On the Run

Louis kept his hand wrapped around Caroline’s as they walked through the motel parking lot. They’d spent the entire day driving in beat up old cavalier and had just made it to a small city when the sun went down.

The entire drive was tense, because both Caroline and Louis were worried about what would happen to them and the others. With every mile they drove, they put more distance between themselves and Enzo, but with the good came the bad. Every mile they drove put them further away from Rory as well, and Louis hated that. He didn’t much care about the others, but Rory was his baby sister and he just wanted her safe.

“We’ll bunk here for the night,” Louis whispered to Caroline, as he handed a stack of money to the attendant. “Then we’ll leave in the morning. Keep heading south until we get to the airport.”

“Airport?” Caroline questioned, her whisper harsh. He hadn’t told her of his plan yet – the one that Harry had given him – but he had planned to do it soon. He looked at her, his eyes begging her to keep quiet, and she knew to keep quiet until they were in the privacy of their new room.

When they entered the small room, Caroline cringed. It was exactly what was to be expected of a dingy old motel. The lights flickered. The only air conditioning was in the form of a fan across the room, and the sheets looked dusty to say the least.

Louis chuckled, looking down at the small blonde next to him. “You can pick the next hotel, I promise.”

Caroline bit her lip as she looked up at him, then nodded.

Before Louis had a chance to say anything else, she was reaching into her small suitcase. It was half the size of what she would have taken if she was on vacation with her parents, but she knew that she needed to pack light just in case.

She pulled out a small throw blanket decorated with leopard print and threw it on top of the dingy bed. Louis recognized it from his apartment, where she had kept it for a long time. It barely blanketed the dusty sheets beneath it, but it was better than nothing. They were both exhausted, so they’d likely be asleep in just minutes anyway.

Caroline’s small frame plopped against the bed, her blonde hair spreading out around her. Louis couldn’t help but smile at her as she lay there, looking just as beautiful as she always did. She hadn’t been able to fix her hair properly since they’d been on the run, but Louis still thought she looked gorgeous.

He couldn’t wait to get her away from that place. He just wanted her to be safe again and he was going to do whatever he had to do to make sure she was.

“So, the airport,” Louis said, trailing off at the end. Caroline looked up at him with her soft eyes as she leaned back against her elbows. She patted the space next to her, and he lay against it. The sweet smell of her perfume overpowered the musk of the room, and he pressed his head against her hair, breathing it in.

“Go on,” Caroline whispered as she lay back against the bed.

Louis wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her body against his. His fingers moved to her stomach, dancing along her exposed skin, while he breathed in deeply.

“You can tell me, Lou. You can tell me anything.”

Taking a deep breath, Louis nodded and pressed his lips against her ear. “I want to go to Paris.”

“Paris?” Caroline questioned, chuckling a bit at the end. “This isn’t a vacation, Lou. We’re trying to run away.”

“I know that,” he said, as he shook his head. He paused for a moment and leaned up, so he was hovering over Caroline. Her soft eyes still looked into his, and he placed a gentle kiss against her lips. “I think it’s our best chance. Our best shot at getting away. Enzo won’t be able to find us there.”

Caroline’s eyebrows furrowed, and her teeth clung to her bottom lip. “What about the others? What about our friends and our family?”

Louis sighed and shut his eyes tightly. He knew that one day it would come to this; he was just hoping it wouldn’t be so soon. He loved Caroline more than anyone else and he hated that he had hurt her so badly. It was his fault they were in this situation. It was his fault they were runaway criminals being hunted down by multitudes of people. It was his fault that she wouldn’t have the normal life she deserved.

He loved Caroline so much, but sometimes he wished they had never crossed that line all that time ago, just so she could live the life she had always dreamed of – a life of normalcy, happiness, and one surrounded by friends and family.

Pressing his lips down to hers, he whispered. “I don’t know, baby. I don’t know.”