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The area was already packed, in anticipation of the
A
ppreciation
D
ay events.  The hotel the
event organizers
had put Malik in was the best in the area, the Imperial, and it faced the city square where most of the day
'
s event
s
would take place.  Rune stoo
d against a street light
,
watching t
he crowd stream by
,
trying to calm
herself
down.  She wasn't likely to be recognized out here, amongst the crowd, in her civilian clothes.  There were few people who could pick her out of a crowd.  As much as she tried to keep out of the limelight the fact was that she was one of the best
W
anderers in the country, and the government and military often use
d her for important assignments.
That
sometimes meant
press coverage,
s
o her 'super
name
'
was known. 
People would find out anyway, as soon as Malik gave his speech, but she was still unsettled.  She'd hoped to keep it close
.
S
he knew they couldn't hide the marriage from the government, they had people who monitored the civilian names of all the supers in their empl
oy,
b
ut she'd hoped to keep it
from the public.  As she stood lost in thought
she was startled to hear her name mentioned from somewhere behind her.  She turned halfway, still out of sight, to see who had spoken. 

There were two Imperial employees standing
near the hotel entrance talking.
"Yeah that
W
anderer from the news, that's what they were saying, that's who Malik had with him in the suite
.
" 

The other shook his head and replied, "Seriously?  Of all the women he could have, he beds a
W
anderer
?" 

The first laughed.
"It's not just any W
anderer, haven't you ever seen pictures of her?  She's hot.  Besides, it's not like
ly
serious, she's just probably Malik's flavor of the week."
 

The second seemed unconvinced and continued to frown
.
"
I don't
care.
Y
ou'd never catch
me
with a W
anderer
.
" 

The first shrugged and laughed again
.
"
W
ait till the press gets hold of
this;
they'll have a field day
.
"
H
e looked at his watch and motioned back toward the hotel doors
,
"
B
reak's ove
r"
.
The two headed
back inside and out of sight.

She stood rooted to the spot, her hands shaking.  They knew.  The press would know soon, if someone on the hotel staff hadn't already called them. 
She found herself torn between anger and fear.  Malik was front page news, but she'd never liked public attention. 
At least they don't seem to know we're married
, she thought with some relief
;
that would definitely be worse. 
As the crowd
started moving into the seats set up in front of the award pavilion Rune found that she couldn't get herself to
move
any closer.  She stayed there
by the streetlight, next to the food stalls at the back of the square.  It was the farthest she could be and still be able to see the podium. 

As the time went by she heard more whispers and rumors circulating amongst the crowd about her and Malik.  And by mid-day, just before the start of the ceremony, she spotted a reporter asking members of the crowd for their opinions on the match. 
Mo
st were negative or unbelieving;
others dismissive like the first Imperial employee believing it to be just a fling.  There were a few other comments amongst some of the men concerning her appearance, and their willingness to bed her. 
It was all she could do to fight the urge to wander away. 

Finally the ceremony got sta
rted
and the mayor got on the podium and gave his
A
ppreciation
D
ay speech, ending it with his introduct
ion of Malik.  The crowd went wild. 
It was a few minutes before it quieted down enough for Malik to speak.  In that time Rune noticed that he seemed to be scanning the crown
, she kept to the streetlight out of sight.  Malik seemed to have a slight frown over his brow, but he immediately broke out a smile again as he addressed
his fans
. 
She listened intently
but he never mentioned the relationship, although there was a moment were he seemed to hesitate in thought. 
When his speech was
over
the crowd went wild again
and he was asked to join in the commencement of the days celebrations.  Rune slipped away, between the crowd in the streets, and when she was sure she was out of sight she wandered straight into their suite. 

She knew he wouldn't be able to get back for a few hours, but he'd be back before the
evening’s
press conference. 
She paced around the room for a while, attempting to maintain some semblance of calm. 
Did he know already?  Had he heard the rumors spreading amongst the crowd?  Or had the events kept
him busy and shielded from it? 
She couldn't know, not until he came back. 
She certainly wasn't going back down there again today. 
After some time the combination
of
fear, anxiety, and anger exhausted her. 
She slumped into a sofa chair and
lay her head down over her knees closing her eyes. 
She wasn't sure how much time had passed, but she was still in that position when she heard the key opening the door. 
She sat up as Marcus walked into the suite and closed the door behind him. 

He paused at the door
with his back to her
and said
,
"I thought you were going down for the ceremony, why weren't you there?" 

She could hear the hurt in his voice and put her head into her hands, sighing, as she replied
,
"I was there.  I just stayed in the back, out of sight." 

He t
urned to look at her,
confusion
on his face.
"Why?" 

She heaved another heavy sigh and looked up at him again.  "Apparently the Imperial employs a
S
ky
W
alker" she answered, and proceeded to tell him about the day's developments.  
 

