter.

Red water slipped over the curb and pooled around the van’s front tire.

The man who had made the courtyard shower was locked in a clinic miles away, and this rain was still falling.