It was almost two weeks before we had a house, and a plan, and Arianna was well enough to move. She had recovered quickly, gotten out of bed against doctor's orders and promptly gotten a bad infection which required another week's bed rest. She was highly pissed off, didn't love our idea of being a foster home, and wanted her precious Intou to be conducting business as usual flying all over the world risking his life alongside her.

I finally went into her room and had a little talk with her.

I opened the door without knocking, shut it behind me, and went to her bed. I was tired of being there, I wanted to go home, and I was just about done waiting for her and being nice about it. Bella refused to return my texts or answer my calls and I had to check on her. 

"You listen to me," I said without preamble as Arianna opened her mouth. "I am going back to California. I am taking Reed--" and here I pronounced his name clearly, "--with me. I am taking Dane with me. They are finished with this. If you had any sense in your stubborn red head, you would see this for what it is and gracefully agree to come with us because I am just about done and then you will be here alone!"

Whew.

She gaped at me. Then she laughed, but not meanly. "Oh my God, you kill me. You are really something else. I really see why . . . " she was amused and it annoyed me further.

"I swear to God." I wanted to punch her in the nose.

She saw it in my eyes and put her hands up. "I surrender, chérie ," she said, using the name mockingly. I knew she couldn't probably help razzing me but it grated. "Okay, Addy, wow, calm down. Okay. We'll go. I'll go, come, whatever. You're right. I don't want to be alone. Okay? You win. We'll all go with you and play house."

"You can't be a bitch to me around the kids," I warned her, and that sounded so funny we both started laughing.

"Now I've seen it all," Dane said as he opened the door. "Someone left the laughin' gas on in 'ere?"

"I'm on morphine. I don't know her excuse." She rolled her eyes but there was a truce of some sort in place. In other circumstances we would probably be friends.

"Intou's lookin' for you, Addy. I came to heckle Ari."

I went to the door. "We're leaving in like three days. So get your shit together. Both of you."

"Crackin'!" I heard Dane say admiringly after I closed the door.

"Oh, shut up," she told him.

Reed was waiting for me, dressed for climbing. My whole self lit up. 

The corner of his mouth rose. "I know this Ferris Wheel," he began, and I went to change.

We stood in the abandoned amusement park an hour later, in front of a decrepit Ferris Wheel that was probably erected in the 1800s. "You're insane," I said. "We'll fall and die."

"Nooo," he scoffed, already ten feet up. "Have you not heard? I'm untouchable. And therefore so, by proxy, are you."

"Oh yeah." I followed him and he had a head start but I was quicker and soon I was above him. "C'mon, slowpoke." The air was cold, a dusting of snow on the ground. I was used to it now but I'd never climbed in chilled air like that and it made it harder. My hands were cold.

"Here, before you leave me in your dust." He tugged my heel, holding out thin climbing gloves. I used my teeth to pull them on and tested them. Better. My bare feet were cold too but I didn't have proper shoes and I prefered climbing barefoot anyway.

We reached the top in just a few minutes and I carefully tested the seat hanging there before allowing it to hold my weight. The air felt thin, and icy. It was gray and overcast, the wind gusting a little more than I liked when I was up high. But I was in the sky, and that made it all worth it.

He joined me and the chair creaked ominously. We ignored it and sat in silence, knees touching, both looking out over the area. "I mean, it's not a mountain," I finally said, and he smiled. "But it'll do. Been up here before?" I knew he had or he wouldn't have brought me and risked something breaking. Also, there were cigarette butts on the floor of the car and a couple of Sprite cans.

"Once or twice." He pulled out his cigarettes and lit one, the slight movement making us swing a little more. His hands looked strange in the dark gray gloves.

"How long have you known Malone?" I leaned back cautiously and stretched my feet out. He did the same, against mine.

"Almost fourteen years. Met her and Don at the same time, in 2003." He tried to blow a smoke ring but the wind snatched it away preformed. "Christmas Eve."

"That was our last Christmas with my mom," I said, with a pang of sadness, because that's what it meant to me. 

He touched my hand. "Dane, we found when he was nine."

I watched a hawk fighting the updrafts while it scanned the weeded-over parking lot. "And her?" I didn't even want her name in my mouth.

He sighed. "I was helping on a trip for the first time when we raided a place in Aix-en-Provence, in France. She was there." He paused, smoking. "She was ten."

I sighed. What a mess.

He narrowed his eyes, watching the hawk too. "Now that, that place . . . quelle horreur, Addy. I've only ever been to one worse place." He shook his head. "As a qualifier, the other place was worse only because of the many small corpses." His voice broke on the last word.

