Part 8

[iwouldfollowyou]

The cab is waiting outside and he can hear Carlisle and the driver talking about a bag. Through the open door and the small hallway.

It's strange. Even having been here for every step of the last few weeks. Standing in the doorway of the apartment that was always too bare but now is actually empty. Still heavy with the last look of his own house the night before, he studied the the way the gray winter day light filters in through the blinds and hits the white walls, going no where.

It's like nothing was ever here. No memory. No echo to remember.

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[teachyouwhoiam.livejournal.com]

That exact image is why Carlisle never lives in houses. Houses remember; apartments get scrubbed clean.

"Edward?" Carlisle calls, moving closer and entering the apartment. "You ready to go?"

[iwouldfollowyou]

Edward looked up, over his shoulder, a second late. "Yeah."

[teachyouwhoiam.livejournal.com]

He's thinking again. Dangerous! The thought process makes Carlisle's mouth twitch as though he just invented a joke.

He steps behind Edward and lets his hands run down from Edward's shoulders to his wrists. "What's in your mind, caro?"

[iwouldfollowyou]

His eyes become half-hooded letting himself focus on the sensation of Carlisle's hands, before he twists his hands to pull Carlisle's arms around him.

"Endings and beginnings," is said a little nebulously.
Like it either was planned or fell out fitting well.

[teachyouwhoiam.livejournal.com]

Carlisle knows this isn't regret, or Edward wanting to change his mind.

(He could wish for that, but it isn't true.)

He gives Edward a slight squeeze of a hug. "I'm nervous too."

[iwouldfollowyou]

There's a small wave of reaction first. Edward tightening his hands over Carlisle's arms at the hug, before he let go to turn around. Word more even, and normal. "The cab ready?"

[teachyouwhoiam.livejournal.com]

"Mmhmm. Taxi, then airport. When we land, we have about a four hour drive to the cabin."

Trying to be distracting: "It's the one house I've kept in North America. You might be amused by it all."

[iwouldfollowyou]

He should be. Especially, if it's the last things he'll ever remember and then never remember again. He smiled though and shook his head, not letting his other thoughts show through on his face.

"Might be. Let's go change the world and my opinions of your ability to keep a place, if it's possible then." Comes with a smirk and small shove of Carlisle toward the doorway.

[teachyouwhoiam.livejournal.com]

Change the world. Carlisle laughs, "Fine, fine, fine..."

The taxi ride is uneventful and Carlisle has no bags whatsoever with him - his belongings have all been shipped ahead.

O'Hare is a bit much for Carlisle, but he's still smiling for Edward when they arrive.

[iwouldfollowyou]

The second plane is as boring as the first. Slow and steady, shivering in the air. All the clouds and empty front compartments, again. Even when everything is smoother between them in the ride this time, but still boring.

Or too slow. Or not slow enough. Or gives him too much time to think and never to really sleep. Or distract himself for long. All of his toys, anything that could trace to him, had to be left behind. Books only hold his attention so long today.

They just creep deeper and deeper into the north.

In the dark hours of evening when they'll arrive.

[teachyouwhoiam.livejournal.com]

The time of night when they'd be arriving was the whole reason Carlisle bought the tickets the way he had - he would be driving out to the cabin, and his (former, now) heavily tinted Mercedes would have been inappropriate for the roads they'd be traveling on.

He is concerned that Edward hasn't slept hardly at all. It's been a long day.

When they land and Carlisle hails a cab to take them to a particular long-term storage space, he finally asks, "Is there something I can do?"

[iwouldfollowyou]

Edward looked up, brow wrinkling. His eyes and his shoulders betray the tiredness he never gave into long enough, but neither excludes the list of his mouth tugging lopsided from forming.

"Aren't you already doing everything?"

[teachyouwhoiam.livejournal.com]

"Not...really?"

Doesn't leaving everything ever in your life count as doing something?

"I just thought to ask."

[iwouldfollowyou]

Giving him an entire world. One people never even knew about. Edward's hand crossed the back seat of the cab, to brush his thumb against the back of Carlisle's hand.

"Is there something else you think you should be doing?"

[teachyouwhoiam.livejournal.com]

"If I knew, I wouldn't have asked."

But the light contact calms something in Carlisle's gut, and he drops the topic on his end.

[iwouldfollowyou]

Edward let the silence linger. It'd been a day of that. Not that there wasn't talking, but it was so now, the things that were moving, happening, coming closer, that silences simply happened along with it.

He didn't move his hand. Stroking Carlisle's skin, hard and cold and barely noticeable really at times, while he was watching the city pass them by through his window.

[teachyouwhoiam.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile Edward feels like his own little sun, heating up the world right next to him in the cab.

The storage locker is more of a warehouse, given that Carlisle has to keep an entire truck in there. The truck itself looks about a million years old, but when Carlisle picks out a key for it from his pocket the truck turns over quickly.

[iwouldfollowyou]

It's not a very snazzy truck, seems like such a stupid first thought. It runs, and it wouldn't be all that noticeable rambling across the country side. It nothing the one he would pick.

"How long have you had this?"

[teachyouwhoiam.livejournal.com]

"I think Ford was president?"

[iwouldfollowyou]

There was a laugh, but he was still at Carlisle while talking.

"First note to self." He leaned his head against the back of his seat.
"Accidentally destroy truck. Blame fit of newborn confusion."

[teachyouwhoiam.livejournal.com]

"With you, I won't need it. We'll run everywhere."

[iwouldfollowyou]

"Run across the world, hmm?"

The last word was more a trail of sound, with a glance toward the outside. As though maybe it wasn't the first time he'd considered, and maybe it didn't sound so foolish when Carlisle was the one saying it.

[teachyouwhoiam.livejournal.com]

"The water might give us some problems, but we could certainly try it."

The roads getting to the cabin are not overly populated; nothing here is. Near desolate, the realtor told him once upon a time.

Perfect.

"Try to get some sleep?"

[iwouldfollowyou]

It's all empty and dark, and it wasn't like he really got much sleep either last night. And as much as he blows it off, saying he's fine and he wants to keep Carlisle company and any number of other things, somewhere in the middle of the drive to the absolutely middle of no where, he does anyway.

[teachyouwhoiam.livejournal.com]

Carlisle has no problem seeing in the dark - finding the cabin is no trouble for him.

When the truck is shut off, Edward doesn't stir. What to do, what to do? They need to get inside, but Edward is just so...

Well. Kind of irresistible when he's all slack in sleep.

"Edward," Carlisle leans in front of him across and over the gear shift to get an up-close look. "Caro, we're here."