This isn't a date, he held the door open for me when we entered, but this is not a date.

Oh look, he pulled the chair out for you.

Not. A. Date.

Aiden smiles at me as he takes the chair across from me. "This isn't a date," I tell him firmly.

The smile quickly drops off his face, but his eyes are still bright "OK," he says. He slips off his leather jacket and drops it onto the back of his chair.

A waitress comes over with two menus in her hands and a pair of utensils wrapped in napkins while I slip my own jacket off. "Hello, what can I get you to drink?" she asks and smiles at Aiden. She has long blonde hair that falls past her chest and nails the color of blood. They are long enough to be used as daggers at yet I feel the opposite of threatened when she taps them against the menu she places in front of me. I lean back in my chair and fold my arms across my chest. I watch her hands come to a rest on her hips and she leans forward, letting her features do the talking. Aiden looks down at the menu to see the choices that he has.

"Water." He nods, always water.

"Sure you don't want anything...sweeter?" Her lips pucker and I roll my eyes.

"We'll both have water," I cut in. Her blue eyes focus sharply to mine and I raise my eyebrows slightly. For two seconds our eyes lock and then she flips her hair over the side of her shoulder. "Sure thing babe," she says to me and shoots Aiden a wink. My hand curls around the edge of the table. Aiden is innocently looking at his menu.

"Really?" I ask him with a shake of my head.

"What ?" Aiden pears over his menu, his eyes are still bright. Hopeful, my brain provides.

"Please, are you honestly claiming you didn't notice Ms. Generic Barbie blonde's attempt to seduce you?"

Aiden chuckles, I notice the nervousness though. Like he can hear the ice popping under his feet and knows a bad step could end in a cold wet death. "I'm not blind," he says carefully.

"Oh so you did see." I pick up the menu and stare at the letters, blocking Aiden from my view. "Well, in that case I wish the two of you many fat babies." I'm just loud enough that an old couple in the corner booth looks over at me.

"Adie I'm not-" he starts but he waitress returns before he can finish.

"Here are your waters," she says. I pull the menu closer to my face and stare the pictures. "Do you know what you want?" I can picture her leaning on the table batting her eyelashes while her boobs fall out of her shirt.

I grip the menu tighter.

Chill Adie, don't kill the blonde.

Aiden gives his order smoothly. I can hear the smile in his voice. Maybe he's suggestively raising his eyebrows or placing a hand accidently near hers as she takes his menu. Everything on the menu is blurry.

"And what would you like, sweetie?" There is nothing in her tone that would ever suggest that we are buddies and deserve pet names. It's meant as a jab.

I drop the menu onto the table and look her in the eye. "I would love a cheeseburger, a large basket of fries covered with bacon and cheese, and a very large chocolate milkshake, doll."

She grabs the menu and smiles. "Sure thing, sweetie."

Her hips sway suggestively as she walks away. I look at Aiden and am surprised to discover him silently laughing at me. "What?" I demand.

"You're very discrete."

"Go to hell," I fold my arms again.

"I will, just as soon as I finish what I was saying before I was interrupted," he clears his throat. "I was going to say that I'm not into that type of girl. There is no challenge, no spark, and no mystery. Don't assume what I'm attracted towards." My cheeks burn and he leans back in his chair and looks around. "Well I'm going to assume that's the closest thing to hell they have around here. So I'll be right back." He stands and walks to the men's bathroom.

While he's gone I watch Carla tending to the old couple in the corner booth. There's no logical reason why I should be hostile toward her. Something about her just rubbed me the wrong way. I take a deep breath and calm down. After today we won't see that girl again anyway. A few minutes later the bell at the counter rings and she steps away from the booth and disappears into the kitchen.

"Everything alright?" Aiden returns to his seat and takes a sip of water.

I take my eyes off the kitchen door. "I think so. Sorry if I was acting weird."

"Don't worry about," he says.

The cheeseburger is dripping grease and cheese. The fries are steaming and covered with chopped bacon, and the milkshake is beginning to melt along the edges of the metal cup when it's placed before us. It's the most delicious thing I've ever seen.

