After the longest drive in history, they get to the cottage.

Cara drops the others off, parking Eden's truck around the corner. Not that it will save them from getting caught, but it's better safer than sorry. Meanwhile, the others carry Lee and the bags inside. Everybody shuffles up the stairs to find their rooms. Erik notices that June's cottage is much larger than his own house.

While the others get settled, June puts away the groceries in the fridge. She figures that she will take a bunkbed in whatever room is left. Now, it's down to figure out what to make for dinner. If she couldn't hear his feet shuffling above her, June would just ask Jamie to cook. Instead, she begins to pull out corn.

How they are going to manage to feed eight people until they decide where they are going to go is beyond her.

Once everyone has thrown their stuff down (and once Jamie and Wesley forcefully accept that June has ordered them to take the master bed), everyone trickles downstairs. They find their way to the dining room table, pulling chairs up to it.

Hope goes out to stand on the balcony. It's more of a porch, really, because there are stairs which lead to the ground, but still. She's never been on a real balcony before. This is the farthest she has ever been from home. The air up here is freezing; her breath is so thick that Hope wonders if she can grab it and steal it back. It seems that June's cottage is not supposed to be visited this late in the year. Hope wonders if the waterfall that is practically in June's backyard will freeze soon, forming shards which threaten to pierce the Earth.

Almost like a stroke of lightning.

When Cara comes inside, Erik gets up from the table. He taps on the glass back door, beckoning Hope to come and join them. Reluctantly, she leaves.

"What's going on?" Cara asks as Erik pulls out a chair for her. She obliges, sitting down between him and Percy.

Everyone looks around. The issue is, there is nothing going on. They've been trapped in a car so long that it feels as though their brains are stuck in the past, clinging desperately to time as they try desperately to catch up to their still-moving bodies.

June gets up from the table. She opens a drawer in the kitchen, and then another. Eventually, she finds a deck of cards and brings it to the table. She brings it over to the table and throws it down.

"Has anyone ever played Eleusis?" June asks, bringing the cards to the table. She has a faint smile on her lips. "It was my brother's favourite game. Basically, the dealer makes up a secret rule which explains how cards can be played. It sounds confusing, but it's supposed to. You just go in a circle playing cards until someone has gotten rid of their hand, or figures out the rule. Sounds good?"

Since no one protests, June deals out cards. Everyone takes their hand, and June begins as the dealer. The game is messy and complicated, and the rules seem to be flipping around out of control, but they all manage. It's frustrating and funny and fantastic. Once it's June's turn to be dealer again, no one wants to stop playing even though they can feel the weight of yesterday pressing against their shoulders.

"How long can we stay here?" Wesley asks, since he can feel Cara staring at him. Even if she wants to ask the question, she can't. That's where Wesley belongs. He exists in the space that others don't dare to fill.

June shrugs. "I don't know. The police will probably figure out my connection to Erik before they figure out mine to Eden's. If we're lucky, two days after they find Erik's Dad."

"When will they find the body?" Percy asks, crossing her arms over her chest. She looks past Cara at Erik, waiting for his response.

He resists the urge to get up. Normally, Erik's nervous tick is jolting his knee. Right now, he finds himself wringing his hands under the table, again and again. "Probably two days until the cops figure out that my Dad isn't just on another drunken bender."

Four days. Cara tries not to think about how long and short four days is. After all, they've only known each other for a week and a half at this point. Every second has blinked through her eyes, and yet every day is a century. Time is fast in the moment and slows looking back.

"Where should we go?" Hope asks, leaning in.

Cara shrugs. All at once, every obstacle is suddenly apparent. A few of them will need new identities, and they will need to find somewhere far enough away that if their faces show up on the news they won't be recognized. They'll need to find somewhere where it won't be weird for nine different young people to find a place to live. God, they haven't even discussed money.

June tries to scan the faces of the crowd before she forms her opinion. She wants to go to the place that prevents an argument from breaking out between the group. Her eyes flick up to a photo of August on the wall, and she smiles. While her brother may be gone, she has a new family to care for.

"Mexico," Wesley tells them. "It's the quickest place to cross the border. From there, we can move to South America."

Cara widens her eyes. "Do any of you speak Spanish besides me?"

When no one answers, Cara simply shakes her head. They've got to stay domestically. Crossing the border is too much of a trouble.

"The Canadian border is closer," Jamie suggests. He glances up at Wesley and then glances back down. Jamie hopes that Wesley can tell that he isn't trying to start problems. It's true though, Canada is closer. If they can sneak over, they can probably find someone who can make them fake IDs.

"You've got to be kidding," Wesley rolls his eyes. "Sneaking into Mexico is hard enough, but fucking Canada? Also, if we leave, what are we going to do with Lee's body."

