"Not close friends?"
Nathan nodded.
"Yeah. What about you, anyone else you can think of?"
Paige fell silent. She looked away from Nathan, her eyes seemed to glaze over. Her lips began to quiver. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out.
She pressed her lips together in a scowl and shook her head, as if trying to wake herself. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the doctored picture. She stared at, her eyes blazing with barely controlled fury.
Nathan reached out and plucked the photograph from her hands.
"Okay, we have our destination," he said.
"What?"
"Your college."
"Salve? Why?"
"As good a place as any. Plus, it is one thing we both agree on about you."
She fell silent for a few moments. Nathan watched her closely. She frowned a little and her lip began to quiver again.
"Ar...are you sure?"
He took her hands in his. "Yeah, afraid so. I wish I had a better plan. This may be a dead end but we have to start somewhere, right?" He gave her hands a gentle reassuring squeeze and after a minute she nodded.
"Okay."
He squeezed her hands again, this time to stop their trembling.
"Come on," Nathan said, looking at his watch. "Let's see if we can still catch a flight tonight for Rhode Island."
They made their way over to the United ticket counter and he inquired about their next available flight out.
The woman at the counter tapped away at her keyboard for a few moments.
"You are in luck. Our last fight leaves in just under two hours. You'll have a rather long layover in Chicago, but it will get you into Providence at just about eleven in the morning."
"Excellent," Nathan said. "Can we still get seats together?"
The woman smiled and nodded. "Plane is half empty, that won't be a problem."
He paid and they checked Paige's suitcases and then quickly made their way through security.
As they walked down toward their gate, Paige's stomach grumbled so loud that Nathan laughed. He realized they had more or less been on the run since mid-afternoon and they hadn't eaten since breakfast. There were a few places to eat, but they ended up just buying pre-packaged sandwiches, chips and sodas from one of the catch-all shops and ate while they waited for boarding to begin. They ate in silence, both of them feeling drained from the day and lost in their own thoughts.
As the time to board drew closer, Nathan noticed that she seemed to fidget more, her hands trembling. He was nervous too, but he thought it was something more than just nerves with Paige. He took her hands in his and squeezed gently. She didn't resist.
Fifteen minutes later they were on the plane. They'd been the last two passengers to board. The cabin was indeed half empty and they had an abundance of seats to choose from. They ignored their assigned seats and picked a row towards the rear of the plane. The next closest passenger was four rows away. Paige had him take the window seat. A night time take off meant less to see. She left the middle seat open and took the aisle seat. Nathan noted it, but said nothing. He placed his laptop bag on the middle seat and then sat down and buckled in.
The plane pulled back from the gate and one of the flight attendants began to review the safety procedures. Paige looked over at Nathan and saw his head resting against the window, already asleep. She realized he likely hadn't slept more than a hour or two since they had first met. She gave him a sad smile and almost reached out to him, but stopped when she saw how much her hand was trembling. She gripped the armrests tight enough for her knuckles to blanch. She closed her eyes and tried to force herself to take slow deep breaths. Questions echoed in her head. Questions for which she had no answers.
When she finally opened her eyes, Paige saw that they were already in the air. She did not recall even feeling the motion of the take off. She glanced at her watch and saw they were already thirty-five minutes into the flight. The cabin was very dark, only the occasional passenger had their overhead light on. Paige reached up and clicked hers on as well as the one over the middle seat.
A moment later one of the flight attendants came by and asked if she needed anything. A pillow or blanket? She declined but asked if she could get some water. When the flight attendant had gone, Paige looked down and noted her hands still trembled a bit. Her eyes lingered on Nathan's laptop bag. By the time her water arrived, she had made up her mind. She thanked the attendant for the water and then took a sip. She pulled the tray table down for the empty middle seat and placed the glass of water on it, before opening the laptop bag and removing the journals. She closed her eyes, trying to remember if Nathan had said what order he had written them in. Moments later she was leaning forward in her seat, lost in the journals.