It's dark when I wake up. My nose is numb and I feel my body shaking. I sit up and try to rub the stiffness from my neck. My fingers don't want to cooperate either. My breath fogs the already frosted glass. "Aiden." I say softly to the darkness. I reach out with my toes, but the seat is empty. Aiden isn't here.

I unroll my jacket and slip on my shoes. The night air fills my lungs and the snow pops under my feet like a bowl of cereal. Once I'm clear of the pine trees the snow glows under the moon and stars pollute the black sky with light. I stare at amazement. I've never seen so many stars.

"What are you doing out here?" Aiden appears before me. The collar of his leather jacket is popped up against the cold, the fur lining brushing his slowly growing beard. His hands are stuffed into his pockets.

"You were gone." I say quietly, feeling as though disturbing the night with my voice will shatter some spell.

"I had to pee."

"Oh."

Aiden looks at the stars. "They're beautiful." He stars at the sky, his eyes trailing the constellations. His gaze reminds me of the one he had in the hotel room.

"Aiden...what happened to you back at the hotel?"

He doesn't look away from the sky. His breath rises into the air. "Nothing..." His voice is as cold as the night.

"Bullshit." He snaps his head down and looks at me. "I want answers. Right here, right now. Why the hell did you save my life? What changed? What made you decide to risk your life for me? Why me?"

His hands come out of his pockets. "Why can't you just trust me like you seem to trust everyone else in this world? Why is it so hard for you?" He demands.

I take a sharp breath. "Because you're not like them, you don't deserve my trust."

"Why not?" He takes a step forward. "You were betrayed before I came around. You trusted a stranger and he pumped you full of drugs. Doug was a totally stranger but you decided trust him anyway. I was a stranger. Sure I'm a Misfit, sure I made a mistake, and I'm sorry for that but I've done nothing but to try andhelp you since and still you don't trust me. Hell, you can barely even look at me. You know what I think? I think you're afraid to let go of your anger. I think you're afraid of what you might find when it's gone."

"You don't know anything." My hands are in fist, I'm shaking, but I don't feel the cold. All I feel building and bubbling inside of me is rage and fear. Fear? Why am I afraid? But I am, I feel it as I feel the chill of the night.

"Right. Fine, you want to know what changed? You want to know why I saved your life when I did nothing to help all the others before you?" He steps forward and grabs my shoulders. His eyes are alive and fierce and full of stars. "You changed." His voice breaks, "You changed Adie when all the rest disappeared and never woke up, you came back." His grip tightens on my shoulders, "You." He whispers, "You woke me up."

His lips are against mine before I realize anything else.

I push him away from me and punch him in the jaw.

The world flips and the snow rises to my hands, turning back into water. I run forward and punch him with the force of the water building against my hands. He flies back onto his back, snow rising like a cloud dust around him. I jump onto him and pull back to punch him again. The world spins and my head hits the snow, Aiden's face is over mine. I try to pull my fists up. To punch him and again and again and again but ice has formed like shackles on my wrists. Aiden's hands keep the ice there; hot and cold against my skin.

"You said you wouldn't fight back." I spit. "You said you would let me kill you!"

"I changed my mind." His breathes swirl out unevenly, my own heart pounds. He chuckles, "I guess I found something that I'm not willing to give up."

"I hate you." Tears spring to my eyes and burn coldly down my cheeks. "I hate you."

"Adie," he says, "Adie look at me."

I blink the tears from my eyes. "I don't want to."

"Look at me."

The stars are gone from his eyes, they are blue are dark. "Let it go."

"I can't."

"Trust me." He presses his forehead against mine. His hair rubs my skin roughly. "Let it go Adie. Trust me. Please trust me. You won't be empty. I promise you won't be empty. You won't disappear."

My breath hitches in my throat. The fear. That is the fear in my stomach. Emptiness. What am I without my anger? Mr. Handler stripped me down and hollowed me out. Anger brought me back to life. It sustained me. What am I without it? Who am I without it? How can Aiden look me in the eye and promise that I won't disappear?

I take a deep breath and say the words I fear to say.

"I don't hate you."

"I know," He says softly. "I know."

He pulls me up and presses me against him. The fur of his collar fills my face I press into him. Tears are soaked away and breathe in his sharp earthy scent. "I don't hate you." I sniff. "I don't."

"I know...I know." His grip is strong against my back.

I hope he never lets go.

"Promise we'll stick together." I whisper, echoing the memory of a child.

"I promise." He whispers.

He carries me back to the truck. All my strength and energy seem to have left me. I never thought letting go would be so hard.

He pulls the sleeping bag around us both and he holds me against his chest. My body is numb but I'm more alive than I've ever felt before. I don't hate Aiden. I clung to him because I needed a life line, but that life line turned into an island. I'm not drowning anymore.

Aiden chuckles and I sniff against his shoulder. "What?"

"I'm glad I don't have to worry about fighting you anymore. You're pretty scary."

I smile a small smile, tasting tears on my lips. I lick them away. "I can still kick your ass."

"Yeah you could, if you ever learn to focus."

"I thought you said I was doing good?"

"You are, but out there you weren't using what I taught you. I'm surprised you managed to hold onto the water at all."

I wasn't exactly focusing on anything except me wanting to hurt him.

"I guess I need more training."

"That's why I'm here."

I fist my hand around the collar of his jacket. "Are we friends?"

Aiden snorts. "I think we're something different."

"Yeah but...we...we're going to get along aren't we?" I remember Steven. I remember Trish. Now I have Aiden. He promised to stick with me, but where's Steven? Where is Trish?

"I think so."

"Good."

