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[Jun. 29th, 2009|09:31 am] |
Sullivan had spent a lot of times looking through maps of the area where they'd found Robin. It shocked every librarian to see him spending so much time in the public library, but Sullivan wanted to plan out a method of search that was a little bit more than intuition. They would return to the house and go from there, picking up some sort of trail. The whole 'returning to the house' part was what Sullivan was worried about the most. When the morning finally came that they'd planned to leave, Sullivan rolled over in his own bed, alone, groaning at the early hour.
Austin was already up. Their bags had been packed and he had them all loaded into the back of Hunter's truck. He was making breakfast, and he'd poured coffees for Robin and Haben. Robin was sitting at the table, his head down on his arm. He wasn't used to being up so earlier either, Austin was really the only one that was truly awake. Once the coffee was put on the table he went upstairs and down the hall to his room with Sullivan. "Tiem to get up and get dressed. We're going to eat breakfast and go, so get up."
Wonderful, drill sergeant Austin. Sullivan shot him a pissed off look and rolled over so that his back was to the other. He'd been just about to get up anyway, but now he thought he needed a good 5 more minutes of snoozing.
Austin came over to the edge of the bed and he hauled him up off of the bed. Once he had Sullivan up he waited until he put his feet down and then he guided him over to the bathroom. "Brush your teeth, wash your face, get your clothes on, or we're going to eat without you and you won't get to eat before we leave."
Grunting when he was plucked up so easily by Austin, Sullivan almost wheeled on him. "Are you going to be fucking scout leader this whole goddamn trip?" Funny how Sullivan could be so gung ho about something and still act like he hated it. He stopped in front of the mirror, running his hands over his face and groaning, still tired.
"Yes, I'm going to be your scout leader." He pressed a kiss to the back of his shoulder and reaching around him he turned on the water so that he could get started with his teeth brusher. "So salut me when you come downstairs, all right."
As much as that joke pissed him off, the kiss subdued him. Sullivan went to work getting ready and by the time he came downstairs, Haben had actually lifted his head from the table, conscious now. He'd been too tired to eat, but eventually he started to pick at the food on the table. "We're going to sleep in the truck, right?" He turned to Robin, amber eyes dozy.
Robin still had his head down and he was still pretty out of it. They had gotten showered and cleaned up that morning but he was seriously tired. "We can sleep in the truck." He murmured as he reached for a piece of bacon and popped it into his mouth. Austin got a plate for Sullivan and poured him some coffee. Robin didn't even lift his head to look at him but he said "morning"
The sting of cold water had done wonders for Sullivan's alertness, and he smirked at the two sitting there. Haben made a little sound in the back of his throat and draped himself over Robin's slumped body, nuzzling into his neck as if to go back to sleep. "I'm not carrying your asses to the car. Austin might, but I won't," Sullivan said as he plopped down at the table.
"Carry meeeee." Robin whined a little bit as he turned his face to the side to press it against Haben's head. "Okay, help me sit up so that I can get some coffee and another piece of bacon."
It might have been the beginning of any road trip, not one to hunt down two people that had planned to brutally murder Robin. This fact was not lost on Sullivan, but Haben seemed to completely be ignoring the fact. "I'll carry you," Haben said with a glance up at Sullivan. He tugged him up so that he could drink a gulp of coffee.
Robin smiled and he pressed a kiss to Haben's cheek. Austin swatted him with a newspaper. "Eat, because we are stopping when you get hungry just because you were too tired to eat this morning." He leaned back in the chair and flipped the paper open, he wanted to read a few things before they left.
Sullivan swung his gaze back over to Austin and then back at the boys, raising his eyebrows in a rare comical look. He knew it was going to be like this, but seeing Austin in this stern leadership role was--well it went farther than he'd expected it would have. It wasn't meaningless, cruel hazing; it was leading. When breakfast was done, and Haben was able to tug Robin out to crawl in the back cab of the truck, Sullivan settled himself in front. He was too riled to sleep now.
Getting into the driver's seat, Austin started the car and he turned the radio down so that the two in the back could sleep. He left it up just enough and then he took the atlas from under the seat and opened it up, trailing his finger down the path towards where they were going. "Start at the house?"
"Tried to think of ways around it, but I there aren't any. We've got to start at the house." He dug in his backpack, pulling out a map he'd marked up. "I went through possible options, trying to think like a predator on the run from a bigger predator--because they know we're coming to find them. They're far from stupid."
"Right." Austin looked at the little map for a second and then he put on his sunglasses and pulled back out of the driveway. They were going to start in Seattle, and so he got onto the higway so they could head there first. "Do you think he's going to be okay going there?"
He waited a couple minutes to answer, listening for the sound of restful breathing from the back. "I asked Haben to keep him in the car." Whether that would work or not, Sullivan didn't know. "If he wants to go in, I think we should let him. He's stubborn as fuck anyway, so if he wants to go in, he'll go in."
"Yeah, he really is." Biting his bottom lip, he tried to think about what would be all right for Robin. "You know, he survived the whole lot of it, and he got out all right the first time so I bet he's strong enough to see it and come out all right."
"Do you not want to kill him yourself anymore?" Sullivan asked, picking up on a sense of respect coming from Austin's words. Robin enduring what he'd endured really was impressive.
"Sometimes I still do, but... it's mostly out of fond annoyance now." Things were changing now, it wasn't even really an issue now. "I think that Robin is a lot stronger than I ever gave him credit for. And he's been through a lot. I just think he needs one less stress in his life and if that means me not being a mean son of a bitch to him constantly then I can manage that."
Those words made Sullivan go tingly inside and he just stared at Austin's provile as the other wolf watched the road. "We helped make him strong." Because that's why Sullivan was always so hard on the younger ones, or the smaller ones. Not out of ego, but out of pack dynamics, natural law. "You're sounding like an alpha." He noted, and his voice went warm.
That made Austin smile a little bit and he looked over at Sullivan for just a second before glancing back at the road. "We all have to grow up some time. I think it was just my time." At least he hoped it was. Becuase he could tell that Hunter was getting tired.
Haben slept like a brick, covering Robin's body with his own, acting like a blanket. When the truck pulled up about a block away from the abandoned house, he stirred and couldn't resist the urge to ask if they were there yet. Sullivan had been planning an angle of attack, ready to be prepared if for some reason the killers had come back.
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