As she spoke Marcus had taken to pacing the room, growing noticeably angrier by the moment. 
When she was done speaking she was surprised to find herself completely drained of emotion.  As Marcus continued to pace around the room, mumbling obscenities under his breath
, Rune felt her head pounding and realized that she hadn't eaten a thing all day. 
She go
t up from the chair and let her
self collapse
o
nto the bed, her for
earm
pressing
against
her forehead. 

Marcu
s came over and sat next to her.
"
W
hat do you say we get out of her
e?" he asked, stroking her arm
. 

"What about your press conference tonight?" Rune asked, somewhat surprised. 

"Screw it.  There's only one thing they'll want to talk about now anyway.  You get our bags ready and head down to the car, I'd like to stop by the reception desk and have a few words with the management." 

Rune was somewhat taken aback by this, Marcus was usually such a people pleaser. 
"Where will we go?" she asked, getting up after him. 

"A friend of mine owns
a secluded inn upstate
, it's usually pretty empty this time of year, we'll go there." 
He look
ed at her, slight concern in his eyes
, then turned a
round and headed out the door. 

Rune still felt drained, and her head continued to pound, so she focused on the task at hand.  Her b
ag having already been prepared
she found it a pretty simple matter to gather up Marcus's belongings and get his bag packed.  She grabbed the car keys from the desk, slung a bag on each shoulder, and wandered straight into the parking garage below the hotel. 
No one was around this time of
day, so she was able to get
into the car without issue.  She lay back into the front passenger seat
with
her head against the glass
,
closing her eyes, and waited for Marcus.

It was another twenty minutes before Marcus showed up and got into the car.  Rune noticed he had his jaw clenched as he turned on the car and pulled out of the lot. 

"What'd they say?" she asked, mild curiosity getting the best of her. 

"They apologized for the
misunderstanding
that occurred between their staff that allowed the matter to go public.  Offered to put me up for free anytime I wish to return to the
capital
. 
Me
.  They made it a point of leaving you out of the whole conversation."  There was an edge to his voice that Rune had never heard before, but he seemed to soften when he turned to look at her.  "We should be there by nightfall, do you want to stop and grab something to eat along the way?" he asked. 

She
smiled;
he must have guessed she hadn't eaten.  "Sure, but better make it drive
-
thru, I don't think I have the energy for a sit down
.
" 

About half an hour later, once they'd left the city l
imits, they pulled into a drive-
thru burger joint and grabbed some food for the road.  As the light started to fade in the east the car wound
its
way
through
mountain roads, seemingly disappearing into a dense expanse of woodland. 
Finally, after the last of the sun had gone down, Rune noticed the lights of the small inn in the distance. 
Marcus drove up to the front and got out, leaving the car idling, and telling Rune to "wait here".  After a few minutes he came back into the car with a set of keys on him.  He drove around the side of the inn, onto a gravel road, to where a row of cabins lined the edge of the woods.  They all looked
empty;
Rune figured there probably weren't many campers this time of year.  Marcus parked the car in front of one
of the cabins
and opened the trunk to grab their bags.  Rune stood a moment beside the car, looking around her.  It was a beautiful sight.  The edge of the woods seemed to have a slight glow from the lights on the cabins, and at the top of the
road the lights from
the inn seemed to pierce
through
the darkness around it. 
She took a deep breath of fresh air and followed Marcus into the cabin.

The next day passed without issue and seemed to Rune as close to peaceful as was humanly possible.  The fresh air seemed to agree with her and helped her wake in a much better disposition.  Marcus ordered breakfast from the inn and they spent most of the day just lounging in the cabin.  For dinner they made their way to the inn restaurant and found it a welcoming atmosphere.  The few people who were there didn't seem to know or care who they were, and didn't seem the type to keep up with tabloid news.  All in all it was the perfect hideaway.  Rune could easily picture spending the rest of her week off here, away from the world.  Malik had gotten three days paid leave because of the award, but Rune had requested a whole week of personal time off to avoid suspicion.  She would have a bu
ffer to the tabloid onslaught;
Malik would return to the world before her and could assess the full extent of the situation. 

It was easy to forget everything from their everyday lives while they were here.  Marcus seemed to be taking advantage of the scenery to play honeymoon for their elopement; the thought that she was married still felt strange to her, but this suited her just fine.  Marcus had a way of making her forget all her worries, of pretty much making her forget everything else in the world.  That night, as they fell asleep, Rune attempted to cement the moment in her mind before reality came inevitably crashing in. 

The peace of the next morning was broken by the chirping reactivation of Malik's sat
-
com devise, letting them know that he was once again on call to the government and military.  As
long as nothing urgent came up
he could take
his
time getting back to headquarters.  Marcus got his bag ready to go, but stopped to enjoy a leisurely breakfast with Rune before starting his drive back.  They were in the midst of their farewells when the sound of a second ch
irping caught their attention. 
At f
irst Marcus reached for the sat-
com in his pocket assuming it was a directive for him,
but
Rune realized that her
own
sat-
com had
just
been reactivated.  They looked at each other for a moment
confused;
Rune did have the rest of the week off after all
.
A
chorus o
f chirping issued from both sat-
com devises at once. 
Not a good sign.