"Should we just sit here like sitting ducks until the police arrive to arrest Eden, Cara, myself, and God knows who fucking else," Erik glares daggers across the group until his eyes find Hope. He sticks a hand out, pointing at her. "Your Dad's a prosecutor. Do you think everyone here is guilty of what, aiding and abetting?"

"Jail might not be ideal, but the bigger thing to worry about is that other branch who came," Percy never gets angry in fights, but she finds herself resisting the urge to get up and shout. Instead, her voice begins to wobble. "They fucking murdered Lee in front of me. You can say she is breathing all you want, but I was there. I'm not saying we should waltz into the nearest police station with our hands up in surrender, but we need to do something."

Eden excuses himself from the table. Jamie's hands trail for him, but Eden walks away. When he opens the porch door, a burst of cold wind rushes through the room. Eden shuts the door behind him.

Cara doesn't chase after him, Instead, she focuses on her lap and stares down. Someone needs to get him, June decides. She rolls her eyes and gets up from the table. No one else joins her as she walks outside.

He leans to close to the bannister for June's liking. In all the time she has been here, no one has fallen off the porch, not even August (who was a goliath, like Eden). Holding hands with death is dangerous though, even if Eden can't die. June knows that means there is some sort of disregard there, one that isn't right. One that isn't Eden.

"What is it?"

Eden bites his tongue, digging his hands into the wood of the porch. He fucked up, severely, and now everyone is paying the brunt of his consequences. "It's my fault that we are here. I told Thea's sister about the explosion."

June swallows. She glances inside.

On the other side of the glass, Wesley stands up. He takes a second to breathe before he speaks. His tone scares Erik since he hasn't heard Wesley this calm since the night of the concert. "You have no idea how awful prison is. I will find a way to kill myself before I go back."

"You think?" Percy snaps back.

Wesley smirks. "I'm fucking creative. Try me."

"We should take a second to breathe," Jamie cuts in, shaking his head at Wesley. He feels his chest tugging as he watches Wesley shake his head back and forth.

Hope moves over to the kitchen. She pulls down glass after glass after glass and then begins to fill them in the water cooler. Her throat is growing dry, which means there has got to be one of them who has a dry throat as well. It is only after filling the last that she realizes that she has grabbed ten, not eight.

June doesn't notice any of this. Instead, her eyes find Cara's. The brunette stares at Eden through the glass. Cara's jaw is wound too tightly. Her eyes quickly dart away.

"Don't blame yourself for this, Eden," June shakes her head, finally looking back at him. "Erik murdered his Dad yesterday, Wesley vandalized a police officer's car, and at the hospital, Hope's resting heart rate was a beat per minute. The jig was up anyway, even if you hadn't said something. You provided Thea's sister with some solace."

"And Cara is going to jail for it," Eden won't listen to her.

Rather than stew in anger, June storms inside. She leaves the door ajar, waiting for Eden to join her. Now, she can't take it. So, she stands on the countertop.

Sober, she hates taking the attention. She can feel everyone's eyes on her, and it sucks. June swallows her pride. "Listen! I'm done hearing people complain about being on the run, and about Thea, and about everything. So I'm just going to put this out there. It sucked."

"No shit," Percy leans back in her chair. She puts her boots on the table. Hope smacks them, causing Percy's eyes to narrow, a grin takes over her face.

June doesn't mind though. She watches. She watches Wesley sit down, and Eden hangs in the doorway to listen to her. She watches Jamie turn to Cara and Cara turns to Jamie. She watches Hope struggling to carry three full glasses to the table. The only person who looks at her is Erik, who simply has an eye raised.

"I'm not finished," June takes a breath. She may be a soundtrack in this scene, but she will be the loudest soundtrack that anyone has ever heard. "It sucked. It sucked when we discovered nothing could break us and it sucked when it killed Thea and Lee. Whatever this fucking thing is ruined my life... but at least it brought us together. I wouldn't give that up for anything."

Erik stands. Not that June expected anyone too, but he wants everyone to know his intentions. Not that his life is good now, but it was certainly worse before. Even taking Wesley into account.

Then, Jamie joins her as well, because of course, this is better. He might hate Wesley, but he also can't help but love him too. Wesley joins him, because anything, perhaps even prison, is better than that diner.

Next, Hope stands up. This is her fairy-tale come true. Cara joins her, with a nod. Losing everything is fine when you have something that matters. When Eden catches Cara's gaze, he steps back into the room.

Finally, Percy stands up. "This is a whole lot of bullshit, but fine. You've made your point."

~~~~~

This is going to go super well, right? ;)

In all seriousness, AHHHHHHHHH. So close, yet so far.