"Jesus," I said, having no words. I leaned forward carefully, rocking us a little, and grabbed his free hand. "No more. Your soul is like, drowning. I can see it in your eyes. Thank you for doing this, for stopping."

He inclined his head in acknowledgment, probably of all of it. I liked how he didn't give me all their personal details. I knew he would if I asked, just as he knew I wouldn't ask. If they wanted me to know, they would tell me.

 "They both live with Don when we're not gone. That's their home."

"Wouldn't it be easier if you did, too?" I pushed at some old dried gum with my bare toe, which was icy at this point.

He laughed a little and looked at me knowingly. "I'm a little old for communal living, cherie. Plus, I already have a home."

Damn right. "Indeed."

A gust of wind hit us and the car creaked as it rocked. "Come on," he said. "Let's go down before we fall like the cradle in the song."

"That would suck," I agreed, as he climbed out surely and reached to give me a hand.

I beat him down, of course. It was getting dark.

"One more place?" he asked, an almost sheepish look in his eyes.

"As long as it has food." I touched up my makeup and brushed my hair.

It was a roller skating rink. "What?" I asked as he parked. "You're crazy."

"You keep telling me that." He got out and came to open my door. "You used to love skating, if I recall correctly, and I always do."

I got out. He was right. My mom had been a figure skater before she had me, and she and I skated every Sunday together since I could remember. My dad had tried to take me a few times, after she died, but Essie was too little and it was too sad to be there.

He searched my face, obviously thinking of this. "Okay, chérie? We can go if it is not."

But it was. "No, I want to. I"ll probably fall on my ass."

His expression said he found that doubtful but we would see. We went inside and it smelled exactly like the roller rink I'd grown up at. They were even playing old pop songs from then, and that together with the psychedelic carpet pattern and colorful swirling lights made me so homesick for my mom I was floored by it. I hadn't missed her like that in years. But I wanted to skate.

I sat on on the bench where you could put your skates on, handing him my skate ticket. "Don't get ugly ones."

He saw I wanted to do it so he got the skates and came back. His were inline but I preferred quads. His were black and shiny and mine were brown and, yes, ugly. "They had no beautiful skates," he apologized, teasing me as he sat.

We laced them up and as soon as I stood, my body knew what to do. I was wobbly for about ten seconds and then that was it. Reed was not as sure on his feet, which amused me because he was usually ultra graceful. We got out on the rink and he was better but not much.

"I've only done this twice," he said in explanation, embarrassed. "Go, show me how it's done."

There were only a handful of others there, mostly younger teens and little kids. They tried not to stare at his beat-up face and mostly succeeded. I glided away from him, the moves automatic. Wow. I'd missed this so much. It was so fast, though the skates were sub par. It was so . . . fun. I lapped Reed a few times and then came up beside him.

"You look happy," he said, and so did he. "You're really fast."

"I am," I said in response to both statements.

We did some more before I took pity on him and we ordered food and blue Icees which were one of my favorite things in the world. "This is good," I said, chugging it and getting a brain freeze. I pressed my tongue on the roof of my mouth to stop it.

He watched me making faces, amused. "The brain freeze or the icee or the skating?"

I gestured to the room at large. "All of it."

"We have not had much fun lately," he said ruefully. God, I loved him.

I snorted. "Like I care. At least I know where you are. And I get to be here too." I drank more Icee and ate some semi stale nachos with questionable cheese sauce.

The speakers crackled and the DJ's voice boomed out. "Oookay, all you skaters out there, it's time to turn down the lights for couples skating, so grab that special person or friend or mom or whoever, and get out here on the rink!"

Nostalgia was a funny thing. I could clearly see my mom for a minute in her blue skates, reaching out her hand for me to join her for a similar announcement. 

Then he was standing up. "Skate with me, chérie, but not too fast, d'accord?"

"Je te promets." I took his hand and we went out and the magic took hold. The dark rink swirled with little colored lights under our feet, making us dizzy if we looked down. A tall girl, twelve or thirteen, skated with a boy her age who was a foot shorter, she ducking and he stretching. 

I was hyper aware of my fingers linked with his, and the romantic music playing, We went around and around like fish in a bowl, tugging each other around the lazy corners. I forgot about everything else going on, and maybe so did he for a few minutes.

When we got back to the house we were both relaxed and content. He went to say hi to Arianna and I went to take a shower and change. I needed some quiet time to recharge. I had some major concerns about living with other people besides him, but I didn't see that there was anything I could do about it. 

It was better than the alternative, and I knew we would make it work somehow.