Before I Ran || Perrentes

Chapter 24: Don't Go

Tony gave Cassadee a kiss on the cheek and a hug, and he squeezed Rian's arm as he smiled his farewell, and he shook Zack's hand and thanked him. And then they were turning away, following the Trinity out of the alleys.

"Hey," Kellin piped up as they broke out onto a quiet backstreet, where there was a large blue van parked behind a familiar black four by four. He trotted up to beside Mike and reached into his jacket pocket, producing a folded lump of red fabric, and when he unfolded it, it was the red snapback, and Mike gasped.

"I thought that was gone forever!" He exclaimed, taking the hat from Kellin's careful hands and examining it. Kellin laughed softly.

"It very nearly was. But we found where they kept all your stuff, and this was with your guns. The rest of your stuff is in the car but...I thought I should keep a hold of that."

"Thanks, Kel," Mike thanked him, and he adjusted the snapback on his head.

Gerard jumped out of the back of the blue van, leaving its doors wide open, and was closely followed by Brendon, wiping his hands down on his pants. "Okay folks," he started. "There's room in the car for six passengers. Jump in. We found your car a few streets over and hijacked it, got it back safe to a motel early this morning. I hope you don't mind."

Mike looked as if he was about to protest for a moment, but, exhausted and drained from the past twenty four hours, he just sighed and nodded. "That's fine. Much appreciated."

"Jesus," Pete grumbled as he was the last to leave the back of the van, shutting the doors behind him and bolting them. "Tony, your mom is a handful."

"Established, Pete. So who's driving?"

Whilst they played rock-paper-scissors to determine the driver's of the two cars, everyone else piled into the four by four, squishing together in the seats available.

"You're all sure you're okay?" Danielle asked from where she'd nestled into the very back seat. Jaime shut the door behind him, and then everyone was in.

"We're just peachy, Danielle," he smiled. "If a little hungry. And tired. And bruised. Vic has a cut on his forehead still. And Tony got beaten up...So honestly we aren't great, but considering the circumstances..."

Vic groaned from the front passenger seat, shaking his head as Pete jumped in behind the wheel. "More importantly," Mike started as Pete kicked the car into action and started to pull away from the curb, "are you okay, Tony?"

Tony turned to face him. They had sat next to each other, with Mike in the middle seat and Tony behind the passenger. Tony regarded Mike for a moment - something was incredibly surreal, all of a sudden. Not an hour ago he'd been staring death in the face; and now he knew he was going to live, his heart was baffled and bemused. He looked into Mike's shining eyes and hesitated; and Mike was hesitating too. All of a sudden, there was uncertainty in between them.

"Yeah," Tony nodded eventually. "I'm fine. Back to normal, right?"

Mike's smile was neither here nor there - it existed on his face, but it was torn amongst two evils and one angel. And it was clear he hated all of them. "Yeah. Back to normal."

True to their word, it only took five minutes to find their way back to the motel parking lot. The BMW was sitting comfortably in her parking space, exempt from the misadventures that had befallen her charges, a symbol of peace and normality in what Tony now realised was a mad, mad world. Pete left the engine running and didn't get out of the car, rolling the window down as everyone else tumbled out. Jaime and Danielle both pulled their supplies (the guns, their phones), rounded up by the Trinity hours earlier, from where they were carefully stored in the trunk.