"Thank you," I tell the waitress before she leaves. She smiles and nods.

"Sure, let me know if you need anything," she says to Aiden and walks away. I take a small breath but ignore her. She doesn't linger after she refills our waters. Aiden and I don't speak for a few minutes. We stuff our faces with the best food we've had and probably will have in a long time.

I take a couple of the fries and dip them into my milkshake. Aiden tilts his head and makes a face when I drop them into my mouth.

"What are you doing?" he asks.

"Eating," I say and dip more fries into the shake.

"That's disgusting."

"Let me guess...you've never tried it," I venture.

"Of course not, I'm a regular human being," he shakes his head.

"Ha, you forget who you're lying to." I push the milkshake towards him along with the basket of fries. "You aren't allowed to judge until you've tried it. After that, you can say whatever you want about my eating habits." I take another bite of the burger.

Aiden takes a fry and scrunches his nose. "This is a waste of good fries," he informs me.

I point to the milkshake without saying a word.

He sighs and scoops some out with the fry and pops it into his mouth. I watch him carefully as he chews, swallow, and then stares at me.

He says nothing. He picks up another fry and pauses with another glance at me. Then he dips it into the milkshake.

"I knew it." I smack the table loudly with my palm. The old couple in the corner looks over at us again.

"Yeah, alright, I'll admit that it's disgustingly delicious."

"That' doesn't even make sense," I accuse him.

"It doesn't have to," he shrugs.

Together we finish the basket of fries and the milkshake. We pay for our bill and Aiden leaves a tip on the table. My body will hate me in twenty minutes but I'm full, I'm alive, and I'm free. I look at Aiden. And I'm not alone. By the time we make it back to the top of the mountain and the light is failing. "We should spend the night in the truck," Aiden says and parks in the trucks hiding place.

I shake my head, "We don't have any sleeping bags or anything. We'll freeze before morning."

"It's better than getting lost in the dark. We have our jackets and we have our body heat, we'll survive. We can even turn the truck on every once in a while and get some heat flowing."

I'm still shaking my head. "We can get there tonight, I know we can."

"Adie, we knew this would be a day and a half trip when we left the cabin. We still have to pack the bags with the food."

I can't shake the feeling. The desire to be back at safe haven is overwhelming. What if someone discovered it while we were gone? What if the fire wasn't put out properly and the place burnt down? I need to get back, I have to. I need to go home.

"Listen I'm still in charge and I'm making it back tonight, with our without you." I get out of the truck and start filling my pack with food from the bags. I moment later Aiden is across from me doing the same.

Aiden sighs, "Of course I'm coming with you."

I stumble upon a few paperbacked books. I lift one up. "What are these?"

He looks up. "I thought we might want some entertainment. It's not like we have a television or anything."

"Oh, that was thoughtful," I admit.

He nods and together we finish packing. They are stuffed to the point that is it difficult to zip them shut. I swing mine onto my shoulders and am shocked by the weight. "Wow," I say finding my balance.

Aiden nods like I'm making a point. "I still say we wait until morning," he says.

I shake my head. I'm not backing down. We're making back to safe haven tonight.

"Fine, but let me put the branches back over the truck," he says. While I wait for Aiden I adjust the straps and try to distribute the weight across my body as best as I can. I'm not in as good of shape as Aiden. I've put on weight and I'm healthier now than I was when under the care of the Handlers, but Aiden is buff and strong in a way I can't comprehended. I want to be strong again. I want to be able to run miles again without feeling beat with every step.

"Let's go, we're wasting precious light." Aiden takes the lead first. We find our trail easily enough and follow it. Twenty minutes into the hike I'm already breathing hard and sweating. My legs feel like Jell-O and I can't seem to get enough air into my lungs. My shoulders ache from the back but I don't dare say anything. Aiden is breathing hard, but he's handling the hike better. I refuse to admit that I might have made a bad decision. The light fails altogether an hour into our hike. Our trail isn't terribly hard to follow but it's dark and cold. We're not even halfway to safe haven.

"OK, fine. I was wrong you were right, happy now?" I stop mid stride and rest my hands on my knees. I try to catch my breath. Aiden hasn't said a single word the entire time.

