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“Enabler,” Sawyer mumbled back. He was resting both of his hands on her waist, steadily holding her against him as he leaned in and kissed her. Jordan closed her eyes, drowning out the real world and numbing herself to everything else. Sawyer
was
a drug, a damn good one at that.

Jordan and Sawyer had packed up what little belongings they had and taken off on foot in search of a pay phone to use. Sawyer was ready to part ways with the truck they had picked up on their way there, but wasn’t ready to borrow a new vehicle until they knew they were leaving town again. So, off they went, walking alongside the main road, but keeping to the tree line to remain out of sight as much as possible. The only time they stepped out, was to approach public places that might house a payphone. It struck Jordan as odd how hard it was to find a phone. She always remembered seeing them everywhere, but maybe that had been pre-cellphone era. Of course, now that she no longer had one of those and was searching for a public telephone, she became uncomfortably aware of how scarce they had become. Twice she had thought they’d gotten lucky, only to find that the small booth had been gutted.

             
At last they found what they were looking for in the back of an old diner. Initially, Sawyer had gone in alone to see if it would even be necessary for Jordan to come in, but once he found what he was searching for, he gave her the go ahead to follow him inside.

             
Jordan nodded briefly at the hostess as she walked in.

             
“Restrooms?” she asked, knowing the young woman would direct her straight to Sawyer.

             
A few seconds later she was standing by the phone dialing the number he had written down for her. She glanced down at the crumpled up note resting in her fingers. Her hands were shaking from the adrenaline making it hard for her to read what it said. Not that it mattered. She had been reciting the whole thing in her head for the last hour; she was merely staring at the paper for something to focus on other than the crowd of people in the diner. Jordan knew she was being paranoid, but she couldn’t help but feel like every pair of eyes in the place had come to land on her. She could feel the restaurant’s walls closing in on her and was about to hang up the phone and make a run for it when she heard a click in the line and a man’s voice on the other end.

             
“Detective Mortison.”

             
That was her cue. Just like that, the switch flipped and Jordan moved into action. The adrenaline had peaked, the game had begun. With the quiet calm that came from standing in the eye of the storm, at the center of it all, she recited her speech just as she’d rehearsed it a hundred times before. When she was done, she hung up and walked straight into the ladies room the way Sawyer had told her to do. Jordan was to wait three minutes before making her exit. By then he would already be out in the parking lot behind the diner waiting to meet her.

             
“How did it go?” he asked anxiously the second Jordan turned the last corner.

             
“Alright I think. I mean, he didn’t say much, but he wouldn’t if he thought the lines were bugged would he?” Jordan replied, going over the conversation again in her mind.

             
“As long as you said everything I wrote on that piece of paper for you, we’re good. He’ll know what to do now,” said Sawyer. He had already started walking again. Jordan took several hurried steps to catch up to him.

             
“So what do we do now?”

             
“Now we go back to the room and wait.”

             
The walk back to the hotel seemed to go by considerably faster than it had before. Jordan wasn’t sure if it was due to the fact that they had a much more precise direction and were walking with more intent this time around or if it was because of the increasing anticipation she felt over what would be waiting for them when they got there. Would they send an undercover unit to pick them up? Would it be the FBI? What if no one was there? It was probably the most likely. Really, how fast did she expect Mortison to work? Jordan stared at the ground as it moved beneath her feet. What if no one ever showed up? There was still the possibility that Sawyer’s message had not been received as clearly as he had intended it to be. Jordan knew she wouldn’t have been able to decipher it if she hadn’t already known what the situation was. She looked up to try and get a read on Sawyer’s feelings. If he had any doubts at all, he wasn’t showing them. Jordan felt an unexpected comfort from witnessing his certainty. She trusted Sawyer. Enough to allow his confidence to dispel her fears. For now at least.

***

Sawyer purposely kept his focus on the path ahead, avoiding eye contact with Jordan as he marched on. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but he had a nagging feeling that something was off. The last thing he wanted was for Jordan to see that he was worried. With everything else she was already dealing with, she didn’t need the added stress; especially if it was nothing more than paranoia. Not that he didn’t have every right to be paranoid. After what had gone down in the last forty-eight hours, Sawyer didn’t know who to trust anymore. He felt his hand turn into a fist and the subsequent pain of that action as it shot through his shoulder. If old Carmine had been a halfway decent shot, he’d be dead now instead of trying to figure out how to make sure Jordan survived the mess he had gotten her into.  Sawyer didn’t know whether to be grateful or pissed that the Esposito’s had sent an old-timer to guard the boss’s wife. Of course, it had probably been Demi Esposito’s idea in the first place. With Carmine’s vision the way it was these days, she didn’t have to worry about getting caught while messing around with her husband’s nephew. Regrettably, they never actually got around to their date since the kid was already dead when Demi and Carmine pulled up. Unfortunately for Sawyer, this had been only seconds after he had found the kid lying in the alley bleeding out. Naturally, he had had his gun drawn, making him look particularly guilty. But, given the circumstances, his instincts had warned him to be prepared and Sawyer’s instincts hadn’t been wrong yet. Right now they were telling him that something was wrong. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something he couldn’t see yet, was coming right at them. What was worse, he felt as though he was leading them directly to whatever or whoever it was and he had no other choice but to stay on course. Gary was their only hope of getting out.

***

              Jordan couldn’t help but wonder what was going through Sawyer’s mind as they walked on in silence. On several occasions she opened her mouth to ask him, but she stopped herself every time before the words came out, afraid that she might disrupt an important train of thought. Whatever it was that had him looking so serious, he clearly wasn’t in the mood to share it.