I've never felt so warm. Not when I slept in the hotel. Not when I was living with Henry and Gretchen. The sensation of someone's body and warmth against my own all night is a welcomed one. I feel safe, secure, and wanted. Aiden doesn't move his arms from around my waste and I don't lift my head off his shoulder. We sleep that way while the world turns and the stars spin, Aiden and I hold onto one another. We're all we've got.

The morning light shines upon the snow and brightens the world. I wake up before Aiden does, but I don't move. I listen to the steady rhythm of his heart and the air through his lungs. Strange how I've never been with a man and yet here I lie so comfortably. Strange how I wanted to kill Aiden, and now I don't think I could survive without him.

How fast the world can change.

I don't want to get up. So I close my eyes again, and I drift back into a light sleep.

"Ed, it doesn't go there." Steven grabs the puzzle piece from my hand and fits it into an open hole. I pout and fold my arms.

"You didn't let me try!"

"You were taking too long." He places another piece.

"It's not sharing if you do it all yourself."

"It's faster if I do it."

"I'm not having fun."

Steven looks up at me and sighs. He hands me a piece and I grip it tightly, determined he won't get it back. The piece is blue and white. Like the sky. I look at the puzzle. The puzzle has a sky. I look at the curves of the piece and the open holes in the sky. I fit it into the puzzle and tap it with my finger twice. I stick my tongue out at Steven.

He rolls his eyes. "You took forever."

"Well if you'd give me a chance I know I could do better."

"Whatever Ed," He says but even as the words come out of his mouth he slides another piece across the floor. I smile and pick it up. This one is green and blue. I look to the puzzle, together Steven and I put the world back together.

"Adie."

"Huh?" I push off Aiden's chest and sit up. The sun glimmers off the snow and into the cab, nearly blinding me.

"We should get going if we have any hope of finding the cabin tonight."

I nod. "Yeah."

I find my shoes on the floor and tug them on. I shiver violently, the cold creeps its way along my body now that I'm away from Aiden and without a sleeping bag. I pull my jacket on.

I move my things out of the backpack and into one of the large hiking bags. Aiden takes Doug's old bag and the rifle. We lock the truck and then we find pine branches from other nearby trees and make sure the back end of the truck is concealed. I walk back to the road and look down to where it's parked.

"Look's good." I give Aiden a thumbs up and he returns it.

I wait for him to join me on the road. The sky is blue and the sun is brilliant, from here it looks as though the pines are touching the sky. I remember the puzzle. I remember Steven.

"Everything alright?" Aiden stops in front of me. His cheeks are red but his eyes are bright and wild.

"I had a dream about Steven," I say.

"Who?"

"He was my friend, before all of this. He was a Misfit like me..."

"What happened?"

"I was taken under my Guardians and I never saw him again."

"No, what happened in your dream?"

"We were putting a puzzle together."

"That's it?"

I nod and lick my lips. They feel dry in the cold air. "I always seem to remember him when I least expect to and yet...it's when I need it the most. It's the stupidest memory, it's so simple at yet..." I wave my hand around the snow and trees. "It's what I needed to remember. Steven and I put the puzzle back together, piece by piece, until it made a picture.

"He would always take pieces from me and place them faster than I could until I finally berated him for not giving me a chance. Today I feel like that. I feel as though for the first time I'm putting my own pieces down and I'm starting to see the hints of a picture."

"What's the picture?" Aiden asks.

"I don't know..." I look at the brilliant sky, "but it's going to be beautiful."

"I don't doubt it."

We start our journey. We make our way slowly through the snow and cold. Even though I'm sweating I feel as though my finger and nose will never thaw. Aiden leads the way, and I step in his footsteps to save energy. We walk along the ridge, the tree's randomly fall away, revealing a view that of mountains and valleys that stretches for as far as the eye can see. The mountains are covered with green pines and somewhere in the distance the call of an eagle echoes.

"I love it up here." I breathe deep and smell the pine trees. The sharp potent smell brings back the memories of the cabin, safe haven.

We're close.I know we are. We have to be. When we stop for lunch Aiden and I sit together on a cold rock, our shoulders brushing together. We don't say anything. Our butts get cold and numb and we catch our breath before setting off again. We walk down a valley and back up the other side, the steep climb both taxes us and we stop for a water break near the top.

"Do we know if we're even going in the right direction?" Aiden asks.

"I think so...somehow...if feels right." I look up the mountain. From here I can see where it levels out at the top. "Come on, I want to find it today."

"Don't hold your breath."

"I'm breathing quite quickly actually."

Aiden sighs. "I walked into that one."

"Yes you did. Now come on, we're almost at the top."

We walk along the ridge line of the mountain the trees break away and I hear the sound of rushing water. Boulders and rocks appear under our feet and suddenly we're standing on top of the world, looking down a steep gorge with a rushing river below us. "Woah." Aiden nods his agreement. The mountains splay out before us and the river below roars and sprays against the rocks. To my left I can just make out the claw shaped rock formation. To my right a rocky mountain top peeks above the trees.

There is something very familiar about it. "Come on." I walk away from the cliff edge and head towards the peek. The ridge line tilts down, and the ground is covered with boulders the size of small homes. I weave between them and then the ground flattens out. Ahead the peek looms above us. Pine tree's tighten around us and I move through them, sometimes turning sideways to fit through branches.

"Adie." Aiden's whispers annoyed when a branch slaps his face. I don't respond, my heart is pounding and I'm breathing hard.

The tree's break away and the peek casts a shadow over us and right and it's base, nestled between large pine trees and pressed against the rocks, is a cabin.

"We're here."

Safe haven.