There Is No Me Beyond You

~6~

Finding a good spot to park the car in the airport wasn't as difficult as I had expected. Lucas moved all our luggage onto a large trolley, while I gathered Aurora from her seat, trying not to wake her up, and not succeeding. As usual, she was wide awake nearly the same moment the car stopped. Luckily, she was a happy baby, who hardly ever cried or complained these days.

Lia and Stoker were waiting for us outside, away from the noisy, confused crowd of travellers filling the terminal despite the early hour, making it easier for us to meet. We whizzed through the checks and controls relatively fast and after we were separated from most of our encumbering luggage, we sat in the airport lounge to wait for our flight to be announced.

"May I feed her? Please!" Lia begged as we made our way back to our seats from the toilets. It was obvious that Aurora, dry and happy again, thought of nothing but food now.

"Of course. There." I said, sitting back down next to Lucas and passing the baby to him, before I reached for the small suitcase, my hand luggage, and opening it, let Lia choose Aurora's snack.

I started feeding her some baby food, apart from the milk, a week ago, and she seemed to enjoy it greatly. Even now she was so excited at the sight of the small jar of mashed fruit Lia chose for her, that the look of her, making all sorts of appreciative sounds and movements, made me laugh.

Lucas laughed too, and handing her over to Stoker, sitting next to Lia opposite of us, said, "There, Uncle, practice!"

That made Lia blush, but, strangely, she said nothing. She concentrated silently on feeding Aurora, settled comfortably on Stoker's lap, her breakfast, spoonful after slow spoonful, while I leaned my head over Lucas's shoulder, watching them.

My mind strolled back to the last few days as I tried to remember if I did all those things that I meant to do before leaving-- I said my goodbyes to Mum and Julian, Dad, William, Anne and Mark, Mr. Turner... I left a spare key of the house with Luigi and Veronica, asking them to look after Whisper over the next four days... and instructing them what to do with the key if I... did not return.

I knew that I most probably looked paranoid in my friends' eyes, but none of them, apart from Stoker of course, had ever been in that world where I was returning now, they were not there the last time I got too close to Radu...

I only realised that I sighed aloud, yet again, when Lucas wrapped his arm over my shoulders encouragingly, moments before our flight to Bucharest was finally announced.

While Lia stood up and went to throw away the now empty jar of baby food, I fished the baby carrier, which I bought purposely for this journey, from the suitcase. Lucas fitted Aurora safely in it before I pushed my arms through the straps and he buckled the thing across my back and around my waist. This was so much easier to handle than the pram which I had left at home. And it was so much better, having the baby so close; feeling her weight and warmth was giving me so much comfort.

Apparently even to her-- she started settling for another nap the moment I put a soft green hat over her ginger curls, then wrapped my arms around her.

"Ready," I told the others, who were waiting for me patiently.

Lucas, carrying my handbag on his shoulder and all of our coats over the small trolley he was pulling behind him, preceded the rest of us towards the correct gate.

After having spent nearly three and a half hours on the plane, half an hour on the Bucharest's Airport shuttle taking us to the train station, another three hours on the slow and delayed train to Brasov and the final forty minutes on a small bus which finally delivered us to Bran village, Lia, Aurora and I arrived to our hotel feeling cold, hungry and exhausted. Stoker and Lucas looked way better, and I was sure they felt that way, too. There were definitely advantages in belonging to their kin.