             
They were nearly all the way back to the hotel when Jordan spotted several patrol cars zooming past them at high speeds, lights flashing and sirens blaring. Sawyer took notice as well and his expression turned from serious to grim as he sped up, causing Jordan to double up her steps just to keep up the pace.

             
“Why are you in such a hurry all of a sudden? I thought you said there would be waiting involved,” Jordan reminded him as she caught up and fell into step beside him.

             
“I just don’t like all this commotion. It seems odd. The sooner we get back to our room and out of the open, the better.” He reached for her hand and held it tightly in his as they continued to move along. Jordan felt tempted to yank it back. It was always her first reaction when she felt as though she was being controlled in some way. Not that Sawyer had been controlling exactly. He certainly had that annoying ‘because I said so’ thing going on whenever he felt that he knew what was best. Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t, but that didn’t much matter to Jordan when she felt as though she was being treated like a two year old. Mostly, it just made her want to act like one. However, it occurred to her that this particular gesture had perhaps been less about controlling her and more so about keeping her close. Neither of them really knew what was waiting around the bend anytime they turned a corner. If he wanted to be the first one to find out so he could shield her, she would let him.

             
They were coming up through the woods behind the motel parking lot when the wave of flashing lights broke through the thicket, warning Jordan and Sawyer of what lie ahead.

             
“Fuck me!” Sawyer cursed under his breath. He ducked down behind the closest wall of brush, yanking Jordan down and out of sight along with him.

             
“What are they doing here? They can’t be here for us, can they? I mean, how could they have known?” Jordan’s voice was no more than a whisper, but it was steady.

             
“Who was there when you checked us in?”

             
“Just the woman working the desk? You think it was her?”

             
“Must have been. She’s the only one that would think to call the cops. The Mancini’s certainly wouldn’t and Gary knows better than to send a Calvary of black and whites stampeding in here to give us away.”

             
Jordan lowered her head. She was pissed at herself for having spent the extra time chatting with the front desk lady. Not that she could have known that her face would make the morning news, although aside from the fact that the reporting was shotty at best, Jordan had expected all along that there would be repercussions for her actions. Undercover cop accomplice or not, you could only steal so many cars and be involved in so many mob related crimes before someone sounds the alarm.

             
“What are we gonna do now?” Jordan still couldn’t bring herself to look at Sawyer.

             
“We move on. The longer we stick around here, the more likely it is that someone stumbles upon us and that wouldn’t be good. If we get arrested now, the news will spread like wildfire to all the wrong people. By the time I’d be able to clear everything up and verify my identity with the department, we’d both be dead already.”

             
Jordan’s hand went limp in Sawyer’s palm, but he only tightened his grip.

             
“Come on,” he said nodding toward a small trail leading farther into the forest. It didn’t look like anything manmade, but rather a path that had been carved into the ground by hooves and paws as they traveled their territory hunting for food. Jordan felt uneasy as they moved along the path in silence. She didn’t like the feeling that came from being surrounded by wall to wall trees, making it impossible to see or hear if anyone was near, or worse yet, following them. The fact that they were now impeding on the grounds of the unpredictable wildlife that roamed the countryside of West Virginia didn’t exactly bring her any comfort either.

             
“How long do you plan to make this trip on foot?” Jordan asked after having walked for over an hour. Based on the steady speed they had been able to maintain, she was certain that they put at least several miles between themselves and the cops.

             
“I think we better stick to walking until morning. The further we get from that motel before we jack another car the better.” It didn’t sound particularly promising.

             
“So we just keep walking aimlessly through the wilderness until tomorrow and hope that we don’t freeze to death and nothing eats us before we see the sunrise? I don’t know if I like my odds. Seems like we’d be better off just boosting another car and using it to roll up on the closest police station and see what they do. I’d say our chances of walking away alive and free are about equal!”

             
Sawyer stifled a laugh. As much as he considered himself an ignorant amateur when it came to women, even he knew that laughing at one while she was pissed was a bad idea, no matter how ridiculous she sounded. He waited until he was composed enough to adequately hide his amusement before he answered her.

             
“First of all, we’re not wandering aimlessly. We’re still moving South same as we have all along. Second of all, when it gets too cold to keep moving, we’ll stop and build a fire. Which will not only keep us from freezing to death, but will also ward off any animals that may want to eat us…although, I doubt that any bears will wake up from hibernation just to snack on us, tasty morsels as we may be.”

             
Jordan noted the underlying sarcasm in his tone, but chose to ignore it. Arguing now wouldn’t accomplish anything anyway, except maybe distract her from the fact that the biting cold of the frozen earth beneath her feet was already seeping in through her shoes and making her toes go numb. Somehow suffering seemed like the more spiteful thing to do. So, Jordan wandered along beside him, fantasizing about steaming hot coffee and muttering an endless stream of obscenities regarding the misfortune of not actually having any.

             
Meanwhile, Sawyer said nothing, but continued to remind himself repeatedly to relax his mouth and erase the telltale signs of a smirk he couldn’t seem to shake. It’s not like he could blame her. He was freezing too and the random items they had managed to snag from the vending machine at the motel had hardly been enough sustenance to satisfy two days’ worth of hunger.  Sawyer was pretty sure they still had a couple of bags of pretzels and some bottles of water stowed away in her bag, but he decided it was best to hold off and wait to mention them when Jordan was starving enough to be grateful rather than bitter, about the minimal provisions they had left.