North (A Robert Downey Jr Fanfic)

"Gotta Get Away"

"Tyler? What time is it, baby?" She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, while pressing her phone to her ear.
"You need to get our baby girl, and go somewhere. Anywhere."

Her skin prickled and adrenaline shot her up and out of bed.

"What? Go where? Why? Where are you?"
"It doesn't matter where I am, there's some shit going down with these guys. Go. NOW." Even though he was whispering, the panic in his voice was clear. She needed to move.

"Hurry. Get all of our important stuff." He hissed into the phone.

She cleared everything out of their safe, and sprinted back to the bedroom, grabbing a suitcase and cramming everything in it that she could think of. Terror had galvanized  her into action, and all she could think of was getting her daughter to safety.

"Are you still there, baby?" The adrenaline rush was making her body shake violently. She needed to calm down so she wouldn't terrify their child.
"There is a bag in the garage, on the top shelf of the cabinet. Go get it, and take it with you. Don't tell me where you're going, just go. Somewhere. Anywhere."
"What's going on, Tyler? You're scaring me." Her voice broke, and tears forced their way out.
"I'll call as soon as I can."

Click

"What the fuck?" She whispered to herself, hustling to the garage.

She yanked the bag from exactly where he said it would be and it was quite a bit heavier than she'd expected, for its size. She threw it and her suitcase into the front seat of her car, then ran back into the house to get her daughter.

"Baby. Baby, wake up. We've gotta go."
"Mommy, nooo. I'm tired," she said, and rolled over.
"Come on, sweet pea. We have to go now," she replied, scooping her daughter up and out of bed.

***

"Oh my god!" she screamed, jolting her out of her slumber.

She sat up in bed, clawing at the bedside table in the dark, sending her glasses and phone clattering to the floor. She'd had a bad dream again. Her heart was pounding, and her pillowcase was soaked with sweat.

"Just breathe, Vanessa. It was only a dream," she said, into the moonlit interior of her bedroom.
"Mom! Are you ok?"
She'd woken her daughter, yet again.
"Yes. Just a bad dream, sweetie. I'm going to go for a little walk. You go back to sleep."
"Okay. I love you mom." She said with a yawn and turned to go back to her room.
"I love you too sweetheart."

The early summer night was damp, cool and breezy and the wood floor of the front porch felt soggy under her bare feet. She wrapped her old quilt around her shoulders and crossed the grassy hill to the lake. Her nightmares had terrorized her slumber, and there was no way the adrenaline would let her go back to sleep.

The night air made her shiver so she wrapped her blanket tighter as she planted herself on the end of the dock. The nearly full moon illuminated the whole shoreline and cast everything in an eerie blue light. There was something about being out on the dock all alone. The crickets and frogs were loud; buzzing and croaking all around her as the soft wind lifted her hair and blew it all around her head.

A faint whiff of cigarette smoke hit her nose, and her eyes immediately focused on the only other occupied cabin at the resort. She could see the occasional red glow of a cigarette, and the plume of smoke that followed. She couldn't see him, just the evidence of his presence. Was he watching her? It was dark, and she couldn't tell.

Her nightmares came and went, like phases of the moon. Sometimes they were vivid, violent and terrifying. Other times, they woke her in a panic, but she was left with no memory of it. Sometimes, but only rarely, could she sleep through the night. After five years of being in hiding, she'd thought her nightmares would fade. Sadly, they didn't.

"Want some company?" He said, giving her a start. He was on the shore, awaiting her answer.
"Um...sure." She said, over her shoulder.
He sauntered down the length of the dock and her heart beat faster with each step that brought him closer.
"Is everything alright? I heard you screaming up there." He gave a suggestive nod towards the Big Cabin.
"You did? I--um...it's all good. I'm fine."
His eyes lingered on her for a moment, as she stared out over the lake. He could tell she wasn't fine, you don't scream like that when everything's fine.

"How's your cabin? Have everything you need?"
"Yeah. It's great. It's so quiet here."
She became acutely aware of his close proximity, and it cranked her senses up a notch. He smelled like clean laundry, despite the fact that he had obviously just been smoking. He had on grey sweatpants, a black tshirt with something printed on the front that she couldn't read and no shoes. His hair was messy, as if he'd just been sleeping but he made it look good. Really good. She snapped her focus back to the lake, realizing she'd been staring at him.

"Well, enjoy it while you can. In a couple nights, all but one of these cabins will be full."
His stomach lurched a little. He hadn't thought about all of the other people that would be visiting the resort.

"Can we just talk about the elephant in the room?"
"But, we're outside." He said with a smirk that covered her with a wave of goosebumps.
"Seriously. What are you doing here?"
"Straight to the point, huh Vanessa?"
"Why beat around the bush?" She said, arching an eyebrow at him.

"I--uh--I desperately needed a getaway."
"You needed to get away...to northern Wisconsin? Why not Bali, or Hawaii? Isn't that where all the fancy celebrities go?"
"Fancy? You're saying I'm fancy?"
"Well, you're probably the most recognized face in Hollywood...am I right?"
"Yeah. I probably am."

"So, why the hell are you in the middle of the Northern Wisconsin National forest, of all places? I mean, the only time I've ever seen a famous face around here was some washed up has-been that got lost looking for Lakeview..." She scoffed.
He shrugged a little, and turned his face toward the lake.

"Oh...you...were you going there? To Lakeview?"
He nodded, and her subconscious slapped her in the face. Her stomach dropped, immediately realizing why he'd come to Wisconsin. He was planning on checking into rehab. She felt like an absolute ass.

"I was. But something told me to keep on going."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound insensitive--" He held a hand up, a gesture that told her to stop talking. She clamped her mouth shut, suddenly feeling incredibly uncomfortable.
"Apologies aren't necessary."
"So why did you...what are--"
"It's a long story." He said and abruptly stood up from where he'd been sitting and turned to walk back to the shore.
"Goodnight Vanessa."
"Goodnight, Robert."

"Way to go, idiot." She whispered to herself. She hadn't meant to sound callous. Vanessa knew that he was a recovered addict and should have thought more carefully about her tone. Part of her wanted to run after him and profusely apologize, and the other part wanted to tuck her tail between her legs and sulk back to her cabin and hide from him. She waited until she heard his cabin door close before getting up and going to her own, in hopes of getting some more sleep.

That old familiar feeling of loneliness crept over her as she crawled back into bed. Her bed felt enormous and the room was far too big for her at that moment. She tiptoed out to the living room and curled up on the couch, making a cocoon out of her blanket and pillows.

Vanessa had clearly offended him but she'd also felt his eyes on her and it made her skin tingle with excitement. She knew he was married, and so any pursuit of that excitement was surely off limits. Was he married? She hadn't noticed a wedding ring. She grabbed her cell phone, and put his name in a Google search. A page full of images of him filled her phone's screen.

Sure enough, he was at a premiere of one of his movies just weeks before with his wife at his side and a wedding ring on his finger. She frowned at her phone, unsatisfied with her findings. Something just didn't seem to fit.