"Not really," he says. "It would have been a lot nicer for you to admit it forty minutes ago when we still had a good chance to turn around."

I straighten, breathing hard. "Well it's too late for that so I'll take the lead since you're so upset."

"I don't think that's a good idea. You're not strong enough," I see the regret on his face the moment he says it. I stare at him hard and he shakes his head.

"I didn't mean that, Adie." He says.

I push him out of the way. "Watch me."

I am strong enough.

I am.

It takes five minutes for something to go wrong. Trees hang low over our path; darkening our already poor visibility. It's hard to see but I push on, waiting for my eyes to adjust to darkness. My right foot catches on a root beneath the snow. I take a hard step forward with my left to catch myself and I hit ice. The weight of the pack pushes me forward faster and down harder than I normally would have fallen.

I branch snaps nearby. I scream. It wasn't a branch.

"Adie!" Aiden shouts behind me. Aiden grabs me and rolls me over, his hands unbuckled the bag and fumbles with the straps. I cradle my wrist and fight against the wave of nausea that threatens my vision. I lean away from him and puke. "Let me see," he says reaching for me.

"Don't touch me!" I scream. "Don't you dare touch me." The pain sharpens my senses. Every scar feels sensitive, my mind swims with flashes of memories. All the while I can feel the black void calling out to me to escape, to block the pain.

"Damn it Adie," he grabs my chin. I look him in the eyes, they look like midnight. "Let me help you."

I'm shaking violently. I've dealt with pain. But this is different; it throbs and pulses through my entire body. It presses into my skull like a headache but something entirely different at the same time. It stabs against my eyes and churns my stomach.

I can't feel my fingers.

I don't want to feel them. I want to be numb. I stand upon the edge of the void. I blink. The darkness around me makes it easy, easy to remember the place of ease and ignorance.

No pain.

No suffering.

No emotion.

"Hey, no. No, you don't, Adie no. You need to stay with me." Tears trickle down my face. Aiden wipes them away with his thumb. I don't feel the heat from his skin touch mine. Cold, I'm turning cold and dark. A whip cracks in the distance of my memories and screams that are heard only by me in the black night. "Adie you're stronger now. Remember that. You can handle this. You don't need to escape this. Don't leave me. We're going to safe haven remember? You have to get there again." Aiden's voice echo's in my mind.

Safe haven. Wood smoke and pines. My parents voices. I blink.

"There, that's it. Focus on that Adie, come on," Aiden urges.

I focus on the cold. I focus on the pain and I let it consume me but not overtake me.

"I'm here," I tell him.

Aiden breathes a deep relief.

My head swims and moan. My vision flips against my will and the world bursts with light.

"I can see it Aiden," I whisper.

"See what?"

"Safe haven." The cabin is in my mind. I can see it as clear as day. I see everything; the mountain, the peak, the rocks, and the trees. It's the snow; it connects everything like a blanket. What is snow but frozen water? I reach out and it responds to my call. Like powdered sugar lifted by the force of a breeze a layer of it jumps from the ground and swirls down around Aiden and I. Through the pain I manage a smile.

"We'll use the snow," I tell him. "That's how we'll get to safe haven."

"Adie?" he asks unsure.

"The snow Aiden, open your eyes and look at it. Really look at it." I feel like I'm going to be sick again but I push the feeling back. I am strong enough. I am.

He does what I say and his mouth drops open. "It's beautiful."

"We'll use it," I say.

"We'll use it," he agrees.

Aiden does the work. He breathes deep and evenly while his body language is tight and concentrated. It's obvious to see the different between him and I. He's been trained and refined like a polished gem. The snow swirls and builds under his watchful control. He creates a sled with the snow and lifts me and the two bags into it.

I hold back the scream that bubbles in my throat when he moves me. I will not show my pain, it's my fault we're here so I will deal with my consequences. Aiden stands behind me. I hear his breathing slow. "Ready?" he asks. Nod and the sled moves forward. Aiden walks behind, breathing evenly and concentrating; saving my life once again.